World Seal, Ch 21: Primal Forging (Patreon)

Sam looked around as he adjusted to the perspective that came with his law.

He’d always seen runes on the edges of things or dimly within the flows of mana, but this was on another level.

They were everywhere now. Every place he looked, he saw runes flowing through energy, solid objects, and even in the space between them.

Stones were filled with intricate linked Earth and Metal runes, as well as rarer things, the chaos winds were filled with elemental runes, and the Void itself was filled with runes for space, dimensional energy, light, force, heat, cold, expansion, compression...

It was a bit distracting.

Fortunately, he was able to turn his attention away from the runes, making them less distinct in his awareness. They were still part of his vision, but he could look past them at other things.

After a little while, he suspected he would get used to seeing them and they wouldn’t feel strange anymore. They would be just another part of his perception.

His law was different from the concept at his Fourth Evolution, but he could tell that it would work well with it. They would augment one another.

Stellar Conversion had been like creating a new ability. It defined his class and changed a few other things, but it was more limited in scope.

By comparison, his law was all-encompassing. It changed his vision, his understanding of the energies of the Void, and his abilities with runes.

Stellar Conversion relied on converting material into astral flame, while his law dealt with the underlying nature of reality, representing it as runes. It should speed up his conversion, and it would be easier to form runes and material from his aura.

Its effects would be widespread.

As for what to call his law...it seemed like he should call it the Law of Primal Runes, since that was the name of his domain.

It should work.

He turned his attention back to the runes that he could see everywhere. Instinctively, he reached out to the chaos wind that was blowing past him and grabbed one of the runes in it.

As he pulled his hand away, a gleam of fire remained on his palm.

It felt strange, almost like a living flame, and it had something of the wildness of the Void about it. It wasn’t the normal rune for Fire, but rather one he’d never seen before.

The original rune remained in the chaos wind and flowed away, but this one stayed on his palm, burning brightly with a golden-red light. Its form was fraying at the edges, but it stabilized when he sent a flare of essence into it.

At that moment, the Titan Star spoke in his mind with an unexpected notification.

Your Ability: Rune Formation (Heroic) has improved.

You now have the innate ability to materialize and copy natural runes.

He paused as he felt the changes, and then he nodded. The ability was already Heroic, so it hadn’t gained another tier, but it had improved as a result of his law.

The effects of his choice were widespread and there might be more changes in the future. His aura abilities probably wouldn’t shift much since they were already dealing with essential energy, but his crafting or other innate abilities might have new paths.

What would aura forging be like now that he could see the runes in everything?

It should be easier than ever to change their properties. His new domain would help with that too. While it was active, it would be easier for him to shift the runes and laws that made up artifacts.

That should include making it easier to modify an aura and to change enchantments.

He gathered a current of silver flame from around him and condensed it into a silver talisman. Then with a flick of his hand, he sent the natural Fire rune toward it. The rune fused into the surface and stayed there, its lines glowing with golden-red essence.

The rune’s energy and his essence made the talisman gleam. The same wild flame from the chaos wind was present, waiting to be released. He studied the result, and then tucked the talisman away in his spatial bracelet.

It was a rough sort of spell scroll, one focused around the natural rune. If he activated the talisman, the rune would come to life.

He was basically copying a fragment of the Chaos Wild.

He would have to experiment to find out how this rune was different from the ones he was used to, but he could tell that it was powerful, even without a framework to enhance it. It might be more effective with one, but raw power had a force all its own.

Testing it out could wait however.

Right now, he was going to reforge his equipment. He’d been without his strongest artifacts for long enough.

His new law would be helpful with it, so it was time to get started. He still had two more Fragments of the Primal Void to use.

He looked toward Silverguard, and then he disappeared in a streak of silver light.

***

A pillar of silver flame soared into the dark as he stood in front of his forge. Runes floated through the hall, swirling in a silver wind as they wrapped around the pillars

All around him, a storm of materials was floating through the hall in an ocean of silver light. They were refined and waiting.

He’d gained a lot of rare materials from the Vos’Rekan and there was no better time to use them than now. Hunting with the nagas had also let him gather up enough regular materials to balance them out.

Purifying materials only took an instant now. He’d always been able to refine them with the flames of his aura, but his law enhanced his ability to see where the underlying structure of a material was different, and he could strip out that part of the runes and reassemble it.

It made it much faster.

