Chapter 259 - Final Preparations

Nate looked at Frick as his Familiar dutifully worked to expand their house.

“What was the Third Hell like?”

“It was like being eaten by maggots and dying of thirst while you tried to gorge yourself on a hunk of meat. The only mana to be found was in the cores of the demons themselves. But the sense of hungering for something, anything, was so thick that it was like I could taste it.”

Nate nodded along.

“And how did that help you?”

“Demons are very similar to Spirits, Boss. We’re kinda like cousins. Spirits eat each other. It’s one of the ways we get stronger. The Class Core grows with mana, but we can grow our Soul Energy by eating other Spirits. Lord Ankh’Aris showed me how to do more than just grow my Soul Energy by consuming other Spirits though. He showed me how to take in some of their Truths. It’s not as good when they’re not Ascendants, but it helps me get closer to those Truths. I’ll need more though, to catch up to you and Kiri.”

“What Truths were you consuming?”

“Consumption mostly, but it’s more than that… it’s like… Consumption without end.”

“Sounds like Gluttony,” commented Nate. “And to be honest, that sounds kind of dangerous.”

“Oh it is, Boss!” Frick replied happily. “It’s why I have to balance it with what I am consuming!”

Frick waited, looking excitedly at Nate, clearly waiting for the obvious follow-up question.

“Alright, what is it you are Consuming?”

“Chaos!” Frick yelled.

Nate had a think about it.

“So, your argument is what, that because you endlessly consume Chaos, that you’re what, a force for Order?”

“Something like that, Boss,” Frick agreed with a toothy smile, before the blue goblin got back to work.

Nate mulled over the conversation. The understanding around the possibilities for ascending had changed dramatically with what they had all learned in this Wild Realm from Ankh’Aris. Previously, the path forward had been a simple one. Exposure to mana, coupled with accumulating Divine Energy to raise their Classes and Skills. A simple method designed to aid the masses. Nate had to give credit to The System. Its plan was kind of ingenious. It accomplished all of its goals with just one tool. The Class Core gave everyone access to mana, allowed that mana to be condensed, making room for more mana within their Reality. Then, it made ascending easier. Mana empowered everything it came into contact with, which meant it made accessing Truths, Concepts, or whatever you wanted to call them easier. Through that The System could raise Divines who would then be forced to exchange Divine Energy to continue to grow, in turn fueling The System’s growth. Thus, those bound by the Class Cores allowed The System to create more Class Cores, letting it spread further into their Reality and in-turn dump more mana into their Reality. It was a perfect growth cycle.

Nate did wonder why Kali’Terra didn’t release mana into the Celestial, Demonic, and Spiritual Realms. He had a few guesses, but he didn’t know for a fact and intended to keep mulling over the ideas bouncing around inside of his head.

In terms of Ascending, what he did know was what Ankh’Aris had confirmed for them. He and Kiri had already achieved the first stage, which was that of turning their bodies into Divine Vessels, which was just a fancy way of saying that they could now store some Divine Energy within themselves. The System seemed to think that those changes would naturally enhance them. What it failed to point out, was that without their Class Cores, that enhancement would apply to their base Stats. If he and Kiri were following the pre-mana Path for Ascending, they would only be slightly more enhanced than the average person. It was the processed mana that made them superhuman.

Learning the trick of creating processed mana was going to be their first step to replacing or going beyong their Class Cores. According to Ankh’Aris doing so would allow them to create the same kind of enhancements to Stats that the Class Core provided. There was however, an upper limit on how much they could enhance their Stats. That upper limit was also based on their progress of turning their bodies into Divine Vessels. Basically, the maximum amount they could improve their bodies with processed mana was limited to roughly double the size of their Divine Vessel. As they stood now, that meant it would be capped at one-hundred total Stats. 

With a little mental mathematics, Nate determined that they wouldn’t be able to match their current capabilities until they had grown their Divine Vessel to roughly five-percent by The Systems calculations. Ankh’Aris had helped put it in perspective for them, revealing that he would likely be classed at around thirty-six percent. He’d also revealed that he’d only been at fifteen percent when he fought off The Eternium. Nate guessed True Divines were roughly around ten to fifteen percent which just went to show not only how limiting The System was, but just how powerful one could be even when facing arguably comparable opponents. Comparable on paper anyway. It also made Nate realise how much of a crutch The System’s Skills could be.

