48 Miscalculation (I) (Patreon)

There are over two billion different Classes one can obtain in the Claimed Hells, with each foundational Class offered new and different pathways of development with the initial Specialization they earn and the subsequent Class Evolutions they gain upon reaching Lv. 25.

Despite this, a great majority of Sinners in the Claimed Hells share similar Classes due to outcomes relating to common habits and performance. The poorly titled “Knight” Specialization—not to be mistaken with the Knight Class Tier—drastically increases one’s physical Aspects with every subsequent level. It also provides a Skill Shard relating to general combat and survivability.

However, for those that perform spectacularly well during their Specialization trial—or manage to accomplish an unparalleled feat—more powerful and esoteric Specialization options will be made available to them, and as they progress further, with even more Specializations made available after their Class Evolution—or the forking of their foundational Sin, allowing one to access the powers of Wrath and Pride at the same time, for instance…

-Sarah Moonscar of the Trespasser’s Lodge

48

Miscalculation (I)

Artifact Type: Crescent of the Broken Moon [Weapon/Essence Conduit]

Class: Tyrant Lv. 23 

>Specialization: Cataclym’s Herald Lv. 23

Arrogance: [770/770]

Allocatable Points [0]

 >Aspect Advancements Per Level: +8 Strength, +6 Speed, +5 Mind, +6 Awareness, +5 Constitution, +8 Will, +5 Free Points

Strength — 31 > 175

Speed — 32 > 140

Enlightenment — 20 > 125

Awareness — 11 > 148

Constitution — 5 > 99

Will — 10 > 154

Abyssal Invocations:

>[Will Above All]

>[Aegis of Arrogance]
>[Heart of Calamity]

Slotted Skills [5/5]
>[Minor Icon of Domination]
>[Minor Castigator’s Smite]
>[Lance of Calamity]
>[Essenceshift]
>[Inventory]

Unslotted Skills

>[Minor Bolt of Judgment]

Sensory overload.

Two words that described Wei’s return to the Moongrave. As newly infused power surged into him, his Specialization-boosted Aspect of Omniscience slipped out the world beyond before he himself squeezed free from the rift. 

With the massive leveling spikes he gained from defeating the Knights of Hell and also the Dancer of the Calamitous Spiral, well over a hundred Advancements flooded into his Aspect. His body broke and reshaped itself, the Source adjusting to his growth with each progressing second. His mind felt clearer, his muscles stronger, his senses more acute, and strangely, he even felt himself rapidly growing taller.

Previously, he possessed a sphere of perfect awareness around himself, stretching 70 meters in all directions. Now, he was almost at 400 meters, and though the space within the rift remained a void of absolute nothingness, the Moongrave itself assailed him with countless details. His perception spilled out from him like a waterfall, flapping over trenches filled with Collectors and other demons, rising high into the air and brushing the bottom of what seemed like a flying eyeball—demonic observers flying overhead. His senses also went deeper, granting him insight into what resided deep beneath his feet. 

Only the topmost section of this Moongrave was layered in metal, and it ran about 30 meters before obsidian and brimstone continued down toward the crust. More than that, however, he also sensed the arteries of Sin-Incubator spreading underground like sprawling roots, injecting essence into toward each of the forts.

Though overwhelmed, his Mind began to process and assimilate all this information with incredible efficiency. His thoughts were more fluid than ever, naturally so even. His memories also felt clearer than they had ever been. He could recall every lesson he ever experienced, every battle he ever fought. Though his recollections weren’t perfect in detail, It took little effort to recount any scene from his past at a moment’s notice.

A final squeeze of pressure pushed Wei out from the rift’s accretion. Taking the moment to center himself, Wei also felt additional presences brushing his mind. No, more than presences—these were like new shapes or forms he could interact with. He felt the wind, the water, the lightning above, the earth below.

But there was also something more. Everything that was broken—the dented ground, broken swords, crumbling battlements—He could feel them too, as if his mind was a palm that could caress their shapes. 

There were well over twenty-five Collectors shambling through trenches around him, but amidst all the other details, they only existed as faint embers in Wei's notice.

