Chapter 17-458: The Power of Ten (2/2)
I approved heartily. Neutrals killing the Good was a thing I detested. No more invulnerability for not choosing a side!
Archmage/3 and /4 followed Hierophant. Scaling Spell Potency that matched the Spell Power buff meant I lost 7 Pool for another +2 Spell Potency, scaling to +3 for 9 total Valences whenever I finally reached and Burned the Ninth Ring. /4 gave Reach of 30’ automatically to all Touch Spells, turning them into Short Range spells. This wasn’t much until you considered that it stacked with Reach Spell, instantly turning all my Touch spells into Medium-range spells for no Valence cost, which was pretty huge.
If someone could get that at a reasonable Level, instead of a Faux Thirteen, Energy Grasp would be a murderously powerful single-target spell, quite exceeding Shards, even if it didn’t have the range... but you could Spellwarp it to give it that range, and Chain and Bursting could make it an AoE. Heh!
The Purchased Feats were Warded Soul, a Necromancy specialty that gave +4 to saves against necromancy and death effects; and Evoker Resistance, which gave -1/die of damage from all non-natural energy sources. So, it wouldn’t help against lava or a furnace, but it would against dragon breath or a Fireball...
The Mastery was the Arcane Spirit from Sorcerer/9, Tiers /2 and /3. A +3 fixed Kicker to all spell damage if I invested 3 ki... here, take my ki...
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December 13, 2019, I officially made Ten.
“...where rest the weary, and dream of the wind at dawn.”
The Dings seemed to roil through Markspace as I finally crystalized the way into Ten for all Halvyr along the road of a Double Helix... and to 14 Faux Sorcerer with it.
DING! DING! DING! DING!
Yeah, it was pretty happy. Power was swirling around me as I took all the rewards, watched some Karma drain away, didn’t miss it.
Making Ten, +1 to all Stats. Sustained Effort doubled that to +2.
Halvyr/4 ticked over, Atlantean Halvyr, and every Stat but Intellect went up by another two as my racial bloodline was purified and refined another stage. I might have allocated Karma to some Racial Levels, but I had not pushed any of those bars, and I didn’t plan on doing so unless I had to before I hit Fifteen at the least... and Twenty was preferable.
Halvyr/4 was actually a Template assigned to me, not an actual Level, so there was no additional Health or anything else, just the Stats. That was fine, as +2 to all Stats was plenty good.
Sorcerer/10, Skill Points, Soak from Hit Die, Favored Class, etc. +1 Caster Level, more Valences, more Spells Known.
Purchased Mastery, merely Arcane Spirit/4, +4 kicker damage to all Spells.
Purchased Feat: Awaken Second Bloodline!
From out of whirling, shining slurry of the Arcane Bloodline I’d forced upon myself, the influences of the Morningsun Phoenix Bloodline and the Shroud raised their heads. As they looked at one another and instantly started to break out into hostilities, I promptly spun them together in counterpoint to my Arcane Bloodline, not about to take any of that Dark-fighting-Light shit inside me and my Matrix.
Legion was present, as was Azaia, Commander Haru’Ara, the Angelos, and Windgraf Mochtal, and even Bey ‘Azzar had warily come out of his boudoir. Sama and Briggs had completed their runs early to traipse up here and watch. I wasn’t going to risk the rest of my family freaking out when what happened here happened.
The Dark Phoenix came screaming out of me in ecstasy, roiling cold black from the depths of the stars, lit up by hot, hot starfire accents. It was condensing all the benefits of the major Bloodlines I’d thrown away, as opposed to mixing them as the Arcane Bloodline had done. The sweep of flaming hot and cold wings swirled through my heart and blood, foci of the two Druidic Rituals I’d undergone, were definitely influencing things.
The Phoenix and Brightmoon bloodlines were light and fire. The Darkmoon and Shrouded Bloodlines were dark and cold.
I was both. Get over it.
Raging Elemental power built around me in the call to my Spell Power, burning and blazing up into the Haze here at the top of the world. The Haze peeled away in wary respect for what I was, and it didn’t come back immediately.
Burning phoenix wings, black as space and set with silvery moonfire, burned on my back and about my hair, counterpoint to the flames of a true Phoenix. I sat up there a hundred feet above the ground as a swirling whirlwind of starfire and moonfire cascaded around me in delight at what I had become, and magic thrummed and stirred and sang arcane symphonies upon the Sublime Chords of the world.
There had never, ever been a spellcaster like me upon this planet. For a moment, I had a touch upon Terrestrial Awareness, able to feel the magic over the whole planet... and for a moment, I could feel the Shroud itself, a cancer upon that magic, weighing down on it with the force of the billions of tormented souls inside it.
The mental Dings went off as the magic of the whole world acknowledged me, all the souls in the Shroud were my audience, and my Assay rendered it all down into comprehensive language as two new Titles descended.
Magos of the Blood: Double Arcane Traditions, double Bloodlines, gifts from Heaven and the Damned: You stand athwart the power of Magic on this world as has no other, and all Arcane Casters will follow in your path. +1 Spell Power.
Magos of Stars:Six Stars have actualized as you have reached Ten, setting the height for all who come after you. +1 Spell Power.