Author Comment: I want to thank my Beta-Reader of everything he did for this chapter to come out.


Codemaster Imthor adjusted his helmet as he supervised the cable being installed by the robots programmed to take care of the portal. He didn't want any mistake to be made. Right now, the other Codemasters were too tense to do the job properly. Not only them, he was also guilty of that. He remembered the news Chaor gave about the others.

"If they figure out how the Telebracers worked… some of those creatures can show up here," he thought to himself.

He knew that fixing the wires wouldn't be enough. The crystal that provided the energy was broken and needed to be replaced. He crossed his arms and wondered if the creatures who went to search for it would bring it soon. He put his fingers on his forehead and sighed quietly.


Chapter 108: Fixing The Portal

Chaor tapped on a table and groaned quietly. Takinom was with him and watched her ruler, frustrated.

"Lord Chaor. We cannot do anything else for now."

"They are taking so long to bring that crystal and make sure the portal functions again!" He showed his fangs. He sighed.

"You know Kaz is alright. The Codemasters told you so," she replied.

"I know. For how long? If we take too long, they will soon control the Cothica and then it will be all over for us," he replied. He closed his blue eyes and sighed, "We don't have unlimited time."

Codemaster Crellan joined the two, "There is nothing to fear for now. On Earth, the preparations to build the basics of the Mind Bander are underway. After this, we will only need the crystals that exist only on Perim."

The creatures gazed at the stash they had brought. They weren't certain how those battlegears could be mass produced like that.

"How can you make that many in a short time?" Takinom asked.

"On Earth, there are techniques to mass produce something. It has its weaknesses, but when you have to build a lot and quickly it is for the best," Crellan replied. He didn't want to share the system, as it might be complicated for creatures given that they built everything on their own.

Chaor grumbled that Theb-Saar should hurry up.

"Chaor. Do you have any idea if Maxxor and the others will come back here?" The Codemaster asked.

The ruler scoffed, "Of course he will be back. Only I shall be the one to crush him in the end. No one else," he had no doubt about it. It was only a matter of time.

Crellan sighed, "You sure have a lot of faith in Maxxor, despite hating him."

"I know who my enemies are. Knowledge is a source of power," the other one replied. That's why he valued the intel his spies could gather.


Theb-Saar watched Najarin and Taffial observed the crystal. At this point, they were the only three remaining in the temple. They couldn't move it for now, so the extra hands were pointless. Everything was secure and nothing could endanger them.

The blue coming out of the crystal was still strong, "Did you figure out a way to bring it back?" The ruler of Al-Mipedim asked.

"It is too large and we cannot teleport with it," Taffial grumbled with a bit of frustration.

"It is much larger than the one used for the portal in Chaotic. I'm beginning to wonder if it was supposed to give energy to more than just the portal. If there was a city, it might have given that energy to it," Najarin added.

Theb-Saar scratched his jaw, "We have the cables and this is all we need now. Still…" he had a few thoughts for Tiaane, his nephew, Maxxor and the others. They were in a delicate predicament and their lives were in danger. If it was with any of the other tribes, he wouldn't be that worried. Prisoners like them were extremely valuable and it was best not to go overboard. Also, it was easy to prepare a rescue plan and put it into execution. The castles and the prisons of each tribe were well known at this point. Even the secret ones were known.

In this case, however, there were so many unknown variations. What would they do with their prisoners? Where were they? Would their limbs be cut to prevent an escape? At that question, the eyes of the king shined brighter. If they cut any parts of his tribe's people, he would make them regret it. Even more for Mudeenu, who he had raised when his brother passed away.

Najarin sighed, "I'm still not sure if cutting a part of it might help or not. We should try something like that with a smaller one before considering it," he scratched his left cheek, "I think I have an idea. The fragments of the crystal on Chaotic. We didn't see what happened to it."

Theb-Saar nodded, "I'll call the Codemasters and look at it. If it still shines, we can experiment on them."


Imthor put his hands on the side of his helmet when he heard it rang, "Imthor here."

"This is Theb-Saar."

"Did you make any progress at all? Chaor is getting impatient and Crellan is trying to calm his nerves down."

"Not yet. Najarin had an idea. Before we consider taking a fragment of it, we should test it with a smaller one. He thought of the fragments for the portal. Do you still have them?"

"Of course, we kept it. We wouldn't just throw anything away," Imthor replied. He quickly understood the implications, "You want to try it on those first?"

"Yes. There must be many to test with."

"We'll bring you a few of them and test it on our own too," the Codemaster replied with a bit of hope in his voice. He put his hands together and waited for the answer.

"Understood. Wish we had that idea earlier," the Mipedian king commented.

"Me too. Anyway, we will experiment this now while Frafdo will bring you the fragments."

"Good. We are waiting for him."

