Sacrifice Mage

The monsters had been approaching us but now stopped entirely as my light bathed them with heavy, golden rays. I smiled at the strange interaction. It looked like Illumination itself was leaving some kind of energy residue on their bodies, like glowing sap slowly covering the puppets’ entire forms.

It wasn’t just adding weight. They were slowing, petrifying in place, falling over in several spots. Soon enough, they started burning too.

The stench of cooked flesh made my nose crinkle.

I didn’t focus on the monsters. All I paid attention to was how much mana was being dragged out of me, how my first mana core was whirring faster and faster to push out an avalanche of magical energy to power the Aspects that were eating the entire army of monsters alive.

Not just them, either. All the surrounding Netherthreads were getting cooked too. Sizzling, burning, dying.

“Holy Pits…” someone nearby muttered.

He was one of the military, a Scalekin who had been standing close to Tavarth. Now, he was staring out ahead where my light rained destruction down on the entire army of creatures.

A horde of monsters that would normally have exacted powerful effort from us all were now slowly turning into bloody and molten ash. I once again thought about adding Entropy into the mix, but I still didn’t want to leave a field of radiation. That would end up hurting us just as much if not more so than my actual enemies.

It only took about five more minutes before the army ahead of us was down for good. Near the end, when the cries of the last flesh-metal puppet monsters were going silent, my head started cracking.

That was what the splitting headache felt like. My second mana core, still Unawakened, rotated inside my skull like it was studded with spikes like the head of my mace.

At the same time, the atmosphere around me seemed to pulse. It writhed, the world seeming to throb around me. Panic shot through too fast for me to even register the feeling before it passed, though it still left an awful aftertaste.

I… wasn’t sure what that had been. Maybe I just needed to chalk it up as yet another oddity of the Nether Vein. But the fact that it had interacted with my second mana core kept me on edge.

We all just stood there staring a bit as the destruction ended. Several of them, those that weren’t my teammates, glanced at me. Whatever their estimations of me had been before, whatever they had expected after hearing about me, it was clearly being re-evaluated in light of the most recent demonstration.

“We don’t have time for looting,” Tavarth said. “Now that the path is clear, we’re going to forge onwards.”

“What about the rest of the expedition?” Ugnash asked.

I looked over. The other groups weren’t having too much trouble, thankfully, though many were still mired in their own battles. Only the two Councillors’ teams were done with their fights just like we were. But the point remained that nobody seemed to be in need of assistance.

“Let’s keep going,” I said. “While keeping an eye on the others.”

Tavarth didn’t seem to mind that I was corroborating his order, like people were hanging on my decision instead of his. I honestly wouldn’t have blamed him if he had scowled a bit or something along those lines. There was no need for me to oust him.

We didn’t move on for long, though. Another few hundred feet and then came a much bigger order for the entire expedition to halt.

“We’ll be setting the rail lines now,” Se-Vigilance said, her voice echoing across the Nether Vein. “We will be taking a momentary break here.”

Right. They had warned that, despite being a singular thrust aimed at a specific location, we would still be taking it a little slower. Mostly because as we went ahead and cleared the Nether Vein, we would be establishing more of the rail lines, all the way till we reached Claderov.

Hmm. This might take some time.

Time passed somewhat idly. There was both nothing to do and also way too much I could do, and the juxtaposition of that made me feel like I was wasting my time entirely.

For that break, though, I just spent time wandering around the camp we had made, occasionally talking with people. A part of me was yelling that I should be training or ranking up, but it felt impractical to do so in the middle of an expedition.

Instead, I spoke with Se-Vigilance and informed her about my occasionally throbbing second mana core. She suggested that a breakthrough to awakening it might not be far off, which was something I had been thinking too. The problem was that I had no idea what it would result in. Not like I’d had any idea that my first mana core would grant an Ignition Charge Core Property.

That said, it was related to the Beyond and it had… evolved my Fervour Augmentation, so there was that.

Then Se-Vigilance threw in a wrench. “Your cores might also interact.”

My eyebrows rose on their own. “Can different mana cores do that?”

“Yes. Some people who have multiple mana cores are able to make them interact and produce even more unique properties, often resulting in entirely unique mechanisms within the Weave itself. Councillor Lassikhio has an instance of that actually. His primary Path-related mana core combined with his Racial Path-related mana core to create a Core Path.”

My mind boggled a little. There were so many follow-up questions I could have asked just then. Racial Paths could get mana cores just like my unique Path had gotten one? If there was even something called a Core Path, then how was it different from regular Paths I had seen so far?

One thing at a time, though. First, I actually needed to awaken my silly second mana core.

“Is there some way I can keep an eye out for mana core interactions?” I asked. “Should I, I don’t know, encourage it somehow?”

