Bonded Summoner

Jake was in the State of the Pack Predator, his numerous summoned templates taking on the horde of enemies as they moved toward a Rift to clear it. He floated through the air on some hearthflames, staying close to his pack, Bloodberri working with another group. There was a wide array of native beasts from the jungles, many of them somewhat resembling those seen on Highlands.

Enlarged raptors from his State fought by Bree’s side, their bladed, auril-filled claws full of incredible speed and ferocity. The smaller beasts were quickly shredded, and the raptors raced across the battlefield with surprising haste as they swiped their bladed talons. And Roxo’s template swung Celtic-rune-etched blades, slashing and cleaving next to them with shocking violence.

Bree spoke through his mind, even as she tore through giant beasts with her claws and chomped down on a monster’s throat with her maw. [Not bad at all, Boss. Those things are impressive with all your buffs. And so is knockoff Roxo.]

Avalara laughed as her flaming maul smashed into a giant scaled boar, an explosion of fire erupting and engulfing the monster as it was shredded by her will. “Giving your templates top-grade weapons just feels like cheating. I do like using Bree’s flames, too. I can’t wait until she joins with a hearth bond!”

Bree grinned as her tail whipped, crashing into an elephant-like beast and sending it flying. [Shouldn’t be too much longer. With how fast we’re gaining experience from mass clearing of Rifts, the Dungeon Raids will get us to the peak. I know I said he was already ready, but the better the showing…plus, I know we don’t have time to make the trip.]

The last part was not entirely true. The world her sisters were staying at was not that far from Morvalis. They could swing by there without it taking too long and before they did their Dungeon Raids. Still, she was right. The better the victory and showing, the stauncher they would be as allies. Because as they were now, they only valued strength…and their sister.

Once again Jake focused on the Roxo template’s performance, its blades easily cleaving through monsters like they weren’t there. He had the Roxo template throw away its construct swords for real ones to play around with and see how they worked in practice. It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought of or done it before, but he was limited when using the strategy for events, so he hadn't made it a major part of his toolbox.

By using too many consumables and items, their overall grade, the rating, would decrease. Some events and boss battles even had limitations on the number of items they could bring in their Storage devices–the rest locked to them.

As much as Jake wanted to deck out his template team with gleaming armor and weapons or make fortresses made with giant, impenetrable shields, it just wasn’t something that would be allowed or worthwhile even if it were.

Adding special weapons or items to a few key templates, though…he could probably swing that most of the time, like clearing Rifts. And it was fun, besides. What kind of summoner would he be if he didn’t enjoy a bunch of his monsters destroying everything through nearly no action of his own? Curious about something, Jake asked, “The local beasts that Tartarus takes control of…can you not take control back, Bree?” In a sense, Jake felt like Tartarus’s ability to control native creatures was meant to be the reverse of how the Alliance was able to recruit natives into the war and protect their souls at the same time.

If they could deny that ability somehow, it felt like it would make winning even easier and more reliable. Half of the enemy’s machinations it used to get an advantage involved them, after all.

[It depends. Blatant cheating by sending the creatures far away from its control radius, or ones where it never controlled them directly at all, maybe. As for the rest, only if we took them far away from the goal, like the Rift in front of us, which the enemy likely won’t allow us to do. Tartarus’s control is absolute, based on overwhelming their will within its control radius. It can wane over time outside of it, but it can take a while. It’s not feasible for war.]

Jake was reminded of the wyverns on Ariminum. Tartarus had used some other means to send them traveling outside of its control radius to attack areas that it shouldn’t have been able to at all–the heavily populated city.

After changing the monster’s focus, their army had let some of them live after facing them at their constructed fortress, and Antonius seemed to believe they would get away from the entity’s control in the end. In that case, Bree could have used her influence or perhaps scared them away on her own.

