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BIII: Chapter Four
🕑 Added 2023-06-28 17:54:59 +0000 UTCDarkness ascended as he devoured everything in his path. Only four trunks of tantalizing power remained. He gnawed on them as he rose. Very little of the wondrous lightning found its way into his black hole. Only little static thrills that jolted into his stomach.
Void couldn’t remember a time where he felt so hungry. It was never enough, no matter how much he ate and ate. Irritation mingled with harsh discontentment. He missed the thrill of squishing his prey into a pulp. It had been so satisfying in the moment and yet the pleasure was short-lived.
He paused.
Gravity and space writhed in thrashing waves in his wake.
Something felt wrong. Void shouldn’t be doing this. Awareness of space and gravity spun in a vortex focused on his ultra-dense core.
Voi—
No, Eli, shoved back against Stellar Body. He wasn’t its vessel; it was his. The black hole inside of Celestial Embodiment dispersed.
His impenetrable void form shuddered as gravity slackened back to its previous level of force. A disarray of limbs, hair, and body tissue bristled out of his impossibly dense core as he reformed.
Eli floated flat on his back as if he laid on the floor instead of the middle of desolate shaft. Swollen power buzzed through his veins. Hunter’s Bounty held a feast of energy he’d never experienced.
An unbelievable notification demanded his attention.
<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have leveled up the following power: Hunter’s Bounty Ev. 0/Lv. 0 -> Hunter’s Bounty Ev. 0/Lv. 5>
<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have maxed out the following powers:
Nimbus Sentinel Ev. 0
Hunter’s Bounty Ev. 0
You may now select from one of the following options:
Evolve Power
Merge Power
Obtain New Power
N/A>
<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have slain an Azure Orai with the power:
Sorrowful Fulmination Ev. 2/Lv. 10 (Epic)
Body of Seasons (Autumn’s Frost) (Legendary)
You may now select from one of the following options:
Siphon Power Experience
Gain a Power Perk
Obtain Power from the Conquered>
Eli shook his head in disbelief at how he had maxed out Hunter’s Bounty with a single use. Was infusing it with his black hole Stellar Body that helpful? Or did keeping it unequipped for the past few days have some sort of impact?
It struck Eli that there truly was a lot that he still didn’t know about the System or his powers.
What he did know was that it’d be a waste to not take Robe Guy’s power now. There was no real point in leaving it unless he wanted to see if it’d refine into something better at the end of everything, but in this case, he’d prefer manually tweaking his new power options himself.
Could always break it down for perks to build something later or sell it outright.
<Congratulations, Elias Newton! You have selected Sorrowful Fulmination Ev. 2/Lv. 0
Would you like to—>
Eli cut off the notification as he continued his flight. Whatever he sensed in his black hole addled state led him to believe there was something worth fighting up there. He did wonder why none of the skeletons in the fog-lake counted as slain spawn. Unless, they weren’t sentient or sapient in that way?
Regardless, Eli planned to wait until after Stormshrine to get his new powers from Nimbus Sentinel and Hunter’s Bounty. It was possible that whatever he got throughout the challenge would mesh well with his future options.
As he rose, pressure clamped down on his body and mind. Numb tingles breezed down his arms to his hands. Emerald sparks rained in a cascade over his body.
Hair on his head stuck on end despite the wind from his flight. Ozone burned his nose with the fragrant scent of roses.
Emerald sparks brighten to neon green lightning. Bolts of electricity hammered him out of the air into a cloud of flower petals. Eli screamed as the petals sliced through his aurora armor, leaving a mess of lacerations.
Another bolt of lightning slammed him into a swirling tempest with a portal at the center. He hurled through air and space into open green skies in another part of the dungeon. Burns sizzled in a track up his arms and across his chest from the lightning. New tumorous growths bulged under his wounds in rows of splitting torment.
Eli caught himself with a squeeze of gravity while arrows of starspace condensed around him.
“Hello challenger! How did you like my salutations?” squawked a small parrot with a menacing beak. Oil shimmered in vibrant floral patterns on each of its feathers.
“I didn’t.” Wisps of stardust rendered his burns and tumors into miniature auroras leaving him healed and whole. “Am I supposed to kill you next?”
“Oh? You chose violence with Erutus and lived? Isn’t that fascinating!” It said with a peal of giggling squawks. “How did you manage such a thing?”
Eli ignored the bird in favor of blasting it with his volley of starspace arrows. Each arrow cut out the intervening space to launch inches away from its plumage. A detonation of feathers fluttered where the parrot had been.
Less blood than Eli expected coated the tip of his starspace arrows.
“Wow! That was rude!”
