Mage Tank

Chapter 233: Gatekeeping

After accepting the Heavenly Gates evolution, the world went black.

Not entirely unexpected.

I felt a tugging in my chest, like someone had applied a local anesthetic and was opening me up. A presence washed over me, a shadow seen through closed eyes. A jolt of static pulsed through my veins as a connection was made. Minutes passed while I felt these strange sensations.

I was taken by emotions that weren’t my own. I bent a rule to enforce a rule that had been broken, but made the change as the one who makes the rules. The exception was accepted.

I did as I wished, but would not do what was never wished for. A fraction of this cycle had been marked by invasion into my realm. A threshold had been reached. A subject was chosen and the offer made. Acceptance collapses alternatives.

His will shall be my own, and my will shall be as his.

I opened my eyes to see everyone looking at me.

“Well?” said Xim.

“Hmm?”

“I, uh, I did.”

“Really?” she said. “I thought you’d disappear or the walls would turn into galaxies and try to talk to us or something.” She crossed her arms. “Kind of a letdown.”

“How long was I standing here?” I asked.

“In what regard?” said Varrin. “You said ‘Gotta get an elder god to do a little remodeling’, looked at us for a few seconds, and then Xim asked if you were going to get on with it.”

“Oh,” I said. “Well, I experienced some emotional blending in the void for several minutes during those three seconds.”

I gave the crew a rundown, then did a bit of soul-diving on myself. I couldn’t find any obvious changes. So I decided to test some magic.

I used Shortcut. Normally, a lightning-quick tear would form in space ahead of me, shunting me through to my destination. Now, there was no obvious effect of any kind. I wanted to be somewhere else, and there I was.

The upgraded Reckless version of the spell normally came with a crackling sound that grew in intensity the farther I teleported. I checked the skill’s description and found several changes.

Dreadful Shortcut

Dimensional - Deific

Cost: 5 mana

Cooldown: Variable

Requirements: Dimensional Magic 40, Sacrament of the Dread Star

Pass through the void and teleport to a place you can see within a number of feet equal to 500 times your Dimensional Magic skill level. This skill’s cooldown is based on the distance traveled, with a minimum cooldown of 1 second if the distance is less than or equal to 5 times your Dimensional Magic skill level in feet, up to a cooldown of 1 hour when traveling the maximum distance.

Sacrament of the Dread Star

Whenever you use a teleport or portal skill, you may spend 1 stack of Blessed to reduce the mana or stamina cost of that skill to 0. Additional stacks of Blessed must be spent for each effect that increases the resource cost of that teleport or portal, such as a mana shape, doubling the Blessed required with each additional effect.

That was interesting. The spell no longer hurt me when using it for large distances and it no longer had any visual or auditory effects. Both of those had been restrictions that allowed me to customize the spell during a time of severe brain damage.

In some ways, the auditory effect had been a benefit. It was attention-grabbing, which suited my role in the party. I hadn’t intended to add the self-damage or thunderous arrival to the spell, but their addition had (only) almost killed me a couple of times. Either way, I was happy enough to lose the effects if it meant I wouldn’t accidentally shred my organs when moving across large distances.

My theory for why it changed had to do with the nature of Deific effects. Reckless Shortcut had harmed me because it let me “tear through the cracks between dimensions,” which was a strain if I went too far too fast. That was, in essence, a force that interfered with the spell. Dreadful Shortcut instead let me pass through “the void”. I supposed that since there was nothing in the void, and that I was doing it with the literal god of the void’s blessing, I was no longer bending any rules. Even if I did encounter another oppositional force, it probably wouldn’t affect me unless it too was a Deific effect.

With a Dimensional Magic skill of 41 and my Deijin’s Path ring increasing my teleport range, I could now pop across 6.2 miles in a single jump, assuming I could see my destination.

The Sacrament of the Dread Star was also an unexpected but welcome addition. Using Shortcut with the Bubble mana shape–to take everyone nearby along with me–cost twenty-five mana if I wanted to teleport the entire party. Now I could do it for two stacks of Blessed. I couldn’t generate Blessed on my own, but I got plenty when fighting alongside Xim. My mana pool had been an issue during Throne’s Delve, partially from how much mana I could throw into Explosion! but also from blowing so much mana on teleports. Anything that cut my costs was a solid benefit.

