Karita Flora was in tears of bitter grief as she made the final touches to the core she was forced to install into the little savage. She had spent the last three years making it in order to pursue her own research that would allow her to move up from the medical department into the cutting edge R&D department in the Golemancy College. Three years of blood, sweat, and tears wasted on a this pipsqueak of a savage just because the Imperial Princess had been given carte blanche in regards to a slave's medical treatment. However, she decided on a cunning plan that might save her precious creation.
It was simple really. Those goblins wanted to try and pull one on her. she'd let them do so to their detriment. The princess may be too incompetent to have realized their lies, but that didn't mean she was. All she'd have to do is set the power output too high. Not at the maximum of course. She'd lose her license and be cast out of the college for something that overtly stupid. As such, she set it at the highest setting a human could withstand. It would hurt like hell, but a human would survive it. However, something with so much less mass to diffuse the magic in should be lethal.
"Well, I believe everything is in order. Now if you'll follow me to the rehabilitation facility so that we can finalize your condition," Karita suggested with the best smile she could force.~Very soon I'll have my baby back!~.
"Well Grizt," Grace began as the mage began to turn away. She grimaced at the name. Something about it just didn't seem right. In fact, the name of her new maids all seemed to feel a little off. Not in the cross-cultural sense so much as she felt a meaning behind them based on her own exposure to the languages of the South Continent. Though that is a digression for another time," Does everything feel right?"
The violet skinned goblin made her way out of the bed easily enough. Grizt was definitely an interesting individual. Besides her skin color, her eyes were cyan that had a quality that made them all seem to shine, and her hair was brilliant blonde cut short in the back and tied into two tails that ran infront of her ears and framed her face. Her face was actually more human like than that of a normal goblin. Her nose was small and barely had a point. She actually could almost pass for cute by human standard. Almost being key. As for the rest of her, she seamed to have a toned, but not overly muscled body. There were various scars on her arms and legs. The most prominent being on her right hand. It looked as if it had been stabbed through at one point. She moved around carefully before nodding excitedly.
Grizt now stood in an empty room alone. It seemed to be all be made of solid stone. She couldn't see any seems. Even where the door was, solid stone was everywhere. It seemed odd to her to go to all of the trouble to make something like this.
"Ok, I'll be making some weights for you to test your strength out put for tuning purposes. I'm about to set it at your requested output. Please make sure to tell me if anything is wrong," The rude spoke from seemingly no where. Grizt jumped at the and began to look about frantically as the voice returned with an agitated tone,"The headband you are wearing allows my to communicate telepathically with you," Grizt now had a thousand yard stare. The voice sighed," I'm talking in your head with magic."
"Ok," Grizt replied simply. She honestly didn't care anymore. Though she did consider taking the headband off. Her thoughts on this were then interrupted as felt something odd.
Karita's smirk fell as she watched the little bottom feeder still stand, The only thing telling her the goblin noticed anything was the sudden widening of its eyes. However, it suddenly went back to normal as it began to stretch! ~what is going on here! It should have exploded or at the very least drop dead!~
The strangeness only got weirder as the weights formed thanks to the automated spell array. The goblin easily grabbed and lifted the weight effortlessly. Then the words that would doom her career were uttered.
"More! It's not enough!" Grizt called out excitedly. She felt amazing. She needed more power. The magic now suffused her body. Not all of it, but where it did, she felt something akin to a comfortable buzz. She wanted more!
She kept yelling for more. After a few minutes, she finally got a response. The last thing she would remember of this moment is a blast of pure bliss vibrating throughout her whole being. She. HAD. NEVER. FELT. BETTER!!!
Grace was enjoying the look of shock on the mage's face. The mage had clearly tried to pull something and it looked as if it had backfired. She had to admit it looked cute to watch the goblin prance about so energetically. She was easily handling the weights as well! Then Grizt had called for even more power.
"Well, looks like she's a bit stronger than you thought," Grace commented to Karita. She seemed a bit out of it for a moment as her eye began to twitch.
"I was not expecting goblins to be this resistant to the power output of a Celestial Class Core," Karita replied numbly," I even had that thing attuned to the moon..."
"Oh? So it'll need moonlight to recharge?" The princess wondered aloud.
"No! Unlike standard cores, these cores are built with a special attunement link. It's always charging!" Karita explained in exasperation. She really hated dealing with ignorance.
"Wait, isn't that unlimited power? I thought that was forbidden!" Grace looked worriedly.
