As we begin our journey, I realize that my boots of the traveler make me infinitely faster than Winter and Julius, so I am forced to not use their full power. After going so fast for so long it makes me feel anxious going this slow.
After about half a day of walking, we come across a dirt road and decide to follow it. This part of the savanna not only has the strange elephant organisms from before, but also several other eerily familiar life forms. Eventually, we come across a fork in the road. Before we can decide which way to go, about 5 men in black attire jump out from a patch of tall grass behind us and surround us.
"Yer surrounded! Drop your weapons and give us all yer coin!" Says one of the thieves. I look to Winter. With a nod of understanding, he grabs the bandit and rips him in half over his head. The others run away, screaming with fear. How comical. We decide to take the path leading to the north.
At sundown, we set up camp under a tall tree. Winter and I don’t need rest, but Julius does. "Guard her as she sleeps." Winter’s mechanical eyes flash red once again, indicating the command was processed. Throughout the night, I tinker with new materials and the creation of spell foci. If my observations are correct, time is constantly kept flowing forwards by Tempus (Time) Essentia in the atmosphere constantly flowing in a clockwise motion. Jamming this rotation with a large concentration of vis should be able to stop time completely in a large radius around me, and given my body constantly emanates flux, it should allow me to move in stopped time. I inscribe an inert pearl I brought with me with various thaumaturgical runes and dip it in various alchemical Essentia jars I brought with me. After about an hour of experimentation… eureka.
At sunrise, I wake up Julius and we continue on our path. "It’s very pretty," says Julius. "I never got a chance to go to Africa or anywhere similar during my lifetime…" She sighs in regret.
"Sorry." As we travel in search of civilization, I suddenly hear the pounding of hooves in the distance. There’s about 40 men on horses coming straight at us. They stop about 100 feet from us. They wear the same black attire as the bandits.
"You’re fucked now!" Shouts one of them. "We’ll get revenge on you bastards for Ol’ Benny!" Thank you. Now I can try out this new spell focus.
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I gesture for Winter and Julius to get far away. "Come at me, then." They grin, revealing almost all of them are missing a few teeth. They laugh and charge at me all at once. I place the spell focus in my gauntlet and smirk under my mask. I throw my arms up in a dramatic gesture and yell, "The world stands still!" I’ve always wanted to do that. In an instant, a 100-foot sphere around me loses saturation and stops moving. The bandits are frozen in their angry expressions, their spears sitting stuck in place inches away from my face. "Even time bends to my will!" One by one, I take each bandit’s weapon and stab them with it. They’re unaware of their own deaths. After about 2 minutes, the area regains its color and slowly starts moving again. All the bandits simultaneously scream in pain and fall off of their horses.
Winter and Julius, having escaped the range of the spell as I instructed them to, stand gawking at the feat of magic. "Well then. Let us continue."
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As we walk along the dirt path, I can finally see something resembling housing in the distance, although they’re only tipis. As we approach, several tan figures emerge and run up to us. "Turn back now! This land is the sacred property of the Ulberch tribe! We are protected by treaty!" Says a woman that wears the headdress of an animal I am not familiar with.
"Relax. We are not here to harm anyone. In fact, we’re not associated with any kingdom that would wish harm unto you." She looks skeptical.
"How can we tell you’re telling us the truth?" She asks. A fair question.
"You can’t. But take my word for it, if my intention was to destroy this tribe it would already be done. I wish you no harm." I take my primal cutter off of my hip and throw it away. I then put the woman’s spear up to my throat. "If you don’t believe me, then kill me." I can feel the shock and caution coming from everyone surrounding us. After a moment, the woman begins laughing and puts her spear down. The other tribesmen follow suit.
"You’re one crazy son of a bitch. I apologize for our rudeness, but please understand we’ve had many parties come out here to threaten our way of life and our divine beast." Her words intrigue me.
"You said divine beast? I thought there was only one god in this world." She nods.
"There is… well there was a god, but it recently went silent. We don’t know why." My bad.
"Take me to this divine beast."