Asheron's Fall: The Power of Ten, Book Six

I was getting a lot of work out of Toppling Spell and Banespell’s +2 boost to it, that was certain.

Their spindly legs damaged, the two bugs scrabbled desperately for purchase on the floor.

“Zojak Quareth!” They were just starting to get up again when another 3-4 split of colorful spheres smashed into them and drove them down again, the Worker’s carapace spilling blood and shattering organs. Vivus was quick to leap into the opening.

The Soldier was screeching at least twice as loudly as the other death cries I’d heard, which didn’t fill me with a lot of assurance for a peaceful future.

It rose again, but the two Darts had enough Kicker damage to them to finish the job as the cold energy smashed against its chitin to help make it more brittle to the follow-up bludgeoning force damage. It spun away and back, never seeing its attacker, only the rainbow hues of the magic hurled out to kill it.

Down three Slots plus 47 mana. Three dead olthoi piled up in front of that opening, my scent happily being taken down by all the vivic mist.

I sank into Waking Meditation to get back as much mana as I could as fast as possible, because I was sure something else was coming. I had one minute, maybe two. 11 mana a minute wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.

---

I slid 30 mana into my Slots, and my ears perked up with 23 mana restored as I heard more tiny, hard, fast steps coming this way... and something different, scuttling-?

The new Soldier came from the small hallway to the left of the small room there, followed by two more Workers... and a fourth olthoi, another new type. This one was actually down on all six legs, moving like a normal insect, the source of the scuttling sound as all of its meter-long legs moved quickly. It was about four feet long, legs nearly as long as its green, segmented body... and it had a set of crystalline wings folded over its back.

Ah, shit, I thought, as it came out into an open area with enough space to spread its wings and gain some height. The other olthoi got out of its way as those wings began to flutter with thrumming speed, although not nearly as hard, fast, and heavy as would be needed to lift it off the ground. Indeed, it was lifting off the ground before the wings were even moving quickly, so basically the wings were just generating enough wind to move the bug around.

Olthoi Needler. Level 50, 160 Health.

It quickly zipped up for altitude, the ceiling rising to a good thirty feet here.

I was not happy to see that these creatures had fliers, but since they’d probably had crawlers of some kind, it was not unexpected.

-I’ve never seen any kind of creatures like these, in books or anything,- Mira admitted.

Me either!, I agreed silently, even after review of the endless bugs of the planet Verdan and the Hivergreen server. I considered my options as the olthoi moved forward... and again, air-temperature unscented human female sitting on the ground.

The flier was moving much more quickly than the other olthoi, and was obviously the biggest threat with it being able to ignore terrain. It zipped over to where the three olthoi were Burning, hovering as the other olthoi ran up.

I was even less happy when it squirted a stream of glowing acid out and covered the entire area below it in the rain. It washed over the vivus and damped it down, although it didn’t really go out inside the broken corpses.

A bug with a breath weapon. I knew what I had to kill first, and happily it was still staying up in the air, thrumming happily as it maintained a kind of rolling zero-g position.

The other olthoi hadn’t reached it yet, so they had their backs turned as my Zojak Quareth lanced out with seven spheres and slammed into the flying bug with full force.

One of its wings went flying, and it was smashed sideways into the wall at the impact. I did over a hundred points of damage on the attack, and it was pounded into the wall there, losing any focus on its levitating, and crashed down to the ground, hitting the stone hard and breaking open.

The vivus it had just tamped down flared up and followed the leaking blood up to it like fire follows gasoline. It rapidly caught on vivic fire, and joined its kin in Burning nicely.

The other three olthoi all froze to a halt on seeing it fall down, catching only a flash of light and the rippling shockwaves in rainbow hues spreading out from the impact points.

Their backs were still exposed to me, so I hammered them 2-3-2, giving the Soldier the extra shot as I smashed Shard-spheres into the back of their spindly little legs, and they were kicked over onto their backs helplessly.

The trip-lock was working pretty well. 1-5-1 spread followed up, and the Soldier’s head was shattered open as its comrades were smashed back down.

An Ice Dart each finished off the wounded workers with my next spell as they shrieked madly at their deaths one final time, and I withdrew to my position to instantly move into Meditation and try to recover the 42 + three Slots of mana I’d just spent.

126 mana to get back, half my total, hoping nothing else came. I sat back down on my Disk, went into Meditation, and began to regain the juice once again.

------

No more olthoi came, but the thrumming had increased in volume as I came out of Meditation.

I could feel it in the air, and paused, my Detect Time automatically reorienting as the magic reset itself as well.

It ticked over, and unseen somewhere in that direction, the sun broke through in the east and brought with it the dawn and Natural Renewal.

A wave of positive energy, subtle but powerful, stole across the world. It brought a natural ending to many longer-lasting spells, washed Spell Slots to soften and dispel mana burn, and basically started the magical day.

It meant I could also take another Class Level, another point of Health, Soak, a Paid Feat, and Mastery.

Also, I poured another thousand Karma into my Ring, and it rose to life, crackling as Sustenance came online. New energy poured through me, wiping away the hunger gnawing at my gut and the thirst that had been growing quietly and quickly.