Within his mind, another presence thundered, an unsummoned source of essence and power laid dormant, waiting for his call. 

Somehow, during his journey back through the rift, his weapon got dismissed. With a thought, he summoned his Eidolon. Rather than flowing out his hand in streams of golden fluid, it exploded into existence right next to him, manifesting with a shockwave of lightning, wind, rubble, and water. As the spear took shape, essence radiated from it, as if it was more portal to an elemental plane than weapon. Thinking back to a moment ago, Wei considered the change in its artifact type. It was also an essence conduit now. Perhaps portal was a good way to describe it.

His flowspear had been a simple weapon that exhibited qualities of solid and liquid. The Crescent of the Broken Moon was comparatively shaped from forces rather than matter. It looked just as he saw when held by his alternative self, twice as long as its original spear. Its shaft was forged from a bolt of lightning, a shroud of wind dancing around its contours, stones hovering around its haft, and a long curved trail of turbulent but reflective water forming its spear tip. 

As it hovered next to Wei, he found himself awed by its presence. It hadn't materialized in his hand, but he could still feel it, tethered to his will, bound to his mind.

Tentatively, he reached out, grasping the Broken Crescent, anticipating the currents of surging lightning to pass into his body at any moment. Yet, when his fingers closed around the shaft, the essence simply flowed around him, submitting to his will, allowing itself to be shaped in capitulation to his will. None of its essences originated from within Wei. His System wouldn't allow it with how Source saw things unmade. Yet, with the Eidolon merged to his consciousness, he couldn't say it was apart from him either. The best description was that it passed across from him, like he was a likewise a portal for the weapon as well. 

As he lifted his spear high, his Omniscience allowed him to notice the various demons fleeing away from him. Collections shambled down along trenches. Observers climbed higher, seeking distant horizons. Wei guessed that the amount of essence he was outputting right now caused these now outleveled demons unwilling to face him.

It was also at this time that he recalled the rest of his group. Turning back to face the rift, he considered the possibility of anyone returning before he did, but he quickly deduced the answer. Using his Aspect of Enlightenment, he remembered the placement of debris on the ground. The positioning of the fragments mostly remained the same, only displaced by his summoning of the Broken Crescent. If anyone came back first, they must have done so without ever touching the ground.

Furthermore, he made liberal use of his catalyst-amplified Aspect of Relativity. It would not surprise him if the rest of the group were only facing their second or third bouts right now. Whatever the case, this gave him the opportunity to experiment alone and get used to his new capabilities. 

Despite his Eidolon's increase in size, it felt somehow even lighter than before, easier to wield. Testing a few stabs and slashes, it lashed at his surroundings as something between a bottled calamity and an actual spear. He stabbed. Floating chunks of earth shot forward from the back of the spear. The water that coated its tip surged faster, augmented by a shroud of rapidly twisting wind. The electricity shaping the shaft detonated and surged, accelerating his jab.

With every strike, waves of force were projected from the Eidolon, cleaving deep rents upon the alloyed ground. As Wei twirled the Broken Crescent, he took in his weapon with a growing sense of satisfaction. It no longer felt like he was stabbing and striking with a material weapon. No, this was like slashing and striking using calamitous forces.

Taking things a step further, Wei triggered his new Abyssal Invocation: Heart of Calamity. Even more essence flooded out from the spear. But they did more than that, like his Eidolon's aspects. The Heart of Calamity was channeled through Wei, his material form serving as a window for the deluge of essence rushing out from his Eidolon.

 20-meter tall cyclones swept up around Wei, picking up debris. The ground beneath him began to shake. A thunderstorm exploded above as gold-tinged lightning whipped down across the land. A crushing downpour followed as a literal tide poured out from his spear, washing over the Moongrave.

With each passing second, Wei could feel his Arrogance draining, his foundational sin being consumed and converted into each of his newly obtained essences. The amount of Arrogance expended each second was not stable, either. Letting Heart of Calamity run in a passive state, he only lost one Arrogance every two seconds. However, if he tried to exert his pressure on the world or direct any of his essences, the costs to his Arrogance would immediately spike.

