Chapter 327: Expansion of Will (1/2)

Taking my first step into using my new grimoire, I tested out a few of the page's molding abilities. They mirrored how my armor moved but with a greater focus on precision instead of power. While I could mold my armor with immense force, getting it to hold details was beyond me.

Testing that for a bit, I managed to mold Schema's runes onto a clean patch of my armor. While imperfect, they'd work well enough. Attempting to get the cipher out of that shaping was a pipe dream, by comparison. No amount of control over my armor allowed for that degree of finesse. The silver pages carried that control and then some.

They acted as visualizers, shifting into place as I envisioned different images. I could have a sheening page mirror a sunset in one moment, and a second later, it would turn into a desert full of dunes. The precision carried a lifelike level of detail, my memory the limiting factor rather than the page's fidelity.

That improvement didn't even include the references I could use. I moved back and forth between different editions and edits, a history of changes compiled in the grimoire. Comparing earlier versions and cross-referencing changes all arrived in real-time. It was like chopping a tree with a chainsaw instead of a wooden ax.

In fact, I fumbled even thinking about how I managed without the grimoire before now. I found my answer in moments.

I handled it poorly.

Taking a moment, I inspected my previous iterations based on memory. I snapped my fingers, realizing the sheer audacity of them. I attempted fixing them, but no matter the number of edits I implemented, they carried fundamental errors. It was like trying to make a building out of air. No matter the approach, it wasn't as effective as using concrete or stone.

That's when I panned back and approached the issue from a different angle. Taking a moment, I moved back to some of my earliest runic iterations and compared them to later versions. The detail of my newer work shined through, but it also carried a muddiness to it. My more recent runes lacked the raw, emotive energy I boasted before.

Peering close, I found the cause - Etorhma and Eonoth. The two Old Ones 'gave' me knowledge on the cipher, which helped me at the time. However, it held me back from taking the next step forward in my runic progression. The root cause came from how the cipher worked.

It relied on perspective. By having a unifying, singular idea, the sigil's ability to work magic exponentially increased. In a way, the runes fused the rigor of science and the emotion of art into a singular experience. It required a lot of energy, time, and effort for someone to hold those two lines of thought in unison.

But not me. Not anymore, at least. I had three minds hold onto different emotionally charged veins of thought. At the same time, three other psyches siphoned that raw, moving energy into a focused, highly methodical stream of runes. This turned one mind's struggle into many minds' triumphs.

At the same time, I eradicated the influence of the Old Ones. It took quite a few edits before I regained my old style, not wanting to use their specific techniques and 'flow.' They hampered the unity of my work, and by keeping it within my own minds, I retained a more focused identity. It shined through in the sigils themselves, my test moldings potent and effective.

Being able to test runes like this without carving saved me so much time as well. I turned those savings into iterating my process over and over and over. I lost track of my surroundings and time as I kept honing different angles and approaches to the runic markings. I created different versions of each rune, comparing them to take the best parts from each imperfect whole.

After having many configurations come together, I did the same thing many times. My new process reminded me of a team of researchers experimenting, and like a fervent scientist, I toiled over the runes. I put my heart soul into them, and they gave back to me in turn. After a while, I alternated my mana type to quintessence or ascendant manas to hold different emotions better.

From the brutality of my battles to the joy of building my first cities, I held onto each logic strain like a precious memory. Once locked into the zone, I changed back into my primordial mana type and shifted the silver pages before losing that emotional connection. The perpetual changes in my dimensional wake left me exhausted after a while, but the result paid off.

I stared at a rune that stretched long enough to wrap around my arm several times. Before, it spoke of endurance and what it meant to me. Now, it carried a story of my journey with each principle, my feats like bright beacons in the runic markings.

They showed my plight in BloodHollow, the despair of Yawm, and the dread of Elysium. The runic markings held onto my fears and adversities as well, becoming more than the sum of their parts. Like the runic marking across my back, this sigil carried a depth my other etchings lacked. Before I patted my own back too much, I took a moment, inspecting my work for flaws. They still existed, but fixing them was beyond me. I tolerated this version for now. Putting my hands onto my booklet, I changed to the Rise of Eden since quintessence generated the most potent objects.

Wielding it, I put all of my minds to the task of using furnaces. I created many layers of dimensional bubbles to prevent a mana fallout, isolating me from my surroundings. After a while, I put my grimoire into my pocket dimension and channeled from there. It contained the forces without any issue, and I resolved to use this method in the future.

As it finished, the runic markings couldn't finish in the absence of time. With the mana fully realized, I pulled my tome out. Surrounded by my dimensional bubbles, the radiating energy deflected back into my capsule. The runed finalized the charging in a flash, but it paled in comparison to the grimoire's creation.

Instead of finding glowing symbols, I peered at umbral markings. They acted as the opposite of my previous runes. Where they once glowed, they now dimmed their surroundings, a blot of black drifting from the pages. The hungry runic markings crawled back towards me.

They squirmed into place like a writhing insect hungry to suck my blood. Furthering that comparison, the marking drained mana of its own accord. I peered down at it, the siphon growing by the second. After a few minutes, it exceeded my previous rune's limit. After an hour, it carried a killer edge, requiring over a hundred billion mana just to stabilize. Scary as the drain was, it worked in my favor.

I once honed in on generating mana, converting it, then putting it into the runic markings. This new rune gobbled up any mana source I gave it, the markings dimming everything around it without my input. Without needing to stabilize the mana or feed it in a specific direction, the marking allowed me to focus purely on mana generation without the conversions.

Requiring a full eleven minds at all times, I meditated for a while to adapt to the strain. Staying more in tune with my body, I noticed the increasing endurance, willpower, and mass. The rune still added pounds as before, though not as quickly as my previous sigils. With everything put into place, I took a deep breath and wiped imaginary sweat off my brow.

It was a job well done.

Getting out of my dimensional bubble, hours passed while I sat in there. Plazia and Torix left, both of them gone. I reached out, tapping the concrete floor. The vibrations paired with Plazia's gravitational fluctuations told me he rested in another isolated area beside me. It mirrored the dimensions of this room.

The guy made a new room, and based on how long I stayed here, I couldn't blame him. Before leaving my new primordial playground, I rubbed my hands together and considered other boosts I could handle right off the bat. My armor outright evolved since I updated everybody's gear, for instance, so I went about recreating everyone's various armors, trinkets, and accessories.

I began with Althea's cannon, the project being one of my favorites to work on. The design from before wasn't bad, and a gun not being the most complex creation either way. Making one requires serious technology due to the precision requirements, but my methods of molding armor eased me through that bottleneck. Using Diesel's designs, I kept to their iterations, knowing I understood little about engineering as a whole.

I improved on certain parts of the design for Althea's polymorphing abilities. For instance, I created a latched opening leading to the scope. Althea could mold an eye into it if she wanted, letting her hold multiple perspectives at once. Another utility involved a set of cipheric augments on the stock of the rifle.

A simple telekinetic enchantment dispersed the recoil into the nearby air. This prevented the rifle from causing issues for Althea while firing. It required much less mana than gravity wells did. I finished it off with a brand new set of cipher runes, eliminating any traces of Schema's weakened language or the Old One's influence.

Finishing her set-up, I created another wire mesh suit of armor for her. This time, I took a long, hard look at the gravity well's adjustments. I weighed ten times more than before, meaning armor made out of me utterly smothered people wearing it. At this point, the armors would need to mirror motorized exoskeletons more than just metal plates.