T. A. Star
patreon
32 - Challenges
🕑 Added 2024-07-03 00:00:03 +0000 UTC
Phoenix made sure to be completely restocked on potions now, including ones that cleansed various types of Banes. The Cultivator’s Citadel and local alchemists had been overworking themselves, trying to replenish what had been used during the Soul Reaper’s assault. Unfortunately, this made it harder to even find the items and the price had been impacted. Lucky for her, she had plenty of Bits to pay with.
King’s Dream was doing a “quick” patrol through the Razorteeth mountains, starting towards the northern end and working their way south to the fortress town of Souja.
With the magic levels continuing to rise, this would likely be one of their last trips without an Emerald escort. They needed to make the most of it and push both her and Uriel to cross the threshold into Sapphire. This meant finding suitable challenges for them.
“I bet a couple of Rabaerus would be a good challenge for just the two of us,” Phoenix thought aloud as they jogged through the snowy mountain pass.
“We don’t get to pick what monsters spawn,” Dazien pointed out.
“The Soul Reapers seemed to somehow,” she muttered.
“Did they pick or were they just forcing random spawns?” Rayna asked, “I honestly wasn’t sure and you’re the only one that got a decent look at one of those ritual rooms before they all got forcibly transfigured into rubble.”
“Is that supposed to be a nice way of saying ‘blown up’? ‘Cause that makes it sound so much worse for some reason,” Phoenix grumbled.
“Hold,” Dazien mentally commanded as he froze ahead of them and ducked down. The rest of them followed suit, Phoenix activating the stealth effects of her [Embrace of Shadows], blending them into the darkness of the rocky crags they were navigating through, waiting for instruction, “I need an appraisal.”
Phoenix conjured her [Crystal Spyglass] and handed it over to the more knowledgeable party member. Uriel accepted it before slowly approaching to observe the monster Dazien’s [Eagle Eye] had spotted.
“Crystal Caste, and I’m fairly certain it’s Corrupted based on the glowing and…rotting bits,” the mage informed them all before adding regretfully, “I have no idea what it is, though. Flying humanoid hybrids are not normally a thing at Crystal.”
“So, how is there one here?” she asked curiously.
“Monsters are basically fake copies of a species from somewhere in the cosmos,” Uriel began explaining, “And when I say ‘cosmos,’ I mean the greater kind. Creatures from beyond our reality, like Rex or Orebela. The assumption is that a lot of the various species are repeated across realities to a certain extent, and they’ll normally spawn based on a shared attunement with the area they spawn in.”
He nodded in the direction of the unknown monster still quite a distance from them, “Something completely new isn’t impossible, just rare because they are likely rare in the grand scheme. There’s also the theory that more realities are constantly being created so there will always be the chance of new monsters but we can’t prove that.”
Dazien interjected then, “So, an unknown Crystal Corrupted that can fly –at least a bit from the way it’s hovering– and is attuned to Metal and Song by the looks of it.”
“Really?” Uriel asked curiously, focusing through the spyglass once more, “I would have guessed Wind and Earth based on its looks and the area. Those new Sapphire Caste eyes of yours are already coming in handy.”
Passive Ability: Eagle Eye
Type: Perception
Current Caste: Sapphire 1
Crystal Effect: You have greater control over your vision and can focus on details from a great distance.
Sapphire Effect: You can see the types of magic a creature or item is attuned to.
“Honestly, I think that close call with the Corrupted Golataur shook my soul into trying to give me something to avoid that kind of situation again,” the Defender said with a slight shudder, then surprised the Wayfarer by turning and adding, “Sounds like it’s time for Phoenix to try a solo challenge.”
“Me?”
“You’re immune to Corruption no matter the type. It’s Crystal, so it should be within your capabilities. We can step in if things get too dangerous, or we can retreat if you very suddenly or inexplicably die,” he listed off before giving her a bright smile and a thumbs up, “Good luck!”
Phoenix’s eyes narrowed at the party leader as she asked, “Is this revenge for eating the last chocolate marshmallow cookie Uriel made?”
“You know those are one of my favorites,” he pointed out, “But do you really think I would send you if I didn’t think you were capable?”
“No,” she murmured dejectedly as she trudged towards the monster, keeping her aura close around her.
“Oh, and no [Meteor Shower] or [Supernova] here. Don’t want to cause another avalanche,” Dazien mentally added as they watched her from a distance.
“Sometimes I think you just hate that I have an easy solution,” she grumbled in response. Once she got close enough to see it a bit better, she prepared to execute her new plan of attack.
The creature looked almost insectoid in nature, which was rare for the cold tundra, its upper half more humanoid with an angular face bearing large glowing fractal eyes. It had two antennae-like prongs rising from its forehead and was completely hairless. The bottom half, however, looked like a cocoon of thin metal flaps that were glowing from within while releasing some kind of gas or steam.
Phoenix assumed this lower half was what was allowing the monster to float along, hovering a couple of feet off the ground as it seemed to be examining a large pile of rocks. This lower part would be her main target so it couldn’t just fly off.
