Suspended on his throne in an endless field of black void and dancing white lights, Ekum watched.
He was curious. His gamble had been performing well — the pair of them had managed to secure two competent teammates who had a similar enough mentality to excel. They’d even managed to put themselves on a path to walk face-first into two challenges that could prove wonderful for their collective growth — if they could prove their mettle, of course.
Amongst his peers, their current achievements were not unheard of. Impressive and noteworthy, yes, but not anywhere near as astronomically unlikely as they were on their own stunted little world. Still, it was good to see them moving with haste.
Their last skill? In less than a year? That was faster than he’d ever dare hope. They might even manage to finish the integration themselves, if they kept it up.
It was their final skills that held his attention. As much as he might have wished, his power and authority was not limitless. He could see what skills they had, but not what they were offered, and he definitely couldn’t force the System to show him something as private as the actual skill selection process.
Ascendant or not, he had been afforded privileges as the Watcher of this integration — not command. Privileges he would much rather go without, considering they necessitated overseeing a world of useless louts and failures.
Neither was he omniscient. Vast as it might have been, even his focus and attention had limits. He’d been unlucky — by the time he had thought to check up on his seedlings, they’d already picked their choices. He could command a summary, but filtering that much data for something he would find out in a few minutes was a pointless exertion.
Ekum rested his head on his palm as the team started to rouse one by one — first the ranger, then the mage, and the greater beast. His brow cocked as they started to chat in excited tones.
The mage had discovered keyseals? Already? Maybe he should revise his projections on his capability — it was an impressive feat to achieve so soon, even with access to complete and developed glyphs. Access to the correct examples of geometrical structure was one thing, but to devise that into even the most simplistic of stable keyseals?
That took a keen mind indeed.
Porkchop’s skill was as potent as he would expect for a peak tier one class. An embodiment ability would serve him well — it was hard to find something to begin recruiting and utilising the soul so early. No doubt it would quicken the formation and development of his Animus pillar. A fine thing — even with his bond skill, beast souls were so ridgid that insight might have taken them months. Any time saved was a treasure — he was beyond sick of this place.
The newest member of the lot was…pedestrian in her pick. It was potent — he’d give her that — but in comparison to the others, it was nothing more than what was expected of someone of her capability.
Right as the ranger started to dive into the specifics of her ability, Kaius started to seize.
Ekum focused, his pupils dilating as his eyes turned near-complete black.
By the infinite, what was that?! The boy's centre was shaking like he had a soul-eater hooked up to his neck!
Peeling away at the layers of reality, he stared deeper — seeing the full network of Kaius’s internal energy networks and soul-space laid bare. Deep within the boy’s centre, he saw his incomplete pillars straining — desperately trying to cycle their essence generation.
An impossibility — the Aspects might have had the nascent capacity, but without a complete foundation to begin the climb to eternity, it lead only to more strain on the boy’s soul.
More importantly…why? What could have possibly wrought such calamity in the midst of a skillselection? Even now he could see the system’s power weaving the core of its structure to complete the orbit of his class skills.
With a flick of a finger, a mote of light slammed into Ekum’s head.
**Warning! Access to privileged information denied!**
Ekum ground his teeth, frustrated at the anomaly. The system’s response told him everything, and nothing — it was his Skill, but such an effect should be impossible! By the weight of eternity, the boy looked like he was under siege!
Unable to do anything more than watch, the arm of Ekum’s throne shattered under his grip — reforming when he moved his hands to his more resistant legs.
To his shock, the boy recovered an eyeblink later as his skill solidified — any sign of his previous fatal decline vanishing.
His frown deepened.
Ekum peered into the boy’s status — and froze, unable to do more than stare in simple incomprehension.
VOS? VOS?!
How! He’d heard rumours of people brushing up against True Names and other conceptual magic in their final tiers before ascension, but the first! Even the slightest splinter of the rune that it was, it was still madness, an impossibility!
And to temper from the force of it all?!
Shock warred with outrage — to have such luck, such fortune! With even a fraction of such providence he could be untouchable.
Reality cracked, void and destruction spider-webbing from his skin as the fragility of even a reinforced mortal realm made itself known.
Ekum seethed: wrestling with a burning mix of pride and avarice that clawed at his throat. This changed things — he had to rerun his projections. It was too potent, more risk than boon as far as his freedom went: it was too likely that the boy would extinguish his very soul.
Worse, he might live — the prospect of a rise of such potency…it was impossible to predict what that would do. This sector was too long established — too set in its ways and structures.
Ekum ground his teeth, his jaw crackling under the strain.
Complications — oh, how he hated them.
…
Kaius woke to a fuzzy green and black face the size of his torso watching him with wild concern. The second he opened his eyes, Porkchop all but pounced — driving the air out of his lungs.
“Kaius! What’s wrong — you started seizing!”
Kaius gasped, twisting his brother’s ear as it felt like a boulder was dropped on his ribs.
“Get off, you oaf! I can’t bloody breathe!” Kaius shoved desperately through their bond.
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“Oh. Sorry.” Porkchop pulled back sheepishly.
He took a deep breath, rolling his eyes and patting his brother on the head — right as a splitting pulse in his head made itself known. Sitting up, Kaius rubbed at his temples. Even if his Health was still and silent, it felt like he’d been used as a drake’s chew toy.
“Seriously, Kaius — what happened? I didn’t think much of you being in your skill vision for longer than us, but you were fully cataleptic at the end there — I was a second from trying to heal you.” Ianmus said, setting a hand on Kaius’s shoulder as he spoke softly.
“Just a little more to VOS —”
Kaius screeched in pain as a lance of fire shot through the base of his skull, his mind warbling as a faded memory of twisted space and screaming noise roared into the front of his mind. The wardlights in the tent flared — shining bright enough that they would have momentarily blinded him without his Truesight.
Snapping his eyes shut, Kaius clutched his skull — just barely hearing the yelps of surprise and pain of his team. He groaned, huddling over as their camp returned to a dim silence.
“Kaius. What the fuck was that?! Your soul looked worse than bloody Ianmus’s!” Kenva hissed, tense concern evident.
“Sorry! Sorry. That…word—” he flinched, half expecting another spike of soul-twisting pain. It never came. “ —is more complicated than I thought. It's…the system described it as a small slice of a deeper mystery: something called conceptual magic. It…it makes my glyphs look like the scribbles of a toddler.”
When he looked up, he found Kenva and Porkchop watching him with concerned frowns. Ianmus, on the other hand, had had a fire ignited within him. The mage's hand gripped his knee, so firm that it would have left an unintegrated man screaming.
“Conceptual magic? Explain.”