Mage Tank

Chapter 232: Surgery Prep

Xim, Grotto, and Throne fucked off to the Third Layer and I wished the Xor’Drel tribe all the best in dealing with that trio. Xim would do some research on how to manage the flow of Divine energy on a vastly greater scale than she was normally capable of, while Grotto and Throne talked to Sam’lia about… something. I wasn’t sure what the Core wanted with the motherly deity, but it probably wasn’t anything good. Sam’lia would hopefully also provide Xim with some guidance, or at least shut the cleric’s idea down if it was guaranteed to kill us.

Before the group left I gave Xim a handmade card to deliver to the goddess on my behalf, letting the deity know how things had been going in my life. I drew anthropomorphic blood droplets on the front with goofy smiling faces. Sam’lia enjoyed little personalized gifts like that.

The remaining Closetlanders would work on Nuralie’s soul poison, a surprisingly straightforward affair consisting of two major steps. Creating the base poison, and then infusing that poison into a Divine scalpel.

The strength of Nuralie’s Spiritual toxin was based on the strength of her soul and enhanced by her Alchemy skill. When Nuralie created the soul toxin used against Orexis, she bypassed this hurdle by having Fortune break off a tiny piece of his own soul and wrap Nuralie up in it. When Nuralie created the anti-Orexis poison, she imbued it with that fragment of Fortune–rather than her own soul–which created a substance that she then fused with a bundle of Madrin arrows, thus creating the Fuck Orexis in Particular arrows. Those arrows could only harm Orexis, but they were effective enough at weakening his specter for us to kick its ass.

For the current experiment, Fortune wasn’t around to let us borrow another cup of soul juice, so we planned to use another workaround. Etja would channel the fragment of Hysteria she held within her, and then wrap Nuralie in her soul, allowing the spiritual toxin to draw from the avatar-empowered mage rather than Nuralie.

This almost certainly wouldn’t result in the same level of boost that Nuralie had gotten from Fortune, but Nuralie had substantially better stats and skills than she’d had last time, and the materials available to us were significantly better than what she’d had in The Cage. Back then she was working with the equivalent of a janitor’s closet worth of cleaning products and mixing it together using a trailer house meth lab. Nowadays we had the best alchemical products Eschendur had to offer and access to industrial-grade equipment.

Nuralie used her Inquisitor rank to requisition a full team of experienced alchemists and priests to consult on the job, and we went ahead and purchased the supplies necessary to build Nuralie a comprehensive alchemy lab in the Closet. This would have normally taken months to set up, but we used the incredible power of money to get it all done in under a week.

Nuralie went into the lab with a chest full of Poison Essences, a hundred pounds of rare reagents, three diamond chips, and the remaining Orexis arrows. She didn’t emerge for four days, after which she slept for twenty-four hours and reported that her work in creating the base poison had been successful.

Step one done, easy peasy.

“The biggest problem is that when I use it, I’m not really me anymore,” she said. “My thoughts get all hazy and all I wanna do is consume stuff. Aside from that, it’s really hard on my mana matrix, so if I use it for too long it’ll probably kill me. Oh, it also feels like I’m kind of channeling Hysteria, and I get this really strong urge to play pranks on people. But not fun pranks. Pranks like tricking somebody into eating a cake made from their friend’s face or something.”

“That does sound worrying,” I replied.

“I’ve been trying to incorporate the fragment better,” she said. “I can eat away at the edges and it’s making my unique intrinsic skills go up really fast, but I’ve barely made a dent in the thing.”

“Is using it to go super Etja for this alchemy stuff going to be a problem?”

“I think I can handle it,” she said. “I’ve recovered from the last time I used it, and I picked all my new evolutions to help with something like this. My command over my mana is way stronger, my focus and willpower get a big boost while I’m using my Mirtasian Cadence, and I can learn how to resist anything I’ve used Incorporate on.”

She looked over and met my eyes. “Even with all of that,” she continued, “I also think you should be using Reveal on me the whole time, focusing on how you see me. The normal me, that is. It’ll probably help keep me from losing myself in the rush.”

I agreed, and we spent some time exchanging tips on mana shaping before the big event.

Creating the finished product was pretty dramatic. Varrin was there for moral support and to try and help contain Etja if anything went wrong. The mage spent several minutes performing her Mirtasian Cadence, her body flowing to a perfect rhythm as she hummed, sinking herself deep into a trance-like state. Her skin began to glow with a rainbow sheen, and the mana rolling off her grew in intensity until it was enough to make me uncomfortable.

