CHAPTER 183: CHAPTER 183: INTANGIBILITY SAVES THE DAY

Livia, seeing that he was sinking back into his dark ruminations, decided that a more drastic intervention was necessary. She picked up a small pebble that was lying on the dusty floor of the corridor and weighed it in her hand with a mischievous smile.

— "Stop brooding like that," she said, aiming carefully. "You look like a tired old dragon hoarding its failures like treasure!"

She threw the pebble with teasing precision, aiming directly at his head. Mordred, surprised by this unexpected and purely playful attack, reacted instinctively. His reflexes, sharpened by years of combat, automatically activated his intangibility skill. It was a purely defensive gesture, almost unconscious - the kind of reaction that had saved his life hundreds of times in far more dangerous situations.

The pebble passed through him as if he were made of mist, but at the precise moment the skill activated, something extraordinary happened.

The universe seemed to suddenly change dimension. The runic walls that had mocked him for weeks transformed radically before his widened eyes. The symbols, once blurry and elusive, suddenly became sharp, perfectly visible, with crystalline clarity that took his breath away. But that wasn’t all, he could now see their connections, the energy lines that linked each rune to its neighbors in a complex and precise network that extended in all dimensions.

It was as if someone had suddenly turned on the light in a room plunged in darkness. The runes were no longer isolated and mysterious symbols, they formed a coherent language, a magical architecture of beauty and sophistication that left him speechless. He could see how energy flowed between them, how each symbol modulated and transformed the magical flux, how the whole created an effect much greater than the sum of its parts.

Shocked by this sudden revelation, Mordred immediately deactivated his intangibility, as if he feared this miraculous vision was just a hallucination caused by exhaustion. Immediately, the symbols became obscure, blurry, elusive again - exactly as they had always been.

But now, he knew. He had seen the truth behind the veil, and this knowledge changed everything.

— "Wait a second..." he murmured, his voice trembling with contained excitement. His analytical mind immediately went to work, seeking to understand and reproduce what had just happened. "Livia... I think I just discovered something incredible."

— "What?" she asked, surprised by his sudden transformation. The exhausted and defeatist man of a few seconds ago had disappeared, replaced by the Mordred she knew - the one whose eyes blazed with fierce intelligence when he was about to solve a mystery.

— "Do it again!" he ordered with almost childlike excitement. "Throw something else at me! Anything!"

Perplexed but intrigued by this radical change of mood, Livia picked up a small piece of wood lying in a corner and threw it at him with the same teasing precision. She didn’t understand what was happening, but Mordred’s sudden energy was contagious.

This time, Mordred voluntarily activated his intangibility at the moment of impact, and again, the runes revealed themselves in all their splendor. But now that he expected it, he could maintain the skill longer and observe with growing amazement the subtle complexity of the enchantment.

What he saw surpassed everything he had ever imagined. The runes weren’t simply carved on the surface of the walls - they extended into three-dimensional space, creating a complex network of magical geometry that encompassed the entire prison. Some connections extended over dozens of meters, linking apparently unrelated symbols in a global system of unprecedented sophistication.

He could see how different sections of the network served specific functions: here, a cluster of runes dedicated to intrusion detection; there, a structural reinforcement system that maintained the physical integrity of the prison; further away, a surveillance network that transmitted information to a central point he couldn’t yet locate.

Slowly deactivating his skill, savoring every second of this extraordinary vision, he turned to Livia with an enthusiasm she had never seen in him, even in his moments of greatest triumph.

— "Livia..." he said, his voice vibrating with almost mystical excitement. "Intangibility... it’s really a cheat code for runes!"

She raised an eyebrow, intrigued by this enigmatic declaration. In the particular vocabulary they had developed during their adventures, a "cheat code" designated a solution so elegant and efficient that it seemed almost unfair.

— "What exactly do you mean?" she asked, though she was beginning to guess the scope of his discovery.

He rushed to her, grabbing her shoulders with excitement he could barely contain. His eyes shone with an almost fanatical gleam - the expression of a man who had just discovered a fundamental secret of the universe.

