Chapter 5-154: First Miraculous Spell, Thank You, Let’s Go... (1/2)
The Raise the Dead spell was nominally a Divine spell, with dominion over it held by the powers of Good. In short, if the Good powers were opposed to you resurrecting, specifically Aru, who held Eminence over Life, you weren’t coming back by this method. Go try Reincarnation or something.
That said, The Good Powers had to be opposed. Most of the time, it wasn’t an issue, as long as you weren’t heading Down. They were perfectly willing to send you there and let you stay there. The Lower Planes had their own uncouth methods of bringing you back, go experiment with those.
Naturally, such considerations weren’t that active here. I was drawing what Divine power I did from the souls and Faith trapped in the Shroud, but mostly it was an Arcane Domain made in reverent respect of the gods, and with the Faith and belief I was wielding the magic, i.e., doing what an Arcane Domain made possible.
Raising the Dead was associated with both Life and Healing, so swapping it in as my V Arcane Healing Domain Slot was simple. Then it was ten minutes of gathering energy while floating in the air, spirals of life coming together, rebuilding Sergeant Mulligan’s body back to proper health fully intact, slowly teasing his soul back into it, and re-binding his spirit to his body.
Briggs and Sama were watching in satisfaction as this happened, while everyone else couldn’t take their eyes away. They’d never really felt friendly Divine magic at this level (the Golden Swarm definitely wasn’t friendly), and the feeling of greater powers brushing against your soul, the fleeting sensation of coming up against profound forces who really were far beyond you, was not something most of them had experienced.
Those who had, had generally not done so on anything resembling a friendly basis.
The Gentle Repose had kept him intact physically, so there was only reversing the processes that started to occur at death, returning them to the proper state, finishing binding anima to container, and bringing in the final surge of energy to kickstart everything.
Adventurous sorts run into resurrection magic all the time, so it loses the luster... but this was possibly the first mortal-Cast spell of this type on the whole planet, and the audience was private and small. Heck, we hadn’t even told his family he had died, since I was going to bring him back.
I was totally aware the Aruans were filming this, and that Father Bower and Sir Pellier were murmuring prayers under their breath at the feeling of Life, Death, and Good flowing about me, making me look very much like an Angel of Death here to claim a soul... or return it to its proper place.
It would have been nice to actually touch the Divine while doing this, and shake their mental hands in thanks for doing their job... but that wasn’t going to be me, I knew.
There was a final hiss as unwanted additions of bacteria, fluids, and the like were burned from his system, and the First Spark was given to him, a duplication of that energy surge that bound a child’s soul to their body on conception.
Sergeant Mulligan quivered, gasped, and coughed, and opened his eyes. It took him a few breaths to center himself, realize he was laying on a long Disk hovering in midair, and turn his head to see the people staring at him.
“What...what happened?” he asked, and then naturally his eyes centered on the looming bulk of Briggs in his armor. “Uh, sir, something, something!...” he put his hands up to his head, his expression showing his disbelief that it was still intact.
There was finally a roar, and the other Aruans converged on him, shouting, laughing, crying, exulting over the fact that he was back and alive, and they wouldn’t have to bury yet another comrade.
I stepped away, letting the last sparkling remnants of the Life Diamond vanish from my fingers as I did. The Mick watched it vanish, shaking his head at the cost... three million dollars worth of diamond, gone just like that, to bring back a fallen elite soldier.
There were a lot of people who wouldn’t think it a worthwhile trade. Of course, if the logic was turned on them, they’d say otherwise, and might not be at all happy at the fact that both mortals and gods might rule the Valence V wasn’t worth spending on them, despite all the money they might offer.
“At ease, Sergeant,” Briggs rumbled warmly, coming forward to shake his hand. “Congratulations. You have the dubious honor of being the first man to be returned from the dead, and it all being on camera and provable, on the planet.”
“That...” Sergeant Mulligan’s jaw was working. “That all wasn’t a bad dream, sir?” he asked, turning to look up at the sky, his eyes falling into shadow.
As everyone went quiet, his head turned precisely to look at me, and they widened just a little bit.
He swallowed as he said, “You’re Traveler!... The souls were talking about you...”
“Not surprising, Sergeant. They blab to me, too. They don’t want to shut up, as a matter of fact. It’s a good thing you’re not one of them. Although I must say that story about Boots was touching, and no, your girlfriend is fine and you should give her a call.”
He blinked, and then blushed red. Everyone laughed softly. “Oh... you could hear me...”
“Yes, indeed. And right now, you are two Levels behind your friends, two Name-days on your Weapon, and there’s a lot of Karma waiting for us north and west in a hot spot.” I put my hands together, and began to call up the power of a Restoration. “You’re feeling very weak right now in several ways, but this Restoration will clear that up, but send you right back to sleep. We’ll wake you up before Natural Renewal, and you can Salute Aru for seeing fit to send you back at that time.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He did look a little weak, but getting yourself shoved back into your own body will do that for a person. I invoked the rush of positive energy that would push away the shadow of death upon his soul and restore him completely to full spiritual health, and at the same time give him the mental reassurance and comfort he would need to pull past this experience, and keep on growing.
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