Sacrifice Mage

Over the next week or so, I was hounded by Hamsik.

“When are you going to work your Icon?” he asked.

“As soon as you stop nagging me,” I said. “I’ve been busy with so much stuff, Hamsik, you wouldn’t even believe.”

Hamsik tutted. “Excuses are just a waste of time. Come on, Ross. You manifested your first strand in record time. Don’t let all that potential go to waste.”

I wanted to growl at him. Every single thing I had done was the opposite of letting anything go to waste. Whatever opportunity I got, I always did my best to take full advantage of it.

“I’m going to work on it soon, Hamsik.” I held up my hands for mercy. “I promise.”

Hamsik didn’t look very satisfied with that. I just blessed the fact that he hadn’t been the one helping me train like Gutran or Master Kostis or the Scarthralls.

“Alright,” he said. “But if I don’t see another strand by the end of this week, I’m not attending your little magic festival.”

I gasped. “You wouldn’t dare! Half the cult will be there. A good two-thirds, if I can push some more people too. You can’t just not attend.”

“I certainly can if I so choose.”

I rolled my eyes. “Alright. But I’m serious. I was going to get to it as soon as I had some time.”

For the first time, Hamsik looked a little mollified. “I don’t blame you for forgetting, Ross. You really have had a lot on your plate. You do that all the time. You always have to have your hand in far too many pots. Of course that doesn’t leave you much time for everything you should be doing. But I’m here to tell you to start making time.”

He wasn’t wrong. If I wanted to progress in it, I’d need to start putting in the time and effort, just like I did for everything else.

So instead of arguing further, I got to it.

The process was the same as the last strand of my Icon that I had manifested. I needed to actualize my desires with everything else I was capable of. In other words, I needed to meditate and channel my mana at the same time.

It felt strange. The Icon’s demand was so different from everything else I put effort behind. As in, I couldn’t just spar with the Scarthralls to help manifest it faster, nor could I experiment with it like I did with my Aspects and Augmentations and all that. It was just a matter of sitting there and thinking about it.

Needless to say, I struggled with how spiritual it was rather than practical. So much for being a cultist.

That said, I felt like I was making progress. I thought back to my recent experiences, to everything I had gone through in the Nether Vein that had led to manifesting my new mana core. Even in its Unawakened state, it was still affecting me. I considered the godliness that Se-Vigilance kept warning me about.

This was something new I’d need to consolidate as part of myself now. It was something I had already been thinking about. God or not, I didn’t want to become something predefined. What was the point of all my work here on Ephemeroth otherwise?

I breathed in deep and steady. Independence. That was one side—one Aspect, in a sense—of my being that was central to me. An integral desire, as Hamsik had put it.

It was impossible to tell how that was supposed to manifest or how it would affect my Icon. I felt it affecting me, though. Mana moved within me in strange but straight lines, like it had a purpose it was sticking to regardless of what I or anyone or anything else wanted.

Another few lines of light materialized just outside my body. Not the helical arrangement from the last time I had manifested a bit of my Icon. Instead, these ones thinned out and spread into a spherical shape, a translucent orb floating just above my outstretched hand. I was once again unsure of what exactly that signified, but it did feel like progress.

Especially when I was able to manifest the previous bit of my Icon I had come up with. The helical strands came to life, twisting around each other inside the see-through orb of golden white light, stretching like diameters and chords from one side to the other.

I paused, considering.

“I wonder what you’ll give…” I murmured, and then channelled Sacrifice.

[ Sacrifice

You have Sacrificed 1 [Moderate] Partial Icon Manifestation. Windfall bonus activated.

Reward: Next Icon Manifestation rate increased by 2x. Interactivity between Icon and caster’s other Weave-properties increased by 2x. Iconized Aspect of [???] manifests for 30 minutes. ]

I blinked at the reward, reading through it a couple of times before it disappeared. The first two statements were perfectly expected.

It was the last one that had me frowning.

Not only had the Weave not stated what the Aspect was supposed to be, for whatever reason, it had also said the Aspect was manifesting itself. I was already starting to feel that manifestation too. Tiny glints of light and energy were popping into being around me. I felt a heavy, magnetic sensation anchor on my guts, not unlike using Gravity.

