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MAZE - Chapter 1079 - The vault of Azure
🕑 Added 2025-07-01 22:12:15 +0000 UTCValera guided Hera and Insomniac towards the basement of the estate. They took a path that was connected directly with the main office of the building. The one that the Matriarch used herself. Insomniac explained to Hera that Valera was not supposed to be the one responsible for the main estate. She was supposed to be part of the Council of Elders who dealt with the broader aspects of the clan.
But because the Azure Chain was killed, and his father tried to lock information about the Legacy away, she had to step up and temporarily assume the position of the clan head. Even if that wasn't something she wanted to do anymore. After all, the clan was supposed to function by letting the father or the mother of the current legacy holder be their leader. This worked to help maintain the power of the clan focused on a single individual, which was the entire point of it. In addition to have someone who would be able to keep the Legacy holder in check in case they tried to do anything that went against their wishes.
Without a legacy holder, there was no one to be the clan head and instead, it fell to the Matriarch who was the previous head before Azure's father.
Either way, that small explanation was a good way to kill time as they started to walk through a not so secret passage. Which could only be accessed from the office of the clan head. That took them to a library on the underground floor.
One with various books and journals and ledgers related to pretty much everything the clan was doing. And beyond that, it was basically just the record room. But a place that only those that had the direct permission of the clan head could access.
Hera didn't feel the urge to look over any of the names of the books. Not just because she knew it would upset the Matriarch, but also because she truly had no interest in the inner workings of this clan. Her patience had already been worn thin once they started to travel. And now, after dealing with Frederick, it was hanging by a tiny thread of dental floss.
Eventually, they reached an area with a few sculptures and stone working depicting various aspects of the clan. From the chains themselves to busts of old legacy holders and even pictures of the estate. There were even some of what Hera was assuming were monsters that existed in this room and its dungeons.
Funny enough, the Azure bird was nowhere to be seen, meaning that it was completely was gone from this room. Not even dungeons were still connecting the giant creature to this realm.
Valera stepped toward a few of the pieces, touching them in strange places. A chain here, a bust there. And suddenly the back wall, which had several thick shelves filled with heavy looking books, started to shift, opening like a door and revealing yet another passage going even deeper into the estate.
"I thought you said this only had three floors," Hera turned to Insomniac.
He nodded. "I thought so too."
"The last floor is only for the vault. And only the people who go there know about it. I hope that this stays the same," Valera said.
Which made Hera shake her head. "You can just say that you're trusting us not to talk about it. You don't have to go through such a roundabout way to speak."
"I'll keep that in mind." Valera replied.
Hera sighed, she knew things seemed to be a bit better, but the woman was too old to learn new tricks. She would continue to act as if everything she did was right no matter what.
They followed the passage going down and down. Following the spiral staircase to what the Empress was assuming to be maybe three or four floors below the basement. Until they finally arrived at a large opening, with one massive door blocking the path. The door was made entirely out of chains. Blue chains that were coiled to form almost like a shield, stopping anyone from passing through.
"Is this the actual door, or is there a door beyond it?" Hera returned to Valera.
"This is the one. If people got this far, they should be the ones allowed to mess with the vault. After all, if they tried to stay here without permission, there would be a large number of traps on the stairs above. And another few sets of doors in the staircase that can be closed if you get the sequence to open it wrong."
Hera nodded, "Good to know. Not that I had any intention of coming here again," she turned back to the vault door and asked, "What is exactly the thing that I'm going to try to open? Because just by looking at it, I can't see any obvious place for a lock or a place that I can fit my chain."
Valera raised her hands and created her very own chains, one that was much more similar to the chain forming the door than the ones that Hera could make using [Blade Accord]. The Matriarch's chain floated in the air and coiled, hovering just above some parts of the door.
"I have studied this enough to know that these are the actual grooves where you need to place your chain," the Matriarch explained.
