It made sense. Pacts were a contravention of the natural order, and vivic energy fed upon things that tried to alter reality, with necroic energy and the undead only the most obvious of those.

It also made those Pacts a net loss to Hell, since it didn’t get its prizes. Thus, Hell probably hated vivus, along with most of the Lower Realms that wanted to fuck with the mortal plane.

The Void Brothers were essentially Warlocks with a very big Mandate and a very uncaring and autonomic Patron. The best way to treat them was the same way you treated anyone who did a vital but horrible job: with sympathy, empathy, goodwill, understanding, hospitality, and what help you could give them.

And.... not doing shit which would get Creation mad at you! That wasn’t hard, as Heaven as a general rule only got involved in reality-warping shit if the need was really, really great, meaning the enemy was doing the same thing. Not interfering overtly with the Material Plane was a thing, except in response to other powers trying to do the same, and stopping them.

All that was why Heaven empowered Priests, Templars, and Warlocks, so they wouldn’t have to get involved in heavy shit that could spin out of control like that. The fact the tripartite facets of Heaven worked together so much better than the other Alignments doing the same thing was certainly not their fault... and being Heavenbound didn’t force a soul to Heaven, of course. If you were Heavenbound at the moment of death, you had earned the right to be there. The Pact would only make sure that nobody else could steal your soul or claim it, and the natural forces of Creation would do the work, just like they were supposed to.

Ergo, vivus wouldn’t affect a Heavenbound Soul.

Working with the natural order, instead of trying to subvert it. He was pretty sure that the Void Brothers offed Sinbound all the time, although he hadn’t asked. Heavenbound they likely had very little to do with...

So... he shouldn’t be at cross-purposes with those Tens. Hopefully he could get a decent enough relationship that they would simply warn him to stop something before taking action, and if that was not possible, work out alternatives.

Most likely, they ignored the Alignment War as background chaff to their own necessary work of making sure the Land survived it...

Certainly Lady Traveler was unconcerned by them, and her familiarity with them and their agenda certainly had something to do with that. Too, her words had obviously struck home when she’d said they weren’t the only ones who could feel things were Wrong.

He was definitely in the place he needed to be, helping her do what she was doing, setting up foundations and changing the world with the information she was bringing here. He had literally never seen anyone earn so much money so fast, and so honestly, without using financial manipulation shenanigans.

He had never seen a person SPEND money so fast, either, without the slightest flicker of expression. The goldweight came in, and it left just as fast. It could have been water, only good for what it was good for, and worth no more attention than that.

Of course, it was helping make Gear; that was the whole impetus behind this all. Just sitting around, she had allocated a goldweight a day for his Sword and Grit each, since he wasn’t out there helping them grow with Naming Karma. It was a stupefying rate of pay. Then there was the Amulet he’d be using until his own Ward Against Death kicked in and he didn’t need it, the Swarmkiller Clasp, and the other minor, yet niche incredibly powerful Toys she was having made, all started by the noble Djinn who was rapidly becoming the most powerful Artificer in the whole world, and clearly enjoying the task and feeling of it after taking shelter for so long in Heavenbound Hall...

She was already changing the world.

She was intending to bring down the Shroud.

She intended to cut the cultivators off at the knees.

She was preparing the world for when it would emerge from underneath the Shroud, and finally be open to the worlds and planes beyond which magic had exposed it to.

She wasn’t a small thinker by any stretch of the imagination, and was fully ready to shoulder the burden of doing all that. She just had to get to the point where she could do so.

That would be his job, making sure she got there. He could do that job.

He wanted to smile confidently to himself on saying that, but he didn’t. He knew why, and it annoyed him a little bit... but then, that too passed, and he was back to his normal calm.

She had asked him once why his mood was always so steady, and he had honestly told her that hellfire had burned him badly in the past, and taken with it much of his past, and his emotional range with it.

She had asked to Deep Assay him, and he had allowed it calmly, interested in what she would make of what had been done to him.

She had drawn up a circle, and divided it into six zones of holographic light.

Love, Hate, Joy, Sorrow, Fear, Courage. Above and below lie Curiosity and Determination, reflecting how readily you grow, and how firm your positions are, the strength of your mind and willingness to go further.

