The cosmic clouds looming above vanish like a lie, leaving a perfectly clear sky with a single burning sun sitting in the centre.
"Whoa," Emily mutters, scanning through the scrolling system windows in the blink of an eye as she takes in the fundantal change that just happened at the core of her being.
Unlike all of her previous ascensions, the leap from fourth to fifth circle felt more like her initial awakening, shedding her imperfections and stepping closer to sothing more. Her raw strength and vitality, which had remained at a standstill for several years, have leapt forward, joined by the health and stamina values linked to them, crossing past the superhuman limit and leaving her feeling capable of taking on the world with her fists alone.
The changes that her cortex have undergone are imnse, despite being disheartening in so respects, thanks to her years of healing, since taking a concentrated draught of salvianross, which has now been undone. Her sixteen cores tear through the rapid processing of her changes, with two hundred and fifty-six threads to share the burden, flexing and unflexing her muscles to judge her new strength while redesigning dozens of spells to try to bring them up to her new par. A few threads reach into her Dinsional Factory with tendrils of spatial mana, feeling out the changed space that's now large enough to hold Elisi with a little room to spare.
Harriet hums through her bones in excitent, twining themselves with several of Emily's threads to smooth their communication as they ask to test their new combined power. She obliges her familiar's request, drawing on their lightning connection under the stunned gazes of their audience, still silenced by the overwhelming pressure radiating from Emily's relatively small fra.
The sky remains clear, but a storm erges as Emily dissolves into charge, retaining her humanoid form but perfectly synchronising with her elental partner. They raise a single crackling hand, pointing it away from the gathered soldiers and rcenaries, and pour out a flood of mana without any intent other than to let it run wild.
A colossal bolt charges forward, splitting and tearing through the sky while dipping into the sea, searing arcing fractals into the retinas of all watching as the air burns and the water boils. The bolt stretches to the horizon, noticeably lowering the surface of the ocean in its wake and causing tumultuous waves to crash against each other as more water rushes in to fill the empty space.
Had an entire city stood in the bolt's path, it would now be nothing but ash.
Emily resolidifies and turns her attention to the still-present whirlpool below her, confirming with a glance that not a trace of the dungeon entrance remains. However, her hyper-sensitive magical senses detect an echo of The Path still present, restarting the slow process of gathering the energy to reform.
It will open again in… a hundred years at this rate. How fascinating. I wonder if all worlds retain a mark of the event that broke their Mortal Barrier.
"Congratulations," nsacus says in awe, as he carries the rest of their strange family over to greet their newly risen leader, leaving the stunned New Denntimo mages behind, as not even Old Man Silver will approach, still overco by his shock at the show of power.
"Thank you," Emily responds, a small, satisfied smile curling her lips.
***
Upon returning to her factory in the Modo desert, Emily checks the base's systems to confirm their stint in The Path of Ascension lasted exactly one year. She checks through the Universal Transmitter's logs to search for any signs of successful contact in her absence, and finds nothing notable except a spike in activity that coincides with her recent ascension.
The lack of contact doesn't surprise her, a nagging sensation that she recognises as her precognitive instincts telling her that it will change soon, so Emily turns her focus to other matters.
"I… I need to leave for a bit," Pod tells her a few days later, as she's halfway through assembling a large electromagnetic artillery array in one of the subterranean chambers buried just beneath the desert surface.
"Where to?" she asks without looking away from her work, practically feeling the discomfort radiating from her apprentice as he fidgets in place.
"Well, since the dungeon's done now and we'll be leaving the mont we make contact with soone off planet… I need to say goodbye to my parents."
Emily turns her head to him with a raised, amused brow, her hands still moving without hesitation.
"Are you asking for permission to leave, or for a healing potion to fix you up once your mother bites your head off?"
"Ha ha, very funny," he responds dryly, though so of the tension slips from his shoulders. "She won't be happy, especially since I haven't visited since being back in Modo, but she won't put up a fuss… too much."
"You need soone to co as moral support? Or for protection," she adds with a smirk.
"Nah, I think I need to do this alone. Though, do you have a way of letting
reassure her I'm still alive off in the cosmos?"