The room Nuralie had set up was built to isolate itself from the Dimensional mana in the Closet. It would contain the specific mana types Nuralie was trying to imbue into her products, which in this case were Spiritual and Divine. Etja’s presence filled the chamber, while Nuralie had sanctified bones smoldering in braziers throughout the room. She assured me that whoever had donated the bones had done so voluntarily, and instructed me to ignore the haunting whispers.

I might have been able to do that if they’d been the only things whispering weird shit into my brain. Nuralie poured a generous helping of Abbandium into her main cauldron, which lowered everyone’s Spiritual defenses and opened us up to whatever eldritch entity used the strange metal to communicate.

Nuralie was using some of the Abbandium material to create the final product, which would be a set of very tiny scalpels for Varrin to use. Abbandium’s natural ability to lower Spiritual defense made for an excellent tool when cutting through someone’s soul.

I asked why we weren’t going for needles, which would presumably do a lot less harm, to which Varrin reminded me he was a Blades prodigy, not a Needles prodigy. It didn’t really matter that much in the end, since Abbandium items could transform at will. If we happened across a master of acupuncture, we could change the tools to suit them without trouble.

Nuralie deposited the base liquid she’d spent days creating without rest, which further filled the room with poisonous fumes. She opened the Grimoire, and the following hour was filled with chanting, bursts of infernal fire coming from somewhere I couldn’t identify, Nuralie stirring, prodding, seasoning, and even tasting the shit in her cauldron, all while Etja had her in a firm soul hug and channeled heaps of Divine energy into the brew.

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My Sage Advice evolution activated three different times during the process, burning all of my charges and giving Nuralie a massive boost to her Alchemy skill throughout. I was pretty sure one of the spirits in the sanctified bones possessed me while I doled out this alchemical wisdom because I had no idea what the fuck I was talking about and couldn’t remember three-fourths of it afterward.

At the end of the hour, I spent several minutes guiding Etja back down from her avatar-ness using a more forceful application of Reveal than I’d been maintaining during the crafting process. She came out of it no worse for wear, but I decided there and then that this ‘ability’ wasn’t something that should ever be used in an uncontrolled environment. We’d gotten lucky when she’d used it against Hysteria, but I wasn’t sure any of us had an answer if she lost control of herself while transformed.

It made me a bit nervous about having that power running through me. What would Hysteria-Arlo want to do if I couldn’t handle the power? Would I tell some shitty jokes, or would I call up the Dread Star and ask it for a joke that would kill anyone who heard it, and then work out how to use Grotto’s PSA evolution to psychically broadcast that joke into the heads of anyone I’d ever met and didn’t like?

I’d rather not find out what I was like with zero impulse control.

Regardless, the experiment was a success, and we got something that would need to be cast into oblivion once we were done with it.

Abbandium Scalpel of Spiritual Necrosis

All damage dealt by this item is converted to Spectral damage.

This item will affect incorporeal entities as though they were not incorporeal.

This item ignores Deific damage reduction.

Whenever this item deals damage to an entity, it is afflicted with Spiritual Necrosis. Spiritual Necrosis will rapidly destroy the affected portion of the soul.

The effects of Spiritual Necrosis will vary based on the specific region of the soul destroyed but can include the debuffs Berserk, Blinded, Deafened, Drained, Exhausted, Feared, Paralyzed, Paranoid, Psychosis, Stunned, Stupefied, Weakened, and Unconscious. This may also result in limited amnesia, temporary personality changes, mood swings, depression, confusion, or other serious adverse mental health effects.

Severe Spiritual Necrosis can lead to Spiritual Untethering. Spiritual Untethering occurs when the soul suffers significant disruption and is no longer capable of maintaining a tether to the physical body. Spiritual Untethering is in all cases fatal.

Based on the crafter’s skill, this item has been granted 2 Divinity Bonuses.

Chosen Divinity Bonuses:

Soul Death: This item ignores all Spiritual DR, resistance, and immunity. So long as the target has a soul, this scalpel can cut it. All Spiritual attacks against the wielder of this item have Penetration.

Soul Surgeon: The wielder of this item has an acute understanding of the health and wellness of any soul this item has harmed.

