The sky washed silver in an instant, flashing clear to the horizon and beyond. The souls trapped within were pushed gently aside, and for a second, silver lightning flashed through the Shroud all around the globe. Countless millions of undead paused, and turned their heads to the sky, staring at the Light that was there, a brightness moving through the Shroud that did not belong, and told all who gazed upon it a new story.
The Light told the tale that the Shroud was not absolute. That the Shroud could be defied. That there were other Powers out there who could reach into the Shroud and let it know that it, too, was going to end. That its invincibility was a lie.
Some stared in yearning. Some quaked in fear. And others, in the darkest places, raged with hate.
---
In Detroit, everyone but me was gaping despite themselves.
Caster Level of 72. Counterspell check of +88.
I tossed in Sudden Widen and Sudden Extend at the end, because why not?
The Shroud here was working at around 40 or 41. I crashed all its resistance to the magic, swept it aside, and did so for every level of the magic that I could reach, aided by all the power of the Ritual to extend it beyond just the cloud of the Haze to everything else that could be overcome, at least for a short time.
For 144 miles in radius, the Haze was forced back and away, and the full glory of the alien sky was viewable by tens of millions of people. It would last for 144 hours; six days, day and night, and there was not a damn thing the Shroud could do about it.
We had taken the power of the darkest night of the year, conversely when Silver Magic was at its darkness-defying strongest, and set the night on fire.
The people gawked at the blazing stars, at constellations never seen before, the plays of color that had not been there in the stories, and at nebulae and other whorls in the sky that were brighter and grander than reality could be.
A galaxy of magical stars, and all their wonder.
And as they all gawked and stared, I Sent a follow-up spell out there.
This was, of course, an opportunity for me to exploit, while the Shroud above was at its weakest, and reeling from the kind of magic it totally didn’t expect to see here.
The Spell was a Sending, Raised to Seven, and punching through the greatly-weakened Divinatory Ward aspect of the Shroud.
There were things I wanted to get out there and relate to the greater universe. Alerting the gods would do no good, nor any of their Divine servants, as the Shroud would wipe anything I said away even as they received it.
Nope, I was Sending this out to Aelryinth. A VII with the spiritual resonance of me being once a part of him? No problem for the spell finding him, wherever he was. If it wasn’t for the Shroud, I’d have contacted him two months ago!
First, I was letting the doofus know that the hunks of Karma he’d hacked off himself were all viable souls on their own, with independent identities and enough Karma to fast-Level. As I was the first, I didn’t have any awareness of the others, but he certainly would!
Second, I also informed him that some Entity was pulling a fast one, likely the same one that had made Pentara aware of Terra-Luna, and was likely planning something horrible for this Shrouded world.
Third, I informed him of the incredible news that Theurgic Levels could be stacked on top of a Primary Class, as long as Faux Levels exceeded the Primary Class, and also that Racial Levels allowed an easy way to break the Barriers of Six and Ten, given Karmic Accruals, i.e., the Double Helix Method.
Fourth, and very, very importantly, I informed him of the Paradigm for instituting the Human and other Racial Classes, and the Cultivation atmosphere that had made it possible to discern. It would totally revolutionize the civilian population of Terra-Luna.
Fifth, I told him Windgraf Mochtal was here and trapped under the Shroud. His Clan would want to know he was alive, at least.
Sixth, I noted I had just Discerned the dimensional coordinates of this place and would be erecting a Pyramid Beacon before the Shroud came down, so that contact could be made to this alternate Earth I was on and Terra-Luna.
Seventh, Traits were a thing! And this was how you took them! And Archmage and Hierophant Levels, and there was probably more high-Level shit that I hadn’t run into!
Eighth, it was possible for men to be affected by Amazon Pacts... and yes, they turned into Amazons when it happened, as Master Fred had proven. The Goddesses involved would simply need to agree...
Ninth, for some bloody strange reason there was a Sama Rantha and Briggs here who had their game templates but nothing else, tied to a custom version of the Hag Curse, and with it their own custom Legendary-class Racial Class...
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Tenth, Duskstopped and Dawnstopped Spells at the same time were possible via Versatile Channeling on one person...
Eleventh, hoo-boy, I laid out the entire Magus Class, its Pool, the Pool Mastery, and the potential infinite mana loop of slaughter of Ghost-Eating Ki.
Twelfth, Craft Theurgy and using Alchemical Bombs to boost Combat Magic was totally possible, here’s how...
Thirteenth, basic Witch Arcane Bonded Rings served as spellbooks!
Fourteenth, Wishing for Hats of Difference under the Shroud was a fine workaround for allowing Outsiders to retain memories and apply their earned Karma instead of remaining stagnant!
Lastly, that I was bound to the Shroud as an Ur-Priest, what THAT could do, and would likely be sent to a new Shrouded world to start freeing that one from the Shroud when this one came down. If he could arrange for some help/company/communication somehow after that time, I would really appreciate it!