Ruby was fighting a short distance in front of Jake, but she was walking calmly through the battlefield, despite holding her dueling swords in her hands. Blades of blood were compressed and crystallized and then joined an odd formation next to her, made of dozens of swords. This layered, floating arrangement of swords flew around her spinning, with her standing at the center as she moved. Monsters were mowed down almost as if running into several slow-spinning saw blades at different angles, adding to the blood available to her.

But rather than a frantic saw blade, the formation moved deceptively slowly in comparison. It had a mystical, water-like flow that still sheared through enemies as they blindly charged into them somehow. And she formed a few more formations that were smaller, swirling perpendicular to the ground instead of parallel to it. In a way, the swords reminded him of petals of a flower, layers of blooms that wrapped around the stem–her.

Jake asked, “What’s with the shape of how the blades of blood fly? They fly in a formation that looks like a lotus? The cultivators sure love that shape. Is that one of those sword arrays?”

Ruby chuckled a little at that, responding in his mind. [It is. The vampire dabbled a bit in them with a few knowledge crystals containing information, and I’ve decided to try it. I thought it was something else useful to focus on in battle, and it’s helping me train my control.]

“Watching it, I’d almost say that your old haphazard style was more destructive. But I can see there is something special here. There is a power in fractal patterns. If I had to guess, this formation works much better defensively, even now.”

Ruby nodded and closed her eyes as she shifted the lotus petal pattern. Each sword, or petal, moved as if the flower was closing its bulb, the swords spinning as the formation shifted. The flower that floated around her horizontally now became narrower as they spun around, and the flowers that were vertical became more like spears, the swords pointing in a single direction. It was easy to see how they would be more dangerous to something running directly at her now.

She let out a satisfied sigh. “Something about it…it’s just easier to move so many blades at once. Faye is looking for a formation that might fit me a little better and might match my path, but this is calming, just like the dueling sword is for me. That, and…”

Ruby turned to him, and he could just barely see the smile beneath her hardened, blooRPlate helmet. “I feel more comfortable already, since we had our…talk. I’m starting to feel like this is my place. Next to you.”

Jake smiled at her. “I like that you’re near. I’m glad that you’re getting comfortable.”

He had been spending more time with her more directly since they were in combat with regular enemies and smaller groups more frequently. They split into three groups more often than not, now that the betrayer situation was handled.

Tanda, Fhesiah and Ruby had captured them, and the questioning went well. They learned that the recruitment was before the world was even contested, which made them that much happier to learn that this particular hole had recently been plugged.

Sure, they could still do this kind of thing even without knowing when and where exactly the contest took place, but they would have to fully invest in having operatives on all thousand-plus worlds in the Sector. Not just cheat and know where the next contests would occur and when, so that then they could do their dirty work at the last moment.

This made their efforts that much harder to hide as well, as once a world was announced to be a part of the next Conflict, there was a sort of setting of the board and limiting those who entered or left the world.

A week had gone by quickly, following Clan Hart’s usual patterns. Closing Rifts, saving refugees, and spending time with family and crafting during downtime. They mixed up their schedule to make it challenging for the enemy to track their activity, but otherwise, making progress was as simple as a nine-to-five job.

Thankfully, their elites also did a ton of work, the vast number of them causing them to achieve even more than Clan Hart did. This wasn’t like Highlands where Clan Hart rescued a world damn near by themselves.

Not every Battlegroup they had supporting them was as fast as the Ravenwolf Tribe, but their capability was just as good. Their contributions moved progress measurably every day, and after a week they had already pushed back to fifty percent. If they spent another week here, they could possibly reach the safe, farming range of sixty percent and move on already.

Rift challenges had amped up as they rose in level, but as long as Tartarus’s machinations were prevented thanks to Array Flags and scouting, their mixed, capable forces would close them with no losses. That meant the progress was extremely steady all over the world, not just where Clan Hart was contributing. Their warriors were making incredible progress every single day.

