The Consumption of Rings.
Letrizia was, to say the least, displeased Hunger had consumed Verschlengorge. Oh, she understood the necessity. The enemy assailing them was a dire threat even with the improvement to Hunger's power in battle. Still, without the Armament in question, she would need Novakhron and a significant portion of the Nilfel-based ritual boosting Hunger's Rank via the Shogun's powers redirected to her to have any hope of contributing to this battle. Aerie shared in her lack of importance. Aobaru could actually contest the interloper in a fight, and Gisena had some inherent resistance to her progenitress' beauty as a Sorceress herself, to say nothing of Hunger himself, but the remaining members of the group could not achieve anything meaningful in that regard. Certainly, Closing the Fist with Adorie as one of the components would allow her to have a more direct hand in this fight, but she herself could do little.
However, that was not to say they could do nothing at all. While they could not aid in the fight, and the nature of Closing the Fist made it difficult for them to aid in any way without taking part, that did not mean they could not further strengthen Hunger. As the Azure had been sacrificed in favor of empowering the Crimson and bolstering the Imprionser's extrusion into reality, Archmage as Hunger had decided to call it, so too could the remaining Rings in this reality be absorbed. With how much more powerful Gisena and Hunger had grown, and with Archmage already active, they had needed little in the way of preparation, merely to move a given Ring within the grasp of Hunger's influence.
Aerie's ability to travel stealthily and Letrizia's own ability to direct their path with Sharpbright's manipulation of Rank, and their combined ability to literally cut a path to their goal, it was only a matter of time before they found the Rings. One by one, they fell into the hands of teenagers. A few years ago, they would have offered immense power, answers to most every problem they could have pointed to, given sufficient time and training. Letrizia could have aided her family legacy with the enhancement even the least compatible Ring might have provided from the very beginning, and Aerie found her business skills and assassin work improved by any Ring at all.
Now? They were little more than trinkets, as they lacked the time to train with them to the point of any relevance. No, they would burn on the pyre of empowering a Cursebearer to fight the Apocryphal Curse. Certainly a grand purpose, but the Rings did not want to die. Letrizia felt the slightest twinge of bitterness at that. Verschlengorge had been as eager as she'd ever seen him to fulfill his true purpose, but even the Azure Ring had resisted with what little it could muster, and they'd had it for over a month. Verschlengorge had been with her for years, but he'd been perfectly willing to toss it all away just to make Hunger stronger. She could always pilot Novakhron... but it wouldn't be the same. Still, most of her negativity was reserved for the supposed paragon of purity and light that had come at the behest of the Apocryphal Curse. How else could a mere Armament Pilot have gained so much power?
Some of the Rings had guardians or bearers, but they would have been no match for either member of the pair alone, nevermind in cooperation. One odd case had a particular black Ring locked in a sanctum. It's prison seemed to recognize the influence of a Cursebearer behind them, and let them through without issue. The temptation the concentrated Evil of the Ring represented fell on deaf ears. Aerie had no illusions that the Ring's affinity for Darkness would allow her to achieve any meaningful power over the night where Hunger was present. Letrizia simply did not care, and she was ill-suited to the Ring besides.
They had plenty of cover. Their foe considered the pair beneath her notice. Ironically, the supposed proponent of the common people's freedom had dismissed them as unimportant. Certainly, they were as nobility to Hunger's king, but that was akin to comparing a single nail to a steel girder 10 meters long and saying they were both construction equipment. Their importance, even Aobaru's, was at Hunger's sufferance, just like everyone else. With the Realms of Evening and Daylight and their bearers preoccupied contesting each other's control, the latter had little time to consider anyone not involved in the fight somehow.
That would give them the edge they needed.
All 6 Rings were brought to an area under the Realm of Evening's full control. Not Nilfel. That would be too obvious, and bore the risk that the consumption of the Rings would be noticed as the ritual was scrutinized by the supreme Sorceress. Rather, the Moon Temple was selected. It had born the Azure's power for millennia, and while the Azure itself was gone, the Crimson now bore it's power, and that allowed it to key off of the same connection to reinforce it's dominion. They had entered Hunger's domain just in time for the rest of their universe to collapse from the strain of the fight, so they hurried, expending their reserves, as there would be no second chance at this. Gisena had provided a machine to expedite the process without her direct oversight. It still required the Archmage be in control of the area to use the sympathetic connection it had to the Crimson Ring, but all they needed to do was emplace each of the 6 Rings Hunger and Gisena had found, the former using the Ring in his possession as a dowsing rod of sorts, the latter aiding, both directly in being much more skilled in discovering mystical phenomena via other phenomena and indirectly in the use of divinatory machines and spells.
It was simple enough. So simple, in fact, that they had expected some last-minute interference from one quarter or another. Perhaps even the 6 Rings briefly putting aside their differences in favor of survival, but Gisena knew what a Ring's disapproval was like, and had accounted for it, though that was not to say the Apocryphal Curse or the threat it had pushed forward could not possibly have done anything. However, all that happened was an anticlimactic placing of the 6 Rings into the 6 ring-shaped slots around a symbolic representation of the Crimson and Azure overlaid, a purple subtly off from the Violet Ring, and not just because it was tinged slightly more red. No, this was a purple at the same time greater and less pure than Majesty's own. Still, purity didn't seem to be doing them much good right now.
