“Know you, how vast your own world is? Know you every tree that surrounds Willowdale? Every city in Ikesia? Every country and tiny municipality on this continent? Every continent and island on the face of the planet? This planet, why, this Sun, is only one, and look how many shine in the heavens. Who is to say that other worlds are not going through their own Revolt Against the Heavens or War of Fog at this very moment? Or, from another perspective, who is to say that our sun is the only one which has been imprisoned with Black Rods? For all we know, the masters of those living-gold ships of which ancient myths speak may have ruled hundreds, thousands of worlds like ours. Perhaps our world is only a province that was lost to a rebellion and forgotten, or, perhaps, the Sun and the Sun God are not the same being. Why would I think such a thing? Simple. Never once did I come across any suggestion that the Infant Sun, or any of that deity’s previous incarnations, emerged directly from the celestial body. They harnessed the same power, but your Zelsys is not the same being as the Living Storm despite the fact it is whence her cultivation originates. Of course, it is undeniable that the Dead Gods are fundamentally different existences to our own. Nonetheless, I could not help but wonder, for such was my lot in life, and such will be my - Victor’s lot as well. It is the nature of what - who - we are.”
“Elaborate on the Sun as a non-divine body. What other purpose could the Suncage have? I have seen, with my own eyes, that the same technology - magic - power - whatever it may be - imprisons the Infant Sun.”
“And now, it restrains me to ensure I do not overstay my welcome. If the power of these Antediluvian Glyphs could restrain the Sun true, then it only makes sense they could restrain a being with a Constitution of Pure Sol - not the concept of Drive, but the essentia of the Sun. Regarding the Suncage… Perhaps, in the same way the Ankhezians reverse-engineered and hijacked the Suncage Grid as a power source and weapon of war, the Suncage itself was put in place not to imprison a star, but to harness its empyrean power as a weapon of another kind - a cosmic one. A deterrent as potent as the Blackwall, but on the scale of our whole solar system. I gained such thoughts when I observed our Sun, and witnessed the Seven Black Rods flare to life. All at once, the sun’s wroth was thrown outwards into the cosmic void. Months later, a great and terrible explosion lit up the sky in hues of red and gold, and it stayed there for weeks. The Red-Gold Second Summer, we called it.”
“Elaborate on the Sun as a Weapon.”
“Regardless of its true nature, be it as the seat of old divinity or as a mere celestial object, it is not a weapon. Just as you, one of your war machines, a bear, or a storm, the Sun is also a Warrior. I have naught more to say on the Sun for the moment.”
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“Cultivation, then. We work without an overarching system, due to our woefully incomplete knowledge of yours. Would you be able to assist us in reconstructing it?”
“Able, yes. Willing, no. At the time of Tian Feng’s grudge-war, I was already working on an improved framework drawing from Ankhezian nobility, the reclusive sects of our time, and even the Eagle-men of the far east. A fraction of that knowledge remains with me, still, and more of it may yet be found in my hidden laboratories, but it is of no use to you as of yet. Look below; my Tree of Life Ziggurat, my greatest work, lies below this great city. The only true Dungeon not of Nameless’s making, it was, with a core of its own. Know you its true purpose, beyond strengthening the land’s vitality and managing the leylines? It was to be a vast logic automaton, harnessing all the land and life within its purview as part of its calculation, so that the Triarchy might gain greater insights into the nature of life and cultivation. I suspect that Tian Feng sensed his time was growing short, for he struck against us mere weeks before I planned to awaken it. Should you truly seek to create a new cultivation framework, bring Victor as deep into the Ziggurat as you are able, and bid him to wield his authority as the Second of the Triarchy. With this power in hand, traverse the Ziggurat’s depths to its Core, where the true Tree of Life joins with my comparatively tiny structure. Awaken Veles Perkunas. Then, perhaps, one of my incomplete labours may see its fruition, and you may yet conceive a cultivation framework for the new era.”
A horrifying cracking sound came from the mask, which, by all accounts, should have been impossible. It was made of dragonbone, after all. Yet, it cracked all the same, and Victor-Koschei grinned. A dark, evil-sounding laughter rose up from his throat. His voice distorted, each phrase coming out as if it were chopped out from a different conversation.
“Perhaps… He may teach you… How to be… A Three-eyed Pagan God… Like me!”
He broke out into full-throated laughter. Then, in an instant, Zef’s Black Ice Pillars and the Crow Mask shattered into thousands of pieces. Victor was left, the only suggestion of Koschei’s Third Eye was a small boney scale on his forehead, which the redhead peeled away when he came-to and instinctively rubbed that spot.
“Did… Something go wrong?” he asked, looking around.
“I don’t think so… Though I fear that we may have a limitation on our hands if the mask is doomed to destruction each time we use it like this. Do you think you can repair it?”
He had already called the shards to his hand, but only less than half of them actually came, with the others smoldering on the ground.
“...Maybe. Something has changed in the bone,” he said, slowly beginning to mould the shards together. Slowly, yet at a breakneck pace compared to how long it took him otherwise. A change that Zefaris had seen take an hour took him only a few minutes.