With everything in place, there was nothing left to do but power the ritual. Bracing himself, Arthur walked over to his cauldron at the centre of everything, carefully ensuring his footsteps didn’t disturb any of his precisely laid runes. Once there, he took the brush from Vira’s outstretched hands and inked the small space he’d left blank.
As expected, the ether density in the basement immediately began to rise. Only, since his second Soul Splinter was being created on a corrupted world, so too was the nether density. Arthur had been counting on it. The energy levels blew past the limits of a tier two world and then rapidly ascended past tier 3, too. He was a little worried about Razaloth Ornaklon making an appearance again, but this time he had Wovan to help him keep the dimension stable.
He was also far stronger than he’d been last time, and while he wasn’t looking forward to stabilising a realm with his body again, Arthur would do what had to be done.
“Vira, I want you to stay behind me. It's the safest place you can be right now, and I still need your help. Same with you, Viktor, though your lacking body might make you immune to the dangers of this ritual.”
Vira was still a little unsteady on her feet, and she had to run some healing ether through her body before she was ready to move. “I thought my job here was done. I’m not a master ritualist, but even I can tell this one will only accept one power source.”
Arthur nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be the only one powering it. I want to add some different types of energy to this Soul Splinter, though. You’ve managed to harness my healing energies before when you healed me after the battle against Esmerald. I want you to do the same today, only direct the energy into the palace’s monster core using the most complex healing magic you know: poison cleansing, blood regeneration, bone mending, physical doping, everything really. Anything you know how to do, I want you to do it on the core using my ether to fuel the process.”
“Because your healing energy is more refined than mine,” Vira said, nodding her head. “You’ve really thought about everything, haven't you?”
“Viktor, I want you to do the same with the most powerful Dragon magic you have. I’ve got your corrupted remnants, but I want some of the pure stuff too.”
Viktor grinned. “You're really enjoying this.”
“Who wouldn’t?” Arthur replied. “I get to make the strongest damn monsters I can out of my very soul. This one's gonna be my forever home too. I want to make it the envy of kings and queens from a higher realm. How many rules will I manage to break this time?”
Vira sighed in mock-exasperation. “I’m starting to think this might not be the greatest idea.”
Viktor gasped. “Truly. It seems there's hope for you yet, my dear Vira, though in the future, perhaps you could figure that out a little sooner.”
Vira rolled her eyes, ignoring the sarcasm. “Ready when you are, Visitor.”
Arthur sat down in the same place he had last time, placing his palms on the ground and connecting them to the linking runes. The ritual flared to life, black blood glowing ominously as his body completed the conduit. “I want you right behind me, Vira. Make yourself as small as possible. The energy this thing is about to release is no joke.”
Vira complied, placing her hands on his back. Arthur was far larger than the old healer. He hoped that was enough to shield her from the worst of it. He sensed her engaging her strongest defensive magics even as Viktor summoned his own. Good. They were taking this seriously. Arthur connected to his Soul Splinter skill. Two pathways remained unused. That would be changing today. Taking a deep breath, Arthur activated the skill.
The effects were instant and nearly disastrous. There was an explosion of energy, and Vira almost flinched out of her safe space. A microsecond later, a wave of force erupted from the core, blowing apart the basement roof and everything within a half mile. The only beings unaffected by it were the three of them, though Viktor's fiery form flickered a little.
“You really weren't joking, were you?” Vira muttered.
Arthur currently lacked the ability to reply. His body was locked in place, his ether a still basin of water being drained into the ritual. He could sense Vira trying to establish a link with him, though she seemed to be having a little trouble with how single-minded his energy had become.
The ether and nether density rapidly rose, pushing to the very limits of tier 4. The dimension should have long since collapsed by this point, but Wovan was working overtime to keep things stable. The true heroes, however, were his observers, way up high in the sky. They were far too powerful to exist on such a weak planet, and they seemed to be using some kind of magic to hold everything together. His ritual was piggybacking off of that.
At this point, Arthur honestly welcomed their presence. By now, his magic was probably detectable from other neighbouring planets, and he was sure the corrupt diviners of fallen planets were currently scrying his position. They would think twice before coming over to investigate, though. It’d be great if the bastards decided to come anyway and ended up killing each other, though. Knowing his luck, they’d probably team up instead.
