Path of Stars, Ch 18: Wild Ritual (Patreon)

“The heart of the ritual is bringing your spirit into balance with the Void,” Alora explained. She was standing next to Sam as they looked out at the stars together. Not long had passed since she’d brought up the idea. With his height close to hers, the pillars that made up his hall seemed to tower into the heavens. It was only a change in perspective, but it left him thoughtful.

“Wild Spirits are one of the few races born in the Chaos Wild,” Alora continued. “It’s our home. But it’s also a dangerous place with many conflicting energies. To survive here, all of my people have a natural ability to balance energy and to make it helpful instead of harmful. The chaos winds have less effect on us than on others. As a priestess, I take that ability a little further.”

“You help others to balance their energies?” Sam asked, giving her a smile. She was easy to talk to, since both of them had a results-oriented mindset.

She was still a little nervous around him, since she had heard many stories about Titans, but over the last day, she’d started to relax.

“Yes, that’s it,” Alora agreed. “I don’t know if it will work for you, but the legends of my family say we once had a close relationship with the Astral Titans, which is probably why they left us the Wild Grove. There should have been a reason for it.”

“And why Asenya was chosen from your race,” Sam said with a nod. If the World Forger had a similar ability to balance energy, it would have made the experiment to create her much safer, but he refrained from mentioning that. No one wanted to hear their ancestor described as an experiment.

Additionally, while that was the view of the Will of the Path, there may have been more to it. Instead, he asked the question that was on his mind, looking for confirmation. “You can see essence, can’t you?”

“Yes,” Alora agreed as she looked closely at him again. “I can see the layer of essence you’re holding there and your own silver energy that is confining it. I’ve never seen anything quite like that before, but the essence is familiar. It is all over the Chaos Wild in many different forms, from the beasts to the stones. It infuses things here and makes them much stronger, but it also tears them apart, almost at random.”

Sam nodded, since her answer matched his understanding of the Wild Spirits. It was no surprise that the Titans had been in contact with them if they were one of the few other races who could manipulate essence, even in a limited way. It also made him like them more. The older Titans had probably felt the same way, like the Wild Spirits were a similar race that should be protected.

“What’s the first step here?” he asked. He was fully aware that she was offering him this help because she needed his in return, but that was fine.

“The full ritual is conducted at the Wild Grove, where there is a balance of elements, but we can do a short version here,” Alora explained. “The most important part is a form of meditation as we find the destructive elements in the essence and release them into the Void. There is a chant and a visualization that brings the energy into focus. I’ll teach it to you. At the same time, I’ll work on the essence around you and try to dissipate the negative parts. That’s a racial ability I’m not sure you’ll be able to copy, but you should try to help.”

Sam nodded. From the sound of it, their racial abilities were completely different from his, so he wasn’t sure what the effect of the ritual would be, but if it helped to balance the essence from the giants, he was all for it. If it didn’t work, the only thing that he lost was time. He’d just have to wait until his Charisma was higher to absorb any essence from Outsiders.

Now that his essence was balanced, he realized he didn’t need to worry about absorbing essence from Void beasts. They were part of this galaxy, so whatever he earned from them wouldn’t upset the balance. Perhaps it would have before, but not now. Hunting them would only help him cycle his essence and reduce his Charisma requirement.

Before long, Alora had taught him the relevant parts of the ritual and they were seated facing each other in the empty forge with the open stars above. He’d also quickly converted the inner pillars for the forge enchantment into a protective barrier in case something went wrong, since he didn’t want to flood the interior of his hall with destructive essence.

It took them several hours to set up the magical part of the ritual. Alora’s talent was on full display as she drew intricate curving lines like the rings of a tree and the veins of a leaf. Here and there, runes for the elements glimmered in spiral patterns and she placed down items at key focal points.

One by one, she pulled items out of her spatial bracelet and added them to the pattern. There were gems that represented each element, from Water-aligned sapphires infused with a heavy presence of the waves to chunks of glimmering ore for Metal and a black slab of basalt for Stone. A ruby infused with a sense of flame represented Fire and a pagoda with a triangular roof and a long central spire held a crackling sense of Lightning.

At the center of it all, she carefully placed a large and ornate leaf that had dense green veins that swirled in a pattern similar to the ritual design. Sam instinctively analyzed it.

