Chapter 72: Time and Creation
Aliyah was setting up a quick awakening stone ritual for herself. She wanted to use an awakening stone she was interested in. It was an awakening stone of creation, like the one Nara had. The trial was only known way to acquire this awakening stone, and she had been fortunate enough to gain one herself.
“Oh, something else I forgot to mention,” Nara said, “When I looted that mimic, I also got something called an ‘immortal crest’. Anyone know what that is?”
“Doesn’t your Guide give you a description of it?” Encio said.
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Item: [Immortal Crest] (iron, legendary)
Classification: Consumable, tattoo
Effect: Magically anoints the skin of an essence user, allowing a magical tattoo artist to inscribe the image of the soul. This tattoo will not disappear on rank up.
Requirements: Iron rank
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“So I looked at the description and I don’t really understand why you’d want one,” Nara said, “It’s just a tattoo, right?”
“It’s not just any tattoo. The tattoo serves as a unique identification that can be sensed in your aura. Someone like Eufemia would be unable to copy your aura completely. She could look like you in body and aura, but she would not have the crest.”
“Prevents impersonation then,” Nara said, “Sounds pretty niche.”
Nara also had her reservations about getting a tattoo. She was raised by a conservative Christian father and an atheist Chinese mother, neither of which thought highly of tattoos. She had no prejudice against them, but she never wanted one for herself.
“Guess I’ll sell it,” Nara said.
“Do not sell it,” Encio said, “Immortal Crests are extremely expensive and highly demanded, often used by the children of rich adventuring families. You should use it.”
“Wait, does that mean you have one?”
“I do. I could show it to you later, if you’d like. It may convince you.”
“And Sen, do you have one?”
He nodded.
“For you especially,” Encio said, jutting his finger out at Nara, “It creates a stable crest of your soul, which won’t change even as your aura changes. If your aura keeps changing, you need to keep re-registering it at the adventure society. This will prevent that.”
“It’s really not a big deal to keep re-registering my aura.”
“It is,” Encio said, eyes fixed on Nara, “The adventure society card may not be able to track you due to your Racial Ability, but it can tell whether or not you are alive or dead. If your aura changes during a dangerous battle, none of us can tell of your fate.”
He stared at her, emerald eyes intense, a mixture of concern as well as something else burning at him from inside; the deaths of his sister and friend, who died as adventurers.
“Alright,” Nara conceded, “I’ll use it. But I still want to see your tattoo. If it doesn’t look cool, I’m backing out.”
“I promise yours will look almost as cool as mine,” Encio said.
“Not cooler?”
“You may have surpassed yourself, but you haven’t surpassed me.”
She cracked a challenging smile, “We’ll see about that. I’m in my growth spurt, you know?”
“Beginner’s luck.”
“This is cool and all,” Nara said, “But I don’t know a magical tattoo artist.”
“Actually, you do.”
“I do?”
“Wisteria can do it for you. I’ll send a letter to her and my grandfather, and we can vacation for a week in Esmera-Mar where her tattoo parlor is.”
“We all could use a rest,” agreed Sen.
“And, we have money to spend!” said Nara, “I think I’d like some clothes that aren’t robes.”
“How about tailored clothes?”
“Tailored clothes?”
“You’re a rich iron ranker,” Encio said, “I know a tailor that would love to design for all of you. You’d be getting the best of the best. If you like my style,” Encio said, gesturing out with his hands and striking a pose to emphasize the sharp cut of the clothes he was wearing. While he occasionally wore Sanshi’s robes, or the breezy pastel linens of Aviensa, he stuck to the clothes from his hometown, Esmera-Mar. It was a sleek and cool European style, with embellishments of fine embroidery.
“Yes, I like your style, Encio.”
“Enough to get a custom order?”
“Yes, I like your style enough to get a custom order.”
*****
Once Eufemia exited the portal and joined them, the team had a pressing matter to discuss.
“The issue is at some point Specter is going to disappear from the trial. She’ll likely leave after everyone is gone from the library, but by the next time the trial rolls around, she’ll be gone. If I’ve been freed from my prison of a thousand years, I wouldn’t want to stay any longer than I had to.”
“The adventure society will want to know what happened to the trial guide.”
“If they know,” Encio pointed out, “we’re the only ones that know Specter will disappear. Since they don’t tell the applicants about her, the Adventure Society may not find out for years. If we say nothing, no one will know.”
“We can’t keep quiet,” said John softly, concern clear in his eyes.
“It’s the best move. We won’t get in trouble for interfering with the trial.”
“It’s not like they own the trial, or Specter’s service,” Nara said angrily, “Why should we… no, I, be punished for it.”
“That’s not how they see it. The local Adventure Society branch and the city of Sanshi have been benefitting from one of the easiest and safest methods to acquire high rarity awakening stones for a very long time. Losing that is a massive loss to Sanshi’s appeal, as well as reducing the economic surge they receive after each trial.”
