31 Eidolon (I) (Patreon)

For you new guys that just got here, don't think of the Fathoms as a mirror to our universe. It's more like a circulatory system. Trespassers who've been around a few different realms will say things like Liminality Veins, Nexus World, or Fulcrum Realms. It's hard to wrap your head around at the start, so I'm going to give you the very simple version.

You are currently less than a cell inside the bloodstream. The Fathoms are the veins and arteries spreading through this bloodstream. Source is the blood, and when they come into contact with an existing system planted in a specific place, usually a realm, sometimes a star, then that source gets converted into whatever guidelines the system set for its designated world.

This is why you have entire sections of Fathoms that operate under different conceptual rules. Rules that can be imprinted upon a person, granting them a Classification, allowing you to disregard limitations through things such as mana, spell components, or whatever else your governing System dictates.

This is where we can get into some practical advice: for those of you who have been drawn over by a System and given a special Class, keep an eye on how your System operates. Systems don’t have limits like Classes, but they do have structures, and when something has a shape, it usually has a point of fragility you can exploit…

Food for thought if you ever need to break it.

-Mepheleon the Harbinger

31
Eidolon (I)

Wei drew a Reference Circuit from himself to Ellena. In truth, he didn't know if this method was going to work, but if the Trespasser's Compendium was anything to go off of, potentially an intelligent being could also be interacted with in the same manner. As he sank the glowing trace into her mind, he awaited a response, only for to reap nothing in return.

The deposed queen simply stared at him, managing three confused blinks before she finally responded. "Is that supposed to do something?"

"Yes," Wei replied, slightly annoyed. "Do you feel anything?"

"No."

Well, Wei felt something: Disappointment.

"Wait," Ellena's eyes widened. Wei perked up.  "I think I can display my Class screen."

"Your what?" Wei asked. All of a sudden, a window manifested in front of her. A window containing the contents of her Class. Part of his disappointment remained—this was not the doing of his Circuit, but the matter was resolved.

Name: Ellena of Dawnrest

Species: Human (Igni)

Class: Tyrant Lv.2

Specialization: None

Health: [15/15]

Arrogance: [50/50]

Allocatable Points [15]

Strength — 1

Speed — 1

Mind — 1

Awareness — 1

Constitution — 5

Will — 10

Abyssal Invocation

>[Will Above All]: Allows you to transfer points from your Will over to your other Aspects, temporarily increasing them.

>[Aegis of Arrogance]: Creates a protective barrier from your Will Aspect. Damage inflicted upon your person will be soaked by your Will instead. The barrier dissipates when your Will is expended and returns when your Will is restored.

Select [1] Starting Skill
>[Minor Bolt of Judgment]: The user expends 5 Arrogance (regained via acts and thoughts of extreme Pride) to unleash a golden bolt of pure will. The bolt will impact and deal immediate kinetic force based on user’s Will and inflict Will Erosion on a foe that fails their Will resistance check.
>[Minor Hammer of Scorn]: The user summons a war hammer constructed from their Will. The war hammer will fight in the user’s stead and possess Aspects equivalent to 10% of the user’s Aspects. Requires focus.
>[Minor Chains of Conviction]: The user shares their Aegis of Arrogance with a potential ally.

At a glance, Wei found the offered information familiar. It resembled his Core Level advancements in quite a few areas. But she had different variables to worry about, and they ran on different metrics. Arrogance seemed to require more participation on Ellena’s part to refill. Probably part of Mepheleon’s thematics.

The young master wasn’t sure why the Harbinger designed things to be this way, but with further though, acts of Arrogance or Wrath were a considerable more renewable resource than things like rituals that needed material components. If this was how demons sustained themselves, it was little wonder why they could spread across a land so fast—they had no need for a logistical tail.

“So,” Ellena asked, “what do you think?”

Wei narrowed his eyes at her many choices. “Put 10 points in your Constitution. The rest into Will. And then pick the third skill — Chains of Conviction.”

“10 points into Constitution? What about my Strength? Or perhaps my Mind?”

“No,” Wei replied. “You are not a warrior. You lack the skills, so the Aspects will not serve, and I cannot train you in a matter of seconds. We also won’t be thinking our way out of this problem. Violence will be required. Our odds will be best if you support me.”

"Right," Ellena said, acquiescing to his suggestions. At once, he saw her stat sheet update.

Allocatable Points [15]

Constitution > 15

Will > 15

Starting Skill Selected

>Minor Chains of Conviction

If the former queen had one virtue, it was a lack of an ego and a willingness to listen. The young master’s estimation of her climbed back up several notches.

As she completed her leveling, Wei frowned as her Class menu vanished without further fanfare. Her abilities were all themed around Pride while his System allowed him to affect the relative nature of reality. Quite the separation—but still comparable in more than a few ways. 

He would like to learn more about this—-would learn more once he got his Compendium back from that coward, Rafael. But that required he survive this place first.

"I'm done," Ellena said.

Wei grunted in acknowledgment. Then he turned to face the black iron gate that awaited them at the end of the hallway. As he prepared to take his first step, however, he hesitated and pushed his senses outward instead. His Omniscence spilled across the room, stretching beyond the limitations of his body as it found himself able to separate distinct grains of dust hiding in the cracks lining the walls. The Aspect Ascension of his Perception had not been an understatement. It had been easy to ignore during the fight earlier, but now it was a constant torrent of details flooding into his mind.