— "When I activate intangibility, I become temporarily insensitive to physical and magical barriers, that’s true. But what I didn’t know - what no one had ever told me - is that it also reveals the true form of enchantments! I can literally see through the layers of magical concealment! It’s as if intangibility allowed me to perceive pure magical reality, without the filters and distortions that our normal perception imposes!"

Livia opened her eyes wide, beginning to grasp the revolutionary scope of this discovery. If Mordred was right, this didn’t just change their current mission - it potentially revolutionized his entire understanding of enchantment magic.

— "You mean you can see the runes as they’re really supposed to be perceived?" she asked, her voice betraying her growing excitement. "Not just their superficial appearance, but their true magical structure?"

He nodded with energy that made the shadows dance around them, his face illuminated with joy so intense it was almost blinding.

— "Exactly! And not just see them - I can analyze precisely how the enchantments work, how they interact with each other, how energy circulates in the system. It’s as if I had suddenly acquired the ability to read the secret blueprints of magical reality! I just need to use intangibility at the right moment, and the runes become not only perfectly clear, but also reveal their deepest secrets!"

She smiled broadly, feeling a mixture of relief and admiration for this unexpected revelation. After weeks of frustration and failure, the solution had finally emerged in the most improbable way possible.

— "Well," she said with a mischievous smile, "it was about time your so special skill finally served something practical! Who would have thought that a simple pebble thrown in frustration could unlock a magical mystery centuries old?"

He burst into laughter so spontaneous and joyful that it echoed throughout the corridor, chasing away the shadows of failure and discouragement that had accumulated over the past weeks. It was the laughter of a man who had just understood that the impossible had become possible.

— "This changes absolutely everything, Livia," he declared, his voice vibrating with renewed confidence. "I can now study these runes systematically and thoroughly. I can understand not only their individual effects, but also how they combine to create more complex systems. I can learn their language, master their magical grammar, and above all..."

He paused, his eyes turning to the enchanted walls that had frustrated him so much, but this time with the assurance of a master looking at his future tools.

— "And above all, I can learn to create my own enchantments based on the same principles. We’re no longer just talking about understanding this barrier - we’re talking about revolutionizing my understanding of all enchantment magic!"

He cast an intense gaze on the magical constructions surrounding him, but now, instead of seeing insurmountable obstacles, he saw a library of knowledge waiting to be deciphered.

— "With this discovery, I can finally advance methodically and efficiently. We’ll be able to build this network of invisible tunnels, but not only that - we’ll be able to make it more sophisticated than anything that has ever been created. We’ll be able to save these slaves and offer them an escape route that even Syléane Ignivara won’t be able to detect."

Livia gently placed a hand on his arm, sharing his enthusiasm and relief, but also conscious of the enormous responsibility this discovery placed on their shoulders. They were no longer just talking about saving a few prisoners - they were potentially talking about developing magical capabilities that could change the balance of power in their world.

— "I knew you’d eventually find a solution," she said with sincere conviction. "You’ve always had this ability to transform the impossible into the inevitable. But now that you’ve found the key, what exactly do you plan to do?"

He returned a smile that mixed gratitude and determination, his flaming eyes burning with resolution that had been forged in weeks of frustration and tempered by this miraculous revelation.

— "Now, I have no more excuses," he declared with solemnity that contrasted with his previous excitement. "No more groping, no more approximations, no more vague hopes. Starting tomorrow, we enter a phase of systematic and methodical work. I’m going to decipher every rune in this prison, understand every mechanism, master every aspect of their functioning."

He rose from his improvised seat, his movements regaining that confident fluidity that characterized the man she knew - the one who transformed impossible challenges into inevitable victories.

— "And once I’ve mastered their magical language, we’ll build this network of tunnels. We’ll free these slaves. And who knows?" he added with a smile that promised wonders and dangers in equal measure, "maybe we’ll revolutionize enchantment magic in the process."