Normally, she would have gone for the head, but the Corrupted were undead and basically ran off pure Corrupted magic, so they didn’t care about normal organs, like brains. She hoped that the same couldn’t entirely be said for whatever was allowing it to fly, even with some of those metal flaps looking a bit rusted and broken.
The Wayfarer took a calming breath, sent her boots and socks into her collection, and then activated [Avatar of Bakunawa]. Her body quickly shifted into a more draconic form and her internal clock began counting down.
She began running with her foot claws catching the ground to fling her forward. When she had the momentum she wanted, she conjured her portal from [Transversing the Stars] right in her path with the destination ring directly above the monster.
She leaped through it with her [Night Blade] awkwardly held in a clawed hand, aiming straight down at the point where the humanoid flesh ended and the metal cocoon began. The humming noise it gave off was much louder in her ears now.
Even as her dagger struck its target with a grating screech of metal on metal on one edge, she was already incanting her [Call of the Abyss] Bane to curse the creature with retribution should it try to attack her in return, “Gaze into the abyss.”
The monster seemed to shriek with its reverberating prongs since it didn’t have a mouth. The sheer pressure of rippling sonar waves in the air weighed on her body, causing Song damage and giving the [Deafened] Bane as her ears started to bleed.
She knew Rayna was capable of the same effect with [Siren’s Cry] and wondered if she needed more training with the effect. The silver lining was that she knew the Song damage was being dealt back by her own Bane, and now that she couldn’t hear anything, she could focus more on trying her new combat ritual.
“Let dreams become reality,” she said –ignoring the oddness of not hearing the words herself– and activated her [Lunar Dream] to create a large ritual diagram on the ground below them and followed that up with the activation incantation, “Let the sun shine on the darkest day and bring brilliance to this dreary world.”
There was a brief flash of light as her [Starlight Companion] and [Sun Shell] were both destroyed in a flurry of metallic needles coming from the rusted flaps of the bottom portion, and she felt the sting of quite a few of them strike her right as she finished the ritual. The Astromancer cast the lower cost and shorter cooldown version of [Dawn Rises], which forced some of the needles out and closed up the wounds as the area was flooded with a blinding light that didn’t affect her [Moonlit Eyes].
It did seem to affect the monster, however, as it shrieked again, this time in rage rather than in any kind of attack. “Flame on,” she commanded, and Tala manifested alongside her, engulfing the creature in magical flames. Her [Eclipse Breath] mingled with the [Cosmic Phoenix]’s own [Star Fire] and was a potent mix of Dimension, Fire, Light, and Dark damage that was almost enough to destroy the monster entirely.
It only took a few more attacks with her silvery [Cosmic Talons] ripping into the monster’s fleshy parts and Tala’s matching ones to finish eating through the target’s buffed-up Fortitude, though she did get quite a few needles for her troubles.
Feeling like a pin cushion, Phoenix trudged back to her group to let Saiya fulfill her role and gave a sigh as Rayna groaned, “That’s not fair. We couldn’t see anything that happened through that zone of light thing. I veto using that again. Especially if I’m fighting too.”
“Doesn’t your [Echolocation] mean you actually don’t need to see?” the Astromancer pointed out.
“It’s still annoying and super distracting to have light shining through your eyelids!”
Dazien walked up and put a hand on the bard’s shoulder as he said with a laugh, “I think what Rayna means to say is, ‘Great work, Phoenix. We knew you could handle it.’”
“No, I meant what I said,” the voxen retorted, smacking the Defender lightly in the face with a fluffy tail.
Phoenix laughed, “Well, next time you can solo the floaty Corrupted monster that, I’ll remind you, Daze said was Metal and Song attuned.”
Rayna blanched slightly at that and said in mock cheerfulness, “Great work, Phoenix. We knew you could handle it!”
It was another week before they returned to the World Tree and were eating a meal together in the new dining hall that honestly reminded Phoenix of those large open-space cafeterias she had seen in various movies and shows.
The vessel’s capabilities for creating things wasn’t quite like a Star Trek replicator but it seemed pretty close to her. It had certain knowledge of how things could be made and if it had the materials available then it could put it together up to its own Caste which was currently sitting at Emerald. But the resulting product wasn’t perfect.
It was like the bare minimum had been put into the creation of an item without it blowing up. As far as the food went, it was passable if you loved hospital food, but nothing outstanding. She preferred Uriel’s cooking by far but since they were all tired and curious about the alien food, they had settled for quick and easy.
Presley had joined them as well, talking happily about playing with the new Fae inhabitants that were helping with cultivating the area and keeping the immediate area free of monsters while Patricia was focused more on the technical side of things with Ethan Teras’ help and a few other Magi along with the mysterious voxen that were getting more of Presley’s dormant systems back up and running.
They were almost finished eating when the child suddenly froze mid-sentence and got a wide-eyed look of terror on their face. Everyone became immediately on edge, looking around for a potential threat, and Phoenix asked, “What’s wrong?”
