Savage Awakening 329. Fifth Tier Breakthrough (II) (Patreon)

Noughtfire examined the painting, sharp eyes glinting.

"The purpose," he said without turning, "is to hone precision. Destruction is a very potent thing... but it is most potent when it is concentrated. And as Destruction grows, so must your control. A greater stallion needs a greater leash. The pursuit of ultimate control... it is a lifelong endeavor."

Zane nodded. Made sense to him.

"Would you like to give it a try?" said Noughtfire, holding out the brush to Zane.

"Sure," said Zane.

He took it, inspected it. It was a normal brush. He wasn't sure how the tip hadn't burned with all that Destruction on it. Control, maybe.

He wasn't quite sure what to draw.

He supposed he'd figure it out as he went, like he usually did. He set it to the canvas and tried putting on a dab of Stormfire, making sure to keep it quite controlled and tiny.

The painting exploded.

The brush also exploded.

Zane blinked at it, then scratched his head. "Sorry about that."

He hoped it wasn't a very expensive brush.

Noughtfire didn't seem very fussed. If anything, he seemed faintly amused. "You'll understand it soon enough."

He asked Zane about his time in the Conclave, and Zane gave him a quick overview. Noughtfire just nodded, quietly listening, like he was carefully taking in all Zane was saying, and turning it over.

After a moment, he was quiet. Thinking.

"It's a good thing to strengthen one's body," he said at last. He gestured with two taped-up stumps for fingers. "Permanent damage is always a risk when playing with certain kinds of fire. Your body will serve you well. Especially as you take this next step..."

He flicked his sleeves. His eyes flashed. "It is time for Tier 5 Law."

"Yes," Zane agreed. Noughtfire was a bit of a dramatic fellow, he noticed.

"Let me show you what that means."

He held out a finger. A line of Stormfire exploded to life at the tip of it, a dancing phantom of purple and white. Brightening fast.

Then it began to congeal. To condense. Growing brighter still, and thicker, going nearly to a liquid...

A deep rumbling poured out of it, overpowering the crackling. Like heavy steels moving deep underground.

The colors began to change.

That flame grew so bright it was a piercing white at its core—white-and-gold, strands of shining golden silk—liquid fire condensed to its purest form. This fire did not flicker. It surged.

Zane felt its Law changing too—upgrading, heating up until it started to ripple the face of the realm.

It was gaining new properties, too. Higher Concepts, Concepts outside of just Fire and Lightning, to Zane's mild surprise.

"What do you feel?" prompted Noughtfire.

"Steel," said Zane, frowning at it. Felt a little closer. "...Magnetism."

"Very good." The Sage looked satisfied. "Your senses have stayed sharp. That is the fundamental force that powers Radiation Plasma—one of the first Concepts of Solar Flare. Worked right, it can be as deadly a killer as its heat. But you'll get to that... for now. The basics. I present to you, Solar Flare—with a hint of Destruction!"

He raised that finger and slashed it across the sky, like a painter flinging a brush.

A tongue of brilliant gold-white lashed into the sky. It splattered like paint across the canvas of the sky, and made a portrait of beautiful destruction.

Everywhere it passed, it seared holes in the fabric of the realm, as though it were mere paper—blowing vast voids in the blue.

Shockwaves of heat surrounded that golden tongue, rippling out of it, radiating in spiraling tendrils; the tongue had its own pale aura—softer purples and blues cascaded around it, making a mesmerizing haze... it looked nearly like an aurora to Zane.

"Solar winds," commented the Sage. "You'll come across that soon enough too."

They both watched the sky, quiet, for a long moment. Watching that solar flare do its work—a celestial power wreaking planetary havoc.

It left a profound feeling in Zane. An impression. He knew Noughtfire was showing him this for a reason—he took a page out of the old Sage's book and just looked. Really looked. Making sure the impression was clear in his mind.

When the light faded, it left a massive crisp-cut void behind. Clear lines—the same lines Noughtfire had drawn on the canvas, only blown up a thousandfold. Dominating the sky.

A single character in a language the System didn't translate. It wasn't a rune, he felt. Something about it...

"What does it mean?" said Zane, blinking.

For a few seconds, Noughtfire was quiet.

"There is no word for it in any of the common tongues," said the Sage. "It is a character of my homeland. A civilization long-lost. I am all that remains of it."

A pause.

"The closest translation is 'Mastery.' But that does not capture its meaning. It is, instead, the 'single-minded devotion to Mastery.'"

Noughtfire considered the rune in silence. "That is what gives life meaning. That is why I—of all my people—am the one who remains."

Zane took it in, thought about it.

He could see why Noughtfire felt that way. Noughtfire was an intense old fellow.

Zane wasn't sure he agreed on the meaning bit, though. The first thing he thought of when Noughtfire said that was his friends.

