World Seal, Ch 5: Avatar of Time (Patreon)

In the Void near Silverguard.

Sam looked into the distance, sensing his new avatar as it headed farther away, and he gave it a single nod.

The chance to make time his ally was too good to pass up.

With instant communication between his avatars, he could transmit a thought from one of the slower ones to one of the faster ones and have it return, giving him more time to study a problem.

It might even change how he fought.

If he could process an enemy’s movements and have ten times as long to think about how to respond, his tactics would be more refined.

His thoughts already ran many times faster than his movements, so it wouldn’t be a complete game-changer, but it would be useful for complex work like analyzing rune structures and enchantments.

The Path of Stars had a similar ability to be present everywhere with instant communication, so he wasn’t the only titan who was able to share information across distances. It was just taking advantage of a feature of the Nexus and the time compression here.

The way the Astral Guardian had called for reinforcements suggested he had something that worked pretty well for long-distance communication too, probably an aspect of dimensional magic.

The Surgeflame Elemental in front of him flew toward him like a burning blue-white comet, pulling his attention back to the present.

It had a vaguely serpentine shape as it stretched out, its forward edge opening wide like jaws, but it didn’t have the self-awareness to create a more distinct form.

The core at its center burned brightly as it sent waves of flame through the rest of its body. All of its energy was concentrated there.

This one was Level 402.

He’d already killed a few others that were stronger. At this level, they weren’t much of a challenge, but their elemental flame was worth studying. It was different from his, but also different from the chaos winds.

As the elemental closed in, he reached out with a golden hand that tore through its body and seized its core. The flames washed harmlessly across his skin.

A wave of Shatter Aura spread out from his hand, disintegrating the elemental’s body and awareness. Only the core was left behind. It was a beautiful crystalline sphere, its surface flowing with a layer of golden and blue flames.

He tucked it away in his spatial bracelet with the others, and then he looked back to the nagas, judging if they were ready for another group of enemies.

He was blocking the path to them, keeping them from being overwhelmed while he slowly increased the difficulty. They were fighting a hard battle against the groups he’d already let through.

They’d just killed a few of the elementals, however, and now a section of the army had nothing to do.

“Time for a few more,” he said with a chuckle as he looked toward a distant group of five elementals. Between one step and another, he disappeared in a streak of silver light.

When he reappeared, he was standing next to them. He sent a bolt of astral energy sizzling toward them to get their attention.

Walls of silver light spread out from him, binding the dimensional energy nearby to his will as he created a path for them to follow. It was a form of Astral Binding, but it was more carefully shaped than his earlier field that locked down space.

The elementals raced along the path as they tried to reach him, but the silver walls channeled them toward the nagas. Once they got closer to the army and saw them fighting, their rage shifted to the new targets.

Sam let the Astral Binding dissipate as he looked for a new target of his own, and then he headed for it.

The experience and essence from these elementals was useful, but it still wasn’t fast enough. He had high expectations for the avatar he’d just sent out into the Deep Wild.

Since an avatar could transmit both essence and experience back to him, he was hoping it would be a powerful investment. It would be able to send back whatever it gained, as well as beast cores, precious crafting materials, and more.

It would take it a couple of weeks to get out there, from his main body’s perspective, but once it was, it would be moving three or four times faster than him. It also didn’t need to help the Silver Army level up at the same time.

It would have free rein to focus on battles and growing stronger.

As for the materials it gathered, it would send back what it could, but the rest would have to be delivered by hand when it was done. He had only tested out the transportation ability a little bit, but it was obvious that it came with a massive essence cost.

The energy contained in the item was the main factor, but size was also important.

If an item was small, about six inches or less across, and the energy in it didn't exert too much dimensional pressure, he could send it for about half of his essence pool. Since the strength of his avatar was 60% of his own, that was close to the limit.

There was a chance he could use auras or create an enchantment that would support a larger teleportation, but he would need to experiment and see. He already knew that sending a spatial ring to cheat the ability was out of the question.

He’d tried.

The explosion was impressive. It had nearly ripped open a dimensional rift in the Void by Silverguard. Given the fragility of the World Seal, there was no chance he would try anything like that near Aster Fall.

He looked toward the nagas to check how they were handling the new enemies. Their lines had warped when the elementals hit them, but they were reforming now. They were a bit scorched, but otherwise fine.

