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

The princess was looking around coolly, watching and waiting. “Only four?” her voice drifted down to me.

“That was all I saw, but I make no promises that something didn’t come in the place behind me, Highness.” I waited as the bodies burned away, the shadowy flesh converting first to something more solid and real, then abruptly crumbling into white ash with great speed.

I noted that they must have preferred to remain nude so as not to be seen, as they’d painted their shields and spears black as well. They were certainly solid enough to wear armor, but with their magic had preferred not to do so in order to retain the element of surprise.

Someone who could see in the dark as if it were day, not quite in their plans.

I considered the ruin of the Portal back there, and realized that I didn’t need to leave a Light or a message there. Nothing was coming through this place now.

The princess watched the Shades-whatever Burn down, her arms crossed and her gaze cool. “Are you sure they were enemies?” she asked me as I walked up.

“Auras Purple-Red. You aren’t seeing it now, but all these white spots on the floor? Fungi mounds, built atop human corpses. Those little mounds are bone dust mixed with shroom ash.”

Her eyes slowly swept around, moving back and forth, including up along the walls. “How many?” she asked shortly, frowning.

“I only saw evidence of perhaps a thousand. I don’t know how long it took to break down the bones.”

Her breath hissed out. “And they were responsible?”

“I don’t know if they were directly, setting up things this way. This area was occupied by mushroom-folk and walking insectile predators.” A Holo flashed up off my hand, and she stared at it in surprise as I illustrated the relative sizes and appearances of the things. I think it excited her to see them. “I basically sniped everything, choosing not to engage in personal combat, so don’t ask me for their relative melee capabilities.”

She laughed throatily at the statement. “Fair enough, I’ll test that side of things for both of us,” she agreed, and then gave me a hard stare. “You know I’ve got some very pointed questions for you, right?”

“Let’s get out of here before something blocks the one way out. Matrix magic is not capable of much directly here, and the mana pool of Isparian magic is Renewing appallingly slowly. There is a Henge outside that is VERY good at helping that along, however.”

She studied me for a moment, then nodded. “Fair enough. Lead on,” she ordered, and, well, she was a very dangerous Null with a blue-black adamantine Sword edged in hard Gold soulfire, so I obeyed.

I did keep a flight of Shards up around my wand as I trotted through the place, surveying each room before I moved into it. Amusingly, the princess jumped down from the landing while I took the ramp, waiting for me there.

A minute later we were walking up the ramp to the outside, where she abruptly crouched down and ran her finger over the stone there. “This is like those tunnels. Acid-fused rock,” she announced, striding up effortlessly to join me at the top, and slowly look around.

It was still the dark of night, and I don’t think she had Devilsight, so she was basically looking around with low-light vision. “That your henge?” she asked, pointing at it a short distance away. The misting vivus made it pretty visible in the starlight.

“Yes.” I headed down that way after a careful look around. “I was doing rep counts when the insectlife in the frozen night shut up at the coming of the shades, using the henge here to recharge. I just finished up Sacred Spell, and was going to start on No Components.” Bugs that could survive the winter without freezing hibernation I chalked up to the energy from the henge.

“Okay, you are not an Isparian mage,” she pronounced shortly. “Nor are you Gharu’n. Your accent is all wrong, you’re using terms they don’t know, and you’re familiar with Matrix magic, which Isparians have no familiarity with, and may not even be able to use. Who are you?”

“Well, the body used to belong to Devra al-Sharim, apprentice to Xunidara, the daughter of Nuhmudira, who was going by the name of Calliona in the Imperial Academy. Xunidara enticed her into attempting a Summoning from a book of Viamontian magic she had acquired. It brought in an eldritch entity she wasn’t powerful enough to contain or to bargain with, and it took her soul in payment for her entertainment.

“I was stuffed into the empty shell, and emptied the Death Curse which brought me here on top of the thing. There was quite an explosion, her teacher showed up, I revealed who she was, she killed her own Zharalim guards, and I hope one got away to warn others about her.”

“He did,” she nodded shortly. “We shook down her quarters and secret chambers, finding some very unhealthy stuff, just like her bitch of a mother. However, she never returned there.

“That explosion location had another Portal standing in it, and we think she used it after you did.” She gave me a keen stare.

“Nobody else came out here. As a matter of fact, you came out exactly twenty-four hours after I did.”

She blinked at me. “Mom and Dad used the time to hook into the magic causing these Portals to pop up, and I was sent through to both chase after the bitch and to shut the whole system of magic down. If all went well, those Portals popping up to this place should be done forever.”

I was impressed at her resolve as I walked into the Henge, and mana began to flow into me. I adopted Aurora Stance to help the process along with Cantrips, which she studied with some interest. “You just... jumped into a new world?” I had to ask, smiling despite myself. “I found it a better option than facing a Level 87 sorceress!”

“Ispar has mom and dad. While I could definitely find stuff to occupy myself, hey, they are going to be around a long time.” She watched my face, and leaned closer to me at my total lack of surprise. I noted the way the vivic mist wasn’t getting within a foot of her. “But you knew that. You said you came in on a Death Curse. Who were you?”

