“That’s impossible.”
“With Lady Chaos, all things are possible.”
Without words or gestures, he teleported directly behind Eric. It startled the young mage so much he spun around and fell over while swinging his spear. Omnias swayed out of the way, and in the same motion, he circled Eric.
“Everywhere and at all times, Lady Chaos sends us all the power in the world in all its many shapes and forms. Because of limited awareness, we cannot access it. We need books, teachers, experiments, etc. because we are closed off. I am no different from you in my fundamental nature. I am simply open to the empowering love of the First Mother. I taught them how to do this.”
He raised his staff and then brought the infinity symbol down to Eric’s face. The grendel instinctively moved out of the way.
“I could teach you too. Though it is not ordercraft, it has the same basic function. I cultivated my spirit to become an instrument of control. I refined my essence to grant power from it to others. It wouldn’t be far from the truth to call me a god of magecraft.”
Eric sent him a hard look. “No, thank you. I prefer the mercenary approach.”
Omnias withdrew his staff and extended his hand to Eric a second time. Eric was wary but accepted it.
“Good. Learning and accepting the philosophy of your Way of Living is essential. That’s where I went wrong with them,” he pointed to the fallen false ordercrafters, “and Gunrai.”
“You’re Gunrai’s teacher?” Eric asked.
“More than that,” Omnias said. “I was what you would call his ‘daylra.’ I taught him about the Primordial Root, how to refine his spirit, grant power to others, and craft Omni Golems. How he was able to learn these skills while inverting the philosophy behind them is something that has puzzled me for centuries.” He shrugged. “It must be the madness of heresy.”
Eric prepared an escape plan. There was something that didn’t add up about this priest.
“Is one of your Chaos-given powers clairvoyance?”
“Yes, and it is an awfully unreliable thing. After all, anything and everything is possible in Lady Chaos’...oh. You were being sarcastic about my convenient timing, weren’t you?”
“Uh-huh.” It’s like talking to Tasio.
“It was not convenient; I’ve been watching you since you arrived. You have an impressive array of powers for one so young. I thought you wouldn’t need help at all, which is a joy to see for a Chaosist like myself, but I was hoping you would die in combat because then the Priestess would intervene to prevent it. I want to speak with her.”
Eric tensed. Anyone that would use he himself as bait to find her could only be a threat to her. No matter how powerful he was, he would still die if his spirit was melted by a chaos blade.
“Why?”
“Sister Sagart told me about her and that miraculous invocation she did in Latrot. I want to discuss the experience because I feel it will be beneficial for my future enlightenment.”
Eric relaxed. Sister Sagart’s judgment was one he could trust. In his mind, the man shifted from a “threat” to a “neutral.”
“I recall Sister Sagart saying you were one of Arin’s better students.”
The old man shook his head. “I remember being the dunce. My inability to shapeshift limited my intuitive understanding of her lectures and my profession as an illusionist blocked my progression with misconceptions. Thus, I hope that Priestess will be able to assist me.”
He twirled his staff above his head in one hand without using his fingers. It rotated on its own continuously.
“Like you, I seek to become a gilded spirit. However, I wish to either find a chaotic catalyst or transform my soul into its own catalyst. As I am already immortal, I can afford to be picky.”
“The next time I see her, I’ll tell her you’re looking for her.”
Omnias dropped his arms to his sides and bent at the waist. The staff continued spinning in the air above him. It didn’t stop until he straightened from his bow and grabbed it.
“How may I repay you?”
“You mean you’re not here to kill me?”
Considering his luck, the chances that a powerful mage-priest would appear out of nowhere when he was alone and exhausted but didn’t want to kill him were too good to be true.
The human priest waved his free hand expressively. “Oh no no no. Why would I kill you? You are proof of my faith; that self-empowerment is possible for anyone given a chaotic overturning of fortune.” He spun his staff to bring the Infinity symbol to the fore. “This is everything; all that is and all that can be. It is both limited and unlimited. It is one and it is all. You are following this path with a mental chaotic contradiction. I feel like hugging you. May I?”
