Echoes of War, Ch 29: Void Star (Patreon)

“Blood and ruin!” Sam swore as he saw all the energy that was erupting. He’d been thinking of what was best for Aster Fall when he told the king’s men to leave earlier, and he’d wanted to spare them so the kingdom wouldn’t be weakened against Flaws. He’d hoped they were on the same side at some level when it came to the world.

He’d been wrong.

The king’s men didn’t care about the World Core, being marked as Defiant, or anything else. They had no understanding of the larger picture outside of their little kingdom. He’d also underestimated their grasp of Outsider artifacts. There was clearly a much deeper and more developed connection there than he’d expected. If he’d taken a harder approach with them from the beginning and not had a soft spot for people from his homeworld, he’d have prevented all this trouble.

A wave of cold calculation filled his mind as he revised his perspective. He wouldn’t make the same mistake again, but before he dealt with them, he had to try and salvage this mess.

It wasn’t going to be easy.

The vineyard continued to crack apart as the land above the cavern turned into a shattered ruin. The hills sank, great rifts tore open in the earth, and howling winds filled with orange essence roared upward. Whatever the Outsider artifact had done when it struck the gate, it wasn’t simple.

Curtains of essence mixed with dimensional energy shot upward, following the twisting lines of the cracked ground, and met the dimensional rift in the sky that was still present from where his attack and the spear had collided. Instantly, a warped storm of energy exploded outward as the chaotic forces merged together.

A flick of his hand summoned the four defensive golems that had been thrown across the field by the erupting energy. They were damaged, but intact. Now, he called them back to his side and let them create a defensive layer. There was a big difference between protecting an entire area and just himself. The gate had turned into a disaster, but now his hands were free.

As the land shifted below him, he reached out to the escaping essence from his enchantment. It had shattered into a field of astral energy that was swirling above the land. Now, he called it to him. It was no longer entirely his own energy, which made it more difficult as it tried to dissipate into the Void, but it was still attuned to him. If he wanted to have a chance to solve this problem, he needed to use what was available.
Astral winds gathered as the enchantment’s energy flowed toward him. The area turned bright as silver stars condensed across the field. At the same time, the shield from the Armor of Ethereal Frost disappeared, with the remaining charge from it flowing back into his artifacts. It still had about half of its energy.

As soon as he had some control over the energy, he stepped into the air and found his balance. He looked down at the king’s troops and the disintegrating vineyard. The entire vineyard was collapsing into the cavern and the storm of dimensional energy was beginning to mix with the orange essence from the gate.

Off to the side, the three dozen elites looked around with an aghast expression, their faces pale as they tried to keep their balance in the air. The bone shield was still in the emissary’s hands, but its surface was bleached white. The energy they’d infused was used up.

“You did this!” the emissary shouted as he looked at Sam and tried to throw the blame on him. “You’re attacking the kingdom!” The irony of his words was lost on the man, as well as the result of his own actions.

At that moment, a roar of collapsing earth sounded out from the land as the hills just above the gate exploded away in a gigantic blast of essence, turning the area into a storm of rocks and dirt. Through the haze of debris, the gate became visible from above.

Whatever the spear had done, or whatever the Outsider enchantments on it were, it had struck the gate with full force. A wavering dark streak like the spells on the artifact was imprinted on the door. Tendrils of inky black runes wavered from the sides of the mark as they tried to crawl across the surface. It looked like some curse was infused into the artifact, one that was trying to attack it. What it got, however, was something else entirely.

The gate was reacting to the attack.

Twisting currents of orange essence and dimensional energy curled around the archway like twining dragons, highlighting the partially open door, and the wave of essence that was pouring from the crack became stronger as the door opened wider. All across the cavern, old enchantments and runes carved into the stone came to life, slowly brightening as they took on the same glow.

Within a moment, the entire cavern was a network of Outsider spells around the gate like a massive spider web. Then from key points throughout that network, thirteen pillars of orange essence shot up from the cavern toward the dimensional storm. Each of them was a dozen feet across.

As the pillars rose, they curved through the air, turning into the outline of a gigantic, fanged maw that bit down on the dimensional storm. Jagged spikes of orange energy stabbed into the storm and seized hold of it. Then the maw began to retract, dragging the entire mass of energy with it toward the gate.

“Sleset, target the orange pillars and the gate,” he ordered. “Try to disrupt that energy and don’t let the gate have it. If the king’s men interfere, kill them.”

“They will suffer for opposing you, my lord,” Sleset confirmed. His anger at seeing his lord attacked turned the words into a dark hiss. As soon as he finished speaking, the ship curved around through the air.