And news from Serthune and Morvalis was that all was going smoothly. On Serthune, Vesuvius and his brothers in arms had closed the second Carnex nest already with no issues at all and were moving in on the final one. Meanwhile on Morvalis, Morwen and Rookard had rounded up many betrayers after defeating the Aspect. She was already moving on the Church of Mortem as a whole while Rookard closed Rifts, a new army of allied undead in tow.

While working with the church, her goal was to win them over in a more permanent fashion. Morwen had gone to a few of their mausoleums and raised a few more ancestral warriors, showing her talent and understanding of the dead–and that even their ancestors sided with her will. With the various necromancers she met, she began teaching them the truths about the dead and was performing as an ambassador of Arawn on a pilgrimage.

She seemed hopeful that once the war was won, they would be able to shift the people’s understanding of the dead to something fitting of their original goals, and with a Divine who existed like Arawn. While the academic approach worked, that they were grounded in faith in a deity that did not respond left a lot of openings for usurpers, opportunists, and manipulators.

He received a sudden communication from Zorina over their network, and he accepted it through his Menu and heard Zorina’s voice. “Lord Jake, do you read me? I wanted to get ahold of you right away!”

Jake smiled. “Zorina. How are you?” He cast a few more raptor templates, knowing he wouldn’t be able to pay as much attention but could certainly handle a sort of phone call while dealing with Rift monsters. He prodded Ira that he could use a little more attention on his behalf, and Ruby also moved closer to him.

Zorina teased, “Careful, Milord, if you sound so excited to hear from a lady, even your wives just might get a little jealous.”

Jake chuckled at that. “Was it that obvious? But I am happy to hear from you for more than one reason. I’m interested to hear about Haldrith and how you have been doing personally, Zorina–and that’s the truth.”

“Hm, that seems to ring true. Then we’ll start there. The Myrkin are a kind, curious people. They’ve been quite welcoming of us, even if it has led to some…misunderstandings.”

“Misunderstandings?”

“You see, we Eternum somewhat resemble what they are trying to achieve with putting their ‘Solma’ into items, awakening their spirits, and binding them as familiars. So we had quite a few of them wanting to research, kidnap, and worship us! Rhia had to thwack a few fuzzy noggins for Mysticus and me!”

“I did notice some similarities there, but it’s surprising they wouldn’t feel how different you are. Your unliving flame and arcane energy must be quite different.”

“That’s just the thing! There are some spirits they’ve created that are different. Mysticus and I do believe it’s a result of rare mixtures of the Solma, or Terrana energy, and their wild, chaotic energies found in the monsters of the world. The crazy myrkins that wanted to kidnap us–well, they worked with combinations of it. And a deathly familiar was just one of many. As for the arcane nature, I won’t say that our energy is that similar, but it is more similar than neutral mana or any individual element.”

“Interesting. That was already the top place I wanted to visit for my own research. So you and Mysticus have spent some time…on the field then? How did that go?”

Zorina chuckled. “We haven’t spent too much time, but we put on a good showing while Rhia watched over us–such a lovely young woman she’s turning out to be. But even scaled down to level 25, she was indispensable. And she’s got her own cadre of myrkin worshipers and wizards courting her to become their familiar, both!”

Jake smiled fondly as he remembered something. “Her becoming the familiar? From what I’ve heard from Berri, I think Rhia would be the one turning all the myrkin into her familiars instead. She was insistent that the beastkin did not ride or wear her; she rode them instead.”

Zorina laughed. “You’re exactly right. At any rate, our powers and talents with spellcasting, thanks to the guild’s wondrous research, did get quite a few myrkin interested in joining Hearthtribe’s subsidiaries for access to the many benefits–I have quite a few recruits lined up! Unfortunately, despite our prowess, we felt a little…redundant. The Myrkin are not short of spellcasters. Without Rhia and a few of our beastkin and Elysian allies, we wouldn’t have made a lot of headway.”

“Makes sense. But I see you’ve made it to the Second Tier in my Menu, so I can see you’ve worked hard.”

