Strangely sterile light is the first sight I see as my mind is dragged kicking and screaming into wakefulness after the comfortable nothingness of sleep. I blink as awareness and the memory of my attempted ascension and battle with the adventurers hit me over the head like a sledgehammer. The humiliation and frustration connected to those events bring me an instant headache, but my attention quickly shifts away from that and to my surroundings.

I blink and groan as I glance about while asking to seemingly nobody, “Where, erm, where am I?” My eyes dart around to what can mildly be described as a strange room. The walls, floor, and the ceiling all seem to be made out of some strange alloy rather than stone or wood, there is a strange mirror with various occult symbols and letters embedded into the left wall and around me, there are various devices with blinking lights on stands or hanging from shelves and pegs. My hands travel down the surprisingly soft and smooth bed that, I woke up on and still am laying on.

The bed itself is curved to best fit my back and despite its luxurious softness, I realize that the mattress is thinner than an inch. The bed frame itself is supported by a single metallic leg that is about as thick as my thumb. Yet it supports my entire weight and this bed without any problems what so ever. My attention also quickly went to the fact that all my injuries had been healed. Everything from old scars to the damage I had been dealt while fighting the adventurers. My skin was also much less pale and sickly than it had been in decades. Everything from red blemishes that I had gotten due to eldritch corruption too ritual scarification had been removed from my body.

My hands immediately went to rub and examine my face, to feel if any changes had occurred. The first impression I got was that my skin had become smoother, my nose had been straightened out and several marks and premature wrinkles on my forehead had been removed. Some, lesser beings might have felt gratitude or relief at having themselves been healed in such a complete manner. I, on the other hand, felt nothing but wrath pulsating through my heart. Whoever had taken me to this strange place had not only saved me from death but also compounded it by humiliating me. These would-be saviors felt the need to “fix me” as if there was anything wrong with me in the first place.

I vowed to myself that when the time came I would show my displeasure at this humiliation to my would-be saviors/captors. Before I could say or do anything, something that was stranger than all of the preceding events combined took place. A random blue box appeared in my vision with strange letters that somehow I understood perfectly which read:

CONGRATULATIONS WITH HAVING RECEIVED YOUR NVR INTERFACE OUTLAW EDITION! PLEASE BEGIN THE REGISTRATION PROCESS TO FULLY INSTALL YOUR INTERFACE

For a while, I just sat there with my mouth agape watching this strange box in my vision. My first real response to it was stretching out a trembling hand to try to touch the box. This failed as my hand just went through it. After having withdrawn my hand from the box I tried to address whatever entity was behind this “Interface”. “Spirit! I do not know of what you speak, but I command thee to remove thine message from my mind.” I find that it is always a good first bet to speak in a more formal language when addressing entities from other planes. No reply comes after my attempt at communication, so then I try to purge the box from my mind and vision. This provokes a response, but not one that I wanted. A new box appears in my vision for a few seconds before it is replaced by the original one.

ERROR

ERROR

PLEASE DO NOT INTERRUPT THE INSTALLATION PROCESS.

CONGRATULATIONS WITH HAVING RECEIVED YOUR NVR INTERFACE OUTLAW EDITION! PLEASE BEGIN THE REGISTRATION PROCESS TO FULLY INSTALL YOUR INTERFACE

After that, I remain silent for a few seconds waiting to see if anything else happens, when nothing else takes place I shouted in annoyance. “Come on then! Begin whatever vile schemes you have for me accursed box spirit!”. I finally smack my fist into the soft padding of my bed and rush out of it and onto my feet. Thankfully, for my own dignity’s sake, I am not nude, but in some kind of strange grey jumpsuit instead. My gaze flicks about the room until I gleefully spot my trusty staff leaned against the right corner of the room. The grin disappears from my face when I process that the blue box has followed me and remains in front of my eyes.

A low growl escapes from between my lips before I angrily bite down on the impulse to scream in frustration and it is at that point that I hear a strange voice ask. “Query: Are you in distress, patient?” I turn to glance over and the strange mirror on the wall now has a green humanoid face in it. A face that looks roughly female, but the strange eerie voice makes it hard to determine the gender of the creature. Obviously, I am dealing with some kind of spirit or arcane construct that has chosen such a queer form of communication.

“I am distressed yes, I find myself in a strange room without any explanation and all of my injuries healed. There is no information indicating where I am, who has taken me in or for what purpose I am here. This along with strange boxes appearing in my vision and having my body altered does make me distressed indeed!” I meant to sound more dignified than I ended up doing when responding to the creature. So what started as a calm reply ended up becoming a short rant that lets a tiny blip of my frustration slip into the conversation.

