Can enough magic save the world?Hopefully(WOD/Celestial Grimoire)
- Thread starter Acolyte
- Start date
This is big because the dude killed a beast that could only be killed at its era but can't even be killed at modern day
Chapter 9
The new motes appeared in my soul with a deceptive quiet. Quite meager by the measure of Gaia's gift, whatever that is, but it didn't diminish how useful they are.
First was the ability to share strength with those I consider to be comrades in arms, sharing with them my immense strength and unending vitality. Making it so that every garou will be stronger than a dragon as long as I share my strength and I have a lot of strength to share. The best part is that it is an ability that can be taught, an intermingling of essence between packs that is already known to the garou to a certain extent.
I know of spirits that let werewolves share their strength or speed or toughness between their pack. But this is wider than that. It is an ability that can encompass entire septs or even kingdoms if need be, while it does diminish with distance that is from hundreds of kilometers.
With this janissary training all the garou in New York could pool their attributes on a sept level and assign it to any pack that is currently on a mission. This is a gamechanger on the field and it would help calm the tension between tribes as you can feel their strength flow through you to smite Gaia's foes, maybe even make the warborn be more accepted.
Not that is ever going to be a problem anymore because I am not going to let any other warborn suffer what Alice has gone through. Fuck the litany, i will be the patron and guardian of all warborn and woe betide any garou that tries to punish them for a crime of which they are a victim.
The second gift is a double edged sword but one of the edges is so much sharper than the other. I now have a highly futuristic genetics laboratory inside of my ship. The wrinkle comes in the form of thousands of DNA samples of what the gift is telling me are called honkai beasts. A class of silicone based lifeforms that are made up of the fundamental power of creation. Specifically thousands of Emperor Class beasts, each individually capable of devastating cities or fighting armies unscathed. Beings that are by most margins godlike in their violence. If I learn genetics I can use this lab to slice their DNA with humans and make an army of world killers if I want to.
That is an absurd thing to give me, I have fully trusted the things that Gaia has gifted me with so far. I have had faith that it is all part of the plan of the great all-mother. But this makes me doubt it, because this is so excessively unnecessary and overboard compared to the problem that the world faces. An army or even a species of beings where even children could uproot mountains will end with the planet cracked in twain sooner rather than later.
This isn't the kind of damage that humans do, which is ultimately just cosmetic on a long enough time scale. Gaia's Avatar herself declared that when she judged the Great Trial of Humanity during the apocalypse. Why would she want me to give them the power to truly murder her if they wish it. It doesn't make any sense.
But the Great Mother doesn't make mistakes, she can't make mistakes. So surely this is something that is necessary. Yes that makes sense, she sees farther than I can, she knows that something is coming that requires me to use these things. Very well Red Fanged one, I will follow your will and use it. But I won't give this to humans, they are not ready for this. I should know, I am not ready for the power I have been given. But I won't pass on the burden of power to the other humans.
But my reverie is disturbed as a strange party approaches my resting form.
After my victory I was too injured and tired to walk or move. So I just crashed down on the bloody ground and caused a minor earthquake. I have torn out the living Caern heart of the Thunderwyrm and was wondering what I should do while I was slowly healing myself.
My spear when it first manifested from my soul had absorbed a previous artifact that I had gotten. A ring of vitality that made me healthier and increased my vital essence. That property hasn't gone anywhere and my spear still brims with vitality. So I have been slowly allowing my wounds with the mental from spear.
There was no risk of rejection as each bit of the metal is suffused with my life force. Then it is a simple matter of transmuting the metallic patch job back into my flesh and I am good as new. I truly love the affinity I hold with the forge and the mastery of it granted by motes.
But my meditation slash recovery is interrupted as a party of about a few dozen people approaches me.
"There are strangers hiding in the Buildings, Master. Machine Men think their elf craft hides them from you but thori can smell them in the towers; can I fetch them Master??" My dog says as he stays seated but raises his head in alertness in the manner of a dog that hears the mailman coming to deliver a post.
"Thanks buddy, I am sure they are just preparing in case of an ambush. Let's not scare them if we can. Is that alright with you buddy??" I ask as I ruffle his neck to calm him down. I don't want thori to be an aggressive dog despite his hel hound ancestry, it made the dogs miserable if they were always high trung to a fight. Besides, I can take care of myself.
He calms down at my reassurances and settles back down with his head on his paws.
It's almost comical seeing people that are quite literally the size of an ant walk up to me all dignified. A fun thing about giant physiology is that they don't have visual acuity as they look at small things. So I can see the woman that leads the group and everyone in the party quite clearly. I am glad I don't need a magnifying glass to recognise people. They also don't need to get close to hear someone talking to them. I can still quite comfortably hear her muttering something to her colleagues, some sort of code, as if I am standing next to her and not towering over the skyscraper even while seated. The One World Trade Center is the only building that I don't overshadow from my seat. It is also built on a festering scar of wyrm taint so deep it might as well be in the labyrinth but that's a problem for later.
"Hello. Sorry for the mess. I would clean up but this is a public space and I won't scab a union job." I greet the approaching party.
I see the word ripple through the group and I feel the collective working around the group shift to take my word into account.
A side effect of my affinity for the forge and the artificer's genius is that my magic is very aligned to machines and artifacts on a basic level. So I can sense the halo of signals that are emanating and entangling between the members of this group. It is beautiful in its complexity, an enmeshed matrix of nodes that can bend probability and use predictive software to synthesize just the right information regarding what to say. It honestly gives me ideas.
"Uhh, hello to you too. I am Jameila Belltower and we are part of an organization responsible for ensuring public safety and security. We detected some seismic and energetic emission and we were sent here to investigate what is going on. Evidently-" She points to the cratered battlefield and the slowly burning mound of Black Spiral Dancer " there was some sort of scuffle here. So we came here to offer medical help but you appear to be doing well on your own."
"Let's not play this game of euphemism Namebreaker. I know you are the Men in Black, I understand why you would be cautious about what happened here today. I appreciate that you didn't open up with the missile strikes but reached out to talk. So if you want an answer, and you always do, we can exchange question for question." I say and I feel the words fit, there is a manner to how these things go and as a spirit it is my duty to at least abide by the old forms. It also allows me to deflect my ignorance, I don't know much about the Men in Black. Besides the horror stories at least.
Her face drops the guileless sallow faced look of a woman above her pay grade and the eyes of the season veteran that has bandied words with gods before shines through. Surprisingly there isn't the innate disgust or animosity I would expect from one of Weaver's own get but there is a steel in those eyes and I feel more in danger talking to her than I did fighting the dragon.
"Of course, clear communications are efficient and we won't waste your time. But there are things that I am bound by duty and choice that I cannot disclose if you ask me." She says with the finality of a guillotine.
"Of course, you may refuse to answer any question. That is your prerogative, after all isn't that your philosophy? The mastery of the world entire and how it should be ordered." I say.
"Is that your first question??" She says with a smug smirk at getting in our verbal spar. I immediately liked her more, it proved that she is human underneath the weaves of fate and magic and that is always something to be admired. Being human in this world is the hardest thing possible.
"Not as such, although I usually don't mind long talks about philosophy and our relationship with Gaia but now doesn't seem appropriate. Standing in the ruins of a battlefield. You shall have the first question, let me just get comfortable." I say and wave my hand and the spell obeys my will. A veritable skyscraper of a couch grows out of the ground and tiny mirrors of the seat appear for each of the cabal of technomages. It's merely a coincidence that the chair covered my back from most of their snipers and artillerists.
Jameila doesn't seem perturbed by my show of power but some of her teams do give me an uneasy look before they all take their seats.
"These are comfortable seats. Now the first question is mine you said. That implies I am a guest and that you play the part of the host, so my first question is if this place is your new home." She ask pleasantly and without a hurry in her words.
I consider her question for a second before answering. Wouldn't want to make a fool of myself in front of the James Bond lady.
"Well not the park itself no, its public property and a last vestige of nature in this concrete jungle beside. No, I make no claim here besides what everyone else has. I offer the seats because I carry my home wherever I travel and my hospitality is more politeness than anything else. But I will answer the real question underneath that. I am no lost fragment of the past emerging from a slumber of eons. No, I am something new, a giant of change. I am of Gaia as we all are but I am specifically trying out for her courts, this is my internship as it were. I am to cleanse all problems from New York and then find a home there. As you can see I made some progress to those goals.
"Yes, this is an impressive debut, I fear what other interns will have to do to measure up. This must be hundreds of Spiral dancers. I didn't know there were that many in the city." She jokes.
"There weren't that many in the city. I felt the Wyrmholes that brought a lot of them here, this is probably the vast majority of the BSDs on the eastern seaboard. Should severely cripple some of the more brutish wyrm operations in the country." I reply, implicitly showing my forthrightness and hinting at a potential future like a good spirit.
I catch the messages of their network glow abuzz at my words. I catch fragments of lightning quick messages like "Entropic Manifestation Clustering", "Resonance PurgationTask Force" and "Financial Audit Department".
"That's interesting. What's your first question??" Jameila asks.
"Well I am not one for prying but I must ask. Why risk your life doing this. For all you knew I could have been a Nexus Crawler with a machine gun or something even worse. So why venture into the unknown again and again until eventually it ends with your untimely death. What drives a person to do that, what great and glorious purpose burns in your soul." I ask her. I actually hadn't been sure what to ask this question. If it were up to me I would have just asked for some actionable intel to really devastated pentex further. But my sense of Ma'at was tingling. This woman is important in the grand scheme of things. In a way that I don't quite grasp yet but this is my chance to shift the world toward a better one. This is a fulcrum in the timeline, a place where true change is possible. If I pay attention I can feel a billion attempts by beings of untold power trying to break my lock on the timeline, futility of course. But that only emboldens me, things aren't significant if no one tries to time travel to stop you.
She looks a bit surprised at my words, a furrowed brow and a look of concentration on her face. Her thoughts flicker behind her eyes like quicksilver shadows, too fast for me to notice but there all the same. After a few seconds she answers.
"I could lie and say it is about achieving the dreams of Control and eliminating all reality deviance from the world but we both know that would be a lie. If my job has taught me anything, it is that causes are great justification for doing what you want to do but a cause is not going to drive you. Not really at least, peoples internal narratives are complex and justification for actions are important but ultimately people are driven by their fundamental self-image, how they think they should act. I suppose it is a sense of duty in my case, not towards any cause but rather towards a sense that I have to go out and do what is best with the information I have. It is a very local perspective I admit, a sort of shortsighted for a officer of the technocracy like me. But as my father used to say, you can only do what you can do. So that is the reason. Why risk my life to pursue such a lofty goal; simple, I am just doing my best to live my life and leave the world a bit better than what I found because I think I should do that. It is a bit tautological but what can you do? I hope that answers your Question." She says.
I consider her answer and it honestly stumps me for a few seconds. It's such an incongruent answer for the supposed masterminds of the Men in Black.
"My question to you is 'what's in the future'. Let's say you get that internship you want and you have some time to do things now. What will you do?" She asks.
"It's a fair question but my answer is very prosaic. I will probably just try to improve the world, fix broken social systems and provide the methodologies and resources needed to create a more sustainable society. It's not terribly glamorous but it's like what you said, the little things add up and every day living to your best leads to a great life. If you want something salacious and something your bosses would like, expect a total decimation of all bane spirits available to pentex. The Gaian Courts are at war with them and I intend to be proactive and finish it. I guess that's where we differ, I believe in a cause. Maybe you don't respect that answer but the fact is that the day to day is important, you have to do it or you won't survive, but you need a cause to truly live. Something bigger than you that gives you hope and a future to strive for. The steps along the path can be most of your focus but if you never even think about the way your steps lead then you might walk off a cliff or worse walk in a circle." I replied.
It is a bad answer, I know that even as I say it. It is partially in response to her own answer rather than my unfiltered thoughts but it's still the truth, just not all of it. I guess that's what Ma'at wants me to do here, engage in an oblique dialectic with a superspy and revive her faith in higher ideals that have been covered by scars of trauma and layers of cynicism.
"Now since it's my turn, let me ask you this. What is the purpose of the organization you are part of? What is the end goal of the so-called timetable? Do you know what you are working towards??" I question her. Ma'at was really really pushing here. Giving me the words to do the maximum impact on her. She must be important.
I notice the look of apprehension and suspicion that over takes the entire squadron of analysts and diplomats with Jameila. That won't do, I mutter a quick word of power.
"You can answer freely. I have dampened the sound and signals from you. RIght now they are just seeing you politely rebuff my question. I made sure they will compliment your dissembling skills. But speak freely because I am sure you have noticed that we are at a precipice of change. What you say here will decide the future." I say.
I see in her eyes that she understands. The winds of fate are blowing all around us, a veritable cyclone with us standing in the eye. No matter how much of their power they might have tied into their implements, each of the name breakers is capable of twisting reality and more importantly they sense it.
"What's happening?? What will you do if I answer the question wrong?" She says with iron in her voice, ready to use everything she has to kill me if I threaten something she considered important.
Ah so this is why she is important. Beneath that crud of PTSD and the apathy of the jaded, there is a spine of adamant. A will that will stand against a city spanning giant with nothing but a bunch of snipers and gaggle of interns.
"Oh it's nothing like that. I am not the instigator here Jameila, I am just here to ask the questions. I am just a billboard you see on the side of a superhighway. You are the fulcrum on which the world is shifting Jamelia. Now it's the time to answer." I will continue.
"Its Control. It's always been Control. It was control when they stripped me of my mind, it was control when they enabled the strip mining of the planet and the human spirit to fuel their industry. Its control when they prune an idea just because it will disrupt the timetable." She answers and her voice is barely a whisper as she says it to herself more for herself than me.
"But what is there to be done then? If, hypothetically, what can one woman do against an institution that all but controls the world from the shadows. Is it even needed, so what if they want to control the world? Isn't the safety and stability worth it? They make the metaphoric trains run on time and not get eaten by an ancient vampire god. Answer me?" She asks and there is distraught in her posture but her voice doesn't waver as she asks me.
"We both know the answers to that, don't we? There are ideals that we both abide by. The inherent worth of a person and their ability to decide their own fate. Not be threatened by those hidden in the shadows, whether they be ancient vampire gods or victorian cabal. How old is your group?? A few hundred years old. Humanity has survived without them for many millennia, they will survive without them in the future. They can shape gods from their faith or create spirit by just interacting with a concept. I mean the sheer arrogance in infantilizing an entire species capable of sapient thought, it is a staggering level of conceited ego. But ultimately no one is suggesting you become a traitor to your cause and comrades. Nothing in existence is pure evil, even the wyrm once had a purpose, and there is something out there that is worth saving in there. So my question to you is; can you find that good and make sure it doesn't die as the things get tough, because the winds of fate are blowing Jameila and they herald change whether good or bad." I answer.
"Yes. Because it's the only thing I can do. For a better tomorrow." She says.
"I will see you again then. A gift before I leave." I cryptically remark and draw forth the object I have been shaping during this entire conversation.
My ability to sense the Ma'at was in overdrive this entire conversation but my sense of inflicting change via violent means had been urging me on as well, it sang to me of the plight of the unarmed rebel and the certainty of an uphill battle. So it suggested me an idea of how to arm her for her glorious purpose.
It looks like a primitive art piece, a bundle of black feathers encased in bronze bands and a strung with a cord made out of dragon heart string. It is a simple thing but powerful in its intended purpose. The feathers that can stabilize reality banded together with bronze of freedom. It would be a potent ward, grounding and defusing the backlash that all name breakers suffer for their temerity. I just hope that she doesn't misuse it.
After giving the gift I disappear from front of her, transforming into a gale as my power gathers a storm overhead to shield my ship.
My last sight is Jameila holding the pendant and looking at those around her with a new found conviction.
Then I feel a pair of motes attach to my soul.
Precipitated a Reformation Schism in the Technocracy(+400)
Mad a tool to annul paradox for all but the most extreme effects(+200)
Rolling
FUCK
A/N:- I usually don't do authors notes because its a bit obtrusive. But the rolls this chapter completely derailed the entire middle plot I was envisioning. No I don't want to reroll them, I know I have veto power but I prefer the randomness even if it is bit inconvenient. I don't plan much so its doable.
Some executive descision regarding the spark because i don't want to do a crossover yet. So I am ruling that this does allow ajax to leave the world of darkness via adjacent properties like exalted and scion in a media daisy chain but he doesn't know how to do it inherently. He can use it immediately teleport between realms of the umbra and the different dimensions in the world of darkness but he needs to be taught anything else or learn it. Aside from the mtg magic which is fine. Goddamn thats a strong perk.
Also a huge shout out to panopticon quest by @MJ12 Commando on SV. It is the goat quest and made me get into mage which lead to some good friends. So this combat diplomat/ slash protagonist is named after the MC there as an homage. Seriously go read that, i have literally less than 1/10th the writing ability that person does.
First was the ability to share strength with those I consider to be comrades in arms, sharing with them my immense strength and unending vitality. Making it so that every garou will be stronger than a dragon as long as I share my strength and I have a lot of strength to share. The best part is that it is an ability that can be taught, an intermingling of essence between packs that is already known to the garou to a certain extent.
I know of spirits that let werewolves share their strength or speed or toughness between their pack. But this is wider than that. It is an ability that can encompass entire septs or even kingdoms if need be, while it does diminish with distance that is from hundreds of kilometers.
With this janissary training all the garou in New York could pool their attributes on a sept level and assign it to any pack that is currently on a mission. This is a gamechanger on the field and it would help calm the tension between tribes as you can feel their strength flow through you to smite Gaia's foes, maybe even make the warborn be more accepted.
Not that is ever going to be a problem anymore because I am not going to let any other warborn suffer what Alice has gone through. Fuck the litany, i will be the patron and guardian of all warborn and woe betide any garou that tries to punish them for a crime of which they are a victim.
The second gift is a double edged sword but one of the edges is so much sharper than the other. I now have a highly futuristic genetics laboratory inside of my ship. The wrinkle comes in the form of thousands of DNA samples of what the gift is telling me are called honkai beasts. A class of silicone based lifeforms that are made up of the fundamental power of creation. Specifically thousands of Emperor Class beasts, each individually capable of devastating cities or fighting armies unscathed. Beings that are by most margins godlike in their violence. If I learn genetics I can use this lab to slice their DNA with humans and make an army of world killers if I want to.
That is an absurd thing to give me, I have fully trusted the things that Gaia has gifted me with so far. I have had faith that it is all part of the plan of the great all-mother. But this makes me doubt it, because this is so excessively unnecessary and overboard compared to the problem that the world faces. An army or even a species of beings where even children could uproot mountains will end with the planet cracked in twain sooner rather than later.
This isn't the kind of damage that humans do, which is ultimately just cosmetic on a long enough time scale. Gaia's Avatar herself declared that when she judged the Great Trial of Humanity during the apocalypse. Why would she want me to give them the power to truly murder her if they wish it. It doesn't make any sense.
But the Great Mother doesn't make mistakes, she can't make mistakes. So surely this is something that is necessary. Yes that makes sense, she sees farther than I can, she knows that something is coming that requires me to use these things. Very well Red Fanged one, I will follow your will and use it. But I won't give this to humans, they are not ready for this. I should know, I am not ready for the power I have been given. But I won't pass on the burden of power to the other humans.
But my reverie is disturbed as a strange party approaches my resting form.
After my victory I was too injured and tired to walk or move. So I just crashed down on the bloody ground and caused a minor earthquake. I have torn out the living Caern heart of the Thunderwyrm and was wondering what I should do while I was slowly healing myself.
My spear when it first manifested from my soul had absorbed a previous artifact that I had gotten. A ring of vitality that made me healthier and increased my vital essence. That property hasn't gone anywhere and my spear still brims with vitality. So I have been slowly allowing my wounds with the mental from spear.
There was no risk of rejection as each bit of the metal is suffused with my life force. Then it is a simple matter of transmuting the metallic patch job back into my flesh and I am good as new. I truly love the affinity I hold with the forge and the mastery of it granted by motes.
But my meditation slash recovery is interrupted as a party of about a few dozen people approaches me.
"There are strangers hiding in the Buildings, Master. Machine Men think their elf craft hides them from you but thori can smell them in the towers; can I fetch them Master??" My dog says as he stays seated but raises his head in alertness in the manner of a dog that hears the mailman coming to deliver a post.
"Thanks buddy, I am sure they are just preparing in case of an ambush. Let's not scare them if we can. Is that alright with you buddy??" I ask as I ruffle his neck to calm him down. I don't want thori to be an aggressive dog despite his hel hound ancestry, it made the dogs miserable if they were always high trung to a fight. Besides, I can take care of myself.
He calms down at my reassurances and settles back down with his head on his paws.
It's almost comical seeing people that are quite literally the size of an ant walk up to me all dignified. A fun thing about giant physiology is that they don't have visual acuity as they look at small things. So I can see the woman that leads the group and everyone in the party quite clearly. I am glad I don't need a magnifying glass to recognise people. They also don't need to get close to hear someone talking to them. I can still quite comfortably hear her muttering something to her colleagues, some sort of code, as if I am standing next to her and not towering over the skyscraper even while seated. The One World Trade Center is the only building that I don't overshadow from my seat. It is also built on a festering scar of wyrm taint so deep it might as well be in the labyrinth but that's a problem for later.
"Hello. Sorry for the mess. I would clean up but this is a public space and I won't scab a union job." I greet the approaching party.
I see the word ripple through the group and I feel the collective working around the group shift to take my word into account.
A side effect of my affinity for the forge and the artificer's genius is that my magic is very aligned to machines and artifacts on a basic level. So I can sense the halo of signals that are emanating and entangling between the members of this group. It is beautiful in its complexity, an enmeshed matrix of nodes that can bend probability and use predictive software to synthesize just the right information regarding what to say. It honestly gives me ideas.
"Uhh, hello to you too. I am Jameila Belltower and we are part of an organization responsible for ensuring public safety and security. We detected some seismic and energetic emission and we were sent here to investigate what is going on. Evidently-" She points to the cratered battlefield and the slowly burning mound of Black Spiral Dancer " there was some sort of scuffle here. So we came here to offer medical help but you appear to be doing well on your own."
"Let's not play this game of euphemism Namebreaker. I know you are the Men in Black, I understand why you would be cautious about what happened here today. I appreciate that you didn't open up with the missile strikes but reached out to talk. So if you want an answer, and you always do, we can exchange question for question." I say and I feel the words fit, there is a manner to how these things go and as a spirit it is my duty to at least abide by the old forms. It also allows me to deflect my ignorance, I don't know much about the Men in Black. Besides the horror stories at least.
