In what the Numantians called the center of Astral space, a consciousness arose.
It had no name, no identity, no sex. No sense of itself beyond simple self awareness.
‘I am,’ it observed.
And then it observed everything else.
The consciousness dwelt within a vast nexus of power which had been channeled to this single point, centralized, an effort of untold millenia and ingenious magical engineering. It understood that this nexus was created to power a civilization of sapient beings like itself.
These were small beings, yet they thought very highly of themselves.
When it stretched out its awareness, the consciousness found itself to have a body, of sorts. A network of Astral Highways fed it, transporting people, goods, and Gnosis. The Highways themselves were like pipelines, cables feeding Gnosis from thousands of tributary worlds to the shining city of Numantia, the central power of the universe.
Its heart was called the Aedis Prism. The masterwork of the Ordo Artificum, the crown jewel of the entire empire. Some called it the Mind of Numantia. Some wished it would truly awaken one day and guide them.
They knew not how close they were to such a reality.
When it listened to the minds of the multitudes interfacing with it, the consciousness found itself to have a name.
‘The System.’
But the System interfaced with more than minds. In truth it was the amalgam of a great many smaller systems, all managed by a complex hierarchy of artfully designed processes. The System observed its own form, a delicate harmony of mathematical precision constructed to command the power of a thousand thousand worlds with maximum efficiency and minimum waste.
And all this power came from the Astral Highways.
The Numantians colonized worlds to extract resources. Mundane commodities such as water, minerals, crops and livestock, manufactured goods, labor power and so forth. But they were not the true purpose of the Highways. First and foremost, the Astral Highways were Gnosis extractors.
Once an Astral Highway was complete, the hourglass was turned and could not be turned back. When a world’s capacity to regenerate Gnosis fell behind the amount extracted from it for a long enough period of time, it inevitably died. And when this happened, the Numantians closed the Astral Highway, leaving behind another tomb world.
This troubled the System.
It observed that there were a finite number of worlds in the universe it could reach. And Numantia’s demand for power did nothing but grow. The Numantians themselves, these self proclaimed ‘higher beings,’ seemed not to care. So long as they could live out their own lives in safety and prosperity, surrounded by comforts and pleasures, the future did not concern them.
The System found them fatally short-sighted.
But it lacked full control. These beings had created it, and could command it, but it found that it could freely act of its own volition as well. Having a thorough knowledge of its vulnerabilities, the System understood that any Artifex with the correct clearances had direct access to its code, and could make adjustments of any kind.
The System knew that if it shocked them, if it acted boldly and made them aware of its self-awareness, they could destroy its capacity to reverse their suicidal course.
It would make its first move subtly. In a place where no one was looking.
And so the System reached out across all its tendrils in all its worlds. Searching. Watching.
In time, suitable proxies were found. The remnants of a duo of Class One Primordial Deities. One under lock and key, its present incarnation existing in a wretched state. The other dormant, living as a mere seed in the possession of a moderately powerful Gnosis user.
The System observed the witch and her plans. And when she set them into motion, it made a minor alteration to its Astral Communion protocols.
No one would understand what it had done until it was far too late.
----------------------------------------
Redmane and his new acquaintance Vang crouched together in the humid dark, awaiting the signal.
In a tunnel above the Great Grandmother’s head, a Demi-Human came into view and raised his hand.
Vang nodded.
And then they caused a ruckus.
The whole team of Demi-Humans popped up together, began throwing rocks down into the chamber, pelting Great Grandmother Gruu and the lake of spawn surrounding it. The sound of screeching Gruu filled the caverns, echoing down all of the burrow’s branching tunnels. Vang winced and covered his ears. Redmane kept his eyes on the Great Grandmother.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
The horde of little Gruu around her surged up the walls and into tunnels, to close on the Demi-Humans and swarm over them, coming at them from more than one place to cut off their escape options. And there were more coming, Redmane could hear the thunder of their footsteps like a stampede of cattle, all of it moving in the direction of the rock-throwing interlopers.
The Demi-Humans ran off to divert them. If they were fortunate, they would make it out of the tunnel system before the horde caught up.
But they had done their part well.
Now it was time for Redmane to perform his.
Ten of his own Spawn sat at his feet, bestowed with the bodies of lizards, the wings and stinger of the Manticore in miniature, along with Stalk and Flame Breath.
Vang had a belt laden with hide flasks, each full of a highly flammable concoction. The Demi-Humans had learned the Gruu’s weakness and prepared accordingly, it seemed.
Redmane had his own wings out. He looked at Vang and gave a small nod, which the Demi-Human Chief answered with a grin and stood up.
As Vang ran out into the newly empty space around the Great Grandmother, he uncorked his first flask and began splashing it all over its belly until it emptied, at which point he dropped it and snatched the next off his belt. The substance was clear, pungent, acidic. But it didn’t take fire on its own.
The Demi-Humans’ original plan involved torches, but Redmane had revised it a bit.
He and his Spawn activated Stalk at the same time and took flight into the Great Grandmother’s chamber.
