“What's with that big ass pole?” Silas groaned, rubbing his lower back as he sat down in a dining room chair. The furniture had all been made with a smooth pine and was basically covered with all sorts of cushions and blankets, a fortunate delight after his ‘accidental’ tumble. The Director laughed as he poured Silas a cup of coffee.
“It’s an indicator. Means civilians should run here if something happens nearby. My status made it a requirement if we wanted a Villa.”
“Did we want a Villa?”
“Do you want the kids seeing all that?” The Director gestured in the general direction of the Mayor’s Estate and sighed. “Edwards didn’t give you much trouble, did he?”
“Just put a gun to my head.”
“Didn’t try pulling the trigger?”
“I don’t think I’d be alive if he did.” Silas grumbled, rubbing the back of his head. He could still feel the lingering touch of cold steel. Then his expression soured when he realised his Master probably made that gun. “But I did learn I can still become an Empyrean. Otherwise I don’t think he’d have let me go.”
“Will you?”
“I think it gives me a better chance at making it out of Ironside than my capacity as a Nightweaver does. My best power right now is calming other people down.”
“Yet you still saved lives.”
This was true. While kids can be awfully cooperative or even helpful sometimes, he didn’t think a group their size would make it out quietly like they did if the kids were as afraid as they should have been. Well, mostly quiet.
Silas sighed. Knowing this didn’t make him more confident. Nullifying fear only goes so far. Right now, he needs a faster method of power. Something that could give him the oomph he needed.
“Before you make any choices, let me explain Gate Opening, first.” The older man smiled, stirring his coffee slowly as one of the younger kids played with a toy on his lap. It was a small toy carriage, its wheels loudly rolling against the table. “There are nine main gates in the human body. To advance to my level, you need only open three.”
Silas nodded his head, taking this all in. All he knew previously was the name for the first stage, this was all new to him. According to the Director, every human had 13 gates total. Empyreans needed only open three to advance, but you'll never pass Physique Establishment if you do.
To progress further, you need to have opened all nine main gates. The Director himself didn’t know how to open the gates after that, admitting he never could, though he did open all nine. Talking about the gates after the third, the Director’s expression turned grim. Taking a sip from his coffee.
“Every gate after the third can be dangerous. Thus, ambition becomes a risk. Opening these gates effectively reconstructs the body to hold more and stronger blood energy. Each attempt could disable you at best or kill you at worst upon failure. Luckily, our methods have largely reduced the danger, but it’s there.”
That made sense. Silas silently compared Empyreans to Nightweavers; the former had little danger to start but slowly escalated while the latter started dangerous and immediately became safe. He shivered lightly at the thought of splitting his own soul and the lingering visage of the black scaled serpent.
He was certain only death would lie ahead if he had allowed the pain to consume him.
“The Ascension Art I used is not only unnamed but also incomplete. It only encompasses the first nine gates, but it’ll suit your needs until then.” The Director pulled a small, handbound notebook from his vest and slid it over the table. It was barely the size of a palm. “Ascension Arts are rare, secretive and expensive. This is the best I can do for you.”
Pushing his glasses up, Silas reached forward and gripped the book tight. Slowly flipping the pages, he saw row after row of words and diagrams. The print was small and hard to read and the paper smelled old. Every page had a few words that looked rather fresh in comparison, what he recognized to be the Director's handwriting.
“It contains my personal notes and annotations as well.”
Silas froze as he flipped the pages. The book in his hand suddenly felt unbearably heavy, decades of experience weighing it down. He closed the book and stood up.
“Silas?” The Director tilted his head and furrowed his brow, gently pushing the child off his lap and sending him back with the other kids. “Are you alright?”
Stepping forward, Silas crouched down lightly and hugged the Director tight. Stunned, the older man took a moment to process and then laughed lightly, returning the embrace with a smile. “Silly kid.”
----------------------------------------
The room he had been given wasn’t small, around eleven by eleven feet. A nice double bed, a simple set of wooden carved desk and chair. Shelves with books lined the walls, titles all unknown to Silas. Many in languages he didn’t understand.
According to the nameless ascension art, one must first sense world energy and then guide it into opening the first gate. Every gate after that required a catalyst, but the first was simply Will. Silas had a feeling this would be the easiest step- he could already sense fear energy. He just needed to extend his senses beyond his mind. Easy, right?
It wasn’t.
His mind fought him every step of the way, refusing to extend his senses beyond his own mind. A faint barrier was in his way. He had gotten past it before- how could he not have? That’s how the Nightmare Seed got out.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Right, the Nightmare Seed! Silas closed his eyes and slowly externalised the Nightmare Seed, allowing it to float silently in front of his chest. Small specks of light, fear energy, slowly seeped into its surface. He didn’t focus on that thought.
Instead, Silas focused his mind a little farther away where different specks floated in the room. All sorts of colours, like fireflies, gently swayed back and forth in the air. His thoughts moved and some of the blue coloured specks abruptly gathered towards him, floating into his chest. A burning sensation began to spread through his body and Silas rejoiced! Then he panicked.
