Author Frank Morin
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Ch 186 - Steaks and Quantum Nectar
🕑 Added 2025-06-23 16:00:04 +0000 UTCJust as we passed through the gigantic gate in the huge stone wall, Identify triggered.
“Eryndale Science Academy. Unique. This wonder of the multiverse was a jewel within the crown of the Ashen Covenant. Housing the brightest masters of the sciences and the arcane, the Academy pushed the boundaries of both, with its College of Magitek Innovators at the heart of the institution’s fame. There, they blended advanced technology, energy beam weapons, and space-altering arcane powers into the ultimate weapons of deterrence. Unfortunately, they fell into the classic blunder of continuing to push the limits until one failed experiment backfired and doomed them all.”
I slowed to a stop just inside the gate to study the Academy grounds. The description suggested we might find some legendary-quality spells or weapons, although the last line made me hesitate. Did I want to snatch up a spell that had been part of the downfall of the entire civilization?
There was one way to find out.
The Academy grounds reminded me of one of those famous old ivy league college campuses, all grand old buildings, perfectly-manicured lawns, and a sense of timeless grandeur. This had definitely been a seat of learning.
We rolled slowly through the enormous campus that probably extended at least as deep as it had been wide. We’d already spent nearly half an hour in Echo City, so we didn’t have time to explore everything, despite how much I itched to run inside and scour every lab and office for ancient secrets.
“Any ideas where we should start?” I asked Nigel after we toured some of the grounds, following the gently-curving boulevards made of polished silver metal that looked a lot like aluminum.
Nigel nodded toward the grandest building of all, a towering edifice that blended stone and glass into a curving design that was elegantly fantastical as it was obviously functional. “I smell steak in there.”
“How could you possibly?” As hard as I sniffed, with my Perception maxed in my nose, I couldn’t smell anything but grass and trees and stone.
“Lions and steak have a bond,” Nigel said with a flop of one ear.
I shrugged. “Fine. I believe you. That was the place I would have picked too.”
If anything might be the central office complex, it was that building. Identify didn’t trigger as we approached, unfortunately, but it couldn’t be anything else. I banished my bike in front of the smoked-glass entrance doors. They didn’t swish aside like Earth doors, but simply vanished, allowing us to walk through before returning with a barely-audible whoosh of moving air.
The entryway was a giant open space befitting the grand central headquarters of the Magitek Innovators. The curved ceiling stretched at least 3 stories tall, while giant murals depicting men and women celebrating what were probably important breakthroughs in magic science reared 50 feet above us.
Some showcased glowing energy weapons, explosions, or what looked like spacecraft, while others showed doctors in universally-standard white coats replacing limbs or performing brain surgery. Those Magitek guys were really versatile.
No elevators marred the smoothly perfect walls, but we did find banks of teleporters keyed to different floors. I didn’t entirely trust them, though, so I used Tether Slide to pull us up to the open balcony on the third floor. From there, we cautiously explored deeper into the giant building.
We found conference rooms with tables and chairs and glowing whiteboards, offices strewn with desks and files, but all the paper was blank. The entire complex was eerily silent, and my footsteps echoed like an invasion of privacy, despite trying to move quietly. Nigel made no sound as he prowled through empty rooms until we finally found the jackpot.
The cafeteria.
Despite the fantasy theme and decor, the tabletops floating on empty air, and the softly shifting, muted lights, the huge room could be nothing else. Maybe in its heydey, they ordered food teleported directly to their tables, but no sign of technology or magic like that remained. Instead, we found a strangely typical line of buffet counters, protected by faintly-glowing sneeze barriers made of pure energy.
When I activated Spellseer’s Gaze, the room lit up like a Christmas tree with so many types of mana woven together, it made me gape. I’d thought I’d seen a lot of different mana types, but that cafeteria alone had several new ones I didn’t have names for. One seemed to shift endlessly between different elements, while another I thought of as Cyborg mana had a metallic sheen that seemed to allow the mana to bond with metals.
Another strange, fluid mana seemed based on light mana until I brushed it with convergence mana. It morphed into a shimmering blend of convergence and light mana. When I tapped it with a finger, it morphed again, integrating some kind of metallic mana to make it stronger. Seeing it change was like opening a door in my mind and ideas flooded in. I’d never imagined building my own unique mana blends, but now that I’d seen them, what could I do to improve my own mana?
I could have spent hours studying those unique mana types, but we were running very short on time and couldn’t linger. I swept my mana senses through them all, trying to memorize every detail I could, but I’d have to return again to study more later. Maybe the Magiteks were as brilliant as the legends suggested. Just their cafeteria was proving a mind-bending experience.
In the kitchen behind the buffet counters, Nigel found food-preservation shelves stacked with all kinds of fare. Some I recognized, but many were alien, from strangely-colored meats to broccoli-like vegetables that waved at us as we passed.