Wild Leaf. Pure Wood Aura Artifact. Heroic.

[The leaf is infused with a strong Wood aura and a naturally-occuring unique enchantment pattern. Abilities unknown.]

He’d never seen a leaf that was an artifact before and it left him surprised. It had clearly grown, but it was an Aura Artifact like the ones he made, which meant it had the ability to improve over time. Whatever tree it came from, it had to be incredibly special. The way Alora was handling it proved that. Her movements were slow and careful.

“This leaf is sacred, from the oldest tree in the Wild Grove,” she said softly. “The tree drops a single leaf every three hundred years. I only have one of them and I’ve carried it with me ever since I left home. The ritual’s pattern comes from the bark and leaves on the tree, some of which are copied on this leaf.

“The tree has been infused with the essence of our people for ages, and every ritual that we conduct helps to support it. It’s the center of my homeland. If we were at the grove, I could make the ritual larger and more powerful, but this should be enough to start.”

Sam studied the arrangement with a thoughtful look. The ritual seemed to be a version of enchanting that he’d never seen before, but that was clearly what it was. The leaf was acting like an artifact focusing the whole, while the elemental objects were arranged around it in a supporting pattern. He wasn’t sure what the result would be, but it definitely wasn't common.

As for the leaf and Alora’s help, he was sure that she was drastically understating the importance of this ritual and the leaf to her. If she hadn’t wanted his help and he hadn’t been linked to her people as Titan, he was positive there was no way she would have brought it out. Despite that, she didn’t say anything about it.

“You’ll need to place something unique to you here,” Alora said as she pointed at an empty space at the center of the leaf. “Something that represents you and what you want to balance.”

Sam rubbed his chin and then he used the edge of a talon to create a small cut on his palm. A drop of gleaming silver blood appeared, roiling in a sphere like a miniature ocean. He held his hand out for Alora to see.

“That...will work,” she said as she stared at the drop. “I never knew Titans had silver blood before.”

He carefully placed the drop of blood on the leaf. It immediately spread outward along the spiraling veins, coating the surface with a gleam of silver light as it sank in. It reminded him of how auras fused into a scroll pattern.

There was clearly some strange art to all of this. It was a style that he hadn’t seen before, but it felt just as powerful as any enchantment he knew. It also resonated with the auras of the Void and the elements. There was a hum at the edge of his hearing as he felt them stirring, something that echoed in his spirit.

“And then energy from the Chaos Wild itself,” Alora murmured as she raised her hands. In response to her call, her hair fluttered in a sudden breeze. Winds began to spiral around them, bringing energy from the elemental currents as each type gathered around the focusing objects. At the center, a pure Wood aura gathered around the leaf, but it was also surrounded by the silver light of astral energy.

“And one last thing, to connect you to my people and our race,” she said as she plucked a strand of hair from her head and wrapped it around Sam’s wrist. It was a nearly invisible thread of metallic blue and silver. As she removed her hands, Sam was left with the feeling that this ritual was far more significant than he’d given it credit for.

“Let’s begin,” Alora said as she had him sit at the center of the pattern. Then she sat down in front of him with her knees touching his. The Wild Leaf floated in the air between them, spinning slowly as it shone with light, but Alora’s attention was on the layer of essence around his skin.

Sam nodded and, without any need to speak, he began the spell chant she’d taught him. She had only been able to explain it from a Wild Spirit’s perspective, so neither of them was sure what would happen next.

He closed his eyes as he reached out to the Void, searching for the flow of energy that was there. Alora had described the ritual as attuning himself to the Void and that struck a chord, since it was the same intention as the Path. So, he’d decided to follow her method while infusing it with his own insights that had been building up over his time in the Chaos Wild and on the long journey here.

He sent flows of his essence into the diagram, infusing it with Astral Ice and Fire, his Astral Void ability, his innate energy as a Titan, the aura of the three moons from Aster Fall, and more. Hundreds of runes flickered in his aura and spiraled around the diagram, floating around the elements that they were most similar to.

At the same time, he pushed his elemental and crafting abilities into the diagram, infusing it with the energy of Elemental Smithing, Aura Forging, and Componentless Scribe. He was hoping that if the ritual lacked anything, those abilities would be able to cover the gap.

