The Truth Manifest
Rihaku
The Internet
The Truth Manifest
"Stay close," Hunger commanded, as his Cloak writhed and snapped like a striking whip against the air.
Gisena smiled faintly. She knew the Cloak of his panoply would do them no harm, but it wasn't every day that the Lord Hunger cut so unintentionally hilarious a figure! Idly she preserved the image in her mind's eye as they strode forth upon the Protector's tower. Magics assailed her vision, daunting spellcraft in vertiginous lines, flashes and fluxes of green witchfire and nauseating distortion that pressed at her temples against the shield of her Nullity. The Lady Protector was an adept magus, a twisted sorceress of the highest order. It was more than fitting that Gisena would stand against her today.
Their enemy was limited chiefly by time, secondly by resources. That Augustine had spent precious moments crafting the runes of this initial assault, an attack totally incapable of felling Lord Hunger, meant that her purpose had not been to finish - or even deter - them with this strike. It was part probing attack, part feint: testing esoteric vectors to see if any would register disproportionate effectiveness, while simultaneously feigning weakness to encourage overconfidence on Hunger's part.
At first glance, a light thrust that cost Augustine little and which might reveal a critical weakness in her foes - or create the weakness of hubris for the Protector to further exploit. Likely the follow-up strikes would be designed to test for overconfidence before Augustine was forced to do battle in person.
But Gisena had now seen the iron runes which produced Augustine's magic: the intricate sigil appeared only momentarily before self-incinerating to ignite its spell payload, but that was time enough for her to capture it in memory.
When Augustine had stolen Verschlengorge Gisena had seen only a single rune. A single data point was worthless, but two allowed for correlation, and correlation was the mother of hypothesis. From the comparative structure of the runes and their associated magics Gisena constructed a rough understanding of Augustine's spellcraft. A few more such runes and she could derive the basic language! Not that Gisena could wield it herself, but all the better to counter Augustine with.
To Lady Gisena Allria had been given the power to perceive all magics and to touch none, for her touch was magic's unmaking, the very antithesis of wonder. Sometimes she still wondered at the Maiden's intentions in crafting so cruel a gift; but only wistfully, like toying with a broken bauble or picking at an old scar.
In the ledger of cosmic concerns it barely rated notice, relevant only by its inescapable vantage. Everywhere she looked she saw what she could not have; yet still, better to embody the destruction of magic than not to be gifted at all.
Perhaps only one that felt as such could acquire the Grace she held. It was a thought she'd had many times, and each time equally meaningless. In the absence of a guiding star, a powerful mind was a vessel only for going nowhere quickly. Hunger had his vengeance, but what purpose was her own?
In her mage-sight Hunger was a constellation of infinite depth, power beyond reckoning extending into dimensions higher and lower, beyond even the furthermost limits of her Nullity. Even his current world-filling might was but a pauper's veneer, tissue-thin shell around the incandescent potential at his core.
The power of Progression was elegant. In the ordering of its forms it spelled out its name for any mind capable of perceiving it, even for those, like Gisena Allria, whose vision was limited to the uttermost shallows of that blazing sea.
The Lathe of Heaven. The object, the symbol, the pattern by whose revolution the world was destroyed and re-created. Fitting heraldry for Hunger's patron, given his ultimate objective. That too was implicit in the Lathe of Heaven, for those who knew where to look.
A kinder world than this.
Hunger swept upon the Tower like an evening storm, the boom of his cloak like rolling thunder, clarion sword-strike like lightning splitting the sky. Swiftly he cut through the ramparts of earth and mithril on his path towards the wizardess' sanctum. Adorie followed immediately behind, with Gisena carrying the flank.
She spared a moment from the eye-candy of Hunger in action to gauge Adorie's condition. The Artificial princess was resolute as ever, uncommon grimness overtaking her features as she lent the support of her Rank to Hunger's own. The carefully-engineered magic of her bloodline was as precise and delicate as clockwork, beautiful as filigree; art ornamental as it was functional, as if designed to be directly perceived.
