Chapter 152: This thing's giving me attitude |
“Before we begin,” said Mavthua, “I must caveat: all our redesign choices/strategies made for our clutch leaders/heroes hitherto for had demons/the Pit in mind. I believe that the same principles will hold true for our raid of the ever-collapse, but remain alert for discrepancies.”
Everybody nodded soberly.
“Our clutches operate in groups of six, but the System rewards groups of nine, so we conformed/adapted to that matrix.”
Mavthua’s taller buddy stiffened. The Zorathians all froze, and then the buddy strode out of the room.
Mavthua resumed speaking as before. “There are thus nine roles in an optimized clutch. The key position is that of destroyer/egg breaker. Thaguavar the Black is the paragon/exemplar of this role, though it took three Reservoir Cubes and prodigious natural excellent/experience for him to achieve dominion. The Destroyer has one function: to eradicate any single foe no matter how powerful. As the attackers, our offense must be our most powerful/effective ability, thus the member of your clutch with the greatest number of points should be the Destroyer.”
“Guess that’s James,” said Jason wryly.
“Anybody have more than 6,974 points?” asked James. Nobody did. “Guess that’s me, then.”
“As the Destroyer you must first purchase Gloria and sufficient Aeviternum to fuel your attacks. Thaguavar purchased 9 Aeviternum. He stated/believed that the symbology was important/amusing, and that more than that indicated a failure to dominate a conflict.”
“Gloria’s 500, you said?”
James blinked as the golden cursor flashed and dropped a new overlay over his old System sheet.
Unspent points: 6,974
Select Purchase Category:
Offense | Defense | Abundance
Substance | Spatial | Temporal
Self | Summons | Virtues
“Temporal?” asked James. “We can manipulate time?”
“Correct. The categories of Spatial and Temporal are a heuristic simplification of the indivisible nature of space-time.”
James looked around at the others. “We’ve never directly manipulated time, though. Have we?”
Kerim gave a tight smile. “Actually, we have. Three dimensional space is intrinsically combined with the fourth dimension of time in a single framework. Einstein developed the idea of space-time in his theory of relativity. Whenever you transported us with your Teleportation miracle you moved us through all four dimensions.”
Jason frowned. “My Flight miracle would also count, then.”
“Correct,” said Mavthua. “But more importantly, the supreme miracle of Resurrection involves restoring a deceased individual from an expired time frame in which he still lived.”
“Wait,” said Denzel. “That’s all I was doing? I thought… like, on some spiritual level, like… a real miracle from… from God?”
“Any intervention from your deity was indirect at best,” said Mavthua with utmost confidence. “Resurrection is powerful but limited inversion of time, drawing the individual back from the last moment before they took lethal damage.”
“That’s why it’s limited to 24 hours?” asked Kerim.
“Correct. The 500 point cost only allows for a 24 hour operating window. To delve/invert deeper into time would cost more.”
James sat forward. “So with enough points, we could reach back… what? Two days? A week?”
“With ‘enough’ points there is no limit to how far you could reach back,” said Mavthua calmly.
“Years?”
“The growth in cost is excessive, verging on exponential. However, the opposite is also true; if we limit the time frame of the power to only thirty minutes, it can be generalized from only one individual to eight. That is how we optimized the power, allowing for a single Zorathian to raise his entire clutch with the expenditure of one use of his power.”
“Hot damn,” said Denzel. “Yeah. On this mission there won’t be any waiting a whole day to bring someone back. It’ll always be now or never.”
“Correct. But for now, James, please select Abundance. This is the category that governs all aspects of Void energy usage.”
James did so, and new options appeared in the overlay.
Aeviternum (50 pts) | Arete (1 pt) | Gloria (500 pts)
Channel | Restore
“Please select and purchase Gloria.
James did so, focusing on the term and accepting the request to spend the points.
Gloria purchased
Unspent points: 6,474
You cannot assign Gloria till you have purchased a power.
Obviously.
James paused, rereading that last line a couple of times, then turned to Mavthua. “Done. Just like that. It’s one Gloria per power, right?”
“Correct. Gloria gilds/elevates a single power, as it is earned/bestowed by being the first being to manifest a new level/ability. Not under our system, however.”
“Apparently not. Aeviternum next?”
“Correct.”
Again James highlighted the term, then raised the purchase amount to 9. He willed the purchase.
Aeviternum (9) purchased
Unspent points: 6,024
“Everybody shall follow these initial steps,” said Mavthua. “Next we shall increase your Arete by your unspent pool divided by 2 minus half your current Arete.”
“Uh…” James slowly did the math. “That’s… 3,012… minus 400… so 2,612?”
“Correct,” said Kerim. “Good job.”
“C’mon, man, I went to college.”
“Fuck,” said Yadriel. “I went to grade school and even I could do that.”