Her face drops the guileless sallow faced look of a woman above her pay grade and the eyes of the season veteran that has bandied words with gods before shines through. Surprisingly there isn't the innate disgust or animosity I would expect from one of Weaver's own get but there is a steel in those eyes and I feel more in danger talking to her than I did fighting the dragon.
"Of course, clear communications are efficient and we won't waste your time. But there are things that I am bound by duty and choice that I cannot disclose if you ask me." She says with the finality of a guillotine.
"Of course, you may refuse to answer any question. That is your prerogative, after all isn't that your philosophy? The mastery of the world entire and how it should be ordered." I say.
"Is that your first question??" She says with a smug smirk at getting in our verbal spar. I immediately liked her more, it proved that she is human underneath the weaves of fate and magic and that is always something to be admired. Being human in this world is the hardest thing possible.
"Not as such, although I usually don't mind long talks about philosophy and our relationship with Gaia but now doesn't seem appropriate. Standing in the ruins of a battlefield. You shall have the first question, let me just get comfortable." I say and wave my hand and the spell obeys my will. A veritable skyscraper of a couch grows out of the ground and tiny mirrors of the seat appear for each of the cabal of technomages. It's merely a coincidence that the chair covered my back from most of their snipers and artillerists.
Jameila doesn't seem perturbed by my show of power but some of her teams do give me an uneasy look before they all take their seats.
"These are comfortable seats. Now the first question is mine you said. That implies I am a guest and that you play the part of the host, so my first question is if this place is your new home." She ask pleasantly and without a hurry in her words.
I consider her question for a second before answering. Wouldn't want to make a fool of myself in front of the James Bond lady.
"Well not the park itself no, its public property and a last vestige of nature in this concrete jungle beside. No, I make no claim here besides what everyone else has. I offer the seats because I carry my home wherever I travel and my hospitality is more politeness than anything else. But I will answer the real question underneath that. I am no lost fragment of the past emerging from a slumber of eons. No, I am something new, a giant of change. I am of Gaia as we all are but I am specifically trying out for her courts, this is my internship as it were. I am to cleanse all problems from New York and then find a home there. As you can see I made some progress to those goals.
"Yes, this is an impressive debut, I fear what other interns will have to do to measure up. This must be hundreds of Spiral dancers. I didn't know there were that many in the city." She jokes.
"There weren't that many in the city. I felt the Wyrmholes that brought a lot of them here, this is probably the vast majority of the BSDs on the eastern seaboard. Should severely cripple some of the more brutish wyrm operations in the country." I reply, implicitly showing my forthrightness and hinting at a potential future like a good spirit.
I catch the messages of their network glow abuzz at my words. I catch fragments of lightning quick messages like "Entropic Manifestation Clustering", "Resonance PurgationTask Force" and "Financial Audit Department".
"That's interesting. What's your first question??" Jameila asks.
"Well I am not one for prying but I must ask. Why risk your life doing this. For all you knew I could have been a Nexus Crawler with a machine gun or something even worse. So why venture into the unknown again and again until eventually it ends with your untimely death. What drives a person to do that, what great and glorious purpose burns in your soul." I ask her. I actually hadn't been sure what to ask this question. If it were up to me I would have just asked for some actionable intel to really devastated pentex further. But my sense of Ma'at was tingling. This woman is important in the grand scheme of things. In a way that I don't quite grasp yet but this is my chance to shift the world toward a better one. This is a fulcrum in the timeline, a place where true change is possible. If I pay attention I can feel a billion attempts by beings of untold power trying to break my lock on the timeline, futility of course. But that only emboldens me, things aren't significant if no one tries to time travel to stop you.
She looks a bit surprised at my words, a furrowed brow and a look of concentration on her face. Her thoughts flicker behind her eyes like quicksilver shadows, too fast for me to notice but there all the same. After a few seconds she answers.
"I could lie and say it is about achieving the dreams of Control and eliminating all reality deviance from the world but we both know that would be a lie. If my job has taught me anything, it is that causes are great justification for doing what you want to do but a cause is not going to drive you. Not really at least, peoples internal narratives are complex and justification for actions are important but ultimately people are driven by their fundamental self-image, how they think they should act. I suppose it is a sense of duty in my case, not towards any cause but rather towards a sense that I have to go out and do what is best with the information I have. It is a very local perspective I admit, a sort of shortsighted for a officer of the technocracy like me. But as my father used to say, you can only do what you can do. So that is the reason. Why risk my life to pursue such a lofty goal; simple, I am just doing my best to live my life and leave the world a bit better than what I found because I think I should do that. It is a bit tautological but what can you do? I hope that answers your Question." She says.
I consider her answer and it honestly stumps me for a few seconds. It's such an incongruent answer for the supposed masterminds of the Men in Black.
"My question to you is 'what's in the future'. Let's say you get that internship you want and you have some time to do things now. What will you do?" She asks.
"It's a fair question but my answer is very prosaic. I will probably just try to improve the world, fix broken social systems and provide the methodologies and resources needed to create a more sustainable society. It's not terribly glamorous but it's like what you said, the little things add up and every day living to your best leads to a great life. If you want something salacious and something your bosses would like, expect a total decimation of all bane spirits available to pentex. The Gaian Courts are at war with them and I intend to be proactive and finish it. I guess that's where we differ, I believe in a cause. Maybe you don't respect that answer but the fact is that the day to day is important, you have to do it or you won't survive, but you need a cause to truly live. Something bigger than you that gives you hope and a future to strive for. The steps along the path can be most of your focus but if you never even think about the way your steps lead then you might walk off a cliff or worse walk in a circle." I replied.
It is a bad answer, I know that even as I say it. It is partially in response to her own answer rather than my unfiltered thoughts but it's still the truth, just not all of it. I guess that's what Ma'at wants me to do here, engage in an oblique dialectic with a superspy and revive her faith in higher ideals that have been covered by scars of trauma and layers of cynicism.
"Now since it's my turn, let me ask you this. What is the purpose of the organization you are part of? What is the end goal of the so-called timetable? Do you know what you are working towards??" I question her. Ma'at was really really pushing here. Giving me the words to do the maximum impact on her. She must be important.
I notice the look of apprehension and suspicion that over takes the entire squadron of analysts and diplomats with Jameila. That won't do, I mutter a quick word of power.
"You can answer freely. I have dampened the sound and signals from you. RIght now they are just seeing you politely rebuff my question. I made sure they will compliment your dissembling skills. But speak freely because I am sure you have noticed that we are at a precipice of change. What you say here will decide the future." I say.
I see in her eyes that she understands. The winds of fate are blowing all around us, a veritable cyclone with us standing in the eye. No matter how much of their power they might have tied into their implements, each of the name breakers is capable of twisting reality and more importantly they sense it.
"What's happening?? What will you do if I answer the question wrong?" She says with iron in her voice, ready to use everything she has to kill me if I threaten something she considered important.
Ah so this is why she is important. Beneath that crud of PTSD and the apathy of the jaded, there is a spine of adamant. A will that will stand against a city spanning giant with nothing but a bunch of snipers and gaggle of interns.
"Oh it's nothing like that. I am not the instigator here Jameila, I am just here to ask the questions. I am just a billboard you see on the side of a superhighway. You are the fulcrum on which the world is shifting Jamelia. Now it's the time to answer." I will continue.
"Its Control. It's always been Control. It was control when they stripped me of my mind, it was control when they enabled the strip mining of the planet and the human spirit to fuel their industry. Its control when they prune an idea just because it will disrupt the timetable." She answers and her voice is barely a whisper as she says it to herself more for herself than me.
"But what is there to be done then? If, hypothetically, what can one woman do against an institution that all but controls the world from the shadows. Is it even needed, so what if they want to control the world? Isn't the safety and stability worth it? They make the metaphoric trains run on time and not get eaten by an ancient vampire god. Answer me?" She asks and there is distraught in her posture but her voice doesn't waver as she asks me.
"We both know the answers to that, don't we? There are ideals that we both abide by. The inherent worth of a person and their ability to decide their own fate. Not be threatened by those hidden in the shadows, whether they be ancient vampire gods or victorian cabal. How old is your group?? A few hundred years old. Humanity has survived without them for many millennia, they will survive without them in the future. They can shape gods from their faith or create spirit by just interacting with a concept. I mean the sheer arrogance in infantilizing an entire species capable of sapient thought, it is a staggering level of conceited ego. But ultimately no one is suggesting you become a traitor to your cause and comrades. Nothing in existence is pure evil, even the wyrm once had a purpose, and there is something out there that is worth saving in there. So my question to you is; can you find that good and make sure it doesn't die as the things get tough, because the winds of fate are blowing Jameila and they herald change whether good or bad." I answer.
"Yes. Because it's the only thing I can do. For a better tomorrow." She says.
"I will see you again then. A gift before I leave." I cryptically remark and draw forth the object I have been shaping during this entire conversation.
My ability to sense the Ma'at was in overdrive this entire conversation but my sense of inflicting change via violent means had been urging me on as well, it sang to me of the plight of the unarmed rebel and the certainty of an uphill battle. So it suggested me an idea of how to arm her for her glorious purpose.
It looks like a primitive art piece, a bundle of black feathers encased in bronze bands and a strung with a cord made out of dragon heart string. It is a simple thing but powerful in its intended purpose. The feathers that can stabilize reality banded together with bronze of freedom. It would be a potent ward, grounding and defusing the backlash that all name breakers suffer for their temerity. I just hope that she doesn't misuse it.
After giving the gift I disappear from front of her, transforming into a gale as my power gathers a storm overhead to shield my ship.
My last sight is Jameila holding the pendant and looking at those around her with a new found conviction.
Then I feel a pair of motes attach to my soul.
Precipitated a Reformation Schism in the Technocracy(+400)
Mad a tool to annul paradox for all but the most extreme effects(+200)
Rolling
Court
This is what it can be grown into. A full-sized Court. A truly vast array of Nevernever beings who are sworn to serve you in whatever manner you desire, though in exchange for certain rights and privileges of their own that you are bound to uphold, much like a feudal king over their nobles. These can be of a vast variety of natures and kinds, or an eclectic mix from many kinds. If you buy the Kingdom above, this becomes a full nation peer to the Fae superpowers, complete with highly powerful nobles among them, since you get a gigantic 7000 CP to spend on at least ten nobles of your court, who will be as Leanansidhe, Cat Sith, Eldest Gruff and others are among Winter and Summer.
This is what it can be grown into. A full-sized Court. A truly vast array of Nevernever beings who are sworn to serve you in whatever manner you desire, though in exchange for certain rights and privileges of their own that you are bound to uphold, much like a feudal king over their nobles. These can be of a vast variety of natures and kinds, or an eclectic mix from many kinds. If you buy the Kingdom above, this becomes a full nation peer to the Fae superpowers, complete with highly powerful nobles among them, since you get a gigantic 7000 CP to spend on at least ten nobles of your court, who will be as Leanansidhe, Cat Sith, Eldest Gruff and others are among Winter and Summer.
Planeswalker Spark
The post-Mending Planeswalker Spark, not the Jumper Spark. This is the Spark of the MtG universe, and your own Planeswalker Spark has ignited. Due to this your ability to understand and mold Mana becomes incredibly intuitive such that your potential far exceeds all mortal spellcasters. You know the basics of summoning creatures that you have a connection with, creating new creatures from mana, casting spells, and forming contracts with higher powers for boosts to your capabilities. As a new Planeswalker, your current capacity to use Mana starts at 5 motes of Mana before incurring Mana Burn. This will easily grow to 10 motes of Mana within a year and from there, given thorough magical research, you will be able to sustain an additional mote of Mana per year of study. Mana is generated from Lands, of which you can bond to one after half a week. Lastly, as a Planeswalker you can of course travel the multiverse. In a ritual requiring at least three motes of Mana and six hours of mental preparation, you can take with you anything on your person. This can be trained to have a lower cost and mental preparation time. In addition, you can instead Planeswalk instantly when following someone in the immediate wake of an interdimensional jump. When navigating between planes you can either go to a plane randomly or go to a plane you know or one you have seen by visualizing it in your mind. This ability is limited to the local multiverse until you ignite your Jumper Spark.
The post-Mending Planeswalker Spark, not the Jumper Spark. This is the Spark of the MtG universe, and your own Planeswalker Spark has ignited. Due to this your ability to understand and mold Mana becomes incredibly intuitive such that your potential far exceeds all mortal spellcasters. You know the basics of summoning creatures that you have a connection with, creating new creatures from mana, casting spells, and forming contracts with higher powers for boosts to your capabilities. As a new Planeswalker, your current capacity to use Mana starts at 5 motes of Mana before incurring Mana Burn. This will easily grow to 10 motes of Mana within a year and from there, given thorough magical research, you will be able to sustain an additional mote of Mana per year of study. Mana is generated from Lands, of which you can bond to one after half a week. Lastly, as a Planeswalker you can of course travel the multiverse. In a ritual requiring at least three motes of Mana and six hours of mental preparation, you can take with you anything on your person. This can be trained to have a lower cost and mental preparation time. In addition, you can instead Planeswalk instantly when following someone in the immediate wake of an interdimensional jump. When navigating between planes you can either go to a plane randomly or go to a plane you know or one you have seen by visualizing it in your mind. This ability is limited to the local multiverse until you ignite your Jumper Spark.
Structural Analysis
Fixing a broken Silhouette Knight is hard if you don't know what is the problem in the first place. This grants an eye or intuition of analyzing the general problems in Silhouette Knight or any Technology in general with a glance alone and with time and probing you could even pinpoint the root of all the problems.
Fixing a broken Silhouette Knight is hard if you don't know what is the problem in the first place. This grants an eye or intuition of analyzing the general problems in Silhouette Knight or any Technology in general with a glance alone and with time and probing you could even pinpoint the root of all the problems.
FUCK
A/N:- I usually don't do authors notes because its a bit obtrusive. But the rolls this chapter completely derailed the entire middle plot I was envisioning. No I don't want to reroll them, I know I have veto power but I prefer the randomness even if it is bit inconvenient. I don't plan much so its doable.
Some executive descision regarding the spark because i don't want to do a crossover yet. So I am ruling that this does allow ajax to leave the world of darkness via adjacent properties like exalted and scion in a media daisy chain but he doesn't know how to do it inherently. He can use it immediately teleport between realms of the umbra and the different dimensions in the world of darkness but he needs to be taught anything else or learn it. Aside from the mtg magic which is fine. Goddamn thats a strong perk.
Also a huge shout out to panopticon quest by @MJ12 Commando on SV. It is the goat quest and made me get into mage which lead to some good friends. So this combat diplomat/ slash protagonist is named after the MC there as an homage. Seriously go read that, i have literally less than 1/10th the writing ability that person does.
- Location
- Eagan
Dudes even got his own Court now. He's really moving up in the world, both figuratively AND literally!
Chapter 10
Once upon a time a little boy was raised by a pack of matronly werewolves. His parents had been exiled for the birth of his sister and left them with a tribe of wolves that would care for their well being. The boy and his sister were relentlessly attacked and vilified and the barbed words of the elders hurt a lot more than the rocks thrown by the children. So the pair grew close and used to sneak out at night to watch tv in the rec room of the orphanage. They made many memories of watching late night sci fi and cartoons on the channels that the caretakers called weaver propaganda during the day.
Eventually the boy and his sister had to grow up. They learned the lesson of their people, they learned of their eternal war, of the shames and triumphs of the Garou and they learned of their myriad enemies. They learned how TVs were just tool of weaver indoctrination and vectors of weaver corruption and the cultural superweapon of the hegemonic empire, only good for showing home videos or nature documentaries and the muppets.
But secretly that boy always held a soft spot in his heart for a particular show he saw with his sister. A show about hope for the future and exploring the unknown, about diplomacy and the appropriate use of force, about the potential of ethical science and the possibility of doing the right thing in even the worst circumstances. It formed a basis of the boy's innermost beliefs and he loved that show even when he knew everyone in his tribe would mock him if they found out.
I am that boy and that is the thought that is going through my head as I fly up through the eye of the rumbling storm and land on the deck of my ship. It still looms over the entire city as its silhouette could literally darken the 5 boroughs. It is an edifice of magic and science so advanced that I still can't tell the difference. Its hull is made from a branch of the world tree, able to pierce any barrier and tough enough to travel through space. Its sail is a piece of the night sky woven into fabric that rides the very eddies of space and time to propel itself at ftl speeds. The shields that line its hull are woven with runes of perseverance and defense and can bounce a nuke off its side. The only way the termite hive had penetrated its hull was by imbuing its missiles with the ability to calcify and shatter reality itself. This legitimately is a mothership that could form the core of any space fleet and the size of New York in its own right. It also has the genetics lab in its core that holds those absurd samples as well.
So when Gaia saw it fit to gift me with a mote that was a court of my own, no doubt a reward for my great cleansing of New York, it had manifested throughout the ship. The cavernous longboat/mothership was no longer animated just by its innate magic. No, now it's the seat of my court and the home of my subjects.
Millions of spirits and trolls and goblins and elves and giants now make this city sized ship their home. Influenced by my childhood dream of an adventurer space captain; my court has manifested itself as the million strong exploration crew of USS Skidbladnir. An atypical structure and purpose for a court gifted by gaia but I can't bring myself to dislike it. Even as I ascend I am grinning ear to ear. It's not everyday that you get to become the person you wanted to be as a child. So what if my court is completely separate from the gaian courts. It just means I won't be a junior member of an organization that has too many beings that would hate my very existence. Sure it would have been nice to have been a incarna with my own brood that can slot into the Garou cultural context seamlessly but if cockroach or spider or any of the other patrons of changing breeds can make it on their own as independent spiritual pantheons with their own broads then I don't see why a crew of magical giants and trolls can't survive on their own.
But enough brooding on the irrevocable change that shifts the path of my destiny. All Garou are taught to accept change, they often don't learn this well but nevertheless, for clinging to a situation is the thrall of the weaver.
"Captain on Deck!!" Announce a deep rumbling voice.
My arrival on the ship is greeted with a crowd that can fill a stadium. It is an assorted melange of magical beings, giants and trolls and elves primarily, dressed in armoured jumpsuits and armed with glowing weapons.
The command draws all of their attention and they all face me in synchronised maneuver and they salute me with crisp practice of veterans.
I recognised all the beings standing in a circle around on sight. Not because the spark gave the knowledge but rather because each person is my thoughts and dreams given form.
The giant that stands in the middle of the saluting circle with a first officer's epaulets is Kragor, the giant I had slain as a child in my daydreams. The elven woman standing next to him with a multitool and scribe's tablet in her hand is Amanda, a stick figure drawing I had stuck in my diary once I tried drawing modern tolkien's elves. That pair of hulking wolves that saluted even as they lazed about on the floor are Bill and Ted, formed from my memories of the stray dogs that hung around the orange for a few months.
So I am not being saluted by peculiar spirits or unknown strangers, no I feel content as I manifest on the ship. It feels like coming home after a long journey and things may have changed and friends might be different but its still the same place and the same place.
"Come on guys, You don't have to salute me. We are all friends here." I shout in joy as I easily lift the entire inner circle in a single hug. There are some benefits to being large at least.
Most of them squirm in my grasp and I realize how terrifying it would be to be manhandled by such a massive figure that is almost double your size.
I gently set down the greeting party and sheepishly shrug a greeting. Luckily for me most of them seem to give me exasperated yet indulgent smiles and I breathe a sigh of relief that I haven't completely ruined my first impression to my court. Now that's a heady thought, isn't it. Ajax the Kinfolk, Captain of the USS Skidbladnir.
"It's fine captain, it's not everyday all of your dreams manifest quite literally to life. We understand your exuberance. But let's not tarry, we have to do a small induction so that you know what we have before you give your first orders." Kragor says and hurries me towards the center of the ship, where the massive rowing benches have been repurposed into a seating space for literally thousands of senior officers to sit around.
The crew ranges in size from giants that were hundreds of meters tall to elves that were just the size of humans. So it was quite funny to see a giant sit on a bench that was still larger than him and have a dozen people sit on his shoulders and head. But there is an air of joviality and anticipation in the air and no one seems to mind the improvised seating plans.
"So since we just came into existence, it's a bit of a mess but fortunately for all of us we were formed into an already organized structure and no one wants to try and circumvent the chain of command so far. The bad news is that this organization is woefully inadequate to come close to our needs. Whatever formed us realized your dreams of being a ship captain but there was no attention given that a simple ship's command structure is not nearly enough to organize a flying city ship." Kragor rants as he gesticulates all around us.
"So we have no infrastructure aside from the tools and artifacts we are carrying on us at the moment of our genesis. We have no hydroponics to feed us, no heating to bear the cold or ventilation to prevent suffocation. It's literally just a supersized viking boat and those are not designed to be conducive to be living spaces for a civilisation. That's the other thing, we are quite literally 10s of millions of sapient beings of various morphologies, cultures( or your half understood version of them) and beliefs and the only real unifying factor we have is that we all have an innate sense of loyalty to you. So that's the mess we find ourselves in and as the captain it's your duty to decide what to do." He hands me a tiny, by comparison, epaulet to pin to my arm and steps behind me to address the crowd.
Ok so the dream come true is not turning out so well so far but this could be another test by gaia. Yes, she wants to test if I can create a functional society from the ground up in completely alien environments so that I learn the fundamentals of managing a society before I try to change New York and the material world. Truly the wisdom of the all mother knows no bounds.
That's why she also bestowed on me the power to travel to all the planes of existence and draw upon the power of the land, her power, with that other mote.
It's a clear test and I understand it now. I take a deep breath, which causes a gust to almost pull a few people off their perches, and square my shoulders before I open my eyes and face the crowd.
"Greetings to my fellow voyagers of the USS Skidbladnir. Welcome to existence I guess, hope it's not a bother. But the first officer Kragor has informed me of our current situation so we have to do triage and thus we have no time for a ceremony. We have 3 objectives, we need sustenance to survive, we need to organize infrastructure for habitation and finally, we need to find a way forward. Anyone have any ideas??" I ask and it is Amanda the scientist elf that answer.
"Well, Via our connection to you we have a certain set of knowledge you wouldn't expect from a bunch of mystical spirits. That massive genetic complex in the core of the ship has the facilities that can be jury rigged to grow cultured protein and carbs. The Gene-mages among us know how to operate the gene engineering and the artificers can manage the machinery and such. It will take a few hours even with the copious use of magic to overcome most of the logistical concerns and it won't be the tastiest thing in the world but as long as we get enough sunlight or siphon some power from the reactors we can grow it pretty indefinitely. But the concern is that it is not a complete diet for most of the people here so we do need to set up some aeroponic farms to supplement the nutritional needs. Or we can say fuck it and just latch onto a mortal concept to draw energy for the material world like most of the other spirits do. But that's a measure of desperation and I doubt we want a war so soon in our existence." Amanda says.