The book said he had to gather the blood energy produce towards a Gate, but they were always in different spots. Now he had to find it.
He felt many ephemeral blockages appear as the blood energy circulated through his veins until finally it hit a solid blockage in his chest. His blood kept flowing past it, but it blocked the energy it carried. Silas felt a twinge of pain as the Gate shook upon stopping the energy. Then his eyes lit up with excitement. Found it!
Blood energy quickly converged from all over his body, rapidly drawing in world energy as its fuel. Wave after wave battered the Gate until it finally surged straight through. He felt as the Gate began to passively draw in world energy and nutrients from his body to create more blood energy.
An itching sensation rapidly spread across his flesh and bones. Bulging veins crawled along his skin like centipedes and his muscles rapidly contracted. He felt paralyzed in place. There was no pain, only the uncomfortable feeling of his body quickly adapting to its newfound energy.
[Congratulations, Silvanus. You are now an Empyrean]
[You are in Gate Opening]
[Strength raised. Officially Supernatural]
[Reflection]
Alias: Silvanus Albrecht]
Title: N/A
True Name: (Forming)
Strength: Supernatural
Innate Ability: Cleanse
Remembrance: N/A
Points: 140
[Nightweaver: Fear Refinement]
[Empyrean: Gate Opening]
[Reflection updated]
His cultivation wasn’t on his reflection, only his strength was? What determined that? Silas furrowed his brow as the itching feeling slowly faded away, replaced by an unnatural strength in his body.
The first gate was officially opened but he needed catalysts for the rest. He was rather low on funds until he managed to return to his residence or work, and he doubted the Mayor would give him resources when it would probably be more helpful to give them to the guard. Which means he needed to find them on his own.
Before he dismissed the [Reflection], a specific line caught his eye. Points. The Lotus Space had a shop, right? He reigned in his thoughts and addressed the Ascension Lotus directly.
Silas hardly felt a thing as his surroundings were encased in a blinding white colour. In front of him, a towering nine story pagoda overshadowed him. A small wooden sign hung over its entrance, simply saying ‘Shop’. Its walls were built from a light grey and shimmering brick while its roofing was a dull black.
It was empty.
He stepped inside silently, his steps making no sound on the floor of nothingness he walked on. The inside of the pagoda was similarly bleak, a floor of dark brown hardwood and a single stairway leading up.
A thought popped into his mind and he once again summoned the shop. A translucent blue panel appeared in front of Silas, detailing what seems like hundreds of different items, each with small descriptions and price tags. He saw Pathway Legacies, Nightweavers included, sold for anything up to 200 points. The resources varied from 20 points to a whole 60.
[Catalysts used will determine Wayfinder’s foundation. Please choose carefully]
Silas blanched and immediately looked away from the low price resources even though it made his heart bleed. While he would like to buy seven resources for cheap, he wouldn’t do so if it meant he’d suffer in the long run.
“What’s the best choice, then?”
Silence lingered in the air for a moment before blue glyphs appeared next to the shop panel. Silas grinned at the Lotus’ response. This system was more helpful than it let on.
[During your first gate opening, you attracted energies primarily leaning towards Ice and Lightning. I would recommend focusing on catalysts with this aspect in mind]
He quickly narrowed down his search to a mere few dozen resources. Very few of these variant elements were cheap, most of them being at the 40 point tier with an equal amount of 20 and 60. He chose two resources at random and quickly hit purchase, leaving only 20 points in his account.
[...]
[You believe my words so readily?]
You obviously want to keep me alive, so why not? Silas rolled his eyes, still remembering how the system tried to get him out from the Nightweaver world upon perceiving Erebus’ awareness of it. Even if he was just a tool to it, he was a tool it wanted to sharpen.
Silas grabbed both the ice blue crystal that appeared in front of him and the long white canine tooth beside it. The first was cold to the touch while the other made his hair stand on end. The power within made his blood energy boil, but the nameless ascension art was very clear- proper digestion of power is important. He’d wait until he felt his body settle down before he opened another Gate.
“Can anything else be bought?”
The Lotus responded by expanding the list. The original hundreds of items turned into thousands as Silas watched books of all kinds, weapons, armour, and other strange items appear; items to be bought and sold. He even saw a few papers with ‘IOU’ on them.
His smile froze before he let out a small chuckle and shook his head. Apparently, other Wayfinders had long started taking advantage of the shop system. It’s only been a day, yet some opportunistic fellows had already..
Wait. If the Lotus only chooses people in a Darktide, who's to say Ironside was anywhere near the only one? Ebelor was cut off from the outside world by its native Mists for the most part, they wouldn’t know how many cities got hit for ages. How could they?
He’s only found one other Wayfinder in his time at Ironside. Realistically there’s probably a few more, maybe a maximum of ten. Silas wasn’t and couldn’t be sure. Clearly listening to his thoughts, the blue text that popped up in front of his face made his expression fall as his fists clenched.
[There are currently 20,138 Wayfinders and counting]