That led Nate to thinking over how his runes were kind of like Skills, but far more adaptable. The limitations remained the same though, with or without a Class Core. He needed materials to empower his creations and he needed Concepts to make them work. His plan hadn’t changed. He would slowly learn more and more about their Reality and the Concepts that bound it together, expanding his understanding until he could create an artwork that encapsulated their entire Reality. A dream that might take him an eternity, but it made him happy and that was enough for him, even if he failed in the end. It was an idea worth striving for.

That begged the question though, of whether or not he should create his own Class Core. Kiri had already said she wouldn’t for herself. It made sense. She was instinctual in her approach and now that she had finally cast away her misgivings and preconceptions, he had no doubt that her grit and determination would be enough for her to achieve her own goals, given time.

But for him, the idea of creating a new Class Core was tantalising. It was an act of creation, which sung to his soul. More than that though, given his grand plan, he could see how he could slowly incorporate the artwork that encapsulated their Reality into his new core. The question was how he wanted to go about it. He didn’t have the expansive mind of Kali’Terra, nor the ability to read the minds of trillions gathering information. That would in some ways limit him, but in others it would free him. 

His Skill for tiering up a material was a perfect example of a limit placed by The System. He had created Divine materials, something that was apparently quite uncommon in The Heartlands. Divine Energy being used for improving Skills or Levels instead by most there. But more than that, the limitation was the amount of meaning his created artifacts contained. After witnessing Ankh’Aris’s cultivation realm, it was clear that naturally birthed Divine artifacts were different to his own. After discussing the issue with the Ancient Dragon Nate had found the main difference was time. With time, these pillars of Reality would grow in power, only for Ascendants to drink in those Truths, growing their own power. Then the artifacts would become quiescent for a time, building back up until they could be consumed again.

There was more to be gained by utterly consuming one of these artifacts, with Kiri acting as living proof of such. However, that destroyed the artifact entirely. Nate chuckled to himself. The barrier always seemed to be time, and he just never seemed to have enough of it. As his amusement faded he sighed. He still didn’t know whether he wanted to create a Class Core for himself, or try to simply turn his existing Skills into Spells. They should in theory function the same. It would mean changing a number of things about his approach but he had to acknowledge that there were arguments for doing so. He just didn’t know yet. He knew he was being indecisive but he supposed he needed more time. The thought instantly annoyed him as he once more was in need of time, his eternal enemy.

Turning his mind back to the task at hand he tried to distract himself with the things he could accomplish. He was almost ready to create Kiri’s own Regalia. That at least he had made significant headway on, slowly building up the Divine Energy needed to accomplish the act of creation. In truth, he already had enough Divine Energy to do so, and Ankh’Aris had offered to let him do so in the throne room which meant there was absolutely no chance of being attacked. All the Lesser Divines in this Realm categorically feared the Ascendant Dragon and steered well clear of his mountain home.

There was a reason Nate hadn’t completed the work yet though. He wanted to make sure he had enough Divine Energy for his other plan. It was an idea he had been mulling over for weeks, and while he could recognise that he was unlikely to get anything out of it, it still felt like the right thing to do. 

A stream of yellow paint swirled out of his own Regalia, alighting on his paintbrush as he worked to put the finishing touches on that plan. He could’ve just used a rune to control the paint and put it where he wanted to, but the act of moving the paintbrush, the gentle strokes and how it shifted the paint into specific patterns was both therapeutic and authentic. He would save the magical movement of paint for those situations that required it, but whenever he could simply use his paintbrush, he would. Looking at the painting that was almost done, he shifted his Regalia to mimic the sunburst he had created on the painting. It was almost ready now. He just hoped it would work.

*************

Nate sat with Ankh’Aris, the Ascendant having returned to his full size. The obsidian throne room of the Ancient Dragon was made smaller by his presence, his gargantuan form turning the pillars from gigantic trees into mere ornaments. Every breath from his mouth was like the bellows of a furnace, blasting hot air throughout the room. Nate was just thankful Ankh’Aris was restraining his natural aura of destruction, and for his Regalia that was protecting him from the worst of the heat. He’d gone with a purple and white design for his robe today, with sunbursts in black decorating his back. It made him smile to be able to make his robe an artwork, even if it was just a little bit. That was however, not his only reason for smiling.