The first Fragment of the Primal Void appeared in his hand and he set it to float in his aura. The slender crystal fragment gleamed like a dark king among the rest of the materials and its inner layers refracted the silver flames in a chaotic rainbow of light.

The remains of his two bracers appeared in his hand. He examined their structure, analyzing what was left of the enchantments and the material.

He could see them differently now. The enchantments were elegant, but they weren’t fully embedded into the materials, which meant they hadn’t taken full advantage of them.

There was also no pressure of a natural law in them.

He studied them for a while, considering the best way to proceed, and then he set them to float next to the fragment. A sheet of dark metal coalesced in front of him, which he’d condensed from his aura, and a piece of chalk appeared in his hand.

Runes and ideas flowed across the metal sheet, and then he continued to inscribe them on the air around him, like it was the interior of a sphere. The runes hung there as he considered one arrangement and then the next.

After a while, he nodded and a wave of his hand made the runic structure condense into a sphere, which he set to the side. Another design followed, and then another.

Combining the properties of the two bracers into one wasn’t difficult for him. What he was working on was the best way to incorporate his law into the bracer. Each of those spheres was an enchantment that harnessed essence using the Law of Primal Runes.

They would create something like a Bracer of Primal Runes, and he was debating whether or not to make that the main focus for the bracer or to use it to support the old design. He also wanted to make sure that he created an enchantment that could grow over time.

The fragment would keep its primordial nature once it was shaped into the bracelet, and it could be upgraded as he added new things. After he created another half dozen ideas, he decided on what to do.

A wave of his hand brought the two mangled bracers toward him and with a flick of his hand, he tossed them into the pillar of astral flame. A halo of silver flame roared around them as they began to melt.

His new domain controlled everything within the forge and the Law of Primal Runes preserved the enchantments and aura within the bracers as the base material melted away.

Brilliant runes escaped and floated inside the forge, drifting around like will-o-the-wisps.

Bit by bit, an interlocking runic structure became visible, separating from the physical part of the bracers, and it floated inside the forge, composed from lines of astral energy.

The material of the bracers was reduced to silver droplets, which circled around the enchantment like raindrops.

The enchantment was badly damaged, and Sam reached out to it carefully as he began to alter and rebuild it. New runes flowed from his hands to merge with the ones already there, swiftly making the enchantment more complex.

At the same time, he drew in runes from the Void around him. The chaos winds were strong here, blowing freely above his forge. Now and then, he reached up and pulled one out of the darkness, and sent it into the silver flame.

Part of his attention kept Aura Regeneration at full strength, supporting the repair of the old enchantment, but by the time he was done adapting it for the new version, it was only ten percent of the complete structure.

The old enchantment was eventually fused into a more complex enchantment that shone in the astral flame. Runes stretched out in a sphere, extending in a massive diagram.

He studied the runes that made it up, and then he began infusing his law into them, giving the entire enchantment a wild force. Wisps of flame, ice, stone, and other elements manifested in the forge flame and were melted as he moved from rune to rune, adding the force of primal law.

He focused on pouring the full potential of his new strength into the enchantment, giving the bracer the strongest foundation for progress in the future.

Eventually, the structure of the enchantment was complete and he studied it for a while, double-checking it before he nodded in approval.

Then he turned to the silver droplets of material that were floating around. The manifestations of primal runes inside the forge flame had refined them again, and now they resonated with a deeper aura, one that felt like the Void.

They had already been at the Heroic tier, but their quality had increased again. Perhaps they should be called the Primal tier now, although it wasn’t a recognized one. He hummed as he sorted them out and then a flick of his will made them line up on one side.

Once they were ready, he reached into his storage bracelet and pulled out a dark crystal sphere. It was about the size of his hand, but its weight was incredible. It was heavier than any metal he’d ever forged with.

He analyzed it as he set it inside the forge flame.

Stellar Core (Remnant Star, Legendary).

[This core is all that remains of a star of the Void that was devoured by a Vos’Rekan. The beast’s unique ability has compressed the remaining fragments of the star’s energy into this crystal form, which is denser than any metal. It requires incredible strength just to lift it, but if you have the ability to use it, it holds vast potential.]

The silver flame slowly heated the stellar core, which turned brighter as time went on. It was slowly gathering energy inside as it warmed up. Eventually, it began to glow and turned translucent silver.

This was one of the materials he’d gotten from the Vos’Rekan and it had the ability to store an enormous amount of energy. Combined with the fragment, it would make a good base for his new bracer.