His attention returned to studying the nature of the elementals’ flame as he focused on his own battle. Arcs of silver flame leapt out from him to meet the three in front of him.

If he was lucky, with the help of his avatars there would be enough time to do everything he needed before more trouble arrived.

***

On Sun’s Rest.

Sam’s avatar finished with the elemental Water crystal and then dusted off his hands. The silver lines of the relic’s enchantment here were swiftly growing stronger as the node restored itself.

All around him, a river was slowly appearing, bubbling upward from the Water crystal as it poured away. It was born from the center of a wide, but shallow basin on the Fourth Layer, one that was surrounded by a broad grassy field.

The remains of ancient plantings and trees that had frozen to icy chunks had marked the area before today, resting below the snow for ages, but they had been cleared away by the relic’s golems as he worked.

This area had once been a high-quality garden filled with fruit trees and a peaceful lake. Soon, it would be again.

In a few moments, the water would fill this lake. Then it would spread outward through small streams that meandered across the old orchard until it reached the edge of the area, where it would turn into a waterfall and cascade down to the Fifth Layer.

It still needed new fruit trees and herbs, but he would leave that to his mother to arrange. She could plant whatever she wanted here. Some of the new inhabitants of the relic were Gardeners and Farmers, and they needed work to do.

Eventually, this area would generate Wood mana as well, but for now it would be focused on Water. He could feel the ambient density of the mana here increasing as the crystal gathered it from the atmosphere.

Once it was full, the excess mana would flow into the relic to support the rest of its operations, which would accelerate the repairs. It wasn’t the same as having the moons charge the relic, but these elemental nodes were still a large part of its functional strength, and this wasn’t the only one he’d repaired recently.

Step by step, the pace was increasing.

With a nod at his work, he disappeared in a flicker of silver light, but this time, he didn’t head back to the forge at the peak.

Instead, when he walked out of the Void, he was standing on the Storm Plains, which were over a thousand miles to the west.

The wild elemental mana of the plains filled the air with crackling flame and lightning, while the grass around his feet whipped with energetic Wood energy. He hadn’t been able to sense the mana with this level of detail when he was younger, but now he could feel that it never stopped.

It wasn’t just mana.

There was a strong current of Aster Fall’s natural auras here, swirling constantly across the grassland. It was a subtle crash of power, too little to cause an elemental storm at the present moment, but it was a constant presence on these plains

This was his old home. Coming back here was always like stepping into the past.

Cliff’s End, the village he’d grown up in, was far to the west. He scanned it every now and then, just out of curiosity to see what it had become.

The people had changed, but the village was the same as it had always been, a low-level bastion for villagers and bandits that somehow avoided the attention of greater forces.

Its location made it undesirable and there were no resources nearby that would tempt someone over Level 40. The Storm Plains were enough of a deterrent to keep away all but the most desperate.

A slight smile crooked his lips as he looked around, searching for the best location for his current plan.

In order to start his exploration of the World Seal, he needed a location to put a dimensional gate. The more space he had to build the enchantment for it and the more isolated it was, the better.

He also wanted an area that was inside the World Seal, that had strong ambient mana, and where it was unlikely he would get visitors.

Given those requirements, the Storm Plains were clearly the best option. Not only did no one come here, but the wild mana of the environment made it extremely useful to him. He would just have to build an enchantment that could harness it for his gate.

Flickers of silver flame appeared here and there as he teleported across the plains, testing the ambient mana, the ley lines in the earth and sky, and most importantly the density of dimensional energy.

Eventually, he settled on a barren region near the center of the plains. There was nothing around it for hundreds of miles except wild beasts and mana.

It was perfect.

The dimensional barrier of the World Seal was thin on the plains, and this location was no different. He would have to stabilize the entry point to avoid creating a chaotic tear, but it would make things easier.

The thinness was probably a result of the old battle that made the wasteland to the west. Normally, that would be a problem that gave rise to Flaws, but the Storm Plains had surprisingly few of them. The wild elements here interfered with their formation.

There were still some, like the ancient Flaw that he’d discovered just before being sent off on the Path of Stars, but the plains had fewer than most places with such a thin dimensional layer.

A quick search across the region revealed some of the most intense elemental focal points. It also brought back some memories of the last time he was here, when he’d come to gather Heroic auras for the relic.

A few of the places were the same.