“You succeeded then?” asked Ankh’Aris.

“I did. Kiri has her own Regalia now. Though it took some work to balance the Destruction in your scales so that it only reflected outward and didn’t destroy the Durability Concept I put on the inside.”

“And what did that teach you?”

“That everything, no matter how disparate, can be connected within the Truths of our Reality.”

Ankh’Aris opened a single, yellow eye that was as large as Nate was tall, “You did something clever didn’t you? Tell me.”

Nate organised his thoughts to explain what he had created.

“Kiri’s new Path is a little different, and I don’t actually have a Sigil for Enduring. Any Sigil I mean, not just lacking a Divine one. Endurance is kind of similar, but not. I found that Durability was the closest I could manage and so, as you know, I used my Class Core granted Skills and some Divine Energy to get the Divine Sigil for it.”

“You could have done that yourself, without Kali’Terra’s aid,” admonished Ankh’Aris.

“True, but not with the time we had left,” countered Nate.

Ankh’Aris narrowed his slitted yellow eye, clearly sensing the half-truth in Nate’s words. The ancient dragon was correct. Nate could have figured that one out on his own with the time remaining, if that was all he had worked on. But Nate had another task he had been working on as well, and so was forced to balance the two. Kiri’s Regalia and his secret project were both going to be Divine Energy hogs, which meant he’d been forced into spending the majority of his time working through his knowledge of Concepts and how they related to each other. 

At the same time, he had been painting almost non-stop. Frick had been working on expanding their home, adding a mini-warehouse onto the building which had become Nate’s personal gallery. The room already had over twenty paintings in it, with no sign of Nate slowing down. Some were paintings of things he had experienced, but others were ideas or templates he was creating in preparation for when they ventured to the Heartlands.

Because those paintings contained Concepts within them, Divine Energy had been flowing into Nate steadily. The first use had been Kiri’s Regalia, which had been far cheaper than his own given he only needed to raise a single Sigil to Divine, rather than four.

“Anyway,” continued Nate. “I wove the two Concepts together so that Destruction feeds on Durability. As it absorbs damage, it enhances the Destructive capabilities. Basically, it’s not actually protecting Kiri, like at all. Instead, she has to Endure whatever punishments she receives, but the Regalia stores that damage, enhancing the destructive capabilities of her own attacks, especially the blades.”

With a thought he displayed The System’s assessment of the item.

Dragonscale Regalia of Enduring Destruction (Divine)

Features: Destructive Absorption (Divine), Destructive Enhancement (Divine), Blades of Destruction (Divine), Item Concealment (Divine), Innate Repair (Mythic), Self-Cleaning (Mythic)

Destructive Absorption: This item absorbs 100% of all damage received by the user.

Destructive Enhancement: This item enhances the user with Destructive energies based on the damage received. Enhancement is equal to 50% of all damage received.

Blades of Destruction: This item possesses Dragonscale blades that may channel the full destructive power received by the Regalia. This can be released as an attack or channelled into the blades to increase their destructive capabilities.

Item Concealment: This item is runecrafted to conceal its nature from all identification. Enough Divine Energy may be capable of penetrating this Concealment.

Innate Repair: This item is runecrafted to repair itself over time using ambient mana. Feeding the item mana can accelerate this process.

Temperature Control: This item is runecrafted to protect against the basic elements and has built-in temperature controls.

Self-Cleaning: This item is runecrafted to clean itself, and to some extent, its wearer.

Ankh’Aris glanced at the description before huffing out a breath of hot air.

“It is passable… and fitting for her Path. Still, this should not have taken you this long. I am disappointed in how you have spent your time.”

Nate frowned and tried to open his mouth in response but Ankh’Aris rode over the top of him.

“Not in indulging in your art. I can recognise that it is a part of your Path. I laud such endeavours for one such as yourself. I am disappointed that you have not accomplished more in your remaining time.”