“It’s not like the trial will stop working, Specter is just not there to hold your hand through the trial.”
“And that’s why we have to say something,” John said strictly, “Even if we are punished for it. No matter what.”
Encio breathed in a deep breath, relaxing himself, “John, I agree with you.”
“You do?”
“I am concerned with the life and death of adventurers. Since Specter is no longer here, the Adventure Society needs to change how they conduct the trial proceedings. They need to be stricter on the level of quality, and not just fresh adventurers. The Society needs to offer whatever information they can about the trial, especially the final trial.”
“If it’s been the same every time, and they haven’t said anything, that’s on them,” said Nara.
“It’s the greatest indicator of the Adventure Society’s own culpability. We will engage the society in this matter, but we should do it on our own terms, and prepared with whatever we have.”
“We have a library,” Nara said, “If that helps.”
“The library,” Aliyah corrected.
“Oh, it does. That will help a lot.”
*****
The team was back in Encio’s full floor hotel room. They were rapidly conducting awakening stone rituals, discussion the stones that Aliyah, Sen, Eufemia and John should use. Sen and Aliyah had the least to awaken, so they finished theirs first. Then, Eufemia and John used their final stones.
*****
Nara was drawing a familiar ritual circle with a steady hand, but internally she could not help but shake. Anticipation, fear of disappointment—she couldn’t quite pinpoint the emotion.
“Hand of Time was what your astral magic mentor within the astral was called by others, is that right?” Aliyah asked.
“Yeah. He is more than a mentor to me. He’s the one who kept me company in a time when I most needed companionship. Stabilized my mind, in a situation where I could not understand. I didn’t even know magic was real before that. I thought I had died and ended up in the afterlife.”
“The afterlife?”
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Nara gestured non-comically with her hand, conveying the varied states of her world’s view of the afterlife. “My world doesn’t have magic and no knowledge of the Great Astral Beings, or what happens after death. We make our best guesses—the afterlife.”
“We don’t know what happens after death in detail either. What we know is that the goddess of death guides souls from this world to the realm of the Reaper, the destination of those who have died. No one knows what the realm of the Reaper is like.”
“I guess if the living knew what being dead was like, there wouldn’t be much of a difference between living and dying.”
Aliyah rolled that thought around in her mind, observing it. She found unexpected wisdom in it, “If the living knew death, they could choose to die?”
“At some point, all the ones you love will die,” Nara said softly, “It’s probably worse for essence users with their extended lifespans. Diamond rankers especially, who don’t even have a lifespan. If everyone you love is dead, and you knew what the realm of death was life, would you choose to join them there?”
“We should not know death, else it will tempt us,” said Sen.
Nara gave Sen a flat look for his poetic words of wisdom, but Sen maintained his dignified, stoic expression. He always pulled a poker look during these times. Did he know how campy he sounded? Without the self-awareness she spouted equal words of bullshit.
“Something like that. The realms of life and death need to be as separate as possible—the mystery is important. There—” Nara set down her ritual drawing implements and stepped back from the ritual circle, “—it’s done. You have all the materials, Encio?”
“I got them for you.”
“Thank you.”
He nodded, and handed them over.
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Material requirements:
* 100 [Radiant Quintessence Gems (Iron)]
* 100 [Time Quintessence Gems (Iron)]
* 1200 [Iron Rank Spirit Coins]
* 1 branch of [Longevity Tree]
* 500 grams of [Sungold Sand]
* 2 [Resonant Steel] plates
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Nara placed the materials in small bowls within the ritual circle. The quintessence and coins formed small mounds in their bowls, shifting with a clink as they settled.
“You’re one expensive familiar…so you better show up, Chrome.”
She took a deep breath, settling her racing mind, and began to chant.
“Without time, there is no past, no present, no future. No change, no destruction, and no creation. Move the needle and weave the tapestry. Bring forth the sustainer of thought and creation. Take the Hand of Time.”
The circle blazed with golden light. The light bleached the room of all dimensions and then consumed the light within the room, casting the room in darkness. Within the darkness swirled suns, stars, and planets. Time whirled, stars collapsed and were born anew. With a roar, sound, light, and space was sucked into the circle, sending the room into a blank stillness. Finally, golden light returned to the ritual circle, and a figure coalesced, the crystallization of light, matter, and time.
The figure was a tall man with an iconic long gleaming golden braid. When his eyes flickered open, they revealed gleaming gold irises of golden light.
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Ability: [Hand of Time]
Awakening Stone: Time
Familiar (ritual, summon)
Cost: Extreme Mana
Cooldown: None
Effect (Iron): Summon a [Hand of Time], Chrome, to serve as a familiar.