Arrogance: [759/770]

True to the Invocation's description, Wei's manifested cataclysm swept occupied 400 meters of space in accordance with his Omniscience. Deliciously, Wei felt his senses spread across every bolt of the falling lightning, every torrent of wind, every stream of water, every chunk of earth. He was the Heart of Calamity, and the Heart of Calamity was him. Each aspect of destruction and disaster was but a new limb for him to direct, a weapon for him to wield, and though his current projection of power paled before the Dancer, it still had fifty levels on him despite his massive jump in power.

In time, its feats would be dwarfed by his.

Gripping his spear tighter, Wei directed his attention over to a nearby fort. He moved, and with over a hundred Advancements infused into his Relativity, time dilated. Everything around him seemed slower—no, his Enlightenment told him he was just moving nearly a half second faster than baseline time itself, causing a bubble of dilation to form. A lag developed between him and the world as he rose into the air. 

He did not sprint or break distance to approach the fort. Rather, he used his Broken Crescent to direct the storm it was channeling. For the first time, Wei flew. He zipped through the air, his movements fluid like the serpent's, the wind always behind him.

As the edge of his Omniscience spread over the Bastion of Bloodshed, he found the two groups of Collectors from earlier still holding there, unmoving. 

Drawn into the perimeter of his perception, heavy winds beat down the demons. Rain fell hard, the stones shook at their feet, and lightning crashed around. Finally, they felt the young master's essence, and at once,and in a weirdly organized fashion, they turned to flee. 

It was utterly pointless.

Wei slashed out with his new spear, and his calamity carried the cut across the length of 374 meters. A savage gust of wind slashed through the Collectors, just as a fallen bolt of lightning struck their epicenter. As an explosion followed, the ground beneath their feet fissured as outcroppings of stone pierced through the metal beneath. All that was finally swept aside by a rushing wall of water that smashed over the battlements and swept into the opening doors of the Bastion itself.

In a second, the entire group had been annihilated. Wei felt every bit of destruction he inflicted, as clearly as if he was dragging a blade across someone else's naked flesh. Unable to help it, the young master laughed. Wielding the powers of ruin was sublime, cathartic.

He remembered the obliteration of his world, and disturbingly, he almost found himself able to understand why someone did it. If only for the joy of breaking something so impossibly large.

Focusing himself, Wei regarded the Bastion as new Collectors marched out from its sodden doors without a hint of fear. There were six of them again. And there would be six against in a few moments or so. The young master continued his experimentation.

 Instead of directly striking them as he did the other Collectors, he directed his Intent across a span of three hundred meters. A stream of Source originated from his body, reaching out spreading as wide as he could make it. Though he tried to encompass several demons at once, he found himself unable to focus—found it utterly impossible, as if it was a fundamental impossibility.

You can only target a single Aspect of Reality to break, his System answered.

"Truly?" Wei muttered sardonically. "Are the Aspects of these demons so unique that I cannot target two of the same?"

Everything is unique. Everything is made absolute by how they exist relative to something else. That is how our existences are referenced. Laws are just convergences. Interplays between systems.

The young master fell silent at that. Such was something he needed to ruminate on. 

Shamefully, he'd done very little thinking during his journey, operating on impulse after impulse. In his blind determination to ascend this tower, he had not considered the nuances of his System or his Class. His goals were unchanged, but he had been neglecting his growth with his simple-mindedness. It was only a desperate plan that saved him from the Dancer—allowed him to prevail.

In these Claimed Hells still were powers far beyond his, and he needed to see them. And he could see them laid low by any means, by all means, whatever it took.

He couldn’t just be an angry child with a spear anymore. He needed to be more. He hungered to be more.

Focusing his Intent on a single Collector, he targeted their Constitution. Once more, Wei struck, but focused on channeling a specific esssence he had this time. 

A bolt of golden lightning fell from the sky, its path traced by his Broken Crescent. It impacted the targeted Collector and an explosion of darkness and bright followed. Stabbing twice more in rapid suggestion, he swapped over to water and wind essences. The next two Aspects to break were Speed and Strength, respectively. A riptide swatted the demon from behind while a spear of wind twisted and wrung the fiery tendrils clean from the flesh they controlled.