Nigel dove right into the steak shelves and started gobbling down all sorts of unnamed steaks before I could Identify them. Hopefully he didn’t get some kind of alien super-indigestion.
I gave the cafeteria a cursory glance. As much as I loved food, we were short on time and Cyrus had suggested most things would dissolve into goo when we left. Would they do that if they were in our stomachs? The thought pretty much killed my appetite.
I did have to try one drink, though. It slowly churned in a large, clear container, shifting colors and maybe even states from liquid to gas to solid to ethereal.
“Quantum Nectar. The accidental creation of Dr. Veskan Orrayn, who was working to create a self-recycling nutrient system when he inadvertently produced Quantum Nectar. Instead of a liquid that could shift its molecular structure to optimize nutrient absorption while eliminating waste, his experiment became entangled with probability itself. Each sip manifests a different taste, texture, and sometimes even minor temporal anomalies.
Despite the failure of his original project, Quantum Nectar became one of the most sought-after delicacies throughout the Ashen Covenant, and Orrayn, the ‘accidental culinary genius’ became an accidental billionaire.”
With my fast regeneration, I’d be dumb to pass up such a find. So I took a tentative sip.
The liquid shifted from purple to a bright, golden shine just as I did. It hit my tongue like a sledgehammer of awesomeness and I gasped, sucking it into my lungs. That would usually make me cough, but I could breathe liquid, so I just kept drinking.
The Nectar was cold as a snowy morning and tasted like that moment of joy when I learned I’d aced that programming test I’d totally thought I’d failed. It was easily the best drink I’d ever tasted. With a foolish grin, I tried another taste.
This time it was as hot as fresh coffee, but tasted somehow like an ice cream float, chilling and heating me all at once, but in a way that elevated both feelings to epic tier. When the Nectar reached my stomach, a melded feeling of warm coolness radiated out to my limbs and I sighed as tension melted from my muscles.
I could literally stand there and drink one sip after another all day, but I forced myself to focus. We were down to less than 10 minutes. I raided the shelf, taking all 20 quarts of the Nectar, then headed for the exit.
“We need to go,” I called to Nigel, who lay in a contented stupor on the now-empty steak shelf.
“I have found heaven,” he mumbled, eyes mostly closed, so I scooped him up, vaulted the buffet tables, and ran for the cafeteria exit.
I sprinted through the remainder of the 3rd floor, ignoring the tempting offices and even the rooms full of what looked like scientific equipment. None of it glowed in my Spellseer’s Gaze with enough brilliance to suggest something important. I bet on the fact that I’d find the best stuff either on the top floor or in the basement.
I didn’t have time to find the basement, so when I found a set of stairs, I vaulted them 5 steps at a time. The building was cut off at 5 stories, so hopefully the good stuff wasn’t up on the 10th floor or something. Hallways leading off the stairs onto the 4th floor suggested more offices and meeting spaces, but I kept running up to the top floor, which was open to the bright, blue sky.
This floor was far more posh than lower floors, with a thick rug of some kind of synthetic material that actively supported my feet and made it feel like I was walking on air. The walls were all paneled in energy screens that shifted from simulated dark wood paneling to views of a distant rocky ocean shoreline.
In the largest office, situated like it would be back on Earth at the very end of the central hallway, I finally slowed. The huge space took up nearly a fifth of the entire floor, a gigantic open area, perfect for only the most self-important person, no doubt the leader of the college. A gigantic desk floated near a wall of windows overlooking the grounds, while shelves contained rare items and trophies, any of which were probably worth our time.
Later. I made a beeline for the one item that blazed like a miniature sun. It stood alone on a pedestal in one corner of the room, a position of honor. The blue marble pedestal was just like the one holding the Heartstone Shard in Port Royale.
“Has to be another relic,” I told Nigel, but got a snore in reply.
I ran up to the pedestal, which had a huge, flawless sapphire hovering in the air just above it. Cut in an oval, eye-shaped pattern, the stunning gemstone had a single, dark blemish near the bottom that looked like the formation of a gemstone tear. Ruby would freak when she saw that thing.
“The Tear of Myrrhos. Unique. Echoes of Calamity quest relic 2 of 10.”
“Said to contain the last drop of sorrow shed by Eryndale’s guardian spirits, this relic is brimming with emotion for the fallen people of the Ashen Covenant. Perhaps its power is just waiting for a new cause to champion.”
I didn’t have time to gape over the beautiful stone or wonder at the description, I reached out and snatched it out of the air. When I did, a jolt of magical power rippled up my arm and my mind was hurled from reality into another vision.
This time I hovered in the air high above the magnificent Science Academy, a bodiless consciousness looking out over the great expanse of a dying city. Stygian rain melted gleaming skyscrapers on all sides, while swarms of demons of all shapes and sizes flowed like living rivers, destroying everything and everyone in their path.