* Has a humanoid physical form and can wield two swords that deal physical and resonating-force damage, which is highly effective against physical defenses.
* Can physically interact with incorporeal entities.
* Can move instantaneously to a nearby location. This ability has a cooldown of 40 seconds.
* Enemies damaged by the familiar are afflicted with [Deterioration].
* [Deterioration] (affliction, magic, stacking): Increases the speed at which effects that stack afflictions accrue instances. Periodically decreases the stacks of boons. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.
* Can be subsumed within the summoner’s aura, making the summoner’s aura much harder to detect and read.
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“What took you so long? After all of that effort on my part, I started to wonder if you had gone and died, wasting so much of my time.”
A familiar voice echoed out from the golden figure.
“Chrome,” Nara said, breathless.
“Who else would partner with an empty-headed broken soul like you? You’re more trouble than you’re worth to anyone else.”
He stalked around her, looking her up and down.
“So this is what you looked like?”
“What, disappointed?”
“You reality beings are all the same to me, what do I care what you look like? Your soul looks better…”
He clicked his tongue, “…gods.”
He turned to the rest of the team, evaluating them one by one. His aura was surprisingly sharp, stabbing through theirs with precision and power, causing them all to flinch at his observation.
“And another outworlder?” he said incredulously. “You are?”
“John Aurelius, a pleasure to me you, mate,” John offered his hand pleasantly.
Chrome ignored it.
“Don’t mind it,” said Nara, “He looks human but he’s not. He doesn’t have the same sensibilities.”
The group sat for a quick break. Snacks were placed out on the table, which Chrome helped himself to.
His eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“This is tasty?”
“Why is that a question?”
“You didn’t make this, did you?”
“Nah, I’m not that good.”
“Hmph. That’s what I thought. You’ll have to introduce me to the chef.”
“Yeah, I can manage that. I think Amara and the others would like to meet you.”
Chrome addressed the group, arrogant despite hogging a plate of treats to himself, “I am Chrome, Hand of Time. The Wanderer’s former astral magic mentor.”
“Oh, about that! I got a name now Chrome.”
“What is it?”
“Nara Edea. Like it?”
“If you like it, it’ll do.”
Swigging down a mana potion to expedite her mana recovery, Nara started on her second ritual. Meanwhile, Chrome was filled in by her various exploits during the time of their separation.
“You created a type of magic? This isn’t some elaborate prank?’”
“I wouldn’t say I created the magic. It’s more of a foundational technique within a budding field of research.”
“Soul magic…” Chrome said contemplatively, “I’d exercise extreme caution with the workings of the soul. The Transcendents are able to easily accomplish what you will struggle to do.”
“Well, I don’t have any plans to go any further with it. I was just helping Redell out. He’ll take care of the rest, and push the research in the right direction.”
“I certainly hope so, for the sake of this world. I’ve seen abominations of soul engineering. Souls attached to mechanical golems, forced to inhabit the unliving.”
Chrome stared down at Nara, his expression unhappy.
“The moment I took my eyes off of you, you started causing trouble.”
“The thing with the gods isn’t really my fault. You can’t blame me for that.”
“I can. You should take the free pity others offer you and keep your head down. Outworlders are always in a precarious position. Excel too much, and they start to use you in their plans.”
“They? What plans?”
Chrome contemplated saying more, but he shook his head.
“You don’t have the capacity to worry about it. It’s out of your league.”
Sen narrowed his eyes. The familiar was keeping things silent, and he didn’t approve.
“Don’t worry about Chrome,” Nara said, noticing Sen’s concern, “If it was something we could do anything about in the first place, he’d say something.”
“You trust him to that extent?”
“Yeah.”
“Nara’s judgment isn’t baseless, Sen. Astral beings cannot serve as your familiar unless they are willing to listen to the summoner. If Nara told him to say so, he would have to,” Aliyah said, “That’s how familiars work.”
Nara stepped back from a ritual circle once again filled with ritual materials.
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Material requirements:
* 300 [Dimension Quintessence Gems (Iron)]
* 150 [Dust Quintessence Gems (Iron)]
* 75 [Song Quintessence Gems (Iron)]
* 2400 [Iron Rank Spirit Coins]
* 15 meters of [Twilight Silk]
* 300 grams of [Silver Stream Powder]
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“The duality of creation, the transformation of astral to physical. Suspended at the boundary, echoing across the cosmos forevermore, seen yet unseen. The essence of creation scattered across the stars—perform the song of its echo.”
The ritual glowed and energy gathered, sucking her mana and dissolving the ritual components into fragments of magic that were reconstructed for the familiar’s vessel.
The room filled with a silver haze that glittered with a multitude of colors. It was the very dust of creation, the scattered matter and magic that coalesced into worlds, like the clouds of nebula, the birthplace of stars. Nara felt she was standing in the midst of a cosmic projection, a giant god towering over worlds and suns, like I-No from Guilty Gear. She wasn’t a god though, and as if drawn by gravity, the dust swirled into the form of three shapes. Floor length robes manifested, and within it beings of silver haze.