He could effectively detect everything around himself in a 28-meter radius. But that was all. No amount of focus or effort would allow it to go further, though further he could still see and hear.

Omniscience does not interfere with your baseline senses, his System helpfully provided.

Taking a few steps closer to the gate, Wei felt his awareness slip just beyond the threshold. Suddenly, he found his senses piercing into the next room over. The first thing he grew aware of was the Bearer of Brazen there, standing just across the gate with a mace in hand and molten fluid flowing from its overflowing cauldron. Two others of its kind stood by the sides of the doorway as if guards on duty. 

And they were not alone. Behind the Bearer facing the door were six creatures of far smaller stature. Each of them were chained to a brass throne, and though these demons were desiccated of skin and destitute of muscle, they still bore the weight of the thrones with ease, and their faces were contorted in perpetual rictuses of elation at the strain.

Supplicants of the Brass Throne: Lv. 1 Demon of Pride

And then there was the chamber itself. Wei's Omniscience only reached so far, but he could feel the ground, his Aspect of Enlightenment telling him that it was composed of cracked marble, and that columns of tarnished gold were rising nearby. And that was as far as he got; a potential ambush revealed before it could be sprung.

Omniscience Advanced > 15

[2/10] Aspect Advancements to Core Ascension

Standing in place, Wei glowered at the gate as Ellena stared at him. "What? Are we going?"

“There are demons waiting for us just beyond the gate,” he replied.

Her face grew pale. "Truly? How do you know?"

"I can sense them," Wei said simply, "and I suspect we will be facing far more than just them.”

"More than you can face?" Ellena asked, worry evident in her voice.

The young master shot her a flat look. The cultivator inside him wanted to chastise the woman for doubting him, but the greenness of her eyes wrung him dry of any harshness. He needed to reunite this woman with her daughter. He needed to. 

It would be a feat of virtue worth celebrating.

"No," Wei replied. "The Harbinger would not have thrown us into a situation without the possibility of victory. But that doesn't mean we go in blind."

Ellena let out a soft breath. "I'm glad you're here, then. Truthfully, the ‘war’ thing is always something that my love focused on. If we have to debate rich old men in parliament or decide upon some kind of policy, I might be able to help you, but alas, I am a Queen no more. And until you struck the Taint from my blood," she laughed at that, "I was barely a person. I owe you much, kind master. I will not forget it."

Well, Agnesia had to get her habits of courtesy from someone, Wei supposed, but more importantly, he suspected that she was thanking him pointlessly. If it was only her that passed through the portal, he doubted she'd be facing such a gathering of severe threats. The Bearers were not meant to be faced by someone at Lv. 1, after all.

"So. How shall we do this?" Ellena asked. She was anxious, but trying to help.

Wei didn't reply with words. Instead, he closed his eyes, centered himself, and entered a trance. As he pushed all the noise from his thoughts, he triggered lesser manifestation for the first time and felt his consciousness hatch free from his body. A shroud of translucent monochrome formed in a humanoid shape around his mortal shell. It borrowed the plates of his Shadescale armor but remained a vague visage overall.

Wei mustered his senses and took a step forward. He slipped free from his original body, turned, and regarded himself with astonishment. He saw his own face covered by tassels of long black hair. He couldn't perceive anything from his original body right now, a notable weakness, Wei decided, but the ability to scout ahead without risking certain death was too much of a boon.

Beside his human body, Ellena looked up at him, mouth agape with surprise. "Wei?"

"Yes," the young master said, speaking through his manifestation. His voice flowed naturally, as if he had a mouth, lungs, and tongue. He had no idea how Source managed to replicate all the effects of a human body, but it managed without difficulty, and he functioned without any impediment. "Try connecting your Chains of Conviction to me," he said.

She did so without hesitation, and in a heartbeat, links of gold stretched out from Ellena and speared into Wei’s Lesser Manifestation. Coiling around the manifestation, a faint shroud of rippling gold materialized, and to Wei’s delight, the effects spread over his original body as well. It seemed the Skill had a hard time separating the Manifestation from its source.

“Good,” Wei replied. “Here’’s what is going to happen. I’m going to use the Manifestation to smash down the door. After that, I will enter the room, scout out all the threats, eliminate what I can using my Manifestation. When I dispel my Manifestation—or it is destroyed—I will enter the room, and you follow. I will break their Constitutions again. You finish them after.”

“Sounds splendid,” Ellena said, keeping her breathing in check. “But do you think we need to use the door?”

Her question gave Wei pause. “Pardon?”

“Your ability. You can shatter anything now, right?”

That was a question for his System.

Conceptually, she is correct. Functionally, unless you advance your Aspect of Authority, certain objects and entities will take you multiple lifetimes to break.

“Yes,” Wei answered simply.

“Well… they might be expecting us to come straight through the door.”

“You want me to breach through the walls?” Wei asked.

“I was thinking if you could create a tunnel under into the next room, actually,” Ellena elaborated.

The young master just looked on at the queen.

“What?” Ellena asked.

He shook his head. “Not good at war.” He chuckled. “I was wrong. I should have let you put a few points into Mind at the very least.”