B5 C44: Backlash

AN: We're back! Sorry for the big delays, all. Update post incoming. More details there, but want to call out that I've paused billing to gi

AN: We're back! Sorry for the big delays, all. Update post incoming. More details there, but want to call out that I've paused billing to give everyone a free month for the missed chapters.

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Joy was the obvious first reaction on seeing Cal alive and well. Fear was the obvious second.

“Shh! She could be here at any moment.” I couldn’t hear Cezerra, and a quick check with Vitality Sight didn’t reveal her lurking right outside or anything, but the demon was prone to showing up unannounced.

Failing to stifle a roll of her eyes, Cal loudly clapped as if trying to shave a year off my life. “I unveiled myself further into the region before applying Apex Shroud again. Pretty sure she’s off searching for me for a while. You’re right though; we should keep it snappy. It’s good that you taught Verin how to cook, because now I don’t need to be afraid of her dying from food poisoning while I’m gone, but I’m sure she still misses me terribly. Spill. What’s the situation here?”

The spike of anxiety I’d felt rapidly abated into something much duller, and as succinctly as I could, I related my last few days to Cal. Seeming to actually mean what she said about keeping things brief, she barely interrupted me, only asking for further details on Cezerra’s combat capabilities.

“Odds are that you and I could take her together? I can deliver a pretty mean executioner’s strike by now. Think I could take her head or at least a limb?”

I wanted to say yes, but truthfully, I wasn’t sure. I hadn’t gotten a chance to fully overload my weapon during the fight, but even so, her bones had felt tough. I also had no idea if she’d been holding back or if she had some sort of trump card hidden away. And then, even if Cal did manage a clean beheading, Cezerra was well past the first Constitution threshold. Theoretically, she could survive long enough without her head to still activate a skill or two.

“Not impossible, but I wouldn’t bank on it. If it fails and we have to earnestly fight her, I’m giving us maybe a 50% chance. And if she lands a single hit on you, I’m pretty sure you’re out of the fight.” We’d have a much better chance if Verin was here to land some frost attacks, but given her stationary nature, I doubted her class would work well against an intelligent enemy like Cezerra. The demon would simply fly out of Verin’s Glacial Zone. 

Cal spat off to the side, somehow seeming to anticipate my answer. “Damn. All right. Do you trust me?”

The question caught me off guard, especially with how obvious the answer was. “Duh? Do you really need to ask? I trusted you before we ended up locked inside a dungeon for two years. You tell me to jump off a bridge, I’m doing it. Why?” Admittedly, I could fly, so jumping off a bridge wasn’t that big a deal anymore, but still.

Unusually tense, Cal opened her mouth without any sound coming out. Only belatedly finding her voice, she sighed out a response. “Help her summon the demons. Just drudges. As many as you can. I think I have a plan for how we can get you out of here and clear the region. In the meantime, maybe knock out any class quests you think you can for a quick power boost? I’m expecting a fight.”

A million questions crowded my mind, but it was clear that Cal was being dodgy on purpose. She’d asked if I trusted her, and the answer was still yes. 

“Okay.” Honestly, it was kind of nice to have a solid plan worked out. Not that I knew the details, but Cal wouldn’t ask if she weren’t confident. For now, that was enough for me.

Cal simply blinked at me for a second, evidently expecting more of a fight. It was good I didn’t give her one, though, as a heavy thud sounded from the front of the temple. Practically slurring her words together in her haste, Cal bid me farewell.

“I’ll find some time to talk to you before we actually do anything serious, but you’re good to start summoning her drudges. Stay safe! Bye Tess!” Leaving exactly as she entered, Cal vanished into thin air.

Not a second too soon, either. Stomping into the room, Cezerra filled the doorway with her massive form, her eyes narrowed as she scanned the room. “Did I hear noise in here? You talking to someone?”

With a shrug, I feigned cluelessness. “Just myself. Helps me figure things out when I talk out loud.” Unsure if she was buying it, I tried to redirect her attention. “I think it’s helping, too. I learned the Ritual Magic skill today. I bet I’ll have a working ritual in a day or two at this rate.”

Deception has reached level 10!