She had flipped up an image of a typical person, zigzagging between different points, showing the extent and depth of the emotions they had experienced in their lives, and the effects on their personalities. He didn’t know exactly how it related to any specific person, but he got the general idea of what the chart meant. A person exposed to great fear and with it clinging to him would naturally have a personality that was more retreating, cowardly, or even craven. A person who displayed courage and was rewarded, boosted, and believed in it, would be much the same. Those who had never known great love or hate would not be ruled by those emotions, and be less swayed by them... although possibly vulnerable to them, for that lack of exposure, although even that was less likely as people became set in their ways, i.e. Curiosity waned, and rigidity of thought set in.

The image had four rings, representing core thoughts, initial growth, mature development, and extremes of exposure.

For his chart, she had burned away the outer three rings, and layered the substance thereof all into the inner ring, condensing it thicker and thicker to fit inside the smaller area.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The edges of your mind and soul have been burned by hellfire, and the elements thereof condensed among your most core beliefs. Your thoughts are Heavy, several times harder to sway and affect emotionally than normal people. It is like comparing a sea of water to a sea of quicksilver... the same force in one generates mighty waves and a tempest of emotion, and in the other raises some ripples that scarcely manifest before they fade placidly back to stillness.

She had given him a look both impressed and sympathetic. Your resilience of mind is astonishing. The emotional impacts you can withstand would likely kill a normal person outright. Your calm and steadiness is simply because something has to be almost horrifically strong in its emotional trauma to stir you at all.

But if something does get a rise out of you, it is likely going to take something considerable to disperse it. The amount of anger and shame bubbling through below the surface of your thoughts is such that you might not even really be aware of it now, but it would probably have driven any other person to suicide or self-destruction.

He remembered frowning as she said that, thinking about it. Anger, and shame. Guilt, too, he had plenty of guilt. Gnawing fear, that even the Whispers of Heaven couldn’t fully chase away, forever there because he knew he was going Down, no matter what he did, in the end.

See, you can do Good, just like Master Fred, even if it’s a Hellpact! Just sign here...

His lips twisted despite himself at the thought, which he knew was stirred up by his Hellpact just to mess with him, but nevertheless might still be true.

A selling point for Damned Hellpacts! The thought disgusted him, but he was fairly sure it was happening...

The trip to the Firezone was going to be a baptism of literal fire, but it seemed shadows and undead would be taking place first.

Sinbound...

Undead were one thing, but Warlocks and a Dark Church was something else. It would be good to have a specialist along for such things...

Master Fred pulled out his Vaccine and sent out a text. The response came back shortly.

He smiled slightly, despite himself. Another acquaintance Lady Traveler would no doubt find interesting to meet. She was already roping in The Mick... this would be a different thing entirely, but he had the very definite impression that a Shroudborn Chosen of Sylune would be flexible about such things...

-------

From Sorcerer/4 to Elemental Theurge/1. That Theurgic boost went to Wizard, boosting it to 1 (4), staying on pace.

Here was where the overeager might press forward, knowing they could make it to Nine. No reason to wait, right?

Patience, patience...

There was a ding! here, foisting upon me the Extra Druidic Domain of Desolation, the Blighter version of Winter, which basically meant Earth and Cold. +1 to Caster Level of both types of spells, increasing cold resistance, some spells designed to kill living things, yada yada...

With it came Elemental Mastery/2, Cold, letting me turn any spell with Elemental damage to Cold, weaving a greater whole out of the disparate parts.

From a science standpoint, there was no difference between hot and cold, they were all on the same scale. Getting magic, which was built around the four stages of matter, to recognize that was a little bit harder.

The primary purpose of the Elemental Theurge Class was to fuse Druidic and Arcane magic, letting me Cast spells out of one with the power of the other. Since I wasn’t going to use my Blighter Slots at all, and in fact was just going to Nog them away, that meant I could recharge/take my Druidic spells with Arcane power, completely sidestepping the need to suck power out of the Land.

Yeah, I spent a few days transcribing and Writing a lot of Druidic spells, to the astonishment and delight of the Archives here. The simple fact I could make up Arcane versions of Druidic spells that had not been made before meant more spells to be sold, more income generated...

