Chapter 17-459: Heavenbound Pact Morituri (2/2)
That meant he had some serious thinking to do.
“A sorcerous Bloodline I confess to never having witnessed before,” Commander Haru’Ara said to me solemnly as I came down deftly, eying my wings calmly. “What does it do?”
“It plays off the Ritual of the Burning Heart and the Ceremony of the Frozen Soul as it integrates the Phoenix and Shroudbound Bloodlines,” I informed him. “As I burned the Bright and Dark Moon Bloodlines to make the Arcane, so I combined Phoenix and Shroud. I can easily switch Elemental damages between fire and cold, or I may wield them as healing power at half-strength.” In addition to the new Spells Known of the Bloodline, but those were minor things in comparison. “The wings are a nice addition, too.”
Totally unneeded, but they went on the stack of flying speed.
“I had no idea anything like that was even possible,” Azaia murmured, sparks dancing in her eyes.
“It’s all magic, Azaia. Just Theurgies at work,” I said calmly. Integrating Druidic and Arcane magic via Natural Theurgy for that, Divine and Pact Theurgies for the combined Shroudpact.
Heaven had forged the way. And if Heaven could do it, naturally so could all the other Pacts...
The key was the Pact Morituri. If they weren’t willing to keep fighting under the Shroud, then it was a no-go. The Shroud basically cut off the rest of the universe, forming a pocket universe of its own magic; it was how it shielded itself from the Divine. Yet within that pocket, there were still Rules the Shroud couldn’t set, because it wasn’t broad enough to do so.
And now, I had just wedged another massive crack into it. The potential number of Pacts I had opened up extended into the millions. Every single world that was Shrouded, all their potential Pacts, opening up...
That was a lot of undead-killing Warlocks who could join together to get this job done, if they were willing to stay the course.
It expanded my pool of potential recruits a lot, too.
“That is an extraordinary move,” Commander Haru’Ara said, standing there in the subzero temperature in his old fisherman form, as unperturbed by the cold as the rest of us. I had politely given Bey ‘Azzar a Resist Cold, just to be on the comfortable side. “The commitment it requires rivals that of the Hosts of Heaven,” he complimented me. “Staying the course will be difficult.”
“Yes,” I agreed, turning to him. “So, we’re going to have to provide at least one additional incentive.”
“This sounds good,” Sama grinned, arms crossed and eying me expectantly. “What kind of outright bribery?”
“Shroud-killing is very definitely a Road to the Eternal.”
Lips pursed all around, on mortals and Soulborn alike.
“An... interesting approach,” Bey Garar‘Azzar was actually the first to speak up, smiling cynically. “The volunteers you gain from such an announcement might not be to your liking...”
“That’s true, but I don’t have to accept them, either. In the end, however, the greatest Good is bringing down the Shroud. If Evil people can’t be changed by seeing how Evil treats its own on that scale, well...” I shrugged. “It is another problem for the future, and one definitely not at the scale of the Shroud.”
I turned my eyes up to the Haze. “There are many Roads to the Eternal, and the Shroud allows at least several that I can think of. It is of pure and greatest Evil, and Heaven is dead-set against it. It is a contravention of Creation, violating all natural laws. Bypassing the terms of the Profound, it spits on Axiom, and it removes all Free Will, violating Chaos with its pure entropy.
“Only Evil doesn’t have a broad mandate with it, and will instead simply see it as a raw harvest of souls that might be used for one’s own individual purposes, if they can merely take them away from the Shroud.
“War’s Road of massacre and conflict will find endless opponents in the Shroud. Conquest’s Mandate of Expand and Seize will find thousands of worlds entire ready to fall to them. Freedom has unknown quadrillions of victims and slaves to set free. Justice has a Wrong to right of a scale that even the Divine can appreciate. Knowledge will find world after world with new horizons and lore to plumb and discover, while Life, Nature, Healing, and the Elements have worlds to restore from undeath, the work of lifetimes.
“And Sin... well, the wealth and plunder of whole worlds, the Glory and Karma from taking them, will fuel all kinds of Ambition.
“The Roads are there. The Shroud can lead a lot of people to the Eternal, and striving for the Eternal is the highest right and aspiration of mortal souls, is it not?”
The Soulborn looked rather ambivalent about that fact, as mortals ascending to Eternals arguably became beings far greater than themselves, individuals who could become Divine under their own power, instead of that granted by the Powers above them.
“So, lay out some potential Roads to the Eternal, delineate what the Eternal means, and put it right out there on the website before the Shroud goes down,” Briggs said slowly, nodding. “I don’t see a problem with it. Even knowing the Road is there doesn’t mean you can walk it, even if you try, and given how many there are, and how carnage-based it is, it isn’t going to attract everybody.” He glanced at the Soulborn there. “I am aware this kind of knowledge is considered kind of forbidden lore to reveal to mortals, only something to be shown them if they are worthy.
“But that’s a control factor from your side of the equation, trying to limit the number of Eternals, especially those not bound to your factions. From our side, that’s blatant discrimination against us. It’s a magical realm, and this is stuff people should know right at the start; that there is a reward for mortals at the end of the journey, instead of something they might learn along the way.
“The amount of effort and dedication it takes to get there does not change, even if you know it is there. Foreknowledge does not make the Eternal, striving does.”
Even the planetar had to sigh at that. “Wise words, Master Briggs,” he agreed. “Somewhat more difficult to do well.”