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Chapter 271 - Excursion
🕑 Added 2025-12-10 20:44:30 +0000 UTCMirian watched the auroras over Alkazaria. They’d intensified dramatically over the past four days, but they were still at lower levels than usual.
She stood atop one of the towers on the central hill wearing Equinox and summoned the leyline repulsors into place. A collective murmur went through the priests and arcanists watching her. She was used to the reaction. It was one thing to know, and another to see.
Mirian began to gather her auric mana, letting it gather. “Go ahead,” she told the arcanists.
The arcanists cast, using a directed magnetic spell on her armor. The energy went through the transmutation process, becoming arcane energy that she could tap into. Measuring mana was still difficult, but from what she could tell, with Equinox, she now could gain more arcane energy than she used in defending from spells. Magnetic spells were especially safe, so she was using those.
There were still limitations, of course. The system wasn’t perfectly efficient, and would bleed off other forces. It also took her own soul at work to stabilize that system. Much like her father’s mummy soldiers, the resilience could be overcome. However, with the armor rerouting different energies into the energy-absorbing Elder artifacts, it would take an extreme amount of energy to overwhelm the system.
A leyline would do the trick.
Mirian joined the arcane energy she was leeching from the other arcanists with her own mana, then tapped into the leyline repulsors. “Repulsor” had been a poor choice of description. She had seen the Akanan airships using them and initially thought they repelled each other like a magnet, but that wasn’t quite right. They connected with the leylines. She was quite sure Eyeball and Conductor were using a similar device when they activated a Gate, though like with most things, they refused to discuss it.
Spread out in Alkazaria were a dozen leyline detectors, a device she was thoroughly sick of making. However the readings on a dozen devices would be able to sense even small changes. Despite her power, compared to the leylines, she was a raindrop falling on the Ibaihan River.
She cast through the repulsors, willing the leyline beneath Alkazaria to move.
There was a collective gasp through the crowd of priests and arcanists as they felt the sheer power of the arcane energy at work brushing up against their auras. Mirian clenched her teeth and closed her eyes, feeling the rush of energy. Sweat beaded on her forehead from the effort of it. There was another gasp as light poured from the arcane vents on the back of her armor, spreading out like luminous wings for a dozen feet in both directions.
Then she stopped, breathing hard. With the extra energy trickling in from the repulsor and from the arcanists, she’d cast at power exceeding her personal maximum for an entire minute. It would take some time to recover from that.
A few hours later, the data from the leyline detectors came in. A high ranking wizard from one of the local academies, whose name she’d forgotten several times now, read out the results.
She’d moved the Alkazaria leyline a fraction of a degree. It had reverted back to its initial position almost instantly.
It was a start.
That she could do it at all was a triumph. Many of the leyines beneath Enteria were in flux. With correct timing, and positioning, she could potentially redirect the route one was taking. Done far enough upstream of the cascade, even a fraction of a percent change might be enough to move more leylines into the zones where the Gates could pick up and transmit the magical energy.
***
The loop ended on the 17th, significantly earlier than Mirian’s forecast. The destabilization of the antimagic and tertiary fields on Divir must be having a greater effect than I realized, she thought as she woke in her dorm room.
Then she manifested Equinox to herself, marveling at the beauty of the design.
The sound of armor clinking together and rush of wind as air was displaced woke Lily. Usually, she just gaped at her. This time, as soon as her glasses were on, she scrambled back, bumping into the far wall. “What in the five hells!” she screamed. “Who are you? What are you…?”
“This is the 253rd time we’ve had this conversation,” Mirian said, using a quick spell to patch the damage the temporal anchor had done on its way in. “I’m a new Prophet. I apologize I can’t explain more, but there’s work to be done.” And with that, she levitated out the door.