The Ice Drake had retreated outside of the vineyard, but a few miles was nothing to it. Now, the ship took up a position to one side of the dimensional storm and began to fire at the orange maw that was dragging the energy toward the gate.

Sam wasn’t sure what would happen if he allowed the gate to consume it, but he wasn’t going to take the chance of finding out. The hundreds of thousands of points of essence from the enchantment burned around him like the birth of a galaxy as he raised his hand and targeted the enchantments around the gate. Shatter Aura and Astral Strike combined together as he attacked.

Streams of silver stars shot down through the sky like a storm of meteors, targeting the gate, the enchantments that covered the cavern, and the dimensional storm. It looked like the starry heavens were descending on a cavern lit by the orange flames of the underworld.

The entire cavern was covered in erupting energy, but instead of focusing on it, he turned toward the dimensional storm and the orange mouth, reaching out with his other hand. A sparkling silver hand reached out through the air, expanding to hundreds of feet in size as he grabbed at it.

Astral Rift was dangerous to use on a world, since it could disturb the local dimensional space and cause cracks in the land and sea, but in this case, it was the best idea he had, so he just limited the range. A wave of dark ripples followed the silver hand, as the area for a mile turned into a silver-streaked mirage.

The storm of dimensional energy and the orange maw froze in the air. Mirage-like stars flowed through it, tearing holes as they streaked across the sky, overlaid on a dark field. Then Sam’s hand closed, enclosing an enormous section of energy a hundred feet wide.

The space where the Astral Rift was tore apart like cloth. Astral forces crushed down toward the center, ripping apart the energy around them and compressing it to the center. The interior of the rift was a dark absence of light that swallowed the energy around it. Everything within the hundred foot expanse disappeared as the rift closed.

Immediately, Sam turned to the next largest section of the dimensional storm as he reached out again. Astral Rift crushed material and energy with dimensional forces, and it dissipated some of it into the depths of the Void. It was the best solution he had. Another massive section of the dimensional storm disappeared into the Void, along with part of the orange maw.

Two rifts were all he had time for, however, as the rest of the energy was dragged down toward the gate. The area there was covered in the remnant explosion of his astral strike, the surface bubbling as the energy faded away, revealing an expanse of stone that was half molten and riddled with giant craters. In some areas, deep holes had formed that pierced through the stone for hundreds of feet. The depths glowed red with heat.

Unfortunately, the gate was still standing at the center. It had been built by a much more powerful entity than him and the attacks he’d sent against it weren’t enough to break it. There was only one difference.

Now, the gate was surrounded by a field of jagged black stone spires that glowed with orange essence. They branched out at strange angles from the stone around it like teeth from a dozen mouths. None of them were straight or simple. They all had jagged edges, strangely twisted patterns, or unsettling bumps and curves across the surface like a thousand insects had gnawed on them.

Even a look at them was unsettling, like they were waiting in the dark for him to turn away and give them a chance to stab him. As the dimensional storm’s energy reached the gate, it was torn apart by the nightmarish spikes and its energy flowed into the archway. The door shone brighter as the crack widened.

Still, his attack hadn’t been entirely useless.

Some of the surrounding enchantments throughout the cavern had broken as the stones they were embedded on melted away. A handful of the Outsiders standing near the gate flickered and disappeared, their forms evaporating as they lost their anchor in the world. The rest, however, were glowing with energy as the gate opened by a fraction. The depth of essence inside that crack was a hundred times more intense than what had already leaked out into the world.

“Time for the backup plan,” he muttered as he looked into the sky. It was late afternoon and Amaris wasn’t visible, but he knew where the moon was. Her presence was a bright purple signature in his mind.

The main part of his enchantment had been intended to draw the moon’s attention here, so the wards on Amaris could act against the essence from Demented Passion. It was what the moon was designed to do, but something in the location had been blocking it.

Now that everything had broken, hopefully the energy here was obvious enough that the moon would pay attention.

From all across the area, the remains of the enchantment he’d laid out began to glow with purple light as he called on them. Three fifths of the runes had been infused with Amaris’s aura, tied into strands of moonlight that opposed the orange essence. Unlike the rest of the enchantment, that aura was still present. Now, it flared upward and gathered into a pool of moonlight. An ocean of silver stars burned across the surface of the pool as he gathered his essence.

A massive bolt of ethereal purple moonlight flew from his hand and seared through the heavens like a reverse meteor, heading for where Amaris was hidden in her erratic course around the world. It was like a lightning bolt stretching back to its origin, creating a link between the gate and the moon above.