From there, Archsorcerer/2 was picked for me the next day, doubling my Valence II Slots, and I just continued the theme and grabbed the Extra Spell Known/2 and Extra Spell Slot/2 at the same time. Base 9 Spell Slots at II was worth the delay, as my rep counts were atrocious for everything, except maybe the Write spell... and I’d been adding Sanctified Spell to that just to get a few extra rep counts off my II’s. Eesh, dumpster diving for rep counts, indeed...

Archwizard/2 was forced on me next, and both Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration for Feat and Mastery. They were all part of the same Feat/Mastery Chain, taking that to /3, and combined with the Piercing Spell Meta, would get me to +9 Spell Penetration if I needed it. If I cast it out of a higher Valence instead of buying it off, Improved Raise Spell and Fortified Spell would add +2 per Valence higher, too...

I had the feeling I was going to be going up against things with Spell Resistance. Poor them.

Battlemad/1 and Arcane Archer/1 both followed. These were combat Theurgic Classes, the classic Melee/Caster and Archer/Caster builds. Where the Caster Theurgies allowed you to boost Caster Level of the Classes they were fusing, Battlemad and Arcane Archer instead allowed you the option of +1 Melee or Ranged Attack bonus respectively instead, to a maximum of +2, the total not to exceed your character Level.

This was the backdoor method Fighter or Archer Primaries could use to exceed Six, and which the dwarves used, employing Cleric or Artificer to do so. A Fighter would use the Arcane Archer, a shooter would use the Battlemad. They’d take the opposite fighting class as secondary, after using the Theurgies to fill in the ‘holes’ of their attack bonus that occurred at One and Five, since Melees had Medium Ranged Attacks, and Archers had Medium Melee Attack. After they did so, they’d take a Melee or Archer Level, which would also fill in that empty spot at One, pop their secondary Attack Bonus to Seven, and clear the way for their Primary Class to do the same.

It was how the dwarves reached Seven, as a rule. They could also use stacking Caster Theurgies to clear the way to Eight, but hadn’t realized it was possible, since a Theurgy couldn’t promote you past your Primary Level. The idea of stacking Theurgies first, and then boosting the Class Level afterwards, hadn’t occurred to pretty much anyone...

With the Battlemad Level came two advances on the Combat Focus line, adding Combat Stability and Combat Vigor. The former was extremely useful for not being pounded into the dust and trampled on by something bigger and stronger than me, while the latter gave some in-combat healing for myself that didn’t waste actions or spell slots.

With Arcane Archer came Zen Archery, which let you add your Wisdom to your ranged attack rolls, a decent feat for an average Archer... and an awesome Feat if you had a high Wisdom score. Given that Weaponized Shards needed all the bloody bonuses to-hit that I could get, this was one sweet Feat.

Spellwarp/2 finished it out, letting me shift Valence II’s instantly to a Ray, without having to use a Meta to do so. While Spellsculpting could do it, too, the combination of the two effects gave me intrinsic and marvelous control over the process... which I was also going to exploit.

The Theurgic buffs went to Inquisitor and Minstrel. That was because I needed to get both Classes to /9 eventually, in order to get the Stat bonuses to spells from them, and they were competing with Ur-Priest and Bard for those Theurgic bonuses. Use them while I had them...

Battlemad/2 and Arcane Archer/2 finished out the Theurgies I could take. The Theurgic Level went on Ur-Priest, as I’d already used up one Mystic Theurgy to boost Wizard, not Ur-Priest, and one Elemental Theurgy to boost Wizard instead of Blighter.

Feat and Mastery for Battlemad were Touch Attack of Opportunity, letting me fast-cast a Touch Spell if someone was stupid enough to leave themselves open in range of me, and Sneak Attack/1, Sneak Attack of Opportunity, which let me apply SA damage on an AoO, just to abuse the point that you shouldn’t leave yourself open like that.

Arcane Archer was War Magic/2, Energize Spell, the standard +2 Meta that increased variable damage of a spell by 50%, giving it a nice kick, if a bit on the pricey side. With it came the first of the Sudden Metas line, the ability to add a Meta on the spot, once a day, without Valence cost.

Sudden Extend Spell wasn’t a huge thing, doubling the duration of a spell, but the later ones all had their insta-kill uses.

Tomorrow would be Sorcerer/5, and then the march to Ten Casting...