The Phantom Servants I’d left there heaved on their strings, and the net of Glyphs of Warding on their scribed plates, accented by all the Alchemical explosives I’d been able to bind to them, surfaced all around the whiteness, with the woman in the classical gorgeous and highly impractical phoenix dress right in the middle of them.
The Earth Elemental I’d called up out of the ground and Imbued with Spell Ability cast the Stillflight Field at the same time, then receded, its task done.
She had great reflexes and tried to flit up out of the way, and quite literally got nowhere.
That makes it REALLY hard for the old Reflex save. Circumstance penalty to saves and all that.
She screamed as the bright green deluge of acid explosions hit her from all directions. She could have weathered three or four of them easily, even boosted by Alchemical bombs. But eight of them?
She was hosed. Down. Yes.
Her screams became gargles as her non-mortal flesh sloughed away, the acid too intense, too powerful, too magical. She didn’t have any skin as she started to fall, and by the time she hit the ground, she was missing so much connective tissue that her body split apart and fell in all directions. Even her gleaming bones were being pitted and corroded by the acid, far from being strong enough to deny it.
Her companions could only stare on in shock and horror, before looking around in outrage.
I dispelled the Servants out there with a fingersnap, leaving them to flail around and indiscriminately blow things up as they rapidly retreated from the area of the Stillflight Field. They happily chose a vector that let me keep them in sight, and when they finally got up into the air almost a hundred paces away, they definitely had ugly expressions on their faces.
But what could they do? They definitely didn’t have access to resurrection magic, and now the corpse and everything were burning a white that was hostile and vivid to their eyes. Even if they had soul-preserving stuff, it wasn’t going to work now... vivus had a hold on her alien spirit, and the Land was feasting as merrily as we had.
The Mick poked his head into the room. “Am I missing something important in here?” he asked grandly, incredibly smug about the simple fact that he was the first Blooded ever to walk so deeply in Heavenbound Hall.
“Got a Cultivator with the old Pandora trick.” He saw the image of the three Cultivators in the distance on Stand, turning and flying off into the brooding skies there. “Thanks, Stand.” I gave the Shield a thumbs-up as his surface turned back to its mottled format, and he shrank to Buckler size as he zipped past The Mick, who opened the door to let the Shield skim past and head back to Sama.
“They really are alive?” he asked softly, for no particular reason.
“You can do the same with Smior, you know,” I told him, and his eyes flashed slightly. “It’s a major investment in Naming Karma and/or goldweight, however, especially if you want him to be truly effective, and a true partner.”
He had Morphing on the Katana now, so it could ride easily as a Tanto at his hip, and he didn’t need to do something disrespectful like toss it over a shoulder to carry it.
“I’d need to know some particulars,” he wheedled, his trademark white grin in place.
“Of course.” I took all the fun out of his begging, and didn’t even ask for return favors or anything. He also knew that if he started keeping official track, I most certainly would, too, and lose a great deal of respect for him. Neutrals devolved non-family relationships down to gain and loss; to blend in with Good people, he basically had to treat them all like family, which was a trying thing to do for someone like him.
He was working on it, however.
“When are we going back?” he asked calmly.
“Figure eight hours. I’ll bring us back to a prior site, regain full Valences, and we’re going to drive right for the crater. Now they know we know, so I want to see what kind of fun things they think they can pull there.”
“Yer expecting something interesting?”
“If all goes well, there is going to be a massive slaughter tomorrow.” I paused a moment as I met his eyes. “I’m going to be carrying twenty Tapestry rolls.”
His mouth opened, closed. That was a lot of Tapestry rolls... each able to hold a 10x10x10 cube of Itemized stuff, basically...
“I shall prepare accordingly,” he promised.
“Shoo. Go woo the Nuavans. I know some have been eyeing the naughty Blooded they are supposed to be staying away from.”
“Och, harmless thing that I am, they need be wary of? I shall be the first to reassure them of my fine upstanding virtues!”
“As I said.” He tipped his hat at my words, and went strolling off, looking totally out of place and absolutely loving it.
He is definitely a character, Master Fred noted to me silently, in time with the automatic flaming words above his shoulder.
“Amen.” I put my feet down, and headed for the door. “Come on, there’s some Allegiance stuff I have to be putting in personal appearances for, and the Graf and the Angelos want to chat some, too...”
------------
The news that the Angelos could also Raise people from the dead now, and was only getting stronger, had set off quiet waves, just like how Graf Mochtal’s Artificing abilities had abruptly exploded and were setting off a revolution of high QL Gear that could not be made before. Between the two of them, more high QL stuff than the Hall had ever seen before had been made in the last month, and the supply of it was only increasing.
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One reason they were tolerating The Mick so much was because of the Energized gemstones that I’d been Teleporting to the Hall every single day, different size rocks Energized to different Elements and Levels.
Basically, every single one was the equivalent of a Craft-Coin, a store of Crafted value, precut in dazzling fashion, obviously worked on, intrinsic value tripled and even Aligned to a specific Element, and completely capable of being used to make magic items from the get-go.
I’d sent over hundreds of the rocks by now. Yeah, it was a lot of Energizes Raised between Valences, getting lots of counts on those things, but it was also a flood of money... and, as it turned out, the Graf and the Angelos could do the exact same things with the stones I sent them, they only needed more cut stones.
Wealth, power, knowledge, followers. There had been a massive shift of power in Heavenbound Hall, and the Council was having a tough time adapting to it in some ways. Authority was clearly shifting over to me, just based on what I was doing and directing others to accomplish, and there looked to be no stopping me.