In Adorie's ivory-tower innocence Gisena saw a glimpse of her own life. The sheltered Lady Allria that might-have-been, had she never attained the Maidengrace, daydreaming of magic among her books and measuring-tools. Despite herself she couldn't help but retain a fondness towards the girl, even though she'd resolved to crush any rival princesses under heel...
It was not Adorie's fault that the Foremost had created her strain of humanity and set them as steward or overlord above this Realm of 'Myth.'
Given Aobaru's testimony, it was entirely possible that the princess and all her subjects were nothing more than the descendants of an elaborate theme-park attraction. How would a princess of myth react to such knowledge, that the power of her blood was ultimately a simple warranty mechanism for the masters of her progenitors' line?
Gisena did not give voice to such theories, as she kept silent on countless matters of speculation. Theory, pattern, structure came naturally to her mind, and if she were to speak on every idle hypothesis they would lack the time to act on them. No sense, at this scale, in explicating harmful truths, so long as someone with influence kept them in mind. The twisted resemblance of the Lady Protector spell's to certain of the Maiden's Graces, the likely true nature of the Foremost, the reality of Letrizia's family strife, the underlying form of Hunger's Tyrant Curse... for all the clues she'd pieced together, the truth only mattered where such knowledge would change the actions taken in reality.
Where one's actions would not change, hurtful truths were merely hurtful.
Gisena Allria was the Nullity Sorceress. Did it matter the reason behind the Maiden's decree, if the decree was absolute regardless?
Like her, Hunger's first taste of magic had resulted in the death of his dreams, though on a scale far vaster and crueler. Would he repudiate that quest, knowing what he did now? Or would he continue doggedly ahead, doing his uttermost even when the path was preordained?
As with many things, she already knew the answer. It was not in him to do anything less, no matter how much it hurt.
She fingered the Ring of Truth, which glowered at her earlier implication of its irrelevance. That it could monitor her thoughts, she found amusing, and would have used it as a note-taking function had she lacked perfect recall. For Truth was only knowledge, and knowledge required effort, timing and circumstance to convert into power, which was why she favored its facet of Artifice instead. Here and now, it could not avenge itself against her.
But the Lady Protector could. Hunger was starting to struggle, increasingly exotic attacks striking from every angle, his sheer overwhelming power the only impetus still driving him forward into the heart of the wizardess' might. They'd agreed to reserve her Ultimate Nullity for the moment of greatest leverage, but Gisena was strongly tempted to unleash it now, to clear his path and see Augustine undone, if only in the aftermath.
She bridled such emotions. What they needed now was not her heart but her mind. Not the swiftest path to victory, but the most certain. There could be no mistakes against an enemy this capable.
Hunger growled, a spine-raising rumble of exertion as he pressed forth, blade lined with Praxis blue as he struck down Augustine's phantasmal servants. One by one the monsters fell, revealing behind them the innermost chamber, where the Lady Protector had prepared her final stand. Power coiled in sinuous drifts about the sanctum, magic like an onrushing river, all chained and channeled by runes of screaming iron. Here also was Verschlengorge, restrained by edicts of Foremost magic. Countless layers of protection and augmentation shrouded the Lady Protector like a mantle, enhancing all elements of her protoplasm-flesh to the very limits of her magic.
Swift as flashing sunlight Hunger closed the distance, the Praxis lending him speed like a messenger-god as he delivered the writ of Augustine's execution. But for this and more the Lady Protector was already prepared, space like an infinite treadmill expanding between them, and though Hunger's stroke still landed it was not a lethal blow. She was maimed horribly, but now came her retaliation, a blast of transcendental magic from runes freshly - and brutally - carved into her own flesh, raggedly infused with blood and marrow. Augustine marshaled such force as to reduce entire worlds to ash, a pantheon-slaying strike of truly foremost malice.