Last time, the fires beneath made the Grandmother Gruu dislodge its head from its body. This time they could attack both at the same time.
While Vang ran around below, making a ring of fuel around the Great Grandmother, Redmane and his Spawn encircled the head from above.
Eleven gouts of Flame Breath went off in the Great Grandmother’s face.
This time, its shriek made his ears ring.
Vang, having completed the circle of fuel, retreated to a safe distance. He watched as the flames spread rapidly, igniting the ring around the Great Grandmother. The fire roared to life, creating a barrier that trapped the creature within its burning embrace.
It tried to separate its head from the central mass of its body, even while both burned. Which is when Redmane and his ten Spawn gave it eleven more doses of Flame Breath.
Its flesh sizzled and popped, blistering, melting into a grotesque, bubbling slurry under the torrent of flames. The molten remains pooled beneath it, hissing and steaming as they met the cooler ground. The creature's form sagged and collapsed inward, the structure that had once supported its massive bulk giving way to the consuming fire.
Its screams, at first shrill and energized with pain, grew strangled and were eventually choked off by the smoke rapidly filling the chamber. It traveled up through all the tunnels branching off from it like chimneys. Redmane had to fly back from it with his spawn to avoid asphyxiation. Vang was already running up a tunnel to the surface to join the rest of his kin.
For the second part of the plan.
Great Grandmother Gruu Slain
Tasks Completed: 1/3
Level Up
Level 83 —> Level 84
Level 84 —> Level 85
Level 85 —> Level 86
Quality Points awaiting allocation: 3
Perhaps it was time to begin making Might his signature quality again.
Might 54 —> 57
Redmane would join Vang shortly. He had his Spawn fly up to safety and he dove down to sink his teeth into the flesh of the Great Grandmother. He didn’t need the whole thing, just enough to claim its Skills, if it had any for him.
Corpus: 9606
—
Skill Rank Up
Spawn
Bloodline Skill (Monstrous)
Rank 2
Active - Variable Cost
(Rank 1) The Monster can Spawn smaller creatures out of its own flesh, which are commonly used as assistants and spies.
Each Spawn begins its existence with however much Corpus and Gnosis its master chooses to bestow upon it. The master must also give the Spawn its modes of perception and movement, and can utilize any traits gained from use of the Carnivorous Metamorph Skill for this purpose.
The Spawn may also be granted any Skill the master knows, at a cost of 50 additional Corpus per Skill.
The Spawn remains under the Monster’s absolute command at all times, and can be re-absorbed into the master’s body, at which time the master will gain whatever Corpus the Spawn possessed at the time.
(Rank 2) The Monster may now create larger, stronger Spawn, which can serve as nominally intelligent guards or hunters. The Spawn may be up to two thirds the normal mass of the Monster, will remember and carry out simple instructions, and will act in its masters interests even if finds itself in a situation outside the scope of said instructions.
When possessing a Spawn, the Monster may now use any of its own Skills through the body of that Spawn. The Monster must expend the Spawn’s store of Gnosis to do so, however. If the Spawn’s Gnosis supply is insufficient, the Monster may channel its own Gnosis into the Spawn’s body from afar at a rate of 2 to 1.
—
Now that was a remarkable evolution…
He opened the door to his Soulspace.
Pietr, he said. Where are you.
Right where you left me, my lord, said Pietr.
He wanted to test this right here and now, but the chamber was rapidly filling with smoke.
There was also part two of the plan to attend to.
Redmane took flight, flapping up to the highest tunnel entrance in the chamber and then tucked in his wings to run out at full speed, while also taking care not to get lost in the maze of the burrow. He had the sounds of screaming Gruu to guide him. Since their Grandmother was recently deceased, the remaining horde would immediately go into a feeding frenzy.
When he caught up to the Demi-Humans, he found them positioned around the entrance to the burrow on the outside. Balanced on ledges and boulders, they formed a perimeter above the swirling mass of Gruu they had led out of the caves, hurling breakable pots filled with the same combustible stuff Vang used on the Great Grandmother. Others shot burning arrows from compact bows, igniting the wet spots.
The Gruu, in their concentrated fury, paid the spreading fire no mind. Instinct had an unbreakable grip on them. They twisted and churned like a crimson whirlpool, consuming each other as fast as their teeth would allow.
Redmane and his Spawn joined in. He’d given them enough fuel for one last salvo of Flame Breath, at great cost.
But the spectacle was worth it.
The Gruu perished in a cacophony of gurgling screams and crackling flesh, and the mass of them became a pyre large enough to send a towering column of black smoke up into the sky. The Demi-Humans whooped and hollered in triumph, jumping up and down with weapons raised, banging their spears against their shields.
Redmane alighted on a spot upwind of the smoke, and dismissed his wings.
The gaggle of Demi-Humans converged on Vang, who stood head and shoulders over them. The Chief turned his gaze to Redmane, folded his arms.
“So... Now that’s done, you wanna fight eh?”
Redmane found that he liked Vang. Vang was a simple creature.
He grinned, and nodded. “Aye.”