“That would be up to you, in all honesty,” Se-Vigilance said. “Mana cores… are more inscrutable and individualized than most things about the Weave. Even more so than Paths. Far more so, in fact. Almost as much as Icons and Insignias. As such, without understanding the underlying properties of your mana cores, making any suggestion would be difficult at best.”

And damaging at worst. She didn’t need to say that bit out loud. I got it perfectly fine.

She had also mentioned Insignias, which I recalled hearing about a while back. According to the Councillor, they were a different kind of manifestation of one’s power, similar to Icons, but only accessible to those above Sovereign rank. That explained why none of the Councillors possessed any.

I felt like we were stuck for a whole day while the engineers and technicians finished setting up the rail system. Getting to squeeze in a sizable nap convinced me that I had underestimated just how long this whole operation would take.

Was this how soldiers felt during wartime? Moments of life-threatening excitement and anxiety interspersing ages of boredom?

“You really do snore like an ape,” Khagnio said when we gathered back together.

Cerea gave him a flat look. “You’re not getting me with that one, you scaly bastard.”

“I’m serious!” He looked to me and Ugnash for confirmation. “Her snoring woke you two up as well, right?”

Ugnash and I exchanged the briefest of looks. Khagnio or Cerea? He tilted his head briefly in Cerea’s direction. Well, that settled it. We both turned back to face Khagnio and gave him a flat stare.

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“Humourless jerks,” he muttered before walking off sullenly.

I laughed. Now that was funny.

Our progress through the Nether Vein remained steady. The weird tactic the Councillors had chosen to enact was working somehow. Well, I attributed the fact that we didn’t face any opposition that I’d call extreme over the next few days to their plan.

Honestly, I was more worried by the fact that I was sure it really was days that passed. We cleared a chunk of the Nether Vein, waited for the rail-builders to finish rail-building, then repeated ad nauseam. I was also taken aback by just how much Klevacite the Councillors had been able to unearth. Every stop we made, we established another camp protected by the torches.

“You can take a step back for once, Ross,” Cerea said at our next encounter with threats from the Nether Vein.

“Hey!” I glared at her. “I didn’t even say anything.”

“Yes, well, I can see it on your face. You want to dive right into the fray, even though you don’t need to.”

“I don’t need to, but I could take care of a lot of it with—”

“Ross!”

“Fine.”

I didn’t mind taking a step back. It wasn’t like taking a step forward had resulted in new ranks just yet, despite the effort I was putting in. Well, not as many ranks as I’d have hoped and certainly no breakthroughs, which was what I was actually looking forward to.

That said, after what felt like the second entire day within the Nether Vein, I did earn a few more ranks.

[ Rank Up!

Your Spirit Attribute has risen by one Rank.

Your Leadership Aspect has risen by one Rank.

Spirit: Gold IX

Leadership: Iron VIII ]

No breakthroughs to help my mana core or my Illumination just yet. Argh.

It did make me wonder if I could gain an Affix for Leadership that benefited everyone I was supposed to be a leader of. Like, could it buff my followers and subordinates? Could I get an Affix powerful enough to boost my comrades’ Attributes to get closer to mine?

Something I’d need to ask around about. With the myriad powers on display, the expedition was prime grounds for learning things like that.

For the time being, I distracted myself by noting how strong the others were. I had already received plenty of proof of the Councillors’ strength. They were incredible, people I couldn’t even dream of messing with, not even now. But it was the others they had brought along in this expedition who caught my eye.

Tavarth wasn’t just a capable leader, he was a strong warrior as well. When he fought, his spear took on a harsh golden glow, and his body moved erratically. I didn’t fully understand what was going on or what kind of Aspect he was channelling.

It was highly effective, though. In the same way that my Multicast-powered Illumination was able to take down a ton of monsters at once, so could Tavarth with his strange Aspect.

There were others besides him too. Another older member of the military lugged around a huge axe while almost necromantically calling up summons from the ground. That seemed like an almost broken combination. She had the ability to both overwhelm her opponent with her summons, and then had her axe to smash them apart with direct, brutal power.

And of course, there were my friends.

Khagnio was mostly holding himself back again, but on occasion, he pulled out all the stops just like he had in the previous expedition. He turned into a bladed hurricane, edged with razor-sharp crimson energy that tore through any opposition daring to stand before him.

When paired with Ugnash’s aggro-management abilities, this was incredibly effective against the Nether Vein monsters. Corpse after monstrous corpse lay in their wake.

“They make a good team, don’t they?” Cerea said.

“Have they been working together even before they met you?” I asked.

“That’s right! Those two go a long way back.”

Right. Everyone had their histories.

It wasn’t always just monstrous obstacles that hampered our forward progress. At some point in time, the Nether Vein had decided to employ tricks and hazards that I’d have expected from normal, everyday dungeons.

