World Seal, Ch 23: Relic Wards (Patreon)

After Sam spoke with his parents and finished some defensive plans for the relic, he disappeared in a flash of silver light.

When he reappeared, he was on the Fourth Layer, standing in front of an old stone pillar that was carved with dim runes. The pillar was greenstone, like the rest of the relic, so it had weathered the ages, but the enchantment imbued into it had suffered from neglect.

This was one of the relic’s wardstones.

The relic had innate defensive shields, especially around the top three layers, and the ability to lock down dimensional space to prevent communication and teleportation, but it also had offensive abilities.

This wardstone was one of them, part of a ring that stretched around the Fourth Layer.

It was a part that hadn’t been repaired yet, but it wouldn’t take long to connect the ward to the main transfer lines and restore it to a basic level. Then the relic would have some ability to deal with anyone that tried to attack it.

It wasn’t a complex problem to fix, but it did require some personal attention if he wanted to speed it up. After that, the relic could complete the repairs with the rest of the layer.

As he placed his hands on the pillar, the bright silver light of Aura Regeneration poured away from him and into the ward. The color of the ancient greenstone pillar became brighter and the runes gleamed.

Faint motes of astral energy rose up from the runes and gathered in their lines, pooling like liquid silver as the faint aura that was left in them began to link together.

Bit by bit, the runes became visible and turned brighter until they were shining across the entire pillar. It looked like moonlight was pouring up from beneath the surface in brilliant lines.

The relic ran on astral energy, so it was easier for him to repair it than anyone else. His law resonated with the runes, showing him dense currents of runes for the moons that he’d never considered before, even with his previous experience.

There were concepts for moonlight in the relic that were powerful enough to shake the Void. He could only see a glimpse of them from this part, since the enchantment wasn’t the whole relic, but they were part of what gave the artifact its divine nature.

As the wards continued to shine brighter, it felt like moonlight was flowing upward beneath hands and that the three moons were shifting through the sky within a separate realm inside the pillar.

It reminded him of the time he’d been trapped in one of the relic’s enchantments the first time he encountered it. That had been a dark dimension filled with strands of moonlight that tried to slice him into ribbons.

If the relic hadn’t been so weak back then, it would have killed him. It had been more the phantom of a ward than the real thing.

The space inside this ward was similar, an area where the enchantment was woven into another dimension and contained its own space.

It was a style of dimensional weaving that the Titans had favored long ago, since it gave them the opportunity to create on a large scale and then fold the result down into a small point for the final artifact.

As he worked, he studied the enchantment and the runes, taking the opportunity to commit everything to memory. He was familiar with the relic, but seeing its runes as natural laws was new.

Eventually the pillar glowed with a brilliant silver light all across its surface, covered in runes that felt like the language of the stars. Their intricate shapes were so dense and bright that the greenstone base looked transparent.

As he finished regenerating the enchantment, the runes were restored to their original forms and the pillar began to hum as it activated. Within moments, the silver light on its surface was joined by three layers of moonlight, which drifted across the runes like wild spirits.

Once that was done, he gave the pillar a nod and moved on to the next one.

There were two dozen wardstones that made up the ring on this layer and they all needed to be repaired.

It took another three hours before he was finished, but when he stepped back to look at his work, the wardstones glowed like silver flames and currents of moonlight flowed between them, wrapping around the layer like a purple, blue, and green aurora.

The ward radiated with force, but like the rest of the relic it was low on energy. The relic drew on the moons’ aura for its strength and it had been a long time since it was charged.

The transfer line he’d connected had restored some of the wards’ operation and he had regenerated the enchantment, but the energy on the Fourth Layer wasn’t enough to use them yet.

These wardstones could hold an independent charge, however, so until the Fourth Layer was completely repaired, he could power them separately. They just needed enough aura from the moons and then astral energy, both of which he could provide.

It looked like it was time for a trip.

