Chapter 309 - Midpath Reconstruction (1/2)
The Vukanovi traveled furiously, and Li spent much of the night simply watching the screen projected within the pumpkin creature while everyone slept. Asala was the only one that stayed up, not needing to sleep as much as the others and acting as a guide to Li.
She made sure he traveled across the Midpath that her goddess had created so very long ago, in the dawn of magic. For even here, through the desolation wrought by the Triforge's world vein draining, there were still remnants of the Midpath that once guided mortals from the western continent to the southern and vice versa.
”Stop here,” said Asala as she pointed to the screen. Her black, sharp nail poised itself at a diadem shaped indentation in the ground that still managed to glow with a faint white light. All around it was just wasteland.
With the Veinheld's destruction at the Triforge mountains coupled with the scorched earth tactics of the demonic invasion of the Third Darkening had left the vast stretches of land from the Triforge all the way presumably to the Shibboleth a desolate, lifeless waste.
But land that Li covered restored life everywhere, and though for now there would only be the occasional patches of green shooting up through the life parched earth, that was just the beginning. Like a rolling stone gathering mass, this initial burst of life would proliferate exponentially, and soon enough, life would return to this emptiness.
And with it, Li realized as he commanded the Vukanovi to stop by raising his hand, the necessity of something like the Midpath to guide mortals once more.
Outside the Vukanovi, Li stood by as he saw Asala slither towards the diadem indentation. The indentation in the ground was massive, easily capable of fitting in an elephant within its bounds. She lowered herself close to the ground, putting her hands slightly above the line in the cracked earth where the indentation began.
”What exactly are these?” said Li as he watched Asala restore the Midpath.
”Access points for divine power,” said Asala. She closed her eyes and held in her breath. Her hands trembled, but as they shook, the light in the indentation began to intensify. ”Mine goddess may channel her might through these points, and in doing so, the Midpath shalt once more be restored.”
”Interesting,” said Li. He knew that the three great gods were trapped in Valhul, unable to interact with the mortal world, and yet, it seemed that to a degree, the mortals themselves could still tap into their divine power.
Li saw as a jolt of light arced from Asala's hands like electricity, tapping into the indentation and causing it to grow ever more intensely. Countless sigils and runes became visible throughout the indentation. A whirring sound began to emanate and wind and pressure swirled up in a pillar-shaped vortex.
Sand began to manifest out of seemingly nowhere, s.u.c.k.i.n.g into the vortex and beginning to fill it out like colors filling out a sketched outline.
”Ah, so it seems like you simply channel a little spark of divine energy which activates the power dormant within the runes and sigils carved throughout the indent in the ground. Much like car keys starting an engine,” said Li.
Asala raised a brow. ”Car?”
”Something like a golem,” said Li. He had slipped up in referencing the modern world. Probably because lingering thoughts still remained about //BEAST// and his past life. ”Do not think much of it. The point is, I understand how this works.”
”Hm. I shalt one day convince thee to enlighten me of thy vast stores of hidden knowledge,” said Asala.
Li watched as the sand solidified into an obelisk that towered a dozen meters into the air. Runes and sigils started to line its length, and each letter glowed with a different but equally bright color that cut through the night.
So it seemed that the gods could leave 'access points', but that name was misleading. Nobody was accessing the gods themselves. Instead, it was more like the gods were leaving behind tools and trinkets that needed little shards of their divine energy to act as something akin to authorization codes.
Made sense, considering how distant the gods seemed to be in Valhul. And yet, there was one instance that Li still remembered.
”Asala, how is it that your goddess can see through your eyes?” said Li, recalling the incident when he had first met the Serpi, when they did not have any trust with each other and how she had attempted to cast divine magic that Li stopped.