Hera then took a step forward, inspecting the areas that were supposed to fit the [Blade Accord]. On first glance, they didn't look like grooves at all. They looked just like chains that were coiled together. But on a closer inspection, the Empress was able to realize that the gaps between some specific parts of chains were forming this unique pattern that made it look like a bit of an ugly shaped chain.
The links were not exactly right. Instead of just that oval shape, they were almost a figure eight, with a tiny indentation in the middle. And every third link also had a bit of extra indentation on the right side. With every fifth, having that extra indentation on the left side.
After a moment to confirm if that was the same pattern everywhere, Hera returned to Valera and asked for confirmation. The Matriarch gave her a surprised nod.
"Yes. That's the pattern that we found. There's also a difference between the first link, the last link, and the link that is exactly in the middle of the chain. It would be here." She pointed at one of the links on her own chain, which started to glow.
Hera noticed that this wasn't just a figure eight, with indentations in all four cardinal directions. But there was also another set of tiny grooves pushing on the diagonals. And it truly was something that Hera would likely be unable to notice unless it was pointed out to her. After all, those grooves blended with the rest of the chains, making it seem like they were simply gaps in the first layer of the door.
Having the chain come from herself and Oberon, Hera asked each of the blades to help them shape the length of the chains to match what they were seeing in the door. The whole process took around one hour. During this time, Joseph was called by Valera, who asked for him to bring some snacks down here since Hera had mentioned that she was hungry. The Empress appreciated the politeness even though she felt it was very odd coming from the Matriarch.
Still, she didn't refuse the small sandwiches. Especially since they were light enough to be fulfilling without spoiling her appetite for dinner later on.
Once the hour was over and she triple checked if every single one of the links was correct, she turned back to Valera. "Can I place it now?"
"You don't have to do it all at once. If you want, you can do it link by link."
Hera just stared at the Matriarch for a long moment and shook her head. "You could have told me that a while ago, you know."
"I figured you had an idea," the Matriarch shrugged.
She stepped forward towards the vault door again and commanded the chain to move forward. Already realizing that if she managed to change the shape of the links in that chain, she would have a very powerful weapon in hand. And that was something that she was going to try to figure out very soon.
The [Blade Accord] gently pressed against the groove of each link, every single section of it blending seamlessly with the rest of the vault door. It was almost as if this place was made for this specific chain. Which, in a way, it really was.
And once it was over, the entire door shifted. Not to the side or backwards, like an actual door. But the chains came to life. Spinning and uncoiling itself, unraveling this giant mess, retreating back into the vault and into the walls, becoming part of the decoration in a way that they blended even more seamlessly than before. If she hadn't known that those chains were there, she could never recognize that those specific points in the ceiling were actually chains and not the stone that made this chamber.
The room on the other side of the door was pitch black. Even her eyes were unable to notice any light or anything of the sort. The twins, however, were able to see some shapes and get a sense of the area. It was almost a library with a few display cases. But before they were able to show everybody around, Valera took a step towards the vault and the moment she crossed the threshold, various blue torches ignited all around the area. They gave off a strange mixture of white and blue light but didn't really change the colors of anything while at the same time making the entire place feel like it was more blue than it should be.
Valera walked forward and started looking around with a nostalgic smile on her face.
"These are the manuals that have been passed down from generations to our clan," she took one of the books that was sitting on top of the table. Already opened to a specific page. "This is the very foundation that made my family as strong as it is today." She turned back to Hera and continued, "Thanks to you, we didn't lose anything while trying to recover it."
This was the first time that the Matriarch seemed genuine with her words and she was not looking at Hera like she was just a burden to be dealt with. But she didn't say anything else, letting Valera enjoy the moment.
The Matriarch stepped to the side and tapped a small tablet that was on a pedestal. Hera could see that she was booting up some sort of computer system and after a few moments, Valera turned to Hera again.
"May I borrow your tablet for a moment?"
Hera gave it to her. Valera just placed the tablet over that small pedestal and a couple seconds later gave the tablet back to the Ophidianite.
