[Be Gone] Ch 55 – Epilogues

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Epilogue I...

            The bar of Life Gold spun as the spell lit off, and began to consume itself as the Runes on it pulsed and were eaten away, transforming into golden sparkles that aligned themselves in a widening double-helix pattern familiar to anyone knowing human genetics, both shrinking and replicating itself with great speed as it did so.

            Matter was sucked in from the surroundings, a thread of soul swelled and formed anew, a mind was rebuilt and bound to the body taking form there, all with the blessing of the Land behind it, and the support and reinforcement of the Sacred Site Aelryinth had set up here during his months of recuperation and Matrix re-balancing.

            “Hah?!” blurted out the first word from the figure wreathed in golden light, falling to the luxurious grass. Hands felt the grass as they took a breath, feeling a lot of yawning emptiness inside at the moment.

            No Pacts. No Feature. No Permanent spells. No Staff, no Ring, or any Gear of any kind. Heck, not even any clothes.

            Their last memory was of... “Oh.”

            Well, that would certainly explain it. They glanced sideways, feeling the echo of an Oathring, and then, slowly, their eyes dropped.

            She lifted up her hands in complete disbelief. “This is not possible,” she said, trying hard not to roll her eyes. She could remember casting the spell to make the Clone, it was her last memory! There had been no alterations, nor intentions of alterations.

            “Sylune is totally messing with me,” she sighed. Prestidigitation was a Cantrip, and if her Matrix wasn’t full, that was fine. She flicked up the mirror to look at herself.

            Skin darker, smoother, less roughness, blemishes. Beautiful, in a certain way, but more handsome than pretty. Probably because the eyes were too bright and knowing...

            Eyes, she still had EYES. Very blue, looking quite out of place.

            Sylune’s Grace for hair, drifting white silk already hanging down to her waist. She rolled her eyes despite herself at the sight of it, and could very easily imagine the goddess giggling at her.

            No Hellscars or anything, and she looked younger, either because of the skin or a gimme for being subjected to this.

            She Shaped up a Mask of Clarity, the Soul-Tats not having replicated, and let it settle across her face in a show of jet and silver and celeste eyes covering her own. Devasight and Devilsight lit the area up with total clarity, despite it being night time.

            She looked up at the pale moon twinkling overhead, and just knew Sylune was chortling about this...

            She remembered putting some stuff right over there, behind the stone.

            The cunningly-made cover slid right open, revealing an array of clothing and Gear there for her to use... after a refit and resizing. Gleaming atop it was an Oathring, and an unpowered, 40 QL set of three matching Rings, just waiting to be filled, one by one.

            All four of them leapt onto her hands, and the fingers she was used to having them on. Instantly, the energy of being Sustained started to flow through her from the Oathring, and its protective effects settled around her.

            The SLaP (Sacred, Luck, and Protection) Ring only had its first tier of protective effects, but that was fine. The Prime Elemental Command Ring only had the Acid Resistance at full strength. The Ring of Wizardry was only powered to the First Valence, and the Oathring was only Sustained and with the Death Ward powered up, just that combination taking a month.

            There was a Plentiful Quiver, stuffed full of the Shardwands Aelryinth hadn’t used from Korbald’s people. There were the spinal bones of Oni no Kukanchi itself, Akuma’s Spine having been appropriated for Korbald’s people, but eminently suitable for carving her own Staff.

            She considered the place in the former Shadowlands where Ael had dumped all his plunder from these purgings, hundreds of goldweight-worth Cleansed and just deposited there.

            There, for his Clone to use as she saw fit.

            She fit the clothes on by hand, Prestidigitation working with Weaving Ranks to rapidly adjust them to fit her. She was naturally shorter, less muscular, lighter, and had a different center of balance. Customizing the clothing wasn’t hard, just a minor test to acclimate herself to this new world.

            She would have to reswear a Heavenbound Pact, but that should not be an issue. Summoning another Familiar might be an interesting experience, as she wondered what the Land would send to her this time.