Etja created a mana dead zone with Nullify and I tested its effect with Oblivion Orb. The spell was automatically countered. I cast Shortcut and it went off without a hitch.

I opened the exit portal to the Closet, finding it faster and smoother than normal. We were blasted by a wave of frigid air, but I ignored the rapidly forming frost in my beard to examine the edge of the portal. It was ringed by a small layer of perfect darkness. I ran my hand through it and felt something tugging at my skin, but it was otherwise insubstantial. I closed the portal before everyone got mad at me for letting in a draft. The evolution previously required a minute of concentration, which could be sped by pumping some mana into it. That delay was now gone.

[I am not seeing any overt changes to your mana matrix, although the skill imprints are slightly altered. There was a spark of Divine energy when you teleported and again when you opened the Closet portal.]

“All right,” I said. “The Dread Star isn’t opening portals on my behalf; I’m still the one doing it. Whatever makes them Deific is running through my soul, which is what we wanted to see, yeah?”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

[It is too early to draw any firm conclusions, but preliminary results are promising.]

“Welp. Now that I’m basically a god, let’s go carve some mind-fuckery out of our souls.”

*****

The chosen location for our avatar-fueled soul surgery was a giant pile of dirt.

The reason there was a large and ever-growing pile of dirt in the Closet was that Grotto had put some of Closetland’s growth strategies into action.

Our journey to uncover the truth within ourselves had thus far taken two entire months, giving Grotto enough time to use some of the thousands of essences Avarice had given us in payment for ‘capturing’ Hysteria. Grotto had ideas for how to combine these essences into large mana arrays that would slowly convert ambient mana into specific compounds we wanted. One compound any nation needed was some fine, high-quality dirt.

It was missing some of the old organic fertilizer to really make it stand out plant food, but we had plenty of ideas for how to solve that problem. Grotto had lots of monsters to rear–big monsters–which would inevitably lead to lots of big poops. Might as well take advantage.

We stood and watched as the mana array two hundred feet above us released a constant stream of moist soil, which cascaded down onto the pile before us. It was like a tiny wizard was constantly casting a summon earth spell, but it was all automated.

Xim cleared her throat and raised an eyebrow at me. “This is what you consider to be the seat of your power?” she asked.

“My seat of power is typically mobile,” I said, patting my backside. “But if we’re looking for a stable location, this is it.”

“Why don’t you walk us through your thought process.”

I gave my beard a thoughtful rub. “The Closet is the closest thing to a home I have,” I said. “My underground house back in Foundation is a joke, and as much as I appreciate your parents taking me into the tribe, I’ve only spent a few months within the Third Layer. The Closet is with me anywhere I go, and until recently I had a pretty good living space as well. My life outside is wandering and unstable, but here I can create anything I’d ever need.”

“I understand the Closet,” said Xim. “But why this pile of dirt, specifically?”

“You know, I had other symbolism for the Closet lined up to talk about,” I said. “Never mind, I’ll skip ahead. Actually, I’ll weave it all together. The Closet is a dimensional space that resonates with my attunement, my journey from Earth to Arzia, and my general life philosophy. It is a space of endless growth and potential. The space it creates is initially empty, except for some breathable air. It’s up to me to seize that potential and turn it into something useful. I can also share with my allies to offer them utility or empowerment.

“Dirt is foundational for growth and building. Soil represents the cycle of life as things grow and then die and decay into the dirt. It’s a strong, supportive element, often overlooked and taken for granted.” I pointed up at the mana weave. “Now, we have this essential building block of a sustainable ecosystem continuously created from the conversion of Dimensional mana. It expands endlessly to improve the Closet’s potential, mirroring the Closet’s own growth. It is the first domino in a self-propelling chain of construction, one that will allow my home to become anything we need it to be.”

The group took that in for a moment.

“That explanation has several competing themes,” said Nuralie.

“The throughline is a bit… muddy.” Etja delivered her criticism with a playful smile.

“Do you feel taken for granted?” Varrin asked.

“No,” I said. “I feel that I am full of possibilities.”

“Well, those are all pretty good reasons,” said Xim. “I thought you’d just picked the dirtiest place you could think of to make some kind of back alley surgery pun.”

