Chương 545: BECMI Chapter 544 – The Proper Seat Under the Sky

"Perhaps. I don't have any expectations of Worldminds," Aelryinth admitted modestly.

"Still, very nice to be the little guy on the block here. I have been thrust into far too many situations where I am the most competent and open-minded spellcaster around. It is good to be the humble team player learning the ropes again!"

"What Level are you, sir?" Laurentine spoke up, her fiery hair actually alight most of the time, unless consciously tamped down. She could have gone Elemental long, long ago, but had stayed with her husband all this time, still the most powerful Pyromancer on the planet.

"Me? I'm a lofty Sixteen, fair Lady." Everyone gawked at him, but the ring of Truth was in his words. He wasn't lying!

"He's over sixty Classes Wide, twenty-plus at Ten each," I informed the others, as they tried to process how someone less than half their Level was exactly that powerful! There were a lot of relieved exhalations, thoughts of inferiority at not being so powerful at that Level evaporating as they considered just how many side Levels that was. We were still basically restricted to three Paths still, although the choices within those Paths had broadened some.

"Are you blind, Master Aelryinth?" Empress Sif asked directly, never shying from difficult questions.

"You have the mannerisms…"

"I ran into something from Outside Creation I shouldn't have looked at, and my eyeballs agreed, because they turned around and started trying to eat my brain. My Wrath blew them out, and when I regenerated them, they tried to do it again, and I had to blast them away again." He let the simple black/white halved visor of his Mask of Clarity fade, and turned his head right and left so everyone could see the empty, blackened sockets there, a tiny hot Silver spark in the back of them displaying his Warlock Sign.

"I have numerous ways to perceive the world, but they are indeed magical for the most part, so I don't have to turn my head very much." His Mask came back down, but now that we knew what to look for, the Silver Sign was completely visible right through it. I had seen far worse in this fighting. So, likely, had he.

"Lady Edge, bring up the Castle. Cryptomancers, build me a layered wall." The blueprints for it popped up in Markspace for everyone to follow Thor's orders, complete with emplacements for cannons and point defenses which would rapidly be put into place there.

"We'll expect them to come down the Maw again at Natural Renewal."

"Is that required of them to start a new fight for the lads, or would you like the Land's Chef sitting there right in front to welcome a new repast, Majesty?" Master Aelryinth asked lightly. Everyone looked up at that very radiant Celestial Cerulean Sign above him, and started to smile.

"It would allow us to help reinforce the neighboring Maws, Thor," the Mick remarked with a big grin from where he was standing to the side.

"If he just goes and sits there at the end of the stars showing themselves, what the fuck are they going to do? Charge him?" he chortled.

"Everyone saw those Shard volleys he was putting out. The numbers they'd need to kill him would necessitate a full rush, he brings down the Heavens to feed on them… and then moves up further."

"What a horrible position to put them in!" Thor observed cheerfully.

"I like it! Master Aelryinth, I will have to trouble you horribly to go Meditate up there, endure privation and solitude in service to foolish overconfidence, and snipe off anything that gets within your range, if you please!" Ael just bowed flamboyantly.

"As His Majesty commands!" he said drolly.

"If I might have admission to your Markspace?" he asked lightly. A strand of hair dragged my Mark out of my nasal cavity onto my cheek, and I transferred it to my left hand.

"Here," I said, holding it out, my glove disappearing to reveal the ivory-white of my hand. His column of stone grew organically sideways as he glided over it, stowing his Scepter, then he moved his right hand inside his tunic to touch the Marks at his waist and bring it back out to meet my hand. Our Marks were subtly different, but close enough alike, coming from the same origins, that there was no problem to them syncing up when they met.

He came smoothly into the Markspace, right at the top as a Hard Gold swirl of crystalline Intellect-dominant leashed fury and discipline, a whole lot of Eternals craning for a better look at this Sixteen who… had mental Stats more reminiscent of a Fifty, and so much Depth and Width to him us Eternals around him looked almost hollow in comparison. Different Systems. Even as a straight Sixteen he would reasonably be tougher than a Twenty in our System, even without IX's.

Start going Wide, and yeah, things got sick pretty fast. He was also considerably more dangerous than the younger Eternals, which both embarrassed them and impressed them. It took a lot of shit to get to the level of power we were all at, and even with a different System empowering him, his displays and easy mannerisms showed that he was completely familiar with using that power, and he had earned it all. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road.

Please report it. They didn't know where he was from or what he really could do, but he was certainly a peer! If I told them he was probably still only in his late fifties in age, they'd likely all get depressed again. I was pretty sure none of the Master Aspirants were younger than him, let alone the Eternals! Thor was the first to notice his Noble Rank, and was immediately impressed.

"My apologies, Master Aelryinth. I see you are a Monarch of some stature. You will address me and my wife without Imperial honorifics in the future." He bowed slightly to the man with an Oathcount of ten million behind him. Ael didn't have the Levels under him that Thor did, but that was a remarkable amount of followers, higher than anyone else in the Empire but Thor himself… and Ael was also the Chosen of a god, one who just so happened to be Helos' Prime Self, too!

