Chapter 20-491: Epilogue VI, Part I (1/2)
Excerpted from The Last Decade... (which is not in public print yet)
Four years after Shroudbreak...
I came plummeting down the beam of light that had grabbed me as I arrived at the trans-spatial location, one boosted Pyramid’s power handing off to the next with some relief.
Wow, hadn’t this been a journey home. Zvei, huh...
I wanted to scratch my head, but that was kind of hard in mid-Teleport. I plummeted down through dimensions on the Beacon only another Pyramid could see, and felt reality harden around me as I arrived.
There was a pulse of really powerful magic rising up, then dissipating in equal measure as the dimensional velocity was absorbed and neutralized. It also generated a very bright burst of light as the excess quantum-kinetics were converted into light and vented away, basically announcing I was present.
Well, that shouldn’t be a bad thing...
I reached down mentally into the Pyramid beneath me, and nodded as I sighed.
The style and the handiwork were slightly different, but that was easily within allowing for deviations in Matrix conditioning, the local manasphere, and even the stone. It was like I had made this myself, with a touch more whimsy to it, and some extras that didn’t seem that useful right now, but likely had been before, when she’d been hiding it.
Regardless, it responded to a Lord of the Pyramids, unlocking its secrets for me as I hopped down off the Great Seal in front of the Altar at the top of it.
Hmm, it would be ready to send me on in a week by itself, unless I got a few hundred Warlocks or something to dump a lot of Wrath into it. It was still a long way to go, basically being on the edge of the Aruan Domain. Logically, I could Planejump up to Heaven, wander somewhere else, and then come back down on Terra-Luna, but that probably wasn’t a good idea, even if it was much faster now that I was truly back in the territory of the Pantheon and not just passing through those of others.
Still, only a week from home. Hop to Pantera from here, using the residual energy of the Death Gate, and then straight home a minute later.
Damn, I so missed my wife and kids. I sighed despite myself as I looked around.
The first thing that struck me was the big shiny hunk of meteoric metals, at least twice the height of this Pyramid, sitting in a crater of its own making over there, with lots of scaffolding, ramps, cranes, and people bustling around it.
Wow, that thing had SO many Energized Elements in it. The value of it... I just gawked at the swirling array of some Really Nice Stuff all melded and molded together on it.
Whatever had coughed that up had lost a LOT. Planetary wars had been fought for less wealth than that big lump of stuff represented!
It also explained the Breaking effect radiating through the Pyramid Power Field: +2-12 damage against objects with any appropriate weapon or tool. It was like granting every pickaxe and hammer the ability to chew through whatever that thing was made of, without having to spend Valences!
Clever...
The area around here was fairly flat and covered in relatively young greenery, disturbed only by the work area around the big E-E blob, the trailer homes of the workers, and the clear river in the distance. I could sense the echo of the Death Gate over yonder, but all that seemed to be left of it were two shining crystalline circles on the ground, fences around and between them with what looked like plaques telling a story.
There was also a lot of /tellepathic activity going on, at the levels of both Allegiances and Marks.
The area was Interdicted except on the Beacon level, but not Stillflighted, so I could get airborne with little trouble. The only thing was... where to go while I bummed around for a week?
Detect Location said I was some miles south of Moscow, but there really wasn’t anything built up to see that wasn’t an extension of the mining camp below, and the new, neatly arranged buildings extending out towards the river.
Einz, my first soulshard, or Traveler as she ended up calling herself, naturally hadn’t been able to give me a complete run-down on what was happening. Key elements, sure, stuff to take back home.
Ah, yes, I was supposed to make sure I met her Warlock, someone named Legion...
There was a flash of dimensional magic at the edge of the Interdiction, several hundred yards away; someone arriving via Teleport. They promptly spread a set of draconic wings forty feet wide, and shot into the air as if gravity and inertia were minor bothers, moving with some hurry-up speed that was very impressive.
The tingle as she drew closer lifted my eyebrows in surprise, as my thoughts started going down side paths that were not totally natural even before I had focused fully upon her.
Skin the color of glossy black ink; a Mask for a face bearing the colors of multiple Pacts, including the silver of a Heavenbound; a mane of silken white hair with rising spiked frills of multiple colors... and dark fox ears and nine silvery-white fox tails streaming behind her? With the figure of an Amazon... and more?
My heart was already starting to pound just watching her approach so swiftly. Everything about her was designed to draw the eye, every curve and play of muscle and leg and hip and, just, wow.
She alighted with the poise and ease of a hummingbird right across from me, kicking up barely the slightest hint of a breeze despite her speed, hooved feet more elegant than any high heels extending to show off legs beyond exquisite as she alighted silently.
I noted she had six eyes of different hues the colors of Warlock Pacts scattered across her forehead. They looked like burning jewels, and they were all very focused on me.
She moved like the most gorgeous incoming avalanche imaginable. There was so much strength radiating off her that all my hackles went on alert despite myself.
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