High Artificer, Ch 40: Reforging the Path

When Sam reappeared, it was outside of his Titan Hall near Council.

A flick of his hand unmoored the dimensional placement of the realm and then he collapsed it into a point. The hall and all of the fields and mountains around it shrank until they were a tiny speck.

The entire realm floated above his hand.

It was a tiny silver-white hall with towering pillars that stood on top of a mountain. A bright silver flame rose from the forge and the runes on the pillars shimmered as they fluctuated with power. The mountain below the hall was about a foot tall, while the lands around it had been compressed even more. 

It was the exact same realm as before, it just looked smaller. It barely covered his palm.

It was a lot like the dimensional displacement he’d used to move the solar system for the human domain, but slightly less complex.

Reaching the Sixth Evolution had helped him understand the techniques that Shattered Skies used on her realm. There was a small dimensional shift and a few utility enchantments that helped to minimize it, while the rest of the realm was a dimension of its own and pulled along through the Void.

He spent a few moments stabilizing the realm and then he disappeared again, fading into the Heart of the Void and out the other side.

When he reappeared, it was in a different section of the galaxy, near a vast expanse of Titan worlds. 

Nine suns burned in the distance. 

Each of them was a slightly different color, but they were all close together in a strange system, as if they were worlds surrounding an even greater force. 

Perhaps in a regular area, there would have been a black hole or a greater sun at the center, but these suns perfectly balanced each other. Even their aura signatures were stable and unchanging.

This was where the Titans had created the Path of Stars.

It was the first time he’d visited this place in person. He’d only seen it in his memories.

All of the suns had been infused with the strength of astral chaos, giving them longevity beyond the reach of regular stars and elevating them to something else completely.

They weren’t really suns any longer, more like the ideals of what a sun could be. They were reflections of a greater Truth.

They couldn’t be destroyed by any force the Titans had ever tested. Even if the rest of the galaxy crumbled, this place would probably remain.

It was something similar to the power of the Seventh Evolution, but even stronger, rooted in the galaxy’s original force.

Since he was planning to improve the Path, it only made sense to do it here.

A form made of starlight and celestial dust formed from the Void, swiftly turning into an ethereal Titan. 

“Welcome, Sovereign,” the Will of the Path said. His voice was more respectful than it had ever been before. He was the only one to fully understand Sam’s Evolution and what it meant.

“I have been waiting for you since you shared your intent with me. Are you ready to begin?”

There was a grave tone to the Path’s voice, since it knew what was coming. Its future was at stake. 

“Yes,” Sam agreed. His mood was calm, even though what he was about to do would shake the heavens. “Come and join me. I’ll need your assistance.”

He set his Titan Hall down in the system and let it expand back to its usual size. Then he began to study the suns.

The Will of the Path stood beside Sam, silently communicating with him as it lent its full support for the plan. It had to hope that what he did was correct, but he was the only Titan present, so it had no complaints.

Its blueprints and archives stood ready at his command, as well as the more complex internal forces and the energy it had stored over the ages.

Time passed as Sam studied the nine stars and the Truths that made them up. 

He could see Caerlon’s hand in their creation, as well as those of hundreds of others, and he spent a while analyzing how all of the energies had fused together, as well as the structure of astral chaos that made it work.

The Titans had created a vast network of Truths, each of them like a facet in a gemstone. 

These suns represented the nine most critical Truths and the nine primary Titans who had contributed to the construction. 

It was the same as the number of races they’d elevated to the High Council. They liked that number.

Normally, it would have been very difficult to comprehend all of the Truths here and how they were woven together. Even for him, it took a while, but his connection to the Heart of the Void was much greater than the threads of the whole that they represented.

This was like piecing together a mosaic of an image he’d seen himself and already understood. It took him longer to study how the Titans’ personalities and dreams had shaped the work than it did to see through the mysteries of astral chaos.

After a while, he knew what he was going to do. 

The change would have two parts, and it would address both the alterations to the Path and the need to elevate humanity.

When he rebuilt these stars and everything that relied on them, the new Path would touch everything within the galaxy, which included humans, so he could use it as the distribution method to elevate their race. 

They would be altered by Primal Chaos and his intent. 

Then the Path would be there to assist with the new options and to make sure it was only beneficial. It could oversee the implementation and make sure they had the best Paths and Classes.