Across from him, Alora began to sing, her voice rising in a cadence as her hands spread to either side. All around her, a cool green aura sprang into existence. It was her racial ability for balancing energy, something unique to the Wild Spirits. The scent of jasmine was swirling around it like leaves and stirring it into a storm that flowed into the diagram.

The lines of the diagram lit up with green and silver light as all of the separate energies began to flow together, fusing into the whole. A moment later, they were surrounded by a sphere of energy that rose up and enclosed them. All throughout its structure, bright runes flickered, some of them the ones he’d added, but also ones that were unfamiliar to him that had come from Alora and her leaf.

Some of them were far more profound than the ones he knew. They struck his mind like hammers, their edges pressing into his awareness. Unlike when he was younger, he was more than capable of remembering them this time.

Ever since he’d first learned about runes on Aster Fall and heard them sing in the earth, he’d known there were deeper levels. They existed in layers that were part of the world, and not long before, he’d seen the runes born from the fundamental laws of the Void in the vision where the ancient Astral Titan Caerlon had discovered them after a battle with a Vos’Rekan.

Now, he took the opportunity in front of him to study the runes that were appearing and to search more deeply, focusing all of his attention on the energy of the Chaos Wild and how it created them.

At the same time, all around him, the compressed layer of essence from the two giants writhed like a mixture of annihilation and creation, provoked by Alora’s ability. Then it began to float away from him in wisps, its energy pouring into the sphere.

As the transfer continued, the winds surrounding them grew stronger and the runes glowed more brightly, their shapes changing as they broke apart and recombined into more primal forms. The winds built up into a storm that was swirling wildly around them, inside and outside of the sphere. Strangely, it was fierce but harmonious, like a hurricane lashing an island but only clearing it of long built-up debris.

Without intending it, the two of them floated upward until they were seated a thousand feet or more in the Void above the hall. All around them, a vast whirlpool of energy began to rotate, stimulated by the power the essence was releasing.

Runes flickered through the sphere, fragments and whole ones, rising and falling as he continued the chant that Alora had given him. With the increased intensity, the words began to change as they left his lips, turning into runic symbols that fell into the storm.

The whirling winds spun faster as the rest of the essence around him was drawn away and fused into the storm, but it didn’t disappear. He could feel it pressing in all around him, similar in a way to how the World Core channeled experience when he leveled up on Aster Fall. Interestingly, the structure of the whirlwind also felt similar.

The whirlwind continued to build and he felt some threads of other essence flowing out of his skin to join it, but it was only a miniscule amount. It was the remnants of energy from the beasts he’d killed that was still free in his body, after the majority had been absorbed and turned into attributes.

Alora’s voice rose into soaring notes that were half song and half magic. Echoing pulses of mana and aura beat like drums from the Void around them, accompanied by the resonance of the runes at different layers, and the essence in the sphere began to change.

Like a thousand grains of sand polishing the heart of the windstorm, the runes they had summoned flowed through the twisting currents of essence and drew out what didn’t belong. Tiny red motes like blood rubies appeared and were torn apart, their energies disintegrating into the whole.

Wild currents of natural elements appeared then, following in the wake of the runes. Strands of green, blue, white, red, and yellow drew together and flowed after their matching runes until the entire whirlwind looked like a compressed version of the Chaos Wild.

It was a swirling elemental storm of raw natural energy.

Whatever Alora and this leaf had done, it worked. The essence was balanced and one with the Void. At that moment, it had changed enough for him to absorb it, but he was caught up in the moment.

The runes drew his attention as he tried to remember them all and to see the patterns behind them. For the first time, it felt like he was at the heart of the Chaos Wild and he was seeing it all at once.

Instead of ending the ritual, he reached out to the whirling sphere of essence, stretching Crystal Focus and his astral senses to their maximum extent, as he did the next thing that came naturally. He wanted the storm to be bigger, to show him more, and to be even more perfect.

So he Intensified it.

The aura ability poured out of him and it was like a storm spirit had suddenly been born into the world. The sphere had been about three hundred feet wide, but in that moment it expanded to over a thousand and kept going.

Below him, the wards on the hall blazed with light as they blocked the winds, and some spark of awareness in his mind made him push the sphere higher, sending the two of them up for miles into the open Void.