He studied the pillars and then he looked up into the Void, locating the forms of the three moons. He’d visited Silvas in the past and gathered aura to charge the greenstone production here, but he hadn’t been to Caelus or Amaris yet.

One of these days, it might be possible for him to create a dimensional channel to tap into the moons’ aura and bring it here directly, but for now he couldn’t recharge the entire relic.

That was why the lunar alignment was so important. It brought the aura to Aster Fall naturally.

With that said, he could do more than he had before. It wouldn’t take that long to gather some aura and infuse this ward.

While he was there, he could look more deeply into the structure of the moons and see if there was a way to speed things up.

His avatars weren’t as strong as his main body in using his Law of Primal Runes or his domain, but they could still see the runes in everything and manipulate them to some extent.

It made them good for research.

Ideas floated through his mind as he disappeared in a flash of silver light. When he stepped off the astral path, he was in the Void above Aster Fall.

Ahead of him, the three moons shone with vivid hues against the darkness as they framed the stars.

Silvas was radiant in her green warmth of Life and Wood, Caelus was calm with his distant observation, and Amaris was wild with her purple protection of the heart.

Each of them had a Sixth Evolution ward placed on them to prevent the return of the Three Demons, but that was after the relic was broken.

It made him wonder what had become of Cerei, the Astral Titan who built the relic. She was one of the younger Titans and she’d been injured when the Vos’Rekan attacked. She had later gone through the Nexus.

She had probably been at the Fifth Star back then, which drove home the difference between that ancient Vos’Rekan and the one he had fought. As dangerous as this one was, it wasn’t comparable to the Sixth Evolution calamity that shattered the relic and damaged the World Core.

He studied the moons with new eyes, examining the laws in them. Silvas was the closest to him. It was like looking at a green ocean flourishing in the dark with waves made of runes.

The depth of power was incredible, almost enough to ignite a new star.

For the first time, he realized that the moon was unique in its own way and that the Titans must have brought it here for a reason. It wasn’t native to this area.

He had the feeling it was a natural treasure of the Void, something they had found and relocated with difficulty to Aster Fall.

This moon had probably been formed in some distant system, springing up like a natural wonder of vitality and Wood. Perhaps it had been born among the chaos winds in some vortex of elemental energy.

It was no surprise it was called the Moon of the Forests and the Guardian of Life. It was infused with both of those energies.

The moons were recorded from the earliest days of the world, long before the First War, so the Titans must have brought it here to help balance the energies of the Nexus or the World Core as part of their original plan.

He turned to look at Caelus and Amaris next. Each of them held their own ocean of runes and were also natural treasures.

Caelus seemed to have the innate property of balancing elemental energy and making it harmonious. It had probably been brought here to stabilize this system and assist the World Core in maintaining the Nexus.

Now, it also balanced energy on Aster Fall, making sure things like the Storm Plains didn’t occur everywhere.

That was why it was called the Watcher of Elements.

Amaris was unique in a different way. If his understanding of the runes flowing through the Moon of Passion’s structure was correct, all of her power was devoted to balancing mental energy and the spirit. It must have come from a region of the Void where that energy was strong.

The moon was a natural treasure that absorbed those emanations and calmed down emotions, preventing things like ghosts and evil spirits from rising up as the result of too much energy mixing with raw intent.

It made him wonder what region of the Void had given rise to something like that. A small piece of crystal could do something similar for a person who held it, but this was an entire moon that guarded a world.

The Titans had not done things by halves.

All three of the moons looked to be constantly drawing energy from the chaos winds and the Void, restoring themselves and then radiating it out as an aura. They were natural focal points, and in this configuration, effectively endless.

Unless they were separated from the Void or their structure was completely broken, they would never fail.

When Cerei built the relic using their auras, she must have been trying to turn their energy to a new purpose, taking advantage of the nearly unlimited power here.

It made sense. He would have done the same thing.