“No.”
“I know!” Omnias pointed his staff at Gunrai’s victims. “I will teleport everyone here to Central Hearth and recommend you for apotheosis. The Fire Sage and I are old friends.”
A magic circle drew itself under and above a woman and, in a flash of light, she vanished. The same thing happened to the rest of the physical victims as well as the salamanders. Omnias was not the slightest bit winded after all this. There’s no way I can fight him in my condition...but I’ll probably have to...despite what he says...
Omnias raised his staff to the sky and a magic circle appeared above Eric’s head. Its reflection carved itself into the ground beneath his feet. Runes quickly wrote themselves on both circles. Before Eric could protest, he was caught up in Omnias’ spell and disappeared.
He reappeared in the main courtyard of Central Hearth. Around him were all of Gunrai’s victims along with clerics tending to them. Cremia was one of them, and when she noticed Omnias, she cried his name in surprise. Then she rushed forth to greet him and Eric.
“Oh hello, little Cremia. My, my, how you’ve grown! I bet Ash stays busy all day beating away suitors.”
“Oh, Uncle Omnias... you know it’s more complicated than that.”
She was kneeling next to Eric and rubbing his back. Teleportation sickness had struck again and the poor grendel was puking on the tile. The heat she worked into his body was doing wonders for his nausea. Only moments under her care made him feel good enough to stand up.
“Thank you, Sister Cremia.”
“Thank you, Mr. Watley. The Fire Sage has seen what you have done for us through his traditional scry.”
The thought of that old man in his barrel bath made Eric shudder. Cremia picked up on this but ignored it.
“He finds you worthy to undergo our most holy rite. Congratulations!”
Chapter 13 Scouring the Soul
“What did you have to do?”
Eric and Kallen stood in a room of warm colors. A mural of Fiol and the Crowned Tiger decorated the left wall. It chronicled their rebirth. The opposite wall showed generic followers standing before a priest with Fiol’s symbols hovering over them. Eric assumed this to be the start of the ritual he and Kallen were about to undertake.
Eric wore trousers of red and a coat of orange. Kallen wore a white blouse and a flowing red skirt. Kallen’s lips were red with rouge and Eric had it on his eyelids. The only reason they were allowed their staves was because each was a part of their soul.
“I used my River of Chaos enlightenment to project my spirit back in time to help the Fire Sage’s 14th incarnation banish an elder ghoul.”
“You can do spiritual time travel whenever you want?”
Kallen grimaced and rocked her hand. “Sort of. It’s complicated.”
A fire slowly burned in the center of the room. A cleric tossed a handful of herbs into it earlier and now the room smelled of spice and incense instead of sulfur and human sweat. The lack of windows made the room stifling.
Adjacent to it was an obsidian tablet polished to a high shine. A phoenix statue was carved from its top and holy fire runes raced down the sides. On the front, facing the entrance, was a list of all the people who had attempted the Rite of Fire Ascension. The lis
t was three dozen names long. The back, facing the two chaos knights, was a list of everyone who had succeeded. This list was only five names long.
“I’ve experienced my own enlightenment, thank you very much,” Eric said, “and I’ve traveled through the Veins of Noitearc, where time does not exist, and I don’t believe that you have. Now tell me.”
Kallen took a breath and said, “It’s time-space loopy swoopy thing. There’s LUUU! and ZAGG! and also spoilers. The candy goes into the pepper and moves on while remembering forest songs. Then contrary convergence to 408 in a top hat.”
“...That...That’s just random gibberish.”
“Emily said the same thing when I tried to explain it to her.” She shrugged. “Like I said, it’s complicated. A more concise way of putting it would be, I can only do it after I’ve done it.”
A week had passed since they had proven themselves worthy of this ritual. They spent that time preparing for it.
The Fire Sage insisted that such preparation normally required months, if not years, and he couldn’t possibly shorten it any further. There were supporting rituals to perform, lectures to attend, scripture to read, and fasting to undertake. It had culminated one hour ago with a purification bath and donning ceremonial clothing. All that remained was for the Fire Sage to officially begin the rite. When he came, he was not alone.