"Not on hand, but I'm sure nsacus can create sothing linked to your lifeforce. Are you sure, though? If sothing does happen, she'll be devastated with no way of finding out how you went."
Pod considers for a mont, taking a deep breath and releasing it as the rest of his nervous shifting stills.
"Yeah. I think I'd rather she knew."
"Okay." Emily nods, turning back to her work and pinging her son a ssage through the base's Logic Core. "He'll have sothing ready for you before we head back to The Abyss. Wait till we're ready, then take a Cutter and as much ti as you need. I'll send you a ssage if we make contact."
"Thanks."
***
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
A week later, nsacus hands Pod a small artefact carved from bone, and covered in small engravings, that resembles a hand-sized person, telling him to add a few drops of blood to bind it to himself before giving it to his mother. Sending Pod off, Emily then Teleports herself and her son into the centre of The Glade, leaving Silica and Ivor behind, before zeroing in on the coordinates of the massive chamber above The Abyss and tearing a passage through the thick mana resisting her spatial movent with relative ease.
"Hello again, World's Chosen. You kept your word admirably," The One Who Watches says, greeting them the mont they plunge into The Abyss' cold waters.
Emily can imdiately sense a change in the space. Despite her recent ascension, she still feels a sense of pressure closing in around her, and the mana density in the water is rising slowly but steadily, quickly approaching the bounds of fifth circle.
"That I did, Watcher," Emily speaks into the void, not seeing any sign of The Abyss's humanoid avatar. "Your blessing was instruntal in breaking The Mortal Barrier, and I've returned as you asked."
"Yes/yes/yes, I had intended to thank you with a reward for your efforts, depending on how quickly you returned, but I have a better idea now. You brought your child for a reason, no?"
"He has his own business with you. I had assud you'd made another deal, considering he told
not to worry about it." Emily turns her scrutinising gaze to her silent son floating at her side, watching him refuse to et her eyes while glaring out into the darkness.
"You've made your decision then, Scion?"
"I am my mother's son," nsacus hisses resolutely.
"So be it," The Watcher responds, haunting laughter echoing through the water with their words. "In that case, we shall provide your child with a trial to claim himself and a fragnt of our essence."
In a blink, nsacus vanishes from her side, and Emily feels a cold thread of mana tie itself around her left wrist, leaving a dark marking on her tal skin.
"He shall be returned to you upon his success or failure. It was a pleasure to et you, and good luck on your journey. You will need it."
***
Emily returns to her Modo base alone only a day after leaving, expecting to wait months, if not years, to see her son again, but he reappears at her side only a week later.
"That was fast," she mutters, scanning him for injuries and finding none before looking down at the pulsing black heart gripped in his tentacles, leaking mana that feels near-identical to his malice but a step above: similar to the elental essences she's consud.
"How long was I gone?" nsacus asks, holding out the inky heart for her to inspect.
"A week. How long were you there?"
"Two years."
"Interesting. It's the reverse of our first trip down to et The Watcher… Do you think you can consu this safely? With this mana distribution, it should provide the sa effects as essences of death and mind, though the presence of space worries
a little."
"Not alone. They suggested I ask for your help in replicating your pocket dinsion."
"Ah, yes." A small, excited grin curls Emily's lips. "That could work."
***
Nearly a month after leaving, Pod returns to the factory. He bypasses the main gathering array where Silica is deep in ditation, drawing vast amounts of mana into her small form and pushing towards third circle, and joins Emily, Ivor, and nsacus in one of their large, subterranean workshops.
He blinks in surprise at the new inky-black markings covering the chanical chimaera's tal skin, shifting and swirling in dizzying patterns, but he quickly turns his attention to the slight furrow in Emily's brows on her otherwise blank face.
"What's up?" he asks, pulling out a seat from under a nearby workbench. "I wasn't gone for too long, was I?"
"No, I told you to take all the ti you needed," Emily replies, waving off his concern. "It's good to have you back. I was going to send you a ssage if you didn't return soon: I saw activity on the Transmitter that looks like soone may have picked up our signal yesterday. However, because of this, it's about ti I told you two about one of my more… difficult to speak about secrets."