The wards against the demons stood out in his vision like silver scrollwork layered on top of the original blue, green, and purple moons. They were different than he’d expected.

It was clearly not Astral Titan work, but rather from some other source.

They were functional, but they lacked the aesthetic beauty of Titan craft and their connection to the moons’ aura relied on what had to be a Sixth Evolution concept, rather than an innate ability to manipulate essence and aura.

The signature of the creators was mixed, showing that more than one person had worked on them. One part felt like ethereal music, while another was like a burning sun.

As soon as he sensed them, the images of his old dreams about the formation of Aster Fall and the Nexus rose up in his memory, and he put together the signatures with them. It had been a long time since he had those dreams, but they were still as formidable as ever.

When the Three Demons walked out of the Nexus, the Astral Titans had greeted them, but there had also been a group of other people, including a human-looking youth, a winged woman, and a golden dragon.

They’d all been surrounded by astral energy from the World Core and the Titans, but looking back at that dream now, he could separate that from their own signatures.

The aura of ethereal music here matched the signature of the fey-like, winged woman with beautiful, glittering wings and an aura like silver smoke; while the sun-like signature was that of the long golden dragon who had curled around in the Void before settling down on the barren rock that later became the world.

He had always thought that winged woman might be the Mother Goddess of the Ice Sylphs, but he hadn’t been able to confirm it yet.

As for the dragon, he hadn’t seen any true dragons that matched it in the Void or on Aster Fall except in legends. There was supposed to be a World Spirit who was a dragon, but that was the only one. Wherever he was from, his kind was rare.

Those were the only two signatures he could see here, so it looked like they were the ones who’d built the wards. The human-like youth’s aura wasn’t here.

His dreams were echoes of memories from the World Core and the auras of Aster Fall, and perhaps his family’s bloodline connection to Shattered Skies as well...given his grandmother’s experiments.

Shattered Skies had been at that initial meeting, along with the other two demons.

The people who had met them had to be part of the High Nine, which meant the fey woman and the dragon were probably Sixth Evolution leaders of those races. They must have built the wards after the Titans went through the Nexus, but while the forces of the Three Demons were still trying to attack Aster Fall.

What was interesting was how closely the moons countered the bloodline powers of the Three Demons. That couldn’t be a coincidence, and it made him revise his timeline for when the moons arrived.

The Titans had probably placed them here after First Contact.

The Outsiders had always been strong in essence, and the Titans had probably been worried about their energy spreading. The demons would have been a great unknown at the beginning, figures from a distant realm with clashing essence.

It seemed like the Titans had taken responsibility for opening the Nexus and allowing them to visit, so they had searched out treasures to specifically counter their influence and balance this region of the Void.

It must have been a great undertaking, even for those who could walk the astral paths. He knew he didn’t have the capability to drag a moon through the Void. He could take an army, but the moon was simply too large.

Maybe at the Fifth Star it would be possible, when he was stronger and his control over dimensional forces was better. His law and concept would both advance, which would make it easier to influence the world around him.

He’d already visited Silvas once, and he was familiar with the vast inner world of the moon that was filled with aura crystals. He was more powerful now and the moon’s tidal waves of force couldn’t bother him much, so it didn’t take him long to collect some more.

He did the same for Caelus and Amaris, taking his time to explore each of them and to get a feel for their nature. He’d had their auras as part of his own energy for so long that it was almost like coming home when he landed on their surface and was bathed in their energy.

He sent most of the aura crystals down to the Moonlight Relic to support its repairs, but he kept some for his own research too. It would be useful if this aura could be merged into Siverguard’s enchantments or turned into defensive artifacts.

After he was done gathering the crystals, he spent some time visiting each moon and studying the wards in more depth, as well as how the concepts infused into them worked.

The enchantments from the fey being and the dragon had a different style than he was used to, but they followed the basic rules of runes and their overall structures were familiar. They also had some elements that were like sentient artifacts, but they weren’t fully aware.