Gravity spun Eli around as the parrot reformed untouched out of a storm of rose petals. Green electricity crackled over each of its pristine feathers and talons. Quills of vibrant electricity streaked toward him.
He teleported above it before the missiles of neon lightning could land on him. Tendrils of warm green wind crushed around Eli. Chilled wind squeezed and scoured over his aurora armor. Bones in Eli’s arms creaked from the force.
Eli shifted with starspace to smite the parrot out of the sky. An explosion of petals took its place as it vanished. Each petal ignited into a flock of electric birds that flew toward him.
“This should be fun even for a glum crow like you!” It screeched once it reappeared a mile away from him. Petals fluttered in a cage around it. The grasp of its wind tightened around Eli as the electric birds drew closer.
A twitch of irritation shuddered Eli’s eyelid. Why did everyone try to trap him?
Eli focused Stellar Body on his nebulas before he transformed.
Nebulous clouds erupted from his body shattering the frisk prison of the parrot’s wind. Aurora Stardust hummed as he created more starspace arrows wreathed in their light.
Space warped the path in front of each electric parrot. Tension built in Starspace Nexus at going head-to-toe with an equally matched power. He couldn’t wait to kill it and steal it.
Eli teleported as fast as he could so he existed in two places at once for a split second. He appeared inside its dome of petals where it watched with glee.
Nebula fingers grasped around the parrot’s body with a crushing squeeze. Aurora flooded out of Eli into it, her, before his power returned ripe with her vitality. He slurped the female parrot’s resources while he squeezed.
Hollow bones snapped like twigs.
Volts of emerald electricity burst out of her broken husk.
Eli found himself free-falling with a blink. Horrid flames crawled up the ruin of his right nebulous hand. His fingers had melted together into a mitten while dark aurora bled out of the swollen tumor ridden burns.
It wouldn’t heal.
Lances of lightning bludgeoned Eli with mocking cracks of thunder. One after the other, hammering him further down.
Stylized talons of petals curled around him.
Eli slid sideways out of space into his sanctum. Through his spatial field, he felt the talons claw uselessly where he had been.
He landed in a skidding roll inside the study of his sanctum. All his momentum bled through the demiplane sending books and furniture reeling. Gravity pushed beneath him while he limped toward the workbench where he left two of his main enchantment projects.
A wooden knife with a keen edge and a radiant arrow crammed with light.
Eli grimaced at the loss of his general enchanting, but he could create something far superior. Spacetime locked his sanctum until his nerves seemed to splinter from the force of the spacetime dilation.
The pain was worth it.
He ignored the knife in favor of the arrow. Streams of stardust pinched around the radiant arrow like a mold. Starspace stitched the two together until the space between the objects was inseparable.
Vibrations shook the workbench as the arrow rattled. Mass pushed against mass in its attempt to displace back into two objects.
Eli willed it still.
He opened and linked three new warehouse sized sanctum bubbles. Floods of starlight, aurora, and starlightning filled each one to capacity.
Cracks of dazzling brilliance in the arrowhead nearly blinded him.
Three new sanctum bubbles latched to the arrow from the fletching, the shaft, to the tip of the arrowhead. Eli enchanted each to open around the arrow as it flew propelling it forward with a spatial and gravitonic blasts
Roman and him had struggled to name their new exosuit, but Eli already knew the name of this one.
He sealed the arrow starspace to hold it together, then stored it in his vault so he could copy it directly. And so he could he enchant any starspace arrow with its effects.
It wouldn’t do to have his Celestial Railgun be a one-and-done shot.
Eli popped back into realspace with a gushing nosebleed. Needles of pain nailed his eyes, ears, and spine from forcing spacetime to slow to his whims.
“Ah! You’ve returned. I thought you were done with our conversation,” she screeched as she flew in rings around Eli at his reappearance.
“Nope. I’m just getting started.” He lifted the charred, wizened claw of his right hand. Dark boils of corrupted aurora studded his now deformed appendage. It hurt. Eli knew the Celestial Railgun would hurt worse.
“Perfect! What’s your name? Mine is Zeffi!”
“Elias Newton.” He bit off saying anymore, despite his internal temptations to introduce himself as Pulsar and her death. it wasn’t worth it to be too cringe.
Eli summoned the Celestial Railgun arrow above his hand.
“Nice to meet y—“ Zeffi cut off what she said with a strangled screech. She turned to flee.
His looming headache doubled into an agonizing migraine. Spatial pressure popped each boil, swollen burn, and thick tumor as his nebulous arm shuddered. Stellar Body kicked in with the intensity of space. It healed in rows of thick, dotted white scars.
Dozens of copies of his arrow splintered out of starspace into Zeffi.