***
Over the next few months, Mirian did in fact work on figuring out how to make her divination devices more resilient to antimagic bombardment. The most effective materials were the soul-infused metals, but the entire reason she’d bothered to retrieve the mythril on Divir was because such metals were time consuming to make. Mundane materials like lead, usually so effective at stopping any sort of energy from passing, did nothing to stop what she was now calling “anti-arcane” energy. The only other thing that seemed to work were fragments of the Labyrinth itself, which she could harvest in tiny amounts by drilling into it—inevitably leading to the Labyrinth summoning things to attack her—or larger amounts, but only after leyline eruptions had pushed smoldering chunks of it to the surface. Presumably, it was because a four-dimensional material was better at blocking anything related to the arcane force.
The tests were successful, but were all done by finding antimagic areas of the Labyrinth and slamming arcane energy into them while the devices sat nearby. They didn’t at all test the tertiary field.
However, it did give her something that plausibly could have taken as much time as she claimed to develop. On the fifth month of the cycle, Nerevain, the Prophets all assembled by the Palendurio Gate. By then, Mirian had dug a proper stone shaft and passage so that they could all take an elevator down. She’d drilled through the solid stone, then used stone shaping to make sure nothing was porous. The resulting passage could take them under the river without dealing with the water or needing to reform the drilled stone.
She arrived at the warehouse she’d bought to find Gabriel poking around at the steel cylinders. “What’re these for?” he asked.
“Air to bring through the Gate. If I don’t contain it in steel, when it releases during the teleportation transition, the violent expansion could hurt someone.”
“Interesting,” he said, and started messing with one of the screw-lids.
“Don’t,” Mirian warned. “I already filled them with compressed air.”
He stopped. “Oh.” After a bit of contemplation, he said, “You know, there’s probably a safer way to do it. A way to gradually release the air mechanically… hmm.”
“Yes, I’m sure there is.” The Viaterrians had clearly known how to manipulate air without magic. She wasn’t going to waste more time on mundane inventions, though.
Mirian then began redirecting the Gate to different destinations. First was Zhighua. As soon as the magic had settled, Zhuan stepped through with several scholars in tow.
“That’s going to make things crowded,” Gabriel noted.
“Yes, but I want to know if there’s variations in the subjective experience of viewing the Ominian,” Zhuan said.
“Why?” Gabriel asked.
Zhuan pointedly ignored him and continued the conversation she’d been having with her scholars. The scholars were doing their best not to look shaken, but they’d just teleported across the continent and were now in the presence of three Prophets. Gabriel couldn’t help but exude a casual confidence that he was looking through you. And Mirian—well. She’d stopped trying to not look intimidating. Even without Equinox on, the fact that she’d taken to casually levitating around unnerved most people, and her glowing eyes only added to that.
If they were already frightened, things were going to get worse for them.
Mirian redirected the Gate to Uxalak next. Xecatl, always reluctant to leave Tlaxhuaco, had agreed that witnessing the Ominian and the strange energies on Divir was worth risking. She had communed with Ceiba Yan a few days prior, so at least some of her progress and memories of this cycle would be maintained. Mirian had already noticed that Xecatl’s communion with the Sacred Tree sometimes left out little details when the next cycle started. They were a point of vulnerability for the Empress. She didn’t like it, but there was also little she could do about it; the temporal anchor was not actually hers.
She arrived with a retinue of four nagual.
It is going to be crowded up there.
It took another hour for Liuan to arrive. She had seven priests with her. “Yes, but do you need all of them?” she overheard Gabriel asking her. Then Jherica and Celen showed up with three wizards and an archmage in tow. Mirian recognized the archmage, though had forgotten his name. She’d killed him in the skies over Torrviol.
It was strange to see Celen walking around. The last time she’d seen him was when she was checking to see if anything had changed. She’d seen his head blown apart by a fireball more than she’d actually seen him living and breathing. In her mind, he was a tragedy, a corpse, a mistake—not a person. He had met Liuan and Xecatl already, and of course, Jherica had been mentoring him, so first he shook hands with Zhuan. Then he came over to Mirian.
“So you’re the Baracueli Prophet?” he asked, offering a hand.
“No. I am a Prophet of all of Enteria. We would all do better if we all thought of ourselves that way.”
Celen gave a nervous laugh. “Maybe. Still feels strange to be part of… this. So much time has gone by.”
Time you spent hiding in death and dreams, Mirian thought.