Any way you looked at it, they were equals in Rank!

"Perfectly happy to defer to His Majesty in his own domain and world, given your seniority," Thor was refuted with a polite smile by Aelryinth.

"I get to be the one not in charge for a change!" he added gloatingly. Thor just slapped his face knowingly, while Sif laughed at that comment.

"Then get you hence, sir!" Thor pointed regally forward. Aelryinth bowed rather more extravagantly than required, Wings and all, and slid down a slope of vivic-blasted stone that suddenly rose in front of him, receded behind him, and he sped off into the distance at impressive speed just above the ground, Feature swirling down to a smaller size to ride along draped on his shoulders.

"Sixty Classes Wide?" Sif repeated, watching as Ael sped into the distance, and the Cryptomancers scattered to begin building the wall. Miles behind us, a tremor came from the ground as the Castle Doomrose rose slightly, just scraping along the surface, and began to plow a path forward through the Stillflight Field towards us. It would be here in about fifteen minutes, forming the central portion of the defenses the rest of the walls would be built around.

Supply ships were already on the way with gun emplacements and power generators for them, new orders spinning out to commanders and unraveling into new troop movements and disbursements.

"And Deep in each and all of them," I confirmed, watching him and that grand Celestial Cerulean Sign move into the distance. I was sure the Leng forces stewing in the distance were not happy to see him coming.

"And no, I have no idea what being a Shugenja entails more than you do. But if he can talk to continental-class Spirits on demand, I think we can all picture the implications." Oslo was subordinate to Nown, just a smear of land floating up there on the surface of Nown's molten depths, at once a part of and separate from Nown proper. It was still a continent, and a continent had a LOT of power.

"Can we learn anything from him?" Sif asked quickly, maybe a bit too eagerly. I hesitated, thinking. I had all his memories up to the point I was cut from him, but had no idea what had happened since, save for that one Sending which had reached all of us Shards of him. Obviously he had picked up those Shugenja Levels somewhere...

"I will inquire. It is more likely that we will have a great deal to teach him. He isn't constrained by the Rules and Laws in place here. We have thousands of years of more accumulation than he does, after all." Sif looked very disappointed, but seized upon a key fact.

"You want to go keep him company, I'm sure, trade notes, fine. Find out what that particle effect around his Staff is. It's not familiar and I want to know how to duplicate it." Because of course she did. Showy Weapons were all the hooty-hoo for Melee types!

"Very well." The Castle would stop where it needed to, and the Grandmastery of Runes cycled through every generation if there was a qualifier… and there were always qualifiers in this environment. I didn't need to help put the new Wall up! Duum hopped up, shrank down, and landed on my shoulder as I spread my own Wings, very similar to Aelryinth's if even larger, and swept out after him. Eternals rapidly dispersed to other places and other fights.

There were many, many creatures of status and Immortal Beasts equal to ourselves here to fight, and even if the Master Aspirants were eager to test themselves, without Eternals around to fall back on, it was very, very easy to lose them in seconds. It was much better for the Masters to be facing large numbers of the very dangerous hordes than the true horrors of Leng and the Far Realms!

Aelryinth was just sitting there, legs crossed, just above the surface of a very white stone column keeping him ten feet off the ground. Feature was back in full size snake form, coiled around that column and behind him like a chair, letting him relax. He wasn't relaxed in the slightest, of course. I could see the Eagle's Vantage up above, giving him normal vision for miles forward.

Since all it conveyed was a normal view, Aberrants who could punish Scrying wouldn't trigger on it, focused as it was on him, not them, basically a drone spotter as a spell.

"Shouldn't they be in your range?" I asked him as I glided up on him, eyeing the hordes in the distance.

"I like to fake that my range with Shards is only two miles," he answered readily.

"That way it really surprises them when I can reach out and hit them at four, or eight, or sixteen if I feel like it." By swapping some Metas out and layering Reach Spell, of course! The column underneath him widened, Feature's coils extending smoothly. I hopped up and sat down next to Ael, running my hands over Feature's scales like an old friend. Duum doffed his Hat to the big Snake and hopped right up on top of Feature's massive head without fear, starting to chat away immediately.

"His name is Duum," I informed my Prime easily, directing my attention forward. Like him, I didn't dare run any Detects, but See Invisibility at XII, Perceive the Whole World, was plenty fine for catching sneaks and it boosted my vision, it didn't go looking for foes. Ael waved with his hand backward, and Duum politely doffed his Hat in return, earning a smile.

"That is one HELL of a trope to lean into!" Ael grinned at me.

"I'm a half-dhampir, half Shaden elf. I couldn't think of anything better, and I was not going the cheerful elf trope."

"And that accent?"

"My father is a native of the nation it comes from. And my grandfather is the most powerful vampire in the world. In the other timeline I was actually born in, of course."