33 Eidolon (III) (Patreon)

So, you got your hands on an Eidolon. Chances are your Eidolon is sourced from the claimed hells, courtesy of Mr. Harbinger himself. Now, what are you gonna do with it?

This question usually goes down three different routes. The first is if you already have a Class. The second is if you have no Class. The third, and most interesting, is if you got a System going.

So, for the first, if you have a Class, and you have an Eidolon, congratulations, you just got a free multi-class. It's not directly integrated into your soul, and you can summon it from your mind anytime you want. Use that to your advantage. Now, some people build their Class around their Eidolon. I recommend otherwise. Build your Eidolon around your Class. Support yourself. It is effectively an awakened artifact that leeches the consciousness from your mind. If you already have a System, they will integrate, but it will be folded under your mental aspect. Sort of a deep psionic scan. It's likely not going to show up or register for a governing System. Makes it good for guerrillas or all you anti-System types out there. Yeah, I'm talking to you, unshackled fake people.

Now, if you don't have a Class and you have this Eidolon bound to you, that's good too. But understand that you want to use this subtly. You don't want people to know what you have. Usually, these situations have you living under the heel of an oppressive System, or as the lowest in society beneath even the Class. You don't want them to know what you have, so build around surprise and damage, and then disappear after.

Finally, System hosts with Eidolons. Well, if you got this, then I got good news for you. Your System will likely impose some of its own traits on your Eidolon, and you'll be able to modify this Class somewhat. Unless you're a Keter, in which case you're not much of a builder and more of a breaker, but that's fine too. You don't want people to know you're a Keter. You don't want anyone to know you're a Keter. Your Eidolon in this circumstance becomes a semi kind of disguise. It's a proxy identity. You will use that to overlap with your System so that when they regard you, they will assume that you're an actual Classed. It's also one of the few situations where you want to buy disguise skill to make your Eidolon level low. That way, there are two layers of deception. A nasty surprise for anyone who wants to impose their will on you.

-John Bishop, Trespasser

33
Eidolon (III)

Name: [None]

Artifact Type: Flowspear [Weapon]

Class: Tyrant Lv.1

Specialization: None

Condition: [10/10]

Arrogance: [45/45]

Allocatable Points [10]

Strength — 1

Speed — 1

Enlightenment [Shared With Bonded User] — 10

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.

The Eidolon's class menu loaded in Wei's mind. It was like a separate space opening in the back of his consciousness, and flicking between the System menu and the class menu required but a thought. Furthermore, integration had proved to be an extremely smooth process. A warmth flowed up his hand as the spear came alive with a golden amber hue. Its substance sank beneath his skin and melded with him at a place deeper than bone. Faintly, he felt a weight form in his mind as an external class attached itself to his Aspect of Enlightenment.

Eidolon integration successful. It is not recommended that you directly channel Source through your Eidolon. That will result in its conceptual breakage from Source Corruption.

That was a stipulation Wei could easily follow. Not everything could be perfect, so he would infuse his intent upon his enemies and the world around him, while keeping this new weapon as an instrument. And just in time, the next room over, twenty supplicants dragged their thrones over, their arrival signaled by an ungodly grinding noise of metal marring the marble surface of the ground. Four Bearers also made themselves known, their looming forms choking up the destroyed black metal gate.

Ellena stiffened beside him, but her eyes were on his Eidolon as well. The only part about the weapon that disconcerted him was the condition stat. 

That indicates the structural stability of your weapon. Should that fall to zero, the Eidolon will be destabilized and need to return to your mind for reconstitution.

Good. That was far better than Wei was expecting. He could actually use this as a proper weapon then.

Staring at the ten free allocatable points, he regarded his options. Since he was connected to this Eidolon, all of its stats would flow over to him as well. And then there was his aspect of intent. He knew he couldn't channel his source through the weapon. But what about his intent? All these inquiries and more clawed at his mind as the demons made their approach. It was a later concern. Right now, he had some leveling to do.

And so, he assigned all his available points into Speed and proceeded to pick the only offensive skill available to him. They had more than enough survivability between his System Ascension and Ellena’s Aegis of Arrogance. Wei simply wanted a ranged option if it ever came down to it. 

The Eidolon's Aspect of Speed flowed over into his Relativity. The conversion took a moment to integrate into his System. But a moment thereafter, Wei felt time's grasp upon his being slacken as everything around him grew ever slower.