A long time ago, he’d called upon Silvas out of desperation. That time, he had only been able to hope that the moon would respond. This time, when he called to Amaris, he did it with full knowledge and the strength of an Astral Titan.

“Amaris!” he shouted, his voice echoing across the heavens as he demanded the moon’s attention. “Your enemy is here. Aster Fall calls!”

For a moment, there was silence, and then a strange pressure fell across the area. The scent of rain and crumbling stone floated across the vineyard, bringing to mind memories of tea leaves and mountainsides, peaceful temples and meditation that calmed the mind.

The burning orange light of the gate that looked like the mouth of a demon suddenly froze in place, as if it couldn’t go any farther, and the gate stopped opening. The attention of a grand force had locked onto everything nearby.

An aura of purple moonlight covered the area as a shimmering image of Amaris rose into view in the sky. It felt slow, but before there was time to take a breath, the moon had fully risen. It hung low and large, directly over the vineyard. A vibrant purple aura began gathering across the cracked earth and the cavern that held the gate.

The Moon of Passion wasn’t the same as Silvas.

The green moon was direct and forceful, like a spear hurled in the forest. Amaris was calmer. Bright purple clouds gathered around the moon like a summer storm, their surface heavy and solemn. The clouds curled like peaceful dreams and gentle hopes as they filled the area, bringing the same smell of the earth after a storm as they created a second sky above the vineyard.

Then rain began to fall, each purple drop as heavy as an ocean as it landed on the jagged stones and the archway. Wherever it passed, the orange essence hissed and turned dark like it was extinguished by cold water. Every drop rang like a gong, the sound bringing stillness to the mind and heart.

The orange essence lashed outward around the jagged spikes of stone, but it seemed unable to fully fight back. Moment by moment, the amount of essence in the cavern was dissipating under the pressure from above. The image of Amaris above the archway grew brighter by the second until it was shining even more brightly than the gate.

The gate shuddered as if it were about to break and the twisting currents of essence around the arch began to collapse. The door began to fall shut again under the pressure of the moon and the orange gap became smaller, but it didn’t give in that easily. The orange essence roared as it fought back, trying to resist.

Amaris had suppressed it, but they were old enemies and it wasn’t going to give in that easily. As the door continued to close, a huge surge of essence erupted from it. It was a wild orange tide that washed across the ranks of the troops in front of it. At that moment, the door slammed shut with a thunderous bang, but it was too late to stop the surge.

The essence gathered around the Outsiders, outlining their forms in a crazed light. A strange humming sound filled the area like whispers on the edge of the mind that was mixed with crystals resonating in the wind and the staccato thump of a terrified heartbeat, and the ethereal bodies of the troops began to solidify as sparks of awareness filled their eyes.

Essence poured around them, bringing them more into reality with each passing moment. Unique aura imprints that held elements of wild laughter and drunken slaughter radiated from them. Their legs and fingers twitched, each movement of their claws and horror-like bodies bringing to mind nails scratching across stone walls and jail cells.

Above, the weight of Amaris’s wards continued to press down on the area, but it didn’t stop what was happening. Its target was the gate and the pure orange essence. Now that the essence had merged with the troops, its target was gone. The moon’s presence began to fade away, disappearing again into the sky just as quickly as it had come.

Below, the expressions of the troops changed as they began to move. Dust rained free from their bodies, followed by the crackle of skin and chitin, blade and bone. Loving whispers were overlaid by screeches and cold screams as they shifted their position. They shifted, their bones crackling as their energy returned.

As soon as he saw what was happening, Sam swore again and reached out with the full force of his essence as he directed an Astral Strike toward the ranks. He wasn’t sure what the essence had done, but he had to stop these things before they left the cavern. Hundreds of silver blades fell through the air, targeting each of the Outsiders.

Before his attack arrived, however, the Outsiders’ heads snapped upward and they looked toward him. They all moved as one, like they were part of the same consciousness. Eerie smiles that were too large for their features flashed open as they bared their fangs, their jaws stretching halfway around their heads.

Their bodies turned ethereal as they faded away, dissolving into an orange mist. The only thing left behind was hundreds of streams of twisting energy that shot outward, escaping faster than the Astral Strike could land. The enchantments that had protected the area were dim now, their force suppressed by Amaris, and the attack landed with an eruption even greater than before.

The silver rain exploded across the cavern where they had been standing, burning the empty stones with fury. The impact gave rise to another boiling storm of essence and molten stone as the bottom of the cavern was shredded apart. The floor dropped half a dozen feet as the pillars throughout turned to slag and the stones melted.