"Take this," said Noughtfire. He handed Zane a map. A constellation of moving dots in an old parchment scroll—it was marked 'Astra' in the corner.

There was a sector of it marked out in red.

"That is Astra's Zone Seven," said Noughtfire. "Astra does not stay still—it is as much spiritual as it is physical. Full of a thousand disparate dimensions... Astra is a mysterious treasure, even to me. I can only put you in the vicinity of what you need. Seek out a Numinous Gate which will open a spatial rift built on the Law of Solar Flare. That is your quickest path to breakthrough. It will be dangerous. But I believe you are ready for it."

Zane took the scroll. "Thanks."

"That is all," said the old Sage.

***

On his way down, he met a familiar face going up, holding a little tea set. It was Sage Burnwater. The little Sage seemed delighted to see him.

"Zane—the man of the hour! Well—the millennium, eh?" Burnwater chuckled. "Ah! You've just met the old Master, didn't you? I'm on my way up for tea, as it happens."

Zane nodded. He told Burnwater what just happened. Burnwater gave a knowing nod.

"He's got great hopes for you, you know," said Burnwater. "He cares quite a bit, in his own way. Only, his belief is—doing too much for a disciple tends to harm them. He believes only by figuring something out yourself can you truly learn it. He only shows his disciples where to look."

Burnwater hesitated and winced.

"That being said..." he dropped his voice to a whisper, like he was a little worried someone might hear. "Between you and me—err—it can get a little extreme. Astra's a pretty head-spinning place. I was lost for an entire decade, just trying to find my way through one Zone. The spirits there can be rather... troublesome?"

Burnwater's brow furrowed, like he was replaying bad memories. Then he brightened.

"But I've spent centuries in that place by now. I know it like the lines of my palm."

He nodded.

"If you run into any trouble, do let me know. This fighting business... it took some centuries to learn, but it's not for me. But I've still got a good deal of knowledge in the ol' attic—I can help. I'm rooting for you." He leaned in conspiratorially and said behind the back of his hand—"Don't tell Lin, but between you and me, you're the best hope our dusty little Path's got."

He chuckled again. He seemed to just like chuckling at things. This Burnwater fellow seemed pretty good-natured to Zane, anyway.

"Hey thanks," said Zane, and he meant it. "I'll keep it in mind."

He waved goodbye to the happy little Sage, and was off.

***

The first order of business then was to head off to Astra.

There were a few things on that to-do list of his. He pulled up his incentives. The fourth one, with the reward—'Citadel of Ra,' whatever that was—was clearing the Killing Star Ragnos up to the 3rd planet. But the prerequisite to even try was a 5th-tier Law.

His Law breakthrough would come before anything else.

He didn't need much encouragement. He was quite eager to check it out.

It felt like his comprehension muscle hadn't been exercised in a long time, which was rather unusual for Zane. Pretty much every other muscle had been worked to its limits. But the thing that really made his name—the source of most of his power—had fallen off to the wayside in the past few months...

It was time to see if he still had it.

***

Astra, Zone 7

A few hours later, Zane teleported straight in.

The teleporter dropped him off right in the center of the Zone, smack-dab on an asteroid.

He stepped off—and he was in. Floating in deep space.

It felt like he'd been dropped at the bottom of an endless ocean. Drifting clouds of pale light floated about, shifting between purples and pinks and pale greens and light blues, the colors of a prism. Shimmering in a dreamlike fog, thicker here, thinner there. A hazy, abstract place.

And carving through it all—slicing this strange ocean up—were deep fissure-like scars.

But they weren't voids, like Zane was used to seeing. These things were crackling with energy. Leaking vast reams of essence and aura—auroras streamed out from them. Some the colors of Stormfire—vivid violets, azures, some ghostly white, dissipating into that strange fog...

These auras had to do with Stormfire and its Concepts, he felt. One of those fissures streamed with a distinctly electric- and magnetic- feeling. He sensed the now-familiar hum of Radiation.

None felt quite like the impression of Solar Flare Noughtfire had shown him, though.

He looked around, blinking, wondering where to go. The map wasn't much help. Looked like he was pretty much on his own from here on out.

He closed his eyes, and just let his soul feel his way around. Opened up his spiritual senses. When he focused—really focused—let everything else dim to a background hum—

The world opened up to him. A vast field of essence.

Great Sage Mind gave him a hypersensitivity, made a topography of the world around him.

He could feel the rifts spread around him—quite unstable. There were dozens in just a few miles' radius; the sector was only a hundred-odd miles across. But none of those auras felt quite right...

He tried casting wider, straining a little as he expanded. Brow furrowing. He had to hold a great many things in his mind, all at once.

Then he felt it. Like a whisper on the edge of hearing...

And he knew instantly it was what he was looking for.

A whisper of a Law that flared brighter than all the others, a feeling like flowing fire. A touch of gold and white.

Stormfire flared at his feet, and he blasted toward the light.