After two hours looking at the runes and other symbols and buttons on the control panel, Mack finally had a basic grasp of how it worked.

But something still felt odd to Mack. He didn’t find the power source of everything.

It seemed that was not here, as the runes were mixed with tech and other symbols it made difficult to Mack to locate it, but he was sure this floor didn’t have a place like the cubes had.

‘Where is it?’

Then Mack remembered all the other floors they passed without stopping.

‘Dont tell me?’

Mack run for the elevator, and as he was going to press the button to call the elevator, it made a noise and opened.

It was Raz. .

“You guys are finally back! Did you take all the trash out?”

Raz gave a simple nod and was about to leave the elevator when Mack suddenly entered it.

Everyone looked at him, not understanding.

Did he want to personally see the bodies?

But Mack pressed a button that was related to the floor below, not the main hall.

The door closed and and Raz quickly patted on Mack shoulder like asking for him to turn and explain what he was going to do.

“You guys will see soon enough.”

~tin~

The familiar elevator noise and the door opened.

And in front of them a small room with a glass window, like the ones from an operation room in hospital movies.

Mack approached the glass window, and everyone came along, following him.

On the other side of the glass, Mack saw something he never saw before.

A crystal.

Like a diamond made of milky white color in the center of the room.

Below it a runes and symbols that encompassed the entire floor.

The crystal itself was not big, it was the size of a baby fist. But even so, Mack was still chocked.

‘Is this like the mana crystals from games?’

“So small, I was expecting way more.”

Raz and everyone around looked at Mack at the same time.

Did this guy went insane? A crystal that size is already rare.

And as if to correct Mack’s assumptions, the Arcane voice came.

[Essence Crystals are as rare as dragons on your planet. Did you ever saw a dragon before?]

‘No’

[Neither those warlocks saw an Essence Crystal like this before]

‘But is not the same in all towers?’

[No. This tower is a bit special. You can tell it because it has 10 floors instead of the regular 5 from other towers]

‘So. The other towers don’t have a crystal inside?’

[No. Only this kind of tower has. And they are few on the entire battlefield]

‘Why is that?’

[That. You need to figure yourself]

‘tsc…. always making unnecessary suspense’

Mack looked at the runic circle on the ground and it had mixed symbols from other languages in it. Just like the control room.

Mages seemed to mix runes with other things, and Mack was not clear why they did that.

‘Arcane. Can you explain to me that?’

[This is more of a history lesson than anything else. Runes are known to be the more powerful way to influence Essence apart from Will itself. But as your home planet that has hundreds of languages, the mage community has thousands and thousands of languages. And some very influential civilizations were born and progressed without the knowledge of runes. Only later they discovered it existed, normally when coming in contact with other dimensions or planets. But they already had a powerful and solid knowledge to create arrays using their own ways. Thousands years later it ended up influencing the entire mage community. The same way Latin died in you planet and several other languages were born in its place.]

‘So you are telling me that runes are like Latin for those peoples. And they, lets say, use English, that has a few words that came from Latin. Or that derived from Latin words?’

[Correct]

‘But why? If runes are more powerful.’

~pat~

Mack’s thoughts were interrupted. An annoying warlock was claiming for attention.

Mack looked to the side and Raz had a face like, ‘What to do now? Are you well?’

“Im thinking. Just a moment.”

Said Mack, realizing it was odd to stay still doing nothing while he talked with the Arcane thru thoughts.

‘Please Explain. This is more important to me.’

[Ok. Let me give you a better example. Lets say you want to create a rune circuit that transforms something red to blue. But you don’t know the rune for blue. But someone already created a mage array with this functionally in another language or with other symbols. What would you do? Spend years in research for that rune or just use that already working mage circuit?]

‘I see. And with this explanation I think I understand better the relation runes have with Essence too. Runes are not like a language that some old civilization used. They are more like a representation of will itself. That’s why they need to ‘research’ one if it didn’t ‘exist’ yet. Is that correct?’

[Indeed. You guessed right. And this realization normally takes a mage decades to come by. One thing is being told that and another is understanding it by yourself]

‘Thanks. That clarified a lot in my mind.’

Mack’s gaze refocused on the Essence Crystal and a smile bloomed on his face.

It seemed his plan will be way more easily done than he expected.

‘How much Essence this crystal holds? I mean…. there is a kind of measurement for that?’

[Essence Crystals are the core of very particular planets. Think of it as if your planet, instead of having low Essence density it had several times more. What would happen to its core? It would change and evolve to adapt to the essence density like u did. To accommodate more and more and as the Aeons passed, it would form a crystal at its very center. This crystal.]

‘They destroyed a planet to retrieve this? How rich was my ancestor exactly? To put this here as a plaything? And what is wrong with those mages to let this so unguarded?’

[Not exactly. This one is a white Essence Crystal. Meaning, it is a manufactured one. Natural formed Essence Crystals are transparent in color, just like diamonds or glass]

‘I see. That’s explain why they have it here. They can create this thing in a lab or something?’

[Factories. They have a constant supply and need for them. Powerful mages often have one in their staffs or other kind of accessories]

‘I see. That explains why the mages here are so weak, their staffs are plain wood or metal.’

[Correct. There were budget limitations for what your ancestor could ‘recreate’ here, after all]

‘And how many Essence that thing can hold?’