Chapter 16-425: Brilliant Celebrations

194 hours of open sky, testing, and results reported and displayed for all to see. In its final two hours of early evening on the 29th, the whole world watched the greyness sweeping back across the sky as the gentle holy fires holding back the angry hate lightning and swirls of darkness faded away, and the Haze once more cut off the stars.

But this time, there were a lot of bright and willful eyes glaring up at it, promising that it would be coming down.

Mr. Vroom helped those who could Teleport get back to where they wanted, and I shuttled hundreds back to conflict zones, too. The mood was good and grim, and the break in the fighting to see the sun was exactly what those fighting needed to recharge their batteries.

The Banner of the Jet and Silver continued to grow, to the dismay of many Allegiances trying to get off the ground. The fact I had such international reach was something they just couldn’t emulate, and even national militaries couldn’t rival our enrollment, as Allegiances were about the person at the top, not the national duty.

Without a King, the idea of a National Allegiance tied to the Land just wouldn’t work.

The Constitutional Convention was going full bore, getting a bit of a shock when the hamadryad Queen of the Northern Pines showed up and demanded to be admitted as a representative of the Fey. As she wasn’t a mortal with Free Will, this was denied, although she was admitted as an Observer... wearing a Greyfield Choker so she couldn’t access any of her magic. When she protested, Commander Haru’Ara showed up, politely explained her options to her, and the Fey queen knuckled under and restricted herself to an Observer’s position... just like him.

On paper she was a Fey queen and a Twenty. A Seventeen planetar would kick her arse all over the place, let alone one with Divine Magic at Twenty-One. Just the fact that they had verified that he was alive had a ripple effect on the Fey that only those keeping track of interactions and conflicts with Spirits, Fey, and Elemental entities could really appreciate. Suddenly, the breadth and frequency of such conflicts began to fall at a statistically significant rate.

Heaven has a certain rep, and its generals sure did, too.

I also took receipt of my Helm at this time, although it was closer to a Tiara. The protection to the head it gave was a Force effect, instead of metal, and it was actually designed to incorporate my horns when I had them out.

One side was black adamantine, the other side was butter-silver mithral. It was designed to incorporate two Baneskulls, shrunken and pressed into their Seals, meaning I could have a third on Clavus or Spike. One side was the skull of a Black Arhat, double Bane to Cultivators and Evil, potentially to Law, and the other side was the shrunken head of a Drolem, double Bane to Constructs and Undead, and potentially to Dragons.

I had plenty of other Baneskulls, but they were for my Implements. Aberrants was important...

I had basically none of the charged stuff that a normal Helm of Brilliance came with, as all I wanted was the passives. The layered fire and lightning Resistance was specifically there to layer and work against alternate forms of fire, like Dragonflame, or Primal or Divine fires.

I also wanted the AoE Halo damage effect/warning against undead and Fiends, and the Fire and Lightning effects on any weapon I wielded.

I also specifically wanted those AoE effects to apply to the Halo, along with the Banefire. That meant a crackling, shuddering 6d6 AoE Halo thirty feet across. I could Infuse Vivic into it for 7d6, and so just being close to me was going to burn undead and Fiends down, down, down.

A free +2d6 Kicker to all my spells would be nice, too.

Yeah, it was showy, with fires flickering around the star rubies on the one side, and little crawling voltage dancing occasionally from the star sapphires on the other one. Chains were designed to hang from my horns if I let them out, and all in all it was pretty eye-catching.

It was a Helm of Brilliance, not a Helm of Subtlety. If it was working, I was going to be noticed... which was fine, that was the intent.

Of course, if I popped some magic into it, the killing radius of the effect and the range at which it sensed Undead and Fiends increased nicely. A V got it to sixty feet in radius.

Modularity was important in these things. Being able to bring up fire and lightning on all my Weapons was just one of those little hee-hee showy things I shouldn’t be thinking about as a great wise and powerful Caster who couldn’t help snarking over her +2d6 of damage.

Well, it’s the little things...

------------

July 2, 2019...

Happy Birthday to me, I guess.

It was exactly one year since I’d come to this Shrouded Earth and been stuck into the body of a dying halvyri teenage mother abandoned to the undead in the New York City Shroudzone.

Physically I was an eighteen-year old halvyri. Chronally, a year old. Mentally... heh, how do you rate the mental age of a Soulshard of a Templated gamer like Aelryinth?

There were a lot of people coming into New York City since it had been cleared. Some were looking for family keepsakes and valuables. The majority of them were looking for loot.

Unfortunately for them, the undead had largely beaten them to the goldweight stuff, meaning what was left was basically raw materials or machined goods that hadn’t rusted away. Some people had ideas about getting rich on copper cable, but even that had been taken down and hauled away by the undead. Their storehouses of it had been discovered and claimed by the government, and auctioned off a long time ago.

A large amount of it was Death-Energized, and had some specific uses in Binding, Sealing, and Necromancy of various sorts. Molten copper from New York City was going into a lot of high-end Wards, Seals, and Bindings.

The more modern van was still in the parking lot. Legion and Azaia eyed it, sitting there and getting more weathered and beat as the static dry conditions under the Shroud had been replaced by normal NYC cold and wet weather.

