novelraw Chapter 41
Chapter 41
A/N: Bit of some nasty in this chapter, nothing too crazy but I know that some people are sensitive to this stuff so I'll drop a warning here. Also, sorry for the silence, shits been crazy recently but I'm working on getting back into the writing groove and have no plans on dropping the story any time soon!
CW: Vomiting, blood, mutilation (they get better c: ), eldritch horrors saying hi to feeble mortals
Enjoy the chap!
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ƁR34Ƙ ŁĮM1Ŧ: CONJURATION
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Blinking in confusion, I close and reopen the menu a few times, but the glitched out text remains. Going over the other options first, more levels are always nice. Fusing skills would also be incredible, but can likely be done manually with some effort. Naming an item, again, is stupidly good, but can likely be done by other means such as enhancing an item via crafting or enchantments or something. The glitched choice, however, is something that I've never even heard of being possible. The dark void I'm floating in, which I normally only see for a brief flicker before being sent to the normal world, seems to shift in interest. The sight of literal nothingness moving is… concerning, to say the least, so I decide to hurry up before whatever is taking an interest decides to look closer.
Know what? In the immortal words of wiser men than I, ‘fuck it we ball.’
Selecting BREAK LIMIT: CONJURATION, the change is immediate. I'm thrown from the void, landing beside the others who have also seemingly just arrived from the closing portal behind us. The crystal arch collapses, dispersing into mana before fading entirely, as though it was never there. That barely registers past the sickening sensation of… something crawling through my mana. I try to push back, but whatever it is simply pushes through. My vision swims, dropping to my knees and vomiting a spray of greenish-yellow slime as Keira and Angelina rush over, pulling my hair back and patting my back to try and help. The thought of us being a couple party girls after a long night drifts through my mind, chuckling slightly before a new bout of hurling begins.
The crawling sensation pushes from my chest outwards, gray veins creeping along my skin. The next hurl is flecked with red, pain setting in past the nausea as whatever is happening begins damaging something inside of me. I gasp, coughing out more blood, vision blurring as the veins cover my body… and fade, gone in a blink as the nausea and pain vanishes all at once. I start to stand up, thinking it's over.
The agony returns in full force, black markings searing themselves across my arms, runic circles that hurt to read carving themselves into existence across my flesh. Blood weeps from the wounds, slithering up my arms in gravity-defying spirals before blackening and falling away, leaving nothing behind but the memory of burning blood. The sensation of skills merging nudges my mind, a faint system ping calling my attention to my menu.
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Skill Limits Removed: Conjuration
Skill: Conjuration (Tier 3 Fusion) > Skill: Mana Forge (Unique)
Skill: Detonate Construct has been subsumed by Skill: Mana Forge
Skill: Lesser Summoning has been combined with Skill: Mana Forge
Skill: Basic Hydromancy has been combined with Skill: Mana Forge
Skill: Witch's Tome has been combined with Skill: Mana Forge
Mana Forge (Unique Active):
The ultimate creator. Allows for the user to impart their will on reality, forging items or spells into existence.
Combined Skills retain prior effects. Subsumed skills are inferior variants of what this skill is capable of. The only limit is the imagination of the user.
ERROR: MANAFORGED ITEM CREATED PRIOR TO SKILL ACQUISITION
RESOLVING ERROR…
Manaforged Item Created: Mourning Edge (Slashing)
Mourning Edge (Slashing):
A manaforged katana blessed by the Banished Primordial. Once a week, impart a sliver of Primordial divinity into an attack, ensuring death and bypassing defenses. Empowered by the Grief of the user, enhancing sharpness and durability. Can be summoned or dismissed at will, and will always be fully repaired after each summon.
Current Cooldown: 7 days
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The pain stops, the markings fading into tattoos of runes across my forearms before those too fade away. Taking a shuddering breath, I wipe away the tears and blood and give Keira a warm smile.
“That hurt like hell, but so, so, soooo worth it.”
Focusing on my new skill, I can feel that it can do everything the old ones could, and more. The mana jumps to my command, the tattoos glowing across my skin as I trace a rune into the air. The rune for barrier burns into existence, and within a split second a shimmering wall snaps into place in front of me. Another gesture, and the rune for ice overlays the barrier, and the transparent sheet flickers and freezes into a wall of clear ice. A wave, and both runes fade out of existence.
A twist of will, and water pools in my hands, spiraling up into a display of recursively blooming flowers. Another tweak, and the water crumbles into sand, flowing in waves across my palms. I toss it upwards, bursting into a ball of wind, and then another flick sends ripples of fire across the air. My smile only broadens as I try everything I can think of to push the limits of my newest skill, and come to the same conclusion:
This is overpowered.
In more simple terms than the description put it, Mana Forge allows me to literally forge things out of mana. I can simply will a specific thing to happen, such as a spell or elemental manipulation, and it does. The effect is stronger if I use motions and gestures to help guide the mana, and I get the feeling that manaforged equipment would be stronger if I used a proper anvil and forge as a medium. The main issue with manaforged stuff is that it is completely devoid of a rarity, meaning it can't be upgraded via system rewards or any other means beyond my own skill at crafting.
