I glanced in distaste towards where I knew the matrix of tiny little artificial souls the dwarves had erected between me and Rockwood. I couldn’t see them as I had retracted my cilia from the area, but I knew they were there by the minuscule indentations their aura impressed upon my domain. Such a silly solution, but I accepted it as a valid answer to the Rockwood problem. The dwarves got to keep their dungeon, and I didn't have to fight them for it. Still, leaving a threat behind such a flimsy wall irked me.
Whatever, out of sight out of mind.
My troops retreated from the front and spread evenly through my first floor once more. I also pulled Betsy back to her chamber and Tank back up to his sky castle. As I did this, I also redistributed the pillar of cilia attuned to the third floor back up to the sky. The action was not strictly necessary, but it appealed to me to keep my floors clean and separated. There were also a few things I hadn't gotten around to doing due to the short conflict with Rockwood.
The first of which was fully utilizing the [Hyperbolic Menagerie], but before I could get around to doing that, my attention was grabbed by Betsy clearing her throat and tapping my core with one of her feet.
“Excuse me, mama,” she said. “When can I go back out to fight more monsters?"
I don’t know dear. Perhaps a long time. There are many preparations to make before we will be ready for the coming war.
“Ok,” Betsy’s large eye drooped, and she floated down to the floor. I had removed her legs and hooked her back up to the gantry in her chamber. “I think you should try to start a fight with another dungeon real soon because I am very good at fighting and because I want to go out.”
Aww, you’re sweet dear. I will try. In the meantime, I have a gift for you.
I pulled up my interface and channeled my newest skill: [Exalted Minions].
Betsy twitched into the air as my cilia pulsed with blue energy. Her flesh undulated as the magic took hold. Four more eyestalks sprouted from her skull as her already tough hide doubled in thickness. At the same time, all the tough spines from her Nothic heritage split off and clattered to the floor. Each of her eyes rolled in their sockets as bloodshot veins throbbed within and the pupil in the center tripled in size.
The greatest change of all occurred inside her. The numerous winches I had rigged within her to grant her flight shattered into dust as the magic of the skill worked. The dozens of muscles I had carefully aligned split off and twisted into a higher dimension. They wriggled outwards and fused directly to the cilia ropes that were left hanging. Simultaneously, my cilia ropes unraveled into dozens of individual strands and split from me. I winced as a sharp spike of pain lanced through me as my cilia were ripped from me.
Betsy recovered from the change and explored her new body. Each of the new eye stalks jiggled and she rolled her eyes taking in the world from a new perspective. In addition, her internal muscles that fused with the cilia ropes rippled and she yelped in surprise as the incorporeal strands latched onto the air and dragged her across the floor.
It didn't take long for Betsy to realize that her new cilia allowed her true flight and she rocketed out of her main chamber and through the long tunnels of my maze whooping and crowing in delight.
Huh. I should have thought of that.
With a thought, I pulled up her interface to review the changes.
Radiant Beholder
Level: 22
Level Acquired: 21
Life: 2573/2573
Resistances: 30%
Rend: 702-1429 Physical Damage
Rotting Gaze: 526-1071 Chaos Damage
Molten Gaze: 280-571 Fire Damage
Frost Gaze: 280-571 Ice Damage
Darkness Gaze: 280-571 Shadow Damage
Slashing Gaze: 280-571 Physical Damage
Radiant Gaze: 280-571 Radiant Damage
Petrifying Gaze: slows targets
Locked Potential: None
Equitable Trade: You take 15% less damage from targets who are not looking at you. You deal 15% more damage to targets who are looking at you.
Space Walk: Grants true flight
Dreams of Starlight: All attacks gain 169 Radiant damage
I blinked at the changes, shocked at how high the numbers had gone up. It was way beyond the 50% that [Exalted Minions] promised, and bordered on doubling her life and damage. Why the skill behaved in this way, I wasn't sure, but I was glad for it. Now that she wasn’t a lame ‘Multi Crafted Nothic’ and assumed the title of a proper Beholder, it was good that her stats reflected her newfound strength.
The upgrade had also subsumed the obelisk I had nested within Betsy and absorbed many of the attributes of the obelisk. Betsy still had 30% to all resistances as a base but had lost the ablative coating I had crafted. That was a slight shame but the massive increase in life and the three new skills more than made up for it. There was also no reason why I couldn’t rebuild the ablative coating with another obelisk.
