Chapter 261: Varnhollows.

"Flexible?" Lieve looked at Lee stupefied."Ye, we’ll have to infuse the keys with the five elements at the same time." Lee said, "And since you’ll be the source of spatial particles, you’ll have to touch each key as well."

"Wait! You want us to infuse five elements into two keys through ten wirelings and the same time while I’m twisted like a snake?" She asked, her eyes widening even more.

"Great, you understood me!" Lee said with a nod, "But our timing has to be perfect."

"You might as well kill me directly!" Lieve said, shaking her head.

"Listen, I understand you might be proud or whatever, or maybe think your ass looks big if you bend forward. I don’t care!" Lee said, "Focus, and you’ll get through this!"

"My ass looks big?!" She angrily hissed at him.

"That’s what you heard?" Lee was taken aback, "Alright! Yes you have a big, flat butt! A gigantic one! Now, let’s set you free so you can punish me!"

Lieve froze, realizing Lee was more concerned about her than she was.

"We’ll have only one chance at this, so no pressure." Lee joked, "I understand you haven’t used your powers for a while, but you’ll have to manage somehow. Let’s test the timing before using elements. On go

you’ll blink, that’ll the moment you have to send the spatial element through the wire. Three, two, one, go! One more time – three ..."

Lee made Lieve practice the timing over and over, ignoring the ever increasing annoyance in her look. Then he cut few of her hair again, and practiced the unlocking motion he was supposed to perform, at the same time going through the timing exercise with her.

Lieve didn’t notice how or when she found herself holding the thin wire of one lockpick with her bound hands, and biting on the other in an awkward position.

Lee had it even worse. He had curled around her, holding the two lockpicks the way the four remaining wires of each of them were touching four fingers of his two hands.

"And now – for real! Don’t overdo with the intensity! Three, two, one, go!" Lee commanded, and two clicks, happening at the same time, indicated he had turned the improvised keys.

Lieve didn’t sense any changes, but Lee was already tearing off the Nullite shackles, and throwing them to the side, at the same time blocking Lieve with his body.

Boooom!

One of the shackles exploded midair, while the other dropped to the ground as a discarded piece of scrap of metal. Pieces of Nullite struck Lee’s back, shredding his new shirt and tearing his skin in dozens of places.

"Mother ... f ... father!" Lee sprung up, loudly cursing in pain, "Damn, it hurts! Auch!"

Lieve stared at the young man, in disbelief touching her wrists that a moment ago were hopelessly locked. Nothing the guy was doing made any sense. More importantly – his wounds were terrible!

"Are you ... alright?" She asked, not finding the right words.

"No, fuck!" Lee cursed, "How the hell Nullite can burn so much! Ahrr ... take this, find tweezers ... in a box with the rest of the tools ... ouch!"

He passed her the spatial ring and dropped to the ground on his butt, grinding his teeth in pain. The Nullite shards embedded in his back completely disrupted the elemental energy inside of him and caused almost as much pain as if he had swallowed another spark.

It took Lieve almost half a day to pick every Nullite piece from Lee’s back, including the one that had pierced the bottom of his skull. The thought of shackles blowing up in her face was terrifying, but the guy didn’t even blink and shielded her as if it was a natural thing to do. More importantly, from the beginning he was acting as if setting her free was a sure deal, not involving any risks.

Because of Lee’s condition, they stayed there for another night, and left along the rails the next morning.

They walked in silence for three days, rarely speaking, and Lee mostly pondered why spatial elemental masters couldn’t open long distance rifts. The only conversation they had before the departure was him asking whether she could, and the answer was no.

The short distance rifts were also an interesting phenomenon, though. Lee still remembered how during his first life, in the underground pyramid, the four-armed guy fought against two opponents, one of them being a spatial element cultivator. He expertly moved through the rifts, and to Lee’s untrained eye it looked like the guy kept teleporting around.

He also saw how one of Seren’s buddies opened a rift for him to get on top of the Old God, and afterwards create a smaller one, used to assassinate Vaerin, the leader of the hunter group. It seemed that the applications for the spatial element were endless, and way cooler that the others. It was to the point he almost looked forward to acquiring the spark, although the thought if swallowing it terrified Lee nevertheless.

"Our best chances are to get to Driftpost. My friend’s family is overseeing the place and I could hide there." Lieve said, breaking the long period of silence, "I’m sure I can convince her to get you a spatial spark so you can leave as soon as possible. Illegals are not treated nicely in Hollowreach."

"Right! What’s that all about illegals? How is it possible to control a whole world this way?" Lee asked.

"Besides the fact that there are barely a dozen hubs around the world and all are meticulously guarded?" Lieve said, "Hollowreach is under direct protection of an overlord and no one in the universe would dare to try anything funny here."

"Overlord?" Lee automatically repeated, sending thoughts full of hate towards Seris. She surely had to know that him coming here was comparable to a suicide mission.

"Yes, Theron, the Rift Sovereign." Lieve said, "Hollowreach is the largest known source of lanarite, basically a treasure trove floating between stars."

"Looks like a shithole to me." Lee said, theatrically throwing look around.

"It is." Lieve agreed, "A priceless shithole."

"Then what a girl like you is doing in a place like this?" Lee asked, "Don’t tell me you’re after riches. The future of a spatial cultivator is boundless!"

"Sigh ... I’m not that talented." Lieve said, then paused, took a deep breath, and said, "I followed my husband here."

Lee quickly bit his lip before he said anything out of line. If the previously shackled woman was trying to get to her friend instead of her husband, the situation wasn’t simple at all. More importantly, if everything was controlled the way she claimed, him just being here was dangerous, but staying near her was actually asking for trouble.

"Tell me about lanarite and the beasts, varnhollows." Lee said, purposefully changing the subject.

"What is wrong with you?" She looked back at Lee, but he could only shrug. There were too many things to list, but he didn’t want to start a therapy session. Fortunately, Lieve didn’t expect an answer, and continued, "How can a person come here without knowing anything about the place? Did you really come only for a spatial spark?"

Seeing Lee nod, she sighed and continued, "It’s a priceless ore, well, not priceless, but very expensive. It’s mostly used to craft spatial treasures. The amount of ore is very limited and varnhollows are the source of it. They live, die, and after many centuries the ore is formed from their remains."

"So miners are basically mining corpses?" Lee asked.

"Mhm. That’s correct." Lieve said, "Besides the humans, varnhollows are the only living things in this world. They aren’t native here – the overlord brought them a long time ago. But they are easily controlled and consume any organic matter along with the elements in their surroundings. And there are no places with more dense spatial particles than Hollowreach, at least not habitable."

"And varnhollows ignite spatial sparks, right?" Lee asked.

"On occasion." Lieve said, "Usually earth sparks, though."

"How come they never escape then?" Lee pondered out loud, "Weren’t we supposed to meet a wild varnhollow that has escaped a hub?"

"That’s not how spatial element works, or rather – that’s not how spatial sparks work." Lieve said, "One has to have the ability to comprehend what the space means to move through it. They have to know where they intend to arrive to open a rift in the first place. The best that beasts can naturally do is to create a spatial pockets inside of them to store more food they intend to digest later."

"Is that a hub?" Lee asked, suddenly stopping and pointing in the distance.

"What do you see?" Lieve asked. She could only see gray fields stretching endlessly to all sides, and dark clouds above, with bolts of lighting dancing about.

"There’s a tall tower, like a pike." Lee said, "No, I think there’s two."

"Should be three." Lieve said, "Yes, it’s a hub."