"All you have to do is cast resurrection runes on our friend's body. More specifically, we need you to construct a brain," Nova helped Bishie to his feet.
Bishie dusted the ceiling particles off himself. "So you want me to remake the most complex part of the human body?"
"Precisely," Ian said. He unclipped a set of instructions from a clipboard and gave them to the boy. "This has everything you need to know about Grimsnow."
"But it's just a deadline and a map of the dorms."
"Exactly what you need to know," Ian replied.
"And if I don't finish it, what happens?"
"We'd have to kill you," Nova said flatly.
Bishie's eyes widened. "Hold on, that's not fair. I was kidnapped." He looked around for any sane response in the room. Ourania, Sam, Ian, and Gala looked at him with forlorn expressions, while Will, Ruby, and even his own instructor, Maram, didn't seem to care.
"Alright then," Bishie puffed out his chest, a poor attempt to make himself bigger. "If you want me to do this, then you'll have to answer my questions."
"And we owe you that, why?" Nova stopped leaning on the table. He stood over Bishie, attempting to intimidate him.
"Without me, your friend stays dead," Bishie said, looking Nova in the eye. A fiery conviction shone in his gaze.
Nova backed away, sighing, his eyes still locked on the boy's. "Okay, fine, you get three questions."
Bishie smirked. "First question: why are you sure the authorities aren't looking for me?"
Nova took out his wallet, removed a card, and held it out to Bishie. "Member of Grimsnow sect."
Bishie read the card, confusion smeared across his face.
"It means that on any land owned by a great power that we worship, we have full jurisdiction," Nova explained. "In short, we're the authorities."
"Oh," Bishie's body trembled with disquiet. Even if others came looking for him, there was no hope of justice for his life. His life was now a stone in a riverbed, never to be touched by humanity again.
Bishie didn't have time to dwell on his possible impending doom. "Alright, next question: who are you people? Like, where did you come from?"
Sam interjected, "All around the world. Though Gala and Will are a bit different."
Gala answered, "Those scattered islands floating in the sky are my homeland."
"I come from what you call the crust, but we locals call it the underside," Will added.
"The rest of us are from various places on Terrelya," Sam said.
"Not exactly what I meant, but good to know." Bishie clapped his hands, then rubbed them together and pointed behind everyone. "What in the Greats' names is that?"
The mages turned to see a mechanoid creature hovering above the doorframe. Its waist and torso were forged from an iron alloy and other unrecognizable metals. Two sets of arms extended from its torso, and legs emerged from the bottom of its waist. Its appendages and neck consisted of wires and rods, all held together by metal rings. The mechanoid's hinge joints were dual—pivot joints connecting all its limbs. A low, rhythmic whirring emanated from its body, almost too soft to be heard over the hum of the library's artificial lighting.
"Capture it!" Nova used Wisdom's telepathic abilities to move Bishie behind them, pulling him forward with an unseen force. The mechanoid scurried backward into the main section of the library. Its gears and sprockets whirled a smooth serenade, like a mechanical lullaby, as it moved with an unnatural speed, its spider-like legs carrying it across the ceiling.
All nine mages raced after it. "It's on my damn shelves!" Wisdom shouted, her voice edged with frustration, pointing in its direction. The mechanoid, heedless of the priceless tomes, crawled along the shelves, knocking over leather-bound books that hit the floor with loud thuds. Wisdom grabbed her hair in frustration. With a flicker of concentration, she pulled on the mechanoid, causing it to fall to the ground with a loud clang. Midair, the mechanoid began to contract its limbs, retracting into its torso and waist and melding itself into a circular form. It kept its face and neck front and center, its body becoming a perfectly balanced imitation of a mecanum wheel.
"It's faster now!" Ourania yelled, her voice echoing in the cavernous space. She lunged forward, her hands crackling with raw manickal energy. She aimed to trap the mechanoid in a cage of pure force, but the creature's new shape allowed it to pivot and move laterally, evading her strike with a sudden jolt.
