I waited for the massive amount of vivus in the air to get swirled away, and noted that Id lost my Crafting ti for the day as Renewal was coming up. Still, Naming Karma was applied, Einz and Clavus werent going to be left behind.
Master Fred reported that the main entrance to the outside was jamd with undead, and hed thoughtfully helped lever the main door further open so they could co inside quicker, trample over the burning remnants of the undead who ca before them, and burn themselves to death inside as fast as possible against the vivic-laden wind, considerate chap that he was.
The Shroudlord had long-ago called them back to help trap , so the undead were streaming here as fast as they could, obeying the Dead March Imperative to return to the control of their lord, and the size of the Shroud was dropping rapidly as they got so whiffs of fresh air and dropped into dust.
This Shroudlord hadnt actually had truly huge numbers of undead, just large numbers of Congregants. As they died, its Shroud retreated with great speed, probably to the imnse relief of all the Leng ghouls around... who I did not doubt were going to be racing the moonbeasts here to loot the place, getting a taste of vivus-infused air, and running away equally as swiftly.
Still, Renewal was coming...
---
DING! DING! Ding! Ding! Dingle...
Why did that sound so smug? Taking all my choices again...
I fixed an eye on my Assay to see what it was so cocksure about.
Huh, Archmage/1, big surp...?
Archmage/1? The Hell, another new Advanced Class, and with such a pretentious na, no less...
My Matrix seed to be thrumming in anticipation of sothing, too. I focused on it and read it.
1 Theurgic Level to a Class using Arcane Magic. That was slapped down on Wizard, which bumped Elental Theurgys bonus back to Blighter, and Arcane Archers bonus to Blighter was bounced over to Inquisitor/4 (8)... setting up for full Wisdom Spell Slots next Level.
That was the dingling. Huh...
Class Ability:High Arcana: 1 Spell Power. Sacrifice one Valence V Spell Engram or Slot. Upgrades to 2 if the Slot is VII, and 3 if IX.
I blinked at that. 2 Caster Level for losing a V? And it upgraded? My Spells automatically upgraded, my Vs were basically VIIs for all purposes right now, it had improved again when my Faux Wizard hit 13 with Human/3...
Purchased Feat, Skill Focus (Spellcraft). Okay... must be required for the Class? Yeah, Assay confird...
I approved the sacrifice of VII from my Spell Pool, which poured into my Matrix to reinforce it yet further, adding 2 Spell Power to everything I Cast.
I hovered the Assay over the Archmage Class theyd presented , and it unfolded before .
Huh, different high Arcana... that mostly werent that impressive. Basically, they gave the abilities of tamagic Feats for giving up Engram Slots, but with no modifiers. That would be pretty sweet, if you couldnt just Weird the Feats down to no modifier to Valence or Casting Ti anyways.
If you didnt know how to do that, and you had Engrams to spare, I suppose it was an incredible bargain.
There was one other Arcana that caught my eye: gain Spell Potency, i.e., increase the save numbers of your Spells. It exactly matched that of the Spell Power Arcana...
But looking the rest over, the only other thing that looked even remotely enticing was swapping a V out to turn another Engram into a 2/day use Spell-like Ability, and maybe the Counterspelling Mastery turning spells back upon an opponent. As long as the Engram for the previous ability was a frequently used spell I wanted available every day, and it was higher than V, it was a good deal, essentially making a couple Valences out of nothing.
h. I was probably better off just using Innate Spell to burn an Engram for 3 uses/day of the spell instead. Innate Spell was a full five Tier Mastery, too, if expensive.
But Id have to know what Engrams Id want to swap out, and the higher they were, the better... aning Id want to wait as long as possible to do that, or be able to upgrade as my Valences upgraded, aning Id have to be able to Weird these Archmage abilities.
I found the notion pretty amusing, despite myself. From a chanical standpoint, it was a way to turn bonus Engrams or Slots from high Stats into ta-powers, instead of extra Engrams.
But still, it was smug because it had delivered another helping of Spell Power. My total Caster Level modifiers were getting on the totally ridiculous side, up from the rely lethally absurd.
Archmage, as a Thirteen? Even I knew you didnt beco an Archmage until you touched the Ninth Valence. Who the Hell thought that Class na up?
Whatever. Always stuff about magic out there we didnt know, and the extra Spell Power and potential Counterspelling goodness could be useful.
The Ceremony and the Ritual were beating together nicely. There was so stirring in my Bloodline, but the Arcane Bloodline was already a slurried mutt, pure in its absolute mixture and acceptance of all energies to form Arcane energy. There were probably consequences for the Dark Phoenix Bloodline, if and when I woke it at Sorcerer Ten, but I'd find out then...
------------
The do of stone Id made receded back into the floor, revealing its one-legged, rather perturbed bony inhabitant, with its misshapen skull and little hot-purple points of light in the empty sockets there, staring at in the charred wreck of its ceremonial robes and stuff.