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Effect (Iron): Summons an [Echo of Creation] to serve as a familiar.
* Can occupy up to three incorporeal bodies that act as dimensional loci. Cannot be used by enemies as dimensional loci.
* Can transform into cloth and blend into objects with limitations.
* Can move rapidly but inflicts no damage or non-damaging effects. Can dim and become transparent.
* Can traverse dimensions and attach themselves to allies and enemies as a small incorporeal cloth.
* Gains an instance of every boon you gain. Instance limit is reduced compared to the summoner’s maximum.
* While attached to an ally, the ally also receives the benefit of This effect ends when an echo leaves the ally. This does not affect the summoner.
* Can be subsumed within the summoner’s skin. While subsumed within the summoner, increases the summoner’s regeneration. This effect increases with each additional body. This effect prioritizes the lowest resource.
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“Spec—” Nara started to say with blank surprise.
“Please wait, my benefactor, do not speak my former name,” the familiar said solemnly.
“Former…name?”
“If you would allow this shameless being to serve, I humbly request a new name.”
“There’s no serving here. And didn’t you just free yourself? What in the world are you doing here?”
“Benefactor, I have demonstrated my marked incapability to promise my eternal service, yet I seek you to fulfill my outrageous request. I would like to walk with you, wherever your path shall take you.”
Chrome glared at her, “You were just freed and now want to serve as a familiar? You don’t have the commitment.”
“And you, Hand of Time, have alternative loyalties, do you not? Do you move in our summoner’s best interest?”
“Our summoner? That’s quite the assumption. My origin has no bearing on my ability to serve the best interests of my summoner. But you, you’ve proven that you can abandon something you’ve once done willingly. Whose to say after another few thousand years you’ll get tired of Nara and want to swap with another astral being?”
“Chrome,” she said. Her irritation was clear, but she maintained her professional politeness, “Can you claim that if your master were to recall you from service, that you would not abandon your summoner to your conflicting loyalties?”
It looked like the two familiars were about to get into a catfight, if a semi-corporeal robe being and a glowing golden man could even affect each other.
Thanatos wagged his tail, seemingly enjoying the tension between the two.
“Now, don’t egg them on,” she admonished Thanatos, but she handed him a plate of treats.
“This is about you!” Chrome said, jabbing a finger in Nara direction, “Don’t act like a bystander.”
“I mean, it’s not like I can unsummon her or reject her,” Nara said, “That’s on their side of the process, not our side. I think.”
Chrome facial expression twisted and contorted, like a variety of objections and concerns buzzed through his mind. He heaved a beleaguered sigh, and sat back on the couch.
“Whatever. You’re right.”
“Wow, that’s rare.”
“Get on with it. I’m already exhausted with you. I’m regretting this already.”
Nara turned towards the familiar, “Sorry for the interruption, he means well. I promise.”
“No, Chrome raises genuine concerns over my blemished record of service. I shall reflect on his criticism.”
“If you don’t like Specter, then I’ll call you Sage.”
“Thank you, my benefactor.”
“Just call me Nara.”
“You are my benefactor.”
“I’m your summoner, just call me Nara.”
“I insist that I should call you benefactor, as a demonstration of my sincerity.”
“I think It’d be more sincere if you just called me by name.”
“I cannot, this being is far too lowly.”
“No, you’re like, way older and wiser than me. You’re my senior.”
Sage looked off to the side, looking a little embarrassed.
“If I may be honest, benefactor, it is my…preference.”
“Your…preference?”
Chrome sighed, “The nonsensical familiar is saying she likes to LARP as a servant.”
“Oh.”
“Did he just say LARP?” John said, stunned to hear something so out-of-place, “I didn’t think it was possible to LARP here.”
“Oh, he knows a lot about Earth culture,” Nara said.
“She forced such useless knowledge upon me, unwillingly. Exploiting my duty to teach her astral magic at her side to explain such abhorrent concepts to me.”
“I kind of get it,” Nara said, ignoring Chrome’s denials, “LARP-ing is fun. I’ve been trying my hand at ‘mysterious bard’ but I don’t think I’ve succeeded yet. I need a good situation to pull it off.”
“Do not,” Chrome stressed like a parent at the end of their rope with a child who kept misbehaving, “Do that with me around.”
“You didn’t seem to mind the whole ‘teacher’ outfit.”
“I’ve let you influence me far too much,” Chrome said with a clipped tone, and he disappeared into Nara’s aura with a flash.
Nara smiled sheepishly. “He’s just embarrassed with how much he enjoyed it.”
Chrome considered rematerializing to defend his honor, but decided it would besmirch his name more to reappear.