He grabbed the fragment next and set it in the forge next to the core. The heat had almost no effect on it, but it did glow a bit brighter in the astral flame.

Then he turned to the enchantment on the hall as he called on the power of Silverguard. Runes along the towering pillars lit up and lines of enchantment that stretched across the entire island began to shine.

Thunder rolled across the Void as the fortress of Silverguard came to life. Massive currents of wild elemental energy from the chaos winds and essence gathered from the starlight roared through the enchantments, heading for the peak where the Titan Hall was.

The column of forge flame soared higher into the dark as its intensity blazed. In front of the flame, Sam only nodded as he directed all of that energy toward the materials in the forge.

When he built Silverguard, he’d made sure that it would support his work. Beyond just defending the island, the enchantments had the ability to gather energy for his forge and channel it here. The entire island was part of the support structure.

It was enough energy to melt the Western Reaches and as it filled the forge, the stellar core glowed more brightly, slowly accumulating more force as it began to resemble a burning star.

As the process continued, he began to add other rare materials to the forge, swiftly combining auras and elemental ores, dimensional crystals, and more. Each of them corresponded to different runes and as they met the current of energy, they were refined into droplets similar to the ones that were waiting at the side.

He reached into the forge, feeling the heat flow pleasantly over his hands, and took hold of the Fragment of the Primal Void with one hand and the stellar core with the other. A flex of his hand crushed the fragment into dark stardust, which turned into a cloud that spiraled around the core.

Wild energy exploded through the forge flame, but Sam’s grasp over the area and his new domain helped him keep it suppressed. With a force of will, he pushed all of the primal energy into the stellar core.

Stars were natural carriers of essence and some of them had seen the dawn of the Void. Under his command, the primal energy merged with the core, slowly turning its color to a translucent crystal that flashed with rainbow undertones.

Runes formed and disappeared at the edge of the core as its potential underwent a massive change.

As that was happening, Sam reached out to the enchantment floating nearby. It was a hundred times larger than the stellar core, but a twist of his hand compressed it and sent it flying into the center of the crystal sphere.

It felt like the dimension around the core folded in on itself as the core absorbed the enchantment, which merged with the drifting stardust of primal energy and began to settle into the interior of the core. The enchantment expanded outward, pressing up against the edge from the inside.

As the primal energy roared inside, the potential of the stellar core reached its peak and Sam moved swiftly. A flick of his hand sent the droplets of rare materials flying into the center of the core, where they merged in a specific pattern with corresponding runes in the enchantment.

A tracery of rainbow-hued metals appeared along the threads of the enchantment, filling the interior of the core.

A droplet of silver blood followed, flying from Sam’s hand into the center of the core, where it merged with the enchantment and disappeared.

Then while the potential of the core was still hot, he began to mold it with his will, swiftly turning it into the shape of a bracer. His aura and the Law of Primal Runes flowed through it, quickly shaping it to fit.

With each change to the core’s shape, runes flared and disappeared like illusions of starlight, and elements roared around the forge. Walls of flame, tidal waves, massive cold mountains, and oceans of starlight appeared like mirages and then were gone.

Eventually, it was done.

A silver crystal bracer floated in the forge flame.

It was smooth, but its surface reflected light like it was faceted and rainbow energy danced along it. Silver stars drifted through the translucent interior, each of them moving in their own path and with a unique energy signature.

The longer he watched, the more intricate the pattern of stars inside the bracer became, until it felt like he was looking into the distance of the Void.

The artifact radiated with the force of his law. Wisps of energy flowed into it as he watched, both starlight and the natural energy of the Void from the chaos winds, and runes manifested above the surface, slowly falling into it. As they did, new ones appeared.

There was something deeply attractive about it, like a form of meditation.

People would be able to see the runes if they looked closely enough, as long as they had some form of special sight, but they would need to see all types of energy to view them all.

There were runes shaped from mana, aura, essence, dimensional energy, starlight, the elements, and more. They held many secrets of the Void.

Mages would fight over this bracer if they knew it existed, but they would risk damaging their minds if they tried to comprehend the runes without the right preparation.

That was the danger of trying to see a law.

He reached into the flame and pulled it out, analyzing the result.

Bracer of Primal Stars (Nascent Semi-Divine Artifact).

[This bracer was forged from starlight and the essence of the Primal Void. It still holds both inside. As a Nascent Semi-Divine artifact, its primary attribute is its potential to advance and it is nearly unbreakable. It is a personal artifact of the Lord of the Silver Void.