Back then, the dwarves at Runekeld had given him a map of powerful elemental zones, some of which were here on the Storm Plains. He’d ended up fighting Outsiders at that Flaw instead, as well as the bellisagi chieftain who nearly killed him.

He wondered what had happened to that exile. He hadn’t been able to finish him off, which had always felt like a loose end. It wasn’t in his nature to let an assassin escape.

As those old memories from nearly two centuries before flowed through his mind, they awoke others that were next to them.

One was about the Red Sand Elementals that had come with the Outsiders back then. They had seemed like a captured race, but they were still foreign to Aster Fall. They had been hiding in the sand below the plains after the battle, so they might still be around somewhere.

If they were slaves, he was inclined to help them out, even if they were Outsiders, but first he’d have to find them. As long as they weren’t causing trouble, it wasn’t a problem.

As soon as they did something big, the World Core would alert him.

Loose Outsiders that escaped from Flaws were fairly common and they had seemed like a cautious race, so it was possible they’d escaped attention until now.

The other thing he remembered was that he’d never had a chance to study the Star of Life, the ancient gemstone that he’d received from the dwarves as a reward for creating the Heart of Magma.

It had been useful to absorb lightning here on the plains once, but ever since he took it into the Void with him, it had been little more than a quiet green gem.

“I wonder...” he said quietly. His thoughts went outward, connecting with his main body as he made a request.

Silver essence gathered in his hand, turning into a brilliant sphere. Some of the energy came from him, while the majority came from his main body in the Void.

With a brilliant flash of silver light, space twisted in on itself, creating a small vortex.

Then the Star of Life was resting on his palm, while the remnant wisps of astral energy drifted away like mist.

It was a bright green emerald that flashed with arcs of lightning deep inside.

Now that it was exposed to the air of the Storm Plains again, the flickers of lightning on it began to increase. A wind blew across the surface of the gem, stirring the lightning to move faster, and then the Star began to absorb energy from the air, both mana and aura.

He could feel it eagerly pulling it in.

From time to time over the years, he’d fed the Star some aura and lightning energy to keep it from fading, but this was the first time he’d brought it back to the plains.

The wind swirling around it began to increase, accompanied by a gathering mist that formed into a small storm cloud. Or at least it was small compared to his current perspective. It only took a few moments before it covered a dozen feet around the gem.

This hadn’t happened the last time he pulled it out here, back during that fight with the bellisagi, but the gem had been extremely weak back then. Two centuries of nurturing it had apparently been enough to restore its nature.

He studied the Star of Life with a thoughtful expression as he examined it from every angle. Secrets that had once been too complex for him to understand were now clear before his eyes.

Deep in the gemstone’s heart, there were high-tier runes for Lightning and Storm.

They were two of the most powerful natural runes of the plains, the ones that existed here as part of the underlying forces. He recognized them as soon as he saw them and he could feel their connection with the elemental forces.

He’d studied the gem a few times in the Void, but he hadn’t been able to tell what made it special. There had only been a faint sense of something too indistinct to see. He’d been missing this critical piece.

Now, the runes were clear and drawing energy from the Storm Plains as they continued to reveal themselves.

He looked up from the gem, studying the flow of energy from the plains. Lightning and Wind mana were the main ones, each flowing toward the gem, but as they merged together next to it, the same Storm rune that was inside the gem was created.

He could see natural versions of it spinning through the small storm around the gem. With each cycle, the winds became stronger. It made him smile.

The Storm Plains were a natural wonder, although few had the ability to appreciate it. The elements here gave birth to natural runes when they reached a high enough concentration, creating them as expressions of pure power.

Whenever they appeared, lightning, flame, and wind, as well as the other elements, became stronger, turning the storms deadly and more fierce than usual.

There were other places he’d seen in the Void where natural runes appeared and showed off some of the laws of reality, but it wasn’t common. The Storm Plains were special.

This gem was too.

He still didn’t know exactly what it was, but the energy it was gathering was no threat to him, so he let it continue as he studied it.

As it rested on his palm, a resonance built up between it and the surroundings and the storm surrounding it became denser. An increasing flow of elemental mana poured toward it.

Then the gem began to shine with a bright emerald light.

A ray shot out from it and sank into the space nearby, which began to ripple like a stone had been cast into a pond.

After a moment, however, nothing happened and the space restabilized.

