Building a magic system on threat of destruction

As it turned out, playing god was very boring. Jack and Plexion had agreed to have Jack stay and monitor the body that was Deis, just to make sure there weren't any issues. It didn't need to eat, move, or even technically breathe. He had left it with the ability to breathe, but it did so with irregularity. For the most part it just...lay there, not doing anything.

The truth was that Jack really didn't want to be here anymore. Every hour he spent watching the still form of Deis, he was filled with feelings of guilt and shame. He constantly wondered if he had made the right call or not, going over every moment of the confrontation in his mind, trying to find a different way.

Jack might have gone crazy in that white void, snakes of light dancing around him, if not for Plexion. The demon talked to him often through his status screen, either to bring news of how people were doing on the surface, or even just to chat about random things. The only other form of entertainment was his experiments with butterflies.

The system bugs seemed to respond to his intent, rather than his orders. He could send them out with a thought and form them into shapes, but that was the extent of it. He couldn't change them from the translucent blue material they were made of, nor could they produce additional effects. It was honestly pretty underwhelming. The ability would be a powerful skill on Drowl but served very little purpose in this white void.

Even if he wanted to play around with this new skill, both he and the butterflies had things to do. He had to pay close attention to Deis, his eyes on the status screen of the god constantly. The butterflies had to return to monitoring status screens. They were able to return to where Plexion was by merging with Jack's cloak, somehow becoming invisible against the dark material.

Jack spent days doing nothing except watching the small blue screen in front of him. There was no way to measure the time himself, he didn't need sleep or food, so his body couldn't tell him that time was moving at all. Jack felt the greatest relief of his life (unlife?) when Plexion gave him the okay to return. They had theorized that touching Deis' cloak would be able to return him to where Jack was normally stationed in the sun.

He reached towards Deis, only to flinch back as the body took one of its irregular breaths. Jack froze, then quickly checked the screen again. There was no change. He reached out and touched the black cloak, and he felt the tugging sensation on his soul. Unlike when he had entered, he felt more grounded now. He somehow understood that he could resist the pulling if he wanted, but he chose to ignore that. He allowed himself to be sucked into the cloak and appeared near his workstation.

He didn't see Plexion around which concerned him, but he immediately turned back to the black cloak on the floor. Jack quickly grabbed the cloak and let himself be sucked back into the space where Deis was lying. He checked the status screen once again and there was still no change. That was a large relief as well, Jack had been worried that leaving would somehow give Deis the freedom to recover again. But if leaving this strange space didn't induce any change, then it was probably safe for Jack to leave him for stretches of time.

Jack returned to the normal white void and still didn't see any sign of Plexion. He looked behind all of the furniture but didn't see any sign of the demon. Suddenly a notification screen popped up in the corner of Jack's vision. He opened it and was greeted by a message. [Hey, can you not see or hear me?]

The message was from Plexion, he was the only other person who could send messages this way. It was possible that the demon was playing a prank on him, but Jack didn't think so. he spoke, realizing it had been days since he last used his voice. "No, I can't"

Another message appeared. [Hang on, let me try something.]

Jack waited patiently as Plexion apparently tried something. After a moment Jack saw a flicker in the air in front of him, Plexion's body appearing in small flashes. His face was screwed up in concentration and his words only came in starts and stops.

"Ja-...I'm tr-...foc-...oon."

Then he disappeared completely. Another message popped up on Jack's screen. [Did that work?]

"Only kind of. You were cutting in and out a bunch. What did you end up doing?"

[I think that you somehow aligned with Deis' power so much that the magic I used to hide from him started working on you too. So I tried to find your specific magic signature and add a filter that lets you see through it. But for a lot of reasons that was shockingly hard to do.]

It was something else to consider, yet another problem on the issues piling up in front of them. Jack sighed, glad that they could at least communicate for now. He sighed in frustration but gave a thumbs up in the general direction Plexion had been. He had work to do.

One of the first things he tried was manipulating the butterflies. The ability continued to function as it had before and Jack couldn't feel any particular difference in his practice. He examined his status screen, looking for any hints of change, but not finding any. His appearance had changed slightly though. His clothes were apparently part of his spirit, it had something to do with how he perceived himself, but now he had a black cloak over his normal outfit. It bothered Jack more than he would like to admit that something had messed with his soul and changed him in some way.

He tried to remove the cloak, but every time he got it off the cloak would reappear on his body. It was annoying, but to be honest Jack didn't really notice it unless he focused on it. It was like how someone doesn't really notice themselves blinking all the time until someone points it out. The cloak was just there, sticking in the background of his awareness.

So many questions, but not enough answers. Unfortunately, Jack had more work to do. He found some specific status screens and began typing messages.

Jeler sat with Jack's disassembled body, staring at all the component pieces on the worktable. After Jack didn't return at the appointed date, the bore-bot trio had grown worried that something was wrong with his body. They had taken him apart and checked over every component according to the various diagrams they had.

There had been no messages, no contact, no word from the High Deity. It didn't mean anything was wrong, but...well, Jeler didn't want to consider what could have gone wrong. He would just have to wait and trust that Jack would be back.

Riniox had come down quite a few times over the past few days to update Jeler on everything going on. The king of Vitlavin was camped outside the valley compound, very impatiently demanding to meet Jack. This had become a balancing act of politics, the bore-bots and Riniox didn't want to publicly say that Jack might have broken under their care, but they couldn't deny a king entry to this place without reason. They claimed he was 'meeting with the High Deity' and 'contemplating his next steps' which was code for, 'he's busy.'

The king did not appreciate this treatment. Every messenger they sent got shouted at and threatened, not that he would actually hurt them, he had very little authority on foreign soil. But his constant probing and badgering were starting to wear on people. Even the mercenaries in the camp were getting antsy, many were whispering about Jack's whereabouts, wondering if he was actually okay or not.

Unlike public opinion, the mercenaries did not often think of Jack as a religious icon. Most of them knew him as a nice and thoughtful guy, not especially devout or interested in religious standing. The king of Vitlavin was only standing by because Jack was publicly one of the most important people in the world. Bullying his way in and forcing a meeting could have long-lasting consequences, and the king was apparently a very self-conscious man.

Even ignoring the man though, there were growing tensions further out in the world. The powers that ruled the world were starting to grow impatient according to Riniox's information network. Her mercenaries buddies and paid informants were sending messages that there was a ton of military posturing in various parts of the world.

Pilgrims were also an issue. There had been an influx of people who had journeyed to the village of Burnia in order to meet Jack and receive the rewards promised by the High Deity. Most of them were more patient than the visiting royalty, but their presence agitated the man. He refused to allow any of them to meet with Jack before he did.

Riniox had ordered the mercenaries to construct additional housing in the town in order to accommodate additional visitors and rough shacks were starting to take shape. They were doing what they could, but they needed Jack.

Jeler's [Waiting], [Anxiety], and [Hope] skills had seen growth over the past few days, along with a handful of others. Every notification was a shock, he kept expecting to see a message from Jack, only to see that some skill had leveled up instead. He felt so helpless, unsure of how to proceed now that Jack wasn't here.

Jeler had never felt like this before. He wanted to help Jack, to be there for him but was powerless to do anything. All he could do was watch and wait. But he couldn't help but feel a moment of hope as a notification popped up on his screen. He opened it, then shot to his feet. Jack was coming back!