This is a semi-Fleeting item and will degrade after multiple uses. Number of uses available: 95

The process had resulted in three of the scalpels, which gave us more than enough uses to hit each member of the party thirty-six times.

“Maybe we should try and figure something else out,” I said after reading the item’s description.

“Ninety-five is an oddly specific number,” said Varrin.

“It is the sum of my Intelligence plus my Alchemy skill,” said Nuralie. “The arrows only had a single use, so this is an acceptable improvement.” Pause. “But I would prefer to be able to make something permanent.”

Varrin held up one of the tiny blades and peered at its edge. It looked comically small in his giant hands. “Could you make a larger blade using this process? The effects are extraordinary, but the weapon’s size allows for very little damage.”

“You’re asking for a sword that should be classified as a war crime,” I said.

“It would take a great deal more resources,” said Nuralie. “And power. The effects are potent because the item is not meant to cause much harm. Each scalpel required a diamond chip in addition to everything else. A dagger would likely require multiple sapphire chips and an order of magnitude more Divine energy. Even if I had the materials, it is beyond my capabilities.”

I raised an eyebrow at that price tag. Sapphire was the seldom-discussed chip grade between diamond and a void sphere. They could only be found in high-level Platinum Delves, and the number of crafters with the skill to use them was in the single digits. They were a currency of the elite’s elite.

Varrin grunted as he carefully laid the scalpel back down. “That is a high cost for something with limited uses.”

*****

We didn’t have to wait long for Xim to return alongside our Delve Core pals. Throne was in an unusually subdued mood on returning, while Grotto seemed unaffected by whatever chat they’d had with the goddess.

Xim pulled a small wrapped package from her inventory and handed it to me.

“Sam’lia said thanks for the letter,” she said.

I tore the wrapping off the package and pulled out a bottle of amber liquid. I uncorked it and gave it a sniff, then inspected it.

Sam’lia’s Apple Juice

Apple Juice made by the Goddess of the Seven Organs.

The second-best juice you’ve ever had.

“Huh,” I said, grinning. “Much appreciated. Did you get what you needed?”

“Yes?” she said.

“Okay, that one’s definitely a question and not a statement.”

“I can keep the energy from killing you,” she said. “I think. But it’ll be up to you to direct it into your Revelation of the Eye’s Sight.”

“Right. How do I do that?”@@novelbin@@

“You’ve been using your Soul-Sight non-stop for months now.”

“I have.”

“And you’ve been working it really hard lately, digging into everyone’s souls.”

“That is accurate.”

“Do you feel like you’re on the cusp of learning a new fundamental truth about reality?”

“I mean, I’ve learned several fundamental truths about my closest allies.”

Xim let out a small sigh. “I’m really asking,” she said. “If the revelation is on the cusp of advancing, then you might be able to direct the energy without even thinking about it. You’ve tilled and seeded the soil of your comprehension and we’ll be handing you a thunderstorm. I can keep the winds from destroying your field, but you’ll need to direct the rain.”

I thought back on my weeks of practice. It didn’t feel like some sudden burst of understanding was trying to jump out at me, but I had learned quite a lot of new information about souls. It was possible that all of that new data would synthesize into an unexpected realization, but I wasn’t sure if that was something I’d feel coming along ahead of time.

“I’ll make it work,” I said. “I’ve been using my Soul-Sight so much that I can drop into a flow state pretty easily. Maybe that’s not what you mean about being on the cusp of something new, but maybe that’s what it means for me.”

“Good enough,” she said. “So when are we doing this?”

I glanced around at the group. “Does right fuckin’ now work for everyone?” My question was met by unanimous and eager assent.

“Who will I be slicing first?” asked Varrin.

“Me,” I said. “Will you be referring to it as slicing throughout?”

“It is what it is,” he said. “Why are you going first?”

“The whole reason we need to juice my Sight with avatar soul is so that I can see the shit that’s keeping me from seeing the shit. If my shit is eliminated, then I won’t need to keep getting injected with the Hysteria fragment to see everyone else’s shit.”

“Makes sense,” said Xim.

“You are also the least likely to die,” said Nuralie.

“That’s an additional consideration,” I said. “Either way, first thing’s first. Gotta get an elder god to do a little remodeling in my metaphysical self.”

I opened my Dimensional Magic evolutions and accepted Heavenly Gates.