The gate was still stable, but the rest of the cavern was empty now. Sam analyzed one of the creatures as he tracked its movement and prepared another attack.

Illusory Heartrender. Spirit of Madness. Level 354.

The others were similar. Their earlier names and types were still there, but all of them had a new title now. It was some gift from the essence that saturated them. Their levels had vastly increased, putting them in the Third Evolution. Most of the spirits exploded out of the cavern, heading away from the vineyard and into the distance, but two groups took a different route.

One group headed for the king’s elites and the other shot toward him.

He was the closest and the spirits reached him in an instant. A wave of aggravating energy like sizzling smoke stabbed against his skin, followed by a sense of pressure as the spirits tried to engulf him. Flickering orange wisps appeared in his vision as they swarmed around him.

He felt a dozen attacks against his mind and heart as the spirits’ abilities slammed into him, but all they found was a sun made of silver fire and the vast expanse of the universe. The spirits met the Strength of the Sun that coursed through his body and screamed as they exploded into gouts of silver flame.

Their attacks targeted mental attributes, but the comparison between him and them was as vast as the heavens. They were in the middle of the Third Evolution and their attack was equivalent to about 4,000 Wisdom. It was enough to overwhelm someone who didn’t guard their mind, but to him it was nothing.

Howling wails of laughter and pain scorched the area around him as they tried to flee and were consumed by the backlash, and a wave of essence flooded toward him from their deaths.

The spirits approaching the king’s emissary were an entirely different matter. Before the emissary or his followers could respond or erect a defensive barrier, the spirits arrived. Their visages stretched out in insane contortions as massive jaws expanded and slammed down on each of the elites.

It was so quick that the elites barely had time to take a step backward. The level difference didn’t seem to matter to the ones that attacked the emissary or the other 399s. The only difference was that half a dozen of the spirits attacked them at once. Instead of tearing the kings’ people apart, as the jaws closed on the elites, the spirits disappeared, sinking into their chests and skulls.

Wild orange lights appeared around them like wisps, each of them vibrating with a crazed movement that swooped around and zigged and zagged in place, until in a single movement the swarm of lights dived back into the body they’d come from.

The emissary’s eyes turned bright orange and his features stretched into a rictus. His jaw broke in half as his mouth stretched too wide and crazed laughter rang out, its pitch wobbling like an insane chime ringing in the wind. A high-pitched giggle escaped his lip, followed by a guttural wail.

His head snapped around as he looked at Sam, his eyes fixing on him with demented wrath. The bone shield in his hands began to shine with an orange light as roaring streams of hurricane-strength water twisted around his arms. Behind him, the rest of the king’s men underwent similar transformations, each of them possessed by the spirits. As the emissary moved, they followed, their own abilities surged around them.

A handful of the spirits headed toward the Ice Drake as well, but the ship was farther away, which gave the nagas just enough time to react. An icy blue shield sprang up around the ship, creating a sphere where crystalline blue runes spiraled among clouds of frost. The spirits slammed into the shield and crackling frost covered their bodies, freezing them before they were hurled aside.

The ship was designed to take Fourth Evolution attacks and the spirits weren’t able to break through its defenses, but the impact was enough to send the Ice Drake sliding through the air for a dozen feet before its enchantments stabilized it.

Sam reached up after them as he sent a blade of astral light after each of the spirits. The Astral Strikes tore their ethereal bodies apart, turning the area into a field of explosions covered by orange wisps and silver flames.

All of that happened in an instant as the remaining Spirits of Madness disappeared into the distance, leaving behind the cracked vineyard and the scorched gate.

Across the field, the king’s emissary and the rest of the elites were flying toward Sam, their gazes wild as trails of orange essence poured out of their eyes and mouths. The gate was silent now and the rest of the Spirits of Madness had fled, so only these were left.

The Ice Drake was already firing on them from above. The joint mana of the nagas put each crystalline bolt around Level 425. One hit was enough to make an elite explode. Perhaps in a different life, he would have more mercy for them, but in this one, he had none.

His bracers flared to life. He had upgraded them some more on the way home, increasing their storage capacity and focusing enchantments, but they still had the same basic structure as before the Dream of the Void. The earth of the vineyard was torn apart again as he unleashed a field of burning silver and blue stars with one hand and a rain of cutting blades formed from moonlight with the other.

Silence fell across the field, interrupted only by the rumble of the earth shifting and the hiss of molten stones meeting the air. The Ice Drake’s attacks ceased as it flew down and hovered beside him. Sam looked across the area, studying the gate that still stood, and he shook his head.

