Chapter 112: Reservoir Cube

Chapter 112: Reservoir Cube

Heart in his throat, breathless, James stepped into the demon symbol. Light swirled before his eyes, fractals that dizzied him, and he reached out, shuffling his feet, unsteady.

Then he found solid footing beneath his feet and the refracted brightness steadied and became clear.

It took him a moment to process what he was seeing. He stood within the heart of a giant flower, its petals made of glowing gold energy shot through with tongues of silver, rising up around him like great, languorous spear tips. Beyond them a cosmos of light and energy coiled, like some Van Gogh painting, a Starry Night of rich, saturated color.

The base of the flower was a hard floor of glowing white quartz. It was a small space, perhaps large enough for six or seven people to stand in, with no visible exits or furnishing.

Instead, his gaze was drawn to one particularly broad petal of gold whose face featured a handful of shelves, their surface twisted and barely functional, as if Salvador Dali had been commissioned to create a simulation of shelves, and not taken the assignment seriously.

Golden cubes were piled on the shelving. They were uniform in size, an inch on each side, and looked like nothing so much as condensed sunlight, their edges rounded, more real than any of the visual excesses that surrounded him.

Was this where Monitors resided? This was as far from a demonic hellhole as he could have imagined. What did they do here? Where had the way out gone?

Hesitant, James reached out, fumbled at the air from which hed come, and found the outline of an archway. It was invisible from within the symbol but there.

That was good. It meant he could get the fuck out of here if he had to.

James licked his lips and approached the shelving. There were perhaps a dozen small cubes upon the warped surfaces. Just approaching them made his mouth dry out, his throat clench, and a vice tighten around his chest.

What were they? Why did he feel like he was putting his hand inside a rabid hounds mouth by reaching out to one.

His whole body shuddered as he picked up a cube. It was weightless yet solid. His guts trembled, his whole body felt flushed with acid. Unable to breathe James raised the small golden cube to study it.

You have acquired a Reservoir Cube.

Absorb?

What the fuck? James felt nauseous. His gorge was rising and suddenly his mouth felt flooded with sour spit. His stomach twisted into a greasy knot and the cube shivered in his trembling fingers.

A Reservoir Cube?

But what the fuck, it wasnt like he was going to say no.

Kames Jelly flew into the space with him in his humanoid form, his alabaster and silver face expressing amazement. Holy shit.

James clenched his fist about the cube, relieved that he could put off the decision for a second. This place make any sense to you?

This is familiar. I remember it, somehow. A Node. Its connected. There are resonances. I sense Jelly flew slowly about the small space, peering at the petals. A web. This place is connected to the other demon symbols, somehow. One can travel between them but knowing how to open a portal, where to go it is too complex for me.

And this Reservoir Cube?

Jelly floated down to stare at the shelving. What is Holy Shit multiplied by infinity?

Infinite Holy Shit?

Infinite Holy Shit is right, James. This I cant even Jelly extended a single blade arm and touched its tip to the cube.

Golden worms of electricity flickered over his frame and he dropped to the ground, inert.

Jelly? James crouched beside the Anima. Jelly!

No response. The Anima lay still as if it were dead.

Fuck, fuck fuck fuck, said James, reaching down to touch the construct, then drew back his hand. Jelly was wickedly hot.

Thats when James saw his palm. The hand that had held the Light Eternal. The skin was scarred over Freddy Kreuger style, his entire palm covered in rippled, twisted scar tissue that alternated pink, purple, and red. There was no pain, no sensation at all. It was as if all the nerve endings had been seared away.

James grimaced and stared at the cube.

This was it. This was what the Monitor had wanted to keep him away from. The passageways to the other demon symbols were useful, sure, but this - this was something else.

James tried to steady his breathing. He failed. He inhaled deeply, held his breath, but that made him feel like he was going to puke. The world was swimming around him. He felt vertigo, as if he stood on the edge of a skyrise with the wind tearing around him.

OK, he gasped. I accept. I want to absorb the cube.

The cube flared so brightly that it blinded James. For a moment the world was pure golden light, and then Jamess vision went dark. His body cramped even as he felt himself fall over and begin convulsively vomiting. He couldnt breathe, couldnt do more than flail around as if suffering an epileptic fit.

The cube flowed into him.

And with it entire galaxies opened in his mind. The demon symbol, the flower and the cosmos beyond it disappeared, and James found himself sinking into an interior place, a mental construct fashioned by the cube.

Somewhere, distantly, he was aware that he was still flailing, drumming his heels on the quartz floor, his back arched to its extreme, his whole being in torment.

But down here he felt calm, removed, and filled with wonder.

