Bone Marrow didn’t have a front seat divider, so it fit three people across easily. We headed on down the road, the gathered evidence tagged and noted to be returned to Heavenbound Hall or set up in a fund for the Forsaken Compound that was already starting to be planned there quietly. The relatives of the dead naturally wanted all the proceeds from the sale of the Gear of the dead, but a great amount of it seemed to have gone missing, and Bone Marrow’s trunk was just a little bit heavier.

Still had to burn loot to improve our Gear, after all, and someone had to pay for it.

We drove on down the highway for an hour, hitting El Dorado and ignoring all the traffic media and military going the opposite way. It was a disaster, but everything was over but the consolation, and that was certainly something we didn’t need to help with.

Especially with our loot in the boot.

It was about noon before Briggs came up in the van, meeting us in the parking lot of the auto dealer who’d been happy to sell an overpriced Draco-class surplus military vehicle that got maybe ten miles to the gallon to Sama. It was big enough to fit even Briggs, and the two of them swung into it together, looking oddly like a newlywed couple as they gunned out and went rumbling off at speed, on their way to administer some newly-minted vengeance.

His Aruan Shooters were left with me. They were perfectly willing to go with him, of course, but there was the matter of their dead friend, and the siren call of Seven if they accompanied me on a Good Deed.

They were on this trip to make a boatload of Karma, as owners of some of the very few vivic Weapons in the land. Also, this was a way for them to prove themselves to themselves. They could do this!

There was a lot of ‘new intelligence’ coming in, thoughtfully being supplied via Shvaughn, which was leading to this and that name and party and location and personages and events that had happened now explained, with who had done what and how. Master Fred had relayed it all on while he and Shvaughn waited for morning Renewal, and she could shift her Pacts and wipe the Signs away once more.

She had also changed her face, and now was a rather grim-looking, still attractive Amazon with browned skin, black hair, and the golden-crystal eyes of an Earthbound Warlock called Topaz, who also turned out to have a reliable reputation as a Warlock-hunter. I just smirked knowingly, and considered that she could also pop up as a certain Lawbound not listed among the dead at the Hermitage Massacre if it was useful to her.

Father Bower agreed to ride with the Aruan shooters, the body of their buddy Itemized and ready to be brought back in a few days. They still couldn’t really believe I could do it, but I was so casual about the fact that I’d be able to do so they couldn’t not believe it, either.

Helix and Sir Pellier rode in the back of Bone Marrow, The Mick drove, while our new Topaz rode with Master Fred. It was clearly apparent that she wasn’t a Good person, and I didn’t want to inflict her on our Paladin; he agreed he’d be uncomfortable with her there. Master Fred seemed to have no problem tolerating her, and by the way she was dozing against his backside, it was mutual.

I just shook my head at her antics, but Master Fred had brought her along for a reason, and after watching her perform, it was plenty obvious that she was very good at what she did. A Warlock Grandmaster, indeed...

The Mick was a bit put off that he couldn’t monopolize my time with more discussions of Blood Magic, but actually, both of his other passengers were Casters of a sort, and while The Mick wasn’t even a nice guy, he wasn’t judgmental of the enthusiastically naïve Helix or the stern Paladin. They had their things to do, he had his; I was the friend of a friend, now one of his teachers, and he paid his obligations back.

That was good enough for Sir Pellier, especially since he saw it was good enough for me. Helix was a bit afraid of him, of course, The Mick saw it, and only used it a little bit.

It was another long day of travel, especially given as we’d been set back by half a day after the events of last evening, but nobody much complained. We’d kicked in the Imprusar’s teeth but good, and we’d lived through an Apocalypse Swarm that could’ve eaten a major city to the ground, or even eaten its way through an undead horde (which just would’ve returned the next day, but still).

It could have killed the whole world, leaving nothing but undead behind, forever being eaten and reborn, trapped in their Shroudzones for eternity...

------

The day passed with three rest stops, and we made it down to the border in the afternoon.

“Your business?” the half-bored, half-interested guard on duty asked, taking the ID’s we had provided him. He looked over the pale-skinned, dark-haired people in the rather exceptional car, and then noted the amendments to the passports.

His expression got very careful suddenly. The Mick smiled as his name popped up on the man’s register as someone tied to violent incidents of various sorts, and the law was watching him.

In Mexico, not so much.

“Family business,” The Mick replied with great sincerity.

The border guard looked at the other three people, noted sparks on the end of the slender young man’s fingertips, and the other man had that grim stare that comes when you put too many people in the ground.

“Have a nice trip!” he waved them on, handing back their passports. Whoever these Blooded wanted to deal with, as long as it was in Mexico, it was fine with him!

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

Considerably less well-funded, the Mexican side of the border just waved them through, the guard looking enviously after Bone Marrow as The Mick pulled away.

The Prestidigitation coloration effects would fade off within the hour. We all looked related at the moment, especially once I hid my ears, and I was wearing shades for that goth uncaring bitch effect. “Did I make a good vampire wannabe?” Helix asked with a wide grin. He’d even lengthened his canines, just in case.

“Aren’t too many of us use lightning magic, but I doubt he knows that,” The Mick replied calmly, and Helix’s lips pursed at the mistake.

“It was fine. Actually, just subtle enough to make him realize he didn’t want to ask too much. Blooded Casters have a fine reputation for not putting up with idiots who make things difficult for them,” I noted for Helix, who looked relieved at the bailout.

“This is true,” The Mick agreed, as he pulled onto the highway heading south. He was paying close attention to the road, as the roads in Mexico were infamous for sudden potholes. The Mick claimed a Shaman once told him that the chupacabras hated the roads, and so dug up holes in them just to mess with people.

