Chapter 103: Breakthrough

The loud grinding sound continued, and the robotic arm closest to Kothar began to move. The blunt grasping claws that Kothar had smithed just days ago were opening and closing slowly, as the rudimentary motor at the base made loud whirring and clanking sounds.

As Silane gained confidence, more and more of the arms began to move, and before long, the entire room was filled with the sound of grinding metal and the whirring of engines.

[Seems like all of this is going to need some grease. I don't think I'll be able to handle this racket for very long.] Kothar marveled as Silane expertly manipulated one of the arms to pick up a large wing section, and spun it about in the air.

[I did it! Kothar, I did it!] Silane twirled the robotic arms in celebration. When she had been Kothar's AI when he was a cyborg for the alliance, she had always been able to remotely control drones and at one point had control over entire fleets of warships, being so restricted for so long had truly begun to weigh on her, especially as she had begun to develop some emotion.

Now, Silane had some capability beyond monitoring the information that Kothar took in, she could do something more than backseat Kothar as he adventured and battled his way across strange new landscapes.

[You sure did, so, can I get on to researching this artifact?] Kothar said, as he began to walk out of the room filled with the clanking of machinery, the constant prickle on the left side of his scalp was evidence of what Silane was doing.

[Of course, I just need you to bring all of the components, and the Imperium in here, then, you can spend all the time you want playing with that odd rock of yours.] Silane joked, she knew how important understanding the Spatial Artifact was to them being able to travel all around the multiverse, but sometimes she just couldn't help but tease Kothar.

It took Kothar the rest of the day to finish moving the components from the main cavern, and carry the Imperium as it was mounted in the metal brackets all the way to Silane's new Fabrication room.

By the time he was finished, his new armor was nowhere to be seen, having removed it after being sprayed with soot from one of the more newly forged propellers, Kothar had decided to wear his old rags for just a little while.

Now, Kothar cleaned off the soot and grime as best he could, he would have liked to climb down to the stream that ran below the tree, but it would have interrupted Silane's work, as the helmet would very quickly be out of range of the transceiver.

Kothar sighed, and swept a clean area in the hollow, removing as many metal shavings and bits of sawdust as he could, before sitting down cross-legged and bringing the diamond shaped Spatial Artifact into the open.

He stared down at it, as it sat in his palm, drinking in the gentle glow of the fire, sucking in all the light without reflecting anything in the slightest.

How had something so small brought him so much trouble? If only he had the tome that he had found alongside the artifact, unfortunately, that was still back on Eclat, as unlike his weapons and most valuable items, he hadn't been carrying it on himself when Krieg had pushed him through the Spatial Rift. Kothar tentatively extended a strand of Spatial Mana towards the artifact, taking care to sever the strand from the rest of his mana, he didn't want a repeat of when the artifact had opened up the portal to Idwa.

The artifact drunk up the mana greedily, and the resonance that Kothar had felt grew slightly stronger. So, he decided to experiment, Kothar continued to send small amounts of Spatial Mana into the artifact, and as he sent more and more into it, the resonance grew and grew.

Beads of sweat began to form on Kothar's forehead as the resonance grew to a degree where he could barely keep his mana away from the artifact, it wanted his mana.

Kothar held his mana tightly, observing the fluctuations of Spatial mana around the artifact as it resonated with him, sending mana to his Mana-0sensing lens to watch it as well as feeling the fluctuations of the mana itself.

Kothar sat and watched, completely still, no longer sending mana to the artifact, but watching the fluctuations around it, and as the hours went by, slowly but surely, the resonance began to fade.

A curious look appeared on his face, and he created a small portal, not much bigger than his palm, before linking it up to another, carefully watching the pattern of Spatial mana fluctuations as he did so. 

Then, Kothar focused on a point just in front of him, and began to charge up another portal, holding the artifact clenched tight in his fist as he did so. 

He had felt something when he had fled from the mantis and he wanted to confirm it. 

He threw the portal to where he was focused on, and almost effortlessly, the second portal opened directly in front of him. 

A grin began to come across Kothar's face as he moved his awareness to his Spatial Core, taking note of how much mana he had.

Another portal flew out, the odd distorted noise ringing out, followed quickly by the opening of one nearby Kothar.

Kothar followed this with another pair, then another, then another, and soon enough, the main hollow that Kothar had created was filled with the familiar distortions of Spatial Magic, echoing the similar racket of machinery going on above.

Now Kothar dismissed the countless portals he had opened, the purple openings in space disappearing from the air, and decided to experiment further, sending tiny portal flying out as quickly as he could before shooting bolts of lightning through them. While this was something he had always been able to do, he had never expected to be able to summon accurate portals at this insane speed.

"I've got it." Kothar murmured, not willing to disrupt Silane as she worked away on the ship above.