On his right side was a fire dragon. It was one of the smaller varieties known as a “drake” and so its head only reached the human’s shoulder. It walked on four sinewy legs and two leathery wings were folded on its back. Its scales were a mix of red and black. Though it had to tilt its head up to meet human eyes, there could be no doubt that it was looking down on them.
On his left side was a salamander spirit. This one was small enough to fit between a human’s hands. It flew without wings on mystic energy. Its ectoplasm carried the colors orange and red in a shifting mixture. From its body’s wriggling and the lines pulling back on its “face,” one could imagine it was excited.
Above him hovered a phoenix. Its wingspan was about the same length as a human’s arm span. The lack of wind in this underground tunnel did not hinder it; not here in a place of fire and heat and ash. Its down was white and pinion feathers were red. It looked upon the two demons with both pity and hope.
The Fire Sage himself was wearing a ceremonial robe of four layers and four colors. Just like the room, blue was not one of them. His face paint connected his mouth and his eyes into a continuous circle, with more lines reaching back to his ears. In his right hand, he carried a grand fire poker of gold crowned by a ruby. In his left hand, he carried nothing.
Three paces away from the initiates, he stopped and thudded the bronze butt of his fire poker on the ground between them.
“Kallen Selios, Eric Watley, you have been chosen to undertake the Rite of Fire Ascension. This is a most holy honor. You will merge your souls with Sacred Fire and transform them into gilded spirits. You will no longer be human. You will be gods. Is this what you wish?”
“Yes, it is.”
“You will burn away your mortality. You will suffocate on the smoke of your own sins. The holy flame of Fiol will light up every corner of your mind and soul, including the ones you hide from yourselves. Have you resigned yourselves to this fact?”
Eric shrugged. He had nothing to hide, from himself or anyone else. Nor was he afraid of physical or spiritual pain. Whatever he experienced here, it couldn’t possibly be worse than anything in his past.
“Bring it on.”
“…Yeah, bring it on.”
It wasn’t just Kallen’s minor delay that alerted Eric. It was the sweat that had nothing to do with the room’s heat.
“So be it,” the Fire Sage said. “You accept the flames into your hands. Let it burn or warm as Fiol judges.” He thudded his fire poker on the ground a second time to cue his familiars.
The phoenix plucked a piece of its down and dropped it in front of the Fire Sage. The dragon breathed a stream of fire that charred them. The salamander flew through the ashes to make them shine. The Fire Sage collected them in his hands.
“Step forward to receive the blessing from the Three Guardians of Fire.”
Kallen stepped forward with the humility and reverence of a girl raised in the faith. Eric shuffled like a bored mercenary. Kallen expressed her exasperation by stepping on his foot, and Eric shifted it into a grendel’s so she only hurt herself. Annoyance radiated off the Fire Sage like the heat from the walls.
“Trickster’s Chosen...” he muttered. Then he dabbed two fingers in the ashes and raised them up. “Like these feathers, you are ashes.” He drew a circle on Kallen’s forehead. She made the Sign of Fire like she was supposed to. “Like these feathers, you are ashes.” He drew a circle on Eric’s forehead, who resisted the urge to wipe them off. “Like the phoenix who gave you these feathers, you must rise from the ashes.”
The Fire Sage stamped his fire poker a third time and two sections of the wall slid into the floor behind Eric and Kallen. The grating noise of stone on stone filled the room. Once they disappeared into the floor, a creamy white mist gushed forth. It flowed over the two mages and made them cough.
“This is your last chance to turn away,” the Fire Sage said. “If you step through those doors and into the Rite of Fire Ascension Corridor, then you won’t come back as humans or demons. You will be either gods or ashes. Do you understand?”
Eric’s lips separated into a grin and he bashed his fists together. “I can’t wait!”