“Aw, you spoiled it! We’ve made it. We already had a good rating from Highland’s reclamation and being relinquished of our forced servitude, which acted as a rather minor Trial result–very little potential gained for ourselves. But an opportunity arrived, or it might not be fair to call it that–it was quite worrisome.”

“What happened?”

“A race of invaders arrived. A semi-sentient and sapient type of bestial monsters–that honestly resembles the chaotic creatures of their world. And well…they just wanted to gobble all of the poor little Myrkin up! It’s like watching poor children get eaten! It was different from fighting the mindless Tartarus beasts that we signed up for, but Mysticus and I weren’t able to sit back, despite fighting…thinking creatures. Positively dreadful, it was.”

“I completely understand. That you went against your nature to help others, I’m sure, was a difficult sacrifice for you to make. So you must have been involved in closing their portal, and that helped you receive a Trial-equivalent reward from the challenge?”

“That’s right! There are two more portals to be closed still, but there was one in the First Tier, allowing us to participate and make an impact. There are a lot of Adventurers from Earth here that we worked with to get it closed. We’ve helped funnel quite a few of them over to Hearthtribe’s Subguilds.”

Jake froze at that. He had a hard time imagining a talking birdcage convincing ex-gamers to join their guild, let alone a floating magical abacus. “You did? How did you convince them?”

“Well, okay. Maybe it was more Rhia’s work. They keep calling her ‘the ninja pink ranger’ or something and following her around. Anyway, the very first thing Mysticus and I did when we woke up from our transition–aside from inspecting and trying out our new spectral bodies–was get out your runes and do some divinations! You’ll find the results in a message in your Menu. The change in our strength was like night and day, Milord.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“That’s really great, and thank you so much, Zorina. Did you really divine all of them and their locations?”

“We’re fairly certain we know the symbols and which knot they belong to, and that will hopefully be enough for you to figure it out. They are all linked, and I bet you will smack yourself for not figuring it out on your own. Well, they are all rooted in the Nordic faith and Odin’s tale. We cannot wait to get back and to do so much more when it comes to aiding our brethren. However, we do think it's for the best that we stick around for a while longer–every day we spend here is weeks or months of progress back home. The Myrkin can still use our help, and our growth here has been substantial. This Terrana energy, they are letting us bask in it, and…it has had some interesting effects.”

“That’s good to hear, and you two have always been a valuable ally and friend to us all. What kind of effects?”

“It rings true! Thank you so much for saying so, Milord! The exercises for growing our arcane circuits that you, Fhesiah, and Amara have devised appear to have a threefold improvement in the outcome or greater. It seems to grow our arcane circuits faster, making us sturdier, and our unliving flame gets nurtured at the same time. We’re being careful to make sure there are no side effects, but I almost think all Eternum would benefit from having access to this special energy.”

Jake nodded seriously at that. “Whether we claim the world or not, I’m sure we can find a fair trade for either time basking in it for you all or drawing up some of it and storing it.”

“Mysticus, Rhia, and I will work on this, but I’m sure a certain Champion’s touch could pay dividends–just sayingl Also, I hear Valtor the Second is on his way with his mixed party. I’m so excited to see him in action!”

“Junior’s heading there now too, huh? I want to see that. We’ll see how things are looking once we’ve gotten things in a good place here. I may be able to make a stop before my Dungeon Raids if things align.”

Zorina gave a pleased sigh at that. “Thinking about so many worlds being saved is just music to my ears. Well, I’ll let you go then, Milord. Good hunting, and good luck on your findings!”

“Good hunting to you too, Zorina. And tell Mysticus thanks for me.”

“Will do!”

The fighting came to a close not that long after his call, his wives and templates making short work of a large horde of monsters and then the Rift monsters and Boss once they spawned. Just like the almost-phone-call, Jake was nearly on autopilot as he read Zorina’s message and thought of the implications; how to combine them.

