Chapter 13: Basement Cleaning and Good Tea

  Going down into the "Gryphon's" basement was like wading through thick tar. The darkness here wasn't just an absence of light; it had an almost physical, oily structure. My Shin-gan immediately kicked into high gear, scanning the surroundings, and I couldn't hold back a quiet whistle of admiration.

  "Holy shit, the mana density is insane..." I muttered with pure fascination, analyzing the particles hanging in the air. "Is this some highly advanced dark anomaly? It's unbelievable how it absorbs photons and negates the physical structure of space. Someone must have spent years compressing this essence. I'll have to reverse-engineer this ter."

  A quiet chattering of teeth snapped me out of my scientific trance. Shnee stood right behind me, gripping her rapier's hilt so tightly her knuckles were white. This unnatural cold was clearly affecting her, violently cshing with her own ice affinities. The vibrations of the darkness stretched her mana circuits to their absolute limits.

  I widened my stance a bit, discreetly shielding her from the main source of the anomaly with my shoulder.

  "Easy, Shnee. Stay behind me," I said softly, sending a subtle wave of my own warm energy her way to stabilize her aura. "I'll handle this. You're absolutely safe."

  From the depths of the spacious hall, where two crimson points glowed in the dark, came a grating, resonant voice.

  "A throne?" the entity spat the word with such force that the stone floor beneath our feet trembled. "I am the true heart of Oakhaven! And you are merely an echo of the past, a ghost returning to a graveyard!"

  I sighed heavily, massaging the bridge of my nose in a gesture of pure pity.

  "Forgive my bluntness, but you're talking absolute bullshit," I replied in a calm, cultured tone, pointing a finger at the pulsating outline of the sapphire crystal in the dark. "What you see over there is a fundamental energy node, not some fucking throne. I offered Elena to disinfect this basement, so I'd be sincerely grateful if you stopped being so dramatic and just fucked right off. You're disrupting the natural flow of mana, and I really hate messy code."

  The red eyes narrowed in pure fury. The air in the basement literally froze. "Try to touch me, fool! The Core and I are one!"

  Thick tentacles woven from absolute darkness shot out from the shadowy mass. They barreled straight toward us, cutting through the air with a sharp hiss. But instead of a defensive reflex, I felt a sudden surge of pure, boyish excitement. My blood practically sang. I released a fraction of Shin-haku. Sapphire energy wrapped around my hand like a shining, electric gauntlet. The feeling of fluid, unhindered Personal Power pulsing through my veins always gave me an incredible thrill.

  With a calm, incredibly smooth motion, I caught the speeding tentacle with my bare hand. The shadow roared in pain as its carefully woven magic simply disintegrated upon contact with my energy, showering sparks.

  "Fucking awesome..." I whispered to myself, smiling as I watched the sapphire light devour the darkness with a loud hiss. "A violent reaction of ultra-high-density pure energy against condensed darkness. The potential difference does a phenomenal job here! It's like hooking up a negatively charged battery to a reactor!"

  I wasn't going to wait for its next move. I closed the distance to the Core in the blink of an eye. The massive crystal was suffocating under a yer of bck growth that parasitized its circuits. It was a pity to look at such a primitive devastation of such beautiful magical architecture. It was like someone spray-painted a masterpiece bck.

  "I apologize, but I have to evict you. Your script is fucking useless here," I said with a gentlemanly smile, and smmed my Shin-haku-charged fist right into the center of the rot.

  There was no massive explosion of fire or shockwave that would destroy the tavern. It was a precise strike of pure dominance. The darkness literally evaporated, and the cleansed Core instantly flooded the basement with a deep, sapphire glow that filled the air with the crisp scent of ozone. The remnants of the parasitic entity smoked helplessly against the wall, desperately trying to maintain its form.

  "You have no idea... who you're messing with... Azkhar... the Lord of Shadows will destroy you..." the creature wheezed, before finally colpsing into nothingness with a pathetic hiss, leaving behind only a handful of ash.

