As her brother had predicted, the creepy librarian Keeper was glad to oversee Nexxa’s swearing of her new oath. If she was being honest, the idea was both thrilling and terrifying.
It wouldn’t do much at first. Just like the Protectus oath hadn’t. Once she swore, it would feed on every monster she found. She wouldn’t even have to kill them, though that would provide the greater portion of growth. For each one, her spells would grow a little more destructive, a little less expensive. Those benefits wouldn’t apply solely to monsters either. For her, it was a match made in… well, in the hells, she supposed.
“We are ready, young omnivore,” the being said, clicking its tongue against the inside of its teeth.
Perry nodded at her and Nexxa took a deep breath. This was it.
"Upon the ancient Pillars of Ro’an, I bind myself in solemn oath,” Nexxa began. Even as she spoke, she felt her existing oath shifting, as if crouching in anticipation. As if it knew it would soon be more in line with her very being. “I pledge my life and my soul to purge the galaxy of the monsters that would drag it into ruin. I shall be the vigilant hunter, the scouring storm, and wrathful bane, unrelenting until the galaxy is restored. No border shall stop me, no corruption or monstrous threat shall escape. So long as the enemy remains, my vow stands eternal, etched into the fabric of Ro’an.”
Even though she wasn’t finished, Nexxa could already feel the shift within her as she drew in one final breath.
“With full knowledge of what lies before me, I pledge myself as a Magus Exterminatus.”
Scene Break. Magelord
With Nexxa’s oath complete… nothing changed. Not at first.
Not one I could see, at least.
Apparently there’d been a loss of pressure as her beacon disconnected. But when we visited it, she was still able to interface with it. In fact, now she could interface with any beacon, though the features were slightly different. For one thing, she’d lost access to any of the functions that didn’t involve hunting monsters.
Those that did involve hunting monsters had been agmented in exchange. As long as she’d touched a beacon, she could draw upon its scans anywhere within its range. Or the range of any that were direct neighbors.
Which meant we needed more beacons.
There was another reason to produce more beacons. While going through the oaths, we discovered a function that might let us use them to spread the barrier. Again, materials were an issue, despite monsters raining from the sky. Turned out it was hard to harvest materials from monster being torn apart by the barrier.
Another full monster shower came less than an hour after Nexxa had finished her oath.
We all charged out, but Nexxa handled it by herself. It was amusing seeing Starbreaker’s expression when he realized she did so as a Hydra-souled.
Other than the attack from above, the day passed quietly, as did Nexxa’s second time inside Memory Palace with us.
Which meant I finally had time to work on my ascension project.
Amusingly, to progress my soul, I needed all three of them present to help. Plus Calbern.
“I must confess to some confusion as to my role here, Master Percival.” Calbern was standing next to one of the workbenches in Neta’s workshop, passing me tools as Bevel and I tuned the enchantments. On the bench nearby, Ari and Nexxa were building the power core, which would be slotted inside the enclosure Bevel and I were crafting.
“You’re handing us tools, uncle Calbern. It’s not complicated.” Bevel stuck out her tongue, though not at Calbern. She was just focusing as she adjusted some of the finer engraving.
“That part I understand, lady Bevel. I’m simply uncertain how this aids in master Percival’s ascension?”
“Emotional resonance. You’re family. And I need my family to contribute. Since you know less than nothing about enchanting, and you can’t craft the frame like Inertia did, you’re handing us tools.” I brushed my hands, running a finger just above the runes I’d finished engraving, using my Shield attuned senses to test for otherwise invisible flaws. Something we had tools for, but it was more fun to use the Shield.
“That is the part I’m confused by. How does retrieving and storing tools increase emotional resonance?”
“Makes you part of the team, old man,” Nexxa called from where she and Ari were testing the power core. “And that’s so important to Per Per that he literally can’t ascend without us.”
“Kinda embarrassing when you put it like that,” I grumbled, feeling my cheeks warm up.
“I find it sweet,” Ari said. I could hear the smile in her voice, even if I was super-focused on the runes directly in front of me.
“Sweeter than a night between the crimson lady’s thighs.” Nexxa emphasized her point with a crude gesture, successfully dispelling my embarrassment.
“My lady, do you not believe such allusions are inappropriate in our present company?” Calbern incined his head in the direction of Bevel.
If Nexxa caught his hint, she ignored it as she clapped Ari on the shoulder. “You’re right. Sorry about that Arizar.”
Ari raised an eyebrow at my sister, but otherwise didn’t acknowledge her, focusing on her work.
“I think we’re ready for testing,” I said, surprised by my words. I’d expected at least three prototypes to get to this point.
“We need… uh, another half hour?” Nexxa looked towards Ari who narrowed her eyes before shaking her head. “Right, at least an hour.”
“Got it. We’ll work on the spell while we wait.”
Technically, we’d been working on the spell for the last couple weeks. A specialized version of Recall that would use the anchor we were building as its sole lock on point. It was also going to incorporate conceptual restrictions into its design, something we hadn’t worked with much. Spells such as Secrets of Tethlin relied on the conceptual restriction framework heavily. It’s core conceptual restriction was tied to the surface of water. Since even mundane water served not just as a barrier between worlds, but a portal to a new one, by restricting the dimensional spell to similar, it increased the strength.
For my custom spell, we were doing a merger of Storm and Worlds magics.
In addition to Recall, we were raiding components from Secrets of Tethlin and Lightning Transit, along with a half dozen other spells, including the cooking spell.
The final product would send a tiny beacon first, similar to the way the Lightning Bolt spell worked. After the route was ‘charged’, I’d follow along after as a bolt of lightning. Which, since it lowered my mass by converting it to energy, should reduce the cost.
The theory lined up at least.
More importantly, turning into interdimensional lightning was badass.