"That sounds good Amanda, let's get started on this immediately. But I also have the option of making artifacts that could supply power to people so you won't need to latch onto human concepts. It will require me to work for a few days but it can be an option for the people that want to enjoy the umbra as a true independent spirit." I say, I feel a sense of relief. I had expected this to be a much bigger problem but I guess they are all capable individuals as well.
"The next challenge is the lack of infrastructure, not just physical roads and such but also social and political systems too. You can't exactly organize mass infrastructure projects without that sort of organization. I am biased and I think my nature as the ultimate source of the court itself does give me undue influence. But I honestly believe in a series of self-organizing non-hierarchical anarchist collectives. I know all the criticisms and logistics but fuck that. I honestly believe we can do it with the shared values derived from my subconsciousness and magic facilitating the quick direct democracy. What does everyone say?" I take a deep breath as I end my impassioned plea and wait for the reaction of the people of my court.
To be clear, I can command the members of my court with absolute authority, they literally can't even think about disobeying me if I wish to and couldn't physically do it even if they figured out how. But that's not how I roll, you don't get raised by a commune of children of Gaia dedicated to researching alternative organizing principles aside from capitalism. I was the anarchist era baby but that fell apart due to personal conflict between prominent members and the hindrance of having to coincide with a capitalistic society that introduced too many hurdles. One of them should not be a problem and the sheer size of my court should prevent polarizing figures gathering too much support.
Kragor sighs as a murmur of agreement goes through the crowd.
"Come on Captain, I know that this all part of your ideal society shtick but are you honestly foisting of the responsibility the moment you got it. Feels a bit cowardly I dunno." He says and I can't say his words are unwarranted.
"Yeah, that's a fair point I guess. How about this? I am still the Captain of the Physical Ship and we form a voluntary antifa battalion. So I don't interfere with the self determination of the people but we can also effectively marshal our resources to ferment change in the world for the better." I reply and hope that my compromise might satisfy the feeling of the more proactive member of the court, after all they are drawn from my thoughts and I have never been a passive guy.
"As for the direction of the future, we don't have any particular goal beside defending Gaia and that's more of a calling than an objective. So I guess we can leave it up to you guys while me and the volunteer battalion do direct action." I say.
"Well if that's the plan then let's get to it, no use dawdling." says Kragor
So we dive right into it. It is a whirlwind of casting spells and enchantments to make areas livable. A dance to make sure I don't step on anyone as I help carry the plundered supplies from the wyrm caerns of the deceased black spiral dancers. A project to embed the strange feathers in resonators around the ship to make the ship ontologically shielded.
It takes me hours and hours of work but enough of the basics are done that I get a chance to sit down and rest. It has been a day worth an entire life and I am feeling sleepy. Even now I am sharing a significant portion of my strength to the work crews as they continue to make Skidbladnir a true city ship.
"Ok so we have the chamber ready and the gene splicing tank is finally filled with the Quantum Replicator so let's get you in there." Amanda suddenly says as she pops um from between legs as I am sitting on one of the few benches that haven't been dismantled yet.
"What are you talking about Amanda?? What tank? A quantum what??" I ask confused. I haven't given her any orders and she had been missing throughout the evening as we were building.
"Oh yeah we forgot to tell you before we started, since we came from figments of your minds we, me and the gene mages, were aware of your curiosity about the DNA samples of these 'honkai beasts'. We have been looking into them for hours now and the results are fascinating and terrifying. Honkai beasts are nothing less than a self replicating meta-stable configuration of quantum energy or what you call gnosis. It uses silicon as a substrate to sheath the primal energy of creation as a perfect tool for something like gaia to command. And they are really really strong, the samples we have are from something called emperor class beasts and each of them is a living natural disaster. They can level cities in a single blast of energy or quite literally bend their primal power to throw a skyscraper a thousand kilometers.They are comparable to the blood god that awakened during the early aughts." She says and then she points towards "-And we are going to infuse you with it so you can benefit from that power to enhance your already considerable power."
I can't help but frown at her words. This was an out of nowhere offer and it is something that I would need time to think about. I mean it is fundamentally grafting the essence of some monster onto my body. Why would I even risk it, I already have more power than what I know what to do with.
I must have muttered some of my concerns out loud because Amanda makes a waving motion as if she was sweeping away my very valid concerns.
"Don't worry about the operation, the lab is specifically designed to do this procedure and the gene mages we have are more than capable of performing this transformation. As for why you specifically should do it?? Well there are two reasons and I know you will find them a lot more compelling than my offer of raw power but it's a bit manipulative to mention them, what with me being a fragment of your shard and as such familiar intimately with your desires." She holds up three fingers and begins to count down the reasons " First is the most abstract and the least compelling, it will tune you much more closer towards reality and probably gaia. Second is a more pragmatic approach, it will make your court more attuned to the procedure and let them utilize the same to gain more power and consequently autonomy. The final one is the one that I feel is the most important, it will make you much less likely to die which means we won't all disappear after your death."
Her words stop me dead in my tracks. I don't even breathe as the weight of the responsibility settles around my shoulders.
She is right, no matter their status as individual patients, they were personified figments of my mind. They are intrinsically and fundamentally connected to me. I am the cornerstone that is the lynchpin of their existence. If I die they will die a slow ignoble death of fading into obscurity and the void.
I sigh and get up from my seat.
"How long is it going to take??" I ask her with a resigned voice of someone who has been outwitted.
"Normally it is a day long procedure but due to the sheer size and mass you possess, its going to take weeks and that's if we can stimulate the dna to bond and self replicate perfectly." She replies with a resigned tone, rightly so.
"I can't be out of commission for that long. We have a moment now and we killed a significant percentage of the enemy force. Plus it's been hours so Alice and the others are probably worried." I point out the obvious problem.
"Yeah I thought that would be an issue. Luckily for you we have a solution. We can use a section of the same DNA we are combining with you to create a secondary terminal for your soul to inhabit while the transformation takes place. The only problem is that we are concerned about the fidelity of the synthetic connection and if it will persist over weeks of constant use. We were hoping you have some magical solution for that. We are all experts but your gifts are a bit more holistic and stronger than us." She says and there is a slight challenge in her tone.
"Yeah I have something for that. A new gift that lets me connect to the things and draw mana through them to fuel my magic. It's made me immensely more powerful and I don't see why it has to be a connection just to land, even now I can feel my connection to the ship solidifying and the trickle of mana flowing across both directions. I think that link should be something I can use to sustain any sort of connection." I reply and implicitly answer her challenge. It's good that I am being challenged, wouldn't want to grow an ego now would we.
"Ok, Let's start the procedure in an hour. I will see you at the lab."
The MANTIS lab is a work of art far beyond my wildest expectation. It is a place of research with white sterile walls lined with clear glass cylinders filled with DNA samples from Honkai beasts. The actual equipment for the infusion is in the center of the lab, in deference to me a gigantic superstructure capable of holding my body in suspended animation while the changes are conducted throughout it.
But before We can do that I am standing next to the nearest human sized gene combiner and I drop a single drop of blood inside the chamber. That single drop fills the entire 10 foot tall chamber with my blood. Inside it deposits a pinch of alchemical silicone substrate that starts to greedily drink my blood and glow an ominous red color. My sense of Ma'at pings and I know instinctively its the DNA of the Honkai beast trying to recreate itself using my blood as fuel. This does not shock me that much, despite the novel nature of the problem I had a feeling that this preliminary step could have gone wrong. I asked one of the artist communes to line the chamber with hieroglyphs to shape the proper spell of Ushabti Creation.
"Be ME." I mutter and cast the spell of transformation that wrenches control from the foreign remnants of an artificial creature and purges it from the honkai beast DNA. My blood continues to permeate the substrate before the white bonelike structure grows with a burst of magic and the chuck of inert matter takes the shape of a man's body. In Fact it is my body without any of the changes, the shape I still see myself despite my titanic proportions.
Satisfied with the first step I disrobe from the giant clothes I have been wearing and enter my own chamber. I tense up a bit as the liquid slowly starts to fill the superstructure and I feel that instinctual fear of drawing and barely clamp down on it before the entire chamber fills and I force myself to breathe the hyper-oxygenated liquid. It's the weird feeling of water in your lungs and not drowning but the sleep drugs kick in by then and I slowly drift off to blissful slumber.
Well, blissful for the hour I sleep while they inject me with the replicating DNAof the Honkai Emperor Beast. As I feel the pinch of the injection fade I reluctantly invoke the first lesson of Heku in my mind, that of lucid dreaming or rather freeing my Ba to fly beyond the limits of corpus and explore the whole of the Duat. In this case my Ba is a gigantic eagle with my head and I fly out my body and dive into the Ushabti I have prepared for the ritual.
It feels constricting diving into this body, even the immense power of the Honkai DNA is unable to contain the glowing majesty of my spirit and it feels like slipping into a straight jacket. But I begrudgingly bear the constricting feeling before I feel my connection with my planeswalker spark snap into place.
I slowly open my eyes as the blood is drained from the chamber and I open my eyes as I drop down to the floor.
I struggle up to my feet grab the robes foisted upon me by the genemages as they conduct spells and scans to ensure the stability of the artificial body.
I don't need to, of course, I can feel the body drawing upon my colossal energy well through my Ba and the Ba's connection with the body would hold it together till death regardless of the stability. But it is unnecessary as the body exceeds all expectations and is completely stable in the first try.
"Ok now that I can sleep in a bed again, I am going to sleep. Flying around as Ba does not help get my beauty sleep. I will see you guys tomorrow when I return to the world. Good night." So declaring I fly towards the nearest bed with hypersonic speed.
this the worst chapter yet and it killed my motivation but should be easier after this.
Eventually the boy and his sister had to grow up. They learned the lesson of their people, they learned of their eternal war, of the shames and triumphs of the Garou and they learned of their myriad enemies. They learned how TVs were just tool of weaver indoctrination and vectors of weaver corruption and the cultural superweapon of the hegemonic empire, only good for showing home videos or nature documentaries and the muppets.
But secretly that boy always held a soft spot in his heart for a particular show he saw with his sister. A show about hope for the future and exploring the unknown, about diplomacy and the appropriate use of force, about the potential of ethical science and the possibility of doing the right thing in even the worst circumstances. It formed a basis of the boy's innermost beliefs and he loved that show even when he knew everyone in his tribe would mock him if they found out.
I am that boy and that is the thought that is going through my head as I fly up through the eye of the rumbling storm and land on the deck of my ship. It still looms over the entire city as its silhouette could literally darken the 5 boroughs. It is an edifice of magic and science so advanced that I still can't tell the difference. Its hull is made from a branch of the world tree, able to pierce any barrier and tough enough to travel through space. Its sail is a piece of the night sky woven into fabric that rides the very eddies of space and time to propel itself at ftl speeds. The shields that line its hull are woven with runes of perseverance and defense and can bounce a nuke off its side. The only way the termite hive had penetrated its hull was by imbuing its missiles with the ability to calcify and shatter reality itself. This legitimately is a mothership that could form the core of any space fleet and the size of New York in its own right. It also has the genetics lab in its core that holds those absurd samples as well.
So when Gaia saw it fit to gift me with a mote that was a court of my own, no doubt a reward for my great cleansing of New York, it had manifested throughout the ship. The cavernous longboat/mothership was no longer animated just by its innate magic. No, now it's the seat of my court and the home of my subjects.
Millions of spirits and trolls and goblins and elves and giants now make this city sized ship their home. Influenced by my childhood dream of an adventurer space captain; my court has manifested itself as the million strong exploration crew of USS Skidbladnir. An atypical structure and purpose for a court gifted by gaia but I can't bring myself to dislike it. Even as I ascend I am grinning ear to ear. It's not everyday that you get to become the person you wanted to be as a child. So what if my court is completely separate from the gaian courts. It just means I won't be a junior member of an organization that has too many beings that would hate my very existence. Sure it would have been nice to have been a incarna with my own brood that can slot into the Garou cultural context seamlessly but if cockroach or spider or any of the other patrons of changing breeds can make it on their own as independent spiritual pantheons with their own broads then I don't see why a crew of magical giants and trolls can't survive on their own.
But enough brooding on the irrevocable change that shifts the path of my destiny. All Garou are taught to accept change, they often don't learn this well but nevertheless, for clinging to a situation is the thrall of the weaver.
"Captain on Deck!!" Announce a deep rumbling voice.
My arrival on the ship is greeted with a crowd that can fill a stadium. It is an assorted melange of magical beings, giants and trolls and elves primarily, dressed in armoured jumpsuits and armed with glowing weapons.
The command draws all of their attention and they all face me in synchronised maneuver and they salute me with crisp practice of veterans.
I recognised all the beings standing in a circle around on sight. Not because the spark gave the knowledge but rather because each person is my thoughts and dreams given form.
The giant that stands in the middle of the saluting circle with a first officer's epaulets is Kragor, the giant I had slain as a child in my daydreams. The elven woman standing next to him with a multitool and scribe's tablet in her hand is Amanda, a stick figure drawing I had stuck in my diary once I tried drawing modern tolkien's elves. That pair of hulking wolves that saluted even as they lazed about on the floor are Bill and Ted, formed from my memories of the stray dogs that hung around the orange for a few months.
So I am not being saluted by peculiar spirits or unknown strangers, no I feel content as I manifest on the ship. It feels like coming home after a long journey and things may have changed and friends might be different but its still the same place and the same place.
"Come on guys, You don't have to salute me. We are all friends here." I shout in joy as I easily lift the entire inner circle in a single hug. There are some benefits to being large at least.
Most of them squirm in my grasp and I realize how terrifying it would be to be manhandled by such a massive figure that is almost double your size.
I gently set down the greeting party and sheepishly shrug a greeting. Luckily for me most of them seem to give me exasperated yet indulgent smiles and I breathe a sigh of relief that I haven't completely ruined my first impression to my court. Now that's a heady thought, isn't it. Ajax the Kinfolk, Captain of the USS Skidbladnir.
"It's fine captain, it's not everyday all of your dreams manifest quite literally to life. We understand your exuberance. But let's not tarry, we have to do a small induction so that you know what we have before you give your first orders." Kragor says and hurries me towards the center of the ship, where the massive rowing benches have been repurposed into a seating space for literally thousands of senior officers to sit around.
The crew ranges in size from giants that were hundreds of meters tall to elves that were just the size of humans. So it was quite funny to see a giant sit on a bench that was still larger than him and have a dozen people sit on his shoulders and head. But there is an air of joviality and anticipation in the air and no one seems to mind the improvised seating plans.
"So since we just came into existence, it's a bit of a mess but fortunately for all of us we were formed into an already organized structure and no one wants to try and circumvent the chain of command so far. The bad news is that this organization is woefully inadequate to come close to our needs. Whatever formed us realized your dreams of being a ship captain but there was no attention given that a simple ship's command structure is not nearly enough to organize a flying city ship." Kragor rants as he gesticulates all around us.
"So we have no infrastructure aside from the tools and artifacts we are carrying on us at the moment of our genesis. We have no hydroponics to feed us, no heating to bear the cold or ventilation to prevent suffocation. It's literally just a supersized viking boat and those are not designed to be conducive to be living spaces for a civilisation. That's the other thing, we are quite literally 10s of millions of sapient beings of various morphologies, cultures( or your half understood version of them) and beliefs and the only real unifying factor we have is that we all have an innate sense of loyalty to you. So that's the mess we find ourselves in and as the captain it's your duty to decide what to do." He hands me a tiny, by comparison, epaulet to pin to my arm and steps behind me to address the crowd.
Ok so the dream come true is not turning out so well so far but this could be another test by gaia. Yes, she wants to test if I can create a functional society from the ground up in completely alien environments so that I learn the fundamentals of managing a society before I try to change New York and the material world. Truly the wisdom of the all mother knows no bounds.
That's why she also bestowed on me the power to travel to all the planes of existence and draw upon the power of the land, her power, with that other mote.
It's a clear test and I understand it now. I take a deep breath, which causes a gust to almost pull a few people off their perches, and square my shoulders before I open my eyes and face the crowd.
"Greetings to my fellow voyagers of the USS Skidbladnir. Welcome to existence I guess, hope it's not a bother. But the first officer Kragor has informed me of our current situation so we have to do triage and thus we have no time for a ceremony. We have 3 objectives, we need sustenance to survive, we need to organize infrastructure for habitation and finally, we need to find a way forward. Anyone have any ideas??" I ask and it is Amanda the scientist elf that answer.
"Well, Via our connection to you we have a certain set of knowledge you wouldn't expect from a bunch of mystical spirits. That massive genetic complex in the core of the ship has the facilities that can be jury rigged to grow cultured protein and carbs. The Gene-mages among us know how to operate the gene engineering and the artificers can manage the machinery and such. It will take a few hours even with the copious use of magic to overcome most of the logistical concerns and it won't be the tastiest thing in the world but as long as we get enough sunlight or siphon some power from the reactors we can grow it pretty indefinitely. But the concern is that it is not a complete diet for most of the people here so we do need to set up some aeroponic farms to supplement the nutritional needs. Or we can say fuck it and just latch onto a mortal concept to draw energy for the material world like most of the other spirits do. But that's a measure of desperation and I doubt we want a war so soon in our existence." Amanda says.
"That sounds good Amanda, let's get started on this immediately. But I also have the option of making artifacts that could supply power to people so you won't need to latch onto human concepts. It will require me to work for a few days but it can be an option for the people that want to enjoy the umbra as a true independent spirit." I say, I feel a sense of relief. I had expected this to be a much bigger problem but I guess they are all capable individuals as well.
"The next challenge is the lack of infrastructure, not just physical roads and such but also social and political systems too. You can't exactly organize mass infrastructure projects without that sort of organization. I am biased and I think my nature as the ultimate source of the court itself does give me undue influence. But I honestly believe in a series of self-organizing non-hierarchical anarchist collectives. I know all the criticisms and logistics but fuck that. I honestly believe we can do it with the shared values derived from my subconsciousness and magic facilitating the quick direct democracy. What does everyone say?" I take a deep breath as I end my impassioned plea and wait for the reaction of the people of my court.
To be clear, I can command the members of my court with absolute authority, they literally can't even think about disobeying me if I wish to and couldn't physically do it even if they figured out how. But that's not how I roll, you don't get raised by a commune of children of Gaia dedicated to researching alternative organizing principles aside from capitalism. I was the anarchist era baby but that fell apart due to personal conflict between prominent members and the hindrance of having to coincide with a capitalistic society that introduced too many hurdles. One of them should not be a problem and the sheer size of my court should prevent polarizing figures gathering too much support.
Kragor sighs as a murmur of agreement goes through the crowd.
"Come on Captain, I know that this all part of your ideal society shtick but are you honestly foisting of the responsibility the moment you got it. Feels a bit cowardly I dunno." He says and I can't say his words are unwarranted.
"Yeah, that's a fair point I guess. How about this? I am still the Captain of the Physical Ship and we form a voluntary antifa battalion. So I don't interfere with the self determination of the people but we can also effectively marshal our resources to ferment change in the world for the better." I reply and hope that my compromise might satisfy the feeling of the more proactive member of the court, after all they are drawn from my thoughts and I have never been a passive guy.
"As for the direction of the future, we don't have any particular goal beside defending Gaia and that's more of a calling than an objective. So I guess we can leave it up to you guys while me and the volunteer battalion do direct action." I say.
"Well if that's the plan then let's get to it, no use dawdling." says Kragor
So we dive right into it. It is a whirlwind of casting spells and enchantments to make areas livable. A dance to make sure I don't step on anyone as I help carry the plundered supplies from the wyrm caerns of the deceased black spiral dancers. A project to embed the strange feathers in resonators around the ship to make the ship ontologically shielded.
It takes me hours and hours of work but enough of the basics are done that I get a chance to sit down and rest. It has been a day worth an entire life and I am feeling sleepy. Even now I am sharing a significant portion of my strength to the work crews as they continue to make Skidbladnir a true city ship.
"Ok so we have the chamber ready and the gene splicing tank is finally filled with the Quantum Replicator so let's get you in there." Amanda suddenly says as she pops um from between legs as I am sitting on one of the few benches that haven't been dismantled yet.
"What are you talking about Amanda?? What tank? A quantum what??" I ask confused. I haven't given her any orders and she had been missing throughout the evening as we were building.
"Oh yeah we forgot to tell you before we started, since we came from figments of your minds we, me and the gene mages, were aware of your curiosity about the DNA samples of these 'honkai beasts'. We have been looking into them for hours now and the results are fascinating and terrifying. Honkai beasts are nothing less than a self replicating meta-stable configuration of quantum energy or what you call gnosis. It uses silicon as a substrate to sheath the primal energy of creation as a perfect tool for something like gaia to command. And they are really really strong, the samples we have are from something called emperor class beasts and each of them is a living natural disaster. They can level cities in a single blast of energy or quite literally bend their primal power to throw a skyscraper a thousand kilometers.They are comparable to the blood god that awakened during the early aughts." She says and then she points towards "-And we are going to infuse you with it so you can benefit from that power to enhance your already considerable power."
I can't help but frown at her words. This was an out of nowhere offer and it is something that I would need time to think about. I mean it is fundamentally grafting the essence of some monster onto my body. Why would I even risk it, I already have more power than what I know what to do with.
I must have muttered some of my concerns out loud because Amanda makes a waving motion as if she was sweeping away my very valid concerns.
"Don't worry about the operation, the lab is specifically designed to do this procedure and the gene mages we have are more than capable of performing this transformation. As for why you specifically should do it?? Well there are two reasons and I know you will find them a lot more compelling than my offer of raw power but it's a bit manipulative to mention them, what with me being a fragment of your shard and as such familiar intimately with your desires." She holds up three fingers and begins to count down the reasons " First is the most abstract and the least compelling, it will tune you much more closer towards reality and probably gaia. Second is a more pragmatic approach, it will make your court more attuned to the procedure and let them utilize the same to gain more power and consequently autonomy. The final one is the one that I feel is the most important, it will make you much less likely to die which means we won't all disappear after your death."
Her words stop me dead in my tracks. I don't even breathe as the weight of the responsibility settles around my shoulders.
She is right, no matter their status as individual patients, they were personified figments of my mind. They are intrinsically and fundamentally connected to me. I am the cornerstone that is the lynchpin of their existence. If I die they will die a slow ignoble death of fading into obscurity and the void.
I sigh and get up from my seat.
"How long is it going to take??" I ask her with a resigned voice of someone who has been outwitted.
"Normally it is a day long procedure but due to the sheer size and mass you possess, its going to take weeks and that's if we can stimulate the dna to bond and self replicate perfectly." She replies with a resigned tone, rightly so.