The problem was that I wasn’t sure what to do with this or what it even signified. It was only with my current hindsight that I realized just how much I gleaned about my Aspects from only their names.

I tried to get a feel for it. It wasn’t just light energy glinting to life around me. There was heat burgeoning as well, along with a sensation like matter itself appearing out of nowhere. All of which were waiting for me to draw them in, slowly revolving around me like I had Orbit active. What was I supposed to do with that? How would I even use this?

The manifested energy was blasting me too. The light shone too bright, the heat called up sweat until I focused on Absorption, and then there was the radiation that had to be dealt with using Entropy’s Intake. Surely, I could direct all this energy. But if so, how?

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

A crazy idea popped up in my head. Orbit. That line of thinking made me immediately wonder if my Ignition Charge would work on this Iconized Aspect of mine.

After all, the Sacrifice reward had boosted my Icon’s interactivity with every other capability I had.

[ Ignition Charge

Ignition Charge fails to empower Unformed Iconized Aspect of [???]. No charge used up. ]

Hmm. Well, that was a little disappointing. I’d need the Aspect, Iconized or otherwise, to exist properly before I could use Ignition Charge on it. A Weave manifestation didn’t count.

Since it felt like I could pull all the manifested energy and matter into myself, I did so. It all rushed into me, making me feel like I was a balloon being inflated, slowly approaching the stage where even the slightest sharp touch would have me bursting. The more of the strange, starry substance I dragged into myself, the more I felt like I was building up to something.

But I had no idea what to do with said something. This was the bit I still hadn’t figured out for Absorption and Intake too. I now had multiple abilities that could ingest energy in various forms.

Yet, I still hadn’t acquired an ability that could fling all that energy out or do something else with it. Something I really needed to fix.

There wasn’t a whole lot of the thirty minutes left. When it ended, everything disappeared. The swirling energy, the feeling like I could draw it all in and compress it, the way the magical power had gathered and burgeoned inside me. It was like it had never existed.

I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. If it was an incomplete reward, then it wasn’t very useful to me at the moment, now was it?

Never mind. I had made some more progress on manifesting my Icon, and I was happy with that. So was Hamsik, when I informed him. He was confident I’d have it ready within a few more months if I kept practising regularly.

I also tried focusing on my second mana core again. Like last time, I just got the impression of a compressed orb of energy that possessed the faint hint of cracks on the surface. It pulsed and glowed, giving the impression that it wanted to grow bigger but was forcefully constrained to its current size.

A constraint I could only potentially remove with a breakthrough, as I had learned. I’d have to keep my eyes peeled for the right opportunity.

I was not at all prepared for the actual magic festival. All the preparations I had seen really undersold just what exactly a celebration of magic carried out by the Mage Guild of Zairgon was going to look like.

Even before I entered the actual Mage Guild grounds, which served as the official premises of the festival, I could feel the magic. The air had a lighter, fresher quality to it, like what I always imagined breathing the air in the Swiss Alps would feel like. Clean, crisp, and comfortably chilly without actually being cold.

Then there were the lights. Even aside from the more advanced and powerful sprites that the Mage Guild had apparently forced out of the guildhall to draw in visitors, there were little orbs and sparkles floating everywhere in patterned paths and decorative structures.

I realized that they had been ingeniously laid out to act like guides that would take people wherever they wished. Warm and comforting oranges? Right this way to food and areas where people could relax. Chilly blue? This way to the section of the festival where people could just sit back and watch little magic shows. It was frankly an ingenious way to organize.

It was no less magical within the actual festival, of course. Even after I had seen so much crazy stuff in Zairgon in the months I had been here, I was still tempted to gawk in every direction.

I wanted to stare at the little circus of magical familiars, at the group of mages duelling at the far rear of the grounds, at the way one mage was operating a half-golem, half-mech robotic monstrosity big enough to bulldoze a bank. The more I saw that day, the more I understood that I had barely scratched the surface of just what sort of possibilities magic allowed in this world.

It was almost humbling in a way.

Of course, I wasn’t a visitor. I had my own responsibilities to tend to, my own stall that I needed to make sure was running smoothly.

I ran a quick safety check. Quick because I could already see festival attendees coming straight for me. I checked off the ropes and safety harnesses, the positioning of the blocks and platforms of solid rock, and also the shiny little pebbles I had prepared as simple souvenirs.