We encountered an area where a landslide threatened to bury us alive. The guy with the huge shield was there to protect everyone, even though almost everyone present had some sort of defence even against landslides. That said, we let him stop it, deciding to spend the rest of our efforts on pushing the rocks away.

“I can just Sacrifice them away,” I pointed out. “So we don’t need to worry about where we’re going to put the rocks we pick up.”

They agreed that it was a good plan. I got a ton of rock essences, which made me look like a statue come alive. Thankfully, the later ones just overwrote the earlier casts.

Another barricade was when we were forced to wade through liquid murk. No one was sure what kind of substance it was, and Se-Vigilance tried to create platforms for us to use, but there were just too many people in the expedition for that.

“Shit,” Ugnash said, having tested it out by dropping his toe into the inky muck. “It burns. Like acid.”

I got a lot of looks for failing to use Sacrifice. It wasn’t working. The substance’s ownership still lay squarely with the Nether Vein, so my Sacrifice failed to register it as tribute, even with Overclaim. Anyway, I had a different plan. Field Manipulation was the way to go.

“We can’t keep it up, though,” one of the adventurers said. “Even if we’re safe now, what about the rail line? Who’s going to safeguard against the trains perpetually?”

“That’s what the Klevacite is for,” someone else answered. “It—”

“It can’t repel obstacles, can it?”

We all looked to where it was being applied directly. The Klevacite torch was working… but not as well as one would hope. Somehow, the Nether Vein was pushing past whatever forcefield or repulsive aura it had and was slowly reinstating the inky flood now that I had removed Field Manipulation.

“It’s alright,” Se-Vigilance said. “This is why we are better equipped to deal with all sorts of scenarios for this expedition.”

I wanted to point out they had just needed me to bail them out of whatever strange flood the Nether Vein had sent our way.

But I was glad I didn’t speak too soon. One of the military members exchanged a look with the Councillor, then stayed behind with a small number of soldiers in tow. I could only stare when I saw the counteraction they had come up with.

Their powers were weird. Somehow, they were manipulating the weird liquid that the Nether Vein had sent. Some part of it, at least. The liquid portion emerged from the mess, drawn away by the military to be directed elsewhere. This left the murky Netherthreads slithering about with nowhere to go. Those were much easier to take care of with the Klevacite torches.

I shook my head, deciding against thinking about it too much. Although, it did make me wonder if they had countermeasures for everything else that the Nether Vein could cough up.

Later, on what felt like the third day—time was hard to tell in the Nether Vein—I finally got the chance to step up in a way that mattered. Enough for the Weave to finally sit up and pay attention to my efforts.

The next army that the Nether Vein had sent was airborne. They flew high, the majority of the enemies remaining within the shadow of the storming Netherthreads while pelting their gobs of sparking, acidic energy. We had Aspects that could protect most of the expedition. But for one, the shields were melting.

For another, our enemies were too far away for us to reach.

Which was why I took flight.

I wasn’t alone. Both Councillors were rising too, as well as Khagnio and an Ogre floating on a cloud. Then we tore through the aerial army assaulting us.

As the resident light-man, I was in charge of shredding through the Netherthreads with Illumination. I could do that pretty handily. Manifestation called out simple lights that ripped through the dark strands hiding away our foes. That allowed the rest of my compatriots to unleash their fury and tear through the winged demons.

But not all of them were being decimated. Several managed to break through the obliteration and dive-bomb straight for the rest of the expedition.

Not on my watch.

I fell too. The light I had summoned above wasn’t going to disappear too soon despite now being distant. I could rest easy. The ones above would be fine. And the ones below were more than well-equipped enough to deal with any threat foolish enough to attack them directly.

That said, we were supposed to deal with the airborne monstrosities. I wasn’t letting a single one escape me if I could.

I reached the monsters well before they got even close to the ground. Infusion turned me terribly heavy, accelerating me towards the ground way faster than the plummeting monsters. And just as I shot past them, I cast Illumination again, just with Multicast active this time.

Light burned through them with ravaging intensity, every single monster going up in flames in mere seconds. They didn’t reach the ground either. With Multicast, the Illumination I was channelling came along with Gravity, but it didn’t have Infusion. Instead, Siphon reduced the monsters’ weight.

The winged demons incinerated away in the air well before they even came close to reaching the rest of the expedition. I grinned at them all, because the blue screens had appeared.

[ Rank Up!

Your Thauma Attribute has risen by one Rank.

Your Gravity and Illumination Aspects have risen by one Rank.

Thauma: Gold IV

Gravity: Gold VIII

Illumination: Gold I ]

I grinned. Yes, there it was. Illumination had finally hit Gold. Now, I could start materializing my plan for my fun, new Affix.