"I can't be out of commission for that long. We have a moment now and we killed a significant percentage of the enemy force. Plus it's been hours so Alice and the others are probably worried." I point out the obvious problem.
"Yeah I thought that would be an issue. Luckily for you we have a solution. We can use a section of the same DNA we are combining with you to create a secondary terminal for your soul to inhabit while the transformation takes place. The only problem is that we are concerned about the fidelity of the synthetic connection and if it will persist over weeks of constant use. We were hoping you have some magical solution for that. We are all experts but your gifts are a bit more holistic and stronger than us." She says and there is a slight challenge in her tone.
"Yeah I have something for that. A new gift that lets me connect to the things and draw mana through them to fuel my magic. It's made me immensely more powerful and I don't see why it has to be a connection just to land, even now I can feel my connection to the ship solidifying and the trickle of mana flowing across both directions. I think that link should be something I can use to sustain any sort of connection." I reply and implicitly answer her challenge. It's good that I am being challenged, wouldn't want to grow an ego now would we.
"Ok, Let's start the procedure in an hour. I will see you at the lab."
The MANTIS lab is a work of art far beyond my wildest expectation. It is a place of research with white sterile walls lined with clear glass cylinders filled with DNA samples from Honkai beasts. The actual equipment for the infusion is in the center of the lab, in deference to me a gigantic superstructure capable of holding my body in suspended animation while the changes are conducted throughout it.
But before We can do that I am standing next to the nearest human sized gene combiner and I drop a single drop of blood inside the chamber. That single drop fills the entire 10 foot tall chamber with my blood. Inside it deposits a pinch of alchemical silicone substrate that starts to greedily drink my blood and glow an ominous red color. My sense of Ma'at pings and I know instinctively its the DNA of the Honkai beast trying to recreate itself using my blood as fuel. This does not shock me that much, despite the novel nature of the problem I had a feeling that this preliminary step could have gone wrong. I asked one of the artist communes to line the chamber with hieroglyphs to shape the proper spell of Ushabti Creation.
"Be ME." I mutter and cast the spell of transformation that wrenches control from the foreign remnants of an artificial creature and purges it from the honkai beast DNA. My blood continues to permeate the substrate before the white bonelike structure grows with a burst of magic and the chuck of inert matter takes the shape of a man's body. In Fact it is my body without any of the changes, the shape I still see myself despite my titanic proportions.
Satisfied with the first step I disrobe from the giant clothes I have been wearing and enter my own chamber. I tense up a bit as the liquid slowly starts to fill the superstructure and I feel that instinctual fear of drawing and barely clamp down on it before the entire chamber fills and I force myself to breathe the hyper-oxygenated liquid. It's the weird feeling of water in your lungs and not drowning but the sleep drugs kick in by then and I slowly drift off to blissful slumber.
Well, blissful for the hour I sleep while they inject me with the replicating DNAof the Honkai Emperor Beast. As I feel the pinch of the injection fade I reluctantly invoke the first lesson of Heku in my mind, that of lucid dreaming or rather freeing my Ba to fly beyond the limits of corpus and explore the whole of the Duat. In this case my Ba is a gigantic eagle with my head and I fly out my body and dive into the Ushabti I have prepared for the ritual.
It feels constricting diving into this body, even the immense power of the Honkai DNA is unable to contain the glowing majesty of my spirit and it feels like slipping into a straight jacket. But I begrudgingly bear the constricting feeling before I feel my connection with my planeswalker spark snap into place.
I slowly open my eyes as the blood is drained from the chamber and I open my eyes as I drop down to the floor.
I struggle up to my feet grab the robes foisted upon me by the genemages as they conduct spells and scans to ensure the stability of the artificial body.
I don't need to, of course, I can feel the body drawing upon my colossal energy well through my Ba and the Ba's connection with the body would hold it together till death regardless of the stability. But it is unnecessary as the body exceeds all expectations and is completely stable in the first try.
"Ok now that I can sleep in a bed again, I am going to sleep. Flying around as Ba does not help get my beauty sleep. I will see you guys tomorrow when I return to the world. Good night." So declaring I fly towards the nearest bed with hypersonic speed.
this the worst chapter yet and it killed my motivation but should be easier after this.
I wonder what's the world reaction to the wyrrm being killed
- Location
- Eagan
Where was Thori during this, did he not come along when Ajax left?
He is helping the dog spirits of the court settle in. He is their alpha by default.
Meanwhile 1
Alice had been excited when her brother had gained his strange powers and the ritual to make Garou yesterday. It had removed one of her major sources of perry because that meant she didn't have to worry about her brother getting into stupid fights trying to atone for the sins of their parents and shield her from her peer's contempt. She didn't have to worry that he would have to give up more than he already had to send her to college and the jobs he would take with a smile even as they killed the light behind his eyes.
The powers were supposed to be his way out, a gift from Gaia towards her most compassionate son and a way for him to stay in the backlines and yet still be a respected member of the Garou society.
Only that wasn't how it had played out, her brother had continued to gain powers, more and more intense changes that made him stand out even more. First were the ship and the spear and then it was the God-dog which were strange but understandable. But it kept getting stranger and stranger.
For Gaia's sake she and her new pack, and wasn't that a doozy her brother being the patron for her new friends, had to fight triple their numbers of spiral dancers without anything more than basic training and spells that they had never experienced before. It was a miracle that her brother's spell had been more beneficial than curses, because they have not practiced how to fight with things like invulnerable steel fur or the strength of an elephant behind their blows. They probably would have died then and there if not for Thori garnering the attention of that entire war pack of the Spiral Dancers. She had really gotten to like that pup since she had met him.
Then for some reason her brother had to jump into the umbra in the middle of trying to break an ancestral curse on the silent striders, with every totem in the caern simultaneously shouting at the rest of the wolves to not follow him.
She had grown worried sick as the hours of her brother's silence stretched deep into the night, it wouldn't even be hard he was her patron he is literally always connected to her. But she could do nothing but wait as she wasn't allowed to pursue him with her pack by the orders of High King Albrecht himself. She had said some things to Albrect when he had ordered that, things that would have resulted in her being mauled if the King had been anything less then iron willed diplomat. Instead he had just waited for her to vent on him and then quietly and privately apologised to her but the patrons had been clear, her brother needed to do whatever he was doing alone. It was a test of sorts, for something he had to do.
Of course he was also a giant, which was something she only learned from bribing a gaffling too dumb to listen to its betters with spare gnosis.
But the facts didn't reduce her anxiety and her sleep that night was restless, a furtive dream where she was crushed under some great rock as her friends and family lay at her feet and she was unable to hold back the falling boulder. An ominous omen indeed.
So that means she was sleeping lightly when someone entered her room early in the morning. She is on her feet and in her warform before her conscious mind catches up to her instincts, she is about to pounce on the intruder before some dim memory from her childhood enters her mind.
"Krisy is that you?? you aren't supposed to be real. Who are you, pretending to be our childhood friend??" she growled at the figment of their innocence.
"Whoa calm down there Ali Bear, your brother sent me. Yeah he is currently occupied in essentially a chrysalis situation and his avatar is out raiding on behalf of gaia. But he was worried that you would be worried so he sent me since a familiar face would be most likely to be believed." The phantasm of her mind replies.
"Likely story, how did he even make you. You seem too aware to be a spell mirage and too solid to just be a spirit." So she says she starts tapping into the gift that she could feel to flow from her brother. It was different from last night, it was pulsing with power. Strength she could tap into and she feels the power enough to crush building fill her thews. But along with this pulse of power comes a sense of assent, almost agreeing with the spirit. That is finally what causes her to start to believe the stranger wearing the familiar face.
She turns back into her human form and rushes to hug their imaginary friend.
"Oh Kris, how are you here?? Did Ajax get a mote to make you real??" She asks.
"Nothing so prosaic, rather I am just a single denizen of his millions strong court. A cog in the twisted mind of Ajax made manifest." He jokes.
"As for why I am sent here. Well Ajax is busy and he also isn't the most responsible guy about his role as potential for Garou and all those that would fight for Gaia. So we at the courts thought, why don't we step up and fulfill the role of fairy godmother. So let me introduce you to Project Infinite Arsenal. The first and last spot to defend the world." He finishes.
"So I agree to a contract with you guys to improve the city and you will give me everything I need to keep my shelter running." Anna Dupree asked the strange man who had ambushed her at the coffee shop an hour ago and had gone on and on about an offer that was too good to be true.
"Yes, we will give everything your patrons need to live their lives. Food, Medicine, Safe Drug Use Paraphernalia, All weather clothes, A Stipend and Counselling. Anything else they need will be provided, and this offer isn't limited to just your place. If you know any other NGOs then we are also willing to help them as well." The man says in that same smarmy way that most tech bros talk when they try to solve the world's problem without understanding them.
The words also raised up Anna's hackles, she had heard rumors of offers like these. FIrst they come with free finance and then after you grow dependent on them your regulars start disappearing, people start becoming sicker and meaner and problems grow in ways that are inexplicable but linked to these too good to be true offers.
"I appreciate the offer but I can't accept your offer in good faith unless you tell me why whatever organization gets out of this, it's too much for your standard tax write offs. " She challenges the man and he gives her a look of respect before he adopts a more natural posture and his expression becomes less salesman-like.
"I told them we should start with the truth but they want to try the mysterious benefactor thing, fuck that. You are too good a person to mess around with and you deserve the truth. The truth is that we are representative of a magical socialist commune that wants to give a lifeline to those in need. I know it sounds crazy but I can prove it." The thing that was a man just a second ago waves his hand in front of his face and he has horns and furry goat legs underneath.
Anna Dupree is a woman that has ran a shelter in new york for 4 decades, she is not easily shook but even she is mildly perturbed with this clearly supernatural phenomena. I mean its not a complete surprise, she thinks to herself, we have all heard about the happening in the shadows and back alleys and story from the unhoused but its another thing to have a magical being stand in front of her in a public coffee shop.
"Additionally we will also be granting access to the magic system we have developed just for your cause. We will create an Obelisk of Ma'at that you can access via our contract and it will grant you the power of administrative magic, stuff like paperwork completing automatically or minimising waste or even eliminating it. You would be able to grant blessings of fortune to those that adhere to the organisation's principles and grant them supernal grace of skill and luck. It would also let you have some time off without guilt as your spells could be tuned to resist external circumstances. If the magic lasts long enough you won't even need the obelisk for power, it will continue to empower your organisation's spirit until eventually it can independently empower you on its own. This would be universal for all your volunteers with you acting as a conduit. The Meta-mages are very excited to see it in action, a unique combination of Heku's Nomenclative magics unified with the animism of the Garou with Ma'at acting as a mediator." The Goat person finally
"Yeah I am out. That's too complicated for me." Anna says and leaves.
"Another whiff, I guess that's too much all at once. Well it's not like there is a shortage of people to help in this city, we only need one shelter." The satyr says inside his commlink and moves towards his next prospective partner.
"Get away from me." Bill says as the unknown man continues to chase him into the shadows of an alleyway.
Bill had just come off a long haul route down to Texas and was eager to get back home, he had cut through an alleyway just to get home little sooner, but on his way some creepy dude with fangs had attacked him and bit him. Bill has been fortunate enough to push him away enough to run away but it was a dire situation, being chased by a vampire that's faster than him through an unreasonably long alley.
Just as he loses hope and is about to be pounced upon by the assailant, a glowing figure appears out of nowhere and cuts the vampire in half.
As the light subsides it reveals a figure just as unbelievable as the vampire had been, but in the completely opposite direction.
A woman Armoured in Bronze Plate Mail, holding a buster sword the size of a horse. Behind her floats a ring of floating blades, forming a mandala of violence to frame her ferocity.
He tries to look at her bare face but he can't seem to focus on it, only getting the impression of a scowl directed at the vampire corpse at her feet.
The giant Buster sword in her glows and transforms into a massive hunting hound, a strange glowing creature the size of a horse with a sword for a snout and blades lining its back like a crocodile's hide.
"A Mad one, was hiding in the sewers, just came out of slumber and was starving. Smelled that man there and chased him mindlessly." The blade hound says as its metallic snout blade sniffs the air and it tracks the path that the vampire took.
"There is a whole nest of them, I think they would serve well as our first hunt as partners. Don't you think so, Victoria." The dog asks the armoured woman.
She just nods in response and then with a simple gesture the floating array of blades on her backs glows and they work together to carve a glowing portal behind her.
"Level 2 Enemy Signatures detected. Manufacturing PolyPhasic Shroud, Manufacturing Sterile Membrane, Deploying Hunter Seeker Ushabti." She intones and for a brief moment Bill swears he sees a vast workshop filled with magical devices but the illusion doesn't last.
A glowing silver cape flys out of the portal and settles on her shoulders automatically. A silver sheen covers her entire body for a split second before disappearing and leaving just a simple blur around her silhouette. A number of glowing paper talismans made out of golden Hieroglyph on papyrus appear through the portal before attaching to the hands of the floating blade array.
A dozen golden figures made out of pure energy appear, each holding the handle of a single floating blade. They all stand at attention and salute the golden warrior and she just faces palms.
"Is this really necessary, I don't need the autonomous killer robots to salute me. I mean I know they are just here to back up and protect any prospective civilians in there but we don't need them. You already lend me enough power through our bond, and I am only accessing the barest fraction of your Honkai Guardian power, but I can easily kill some vampires." She says to her partner, the now named Honkai Guardian:- Blade Hound.
"You know it's our first day, the eggheads at the Arsenal are just worried, not about the vampires but there is something much more powerful hiding underneath the city. Our divination hasn't found any trace but we have heard intel from the local murder spirits that not even the Garou go into the tunnels, and those that do go never come back. If they had their wish they would send an entire Executioner Brigade but we aren't allowed to go that loud just yet." The dog answered in the tone of someone rehashing the argument they had before.
At that Bill had enough, he is an American damn it and no one would ever ignore him even if they save his life.
"Hey guys, I appreciate the assist but can you kindly tell me what the fuck is going one. Is that a sword dog, are you a superhero?? I reiterate what is going on??" He starts out politely enough but by the end of the sentence spittle is flying out of his mouth as he tries to really emphasise the point.
The Woman sighs and absentmindedly rubs the head of her horse sized companion. Her glowing robots meanwhile sink through the floor as they phase through the ground to find their targets.
"Magic and shit is real and most of it is either evil or interested in people's self interests instead of the common good. My friend here is something called a Honkai Guardian, a species of spirits infused with the power of reality itself by some magical giant and now it is their job to find partners that they can provide a fraction of their immense power, which they need us mortals because it allows them to circumvent some treaties, and empower them to fight evil things. I am not a superhero yet, apparently they can't reveal the existence of magic to people just yet so I have to work in the shadows. But at least I get a dozen magical craftsmen and sorcerers ready to provide me with any equipment I need whenever I want so at least that's good." She says.
It takes a bit for Bill's mind to digest the deluge of words but his response is an eloquent one.
"What. The. Fuck."
Candy twirled around the pole one last time before she finished her performance and gathered up her discarded clothes and tips to get off the stage.
This early into the night the strip club was empty aside from the regulars who liked the quiet and charmaine's Gravy and Biscuit. The naked ladies were an appeal as well but most people waited for the night to come and gawk at their goods.
As she gets into her backstage she sees Gina, her colleague, talking to the air.
"It won't interfere with my job right? I know what people think but I am alright with this job. The hours and pay are good and I don't mind the nudity." She says and listens intently as if listening to someone reply.
"That's good, oh candy is here. Hi candy." Gina sees her and waves her over
Exhausted from her performance candy doesn't resist, but she is concerned that her friend has gone psycho.
But then she begins doubting her own sanity as she sees a floating fairy in front of her.
"Hi Candy, I am Maddie. I was just here offering gina to act as a muse for a collective of burnt out artists. You want to do it too?? There are a lot of artists crushed by the system, and you get cool magical dance powers if you do it." The fairy says.
Somewhere inside Candy a lifetime watching a girl capture magical cards regnites again.
"Can I hunt monsters instead??" She asks the fairy.
"Of course darling. You even get a companion if you wish." The Fairy answers.
Jacob walks out of the subway station late at night and approaches the Man in a hoodie that is standing in the prearranged street corner.
"The Wolf howls." Jacob says the pass phrase.
"The Prey Cowers." The man replies with the correct phrase.
"So here I am, your recruitment post at the forum didn't tell us why you wanted to meet here. Most of the people thought it was a trap set by the feds on behalf of the globalists. But I thought it would be too stupid for them. So I came here to check, but I have friends that are awaiting my reply so if you do anything my friends will hunt you and they do have guns." Jacob says to a man whose face he still can't see.
The man replies in a tone laden with gravitas that causes Jacob's hair to stand on end.
"I contacted your community because you Jacob and your friend are believers. You say you want to hunt those in power hunting children and drinking people's blood to stay young. But you are misguided my young friend, they have preyed upon you and your isolation and helplessness, made you blame those who are not responsible for your troubles. But despite that I believe you have goodness in your hearts, a desire to be righteous. All it needs is some compassion to temper it. My colleagues think you guys are lost causes, too deep into a phantasm that blind you and too ridden with prejudice they say. But not me and a small group of like minded people. We believe if channeled correctly your violent tendencies can be used for good, but we need to hammer the hate out of you at first." The hooded man says.
Jacob has heard similar, if slightly less ominous, screeds from the woke left before. He always hates it, he despises that they would try and pity him, that they would look down upon him when they are so blinded by mainstream media. But before he can give the man a piece of his mind the man draws something from his back.
It is beautiful, a futuristic sniper rifle in gleaming chrome black. A weapon that he had never even conceived of existing in reality. A railgun with floating drone to act as spotter and auto stabilizing tripod.
This is kind of shit the military hides at area 51. Jacob can't help but reach out to touch this piece of art.
The man stops him.
"Before I give you this beauty I am going to need you to do something for me. Namely I need you to spend a month working to coach a rec league team in an underserved community centre. You will get along with those people and you will learn about them as people and their problems. I am hoping this expansion of your world view is enough to help you learn some empathy. All paid at triple your current salary of course." The man says in his booming voice.
"Once you do that I will give you the gun and genetic and cybernetic enhancement, if you so wish, you need to wield it. Alongside some appropriate targets, that you can investigate independently from me."
Jacob wanted to cut and run right after the start of the sentence and the longer it went. It sounded like this was a lizardman trying to turn him into a cyborg assassin to do their bidding.
But something about the offer intrigued him, maybe this was his way in. He could learn about their operations and take them down from the inside. He would need to do it before they mind chip him but he was sure that he can do it. This is his chance to be a hero, maybe even save those so-called kids by teaching them the truth. His mother could use the extra cash for his fathers treatment as well but that wasn't the primary reason for jacob.
"Where do I sign?" He says
An:- some more side things the court is doing while ajax does more macro shit.
The powers were supposed to be his way out, a gift from Gaia towards her most compassionate son and a way for him to stay in the backlines and yet still be a respected member of the Garou society.
Only that wasn't how it had played out, her brother had continued to gain powers, more and more intense changes that made him stand out even more. First were the ship and the spear and then it was the God-dog which were strange but understandable. But it kept getting stranger and stranger.
For Gaia's sake she and her new pack, and wasn't that a doozy her brother being the patron for her new friends, had to fight triple their numbers of spiral dancers without anything more than basic training and spells that they had never experienced before. It was a miracle that her brother's spell had been more beneficial than curses, because they have not practiced how to fight with things like invulnerable steel fur or the strength of an elephant behind their blows. They probably would have died then and there if not for Thori garnering the attention of that entire war pack of the Spiral Dancers. She had really gotten to like that pup since she had met him.
Then for some reason her brother had to jump into the umbra in the middle of trying to break an ancestral curse on the silent striders, with every totem in the caern simultaneously shouting at the rest of the wolves to not follow him.
She had grown worried sick as the hours of her brother's silence stretched deep into the night, it wouldn't even be hard he was her patron he is literally always connected to her. But she could do nothing but wait as she wasn't allowed to pursue him with her pack by the orders of High King Albrecht himself. She had said some things to Albrect when he had ordered that, things that would have resulted in her being mauled if the King had been anything less then iron willed diplomat. Instead he had just waited for her to vent on him and then quietly and privately apologised to her but the patrons had been clear, her brother needed to do whatever he was doing alone. It was a test of sorts, for something he had to do.
Of course he was also a giant, which was something she only learned from bribing a gaffling too dumb to listen to its betters with spare gnosis.
But the facts didn't reduce her anxiety and her sleep that night was restless, a furtive dream where she was crushed under some great rock as her friends and family lay at her feet and she was unable to hold back the falling boulder. An ominous omen indeed.
So that means she was sleeping lightly when someone entered her room early in the morning. She is on her feet and in her warform before her conscious mind catches up to her instincts, she is about to pounce on the intruder before some dim memory from her childhood enters her mind.
"Krisy is that you?? you aren't supposed to be real. Who are you, pretending to be our childhood friend??" she growled at the figment of their innocence.
"Whoa calm down there Ali Bear, your brother sent me. Yeah he is currently occupied in essentially a chrysalis situation and his avatar is out raiding on behalf of gaia. But he was worried that you would be worried so he sent me since a familiar face would be most likely to be believed." The phantasm of her mind replies.
"Likely story, how did he even make you. You seem too aware to be a spell mirage and too solid to just be a spirit." So she says she starts tapping into the gift that she could feel to flow from her brother. It was different from last night, it was pulsing with power. Strength she could tap into and she feels the power enough to crush building fill her thews. But along with this pulse of power comes a sense of assent, almost agreeing with the spirit. That is finally what causes her to start to believe the stranger wearing the familiar face.
She turns back into her human form and rushes to hug their imaginary friend.
"Oh Kris, how are you here?? Did Ajax get a mote to make you real??" She asks.
"Nothing so prosaic, rather I am just a single denizen of his millions strong court. A cog in the twisted mind of Ajax made manifest." He jokes.
"As for why I am sent here. Well Ajax is busy and he also isn't the most responsible guy about his role as potential for Garou and all those that would fight for Gaia. So we at the courts thought, why don't we step up and fulfill the role of fairy godmother. So let me introduce you to Project Infinite Arsenal. The first and last spot to defend the world." He finishes.
"So I agree to a contract with you guys to improve the city and you will give me everything I need to keep my shelter running." Anna Dupree asked the strange man who had ambushed her at the coffee shop an hour ago and had gone on and on about an offer that was too good to be true.