As people generally shot the blood-sucking creatures on sight, I supposed it was a fair trade. As the creatures didn’t eat and scatter the bodies of those they killed, and their bloodsucking attracted a lot of negative energy, the Withered slain by them were a constant source of undead in these lands.

Sir Pellier was tapping on his phone. “Father Bower is five minutes behind us, the Warlocks are waiting near the first interchange ahead of us.”

“Just keep going. Have them speed up to catch up to us,” I noted.

The Mexican Pyramid Shroudzone beckoned, far on the horizon ahead of us.

But tonight... I would reach virtua Wizard/6. That was very, very important.

------

We pulled over just before Dusk Renewal, a couple hundred miles closer to our goal. We had detoured a bit east to Tampico, as ‘Topaz’ had recommended a couple places to eat there, and nobody except The Mick had been down here before.

La Chiffone’s was the place Topaz recommended, serving the traditional Tampico seafood, steak, and refried beans, the ‘la brada’ sandwich it had helped make famous, and of course lots of crabs, the semi-mascot of the city. Everyone had to try at least three shots of tequila, too, which Topaz also recommended; she and The Mick expanded that to an even dozen brands, which they promptly got into a rating discussion about.

The Mick soberly pulled out a small notebook from inside his white jacket, and wrote down all the names of the brands and their ratings therein. He impressed the wait staff mightily, as someone wearing all white down here, and a full suit, definitely had to be a bigwig, and we all looked mostly like his hangers-on... which everyone played into as a nice diversion. I’d Cantrip’d my hair to a neutral brown, so nobody was looking at me much. Helix set his hair to white and got more attention for that than I did.

I got up as the Dusk Renewal was hitting. Our table out on the balcony was overlooking the Panuco River that ran through the city as its lifeblood. The sun was red-grey in the west, with a hungry black smear you could just see if you knew what to look for to the south.

If we continued after dusk, we’d reach the Shroudzone before midnight. There wouldn’t be much traffic, as Mexicans knew better than to drive at night, especially towards a Shroudzone that didn’t have any walls on it. Undead for a couple hundred miles around were always stumbling towards it, only getting diverted if they saw something living to kill. While people were generally happy to hack down or shoot down undead during the day, the utter black of the nights made that a far more dangerous proposition. Closed windows, ready lights in the house, fences, and paths of travel that were actually designed to encourage stray undead passing by to keep right on going were the rule here.

The Mexican Army did try to intercept any walkers before they could reach the Shroudzone, but some still got through. The Shroudzone had expanded at least a mile or two since it had first formed...

“...where rest the weary, and dream of the wind at dawn...” I finished singing softly, and waited that breath as my magical day kicked over.

Nothing?... Cowabunga!

Wizard/2! I watched my Matrix true-evolve to a Wizard/2, and false-evolve to a Wizard/6. The Favored Class Hit Point planted itself in my Soak...

Swap Signature Spell/Shards for Arcane Thesis/Shards!

Purchased Fe-DING!

Shit!

Purchased Mastery, Battle Magic/3, Chain Spell!

What the hell had it given me...

Arcane Secret, Offense is Defense: You gain temporary Soak for one hour equal to the number of dice of a Cast Evocation spell (non-stacking).

Okay, that was truly giving me some additional protection when I started Casting, even if it was only a couple points if I used Darts...

The swapped Signature Spell for Arcane Thesis, though, that was the huge thing...

The Shards Engram in my Matrix was now festooned with crystalline patterns. Two of those, on either end, were from my Traits. But the others were basically nodules of connection for any and every Metamagic Feat I could dare to layer onto my Shard-class Spells.

Arcane Thesis: +2 to Caster Level of chosen spell, -1 to costs of ALL Metas attached to it, to a minimum of 0.

All my +1 Metas, importantly including most of my five Holy Metas, now cost nothing when attached to my Shards!

I could attach two +2’s, or a +3, for no cost, too. Like, Split Ray and Energize Spell, for a +200% damage increase, or the new Chain Spell.

Chain Spell turned a single-target spell into an arcing monstrosity of additional effects or damage. If those were purely effects, it was known as Mass Spell, affecting a number of targets or objects, generally with buffing spells or healing.

If damage, it would arc to secondary targets within ten meters, zigzagging between them, doing half the damage it did to the primary target, with a Reflex save for no damage that would end the jumping. It would do up to one jump per Caster Level, to a maximum of twenty additional targets!

With Delimit, that limit was +5, to twenty-five!

With Vast Spell, the jumping range was twenty meters!

Very importantly, Kickers to a spell, the add-on dice, were conveyed at full damage, not half!

Which meant that the Holy Metas, whose effects could apply to Sanctified Spell or to the base spell, could be carried at full strength to successive targets!

That meant Blessed’s +die size, Purified’s +50%, and Consecrated’s Max damage against Evil of Sanctified turned it from +3d6 damage to 36 damage against Undead and Fiends, merely 27 against Evil creatures.

To that was added +2d6 from Banespell, +d6 from Vivic, and +d6 from Clavus’ noquar cap. The base damage of the spell almost didn’t matter, because the average damage from the kickers was ~+50 on its own, which was enough to kill the lowest tiers of undead all by itself!

If I used a Shardray, of course the damage would be monstrous, and I could be assured of wiping 21+ lesser targets a Cast. But, that wasn’t the plan.

The plan was to Chain per Shard...

With twelve Shards, and if my Caster Level hit 25, x26 hits, that was over three hundred potential kills per Casting. I just had to get the Save number high enough to make it hard for them to avoid the arcs... It was currently 26, but there were ways to raise it yet further, just taking more time, more Feats...

This was the start of Ubah Powah for a Shardcaster!