"Come on!" Will activated his manick ability; his flesh rippled and bubbled until multiple sets of bones popped out of his forearms. The humerus, ulna, and radius formed, extending his reach to the heaviest book he could find—a massive dictionary bound in iron. Whipping his newly extended arm around like a whip, he lobbed it at the wheel, not aiming for anything in particular but hoping its sheer weight would slow the machine down.
Wisdom yelled at Will, "Why would you throw the books and not a chair or something?!"
"Maybe it's because I wanted to," Will mocked, his grin visible even in the dim light.
The mechanoid faltered slightly but didn't kneel. It used the book's momentum to dash out of the library, the spinning wheel gaining speed. Due to its shape, it could move in any direction, no matter which way the wheel faced, a disconcerting and highly effective method of escape.
"Shut up and focus!" Nova commanded. He threw Bishie overhead. "Wisdom, catch him! I have an idea."
Wisdom pushed herself off the ground with a gusto of telekinetic power onto a bookshelf. She then pushed off the bookshelf, catching Bishie mid-air and floating down in front of the library's exit. The rest of the mages rushed past them, leaving the library in pursuit of the creature.
As the mechanoid entered the main corridor of the base, Nova looked at Maram. Copying her ability, he drew a circle in the air with his finger. The space distorted, folding in on itself to form a rift of swirling, shimmering space-time. He pulled out a small metal box, about the size of an apple, from his pocket. Ruby and Will, who were now standing near the entrance, stopped running and turned to Nova. Ruby looked at Will and gave him her phone. Will, understanding the unspoken cue, took out his own phone and used his extended arm to throw it into the portal before it could close.
Meanwhile, Nova twisted the box. This, in turn, made the box blast a screeching alarm that hurt their ears. Nova rotated his body as if he were prepping for a discus throw, his muscles coiling with a controlled tension.
He looked at Ruby's manick signature next. The box emitted a low manick aura that resonated with hers. Nova threw the box toward the ground at a precise angle. Instead of landing, it bounced, or more accurately, it ricocheted off the floor. The metal box became a blur of motion, bouncing two more times with perfect precision, each ricochet increasing its speed as it caught up to the mechanoid.
The box finally stopped moving, coming to a rest just below the spinning mechanoid. It continued buzzing, becoming more and more high-pitched, until it just turned off. Along with the box, everything else around it turned off too: the lights in the base, all of their phones, even the mechanoid itself. The spinning wheel stopped, its parts freezing mid-whir, and it clattered to the ground, motionless.
The mages came to a stop in the now-darkened hallway; some of them, caught off guard, bumped into each other, stumbling in the sudden silence.
"What happened to the lights?" Gala questioned through the darkness, her voice tinged with a flicker of fear.
"An E.M.P.," Ian answered, his voice calm despite the circumstances. "Electromagnetic Pulse. It's a complete blackout."
Nova found Gala through her voice and tapped her shoulder. "Think, you could make some lights? We can't see a thing."
A bit scared, Gala agreed, her voice wavering. "Yeah, sure." She raised her hand, her palm glowing with a soft heat. Spherical orbs of brilliant orange flame ignited in the air, one by one, illuminating their surrounding. The hallway was cast in a warm, dancing glow, revealing the inert mechanoid lying on the cold marble floor. The mages, standing in a huddle, stared at the creature, its metal body no longer humming, now a silent, lifeless sculpture.
Bishie followed the light, leaving Wisdom behind in the library, and hurried to the mages. "What was that!?" he demanded.
"An automaton," Ian replied.
"No, it's obviously a robot!" Gala shot back, correcting him.
"You're both wrong. It's a golem," Will declared.
"And how is it a golem?" Maram asked irritably.
"It's sustained by manickal energy and built from Terrelyan materials," Will explained.
"I think it might be an android," Ourania suggested, pointing to its limbs. "They look almost human."
Nova butted in, "Whatever it is, it's just a pathetic echo of human anatomy. This machine doesn't belong here."