Arrogance: [745/770]

Everything felt far better than Wei expected. This was better than a spear. This was sublime. The calamities made for such potent wepaons. Previously, Wei suffered from a matter of range. Indeed, he could destroy the concept of distance, but that still put himself within the vicinity of his enemies. 

Now, his dueling range was around 400 meters away, and perhaps his Lance of Calamity could be projected even further.

A sudden ripple forming over the Specialization Rift drew Wei’s attention. Spatial essence washed out from the singularity as a pinprick of whiteness formed at its center and grew. Wei suspected that another one of his comrades was returning. 

Sparing the other Collectors, Wei dismissed his Heart of Calamity and prepared to greet—and boast of his success. He wondered how far his companions had gotten, and who was returning—

His senses flared with alarm. The tip of an essence-infused blade darted past the perimeter of his Omniscience. A long thin sword planted upon a hilt made from plant matter and rose pierced his awareness.

Roses.

Wei knew that sword. He had been stabbed by one just like it. The essence was familiar too. Telekinetic. As it sailed twenty meters deeper into the sphere of his Omniscience, the young master reacted. 

He infused a Source Catalyst into his Eidolon and channeled everything into Relativity once more. Time distorted around him as the blade lagged. Echoes of the sword drifted ahead while its solid shape slowed to a languid place. He used his Omniscience to observe the weapon and frowned. He'd expected to find the Knight of Lust holding the blade. He expected this Moongrave to warn him when a hunter intruded on its premises. Neither was the case.

Just what was Mepheleon doing?

The sword simply drifted through the air, directed by unseen strands of telekinetic essence, and immediately, Wei’s Enlightenment made him zero in on the strands.

4 seconds to Eidolon Overload

Just then, it occurred to him that he likely didn’t need to bash his head against the Dancer. He could have just infused it with a Source Catalyst. Wei did his best to focus and ignore the growing realization that he might have been slight, possibly, maybe, a complete idiot.

Following the telekinetic strands, he traced them to a patch of roses sprouting free from the cracks upon the alloyed ground. The floral trail extended well over four hundred meters away, beyond his Omniscience and toward a distance pylon. 

Instinctive calculations ran through Wei's mind. With little effort, he estimated the general direction the sword was projected from. Just as he prepared to extend his Intent to shatter distance and begin his pursuit, another idea occurred to him.

Contrary to his foundational Sin, he wasn't going to be pointlessly arrogant. No, he wanted the Knight alive, at least for now. She were going to be broken. He was going to indulge himself in their pain and avenge his prior humiliation. But there was much she knew, and there was much he wanted to know. So, for the first time, Wei triggered his Essenceshift skill and converted his being over to wind. A shroud of rushing gales swallowed his body, and suddenly he felt himself weightless and transparent.

The drain of his Arrogance increased twofold and only then extended his Aspect of Intent. To Wei’s delight, he was still able to attack concept’s using the Broken Crescent, though while Essenceshifting, he could only wield the essence he was attuned with.

Whips of wind impacted his projected Source, and he jolted forward toward the distant pylon—the one materializing the Artifact Rift—as a cyclone.

Just before he blinked, he saw Roggi—or what seemed to be Roggi—emerging out from the singularity rift. The Oathbearer had additional parts to their body, seemed to be even larger than before. And where those wings?

2 seconds to Eidolon Overload

Wei ignored that for now. He would deal with the Knight of Lust first. As he arrived right before the Artifact Rift, Wei’s senses filled with a few hundred different demons and countless more essence signatures. However, his vastly improved Enlightenment worked in tandem with his Omniscience. He processed all the “unnecessary” information in an instant as he followed the final few strands of telekinetic force flowing across a stretching patch of roses. The flowers came to a stop just below the pylon, and the young master noticed that more flowers were growing on the side of the struck. Only then did his Omniscience detect them.

Atop the pylon, the Knight of Lust awaited, their form cloaked by some kind of invisibility skill and a cloak of universal essence—fundamental forces anyone was capable of exerting.