The best way to describe them was something like a half-sentient detection and destruction ward. The original moons had been placed here just to balance out the Outsider’s energy, but the wards took that a step farther with the capability to track and destroy it.

He spent a little while infusing his own signature into each of the wards, which resembled a glowing silver mark of authority. Since his own energy matched them so closely, the wards rumbled, but they didn’t resist.

In the future, if he needed to call on them or to point them at a target like those two Voidborn, it would be easier.

When he was done, he disappeared in a streak of silver light as he headed back to Aster Fall.

He infused the aura crystals into the wardstones’ dimensional space and waited as the enchantments came to life. They radiated with a dangerous light that hadn’t been there before.

The runes ignited as the aura filled them, their edges gleaming like sharp lunar blades, and a band of three-colored moonlight spun around the Fourth Layer, rising higher and higher until it touched the clouds.

A ripple of moonlight surged outward, flooding across the mountain slopes and the valley below, covering everything in a dream-like lunar aura.

That should be enough for now, he decided as he studied the result.

Its attacks would be powerful and it had enough energy to last for months as long as it wasn’t pressed too hard. That was more than enough time for the Fourth Layer to be repaired.

He’d only used a part of the aura crystals on it, while the rest had gone to the relic to help support its other functions. A quick thought let him check on the relic’s overall status.

Integrity: 41%

Stored Energy: 33.4%

Auric Charge: 3,772,219 / 500,000,000.

There is sufficient reserve energy to maintain core operations (Meets or exceeds 30% requirement).

The relic had gained about 4% integrity and 1.3% stored energy since he had put all of his avatars to work on it.

The auric charge had also increased by about a million, but that was only partly due to the load of aura crystals he’d just brought back. It was also gathering ambient aura from the moons each night, although the amount was small in the grand scheme of things.

Still, the increase from those aura crystals was worth several thousand each to the auric charge.

He tapped his fingers on top of the wardstone and let its energies wash across his skin, as he considered the amount.

A moment later, he looked up into the Void and waited as a shooting silver star appeared, one that was visible only to his dimensional sight. The star resolved into a new copy of himself standing across from him, and he gave it a grin.

This was the avatar from the deep Void, who had just been replaced by the new one.

He’d dissolved the old one once it handed off its auras and equipment, and then his main body recreated it and sent it back to Aster Fall.

“It’s time for you to work,” he said with a chuckle. There was no need for words between his avatars, but he still found it amusing to talk to himself.

“I’ll get started on the aura crystal transfer,” the avatar agreed. Then it turned into a streak of silver light again as it stepped onto the astral paths and headed back to the moons.

If there was no better solution, he could always do it by hand.

Each aura crystal he brought back might not be a lot, but with a couple thousand trips he might be able to restore the auric charge to full power.

That would allow the dimensional anchor effect to stretch out much wider, potentially over most of the kingdom, and it would go a long way to blocking the damage from the Flaws that were forming everywhere.

The relic would be short on stored energy and only half repaired, but it would be a step further along the path and a half-broken divine artifact was better than a thousand lesser ones.

After his other avatar left, he turned to look at the Second Layer. He could sense the production of golems in the Chamber of Caelus. With the materials he’d supplied, the first batches of new golems were done and another group of 24 was being created each week.

It was steady progress that was expanding the ranks of the Sky Guard and the Elemental Orders, which was the name for the golems who maintained the relic, but it would still take a while to return the ranks of the golems to their full number of over 3,000 and to increase the number of Sky Guards for security.

He checked on the progress and then he teleported away himself, heading to the Void beyond Silverguard. The time difference there would be helpful.

It was time to make some new astral golems and to rebuild Silverbeak. He had promised to send them to help with the Flaws.

***

In the Deep Void

Sam turned to look at Aster Fall and then to where his avatar was heading.

In front of him, the nagas were engaged with another group of Void beasts, but it was a small one and he didn’t need to pay much attention to it.