The skills granted by the obelisk were replaced by a few new skills. [Space Walk] was the manifestation of the web of cilia Betsy now used to fly. It had nearly identical properties to my gantry and winch system from before but allowed Betsy to explore outside of her chamber. [Equitable Trade] was a completely new skill that guaranteed Betsy would be far more dangerous than her raw stats indicated.
The best part however was [Dreams of Starlight]. The skills had crystallized Betsy’s original enchantment and turned it into a skill. That was nice, but the real kicker was that Betsy was no longer considered crafted. That meant with a flick of my thoughts I triggered [Unstable Fusion] to grant my little one a huge chunk of physical resistance and life.
Physical Crafted Radiant Beholder
+146 life
+51% Physical Resistance
Level: 22
Level Acquired: 21
Life: 2719/2719
Resistances: 30%
My baby girl wriggled in excitement and danced through my maze, taking full advantage of her ability to swim through the air to do flips and loops and overall enjoying her new freedom. I laughed at her exuberance and turned my attention to my other two bosses.
[Exalted Minions] triggered and I observed the changes.
Both transformed from the skill but to a lesser extent than Betsy had. Cortana grew larger with a much greater spread of balloons in her canopy and a far denser assortment of eyes all across her body. Where before only the tips of her branches had eyes to study the world, now every knot and whorl in her bark blinked open to reveal another eye that scanned the environment with curiosity.
Tank also grew larger, completely ablating all the stone on his frame and replacing it with pure transparent alumina. Little stars spawned within his massive twenty-five-foot-tall frame which twinkled and reflected the light of his lightning eyes as he moved. His armor had also thickened, growing into a proper suit of advanced armor whose joints blended seamlessly with each other.
I pulled up both their status sheets and couldn’t help but release a ripple of joy at the massive boosts in stats.
Watcher Of Eyes
Level: 21
Level Acquired: 21
Life: 2069/2069
Resistances: 50% to all resistances; 30% fire resistance
Static Strike: 448-917 Lightning Damage
Minor Restore: 269-550 life restored
Rotting Gaze: 202-412 Chaos Damage
Mind Flay: 202-412 Mental Damage
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Guard The Rotten: Redirect up to 15% of damage dealt to another to yourself
Locked Potential: None
Stellar Juggernaut
Level: 22
Level Acquired: 21
Life: 2776/2776
Resistances: 50% physical resistance; 30% all resistances
Smash: 658-1339 Physical Damage
Impact Absorption: Mitigate 394-803 physical damage when hit with attacks. This ability has 10% effectiveness against other damage types.
Reconstruction Protocol (channeling): recover 131-267 life per second. Gain 5% to maximum resistances.
Locked Potential: None
Protect The Frail: gain 20% to all resistances when defending
Starforged: +10% to maximum resistances
Cortana evolved into a Watcher of Eyes and lost some of her susceptibility to fire. She had gained a defensive skill she could use to protect her charge which was always welcome but I felt her true upgrade was the increase in eyes. With so many new ones available, there would be nothing that would slip Cortana’s attention.
Tank had become a Stellar Juggernaut and gained some obscene boosts to resistance. [Starforged] in combination with [Protect the Frail] capped his resistances while defending my territory, while [Impact Absorption] and [Reconstruction Protocol] ensured that he would remain my tanky boi against anything but a far superior foe.
Neither had the crafted moniker and once the cooldown on [Unstable Fusion] came back up I would buff them even further.
What bothered me however was that each of my three bosses now had a new skill. [Locked Potential] grinned at me slyly, goading me with secrets as I poked and prodded at it to figure out what it meant. What potential was locked, and how could I unlock it? The questions rolled through my mind as I watched my new bosses revel and explore their new forms.
After a time I put the thought of [Locked Potential] out of my mind as I focused on other things.
Days ago I received an upgrade — [Fractured Augmentation] — I had thought mostly useless. It was a skill formed from the fusion of three other skills and had failed to stabilize upon entering my skill sheet. The mess that the skill had become had made me reluctant to try and use it properly while busy with other things, but now that the crisis with Rockwood was over I was ready to experiment.
[Fractured Augmentation] had three parts.
The simplest of the broken upgrades related to my Nothic. They had received the upgrade slated for my Treants; granting experience to nearby plants on death. That was annoying, but not so bad once I thought about it. I had already fused Nothic and Treants when I had created Cortana, and all I had to do now was confirm that an Eyelit Effigy gained the bonuses of both creatures.
