Divine Apostasy Book 12 - Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Ruwen willed the Carnelian of Desire into his trembling left hand and the Soul pain dulled but didn’t disappear.

Level four Soul power sputtered into Ruwen’s body, rebuilding it. As if competing, energy from his Activated Root chakra coursed through his body like warm water, healing the damage and rebuilding his missing parts.

The Divine and Mental Domains had both remained unaffected so while Overlord, Uruziel, and Lir had all vaporized in the explosion, they remained safe and just reformed themselves.

The portrait of Whiskers had disappeared. Thankfully the Watcher’s Ring of Travel was on Ruwen’s left thumb and had avoided disintegration. He brushed an index finger across it and Whiskers reappeared in her city form.

Whiskers’ eyes narrowed and she hissed.

“I know,” Ruwen said. “I’m sorry.”

Whiskers dashed away. Survey had updated to reflect all the damage, and Ruwen gave the cat a fifty-fifty chance of making it all the way up to the surface without assistance.

“Somehow,” Overlord said, “you always find a way to outdo yourself.”

Ruwen pushed himself to a sitting position. “Let’s keep this between us.”

Uruziel looked more thoughtful than upset. “It’s good we learned this here. If you’d taken your Saraph form inside the Creation Realm I’m guessing it would be permanently catastrophic for everyone.”

Ruwen groaned at that thought. He’d touched two notes together here. An entire body contained trillions of notes, and that type of explosion was too hard to comprehend.

Raising the Carnelian of Desire Ruwen studied it carefully. It appeared its time in his Soul Vault hadn’t damaged it. In hindsight, placing a chakra attuned item inside what he theorized was the chakras opposite type of magic, the Soul, was bound to create problems.

Placing the gem back into Inventory, Ruwen took a moment to confirm his Soul had recovered. He’d just gotten it working so damaging it again so soon would have frustrated him.

“Your hand regrew orange,” Lir said.

All of Ruwen’s clothes had either disintegrated or been blown off and his entire body glowed with an intense orange.

“That’s weird,” Ruwen replied. “Maybe it regrew normal and then the color seeped into it.”

Lir shook his head. “No, I watched it regrow orange.”

That was a mystery that would need to wait as Ruwen recalled what had caused all this. Turning he examined the newly expanded hole.

To Ruwen’s surprise the bottom ended over a hundred feet down and contained a slowly closing rift. He didn’t know the original size, but it currently stood five feet tall and stretched two feet wide. Multicolored light spilled from it, making the bottom look like a kaleidoscope. On the other side, which he assumed was the Creation Realm, something grey and square was just visible.

Ruwen Blinked to the bottom, careful not to land too close to the rift. He stood in front of the opening, peering through the quickly closing tear and into the Creation Realm.

The grey Ruwen had seen from above was a tablet made of metal or possibly smooth stone. Script he couldn’t read covered its surface. His Sacral chakra ignited, and he clasped his lower abdomen more in surprise than fear.

The words on the large tablet wavered, and while Ruwen still couldn’t read the script, his Sacral chakra apparently deciphered it, because the burning in his gut turned frigid. The sudden shift in temperature made him yelp in surprise.

Just before the rift closed completely, Ruwen glanced up from the tablet to see a group of green robed women staring at him with wide emerald eyes.

Then the rainbow light disappeared and Ruwen stood alone at the bottom of the dark hole.

“It was too dark to see,” Ruwen muttered to himself. “There’s no way they glimpsed my naked orange body.”

Ruwen repeated it another two times to convince himself.

Whiskers warned Ruwen it detected movement into the upper cavern.

A moment later Ruwen felt clumps of pressure across his Mental Domain, which he assumed were the leprechauns.

Overlord, Uruziel, and Lir returned to Ruwen’s mind on their own. Until they knew more about these leprechauns no one wanted to take any chances.

Ruwen spoke to them over his mental connection. I’m now pretty confident I was supposed to just look through that thing, not try and open it.

What did you see? Overlord asked.

Some kind of stele or tablet. It had Outerverse script so I couldn’t understand the writing but it did something to my Sacral chakra anyway.

Did you get a Notification? Uruziel asked.

Ruwen had, in fact, gotten a Notification. It turned out he had a few. He only had a few seconds before the leprechauns arrived, so he quickly opened the first Notification.

Bing!

You have gained a new Ability…

Ability: Lesser Apathy

Chakra: Sacral

Classification: Malicious

Description: The Second Vortex governs the flow of passion and creation. To master it is to understand that desire is neither good nor evil, but a current that can either nourish or drown.

