CHAPTER 20: THE RELOCATION COST

  [STATE: TOTAL MOBILIZATION]

  [MANA CONSUMPTION: 500% (CRITICAL)]

  [ASSET LOSS: UNKNOWN]

  The black box sat in the center of my office, surrounded by every containment field I could generate. It didn't pulse nor glow. It just sat there, a hole in the reality of the room. I sat at my desk, my eyes red from lack of sleep. I didn't think about the fleet I’d just defeated. I didn't think about the gold I’d earned. I thought about the math of moving a mountain.

  "Gray, you're insane," Lilo said. He was standing by the door, his hand on the hilt of his sword. He wasn't guarding the room; he was guarding himself from what was inside it. "You can't move the Oasis. It’s anchored to the earth’s crust. If you try to lift it, the structural integrity will fail. You'll kill everyone inside."

  "I didn't say I was going to lift it, Lilo," I said. I didn't look up from my calculations. "I said I was going to move it. There’s a difference. We aren't going up. We’re going down."

  "Down?" Lilo blinked.

  "The Oasis is built on a tectonic plate-junction," I explained. "I've been analyzing the mana-lines for weeks. If I overload the Core at the right frequency, I can trigger a localized 'Phase-Shift'. We won't be in the desert anymore. We’ll be in the 'In-Between'—the space between the physical world and the mana-plane. We’ll be invisible to the Guild, and we’ll be moving at the speed of the earth's rotation."

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  "You're talking about taking four hundred people into the Void," Lilo whispered. "I don't agree to this, Gray."

  "I didn't ask for your agreement. I asked for your cooperation," I said. I finally looked up. "The Guild is coming, Lilo. They don't want the ships back. They want that box. And they’ll burn every soul in this desert to get it. If we stay here, we’re dead. If we move, we have a chance to renegotiate our terms."

  "What’s in the box, Gray?"

  "I didn't open it didn't need to. It’s a Primordial Fragment. It’s the source code of the world. And the Guild has been using it to fuel their 'Legends' for centuries. I just stole their battery."

  I didn't wait for his response. I triggered the 'Phase-Shift' sequence.

  The Oasis didn't shake nor groan. The world simply turned violet. The heat of the desert vanished, replaced by a cold, humming silence. Through the observation windows, the sand disappeared, replaced by a swirling mist of raw mana.

  [LOCATION: THE IN-BETWEEN]

  [STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY: 88%]

  [PERSONNEL STATUS: STABILIZED (TEMPORARY)]

  I didn't feel a sense of relief. I felt the cost. The Core was burning through mana at a rate that would deplete our reserves in forty-eight hours.

  "Gray! The men are panicking!" Sammy’s voice came through the intercom. "They can see the Void through the vents! They think we're dead!"

  "I didn't authorize a panic, Sammy. Tell them they’re currently in the most secure location in the world," I said. "And tell them their 'Hazard Pay' has just been doubled. In credits, of course."

  I looked at the black box. It was starting to react to the 'In-Between'. A faint, silver light began to leak from the seams.

  I didn't reach for it. I didn't try to stop it. I simply opened a new ledger.

  [CURRENT ASSETS: 1 MOUNTAIN, 400 SOLDIERS, 1 PRIMORDIAL FRAGMENT]

  [CURRENT DEBT: THE ENTIRE WORLD]

  I picked up my quill. I didn't know where we were going. I didn't know who was going to find us first. But I knew one thing: I was still the one holding the ledger.

  And the price of the world had just gone up.