It began... the second coming of Lya. For quite understandable and objective reasons, I became agitated when the girl came to my house again and found herself on a hard, not very comfortable sofa. Firstly, I knew that today she would be able to help me with something, and perhaps even provide me with knowledge for the future. Secondly, I wanted at least someone to appreciate my slightly remodelled, more fortified house, built on a sense of how it should be done properly. Yes, only feelings — Afka still hadn't returned, and I didn't have the books I needed.
"How is that possible?" she blinked, looking around in shock. I immediately stopped breathing and broke into a wide smile. "How could you make the house even more out of proportion?"
"...It's stronger than the previous one!" I immediately got angry. Anyone can offend a creator, but for me it's doubly unpleasant because the feeling of shame blocked my third chakra - I didn't want to bang my head against the wall to deal with this problem sometime in the future.
"You've just learned how to make a few strong, load-bearing areas, but now you've built everything completely against the rules. Your walls will burst after a few blows, and the inside will be filled with earth and large debris if this place is needed as a bunker - zero points.
I opened my mouth, but realised that there was no point in arguing with someone more knowledgeable in this field. I'll keep quiet, maybe I'll pass for smart.
"Oh well, anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk about, but we'll have to work on this," she said, folding her hands on her knees and lowering her voice slightly. "Do you want to make a deal with me?
"Hm?
"I'll teach you the right way to build, and give you the lessons you need. And you'll build everything for me according to the plans, and test their strength on the soldiers of the Fire People. Novice architects rarely can create a blueprint capable of stopping the magic or technological gadgets of this people — I want to be clever. And you seem to have been acting up lately. At least, there are rumours among the soldiers about a certain Sand Mage.
The girl looked shyly at the tentacles sticking out of my back, which were pouring tea into crystal cups for the two of us, jingling with a teaspoon. Then it all became clear - my reputation had finally worked in my favour. As for Lya, it wasn't about her grateful face, but her selfish motives. Although, her goals were quite reasonable and adequate, and I was interested. I took a sip from my cup, thought for a moment, and nodded. "Excellent," she said, rubbing her hands together eagerly for some reason. "But first tell me, have you ever built something with your heart, putting all your feelings into it?"
"When I was a child, when I tried to build a castle in the sandbox," I replied with pain in my heart. "Then it started raining, and the sandbox was flooded with water — I lost my passion for everything in life.
"Um... funny joke.
Sitting there with a glazed look in my eyes, I swore to myself that I would never tell her about the touching moments of my life again. And yet the training began, starting with the drawings that Lia herself had brought. The girl had made several very simple and convenient designs, which I had to, first, figure out, and second, pick up on the important architectural solutions. Right away, we both agreed that beautiful excesses and incomprehensible decorations that had no practical meaning were out of the question. The people of Earth were generally pragmatic, and excesses in design meant a demand for control that could be directed towards something useful.
When it came down to it, we had to ask the designer about the details of the geometry.
"Who built this wall?! Look at the angle, I said ninety degrees, not ninety-five!" the girl lamented, standing with a protractor against the wall of my house. If I hadn't learned how to smooth stone to a perfectly smooth surface back then in the smithy, I would have been driven out. Yes, that was the first problem — when building at high speed, the corners often slanted — this wasn't just a matter of making the angle as small as possible — and in turn greatly affected the strength of the structure.
On the other hand, in order not to lose face, I finally began to read the books Afka brought me. She couldn't take many with her, so when she brought me one, she would receive a scroll with my own thoughts on the importance of architecture in earth magic in return, and then run off to fetch the next one. As I understood it, Wang Shin Tong accepted all my knowledge, mainly because he valued my thoughts... it was flattering.
For several long weeks, I simply memorised the basics. Sometimes Liya demanded even more than was necessary for me, such as finding the perfect place to build with a good view, but I brought her down to earth — our agreement did not make me an obedient boy. We help each other develop, that's the main thing.
"You're a quick learner," whispered the girl sitting at the table in surprise, looking at the notebooks I had sorted out at her request.
"No, I just remember some of what I learned in school.
"Oh... I thought you were one of those...
"Who?" I squinted, looking at her sunlit face.
"Don't make me say it out loud! "He cringed under my gaze." "You look like... an orphan who's never been helped in his life. A creepy guy who cuts off heads with a single glance. A daredevil who doesn't like to study and wants to take revenge on fire mages. Happy now? You made a young girl say hurtful words..."
"Hah," he said, hiding a smile behind his hand, making the girl blush.
"Why are you laughing?
"I never tried to take revenge on them. I just chase them away from the land so there are fewer victims," he said, fully aware of the fact that if he killed them, there would be even fewer hypothetical victims. But he didn't say the latter out loud, as the frowning girl had already been hit with a dissonant blow.
Soon, the basic training was complete, which simply drove the girl crazy. She still didn't know that I had gleaned my knowledge from ordinary science books and works on architecture, and so it gradually turned into practice. I set out in search of fire mages, who thought I had run away somewhere, and tested the strength of various structures. When necessary, I built an outpost in advance and, going against my usual fighting style, waited and defended myself.
The greatest joy for me was designing a complete, functional suit of armour. Here, my knowledge prevailed, and Lya was my assistant, refining the techniques I needed. We designed the armour for a variety of situations, and I would have gladly created an entire golem around myself, because limiting oneself to human form is foolish and impractical! It is possible to create a four-legged creature that would be easier to accelerate than a normal humanoid, but maintaining such a form for a long time would be difficult — none of the choices I had made so far had envisaged the use of huge amounts of land, and I relied on my strength only to a limited extent.