“Always been a swift hand at spells, but this…” He gave another nervous laugh.
Jherica had talked about Celen in the dream. He was, by Jherica and Liuan’s account, better at writing than talking. Mirian could certainly see that. He was working on developing articles and letters that could better convince either people in power or the general populace to do what the Prophets needed.
“Have you developed the effectiveness of your propaganda? I’m interested in updates on your techniques and arguments.” Zhuan said to Celen.
“It’s not propaganda. It’s persuasion.”
Zhuan gave him a blank stare, the kind she gave people when she thought they’d said something particularly stupid.
“It’s not the same thing at all!” he protested.
“Are you attempting to promote a particular cause, doctrine, and point of view using specially curated information and rhetorical strategies?”
“But it sounds so manipulative when you say it that way,” Celen muttered. Mirian decided the Mercanton Prophet reminded her of a mix of Gabriel and Jherica.
“When you open your mouth to deceive others, you do them a disservice. When you tell lies to yourself, you commit a far greater sin. If you are playing with the meaning of language to absolve yourself of a perceived transgression, then you should reevaluate the political project you serve and the ethical code that led you there. Are your thoughts your own, or are you simply being pushed into beliefs by the currents of social norms and flows of economic pressures?”
Whatever Celen said next, Mirian didn’t catch. It seemed to be some sort of excuse, though, because he returned to Jherica.
Of all the Prophets, Mirian understood why the Ominian chose Celen the least. Perhaps she hadn’t seen far enough. Perhaps his pen would still be valuable.
In this moment, though, she despised him.
Ibrahim signaled his arrival when there was a loud crack! from the elevator shaft. When Mirian cast detect life, she noted Ibrahim hadn’t bothered to use the moving platform. Instead, he’d jumped down the shaft, cracking some of the stone as he landed.
“Ah, we’re all here,” he said as he entered, dusting off his hands.
“Is everyone ready?” Mirian asked the room. She heard murmurs of assent. “I will be controlling the air bubble around the group. Don’t stray too far. The Gate is atop the Mausoleum, and there are no stairs down. Who needs assistance levitating?”
“Sacred One, it would be improper of us to ask that you carry us,” one of the priests blurted out, kneeling on the ground as he spoke.
“It would be less proper if you fell and made a mess. The gravity is weaker up there, but not to the extent you are likely to survive the jump. Unless you are a trained dervish?”
The priest backed away, bowing and muttering apologies. Liuan wasn’t giving him a death glare, but Mirian could tell she wanted to.
After they had taken care of that matter, Mirian briefly discussed the protections she would be putting in place to shield them from the Ominian’s visage. “I will maintain the air from the entrance gate to as far forward as I can. Should the entropic field or tertiary field disrupt my spells—which is likely, I might add—I would suggest all other mages be prepared to cast gather air spells. Though—remember not to fear death. This is not the final cycle.”
Probably, that last line had induced a crisis of faith in several of the non-Prophets present. Mirian blinked up to the conduit room and redirected the Gate.
Mirian took several trips through the Gate first, moving her divination machines through and out of the way, then putting the steel cylinders full of air into position. “Now follow,” she said.
They made their way through.
Mirian burst open two of the steel cylinders as the group arrived. There were gasps of awe, kneeling, praying, and shaking from the non-Prophets, but she paid little enough attention to them. As she levitated her divination devices to different spots around Divir, she watched the other Prophets.
Xecatl stopped and stood, gazing out at Enteria. Her breathing slowed.
Jherica was talking excitedly, mostly to Celen, pointing out the continents beyond the known world. Celen was staring out dumbfounded. Unlike the other Prophets, he clearly wasn’t used to the impossible yet.
Ibrahim stood next to Xecatl, first looking out. Then he knelt, touched his forehead to the ground in prayer, then stood.
Liuan looked out at Enteria, gaze inscrutable, then began looking at the other Prophets. Zhuan did the same. Cut from the same cloth, but a very different pattern, Mirian thought.
