Implode ~ 20!

The colors shifted from moment to moment, energy never staying in a single place for more than an instant. Everything was in flux, and the fact that he was moving made the visualization so disorienting that he could fervently describe it as nauseating. As he flew forward, the contents of his stomach erupted into the air, and he was able to see how a combination of coffee, elemental mana, and stomach acid appeared when represented as purest energy.

It looked nasty.

Even so, there were some constants—or at least more constant—in the form of the destroyed pathway into the High City of Deep Thought. The fraying enchantments trailed structured mana from their unraveling ends, and it spoke to the level of craftsmanship that they were failing so slowly. Most of the streams of energy undulated through the air in a set pattern, following their woven energy as it was released. A few, however, had reached the point that they were self-destructing quickly. The resulting dissolution made for dangerous barriers, and at the speed he was moving, Joe didn't have many options for avoiding them.

Spotting an issue that was coming for him, Joe forced his hand to unclench and release the orb with Essence Cycle bound to it, shifting his attention to the Ritual Orb of Strength. The form that this orb had taken—as a dumbbell—gave him a perfect foothold if he stepped on the crossbar. Utilizing the practice he had been developing, namely of using his Intelligence to force the Ritual Orb upward, he stepped down and pushed off to launch himself continuously forward, but at a slightly different angle.

Unable to maintain contact with the orb that he had kicked off from, it fell away and vanished. On the plus side, he knew that it would reappear in his bandolier in the next five minutes. Still, it left him one fewer option to use, and he was only halfway across the chasm. “That’s already two Omnivaults; not even going to worry about my mana right now.”

The world faded away once more as he lightly rested a finger on his Essence Cycle orb, noticing that he was no longer in the path of any waving tendrils of energy, but the angle he had propelled himself into was sending him closer and closer to the edge. He was going to need to kick off again soon, or he was going to be banished. Pushing his mind to the absolute limit, he simultaneously found the path forward and forced himself to let go of his orb.

“Orb of Intelligence, go!” Sometimes, the Ritualist liked to pretend he was in an anime, and that shouting the description of what he was doing would evoke additional power. It may not have been true, but as he kicked off with the third Omnivault, there was certainly more power behind his jump. Unfortunately, he had not contained his energy correctly, and the mana-using skill backfired. Instead of launching himself forward directly and true, he booted the orb and sent it zipping away off the path.

His course had corrected slightly, but now he was out of bound orbs, and anything that he tried to kick off would likely be permanently lost. That put him in a serious conundrum, as having a full set was imperative to his future success, but reaching the city was far more important. Still, he hesitated a moment too long, and by the time he decided to give up an orb, he had fallen too close to the bottom of the path to get it in position in time. “Abyss! No!”

Suddenly, his eyes registered that he was about to land atop a strange type of energy field. It wasn't the path, and it wasn't loose mana; it was something that—while shifting—was far more stable than he had been expecting. “The ground? There's ground right here! I can kick off of that!”

With a split second to go, the Reductionist glanced forward and calculated the path he needed once more, pressing down with his energy-coated foot and activating Omnivault with the conviction that it would work perfectly. His foot landed on the plain, and he pushed up and forward, launching himself into the gates of Dehur Bethi. “I made it!”

As he landed, he bounced and jostled himself out of his energy-viewing state. His intent had been to immediately turn around and figure out a way to bring his team over, but a message appeared in his vision that he was utterly unable to ignore. In his mind, trumpets blared and fireworks went off. He gaped in confusion as the world seemed to pause around him.

Omnivault has reached Master 0! Congratulations! You have reached the Master rank in your first skill, and this time, you actually earned it! As a benefit for reaching the Master rank, the task that you completed which put you over the edge will become a permanent feature.

Since you were able to Omnivault off of a cloud to achieve true Mastery, you will be able to use any water source—no matter what state—as a platform for your n+1 Omnivault, where n = any activation of Omnivault after the first. You should try jumping through a column of steam and bouncing around in the clouds! It’s fun!

Guild alert! A member of The Wanderer’s Guild has achieved Mastery over one of their skills! The royal court of Midgard has taken notice and grants an additional +1,000 reputation to your Guild on Midgard! (Lost if player leaves Guild.)

The Theocracy has noted your Guild’s devotion to bettering themselves, therefore all positions offered within the Theocracy will start one rank higher than they would have originally for all Guild members.