Effects: Primal Starlight, Void of Silver Runes, Astral Wind, Stellar Bombardment, Stellar Bond.]

The first thing that he saw about the bracer was its tier.

Nascent Semi-Divine...the description made him smile the more he studied it. Nascent meant it was at the beginning, while Semi-Divine was a half rank into that realm.

It was at the very beginning of the Divine rank.

Perhaps it couldn’t be called that fully yet, but it had the potential to reach it in the future.

He held it in the air, turning it from side to side as he studied it. The translucent silver crystal it was made from was similar to the stellar core, but it glowed with an inner essence that hadn’t been in the core, one that came from the Fragment of the Primal Void and his own energy.

It was a little similar to the World Core’s appearance, which made him realize that the ancient Titans had probably used a stellar core to forge that as well, or perhaps several of them.

The bracer was thin enough that it felt like he should be able to see through it, but looking into it showed a field of silver stars appearing one after another, stretching into an ever-increasing distance that filled his vision with sweeping colors and darkness.

If he focused, he could see the other side, but it was like looking through a stellar ocean. It would be impossible for most people.

He tapped on it with a finger, but there was no chime of a response. The vibration disappeared into the depths of the material. With its base material as a stellar core and the energy of the primal void to support it, any force that could destroy it would have to be strong enough to split a sun in two.

Even a Vos’Rekan wouldn’t be able to devour it. The stellar core had already survived that process once.

As for the “Effects” on it, those were something that transcended regular enchantments. They were more like innate abilities, and they didn’t rely on charges in the same way. They still required essence to be stored in the bracer, but it could hold a vast quantity.

Right now, that was about 3,000,000 essence.

For more than that, he’d have to improve it further, but it would naturally use some of the essence it held to do that on its own, especially any essence it absorbed past its current limit.

As he studied the individual effects, the information for each appeared in his mind.

Primal Starlight: This bracer is a creation of the Primal Void and starlight. It has nearly unlimited growth potential. It can absorb additional energy of the Primal Void, essence, astral energy, and elemental forces in order to improve itself.

He nodded as he studied the first effect. Primal Starlight was the core ability for the artifact’s growth. If he acquired more Fragments of the Primal Void in the future, he could infuse them into it to improve it.

He turned to the next abilities, studying them in turn.

Void of Silver Runes: This ability allows the wielder to divide the Void and create a secondary dimension in which to trap enemies.

Astral Wind: Summon an astral storm to sweep across enemies and lay waste to their defenses. The force of this storm is a concentrated form of the Void’s chaos wind.

Stellar Bombardment: Summon a storm of blazing starlight and icy comets from the Void to bombard your foe.

Stellar Bond: This artifact is linked to your essence constellation. No matter where it is, you will sense it. If it is damaged, it can repair itself by drawing on your essence.

The description made him nod in approval.

There were some other effects in the bracer as well, but they were standard ones for high-quality artifacts, like the ability to change size as necessary.

He slid the bracer onto his right wrist. Starlight rippled across the surface as it adjusted for a perfect fit, and then it faded away, becoming invisible.

A flicker of will brought it back again, and this time he changed its appearance until it resembled a simple golden bracer on his arm, one with subtle engravings of stars and meteors on the surface.

It could look like nearly anything he wanted, but after a moment he set it back to the original silver crystal.

Then he turned his attention to his cloak and the fragments of his Armor of Ethereal Frost as the plate of metal appeared in front of him again. He still had the second fragment to use.

***

Some time later, he looked down at the newly reformed cloak in front of him.

It was an expanse of dark cloth that glowed with silver light. Stars shone from the depths, along with a mist of stardust that drifted across the surface, like stellar gas floating through the Void.

Runes appeared across the surface as well, similar to his bracer, glimmering before they fell into the depths.

He’d refined a stellar core into dust and infused it with the Fragment of the Primal Void, and then he’d woven those two materials into a Fifth Evolution beast hide and reinforced it with tiny threads of rare ores.

The result was a dark stellar fabric that was just as durable as his bracer but far more flexible. It was dense and barely stirred even under the full force of the chaos winds, but it looked like it was ready to drift away at any moment.

He analyzed the result.

Cloak of the Ethereal Void (Nascent Semi-Divine Artifact).

Effects: Primal Starlight, Aura of Frozen Stars, Armor of Ethereal Frost, Dimensional Storage, Stellar Bond, Ethereal.