A quick modification here, and a summoning there netted me a newly born Eyelit Effigy which I summarily executed. A wave of floral green and white motes spread among the nearby plants. Each plant wriggled in pleasure as it absorbed the magic and grew a couple of inches in seconds before my eyes.
Perfect. I would work to replace all my Treants with crafted Eyelit Effigies — cooldowns willing — and in no time my forest would benefit from increased experience rates.
I was not overly bothered with my Treants receiving the ability to leave my domain as it allowed Christina and Cortana to venture out for short bursts. That ability had already proven useful with regard to the dwarves and I knew it would pay dividends in the future. Unfortunately, that did mean that my Artifice Hulks were left a little high and dry. They had gained the ability to charge their attacks through their eyes, but as they didn’t have any eye attacks, the upgrade was useless.
Good thing there was a simple solution.
I reached for one of my cloaked giants in my sky castle and triggered [Summon Nothic]. The flesh and spines materialized from the ether and began to fuse with the Artifice Hulk, but I was conflicted. The thing was, I didn’t want just another aberration. I had plenty of eye horrors and reducing an Artifice Hulk to just another fleshy abomination seemed like a waste of potential. Artifice Hulks deserved better than that. They deserved...a more...elemental spin.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
As [Summon Nothic] took effect, I channeled my will to merge the resulting flesh to the stone golem. Before the flesh could fuse, however, I forced it to calcify and harden into veins and ridges that gave the Hulk an organic look. Delicately, I pulled the materializing iris towards the center of the Hulk’s frame and opened up a space in the stone for it. Once again, instead of allowing the identity of the Nothic to take hold, I pulsed mana into the growing eye.
An eye could see, but it needn’t be made of flesh or blood to conceive that purpose. Atom by atom, I annihilated the iris as it came into existence and replaced it with the very lightning that powered the joints of the great giant. Minutes passed as I toiled, but steadily, a gap opened where the golem’s stomach would have been and an eye made of sparking lightning blinked open for the first time.
< You have merged two minions into < Orbital Guardian >! >
A breeze fluttered the leaves in my forest as I sighed. Amused at how I had unintentionally bled my purpose for the creature during its creation. My Artifice Hulks wouldn’t get the honor of leaving my domain, so they would have a pivotal purpose in my war with Deia. A more...long distance purpose.
The Orbital Guardian shifted, investigating the hole in its stomach, and its new eye. With a tentative blink, lightning gathered and a beam of uncontrolled lightning scored the far wall.
Orbital Guardian
Level: 21
Level Acquired: 21
Life: 1741/1741
Resistances: None
Annihilation Cannon: 503-1028 Lightning Damage
Smash: 301-616 Physical Damage
Reconstruction Protocol (channeling): recover 100-205 life per second. Gain 5% to maximum resistances.
Mhmm, not ideal, but perfect for my purposes. The Orbital Guardian had lost some health and its smash attack was drastically weakened compared to a standard Artifice Hulk, but it had retained [Reconstruction Protocol] and — most importantly — had a long-range eye-based attack.
I commanded the Orbital Guardian to charge its attack and couldn’t help but giggle as lightning gathered. The air shook with energy as the seconds ticked by. More and more power gathered, causing the Guardian to shake like a leaf despite its huge size. Baby unstable lightning bolts arced out of the eye, and grew into huge arcs of damaging lightning. I watched curiously as the minion’s life began to plummet as arcing bolts of lightning from its skill crashed into it and created cracks and fissures.
Release
A beam of blinding white seared my vision as a detonation on the scale of a volcanic eruption shook the castle. I blinked the spots from my vision and watched the shockwave obliterate my newly created Orbital Guardian. It traveled across my domain and passed over the human camp, inciting all sorts of chaos as the little humans panicked at the sound.
Heh.
The wall in my castle had not faired well against the blast. The Guardian had held the charge for just about twenty-seven seconds which equated to more than five times the regular damage output. If my math was right, that was just over 3,500 points of lightning damage and it showed. Very little remained of the wall or really anything in a huge radius. I would have to repair things and make sure never to fire this at point-blank range. Once I formulated a proper setup I could even enchant the creatures with more damage and...yes. This would do marvelously.
While I waited for cooldowns I worked to upgrade the castle. It took hours to get accustomed to working in hyperbolic space, but by the end, I was rather proud of my creation. A sprawling castle towered over the surrounding landscape with an arguably more convoluted maze than my first floor. With how space folded in hyperbolic space, it would be difficult for any human to map the halls. Not impossible, especially if they forego using a flat paper map, to which I had the perfect counter. With some direct intent, I managed to change the degree of how hyperbolic the space was.
