Chapter 7-202: Setting Up the Long Game

I was in no hurry, and the servants of the Efreet were intelligent foes, having actually built up some defenses and fortifications and things to fight behind.

They did not, however, reckon with the power of modern firearms, since, unlike many would think, explosive materials were not exactly common in realms of flame, for the simple reason that they blew up there!

The American Army was plenty happy to bring along some howitzers and pummel a few walls and forts to dust from miles away for us, especially when Chain Vivic Weapon Cast on them meant the crews got full Karma for the deed and promptly Leveled.

Their hopper loads of shells also drew in Fireborn like bees to honey, and so our escorting forces got a good workout, too. Win-win all around.

We reduced the Fireborn fortifications emphatically, swarmed them, and iced them all. The Fireborn weren’t very happy about it, but we made an excellent harvest of firemetals on the side, too.

It took three days to isolate the mountain and feed tens of thousands of Fireborn and Elementals to the land en vivus. I think the Fireborn were finally starting to realize something was really, really wrong now, as this sort of slaughtering push was completely beyond their experience, and they definitely didn’t want to see black and silver, or unwhite fires, anywhere on the horizon now...

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Mystic Theurge/4, +1 to Ur-Priest Virtua Level. +1 Inquisitor Spell Known. Merge Divine/Arcane Valence IV’s. Summon Elemental Reserve Feat, kindly enhanced by Summoning Feats taking prior, basically unlimited ability to have an Elemental servant around... which, since I couldn’t get rid of it, was a bad idea to use. So, what?...

Nog Mastery/III, able to spend III Valences...

Einz finished Protection +2, would start on +3 tomorrow.

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Blighter/4 (6), +1 Charisma/Strength, to 25 and 14. Strength Mastery/5, to 15. I was now actually in great shape! I’m sure nobody noticed, uh-huh...

Another powerful Feat: Druidic Theurgist:Spells that are on both the Druidic List and a chosen Class List combine Levels when Cast.

+6 and scaling Caster Level to Wall of Fire, Dispel Magic, and various Summoning Spells on the Arcane List wasn’t bad at all... when I could Summon in a thousand years or something.

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Elemental Theurge/4, merge Druid/Arcane Valences IV. Nog Mastery/IV , now able to spend IV Valences towards gaining them Stat boosts or other Stuff. And the Sha’ir Discipline Feat, Genie Binding: Make Genie Prisons and imprison genies within them. A powerful Elemental discipline more tied to Binders than Druids, but similarly useful.

I was sure that had no relevance whatsoever to the local Firebaron in the Caldera I was about to assault...

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“BEY GARAR’AZZAR! I WOULD HAVE WORDS WITH YOU!”

The woman’s voice rang in perfect Pyric through the magma tunnels, shaking them around the tall horned figure moving hurriedly through them. His pace slowed to a crawl, and the vestigial flames around his crimson-skinned body thickened in a certain direction.

He could feel the owner of that voice looking right at him through the stone...

“... or, you know, you can keep running, and I will Feed you to the Land in mid-stride,” a gentle voice, carried on the wind, slid into his ear.

Big burning hands clenched, opening and closing, testing his courage, if he dared to run and take a step further.

He felt that gaze in the distance blink. It was cold, terrible, judgmental, and very, very ready to snuff him.

He didn’t want to believe she could reach out and kill him with her magic, but he had watched her cut down thousands of his servants and pets. That jetsilver magic and the cold it bore still made him shiver as he recalled it, and just how far it could reach, and how many and how fast it could kill, and kill, and kill...

He had never met, even heard of, a mortal spellcaster who could do such things, but he had seen his armies frozen in mid-step, not even taken seriously by that woman.

His feet were turning him around, and he was slowly walking back before he even processed that he’d made the decision.

It all hinged on one thing...

She knew his name!

That meant she had reason to learn it, and so who he was, and what he could do.

Mortal greed knew no bounds...

Bey ‘Azzar smiled weakly. From the service of one master into another. He could only hope the mortal’s greed was enough that he could leverage his power into some influence. Ever since being trapped on this world and pursued by endless cabals of mortals interested in Wishes, he had found little rest, and even coming into the service of a true Firelord, even if it was a lord of undead, had been no exception.

If that bastard of a Tal djinn hadn’t been continually Countering his Wishes, perhaps he could even have made his way home...

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His throneroom had been reworked in black ice, razor-edged in silver.

His elite guards were no longer standing before the throne frozen in place, having been shattered and now burning merrily with that unnatural unwhite fire that had consumed so many of his other servants and minions.

As he stepped into hall, a swirl of ebon and silver motes caressed him, and the terrible subzero chill of the place was suddenly bearable, if annoying.

