Chapter 365: Negotiations
I’d originally planned to summon a fire spirit and two earth spirits, yet the moment I began casting the arrays, the open gate overhead hijacked the spells again. It didn’t take long for me to accept the change and work with the anomaly. The moment I did, the strain on my soul lessened, with the anomaly shouldering most of the burden and allowing me to focus on casting the spells.
Within seconds, three armored ice spirits stood before me, each carrying a two-handed broadsword and standing close to ten feet tall. Their power levels were close to the peak of sixth–the absolute maximum I could sustain right now. Surprisingly, their faces and forms were slightly different from each other, though their ’souls’ were identical. As I’d begun to figure out, they were simply extensions of the anomaly, a personification of its power. Perhaps it thought I would be more comfortable if its puppets didn’t all look like clones.
It was right, and I smiled faintly at its concern.
The moment they were formed, the three spirits pressed their gauntlets to their breastplates in a crips salute, mirroring the discipline of the Last Light Company. Bethiv raised an eyebrow at me, but just ended up shaking his head in wonder.
"You never fail to amaze me, my Lady."
Korra nodded in agreement. "Honestly. A second ago, you were about to pass out, and now casting three sixth-circle spells at once? At least wait to reach sixth level before trying something so ridiculous!"
I shrank before her words before noticing the twinkle in her eye. A slight heat crept into my cheeks and my tail twitched bashfully. "S-sorry, but I don’t know how much longer I can continue to draw on the shard. It’s all I can do to remain connected and sustain the gate, and, well, it’s starting to hurt."
Even with the Anomaly shielding me from the worst of the strain, my soul ached, burning with the weight of the shard’s mana. But more than that, I was worried about the voice and presence that had assailed me in the shard. It had retreated for now, but I could feel it hovering on the edges of my mind, watching and waiting. Whatever agreement it had struck with my staff felt tenuous at best, and I wanted to avoid doing anything that would provoke it. The Shard of Omniscience was a conduit to the Divine, one of the few places in this world where gods had actual power. Provoking it would be most unwise.
"Looks like they’re here," Bethiv said with a frown. "Damn it, that’s more than I expected."