"Yes, we will give everything your patrons need to live their lives. Food, Medicine, Safe Drug Use Paraphernalia, All weather clothes, A Stipend and Counselling. Anything else they need will be provided, and this offer isn't limited to just your place. If you know any other NGOs then we are also willing to help them as well." The man says in that same smarmy way that most tech bros talk when they try to solve the world's problem without understanding them.
The words also raised up Anna's hackles, she had heard rumors of offers like these. FIrst they come with free finance and then after you grow dependent on them your regulars start disappearing, people start becoming sicker and meaner and problems grow in ways that are inexplicable but linked to these too good to be true offers.
"I appreciate the offer but I can't accept your offer in good faith unless you tell me why whatever organization gets out of this, it's too much for your standard tax write offs. " She challenges the man and he gives her a look of respect before he adopts a more natural posture and his expression becomes less salesman-like.
"I told them we should start with the truth but they want to try the mysterious benefactor thing, fuck that. You are too good a person to mess around with and you deserve the truth. The truth is that we are representative of a magical socialist commune that wants to give a lifeline to those in need. I know it sounds crazy but I can prove it." The thing that was a man just a second ago waves his hand in front of his face and he has horns and furry goat legs underneath.
Anna Dupree is a woman that has ran a shelter in new york for 4 decades, she is not easily shook but even she is mildly perturbed with this clearly supernatural phenomena. I mean its not a complete surprise, she thinks to herself, we have all heard about the happening in the shadows and back alleys and story from the unhoused but its another thing to have a magical being stand in front of her in a public coffee shop.
"Additionally we will also be granting access to the magic system we have developed just for your cause. We will create an Obelisk of Ma'at that you can access via our contract and it will grant you the power of administrative magic, stuff like paperwork completing automatically or minimising waste or even eliminating it. You would be able to grant blessings of fortune to those that adhere to the organisation's principles and grant them supernal grace of skill and luck. It would also let you have some time off without guilt as your spells could be tuned to resist external circumstances. If the magic lasts long enough you won't even need the obelisk for power, it will continue to empower your organisation's spirit until eventually it can independently empower you on its own. This would be universal for all your volunteers with you acting as a conduit. The Meta-mages are very excited to see it in action, a unique combination of Heku's Nomenclative magics unified with the animism of the Garou with Ma'at acting as a mediator." The Goat person finally
"Yeah I am out. That's too complicated for me." Anna says and leaves.
"Another whiff, I guess that's too much all at once. Well it's not like there is a shortage of people to help in this city, we only need one shelter." The satyr says inside his commlink and moves towards his next prospective partner.
"Get away from me." Bill says as the unknown man continues to chase him into the shadows of an alleyway.
Bill had just come off a long haul route down to Texas and was eager to get back home, he had cut through an alleyway just to get home little sooner, but on his way some creepy dude with fangs had attacked him and bit him. Bill has been fortunate enough to push him away enough to run away but it was a dire situation, being chased by a vampire that's faster than him through an unreasonably long alley.
Just as he loses hope and is about to be pounced upon by the assailant, a glowing figure appears out of nowhere and cuts the vampire in half.
As the light subsides it reveals a figure just as unbelievable as the vampire had been, but in the completely opposite direction.
A woman Armoured in Bronze Plate Mail, holding a buster sword the size of a horse. Behind her floats a ring of floating blades, forming a mandala of violence to frame her ferocity.
He tries to look at her bare face but he can't seem to focus on it, only getting the impression of a scowl directed at the vampire corpse at her feet.
The giant Buster sword in her glows and transforms into a massive hunting hound, a strange glowing creature the size of a horse with a sword for a snout and blades lining its back like a crocodile's hide.
"A Mad one, was hiding in the sewers, just came out of slumber and was starving. Smelled that man there and chased him mindlessly." The blade hound says as its metallic snout blade sniffs the air and it tracks the path that the vampire took.
"There is a whole nest of them, I think they would serve well as our first hunt as partners. Don't you think so, Victoria." The dog asks the armoured woman.
She just nods in response and then with a simple gesture the floating array of blades on her backs glows and they work together to carve a glowing portal behind her.
"Level 2 Enemy Signatures detected. Manufacturing PolyPhasic Shroud, Manufacturing Sterile Membrane, Deploying Hunter Seeker Ushabti." She intones and for a brief moment Bill swears he sees a vast workshop filled with magical devices but the illusion doesn't last.
A glowing silver cape flys out of the portal and settles on her shoulders automatically. A silver sheen covers her entire body for a split second before disappearing and leaving just a simple blur around her silhouette. A number of glowing paper talismans made out of golden Hieroglyph on papyrus appear through the portal before attaching to the hands of the floating blade array.
A dozen golden figures made out of pure energy appear, each holding the handle of a single floating blade. They all stand at attention and salute the golden warrior and she just faces palms.
"Is this really necessary, I don't need the autonomous killer robots to salute me. I mean I know they are just here to back up and protect any prospective civilians in there but we don't need them. You already lend me enough power through our bond, and I am only accessing the barest fraction of your Honkai Guardian power, but I can easily kill some vampires." She says to her partner, the now named Honkai Guardian:- Blade Hound.
"You know it's our first day, the eggheads at the Arsenal are just worried, not about the vampires but there is something much more powerful hiding underneath the city. Our divination hasn't found any trace but we have heard intel from the local murder spirits that not even the Garou go into the tunnels, and those that do go never come back. If they had their wish they would send an entire Executioner Brigade but we aren't allowed to go that loud just yet." The dog answered in the tone of someone rehashing the argument they had before.
At that Bill had enough, he is an American damn it and no one would ever ignore him even if they save his life.
"Hey guys, I appreciate the assist but can you kindly tell me what the fuck is going one. Is that a sword dog, are you a superhero?? I reiterate what is going on??" He starts out politely enough but by the end of the sentence spittle is flying out of his mouth as he tries to really emphasise the point.
The Woman sighs and absentmindedly rubs the head of her horse sized companion. Her glowing robots meanwhile sink through the floor as they phase through the ground to find their targets.
"Magic and shit is real and most of it is either evil or interested in people's self interests instead of the common good. My friend here is something called a Honkai Guardian, a species of spirits infused with the power of reality itself by some magical giant and now it is their job to find partners that they can provide a fraction of their immense power, which they need us mortals because it allows them to circumvent some treaties, and empower them to fight evil things. I am not a superhero yet, apparently they can't reveal the existence of magic to people just yet so I have to work in the shadows. But at least I get a dozen magical craftsmen and sorcerers ready to provide me with any equipment I need whenever I want so at least that's good." She says.
It takes a bit for Bill's mind to digest the deluge of words but his response is an eloquent one.
"What. The. Fuck."
Candy twirled around the pole one last time before she finished her performance and gathered up her discarded clothes and tips to get off the stage.
This early into the night the strip club was empty aside from the regulars who liked the quiet and charmaine's Gravy and Biscuit. The naked ladies were an appeal as well but most people waited for the night to come and gawk at their goods.
As she gets into her backstage she sees Gina, her colleague, talking to the air.
"It won't interfere with my job right? I know what people think but I am alright with this job. The hours and pay are good and I don't mind the nudity." She says and listens intently as if listening to someone reply.
"That's good, oh candy is here. Hi candy." Gina sees her and waves her over
Exhausted from her performance candy doesn't resist, but she is concerned that her friend has gone psycho.
But then she begins doubting her own sanity as she sees a floating fairy in front of her.
"Hi Candy, I am Maddie. I was just here offering gina to act as a muse for a collective of burnt out artists. You want to do it too?? There are a lot of artists crushed by the system, and you get cool magical dance powers if you do it." The fairy says.
Somewhere inside Candy a lifetime watching a girl capture magical cards regnites again.
"Can I hunt monsters instead??" She asks the fairy.
"Of course darling. You even get a companion if you wish." The Fairy answers.
Jacob walks out of the subway station late at night and approaches the Man in a hoodie that is standing in the prearranged street corner.
"The Wolf howls." Jacob says the pass phrase.
"The Prey Cowers." The man replies with the correct phrase.
"So here I am, your recruitment post at the forum didn't tell us why you wanted to meet here. Most of the people thought it was a trap set by the feds on behalf of the globalists. But I thought it would be too stupid for them. So I came here to check, but I have friends that are awaiting my reply so if you do anything my friends will hunt you and they do have guns." Jacob says to a man whose face he still can't see.
The man replies in a tone laden with gravitas that causes Jacob's hair to stand on end.
"I contacted your community because you Jacob and your friend are believers. You say you want to hunt those in power hunting children and drinking people's blood to stay young. But you are misguided my young friend, they have preyed upon you and your isolation and helplessness, made you blame those who are not responsible for your troubles. But despite that I believe you have goodness in your hearts, a desire to be righteous. All it needs is some compassion to temper it. My colleagues think you guys are lost causes, too deep into a phantasm that blind you and too ridden with prejudice they say. But not me and a small group of like minded people. We believe if channeled correctly your violent tendencies can be used for good, but we need to hammer the hate out of you at first." The hooded man says.
Jacob has heard similar, if slightly less ominous, screeds from the woke left before. He always hates it, he despises that they would try and pity him, that they would look down upon him when they are so blinded by mainstream media. But before he can give the man a piece of his mind the man draws something from his back.
It is beautiful, a futuristic sniper rifle in gleaming chrome black. A weapon that he had never even conceived of existing in reality. A railgun with floating drone to act as spotter and auto stabilizing tripod.
This is kind of shit the military hides at area 51. Jacob can't help but reach out to touch this piece of art.
The man stops him.
"Before I give you this beauty I am going to need you to do something for me. Namely I need you to spend a month working to coach a rec league team in an underserved community centre. You will get along with those people and you will learn about them as people and their problems. I am hoping this expansion of your world view is enough to help you learn some empathy. All paid at triple your current salary of course." The man says in his booming voice.
"Once you do that I will give you the gun and genetic and cybernetic enhancement, if you so wish, you need to wield it. Alongside some appropriate targets, that you can investigate independently from me."
Jacob wanted to cut and run right after the start of the sentence and the longer it went. It sounded like this was a lizardman trying to turn him into a cyborg assassin to do their bidding.
But something about the offer intrigued him, maybe this was his way in. He could learn about their operations and take them down from the inside. He would need to do it before they mind chip him but he was sure that he can do it. This is his chance to be a hero, maybe even save those so-called kids by teaching them the truth. His mother could use the extra cash for his fathers treatment as well but that wasn't the primary reason for jacob.
"Where do I sign?" He says
An:- some more side things the court is doing while ajax does more macro shit.
Honkai Guardians are the spirits of Ajax's court merged with the honkai DNA. They are aspected towards protecting and enhancing their a partners rather than swarming like the canon ones do.
It is a bit against Ajax intention of not gifting this power to humans but the courts are independent of him and as such over ruled him. Fortunately the power can be taken back by the honkai guardian at will so its not apocolyptic situation yet.
It is a bit against Ajax intention of not gifting this power to humans but the courts are independent of him and as such over ruled him. Fortunately the power can be taken back by the honkai guardian at will so its not apocolyptic situation yet.
- Location
- Eagan
Nice to see his court being proactive!
Chapter 11
I wake up with a refreshed mind and gently rub the first from my eyes. I get up leisurely and stretch to get the kinks from my obtuse sleeping pose. I go to the bathroom and clean up and do the necessary activities.
Then I realise I am floating upside down from the roof.
I sheepishly float to the ground and look up at the furniture on the ceiling.
"You were floating up in your sleep, your crew thought it would be funny if they put everything upside down to accommodate that. I give it a C." Coyote says as he hands me a towel to dry my hands.
He is looking completely different than yesterday, a suave man dressed in a black suit.His features are the high brow severe features of classical movie stars and his dispassionate gaze seem to pierce through me.
"Had a big day yesterday. Must have been pretty busy dealing with so much stuff in such a short time. Also it's not everyday you finally get your growth spurt." He says.
"Oh yeah I can't believe that all that was only in a single day. It felt longer while I was doing it. But anyway, how are you doing? You look a bit different." I say politely, trying not to offend him. Now that I am strong enough, I can actually see the blazing aura of power that denotes an Incarna. I am strong enough magically to be the weakest rung of that ladder, with my modification, but I lack the sheer authority and position to leverage that power in less obvious ways than simple spells.
"Well, Normally this is where I would play coy and hint at whatever mysterious activities I was doing that require disguise. But that show is for mortals or those too pompous or stupid to infer the truth. Since we are at least nominally peers now, congratulations by the way, I will dispense with the usual trappings. I was using the chaos you caused to advance the cause of gaia, I baited Fenrir with clues about your location into hunting an archmage through the timeline when they crashed against your protection. Organised a few raids on some under guarded pentax facilities and helped some colleague from egypt burn down a few wyrmish temples." He says with the same dispassionate tone of voice.
"Ok, I appreciate the candor and I am always happy to help. But why are you here then?? Because if you are so busy I doubt it is a social call. Especially with this dour look on you." I say a bit thoughtless and cringe at
the abrasiveness of my question.
"You are worried why I am so serious right now. I understand that would be jarring after the meeting we had yesterday. But its not a big deal, you will learn that in all good comedies sometimes you have to play the straight man and my appointment after you considers himself a funny guy. But as for why I am here, its simple. I am here to welcome you to the big league. Now that you have your own court, which is crazy that you just manifested it by yourself. I had so many plans to string you along one you actually joined gaia, you need to learn that every action you make will also hold weight. Did you read that book of the Treaties I gave you yesterday?" he asks and I know from his slightly upraised brow that he knows.
"Yeah, well I did read most of yesterday but it was kind of a busy day and I forgot most of it. Its not exactly a sticky subject." I admit a bit sheepishly.
"Of course, perfectly understandable." He says that and takes out a notebook and marks off something "Well, a brief summary, you can't directly change mortal society aside from blessings and inspiration and guidance. If you try to circumvent that they get carte blanche to act directly as well without any repercussions from the big players, notwithstanding the natural defence of humanity." He says.
"That doesn't make any sense, I have so many ways of helping the world. That's bullshit." The treaty's words make me mad, truly wonderfully made. I almost punch through the floor of the boat to get into a fist fight with some of those potential adversaries. But then my sense of violence necessary for change pings my attention and naughty ideas come to my mind.
"So the only consequence of any direct action is just a commensurate amount of interference by our opponents right, what if we just out spend them. Because I have a dozen ways of generating immense gnosis that don't require me to be there. I can bankroll direct action while also moving to undercut their own efforts, they aren't used to dealing with someone who can just arbitrarily draw more power from the aether at the scale that I can. Let's do a test turn, nothing that overt but a way to drain them and empower us. Let's see what they do. I believe I can outplay them." I say and the conviction of my words must be showing through. Because at my declaration Coyote gives me his first genuine smile, a morbid rictus grin that is reminiscent of the cheshire cat.
"I knew I liked you for a reason. Let me pull some strings, I think I have the perfect target for you." He says while still smiling.
Despite everything that happened yesterday, I have to admit flying is fucking awesome!!!
I fly through the clouds of the umbra at hypersonic speed, skimming below the divide to the high umbra and the deep umbra. The wind feels like a caress of an eager lover as it ruffles my feathers. The wings of my Ba manifested behind me and shedding the black feathers.
I dive down and reach the sea in a second, my shockwave following a few seconds behind as trees are flattened for nearly a mile and the jaggling around the forest flying away in fright. I rocket across the continental United States, crossing from the wyrm hellscape that is California to the wyrm hellscape that is New York, hugging the ground the entire way. I casually decimate wyrm holes and hives that I find across the country, my draupnir spears penetrating into the mantle. Great and Terrible wyrm spirits try to rise to meet me but even this body carries the strength of my giant's talent and I just punch through them all, I don't even get dirty as my sheer speed wicks off the offal without an issue.
Overall it takes me about 10 minutes to bombard every obvious wyrm location not inside a city in the entire country with time to spare. Theis Honkai beasts sure are strong, it seems. I am glad I don't plan on giving this to humans, but I can't wait to see if my true body can fly.
That should get them riled up, maybe even enough to not try the slow subtle subversion route. Which is the hardest thing for me to counter now. But even the most perfidious wyrm cultists are not so devoid of pride to let this get unanswered. They will probably try to retaliate in some way but it should be more difficult without most of their heaviest assets on the spiritual sights.
My flight back is less hurried, merely a supersonic stroll through the sky as smoke spirits sublimate from the wreckage I leave behind. I pay no attention to them, they are small fries at best and I can already see the spirits of the wild stalk the edge of their holes, eager for a vengeance long denied.
I touch down in central park without the shockwave, a simple gesture dispersing the force. The carnage I left behind has already been reclaimed, the soil spirits and the umbra phages already decomposing the mountain of ash left. The furrow I dug in the ground sprouting wild flowers and wild shrubs from the mist of my blood that coats the entire park, supercharging the ecosystem.
Before I can go back to Caern I have one more task that I have to do.
I quickly walk towards the location of where the Spire and its Wyrmhole still radiate the essence of entropy to everything around them. Their aural radiation is like being sprayed in the face with a mixture of pepper spray and raw sewage, survivable technically but a disgusting experience nonetheless.
I raise my arm and channel a mote of mana from my bond with Skidbladnir, the first practical test of drawing energy from my lands. Its bit more complex than just tapping the land's own mana, rather it is spreading the load of drawing the mana from the void without collapsing from doing it directly. I already have ideas for alternative means of drawing mana through things like treasure and currency or even creating a perpetual machine that can bear the load of drawing the mana from the void directly.
That spark of potential actually gave me the idea of what I am about to do.
I channel that mote of green mana through the perfect conduits that is the honkai flesh and release a blast of magic that engulfs the sky scrapper. The green mana is not like the magic I cast when invoking the power of Heku, it is a more primal and visceral thing. A blast of nature's wrath and the return to a sylvan times, with the intensity of a nuke.
The twisted architecture of the Spire melts before the power, the pitiful wards of the BSD Theurge's washing away like sand banks in tide. The power washes over the entire structure and abruptly it disappears. Where it used to be now stands a rocky mesa with a top cover in vegetation. It is an incongruent sight, a giant pillar of natural rock standing in the middle of the spirit scape of the City. But I see no problems with it.
I fly to the top of the mesa and look around for what I want. My new senses find it immediately, a circular hole in the middle of the Mesa that goes further into the dark than a mortal can ever see.
I fly down the crevice and arrive at the bottom without touching down where the ground is supposed to be. I just float there and take in the sight before me.
A hole in reality floats above the ground. A singularity that warps the space around itself, leaving oily bleeding wounds all round it.
This is a Wyrmhole. A hole in the world that is bored into the wyrm, a wound on the aspect of destruction. A paradoxical wound that oozes nothingness into the world.
I take my spear and manifest 4 more of them. I space the spear like tent pegs, digging into the edges of the wyrm hole in a circle around it. I take some of the strange feathers and tie them to the neck of the spears, as talisman to channel my spell.
"O Hateful Wyrm, You are trapped and mad. A broken thing forever warped by the violation inflicted upon you. We are enemies, you and I. You have shed ocean of my People's bloods and I will Cleanse the world of your perfidious tools. But even you deserve Gaia's Mercy and Redemption. So I dedicate this working to you, not as you are now but the Sublimation of all that is good within you. So I will do it and So it shall be, So I Declare." I finish channeling the magic of the spell I cast.
Where the Hole to the Abyss used to float now a pure white of creation stands in its place. It is a Ontological Inversion again, a true transformation enabled by the Forge, from a singularity of unbalanced entropy into a nucleus of balanced existence.
The leakage of even my supernal mastery has melted the inside of the caldera into glass and the Buried Spears have transformed into Obelisks of Purification, each with a strange feather in its heart.
It is the strongest working I have ever cast and it is a simple thing in principle. It is Reminder and a promise.
It is a wart on the hide of the Dead Wyrm, a constant itch and a bad memory and a nostalgic sensation all in once. A speck that will defy all its trashing and enmity, a proof that things can be like they used to be, before things went as wrong as they did. It is a Reminder that is an infinitesimal part of the Wyrm's nature can be changed then why not anything else.
It is a promise to myself, that there is a better way. That things don't have to end with me standing with my spear buried in its heart with the world devastated in our dialectic. It is promise to the Wyrm that things can get better and that I will fix it, by force if necessary.
I know it infuriates it because I can feel the earth rumble as the Wyrm of the End thrashes against its bindings like it has never done before.
I just smile. It is a good morning.
I feel Gaia reward my work as two more motes emerge from my soul and instead of augmenting me like usual, it goes ant is absorbed by my spear.
Destroy 80% of Wyrmish forces on the continent(400 CP)
Truly Make the Wyrm Hate Hate Hate Hate you.(600 CP)
Rolling
Pasupatta Astra(Eaten By Draupnir Spear)(600 CP)
While it takes the form of a mythical Hindu weapon, this is in fact a fragment of the rock Caine used in the first murder. It is, needless to say, a powerful foci for will working. With this, a skilled mage could control hundreds of millions of Avatars, stop the end of the world, or even murder Death itself to create an unchanging paradise.
Daedelus Laptop(Eaten By Draupnir Spear)(400 CP)
This Laptop contains the collected works and musing of the great tinker Deadelus. With some work you might be able to figure out how to build his wonders, ranging from self maintaining automata, to wings capable of flight (that won't melt) to lesser versions of The Labyrinth (semi sapient bit of architecture that can warp themselves to suit your needs). It will take quite a bit of work to figure out how to build stuff from here though.
My smile falls from my lips and I immediately fly back to my ship, shattering the mesa from the sheer speed of my ascent. I briefly form a plasma sheath around me before I punch through the reinforced hull of my ship and enter the chamber where my primary body is being augmented.
All of the researchers and mages studying the gestations of new honkai guardians and augmenting the shipborne pause and gap at my apparent haste.
"We have to hide right now, quickly gather a circle of mages we need for the Ritual." I command immediately, all thoughts of non-hierarchical organization forgotten in my pants shitting terror.
I feel my fear ripple through my entire court, their psychescape trembling like a lake in a storm.
I begin the ritual on my own, raising my arms as I tap into the bonds that link with the ship and almost thoughtlessly use them to channel an absurd amount of mana. A dozen other mages see me do it and join me in a ritual circle, forming concentric rings around me. I offload the mental load of channeling so much power onto them and they nearly buckle under the strain of struggling to channel literal rivers of power.
I hear distant booms outside the ship as bright flashes of light almost blind my magical senses. The last thing I can feel is hundreds of immensely magical beings forcibly overlapping their reality over the middle umbra. My sense of Ma'at froths at the mouth at the sheer perversion of these beings but I don't have my complete capabilities yet.
I have to protect my newest gifts from falling into any beings hands. The damage anyone can do with an infinite supply of the ultimate weapon is inconceivable. Even a single copy of the weapon can kill death itself and change universal constants. Merged with a spear that can make copies and you have an omnicidal army. It's too dangerous to be even conceived.