It was a half lie -- I’d grabbed the Ritual Magic skill at the same time I’d learned Demonic Summoning, years ago in Emer’Thalis, but I actually had gained a level in the skill today. In the same vein, I received an Initiate-tier Deception augment that enhanced the skill whenever I was lying about my own skills and stats, although it looked like the skill wasn’t class-aligned, so I doubted I’d be raising it much higher.

Thankfully, whatever lingering doubts Cezerra had vanished in the face of my good news. 

“Good! Good. Carry on, then. No need to waste your attention on anything else for now.” With an eager grin, Cezerra escorted herself out, leaving me to my own devices once again.

Not how I expected things to go, but I guess it’s time to summon a few demons then, huh?

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Once I stopped trying to stall, it was astonishing how quickly I was able to work. At the very least, it astonished Cezerra, and if it wasn’t for my excuse of learning Ritual Magic, I imagined she would have suspected some form of foul play. As it was, she was thrilled with this new development.

Only a day later, a full replica of the original drudge summoning ritual now lay carved into a corner of the room. Between God’s Mind, my Dexterity, and my masonry skills, I was confident it was a perfect replica of the original, minus the damage.

Ritual Magic has reached level 3!

It was only here, at the finish line, that I realized something important. While I’d called Cezerra over to witness my first summoning attempt, I was missing a very key part of the process.

“This is going to sound dumb, but do you know how to activate it? Do I just… throw some mana in?” Most of the rituals I’d seen in real life were already active by the time I’d stumbled upon them, and the rest tended to involve some sort of reagent.

“Ah, one sec.” She rushed back to the temple’s main room, returning with something clasped in her hands. “Use this. In the middle, I think? Or maybe crushed and powdered over it. Haven’t seen this done too many times.” She handed over a chunk of crystal, and with a start, I realized it was a piece of the mana collection site.

Does it grow back? Or is it just big enough that she’s not worried about tearing a small chunk off? Regardless, I’d take her word for it. Half of the crystal, I placed in the center of the ritual, while the other half, I crushed between my hands, liberally spreading it into the various rings of the diagram.

“Now throw some mana in. And I think some needs to be space?” She didn’t sound too sure, but then again, a mage she was not. Still, it was enough to make some guesses, and I pinched a thread of neutral mana from my core before shifting it to spatial mana and repeating the process. Poking a finger onto the outer ring, I let both strands reach out, making contact with the powdered crystal.

Instantly, my mana began to flood out of my core, traveling along the connection point that I’d made. Despite the lack of any enchantment of the sort, it was almost like the pull effect I’d seen in some of Sett’s practice enchantment matrices, and I had no trouble continuing to supply the ritual.

At that moment, all I could say was how glad I was to have a high Wisdom. Even with the crystal supplying some of the ritual’s cost, I was forced to empty a full three fourths of my mana into the spell circles before I started to feel anything.

As to exactly what I was feeling, that was much harder to say. Even if the diagram simply asked the system to handle all the magic-y minutiae for me, that didn’t mean that the end effect wasn’t real magic, and a strange sort of awareness filled my head. At first, it was only an instinctual understanding of what I’d written into the diagram: I was summoning a drudge from the 99 hells. Nothing unexpected there.

Then, of course, came the spatial aspect.

For a brief instant, the ritual became another limb as the summoning magic attached itself to me, mind and soul, and I could feel as it strained. A sharp edge cut into the fabric of reality only to find itself far too dull to penetrate the pocket dimension’s protections. When a surgical incision failed, it settled for a brute-force pressure, the power of my spatial mana bulging against its restraints, hoping to breach the boundaries of the dungeon.

My vision swam as I continued to feed my spatial mana into the ritual, the strange feedback drowning out all other senses as I threw myself into connecting one realm to another. I could feel as the surrounding space began to bend, to cave, to submit itself to my will, until-

THUMP.

You have suffered from severe mana backlash!

My senses slowly rolled back in, only, my vantage point wasn’t quite what I remembered. Only slowly did I realize that I was lying down, and as I tried to right myself, the world swam, shaky limbs depositing me back on the ground. They were at least strong enough to lift to my face, and with a quick swipe, I discovered a wide stream of blood trickling from my nose.

Spatial Magic has reached level 37!