“What’s happening? The ritual should be ending!” Alora’s eyes were wide across from him as she shouted out the question. The scope of the essence around them was ten times stronger than before and still expanding. All she could do was hang on as he poured even more essence into the winds.

“It will be alright. We're seeking the truth of the Void.” The words rolled out of Sam as he continued to intensify the aura around him. At the same time, he swept out his hand and gathered up the materials from the ritual, pushing them toward Alora.

The only item that didn’t move was the Wild Leaf, which seemed to be rooted in the flows of power, so he left it there. He poured his essence into the winds, pushing them to be more perfect and to better represent the Chaos Wild.

The runes that were floating in the elemental currents absorbed the essence and changed, their structures breaking apart as they reformed under even more powerful laws. The winds roared in response and grew larger, but it still wasn’t enough to get to the most primal level. He could feel its existence under everything, tied into the visions he’d seen when he evolved and in the mixing elements.

So, he reached outward with astral energy and the full force of his Elemental Mastery and Astral Void abilities, pulling on the Chaos Wild itself. Outside the sphere, the Void began to rumble as currents of wild energy were drawn toward him, bringing the winds that blew through half the galaxy. They were as broad across as the sky as they stretched from star to star.

The winds fused into the sphere, causing it to expand again, until it covered the horizon and stretched for miles in every direction. The force of the essence flowing around him crushed inward, and as the pressure increased, Sam wrapped his aura around Alora to shield her. The pressure was starting to be similar to what he’d felt in his Titan memories, like the force of energy at the heart of a sun, and in that moment, he felt like it might be enough.

He breathed and the Void breathed with him. Energy cascaded into his lungs and expanded outward as he gave it back to the Void.

All around, the runes began to shine with a pure crystalline light as their forms changed again, but they were simpler this time, every slight angle and curve reflecting deeper laws. His mind expanded, touching one after another, and for a moment time stood still.

Then his essence ran out.

There was a sudden pause as Intensify Aura stopped fueling the winds and their attraction into the sphere halted. The runes flickered and broke apart, fragmenting back into other forms as they disappeared. The winds whipped around him one last time and then everything suddenly stopped.

All of the essence that made up the sphere poured away, some of it out into the Chaos Wild as it returned to the elemental currents and the rest toward him. The winds lost cohesion and crashed outward, flowing away into the Void like a tide escaping from the shore.

In less than a minute, the entire storm dissipated, leaving the two of them floating in the Void far above the small moon. From up here, the hall was only a speck.

Alora was floating across from him. Her hair was tangled from the winds and there was a flush on her cheeks, but she was completely unharmed. Her eyes were sparkling like emerald stars as she stared at him. It looked like she wanted to say something, but she was having trouble finding the words. The items from the ritual were gathered on her lap.

The Wild Leaf was still floating between them, its color more brilliant than ever. Its veins had turned to a pure silver that flowed from one part to another like it was alive. Her hand trembled as she reached out to touch it, but instead of being afraid, she seemed amazed.

“Sorry to startle you,” Sam said quietly. His mind was distant, focused on all of the runes and the laws he’d just seen, but a large part of it was also fixed on her. She was part of the Void, every line of body and hair flowing with natural laws. On her lips, he saw a hint of creation.

“Chaos gives birth to essence,” she said softly when she found her words again. “It’s an ancient law from the First Age of the Void. But you were going the other way, trying to make essence bring back chaos. How did you do that? It felt like you were trying to recreate the First Age.”

He didn’t answer for a while, since it took him some time to finish organizing his thoughts from what he’d just seen. He needed a little bit to process it and to make sure the runes and the feeling of the Void were set in his mind. But then he spoke.

“I only intensified the energies,” he said slowly as he brought his full attention back to her. “I have to thank you. That wouldn’t have been possible without you. I think you just saved me a century or more of time.”

He could feel a difference in his essence that hadn’t been there before, which stemmed from a deeper attunement to the Void, and there were new runes in his mind. Her ability and this ritual were the catalyst that had set it into action. Some notifications from the Path were also ringing in his awareness, announcing a few changes, and the essence from the giants was there as well.