Imthor ended the communication and entered in contact with Crellan, "Crellan. We need to bring some of the remaining fragments of the crystal to Theb-Saar while we use others to experiment on them. We might find a way to bring a part of it if we test it out."

"I'll go right away," the other Codemaster replied.

Imthor ended the communication and sighed. He wished he could go, but he had to supervise everything there for now.


Frafdo flew down to join the other creatures, his bag was filled with a few of those blue crystals. He checked them and saw they were still shining. It was a weak light and nothing showed they still had energy, but he knew the Codemasters would inspect the energy, since they had that technology. On the ground, they had nothing to help them check that.

The Overworlder had no idea of how they would actually do it. It was a mystery. He was a warrior, not an explorer or an archeologist. Still, he was curious about it. He hoped it worked and that they could stop the M'arrillians plan from succeeding.

Frafdo landed at the entrance of the temple and quickly went inside to join the other creatures. He traversed the room until the one where the blue light came out, "I'm here."

He showed the bags, allowing the creatures to take it.

"Thank you Frafdo," Najarin said as he studied them.

"The Codemasters probably already began their research," Theb-Saar thought.

Taffial took one and observed it carefully, "Of course. It will take a long time to guess if those crystals still have energy or not. Still, I think I can feel a bit of it coming out of that fragment."

Frafdo took one and inspected it. He could see a bit of the blue light inside of it and wondered if this was energy instead of light. The light was weak compared to the large crystal. If it was the case, then this one had less power than the large one. If that light was energy.

The king of Al-Mipedim studied his own and squinted his eyes, "Just by looking at it closely, I don't see anything standing out," he grumbled. He hoped it wouldn't waste their time.

"We should take a risk with one of them. If that light is energy, we might try to connect to a wire and see if something is happening. We might not have seen all of the temple. I mean, those cables are damaged and disconnected to that crystal," Taffial took his fragment and approached one of those cables.

"Be careful, we don't know what will happen when you connect one to it. We don't know if that energy is dangerous if it comes into contact with you," Najarin warned him as he flew near the Mipedian.

At that suggestion, Theb-Saar observed the wires. He scratched his chin, "We should take the risk. We observed them for a long time and we should experiment with them."

The High Muge held one in his hand and observed it carefully. He had nothing to safely cut it in half, or take a piece of it. The fragment's light was already weak, so it would be best to try and cut it in half.

Taffial gave one of his tools he brought with him.

"Thank you."

"No problem. You always need to be ready for anything," the creature replied.

Najarin observed the piece he had and carefully put it on the ground. He grabbed a small hammer and a dagger. He put it on it and gently tapped it, checking the solidity of the fragment. He tried a little harder and it was cut in two pieces. He grabbed each of them and observed it carefully. He waited to see if something would happen. He noticed the light was still present. Next, he put them on the ground and focused on the energy coming out of the fragments. He closed his eyes and waited to feel anything.

Theb-Saar and Frafdo said nothing. They thought Najarin was meditating, as they noticed the Overworlder wasn't aware they approached him.

"Not a word," the Mipedian ruler said the moment the Overworlder opened his beak.

He silently nodded and closed it.

The High Muge opened his eyes and stood up. He let out a small smile behind his beard, "Looks like this is feasible," he turned towards the others, "Those two fragments still have the energy within them. I can feel it within it. Still, I suggest we proceed carefully."

Taffial observed the large one, "We shouldn't try to get it right now. We need to get it the right size. If we make a mistake, we won't be able to reach the Cothica."

They continued to experiment. They carefully cut in half a few fragments of the remaining crystal Frafdo brought with him.

The Overworlder in question grumbled at how long the procedure was, but didn't complain.


Imthor continued to watch the repairs of the portal. He had his arms crossed and waited for the results of the test. He knew it would be Crellan who would answer him, as the others were busy on their own actions. They were preparing a rescue plan to save the creatures of the alliance and a countermeasure for that new tribe if they tried anything.

He put his hand on his forehead when he received a call, "You got the result Crellan?"

"Yes. The result looks conclusive. I'm certain the creatures also have a positive result."

"Give me the specific," Imthor asked.

"To make it short, we can cut the crystal in fragments and the energy isn't lost. The fragments' energy spreads depending on the size of the fragments. That means that we need a size of the crystal with the right amount of energy. We need to have the right size for that," the other Codemaster replied.

They would need to have the perfect calculation for that, "We will need one of us to go down there and be certain the crystal is the right size before we cut it."

"Yes. It will take some time to get the right size, but not that much."

"Hopefully, Chaor will be patient enough," Imthor replied, "Do it right now."

"We will," he replied.

The Codemaster hoped there wouldn't be any problems. He decided to warn Theb-Saar that he should wait before cutting the crystal.


AC: This is the end of this chapter.

Next: The Escape.

Maxxor and the others began the plan to escape from the elemental creatures.