Kallen hesitated. Then she pushed her hands together peacefully and said, “I understand, Your Holiness. Thank you for this opportunity.”
Fire Sage pointed his fire poker.
“Then go and may Fiol light the fire of your passion.”
The two mages turned around and entered their respective tunnels. The Fire Sage stamped the ground with his staff of authority a fourth time and the passages closed. Taking a more casual posture, he said, “Thank you for waiting.”
Omnias dropped his invisibility. The old priest had been standing between Eric and Kallen the whole time and neither of them noticed. He put his left fist into his right palm and bowed.
“To do otherwise would be rude.”
“You think my holy vocation is empty. Why do you bother eavesdropping?”
“I have a student who will be undertaking this rite soon. Not yours, of course, but it is similar enough. Only the element, excuse me, expression and manifestation of the element and its associated external philosophy will be different. So it will basically be the same thing.”
“You’re here to take notes so you can strip it down like a horny dust mind.”
Omnias laughed and said, “You sound like a necro priest! Necro priest! Necro priest!”
“You sound like you’re five years old,” the Fire Sage said.
“Five years, five hundred years; it’s all the same and I would know. I’ve been both! Just like I’ve been a fire priest, a necro priest, and a mercenary, and found them to be the same. Don’t give me that look. I know you’ve been stealing my lines.”
The Fire Sage looked repulsed. “When have I ever done that?”
“I heard you’ve been telling Queen Kasile that Sacred Fire is the same as Abyssal Fire and that she is a queen-who-is-not-a-queen.”
“That’s completely different. If you’d like to discuss it over tea, I can have firewort brewed in five minutes.”
“You remembered my favorite! I’m touched, but I need to stay here and watch.”
“You know I can’t let you do that.”
“I know and that’s why I drugged your tea.”
“I know you drugged my tea, and that’s why I drank coffee instead.”
“I know you drank coffee, so I drugged it too.”
“I know you drugged it too, so I purified it with holy fire under the guise of heating it up. I also mixed in the antidote with sugar.”
“I know you neutralized the poison, so I watched the
Rite of Water Ascension instead.”
“...you what?” the Fire Sage asked.
“Oh yeah, it was a big deal over in the Plugai ocean,” Omnias said. “One of Waol and Silver Dragon’s descendants wanted to join her ancestors in divinity, so she undertook this amazing adventure to prove herself worthy of doing so. I played the role of ‘wise old mentor’ for her, so I was allowed to watch the ritual take place. At its fundamentals, I imagine it is identical to yours, so I don’t really need to watch you do anything. I have all I need already.”
“Then why did you drug my tea and coffee?”
“To see that scrunched-up face you make when you’re mad. You’re doing it right now!”
The Fire Sage massaged his forehead.
“Okay, I’ve had my fun. The truth is that I’m waiting for someone. She’s hard to contact, but I know she’ll come by here soon because of Eric’s ascension. If it makes you feel better, I’ll plug my ears, close my eyes, set up a spirit curtain, etc. so I’m not privy to the particulars of your rite.”
“Thank you.”
The Fire Sage took up a sacred posture and began a chant to continue his part in the Rite. Omnias sat down and isolated his senses as he promised he would. Then the dragon growled, the phoenix squawked, and the salamander hissed. The Fire Sage paused his chanting to reply, “If Omnias says he will not eavesdrop, then he can be trusted to keep his word.”
With his familiars pacified, he continued chanting. His holy power intensified and his spirit expanded. It poured into the veins of rock and magma, mixed with the steam and vapors, and melded with the heat. He was now one with Mt. Fiol. From here, he could oversee the two initiates and administer the tests they needed to pass. He saw Eric running on legs of metal.
The mist made visibility poor, but Eric wasn’t worried. He was a B+ class monster known for its durability. He pitied anything that tried to get in his way. Then his foot caught on something and he went sprawling.
He was running so fast he couldn’t catch himself and crashed head first into the volcanic rock. It cracked, but his metal skull did not. Instead, it burned and melted. He jumped to his feet and roared in agony.
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