In some areas, turning around constituted 360°, but in others, I made it so that it required more or less to complete a full rotation. This made certain areas of the castle nigh impossible to track as spatial orientation was destroyed within the space.
I was rather proud of that, though it took quite a while to get the structure just right. So long in fact that I managed to upgrade all my Treants to Eyelit Effigies in the meantime. I didn’t particularly need to use up the cooldown of [Summon Nothic] but it felt slightly wrong to waste efficiency when I was gearing up to target a goddess. Therefore, I went back to a very old project of mine to perhaps complete it once and for all.
The Ceiling Horror.
The little guy had stagnated on my first floor nearly since its inception. It was a sad state of affairs that no matter how much time I dedicated to harvesting eyes from Nothic in my free time to feed the giant beast I would never be able to give it enough eyes to cover the entire breadth of my maze. There was simply too much space, and the cooldown of [Monstrous Generosity] and [Summon Nothic] were too inhibiting. I needed a new solution and it was frankly embarrassing that I hadn’t thought of something up until now.
I needed a way to get eyes that was not just faster than summoning Nothic or waiting for them to respawn. No, it needed to be far faster. Exponentially so.
To achieve this, I created an unassuming Nothic and gave it a second eye. Two eyes on a Nothic was a disturbing sight, but I wasn’t subjected to the two-eyed monstrosity for long as I plucked both eyes. Instead of funneling the eyes to the Ceiling Horror, I hoarded them and waited for the Nothic to respawn. In due time, it did.
And with two eyes.
It was then a simple matter to graft the two old eyes onto the new creature — making sure to keep the eyes close together for ease of plucking — and plucked all four eyes out.
I repeated the process for eight, sixteen, thirty-two, and beyond. Within the day I had a multi-eyed Nothic with as many eyes as my Ceiling Horror. It had so many eyes, that it was growing difficult to pluck them all before [To Dust] triggered and converted the eyes to sand. Once this occurred, I began filling out the missing eyes on my Ceiling Horror. Within hours I had gone from adding a dozen eyes at most to my Ceiling Horror to adding tens of thousands with an easy method of expansion should that prove insufficient.
It was while I was rejoicing in this success that I was interrupted by a system notification.
< Mana 8,531/8,531 >
< You have leveled up! >
< You are now level 22! >
< Mana 0/9,919 >
< You are now tier 4! Congratulations! >
< +1 to maximum floor count! >
< Floor 1 creature count: 22/22 >
< Floor 2 creature count: 22/22 >
< Floor 3 creature count: 22/22 >
< Floor 4 creature count: 0/22 >
I quickly flicked open the upgrade interface and sighed in relief. For some reason, I had this irrational fear that these options would also be corrupted by Deia now that I had decided to come after her. Luckily they weren’t.
Obelisk Of Quick Recovery:
Nearby minions respawn 100% faster on death
+3 to maximum Obelisks
Tears of the Basilisk:
+1 to maximum Fountains
Items steeped in the Tears of the Basilisk gain [Minor Fear Aura]
Create Rot Source:
Create a source attuned to rot
720 minute cooldown
Before I could properly analyze the options, I noticed a small gaggle of humans approaching dangerously close to my cave entrance. They must have triggered the level-up with their movement, and...ahh. Good, she was here. I had been meaning to talk to this one for a while now.
“We’re not heading into the caves right Gella?” Christina said a grimace I found insulting flickered across her face. Come on! My caves weren’t that bad.
“No, just up to the mural. I have something to tell you that you really need to hear.” Gella responded.
The group consisted of five individuals. Gella and Christina led the way through the thick underbrush as the newly freed Kellar, Miranda and Cortana lagged behind. Of the trailing party, Cortana looked bored and Kellar was confused but patient. It was Miranda whose appearance surprised me the most. She looked haggard, with dark circles under her eyes and a downcast expression as if she would collapse to the forest floor at a moments notice. I hadn’t bothered following too closely what had happened in the aftermath, but I supposed Miranda hadn’t faired too well. That was...unfortunate, but not my problem. The lady was a git and had dug her own grave as far as I was concerned.
“Alright, uhm,” Gella paused before the great mural and glanced around nervously. “I think we are alone.”
“We are,” Christina said after I saw Cortana give a perfunctory eye roll. “Out with it Gella. Enough secrets. What do you have to tell us that is so important it has to be done here of all places?”
