Chapter 26
A wave of light-based desolation stormed out of the Lumen’s form, causing foliage to instantly become cinders and the closest corpses to burn away into wispy streaks of ash. A visible tower of golden liquid luminescence connected the Lumen to the source of her borrowed power. Kalex looked up into the vortexing clouds and opened his presence sight. His jaw went slack at the view of all of the available myst in the area being absorbed into the connection that stretched into the sky. Light pulsed as a booming voice plastered the city in a tsunami of sound.
“You are not running for your life, Kalex. This must mean you’ve seen the Mark before and survived.” Scyris’ form blurred and appeared a few feet before Kalex. His cloak of myst was holding, but he could feel the pressure the Lumen now exuded and he struggled to keep his footing firm.
“It must’ve been Sorus. He was only a first-category Lumen, so it couldn’t have been anything compared to the might I wield.” Scyris said as she put a finger to her chin and tilted her head. “No matter, word of his death on a training world came not too long ago. Good riddance, if I do say so myself. I’ll travel to Rime and get his possessions in time.” Scyris stood in silence for a moment until she snapped out of her daydreams. “But I digress. Now it is time for you to die as well.” Scyris’ glow intensified as her grip tightened on the broken haft of her weapon.
Kalex didn’t need Lex’s help to remember the name of the planet that Scyris said Lyla’s kidnapper had died on, but he still wished it was available for support. Kalex deepened his ponder and prepared himself for an attack. Out of habit, he pinged Lex and the reply he received in the form of a window almost brought him out of his concentration.
Neural Lexicon processing and unable to respond.
Estimated time until energy is fully processed: 14 hours.
Invest 325% of total myst to expedite?
[YES] [NO]
Kalex immediately clicked the ‘NO’ option due to him not wanting to find out what would happen if his myst was drained three times over. Before he could complete a full thought, a shimmering boot broke through his myst cloak and landed squarely with his face. Kalex took the blow and only stumbled back a few steps.
“Impressive, Broken Axiom. I applaud the power you’ve gained in your short time on this planet. You put the previous Diat representative to shame in terms of power, but it seems everyone from Diat is a fool!” Scyris swung her scythe laterally with speed faster than Kalex could track. He barely moved back in time to avoid the blade colliding with his ribs, but the concentrated myst that came from the weapon in waves still made it through his barrier, leaving a weeping gash on his midsection.
Kalex realized he was outclassed. The tether that linked the Lumen to the higher worlds was giving her an edge that he didn’t have. He felt death creeping into his thoughts as Scyris readied another, bigger attack. Kalex closed his eyes and took a deep breath and used all of his willpower to attempt something that he knew had an infinitesimal chance of working. Gathering his courage, he lifted two fingers to his forehead and yelled. “I INVOKE THE MARK OF THE AXIOM!”
Scyris stopped her attack and stared wide-eyed at Kalex. “Are you joking? You have no stake in the Cabal! Even if you are as powerful as some of the Lumen, the Ancestor would never heed the call of a filthy Baseborn!” Anger flared in Scyris’ eye as she brought her Scythe up to deliver an overhand chop. The gall of Kalex made her spiral into a fit of rage, causing her to use her weapon incorrectly. Nothing on Enternia could survive even an errant blow from her Scythe, so she remained unconcerned. Her empowered swing should leave the boy as nothing but a crimson-hued mist, but her surprise exceeded her anger when the tip of her scythe was caught on the flat of Kalex’s blade.
Scyris pulled her blade away and moved 30 feet away in the span of a heartbeat. “Impossible! I have the power of a fourth-category Lumen! There’s no feasible way that you could block my armament!” Scyris grimaced in fear and understanding. “No. There’s no way that the Cabal would give you recognition. Just the mere thought is asinine! You haven’t undergone training! You haven’t been to the higher worlds!” Scyris’ shoulders dropped and she relaxed. “It matters not. Your power is borrowed. Not just any Lumen can activate the Mark and survive, so I expect the Mark to do my job for me.”
Kalex fully exited his ponder and tried to feel for the Mark’s energy in hopes that he could cut it off or hinder it somehow. If even some of the powerful Lumen couldn’t handle the throughput from the Mark, he had little hope that he could. To his surprise, Kalex couldn’t feel any external energy entering his body and immediately thought that connecting to the Mark didn’t work, but at the reaction Scyris gave after he blocked her attack, he looked deeper.
