As we travel on horseback, I think of ways we can quickly and easily defeat this soul-god. I, of course, will be immune to its mind control, not only do to my strong media, but also due to the psychic wards I have placed on my helm. The crimson cultists, however, cannot say the same. I think back to one of my first outings, which at the time I had decided to dub "excursions". I had just killed a god with one of my crowning achievements of thaumaturgy: The Deity Hammer, a sort of heavy artillery device capable of killing any entity within a universe, no matter where they may be. The death of the many-armed deity, whose name I have forgotten, caused the complete collapse of the vis tapestry which it was upholding, making hedge magic impossible among mortals. To maintain their culture, I built a small device that would slowly reweave the vis to an identical copy of the god's pattern.
So, this leaves me with two possibilities: Either the deity that controls The Belfry uses vis to dominate individuals, or it directly rearranges their media. I have not yet encountered another being capable of such a feat besides myself (although looking through my pseudo-memories, one of my most recent past lives had this capability, likely due to possessing a fragment of my own soul), so I decide it is safe to assume that the god uses vis. Of course, I could extend my flux to envelop the cultists, but if there are any sorcerers in the kingdom, it could leave us exposed to spells that are powerful enough to travel through a thin flux field. With these possibilities considered, I realize what I must do.
"Sir?" Leviticus rides up to meet me at the front of the crimson cultists. "Leland says we are an hour away from The Belfry's gates. You look lost in thought. Care to share?"
"Of course, Leviticus. You are my most trusted." Leviticus's helm twitches a tiny bit. "The supposed mind control of this deity poses a unique problem to us. Therefore, I have decided we will make a temporary stop so I can construct a device capable of countering its capabilities. There is a small town on the outskirts of The Belfry, correct?"
"Yes, there is. Leland says its occupants are too far to be completely influenced by the god, but we should be safe enough to stop there for a while. How long will you need?"
"In the past, perhaps a week, or maybe even a month. However, sixty thousand years of experience are very helpful, even if none of that time was spent dedicated to the study of thaumaturgy. I need only five hours."
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The town, which is apparently unnamed, is eerie to say the least. No mayor, nay, not even a single resident comes out to greet the strange travelers that arrive. Perhaps they fear the legion of red-robed zealots, or the four heavily armored knights, or perhaps the sheer psychic aura of the man in the purple armor made them flee in terror and hide in their homes. Whatever the case, we were left undisturbed for the duration of our stay.
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"I can use a flux rift to remotely take materials and tools from my workshop. No need to migrate back to the tower this time."
I hammer and wrench and twist metal for hours on end, fixing vis crystals in various places and carefully pouring out phials of essentia onto various parts of my massive construction. Many crimson cultists watch in fascination. Winter makes sure none of them interfere with my work. Most are still complete strangers to me, only following me out of zeal, curiosity, or hope. I cannot risk them ruining the device at this stage.
A few of the townsfolk grow brave enough to come look at what I'm doing, but hurriedly run away when I cast my soul-piercing gaze towards them. After hours of welding and inscribing runes, my work is finally complete. Before me stands a sort of gargantuan siege device. It would require at least ten horses to tow, or a semi-capable engine. Good thing we have horses.
"I am finished." I stand up, striking my chisel for the last time. The rune I was inscribing lights up, as well as all the other runes and the vis crystals. I place my casting gauntlet on it and activate the device. A massively heavy pillar in the center slowly lifts up, and when it reaches its peak, slams down with both the force of gravity and magical force. The tip of the pillar, which faces down, strikes a small shape carved from a specially quenched fragment of void metal. The fragment completely absorbs the energy from the pillar's strike and releases it in a massive burst. Through my goggles of revealing, I can see the vis in the local aura has been completely shredded. It slowly reforms back to its base state rather than the tapestry it once was. Perfect. I turn to face the cultists. Leland looks in awe at the device.
"I present to you... The Thumper. The device will reset the vis in an area I estimate to be around 25 miles with each strike. The vis should be just disrupted enough that the passive machinations of gods shouldn't be able to restore it to their design; it will effectively nullify all sorcery within a massive radius of itself. Except for my own magicks, of course."
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Perspective: ᒷ⚍ꖎᓵ
As I sit drinking in my old, run down house, I reminisce about our battle against that damned one-eyed piece of shit. What the hell happened to you? We were so close! You were up there with him! What happened!? A small fox wanders into my house through the open door and whimpers, looking at me.
"I told you to get the fuck out of here!" I shout. "It's over! It's all over! We all lost! Even the mercenaries have given up!" I slam my fist on the dilapidated wooden table, knocking off a pair of daggers. "You aren't responding because you know I'm right. There's nothing we can do if we don't even known what happened."
That's when something I'll never forget happened. Out of nowhere, a purple disc appears in front of us on the half-broken wall of the hovel. The circular, spinning apparatus produces a foreign-looking young man, who steps out from it. His face is rugged and scarred, and he carries a device similar to the one I was told the lieutenant had. What the hell...
"I trust you are the one I'm looking for," says the man. He extends his hand out to me.