World Seal, Ch 16: Primal Fragments (Patreon)

Materials spun around Sam in an ever-increasing spiral as he refined them. They tumbled through waves of silver flame that melted them into their ideal parts, drew out impurities, and improved their quality.

He’d collected a lot of materials while hunting, which was one of the reasons he’d waited to reforge his artifacts. After the fight with the Vos’Rekan, he hadn’t had much left of his old supplies.

The beast had left some insanely rare materials behind, including stellar cores, elemental crystals, and Void ores, but he needed some other things to balance them out.

He’d also wanted to be able to use dimensional energy at a higher level first, since it would help with the forging.

He had three Fragments of the Primal Void from the Vos’Rekan, which were a type of ancient crystal made of primordial energy. Without a Primordial race to maintain them, they would swiftly break down into lesser forms.

It was the highest quality material he’d ever encountered, and thanks to its innate nature as part of the primal Void, it would probably be the foundation for the last bracer he ever made.

The artifacts they became would be infused with the laws of the early Void. They would gain nearly unlimited potential, including the ability to improve beyond the realms of Legendary and Heroic.

There was even a chance they could reach the Divine realm, similar to the Moonlight Relic, but it would take a long time for them to gather energy and strengthen their laws, as well as a lot of rare materials.

More immediately, the artifacts would become nearly indestructible and would be linked to his own aura signature. As long as he survived, so would they. His regeneration would work on them the same way it did for his own body.

They would also change size with him and their appearance could be altered at a whim to look like whatever he wanted.

Fragments like these were the basis for almost all of the equipment the Astral Titans used day to day. They were one of the best rewards for killing a Vos’Rekan and as a result were in high demand.

If there were other Titans around, he might have been able to trade for some, but given the state of things, he’d had to acquire them for himself.

He only had three, so he needed to make the most of it. He’d come up with a lot of ideas and now that he was at the Fourth Evolution, it was easier to see the path forward.

The designs for his old bracers, his Cloak of the Frozen Void, and the Armor of Ethereal Frost filled his mind as he considered the best way to use the fragments, as well as how much power they could channel.

His cloak was slowly recovering as he helped it along with Aura Regeneration, but if he reforged it around a fragment, it would reach a higher level. The same went for the rest.

The question was how many artifacts he needed.

After a few moments, he took his cloak off and set it down on the workbench to his right. Next to it, he set the fragmented remains of the Armor of Ethereal Frost. To the left, he set the fragments of both bracers: the Starforged Astral Bracer and the Lunar Bracer “Endless Night of the Full Moons.”

Right now, his armor and cloak were defensive. His bracers were offensive. He didn’t have four fragments to do them all, but there was no need to keep them separate.

The enchantment potential for the fragments was extremely high. The limits of his old artifacts didn’t apply to them. It would be best to unify them with just one for offense and one for defense, which would save two fragments.

He didn’t need all the separate pieces of the Armor of Ethereal Frost. There were seven parts to it: two bicep bands, a belt, tunic, breeches, boots, and an amulet. He’d only had so many in the first place since the essence it stored was too much for one artifact.

He would have to redesign it from the base up, but he could fuse the properties of the armor and cloak together. They both had an Ice concept with the Frozen Void and Ethereal Frost, so that would work.

The concept would gain future potential, the defense would increase dramatically, and in the end it would look like the same cloak.

Then he could use another fragment to reforge both bracers into one as a weapon. One of them was currently focused on the fire and ice of the stars, while the other was focused on lunar energy, like two sides of the Void.

He could fuse their properties so one bracer could do both stellar and lunar concepts. That would save another fragment.

With how powerful the fragments were, he could also create just one artifact that did both offense and defense, but it wouldn’t be as strong as two.

That left him with the third fragment for something else. He pulled it out of his spatial bracelet and began to study it.

It resembled a shard of dark crystal with silver energy flowing through it like leaping flames. It was perfectly smooth to the touch and neither warm nor cool.

He’d tried heating it and freezing it just to see, but it didn’t respond to changes in temperature. It was like a fragment of condensed dimensional energy.

When he’d taken it from the Vos’Rekan, it had been completely dark, but ever since then it had been turning silver. It was reflecting his own energy, or perhaps converting itself over time to be more like its surroundings.

Perhaps that was why these fragments only survived if they were kept by a Primordial race.

Inside it, he could feel the energy of the Void moving like a slow wind. That feeling had been faint before, but it was easier to sense now that he was close to the Fourth Star.

Sending his aura inside was like falling into a deep ocean. It was hard to tell where the shard ended and the Void began.

When he found these, they hadn’t given him much of an aura signature, but he could feel the energy of the Primal Void now.

It felt like the Astral Titans to him, similar to his own astral energy, but more dreamlike, as if at any moment it might change and the wind inside would suddenly blow the other way or turn into solid stone.