—
Shurai was deep in meditation before he was rudely awakened by the stirring of energy in his chambers. He was the creator and leader of the Lumen Cabal, one of many organizations of the higher worlds. Although the number of organizations were many, The Cabal was one of the most powerful and influential. Bringing Baseborns into their fold was unique to the Lumen Cabal, as no other institution had the want or the means to do so. Bringing someone from the lower worlds was generally pointless due to the higher tier energy that soaked every inhabited world.
If the imported Baseborn was not outright killed due to the density, the energy would render them unable to progress. In its induction, the Cabal took charge of most of the other worlds with little to no energy on them in hopes of bringing Baseborns there and gradually have them adapt to the more potent energy. In the beginning, only one in every 100 Baseborns were able to thrive. This was good enough for Shurai to start with, but he wanted to make the outcome flawless. Throughout years of trial and error, he found the solution to his problem.
The first step was to use his power to take planets of the lower worlds under his influence and ever so slightly siphon some of the Cabal’s accumulated power to them. Doing this boosted the tolerance of those Baseborns and prepared them for transfer to what he called training worlds. To further smooth the transfer, he decided to only take one person every one hundred years per planet. With this plan in action, he was still bolstering his ranks with at least two new members per year. The next step was the most difficult to execute. He called this plan the Axiom Program.
When the hundred-year cycle started over, he would add a speck of his power to the next newborn on the planet, injecting the raw energy needed to guarantee survival on the training worlds. He found out that they had to be babies so he could appoint a Lumen advisor to them and raise them to be loyal to the Cabal. There were many secondary actions that could be put in place in the event that something grave happened to the new Axiom, but instances like that seldom happened. Once the Axiom advanced enough, they were sent to Lumen training worlds that had the energy that was almost equivalent to the main world that the Cabal called home.
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The multistep process ensured that the new Lumen would be elites among the common folk and raise the power of the Cabal further. Every Lumen paid the Cabal with a wisp of their energy every day through the signature that Shurai gave each one when they became full-fledged Lumen. The energy was then stored in his chambers for emergency use and to power the Mark of the Axiom in case any Lumen found themselves in dire need to use it. What had awakened him was a familiar presence of one of his Primals.
It annoyed him to no end that Scyris had used the Mark so soon after he had spoken to her. She had always been an outlier when it came to conduct but he had never seriously reprimanded her due to her being one of the first he initiated into the Cabal. He would summon her again once the Mark had expired, and depending on the outcome of her use of the Mark, he would either make good on his threat or relegate her position to one more befitting of her actions. Shurai began to lose himself in thought as a surprising stream of energy began to leak from the chambers.
“A second use of the Mark? And on the same planet? Scyris, what are you doing down there?” Shurai whispered to himself. Curiosity gripped him like a vice and he expanded his consciousness throughout all of the stored energy to find out which Lumen had activated the Mark. Something that he didn’t think was possible was happening right before his senses. He couldn’t parse the signature more than the planet of origin which made his eyebrows scrunch together in question. “A Diatian signature on Enternia? That is odd in and of itself, but to brute force their way into my stockpile? I didn't know this was a possibility!” Shurai spoke through gritted teeth as the temperature around him rose from his seething.
Without another word, he forcefully cut the connection on both instances of the Mark. Forcing himself into deep meditation, Shurai mulled over his thoughts. He knew Scyris was up to no good and he made the decision then and there to remove her Cabal signature and remove her from the Cabal entirely. That was only if the situation she found herself in didn’t do that for him.
—
Kalex found nothing new when peering into his domain, just his prismatic core that illuminated the entire area. Entering a shallower ponder, Kalex felt a tinge in the middle of his head, in a similar location to where Lex usually communicated. He looked upward at the feeling and at first didn’t perceive anything out of the ordinary until he felt the pillar of power that was beaming down towards the Lumen suddenly disappear. The waves of power produced by Scyris’ Mark blinded Kalex from seeing any energy around him, but when it was no longer a factor, what he saw sent chills down his spine. An incredibly thin tether of power, similar to the one that attached Sorus to the higher worlds, connected to him. A moment later, it began to waiver and flicker. Another spike of activity rattled his brain as a window appeared in front of his eyes.
Neural Lexicon processing and unable to respond.
Estimated time until energy is fully processed: 6 hours.
Invest 139% of total myst to expedite?
[YES] [NO]
Optional resolution: Use external myst source?
[YES] [NO]
*Warning: If external myst source becomes unavailable, user’s myst will be used instead.