Most importantly, however, there was a silver and green leaf floating in his mind that was completely made up of runes and swirling elemental power. It felt like a copy of the Wild Leaf in front of him, and it was right next to his other abilities and traits. When he touched it, he felt the flow of essence in his body begin to spin like the storm that had surrounded them, and it began to separate as elemental energies pulled it apart. After an instant, he stopped it, since he was drained of energy and he realized what it could do.

Until now, he hadn’t gained any new traits on the Path, just spells and Titan abilities, and he’d thought that they might be unique to the World Core, but something about Alora’s Wild Leaf and his attempt to intensify the storm had added one. He glanced through the notifications.

Congratulations, Astral Artificer.

You have gained the Trait: Wild Balance.

[You have glimpsed the elemental origin of the Void and seen how essence forms part of the whole. As a result, you have gained the innate ability to use elemental energy to purify forms of essence that you encounter.]

Your Intensify Aura Ability has reached Heroic.

Astral Void has reached Expert.

Spell Forging has reached Expert.

He’d gained a tier each in those three abilities, and Astral Void was a key part of his attunement on the Path, which showed that he’d made some progress, but the new trait represented by that leaf was the most important.

He’d already balanced his essence by force of Charisma, but it looked like he wouldn’t have to worry about Outsider essence causing trouble any longer. A smile lit up his face as he looked at Alora.

That trait was enough for him to feel like he owed her.

“Did it work to purify the essence?” she asked hopefully. “That wasn’t what I was expecting, at least at the end. The amount of energy there was even more than a complete ritual at home.”

“It worked,” he replied, his smile widening. “You’ve helped me quite a bit. If your people have always had this ability to purify essence, I can see why the Titans sought you out, and why Asenya was chosen from your family. They must have hoped that she would balance anything that went wrong.”

It was almost like the Wild Spirits were part of the Path. He would still have to finish cycling all of the essence he’d gained in the past, but that would be easier now. She really had saved him some time, and it meant he might be able to get back to his family more quickly.

It was too bad he hadn’t met her back on Aster Fall and gained this trait earlier. It would have prevented a lot of trouble. But at least fighting Outsiders and taking their essence would no longer cause him to lose his mind.

He glanced at the essence from the giants and nodded as he let it merge into his essence constellation. He’d lost a little bit from purifying it, in those red motes that had been pulled away, but thousands of new stars flared into brilliant sapphire light as they joined the others in his spirit. The giants had been worth almost 50k each, for a total of 98,476.

Essence Constellation (Single Star): 827,075 / 2,000,000.

You gain 140 Strength, 164 Constitution, 41 Agility, 246 Intelligence, and 246 Aura.

He looked at the increase to Intelligence and Aura as his smile continued to widen. There was no need to worry about essence imbalance anymore. He would just have to purify the new gains after each battle, and that meant he could focus on adding free attribute points to other areas now, once he gained a few more levels. He’d have to test it out, but it offered a great deal of new flexibility.

Alora didn’t know how much she had just helped him. She’d given him a way to keep his head about him while completing the Path and dealing with these Outsiders. The meeting with her felt like fate. After a little while, however, the excitement faded away into a sense of purpose.

She had helped him balance his essence because she needed his help. It was an advance payment on what he had to do. He still needed to find out the truth about the Outsiders and the Wild Grove and save her family if they were in danger.

“How long will it take your uncle to fully recover?” he asked as the two of them floated back down to the hall side by side.

“About two weeks, perhaps a little less if things go well,” Alora replied as she put away all of the items from the ritual except for the leaf. She held that on her palm, studying it as she shook her head. It seemed that his blood and the elements had strengthened it somehow, but the exact details weren’t clear. “His spirit is strong, but he overexerted himself, so it will take a little while for him to heal, even with my help.”

“In that case, I have an idea for how to make our job a little easier,” Sam said with a grin. “Something that will be more effective than golems in bolstering our numbers.”

Sleset’s old bandit friends were waiting back by his hall, and there was no time like the present to take care of them. If things went well, it would let him get a few more levels and possibly another handful of Silver Nagas.

Sleset had already impressed him with his ability, and if there were more who wanted to follow him, he wouldn’t turn them down. There was no reason to deal with the Outsiders alone.

More than that, he was concerned about the strength of his enemies. That wraith had been too much to handle. If he had to face it again, or something even worse than it, he needed to get stronger quickly.