Chương 313: AF Chapter 312 – Of Pyramids and Revelations

"An' potentially stir up the virindi, but that were going t' happen sooner or later. What about the Gear Knight invasion area?" Lord Mick asked professionally.

"They are still putting the Gold Primus back together, an exacting job. We need to know if there's still active aetherium usable there, or if it's too unstable to use after the Fall. If the virindi can still tap it, that doesn't bode well, especially if they are messing around in the Amperehelion Vault."

"As a matter o' self-preservation, belikes better to do the Incunabula first, as the Acid Stone be useful against the Lightning Elementals in the other, an' we're already fair equipped for olthoi," he reasoned out.

"We don't need the Dungeon infiltration until you have a team, just get the Seal in place so Ryin can drop that team in without having to go overland. If we have to do relays, then get access points around the interdicted zones we can jump between, if we have to."

"Places where people couldn't access without flying before might be good for that, if there's room," I noted.

"Hah! There's mountaintops I've not been atop all across Dereth. I can change that now…" He glanced over at me.

"Yer Pyramid will be close to done. What about the Viridian Rise Deru Tree an' the A'nekshay?"

"Plans get revised on the fly?" I just sighed.

"Mmm. Securin' this side be more important than a few gems, but aye, we want access to the Vaults. If ye kin give me a heading t' the Incanabula, I'll try me best to drop in atop it, then head west for the swamp about the Obsidian Plains and just run it at speed to the Amperehelion. Once I drop there, I'll head further west to Ayan and see what be there. Ye shouldn't have the Pyramid done afore I get done, an' if it's close, wait for me, or come fetch me first," he told me firmly.

"I will come get you if it is warranted," I just inclined my head in agreement.

"How be Briggs deploying forces if the Viridian Deru Tree be materializing, an' the A'nekshay?" the Mick asked.

"Adventurers only, until we can arrange a diplomatic meeting. We don't know how many things are slaved to Summons in Neftet, and if nothing else, we know that the Viridian Rise itself has a huge Phyntos problem. If the Tree is still amenable, and the gromnatrosses are still friendly overall, then we'll secure another ally. If not, well…" Kris shrugged fatalistically.

"We need the Pyramids to stop a pop-and-slaughter invasion cold, and to stop them from bringing in some Mythos Entity atop a settlement like it did to Tou-Tou. We'll live with their hostility if we have to." It was an imperfect world, and we did what we could. Always so much to do…

The altar stone fit itself fully into place, capping what they were calling the Pyramid of the Moon. Given it glowed a soft white Light between the blocks it was made of as it floated there off the ground, I just let the name slide. It wasn't the Lost Light, but it WAS Holy Light, a side-effect of Holy Magic being involved in every facet of Shaping the rock and putting it all together. I didn't want any undead or Shadows or anything else thinking they could waltz up and take control of it, bending it to their will.

The levitation effect was geomagnetic, a side effect of the high QL of construction, so it floating there didn't even use any ambient magical power. Just the Holiness and Vivus worked into it required nothing either, a side-effect of the energies. Anything Undead or Shadowed touching it was going to take 3-18 points of damage of Burn every six seconds, which would probably motivate them to go away rather quickly.

Not only was it mana-reinforced, being placed directly atop a ley line crossroads, but it was mana-absorbent. Using spells against it to destroy it was a non-starter. The stones were getting harder and tougher the longer they floated here and soaked in the mana, until they reached the limit of what I could Temper stones to, which was in excess of 30 Hardness right now. Add on the mana-reinforcement, and nothing was going to hack this thing down.

The main effect of the ley line tap was the Pyramid's Domain, of course. It effectively robbed any pre-Sealed Spawn Point of all excess mana entirely, redirecting it up and out into an Interdiction effect nothing was going to be able to surpass with active magic. The System's intrinsic Summons, if not Sealed, would still work normally, as the magic was 'under' the Interdiction.

That said, nobody was going to be using magic to Summon in anything, and nobody would be using magic to Teleport, Portal, Recall, or other iterations of popping around, unless they were attuned to the Pyramid. The spell I imbued as a carrier into the Domain was The Blessing of the Fields, a generic spell that would accelerate and increase the yields of all agriculture in the area affected by the Pyramid.

The crops here already grew fast and high, so this would ensure a quick and full bumper crop for the new settlers returning to the main island. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Lots of food meant easier to support armed people running around making violent nuisances of themselves to our enemies.

I stood atop the altar as the Domain slowly bubbled out, mana pouring in from the ley line network, stripping Sealed Summons points of their pressure from below, building, building… And there it was, a wavering that was already uncertain, powerful and living magic used to conceal and displace, being forced to even out as the Veil suddenly quadrupled in strength and didn't allow the mass spatial magic to do what it wanted to do.