He still ferried his girls to Rifts and portaled across the continent as they continued their Rift-closing work, even though he couldn’t wait to get to his lab. But when their Rift closing was done for the day, Jake could not get away fast enough.

Or, he would have, if it didn’t seem like there was an endless stream of children suddenly having important things to tell him about as soon as they got home and greeted the family.

One kid after another came to show their crafted items and art they had been working on, to the point where he was starting to get a bit suspicious. Sure, this often happened, but it was like every single one had some sort of project that they wanted to show Jake–and him specifically, not just their mothers.

Jake was now in the living room, holding a beautiful artwork of finger-painted vines and flowers. It was colorful and had green and blue vines from the top all the way to the bottom, like a close-up of some Highlands tree.

It was made by one of his treant daughters, and he was truthfully surprised by how good it looked, the colors popping in ways he thought difficult to reproduce at all, let alone with one’s…tree fingers. “You made this all by yourself? That’s amazing. That’s going right on the wall.”

She smiled and hugged him, and he was glad to hug her tightly, lifting her off the ground and spinning her as he brought her over, and they placed it on the wall. As for the fridge, that thing ran out of space for art long ago. They had to make a dedicated area.

Jake chuckled as he saw all his wives smiling, drinking coffee and other drinks, and laughing. “You girls teasing me now? I’m supposed to believe that suddenly all of them had something they wanted to show me?”

Yona’s tails stood straight as she did as well. “What! Teasing. I would never…” She looked over at Fhesiah with a hint of blame. “She said you were down and needed cheering up! I even told your children that!”

Fhesiah had her fan out and was covering her smiling face as she fanned it. “Oh, but you so enjoyed the thought of trying to cheer up our dear husband that you forgot that you have a foolproof method of checking whether I was telling the truth or not. The bond? You should be able to know whether he was really down or not.”

Yona’s tails had gone back to flicking in irritation as Fhesiah talked, but now they froze. “Ohh…you’re right! I didn’t think to check at first, just going straight to the task…”

Jake placed his arm around Yona’s shoulder in a side hug, and she gratefully leaned against him as her tails flicked and caressed him automatically. “Well, the joke’s on you, Faye. Because I loved it and wish they did that every time we got home, though the deception is not something we should repeat. Some do love to greet us when we get back, but that was…extensive. Thank you for that, Yona.”

Yona beamed, then hesitated, a finger on her lip in thought. “I could tell you enjoyed it, but that…well, you did seem to be in a hurry, but…”

Fhesiah was pleased with herself. “Well, isn’t that the best kind of prank? The ones where everyone enjoys it in the end?”

Ophelia’s wings fluttered. “It was kind of funny at first, but eventually, it was just super cute. Yona really got even our loners to open up for their daddy to cheer him up!”

Tanda’s tail was wagging, and she nodded eagerly. “Good job, Yona! Timothy and Nora could tell it was a game thanks to their hearts, but Nyxa and Rena could tell right away too! That was a surprise to me. This was a lot of fun.”

Avalara giggled as she moved next to Jake and kissed his cheek. “It was! But now we should let our stag go–he’s probably going to do something big now that will help protect everyone.”

Bree chuckled. “I’m eager to see what he can accomplish. My sisters and I would never admit it, but powerful casters were always the biggest danger to us. Just…not as big a danger as we were to them.” She grinned.

Jake received kisses from each of his girls, then finally escaped, teleporting to his lab.

Fhesiah sighed as he disappeared, snapping her fan closed and picking up her coffee cup with a wry smile. ”There he goes. So sad. Ditching all his girls to go play with his pen alone again. With so many softer touches available, he still seeks his own hand.”

Jake arrived in his workshop and got everything in order, the quiet flickering of flame from his Refuge’s Hearth serving as a backdrop to his intense focus. Hovering above his workbench was the new message from Zorina.