Which was entirely the idea, of course. I didn’t want to be stopped; I wanted to pick them up and carry them along with me into a brighter future.
Pretty much would have to, really, because odds were I wasn’t going to be around in the future to help them, so I had to make sure they were strong here and now.
----------
The Council was looking both grim and chagrinned as they stared at me standing there up in front. They looked like they wanted to unleash a lot of recriminations upon me, and it was just stalling in their throats as they looked at me.
I was rocking some very impressive Diplomacy and Intimidate numbers just standing there, and while I didn’t consider a Charisma of 23 all that impressive, it was still World-class.
Also, there was an Aura coming off me that was raising all their hackles. None of them had ever felt an Aura that strong coming off a mortal.
My Allegiance naturally knew I’d become a Faux Ten some time ago, but it was different for the Councilors who had wanted to see me so urgently.
“I was led to believe that the honorable Councilors had some questions for me. Moonsister, would you care to start?” I asked Councilor Seleisa, who looked like she couldn’t believe what her eyes were telling her.
“What, what Level have you risen to?” she blurted out in disbelief.
“I am merely a Six Sorceress,” I replied calmly to her, and while they all wondered what I was trying to pull, I continued, “I am, however, following the full Helix method, and a Faux Ten Wizardess. At dusk, I expect to become a Faux Eleven.”
They were all staring even harder now. Of course, none of them were above Eight, the Moonsister being the highest, and the humans and hyn were all Faux Sevens.
I was openly stating it was a false Eleven, but that was still simply beyond them.
“Eleven,” she repeated, staring at me in disbelief... and a spark of hunger. “So, the Helix method actually works...”
“Yes. You could easily be a Faux Twelve now, if you had known,” I replied calmly. My eyes flicked to the rest of them. “Master Polneibo? Do you have a question?”
He closed his drooping jaw, harrumphed, coughed, and visibly had to refocus. “Ahem! Ah, um, the Council has noticed that you have begun recruiting people to work for you...”
“You are referring to my Allegiance.” It wasn’t a secret... the Banner was right there in the courtyard behind Sylune’s temple, forty feet high now, glowing and shining with a jetsilver moon on a golden field. “Yes, I have been recruiting people to work for me. I have secured a fairly reliable source of income to do what needs to be done, and am setting up an infrastructure to start increasing operations.”
They all looked at one another. It was Elder Hruunkrov who took the initiative to get to his feet and address me solemnly. “Lass, we are not filled in on your objectives and reasons for these moves. From outside, this looks like the beginnings of a power grab, and Heavenbound Hall is not here to be under the direction of any one force.”
“That does not mean that it cannot be under the direction of one individual, Elder,” I replied calmly, and they all froze.
“Such tension!” Undeterred, I looked over them all. “I will freely admit that I am building a power base, and one of my goals is taking over Heavenbound Hall as a minor goal in doing so.” They all blinked at being referred to as a minor goal. “My eyes are on a very, very large goal, Councilors, and Heavenbound Hall’s goals are small things before them. I need to redirect the Hall’s direction from a self-sustaining protective mindset, into something proactive, and with the power to BE proactive.
“I gave the Angelos and the Graf the power they need to truly change the balance of power, not so they could go out and hunt their rivals on this world down, but to build the foundation to support the force of Good on this world entire to take down the great threats to this world, both before the Shroud falls and afterwards.”
The dwarven Priest stared at me solemnly, pondering my words, and slowly sat down, before the astonished eyes of everyone else. “Continue,” was all he said.
“Heaven has but one King of Kings. Good embraces its diversity, but it always has a center, so that when it is time, Good can unite around one vision, one leader, and follow one road to victory.
“Sometimes that road is Silver. Sometimes it is Rainbow, and sometimes it stays Gold. The mere fact that the road can be multiple colors is the single greatest strength of the Heavens, for they can stand opposite demons with the Silver, and tomorrow Hell faces the Rainbow. One never knows what one will face when one opposes Heaven, unlike Axiom... but Heaven still stands united!
“A Council cannot and will not get done what needs to be done here. It needs a single aim and vision at the core, building towards a common goal. When those goals are met, when that single vision needs all the unity the Good can give it, the Council will be there again, to direct the Good in a thousand directions and places and uses and deeds... but this is not that time.
“The Good upon this world need to be united, and it will start with Heavenbound Hall, and with me.”
The whole Council was silent, in both disbelief, and realization that something momentous was happening here. It was hanging in the air, power swirling around this moment.
It was not my Destiny, but it was theirs!
=================
Author's Note:
Permanent Spells: Cast at a Minimum of 30. All are at least Raised to Valence V. Comp Languages: used to accelerate Polyglot to practically instantaneous. Works on writing, too. Arcane Sight: Powerful Detect Magic to 240, Automatically get Spellcraft checks to ID all auras Aura Sight 120' range visual aura sight, stacks with the Eyes of Heaven Darkvision: Greater Version has +120 range extension. Enchantment Sight: Auto See things under Enchantments, ID the effect. See Invisibility: To the edge of visible sight, includes ethereal. V Version allows seeing into the Ethereal Plane. Lipreader's Sight: Read Lips perfectly Tongues Understand all languages being spoken; speak any one language at a time; accelerates Polyglot Sense of the Dragon Blindsense to 60' Greater Blindsight 60' radius Low Light Vision Stacks with racial sight Scent 30' range Eagle Vision Max to x50 visual range for visible light Phantom Servant always a servant around... Prot/Normal Missile Immune to non-magic missiles, -1/die from magical or large missiles Protection From Evil Always up, all the time! Greater Magic Fang +5 Th/Dmg with all unarmed strikes.