Hunger's cloak shivered, shining with the silver of evening, and dissipated the blow at the cost of its corpus.
Again Hunger channeled the Praxis, but now was interrupted by feedback as Augustine unveiled the set of runes around her: sigils of truncation in a circle of cold iron that severed the Astral itself from the material plane.
Hunger fell to one knee, Ring-hand clutching his head as his soul fought to retain connection to his body. If even so fundamental a verity could be contested, then an emergent phenomenon like Pressure stood no chance at manifestation. Within those bounds, Hunger was effectively stripped of his Rank, and the lion's share of his power thereby.
All around the chamber was a certain pattern of runes, seemingly inert, and with a sinking feeling Gisena apprehended their meaning and ultimate purpose.
She'd known, of course, that Augustine was capable of scrying on her, though not on Hunger himself. But she had not expected Augustine's magic to be capable of crafting so perfect a counter to the Nullity. The emanation of findross that produced the Nullity could not even penetrate that barrier to affect the runes within.
Already Augustine was unleashing further contingencies, runes becoming blades of rime-crusted matter cutting methodically through Hunger's remaining shield of Ruin.
He would still win this, Gisena knew. Somehow he would cut through and lay low the monster, no matter the price he had to pay.
But he should not have to pay it, not had she discerned the truth sooner and called for a temporary retreat. They had all of them grown overconfident, sheltering under the central pillar of Hunger's Rank. A single point of reliance, no matter how sturdily fortified, was vulnerable to the Apocryphal Curse.
Furiously Gisena's mind raced down futile pathways. She was the Nullity Sorceress. It was her duty to counter enemy mages. What would be left of Hunger if he burned his selfhood to strike true, shattering the Blade again? Was this his fate, a cycle of endless repetition, every Tyrant felled at the cost of his identity? She would not accept that.
This, too, she would nullify. She would find a way.
Augustine's magic somehow contained the perfect answer to her Nullity. Augustine's magic resembled a twisted version of the Maiden's Graces. Augustine's powers were derived from the Foremost.
Hypothesis: Her powers and Augustine's own were degenerated forms of the same magic.
If so, then Gisena had now witnessed two examples of long-decayed Foremost Sorcery. The runes of Augustine, and the Graces of her sister Sorceresses.
One data point was worthless. Two, was correlation.
From their commonalities she could derive the principles underlying.
Hypothesis: Augustine's runic language produced twisted results because it relied on material reagents, evident in the agonized immolation of her material runes. The proper channeling medium, was the findross of the Maidengrace.
The language was the sculptor, and findross the marble. Without a proper sculptor, the Graces of her sister-Sorceresses had been limited to finite forms. Without the proper medium, Augustine's spells lacked for power, demanding toil and bloody sacrifice.
Gisena Allria was the Nullity Sorceress. The findross she produced could only do one thing. Yet, there was no limit to the forms it could take in the pursuit of that purpose.
Lances of Nullity, tides and bolts, shields and waves, blasts and seas...
Runes.
No time for certainty. Barely time to act. The Jewel of Artifice flared on her finger as Gisena Allria scribed with her Graces a rune, whose meaning was Singularity, and whose purpose was ascension.
There was light.
In that moment, Gisena at last understood the Maiden's reasoning. Why was she the Sorceress whose only Grace was Nullity?
Simply because, a genius needs nothing else.
---
Gisena has acquired the Advancement, Renaissance Woman. Augustine, the Lady Protector, has been slain beyond the possibility of recovery; all her contingencies came to naught in the face of the True Nullity.
[X] Renaissance Woman
Not merely a genius of one generation, nor of only one era; here is a greatness of mind and spirit that arises perhaps only once in the lifetime of a species. All-conquering talent that bestrides all fields and masters them beyond compare: only this genuine polymath can be said to embody the complete essence - the true quintessence - of humanity in the Maiden's image. Only so exalted a paragon can glimpse the mortal facings of Heaven's Lathe and depart with mind unshattered.