---
Naturally even a Sending at VII couldn’t contain all that information properly, which meant I had enlisted the help of Gregori to compress it.
I was exceedingly, superhumanly smart, but I was still barred from technology because it was mostly useless to me and a waste of skill points, if I was reading the Shroud correctly.
That did not mean, however, that I was unable to do Math.
Compression algorithms for data are just math, after all, and my Sending wasn’t that long. I could mentally do the math to unravel the whole thing, and so I knew Aelryinth could. So, basically I Sent it off, Incoming Compressed Message from the first of the Soulshards you cut off, doofus! Decode and read, chop-chop!
The ‘answer’ and the algorithm to unravel it were at the end.
---
As the people were stargazing on this cold and still night in awe and wonder, distant streaks began to launch themselves for the sky in the distance, arching up and out, over Lake Hudson, with men with Eagle Eyes at x50 watching them, timing them.
The missiles hit the sky where the Haze had once stopped them with its instant blasts of negative energy, hate lightning, and Doom, a combination that spelled death for anything trying to breach it, even before the spirits of the Damned came in and did for anything living stupid enough to try that.
They kept right on going. The sky was still sparkling with washes of crystal rainbow ley line threads, visual thunder on the soul, and the Shroud could not stop them.
The simplest and basic missiles were first, followed by progressively more sophisticated ones, with more tests for the various levels of technology in each.
When the first one exploded in the distant sky, a score of miles up and away, sighs went out, checkmarks were made, and the next rocket was fired off into the sky.
Cameras and telescopes were scanning the sky, clicking and assessing, and as the world turned, they were watching as new stars rose, and their positions in them.
Plans were already being made to do this at the Summer Solstice, so the other half of the sky could also be chartered and measured, and possibly at the equinoxes, too. The Ritual didn’t have to be THIS big... but if it could be, that would be pretty awesome, too...
------
I let my own presence in the event fade away, letting everyone immerse themselves in the wonder of what had been done, rather than what I had done. I discreetly removed myself from the Ritual, and those who noticed knew enough to let it slide. The Heartsingers were already starting to break out in Song, feeling the Sublime Chord as something almost tangible now, the Heartsong strumming magic like thunder on the soul, and the cold night became a thing of wonder and joy and light and defiance of the long, cold night.
I was not expecting to get an answer back as quickly as I did...
------
The Sending slid into place, wound about with so much Theurgic boosting that there was no question at all who it came from, even if the Aura of his magic had somehow changed remarkably from what I recalled.
It was still north of mine, which was not a surprise, either.
He used the same algorithm to Compress his Sending, merely changing the answer, as it were, and I unwound it with little effort, revealing the proper message as numbers converted to words and I could read the return smoothly.
Replying! &^)&*)_*(*%^_()+)@%@#$@&^(....
Ah, shit. I had no idea.
Thank you for the information, Holy Shittinski! I will make sure it gets shared at home.
I was thrown very, very, very far away from Terra-Luna, and am figuring out my way home. There must be temporal imbalances between us, as I got your Sending only a day after I arrived here. With two points of contact, this temporal imbalance will likely work itself out quickly, as I understand things.
As you know, I was being forced to redo all my Levels to cut away the Death Curse. As a result, this gives me an opportunity to learn some of the things you passed on as I go. Very convenient...
I will contact all my other soulshards and convey your information to them, of course! There are six more of you, I’m arbitrarily naming you as Einz through Zeben. It seems I am unable to contact back home yet...
I don’t have any new data to share with you. Given the nature of your entrapment, I will reserve trying to Send things to you until immediately after you contact me.
You do what you need to do with your life, you know I’ll be coming for you to help. I can’t give you any more support than what memories of mine you already have, but you already know that.
Someone replicated Sama and Briggs’ gaming templates AND suborned the Hag Curse to spread them? High-end Divine Games. I’ll be looking for them from world to world.
One recommendation on this Shroudborn Status of yours. As the Shroud is effectively a forced afterlife, the spirits within it can probably confer a Warlock Pact. I would venture that agelessness is probably the primary benefit, but also that if you die, you are going into the Shroud... and that you will be doomed to fight until the Shroud is gone.
That being said, there is probably a group of people who would be willing to do so, even if they don’t really understand what Fight Forever means. I would recommend this as a Secondary Pact to Heavenbound... and since it concerns the afterlife, I believe it might effectively double the number of Heavenbound who could fit under the Pact guidelines? Heavenbound to the Shroud... Maybe not.
I stared at the Visual File for a long moment, mind whirling.
Sometimes, you just need a view from the outside...
I couldn’t take a Warlock Pact from the Shroud, or it would have made me do it already. That was probably because if I took a Pact, I already had the remnants of a working Heaven Pact on my soul, and I would empower that first, no question.
They wanted to be Primary, and so they weren’t letting me make the Pact.
But that didn’t mean they wouldn’t let others do so! I was already Shroudborn, they had me. Getting a Shroud Pact would be a way to conscript others to fight for them.
It appeared I should go ask them, should I not?