With just enough energy to tilt my head over to Cezerra, I tried to express what had gone wrong as eloquently as I possibly could.

“Bwuh…”

A shame that no bards were present, or they would have wept from the sheer poetry of my elevated verbiage. 

Alas, such genius took its toll, and from there, I promptly passed out.

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When at last I awoke, it was sad to say that I barely even registered the uncomfortable stone floor or my aching fractured bones, as both pains paled in comparison to the absolute disaster that made up my mana core. In fact, I was fairly certain it was only my Transitory Hut of Restful Slumber that had allowed me to sleep without immediately waking up from the pain. 

Not used to my spells failing mid-cast like that, I’d almost never had to deal with any sort of backlash. My core was somehow raw and ragged, and even the gentlest manipulation exercises felt like dunking an open wound into salted lemon juice. It was the sort of injury I would have been more than happy to sleep off for another week, but fate was a cruel mistress. Practically hovering over me was an oversized, reddish face.

“Alive! Up, up, up. Tell me what happened.” Cezerra’s heaving breaths weighed down on me, and I almost considered telling her to piss off, given the circumstances. Only the understanding that answering her would get her off my back faster allowed me to keep my composure.

What did happen, though? The more I thought back, the more certain I grew of what I’d felt.

“I think… I think it was a spatial issue. The ritual was fine, but I couldn’t push through the dungeon’s spatial wards.” I knew I had no hope of beating the real ones that kept people with evolved classes from coming through, but I’d hoped to overpower the smaller ones that me, Cal, and Verin had slipped through.

It had felt close. A small part of me believed I could make it work if I tried again, but a bigger part of me knew the truth. My Spatial Magic just wasn’t good enough. I’d felt that barrier, and it wasn’t simply a lack of mana that kept me back. It was a matter of quality. Of strength.

“More levels. I need more levels in Spatial Magic. I’m 99% certain I can break through once I hit the next tier.” About what I’d expected, to be fair. If I’d thought my magic could cut through the barrier already, then I would have been focusing on learning a spell to get us all out of the dungeon instead of trying to destroy the collection sites. Until today, though, I’d been stuck at level 36 for quite a while, steady Portal usage only inching the skill along.

“Tch.” Showing no signs of worrying over my current state, Cezerra backed off. “Rest and get better. After that, we can start sparring again, and I’ll have you incorporate whatever spatial spells you have into the fight. Frankly, I can wait, but I don’t want to. We’re getting you to the next tier as fast as we can.” Not waiting for a response, the demon rushed out of the room.

Thanks for checking in. Really appreciate the concern. And you’re welcome for trying so hard to summon you the demon you wanted. 

Well, whatever. An annoying setback, but I’d live. Hopefully.

I threw the tiniest dash of mana into Aqua Lung to hydrate myself, immediately regretting the action as my mana core violently protested. I barely managed to prevent myself from hurling, letting a groan out instead.

Please tell me that mana core injuries heal faster than broken bones…

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In a weird way, my failure to summon a demon actually fit into my broader plans pretty well. Sure, Cal had told me to start summoning Cezerra’s drudges, but she’d also told me to take a look at whatever class quests I could complete in the near future. Of every class quest I had, none was more valuable than raising my Spatial Magic to level 40. If the pattern held, that would net me a whopping eight class points, too.

To a lesser extent, I had a few other good contenders, too. Heavy Armor was nearing the Apprentice rank, and Axes was closing in on level 20 as well. Probably one or two others, although nothing quite as close.

After doing all the math, it looked like there was no way that any of those quests would let me level again. Unfortunately, my last level had been far too recent for that. Still, the eight class points alone would be enough to give me a serious boost, depending on how I spent them.

The downside, naturally, was all the work I’d have to put into leveling the skills. And while I was hardly allergic to putting some effort in, my new training regimens were decidedly less pleasant than usual.

Case in point, the very moment my mana core regained some semblance of function, a horned head poked into the ritual room. Evidently, Cezerra had some manner of analyzing my combat readiness, as she didn’t even bother asking for a status update. 

Instead, she graced me with a feral grin before bellowing out.

“Good enough! Outside, now. Let’s see how quickly we can force those last levels out of you!”