This time I spotted knots of resistance, individuals or groups fighting back with laser-like sci-fi blasters or rolling waves of elemental magic. Some were quickly overrun, while others held their own and looked like they might last a while. Many of those seemed to be fighting toward the military castle, the central palace, or the Science Academy. In the vision, the city again loomed larger than life, not cut down to a mere 5 stories, and the full grandeur of those central edifices took my breath away.
All of that information and grandeur poured in with a single glance around the city before my view was pulled down to the Science Academy below. The giant gates were closed and a blazing shield of pure energy surrounded the entire compound. The amount of raw energy consumed by that shield boggled the mind, but that square-mile-sized shield barely served as the backdrop for the real attention-grabbers.
Men and women in all sorts of garb raced for the walls as alarm bells rang and disembodied voices boomed from unseen speakers, calling everyone to arms. Hordes of demons swarmed the compound from all sides, and they were met by a shocking array of defensive measures.
Some looked like permanent defenses, ranging from multi-barreled cannons that spit out blistering streams of pure destruction in the form of bullet-like shells that delivered kinetic or elemental explosions, to Star Wars laser weapons that ripped through ranks of demons like mechanized threshers through wheat.
The hundreds of defenders swarming the walls added layers of attacks, unleashing mighty spells and small-arms fire that wiped out thousands more of the attacking demons. Time sped up and I witnessed the Academy defenses and defenders slaughter thousands, if not tens of thousands, of the demons, but the monsters kept coming. They never slowed, never tired, never slowed the least bit of fear.
Over time, their sheer numbers drove them closer and closer to the walls. Mana reserves of individual defenders waned, then the seemingly endless reserves of the Academy itself started to flicker and the demons pushed ever closer. Defenders who had time to don armor brandished a wide variety of edged or energy weapons as they prepared for close melee fighting. Others were busy reinforcing individual buildings as islands of defense they could fall back to.
They fought with inspiring bravery, but the outcome was as horrific as it was obvious. They simply could not hope to win against a literal endless horde of demons. Farther out in the city, most of the other pockets of defense had withered and dried up as one by one they were overrun. Glittering explosions and flashes of magic now only flared over the military castle and the central palace in addition to the Academy compound. The rest of the city slowly melted into rusted slag as demons ripped apart their world.
Then my vision was yanked down to the central tower rearing high above the central Magitek building, and I fell through the roof into a huge, round conference room that occupied the entire top floor. Senior Innovators from every branch of the school had met, somber men and women who conferred in grim but calm voices. I couldn’t hear their words, but they were clearly trying to figure out how to reverse the disaster.
They didn’t make it.
Time skipped again, and the heavy door of the tower shattered inward under a mighty blow at the same time as every window imploded. Huge, flying demons swarmed in from every side, while hulking brute demons tromped in through the door, followed by the even bigger shadow of something much, much larger.
The magitek leaders unleashed their personal powers, slaughtering demons by the hundreds, but the swarms kept pouring in and one by one, the greatest Innovators were pulled down and ripped apart. Soon only one remained, a wizened old woman who looked too frail to stand for long. Yet she slung magic around her with the ease of one who had mastered her arts for so long, she no longer had to think about them, but they’d become part of her very soul.
Standing frail and tiny and calm in the storm of demons, she slaughtered everything that entered the room. Finally the hordes thinned and for a brief second, she stood alone.
Then the entire wall housing the outer door shattered inward and a giant demon the size of a house stepped through. Humanoid and covered in blood-soaked armor, his hideous face was a nightmare of fangs and blazing red eyes. He carried a 9-tailed flail, each whiplike length strung with razor-edge blades and capped in wicked barbs.
Pure white energy roared around the woman and she stepped to meet the being who had to be the king of the demons. Their powers detonated against each other in an explosion that shattered the entire tower and hurled me from the vision.
“Whoa,” I breathed, staring down at the flawless gemstone as my mind raced with everything I’d seen. As powerful as that old woman had seemed, she couldn’t have survived and defeated the demon lord, could she? If she had, Eryndale wouldn’t have been totally destroyed, right?
If the demon lord had defeated her, he was by far the strongest being I’d personally witnessed so far. I could sling some pretty heavy spells around, but on my best day I was just a flea compared to the true powerhouses of the multiverse.
“What have you embroiled us in?” I whispered.
“Games within games,” Cyrus responded, his cheery, booming voice startling me from my reverie.
“As long as the games help us find more steak,” Nigel said sleepily from my shoulder.
I desperately wanted to stay and ransack the entire tower, but we were down to less than 2 minutes. Even at full speed, we’d barely get out in time before getting randomly teleported away. I’d pushed the limits and couldn’t afford any more delays.