I play with it for a while, just enjoying the satisfaction of carving runes into the air and willing steel plates into existence before they vanish without use moments later. That's another thing I notice, that I can form raw materials, and manipulate them into the shape I want, but it will only work up to a certain point. If the materials are not sufficiently used, such as just making a curved plate of steel instead of a proper shield, then they simply disperse into mana after a minute or so, less if I'm not actively focusing on them. But when I attempt to manaforge a simple iron dagger with a wooden hilt, the weapon forms after a few minutes of intense focus, though it's not good quality. The blade is dull, the tip blunted, the hilt not quite properly fitted, and the simple rounded pommel looks closer to a lumpy oval. Even the rune that I forge into the blade, the one for sharpness, has downgraded in quality to merely a common. The lines are rough, the curves jagged, and the main split triangle symbol in the center looks closer to a broken arrow despite my careful efforts.
Keira looks at it with a grimace, testing a few swipes even as she agrees with my assessment of it.
“Yeah, that's not a good blade. Dull, even with a sharpness rune. The hilt is both somehow too tight to the tang while also loose? I don't even know how that happens, honestly. The pommel… why can I measure the angles of an oval? Bleh, this might be the most uncomfortable dagger I've ever used… and I've used one made by feral goblins…”
I chuckle at her disgust, snapping the blade with a burst of mana into a skill I've honestly neglected too much. Finally, done with testing my new abilities, I turn a suspicious eye onto Nesuskape; my named dress. During the battle with the Deceiver, it decided to evolve via the blessing of “the banished Primordial”, whatever that is, and the ability changed. Pulling up the description, I almost wince at what I see.
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Nesuskape (Epic, Growth Armour)
An ornate corset dress crafted from the scales of a Greater Shadeblight Serpent and blessed by the Banished Primordial. It heavily resists most blunt and magic damage. All non-sapient serpent-type creatures will see the wearer as an ally and remain neutral unless provoked. Once a month, can be used as a conduit to contact the Banished Primordial. When conditions for growth are met, Nesuskape will advance to Legendary rarity.
[Call The Void]: Bring forth a remnant of the Banished One, animating nearby shadows with their essence.
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Fuck. My best piece of gear has been fucking infested by some Primordial asshole. Wonderful And they got rid of the shapeshifting part. Great. Just great..
Grimacing, I nudge the window over to Keira and Angelina. Their eyes glaze over in the familiar sight of someone using the system before they also wince in unison.
“Yeesh. This ‘Banished Primordial’ seems to really like you, huh?” Angelina jokes, and I shrug.
“Apparently it's the Banished Primordial of Grief. Know anything about that?” I ask, but she just shakes her head in denial.
“No, the only thing I know about the Primordials is that they are essentially embodiments of natural laws. I think there's something like twenty of them? And not in the same way that gods are natural laws, with each having a domain they rule over, but more in the way that they ARE that law, if that makes sense.” I nod, having zero idea what that distinction means.
Keira looks troubled by the part about contacting the Primordial, but in the end we all agree that I should attempt it at least once, and there is currently nothing pressing that we need to do. The fort we're in is relatively safe, all the bandits have been slain, and no issues that we really need to contend with. Knowing that, I head into an empty side room, lay out a cloak as a blanket, then lay down. I don't know how this “contact” will appear, be it a dream or voice or whatever, but I doubt I should be standing up for it. Closing my eyes, I focus on Nesuskape. There, faint in my awareness, is a thin thread of power spinning off into the void. I gently tug on it, and immediately regret my decision. My stomach drops as my mind is violently torn from my body and into an empty black nothingness, and then the void cracks.
Like a hatching egg, the blackness shatters as hundreds of thousands of orange goat-like eyes force themselves into being, the horizontal pupils twitching about before they all lock onto me. A voice that's not a voice rings in my mind like the strike of a hammer on an anvil, sending me crashing to my knees in pain as blood seeps from my eyes and ears.
“So, you are the Reborn that breaks the rules set in place millennia ago. And yet, you know nothing of the bindings you have broken by merely existing. The last of the Sirens, the beings I formed from my own flesh and blood. Who were slaughtered at the command of my siblings, out of petty jealousy for my works. And yet you know nothing of that, do you?”
I barely notice when the not-voice pauses, each word like a physical blow to my mind as my thoughts and vision blur from pain. The not-voice softens, going from a blunt hammer to merely a light pressure as the sensation of a hand caresses my face. Phantom fingers trail over my wings, making me shiver as I force myself to my feet.
“I… apologize for my less than appropriate reception of you, my child. I was a bit… overzealous, after seeing one of my children for the first time in thousands of years.”
Wiping blood from my face, I glare up at the uncountable eyes.
“Maybe you could give me a face to talk to, rather than being an ominous voice in my head? That would be a good start.”
A brush of warm breath ruffles my hair, and a humanoid form rises from the void before me. A tall woman with a goat-like head, short gray fur covering every inch of her body as cloven hooves clack on the nothingness we stand on. She wears what almost looks like a nun's habit, but lacks any iconography or details, just a simple black garment that parts at her hips to cover the front and back. A whiplike tail with a tuft of fur at the end snakes behind her, but all of this is vastly overshadowed by her horns and eyes. Three orange eyes on her face, two in the normal places and one vertical on her forehead, and several more placed in the curls of her six massive horns, closer to a rack of antlers than a ram's horns. All of them blink open simultaneously, all focusing on me as she lets out a satisfied sigh, voice now distinctly feminine and coming from the avatar in front of me.
“Oh, I do apologize my child. It's been so, so long since I spoke with anyone, let alone a mortal, that I forgot how fragile you are. Now, where were we?”
“How about the part where you explain to me why you're here and what ‘bindings’ I broke just by existing?” I say, voice annoyed and tone clipped. She sighs again, this time in resignation.
“Then I suppose I shall start from the beginning…”