1 seconds to Eidolon Overload

To Wei’s fascination, Source fractures spread along his Essenceshifted form, lining the wind he became in fissures. Rushing up and over the pylon, he dismissed his catalyst and existed Essenceshift at the same time.

Arrogance: [675/770]

Source: [118/140] Lumens

Time accelerated, but a faint temporal echo still remained. Wei studied this improved Aspect of his Relativity as he landed on the pylon just behind the hidden Knight of Lust. A light-bending veil was shrouded over her body, and the essence swirling around her left him feeling a bit dazed even up close. But with his Omniscience zeroed in, there was nowhere for her to go. A distortion passed over Wei’s vision. The Knight’s reaction came in two parts. The first was a time-dilated imprint of the Knight, the second was the Knight herself repeating the action.

She jolted with a hiss of frustration, looking about as telekinetic force washed out from her. “Damnation,” she spat. “Where did he—”

She went still. Wei’s presence washed over her. Her temporal echo slashed out a second thereafter, her base Speed stills superior to his—but only barely. The faint blade passed through Wei’s neck. And a second later, the Knight herself repeated the action.

She turned, spun, and cut. Only for their blow to be parried by Wei's Broken Crescent. A crackle sounded through the air. A jolt ran passed through Wei's arm. The Knight of Lust's Strength was still considerable, considerable enough the young master was pushed back. But where she was just Class-enhanced muscle, he was the Cataclysm’s Herald. Wei pushed back. Wind, lightning, water, and earth pushed with him. A gale shifted the Knight of Lust’s blade down the length of Wei’s spear. He triggered Heart of Calamity once more, and lightning coursed out from his Eidolon and blasted into her—just as she materialized a copy of her sword.

A thunderclap sounded. Essence exploded from the Knight of Lust a moment too late. A telekinetic tendril extended from the flowers adorning her body, but never reached her fabricated sword. Wei’s bolt impacted her breastplate and the faint form of a large horned materialized around the Knight and moaned, expelling some damage.

But not all of it.

The Knight of Lust blasted off the pylon and Wei cut her twelve times more before a second passed. Wind battered her, slamming her down into the ground. The earth bulged, launching her up—only for lightning to spike her back first against the ground. His essence of destruction triggered as he felt her spine fracture. Wei just kept going. He whipped an arcing cut upward as a rising swell of water carried through a group of demons, flooded a trench line, through three barricades, until she smashed into and through a partially crumbled set of defensive fortifications.

Obsidian rubble crashed down over the Knight, burying her under tons of Wei.

From the five forts around this rift rose 40 hellish missiles. Wei swept his spear through the air a second thereafter. 40 Warwolves were now missing 40 heads. And 40 missiles fizzled out, never to arrive.

Class: Tyrant Lv. 23 > Lv. 24

>Specialization: Cataclym’s Herald Lv. 24

Arrogance: [629/770]

Allocatable Points [5]

Strength — 175 > 183

Speed — 140 > 146

Enlightenment — 125 > 130

Awareness — 148 > 152

Constitution — 99 > 104

Will — 154 > 162

Extending his intent out, Wei shattered distance and blinked next to the Knight. He heard her cough wetly, struggling to rise as she slow pushed the rubble off from her. Hours ago, she was his better by far.

Now?

Now, he intended to use her for some… continued education.

But first, he needed to assign some Advancements.

Allocatable Points [0]

Awareness — 148 > 157

His influence over destruction essence sprawled over her body. One of her arms was broken. Both lungs were punctured. Her jaw was fractured. Some of her scales had been denuded from her body. An eye was outright pulped. Still, she clung to her blade. A sign that she was a warrior, at the least.

Wei would honor that. She did spare Agnesia, after all. Why not make a fight of this.

As the Knight wrestled a large slab off her chest, Wei accessed his Inventory and pulled out a Potion of Regeneration. He chucked it against the Knight's chest casually, and it rang against her dented breastplate, the roses decorating it now withered.

The Knight stared at the potion and then aimed a single baleful glare at Wei.

"Drink," the young master said coldly. "You have a reason to, this time. Drink, and get up. There are other things I wish to discover about myself. And yourself, as well."