“You know that guy Sauron was always going to sue in game for trademark infringement?” I asked her calmly.

“Sauron?” She blinked. “The Lord of the... Oh. Ohhhhh...” She tilted her head slightly. “Aelryinth?” she finally remembered.

“And you’re a Hag Curse-powered Rantha, with copies of the memories of one Sama Rantha from back on Terra-Luna, along with Briggs.” I nodded calmly, making her blink. “Former Captain of the Intrepid. The Tip of the Spear. Grandmaster and Sage of Swords, The Trembling Sage.”

All the Titles broke over us, ringing their Truth. A smile quirked at the edge of her mouth, displaying the trademark double canines.

“And don’t forget terrifying and beloved second eldest princess of the new Isparian Empire, long may it continue,” she said. “Okay, if you were Aelryinth...”

I cut her off, “To be specific, Highness, I’m a soul shard of him, cut off to dilute the power of a Death Curse from a Death Titan Demilich, a mere fraction of which Curse I was able to use to blow that eldritch thing right out of Ispar with horrifying efficiency. I’m effectively a hollow copy made of Karma that is slowly reapplying his knowledge to myself in these circumstances, and am certainly nowhere close to being a fraction of his equal.”

She just blinked. “I don’t have the magical assessment powers of most Isparians as a Null, but I’m very capable of feeling a Level Aura this close, and you’re pinging at least as high as me.”

“My Assay says I am 104 in Isparian terms. It also says I’m a 3/3/3/1/1/1/1/2. And did you know that when you earn a billion Karma for booting a horrifying eldritch entity off the mortal plane, you still only get to apply one point a day to Stats and Skills and the like in the Isparian magical system?”

She blinked again, and then smiled widely. “Oh, well, that sucks. I must admit I have never been in a situation where I earned enough Karma to do that so quickly. The early Levels are so simple I could Level up almost every day as a child...”

“Yes. So, I am in the middle of building my Power of Ten Levels up, one Level at a time, and applying exactly one point to all the relevant Stats and skills that I can, right after every Renewal.” I just closed my eyes. “So, the dead Devra had the knowledge and skill of a Thirty. I am easily a hundred points away in most of my Skills and Stats from using all this Karma.”

She laughed in unapologetic glee at my miserable expression. “Such a horrible problem to have!” she grinned, her naked Sword flipping around back to dagger-size and deposited smoothly in her belt-sheath behind her.

“I know, right?” I admitted tiredly.

“What’s the Renew rate here?” she asked me.

“The standing rate is base 1 per minute. When I’m in Aurora Stance, I apply Matrix energy back into it, but so far the only thing I have that is renewable is Cantrips, which is effectively one point per twelve Seconds. I have to get a Reserve working to do better.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “Six a minute is fantastically good by Isparian standards!” she noted.

“I know, but it is very fast depletion in real terms in a fight, just like Valences.” I tapped a foot down. “Now get this. Almost a point of mana a second here.”

Her purple eyes dropped, and she whistled in amazement. “Wow! That’s just like chain-chugging mana Potions!” she murmured.

“Now, meta that fact.”

She looked at me, smiling crookedly again. Sure, she looked like a teenager, and I was treating her like a seasoned veteran... which she totally was. She had been a seasoned veteran the day she was born mentally. She probably wasn’t used to people outside her family treating her this way.

“Meta it. Okay, big picture. It’s a conduit to a lot of energy, and this is some leaking out?...” She frowned somewhat. “It was probably helping power that Portal magic, and that magic used to be some serious stuff. Thousands of people used to get snatched up by those things. The scale of power to do something like that is immense. Supposedly a version of a Gate, in Power of Ten terms, a Valence IX.”

“Yes. Walk down the road a hundred yards and you’ll see a pit. I set it on vivic fire, so the worst of it isn’t there, but the skeletons of over a hundred people, some not human, were blasted and fused into it, studded with blue crystal shards. I have no idea how or why, but they all died in the blast together.

“Go wander out in a random direction, away from the local houses, and you’re going to come across Summon points.”

She blinked. “Summon points?” she repeated calmly. “What do you mean?”

“I mean they are Summoned creatures with standing orders to attack anything not of the same species as them, just standing there until they die for some reason, upon which time the point accumulates enough energy and Summons in something else.”

She blinked at me. “Are you kidding me?” she asked warily.

“Not a damn bit. You’ve got good night vision. Head off into the trees thataway, and you’ll come across one of the native creatures here, just standing there in an area obviously worn down by something just staying in a small area.

“It will turn and attack you. Kill it without using vivus, it’ll discorporate back into ectoplasm. If it’s the first time it’s been killed in a while, the spawn point will congeal another Summons, although I imagine your Null Interdiction would stop it as long as you’re close.

“The follow-up Summons might or might not be based on the power of what is being Summoned, I don’t know, but within five minutes, it should activate again.”

She just stared at me. “I AM going to test this out,” she told me carefully.