The Star of Life ceased drawing energy and the storm around it subsided. Eventually, it sat calmly on his palm, still shining with an intense green light, but that was all.

The runes at the center were still there, but not as bright as they’d been before they released that dimensional ray.

“Interesting...” Sam said as he studied the gem, talking half to himself and half to the Titan Star, which was always listening. “It seems like it’s searching for something, but it didn’t find it.”

Now that it had activated once, there was the faint imprint of a dimensional signature around the runes.

“Clearly, this is the wrong spot,” he said as he looked around. “Otherwise, something would have happened.”

It looked like it was intended to activate a dimensional formation, or to be placed at the center of one. That suggested it was some type of key.

The dwarves said a tribe of metal elementals gave them the gem in exchange for resources. That suggested it might be a key to their homeland, but it could just as easily be something they’d found and decided to trade away.

A story was only as good as the evidence behind it.

There was one thing he hadn’t tried yet since returning to Aster Fall, so he decided to give it a shot. His attention turned to the World Core as he sent his awareness into the layer of information that was available to him as High Artificer.

“What is this?” he asked pointedly as he focused on the Star of Life. “Do you have a record of it?”

At the same time as he asked, he directed the full force of his essence and his Heroic-tier Analyze at the gemstone. On its own, the Heroic-tier ability was useful, but it wasn’t strong enough to reveal the history of the Star.

He’d tried before.

In range of the World Core, however, it was a different matter, especially with his position as High Artificer. The core was designed to assist with all sorts of tasks and it was the origin of Analysis abilities for many people.

The response from the World Core was a hum of energy, followed by a pause, but then its voice sounded in his mind.

Analyzing....

It was the flat tone that it used for automatic processes. It only took it a moment before the voice sounded out again.

Item not recorded in the general knowledge library.

Authorization approved...accessing fragmented memories.

A moment later, a pleasant chime sounded in his mind as information poured into his awareness.

Analysis successful. Partial record located among scattered memories from the Forty-Third Millennium.

Item Identified as Dimensional Keystone: Star of Life.

Artifact Charge: 4%

A runic key intended to unlock the Storm Gate.

Location identified.

No other record available.

The World Core’s voice ended, but not before it transmitted the location of the Storm Gate, marking it as a glowing green beacon in his mind’s eye.

Surprisingly, the location was not on the Storm Plains. It was far to the west in the Broken Lands, the area that had been damaged by that old war.

Sam hummed thoughtfully as he looked at the Star, but the level of energy in it was too low for him to experiment with it anymore. It only had enough for that first activation, and he could tell that was weak compared to what it was supposed to do.

“You’re rather old aren’t you?” he asked quietly as he looked at the Star. “Much more than I thought.”

The Moonlight Relic was from the 38th Millennium, which was 37,000-38,000 years after the Nexus was created. It had been built when the First War was on the horizon.

The war had broken out two thousand years later in the 40th Millennium and lasted until the 80th Millennium. 40,000 years of war had turned the peaceful and verdant world of Aster Fall into a mad battlefield filled with innumerable ruins and ancient remnants.

The 43rd Millennium was solidly in the early years of the war, when the fighting had been the most intense. It was no surprise that the World Core’s memories from that period were damaged, given the various attacks it had suffered, both from the ancient Vos’Rekan and everything else.

The question was what this Storm Gate was.

It was surprising to think it was in the Broken Lands. He’d never heard of it before, but now he had a suspicion it was connected to the damage that had created them. Perhaps that had happened all the way back in the First War.

Without the World Core’s help, it was unlikely he would have ever found the right location. He would have spent all of his time searching the Storm Plains for it. They must have been larger once and included that region.

He studied the keystone for a moment longer and then he tucked it into a small pouch on his belt, one that was made of simple but high-quality leather. It wasn’t a spatial pouch, just something he happened to have with this set of clothes.

He would let the Star absorb energy for a while and once it had enough of a charge, he would go see what this Storm Gate was all about.

At the rate it was going, it would take several days at a minimum. While it was doing that, he could work on what he’d originally come here for.

He turned his attention back to the area around him with a slight smile, one that always appeared when he was about to embark on an exciting crafting project, as he examined the flows of energy for the best alignment.

It was time to start working on his dimensional gate.

Before long, blueprints began to spin through his mind and align themselves to the orientation of the land around him.