The effects of this new cloak were a sharp improvement over his old one, but he’d preserved the essential nature of the enchantments.

They’d simply been upgraded on every level.

Similar to his bracer, the cloak could hold 3,000,000 essence without trouble and it had the ability to improve over time.

Aura of Frozen Stars was a similar ability to the old Field of Frozen Stars from his previous cloak. It could freeze the Void around him in astral ice and bring everything to a halt, but it was augmented now by dimensional energy and his Law of Primal Runes.

The aura it gave off was enough to seal hundreds of miles in ice that would only grow stronger over time. Primal runes ensured that the ice was a self-supporting enchantment that would draw in ambient energy to sustain itself.

Armor of Ethereal Frost was similar to his old runic armor, but also improved. Its defense was stronger and the armor could last indefinitely until he dismissed it. It didn’t use any essence until it was hit.

The cloak still had its dimensional storage, which was bigger than before, and its ethereal nature, which allowed it to exist in both physical and immaterial dimensional states. It wouldn’t be affected by physical objects unless he wanted it to be.

With the fragment and the stellar core infused into it, it was like a section of the Void itself.

It was a cloak of darkness and starlight.

With a flick of his wrist, he sent it swirling around his shoulders, where it fell into place. Runes and stellar mist drifted along its surface. With the silver flames and stars that were spread throughout his aura, it was an entrancing sight, like he was surrounded by an ever-moving Void.

He gave the cloak a grin and then he looked down from the peak to where he could see the Silver Nagas practicing in the open areas of the island.

They had been patient, but he knew they wanted to be out fighting and testing out their strength now that they were at the Fourth Evolution.

With these two artifacts, his combat abilities were better than ever and he wanted to test himself too.

The Fifth Star was thirty million essence away. The more essence he gained, the easier his next fight with the Vos’Rekan would be.

“Sleset,” he sent across the island, “gather a team to accompany me on a hunt. We’ll collect some more Void beasts for the World Core.”

A fight would let the nagas stretch their muscles while he looked for more powerful beasts, and he might as well collect some more experience to trade. He was at 53 so far, but he would need more than that for the Conclave.

There were some more Fifth Evolution Void beasts around that he’d noticed on the earlier hunt, which should work. They weren’t close by, but it wouldn’t take too long to reach them on the astral paths.

“Yes, my lord!” Sleset’s response was an eager hiss.

Then he began to issue orders, which were followed by a sad grumble as some of the nagas realized they couldn’t come along this time.

“Tell the rest that they’ll get their turn soon,” Sam added. “We’ll rotate teams, but we need some nagas to guard the fortress. They have to make sure nothing reaches Aster Fall while we’re gone.”

The words resulted in a round of more satisfied hisses, but it made him consider whether to pull back some of his avatars from the World Seal. If he had avatars watching here, it would let him take more of the nagas with him.

Time was passing more slowly inside the Seal, so it had only been about a day for the avatars in there. Khaes and Yeria were still running away, but he was keeping them in sight.

They were heading swiftly into the deeper layers, an area where he would have been cautious to send an avatar. Those layers were where the most dangerous Outsiders were sealed and there were places that even he didn’t want to visit without preparation.

With those two in the lead, however, the path was skirting around anything truly dangerous and heading ever lower.

That was why he didn’t plan to stop them yet.

The Voidborn didn’t know it, but he was seizing this opportunity to use them as a guide. With them in the lead, he wasn’t as concerned about falling into a stray dimensional storm or an area of slow time.

Meanwhile, his avatar was using the dimensional pendant to search for traces of Asenya at every opportunity.

He had a general idea of the World Seal, but those two had spent a lot of time there and if they wanted to show him a quick route to the deeper levels, he would take advantage of it. He was also mapping out the path they were taking and comparing the details to the information from Asenya’s workshop and the World Core.

He considered the problem for a moment, and then he pulled back most of his avatars, leaving just two on the trail of the Voidborn.

That should be enough to keep them running.

He sent the free avatars back to work on the Moonlight Relic. The nagas would watch Silverguard and the avatars could get here quickly if something came up.

As soon as Khaes and Yeria did anything besides run, he would know. The deeper layers would be the best for the coming fight. They were more stable than the higher ones.

A few moments later, he set off with a group of a hundred Silver Nagas. As he headed into the Deep Wild, his cloak streamed out behind him like a war banner.