The Ruler of Ruin

The mines weren’t at all what I expected. They were not mines in the traditional sense that I had learned about in Solarias. Instead, the Gneisslings created, or cultivated, existing deposits of their chosen mineral and used them as workshops, locations for experiments, and presumably their reproduction. Chrys didn’t explain much about the mines, merely pointed out what mineral categories lay down numerous large shafts.

“Are you okay?” Chrys asked when the discharges of black lightning from my fingertips had grown so intense they provided more intense, if flickering, light than her sunstone. The sunstone was a handy semi-transparent stone rod with a yellow-white smooth orb at the top, which emitted bright light for about thirty feet in all directions. Gneisslings didn’t see via light like I did, but the rod worked off magic, not astral power, so Chrys carried it on my behalf.

“I’m a bit out of balance, I think two of my concepts are past ready for me to form a second ability with, and I haven’t done so yet.”

“That’s correct. Three abilities for your vitality, one for strength and agility, and two for essence. It would be best to bring them all up to three, but you aren’t there yet. Unlocking your second ability for strength and agility will put you close to equilibrium,” Arx Maxima confirmed my suspicions were right.

I wanted to yell at Arx Maxima. She was the one who pushed me to unlock Create Portal, which pushed me out of equilibrium in the first place! The ability to return to Schieferon might have been worth it, though, and I wanted to unlock all my powers. The sooner, the better. I had only a vague understanding of how powerful Create Portal could be, and every one of my administrative powers seemed like they might be the power of gods, to say nothing of envoy. Delirium of Ruin could cut EternaStone, after all.

The excitement at power combined with the roiling energies inside of me to create a ball of inspired, yearning anxiety that demanded immediate release.

“You should focus on shaping one of your abilities, then. We’ve got another mile to go before we leave the protected outer-environs of Schieferon, and I can handle any problems that might arise,” Chrys half-suggested, quarter-demanded, and quarter-begged me to get my powers under control. I could practically see the anxiety she felt each time the black lightning sparked at my fingertips, or a small gust of whispering wind blew away from me. For a Gneissling she was incredibly emotive.

I nodded to Chrys, and considered how to shape the powers of Katrina, which pressed on me with the most desperation and need.

As if the powers could sense my thoughts, the whispering voices of madness from the Ebon Gale and the black lightning of Katrina crackled and vied for my attention with greater frequency. My ears filled with the chants of the damned, and I had to squint from the intensity of light generated by sparking electricity.

I lacked any form of range attack at all, other than dropping rocks on people with Create Wall, launching objects with Modify Vector, or throwing Delirium of Ruin. I focused on the black lightning, and imagined what it could do. My mind filled with images of mountains, Katrina roiling over the peaks, her black tendrils of electricity obliterating rocky spires of stone with each strike. I felt like that was a good start, but I decided to be greedy, I wanted more than just ranged obliteration. I wanted it to do something even if the blast itself failed to down an opponent.

I forced myself to imagine a synthesis, a joining of the psychosis of the Ebony Gale’s black winds with the black lightning. The wind around me died down, as I reached a stronger, more refined mental picture of what I wanted. The traditional black lightning of Katrina had a white or blue highlight to it, but my new lightning had a dark purple highlight. The regular lightning was sleek and jagged, a force that could be slightly predictable based on science and patterns. My lightning furled and unfurled electric tentacles unpredictably, it jolted this way and that erratically, and it screeched and whispered the words of chaos.

“Bedlam Bolt!” The name solidified in my mind, crystal clear. Black electricity coalesced into a condensed, electric obsidian version of Delirium of Ruin’s spearhead, and launched it with a flick of the wrist. A flickering maelstrom of chaos shot from my hand down the mineshaft ahead of us, illuminating the path far ahead of us before it quickly went beyond our sight, eventually crashing against the ground in a sizzling climax. As impressive and soul-chilling as it was, the power behind the bolt felt slightly disappointing.

“Summon Katrina, otherwise, your direct attacks with that concept are limited. Perhaps as you grow more intimately familiar with the quirks of the Nothing Storm you will be able to channel its power more fully without summoning it.” Arx Maxima said in an attempt to cheer me up.

“I hope no one was walking down there,” Chrys muttered.

“My powers with that concept are weakened without summoning the storm itself,” I informed Chrys with a smile meant to hide my own sudden spike in anxiety. I hadn’t even thought that there might be any Gneisslings in the mine, and just thrown lightning because I unlocked it and really wanted to see it, no, I needed to see it. I’d also forgotten my smiles were a creepy show of dragon’s teeth.

“Feel a little better, then?” Chrys asked, clearly, not at all put at ease.

“The anxiety you feel churning in your stomach, the tension in your muscles, the growing ache in your mind, the raised hair on the back of your neck is all part of unlocking your next ability as my Envoy. I have upgraded the base version of the ability to deal with the instability of the Gossamyr as best I can. Fine tuning will be necessary. You do realize you can talk to me telepathically, yes?”

“Honestly? Not really. I still feel compressed, twisted, and anxious, but comparatively it’s a lot better,” I answered truthfully. Lying to Chrys wasn’t a good idea, her empathic talents were as good as a falsehood detector.