Pod and Ivor exchange confused glances, unused to seeing their friend and leader so hesitant.
"More difficult to speak about than the corpse farm in the basent?" the chanical apprentice asks with a hint of humour in his tone.
"That's hardly a secret." Emily rolls her eyes before her face returns to a neutral mask as she fixes them with a serious gaze. "To put it simply, what I want to tell you about is my greatest defence asure, and the more people that know about it, the greater the risk of us all dying. I have so far only inford my children, and only because we share a bond that would allow
to know the mont they're hard or anyone tries to rip the information from their minds. To that end, I would like to ask you both to allow nsacus to place a ntal Lock on your mories: the spell will erase all traces of this conversation the mont soone uses magic to tamper with your minds. I know it's a lot to ask, but-"
"I'll do it," Pod cuts her off, returning her gaze with steel in his own. "I… want you to be able to trust
with anything, and if letting nsacus ss with my head is what that takes, so be it. Besides, he may call
weak, but I know he likes
really."
Ivor nods his agreent as the chanical chimaera in question glares at Pod.
"I haven't really known him for as long as Pod has," the magical apprentice signs, "and my first interaction with his creations was less than pleasant, but I trust you. I know you wouldn't ask this of
if it wasn't important."
"Okay." Emily nods, not even needing to ask as nsacus opens his third eye, bathing the two apprentices in milky-white light and weaving a spell from ethereal runes. "This clock in my arm… it allows
to turn back ti and, as I've tested with nsacus, you should be able to activate it too if I allow it. Though you won't rember that happening…"
***
A few weeks later, after the shock of her unveiled ti-travel has begun to fade, Emily feels a nagging sensation pulling her gaze towards the roof of her workshop, telling her it's ti.
"They're here," she tells her apprentices, not needing to explain as she rises and makes her way out with them hot on her heels, collecting Silica on the way past the gathering array and calling nsacus up from the farm below.
The sandstorm is quiet for once, leaving them with a clear view of the sky above, and Emily sends a stream of machina out into her base, priming the weapons hiding just beneath the surface in case of confrontation. To the sa end, she draws in as much of the mana spread through her body as possible, reinforcing her Faraday Cage with machina and forming a secondary barrier of charge around her circles, concealing her true nature and leaving the guise of a pure chanic in its place.
The first sign of their coming visitors starts as a small dot in the sky, a single drop of ink tainting the solitude of the vibrant blue canvas, but it quickly grows, gaining more subtle hues as it approaches. Black, grey, silver, and blue, all wrapped in a thin coating of red as the upper atmosphere burns away against the entrant's outer shell. The roar of engines fills the desert as the shape grows to a dizzying scale, several tis larger than Elisi, and upon closer inspection, Emily realises most of the blue colouring cos from a thin layer of energy clinging to the outside of the ship, covering everything from the purpleish flas of the pulsing thrusters slowing its decent to the barrels of the turreted weapons pointed towards her.
An energy-based shield? How is that generated? Is it always active, or only upon atmospheric re-entry?
Curiosity and excitent burn in equal asures in her chest, but Emily keeps her expression blank, her eyes drifting to the blacked-out viewing windows at the front of the ship, angled down enough to provide those inside a clear view of her and her family. The colossal craft slows to a halt a few hundred tres above her compound's magical barrier, and the roaring engines quiet to a low hum as it hovers in place.
A boarding hatch close to the front of the ship slides open, and the energy shield flickers out, giving Emily a clear view of the large silver sword painted across the ship's hull. Several figures step out through the hatch, so less humanoid than others, but Emily's focus is imdiately drawn to the two leaders adorned in flowing robes and emanating an aura of power far greater than her own: a gruff-looking man with a nasty scar curling his lip into an eternal snarl, with a heavy two-handed sword the size of his body strapped to his back, and an elegant woman who appears only a few years her elder, with vibrant silver hair stretching down her back and crimson eyes boring into her soul.
Strong.
Reviews
All reviews (0)