“Is there such a thing as soul bacteria?” I asked.

“We have a soul infection, do we not?” said Varrin.

“Germ theory is very new,” said Nuralie. “We should not confuse ourselves by making strained comparisons.”

“Do we need to be in

“Gods, I hope not,” I said. “I hate having dirt all over me. In fact, everyone make sure to take off your shoes before we head back to the situation room.”

Xim nodded and we marched a hundred feet away from the growing pile, to a location where the floor had only gotten a tad dusty.

“My contribution will primarily be a ritual, empowered by a revelation,” she said. “Both will work together to guide the Divine energy generated by the Hysteria fragment, tempering it to give Arlo the best chance at absorbing it. He can’t tap into the energy the way Etja can, even while Etja does her soul hug since he wasn’t originally designed to be possessed by the specter of an avatar.”

“We can’t all be perfect,” said Etja, patting me on the shoulder.

“Etja’s ability to harness the fragment is mainly a result of two things,” Xim continued. “She can keep it in her soul without exploding, and she can ‘digest’ the power using Incorporate. Incorporate is helped along by her avatar heritage and specially crafted golem physiology, evolutions, Divine Magic skill, and so on.

“To mirror this, Arlo needs to draw the fragment’s energy into his soul before it can empower his Soul Sight. He doesn’t need to hold the entire fragment in his soul, since we only care about drawing enough Deific power to supercharge his Sight. He just needs to connect with it. Then, if he wants to use that energy, he needs to digest it in a way that’s similar to Etja’s Incorporate ability.”

“Arlo’s attunement is Dimensional,” said Varrin. “He cannot even practice Spiritual or Divine magicks, which sound like they will be critical here. Is that going to be a problem?”

“Yes, but no,” said Xim. “From an attunement standpoint, he couldn’t be a worse choice for this.”

“My confidence in this procedure is waning,” I said.

“Fortunately, we can side-step the attunement problems,” said Xim. “We’re not dealing with mana, and we’re not trying to use one of Arlo’s skills. The fragment generates a lot of Divine mana, but Divine mana isn’t what’s going to allow Arlo’s Soul Sight to gain some level of temporary Deific strength. It’s the spark of divinity within the fragment that’s important, along with Arlo’s understanding of the soul. While having access to Divine and Spiritual magicks would help, what’s more important is Arlo’s relationship to divinity itself and his comprehension of his own soul.”

Xim crossed her arms and gave me a look I couldn’t quite decipher. “Right now, Arlo is a second-stage revelator, which is the mark of someone with an exceptionally close relationship with one or more divine beings. On top of that, both of his revelations deal with the soul. From that standpoint, Arlo is an exceptional choice for this.”

“My confidence no longer wanes,” I said, standing up straighter. “I might even say it waxes.”

“When Arlo uses Reveal, he connects directly with the soul of his target,” Xim went on. “This connection primarily flows from Arlo to the person he’s using Reveal on, but Arlo is naturally getting feedback from the other person’s soul as well.”

“True,” I said.

“Arlo has also had experience connecting with the soul fragment of a divine avatar using Reveal.”

“Not the best experience,” I said, thinking back to our fight with the specter of Orexis.

The specter had been convinced that it was the real Orexis, and I’d used Reveal to expose it to my perception of it as a minion of the true avatar. Forcing the specter to confront the disposable nature of its existence helped to destabilize its psyche enough to help us prevail. However, touching the specter with Reveal had been like falling into a black hole of unending, noxious hunger.

“You want me to use Reveal on the Hysteria fragment?” I asked.

“Yes,” said Xim.

“Can he do that?” asked Varrin. “Is the fragment sentient?”

“It’s a living piece of a soul,” said Xim. “It should work, regardless of the level of self-awareness the soul possesses. Using Reveal will create the bridge between Arlo’s soul and the fragment. Once that’s established, I will use a ritual of the Stomach to help draw the divine essence across that bridge.”

“How’s the ritual work?” I asked.

“How deep of an explanation do you want?” said Xim.

“Will having an advanced understanding improve our chances of success?”

“Maybe. But you aren’t going to gain an advanced understanding in an afternoon.”

“I see. One-hour presentation?”

Xim shrugged and nodded, but I could tell she was excited to be in her element.