“Pool Theurge,” I stated, even as Mira went through in a blizzard of mental motion and raised everything she could a point... not that she didn’t try for more than one. “Sustained Effort. Meditation Mastery/2, Mystical Skill Affinity, Concentration and Meditation. Mark +1 to Intellect.”

There were many, many things I needed, but being able to recharge my II Valences had to be number one at this point.

My Domains also recharged themselves.

First order of business, a Dawnstopped Spell. I went with Shield. My only other real alternative was Force Armor, but that lasted three hours, so I didn’t need to recast it so often. Shield lasted minutes normally, but as I wove the Metamagic around it, I dumped my Ur-Priest Channeling uses into it via Divine Metamagic and paid the +6 Modifier handily.

I could only do this with one spell a day using positive energy. However, that info dump from Aelryinth said I could do it with a second spell using negative energy, particularly vivified negative energy.

Additional Channel Mastery uses for the win! +6 to my Armor Class against attackers would be very clutch, although it wouldn’t stop most magical spells, and the last thing I wanted to do was have to Cast it in combat.

My first three Ring Domain Spells were the Cantrip Protection from Rain, Force Armor at I and Resist Energy at II, all of which enhanced my Spells Known from Sorcerer, as the Domain was tied to my Bloodline. That meant picking a new Valence I and II Sorcerer Spell Known, too.

I seesawed on what to take for a moment, and made the decision that taking Web for multiple Castings was probably not as life-preserving as Jaunt. Jaunt was the first and most minor of the dimension-hopping spells, only ten feet per Caster Level, but still a lifesaver, and I had the impression Web would not be of much use against the olthoi and their acidic weaponry.

It gave me utility that an Isparian mage just didn’t have. Mira was going nuts over the potential magic I could wield, as I knew of literally hundreds of spells... and I could eventually access them all, one by one.

Cantrips, minor spells infinitely usable. I had access to Elemental Dart, Vivic Dart, Write, Holy Symbol, Detect 0, Visual File, Assay 0, Detect Time, Prestidigitation, Hologram, Ghost Sound, Stabilize, Minor TK, Read Magic, Know Location, Light, Mending, Create Water, and Sift.

Visual File tied to Know Location gave me an auto-mapper. North was... that way. The internal map I had of this place promptly re-oriented to it, meaning east was that way and the sun was over there.

Assay 0 was working with the natural magic and also up with just concentration. The range wasn’t great, and details required full Valences, but it worked fine on myself, and at least told me the names, approximate power, and relative Stats of monsters if within sixty feet.

Write allowed me to start accruing a spellbook. I promptly began Writing all my spells into my Ring, one by one, now that I could.

The problem was I’d Cast both Phantom Servant and Web, wiping them from memory. There was nothing to rebuild there, meaning I’d actually lost the spells for now!

Wonderful. I could puzzle them out again with a day or two, tracking the changes in the living magic and rescribing them, but it would take hours to do so.

So, I had Sorcery spells of Illusion I, Shield, Shards, Force Disk, Identify, Force Armor, and Healing for my Valence I’s, all cast out of the same seven Slots. I had Jaunt, False Life, Resist Energy, and Cure Disease Known in my II’s.

My Wizard spells were fire and forget, numbering Run, Vanish, True Casting, Sleep, and Detect I at this time, Phantom Servant was now absent, for my Valence I’s. Invisibility and Levitate were left in my II’s, Web was gone.

After I finished Writing everything into my Ring, I double-memorized Run and Invisibility, not having too many options at this point. Invisibility was unique in having a duration of Natural Renewal, whereas Vanish only lasted a few breaths, but could be Cast almost instantly. As long as I didn’t undertake violent actions or attack anything, I could stay Invisible all day.

Run had two forms. The normal version was a +10 bonus to speed (average human speed was 30), lasting an hour per Caster Level. It could be trashed on command, the remaining duration shortened to a minute/level, but the speed bonus increased to +30, twice as fast as most normal humans!

My Ur-spells used my Wizard matrix, all of them also Vancian fire-and-forget. That left the bonus spells from Wisdom, and my Domain Slots. Sanctuary might save my ass, and Protection from Evil was enormously relevant with potential Summons here, both of them I’s. Lesser Angelic Aspect would be a small defensive boost, and Eternal Light was something I could Cast every day and it would never go to waste.

Also... “Ritual of the Burning Heart!” I announced to nobody in particular, investing nine Levels of Karma, and my heart ignited inside me, startling Mira as fiery mana swirled and invested in an echo of the Primal Ritual that, like the Ceremony of the Frozen Soul, Aelryinth had enacted.

Fire burned in my heart, Cold swam through my blood. It actually worked out just fine, as the cold conducted heat to my heart, actually making it easier to burn inside me, taking less power. I was now a creature of both Fire and Cold, neither could harm me without some special tricks, and I had an attunement and feel for Fire and Ice magicks that went beyond normal people.

Also, the temperature was always perfect for me, and I’d never overheat or sweat, which was a convenient add-on to being Sustained...