The Reservoir Cube hung in the darkness of his minds eye, but now it was a mile on each side. Countless straight lines fractured it, turning it into a composite of thousands of smaller cubes, and even so each minor cube was awesome in its power.

Understanding hit James like a truck. This was where their power came from. Every person who leveled up. Who raised their stats. Who gained Aeviternum, who learned to wield Benedictions. Their power, their auras, their divine pools, it was all sourced here, from these Reservoir Cubes.

The demon symbols were the vantage points from which the Monitors watched the world, Nodes in a greater web whose meaning defied his understanding, and the dispensers of power. Every time James had leveled a Reservoir Cube had bestowed upon him a fraction of its power.

A thousandth, a millionth.

And James had just absorbed an entire cube unto himself alone.

Oh fuck, he croaked.

Power began to flood into him. Notifications flickered across his vision, each message supplanting the last. Disciple 2, Disciple 3, then faster and faster. 6, 8, 9, then he hit Seeker.

Your rank is now Seeker 1

Seeker 1, Seeker 4, Seeker 6, Seeker 9, and he hit Robe Bearer.

Your rank is now Robe Bearer 1

Again, he blurred through the ranks, hitting 9 in a matter of moments, and still the power continued to flood into him.

Your rank is now Cross Bearer 1

Cross Bearer 1. Cross Bearer 3, 6, 8, 9.

Boom. He crushed through the ranks and leveled again.

A mortal man, fallible and focused.

James blinked.

He lay upon the floor of the demon flower, the white quartz smooth beneath his body. The great petals stretched up around him, but now he understood what he was looking at.

Awareness was his.

Between each petal lay a twisted worm hole that was squeezed shut. There were thousands of them, overlaid yet distinct, each leading to another Node. A network cast over the planet, a means to travel instantaneously to Moscow or Buenos Aires.

But beneath him, beneath the quartz floor, lay a far greater passage.

James sat up and studied the glowing quartz. If the Monitors wished it, they could cause the quartz in every Node to vanish and thus trigger the opening of the Pits.

There was no way to sabotage this mechanism. In fact, once he left this Node, he would not be able to force his way back in. That ability had been the provenance of the Light Eternal, which was shattered now and gone.

James frowned, pensive, and blinked, summoning the system messages so that they floated before his eyes again. He dismissed hundreds of them, so that he saw only the last iteration, the summation of all that had come before.

Your rank is now Lord of the Increate 1

Titles Earned: Master of Mysteries, Overlord, Keeper of Humanity, Divine Bulwark, Prime Servant, Light Against the Dark

As the global first to reach this rank,

all Benedictions are now empowered with Gloria.

You now possess the following Finite Summons:

10x Angelic Host

5x Archangel

3x Dominion

1x Throne

You now possess the following Benedictions:

Shield of Faith

Magic Circle | Angelus Armor | Aureate Buckler | Benediction Share

Healing Grace | Mass Solace | Martyrs Cry | Indomitable Resilience

Remove Fear | Remove Curse | Dispel Illusion | Soul Bastion

Dark Vision | Shadow Step | Black Apotheosis | Living Darkness

Empowering Light | Fortuna Aeviternum

Deadeye | Eternal Fire | Eye of the Needle | Lords Ruin

Dark Energy Siphon | Demonic Form | Infernum Reaper | Void Break

Aura Mastery | Nova | Righteous Obelisk | Seraphic Web

Inspiration | Terrify | Increase Arete | Holy Zeal



You May Choose your First, Second, and Third Miracle:

Flight | Resurrection | Dimensional Anchor | Word of Slaughter | Banishment | Divine Bastion | Aeviternum Hurricane | Refill the Cup | Infernum Crush | Forced Humility | Create Demiplane | Teleportation Circle | Invisibility | Freedom

Your Physical Form Has Been Purified in the Divine Flame:

Corporal Perfection Rank 125

You Have Gained Mental Dominion:

Mental Dominion Rank 100

You Have Manifested Spiritual Exaltation:

Spiritual Exaltation Rank: 75

Your Mark of Justice has been Upgraded to:

Equity

Your Mark of Justice has been Upgraded to:

Impartiality

Your Mark of Justice has been Upgraded to:

Judge

Summoning the Avatar of Dikasts Causes:

+200 to all Stats

Judgement of Siglio Power

Judgement of Angelus Power

Judgement of Sanctity Power

You have 2,315 unspent points

James blinked, overwhelmed, and then a thought occurred to him.

Slowly, hesitantly, he turned and stared at the shelving.

Where another nine Reservoir Cubes sat glowing softly.