A singularity of findross births a Sorceress. A meta-singularity of findross, births a Maiden.
*Gisena immediately acquires the Maiden-level Graces: True Perfecting Blade, True Nullity, and True Quintessence.
*Gisena, through observation of the mortal-perceptible components of Hunger's Progression, may replicate the effects of the Lesser Remittance, Retinue, for up to one cardinality of infinite escalation.
*True Perfecting Blade: Massively improves Gisena's STR, AGI, CON, WITS and APP. Her physical parameters are still below Hunger's, however her Wits and Appearance are notably superior to Hunger's own. Parameters will continue to increase over time.
*True Nullity: Gisena applies the effects of Grand Nullification upon all of Hunger's Curses; her nullity strikes with absolute force. This may improve over time.
*True Quintessence: Gisena is treated as if possessing the Total Eclipse Advancement. With time and research she can develop Graces encompassing virtually any archetypically 'magic' effect.
*Her outrageously superhuman Appearance, Charisma and Wits can be classified as a high-grade memetic hazard.
Vote update planned for tomorrow! As noted, Hunger would not have lost even if Gisena had not attained the True Nullity, though the price may have been catastrophic depending on re-rolls. Abetted by the Apocryphal Curse, Augustine was a true threat, and Absorbing the Tower would, as expected, have given her good odds of outright victory. I'm curious what you think of Gisena's ascension, and whether this changes Hunger's plans going forward!
---
If you enjoyed the chapter, please consider subscribing on Patreon! Subscribers receive lots of patron-exclusive content, including early updates, timed exclusives, Discord roles, and bonus chapters. A huge thanks to existing subscribers, the amount of support has been breathtaking! Even more content is coming to Patrons soon!
If you'd like to discuss the quest in real-time or just chat with the questers, you're welcome to join us on the AST Discord! We encourage substantive posts to be made in the thread, and shitposting within Discord.
"Stay close," Hunger commanded, as his Cloak writhed and snapped like a striking whip against the air.
Gisena smiled faintly. She knew the Cloak of his panoply would do them no harm, but it wasn't every day that the Lord Hunger cut so unintentionally hilarious a figure! Idly she preserved the image in her mind's eye as they strode forth upon the Protector's tower. Magics assailed her vision, daunting spellcraft in vertiginous lines, flashes and fluxes of green witchfire and nauseating distortion that pressed at her temples against the shield of her Nullity. The Lady Protector was an adept magus, a twisted sorceress of the highest order. It was more than fitting that Gisena would stand against her today.
Their enemy was limited chiefly by time, secondly by resources. That Augustine had spent precious moments crafting the runes of this initial assault, an attack totally incapable of felling Lord Hunger, meant that her purpose had not been to finish - or even deter - them with this strike. It was part probing attack, part feint: testing esoteric vectors to see if any would register disproportionate effectiveness, while simultaneously feigning weakness to encourage overconfidence on Hunger's part.
At first glance, a light thrust that cost Augustine little and which might reveal a critical weakness in her foes - or create the weakness of hubris for the Protector to further exploit. Likely the follow-up strikes would be designed to test for overconfidence before Augustine was forced to do battle in person.
But Gisena had now seen the iron runes which produced Augustine's magic: the intricate sigil appeared only momentarily before self-incinerating to ignite its spell payload, but that was time enough for her to capture it in memory.
When Augustine had stolen Verschlengorge Gisena had seen only a single rune. A single data point was worthless, but two allowed for correlation, and correlation was the mother of hypothesis. From the comparative structure of the runes and their associated magics Gisena constructed a rough understanding of Augustine's spellcraft. A few more such runes and she could derive the basic language! Not that Gisena could wield it herself, but all the better to counter Augustine with.
