Chapter 9-256: Seeing You Off

The food was good, and the company was excellent and varied, all with their own interesting stories that were fun to listen to. They had a lot of interest and energy towards the changes coming in the world, and a buzz of enthusiasm for what would happen if the Shroud came down, underscored by a trepidation that they would have to be ready for the event when it was time.

I was more than happy to tell them that I could eventually take out every single Shroudzone on the planet... but that wasn’t my job. My job was to get everyone else to do that, preparing themselves for what was going to come afterwards. If the planet wasn’t strong enough, who knew what would happen?

They grimly acknowledged that. After all, I couldn’t be everywhere. There was serious talking about heading to California to join the clearing of the Colmos Cloud there, as it didn’t have much of a Spirit Host, but everyone wanted to join the Heavenbound Horde in New York and Washington DC, so getting to California first would assure them of some quick kills once they got Vivus going on their Weapons... which most of them already had.

All in all, it was a good time, meeting people I’d only seen in Markspace. That the Blakhamars weren’t humans didn’t bother me, as I fit in among misfits and non-humans pretty easily nowadays.

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The Blakhamars all stuffed themselves on everything, raving about how good the food was and that having Sama back on Turkey Day was just the greatest. QL 30 cuisine wasn’t found outside the toppest of top restaurants, and it was being used on good wholesome home cooking, not some effete ninny meals.

When Briggs brought out a barrel of his personal brew and passed it around for everyone to try, even the most discerning of these ale-swilling fiends roared for more, and soon he was in deep discussions with some of them about marketing this for some really fine money.

Endure was getting passed around for them to examine and salivate over, his Hammer drinking in the attention. None of them were going to gainsay Sama’s Smithwork, of course, but when Briggs bent forwards and began talking in Smith-Cant seriously, he very quickly had two dozen people, including Hank Blakhamar, listening very carefully indeed.

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My Dusk had been earlier in the day, but I could still feel the breath of Aethra running across the world as the night came.

It was time to go. The world wasn’t going to save itself, that was my job... or at least, kickstarting it was.

The Mick indicated he’d be finding his own way home, probably in the company of a cream-skinned Blooded woman with rubies in her eyes at the thought of finally being able to learn a form of magic that would not turn her into an undead monster. Given how volatile Blooded could be in their passions, and The Mick’s natural charm (he was actually older than Hank Blakhamar was, and the two of them had a good long discussion together later in the night), I wished them both well, hoping he had finally found a woman he could spend some serious time and thought with.

Amaretta Blakhamar was also a student/older foster sister of Sama’s, and although she preferred the Sword to the not-a-warsaber-Katana, that would only make things spicier between her and The Mick.

The Blakhamars sent us off in a flurry of dimension-bending magic; I wafted us off across the folds of space, and we materialized on the waiting Energized Seal in a certain warehouse in Detroit.

Crates and boxes were expertly stacked one on top of another to a height of twenty feet in a cube, not an inch more. Underneath them a large woven sheet waited, the edges extending just an inch past the edges of the boxes.

“That’s a lot of ordnance,” Briggs noted approvingly, seeing the stacks of ammunition, grenades, clips, and even older missiles among the stacked boxes.

“The Taiwanese have older stuff, and can’t make enough without the raw materials. This should give the Daoists a nice surprise when those attack helicopters suddenly have missiles, ammunition, and fuel.” I pointed at a small case clearly labeled ITEMIZED AVIATION FUEL.

Briggs had to smile. This time he was coming with Sama. He had people in place in Baja, taking things over, and could monitor it from a distance. No reason not to apply his Hammer where it was needed.

I drew my Lived-Line the length of the world, Messaging ahead, -Master Gong, I am on the way.-

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My Renewal had been for Artificer/5 (8). The Class Benefit was the Feat Create Golem.

Seriously, when did I have time to work up a Golem? Would I even dare to do so, under the Shroud? What crap was it flinging at me?

It also filled the General and Purchased Feats, plus the Mastery, up with three of the Imbued Staff Feat/Masteries. Now those were actually useful. Create Golem... damn, I didn’t even dare make a homunculus! My Eidolon/Animal Companion was a half-undead elemental fright horse I had to steal from an Old God. Like I was going to make something that required dumpster-diving the Shroud for a random spirit!

My main problem with this was that Clavus was an enchanted Stave, but not a true Staff... i.e., a Weapon and an Implement, but not a storehouse of magic in its own right. Furthermore, he was in the middle of becoming Indestructible, and I wasn’t going to interrupt him in the middle of it.

It was fine. I could still work with what I had.

Enchant Staff was the key thing, making a fake Staff out of him. I could set up a single spell per Valence, and Cast them through Clavus once a day each. It was like adding a row of additional spells. Such things were not as necessary or nice as they might have been without my Caster Engine available, but as deeper emergency reserves, they were anything but inappropriate. I just had to determine what those reserves were going to be...

Invest Spell gave me the option of swapping out one of my permanent Spell Engrams, and putting it in Clavus, usable thrice a day. A non-Metaworthy spell that I could get frequent use out of, maybe it was worth it. For now, not worth it at all. I’d rather have the diversity of more Engrams than an additional two Castings of a niche spell per day.