            The first Pyramid was up, and Aelryinth had told Korbald’s people all about how to make one, so she wasn’t obligated to put one up any more. As long as she found something productive to do, she’d be fine.

            Ah, there was the rub. She wasn’t Empty.

She should be in massive negative Karmic Debt, as the Clone of someone who hadn’t inherited the original soul, just a copy of it. That meant she potentially had all of Ael’s abilities, but having never earned them, would not be able to improve any of them with Karma until it was all paid for... and that was a bloody lot of Karma!

There’d been a massive dump of Karma into her from what should be the Glory Award, leaving behind the big reward Karma earned here to get a big leg up on that Karmic Debt. She was going to be at these Levels for a LONG time, unable to improve on them until she paid back all the Karma they needed to be ‘real’, but even if she died and resurrected, she was going to come back as a Ten because of it.

Thinking ahead, as usual.

            Well, she was already at Fifteen, so earning more Karma shouldn’t be an issue. She was still in Karmic Debt, but it didn’t feel quite as horrible as it might have. Still daunting... but Ael had paid it off and earned tons more over the last decade, so she shouldn’t have any problems doing the same.

            There was a whole wide world out there for her to explore to do it in. Aelryinth was heading home to be with his wife and kids, but she was a Clone made on this world, so her home and obligations were here now...

            Exploring this whole world would be a hoot. Odds were that there were some other grand Evils or somesuch somewhere for her to earn a lot of Glory Awards or something for, and if not... well, she was the deepest damn Fifteen these people could imagine, and that was more than adequate enough for her to enjoy a good long life.

            She didn’t think it would be a problem. One way or another, she was going to make Eternal, and there were always opportunities to do so, even if she had to go off-world and get involved in planar wars and stuff.

            Then she was going to have to settle on a new name. Unlike Aelryinth, she was an integrated whole, not a template installed on top of some normal guy. She really was a different person... another unspoken side benefit of the Clone Process, she realized after thinking about it. It was why she wasn’t feeling so disjointed coming in with a reversed gender.

            Huh. The Shards Ael had cut off... probably had much the same experience? If those Sendings were any indication...

            She sat down and crossed her legs, entering Meditation. With no Pact, regaining her Valences was going to take a bit longer than normal, but that was fine, she had some thinking and tweaking to be doing. Ael’s full spellbook was already installed in her Ring, so there were no problems with spells.

            When she was finished, she’d move to regain her Pact, head out to snaffle up the loot she’d need to Burn to get Geared up again, and start exploring this world. She had the feeling a fine future awaited her, or at least an interesting one...

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Epilogue II...

-Sama Rantha,- came the oddly familiar /voice. Sama blinked as she withdrew Tremble from the skull of the yeti it was embedded in, kicking away the polished white-scaled carcass as she lifted the gleaming Longsword up with a welcoming smile to the other two who were circling towards her, claws out, teeth bared, frost falling from their jaws.

-This is Lady Ryinth of the Steel. I was told that you give passage to Coralost for ten goldweight? I’m a bit constrained on my grinding for the next couple weeks, and would really like to get the quest done. Any chance I could get a discount?-

Her blue eyes blinked as her blonde hair danced. There was a blur of silvered motion, and then the howling of the two frost drak stopped as both of them had abruptly lost their heads.

Argh, noobs! -I don’t give discounts for trips to Coralost! Borrow the goddamn money from your friends!- she /snapped back in irritation.

Sama blinked again, just before she forced the /reply to go off.

What the fuck? -What the fuck?- she did /add in stunned amazement. Despite that, she automatically spun around, making sure there were no other drak nearby going to try something stupid, like jump on her.

-Fine! Where are you based out of now?- came the petulant /reply.

Sama had no clue what was going on, other than someone was definitely fucking with her right now. She went over the various scenarios, and blinked as she realized... she was being pranked by someone who knew her origins!