You’re only telling me that I can talk to you with thoughts now? Arx, maybe you could have told me that before I got into the habit of talking out loud and looking like an insane person? Also, I don’t have hairs on the back of my neck anymore, thanks to this mask!

“When you find trouble, allow a minor threat to get near you. You are the perfect level of anxiously paranoid to develop Sense Danger with minimal risk. It has long been a hallmark of my Envoys ability to thwart death, assassination, and even the in-fighting within the Stellarae Enclave.” Arx Maxima completely ignored my gripe about my facial transformation. I imagined Arx Maxima with my mom’s face, looking to the side, whistling innocently.

So, I ignored Arx Maxima for a little bit, and we could see how she liked it.

I examined the second ability of Katrina more fully. Bedlam Bolt might seem like a simple bolt of electricity, but it was actually something very different. I quickly found that I could alter the shape of the tip of the bolt. By default, it seemed to form in the shape of Delirium of Ruin – a bladed spear tip, with the two angled crescent moon blades for I don’t know why. With a thought, I could form it into arrowheads, traditional spear heads, or even a sphere.

Why would lightning be so shapeable? Perhaps I could use the piercing tips to cut through exteriors? The more I let my mind flow into the power, the more I could feel that the tip was only a small part of the power. The black lightning itself could be stabilized, to act like a solid. I imagined piercing a bird, and pulling it back to me as if it had been struck by a crossbow bolt with a rope attached. That the power had this strange versatility built into it wasn’t it’s only surprise, but the Bedlam part of its name seemed to be understatement.

Would you like a visual guide to your abilities?

The Mask of Azazel asked me, and I immediately accepted. A small pricking feeling shivered through my body, then vanished. An illusory surface appeared before me, and filled with four pentagons. Did it always use pentagons, or had it co-opted my own mental imagining of my concepts?

Concept: Katrina.

Ability #1: Summon Storm: Summon the Nothing Storm, Harbinger of Oblivion. All other abilities will be enhanced dramatically while Katrina is present.

Ability #2: Bedlam Bolt: Dual mode ability. Cast electrical surges similar to natural lightning, or enter EX mode, and use spear-tipped bolts with variable properties. Both modes inflict enemies with mental confusion. If Katrina is present, enables Artillery mode, which allows for semi-precise long distance lightning bombardment.

I tried to whistle and failed. The basic power of Bedlam Bolt seemed like what a normal lightning caster would do, and the EX-mode seemed to be what I had tapped into initially. Variable properties was vague, and would require experimenting. I didn’t want to play with my dangerous looking black lightning, I had to do it, for science!

I wondered what EX-mode meant.

“Extra-Mode, or special mode. It was part of the parlance used by the Stellarae Brotherhood to codify and describe abilities. The Mask of Azazel uses this codified system of language to summarize and convey abilities to the best of its ability. Command it to give you a glossary, and it will educate you on the terms.” Arx Maxima answered, strangely helpful.

Only, I hadn’t thought the question to her. That unpleasant churning in my stomach turned up a notch, and the hairs on the back of my arms stood straight up. Could Arx Maxima always tell what I thought? Could she read my mind? Or could she simply anticipate me? Did the difference between the methods really matter? I had bound Arx Maxima to three of my attributes, she fit around me like a glove, so close as to be intimate.

“We’re leaving the safety of the Stone King’s lands behind now,” Chrys drew my near-panicking attention back to the subterranean world around us.

We had reached a choke point in the path, a dense wall of mithril blocked the entire mine shaft, and two Gneisslings manned this side of the gate. The first stood at my height and reflected all the nearby light from their white quartz-like body. At the end of each of its white-clear crystal formations sparkled brilliant colors. I had no idea what type of crystal the Gneissling was, but their form made my head spin slightly just looking at them.

The second Gneissling I had met before.

“Obsydadean!” Chrys greeted the large, obsidian being. “Why aren’t you at your usual post?”

“Hey, Dean. How’s the new concept working out?” I tried to make small talk. I had bound the concept of diamond to him, as he wished to increase his durability. Dean was a Gneissling of few words who seemed to enjoy being on guard duty, wherever that guard duty might be.

“Selenite got called to heal someone in Stoneheart,” Obsydadean answered laconically. “Diamond works good.”

“Not going to introduce me?” The sparkling Gneissling asked. She was the first female sounding Gneissling I had met who didn’t have a smooth, humanoid form. Maybe that wasn’t the standard for women?

“Angel, this is Emery, the Enkindler.” Chrys answered politely, but also somewhat dismissively. I couldn’t tell if she didn’t like Angel, or if she was simply eager to get beyond the safety of the Stone King’s domain.

“I’m called Aura now,” Angel said a little haughtily. Based on her indifference to me being an Enkindler, I could only assume she had all of her concepts filled already.

“Enough,” Obsydadean said in a grunt, and moved his large spikey hand to a lever. “You are cleared to go. Watch yourself, the last scouts reported Orebiter swarms increasing in number.”