To Lady Gisena Allria had been given the power to perceive all magics and to touch none, for her touch was magic's unmaking, the very antithesis of wonder. Sometimes she still wondered at the Maiden's intentions in crafting so cruel a gift; but only wistfully, like toying with a broken bauble or picking at an old scar.
In the ledger of cosmic concerns it barely rated notice, relevant only by its inescapable vantage. Everywhere she looked she saw what she could not have; yet still, better to embody the destruction of magic than not to be gifted at all.
Perhaps only one that felt as such could acquire the Grace she held. It was a thought she'd had many times, and each time equally meaningless. In the absence of a guiding star, a powerful mind was a vessel only for going nowhere quickly. Hunger had his vengeance, but what purpose was her own?
In her mage-sight Hunger was a constellation of infinite depth, power beyond reckoning extending into dimensions higher and lower, beyond even the furthermost limits of her Nullity. Even his current world-filling might was but a pauper's veneer, tissue-thin shell around the incandescent potential at his core.
The power of Progression was elegant. In the ordering of its forms it spelled out its name for any mind capable of perceiving it, even for those, like Gisena Allria, whose vision was limited to the uttermost shallows of that blazing sea.
The Lathe of Heaven. The object, the symbol, the pattern by whose revolution the world was destroyed and re-created. Fitting heraldry for Hunger's patron, given his ultimate objective. That too was implicit in the Lathe of Heaven, for those who knew where to look.
A kinder world than this.
Hunger swept upon the Tower like an evening storm, the boom of his cloak like rolling thunder, clarion sword-strike like lightning splitting the sky. Swiftly he cut through the ramparts of earth and mithril on his path towards the wizardess' sanctum. Adorie followed immediately behind, with Gisena carrying the flank.
She spared a moment from the eye-candy of Hunger in action to gauge Adorie's condition. The Artificial princess was resolute as ever, uncommon grimness overtaking her features as she lent the support of her Rank to Hunger's own. The carefully-engineered magic of her bloodline was as precise and delicate as clockwork, beautiful as filigree; art ornamental as it was functional, as if designed to be directly perceived.
In Adorie's ivory-tower innocence Gisena saw a glimpse of her own life. The sheltered Lady Allria that might-have-been, had she never attained the Maidengrace, daydreaming of magic among her books and measuring-tools. Despite herself she couldn't help but retain a fondness towards the girl, even though she'd resolved to crush any rival princesses under heel...
It was not Adorie's fault that the Foremost had created her strain of humanity and set them as steward or overlord above this Realm of 'Myth.'
Given Aobaru's testimony, it was entirely possible that the princess and all her subjects were nothing more than the descendants of an elaborate theme-park attraction. How would a princess of myth react to such knowledge, that the power of her blood was ultimately a simple warranty mechanism for the masters of her progenitors' line?
Gisena did not give voice to such theories, as she kept silent on countless matters of speculation. Theory, pattern, structure came naturally to her mind, and if she were to speak on every idle hypothesis they would lack the time to act on them. No sense, at this scale, in explicating harmful truths, so long as someone with influence kept them in mind. The twisted resemblance of the Lady Protector spell's to certain of the Maiden's Graces, the likely true nature of the Foremost, the reality of Letrizia's family strife, the underlying form of Hunger's Tyrant Curse... for all the clues she'd pieced together, the truth only mattered where such knowledge would change the actions taken in reality.
Where one's actions would not change, hurtful truths were merely hurtful.
Gisena Allria was the Nullity Sorceress. Did it matter the reason behind the Maiden's decree, if the decree was absolute regardless?
Like her, Hunger's first taste of magic had resulted in the death of his dreams, though on a scale far vaster and crueler. Would he repudiate that quest, knowing what he did now? Or would he continue doggedly ahead, doing his uttermost even when the path was preordained?
As with many things, she already knew the answer. It was not in him to do anything less, no matter how much it hurt.