At least the gate had closed, even if it came with a cost. Those spirits would cause chaos as they spread across the land. He’d have to take responsibility for their release, because he was sure the king wouldn’t. That meant he needed to start hunting them down. He’d need his army and his golems, which meant pulling his forces away from the relic.

Its own defenses and the Gate of Winter would have to be enough for now. The golems, in particular, would be immune to possession. For the rest, a Third Evolution defensive artifact should be enough to keep the spirits out.

As for the lesson here, it had convinced him how he needed to deal with the kingdom and anyone else on Aster Fall who couldn’t see the truth. He wasn’t going to allow his hopes for their cooperation to blind him again. Sometimes, overwhelming force was the best way.

There was only one silver lining to this battle.

The Spirits of Madness were full of essence. The energy from the gate had infused them, pushing their level up to the Third Evolution, and he was already close to the Third Star. He’d been waiting until he was on Aster Fall to reach that level, so that the old bones of the Vos’Rekan that made up the earth here could conceal it from observers. He only needed about 600,000 essence to get there.

This should be enough to finish the job.

With a gesture, he called the essence and the auras from the battlefield to himself, tearing it free from the corpses and the shattered wisps of orange light that were all that was left of the spirits. A storm of orange stars rose up from the corpses and flew toward him, filling the air like a river.

Dozens of spirits had attacked the king’s men, and another dozen had attacked him and the Ice Drake. Altogether, there were about fifty of them, a third of the total number of spirits that had fled the gate.

The essence stars turned to brilliant silver as they poured into his skin and filled his essence constellation. His spirit was a vast expanse of stardust and light with two points of burning silver flame and a third that was partially alight. The new essence flooded toward the third star, making it burn more brightly as it filled with power.

As the star began to ignite under the force, the voice of the World Core rang in his mind.

Congratulations, Astral Titan. You have gained 1,320,544 essence. You have met the requirements to Evolve your Race.

As this is happening on Aster Fall, the Nexus of the Gods, it is unavoidable that you will gain attention from those who watch. This world was the favored garden of many powerful beings, some who reached Ascension here.

Their auras remain, observing the events of the world, and your essence signature is unmistakable. For good or ill, they will mark the rise of a new power, especially an Astral Titan.

Congratulations on achieving adulthood for your race. Your feet will stride across the stars.

New Racial Evolution Path: Astral Titan, Stage 4 (Adult).

Commencing Evolution.

Clouds disappeared from the sky, revealing pure blue that suddenly turned dark as if night had fallen. In the expanse of the Void, thousands upon thousands of stars appeared, each of them a tiny point of light that hovered above, as if they were bearing witness to the moment. Then rays of astral energy descended like radiant pillars, slamming into his body, merging with the essence that was already there.

A sudden surge of strength ran through Sam’s blood as the Third Star fully ignited. Silver flames roared out from him in every direction and the world shook, the broken earth of the vineyard rippling like the surface of an ocean.

His height increased again, expanding upward until he stood at 200 feet and his horns were another 20 above that. His muscles writhed as they shifted and grew stronger, his bones hardened, and his skin glowed with golden power. Silver flames curled around him, flowing through his skin and across his limbs, flaring outward in every direction.

It felt like lightning was crackling through his body, bringing with it a sense of overwhelming strength, as if he could reach out and crush a world in his hand.

Welcome, Lord of Silver Stars, to the Evolution of your Race.

Racial Ability Identified: Void Star.

[The Third Star is the basic strength of your race, and it is sometimes called the Void Star. Your inner essence has reached the level where your spirit holds the strength of a new sun, including its innate connection to the Void itself, the origin of all things. You will find it easier to sense the Void around you.

To cultivate the Fourth Star, you will need to master this ability and learn to channel your astral energy with the deeper principles of the Void. Focus on cultivating your spirit, young Titan. It is only through the flames of your heart that you will master the Void.]

Racial Ability: Elemental Mastery (Special) is strengthened. You will find it easier to manipulate elements on a larger scale than before.

Calculating attributes from new essence. Incorporating Evolution.

You gain 1886 Str, 2201 Constitution, 550 Agility, 3301 Int, and 3301 Aura.

Essence Constellation (Third Star): 741,721 / 10,000,000.

The World Core wrapped up the report of the changes as the astral energy flooding through Sam’s body stabilized, leaving him glowing with a silver mist that poured away from his skin. He looked down at his hands, curling them as he felt the new strength he had. Then he turned his eyes toward the capital.

It was time to settle matters with the king.