Petals and green electricity bled from her shields until he stripped her of all her protection in a matter of seconds. Zeffi turned into an avian giant of forest green lightning. Blood rained with every flap of her wings.
Eli aimed it directly at her before he took another leaf out of Roman’s book. “Ignite.”
Branches of starlightning cracked around the arrow as he finally let it loose.Three fractal rings of space rotated around it. It thundered forward.
Eli yelped as gravity and space for miles around suctioned into the first ring at the rear. It vanished with a webbed spatial fracture in its wake.
The arrow teleported closer to Zeffi with a rumble as the second ring engaged. Light bent in a mirage as the pull of gravity and space doubled. He barely resisted. Another ring shattered.
Thunder echoed with a sonic boom. Gales of bruising force knocked Zeffi out of the sky as if air and space were solid enough to be shaken like an earthquake. The final ring activated.
Friction kindled the layer of starspace around the arrow turning it into a blazing bolt of starlight. This time, the pull of gravity devoured all light. Its teleportation sundered space with rifts of howling chasms.
Zeffi righted herself with a hard flap. She lifted—
His Celestial Railgun tapped her. Her kill notification flickered across his eyes. Sanctum bubbles broke, injecting three flares of aurora, starlight, and starlightning into her corpse. Eli blinked as tidal waves of primal power consumed the once green skies.
Stellar Body and Aurora Stardust gulped all his unleashed celestial power in moments. His migraine from pushing Starspace Nexus so far soothed immediately. Eli’s disfigured scars vanished as the turbulence remade and reforged him. At the cost of something vital in the integrity of the Stormshrine challenge.
Eli felt the deeper foundation of dungeon’s pocket dimension tremble. The pocket of green skies disintegrated like an illusion leaving him to float in the foggy waterfall he had jumped into.
Four columns of now diminished lightning wobbled.
Thunderclouds lassoed around Eli yanking him out of the shaft. A layer of space popped. He floated in an opulent throne room where guards in plate armor like Maeve’s Storm Regalia stood sentry.
Val stepped out of thin air with a gust of wind next to him.
“What’s your name?” She demanded.
“What?” Eli blinked at her and the rest of the room in confusion. Deep in the room, a giant man sat on a cloudy throne rimmed with jeweled frost.
“What is your name, challenger?” Val hissed again.
Another wind breezed next to Eli.
“His name is Elias Newton, known as Pulsar to the DRC, or as I like to call them, the Diminutive Racist Cocks,” said the man who had lounged on the throne. He crossed the room in a blur until he stood right in front of Eli. “Introduce me, Val.”
“Yes, Your Storminess.” Val bowed. “Esteemed challenger, you have the honor of floating before Sovereign Alcius. Ruler of Eleyna, Protector of Stormshrine, and Wielder of the Chromatic Fulmination.”
Storminess? Were they fucking serious? Eli frowned at the both of them who stared at him with suspiciously flat expressions. He wished he hadn’t switched out Profound Erudition for Hunter’s Bounty when he’d lost himself to the black hole form of Stellar Body.
Also, what the fuck was Chromatic Fulmination and the rest of these titles?
“You’ve caught my attention with your displays, human.” Alcius walked in a circle around Eli to study him from all angles. He was rapidly feeling rather uncomfortable. “Beating Erutus’s avatar in the manner you did was… revolutionary. On top of that stunning show, you shattered Zeffi’s and actually wounded her?”
“I guess.” Eli shrugged while he wished that Other-Rick or Lyra were here. He was way, way out of his depth and had no idea what the protocols were here. Other-Rick actually knew these people, and Lyra at least read plenty of fantasy novels.
Alcius waited a moment for Eli to say more. He didn’t.
“I see that a vocabulary is not a strength you possess.” Alcius nodded with pity. “Would you like your boon to help with that?”
“Boon?” Eli frowned. Val bumped him with her elbow when Alcius’s eyes narrowed. He coughed, “Your Storminess?”
“Did you not hear me? Apologies, I did not realize human ears had fallen to such frailty,” Alcius said, then he shouted, “I wish to reward you for the impressive results you have displayed. Ask and it shall be yours.”
“Can I have a moment to think about it?” Eli hid a wince at the thundering roar of Alcius’s voice right next to his ears.
“You shall have all the time you wish if that’s what you desire! Val, see to it at once that young Elias gets a space where he can think whenever he wants it!”
“Oh, that’s not what I meant.”
“It was a joke. Was it not funny?” Alcius glared at Eli before he laughed. Strong winds buffeted the throne room as pale yellow sparks of electricity flickered inside the marble.