Gabriel smiled and shook his head. “You think we might be able to set up a restaurant here?” But even Gabriel didn’t seem to think his joke was funny. He was putting on that facade again. A mask of amusement to hide his true feelings.
They descended down. Mirian used mass hold person as she levitated them to the ground, moving the steel cylinders with them. Then she waited a moment as the Prophets and their retinues examined the sight. The remnants of the ritual circle had lost all magic, but the engravings, lined with bone, were still visible. The piles and piles of dessicated corpses chilled even the most stoic members of the group. Mirian glanced towards the dais. No mythril armor. Bits of the scepter had survived, but the soul-infused metals and titan catalyst were gone. Mirian burst open another steel cylinder of air to accommodate the way people were spreading out.
“So you analyzed these already?” Gabriel asked, running a finger along the edge of where a rune had once been.
She and Zhuan both had done so in the dreamscape first, but there was no need to tell him that. “Yes. Hence my belief they were attempting to heal the Ominian.”
“Or create an undead God,” Liuan said. At Mirian’s skeptical eyebrow, she said, “Some sects of the Church have maintained an oral history of the mistakes of the Triarchs. The Luminates wanted the records destroyed, but others had more wisdom. Humanity’s greatest mistakes should be remembered. Any magic that has been forgotten can be rediscovered. It is only history that must be preserved intentionally.”
Interesting. It wasn’t the perspective she expected from the Akanan.
“The great mistake wasn’t attempting to cast an abominable spell,” Zhuan said from a few steps back. “The great mistake was allowing conditions to form where a few fools could dictate all in the first place. The more power that accumulates at the top of a pyramid, the more likely the whole edifice collapses catastrophically. Hmm… perhaps such a catastrophe is already developing?”
Liuan looked like she was about to respond, but Gabriel interrupted her, giving a big yawn for effect. “Are we going to have a debate again? If so, I can take a nap.”
“We are here for one purpose,” Ibrahim said. He looked away from the piled up dead and towards the great doors of the Mausoleum. The dark stone-like material reflected the sun in strange ways. Even outside, the stone seemed to shift as one moved. There was an unnerving feeling that reality was on a shaky foundation here. Already, Mirian could see the group tensing up as they approached.
“We are,” Mirian agreed, and raised her hand to cast. With a simple force spell, the doors to the Mausoleum of the Ominian swung open.
Comments
Rico Anthony
"Liuan looked out and Enteria, gaze inscrutable," Looked out *at?
Atlas Dwarf
Considering Ibrahim sees the Ominian as the only True Prophet, he might go full return the temporal anchors by any means necessary.
Mai0e
We will see those at the story progresses Iam sure of it.
Azereth
I do personally think she is suffering some serious megalomania, and craziness. But ultimately it comes down to is it crazy if your right. Best comparison would be to someone outside the loop whom she can't objectively prove the world is ending. Her attitude and stance on gathering power is extreme, and she is clealry a megalomaniac. Accounting for the loop their is objective evidence that if she doesnt take control the world litteraly ends, so does it still count?... Psychology doesn't really have a section on magical exceptions 😂
Emma Mass
I've seen a lot of comments saying that Miriam is, to put it simply, going crazy and is excessively paranoid and narcissistic. I wouldn't entirely disagree on than but I would despute some of it just the same. Mirians been stuck living the same less than 6 months for more 25 years. The degradation of her empathy is entirely expected. Honestly I'm surprised it held on this long. I actually don't think she's any worse than Ibrahim, Gabriel or liuan. People in real life are already experiencing empathy fatigue from the constant negative news, systemic corruption, constant wars etc. And we have a linear, non repeating timeline. Further, the consequences for our actions are permanent and can't just be undone and tweaked. People already show disregard for the genocide in Palestine, and barely care about the one in Sudan, but somehow Miriam is supposed to, despite having seen it play out more than 200 times. She's annured to death, and suffering. She's experienced death and suffering so great and eclipsing than any person would have given up by now. I wonder if people are forgetting the last like 250 chapters of this book, where everything happened to wear away at here humanity. I'm not saying this in defense of her actions, just that everyone seems to think she's turning into Mussolini, and