She fingered the Ring of Truth, which glowered at her earlier implication of its irrelevance. That it could monitor her thoughts, she found amusing, and would have used it as a note-taking function had she lacked perfect recall. For Truth was only knowledge, and knowledge required effort, timing and circumstance to convert into power, which was why she favored its facet of Artifice instead. Here and now, it could not avenge itself against her.
But the Lady Protector could. Hunger was starting to struggle, increasingly exotic attacks striking from every angle, his sheer overwhelming power the only impetus still driving him forward into the heart of the wizardess' might. They'd agreed to reserve her Ultimate Nullity for the moment of greatest leverage, but Gisena was strongly tempted to unleash it now, to clear his path and see Augustine undone, if only in the aftermath.
She bridled such emotions. What they needed now was not her heart but her mind. Not the swiftest path to victory, but the most certain. There could be no mistakes against an enemy this capable.
Hunger growled, a spine-raising rumble of exertion as he pressed forth, blade lined with Praxis blue as he struck down Augustine's phantasmal servants. One by one the monsters fell, revealing behind them the innermost chamber, where the Lady Protector had prepared her final stand. Power coiled in sinuous drifts about the sanctum, magic like an onrushing river, all chained and channeled by runes of screaming iron. Here also was Verschlengorge, restrained by edicts of Foremost magic. Countless layers of protection and augmentation shrouded the Lady Protector like a mantle, enhancing all elements of her protoplasm-flesh to the very limits of her magic.
Swift as flashing sunlight Hunger closed the distance, the Praxis lending him speed like a messenger-god as he delivered the writ of Augustine's execution. But for this and more the Lady Protector was already prepared, space like an infinite treadmill expanding between them, and though Hunger's stroke still landed it was not a lethal blow. She was maimed horribly, but now came her retaliation, a blast of transcendental magic from runes freshly - and brutally - carved into her own flesh, raggedly infused with blood and marrow. Augustine marshaled such force as to reduce entire worlds to ash, a pantheon-slaying strike of truly foremost malice.
Hunger's cloak shivered, shining with the silver of evening, and dissipated the blow at the cost of its corpus.
Again Hunger channeled the Praxis, but now was interrupted by feedback as Augustine unveiled the set of runes around her: sigils of truncation in a circle of cold iron that severed the Astral itself from the material plane.
Hunger fell to one knee, Ring-hand clutching his head as his soul fought to retain connection to his body. If even so fundamental a verity could be contested, then an emergent phenomenon like Pressure stood no chance at manifestation. Within those bounds, Hunger was effectively stripped of his Rank, and the lion's share of his power thereby.
All around the chamber was a certain pattern of runes, seemingly inert, and with a sinking feeling Gisena apprehended their meaning and ultimate purpose.
She'd known, of course, that Augustine was capable of scrying on her, though not on Hunger himself. But she had not expected Augustine's magic to be capable of crafting so perfect a counter to the Nullity. The emanation of findross that produced the Nullity could not even penetrate that barrier to affect the runes within.
Already Augustine was unleashing further contingencies, runes becoming blades of rime-crusted matter cutting methodically through Hunger's remaining shield of Ruin.
He would still win this, Gisena knew. Somehow he would cut through and lay low the monster, no matter the price he had to pay.
But he should not have to pay it, not had she discerned the truth sooner and called for a temporary retreat. They had all of them grown overconfident, sheltering under the central pillar of Hunger's Rank. A single point of reliance, no matter how sturdily fortified, was vulnerable to the Apocryphal Curse.
Furiously Gisena's mind raced down futile pathways. She was the Nullity Sorceress. It was her duty to counter enemy mages. What would be left of Hunger if he burned his selfhood to strike true, shattering the Blade again? Was this his fate, a cycle of endless repetition, every Tyrant felled at the cost of his identity? She would not accept that.
This, too, she would nullify. She would find a way.
Augustine's magic somehow contained the perfect answer to her Nullity. Augustine's magic resembled a twisted version of the Maiden's Graces. Augustine's powers were derived from the Foremost.