Hadn’t settled on a name yet, though I was leaning towards Fathomless Bolt. It wasn’t quite right, but I was sure I’d get it by the time we figured out the last of the spell.
“Couldn’t we bypass… no, that’d ‘cause the precursor to collapse,” Bevel mumbled, chewing lightly on her tongue while tracing one of the secondary arcs of the spell matrix with her finger. “I’m not seeing much more we can optimize, Papa.”
“I think you’re right. I need to bite the bullet and scribe it.”
“Bullet?”
That wasn’t a translation issue. Elinder had the word. Just a gap in her education. “It’s a projectile, like an arrow or spell, except propelled by explosions or compressed force. Not sure if it’s still a bullet if you use magnets though.”
“Okay.” Bevel hadn’t looked up from her inspection of the spell matrix. “Why would you bite one?”
“I… have no idea.” I chuckled. Most idioms didn’t make sense. Even though the idiom existed in Elinder, I might not’ve even used it the right way.
“From inference, it would imply biting a bullet is an action that requires commitment, Lady Bevel.” Calbern wiped a bit of silver dust off her forehead before stepping back. Was even harder for him to help now that we weren’t using tools, but he was doing his best.
Like always.
“Yeah, it does,” I confirmed. “Think I should start?”
“Oh, can I do it?” Bevel asked, reaching for her scribing pen.
“You… want to scribe the spell for me?”
“Yeah? Can I?”
“Uh… we can try to do it together.”
Bevel nodded and we sat down at my grimoire. It took a total of five minutes to realize it wouldn’t work. I let her go for another ten before I figured out how to tell her.
“I think you’re rushing too much, kiddo.”
“What? It’s not that bad…”
Bevel and I stared at the matrix she’d been inscribing. Then at the drawing next to it, which if you didn’t understand all the intricacies, would look like a perfect replica.
However, we both understood exactly how many mistakes she’d made.
“Okay. It is that bad. How am I gonna make a grimoire for my friends by tomorrow?” Bevel said, collapsing atop my grimoire.
“Was that something you were doing?”
“I kinda promised them…” Bevel trailed off, her following words lost in a whoosh of wind, preventing them from reaching my ears.
“Promised them…?”
Bevel screwed up her face, glancing at Ari and Nexxa. Nexxa had one hand in the air, sparks crackling, while the other was held to a rod attached to a tool designed to convert mana. Ari was holding the other end of the rod, gaze fixed on the lines she was engraving.
Calbern raised his eyebrow a degree when Bevel looked at him, his lip twitching.
“I promised that you’d make a grimoire for them. But then I realized how busy you are all the time, and you got taken away, and I just…” Bevel puffed up her cheeks. It took a tremendous force of will not to poke them. She let it out with a puff that set my hair flapping. “I was worried you weren’t coming back.”
Oh. Oh, this wasn’t about the grimoire at all. She hadn’t brought it up, so I hadn’t realized she’d been worried. I pulled her into a side-hug. “Sorry kiddo. Wasn’t planning to get dragon-napped.”
“Duh,” Bevel said. I could practically feel the eyeroll from where her head was resting against my chest. “I’m fine… but I did promise my friends. Could you… could you help me make one for them?”
“If it’s important to you, sure. Though maybe we should finish this first.”
“Okay!”
This time there weren’t any mistakes. Bevel made sure to move slow and steady, using her control over the surrounding air to filter the silver dust to her perfectly. The dust had the slightest addition of Worlds affinity material we’d extracted from a delicate jawbone. According to the label on the case it was stored in, it came from a blink bunny.
I’d never seen a blink bunny, but I couldn’t help but wonder if we could add them to our domesticated animals. I made a note to ask about it later, returning my attention to Bevel’s engraving.
Nexxa and Ari finished the powercore while Bevel was still scribing, slotting it inside the frame and running tests. My attention ended up split between them and Bevel, which meant I missed it when she finished.
“It’s ready, Papa,” Bevel declared, patting the new page.
I looked it over, and sure enough, she’d finished. This time there weren’t any flaws, though there were a couple sections she hadn’t done. That she couldn’t do. Wouldn’t remain stable if it wasn’t my mana that bound it to my grimoire. As it was, it would last a few weeks before breaking down. If not for our closeness, having someone else scribe a spell wouldn’t have worked at all. Thanks to our mana ‘getting used to each other’ every time she visited my palace, that restriction was eased.
Not eliminated though.
It took me another half hour to send my mana over her work, claiming it as my own. Once that was done, I completed the final sections, converting the three-dimensional structure carved into the page from a fancy line sculpture into a spell.
At which point, the only thing left was the spell’s name.
I was about to put Phatasmal Bolt when Bevel grabbed my sleeve. “Home Spark,” she suggested. “Since it’s a spark that let’s you come home.”
“I like it,” Ari agreed, nodding.
It wasn’t quite the epic name I’d been picturing, but… honestly, it was a better.
“Home Spark it is,” I said, penning in the name of my latest 3rd order spell at the top of the page.
“Now, time for testing.” Nexxa was rubbing her hands together even as she floated the anchor into the air, the powercore having been slotted in place while Bevel and I were scribing the spell.
Now that it was finished, the spell engine looked like a pair of wireframe pyramids encapsulating a ball of angry energy. The power core was a variant on what had once powered the petal rods, in the same way that an aircraft carrier was a variant of a rowboat.
Which is to say the amount of spell design and engineering involved was impressive, even if the core function was that it stored and supplied mana.
“Did you forget the part where I have to displace all your mana so it only has mine inside it?” I asked even as I laid a hand on the structure.
“Nah. You’re not weak anymore. It’ll take us half an hour, max, to cap it.”
“Right.” I chose not to point out how unlikely that was, instead following with everyone else. Even if she was wrong, we’d be spending the time together.