The spirit seems to process this information for a few seconds before replying. “Explanation: You have been rescued from the Ytorka systems asteroid field after a mysterious spatial phenomenon alerted the crew to your presence. Your body has been healed both of its recent injuries and the damage it has sustained over a prolonged period of time”

I interject haughtily before the spirit can finish this. “The crew? What manner of vessel found me, what is an “asteroid field” exactly and where is this Ytorka system? I assure you that in my many centuries of life, nothing like any of these terms have been mentioned to me. Finally, so I can know what I am addressing, what is your name oh spirit?”

“Addendum, initiating Uplift protocol: The crew of the ship designated as the Incredulous found you, The Incredulous is a vessel known as a starship. A vehicle capable of traveling across star systems and throughout the Galaxy. An asteroid field is a phenomenon where several asteroids are joined in similar orbits forming a field or belt of them. The Ytorka system is a star system with no habitants and the only planets in it are Gas Giants. Finally, this unit’s name is M.A.R.A: Mechanized Automated Research Assistant.” The spirit delivers this rather long-winded explanation in a complete emotionless monotone and leaves more questions than answers.

I lift my finger and open my mouth to respond, then I stop and shake my head as all the implications of these revelations hit me at once. Somehow interstellar travel was possible, the dark void was in must have been the space outside of planets which explained why it was so lifeless. Clearly, I must be dealing with forces far greater than anticipated if they casually were capable of such impossible feats like traveling between the stars. Even with the great power I have at my disposal now, I would be a fool to provoke these mysterious entities without having learned more first.

“Observation: It has been detected that you have not yet installed your NVR Interface. Uplifts often experience difficulties in dealing with that technology. M.A.R.A’s and other similar units are equipped to help with the installation process”. I try to ignore the blue box in my vision and I turn to look at Mara. This offer was of interest to me, maybe the spirit wanted to bargain with me, so I could get this annoying blue box removed.

NOTE! MECHANIZED AUTOMATED RESEARCH ASSISTANT IS REQUESTING ACCESS TO YOUR NVR INTERFACE. WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE?

YES?

NO?

I muffled a curse as two new boxes replaced the first blue box in my vision. However, based on the text it seemed like the spirit wanted to intercede on my behalf on the entities behind the boxes. This request while seemingly generous, could, in fact, be a clever ploy from this Mara entity. Before responding to the boxes, I would be a fool to not gather more information first. I am after all Glyphnax High Warlock of the Seventh Circle, I have matched wits with infernal gods and ancient lords of the fae. This Mara would probably be a simple challenge for me to overcome.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“I thank thee for thine generous offer, oh spirit. However, I wonder why an august being such as yourself would give a lowly being like myself such a kind offer. After all, I am but a mere guest in thine abode, and I wouldn’t want to impose without knowing the reasoning behind such an offer.” I bow deeply before the screen while hiding my widening grin. The spirit would be hard-pressed to see through my polite and slippery opening move, now I would just have to drown it in flattery and press all I need out of it.

“Processing, conclusion of analysis: the patient is from a pre-industrial Uplift culture. Adjusting uplift protocols, downloading superstition protocols, installing voice actor sample 1209bd from the public domain.” The spirit speaks and nothing that makes sense or has any real value comes out. The only thing I got from it was an offhand insult about my culture. Not that I would let such an insult stop me from being polite, spirits excel at the game of carefully worded insults and teases. It is all apart of the verbal games all adept Summoners have to learn if they want to trek with the otherworldly.

I looked expectantly up at the strange mirror, as the green head just remained still and emotionless while watching me. A few seconds passed in complete silence, where my polite smile transformed into a concerned frown. Was the spirit deliberately ignoring me? As I opened my mouth to speak, a loud trumpet played which caused me to JUMP in surprise. I rapidly glanced about inside the room, but there were no musicians to be seen, and before I realized that this must be the doing of the spirit, it decided to reply.

“AHOY TRAVELER. Thine journey has been long and tiring, but now thou have come to a new beginning” The voice that comes from the spirit is completely different from the original one. The first voice was a strange artificial voice that sounded female, this new voice sounds like some pompous bard in a tavern. Just as I thought that the voice sounded akin to a Bard, lute music and the sound of rustling leaves fill the room. “Brave traveler, know that you are now safe and need not fear the queer sorceries and arcane environment you are seeing.” The spirit continued to bombastically spout its nonsense and I suddenly realized what the spirit was doing and I twitched violently.