When it was done, a choice would be offered to everyone, to accept the assistance of the Path or not. No one had to take it. If they didn’t, it would still be available to them later, as well as to their descendants.

But they would be foolish to turn it down. The Path would give them opportunities that they could never have achieved without it. 

All the history and knowledge of the Titans and the World Core would be available to them to help with their Evolutions.

At the same time, humans would get an extra boost, options that were only available to them. New bloodlines and skills would appear, as well as Classes that Sam was designing just for them, ones he’d pulled from the best that the World Core and the Path had to offer.

As the Path reached them, he would also give them the innate requirements that were needed to take up those Classes.

He’d given some thought to what to give them, but in the end it wasn’t difficult to decide what it would be, only how to implement it. 

He would give them three gifts, all stemming from his dominion.

First, Elemental Affinity as an Innate Racial Trait.

He was a Lord of the Elements and humans had widespread elemental affinities, so he would help them to enhance that nature, making it something that was much stronger than before.

Humans were already able to merge with the elements for their classes and bloodlines, but this would take that a step further, making it a natural part of their growth and giving them an elemental nature, so that basic magic came almost as easily as breathing.

It would be very easy for them to take up elemental classes, like Pyromancer or Geomancer, and to use the elements as an innate magic to build their new civilization.

Second, Spatial Affinity.

He would give them a rarer Racial Trait that came with an innate skill for dimensional energy. 

They would be able to get dimensional Classes more easily, including those with teleportation, and use it to navigate the Void, as well as to sense when portals were opening, which would help them to defend against invasions.

The Trait would show up a bit randomly, but they should be able to see it by the Second Evolution, and even if they never learned to teleport, at least they wouldn’t get sick from it, like some humans did at the moment.

It would give them an advantage in crafting more complex spatial storage devices, which were delicate, and a few people would even be able to create a personal spatial storage enchantment. They would just have to train it.

It would be small for most of them, not much more than a backpack size, but for those who managed it, it could be very useful.

It should help them to travel around their worlds and adventure.

Last, and perhaps most important of all, he would give them stronger natural physiques and a method to improve their bodies. 

Elemental Body Refinement.

It was an Innate Racial Trait that would allow humans to absorb elemental essence to strengthen their bodies and enhance their natural attributes. 

Humans were physically weak compared to most of the High Races, so it was necessary to give them something that would put them on par.

This would accompany the Elemental Affinity he was giving them, improve their constitutions, boost their regeneration, and extend their lifespans.

It would appear in different ways, depending on how they used it and what element they chose, but even low-level people would be able to do it.

Some would be better at it than others, but it would make them stronger across the board. 

The human starting average of 10 in each attribute would rise to around 100, and then go higher with training. 

Being able to absorb elemental energy would let them take advantage of the natural elements of the Void and in some of the enemies they would face, including Void beasts and other wild monsters.

A few might even manage to harness stellar energy or one of the higher elements.

In the future, it might lead to a field of high-tier elemental melee paths to accompany their magical ones. 

There would be Martial Classes related to it that they could choose, if they wanted to focus on that path. 

These three gifts should be enough to elevate them, and they would still have the individual flexibility to choose what they wanted to do.

He knew humans wouldn’t be happy to be forced into a set path, so he hadn’t tried. 

Adaptability was their way.

With the plan complete, runes began to spiral around him, forming a vast constellation of Laws and Truths. 

It was beautiful.

Some of it was a model of the current Path, while new strands of silver-grey chaos that stretched between the Laws were the alterations he was making. There were a lot of them.

The design swiftly grew larger, flowing out until it covered the entire system, and then even more. The nine suns looked like jewels in a vast stellar web, connected by lines of runes.

He didn’t pay attention to how much time passed as he worked, but it wasn’t a short amount. He was focused on the goal.

Energy flowed from his cloak, everything that he had gathered from the Vos’Rekan, and from his dominion, as well as from the vast quantity that the Path contained, all of it infused into a grand enchantment. 

He had to pause from time to time to gather a raging river of astral quintessence from the chaos winds, which he poured into the design like liquid starlight. Each drop of quintessence fused into a rune, giving it a sense of weight.