The courtesy gave him hope, as he looked upon the woman standing on the dais where his throne had once sat, and which now there was no sign of.

Her eyes were black as ink, holding pupils like stars, glowing with power as they surveyed him, seeming to look all through him.

Her first words were unexpected. “I Wish that the Firelord’s ability to monitor and influence Bey Garrar’Azzar be ended.”

He froze for just a second, and as he felt a terrible power whelming in the distance to strike at him, the noble efreet blurted out, “Granted!”

And like that, the link to his former lord was cut.

He almost slumped in relief at the absence of that influence. Almost!

She held out her hand, and black volcanic rock shifted, blurred, and rose to her hand, forming into an intricate ornament of obsidian and cool icy fires, remarkably attractive, and done in a remarkably subtle and intricate pattern.

The Bey’s burning eyes became very small as he recognized the Genie Prison. “Mistress, we can negotiate...” he began quickly, and was cut off by words that chilled his soul right through the cold protection she had granted him.

“I Wish that the Genie Prison in my hand hold an extra-dimensional space suitable for the long-term residence of an esteemed genie lord, of status and worth similar to that of Bey Garrar’Azzar before me.”

He stared at the Genie Prison in her hand, considered the alternatives lurking in the twilit eyes staring at him, and realized that his stay in the prison was going to at least be as comfortable as he could make it.

“Granted.” He waved his hand, and a crimson flame ignited within the boundary of the exquisite Genie Prison in her hand.

“I Wish that when the Shroud is destroyed, this prison in my hand will be reduced to dust, and any beings present therein will be instantly returned to their own realm and home safely and precisely.”

Bey ‘Azzar’s burning eyes got rather wide as she finished that final Wish, not certain he’d heard correctly... but granting it quickly, nonetheless!

“We will speak further at a later date. Enter,” she ordered crisply, staring right at him, a cold from beyond the stars in her eyes. She held up the ornament-sized prison in her hand, and Bey Garrar’Azzar could only bow, despite himself.

“Yes, Mistress.” He dissolved into burning smoke and cinders, swirling through the air, and was drawn into the Genie Prison and that burning flame within it.

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I promptly Ur-robbed him of his ability to grant Wishes as I hung the ornament off my hair. Given my black color scheme and red sash, it blended right in as an affectation. It was also extra-dimensional, so no matter how much the Prison bounced around, it would have no effect on him inside it.

I could speak into it at any time, and he could look out from it easily, of course, and hear what was going on... if I allowed it.

A terribly powerful nexus of power appeared in my mind. The energies it tapped into were far, far beyond anything I could wield, an almighty force that could twist Reality itself and make it stand up and dance at a whim and a word.

There were restrictions on it, but examination revealed that those restrictions had things to do with the Caster and who could be granted Wishes. I couldn’t grant myself a Wish, but I could grant them, but only to mortals. Soulborn, Elementals, Fey, and other spirits could not be given Wishes, nor could I directly profit from a Wish, like asking someone else to make a Wish to permanently increase my Strength, or something.

“Master Fred?” I asked calmly.

I WISH FOR A PERMANENT INCREASE TO MY STRENGTH, TO TAKE EFFECT AFTER I HAVE ACCUMULATED FIVE OF THESE WISHES.

“Yes,” I agreed to his display, the Genie Prison conveniently hanging down my back and out of view of him.

Magic at IX rumbled out, spinning Reality out and around, gathering around Master Fred with almighty power... and then stilling to wait to take real effect around him.

That was a LOT of power. It hadn’t gone through me, drawing on another power... and I was fairly sure that it was power stolen from the Shroud itself!

My eyes glittered as the flaming words went out. So much power, and there had been no strain at all. SLA’s were so cheaty!

Daaaaaamn...

I had two more of them I could use before Dusk Renewal took them away... at which I could replicate them again off the imprisoned Bey.

Well, well, well...

Well, now I knew the real reason it had forced Ur-Priest Levels on me. The ability to cherry-pick Spell-like Abilities and use them for my benefit was just too broken on the face of it!

I wasn’t about to let the Efreet know what was really going on here. He would be getting his turn, in time. The value of a single Wish was incredible, but there were limits to it. The Inherent bonuses it could grant to a Stat were limited to +5, but that was thirty Wishes in total... and there were many, many other things Wishes could do.

Just like there were many, many other SLA’s I could take.

This Efreet and I were going to be discussing terms...

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Author Notes: The Ur-Priest was famous in 3e D&D for precisely two things: Accelerated 10-level Casting progression to gain ninth-level spells, and this ability to mimic Spell-like Abilities, which was horrendously abusable, depending on which SLA’s you got access to. And if you could Cast level 9 spells, it wasn’t hard to arrange for most SLA’s that you wanted, was the thinking...