Diversity in armour was the most important detail for my survival. It was not always possible to use only sand, so there was sand armour, which was the fastest, and stone armour, which had the greatest impact potential, and even crystal armour. The latter, as is clear, was the most durable.
"Ready to test it?" Leah looked at me, hiding behind a rock and listening to the platoon landing on the shore. I quickly nodded, pulling the sand out of my gourd and dismantling it, surrounding myself and forming a combat shape. The pieces pressed tightly against my muscles, revealing their contours, but because of this, I could use each individual segment of my armour to "accelerate" my limbs. Now it wasn't strength that played on magic — magic itself enhanced my strength.
Exhaling, I suddenly jumped up, so hard that I left a cloud of dust behind me. Like a torpedo rushing out from behind cover and appearing before the soldiers who were not expecting me, I formed a lump of sand in my hands and threw it accurately at my enemies. A flash of lightning lit up the ball of sand for a second.
Bang*
Two people were knocked off their feet and sent flying a couple of metres. As soon as the rest of the group realised what had happened and raised their hands, I was already ten metres away from where I had been, raising a large curtain of sand. Fast streams of sand swirled around my feet, accelerating like a sand scooter, giving me speed — you could say I had learned to move quickly and defend myself not only in the air, but on any surface.
Enemies didn't appear very often, but when they did, I had a lot of fun. However, as long as the same ships that had once attacked me and Leah were circling the coast, with the same captain at the helm, any skirmishes with ordinary trash were meaningless.
One day, I left home without saying anything to my "teacher." As usual, I came to the shore to wait for ships to pass by and began to build. The enemy always visited this area, so I knew that I could provoke him and distract him from attacking other outposts with just one of my structures.
***
There was a mood of despair on the deck of the iron ship. The detachment setting out on another patrol seemed to be exhausted. Soldiers armed with steel cuirasses walked with their shoulders slumped, half-heartedly inspecting their weapons and steel mechanisms; others looked fearfully at the shore, trying to spot a possible enemy.
Not so long ago, they had felt relatively comfortable, alternately chasing away the local detachment from Shen Guan with varying degrees of success. Yes, they couldn't fight properly on enemy territory, and the traps wore down the soldiers' morale, but they weren't being hunted like they were now. Lately, they hadn't even been able to reach the shore, and the outposts that appeared literally in their path prevented them from advancing deeper or even fighting a large group of mages. No, they were being stopped by a single man!
"Captain Masaru, are we going ashore today?" A gloomy man approached the man with a small moustache. "After all, there's a heavy downpour coming."
"What, are you suggesting we stay on the ship while the enemy gathers strength? Do you understand that the order is to destroy the economy of the people of Earth, and we haven't even seen Shen Guan for days," he replied angrily. "I'll get such a reprimand that I'll be stripped of my position. Maybe he won't show up now — the sand should be sticky from the rain. We have the advantage.
"Captain! - but at that moment, a strange cry rang out from the observation post. The man seemed to be in deep shock," "Look at the shore!
The frowning captain mechanically took out his spyglass. He focused on the point from which it was most convenient to make raids, there were few traps, and it wouldn't take long to get through... well, maybe not. Now, along the shore, there were strange, tall walls of sand that could prevent even the most standard landing, and in the middle of this horror was a huge sand castle.
"What the... - Captain Masaru expressed himself improperly. Approaching and standing parallel to the shore, the soldiers tensely examined the incomprehensible work of art. Soon, the culprit appeared on the balcony of one of the towers - a stern man dressed in tight-fitting clothes. "Fire, damn it, mix this place with sand.
"Captain, the castle is already made of sand.
"Fire, I said!
The loaded catapults headed for a tall castle on the shore. At the command of the gunners, all the catapults fired simultaneously, which could have wiped out even the best fortress of the Architects of Shen Guan. This castle was no exception - although it managed to withstand several projectiles without cracking, all subsequent hits formed giant holes. A little more, and the castle would have collapsed under its own weight, at least - that was what Captain Masaru wanted to see.
But instead of the expected collapse... he saw restoration. The sand castle patched up its wounds with quickly gathering grains of sand, which, unlike stone, were much easier to put back in place and then reinforce.
And then...
"I don't give a shit about your rain, you fucking failure! - the monster that ordinary soldiers imagined the Sand Mage to be roared throughout the neighbourhood.
"...We're screwed. We don't stand a chance.
***
"Where did that gloomy guy run off to? - Tired, Lya looked around while her personal beast, as usual chewing on a whole chicken, stepped through the large puddles left after the rain.
Her partner, who had disappeared in such weather, could be in serious trouble, which the girl feared greatly as she headed towards the shore, the presumed location of her ally. She already imagined the worst: fire mages could easily attack in such weather, even if their beloved fires did not spread their destructive power as usual.
"What?" But what she saw on the shore could not be described in calm words. The girl's eyes widened and she blinked, rubbing her eyelids to make sure it wasn't an illusion. At that moment, Obzorik calmly walked through the large gates and moved into a huge hall woven from reinforced sand. Huge, jagged columns rose to the ceiling, and at the other end of the large hall stood a sand throne.
There, to their even greater surprise, sat Dagoth.
"My intuition told me that we would meet. Or is it because we agreed? I prefer the intuition option," a smile appeared on his face. "You said that enemies could be driven away after building a new outpost, right? I did everything.
***
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