Imbued Strength was much nicer. It allowed me to use my Intellect bonus when hitting things with Clavus, instead of my Strength bonus. Now, I was very strong by any measure, but I was much smarter than I was strong.

This was basically a telekinetic effect, constantly in use on my Staff. I didn’t mind it at all, as it was one of the core benefits of being a Stafflord.

Hmm, better not tell Sama about this...

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The leaders of Taiwan were very impressed to meet Briggs, especially Master Go Man, who gaped at the massive Ancient in shock when he appeared. Clearly he’d never met anyone who could so easily overwhelm him in pure primal presence, and the orc Dragon Warrior suddenly found himself quite intimidated.

Naturally, he challenged Briggs. Briggs accepted it good-naturedly, sat there while the orc beat on him uselessly, and then pounded him through a wall leisurely. Didn’t even use his Hammer.

Master Go Man was soon changing his tune about truly starting to unify with the other Masters, consolidating their martial knowledge and improving it for everyone.

Then, of course, there was the fact that we were going to attack Shanghai.

There were thousands of Senior Daoists in Shanghai, and tens of thousands of lesser ones. I literally did not care at this point, and my complete indifference to the fact was raising the hackles and the heartrates of all the Taiwanese, who had gathered their best to join this mission. Shvaughn/Windwise’s new Warlocks were aching for Karma to improve their new powers... including six brand new Amazons flexing their new selves and totally ready to mix it up with any chalk-faced Daoist bastard.

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The munitions and over a hundred barrels of aviation fuel were hurriedly carted off to where they could be put to good use. Attack helicopters were perfectly useful against Daoists, they just didn’t have the supplies to put them to frequent use. With this, they had something they could use on the defensive while they went out for a raid.

I helped perform the Fellowship Ritual, this time a full Raid with over three hundred participants all eager to extract their own pound of flesh from the Daoists. They opened their reserves of Potions and the like, got what Gear they had, and made ready to fight and die, gathering to Meditate together as Master Fred and I peeled out of Kaohsiung City’s harbor and headed north at speed.

They weren’t going to believe how fast I could deploy a fighting force now. I just had to get rid of the Daoist’s early warning system, and see how much attention they were paying to their ‘divine sense’.

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Craft Theurgy/5, its +1 Theurgic Level going to Artificer/5 (9), slid into place as Dusk came twelve hours earlier on this side of the world. It finished out the Imbue Staff Feats with both the Feats and Mastery, completing the chain of five.

These were the two real abilities. /4 was Imbued Defense, /5 was Recharge Staff.Imbued Defense gave me my Charisma bonus when Casting Defensively... not that impressive to an Ironskull, straight-leveling Wizard, maybe, but a hefty +13 bonus for someone like me.

Anything trying to attack me while I was Casting was simply going to be out of luck.

Recharge Staff allowed me to recharge any Staff for five Valences per charge, regardless of what kind of spells it used. It was an extraordinary thing for any other Caster, as a Staff was normally used to hold spells you didn’t have in memory, giving you a broader range of spells. As a side effect, it also allowed me to precisely know the charges in any Staff that I held. Be a bad thing to overcharge a Staff and all...

When I could harvest ki and do unlimited Valence recharges, it was pretty sweet if someone else needed a Staff recharged. Oh, right, there were no other true Staffs on the planet...

I rotated Shards around my hand, and waited as they spun into invisibility.

I needed rep counts on Invisible Spell, but there were still a whole lot of Metas I could stack on this, and I should still be able to keep the Pool cost to minimal.

I waved my hand over us, and illusion magic rippled over us, removing us from visible sight. Daoists did not have the default ability to see the invisible, although I recalled they had very good distance vision. So, we were going to be able to get close without much problem, and then it was switch to Improved Invisibility as I removed their sentries, if they had them, before pulling ashore and starting the slaughter.

Man, they were NOT going to like me being there.

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Cultivators weren’t the only ones with excellent ranged vision. I changed our invisibility states as the first Cultivators, riding on flying swords up in the air and obviously bored at what they were doing as they moved between a couple offshore islands, half-heartedly scanned for them dread Powered who wouldn’t dare invade THEM, probably hoping some would so they’d have a shot at making a pill out of us...

Sleipner did have to stay above the waves, but the Wardpath was pretty small and virtually impossible to see at a distance, especially with the erratic heat lightning that reflected off the waves, and the ghostly glow of the plankton in the waters.

Master Fred confirmed nothing was in the night sky, and I popped the two Cultivators with an Invisible Paired volley that blew them right out of the sky, sending them spiraling to the ground before they could possibly get off an alert.

Didn’t make them vivus, either, as that would draw a lot of attention from a distance, like making fireworks to announce my presence when the whole idea was not to do that.

Once they were in the water, not so much an issue, however. I removed their heads, any valuables, and set them alight as I shoved them down deeper. I didn’t know if they were any spiritual creatures evolved in the water who would gladly eat them, but even if they did, they weren’t going to get there in time now.

The air was thick with the stench of Qi, and I Cast Commune with Nature as I made a face, certain not to like what I was expecting to see.