“It was hilarious,” Eli chuckled, along with Val. Was this guy crazy, or was he just fucking with him? “Without using my boon, can I ask you questions?”
“One such as I hopes so or the fate of humanity is far worse than I realized.”
Eli nodded while he thought as fast as he could without Profound Erudition equipped. Fucking cooldown. “What can I ask for? Information or powers? Power gems? I’m not sure what the limit is.”
“Why not? I’ll give you one of each.”
“Wow that’s…” Eli trailed off in surprise. He had just been spitballing to see what the limits were.
“Generous,” Val suggested.
“Yes, it is. Thank you, Your Storminess.” Eli tried to think, but he didn’t know what to ask for. An answer to any question? One power? A power gem? Well, obviously, he wanted a Legendary power gem if he could get it. “Can I… May I ask for a Legendary power gem?”
“Sure! I don’t have one quite that prestigious, but I do have an Epic one. Here you go.” Alcius shoved his hand into a prismatic thundercloud. Eli felt the space inside of it twist and bend where he pulled out a magnificent faceted power gem. Alcius handed it over to Val who held it out for Eli to take.
Eli’s powers throbbed inside of him as he took it. It felt like an orchestra played inside his body. He beamed in anticipation at using it so he could see descriptions of his powers, the statuses of others, or even the perk components of powers.
Or he could try to use it on Profound Erudition or Nimbus Sentinel. Could he use it to merge the two into his ideal power?
“What do you desire for the other two?”
Eli furrowed his brow while he thought.
“Very well.” Alcius waved his hand flippantly. Clouds shifted as the throne room changed to a cozy den with tables for ping pong, chess, pool, foosball, and air hockey. Two recliners sat in the corner of the room. Three paintings adorned the walls in silver, gold, and white frames.
“What’s this?” Eli studied the room with his spatial field while he looked into the paintings. Inside of each was a vision of Roman, Dad, and Other-Rick’s challenges.
“You need time to think and I would not be a proper host forcing you to decide in front of the Court.” Alcius joined Eli with a goblet of pungent wine in his hand. “Drink?”
“Ah, no thanks. I’m good.” Eli smiled politely while he wondered if regular alcohol would even work for him with all his bodily enhancements. Not to mention that he was underage in a strange sky dungeon with his Dad in his own challenge. Getting drunk off a spawn’s wine seemed like it’d blow up his new position as ‘best child’ compared to Lana or Lyra. Plus, he was nervous that Alcius would say that him accepting a drink counted as one of his boons.
Lyra might be the fantasy and literature buff, but he’d heard enough stories of characters who inadvertently wasted a good deal on common human courtesies.
“Which one is your father, Elias Newton? Lord Rick Newton or his brother Rick Newton?”
“The second one,” Eli said after a moment’s hesitation.
“Is it common to give brothers the same name?” Alcius sipped from his goblet.
“Usually not,” Eli said cautiously. It felt so strange having to be careful about his status as a dimensional traveler still. At home, people weren’t nearly as impressed. Why wouldn’t a teleporter be able to travel dimensions? Here he had to be on guard constantly to prevent getting strapped to any dissection tables… and he hoped that was an exaggeration. Paranoia tickled the edges of his mind.
He really needed Profound Erudition to help him calm the fuck down.
If that did happen any interested scientists would take what him, Roman, and Les were working on with their teleportation suit, anchors, and whatever they made capable of dimensional travel.
“You would make a good Lesser Orai. I can sense the gusts of your Dreams, as well as how clouds and vapor stir in your presence. Erutus said you were an atypical human and I see what he meant.”
“Thank you?”
“You’re welcome. Shall we play a game while you figure out what information and power you would request of me?” Alcius let go of his goblet so it floated in the air.
“I have figured out my other boons,” Eli said. He figured it’d be better to push ahead and rush a little to avoid any potential traps while setting his own. “I want any pertinent and in-depth insights you can give me on the inner workings of the System, and either your assistance in making the best power possible, that you can give me, or to improve one of the ones I already have.”
“Done.” Alcius shrugged. “What game do you want to play while we wait for your father, uncle, and manservant?”
“Ping pong.” Eli ignored the rest of what he said. Yikes, Roman would be very unhappy to be referred to as his servant.
All the other game tables dissipated into vapor as the room reshaped itself so the table stood between them. Paddles formed on either side of the table with the ball on Eli’s end.
Eli grabbed both.
“You want to learn more about the esoteric secrets of the System or do the power first?” Alcius lifted his paddle.
“Secrets. Depending on what you say, it might change what kind of power I want.” Eli served with a harsh click—
“Incorrect. I do not care if we are playing a casual game or not. You must always announce the score before you serve.” He tossed the ball back.