Except for the final line of the last notification, Joe was ecstatic to have finally returned to Master status. There was something poetic about achieving it just as he finished the G.O.A.T. path to Mastery, a symbolic tradition for what was now a Shattered Race. Finally able to clear the screen from his vision, he hurried back to the edge and pulled out his Ritual Tile. “Okay… what I need to do here is figure out a way to send the bubble there and bring it back. Send it there, bring it back… how do I alter this design to make that happen?”

A few minutes of tinkering later, he realized that attempting to change the entire function of the ritual was a foolish move, especially when his teammates were slowly freezing in the cloud layer just below him. It wasn't terribly far away, obviously, since it was within Expert-rank jumping distance. He chuckled at his internal joke, but the thought still sparked an idea.

“Instead of trying to change the function of the ritual, what if I just alter the position where the bubble itself is created?” Joe sketched out a few numbers, and the formula looked like it would work. “If I simply set the manifestation point down there, and set the movement as a slope instead of a straight line… got it!”

Magical Matrices has reached Student VI!

He activated the ritual, and bit back a cheer as a slight distortion appeared in the air in front of his group. “Get in the bubble!”

“Who said that?” Jaxon shouted in surprise. “You can't be an echo; echoes need to come from a source, and I haven’t said anything!”

Major Cleave had apparently dealt with enough of the Chiropractor’s malarkey and gave him a brisk shove into the distortion. He let out a yelp as the bubble formed around him, but it was extremely muted, thanks to the thin membrane of force surrounding him. He screamed the entire way, but soon he was floating in front of Joe, and the bubble burst. Joe, having expected that result due to the placement of the anti-magic enchantment protecting the gates directly behind him, reached out and grabbed Jaxon, pulling his friend to safety.

“I severely disliked that,” Jaxon informed Joe shakily. “Bubbles have no bones. How can you trust them to bring you somewhere safely?”

“Um.” Joe decided to try and answer in as wacky a fashion as the issue presented itself. “Once you get in the bubble, the bubble has your bones in it, right?”

“I… I never thought of it that way.” Jaxon collapsed to the ground, staring at his hands. “There are so many places where I can apply this logic…”

Joe left the mumbling Chiropractor to himself, allowing him to muddle through his existential crisis in peace. Daniella was already on the way up, and Joe’s hand was extended in preparation—perhaps a little more enthusiastically—to catch her as the bubble popped. He felt very ‘hero of the story’ as she pulled herself into his embrace and was deposited safely in the city.

“I'm starting to get the hang of that. Those things are pretty fun!” Daniella smiled at Joe shyly as she peered out over the cloud layer. “I bet if you set one of those up at this altitude, you could travel so far… what if we just do that, instead of keeping on with this mission? What if we just try to find the most beautiful sights in the universe, and tour them via bubble?”

“We're already here!” Joe dismissed her strange daydreams with a small laugh. “I think the lack of oxygen is getting to you. No more monsters up here, and all we're going to be facing now is a bunch of magical titans in the form of Dwarfs. Nothing to worry about here.”

He winked at her and caught Major Cleave just as she started to fall, and the Dwarf noticed. “Not cool, human. If I would have fallen off of this mountain because you were acting all coquettish, I would have come back to destroy you, even if I had to do it as an Elf.”

“Give it a rest, Cleave,” Joe grumped as they turned to take in the wondrous sights of Dehur Bethi. “Look at how amazing those buildings are. They've got to be spatially expanded, as well as enchanted for all sorts of inclement weather and attacks. It's amazing.”

“The architecture alone is phenomenal.” Daniella breathed in the sight, letting it fill her mind completely. “The sheer amount of detail that has been put into even the least of them is amazing. It must be a trait of the undying, that they want to surround themselves with beauty and give themselves tasks to keep their minds and hands as busy as possible.”

“That's cool and all,” Jaxon pointed forward at chest level, “but am I the only person noticing the entire battalion of angry Dwarves walking toward us? That doesn't seem right. You see them too, don't you, Cleave?”

“Yes, Jaxon.” The Dwarf put up her hand in greeting and walked to the front of the group, rolling her eyes in annoyance the entire time. “I see them. We all see them, but only the two of us are paying attention to our surroundings.”