“A broken magic circle usually means death. If they have the unfortunate fate of surviving the aftermath and still cling to life like the burden they are, here’s the five steps you need in mins….”
~Excerpt from How to Take Care of a Crippled Arcanist
Trial Passed
Affinity with Spear of Fear Raised
Focus + Seize + Subjugate + Destroy
(Refined Aether)(Overcharged)(Wrath)
=
Grip of the Inevitable
Grip of the Inevitable(Combo)
Ethereal
The primordial tides holds a firm grip on all of reality
Cantrip Class—M.AWA, M.FIN, ???
There was an immediate difference in the atmosphere around Devin. The field of dread originating from the spear enveloped his own aura, wrapping around it in protection instead of resisting and grating against each other. For the first time in days, Devin was able to heave a breath in relief instead of having it hitch in the back of his throat from a surge of terror.
Even Dewey sighed in contentment as she settled into restful sleep. Unfortunately, the peace didn’t last long.
A knock on his door made Devin stop everything he was doing. Sweat dripped down his back as he approached the exit. He kicked the door open, ready to jab a fistful of arcanium into the bastard’s gut—
—The door opened to reveal a wide-eyed, cowering soldier that lacked any rank patch on his chest.
“Who are you?” Devin asked, narrowing his eyes at the kid infantryman. He looked even younger than him. God, I’m so old now.
“Private—Private Corn, Sir!” The young soldier snapped into a nervous salute. “Your presence is requested by Sergeant Major Francis.”
Devin pinned the boy to his doorstep with an unamused look before sighing. “Relax, kid. I’m not going to hurt you. I don’t know who that is, and I don’t follow people I don’t know to a secondary location. Tell your boss if he wants to talk to me, he can meet me here.”
The boyish soldier rapidly nodded his head before running away as fast as his little legs could take him.
He sighed again, leaving the door open as he went back into his house. “Am I really that scary?” He asked Dewey, who yawned in response. “Yeah, you’re right. He was probably just affected by the spear’s fear effect.” Devin released the weapon’s physical form, reverting it into a card. Given access to its details for the first time, he read its information.
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Spear of Fear (Rare)
Artifact/Ethereal
The spine of a bone horror converted into a weapon
by a budding necromancer,
the spear forces the last
emotions it felt upon everyone else
2nd Circle—CHA, ???
+0.5 CHA
[Dread]
[Essence Pierce]
This is,,,really good. But Devin didn’t know when he would ever use it. The cost of two circles was incredibly steep compared to everything he could do with just a single ring, let alone two.
Maybe the text doesn’t totally describe the effects. Devin guessed. He would love nothing more than to activate the cards and see how potent it was, amongst the other loot he got, but with only Dewey’s azure magic circle at his disposal, he was pretty limited—doubly so when accounting for the fact he needed to be prepared for anything.
Besides, the spear wasn’t the point; it was a test to see if he was good enough for the supposed surgery.
I put it off long enough. It’s time to rectify that.
Devin plopped onto the half couch and made himself comfortable. He ignored Dewey’s protests as his awareness fell into his core with a flex of [focus], directing his attention to the fractured ring at the edge of his deckspace.
Although he hadn’t taken a close look at the construct since that fight a few days ago, he was shocked by how thoroughly the damage spread. White shards floated at the edge of his deckspace as pieces of the green crimson-flaked ring broke off into the void. Cracks ripped through every part of the construct, disrupting the vital functions of the circle.
Thankfully, it still was—functionally—a magic circle, letting Devin keep his status as a first-circle arcanist. He instinctively knew that the moment his circle fell apart completely, his status as an arcanist would be revoked, locking him out of his decks, vault, and even his soul card.
He would be lucky if he could start over from scratch again. It was way more likely that Devin’s body wouldn’t be able to handle the energy and explode.
Sounds like an awful way to go. He shuddered. I can’t let that happen. It won’t! I just became a Super; I won’t let an injury hold me back.
Dewey, He spoke out into the mental connection in his deckspace that led elsewhere. I need your help.
Devin waited, not surprised at all when another magic circle manifested from beyond the curtain of nothingness around his deckspace. The sky blue ring surrounded the green one, preventing any more shards from escaping the broken boundary.
Okay. Devin inhaled deeply to calm his beating heart. Time for the operation. He told himself, carefully wielding several tendrils of arcanium towards his magic circle.
He had studied multiple texts regarding fractured rings and how to perform surgery on the construct, but there was a reason he waited until now to try. Every single book painted a grim picture of what would happen if something went wrong during any one of the multiple points of failure.
Death of the mind or body, crippling the connection between the physical and meta-physical body, disfiguring the meta-body so badly that it implodes, and blows away a significant chunk of Bainbridge. There were more ways Devin could fail than succeed.
The only saving grace was that he would have an easier time working on himself than even a supposed meta-surgeon would as it was infinitely easier to work within the bounds of ‘self’ than it was to work within ‘others’. He didn’t need a degree and years of experience to not maim himself; all he needed was knowledge and the skills to back it up.
It was the whole reason he spent the last three days studying and practicing.
The glowing tentacles of arcanium grew brighter as Devin infused it with [seize]. The limbs split into several thinner strings, carefully swimming around cracked sections to grab shards and pieces littered around the construct. [Focus] concentrated his attention to a point, allowing him to avoid numerous microscopic collisions at the cost of moving one limb at a time.
The strings pulled the white shards towards him one piece at a time, carefully and meticulously. Sweat dripped down Devin’s face as he concentrated harder than he ever had before, wringing every iota of [focus] the skill could give him.
He accumulated hundreds of shards around him, holding them in place while he gathered the others. After a while, Devin pointed his awareness at every angle around the cracked magic circle, yet he couldn’t find any more stray shards. All of them were rounded up next to him, radiating a wrathful energy.