In the middle of the power plant area in one section of Adam's Base lay the Holy Furnace. Usually, such a building would be reserved for the same section as the Script Monastery, as building a furnace is typically associated with it, but it had become part of the canon lore that Solar Plants would always be built around the furnace, when one of the lore books hinted at it as a reference to player behavior.
But in truth, the Holy Furnace is much more than just a base building that buffs Solar Plants, as the consequences of erecting one in the lore are much more critical than one might think.
First, the building was designed long before the creation of the first Paladin, and it was made to house Solstones, as the original purpose of these pieces of the Sun was to spread Holy Solar Energy and combat the spread of demonic and eldritch influences, turning the location into a holy site.
Second, a Holy Furnace is the only place where Paladins can be created. Each Paladin possesses a miniaturized Holy Furnace within, a design known as the Inner Alchemy, featuring three important implanted organs and thirty-six grafted energy vessels. For this reason, the design of a Holy Furnace can be reverse-engineered from a Paladin's Inner Alchemy, and enlarging it wouldn't be a big problem; rather, the real challenge was connecting enough electronics within a furnace to link the building to the base's control grid, since electronics and heat aren't the best of friends.
There were many other considerations, but Adam could only keep some of the critical issues in his mind as he stepped into the dome of the furnace, holding his latest miniature in his hand.
This was Adam's first fully handmade miniature since the apocalypse, one created using a method he had never used before: Bone Carving.
The process was rather unique; he was treating bone like resin, making sure to stay protected with a respirator the whole time he was working, and he treated the material like wood, as bone also has a natural grain, so he had to carve longitudinally for the most part. The other problem was that the bone was both fibrous and brittle, causing him to resort to water lubrication while securing the bone itself with cloth and clamps.
The real trick, however, was the design, and after being able to cast holograms, Adam would use them as 3D scanning and designing tools. The Sacred Code ran enough simulations for him to figure out the exact geometric shape of the Force Rune, and with its nodes barely visible, Adam chose to connect all of them with a silver wire.
But why silver? Because after scanning the bracelet given to him by Elden Lord Kaimu, Adam found out that it was made of some sort of silver alloy along with other common metals, but it was rather difficult to assess the rates of each alloy component; thus, he went with his gut feeling and used silver in hopes it could act as a rune conductive material.
All in all, playing with silver made Adam feel like he was dealing with some sort of magical enchantment, which was actually the case, and after an agonizing day of work on the rune, connecting the nodes together with straight pieces of wire, Adam was struck with the inspiration for the bone miniature, and thankfully, there were enough bone bits from the blade to make a full body.
In a way, Adam enjoyed the process, and since it had been a long time since he made a miniature from scratch, he was actually worried about the quality outcome. He hasn't summoned a fully hand-crafted miniature yet, but he had a gut feeling it would work, since many of the bits he had used for his summoned soldiers lately had been heavily modified, as his reserve was running low. However, this was the first time he needed to hand-craft a miniature, and he figured he would have to keep doing that in the future, maybe with the Fabricator in his residence, now that he could design 3D printables.
With all these thoughts cast aside, Adam examined the Holy Furnace one last time, placing the miniature in Megan's hand as she followed him with her eyes.
"That's some serious work. It's like you've improved somehow." She said, her eyes admiring his work. "How do you make them so like tiny people?"
"It's a level of obsession I would call a curse," Adam said as he opened one of the thirty-six pillars at the center of the empty hall and fiddled with the pipework within to make sure all the systems were at peak status. He then turned to her with a smile and delivered the news, "And I hit level 10 in [Artifice]."
"You... You're serious?" Megan stared blankly at him before asking, "Did anything happen?"
"Yep." He confirmed, letting a moment pass before finishing what he was tinkering with and giving her a full account: "The System asked me if I wanted to Archive the skill or keep leveling it up. It also offered a selection of one of three skills based on my progress if I chose to archive it."
"So Archiving is like choosing that you no longer want to grow that level and will get some evolution of it." she summarized before asking him with a frown, "Will [Artifice] still take effect?"
Adam called up the messages he got an hour ago and reviewed them…
≪ Your Skill [Artifice] has reached the threshold as a mundane skill. Would you like to archive it? Y/N ≫
≪ Warning! Archiving a Skill by fusion or reaching its mundane threshold means you can no longer level it up, but it will stay in effect. Instead, you will be granted one of three skill choices. ≫
He nodded to her question.
"What will you do then?" Megan asked.
"I wanted to ask Yuki about this," he said, while finalizing his checks. "She has the Senses skill at 11, so she's choosing to level it up for a reason."
Adam felt it would be a loss to stop leveling one of his most valuable skills, the true MVP behind his puppets turning into real Solarium troops, but the enticing idea of awakening something stronger still dangled before him like a delicious piece of beef. It was mostly about him having the usual fear of letting go, even though the skill would still be there in the background.
He already had two skills archived, Firearms and Blades, when he fused them into [Gun-Fu], which was now at level 3. But he had never bothered with that anyway.
As Adam continued to check on each pillar in the Holy Furnace, Captain Solomon Creed arrived with a box he was holding tightly in his hands, a contingent of troopers following him to secure the entrance to the Furnace.
"Captain." Adam said, stepping towards Creed, before giving a solemn salute.
"Commander." Creed replied, finally back in his armor. "Are you sure this time it will work?"
