Chapter 8-247: Om Mani Padme Hum...

I stayed for a day and a half, because there was so much that had to be done.

The Druids were reluctant to open a dialogue at all, given how many decades of bad blood there was... but the recovery of three stolen children, the news of the Cultivators being slaughtered or Pierced en masse, and stories of a devil Possessing the main advisor to Lord Yamamoto making the rounds definitely perked up their ears, however they might try to hide it. It was plain something really bad had been going on, and the news that the Cultivators had been responsible for fanning the flames between them at least made them suitable scapegoats for everyone’s anger.

They were a good place to put the anger, and old misdeeds needed to be forgiven. The looming threat of the Sydney Shroudzone spilling out was also telling them to direct their energies into a more useful direction than mutual hatred and murder, as was the overarching idea that both Heaven and the Land didn’t give a shit for their racist views, and would punish them for such attitudes.

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It was another five thousand some kliks around the continent to Perth, the last major city we were going to visit... and which didn’t have that much contact with the others, being so far away. Word was infrequent, chalked up to the Druids sabotaging plane flights and making travel dangerous, and the information exchange flow was slow.

The Good Churches didn’t have much presence out there, either. It was a mining area, largely self-contained, and Forj and Trose had the most influence, neither liking the Good churches interfering with their money-making and labor-exploiting.

It was also the city furthest west in Australia, and the major one closest to India.

The Daoists had come south to Darwin. I didn’t have high expectations when I set out for Perth.

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Two days, two advances of Divine magic. Ur-Priest/5 and Mystic Theurgy/5 followed up to give complete access to Divine Level V’s, instead of the ones limited to my Arcane Domains.

This basically gave me full access to the Divine spell list, including specialty spells available only to specific faiths, as Ur-Priests stole from everyone. I had a lot of spells to keep Writing to Einz every day. My Wisdom bonus V’s opened up, Domain Slots, etc.

More Casting Power, that was me. A normal person would have considered me absolutely loaded down with a crippling number of spells. I would have replied that I still never seemed to have the right spell for the occasion so often...

Regardless, the Divine Spells were merged into my personal Arcane spell list, so now all my Spells could be any or all of Arcane, Divine, or Druidic as I needed, slowly blending all the magic types together.

My Divine Stars and Elemental Stars were already complete, so that was good.

It had completed my Extra Divine Domains with the Curse Domain. How fun, giving me more affinity for the Shroud, tying me tighter to the essence of its power. That I didn’t use that power only seemed to make it want to tie me even more tightly to itself.

It did do me the honor of finally giving me Healing Reserve. I had qualified for it while doing the Firezone, but simply hadn’t had the chance to take the Reserve. Now, I would technically need more rep counts to improve the Health I could dole out... but I tended to put Vivic on so much stuff, giving them the Healing descriptor, albeit the Hit Me kind of anti-undead healing, that the rep counts were already there.

So, I only needed to take White Fist, which embraced the offensive nature of Healing Reserve, and my Healing Reserve would go right to V, 10 pts/person/round. Er, 14 points. I would be able to get an army back onto its feet with precious little effort, and if I wanted to punch undead, wow, combined with Positive Edge, I’d have a very frightening open hand bonus against them. They would literally find my touch lethal.

But the other thing was it gave +1 Caster Level to Healing Spells... which, for me, included anything Vivic, including my Shards.

The Mastery was Extra Turning/3, getting me up to +4 bonus uses. I suppose it was fine, although I wasn’t using Turning or Channeling for much aside from a Duskstopped Spell every day, usually Shaping Stone...

Mystic Theurge/5 continued with the theme the next day. The Purchased Feat was Extra Spell Known IV – Inquisitor, and the Mastery was Extra Turning/4, so now +5 bonus uses. The Extra Spell Known V benefit of the Theurgy naturally went into Inquisitor... which wasn’t at Nine yet, so actually no benefit, yay me.

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Once again, we were a mile out in the Indian Ocean when I popped the Commune with Nature, oriented on the edge of Master Fred’s Citypact, and sent it streaming out into the world.

There were unclean things out in the water twenty kliks to the northeast that I really wanted to ride out and shoot emphatically, but that faded before what I was seeing in Perth.

Qi covered a good half the city in a suffocating field of repression, an ethereal variety that I really hadn’t wanted to see, complete with strong biases of enchantment and compulsion, doubtless laden with bright lights and symbols that fooled those watching who hadn’t seen truly Holy magic at work, and couldn’t tell it wasn’t more of the same.

“The Mantra is here.”

Master Fred’s eyes narrowed. -How bad?- he /asked shortly.

-Half the city is under a field of it. How many are permanently damaged, I don’t know. I can break anyone under Four, but if they’ve grown three or more Levels while under Thrall, they’re broken, and I’ll have to vivisize them.- I trailed off for a moment, and put my forehead against his back. -That could mean tens of thousands in a city this size.-

-Why didn’t the Churches catch this?- he /asked, eyes narrowed.