Effect (Triggered): Temporarily suppresses all desires in target.

Warning: Use of malicious energies may alter chakra development.

Warning: Higher ability levels of Apathy may cause target permanent damage or death.

Warning: The Radiant Faction forbids the use of malicious chakra energy.

Warning: Radiant Faction Reputation decreased by 100 per use.

This gave Ruwen second thoughts about gathering any more of these Ceardai leprechaun abilities.

The attacking leprechauns had made it halfway to the chamber above. Ruwen needed to head up there soon, so he hurriedly opened the next Notification.

Ping!

You have earned the following Title…

Stripper Ripper

Requirement: Create and survive the violent formation of a rip between Realms while naked.

Attribute Bonus: +100 Charisma, +100 Constitution, +50 Willpower (Note: For being the first to earn this Title all attribute bonuses will be doubled).

Attribute Penalty: -25 Intelligence, -25 Wisdom, -25 Awareness (Note: For being the first to earn this Title all penalties are removed).

Effect: 10% damage reduction in the Creation and Material Realms. (Note: For being the first to earn this Title all effect is doubled).

Effect Requirement: Must be naked.

Ruwen had implemented Titles like this on Grave for the people in Uru’s lands but had never benefited from them himself. Thankfully the penalties had been removed. Honestly though, while twenty percent damage reduction was awesome, the requirement to be naked made it worthless. How often was he naked? And he certainly wouldn’t choose such a thing. Stripping all the time was Sift’s issue.

The leprechauns had slowed their decent, probably to look for traps or an ambush. It gave Ruwen time to open another Notification.

Ping!

You have earned the following Title…

Proper Protection

Requirement: Flash the Priestesses of the Four-Leaf Clover Society without wearing “Proper Protection.”

Attribute Bonus: +50 Charisma, +100 Constitution, +50 Willpower, +50 Strength

Armor Class Bonus: +1,000 Physical, +1,000 Spiritual

Armor Class Requirement: Must be naked.

Effect: 25% Resistance to leprechaun magic. (Note: For being the first to earn this Title Resistance and Armor Class is doubled).

Effect Requirement: Must be naked.

Ruwen stopped himself from groaning so he wouldn’t attract the attention of the leprechauns above. They’d just reached the chamber floor, but all the falling water had created a lot of noise and confusion, and they were cautiously studying the area.

The water had reached the top of the hole above and it now fell around Ruwen. The warm water had already reached his knees. Even though he’d gotten the Title Proper Protection it didn’t mean those leprechaun priestesses had seen him. It was just this stupid dungeon that obviously liked rubbing his face in what really could be classified as a small mistake.

Out of time Ruwen opened the last four Notifications together. They covered his vision.

Ping!

You have earned the following Title…

Pumpkin Spice

Requirement: Earn an inter-Realm alias from a System recognized organization Tier 5 or higher.

Attribute Bonus: All Attributes +10%.

Effect: Fall Favorite – Assume the form of any Fae. Success and duration based on Charisma and actions.

Ping!

You have earned the following Title…

Bounty Hunter

Requirement: Generate an inter-Realm Bounty from a Tier 5 or higher System recognized organization (Fae – Leprechaun).

Attribute Bonus: All Attributes +10%.

Effect: 500% Charisma bonus against all female leprechauns (Note: effect tripled if naked).

Effect: Wearing green will improve invisibility and stealth related abilities by 1,000% against all Leprechaun Clans.

Warning!

An active Bounty has made your position visible to all Fae.

Ting!

You have received the quest…

The Last Drop

A Fae bounty has been activated against the life of Pumpkin Spice the inter-Dimensional flasher. Survive the bounty duration.

Bounty Duration: 777 days.

Bounty Termination Criteria: Touch the Ceardai Throne located in the depths of the Hoard-Hollowed Hill or survive the duration of the bounty.

Bounty’s Listed Crimes

Sacrilege - Flaunting your naked body in front of a holy stele.

Mental Trauma - Exposing a Ceardai royal daughter to the naked human form.

Trespassing – Creation of a non-authorized Realm rift on Ceardai lands.

Reward: Access to Ceardai Clan chakra research for one hour.

Reward: A section of the Hoard-Hollowed Hill large enough to hold 100 followers of Pumpkin Spice’s Clan.

Reward: Free travel in all Leprechaun zones and limited travel in Fae areas for Pumpkin Spice and those designated as part of his Clan.

Restriction: Bounty countdown not active in Destruction Realm or when in Saraph form.

This time Ruwen couldn’t contain his groan, and the leprechauns above heard it. They all moved toward the hole he’d created.