His question came from a place of both caution and worry, as the Paladin was safeguarding the Solstone with all the seriousness he could muster. However, Adam wasn't about to sugarcoat it this time.
"Honestly, no." He replied and received the miniature from Megan before showing it to the Paladin. "If this works, we'll experiment. If the experiment works, we'll have ourselves a Holy Furnace."
"That's two 'if's." The Paladin said with a hint of displeasure.
"I don't imagine igniting the first-ever Holy Furnace was an easy feat to achieve. At least we're standing on the shoulders of giants, aren't we?" Adam justified, smiling.
But before Creed would reply, a voice came from behind him.
"Your optimism is acknowledged, Brother-Commander. But the margin for error is unknowable, and any damage to the Solstone will inflict grievous harm upon your authority, especially given that you intend to employ Esper means. This fragment of precious Atenite may well be the first and the last within our possession."
Hearing Solana, being the ray of sunshine she usually is, Adam put on a tired smile and forced out a beam of more optimism.
"Can't believe I'm the one telling you this, Sister, but have faith in him and he shall have faith in us." Adam said, then asked, "Do I hear Amen?"
Most of the Wartopians raised a brow, but it was Solana who explained:
"It's a saying the Christian Priests use, as far as I understand."
"Alright, you lot are all killjoys, anyway." Adam let out a tired sigh and faced the central pillar of the Holy Furnace, finally getting to do this with a plan this time that didn't involve prayers or shouting to the sky. "Let's do this."
Captain Creed stepped ahead into the large room, walking past Adam, and reached the central pillar, surrounded by the thirty-six small ones. This central pillar represented the core within the chest of every Paladin: the Atenite Cradle.
The pillar was linked to two other parts in the furnace, through thirty-six energy cables, pipes, and coolant regulators, all sealed within a thick layer of fluxfiber, which was very resistant to heat and extreme tension. As for the parts, they were the Center Furnace, which was the part underground, as well as the place where all the holy solar power of the stone was processed and discharged towards the top of the central pillar: the Sun Disk.
It was not a disk per se, but rather a horizontal, flat brazier emitting a very powerful flame that turned the night into day when it grew to its peak, and as the entire brazier glowed, all the area around it got blessed by its holy, non-harmful flame that was purified within the furnace. Similar to the very flame Captain Creed used to heal Adam's injuries when they first met.
In a Paladin's Inner Alchemy, Center Furnaces are also implanted in their intestines, and this is the most fatal part of the transformation, as many of the page knights die during the Rite of Ignition, having their guts melted by the heat the furnace emits. The other part isn't a Sun Disk like the Holy Furnace, but rather a Kernel Node sub-brain installed in the central cortex, an interface that runs human thoughts into code logic and manages all AugmenTechs and Power Armor systems given to Paladins.
Captain Creed was undoubtedly the only person on Earth capable of safely handling a Solstone, given his extraordinary powers and Sunforged nature, and so he stepped ahead and took the shimmering Solstone and placed it in the inner compartment of the Central Pillar.
Then came Adam's turn. He placed his newest miniature on the floor, took a few steps back, and met eyes with everyone around him in the room at least once.
Once Solana saw the shape of the miniature, she couldn't help but give it a disdainful stare.
"Of all that is unholy, an Esper!" she asked, but it was more an exclamation to herself.
Indeed, Adam went for the design of an Esper: a man whose arms and legs were held in chains, which Adam had salvaged from an old keychain; his body was bare save for a skirt held by a large belt, with a physique that was neither too muscular nor too scrawny. Last but not least was the ominous mask, a full visage of iron bound to the Esper's head, leaving two narrow slits for the eyes and one for the mouth.
An Inquisitorium Esper, a Heresy Sniffer, a hound that searches day and night for traces of heresy, and once it catches on, an Inquisitorium hitsquad is not far behind. Adam went for that design as it was simple, easy, and he had done it before with different materials.
Adam stood, raised his hand, and spoke the word "Arise!", but there was no light.
Adam wasn't intending to summon a Wartopian this time; he didn't wish for a tortured soul to inhabit this form; rather, the miniature expanded in size, multiplied in all proportions, and grew to Adam's height.
What emerged in the room was something that would creep the senses of anyone sane: a man-shaped puppet in a haggard state, chained limbs, a hunched posture, an iron mask probably inspired by Alexandre Dumas's novel "The Man in the Iron Mask," and a waist covered by cloth, held by a strong belt. Its skin was tattooed with endless prayer scripts, all etched with brutal zeal.
The puppet didn't speak, didn't grunt, didn't move, and didn't breathe. All it did was stand still, waiting for the end of time if it had to. Its summoner, Adam, walked closer and touched it with the tip of his finger. Only then was he able to see the result of his effort.
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[ Sanctioned Esper ] < Familiar, Legendary >
Espers are a caste of humans attuned to the power of the sixth sense, allowing them access to yet greater powers by communing with the supernatural entities of the beyond. Their mental capacity and will are what keep the Abyss from consuming them as they gaze into it with their extrasensory perception.
Psionics — The sixth sense allows the Esper to call forth psionic powers of the beyond to achieve nigh-impossible feats of reality-bending, such as telekinesis, telepathy, and teleportation.
Force Rune — The Esper possesses a link to the Force Rune, a rune that enables control over all manner of energies it is subjected to.
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"It… It worked!"
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