The Spirit was MOCKING me! There could be no other reasonable conclusion to what it was doing. It went from speaking in a strange but understandable fashion to suddenly putting on this mummer's farce. This spirit had no respect for protocol and felt the need to mock me. Unacceptable! One thing is barbed comments and veiled insults, those are all apart of the game. Outright mockery is another thing entirely. Such conduct is a despicable and shameful defilement of tradition, and I Glyphnax would not let some poultry minor spirit mock me.

Rage filled my heart as I reached within my soul and lifted my hand, readying myself to unleash a blast of eldritch magic meant to tear the soul of this disrespectful spirit apart. Unfortunately for me what happened was less than impressive and definitely not what I wanted. As I reached for the massive reservoirs of power within me, I noticed that the process of doing so had become incredibly difficult. It was like swimming upstream through a strong and polluted river, while actively trying to reach for a gate behind the river. I could only touch the gate for a second and the energy which previously had been like a roaring inferno, that took all of my considerable willpower and magical experience to contain. It now seemed slow and inert like the embers of a badly maintained campfire.

Slowly a sputtering shower of green sparks fly out of my outstretched fingers, the sparks don’t even reach the strange mirror surface and fall ineffectually to the ground. My face fell and I could feel a most unworthy flush of shame reach my cheeks. This Mara entity, on the other hand, did not seem to take notice of this, it merely seemed to process this event and thankfully the mocking lute music disappeared as it processed. I had no time to regain my composure before green flames flickered into existence on my hand, I yelped in pain as I felt the flames open up bleeding sores all over my hand.

“Bewildered statement: What was that? That was an impossibility. Implementing analysis” The spirit’s voice has once again returned to its normal artificial form. I barely take any notice of its response through the searing heat and excruciating pain going through my hand. Eventually, after several seconds of frantic waving, I manage to dissipate the flames. My hand is a bloody disfigured mess, with several ugly-looking sores opened all over my fingers and palm. Eldritch fire, unlike normal fire, does not cauterize the wounds they inflict. They infect them with mystical contaminants in addition to burning the flesh.

However, rather than focusing on the sorry state of my hand. I am focused on the significantly more pressing concern at hand. Namely that my magic had somehow been weakened to a ridiculous degree, or rather that my ability to command magic had atrophied to that degree. I had felt the massive reservoirs of energy when I briefly attempted to summon the power from within me. That, in other words, meant that the power still existed, but my control over it was all but void at this point. My mind raced through the possible explanations for this, until the obvious answer dawned on me and I hissed in annoyance.

Magic the force and spellcraft the ability to wield magic had to come from somewhere. One couldn't just pick up a stick and declare themselves a mage, a catalyst needed to be there and a continuous source to maintain that catalyst had to come into place afterwards. Wizards learned to wield magic through academic studies and using pure will and intellect to wield magic, Sorcerers had innate abilities granted by their bloodline and or birth that they themselves tamed, Witches use a combination of herbs, minerals, and natural powers combined with purpose and belief to shape their rituals, and other more obscure magic users undoubtedly use even stranger sources to wield their powers. A Warlock like myself labor under the same laws, the catalyst for Eldritch magic is the pact made between a Warlock and a patron entity and the source is the connection to the patron.

When I had inverted the conditions of the pact between me and my former master. I had shattered the conditions for the pact to be maintained. If the adventurers had not interfered I would have had the time to finalize the ritual and put a new pact in place. I sincerely doubt that Trakaya could support a Warlock of my original prominence in his current state, let alone the near god I had been for a few minutes. At least he would not be able to do that without some major mystical safeguards. All of this meant that while the catalyst that allowed me to use magic in the first place still counted, I had no continuous source to support my ability to wield it. Which in turn meant that soon enough it wouldn't matter how much power I had residing in my soul. I would be about as capable of wielding magic as a fish would be able to fly.

I am broken from my restless reverie after I finally deign to notice the spirit trying to address me. "Worried Inquiry: Patient Passenger, you seem to be both distressed and in desperate need of medical assistance. Do you want help or shall I notify the crew about your present circumstances?" I almost growled harshly at the spirit, before my common sense stops me from such undignified foolishness. After all, this spirit could be the key to solving my current problem. I ahem softly before replying. "No oh Mara, alerting the crew will not be necessary. I do beseech you for assistance, however. My powers have been greatly weakened and I ask that you pact with me to help me in this strange new world."