It could either pop outside the Veil and be completely isolated, vulnerable to what waited Beyond, or be forced back into continuity with everything else. -I have positive affirmation of the reappearance of Neftet! - Scout Lieutenant Jaimieson /reported from the distance. -Positive confirmation that the Viridian Rise and its Deru Tree is back! - Scout Lieutenant Vilidiani also /reported excitedly. -Two gromnatrosses in the air! - he /added over the Marks.

-The forest is there, exactly as reported in the old stories! - -You are clear to probe the edge of the forest and verify inhabitants. Engage on your own cognizance, you are to retreat if you are in danger. We will hold off on all Sealing until we have a better idea of the diplomatic situation, - Princess Kristie /said firmly. -I will inform the king and ask how he wants to proceed. I expect an Aun delegation to the Deru Tree, and him to personally go to Neftet.

- The defenders of Neftet were powerful and skilled in Elemental magic. Engaging them could be very dangerous, so it was a job best suited for paramounts and others over Level 200… a status that was finally becoming more and more common as energetic Leveling on the Isparian side continued non-stop.

"There's no way this place wasn't designed. Just look at the damn place!" I sniffed in some disbelief, staring at the orbital survey I'd just completed of the island, and actually of the whole planet. The whole Hazesight array to look through dust, clouds, sand, and rain; Devasight to not be tricked by lights or refraction and to see ALL the colors; and Devilsight to see through darkness as if it were not there.

The Elemental Adaptation to survive up a thousand miles above the planet while zipping around it at speed, Radiance resistance to put up with exposure to cosmic radiation, my Cold immunity laughing at the chill, all the while maxed-out Eagle Eyes working at x100 magnification roved over the sights of the world below, painting them into Visual File for reference. In terms of detail, I'd spent a lot more time staring at Dereth, because that was where we were based.

However, the world was big, and that meant huge amounts of potential. There were definitely massive clouds of olthoi spores scattered in various clusters on the continents around, too, and I'd easily been able to see the ruins of many, many points of civilization from up in the sky. Notably, on the opposite side of the world, I'd also been able to see boats.

While the olthoi may have swarmed over the world at one point, they were all concentrated on the coasts nearest to Dereth, despite there being a thousand miles or more of ocean in all directions from this place. They were called to their Queen, and it likely had allowed some people to flee out into the waters and survive them. As the Empyreans had supposedly been saved from them by Asheron, that meant slave or servant races. I could only assume that any aquatic varieties of the olthoi got themselves eaten quickly.

But when descending upon Dereth, it became totally apparent this place was intelligent design, and whimsical and non-disciplined at that. There were five stretches of hills that had been rendered to actually spell out names, including the entirety of the Valleys of Death area, a stretch of hills north of Qalaba'r in southern Osteth, and one stretch of water/swamps between other hills that formed another name.

Non-impact zones had been rendered into geomantic circles or other formations that definitely weren't natural. In the middle of this whimsical and erratic world-building, the Obsidian Plains was a big round blast circle of destruction that had obviously disrupted everything there. It had either burned down whatever was in the middle or shoved matter to the fringe hills that encircled it, a black spot from above that was hard to miss.

Somehow or another, the floating sky citadel of the virindi rebel Aerbax still floated in the air above the center of the Obsidian Plains, making it the only known flying device that hadn't been reported as crashed that we knew of. However, it did seem to be a lot lower to the ground than it had been reported as. Even the famous Hieromancer Halls that had trained war mages for the Empyreans seemed fairly intact, although one had to wonder at what might be found within its abandoned chambers now.

Intelligent design, someone making a place for entertainment, training up warriors, and endless combat, with biomes far too close to one another that yet endured because magic said this will grow here and this will be the temperature of this place, and that was that. The one huge hole was quite literally the Inner Sea. It was completely empty. Literally. A great big expanse of water sixty miles wide and a hundred miles long, and there were no islands beyond two hundred yards of the shoreline. Not a one.

From above, it looked like an open expanse of water with absolutely nothing there. All my hackles were rising as I looked at it, knowing without a doubt that what I was seeing was not real, even if everything visual matched up perfectly inside it. Where it didn't match up was on the waves past the Shoreward. What should have been even, sweeping waves rolling across unbroken stretches of water and foaming up on the shores turned into cross-waves and side currents instead…

exactly like waves that were deflected by unseen islands might act as they spread out and into one another at irregular angles. It was an effect easily missed at the ground level, doubtless interpreted as both coming into shallower water and/or the influence of the Shoreward disturbing the waves. There were unseen islands out in the water, hidden by a grand illusion of at least Legendary power, and based on the everything I'd read, the Empyreans had no clue anything was out there, either.

Even records of sailing from one side to the other mentioned nothing, meaning the sailors were guided by the illusions between whatever was out there and never sensed a thing was out of place. It was not something I was going to utter aloud, of course, and the designers of the effect were certainly going to be confident it would hold up to aerial surveys, too. In the meantime, quiet words in Markspace when line-of-sight contact was available would have to do.