“Hello there,” a man said. His getup suggested he was from Ring Four, and the little entourage of small children obviously had to be his family. “Good to see you, Cultist Ross. Are you really running this booth?”

Before I could reply, the little girl accompanying the man jumped onto the nearest platform. “Oh, can this fly? Can I fly?”

The man looked admonishingly at his kid, but I laughed it off before he could scold her.

“That’s right,” I said. “I’m here to help everyone fly today.”

“Yay!”

I got them hooked up to my makeshift Gravity-empowered balloon-elevator thingy. They were all harnessed and tied to the metal stake at the centre of the platform, so it would give them some freedom of movement while making sure the kids didn’t topple over the sides.

Not that they’d have plummeted to the ground if they did fall off, of course. I’d be using a wide cast of Field Manipulation. No one was getting hurt today.

The man understandably looked a little unsure of the whole thing, but he had come here knowing full well what this was about—I was advertising it rather loudly on my signboard. Nevertheless, he followed my directions and made sure the kids were all safe before finally nodding at me to proceed.

I smiled at them all. “Hang on! Time for you to go up, up, and away!”

The girls and the other kids shrieked as the platform took off. I didn’t use too much Field Manipulation, so the ascent wasn’t incredibly fast. But it was still a bit surprising. I wanted it to be at least a little entertaining, after all.

I watched, pleased, as the platform moved around on its own thanks to Flare. The kids were laughing and hooting now as they sailed through the air.

It wasn’t just them. Since my whole flying amusement ride didn’t take up any space on the actual festival grounds, I could have them go over a wide field of airspace. They covered enough area that they attracted a lot of interested looks, people from all over the festival pointing and smiling and looking more and more interested. I tried not to feel too smug about it.

“That seems a little too excitable for us, dear,” said an old Rakshasa couple.

I waved at them in welcome. “And that’s why I’ve got the simpler ascents too. Right this way, please.”

The elderly couple followed me to a heavier platform. This one was much simpler than the first one. It would just take them straight up, keep them there till they were satisfied, before bringing them back down. There was a simple level of satisfaction in rising to the top of mountains and skyscrapers, without the need for additional entertainment. This simulated that pretty well, in my entirely unbiased opinion.

I was getting a little line. There were even people calling out for the first group to return so that they could get their turn already. Considering this was an entirely free ride, they were sure acting a little entitled.

But I decided to look at this in a positive light. This was just excitement. And the man with the kids had been up for a good while now, zooming around over the magic festival.

Good thing I had multiple platforms to go.

“Wow, mageling,” Khagnio said as he sauntered over, gawking up at the stone platforms zoomed around past one another. “Imagine if a couple of those collided.”

I decided against glaring at him. Nope, he was not about to ruin my concentration. “No, I’m not going to imagine that, you horrible bastard.”

Khagnio hissed in laughter. “I know you’ve got what it takes to keep a few little stones afloat, mageling. I’m just surprised at seeing you grinning like the idiot you are.”

“What in the Pits are you even doing here, Khagnio? You want a ride?”

“In the name of the Banished Gods, I really don’t. I just wanted to ask if you’re participating in the auction too, mageling.” He paused, quickly pointing high above and to one side. “Oh look, I think that platform is listing! I think they’re going to fall off, mageling!”

I scowled as one little look confirmed that really wasn’t the case. “I’m going to punch your teeth down your own throat, Khagnio.”

“Good thing I don’t have teeth. Just good old Scalekin fangs.”

I desperately held on to equanimity. “Yes, Khagnio, I’m attending the auction. I need to buy one of the treasures we found in the Nether Vein.”

“No, no, I didn’t mean participating like that. I meant if you’re selling, mageling. I want to know if you want to auction your shit or not.”

“I… haven’t thought about it.”

Did I even have anything I wanted to auction off? I didn’t think so. But then, as if Khagnio had come here like some kind of scaly prophet, Linak followed soon after.

“Ross!” Linak came to a halt in front of me, not even caring about the stone platforms and people flying overhead or the fact I had another guest right next to me. “You know how I said I was working on the Starlamps? Well, I’ve got better prototypes now. And best of all—we’ve got our first, official sale!”