It contained the culmination of Mysticus’s calculations and Zorina’s divinations, finally identifying the missing pieces to the spell ring and the covenant knot that had eluded him.

However, the diviners hadn't sent him a completed blueprint. The lingering blurring from the Framework meant they could only extract the raw identities of the missing meta-glyphs and determine whether they belonged to the first or second knot. To his surprise, the symbols did not fully fit what Jake had thought was missing. The actual arrangement–the syntax that made the magic function–was a jumbled mess of powerful concepts.

Jake summoned a simple staff with the casting ring and focus he had crafted for testing purposes. Then, he brought out Avaron’s staff as well to carefully compare as he went. He wasn't going to just copy the list of runes; he needed to understand how they fit together to align them properly.

Igniting his void-divine hearthflames at the tip of his finger, he began to experiment. He etched the first few symbols side by side, linking them with standard script just as he had in his previous failed attempts to bind himself to the item. The mana immediately felt clunky and resistant, threatening to trigger a spiritual backlash.

He wiped the glowing lines away and removed the connection, then stared at the list of symbols. Yggdrasil's roots, Mimir’s Well, Odin’s Cross, the Web of Wyrd, and the Valknut.

He thought about the myths, the very stories that powered the faith of the Nordic Origin. Odin didn't just stand near a well or channel mana into it to gain wisdom. The World Tree’s roots plunged directly into those mysterious waters. Odin had to gouge out his own eye and drop it into the depths to claim wisdom. The Norns sat at the base of the tree, weaving the fates of all living things into the bark and the branches.

With this context in mind, he looked at Avaron’s focus again, gazing between the blurred runes. He thought he spotted a spark of a meander pattern hidden beneath the haze.

“They aren't just placed next to each other,” Jake whispered, the realization hitting him like a physical blow. “They are interwoven.”

Runic metamagic wasn't just a mere line item or list but a weaving of causality, cost, and reward.

Jake realized that the first knot was largely complete, with few changes to be made. The Eye of Odin was there, along with the list of basic rules for the covenant he was agreeing to in order to bind the weapon. The conditions to be watched and to sacrifice his mana to reach the second knot were already in place. But Zorina’s note said there was another Eye set within Odin's Cross that was missing on the second knot.

He started over on the second knot, knowing his previous attempts here lacked the proper foundation. At the very bottom of the formation, he let his golden flames etch a sprawling, deep-reaching pattern: Yggdrasil's roots. With their meandering pattern, they resembled Celtic knotting in their own way. The World Tree was the foundation of the Norse cosmos; here, it served as the ultimate anchor, grounding the spell in reality and binding it to the Framework.

But the roots needed a source of wisdom to draw from. Jake moved his finger to the absolute center of the secondary knot, directly overlapping the roots he had just drawn. Here, he etched the circular depths of Mimir’s Well.

As the lines merged, the true meaning of the second knot washed over him. It was a sacrifice for wisdom, a true connection to the Norse Origin. By attempting to use generic scripts for his covenant before, it had worked somewhat, but it was missing this fundamental connection to gain the full benefit.

The well demanded its price–reserving a portion of the caster's mana–before it would grant the wisdom required to form complex runes instantaneously at the casting ring, as well as grant the true power of runic law.

Moving near the top of the formation, Jake traced Odin’s Eye, perfectly nesting it within a geometric solar cross–Odin's Cross–that divided the upper space. The cross here represented the intersection of the nine realms and cosmic laws, while the Eye looked down upon the entire structure. This was the true Watcher, linked to the initial Eye in the first knot.

It was the Allfather’s sacrificed eye witnessing the covenant, ensuring the strict rules of the chains–like keeping feet on the ground or attacking in a forward vector–were perfectly obeyed.

But how did the roots, the well, and the eye communicate with the restrictive chains of the law, the conditions laid out in the chained branches?

Jake looked at the next major symbol on Zorina’s list. The Web of Wyrd, the matrix of fate woven by the Norns of the past, present, and future. This was linked to the very tapestry of existence, no matter what one might call it.