“Well, guys. I think I have been chosen as a Champion.” Gella declared, puffing out her chest.
Miranda sighed at the declaration and lowered herself to the ground while oozing disappointment.
“Receiving one vision from the great goddess does not constitute a champion, yes?” Kellar replied with a raised brow, his eyes wandering to the black iron ring still on Gella’s finger. “Even if said vision came with purpose.”
“No,” Gella shook her head. “I played along when the priests were around but it wasn’t Deia who granted my wish. It was this dungeon that we are standing in right now. It saved me when I first nearly died inside of it, and now it answered my prayer when I wished for a way to remove the collars. I mean just look at what is towering over us right now. It made a statue of me. I must be important to it!”
Ahh, whoops. I hadn’t really thought about how that message could be misconstrued. Hmm, it would be a shame to tear down such a pretty statue though.
“But the Great Goddess,” Kellar trailed off, a hand going to his pale throat.
“Deia doesn't care about you or I. Or any of us!” Gella stomped her foot in a way I found cute. “Just look at the ‘gift’ she gave Christina. A slave collar? Really? It is almost as if Deia herself is the one who makes the collars and just finds perverse amusement in watching us suffer!”
“Proof, daughter,” Miranda said, her voice partially muffled by a hand over her face. “What have I told you of proof? Even if the blasphemy you speak of is true, it matters little if you cannot prove that you are a champion to a...dungeon of all things. For all we know, the Great Goddess granted Christina a great gift and it was Christina who misused the item to put her in her fate.”
“Watch it, you washed-up old hag,” Christina stiffened, stepping forward.
“The truth is often a difficult pill to swallow,” Miranda barely acknowledged the younger woman, and instead looked down and rubbed at her temples in a manner that reminded me of a nervous tick.
“Ok, ok, ok! I can prove it,” Gella waved Christina back but then hesitated. “I think.”
She turned towards the mural and kneeled until she was fully prostrated with her forehead pressed into the long grass. It must have been proper itchy, but the girl persevered. In a loud resonating voice that carried, she intoned.
“Great Dungeon of Chaos and Shadow. Life and Sky. Soulwrest and...uhm. Please help me prove to the others that I am your champion. I swear they can each help. Please, thank you.”
How...utterly fascinating. I didn’t receive a Prayer. What was different? Was it because she wasn’t desperate enough? Or was it because she was just asking me something? Hmm, that was possible. Considering it was her soul that powered the prayer, she must need to willingly offer a part of herself to send the message to me. What an amazing discovery. Not only did it give me more information on Prayers, but it showed that Dungeons weren’t the only ones that could mess with soul magic. Humans just needed to be...motivated enough for it.
Alright, fine. I’ll play along. I was interested in seeing where this little skit was going and besides, Miranda’s attitude was pissing me off. For the first time in a long while I gathered my full attention and focused it on Miranda. Ever since I had discovered that humans could sense my attention, I had paid extra care in fragmenting my attention. Not for any particular reason, just that it was kinda creepy that they could know if I was watching them. Hmm, that didn’t sound right when I put it like that.
The cankerous old mage gasped and collapsed to her hands and knees as I intentionally pressed down on her. Studying her from toenail to eyelash and making certain she was aware of my displeasure.
Several things happened at once. Christina rushed to Miranda and propped her up, while Gella spun around and crowed her victory.
“It worked! Oh my, wow. I. Wow. Wait, mom. Are you alright? What happened?” Gella rushed to her mother’s side and helped her up. The effort was short-lived as the old woman shoved the others back with shaking hands with no strength behind them.
Heh. That was funny. I dialed back the attention, making it fade into the background, and devoted part of my attention to other projects.
“I’m...alright,” Miranda waved the others off and wiped her mouth. She leaned back against a tree, exhaustion visible in her trembling fingers but her eyes glittered with something I could only read as hope? What a strange woman. “I felt the dungeon’s attention. It is angry. Very angry. The feeling was just...unexpected. I was not prepared for such a powerful...”
Miranda turned towards the mural and raised her arms as if about to begin a great oration before she grimaced and sighed.
“Perhaps, Gellamine, you could thank the great dungeon for gracing me with its illustrious attention. Please be more...never mind.”
Gella turned to do that, copying her mother’s words to the letter then spun back around. “So you believe me?”
Miranda's lips pursed as if she had just swallowed a lemon, but nodded.
“What about you two? Do you believe me?”