James snorted and purchased the requisite amount.
Arete (2,612) purchased
New total: 3,412
Aura upgraded to: Void Sublime
Aura Strength: 7
Unspent points: 3,412
James braced.
Nothing happened.
He blinked and relaxed.
“You understand like, everything now?” asked Serenity. “That was like, Buddha-level wisdom gain, right?”
“You would think. But I felt no difference. Maybe I’m already…?”
Serenity arched an eyebrow. “As wise as is humanly possible?”
Mavthua chuckled, the sound like pebbles plopping into a pond. “The effects of personal enlightenment/self awareness brought on by Arete increase is capped at 100. Zorathians hypothesize/believe that beyond that coherence/self integration becomes threatened.”
“Oh.” James felt foolish. “That makes sense. And why I was walking around with Arete 800 and not feeling particular Buddha-like.”
Serenity leaned over and ruffled his hair. “Next time, buddy.”
James frowned at his overlay. “Hold on. My Aura just upgraded to ‘Void Sublime’. Mavthua?”
“The appearance of ‘void’ in the title indicates the System’s awareness that you can only achieve such power by direction absorbing Reservoir Cubes. Zorathians believe/hypothesize that the traditional System is designed so that a maximum of 9,000 points may be absorbed in totality, and assigns the appellate of ‘Void’ to all ranks achieved in excess of what could normally be achieved. Void Sublime reflect the range from 3,000 to 3,999. Thaguavar -”
“I’m getting sick of hearing about this guy,” groaned Serenity.
“- achieved Void Colossus at 12,797 Arete.”
“Does it still hurt demons?” asked James.
“In your aura’s limited state, correct. But we will unlock it to harm everything but humans and Zorathians. Navigate to Self, please, and then select Aura.”
James did so, and saw the following options:
Corporal Perfection (1 pt)
Mental Dominion (2 pts)
Spiritual Exaltation (3 pts)
Aura
Physical Enhancements
James highlighted ‘Aura’ and was presented with the following:
Aura Rank: Void Sublime
Aura Strength: 7
Aura Limitations: Nemeses Only
Divine Pool Regeneration Rank: Void Sublime
“Please be careful here,” said Mavthua. “A mistake with Aura Limitation could kill every organism in this room. Leave the ‘Nemeses Only’ qualifier for now, but scroll to ‘Arkhos’ and select Zorathian. Then scroll to your home world and select ‘All’.”
Olaf leaned forward. “Why ‘all’ back home but not here?”
“This world is dangerous to us,” said Miriam softly. “And we don’t want to accidentally kill life back home when we eventually return to it.”
“Correct,” said Mavthua. “One you have added those terms, then deselect ‘Nemeses Only’ and you will be done.”
James did as he was bid, adding Zorathians and then ‘Terran: All’. It felt like disarming a bomb. He’d seen what auras did to demons. He could only imagine too well what Void Sublime would do to his friends.
“There,” he breathed. “Done.”
“Excellent/approved. Navigate now to Offense.”
James did so.
Power Level (0) > Range > Area of Effect > Attributes > Target Limitations
Unspent points: 3,412
“The system is simple/pleasing given what we are creating,” said Mavthua. “Assign all your remaining points into ‘Power Level’. You will then be prompted with a series of questions that work you through the formula. Designate ‘Range’ as ‘Line of Sight’ and ‘Area of Effect’ as ‘Individual’. Target Limitations should be ‘None.’”
James did so.
Power Level (3,412 pts)
Range?
Touch (1/4 pts) | Yards (1/variable pts) | Miles 1/variable pts) | Line of Sight (x2)
James selected Line of Sight.
Line of Sight selected
Power Level reduced by half: (1,706)
“So if I picked Touch my damage output would quadruple?” asked James.
“Do that!” said Yadriel.
“Correct. But it is a severe limitation. Success/victory depends on immediacy of your attack. Four times as much power is useless if you are dead.”
Area of Effect?
Individual (1/2) | Square Yards (1/variable pts) | Miles (1/variable pts)
“Nice,” said James, selecting ‘Individual’. His Power Level bopped back up to 3,412. “Though the urge is strong to make it a bit more… expansive. I got used to Heavenly Assault wiping out blocks.”
“That is the role of the Suppressor,” said Mavthua. “As the Destroyer, your obligation/job is to extinguish singular threats of the highest magnitude. The Suppressor accepts lower damage output in exchange for greater area of effect.”
“Gotcha.”
“Skip Attributes,” continued Mavthua. “There is no need/desire to customize your attack by alternative vectors, energy types, or aesthetics. Also skip Target Limitations.”
James did so, noting silently that Mavthua wasn’t urging him to immunize humans or Zorathians. He accepted the final product, which outputted on his overlay as:
Line of Sight | Individual | Power Level (3,412 pts)
Power Name?