As each was finished, they resonated with a celestial hum, thrumming like a massive chord in a galaxy-wide orchestra.

Eventually, the last rune was in place.

Sam stood at the center of the system as the nine suns orbited him, floating like stars on his shoulders. 

The enchantment stretched into the distance as it merged into the astral paths that crossed the galaxy. It touched every star in the settled half of the galaxy, as well as some of the ones in the Chaos Wild. 

Soon, it would expand until it reached the limits of the galaxy, but in time, it might go beyond it.

More importantly, the new structure was infused with the force of Word of Eternity, the ability he’d gained when he became a Sovereign, giving it the power to endure forever.

There would be no failure of this system.

It would never break.

Chaos itself would guard it.

His hand rose and the thirty Fragments of the Primal Void appeared, each gleaming with new potential as he placed them among the stars at distinct points within the framework. 

These were the nodes where the Primal Chaos from the fragments was needed to change the overall structure. Some of them would create new Laws and Truths, while others would alter the ones that were already there.

He could have gotten by with only a handful if he was just making minor changes to the Path, but he was going bigger. 

The weight of a single speck of Primal chaos was enough to change the course of history. This many Fragments was enough to elevate everyone’s potential, if he used them the right way.

The Titans couldn’t be the only great forces of this galaxy. 

He was going to do more, to restore the wildness and the potential of the First Age, the era that had given rise to the Primordials. 

With the Heart of the Void behind him, these fragments would open the door.

He wouldn’t allow the galaxy to follow the same quiet course it had until now. There were greater horizons out there, ones that he was just now beginning to see, and this galaxy could be a part of that. 

He was going to bring a new future to life.

The fragments fused into place with chimes that joined the overall harmony. They hung there, waiting for the critical moment.

“Are you ready?” Sam looked at the Will of the Path beside him.

The figure gave him a calm nod. 

“Then let’s begin.” 

He wrapped the core enchantment and the fragments in his aura, infusing it with the full force of his dominion, and then he raised his hand. 

A snap of his will crushed all the Fragments of the Primal Void at once. 

The shards turned to silvery-black dust that began to spiral outward from their nodes and spread throughout the enchantment.

At the same time, Sam sent a series of commands through the Path of Stars that merged with the released chaos and altered its core objective. 

He didn’t wait for it to confirm, since he could already feel the changes beginning. Instead, he reached out to the enchantment with his dominion, following it as it spread throughout the galaxy. 

A silver spark was burning in the hearts of the nine stars around him, and as it moved outward, that same spark was igniting in the other stars that it touched. 

With each one that joined, the enchantment became stronger and moved more quickly, leaping to the next stars in the design, but there were still millions of stars outside of the limits where the Path’s energy would stop.

If it continued on its own, it would reach them eventually, but he had no intention of letting it take millions of years.

Time was critical.

So he gathered up the core energy of the Path, the same miniature copy of the enchantment that was burning in each sun, and began to copy it himself, letting it multiply into a field of endless stars in his hands.

Stars burned across his palms and between his fingers, all of them made of shimmering silver dust and Primal Chaos. When his hands were full, he took a deep breath, filling his lungs with astral quintessence and the force of his dominion.

Then he looked out at the galaxy and the Chaos Wild, raised his hands to his lips, and exhaled. 

A cloud of stellar dust expanded outward, flashing along the astral paths into the vast distance of the cosmos. 

With his force behind it, it traveled through his dominion and leapt across the galaxy to far-flung stars, reaching points that even the Path couldn’t have touched. 

Every fleck of dust was the core of a star, all of them full of wild chaos and new potential. 

Wherever they went, power would spring up, and life would be connected to the Path of Stars. 

If someone had been watching, it would have looked like endless shooting stars were filling the sky, heralding the beginning of a new age. 

There was a wildness to the energy that came from Primal Chaos and the fragments, one that blazed like the First Age had returned, bringing heat and vibrant life back to a quiet galaxy. 

As stars ignited and joined the Path, that feeling grew, until a storm of power and might was raging across the Void. Stars shook and their flames grew brighter and hotter until they towered into the darkness, like watchtowers igniting across eternity.

Sam’s words rang out with the change, blazing with the stars, and were heard across all of the galaxy, a Primordial voice speaking to every living being. 

“Let the Wild Era begin.”