Instead, he reached out to the elements of the Void that were strong here and began to gather Fire, Stone, Ice, and others to himself from the chaos winds.

Runes roared through his vision as the elements moved, combining and breaking apart as their various energies collided and then formed into solid matter. The runes were reflected in his aura and he worked to remember everything he saw.

It was like finding new words in a language that he had only partly spoken before, and with each word came an example and a meaning, one that gave rise to power.

His ability to speak the language of the runes was advancing by the day.

The elements swirled around him as he unleashed a wave of silver flames to refine them. The flames flowed around the gathered elements, their color became richer and brighter.

The elements merged into the flames, raising their tier higher, and then the flames moved on to refine more elemental essence.

Cycle after cycle of refining continued, until eventually the flames reached the peak of his current ability to control them. Silver droplets of shimmering metal condensed from the flames, like the purified heart of everything that had gone into it.

The analysis of the material made him smile.

Quintessence Droplet (Unique Astral Material, Mythic).

Every single drop weighed over a thousand pounds and was only an inch long and half that wide, like a tiny teardrop of the heavens.

Astral energy was imbued into them, since it was what he had used to refine them, and it made them glow from within like they had been blessed by the stars.

They looked like condensed starlight turned into metal.

The rarity description as Mythic made him pause. He’d never seen that description before, but he had heard about it. It was almost unknown in the galaxy, since to create it, you had to break some of the standard rules that applied to materials.

The only way to do that was with a law.

Mythic was a tier that transcended the Legendary and Heroic classifications, but it wasn’t able to cross the Divine threshold. It also wasn’t used for Classes or Abilities, just for materials, which was why it wasn’t well known.

In this case, he’d broken the usual limits of energy and material that could be condensed into that small of a space, and the quality of the result was higher than usual.

He studied the droplets as he gathered them together, but then he dismissed the information about their tier. It was just the base material for his new golems. It was the same type of material he planned to use to create spell scrolls and artifacts in the future.

Quintessence Droplets was an accurate name, representing how they had been refined from all the elements.

His avatar could make some of the other golems and they would all be Level 399, but he would make Silverbeak himself, and perhaps some others. They would be the elite among his golems.

He could do it while still watching over the nagas and collecting essence.

He wanted to take the opportunity to test out his domain and the crafting abilities of Stellar Conversion anyway.

With a flick of his hand, some of the droplets began to swirl in front of him, swiftly changing their shapes as they elongated into the elegant curve of eagle feathers.

Even if Silverbeak was limited to Level 399 on Aster Fall, being made from this high-quality material would make it effectively invulnerable to anything below the Fourth Evolution. Even a Fifth Evolution enemy would find it difficult to break quickly.

Runes spun through the Void around him, forming from silver flames and starlight. They flowed into the droplets and imbued it with power. Then the droplets flew toward Sam, swiftly merging together in front of him as he began to construct Silverbeak’s skeleton and wings.

This version was just a draft of what he planned to make, and he’d melt it down as soon as he finished some experiments. He wanted to test out how strong of an enchantment he could put on this material.

Once he was ready, he would create the golem’s core separately out of a single larger droplet of quintessence metal and he would engrave the core enchantment on an inner dimensional space, in the same manner he’d seen from the wardstones at the relic.

It should create an unparalleled level of power for Silverbeak, and in the future if he wanted to upgrade him, it would be just a matter of melting down his body and rebuilding him around a stronger core with added abilities.

As he worked, his attention turned to the relic where the Legions of Ice were rising into the sky. Ice drakes and griffins rose in shining columns, their scales and feathers shining against the snowy peaks.

Ice Sylphs stood on their backs with bows in their hands and spears on their backs. Their visages were wrapped in Winter, with ice crystals and snow drifting around them. Their eyes were bright blue and cold, as icy as the frozen sky.

With every beat of the ice drakes’ wings, snow flew across the land, covering the mountains ever deeper.