Hypothesis: Her powers and Augustine's own were degenerated forms of the same magic.
If so, then Gisena had now witnessed two examples of long-decayed Foremost Sorcery. The runes of Augustine, and the Graces of her sister Sorceresses.
One data point was worthless. Two, was correlation.
From their commonalities she could derive the principles underlying.
Hypothesis: Augustine's runic language produced twisted results because it relied on material reagents, evident in the agonized immolation of her material runes. The proper channeling medium, was the findross of the Maidengrace.
The language was the sculptor, and findross the marble. Without a proper sculptor, the Graces of her sister-Sorceresses had been limited to finite forms. Without the proper medium, Augustine's spells lacked for power, demanding toil and bloody sacrifice.
Gisena Allria was the Nullity Sorceress. The findross she produced could only do one thing. Yet, there was no limit to the forms it could take in the pursuit of that purpose.
Lances of Nullity, tides and bolts, shields and waves, blasts and seas...
Runes.
No time for certainty. Barely time to act. The Jewel of Artifice flared on her finger as Gisena Allria scribed with her Graces a rune, whose meaning was Singularity, and whose purpose was ascension.
There was light.
In that moment, Gisena at last understood the Maiden's reasoning. Why was she the Sorceress whose only Grace was Nullity?
Simply because, a genius needs nothing else.
---
Gisena has acquired the Advancement, Renaissance Woman. Augustine, the Lady Protector, has been slain beyond the possibility of recovery; all her contingencies came to naught in the face of the True Nullity.
[X] Renaissance Woman
Not merely a genius of one generation, nor of only one era; here is a greatness of mind and spirit that arises perhaps only once in the lifetime of a species. All-conquering talent that bestrides all fields and masters them beyond compare: only this genuine polymath can be said to embody the complete essence - the true quintessence - of humanity in the Maiden's image. Only so exalted a paragon can glimpse the mortal facings of Heaven's Lathe and depart with mind unshattered.
A singularity of findross births a Sorceress. A meta-singularity of findross, births a Maiden.
*Gisena immediately acquires the Maiden-level Graces: True Perfecting Blade, True Nullity, and True Quintessence.
*Gisena, through observation of the mortal-perceptible components of Hunger's Progression, may replicate the effects of the Lesser Remittance, Retinue, for up to one cardinality of infinite escalation.
*True Perfecting Blade: Massively improves Gisena's STR, AGI, CON, WITS and APP. Her physical parameters are still below Hunger's, however her Wits and Appearance are notably superior to Hunger's own. Parameters will continue to increase over time.
*True Nullity: Gisena applies the effects of Grand Nullification upon all of Hunger's Curses; her nullity strikes with absolute force. This may improve over time.
*True Quintessence: Gisena is treated as if possessing the Total Eclipse Advancement. With time and research she can develop Graces encompassing virtually any archetypically 'magic' effect.
*Her outrageously superhuman Appearance, Charisma and Wits can be classified as a high-grade memetic hazard.
Vote update planned for tomorrow! As noted, Hunger would not have lost even if Gisena had not attained the True Nullity, though the price may have been catastrophic depending on re-rolls. Abetted by the Apocryphal Curse, Augustine was a true threat, and Absorbing the Tower would, as expected, have given her good odds of outright victory. I'm curious what you think of Gisena's ascension, and whether this changes Hunger's plans going forward!
---
If you enjoyed the chapter, please consider subscribing on Patreon! Subscribers receive lots of patron-exclusive content, including early updates, timed exclusives, Discord roles, and bonus chapters. A huge thanks to existing subscribers, the amount of support has been breathtaking! Even more content is coming to Patrons soon!
If you'd like to discuss the quest in real-time or just chat with the questers, you're welcome to join us on the AST Discord! We encourage substantive posts to be made in the thread, and shitposting within Discord.
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