-Those who interacted with outsiders were probably placed under compulsions to report that nothing was wrong, or simply replaced with illusions or other parties. The Mantra can even take Powered, although it’s nigh impossible in normal circumstances to take Divine servants, what with deities watching for this kind of shit. Taking a Warlock is likewise almost impossible, as their Pact won’t allow it.-

-So, you’re saying we have to go in there, and utterly slaughter a lot of people who are going to be chanting and praying and smiling and praising Lord Buddha and urging us to submit to him.-

-And when we don’t, they’ll try to tear us apart once they realize we can stop them.- I finetuned my Awareness. -Confirm for me that there’s a lot less people there, if you can.-

He narrowed his eyes and reached out with his floating Citypact for the City there.

-Yes, thousands of people have left. The City has noticed their absence keenly, and doesn’t know why. There is much less conflict and crime than before, it is... more efficient now.-

-Its technology is not being maintained.-

My statement had him Asking instantly, and he nodded slowly. -Yes. But it doesn’t seem to be bothering its residents too much, so the City hasn’t minded. Whole sections are without electricity.-

-Inform the city that thousands of its citizens are under mental enslavement by an alien power and have been converted into drones, and we are going to have to kill a lot of them.-

The only sign was a twitch in his cheeks. -It is very unhappy, and wants to know if there is another way.-

-Their higher thought centers have literally been burned out and replaced by The Mantra if they have been exposed to it too long, and it has changed them to non-human conduits of its power. I can Restore anyone with less exposure and growth, but the higher people... no. They are slaves to the Mantra, and exist to serve and spread it.- And had basically been turned into Buddhist Cultivating Monks, too.

-That’s a lot of Restorations,- he /noted in admiration.

-Song of Life at 50. Just have to get them all together and touch them while it lasts.- The Sublime Chord had a LOT of special things attached to it, after all. Singing was my highest Perform Skill for all the best of reasons. –I’m going to be Casting a lot of Break Enchantments, too,- I /added grimly, Slotting that spell and getting ready for a lot of rep counts on it.

-Shall we?-

-We shall.-

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I would like to have said that there was some interaction with the victims of the Mantra, but that was pointless. You don’t argue with mind-controlled people enslaved by an alien hivemind-forming axiomatic Qi Force. You just wipe the node controllers, destroy the drones, free the unevolved slaves, and when you find the primary Sattiva holding it together, you kill it.

We were noticed coming in off the bay, soldiers calling out alarms and moving to intercept us quickly. I noticed the Qi about them, put up the Sound Bubble around us, and was Casting the Break Enchantment even as we approached.

Also, they were all shouting in English, not Human.

The soldiers stuck by the Enchantment-shearing effect of the Silver Magic dropped like puppets with their strings cut, eyes rolling back in their head as the Mantra humming in their skulls and dominating all their thoughts and desires evaporated.

Their officers, faces round and beaming with paternal love, ate the Cultivator-Baned Shards and dropped looking considerably worse, burning en vivus.

Naturally, the alarms went out, and the air began to thrum as dozens, hundreds, thousands, then tens of thousands of people began to Chant.

OM. MANI. PADME. HUM. OM. MANI. PADME. HUM!

The air began to shake, Qi began to gather, and the very streets began to vibrate. The mental and spiritual force of that Chant began to focus, to oppress down, crushing the minds and souls of those who dared to resist and attack, lighting up the area with the false holiness of the Mantra’s illumination. The Nirvanic hammering that there was only one true way, submit, Submit, SUBMIT to the Mantra!

It was a lot of people, but I had the Caster Level, and I was patient. Being able to free up over thirty people at a Casting also helped.

Their Chant slammed down into the Sound Bubble at VII I’d put up, and got absolutely nowhere. Sleipner was Wardriding up in the air, beyond the reach of normal people, and those who had guns were my first targets.

Quickened Chained Break Enchantments were reaching out, shattering holds on lesser minds, dropping them in place. It would be hours before their minds reset and they could be useful.

Shards tore through the rest.

I Infused Clavus with Anarchic, adding some true Chaos to the energies I swept out at the Enlightened. The Fours and Fives could not avoid the Shards, they weren’t good enough. The Sixes and higher could bat aside one or two, so I always gave them three or four to worry about.

Hundreds of people began to gather, chanting in unison, directing the Mantra at me, trying to force me to submit, sparkles and vibrations gathering around my Sound Bubble.

Quality beating Quantity. A VII at Thirty-plus was totally able to cope with this ritualistic Chant from a bunch of Threes and less.

It did empower the Enlightened, who were the only ones who could reach me to do anything, other than those who had guns and were the first people to get their strings cut... or to hit the ground burning.

Flying men and women, glowing with golden halos, empowered by the Chanting of their servants, launched themselves at us, like sacred saints rising to the defense of their peasant believers.

I blasted them out of the air, as did Master Fred. Rays of light, palm strikes from a distance, shouts of condemnation, faux-holy Judgements from Above, slicing haloes of lofty virtue, spears of radiance... they unleashed all the glowing, fake sacred, mystical energies they could at us, even as they swarmed in to try and take us in personal combat, too.