“0-0.”
“I do not know what you know, so I hope you will forgive me if I repeat any information.” Alcius paused for a few moments while they tapped the ball back and forth in a volley.
“Powers are far more complex than the System pretends, yes? Evolution and levels do not describe the potency, value, or quality of a power. It is better to think of them as percentages of the power’s integration with whom wields it, and how much they can safely handle.”
“So it doesn’t matter?”
“Have you ever mutated a power?”
“You mean corrupted? Yeah.”
“That is a forced evolution before the System thinks you are ready. If you are incapable or incompatible with the power’s origin and what you’re trying to change it to? It will fail almost every time.”
“And that’s why it’s harder at higher evos?”
“Evolutions. Speak properly, if you would.” Alcius snapped his paddle into the ball right off the corner of the table on Eli’s side. It dissolved into vapor before reforming in his hand. “And yes. Do you understand? 1-0.”
“I think so?” Eli deflected it easily. Both his innate perception of space and Alcius’s connection to the air left them more or less even.
“Have you tried corrupting perks or creating a power out of nothing?”
“No? That’s possible?”
“The former is easier. Perks are small components of powers like human puzzle pieces. Change one to another. It’s best if it aligns with your Core. And indeed, you can create a new power or perk at will. It will take from your essence and your hidden attributes, but it is possible.”
“Really? How? And what do you mean by ‘hidden attributes’?” Eli asked.
Alcius swatted the ball toward the corner again. Eli swung a bit too hard, knocking it out of bounds. It reformed again before he spoke. “2-nil. Indeed, I tell no lies to a guest. I call these attributes Prowess, Perseverance, Perception, and Potential. Some might have other names for them.”
Eli tried to hit the ping pong, but fumbled it on the back of his hand instead of his paddle. It evaporated. He frowned at how badly he was doing.
“3-0, I hear that is a big superstitious age for humans, no?” Alcius served with a chuckle.
“So, how are these attributes scored or measured? Do they have numbers or is it like the different rarities?”
“Ha! Funny. How would the System determine that? Would you grope a man’s muscles and measure his strength?”
“No I—“
“Certainly, you would not. A man may be strong or not, but is a gangly boy still weak? Of course not! He just need exercise.It is not a flat, unchanging constant so it is immeasurable by the System.”
Eli caught the ball. “Wait, so if it’s not quantifiable by the System, why is it being used? In the example you gave, either person would know or at least think they knew if they were strong or not. So why doesn’t the System?”
“That is my point.” The ball crumpled to cotton dust in Eli’s hand. “An individual knows. Imagine me, sovereign and ruler of every bird, cloud, and orai in Eleyna. If I flew around pointing at things declaring nonsensical values and determinations, would it be valuable information?”
“No?” Eli felt like he was in school again and the teacher kept calling on him. Couldn’t he just get to the point already?
“No! The System is like that as well. You feel your own attributes like they’re muscles. Only you know how strong they are and how much power they hold. Others can guess, but you truly will not know without self-evaluation or testing your harder limits. The System cannot quantify it, so it refuses to show it.”
“Okay, and essence is the same?” Eli frowned while he thought about these attributes. What would his own look like and how would they compare to others?
“Essence capacity is determined by the sum of every power you have earned. Whether you obtained the power by completing a first stage power and taking one, merging a number of powers together, evolving one, or acquiring one by slaying a foe. All count the same. However, trading powers is the only way that does not count.”
“But what does essence do?”
“Well, the more essence you have, the easier it is to not only use your powers, but to integrate new or similar ones, yes? If you have less capacity, that will be more difficult. You can also transform unbound essence into—“
“Into new powers or perks,” Eli interrupted, dumbfounded.
“Yes. I hope you can score before your family and manservant returns or this will be a boring game. 4-0.” Alcius spiked the ball with a brutal shot across the table.
Eli buckled down to play as well as we could in order to learn everything possible. He couldn’t wait to make his own attempt at directly creating his own perks or powers.
Comments
Corbin
It’ll definitely be explored more in book 3, if not 4. Spawn do get a boost since they’re starter powers are consistently on theme with their biology, and most of them Initialize far sooner than humans
Beeees!
Close one with the void there. Very interesting info being dropped. Also, fine with current length/release schedule, love how big and juicy your chaps are
weas97
It's interesting to see other parts of the system and the great flexibility it's offering for powers besides the importance of being compatible with them, I wonder if there's a way to know which powers you're more compatible with or have more affinity with (maybe the spawns have an advantage at birth with the power that they are compatible with) and how the king will help Eli with his new power and thank you very much for the extra chapter is great.