“Oh shit,” said James softly. “I gotta name this thing?”
“Correct,” said Zorathian. “For final inclusion in your modified System sheet.”
“Mega Death Ray?” suggested Yadriel.
“Mjölnir,” said Olaf.
“Boom Stick,” grinned Serenity.
James licked his lower lip while he eyed the blinking question mark. Death Attack, he willed it be called.
The name appeared briefly in the overlay before it disappeared, and then appeared in his statistics sheet next in his First Miracle field: DeathAttack.
Really?
James frowned. "This thing's giving me attitude."
"Attitude?" asked Mavthua. "Ah. Upon hacking/jailbreak the System can become slightly destabilized/personable. It is harmless. We believe the System is affected by the species it has monitored. It may show flickers of personality/being, but that is an illusion. Merely a mirror/reflection of your own usage/interaction with it."
James nodded and willed his assent. Death Attack. That’s all it was. His one and only attack.
“Now assign Gloria to your power,” said Mavthua, “and when you are finished, ask for a variably powered summary.”
James quickly navigated back to Abundance, assigned Gloria, and did as he was bid.
Death Attack (Gloria) at full power: 5,820,872,000
Death Attack (Gloria) w/ Aeviternum at full power: 291,043,600,000
“God damn,” said James softly.
Yadriel danced out of his chair in excitement. “What you at, man? What’s your total?”
“His Gloria enhanced Smite with Aeviternum was just over a billion before,” said Kerim. “It has to be much, much higher now.”
James inhaled deeply and nodded. “You could say that. Line of sight attack that now deals almost 300 billion damage.”
Yadriel’s eyes widened. “Fuck yeah, man! 300 billion? Ain’t nobody gonna hold us down now! Wait - hold up. You’re the Destroyer. Who gets to be the Suppressor? That our only two attackers?”
“Correct,” said Mavthua. “Each optimized clutch has two Offensive members. One for primary threats, the second for crowd control. The other seven roles are as follows: the Defender, whose role it is to protect the clutch from all incoming physical and energetic attacks; the Catalyst, who acts as a living Aeviternum battery to augment any other clutchmate in need; the Wayfinder, who transports the clutch to any known location; the Manipulator, who transmutes their environment or themselves; the Sentinel, who guards the clutch from attacks launched via substrate; the Temporalist, who rewinds local time so as to safeguard the clutch from mistakes, deaths, or accidents; and the Restorer, who focuses exclusively on healing and bringing his clutchmates back from the dead.”
“Wayfinder,” said Jason, raising his hand. “I’m all about the mobility.”
“Resurrector,” said Denzel firmly. “It’s what I’ve been doing from the beginning.”
Olaf rubbed at his chin. “In that case, I will take Defender. My Circle has been my primary power, and I find that I am most happy protecting my friends.”
Yadriel scowled. “I want to be the Destroyer. Yadriel, Destroyer of Worlds. It just sounds better than ‘James’. I mean, no offense boss, but James the Destroyer? It just don’t flow.”
Kerim frowned. “I’m eager to assume the role of Temporalist. That sounds… impossibly fascinating. To roll back time itself? Yes. I’ll do it.”
Kimmie looked over at Miriam. “You have a preference?”
Miriam hesitated. “What’s left? The Catalyst and…?”
“Catalyst, Manipulator, and Sentinel.”
“Oh, dude, Manipulator is mine,” said Yadriel. “I mean, ‘A’, it sounds cool, kind of like some superspy, and ‘B’, changing into demons has been my jam, you know? Yeah. So. Me, Yadriel the Manipulator.”
“How about…” Miriam winced. “Maybe I could be the Catalyst? I like playing support roles, and… I’m not very good at making decisions when things get really heated. I’d be fine just supporting others.”
“Perfect, sure. Sentinel sounds like how I’ve always envisioned myself, anyways.” Kimmie beamed. “Operating on the karmic level, you know? Or substrate, as the case may be. Though Mavthua, you’ll have to explain that stuff to me better, yeah?”
“Yes.” He seemed about to continue, but then froze. All the Zorathians in the alcoves froze as well, then as one they turned to look at the entrance. A moment later three of their number departed.
“Everything all right?” asked James.
“My clutchmates are preventing outside interference in this process/redesign. We have limited time to finish. I urge/exhort all of you to duplicate James Kelly’s process by purchasing Gloria and nine Aeviternum. I will then guide you in selecting the correct powers individually.”
“Sounds good,” said James. “Everyone, get to work.”
His crew immediately set to staring off into the middle distance. James watched over them for a moment, then considered the entrance tunnel.
If Zorathians came through to stop them, would he be willing to use his Attack on them?
He would.
They were so close.
He’d let nothing stop them now.
Nothing.