"Again, WRONG, there is a limit to how much mana can flow through the link at a given time. On top of that, the link itself will eventually collapse on its own without fail in a decade," Karita tiredly droned on.
"Interesting, and how much strain would her power demands put on it?" the princess as in honest curiosity.
"None, these cores are designed for some very heavy duty things. While I admit I don't know what they're currently being used for, I ca say it'd have to be something on a far greater scale to strain the link," Karita stated with groan.
"Oh, then how about we set it to max and just work it down? That should save some time," grace stated as she snatched the matrix regulator controls. Karita panicked as she tried to reach for them. However, it was too late. All it took was a quick twist on the obvious dial and the damage was done. Maniacal laughter could be heard from the divination screen. Karita was now terrified. There was supposed to be a ground shattering explosion. Instead, the goblin was laughing like a madwoman. Her eyes literally glowed. Magical discharges of various kind seemed to erupt from her every movement. ~Is that lightning!?~ Was the thought of every observer in the room say for Karita. She had retrieved the device and was already turning the dial down. There was one problem. The temporary relay that allowed for remote adjustments was no longer functioning. The glowing monster she had helped to create was now beyond her means to stop.
As for the monster, she bouncing off the walls and hollering in joy like a child. The goblins in the room were clapping and cheering at the sight. The Princess looked at the thoroughly distraught mage.
"I think that was a bad idea," she admitted with a pinched expression.
"Gee, ya think!" Screamed the thoroughly done with it, not gonna care about stupid things like lese majeste now mage. It was then that they heard a crash. The little monster just kicked out a wall. A one meter thick magically reinforced wall! The monster was on the loose. ~Minerva help us all!~
Honoria was enjoying a good cup of tea and finishing up the last of her paperwork for the week. Tomorrow she would have to spend in some meetings and then she could enjoy a small reprieve hunting game in her personal reserve. Even better, she couldn't wait to see how things were going with the new maids and her daughter. It'll be fun to check in on them shortly at the start of the new week.
It was at this moment she was disturbed with a knocking. She could have sworn she told the guard not to bother her unless it is an absolute emergency. With a moan of frustration, she called out,"Come in and this had better be important!"
Almost immediately the door burst open to reveal Olivia Jannice, the head of the palace guard. She seemed to be terrified as she quickly assumed a salute and bowed before explaining herself," I'm sorry my Grace, but it has become the utmost importance that I inform you that it would seem that Godara has allied with Orgrum and has mounted a counter assault upon this very city!"
The Empress could not believe what she was hearing. There had been no warning of such a thing even being possible," How is that even possible! Our last reports show they barely even have a navy to speak of!"
"I don't know. What I do know is that there has been sightings of strange goblins all over the town. It's said that they're strong and fast. We even believe they are getting some form of long range support based on the damages thus far," She reported to her liege.
"Strange? How?" Honoria asked in trepidation. After all, she knew of exactly one strange goblin in the city. It shouldn't be able to do anything like this with the binding tattoo active.
"Well-"
Grace, Karita, and her group of would be maids were running through the streets of the mage quarter. Grace had her parasol out as usual, but with the rush, she would be surprised to find burns later. Worse, she was not the most athletic person. She was straining fairly hard to keep up. Her throat felt dry and her chest was burning on the inside. Not to mention what they felt like on the outside. Her clothes were not meant for this kind of strenuous activity. She'd have to fix that later. She never really needed to worry about the extra support before, but with these goblins around, it was becoming clear she was going to need it.~I just had to drop my guard in the middle of one of my mother's schemes. I knew better and I even should have known better than to childishly play with the equipment! What is wrong with me!~ Thoughts such as this were running through her mind as she continued to run like her life depended on it. They needed to somehow fix this mess. The thing is that she couldn't understand why she had been so impulsive. The best she could think is that maybe there was something she liked about these goblins. Maybe a part of her just wanted to rebel against how others had treated her. As it stood, the results spoke for themselves.
Mages were desperately running everywhere. Some were trying to get to their labs to save their experiment as others were trying to flee. A brave few were running with the guard intent on stopping the menace who dared to attack the precious labs. While chaotic, it made it easy to find Grizt. Well, easier would be more accurate since all you needed to do was the maniacal laughing and destruction.
Grace had no idea on what they were going to do. Whatever had gone wrong had overridden the tattoo. All she knew was that there was no way to stop her crazy subordinate.
However, there was a simple little thing that had escaped her notice. Jade was nowhere to be seen...