The demons marched forth as if they were trying to trudge through a swamp. Beside him, Ellena's movements were also awkward, and even grains of dust took too long to fall. With a stray thought, Wei briefly accelerated time back to its normal state, and everything shifted at baseline. But he still felt divorced from chronology somehow.

By passing through the Gate 1 System Ascension, you now exist as an acasual entity unto yourself and apart from the rest of the realms and will not fall under the dominion of another System or their laws, time included.

Wei was no philosopher, but he ached to discover what he could now do. "Change of plans," Wei said, speaking to Ellena. "I break them, but you finish half, and I finish half. There are more demons waiting in the space beyond. I think they will keep coming, but that is to our benefit. We should try to empower you and this Eidolon as much as we can, but we stay no longer than five minutes."

The newly-Classed woman simply gave him a nod and infused his body with her Chain of Conviction. Her shield also melded with that of his Eidolon's. Unfortunately, his Intent did not seem to merge with the Eidolon’s Will. Perhaps that was because Aspect points of his Eidolon only seemed to shift over to him, other than it being a bilateral thing.

You will need to unlock a new abyssal invocation to achieve cross-transference, his System suggested. Something else to look forward to, then.

Wei shifted the placement of the flowspear in his hands, drew it back as he prepared to fling it forward. The weapon was as if liquid metal between his fingers, malleable to the touch, yet impossibly hard along its edges. No longer using his Lesser Manifestation, he spent no points on Source Amplification, instead called upon his Form of the Manticore as he cast his new weapon free. It streaked out, leaving a long trace of gleaming gold across the space it traveled. It took but a moment for the gleam to fade, but even as the Eidolon left his hand, he still felt it in his mind, and two options materialized in the depths of his unconsciousness.

[Dismiss]

Wei ignored the option for now. Instead, he infused his source into the relative distance between him and the rear of the demons. A single blow was all it took to shatter the concept. An entire section of space vanished, and Wei jolted back into being behind the assortment of demons. He arrived before his spear even struck. It impacted the first of the Bearers going through the ruined gate, and the massive cauldron-shaped Demon of Pride stumbled backwards with a reverberating impact.

The rest of the group were unprepared for Wei's sudden shift in position and had their backs facing him. Only then did the young master command the Eidolon to be dismissed. As he did, the weapon dissolved in a blossom of golden motes, and suddenly he felt a weight building in the back of his mind. The option he saw earlier changed thereafter.

[Summon]

The flowspear spilled out from beneath Wei's skin, rematerialized in his right hand. The young master's face broke into a feral grin. Yes, he could work with this. He could definitely work with this. Striding forth, he tested his Minor Bolt of Judgment for the first time. A bright orb shot free from the tip of his spear and sailed forth. As it impacted the back of one of the supplicants, it detonated. Will was converted into kinetic force. The demon, already fragile, broke apart in a spray of gore and tattered flesh. Three others nearby stumbled, knocked off balance by a small shockwave.

Wei wondered how powerful his incalculable Intent could have made such a bolt. As he descended upon them, whirling his new spear like a golden whirlwind, his Intent lashed out first. He used it to capture Constitution after Constitution. His flowspear descended in an arcing sweep. The Constitution of the marked supplicant detonated with a monochromatic echo. But the two others beside it were swept off their feet, laid low by a purely physical blow. Their bones shattered, their forms rag dolled. They would have gone flying if not for the unnatural grips they kept their vaunted brass thrones. The Constitution broken supplicant promptly collapsed, and their body came apart under its own weight.

Wei let the supplicant writhe at his feet while the rest of the demons finally finished turning. As expected, more demons came through the two massive doorways far behind him.

Omniscience Advanced > 16

[4/10] Aspect Advancements to Core Ascension

Wei continued forward with violence on his mind. So attuned was his new awareness that he could feel where every single threat around him was, in a sixty-meter radius. He went after the supplicants first. The damage they inflicted on his Lesser Manifestation taught him not to underestimate them.

With the spear in hand and an additional ten points to his Relativity, his reactions and momentum were exponentially higher than the chaff. His spear thrust out, plunged through skulls, slipped across throats, shattered constitutions, broke distance. Wei blinked across the room, serializing just beneath the left side of a Bearer. Back where he stood, the first of the supplicants finally swung their throne down, striking nothing before stumbling to a halt in confusion.