I led them into the garage, making illusions of the undead I’d had to kill here and there, replaying the scenes for them as I led them to the room where Elrii Morningdark had died, and I’d arrived here.

There wasn’t much to see, of course. I’d cleaned it up rather well, and if there were smears of dead Sinbound Warlocks, that was par for the course.

“And then you walked all the way to the New York Wall...” Azaia whispered, stepping out the front of the garage, now strewn with more debris than before, as there were actually winds around now. Someone had been poking around and made off with a lot of the loose tools here, easy money if for nothing more than melting things down.

“Limped more like it, but yes.” All three of us rose into the air, looking east to where the Wall was visible on the distant horizon. It was a given that taking it down was a project that was going to take some time... and I’d hinted that they might need them to serve as Walls in the Other Direction, meaning that there was no rush on getting rid of them at all.

This city had once had some of the most valuable real estate in the world, and there were a lot of people who thought it might again. On the other hand, technology was going to come crashing down, and even the lower tech level it had been running on at the time it died wouldn’t work. A lot of bigger cities were already downsizing, anticipating what was coming. Moving in to settle New York’s five boroughs was a thing that was low on the priority list, despite the fact that it could be an awesome port.

After all, we didn’t know what the shipping industry was going to be like as everything started going back to steam power. The trend of bigger and bigger ships was definitely going the other way.

“We have still not closed the door on Baron von Nachtal,” Legion said softly, looking in that direction. “Even the Illuminati are not silly enough to negotiate with Russia. Gilcrux says they are digging deep holes and banking on the Shroud falling, at which point they can flee into Leng or other places... or call on darker Powers they cannot reach now far more freely.”

“There are a great many Powers sitting back and letting us do all the work, intending to profit once the Shroud comes down and they can access their Patrons and superiors once more... or simply are not suppressed,” I sniffed. “I imagine they are already planning the chaos they will unleash once the Shroud falls... plagues, floods, fires, famine, everything they can to attract and display the power of their Patrons.”

“That sounds very much like what they would do,” Legion agreed, nodding slowly.

“We’ve already found so many things on Earth that we have to get rid of,” Azaia sighed. “Dagonics and sahaug, Cultivators, Old Gods in the Hollow World, Hyperborea, invading Dragons, renegade Fey...”

“The Banes,” Legion said softly, “and the forces behind them, the Shattered.”

Azaia made a strangling sound. “The Werewolves’ enemies? I have such a desire to leave them to fend for themselves!” She shook her small fist at the air.

“They are not the enemies of the Werefolk, they are the enemy of Reality. The werewolves’ innate magic magnified by their Cursed nature merely brought them into being. I personally believe the Hags arranged matters that way,” I said simply.

Azaia considered that. Bringing the Shattered into being meant manipulating the werefolk Tribes, the Unseelie Court, Elemental entities, things of Dream, and daemonic forces, in addition to their ongoing dominance of the Jotuns.

That level of manipulation was godly, and had obviously taken place across thousands of years.

“The Hags. Wow.” Azaia swallowed despite herself. “I guess Sama has some nasty relatives...”

“Yes, and they are very, very good at playing a long game,” I agreed somberly. “Letting the Shattered out into a realm with unrestrained magic is asking for a holocaust.”

“Aren’t they idealizations of humanity’s evil and weaknesses?” Azaia frowned. “They can’t be much more than Old Gods, can they?”

“Other than the fact that they can reform unless we hit the core of the powers that created them in the first place, that is just about right. Fortunately, they are suppressed under the Shroud, vulnerable, and the Shroud would love to bind their essences.”

Legion nodded at my words. “They are in their own pocket realms, waiting out the Shroud, afraid to set foot outside and be taken. They merely send out their Aspect minions, and send the Mazed running around trying to create the conditions to give them more power. They will be trying to implement widespread natural corruption and destruction as soon as the Shroud comes down, with an eye towards ending the entire world.”

Azaia looked back and forth between us. “And you know where those Realms are...” she sighed, and both of us nodded.

“Demons get along fine with the Shattered, and naturally those Realms are sitting open right now, albeit in very out-of-the-way places,” I confirmed for her.

“Ten and post-Ten playgrounds?” she guessed.

“For Forsaken. Especially Forsaken who have experience against the phasma of the Yellow King over in Tibet. Psychic agglomerations are not going to like the Forsaken’s virtual immunity to their version of corrupting influences.” I had to smile despite myself. “Showing those bloody werewolves how to take care of business!”

Azaia had to smile at that. “And the Powered take out the Banes?” she asked.

“Yes. Banes are a boss-monster fight, basically. Powered excel at boss-monster fights that they can prepare for. There are a lot of lads and ladies out there looking to take them down now.”

“And show the bloody werewolves what-for!” Legion muttered scornfully.

“Enough of Karma-earning stuff. Where was that place in Spain you said we should go to, Azaia?”

“Oh, I have already made reservations! It is in Marbella, Eduardo is getting everything ready...”

I had to go pick up Briggs and Sama too, neither of them going to be looking like anything other than belonging with the three of us, and enjoy my day off...