  "Azkhar? Sounds intriguing!" I threw into the empty space with unconcealed enthusiasm. "Fuck, I wonder what kind of magic that guy actually uses. If he operates on simir parasitic schemas, fighting him could be absolutely fascinating!"

  I turned to Shnee. She had lowered her rapier, looking at me with a mixture of relief and profound disbelief. Her breathing was slowly returning to normal, and her shoulders dropped. She was still pale. "Are you hurt?" I asked quickly, stepping closer to her. I gently grasped her shoulders, checking with my Shin-gan to ensure no ricochet of foreign mana had grazed her. "I... yes. I'm fine," she replied quietly, blinking a few times as if trying to process what she had just seen. "You just... erased him." "Well, what was I supposed to do, invite him for wine?" I ughed briefly, letting go of her shoulders. "Excellent that you're in one piece. Give me just a second."

  I returned to the shining crystal and pced my hands on its smooth, warm surface. My consciousness seamlessly integrated with the city's network. The mana circuits pulsed, creating an incredibly complex and beautiful symphony. It was a sight worth living for—thousands of threads connecting all of Oakhaven. I noticed, however, that the darkness I had just disposed of stretched its rotten vines much higher. The infection ran deep.

  "Well, well. Looks like this Azkhar has already stirred up some serious shit in Oakhaven," I stated, opening my eyes. "I'll secure this node so we have absolute peace and quiet here, and no one eavesdrops on our foundation. Absolute Shield: Circuit Isotion!"

  A dense, sapphire shell instantly enclosed the crystal in a perfect, impenetrable sphere. I looked at my work with satisfaction. Zero leaks, optimal mana flow, perfect structural barrier. Fwless engineering.

  "Done!" I cpped my hands, turning back to Shnee. I fshed a wide grin. "End of the dirty work. We can head upstairs. I believe Elena is brewing us that promised tea for taking out the trash, right?"

  Shnee looked at me as if seeing me for the first time. Her gaze darted between the absolutely massive, isoted crystal and my cheerful smile. The csh between my overwhelming power and my rather... casual approach was clearly short-circuiting her brain.

  "You are impossible, Dave," she sighed softly, but the corners of her mouth twitched into a tiny smile. "I've heard that one today already. Let's go, before Elena thinks we caved the floor in."

  As soon as we opened the heavy oak doors leading from the basement to the tavern's backroom, we were greeted by a scene of chaos. Murmurs from anxious patrons drifted from the main hall, and Elena herself stood with crossed arms before the backroom entrance. Her right foot was tapping nervously. On the floor next to her y a shattered ceramic mug.

  When my strike hit the crystal and caused the floor to vibrate, it must have shaken things up quite a bit up here.

  "Dave..." Elena began, her voice dangerously low. "What in the gods' names did you do down there? Three tables jumped, and the wine from the east barrel nearly blew its bung!"

  I immediately adopted the expression of a contrite gentleman, pcing a hand over my heart and offering a slight bow. "Lady Elena, my deepest apologies for the minor turbulence," I said, firing up my most charming smile to the max. "The basement turned out to be slightly more contaminated than I assumed. I had to use somewhat harsher cleaning agents. But I assure you, the issue with the pests and other... anomalies... has been definitively resolved."

  I snapped my fingers. A fraction of my Personal Power wrapped around the broken mug on the floor. The ceramic shards floated into the air, assembled themselves into a perfect whole with a soft click, and nded gently on the nearby counter.

  Elena blinked, staring at the repaired mug, then back at me. Her anger evaporated, giving way to a mix of awe and resignation. She sighed, rubbing her face with her hand. "Good thing you at least know how to clean up after your... cleaning," she muttered. "I hope your 'cleaning agent' didn't damage the foundation?" "Absolutely not! In fact, the foundations are now more solid than at any point in this building's history," I assured her with absolute conviction. "I'd even say the 'Gryphon' could survive a direct meteorite strike right now."