"Reengaging superstition and uplift protocols. Bemused Consideration: Such a proposition may be accepted, as long as such a pact would not be in bad faith." I grin internally while keeping my facial expression to imply worry and concern rather than the smug glee I felt. The spirit is finally making some sense, and it is clearly an amateur in these matters. All I now needed was an appropriate sacrifice to fuel the pact and to dictate the specific terms of it. Soon enough my remaining powers would be secured, and I could finish the apotheosis ritual at my leisure. I quickly decided that my staff would have to be the sacrifice, as it was the only item of magical value in my vicinity.

I quickly knelt down and use the tiny pool of blood at my feet to quickly draw up the ritual pentagram and contract needed for a pact ceremony. While I am rapidly and rather crudely, by my standards, drawing up this complex magical formula I ask. "What terms would you set for this pact in which I ask for you to fuel my magics in return for sacrificing my dearest staff?" The spirit replies now with a lot less certainty in its relatively emotionless voice. "Confused Reply: Be a loyal and productive crewmember of the Incredulous and bring me similar items?" It took all my concentration to not cackle with glee as I heard these rather simple and meaningless terms. Be a productive member of a mere vessel crew and bringing this spirit some artifacts now and then was an easy arrangement, compared to the eternity of slavery that Trakayas pact demanded.

I finish writing down the terms of the contract with my taloned finger and I clasp my hands together with a smile. "I accept your terms just as you accepted mine. Let the pact be made Oh Mara." As I finish this simple incantation, I immediately feel that something terribly wrong has happened and my smile evaporates. The blue box that has been in my vision for so long now that I had stopped noticing it. Winks out of existence leaving me without any annoying boxes, but at the same time, I feel the floodgates containing my magic swinging wide open.

At my side, the staff that I had owned for so long evaporates into a purplish mass of ephemeral energy. That wraps around my wounded hand like a chain and then stretches in trough the mirror to touch the head of the spirit. It exclaims in a metallic and incomprehensible screech, while I howl as green flames pour out of my hand and along the chain. I can feel the massive reservoirs of power that had been inside of me, pouring out through this pact connection and into the spirit. Despite all my efforts to stop it or at least slow it down, I could feel all my accumulated power pour right out of me. My soul practically burned as my powers were slowly but surely ripped away from me and into the spirit.

It seems to last an eternity, but the pact ceremony finally nears its conclusion and with that ending in sight the flow of energy finally devolves into a slow trickle. With the ending in sight, I no longer felt the burning inferno of pain accompanying having all the spiritual mass of an archfiend ripped out of my soul at once. This allowed me to consider my circumstances and attempt to understand why this had happened. In my centuries of life, I had never heard of a pact where the Warlock was the one giving power to the patron and not vice versa. It ran contrary to the entire purpose of a pact in the first place.

The only hypothesis I could even think of was that this spirit must have had no magical powers within it whatsoever. Which meant that it could not have upheld the pact, which forced the pact ritual to give it the power to uphold the contract. This, however, should be impossible as even the lowliest spirit is composed of mystical power in the first place, and this one was intelligent enough to speak, so it could not be a lesser spirit. Another more horrifying realization hit me almost as hard as the pain of the pact had. Maybe, this spirit was not a spirit at all, but some kind of strange creature that I had never heard of. Potentially an obscure arcane construct meant to mimic life or some twisted soul fragment left in a mirror perhaps.

This, in turn, meant that I had just now foolishly given away my future godhood, to fuel an entity that I had no understanding of, with the powers of a greater archfiend in addition to most of my old magical powers. The potential ramifications of this filled my heart with such horror and despair, that I was left paralyzed by those emotions. When the pact ritual finally ended and the ephemeral pact chain evaporated into nothingness. I feel forward while madly jibbering to myself as my mind was enveloped by blind fear. The last things I saw before unconsciousness gripped me, was first M.A.R.A having been transformed from a green head to an eldritch purple head. Its eyes and mouth were wide open, yet no sound could be heard coming. The second and final thing I saw was a blue box appearing in my vision just as I passed out, it read:

NOTE! MECHANIZED AUTOMATED RESEARCH ASSISTANT HAS BEGUN THE INSTALLATION PROCESS OF YOUR NVR INTERFACE. AVOID ENGAGING IN STRENUOUS ACTIVITIES WHILE THE INSTALLATION IS TAKING PLACE