It pulled at him, trying to draw him in.

At that moment, a potential use for the fragment occurred to him that he had never considered before, but now that he was on the edge of the Fourth Star, it came naturally.

What if he absorbed it?

It was condensed energy of the Primal Void, and that was his own origin. The main difference was that astral energy was a refined form, while this fragment was the unrefined version.

At the edge of the Fourth Star, his essence constellation was full of energy, a spinning disk of stellar essence ready to explode into life.

He needed to understand a Law of the Void to ignite it.

Fighting the Vos’Rekan had given him many insights, and refining his abilities in the Void had taken him right to the edge. He had ideas for half a dozen different laws that he could pursue, but there was still a tiny sliver of distance left.

A spark of insight.

This era of the Void was much quieter than the one in which the fragment had formed. The sliver of energy still held that hot and grand potential, ready to explode to life in an instant.

Absorbing it would be like bathing in the light of the early Void and walking beneath the stars when they were young and violent. It should create a condition where he could feel the laws very clearly.

The downside was that it would destroy the fragment, but that was something he could afford.

He could replace it after killing the Vos’Rekan. It should have a few more.

Normally, he could take his time to do things slowly and meditate on the Void. He would eventually find his law no matter what.

But the more he looked at the fragment, the more he felt an instinctive desire to make that primal energy his own.

His essence was nearly there, with only a few thousand stars to go. His avatar in the Void was hard at work as it continued to travel. It would take less than a day.

He made his decision. He would study the laws in the Sixth Evolution blood and then he would absorb the fragment.

He stored the cloak and his other artifacts away and walked back to his throne.

Since he was so close, he would forge his artifacts after reaching the Fourth Star. Absorbing the fragment would give him more familiarity with primal energy, which would make it easier to bring out the best in them.

Instead, he would create the tracking artifact to help his avatars search the World Seal. It was a straightforward task.

The blood was the main thing.

Materials continued to spin through the hall as he refined them, but as he sat down three crystal vials appeared in his hand. Then two of them disappeared again, leaving only Asenya’s blood.

With a gesture, a stream of molten silver liquid flew out of the surrounding materials and gathered in front of him. At the same time, silver flames filled the area around his throne, quickly building in strength as he poured his essence into them.

This artifact only needed to do three things: find Asenya, teleport back to Portal if his avatar was destroyed or lost, and be durable enough to survive whatever it encountered.

Infusing it with stabilized dimensional energy should help with the last one, and he could link its dimensional signature to the gate at Portal for the second. That would let him recall it if it was lost, the same way he could recall an avatar.

Then he needed to create an enchantment that was powerful enough to seek out the smallest trace inside the chaotic space of the World Seal. As much as possible, he needed it to ignore interference.

The space inside the Seal was twisted in on itself, but with Dimensional Stabilization, he should be able to create an enchantment that forced it to calm down, at least for a moment. It would still be difficult to sort through, but it held potential.

Diagrams made of silver starlight spun through the air as he began to work.

After a while, a piece of silver chalk and a flat table appeared as well, both condensed from his aura. Without looking away, he began to sketch out the design. Even with all his abilities, some things were more satisfying when done by hand.

Time passed as silver runes and materials flowed around him.

Here and there, a single rune flared to life and fused into an ethereal sphere that floated in front of him. Then an interlocking framework and a series of other runes appeared, joining it.

One after the other, runes formed in waves and flowed into the design. Elemental and dimensional energy followed, infusing the runes as he added support structures and balanced the creation.

He'd been able to create runes from his aura for a long time, but with Stellar Conversion, as soon as he willed it, the runes merged with his aura and became reality. It allowed him to add intricate detail inside the artifact, even within folded dimensional spaces.

Bit by bit, the design expanded, until it covered half of the hall, stretching from pillar to pillar. It was a massive sphere of runes that resonated with force.

Eventually, he lifted up the vial of emerald blood and uncorked it. The liquid inside hummed with the powerful law it held.

He let a tiny droplet of Asenya’s blood float into the air, and with a flick of his finger directed it into the center of the enchantment.

It hovered there like a tiny green star.

Energy from it flowed outward, pouring into the ethereal sphere, and all around it, multi-dimensional webs of enchantment came to life. Connections formed in an instant, one after another, as the aura infused them.

As everything came together, a crackling wave of essence and emerald light exploded outward from the sphere. Then it collapsed inward, compressing into the shape of a small emerald teardrop, which floated down and rested on his palm.

It was done.

It looked like an ornate emerald pendant that was bordered by a delicate silver frame. All of the energy and the runes had been compressed inside and the enchantment was hidden. There was a tiny silver loop at the top for a necklace.

A wave of his hand created a silver chain from the flames around him, and he quickly threaded the emerald pendant onto it. Then he held it up in the air as he looked toward Aster Fall.