I took 2 steps toward the door when the building shook. No, the entire Echo City was shaking, buildings swaying, ground rumbling. With my high Agility, I kept my feet, and standing on the top floor, I got a great view of the wave of destruction sweeping across the city. Every 5-story building suddenly crumbled, the top floor simply dissolving, reducing them to 4 stories in seconds.
“Fukuyama,” I swore and raced for the outer wall just as the building beneath my feet started to shake harder. I leaped to the top of the wall and vaulted out over space half a heartbeat before the room I’d been standing in melted away.
I summoned Switchblade, landing on my bike and banking it around the building in a slow glide back toward the ground. As buildings all around collapsed down to 4 stories, the central building kept collapsing, imploding in on itself until all that remained was a low pile of broken rubble. How many powerful secrets were now lost?
“Why did the entire building collapse?”
“You removed the relic. Each one is tied to the downfall of the city, holding a fraction of that memory intact. When you take it and make it your own, something has to give.”
I swore under my breath. “So every time we pick up a relic, the building it’s in will collapse.”
“If it’s down here in Echo City, yes.”
“And if it’s elsewhere, will the buildings keep degrading?”
“Of course. This is one echo of reality, given life by the artifacts.”
“Can they be used to rebuild a different echo?”
“An excellent question. We shall see.”
Not great. It meant that the more relics we collected, which we had to do in order to complete the quest, the less we could possibly loot from Echo City. Managing the balance and exploring the city with that 1-hour hard limit would be challenging.
Speaking of which, I hit the throttle and shot through the gate. I wasn’t sure we could make it all the way back to the stairs we’d entered, but as I scanned the city and the distant sky, looking for the park, a glint of light sparkled. When I zoomed my vision on it, I spied a different staircase.
Of course there’d be more entrances. That one was closer, and it would be good to map out more of the exits, so I banked in that direction and cranked Switchblade up to full throttle. Nigel finally roused, leaning over the handlebars, fur blowing around him as he howled into the wind.
We made it to the stairs with 15 seconds to spare. They connected the world of Ruin to the roof of a 4-story mansion. I set a tether point on the top step I could see and used Tether Slide to yank us into the air and onto the stairs. We raced up and into the dark, rainy expanse of Ruin with seconds to spare.
“You’re no fun at all,” Cyrus grumbled.
“Maybe some other time,” I offered.
“You know how to put on a show, so I’m sure you’ll make sure it’s the best possible moment.”
We emerged in another mostly-ruined building. The stark difference between the warm, sunlit Echo City and the chill, watersoaked world we’d just returned to made the dark, run-down Ruin feel way more depressing than ever.
I sighed as we stepped onto the street. It was empty, so I checked my map to find out where we’d climbed out.
“What the Helsinki?” I exclaimed. We should have ended up maybe a mile from where we’d entered, but somehow we had appeared at least 4 miles far to the west. “My distance-reading skills aren’t that bad.”
“You thought Echo City and Ruin were connected by fixed spatial links?” Cyrus asked, chortling with laughter.
“They’re both part of stage 3, so yeah. When we climb down 1 stair, I expect the other stair to be roughly the same distance in both places.”
“You’ve experienced enough spatial magic to know that’s not how things have to work.”
That was true, and I should have thought of it, but those visions were wicked distracting. Witnessing an entire civilization get wiped out by a never-ending wave of demons and steel-melting blood rain was nightmare-inducing stuff. Would that be how Earth was destroyed if we failed?
No. I pushed the depressing thoughts aside. Games within games. That’s what Cyrus had called it, and that meant the mental games were part of the plan to mess with us. I didn’t have time for that.
I sent an update to Tony and Burns, explaining briefly what we’d found in Echo City, warning them of the 1-hour limit and the space-shifting stairs.
Tony: “We’re going to have to send teams in to explore anyway.”
Burns: “Absolutely. There might be vital loot just waiting for us to pick up.”
Lucas: “I agree. Anything we can get our hands on from them will probably be very powerful.” I added a warning about how most stuff would melt away if we took it out, so we had to limit ourselves to magical loot that might survive the transition to Ruin.
Tony: “Good work, Lucas. Where are you now?”
Lucas: “Heading east again. I’ll report in when I get closer.”
I accelerated hard and soon reached a wide canal running almost due east. The bridge was out, so I banked Switchblade over and soared off the edge, gliding down to the fast-moving surface. Nigel roared approval as we shot down the arrow-straight and smooth canal, Switchblade leaving a rooster tail of water from its thrusters in our wake.
We did need to explore the area more closely, but I’d done enough exploring for now. I wanted to get out of Ruin and back to daylight. Miles fell away until I spotted a couple of red dots on the bike’s mini map. I slowed as we neared another broken bridge.
Two people stepped to the edge of the bridge, and I instantly recognized them.
The Briggs.
Martin waved, then lifted his other hand. A familiar blue glowing sword appeared in it.
Soulrend.