Instead of placing the symbol in an empty space, Jake let his hearthflames thin out into gossamer threads. He wove the matrix of fate directly through the Yggdrasil roots, wrapped it tightly around the chains of the law, and submerged it through Mimir's Well and past Odin’s Eye at the top, encompassing the entire formation. The Norns wove fate through the flow of time, from what was, to what is, to what shall be.

To cap it all off, Jake etched the Valknut’s triangular vertices at the exact anchor points where the chains–Yggdrasil’s branches–connected toward the first knot, encompassing the connection to the casting ring and the whole formation.

The three interlocking triangles formed the knot of the slain. It was the penalty clause, as well as an acknowledgment of the end. It seemed this served two purposes, he realized.

By accepting the covenant, the warrior accepted their fate. Break the rules, and the Valknut delivered the spiritual backlash. The Valknut also symbolized honorable death in combat. Odin made his sacrifice for wisdom, and if one wanted to make use of it, they didn’t have to pledge themselves to worship him. The binder would have to agree to fight honorably. No wonder Avaron didn’t use it when they fought.

It was the ultimate universal syntax, with rules of three interwoven throughout the entire covenant. If the sacrifice in the Well was paid as an act of the past, and if the Eye witnessed the laws being kept in the present, then the Web of Wyrd dictated that the spell must manifest through the casting ring in the future. Should the caster fail to uphold those laws, they would suffer the Valknut's fate.

Jake hadn’t tried to force it before, as the item had simply rejected him–but in theory, he could go against the covenant and pay a steep price.

The moment Jake connected the final thread of the Web of Wyrd to the Valknut and the staff lit up as he made his connection, a profound click resonated deep within his soul.

The lingering conceptual blurring from the Framework shattered entirely, allowing him to see all the runes in Avaron’s staff with perfect clarity.

The simple test staff thrummed in his hands, stripped of all resistance and filled with perfect, frictionless synergy. The casting ring illuminated, completely unlocked, and allowed him to cast his fire spells just as he tested his rules and the power gained from them.

It was no longer a stubborn puzzle of unknown symbols, and Jake was no longer limited to balanced equations for spells. He understood the living, breathing story of sacrifice, law, and fate translated into pure magical output.

With the true nature of runic covenants unraveled before him, Jake immediately turned his focus inward. He looked at the aperture in his mind where his original Runebound Technique, and later his upgraded Resonant States, resided.

For years, the Framework had presented this technique to him as a rigid interface, little more than a set of sterile lists of restrictions and rewards he had cobbled together. But armed with the syntax of the Nords, Jake stared hard at that interface and imposed his newfound understanding of the interwoven Web upon it.

The mental UI fractured like cheap glass, falling away to reveal the raw, breathtaking reality beneath.

His Resonant States were not a set of simple lists but a wide web of knots, chains, and rings, looking almost like Yggdrasil itself. Combined, they formed several branches of rings filled with Demonic and Nordic runes, pulsing brightly with the unique hearthflames of his wives.

He saw the literal threads of his Hearthian Bonds weaving through the formations and the Divine Script inserted by Hestia, acting as his own personal Web of Wyrd. He also saw exactly where his crude, brute-forced rules had created magical friction, and he immediately knew how to smooth those rough edges out.

Jake didn't need the Framework to translate his intent anymore. He could write the cosmic laws directly into his hearth and soul, optimizing the flow of power between him and his family, entirely removing the sluggishness of swapping states, and unlocking the potential for infinitely more complex combat rules.

Some of the things he wanted to try, like copying Nessa’s lake or gaining a connection to Sati’s Mirror, her moon, had been impossible. But now…he thought he could create complex enough rules–scopes, restrictions, and rewards–that he could accomplish it.

A slow, triumphant smile spread across Jake's face as he lowered the two staves.