that's they feel she's being unreasonable. She's not, she's not anymore obtuse than the other prophets, at least except for Jherica, xecatl and zhuan. The council of prophet's was her idea, she taught everyone in it some arcane magic as well as soul magic, she shared information about the gates, labyrinth, leyline and her research. As much information as she is currently witholding and power she's secretly accumulating, Mirian has been the single most effective prophet out of everyone. And no one here, besides xecatl and zhuan have given her any reason to trust them. Not Ibrahim with his wars, Gabriel with his secrecy, and liuan with her own plan or designs. Not celen either. Nevermind troitin and scebur. Mirians character progression, in my opinion, is Inspite of everything. I think she can be much worse. We may get to see that. But I don't think her actions, taking everything into consideration are outlandish or crazy. I think it's normal for her to be so single minded considering the state of her psyche, relationships with people, or inability to really form relationships with prophets who's motivations don't match her own or are hostile. Especially since it's been her plans that have made the only permanent, tangible progress. When the cycle ended early when she went to divir, everyone new it was Miriam. Because Mirian really is the only one who's had made any effective change and can make effective change to the cycle that doesn't include blowing up a gate. Nevermind that she is already so much stronger than the others to the point where she can't actually enlist their help with many things. They either don't have the depth of knowledge, skilss and training, or capacity and finesse. Others prophets can't body the labyrinth like she can, survive on divir, make tri bonded glyphs, perform complex soul magic, etc. Honestly if Mirian where to disappear right now. I see very little hope of success. Perhaps progress from zhuan and xecatl, but not success. Before the sort out the messy human politics, they need to stop the moon from falling. Mirians really the only one who seems to have the ability to do that at this moment in time. Also, even if her hate for celen is not really justified, it's not misplaced. In mirians eyes, the prophets are supposed to work together to solve the problem, but for her, what celen is doing is like intentionally cutting off an arm because it doesn't want to work. She finds him a waste of very limited resources that the ominian used risking his life, to save the world. So yes Mirian is kinda slipping, but she kinda has every right to be.
Thaabit Rivertree
I'm honesty kind of disappointed we didn't get to see any thorough testing, battle testing, or reactions from other people seeing the armor. I was hoping we'd get a POV of someone else describing it upon seeing it the first time. It feels like she just went straight into using it to convert energy and that's that.
Gopard
nah... man why would Mirian of all people share information? monopolizing it is the very best way for her mind to remain totally we'll adjusted nothing hyper paranoiad and narcissistic about this at all no sirs (ah i mean you stupid ants how dare you not follow MY plan go fuck yourself I despise you soo much!) Yeah I totally agree she should share information but she won't Mirian needs an intervention and Zhuan is going to have to be much more direct ro slap sense into her than cryptic hints... ofc the risk is if you tell Mirian how she is currently going insane her paranoiad ass is likely to just remove your soul anchor immediately or something...
Dalayo Adeeko
I hope Ibrahim gets a Soul Ascension when he sees the Ominian. Since the gap between Miriam and the others has widened so much, it would be nice to see the others have some growth as well
Matt H
Yeah, between that, Mirian's disregard for "mundane inventions", and then Zhuan's comment at the end I think Mirian is well on track to be a dictator. Sure, she'll see herself as a "good one", but her path seems to be one of doing anything (so long as it's something she thinks is right) as long as it'll allow them to survive the calamity. She doesn't seem to care what she needs to break to get there or how the pieces will fall at the end which is... certainly a choice.
Clara
Mirian hating on Celen is interesting character progression. Back when she was first meeting all the others, she saved her judgement calls for like. Behaviours they actively exhibited. Here it seems she's judging him more for lacking certain behavior, and not being "part of the solution" enough
Mr NerfGun
Mirian is more mad about Celen 'running away from his duty as a Prophet' and killing himself than his current usefulness.
Robert Mullins
To be fair, Celen 's only been awake a year. Mirian with a year of experience was probably about as helpful.