“Sure, why not,” Christina shrugged. “I don’t know about champion but it’s not the craziest thing that happened around here. I told you about all those gifts it's been giving me.”
Gella turned to Kellar with a broad smile. Kellar hesitated, glancing around with a hand solidly clasped around his throat.
“I...” he shook his head. “I don’t know much, but...a Dungeon is not a God, yes?”
“Well, perhaps Soulwrest isn’t a dungeon after all? Deia works in mysterious ways. Isn’t that what the scriptures always say? What’s to say that Soulwrest isn’t a god disguised as a dungeon?”
Kellar grimaced, looking up at the great mural but there was doubt in his expression. “Then it is a pagan god and we should stick to the scriptures and not lose our way.”
“Maybe Kellar, but come on. What if Soulwrest has come to free your people? Deia hasn’t been doing a good job of it all this time. If she wants us to fight our own battles so badly, well. This is what that looks like. We need Soulwrest to free the rest of your kin, Kellar. Can’t you see that?”
“Proof, daughter.” Miranda interrupted, but this time the glimmer in her eye was nastier. “Show us proof that Soulwrest will crusade to free all the slaves. Your claims are fanciful as they are extreme. Give us tangible proof that your words are true.”
Shit. I knew it was a bad idea to give that witch an inch.
Gella hesitated, looking around, this time far less sure of herself. Like before however she stepped towards the mural and prostrated herself.
“Please Great Dun—”
I ignored her words as I felt a force manifest deep within the girl’s soul.
Please, please let them believe me.
< You have received a Prayer: +1 mana >
< Mana 15/9,919 >
< Would you like to respond? >
Ahh. I understand now. Of course, I would like to respond.
I reached out toward the wellspring of power inside Gella and found myself locked out. The power was there, but I had the barest sliver of connection to it. That was fine, I did not need her mana for this. Like before I had a question to ask her.
Would you be willing to be my sword?
I sent the mana of my message into her soul, bypassing her mind entirely. The girl shivered uncontrollably, nearly spasming, but I would not ask this question to her mind. For this, I needed a true response. My request was complicated. Riddled with indecision and fear with none of the rosy outlook common to advertisements. I hid none of my insecurity about how the war may go or any of my doubts about tackling a god.
Like a bell that had been rung, a pure note emanated out of her soul. It was a complex sound with a fractal complexity detailing precisely how far she was willing to go. It spoke of confused, undirected anger. At feeling lost and alone along a long broken road. It spoke of shock and grief, but with an undertone of hope and a dream.
The message came to me and I understood it instantly. Intent was far more nuanced than language and could convey so much more. Gella would fight for me if I asked. She just didn’t want to do it alone.
With a gentle smile, I turned to the others. Miranda would never work. She was the girl’s mother, but despite her recent failure, she had not learned. Even if she would be willing to help, I was not willing to work with her. Then there was Christina. Poor broken Christina. Her soul was fragmented and incapable of leaving to achieve the tasks I would need in the coming conflict. If her soul was fixed, perhaps she could serve, but I was not yet ready to undertake the repair of her fractured soul.
That left Kellar. Mysterious enslaved Kellar. The believer. How ironic. How...useful. Yes. He would do wonderfully.
I laughed and brought my mana to bear.
Kellar.
He shuddered, falling to his knees in rapture as his name resonated through the caverns of his mortal mind.
I’ll send the thunder from the sky, and the fire raining down.
A tear rose unbidden to the man’s eyes as he stared off into space. Lost in the vision of my words.
I’ll send my horde. I’ll send my swarm.
Kellar closed his eyes as my words crashed into him. It was only his enhanced tier-four body that allowed him to withstand them so well.
To every field, to every town,
Somehow, he smiled, and I felt a shift inside him.
Until She breaks. Until She yields, and your people are free.
He opened his arms wide, looking up at the sky in rapture.
Will you be my shield?
“I will,” he croaked. His voice was hoarse and full of uncontrolled emotion.
< You have received a Prayer: +255 mana >
< Mana 270/9,919 >
< Would you like to respond? >
The floodgates opened and a wave of mana rushed toward me. It was an unfettered flood as if Kellar cared not at all for his safety. I studied his soul and saw the normal barriers that restricted my meddling were gone. Entirely stripped down by a glowing message that pulsed in tune with his heart.
Free My People.
Ahh, silly human. You will work with me to free your people. But...If you are going to be so open with your body, I think I might just make some...modifications.
End Of Arc 3