"You now have access to all the files that are in this vault and in our entire estate. As long as they are available for a third generation."
Hera frowned, but Insomniac quickly spoke up to explain.
"It is how security works here. Basically, it means that you have access to the same information as anyone who is related on the third degree to the current legacy holder. So like second cousins, great grandparents and great grandchildren. In essence, you can check all information that is not limited to the direct lineage of the legacy holder, or the prospect inheritors."
"Ah, okay, and do you have some Combat Styles in the mix?" Hera asked.
Valera nodded. "Yes. Combat styles are part of this. You can have the basic ones and a few more advanced. But not the ones that have something related to the creation of chains. The Styles you will have access to are all focused on people who already have a chain with them."
Valera frowned, and added, "If I'm being honest, making the jump from not having a chain to having a chain is not as hard as it might seem. Especially since the way you fight also includes summoning and commanding floating weapons."
Hera gave a nod, but instead of going over the things on her tablet, she started walking towards the display cases. Curious about what they were holding. Still, she had one question she needed answered.
"Do I need to come here to access the server? Or can I do it outside?"
"You will be able to do that anywhere that has internet. But you will be restricted to the limitations of the second generation authorization. This means that you can only access on the tablet and never anywhere else. Unless you are requesting a training program. In that case, the training program can only be used if you are in a private training room. You cannot use it in any public spaces. And any attempt to copy the files you access will result in a termination of third generation rights."
"Meaning that if I try to copy, I can't see anything else anymore, right?"
"You're right," Valera nodded, "although it is not really hard to go around that issue. All you have to do is use another tablet to record the first tablet. This is more of an honor system than anything else. Especially since everything you're allowed to see will be available to a large number of people. We don't have to worry about anything too sensitive being shared."
Hera nodded and started looking at the display cases now that she had approached them. There were some pictures of armor and mail that seemed to be made by a legacy user. She had no idea how she knew about that, but she just did. There was a kusarigama with a large metal spiked ball on one of its ends, but the one piece of weaponry here that really caught her attention was a sword.
Although calling this a sword seemed to be very unfitting. It was almost like a one-handed chainsaw. There was a chain inside it with various tiny blades connected to it and what seemed to be some sort of motor that should be able to spin and cause the entire blade to keep rotating at high speed.
"What is this?" the Empress asked.
"It is one of the most recent additions to this vault in the matter of equipment. It was a prototype that a previous legacy holder created, hoping that they would be able to have a weapon that could always cut. They were a bit obsessed with the use of swords and didn't want to lean in completely into the chain based combat styles."
"I see," Hera looked around it. "It looks a lot of fun to use. I'm assuming that it didn't get enough traction because you need to do something to keep the chain spinning, right? Maybe fuel it with mana or hold a button or something."
"Pretty much. That prototype is also just the most basic version. We were able to create a few other variations, but they all came with two problems. The necessity to give it some sort of fuel to make it spin. And the fact that the blades would always break. The mechanism that makes it spin is not sturdy enough to last a long time. Even with modern technology, the motor needs to spin at too high speeds in order for the sword to act as it was intended. Which makes it too expensive to use."
"I see. Do you have any other versions of this one? One that is not the prototype?"
Valera frowned. "We do. There are even a couple of legendary versions that the crafters assumed to be enough to solve the issue of it always breaking. But didn't you hear what I just said? It's too fragile. It's going to keep breaking over and over again."
Hera nodded. "Yes. But that's not something I have to worry about." She gestured to her blades, who were flying around her.
"They don't break?" Valera asked.
"They can. But if they do, all you have to do is send them back to my legacy and either spend some money to call them back or give them some time to recover."
"Oh," Valera opened a smile. "Then I do think I know the weapon you might enjoy, the one that I'm going to give you as a thank you for your help. If you accept it."
Comments
DrDankness
Yooo is she getting a space marine chain sword? Sickkkkk