Touch
Others fly to a destination and he just ran, others uses a lift and he literally JUMP DOWN THE SHAFT One day he gonna stop the moon/airship/spells with one hand or smth
Mai0e
She just throws shade at Akana, but her saying also fits for the prophet situation as a whole
Mai0e
I think it’s more a barb against Akana Praediar. Liuan and Zhuan are always in fight when thy meet each other because Zhuan despises Akana and sees it as a failing Organisation
Enthernal
yeah, I feel there's a wider meaning to it then just a barb at Mirian. It always comes down to the same; we know too little about the whole situation. I can't wait for there to be some major revelations.
Enthernal
I feel like there's definitely something there, but there's too little clues to what form it would take. But the way leylines gather excess/bad mana seems to imply there is a second part to the cycle. Whether that's a single individual or a massive spirit construct everyone is part of without knowing it, or something else entirely, that's a different question.
V0lcano
"...The more power that accumulates at the top of a pyramid, the more likely the whole edifice collapses catastrophically. Hmm… perhaps such a catastrophe is already developing?" This can apply to so much in humanity's situation. First, there are the handful of incredibly powerful Elder Gods, the Ascended Gods, Mirian herself, and the Prophets as a group. With the timeloop, it's a far greater problem than normal. Ik it's probably a barb intended for Mirian but I wonder just how true it'll be for the situation as a whole with the Gods, once we understand what's happened, and what's setting the fields of time on fire.
Tim
"The more power that accumulates at the top of a pyramid, the more likely the whole edifice collapses catastrophically. Hmm… perhaps such a catastrophe is already developing?” Is that a little bit of a wedge showing between Zhuan and Mirian? She'll certainly be excited to hear about Eclipse. I wonder when the "betrayal" will happen.
Enthernal
interesting train of thought from Zhuan at the end. It can be taken multiple ways, I just hope it doesn't foreshadows betrayel.
Cutbastra
Wait, but his writings! I have a wild theory, so we know he is good with a pen and propoganda, right? And at the beginning of the loops he always died un his desk with papers and ink scattered around. I think he may have been writing and spreading around papers full of propoganda to fight against Troytin, then promptly offed himself. But he couldn't have known the exact details of who Troytin is and what he is doing, so he just indiscriminantly targets everyone in hopes of disrupting him. This would also explain the randomness of the people that get caught up in his scheme, as he would just send his propoganda to different places. After all this could just not be an act, and hes just that bad at verbal communication. Its possible he somehow managed a way to communicate after death but while the loops are still going on (dreams?)
Mr NerfGun
Ibrahim is getting really badass with his Dervish powers.
Tanna
I don't think so "Even without Equinox on, the fact that she’d taken to casually levitating around unnerved most people" I guess that could just be a hypothetical, but I think someone would have mentioned it if she had it summoned
Keifru
Oh boy, is everything going to go to shit after viewing the Ominian, or when they return from perceiving Them... Also, i wonder if they could use Divir has a launch point to get to the other moon. Then again, the anti-magic field poses problems flying, for all the advantage of starting from a place of little gravity compared to escaping the gravity of the planet and making the trip.
gotag
My first thoughts are man Celen certainly doesn't seem like a shadowy mastermind whose alterego goes by "Scebur"... but that's just what he wants us to think
FuriousDee
She should mention that the catalysts best for necromancy are made out of bits of the Omnian
Myr S.
everything feels too peaceful!! its ominous, like the calm before the storm
YarrowFlowers
Celen appears! am I reading it right that she has Equinox summoned while she’s doing this? Because that would mean anyone who saw what she was doing last loop would have confirmation that she can take things through the loops.
Cutbastra
I just realized, Is the Labyrinth a living thing? Is it the actual body of a god/a godly avatar/a mixture of the "gods?" The ancient humans could have flown here and stumbled upon a planet sized eldritch being that bends reality to its whims, or at least they didnt realize what it was at first. It could be a cosmic dragon egg situation, where the entire planet is an "egg" or a sleeping place for a Great Old One the size of planets, with leylines as its mana channels and blood vessels and the labyrinth as its skin and body. Anyways this is just unlikely speculative ramblings, and the gods dont quite fit into this