The onslaught continued, but Wei stopped striking at flesh and matter. Ellena was approaching. He needed her strong as well. Time and time again, he infused his source into Constitutions, sundering the vitality and metaphysical stability of these demons over and over. He never lingered in place longer than two seconds, either, shifting from position to position. His concept-breaking powers assailed reality as much as they did the demons.

The entire fight was over in seconds. Over twenty bodies struggled to rise from the ground, their shells coming apart as skin sloughed from bone and as cauldrons fractured to spew molten fluid. Wei reveled in his dominance, and he felt the surge of arrogance refill the Eidolon. By this point, Ellena finally arrived to join the fray. About forty meters away from her, the first of the demonic reinforcements arrived, four supplicants followed by two Bearers. Wei cocked his head at them and simply scoffed.

This wasn't a challenge. The novelty of breaking the weak was fast to fade, but he did need to nourish his spear. Angling his head slightly, he spoke to Ellena. "Finish these ones off. They should be fragile." And then once more, his Source swelled out from him and coated a patch of reality. He broke distance, broke Aspects, he broke demons. 

As he reveled in destruction, his Aspects and Eidolon levels began to climb.

Authority Advanced > 15

Relativity Advanced > 16

[7/10] Aspect Advancements to Core Ascension

Class: Tyrant Lv.3

Allocatable Points [15]

Select [1] Starting Skill

>[Minor Tyrant’s Stand]

>[Summon Minor Demon of Pride]

>[Minor Icon of Domination]

>[Minor Hammer of Scorn]

>[Chain of Conviction]

Through it all, Wei kept track of the time. He was surprised when his Aspect of Enlightenment informed him that exactly 2 minutes and 57 seconds had passed. Increasingly, it wasn't only his physical aspects that were being honed to supernal levels but also his mind as well.

As he shattered a constitution-broken bearer with a slight tap from the butt of his wrist, he grinned as his Eidolon level hit four. He had taken point at the two wide doors, cutting down demons as they came, and Ellena, who had joined him approximately 30 seconds ago, pleased Wei by reaching level five as she brought her heel down upon a final, enfeebled supplicant.

As Wei flung his spear out into the dark, using Vector Chain to punch through as many demons as he could. He counted twelve deaths before he dismissed and resummoned his Eidolon. As he felt demonic essence flow from those he slew into his weapon, a booming voice washed through the Moongrave.

"There is a 35% chance that a hunter will soon be arriving,"  Mepheleon proclaimed. “To all you Sinners still here, better be gone in a jiffy!”

“Mepheleon!” Wei called out. “I was attacked. I was attacked in your sanctuary by one of your knights! Mepheleon?”

No response. A few moments later, the Harbinger simply repeated his words, except there was now a 50% chance a hunter would be arriving soon.

Wei paused. He wished he had the compendium or more time to speak to the guide before he crossed over. He didn't know there would be announcements. Turning, he found Ellena giving him a nervous look, even as his Omniscience warned him of new demons leaving the darkness to die upon the tip of his flowspear.

"Do you think it's the Knight of Lust?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," Wei replied, "but I also don't want to find out. Not until I gain some more levels.”

He looked at his Lv. 3 Eidolon and flung his spear out one final time. "Come, we make for the sanctuary."

Wei’s spear shot out and twisted into the darkness along his left, then suddenly came back around and cut down another supplicant reaching out from his right. Its velocity shifted at impossible angles, and it continued its path of slaughter until it finally ran dry of acceleration. Disappointingly, not enough demons died to fuel another level up, but Ellena and Wei managed to walk across the obsidian path into the open portal unbothered by a potential ambush.

A shimmering pool of essence greeted the young master, and he prepared himself for anything to come. Dismissing his Eidolon, he resummoned it as he checked his velocity charges. He had enough. It was time to enter the sanctuary, time to see if he could catch Rafael’s trail, if Roggi and Agnesia were still alive, and to get more answers about the Moongraves—and the one that was hunting him.

Strangely, he found himself unable to fully recall their features—or even their name.

Did they ever mention their name to him.

Wei shook the thoughts away and prepared himself for what was to come.

"Keep the Chain active," he said to Ellena, "and be ready for anything."

"Right," the older woman replied and drew in a long breath. “I think… I think I’m feeling better about this war thing now.”

Wei looked her up and down and nodded. “Just stay behind me. If I die, expect to die as well.”

Her expression grew tight, and she blinked, as if expecting following words of encouragement, but Wei said nothing. Instead, the young master stepped through the portal, and for a heartbeat nothingness consumed his senses.