Elevation of Mana Chapter 189 Messages

Shorin's message had been short and disturbing.

“Prepare weapons to fight Ancient level opponents, come as soon as you're ready.” Such things never bode well for anyone, much less whole societies.

“There's got to be more than that,” I told the messenger as he stood at attention.

“No, that was all he said.”

“I have problems with this,” Chien piped up from a corner.

“Agreed,” I told him. “Tell me what else you know,” I said to the messenger.

“That isn't my job,” he said with a turn, heading towards the door to my meeting room.

The door was quickly blocked by a wall of force, another between him and me. I might have enough magical ability to toss out complex force constructs casually, but I didn't want to get punched by someone fast enough to cross that distance quickly.

“I wasn't asking,” I told him as he turned and jolted toward to me, slamming into the other wall there. “And allow me to be clear, I am an elder, responsible for making weapons that as you have recently told me, are to be made for Ancient level enemies. You will tell me what I'm dealing with to the best of your knowledge.”

Pushing too often wasn't my style, and would make me a lot of enemies, but there were times that I needed to. Times when disrespect couldn't be tolerated for a number of reasons, and this was certainly one of them. The man began to spit insults and yell, and in response I shrunk the box he was in. I'd long mastered the use of kinetic fields, and this was no different.

“Wait! STOP!” he finally yelled when he was in a space about the size of a coffin. “You cannot do this, my leader will destroy you.”

“Your leader? Rolan right? We've met, and I assure you he won't. Be angry? Well perhaps, disappointed, certainly, but destroy me? No chance.” Chien snickered off to the side. “So are you going to tell me what I want to know, or am I going to see what happens when you crush someone between planes of magic?”

“I-I don't know much I swear! The message I was given was it, they didn't tell me any of the details about what they wanted!”

“Who all was there, and their disposition to each other?” I asked.

He rambled off descriptions I recognized and that quickly told me what I needed to know, both of the extant Ancients were there, along with Uro somehow, and Shorin, our own representative. They also weren't fighting or arguing as such, though all seemed to have locked themselves away in deep discussion. The man hadn't tried to hide anything from me, he just didn't want to look a fool, well that ship had sailed.

“Go,” I finally told him as I released him from the tiny little prison.

“I will tell Rolan of this,” he threatened, poofing up like an angry bird.

“Please do, do tell him that you came to me telling me to make and bring along incredibly powerful weapons to his home without any further information. I'm sure he'll be thrilled with that.”

The man huffed uselessly once more before turning and leaving at speed. I'd have to check to make sure he actually left later, but that could wait. Not that I really expected him to retaliate, he was a messenger, and I was, in some level, his client. He'd be pissy for awhile, but people like him didn't come to stab you in the middle of the night.

We sat in relative silence for a few minutes while I though of all the things I could take, all the places I could put weapons and what ones would be best to bring. Reports said that our enemy used fire, so fire would probably not be the best thing to take along. My cannon was of course coming, and the hammer I'd remade. To that I could add some of the nastier poisons, though that might be a miss. Cold would be ideal, but it wasn't something I had anything for at the moment, not could I make crystallized magic for it at a rate that would be even a little helpful.

“I dislike this,” I said with a frown.

“You can say that again,” Chien agreed.

“I dislike this.”

“But you're going to do it anyway?” he asked.

“Yes, Shorin isn't a fool, nor is Rolan, for whom that man decidedly works. If they want me to bring all my nastiest toys to the play area then something has gone quite wrong.” There weren't playgrounds in this world yet, so I had to mangle what I actually wanted to say, something which still grated on me from time to time.

“You think those monsters are that much of a threat though?”

“I think they think they are. Doesn't hurt to be prepared at any rate though, just in case they're right.”

“We have some of that stuff boss, the stuff you keep pushed to the back, but not much of it.”

“No, we'll spend a week making what we can, then we head out.”

“Sounded like they wanted us there fast.”

“Slow is smooth, smooth is fast,” I mused, remembering something I'd heard from a military man on my previous world once.

“Not sure that applies here boss, but better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it right?”

“You're picking things up.”

“Been picking things up from you forever.”

We laughed and headed to work, after informing the proper parties about our guest and how he needed to be kept an eye out for. Sure, I didn't believe he would come back for something stupid, but if he did he wouldn't leave again. My family lived here after all, and I wouldn't be tolerating anything threatening them even a little.