I have to use the gift of the planeswalker's spark to escape, even if I have nowhere else to go.
I channel the ocean of mana the growing ritual circle has gathered and throw that up in a shield around the ship. Enough power to turn new york into dust instead channeled to form a shield of Ma'at. I feel the feedback from the shield as beams and bursts of immense power crash and shake the entire ship.
I look out the shield with my astral senses and notice the carnage outside.
The sky is awash with dozens of rifts, great cuts and scars in the sky as mortals and immortals descend from their ivory towers to wage war once more to claim the world's destiny.
A contingent of these archmages are machine men, people that have grafted everything from clockwork parts to the latest digital tools onto their flesh to achieve a posthuman power. They barrage my shield with rays of radiation and whips of superfluids. I feel their more covert companions try to have infiltrated my ship retroactively, before they crash into my lost belt. They summon armies of Machine spirits, not merely the spirits of objects but rather the remote terminal for the Celestine of the Machine. Each of these chthonic cyborgs is attended by flying swarms of Autochthonian Kill Bots. Through the tears behind I can see fleets of Warships prepare reality formatting superweapons to come and fight. They will take the weapon from me and forge an armada to bring the stars to heel.
Another group is those of the Warrior-Saints, Sword-Sages and Martial Patriarchs. These beings that have spent centuries perfecting their physical form and now they strike me with one thousand sword strikes that hit like nukes. They are accompanied by no court for each is a Perfect Killer and they are here because I have a weapon that is Just as Perfect as them.
On and On and On the list goes, old monsters and young upstarts, prodigies and prodigal sons, Independent or Subservient. One and all they come to this place and they crash against my shield.
Its not just brute force, i can feel the old celestial masters and Ordo Archmagi's try to unravel my shield. I see the Death cultists write my death into the firmament and the technognostics hack my body.
But I am not alone either. The initial circle continues to channel more power into the shield as more and more join them, hundreds at this point, and lighten the load. I lead the artificers in inventing karmic shunts. Me and the Gene Mages Send a counter hack that is a virus not of data but of biology. My Forge Adepts constantly transform the shield's sections, denying any attempt to dispel it by leaning on the greater mystery of change.
The whole of the Court has bent itself to the task of upholding the shield that separates us from the mad name breakers.
I use that second of reprieve to fly back to my main body in its container.
What a fool I was. Thinking that I could seal so much of my power while going through this conversion. But at least I didn't seal the planeswalking ritual.
But where would I even plane walk to?? These reality benders can always follow me into even the deep umbra, indeed that is their hometurf. I can trying Walking into the void outside reality, the oblivion that is the core of the Wyrm's Spiral and the dark place where the caul converts their mages into the inverted monsters.
No, I would rather celestial tyrants hold the ultimate weapons before any of the world ending abominations.
But where can I hide, only the material world is safe from these beings. I have a plan how to regain my true body but it requires time, time I don't have i remind myself as a particularly powerful strike shakes the Shield.
"Come to me my Child, Hide in my bosom." A familiar voice suddenly echoes through my entire being.
Its not a voice I could ever be able to describe but it is as familiar to me as breathing. She was there at my first breath and she will carry me to the great beyond, I can never repay what she has done and she continues to pile more debt on my straining shoulders.
Gaia's words come with a mission and the simplicity of the idea causes me to smile.
I immediately chant the words of the ritual and power it.
The world stops existing for a brief second and then we are someplace else.
Land curves overhead as far as the eye can see, lush forest and desolate mountains coinciding with subterranean oceans.
I look down and shield my eyes at the bright glare. Little helios makes a rude gesture at us but the Hollow earth's sun doesn't harm us as we orbit it at the center of the earth.
There is a rumbling as every tunnel, river and borehole into the hollow earth collapse and the very ground heaves as Gaia seals her Planetary realm, sheathed in the unbreakable shield of the normative force of humanity.
"Thank you All-Mother. I can't repay you. But I can't let them drive me off in fear. I will prepare and strike them down once I am done." I declare the ever present will of gaia.
I get down to enacting my plan.
Then I realise I am floating upside down from the roof.
I sheepishly float to the ground and look up at the furniture on the ceiling.
"You were floating up in your sleep, your crew thought it would be funny if they put everything upside down to accommodate that. I give it a C." Coyote says as he hands me a towel to dry my hands.
He is looking completely different than yesterday, a suave man dressed in a black suit.His features are the high brow severe features of classical movie stars and his dispassionate gaze seem to pierce through me.
"Had a big day yesterday. Must have been pretty busy dealing with so much stuff in such a short time. Also it's not everyday you finally get your growth spurt." He says.
"Oh yeah I can't believe that all that was only in a single day. It felt longer while I was doing it. But anyway, how are you doing? You look a bit different." I say politely, trying not to offend him. Now that I am strong enough, I can actually see the blazing aura of power that denotes an Incarna. I am strong enough magically to be the weakest rung of that ladder, with my modification, but I lack the sheer authority and position to leverage that power in less obvious ways than simple spells.
"Well, Normally this is where I would play coy and hint at whatever mysterious activities I was doing that require disguise. But that show is for mortals or those too pompous or stupid to infer the truth. Since we are at least nominally peers now, congratulations by the way, I will dispense with the usual trappings. I was using the chaos you caused to advance the cause of gaia, I baited Fenrir with clues about your location into hunting an archmage through the timeline when they crashed against your protection. Organised a few raids on some under guarded pentax facilities and helped some colleague from egypt burn down a few wyrmish temples." He says with the same dispassionate tone of voice.
"Ok, I appreciate the candor and I am always happy to help. But why are you here then?? Because if you are so busy I doubt it is a social call. Especially with this dour look on you." I say a bit thoughtless and cringe at
the abrasiveness of my question.
"You are worried why I am so serious right now. I understand that would be jarring after the meeting we had yesterday. But its not a big deal, you will learn that in all good comedies sometimes you have to play the straight man and my appointment after you considers himself a funny guy. But as for why I am here, its simple. I am here to welcome you to the big league. Now that you have your own court, which is crazy that you just manifested it by yourself. I had so many plans to string you along one you actually joined gaia, you need to learn that every action you make will also hold weight. Did you read that book of the Treaties I gave you yesterday?" he asks and I know from his slightly upraised brow that he knows.
"Yeah, well I did read most of yesterday but it was kind of a busy day and I forgot most of it. Its not exactly a sticky subject." I admit a bit sheepishly.
"Of course, perfectly understandable." He says that and takes out a notebook and marks off something "Well, a brief summary, you can't directly change mortal society aside from blessings and inspiration and guidance. If you try to circumvent that they get carte blanche to act directly as well without any repercussions from the big players, notwithstanding the natural defence of humanity." He says.
"That doesn't make any sense, I have so many ways of helping the world. That's bullshit." The treaty's words make me mad, truly wonderfully made. I almost punch through the floor of the boat to get into a fist fight with some of those potential adversaries. But then my sense of violence necessary for change pings my attention and naughty ideas come to my mind.
"So the only consequence of any direct action is just a commensurate amount of interference by our opponents right, what if we just out spend them. Because I have a dozen ways of generating immense gnosis that don't require me to be there. I can bankroll direct action while also moving to undercut their own efforts, they aren't used to dealing with someone who can just arbitrarily draw more power from the aether at the scale that I can. Let's do a test turn, nothing that overt but a way to drain them and empower us. Let's see what they do. I believe I can outplay them." I say and the conviction of my words must be showing through. Because at my declaration Coyote gives me his first genuine smile, a morbid rictus grin that is reminiscent of the cheshire cat.
"I knew I liked you for a reason. Let me pull some strings, I think I have the perfect target for you." He says while still smiling.
Despite everything that happened yesterday, I have to admit flying is fucking awesome!!!
I fly through the clouds of the umbra at hypersonic speed, skimming below the divide to the high umbra and the deep umbra. The wind feels like a caress of an eager lover as it ruffles my feathers. The wings of my Ba manifested behind me and shedding the black feathers.
I dive down and reach the sea in a second, my shockwave following a few seconds behind as trees are flattened for nearly a mile and the jaggling around the forest flying away in fright. I rocket across the continental United States, crossing from the wyrm hellscape that is California to the wyrm hellscape that is New York, hugging the ground the entire way. I casually decimate wyrm holes and hives that I find across the country, my draupnir spears penetrating into the mantle. Great and Terrible wyrm spirits try to rise to meet me but even this body carries the strength of my giant's talent and I just punch through them all, I don't even get dirty as my sheer speed wicks off the offal without an issue.
Overall it takes me about 10 minutes to bombard every obvious wyrm location not inside a city in the entire country with time to spare. Theis Honkai beasts sure are strong, it seems. I am glad I don't plan on giving this to humans, but I can't wait to see if my true body can fly.
That should get them riled up, maybe even enough to not try the slow subtle subversion route. Which is the hardest thing for me to counter now. But even the most perfidious wyrm cultists are not so devoid of pride to let this get unanswered. They will probably try to retaliate in some way but it should be more difficult without most of their heaviest assets on the spiritual sights.
My flight back is less hurried, merely a supersonic stroll through the sky as smoke spirits sublimate from the wreckage I leave behind. I pay no attention to them, they are small fries at best and I can already see the spirits of the wild stalk the edge of their holes, eager for a vengeance long denied.
I touch down in central park without the shockwave, a simple gesture dispersing the force. The carnage I left behind has already been reclaimed, the soil spirits and the umbra phages already decomposing the mountain of ash left. The furrow I dug in the ground sprouting wild flowers and wild shrubs from the mist of my blood that coats the entire park, supercharging the ecosystem.
Before I can go back to Caern I have one more task that I have to do.
I quickly walk towards the location of where the Spire and its Wyrmhole still radiate the essence of entropy to everything around them. Their aural radiation is like being sprayed in the face with a mixture of pepper spray and raw sewage, survivable technically but a disgusting experience nonetheless.
I raise my arm and channel a mote of mana from my bond with Skidbladnir, the first practical test of drawing energy from my lands. Its bit more complex than just tapping the land's own mana, rather it is spreading the load of drawing the mana from the void without collapsing from doing it directly. I already have ideas for alternative means of drawing mana through things like treasure and currency or even creating a perpetual machine that can bear the load of drawing the mana from the void directly.
That spark of potential actually gave me the idea of what I am about to do.
I channel that mote of green mana through the perfect conduits that is the honkai flesh and release a blast of magic that engulfs the sky scrapper. The green mana is not like the magic I cast when invoking the power of Heku, it is a more primal and visceral thing. A blast of nature's wrath and the return to a sylvan times, with the intensity of a nuke.
The twisted architecture of the Spire melts before the power, the pitiful wards of the BSD Theurge's washing away like sand banks in tide. The power washes over the entire structure and abruptly it disappears. Where it used to be now stands a rocky mesa with a top cover in vegetation. It is an incongruent sight, a giant pillar of natural rock standing in the middle of the spirit scape of the City. But I see no problems with it.
I fly to the top of the mesa and look around for what I want. My new senses find it immediately, a circular hole in the middle of the Mesa that goes further into the dark than a mortal can ever see.
I fly down the crevice and arrive at the bottom without touching down where the ground is supposed to be. I just float there and take in the sight before me.
A hole in reality floats above the ground. A singularity that warps the space around itself, leaving oily bleeding wounds all round it.
This is a Wyrmhole. A hole in the world that is bored into the wyrm, a wound on the aspect of destruction. A paradoxical wound that oozes nothingness into the world.
I take my spear and manifest 4 more of them. I space the spear like tent pegs, digging into the edges of the wyrm hole in a circle around it. I take some of the strange feathers and tie them to the neck of the spears, as talisman to channel my spell.
"O Hateful Wyrm, You are trapped and mad. A broken thing forever warped by the violation inflicted upon you. We are enemies, you and I. You have shed ocean of my People's bloods and I will Cleanse the world of your perfidious tools. But even you deserve Gaia's Mercy and Redemption. So I dedicate this working to you, not as you are now but the Sublimation of all that is good within you. So I will do it and So it shall be, So I Declare." I finish channeling the magic of the spell I cast.
Where the Hole to the Abyss used to float now a pure white of creation stands in its place. It is a Ontological Inversion again, a true transformation enabled by the Forge, from a singularity of unbalanced entropy into a nucleus of balanced existence.
The leakage of even my supernal mastery has melted the inside of the caldera into glass and the Buried Spears have transformed into Obelisks of Purification, each with a strange feather in its heart.
It is the strongest working I have ever cast and it is a simple thing in principle. It is Reminder and a promise.
It is a wart on the hide of the Dead Wyrm, a constant itch and a bad memory and a nostalgic sensation all in once. A speck that will defy all its trashing and enmity, a proof that things can be like they used to be, before things went as wrong as they did. It is a Reminder that is an infinitesimal part of the Wyrm's nature can be changed then why not anything else.
It is a promise to myself, that there is a better way. That things don't have to end with me standing with my spear buried in its heart with the world devastated in our dialectic. It is promise to the Wyrm that things can get better and that I will fix it, by force if necessary.
I know it infuriates it because I can feel the earth rumble as the Wyrm of the End thrashes against its bindings like it has never done before.
I just smile. It is a good morning.
I feel Gaia reward my work as two more motes emerge from my soul and instead of augmenting me like usual, it goes ant is absorbed by my spear.
Destroy 80% of Wyrmish forces on the continent(400 CP)
Truly Make the Wyrm Hate Hate Hate Hate you.(600 CP)
Rolling
Pasupatta Astra(Eaten By Draupnir Spear)(600 CP)
While it takes the form of a mythical Hindu weapon, this is in fact a fragment of the rock Caine used in the first murder. It is, needless to say, a powerful foci for will working. With this, a skilled mage could control hundreds of millions of Avatars, stop the end of the world, or even murder Death itself to create an unchanging paradise.
Daedelus Laptop(Eaten By Draupnir Spear)(400 CP)
This Laptop contains the collected works and musing of the great tinker Deadelus. With some work you might be able to figure out how to build his wonders, ranging from self maintaining automata, to wings capable of flight (that won't melt) to lesser versions of The Labyrinth (semi sapient bit of architecture that can warp themselves to suit your needs). It will take quite a bit of work to figure out how to build stuff from here though.
My smile falls from my lips and I immediately fly back to my ship, shattering the mesa from the sheer speed of my ascent. I briefly form a plasma sheath around me before I punch through the reinforced hull of my ship and enter the chamber where my primary body is being augmented.
All of the researchers and mages studying the gestations of new honkai guardians and augmenting the shipborne pause and gap at my apparent haste.
"We have to hide right now, quickly gather a circle of mages we need for the Ritual." I command immediately, all thoughts of non-hierarchical organization forgotten in my pants shitting terror.
I feel my fear ripple through my entire court, their psychescape trembling like a lake in a storm.
I begin the ritual on my own, raising my arms as I tap into the bonds that link with the ship and almost thoughtlessly use them to channel an absurd amount of mana. A dozen other mages see me do it and join me in a ritual circle, forming concentric rings around me. I offload the mental load of channeling so much power onto them and they nearly buckle under the strain of struggling to channel literal rivers of power.
I hear distant booms outside the ship as bright flashes of light almost blind my magical senses. The last thing I can feel is hundreds of immensely magical beings forcibly overlapping their reality over the middle umbra. My sense of Ma'at froths at the mouth at the sheer perversion of these beings but I don't have my complete capabilities yet.
I have to protect my newest gifts from falling into any beings hands. The damage anyone can do with an infinite supply of the ultimate weapon is inconceivable. Even a single copy of the weapon can kill death itself and change universal constants. Merged with a spear that can make copies and you have an omnicidal army. It's too dangerous to be even conceived.
I have to use the gift of the planeswalker's spark to escape, even if I have nowhere else to go.
I channel the ocean of mana the growing ritual circle has gathered and throw that up in a shield around the ship. Enough power to turn new york into dust instead channeled to form a shield of Ma'at. I feel the feedback from the shield as beams and bursts of immense power crash and shake the entire ship.
I look out the shield with my astral senses and notice the carnage outside.
The sky is awash with dozens of rifts, great cuts and scars in the sky as mortals and immortals descend from their ivory towers to wage war once more to claim the world's destiny.
A contingent of these archmages are machine men, people that have grafted everything from clockwork parts to the latest digital tools onto their flesh to achieve a posthuman power. They barrage my shield with rays of radiation and whips of superfluids. I feel their more covert companions try to have infiltrated my ship retroactively, before they crash into my lost belt. They summon armies of Machine spirits, not merely the spirits of objects but rather the remote terminal for the Celestine of the Machine. Each of these chthonic cyborgs is attended by flying swarms of Autochthonian Kill Bots. Through the tears behind I can see fleets of Warships prepare reality formatting superweapons to come and fight. They will take the weapon from me and forge an armada to bring the stars to heel.
Another group is those of the Warrior-Saints, Sword-Sages and Martial Patriarchs. These beings that have spent centuries perfecting their physical form and now they strike me with one thousand sword strikes that hit like nukes. They are accompanied by no court for each is a Perfect Killer and they are here because I have a weapon that is Just as Perfect as them.
On and On and On the list goes, old monsters and young upstarts, prodigies and prodigal sons, Independent or Subservient. One and all they come to this place and they crash against my shield.
Its not just brute force, i can feel the old celestial masters and Ordo Archmagi's try to unravel my shield. I see the Death cultists write my death into the firmament and the technognostics hack my body.
But I am not alone either. The initial circle continues to channel more power into the shield as more and more join them, hundreds at this point, and lighten the load. I lead the artificers in inventing karmic shunts. Me and the Gene Mages Send a counter hack that is a virus not of data but of biology. My Forge Adepts constantly transform the shield's sections, denying any attempt to dispel it by leaning on the greater mystery of change.
The whole of the Court has bent itself to the task of upholding the shield that separates us from the mad name breakers.
I use that second of reprieve to fly back to my main body in its container.
What a fool I was. Thinking that I could seal so much of my power while going through this conversion. But at least I didn't seal the planeswalking ritual.
But where would I even plane walk to?? These reality benders can always follow me into even the deep umbra, indeed that is their hometurf. I can trying Walking into the void outside reality, the oblivion that is the core of the Wyrm's Spiral and the dark place where the caul converts their mages into the inverted monsters.
No, I would rather celestial tyrants hold the ultimate weapons before any of the world ending abominations.
But where can I hide, only the material world is safe from these beings. I have a plan how to regain my true body but it requires time, time I don't have i remind myself as a particularly powerful strike shakes the Shield.
"Come to me my Child, Hide in my bosom." A familiar voice suddenly echoes through my entire being.
Its not a voice I could ever be able to describe but it is as familiar to me as breathing. She was there at my first breath and she will carry me to the great beyond, I can never repay what she has done and she continues to pile more debt on my straining shoulders.
Gaia's words come with a mission and the simplicity of the idea causes me to smile.
I immediately chant the words of the ritual and power it.
The world stops existing for a brief second and then we are someplace else.
Land curves overhead as far as the eye can see, lush forest and desolate mountains coinciding with subterranean oceans.
I look down and shield my eyes at the bright glare. Little helios makes a rude gesture at us but the Hollow earth's sun doesn't harm us as we orbit it at the center of the earth.
There is a rumbling as every tunnel, river and borehole into the hollow earth collapse and the very ground heaves as Gaia seals her Planetary realm, sheathed in the unbreakable shield of the normative force of humanity.
"Thank you All-Mother. I can't repay you. But I can't let them drive me off in fear. I will prepare and strike them down once I am done." I declare the ever present will of gaia.
I get down to enacting my plan.
- Location
- Eagan
I don't know whether to call your character extremely lucky or extremely UN-lucky! Dude just can't seem to catch a break!
Chapter 12
Alongside becoming the icon of murder and the ultimate weapon, my spear has gained another upgrade. It is now a computer, specifically the computer of a daedalus who had millenia to hone his inventions and push them past even magic and well into the domain of divinity. His cleverness was given the time that mortality robs from even the greatest genius and my spear contains the sum knowledge of his centuries of study.
The knowledge contained within is remarkable. Things like android bodies fully compatible with souls, the secrets of how the gods forge their divine metals and the schematics of modern divine relics, to his ultimate achievement the creation of a continent spanning liminal labyrinth. Not merely just a group of tunnels, it is rather a living berthing dimension that spreads across the continent connecting places of powers and hidden enclaves. It controls space and time within it and it can even shield a person from the collective unconsciousness. A true refuge that can hide from even the gods.
In other words it is perfect for my needs. I can already feel my genius for artifice and my affinity with the forge already working to make me design even better labyrinths. Ideas to make them weave between dimensions, making them into living rites that became a journey of transformation for any intruder and even ways of making them as artificial scaffolding in reality.
The ideas come heavy and fast but I push them aside because first I have to put my true body in action again, I won't be bullied by some namebreaker punks and they won't force me to go back down from the commitment to the people I empowered.
I spawn a dozen copies of spear and use them to make the calculations needed for the changes I need to make. The spears project the schematics into my mind and I quickly get to work. Before retrieving ever copy of the spears of course.
I call down teams of giants and the geomancers, they knock down walls and clear rubble at my command. the Navigators and Bioshapers make sure the ship doesn't die or decompress from the damage. The artificers make all of the infrastructure besides the actual physical halls. All the mana colliders and collaters and the mana prisms and the automaton factories and the monster synthesizers. The adepts of the forge transubstantiate the entire ship a bit left to make it a liminal realm of chthonic nature.
By the end of our focused effort of the day the technology of daedalus takes hold and the whole ship shivers as a fundamental transformation passes through it.
The walls and rooms become cloaked in obscuring shadows, the paths become twisty and uncertain and the very substance of the realm becomes thick with mystery and the unknown. Time bends as my will bends what is unseen by the world, cloaked by my dungeon.
I quickly discard my drone body and fly my Ba back to my own body.
The transformation happens gradually at first but as the changed dna gains momentum the process becomes faster and faster.
In only an hour of real, and a fortnight of subjective, time has me regaining sense of my body as the gigantic tube holding my floating body recedes into the ground.
My feet touch the ground with a slight thud, the dungeon displacing my weight across its entirety, and feel no disorientation.
I would have expected there to be dysmorphia or dissociation after completely changing my Dna and replacing it with a quantum lattice but I honestly feel no real difference.
Oh I can feel the burning well of energy as my massively more efficient body taps and stores weeks worth of mana from my bond with my ship, and the physically power I feel in my limbs makes me feel like I can juggle cities like balls. I know instantly and instinctively the location of everything in my field of vision and my sight can see everything for hundreds of miles around. I feel the fabric of space and how easily I can dance across it, I pull a giant plum from the gardens of the jade emperor just to test my range and I feel no strain as I can reach across the realms with ease. There are no plums there, the sealed realm long since gone to seed but the lingering seals feel like no impediment to my reach. It would take some heavy magic indeed to prevent me from skipping across space.