It couldnt even spend the Valences to fix its attire if it had wanted to.
It stared at there, tossing an Orb up and down in my hand, which looked like a little ball of the Void filled with stars, seething with a lot of power.
It slowly looked up and around at the ceiling and walls, all still painted white, scars and gouges here and there... and that blazing Wall of Fire cast at Fifty sitting over there and generating a flaming spiral of vivus up into the hyperdraft coming down from above. The torus ford by the two flows was quite spectacular.
Naturally it could tell that there werent any undead around anymore.
It took half a step, reaching a skeletal finger outside the Greysphere. The tip of the digit promptly ignited with vivus, falling off and crumbling away back to the limits of the Greysphere.
Little thick out here, it was.
it rasped, dryly, unwillingly, turning those eye sockets on . A normal person would be terrified into immobility eting those things, but I just ignored them, seeing the vagaries of fear and inevitable doom building up behind them.
I inford it cheerfully.
Undead were famously pragmatic and callous. I was sure it could appreciate the sentint.
It glared at , but it had no words. I had proven to be far stronger than it was; how could it possibly look down on , despite how young I appeared? Sure, sure, it was thousands of years old, blah blah... but it was a dead thing, and all its life, and history, and that of its people, was being swept under by the passage of ti.
I wouldnt say I wasnt curious about it, but that knowledge was literally not worth my caring about. No fear of what I might be missing out on, as it were.
it asked in a reasonable voice.
Dusk Renewal had passed. All the undead that had fallen should have returned.
None of them had, and it was alone. There were no undead left. It was no longer the Shroudlord...
it began.
I cut it off.
I could feel its sneer, which fell short as it stared at . I didnt get where I was because people hoarded secrets for their own personal power. It was that sharing that drove the Power of Ten, and made it possible for broad, low power, as well as narrow, elite heights.
This lich was the product of an inferior system, and now it had been taken down by a superior one.
I wondered if it would die of exasperation if it knew I was still a Base Seven, faking Thirteen...
It stared at for a long mont, and a clacking that might have been a sigh if it had working lungs escaped it. It regarded , that burning torus of annihilation rising behind in the great Well that had been their greatest source of power, and it leaned on its Staff of bone as it stepped out of the Greysphere.
Vivus wooshed into existence all over it, the sparkling atmosphere finding so acceptable fuel cheerfully. The lich didnt have a chance to Cast anything before it was a burning, immolating pile of old bones, necroic energies burning away and converting to life.
I gave it the ti and honor of watching it crumble away, standing there as negatively-charged bones that had once decided the course of a culture, nation, and its people, as well as uncounted undead slaves, were burned away to etherdust and vivic mist, seeping back into the Land.
It was ti to collect the last of my spoils off the remnants in its robes, and get out of here. I wondered what the Staff it was holding might be, and knew Id be burning it away regardless...
--------
The main entry hall was now bathed in shining white from uncounted hordes of undead, and littered with the remnants of clothing, weapons, and armor, as well as grave goods. I idly gathered anything valuable as I passed, heaping it all up on my Disk, and soon joined Master Fred outside the doors.
Any activity? I asked, stepping out of the gusts of wind, now well above freezing, which were coming out of the great portals I had thoughtfully wedged open for anyone living who might dare to co here.
He turned his head to look up the peak behind us. -There is another cold Old God up the slopes there. It was active for a short ti, but seems to be hiding right now.-
I followed the gaze of his eyes, and the many tunnels and caves bored through the stone of this mountain, now jetting out air much, much warr than they had in the past. -Ughril, the Mother of Ice. Probably finding a new cave without the warm wind... and just maybe sensing all the death and not wanting to get involved with sothing that could stomp its rival.-
-That explosion when you killed the bug was pretty impressive,- he /admitted. -Cleared out lots of the stuff swarming into the place straight off, drew the Shroud back to under five miles. Took out basically all the large numbers; all that was left before Renewal were basically stragglers.-
-Convenient!- I /agreed. -Now, question... do we return via Teleport back in the direction we ca, or do we do so more mapping?- I pointed in the opposite direction from which wed co.
-MAPPING!- ca the /exclamations from my Allegiance looking on, who really wanted more Map to look at and imagine things about.
Master Fred looked at and shrugged. It would take another day or two of ti, especially if we circumnavigated the continent, but given how fast Sleipner could go atop the sea, looping around it once shouldnt be that big an imposition, and should give us a true idea of how big the place actually was.
We should probably do a full circle of the ocean, too, seeing if there were any Gateway monunts or islands scattered at the periphery of the void.
A nice side-effect of what wed done was weakening the link to Leng, which ant the damn mists on the plateau and mountain areas should be slowly fading away.
Sleipner headed out with Trailfinding active, extending my Lived-Line and The Map, and we began our exit from Hyperborea.
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