That meant... a gamer from Power of Ten!? Someone else from EARTH?

Sama felt her heart jump, and a crazy smile of delight crossed her face as emotions of frustration and irritation over her long search for a soulmate from back home rose flaring up.

-I’m currently up here in the arse end of nowhere in the Wyrmnever Mountains, not at a bloody port!- she /snarled back, playing along with this to see where it went.

-Oh! Well, then, mind if I Scry you to get a lock on your location?-

There was no hesitation in the voice at all. One, they were confident of being able to Scry her, despite her default Null. Two, they were confident of the range, regardless of where they were at.

Damn! Sama felt some wary hairs go on end. Nobody had tried to scry-and-fry her for a lot of years...

She pulled her Null back inside her, taking a good look around despite herself to make sure there were no mysterious other spellcasters with revenge on their mind in the vicinity. Mithar knew how many she’d sent off to their fates over the past thirty-plus years since she’d started wandering...

-You go right ahead!- she /replied loudly, eyeing the dead drak-yetis despite herself. The hides and fundamentae, once treated, fetched a lot of money from the right places and people. Tremble had the power to Teleport along her Lived-Line for some distance, but if a true Power of Ten Caster was here, well, that just changed everything!

She saw the subtle disturbance of the Scrying pop up about fifteen feet above her, and waited patiently as it oriented the follow-up magic. She wasn’t resisting, but it still found her almost instantly-!

The Teleportation was very powerful, and very subtle. It was like a whispering of wind across the distance, a sliding beam of moonlight, and just as abruptly, they were both there. She tensed up completely upon seeing there were two of them

She sucked in a breath as she saw the bigger one: over seven feet tall, huge shoulders, massive arms, look at those tusks, and the cute little horns! It wasn’t a face she remembered, but the pale violet eyes were exactly as she recalled: ferocious, commanding, and full of intelligence.

And a Sun broke over her skin like it had just turned dawn.

It was her Briggs!

“Ha ha ha ha!” she squealed, jumping forward, her arms wrapping around his massive chest, her tail around one of his thick legs. He was warm and fuzzy and his Crystal Dragon almost clanged against hers.

“Whoa!” he murmured in an incredibly deep, refined voice. “Wow, you feel like you’re made out of iron or stone or something, Sama...”

“You... feel SO FUZZY,” she replied, looking up at him and grinning with all eight canines. He blinked and swallowed at the sight.

            She spared him for the moment, latching long and definitely taloned hands onto a couple of his fingers as she turned to look at the woman there.

            She didn’t look all that old, but the distortion of her Aura indicated she was fucking DEEP and very, very strong. Still, she did a double take on seeing the woman. “What’re you doing, a Storm cosplay? Wait, you’re human?!” she blurted out in layers of shock.

            “Hah! Same thing I said!” Briggs agreed, putting his massive hand down on her shoulder. “First one I’ve seen on the planet, too!” He gave Sama’s fox-ears a poke, then exclaimed, “Ouch!” as a pointed claw promptly poked him back, and grinned despite himself.

            “There’s more of us. Korbald and his Allegiance were sent here by Mithar during the Fall of Terra-Luna. They’re down by the Jade Empire, although there’s not a lot of them...” Lady Ryinth replied with the regality and assurance of a Monarch born, her smile wide and friendly. “It is good to see a friendly face, Captain Rantha!”

            “Humans either aren’t native to the planet or they were bred out into all the races here,” Briggs sighed, shaking his head.

            “I sense a big story time!” Sama sang out eagerly, and Lady Ryinth only smiled further.

            “Loot first, talk later,” she said, spinning out a Disk. “I’d love to hear your full stories, as well!”

            Sama looked at the Disk, at the dead frost drak-yeti, and grinned, one hand’s claws coming up and gleaming in the moonlight. This was a gamer with their priorities straight! “Fundamentae incoming!”

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And so their legendary adventures together start, and will continue on in the pages of sages of another world and time...

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