Fundamentally I feel completely the same, I still love my sister and gaia, I still love the garou nation and even with more agency than anyone has ever had to change it, I still don't like the Wyrm. Hell I still have the same favorite baseball team and the same anime, so I feel fine.
But I can't ignore what this means for my future plans, with my strength and magic and my spear I can win even those near-ascended name breakers. I could probably go to war and raze continents without anyone to stop me. Hell, Gaia herself has risk her existence to shelter me. She must have faith in me and my potential, and now its time to repay that hope.
I have a plan and my sense of Ma'at is advising me against it. It is against the natural order, it will change things too abruptly and the change will be chaotic. It could backfire. All sound advice.
But I ignore it. I serve Ma'at only because it is right, but rightness doesn't derive from Ma'at but is a precursor to it.
I have lived with knowing the world was doomed for most of life, watching in impotent rage as those with more power slowly throw us further down the drain. Be they mortal, garou, pentex or even the wyrm. In the end it is the board that is rotten, the system itself is broken. Oblivion gnaws at the root of the world tree and Apophis writhes as it gulps down the world at one bite at a time.
But I have the power now, I have agency to decide the fate of the world. To break the natural order and bring about the change that the world needs. It may cause chaos and destruction.
But I know the Base VIolence Necessary for Change.
So no more wool gathering, no more waiting for the spirits to save us. I will change everything and it happens now.
I draw my cloak from my shoulders and raise a plinth of iron to lay it down on.
My weeks of subjective time have grown the size of my cloak of feathers, its sable black form reaches down past my waist. It is a comfort to hold and to wear. It makes the world feel more grounded around me, it makes it so that every growing hole in my soul shrinks a little instead. It's like a security blanket protecting me from the breakdown of reality.
I dissolve the spell of binding and the feathers flutter away forming a pile of incredibly soft fluff. I clear the pile off my plinth and deposit it to the side for a bit.
I look below me, where my geomancers and artificers are carving tunnels and chambers for a dungeon. Well, below is a relative term when standing upside down on the ceiling of the hollow earth.
My plinth is the spoke from which the great wheel of the dungeon radiates out from. It is a pillar of gaian iron, drawn from the depths of the solid core of the planet. It is a piece of gaia's heart and I feel terrible injuring my goddess so. But I reformed it and more besides from my magic, I just need the heartblood gaia to make this work.
It stands a kilometer tall and it shines iridescent black of a metal that's been scoured by extreme heat and pressure. Every inch of its surface is covered in 3 dimensional hieroglyphs, invocations to Ma'at and Isfet both for this is the work of true creation.
I take a crystal clear prism from my pocket and set it at the top of the prism. Its deceptively docile but this little gem is the strongest and stablest artifact I can produce that creates mana. This gem starts slowly but because its an tesseract it will continue to generate more and more energy. In a week it will have enough power to power a city, in a month the entire country and by the end of the year the entire world. It took me hours to get the structure and symbols of the artifact before I could make it.
But this is perfect for my needs here today. To fuel my magnum opus, a solution once and for all.
I summon a spear and melt it, the bronze runs like water and then floats in the air as I slowly shape it into a ring. The bronze ring floats for a second as I inscribe a trillion nanoscopic hieroglyphs on it, spells of foci and bindings of transformation. I carve into it the great glyphs of the Forge, gleamed by forge adepts in their dreams, as symbols of transmutation. Not the crude alchemy of matter but the sublime transformation of the IS NOT to IS and the LIE to TRUTH. It is a spell of transformation, a great working of the transformation of DEATH to LIFE.
The spear is the Death, it is the tool of the first murder and the focus of a death goddess. It is solidified death.
The Plinth is the heartblood of gaia, a giant's dagger carved from the heart of all that lives. It is solidified life.
The ritual and enchantments will bridge the gap between them, forming a circuit of power and meaning, a current that mimics the cycle of life and death as the magic flows from one foci to another. It is Life and Death.
A fundamental cycle of balance and reciprocity. Existence writ small.
It is the lynchpin on which I will hang the rest of the Great Ritual.
I insert the Crystal Tesseract inside the Ring and the Plinth hums ominous as a surge of power flows through the ritual, accelerating and empowering it.
I take the feathers I have liberated from my cloak and begin entombing them in honkai automatons. The honkai automatons are shaped like a bipedal raven, with a stop and knife clutched in his hand. I don't know why they are shaped like that, but that is the optimal mystic shape the channel the power of the feathers.
I phase ten thousand feathers into the heart of ten thousand of these Quiet Heroes and then tether them all to the Plinth and the Ring. As long as they stand none would slay the Heroes.
They are heroes in truth, for each moment they are alive they purify the universe and bring order back to reality. When they roam the halls of dungeons their paths will align the great dragon lines that permeate the world, their nests will cleanse and rebirth the caerns lost to the weaver and wyrm. When they are killed, and people will assuredly try to kill them no matter how difficult it is, they will explode in a storm of feathers nurtured in the very heart of their bosom, cleansing cities and woods alike. Before they are reborn once more to travel.
Once the whole ritual is complete and the honkai automatons animated, I begin the second step of the plan. I plant the final brick in the tunnel and the world twists as the Labyrinth forms. It is a heady thing to see with true sight, a living breathing thing that touches all things yet is separate from everyplace. It is a realm where all may venture but it is home to only monsters.
It spreads through the crust of the planet like a kudzu, a growing organism that finds the cracks and the caverns that Gaia closed to save me and grows into them, quickly covering the entire continent and its tendrils reaching the surface hundreds of kilometers above me. It is inconspicuous, its entrance hidden with both magic and obscurity, marked only by those that can identify it. It is a game changer already, capable of transporting people from the material world to the umbra and across the world with the right paths. It would make the world a more accessible place. Even now I see its tendril extending into the umbra, going into all realms in the middle umbra. Even malfeas is not spared as its bronze corridors spear into the realms of entropy and start pumping in balance by force. The banes and beasts of the wyrm retaliate of course but the tens of thousands of my Quiet Heroes with power of balance and an emperor honkai beast hunt them down like dogs. Their blades leave wounds that impose balance on them and they are impervious to their taint.
The labyrinth will continue to grow as it becomes bigger and grows more copies of my magical generators and prisms. In a few weeks it will cover the globe and the umbra. It will guard the Plinth and the RIng, hidden in secret caverns lined with enough wards to kill gods and enough honkai beasts and automatons and embodied spirits to fist fight an invasion of the technocracy.
The fonts of power that I have embedded in the labyrinth will grow and replicate, the flow of magic will eventually leave the labyrinth and start to suffuse the world and bring vigor to gaia. It is essentially a world spanning cyber lungs for gaia, but instead of breathing air she can breath magic back to the world. Spirits will eventually find it easier to manifest, the lost wilds can flourish and the people will awaken to their magic easier.
But that's not enough. I begin the third step. I focus on my honkai nature and teleport to my destination. It is a strange feeling, knowing intimately the bedrock of reality and how to step outside it for a second to just travel to a new location. It looks strange from the outside too, a kilometer tall giant disappearing without nary a sound and reappearing without any sign. It was like a glitch in the system, one moment I am here the next there.
I manifest in Orbit with my Skidbladnir beneath me, bound to me even in uncertainty. Becoming a Labyrinth hasn't changed my ship much, it is still the same on the outside, but I can feel its potential to change and twist at my need.
But right now it is serving its purpose perfectly. It is a giant ship the size of a New York floating above that city.
It glows with the weight of my enchantments, more hieroglyphs cover its hull than have been written by the entirety of Egyptian civilisation. Each glows with power of white and blue mana, warded against damage and magic. I have infused the hull with my Gnosis and so the ship lowers the gauntlet by its very presence, empowering those aligned with gaia.
I have made all the preparations. I have warned the tribes and the septs, sent messengers to the incarna and their broods so that they may prepare.
But this was the end of the age, today a new age will be born. Its birth will be bloody and painful but it is necessary. The world has languished in the darkness long enough.
It's time for a new dawn.
Wear the Mantle of the Demon Emperor and Bring an end to this Wicked Age, Oh Mighty Giant King!!
The knowledge contained within is remarkable. Things like android bodies fully compatible with souls, the secrets of how the gods forge their divine metals and the schematics of modern divine relics, to his ultimate achievement the creation of a continent spanning liminal labyrinth. Not merely just a group of tunnels, it is rather a living berthing dimension that spreads across the continent connecting places of powers and hidden enclaves. It controls space and time within it and it can even shield a person from the collective unconsciousness. A true refuge that can hide from even the gods.
In other words it is perfect for my needs. I can already feel my genius for artifice and my affinity with the forge already working to make me design even better labyrinths. Ideas to make them weave between dimensions, making them into living rites that became a journey of transformation for any intruder and even ways of making them as artificial scaffolding in reality.
The ideas come heavy and fast but I push them aside because first I have to put my true body in action again, I won't be bullied by some namebreaker punks and they won't force me to go back down from the commitment to the people I empowered.
I spawn a dozen copies of spear and use them to make the calculations needed for the changes I need to make. The spears project the schematics into my mind and I quickly get to work. Before retrieving ever copy of the spears of course.
I call down teams of giants and the geomancers, they knock down walls and clear rubble at my command. the Navigators and Bioshapers make sure the ship doesn't die or decompress from the damage. The artificers make all of the infrastructure besides the actual physical halls. All the mana colliders and collaters and the mana prisms and the automaton factories and the monster synthesizers. The adepts of the forge transubstantiate the entire ship a bit left to make it a liminal realm of chthonic nature.
By the end of our focused effort of the day the technology of daedalus takes hold and the whole ship shivers as a fundamental transformation passes through it.
The walls and rooms become cloaked in obscuring shadows, the paths become twisty and uncertain and the very substance of the realm becomes thick with mystery and the unknown. Time bends as my will bends what is unseen by the world, cloaked by my dungeon.
I quickly discard my drone body and fly my Ba back to my own body.
The transformation happens gradually at first but as the changed dna gains momentum the process becomes faster and faster.
In only an hour of real, and a fortnight of subjective, time has me regaining sense of my body as the gigantic tube holding my floating body recedes into the ground.
My feet touch the ground with a slight thud, the dungeon displacing my weight across its entirety, and feel no disorientation.
I would have expected there to be dysmorphia or dissociation after completely changing my Dna and replacing it with a quantum lattice but I honestly feel no real difference.
Oh I can feel the burning well of energy as my massively more efficient body taps and stores weeks worth of mana from my bond with my ship, and the physically power I feel in my limbs makes me feel like I can juggle cities like balls. I know instantly and instinctively the location of everything in my field of vision and my sight can see everything for hundreds of miles around. I feel the fabric of space and how easily I can dance across it, I pull a giant plum from the gardens of the jade emperor just to test my range and I feel no strain as I can reach across the realms with ease. There are no plums there, the sealed realm long since gone to seed but the lingering seals feel like no impediment to my reach. It would take some heavy magic indeed to prevent me from skipping across space.
Fundamentally I feel completely the same, I still love my sister and gaia, I still love the garou nation and even with more agency than anyone has ever had to change it, I still don't like the Wyrm. Hell I still have the same favorite baseball team and the same anime, so I feel fine.
But I can't ignore what this means for my future plans, with my strength and magic and my spear I can win even those near-ascended name breakers. I could probably go to war and raze continents without anyone to stop me. Hell, Gaia herself has risk her existence to shelter me. She must have faith in me and my potential, and now its time to repay that hope.
I have a plan and my sense of Ma'at is advising me against it. It is against the natural order, it will change things too abruptly and the change will be chaotic. It could backfire. All sound advice.
But I ignore it. I serve Ma'at only because it is right, but rightness doesn't derive from Ma'at but is a precursor to it.
I have lived with knowing the world was doomed for most of life, watching in impotent rage as those with more power slowly throw us further down the drain. Be they mortal, garou, pentex or even the wyrm. In the end it is the board that is rotten, the system itself is broken. Oblivion gnaws at the root of the world tree and Apophis writhes as it gulps down the world at one bite at a time.
But I have the power now, I have agency to decide the fate of the world. To break the natural order and bring about the change that the world needs. It may cause chaos and destruction.
But I know the Base VIolence Necessary for Change.
So no more wool gathering, no more waiting for the spirits to save us. I will change everything and it happens now.
I draw my cloak from my shoulders and raise a plinth of iron to lay it down on.
My weeks of subjective time have grown the size of my cloak of feathers, its sable black form reaches down past my waist. It is a comfort to hold and to wear. It makes the world feel more grounded around me, it makes it so that every growing hole in my soul shrinks a little instead. It's like a security blanket protecting me from the breakdown of reality.
I dissolve the spell of binding and the feathers flutter away forming a pile of incredibly soft fluff. I clear the pile off my plinth and deposit it to the side for a bit.
I look below me, where my geomancers and artificers are carving tunnels and chambers for a dungeon. Well, below is a relative term when standing upside down on the ceiling of the hollow earth.
My plinth is the spoke from which the great wheel of the dungeon radiates out from. It is a pillar of gaian iron, drawn from the depths of the solid core of the planet. It is a piece of gaia's heart and I feel terrible injuring my goddess so. But I reformed it and more besides from my magic, I just need the heartblood gaia to make this work.
It stands a kilometer tall and it shines iridescent black of a metal that's been scoured by extreme heat and pressure. Every inch of its surface is covered in 3 dimensional hieroglyphs, invocations to Ma'at and Isfet both for this is the work of true creation.
I take a crystal clear prism from my pocket and set it at the top of the prism. Its deceptively docile but this little gem is the strongest and stablest artifact I can produce that creates mana. This gem starts slowly but because its an tesseract it will continue to generate more and more energy. In a week it will have enough power to power a city, in a month the entire country and by the end of the year the entire world. It took me hours to get the structure and symbols of the artifact before I could make it.
But this is perfect for my needs here today. To fuel my magnum opus, a solution once and for all.
I summon a spear and melt it, the bronze runs like water and then floats in the air as I slowly shape it into a ring. The bronze ring floats for a second as I inscribe a trillion nanoscopic hieroglyphs on it, spells of foci and bindings of transformation. I carve into it the great glyphs of the Forge, gleamed by forge adepts in their dreams, as symbols of transmutation. Not the crude alchemy of matter but the sublime transformation of the IS NOT to IS and the LIE to TRUTH. It is a spell of transformation, a great working of the transformation of DEATH to LIFE.
The spear is the Death, it is the tool of the first murder and the focus of a death goddess. It is solidified death.
The Plinth is the heartblood of gaia, a giant's dagger carved from the heart of all that lives. It is solidified life.
The ritual and enchantments will bridge the gap between them, forming a circuit of power and meaning, a current that mimics the cycle of life and death as the magic flows from one foci to another. It is Life and Death.
A fundamental cycle of balance and reciprocity. Existence writ small.
It is the lynchpin on which I will hang the rest of the Great Ritual.
I insert the Crystal Tesseract inside the Ring and the Plinth hums ominous as a surge of power flows through the ritual, accelerating and empowering it.
I take the feathers I have liberated from my cloak and begin entombing them in honkai automatons. The honkai automatons are shaped like a bipedal raven, with a stop and knife clutched in his hand. I don't know why they are shaped like that, but that is the optimal mystic shape the channel the power of the feathers.
I phase ten thousand feathers into the heart of ten thousand of these Quiet Heroes and then tether them all to the Plinth and the Ring. As long as they stand none would slay the Heroes.
They are heroes in truth, for each moment they are alive they purify the universe and bring order back to reality. When they roam the halls of dungeons their paths will align the great dragon lines that permeate the world, their nests will cleanse and rebirth the caerns lost to the weaver and wyrm. When they are killed, and people will assuredly try to kill them no matter how difficult it is, they will explode in a storm of feathers nurtured in the very heart of their bosom, cleansing cities and woods alike. Before they are reborn once more to travel.
Once the whole ritual is complete and the honkai automatons animated, I begin the second step of the plan. I plant the final brick in the tunnel and the world twists as the Labyrinth forms. It is a heady thing to see with true sight, a living breathing thing that touches all things yet is separate from everyplace. It is a realm where all may venture but it is home to only monsters.
It spreads through the crust of the planet like a kudzu, a growing organism that finds the cracks and the caverns that Gaia closed to save me and grows into them, quickly covering the entire continent and its tendrils reaching the surface hundreds of kilometers above me. It is inconspicuous, its entrance hidden with both magic and obscurity, marked only by those that can identify it. It is a game changer already, capable of transporting people from the material world to the umbra and across the world with the right paths. It would make the world a more accessible place. Even now I see its tendril extending into the umbra, going into all realms in the middle umbra. Even malfeas is not spared as its bronze corridors spear into the realms of entropy and start pumping in balance by force. The banes and beasts of the wyrm retaliate of course but the tens of thousands of my Quiet Heroes with power of balance and an emperor honkai beast hunt them down like dogs. Their blades leave wounds that impose balance on them and they are impervious to their taint.
The labyrinth will continue to grow as it becomes bigger and grows more copies of my magical generators and prisms. In a few weeks it will cover the globe and the umbra. It will guard the Plinth and the RIng, hidden in secret caverns lined with enough wards to kill gods and enough honkai beasts and automatons and embodied spirits to fist fight an invasion of the technocracy.
The fonts of power that I have embedded in the labyrinth will grow and replicate, the flow of magic will eventually leave the labyrinth and start to suffuse the world and bring vigor to gaia. It is essentially a world spanning cyber lungs for gaia, but instead of breathing air she can breath magic back to the world. Spirits will eventually find it easier to manifest, the lost wilds can flourish and the people will awaken to their magic easier.
But that's not enough. I begin the third step. I focus on my honkai nature and teleport to my destination. It is a strange feeling, knowing intimately the bedrock of reality and how to step outside it for a second to just travel to a new location. It looks strange from the outside too, a kilometer tall giant disappearing without nary a sound and reappearing without any sign. It was like a glitch in the system, one moment I am here the next there.
I manifest in Orbit with my Skidbladnir beneath me, bound to me even in uncertainty. Becoming a Labyrinth hasn't changed my ship much, it is still the same on the outside, but I can feel its potential to change and twist at my need.
But right now it is serving its purpose perfectly. It is a giant ship the size of a New York floating above that city.
It glows with the weight of my enchantments, more hieroglyphs cover its hull than have been written by the entirety of Egyptian civilisation. Each glows with power of white and blue mana, warded against damage and magic. I have infused the hull with my Gnosis and so the ship lowers the gauntlet by its very presence, empowering those aligned with gaia.
I have made all the preparations. I have warned the tribes and the septs, sent messengers to the incarna and their broods so that they may prepare.
But this was the end of the age, today a new age will be born. Its birth will be bloody and painful but it is necessary. The world has languished in the darkness long enough.
It's time for a new dawn.
Wear the Mantle of the Demon Emperor and Bring an end to this Wicked Age, Oh Mighty Giant King!!
+ 2000
Power of the Storm
The Nexus holds great power and opportunity for those who embrace it's design. Wouldn't it be a shame to leave it behind in future worlds? With this, a lesser vortex of the Nexus' power will coalesce around you, letting you channel and unleash it to recreate similar conditions and harness it's transdimensional energies. A mundane man would have little power and precision-perhaps being able to glimpse other worlds and briefly create "rips" in reality that overlap a small patch of terrain with that world's environment, bring a handful of heroes from another world or empower a trusted ally with the "experience" granted by the Nexus to reward it's champions.
And yes, with some effort you may be able to recreate or channel the power of the Dark Nexus. Be careful not to unleash what you cannot control.
But as your overall personal power grows, so too will your control over the Nexus energies vested within you. With the power and experience of a seasoned archmage or extremely gifted psion, you may be able to rip numerous heroes from other worlds to your side or even summon those from the original Nexus, augment all the heroes called to you by the Nexus in more refined ways and resurrect both others and yourselves from true death with its power-even tamper with the behaviour of the true Nexus, amplifying or dampening its unpredictable forces with your will.
The astounding feats of beckoning forth entire worlds to overlay the reality you are in, or shaping realms with your will complete with their own Singularities will likely take millennia to master without extremes of power unknown to the Nexus. Many more applications likely await your discovery, as you explore the boundaries between space and time.
Sealed True Name
Somehow, you discovered your True Name, and, through a process that may or may not have involved temporarily killing yourself and carving a delicate series of runes into your own heart, you have sealed your True Name. This offers a number of considerable benefits. First of all, your name being sealed means it cannot be used against you, even if others know it. Second, it enhances your magic tremendously, affording you a considerable boost in both raw power and your growth rate. While this will not grant you access to an unlimited font of raw magical power until you attain your Spark, it will make it so your well of magical energy grows by leaps and bounds continuously, even without any training or effort on your part. This perk also grants you a notable healing factor, which scales in effectiveness as your overall magic capacity grows larger. With enough magical power, your body could heal itself from being shot in the head fast enough that the entry wound closes before the bullet exits the back of your skull. Even more impressive than this is your ability to copy any discipline of magic by seeing it in action only a single time, though it will take practice and time to build up a greater level of skill in wielding it. Learning your True Name has also given you access to the souls and consciousnesses of others, allowing you to manipulate and destroy them as you desire. This allows you to do things like tearing Remnants from their hosts, regardless of how long they have been fused. You can see the magic of others, and even cycle through their souls, seeing everything they have seen and learning everything they know before absorbing it for yourself, as Darquesse did to Argeddion in Dying Of The Light.
Power of the Storm
The Nexus holds great power and opportunity for those who embrace it's design. Wouldn't it be a shame to leave it behind in future worlds? With this, a lesser vortex of the Nexus' power will coalesce around you, letting you channel and unleash it to recreate similar conditions and harness it's transdimensional energies. A mundane man would have little power and precision-perhaps being able to glimpse other worlds and briefly create "rips" in reality that overlap a small patch of terrain with that world's environment, bring a handful of heroes from another world or empower a trusted ally with the "experience" granted by the Nexus to reward it's champions.
And yes, with some effort you may be able to recreate or channel the power of the Dark Nexus. Be careful not to unleash what you cannot control.
But as your overall personal power grows, so too will your control over the Nexus energies vested within you. With the power and experience of a seasoned archmage or extremely gifted psion, you may be able to rip numerous heroes from other worlds to your side or even summon those from the original Nexus, augment all the heroes called to you by the Nexus in more refined ways and resurrect both others and yourselves from true death with its power-even tamper with the behaviour of the true Nexus, amplifying or dampening its unpredictable forces with your will.