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There was a moment of eerie stillness, where everything seemingly stood in perfect equilibrium. Then there was a pop, the sound of a wine bottle uncorking, and then they were through. They’d broken into energy densities reserved for tier 5. For a brief moment, Arthur worried if this little slice of the realm would simply collapse, but nothing seemed to change. In the next instance, seven of Wovan’s bodies died, proving him wrong, before The Firebirds' Rebirth brought them back. It seemed stability didn’t come without a price.
It was smooth sailing from there, or at least as smooth as a realm-destroying ritual could ever hope to be. The aura coming from the mimic's monster core was so potent that it far outstripped what Wovan’s had initially released. He had to remind himself that his pet spider had only become an Ender when he shared the effects of his Source of Draconic Vitality with her. Such a convenient exploit didn’t exist here; the mimic wasn’t a hivemind creature for which such a boost would be so broken, and he could only hope his preparations wouldn’t fail him.
Then the energy bursts came, seven consecutive blasts of destructive power, each containing more energy than an EF5 tornado. Arthur's skin was cut, and one of his eyes was sliced perfectly in half, but he remained unfazed. Even without his cauldron, his blood was too thick to flow from such shallow wounds now. Vira, perfectly nestled behind him, thankfully remained unharmed, and Viktor’s nature as a disembodied spirit protected him from the worst of it.
Following that, the ritual's energy was all directed skywards, a beam of pitch black corrupted ether that pierced the clouds and continued on into space. Arthur hoped it hit one of the bastards watching him, preferably the one behind the ice magic.
Speaking of ice magic, the remnants of the world-spanning domain still lingered. The beginnings of a crazy idea sprouted in Arthur's head. He had no idea who the person behind the magic was, but surely they had to be pretty high on the food chain to completely evade Iris’ 17-hour prediction. Whatever the case, Arthur was certain they wouldn’t like what was coming next.
Arthur wasn’t sure why he hadn’t felt the excruciating pain of getting 3% of his soul operated on this time, but he welcomed it nonetheless. Perhaps he’d become a little more resilient since losing his hand. Arthur knew he was about to ruffle some feathers right now, at least one specific bird's. It was the bastard's fault for leaving his magic around like a douche. The Silverglade Palace had gained a small affinity for poison from the attack that had ultimately killed it. Vira and Viktor were both funnelling their respective energies into the ritual.
What was one more?
Extending his aura, Arthur grasped every bit of ice-magic he could. It was elusive at first, evading his every attempt, but then he caught a small sliver of it. That was all it took. Once the mimic's core got a taste for the energy, it did the rest of the job for him. His ritual became a whirlpool, dragging the ice magic from every corner of the world into its depths. Tens of thousands of miles of distance were nothing in the face of its voracious appetite.
There was an explosion of power from up above, so potent it almost rivalled the energy output of his ritual. It seemed the ice magician wasn’t too happy with his theft. Will they finally stop me now? How much are they going to let me get away with?
Vira hacked loudly from behind him, like something was stuck in her throat. That didn’t happen to people as strong as they were. Not unless something had gone terribly wrong. True to his fears, a glob of blood shot past his shoulders, straight from her throat, only it didn’t splatter to the ground like it was supposed to.
The expected intervention had arrived.
The glob of blood began to expand rapidly, taking on the shape of a humanoid female. Arthur had a split second to act. Whoever this person was, they were at least as powerful as the ice magician from before.
Arthur made his decision. You were never supposed to give your enemies time to transform. The ritual was ready for one of Wovan's bodies to join it anyway. However deadly this woman may be, whatever grandstanding message she may have to deliver, none of it mattered. As far as Arthur was concerned, she was just another ingredient who’d served herself up on the platter.
Wovan shot forward with all the power of her telekinesis, one of her larger bodies that had been transformed through The Firebird's Rebirth. She hit the transforming blood lady at seven times the speed of sound, and shot them towards the cauldron at the centre of the ritual.
There was no explosion of force when Wovan entered The Cauldron of Creation. All her momentum had been neutralised in an instant. The spider died immediately, merging with the former palace's core. She'd fulfilled her purpose, delivering both herself and the Lady of Blood into his newest Soul Splinter.
Arthur grinned.
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