He had it. He could now mass-produce specialized, Covenant-bound implements for the mages of Hearthtribe–staves with casting rings that reserved a fraction of a user's mana in exchange for devastating, conditional power enhancements.

And there was more. By replacing the casting ring portion of the covenant to connect to something else entirely, he could make runic weapons, armor, and accessories with their own distinct covenants, allowing him to empower warriors of all kinds in countless ways. If he could think it, then he could probably do it, barring the absolute limitations and rules governing their reality.

As his mind raced with the possibilities, his thoughts naturally drifted to Tanda, Avalara, and auril. The Norse syntax relied on the story of sacrifice and law, but understanding the root mechanics meant he could translate the grammar itself.

Celtic magic did not use Mimir's Well or Tyr's chains. Their power was rooted in the seasons and the eternal cycle of life, death, and rebirth. The roots and branches of Yggdrasil could be replaced with the Celtic Knot and Triskele.

He could swap the Well of Sacrifice for the sowing of a seed and the brilliance of summer to represent investment and life. The Watcher's Eye could be traded for the patience of winter and memories of the fallen to represent conditional rules, witness, and death. Finally, the Valknut would be replaced by the harvest of spring for rebirth, ensuring the cycle continued. With that structure, he could forge entirely new covenants and spells that strengthened his beastkin allies in ways he decided.

Of course, it would take some testing to find what worked. He might need to replace options from the Celtic Divine to properly connect to their Origin, but by understanding where the power came from and making deliberate changes, he was sure he would succeed.

The ceiling for his guild's magical power had not just been raised. Jake had completely removed it, and he knew this kind of finding and understanding of the Origin of magic was likely only achieved by cultivators at this Tier. Their rules and benefits were different, however.

And the Framework seemed to agree. Several magical research categories improved all at once as he transmitted his findings on how the layered covenant produced power through law, sacrifice, faith, and Origin. Sure, it only granted a percent here and there, but their baseline bonuses were already drastic. Combined with this revelation when applied to equipment, it was difficult to say just how massive an impact this might make.

His people would hit harder, get wounded less, and could become situationally much stronger than they ever could before. Shoring up weaknesses or amplifying strengths across his diverse people would earn massive dividends; there was no question about it.

He knew that there were many limitations, like how many bound items and covenants a person could make, depending on the strength of their soul, but his people were already a cut above the rest. They just became able to stand up to anyone but the best.

Curious, Jake brought out the tainted stakes to take another look at the runes on them. Now much less was blurred, though a few symbols still remained hidden from him. Already, he had some guesses about how it applied its law outward from the item to those who entered its domain, and he remembered how the law had constricted more tightly once Avaron had verbally stated the limitations.

He certainly didn’t forget the cost: their Nascent Divine blood and the tainted energy stored within them, perhaps gathered from sacrificing their own allies. Jake imagined that it might be possible to make complete zones of control–fields of law that could render any kind of foe completely useless. But the power requirements and restrictions were so astronomical that he would need external infrastructure–like his Array Flags and Mana Fonts–just to supply enough energy to maintain them.

Still, he knew there was research worth doing to master this. It might be possible to create completely safe areas within his kingdom where even infiltrators as talented as Fhesiah would struggle to enter. If he could master this before he left for the Third Tier, he would secure his people and borders far beyond all but the top Tier 3 and 4 Guilds–and as a native guild with full research bonuses at an earlier Tier, no less.

Jake placed the tainted stakes back into their special storage with a thought and stepped away from the workbench. He let out a long, slow breath, feeling the frantic energy of his research bleed away into a deep, peaceful exhaustion.

The rules of the universe were no longer hidden behind a blur; they were his to write. Smiling at the quiet flickering flames of his Hearth of the Refuge, Jake finally allowed himself to stop working and headed out of the lab to go hug his wives and be with his kids.

He had a lot of work to do in building his peak of the Tier weapons and spells, but now he had all the tools he needed.