First to have been recovered was the Viridian Ring. It bore Lore, Fate, Nature, and Instinct as it's dominion. Second was the Gilded Ring, which represented Grace, Beauty, Purity, and Light. The third Ring, the Black Ring, had made it's foulness known through Horror, Corruption, Black Magic, and Darkness. The fourth, the White Ring, contributed Severity, Will, Heartlessness, and Discipline to the concoction that was to be fed to the Crimson Ring. The Violet Ring was the fifth of the assembled sacrifices. The Domains that would be reforged to grant more capability to the ultimate victor of the final Ring War were Majesty, Charisma, Might, and Rulership. Finally, the last of those that were about to be burned on the pyre for Hunger's Advancement was the Silver Ring of Gnosis. With it's Domains of Knowledge, Spirit, Mystery, and Wisdom to be translated into new capabilities for Archmage.
Each Ring glowed, but they were in turn overshadowed by the merged Crimson and Azure, drawing in their energy, their substance, their very essence. I happened suddenly from their perspective, even when they were directly observing the relevant act of sorcery leading to it. Abruptly, the extrusion of the Realm of Evening became far greater in conceptual breadth. They would learn later on that a grand total of 42 new Domains had been added. Even without the Ring's own power tripling, there was the expansion of the Crimson Ring's conceptual valence to consider, and the power granted not merely from subsuming it's fellows, though that was certainly substantial, but from truly achieving victory in the Ring War. Certainly, it had been a foregone conclusion with all Hunger had invested in it before this point, but now it was official, and being official mattered a great deal to the bearer of Law.
From Lore, he had received History, Narrative, Fate, Action, Instinct, Might and Heroism. From Grace he had gained Skill, Purity, Beauty, Creation, Good, Freedom, and Light. From Horror,
Emotion, Transmission, Corruption, Destruction, Evil, Subjugation, and Darkness. He had taken Will, Determination, Heartlessness, Confidence, Justice, Patience, and Derision from Severity. Majesty provided Rulership, Compassion, Power, Communication, Exaltation, Perfection, and Adoration. Lastly, he was granted Knowledge, Understanding, Truth, Intellect, Wisdom, Study, and Calm by Gnosis. A massive expansion of Archmage's remit. To say it dwarfed it's new Domain of Battle in terms of versatility was a gross understatement.
It would be wrong to say a wave of energy or a noticeable gradient of change had passed from the ritual site within the Temple, or from Hunger himself. One moment, a mere 12 exchanges remained before Hunger's loss was all but foregone, and the next, the Sorceress who both was and was not Cathelynn found herself facing a far more dire obstacle. Not only was the power and reach of the Realm of Evening massively amplified by Hunger's new command over Transmission, Subjugation, and Darkness, but his command over Narrative, Light, and Exaltation threatened the hierarchy of the two Realms. While that was recoverable, though it would have made the risk of her trump card becoming necessary much greater since she could no longer count on a victory in reality manipulation, every means of combat left to her was similarly under conceptual assault. Beauty, Emotion, Compassion, Communication, Adoration, and Understanding weakened the appeal of her own Beauty, while, bitterly ironic as it was, Freedom, Will, Determination, Heartlessness, Confidence, Derision, and Calm strengthened the resistance of those opposed to her in regard to it. Even combat was far more dangerous, as even ignoring how dangerous Destruction made his attacks with it's synergistic effect when used with Ruin and how much his combat instincts had been improved by their namesake Domain, he could directly assault her Purity with Corruption while weakening it with Perfection and Purity alike, putting her at risk of her affinity for her powers weakening without far, far greater investment than she would be comfortable with even if that were her only problem, and every moment his Understanding of her improved as his Study of their interactions and her capabilities continued. A few Domains were bolstering everything he did, like Action and Skill, and because of his nature, Will was of the same immense importance to him as her own Purity was to her, and his greater Intellect and Wisdom meant she could largely discard her prior understanding of his mind alongside her prior model of his combat tactics. She couldn't even be certain that casting herself as the Hero to Hunger's Tyrant would be enough, not when he possessed conceptual dominion over Heroism and the Narrative she sought to take advantage of.
It would seem she needed her trump card after all.
AN: So, a little bit of headcanon on Letrizia's reaction to Versch getting eaten for power, and to Versch's own happiness with it. She might have excised her unhappiness over her powerlessness, but she didn't excise her ability to feel connections to people. Hence eating Versch hitting us with -Letrizia at all.
Man, can you imagine how many new attack vectors that many Domains(58, counting the original 15 and Battle) would give Hunger? I'm sure I only thought of a tiny fraction of what he could. Not to mention how they'd combine with his original set, and how they'd boost his Rulership. Rulership, for one. Not to mention the boosts Corruption, Good, Evil, Freedom, Subjugation, Justice, Intellect, Truth, and Wisdom will provide for him, especially in Law. Do I even need to explain why having Fate and Action working with Law would make his grasp go from iron to adamantium? Also, Knowledge, Understanding, and Study are definitely major boosters for Progression. Maybe enough to be worth an extra +Progression right off the bat. Perhaps not apiece without choosing them as Domains for Linear Halo, but still. Speaking of which, he'd probably need to upgrade that to at least 6 Domains per year. Study would probably be the best vehicle for that, though I doubt Intellect and Wisdom would hurt.
Then there's Creation and Destruction, and the massive amount of utility they'd provide. Creation+Artifice sounds like incredible synergy to me! Though Time and Destruction sound like they'd be great for Ruin, if the Inheritance blurb is any indicator. Let's not forget Will and Mind, Light and Energy presumably being highly synergistic(or maybe that's
sunergistic, eh?), or Death and Destruction. As for what would work best with Space, given I already went over Law's beneficial Domain interactions, well, Communication and Transmission, being the most dependent on distance, would probably be best-suited to augment it. You know, barring the Domains that just improve everything. Action, Skill, Power, Perfection, Knowledge, Understanding, Truth, Intellect, and Wisdom.
You guys have ideas? I think this could be a fun exercise.
2260 words.