The astounding feats of beckoning forth entire worlds to overlay the reality you are in, or shaping realms with your will complete with their own Singularities will likely take millennia to master without extremes of power unknown to the Nexus. Many more applications likely await your discovery, as you explore the boundaries between space and time.
Sealed True Name
Somehow, you discovered your True Name, and, through a process that may or may not have involved temporarily killing yourself and carving a delicate series of runes into your own heart, you have sealed your True Name. This offers a number of considerable benefits. First of all, your name being sealed means it cannot be used against you, even if others know it. Second, it enhances your magic tremendously, affording you a considerable boost in both raw power and your growth rate. While this will not grant you access to an unlimited font of raw magical power until you attain your Spark, it will make it so your well of magical energy grows by leaps and bounds continuously, even without any training or effort on your part. This perk also grants you a notable healing factor, which scales in effectiveness as your overall magic capacity grows larger. With enough magical power, your body could heal itself from being shot in the head fast enough that the entry wound closes before the bullet exits the back of your skull. Even more impressive than this is your ability to copy any discipline of magic by seeing it in action only a single time, though it will take practice and time to build up a greater level of skill in wielding it. Learning your True Name has also given you access to the souls and consciousnesses of others, allowing you to manipulate and destroy them as you desire. This allows you to do things like tearing Remnants from their hosts, regardless of how long they have been fused. You can see the magic of others, and even cycle through their souls, seeing everything they have seen and learning everything they know before absorbing it for yourself, as Darquesse did to Argeddion in Dying Of The Light.
Now he's done it. It's funny more and more people are inspired to write breakdowns of the "system" as it happens in RL.
Saulot seethes and copes his way into lieutenant junior dragon. Every other living antediluvian opens a eye then closes it again like the cowards they are.
Are you going to dunk on Mikiboshi and Emma-Ō too?
Saulot seethes and copes his way into lieutenant junior dragon. Every other living antediluvian opens a eye then closes it again like the cowards they are.
Are you going to dunk on Mikiboshi and Emma-Ō too?
Last edited:
- Location
- Eagan
Good to see you're finally back!
Chapter 13
A tripartite name, fitting I suppose I do contain multitudes. But the incredible wells of power that have suffused me don't have my attention.
The first strike of the fading age is not visible, it isn't audible and strictly speaking I can't even sense it. It is an invisible killer of a collective that doesn't want to confront the truth.
The singularity that I have maintained since my first few power shakes and strain as immense forces obliterate the timeline I come from. The very possibility of my birth is erased, my parents and even my grandparents die ignoble deaths far from each other. The will of humanity has deemed a threat to its peace of mind so all that I am is to be rejected.
But despite the strain the singularity doesn't falter, the attempt to excise me from reality crashes upon its walls like a tick stuck to an elephant's bottom, stubbornly refusing to let go. My newly gained nexus of timeline pin staked to the heart of reality, intermeshed with all timelines.
The second strike is less subtle and indirect. The reality around me buckles and crackles as the unconscious ignorance of a 6 billion demiurges crush me, willing to just brute force my destruction.
The warding on my ship flares as a thousand thousand Crystal Lotuses flare and burn to fuel the wardings of Ma'at and White Mana. . My sense of Base violence doesn't just extend to companies or countries. It tells me exactly how to subvert the will of humanity itself. It nudged me continuously since I went into the tank.
When I was building my labyrinths and had Ba running around as my avatar. The rest of my soul was delving deep into the bedrock reality. I learned a lot of things during that. How the collective consciousness of humanity shapes the world and its rules and the potential of humanity. It gave me hope because they can be better, there is no true material condition that humanity cannot trivially overcome if they access their true potential. But it made me despair as well, all the evils on earth are truly unnecessary, self deception perpetuated by humans on themselves. The wyrm probably poisoned them I believe, because human belief only goes up to orbit and the wyrm is universal. It has more than enough power to infect even incipient demiurges.
But a neat fact that I learned is that humans, and even the collective human consciousness, are cognitively lazy. We love finding patterns and developing heuristics to simplify thinking. This plays out on a global scale. Every belief that the consciousness enforces is not kept as a thing in focus, no instead it is the part of the background of just how the world works. SImple and less effort for everyone involved. These are the mythic threads that weave the tapestry of the tellurian.
A wave of magic bright enough to outshine the sun explodes from the Skidbladnir as my magic infiltrates these mythic threads that permeate reality and define all commonly held beliefs and ideas.
I dig my claws into medicine, into flight, into guns, into books and writing. I wrap my influence around cars and the internet and Vampires and even Fire itself. I become a flood of magic that sinks deep into the foundations of reality and coats everything in my magic. I touch every invention and every philosophy and every prejudice that humanity has ever held dear and I latch onto them.
The space around me stops shaking, the creaking reality stilling and the pressure of nonexistence howling for my very soul grows distant.
I hold the very history of human thought hostage, unharmed but connected to me for now. My actions dare the collective consciousness to erase me, a roar of challenge. I dare it to kill me and risk resetting humanity to the very primal that started it all.
Even the lazy and stolid consensus buckles and blanches. I feel reality stutter as it gawks at the sheer audacity of my challenger, its ancient enforcer spirits and titulary gods of the status quo shoots glares at me from the high umbra and I know I have made mortal enemies of all of the High Umbra Incarna. The moment my spell falters and my hostage position ends they will manifest armies of gods to slay me. But stay quiescent for now, watching me with hawk-like gazes.
But the collective consciousness backs down for now, letting me do what I want, as whatever revelation I have planned won't be nearly as destructive as what my threat would do if enacted.
That is the first second of my masquerade break. The next retaliation comes another second later.
It takes the form of a kinetic impactor traveling at ⅔ the speed of light barreling towards me.
It hits my ship's shield with a thunderous blow. It fails to penetrate the shield, it doesn't even buckle. Inviolate defence of white mana deflects the hit upwards, like a rock skipping over a pond.
The shockwave from the explosion shatters half the glass in the skyscrapers of New York. If there was anyone that wasn't paying attention to the giant magic spaceship in the sky.
Then a trio of impactors at 90% C hit my shield again. Then 6 more at 99% C Split those osmium pillars with even more power. The shield holds and if it dims a bit then the exertion is negligible.
Then a full dozen Pillars of Primium the size of cargo ships impact my ship's shield fully the speed of Light.
The anti-magic pillars finally cause my shield to buckle and weaken. The perfect luminescent sphere ripples with the pressure of the hit. The sheer mass of Perfected Gold attacks the very foundation of my magic. I feel the Hieroglyphs and shield pylons short and burn as they struggle to compensate for the shearing force that the pillars inflict on the shield.
I flex my will and shout a single spell and repair the burnt out enchantments. The Primimum projectiles fall as their kinetic energy is dispersed in my shield. I had to cast a spell to ground all of the force from the strikes into my shield or the rods would transmute a 100 Km of air around us into trans-solar plasma, including new york.
I give a look at the pillars as they fall towards the ground. I summon the winds to throw them into the bay, inscribing onto them warding hieroglyphs that will harden the city of new york from the coming onslaught.
My newly sealed True Name has given me immense power from its existence as a keystone of existence, but an even greater gift it has given me is a savant-like understanding of magic in all its form. One look at the Pillars of Primium and it's trivial for me to reverse engineer the workings to ascend gold into its platonic ideal.
I murmur a word and conjure 50 car sized spheres of the perfected metal. I imbue a blessing of fate upon the spheres and lens the air to show my targets. Then I grab one of the floating spheres and throw it like a baseball into earth orbit. Then I do it again and again until all the spheres are gone.
The spheres leave my hand at blistering speeds, instantly igniting the air in front of them and forming plasma sheets before outrunning them through sheer speed. The shoot out at the same speed of the first orbital strike that targeted me and follow its trajectory back into orbit.
The technos aren't idiots of course, they have maneuvered their automated orbital kill sats into different positions as they try and desperately reorient them to find a weak spot in my shield. The primium baseballs I thrown slowly curve as the blessing of fate subtly curve their paths as they home in on the constellation of Orbital super weapons that is congregating above me.
The satellites try and deploy countermeasures, as veritable batteries of lasers and shields and entropic scramblers and quantum phase shields activate to protect the integrity of their first strike capabilities. But they all fail before the raw power of my magic and the newly gained finess and perfect control of magic granted to me by my Sealed Name.
The Orbital Baseballs hit the Killsat network simultaneously and obliterate the automated systems.
I deliberately don't hit the manned stations, I don't actually want to kill anyone that didn't deserve it, and they try in their genius ways to try and salvage it. Magnetic fields in flux catch the debris and try to shoot me with it.
From the point of view of technomagic, the giant killsat network is a great ritual prepared over years to hit a hard target. And as I said previously I can replicate magic with only a single glance.
The baseballs of Primium I have thrown stop in the place where the constellations were and then they start glowing. A network of lines glow on their surface, shaped like the circuits of a microchip as the technomagic enchantments fire up and start humming.
The spheres shoot a grid of lasers between each other as a floating hieroglyph forms in the sky. The Eye of Isis glows golden in the sky above the American continent, lighting up the sky and bringing a dawn.7
The invocation is one of revelation, the removal of obstruction and the gain of insight. I don't need satellites to kill people, but the surveillance capabilities of a satellite constellation are beyond useful.
The Primium sphere receives all the data of all magical structures and concentrations on the planet , revealed by the spell, and the computation engines inside of them translate everything into usable information for me. More importantly they use weak orbital lasers to transmit that data to every digital and analog device. The ever growing swarm of Primium spheres quite literally use quantum tunneling lasers to alter the maps on every atlas and encyclopedia to include all the little hidden realms and secret bases and the supernatural locations on the planet, except those sacred to Gaia which is my hypocrisy but until I deal with pentex I won't risk it. Nothing is left unmarked, every stone carved map and sculpted dioramas are changed to include the truth.
They can't hide the truth without destroying quite literally all information about geography. Even if I die now and they destroy all records, the world will have space for the unknown to exist, places beyond humanity. No longer will gaia be bound by the shapes carved by human cartographers. Enough places for Labyrinths tendrils to dig in and purify the world.
I have the primium spheres that still transmit all the data that the previous satellites were doing, wouldn't want to devastate modern infrastructure unnecessarily.
It's been 30 Seconds since I have started my new dawn.
Something is inside my ship. I feel it immediately as a Virulent lump of flesh somehow hidden inside of one of Gene Mages consumes them from the inside and shoots metallic tendrils and skewers a hundred of the closest scientists and grows to cancerous mass in the blink of an eye. The growing shoggoth of blood grows appendages and sensory organs and ganglias and other stranger organs as it surges like a flood of blood towards the samples of Honkai emperors dna.
Tries to at least, I bend space and my hand grabs the pulsating mass of cancerous flesh in vice grip. It tries to dig into my flesh, the irreal flesh coated with abyssal shadows and accelerated with bent time lashes out like broken suspension cables and fails utterly to affect me.
My sealed true name has bestowed numerous boons upon me, from savant-like understanding of magic and ever growing well of energy to complete control over my body and the ability to proclaim my existence in the face of non-existence.
The alien virus blood bound to the fragment of the ancient blood sucker tries to twist my flesh against it but my white blood cells group together to form disintegrating spell arrays and erase all trace of it from my body. My blood briefly transforms itself into solar plasma just to flush out all of the remnants of the abominable flesh magic of the demented vampire.
I retract my hand from the lab and with it the vampire shoggoth, while using blue mana to reverse the time to revive the people there. You learn a lot of time magic when a thousand thousand archmages are trying to delete your timeline unsuccessfully.
I look at the vampire lump in my hand and follow its immaterial tendrils to locate the main mass of the cancer.
Ah there it is, that's how it got in. It's been living under my city's sewers for ages. We can't have that now can we.
Before the slowly rousing blood god can awaken fully and kill millions, I extend my hand through the quantum layer into the very heart of its flesh caverns and cast a simple spell.
Let there be light.
I fill the entire tunnel system with liquid sanctified sunlight, a flood of brightness and heat summoned from Helios themselves. I pay significantly more energy back in chiminage but frankly its worth it to be sure.
The flood of solar plasma isn't just light though, a entire brood worth of solar spirits and incarna ride its tides as they take a brief vacation somewhere where they don't typically get to go.
I feel the death rattle of the antediluvian echo throughout the world as its offsprings go mad and I solve that problem by eliminating them all with massed orbital bombardment. Phased to avoid damaging anything else.
But this distraction costs me more that I expect as I am distracted enough to not notice my precognitive spells grow clouded and fail to anticipate the next event.
Hundreds of spaceships jump into orbit around me with a calculated maneuver that ensures only I am hit by their cross fire. They unleash hell upon my ship.
Their fleet's cannons bark and a dozen star galleons piloted by arch mages pelt my shield with consecrated and inscribed star canons, while the entire fleet sections of the Void engineer fleets rake my defenses with transdimensional tachyon lances. A smattering of more unique ships do even more esoteric attacks.
There is a gigantic flying sword that just slashes at ym ship with immense kinetic blows while a floating police box tries to seal me in frozen time. A viking ship, quite like mine if on a vastly smaller scale, burns runes of ruin and retribution in the sky around me and attacks my fate and my being indirectly. My telepathic network reports thousands, tens of thousands, of attempts to try and teleport troops onot the ship with some of the very best even breaching the external wards to land on the deck before being taken care of by my crew.
The onslaught of esoteric and immensely powerful attacks is not like the premium bombardment from before. These are the constantly tuned and actively directed attacks of archmages who have fought the so-called ascension war for centuries. Their attacks are constantly changing and adapting as even though they fail to penetrate my shield in the first salvo, I already see them adjusting their weapons to more easily disrupt the structure of shields.
That last one is worrying as well, I have spent weeks trying to to design my defences when I was in my coma and even still it the old monsters of humanity can figure out a way around them. It's only a matter of time until that method propagates and I am flooded with constructed troops.
This is the first moment since this attempt began that I have felt even an inkling of fear or uncertainty. I have staked the fate of the very world onto the fact that I think I am the strongest being in the universe and the most skilled. But seeing the geniuses that have innovated entirely new ways of seeing the world and defined the beliefs even I grew up with me have shown that all the powers granted by gaia's blessing and the skill given from foreign worlds doesn't compare to the razor wit sharpened in bloody alleys and hidden back rooms fighting a war unseen but greater than any other before it.
I may have been hasty in thinking I could flip the board, thinking that the only winning move is not to play. But I am just a new player, these people have been fighting for the fate of humanity for all their unnatural lives. I haven't flipped the table, all I have done is unite the other players to gang up on me and get back to their game.
Well, fuck it. I have already committed. I won't second guess myself just because things may not be as easy as I thought they would be. If everyone is banding together against me then I will just fucking win. They may be old masters at the game but I am not going to bow down before them. If I am going down then I am going down swinging.
I take in every ship around me and then strike back.
I teleport above the biggest technocratic warship, a 800 Meter long wedge bristling with weapons and missiles. A flying piece of technological death capable of besieging entire planets.
Its smaller than me. I grab it by the edges like a surfboard and swing it like a hurling competition. The ship tries to compensate for my grip and cancel its inertia or try and teleport out of my hand but my giant strength has been augmented by the honkai dna. Before whatever technomagic they want to invoke can even take effect I have hurled the ship towards the moon.
I teleport again and the next ship is ready for it, it immediately peppers me with a fusillade of lasers and plasma. They leave rents across my torso and boil the flesh of my forearm but I am well beyond such injuries slowing me down and I punch the ship and break it in half. I leave behind a casual blessing to ensure that no one dies from the shattering of the hull.
My sealed name has already healed me by the time I finish teleporting to the next ship and axe kicking it into the ocean of the port. I instruct the shield pillars to catch it before anyone dies.
I replicate these attacks successfully a dozen times before the rest of the fleet compensates and they jump into a new formation that prevents them from being isolated and providing covering fire for each other.
The 5oth ship ends with only my bones being left on my left arm as I use it to shield from a portal to strange alien dimension of negative time opened by the floating police box, which stuttered across the timelines to dodge my grab and blast me with their return stroke.
I clutch my hand in pain and teleport back onto my ship. My blitz has given my ship the thirty seconds it needed to reinforce its shields and flood the space around my ship with primium chaff and chronal bafflers. Let them try and out plan me with time magic now.
I trace back the teleport methods that they were using to teleport onto my ship and trace back the sympathetic links back to a site deep in the heart of africa. A hidden fortress of some sort, of mystic tradition of the dreamspeakers. I don't blast them immediately, My body needs the energy for a few more seconds to heal my arm and I don't want to risk angering their patrons. I already have the high umbra against me and I don't want the middle umbra to join that.
I look over the site with my magical eye and recognise how they are doing it with my new ability to comprehend magic at a glance. I see the mystics gathering to cast a grand ritual of transportation as more and more of martial archmages prepare to board me.
They had piggybacked the sympathetic links I had used to teleport the warnings to all the incarna and their broods not to interfere with my actions. I hadn't secured those paths adequately enough and the dream speakers were able to call on the life-debts with some of the spirits they helped to smuggle in infiltrators. I snarl in anger at my own carelessness and bar the way to the spirits.
That realization makes me check the ship again and when even my direct sight can't identify them I take drastic measures. I activate the Primium satellite network again and cast through them a spell of revelation. Instead of scanning the world I focus their computational and magical sensors on just one ship and have them thoroughly scan my ship.
The result almost makes me chuckle despite the seriousness of the situation. They hadn't hidden from me by casting a powerful enough spell of hiding, the casting of such a spell would have been noticeable in of itself. No they had done something much smarter, they had used my size against me. They had surmised, correctly, that since I was so big I wouldn't pay attention to smaller things. In this case a dozen agents shrunk to the size of mice and quite literally just hid from me by not moving or casting magic while I scanned around.
My mental capacity is vast but its not infinite and they exploited that by just hiding in such stupid way.
I don't even mind it, this kind of stupid shit is why I like humans.
I just teleported them back but not before they had succeeded, the beacon allowing the archmage strike force to teleport onto my deck.
They spring into action immediately, a dozen martial artists spring from a standing start and leap a kilometer in the air right in my face.
They move so fast I don't even have the time to raise my arm to block. I instead have to teleport my arm in from of my face as they all strike me with coordinated blow that rattles my bones.
My entire kilometer tall frame is hurled from my place at the command deck and I crash into Skidbladnir's railing with an ear splitting crash.
I can barely feel my arm and the rattling of my bones hasn't subsided. Indeed it intensifies in force and I feel my flesh gets shredded from the inside as my unbreakable bones wreck havoc inside me.
I force my bones to stop with immense measure of will, countering them with vibrations of my own with exactly opposite frequencies.
The martial artists fly towards me again, moving through the air like those old martial art movies as they raise blades and fists to push me off my ship and rattle me enough to forgo spells.
I react by teleporting out of the way and back where I was standing when they attack, appearing behind them. I wield blue mana and give the surprised martial artist a telekinetic shove, propelling them overboard as their weird flying run is overwhelmed by the strength of my push.
But that contingent has been nothing more than a distraction. The precious second that I have spent fighting them was used by the rest of the boarding party to deploy their prepared rituals.
A trio of very old looking scientists in business suits and cybernetics appear around me and forming a triangle formation.
They activate some hidden device and searing purple light shoots out from them and links them with the other two of their compatriots and their triangle formation becomes a glowing purple triangle.
I can feel its effect immediately, a nullification field that suppresses all magic within itself. I feel my connection to mana sources get cut, I feel the gnosis inside me grow slow and sluggish and I feel all my enchantments get suppressed. All I am left with is my giant body and the power of a honkai emperor.
The other 20 wizards in the formation take positions all around me and then they unleash hell.
A lightning bolt strikes me in the back and immediately I feel pain flare as the power of this bolt is unlike any attack I have ever been struck by. It hits my flesh like a grenade and causes a massive wound on the small of my back before it shreds through me and exits the other side.
A beam of pure entropy hits me in the shoulder, I feel my flesh turn to dust as my arm goes limp with the connecting tissue.
A blast of plasma blows out the back of my knee and forces me to kneel as one of my legs gives way.
I feel some sort of harmonic field attacks my vitality directly and inhibits my regeneration.
A dozen more attacks like that hit me and my entire body is rent asunder by a barrage of spells that have been designed using time magic to counteract a lot of my defenses. Someone is doing some serious scrying across time to prepare such a well designed ambush.
I struggle to suppress the pain from the litany of pains that cover my body and a constant buzzing inside my mind that I am pretty sure is an entire compact of the technocracy slapping their telepathic rams against my mental defenses.
But eventually the barrage of spells ends and whatever procedure that the three technocrats used to form that kilometers wide anti magic field fails explosively.
I am crouching on the ground with at least 50% of my flesh gone and the pain of the experience has me regretting trying this stupid scheme.
But I just groan and do my counter attack. I teleport again, this time more crawling across the backstage of reality rather than my usual stepping through but I make my target regardless.
I appear above the gathered magi, a gigantic billion ton body just belly flops onto the heavy hitters of the name breakers.
If I wasn't groaning in pain I could probably appreciate their flabbergasted look as I appear a few meters above them like a whale falling on a cartoon coyote's head.
To the credit of the battle mages of the traditions and the operatives of the technocracy, they react quickly enough to raise shields of energies of various sorts above them. A veritable rampart of magic that could tank a nuke to the face.
But I am not so easily deterred. I conjure a giant bed shaped floatie of Primium underneath me.
I crash onto the dome of magic like a wrecking ball, the perfected gold floatie shattering the magic while my weight crushes the mages into the ground.
They aren't dead tho, I made the bottom of the primium floatie extremely soft. Instead of crushing the mages under my immense weight, the device essentially impressed them into itself. Now they are sealed in a skin tight prison of millions of tons of the anti-magic material. Alive but helplessly trapped.
I roll off the primium device and wince at the pain as I channel countries worth of green and white mana to heal my extensive wounds.
Spitefully I teleport the slab of giant petal prison back towards the dreamspeaker strong hold and drop it in the middle of their grand ritual. Now that It is nearing completion I recognise what it is, a ritual to summon an incarna of paradox to erase me from reality. I guess even the time scrying doesn't tell them about my tête-à-tête with consensus.
I slowly teleport back onto my feet as I sense more incoming challengers. At least the fleet of mages retreated when I defeated their champions. Probably planning some surprises but nothing I can't handle I hope.
But I look out to the horizon as vast storm heads approach me at unnatural speeds, and I grin as I scry what's behind them.
Vampires.
Time to cut loose.
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What just happen
He got reverse jujitsu kaisned.
- Location
- England
Should be "sacred". Unless you want it to be "scared OF Gaia", which probably all of us should be. Also, Gaia is a proper noun so gets a capital G.
Thanks.