  Elena shook her head, though I could see her eyes ughing at my enthusiasm. "Alright, alright. Go sit at that quiet table in the corner. I'll bring you that tea and something warm to eat in a minute. You both look like you just came back from the underworld."

  When we sat down in the booth a few minutes ter, isoted from the noise of the other tavern patrons, I felt the st bit of adrenaline leave me. Elena pced a pot of steaming herbal brew and a ptter of warm pastries in front of us. The smell of cinnamon and herbs contrasted perfectly with the sterile scent of ozone that still lingered in my nostrils after using Shin-haku.

  I happily poured the brew into both mugs and slid one over to Shnee. "Drink. It'll do your mana circution good after that freezing cold down there," I said.

  Shnee cupped the warm mug in both hands, staring at me intently over the rim. There was something new in her usually icy eyes. Curiosity. "What was all that about Azkhar?" she asked finally, lowering her voice. "You said he 'stirred up shit in Oakhaven.' What exactly did you see when you connected to that crystal?"

  I leaned back comfortably against the wooden bench and took a sip of tea. It tasted excellent. "I saw the magical architecture of the city," I began, feeling my inner geek mode turning back on. My eyes were probably dangerously glowing sapphire again out of sheer fascination. "You know, most people look at magic as just throwing a fireball or healing wounds. Simple action and reaction. But what this guy is doing... it's in a completely different league."

  I leaned over the table, dropping my voice. "This Azkhar isn't using magic for direct combat. He's using it like a computer virus. When I touched the Core, I noticed those bck circuits didn't end in our basement. They crawled upward, jacking into the network of underground energy veins of the entire city. It was a precise, surgical operation. The traces led to the most important nodes—noble estates, guild branches, maybe even the governor's pace."

  Shnee furrowed her brows, her tone turning serious. "Are you saying this Lord of Shadows controls the elites of Oakhaven?" "He either controls them, or he has such a massive influence over them through maniputing their own mana that they do exactly what he wants without even realizing it," I nodded in appreciation. "I have to admit, it's fucking brilliant. Instead of ying siege to the city from the outside and wasting resources on an open war, the guy approached from the infrastructure side and hijacked the power supply's source code."

  "You seem... thrilled by this," Shnee noted, eyeing me suspiciously.

  "Because it's fascinating from a circuit engineering standpoint!" I ughed, picking up a pastry. "Usually, the enemies you meet are just strong, or they have thick armor. But here, we're dealing with a hacker! A guy who pys around writing his own parasitic scripts into someone else's world."

  I took a bite, chewing for a moment. Shnee remained silent, evidently trying to wrap her head around the fact that a supreme being—an Admin—was getting excited about an opponent instead of just pnning his execution.

  "Don't worry," I added, seeing her expression. My voice hardened, and the smile vanished for a moment, repced by cold confidence. "Brilliant or not, it's still theft on my servers. He tapped into my foundation and polluted my home. I appreciate his cleverness, but now I'm going to dismantle his little network of influence brick by brick to see how he built it, and then... well. I'll rip his circuits apart and see up close what this darkness of his is made of."

  Shnee looked down into her teacup, then back up at me. The tension completely left her face. She understood. She saw in me not just the god from the basement, but a teenager who had just found a hell of an interesting puzzle to solve.

  "Dave?" she finally spoke up, her voice lighter, almost rexed. "Yeah?" "If this Azkhar is a virus, and you're going to take him apart... what does that make us in this game?"

  I smiled widely, tilting my head back. My Personal Power purred beneath my skin, joyous and ready. It was a great question. The best one possible. "We're going to be the best antivirus program this world has ever seen, Shnee. And we'll start by tracking down the thickest node of that rot in the city."

  I drained my mug in one gulp, setting it on the table with a satisfying thud. The game in Oakhaven had just moved to a whole new level. And holy shit, I fully intended to win every single match.