Before making a decision, Kalex looked through the transparent window to see Scyris on her knees, seemingly pleading with the sky. He didn’t know who the Ancestor was, but she had mentioned him before and assumed it was her superior. Moving away from the odd scene, Kalex applied his focus to the link he’d made with the higher worlds. If the tether was described as a rushing river when he’d first looked upon it a moment ago, now it gave the impression of a small leak about to shut off. Thinking of his only compatriot, he tightened his focus and applied as much of his myst as he could into his demand. “
HOLD!” The world rippled around him as the tether stabilized. Seeing this work so well, he then proceeded to test his luck. “SWELL!” The world again rippled in response and Scyris ended her tirade with the clouds, directing her attention to the culminating energy that began spinning around Kalex. In a fraction of a blink of an eye, a tower of deep blue energy cascaded onto Kalex’s form bringing him to a knee. At the same moment, he mentally pressed the ‘YES’ option on the window in front of him.
The pressure immediately subsided, although the visual display of power remained. “No, it’s impossible. The energy the Mark provides is golden in color; the Ancestor makes it so. Nobody, not even the Ancestor could survive a deluge of raw energy! How are you not a husk? How are you able to stand?!” Scyris screamed over the constant resonance the energy was giving off. Kalex meant to retort with something that might make Scyris question her existence, but was interrupted by a ding that he only heard mentally.
Lex was finished, and with the energy still being absorbed by it, Kalex expected the change it was making to be a powerful one. A moment later, the force of the energy began to grind on Kalex, almost forcing him to the ground once again. Scyris slowly walked towards the struggling child, intent on potentially using her life to stop whatever he was doing. Kalex felt the pressure completely dissipate as Scyris stopped in her tracks. A booming voice filled the planet and brought the very air to a standstill.
“SCYRIS, RETURN! I WILL PERSONALLY SEE TO YOUR DISCHARGE FROM THE CABAL. AS FOR YOU, BROKEN AXIOM, YOUR PRESENCE ON ENTERNIA IS UNWARRENTED AND I WILL SEE TO YOUR ERADICATION FROM THE FACE OF THE PLANET. SCYRIS MAY BE POWERFUL, BUT THERE ARE OTHER IN MY RETINUE TO FINISH WHAT SHE HAS STARTED. SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR LOVED ONES KALEX WOUNDER, FOR YOU WILL NOT SEE THEM AGAIN IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS!”
The color drained from Kalex’s face as the exclamation ended. The same could be said for the Lumen who stood ten feet away from him, but as he looked at her, her form quickly became blurred until every trace of her was gone. Kalex looked around to get his bearings. He was in the middle of scorched ground in the city of Everblade covered in the sharp stench of ash and burned air. “Lex,” Kalex said out loud with a shake in his voice. “What do I do now?” A jolt ran through his body as he did not expect an immediate response.
“These are dire straights indeed, Mr. Wounder. Luckily, I have almost an infinite amount of options to see us through this and six that I’d completely recommend.” Tears welled in Kalex’s eyes. “Lex, you’re back! I’m so happy to hear your voice! Honestly, I’d like to make it out of this alive, with a way to the training worlds to find Lyla.” A hand-sized, deeply black rock flew into his view. A translucent, multi-faceted Lex spoke directly into his mind. “Open your quest log, Mr. Wounder. I believe you’ll find the solution to our current issues.” Without any forethought, Kalex opened his quest log to find an oddly specific and cryptic entry.
The Elder’s Grandchild
* Confront Madison Wickerwood in Grangardd
* Wait for the event in Grangardd (Estimated time: 4 days)
* Optional: Assist farmers with storage crisis
* Witness the Potentate’s proclamation
* Travel to Everblade City
* Find the identity of Zilg’s patron Lumen
* Use Zilg’s connection to contact the Lumen
* Intercept the connection between Zilg and his Lumen
* Find a way to gain myst equivalent to the Lumen’s
* Travel to the origin of your power. Employ the seat where intangible became reality. Distribute your myst into the font of the stone's maw. Imbibe deeply in the learnings of higher and reflect on Diatian ideals. Gather those worthy of trust to seed the teachings of the Broken Axiom. Ascend to your place of belonging.
- Reward: The Memories of The Elder, Ascension to training world Rime.
There was a lot to go through in the last entry, and a reward was added. He put his trust in Lex and strained his mind to think of where to go to begin. He couldn’t travel to Diat, which technically was his source of power, but in this world, there was one place that came to mind. The first place he’d opened his eyes in this new world. The first place he’d been introduced to his current situation. His presence spread out to cover the entire world only to bring it to his desired location. In a flash of myst and a turbulent gust, Kalex was gone.