A silver sphere of astral energy gathered around the pendant and then it was gone.

He returned to his seat, his thoughts already turning to the Fragment of the Primal Void he planned to absorb.

His expression was thoughtful as he pulled out the three vials of blood and held them on his right palm. In his other hand, he held the fragment.

His essence still had a sliver to go until his constellation would be complete, so he began to study the fragment and the blood, working to comprehend the laws inside.

Asenya’s energy was a swirl of dimensional force, bright and ever changing. It seemed to create its own stability and then lose it again, like a wave in the ocean rising and falling.

Shattered Skies’ essence was sharp and commanding, holding an edge of danger like she had threatened the elements to obey or be destroyed. It felt like a rain of blades, all edges made of water and flame, metal and stone.

Wind was there as well, mixing among the rest, ripping them apart and driving the fragments to a hurricane force. That felt like it had been her favorite, along with Fire and Metal as close seconds.

Wood was there too, but it was less prevalent than he'd expected. It felt like she’d ignored that element most of the time.

The titan’s blood was the most familiar of the three, nearly the same as his own. It was made of silver light like astral energy had turned to liquid. The main difference was the level of power in it, which felt like a star burning against his cheeks, and the presence it radiated.

It was hard to separate the titan's law from his own understanding of the Void, which told him that the titan must have followed one of the natural paths for their race.

If a law could be condensed into a phrase, his might have been “Stars Ignite The Void” or something similar.

The laws of these three bloods were part of their aura, and seeing them in front of him now made him realize what was changing at the Fourth Star.

It was an evolution of aura. His physical energy would be elevated to a higher tier, while the law was a conduit of power that connected to the greater Void.

It was more encompassing than his Class Evolution, but it had some similarities. That change had refined his class to a singular concept. This Evolution would do the same with his physical existence.

The Titans had probably based the Fourth Evolution classes on this process, back when they designed that system and tested it on themselves. Then they’d taught it to the younger races.

Both evolutions created a foundation by consolidating what was already there, which enabled it to support future growth.

In terms of the attributes he’d gained, even without the racial abilities, the Third Star was about five times more powerful than the Third Evolution.

The Fourth Star would be the same or more.

As he held the vials in his hand, he looked into the Void, searching its depths for the laws that gave it power. Then he compared it to the fragment in his hand, studying the differences.

He had everything he needed. It was just a matter of bringing it together.

The fragment radiated with potential, making his mind drift back through the ancient memories of the Titans. He sank into its depths, following paths where endless night burned and froze, lit by the hearts of nascent suns.

Time and space slipped away, leaving a flame of silver starlight burning in the dark.

***

At the City of Portal

Sam’s avatar stood in front of the massive dimensional gate. It was a new avatar, but for all intents and purposes, it was the same one that had built this place. It was even wearing the same set of clothes.

As he looked up at the stars, a silver sphere of astral energy appeared in his hand. When it faded, an emerald pendant rested there.

He raised it into the air and streams of runes began to form in his aura, flooding toward the pendant and the dimensional pillars that held up the gate.

Anchoring and teleportation runes shone with brilliant light, dancing across the stones and the emerald. They fused into both and then faded away.

It was linked with the gate. If this avatar was stuck or destroyed, he could call it back. He hung the pendant around his neck, where he would sense any trail it found.

He could also summon back this avatar with the enchantments on the gate, but that would only be necessary if he ran into a dimension with frozen time. Otherwise, it could just disintegrate into starlight.

A flick of his hand made the runes on the gate light up. Torrents of mana flowed through the ley lines connected to Portal, surging into the city. More runes across the city began to shine, starting with the ones covering the outer wall.

Mana ran along the wall in silver lines until it created a perfect ring around the city, and then an invisible barrier sprang up, turning the ring into a sphere that surrounded Portal. As soon as it was formed, the lines of enchantment flowed toward the center.

The natural mana of the Storm Plains was supporting the city. Buildings came to life, their walls shining. Runes burned on their peaks and eaves. Bit by bit, the entire city began to glow, all of it centered around the gate.

The pillars holding up the gate filled with power and their silver runes glowed like ornate calligraphy.

Clouds of wild elemental mana tried to gather in the sky above Portal, the remains of energy that had been drifting through the buildings and homes, but they were inside the dome of mana protecting Portal. A moment later, the wild elements were drawn away by the enchantments and routed into the gate.

A silver line appeared between the dimensional pillars, and then rotated, opening into a portal.

It looked like a silver pool hanging there in an oval shape, and it hummed with power.

A smile flickered across his face as he looked at it. He turned and examined the city a last time, checking over the flow of energy in the enchantments supporting the gate, and then he nodded. He was calm as he touched the pendant on his neck.

Then he stepped forward into the gate.