“They got my communicator fixed,” the Emanation said, “Soul Reapers are trying to talk to me.”
“Shut them out,” Dazien ordered immediately, the reverb effect of his Familiar-empowered voice startling the others slightly.
“I can’t!” the child whined, “They know I’m online.”
“Can you keep them from getting any information about us and the tree?” Phoenix asked quickly, rubbing the whimpering kid’s back in an awkward attempt to soothe.
“Think so,” then Presley scrunched their face as though concentrating hard, “There. Secrets safe,” they said after a bit, then added with renewed fear, “They sent Mama a message.”
“I thought they didn’t learn about us?” Rayna asked, “You said secrets safe.”
“Soul Reapers knew about Mama since you all discovered the outpost in the mountains.”
“That’s disconcerting,” their party leader murmured, “They knew about all of us? How much did they gather?”
“Knew everyone’s aura record. Knew Mama is Wayfarer and Chosen. Knew Uncle Dazien is Shiny. Knew Uncle Uriel is–”
“Did they attack because of us?” Dazien abruptly interrupted.
Everyone else seemed to blanch at that idea, Phoenix included, as she asked, “You mean it’s our fault that so many people died?”
Presley shook their head, “Soul Reapers moved the squad and planned to attack for souls in Tulimeir. You made them move early. They weren’t ready yet.”
The gemite seemed to relax at that, “So it was more fortunate of us then. They could have continued spawning more monsters otherwise.”
“What’s the message they have for me then?” she asked hesitantly.
The child looked up at her with big sad blue eyes and said quietly, “Don’t want to say.”
“Why not?”
“Don’t want Mama to send me away…” they muttered sadly, looking down at the floor, “Know Mama doesn’t like being Mama… Need more time to be good for Mama.”
Phoenix felt her heart break a little at that. She hadn’t realized that her discomfort with the position had been that obvious. She glanced toward her friends, but all of them were already looking at her, a mixture of curiosity, disappointment, understanding, and hope.
“Please, don’t say words you don’t mean,” Dazien said softly, “The truth might hurt, but it’s better than a lie or trick to make them believe words you don’t intend to follow. Trust me when I say the betrayal later will hurt worse than any truth you could say now.”
She nodded slowly, taking a moment to sort her thoughts as she addressed the child beside her, “You’re right that I don’t feel comfortable being thought of as your mom. It means something different to me than it does for you, I think, and honestly, I’m not ready to be a mom. I’m not even ready to be an adult, really.”
Presley nodded sadly, their bottom lip stuck out in a pouty frown, “But that doesn’t mean I want to send you away,” she added, lifting their face to look at her again, “I still want you to be family. I think I could try being like a big sister if that’s alright with you.”
The child looked up with a big smile and asked, “I can be a little sister instead?”
She glanced at the others once more, smiles of encouragement reflected in everyone’s face, “If ‘sister’ is what you want… I’m sure Paul wouldn’t mind having another daughter.”
“It’s not like he can say no,” Rayna pointed out, and Saiya gave her a jab with an elbow.
“What? It’s true! Plus, he seemed to be getting in a ‘collecting’ mood. I’m surprised he didn’t try to call Uriel his son next.”
“I shot that down immediately,” the cinderen said with a grimace, “I don’t need him to act the father with me.”
“Oh gods no,” Dazien replied, “You didn’t tell me he did that. Did he really expect to make us actual brothers? That would have gotten awkward.”
“I don’t think he was planning that far,” Uriel said with a shake of his head, “But if he tried calling me ‘son,’ I would have gotten Patricia involved. She seems to be the only one that can talk actual sense into him.”
They all nodded in agreement at that and Phoenix turned back to Presley, “So, my little sister, to get back to the other worry you had. What did the Soul Reapers want that made you think I might try to send you away?”
“They want me,” the Emanation responded, “They said give me back, or they’ll come take me back and destroy Tulimeir.”
Rayna scoffed, “I think they plan to destroy it either way but they already tried and failed. What makes them think it’ll be any different with Kara still here?”
“Are they planning to try sending an army again?” Dazien asked.
“No,” the little girl replied, “They will send big ships. Bigger than me.”
The party leader frowned at that, “Big ships can’t fly here. The ambient magic doesn’t support…”
As he trailed off, it seemed to dawn on all of them at once as the gemite stood, “That’s why they sent the Reality Seeds in the first place! They plan to raise the magic so they can fly in a larger threat! I have to go report this to the Director. Phoenix, can you portal me? We’ll go straight to the AOA and hopefully be back in time for that training session Kara wanted us for.”
She nodded, patting Presley on the head and saying, “You did good. We’ll be back soon; why don’t you go with the others and let Aunt Pati know, too?”
The tiny redhead nodded and took Saiya’s hand, pulling her towards the exit as Phoenix opened a portal for her and Dazien to disappear through. This war wasn’t over for them.
