Interlude - Framework

Interlude - Framework

Interlude - Framework

The city around him was incredible in many ways. Raazel had to admit his surprise and yes, even awe. Buildings build out of metal and stone, as tall as mountains, reaching high enough to scrape the sky. Dirt covered by fine ground stone, solidified to make smooth roads. Lines of wire, pumping Essence of Lightning from stations all across the city, each holding a for its heart complicated runic devices surrounding great crystals that refiled with power. He had taken one of them apart, and had seen a new language, similar to his runes enough that he knew that this was the next iteration of them. Only like all other things in this world, it was lesser. Or perhaps more bound, was the better description of it.

Their runes did not require pieces of their souls, it made it so that even a babe could use it, but it also made them weaker.

It was all very impressive. He had seen flying vehicles made out of metal, weapons that fired compressed Essences of Light so powerful that they burned what they touched. He had seen them using their powers to build, to patrol, to control. And he had stared in awe at the giant hole in the sky, the towering tether they had built in the center of their city, stretching far above the buildings to pierce through the sky into a violet and black darkness above. These were a people who knew much, more than he had ever imagined, more than his people ever achieved.

Raazel respected that knowledge, but he saw also the weakness. How all it would take for their careful distribution of power across the city to fail, was for someone powerful enough aligned with Lightning to come around and rip it from their wires. They had protections, of course they had, but in Raazels experience you could never plan for such raw power.

Still, he walked their streets, obscured by a cloak and hood carved with runes to make his presence ignored by all. He watched, and he learned. He could see how the Framework changed, how it functioned now, and he had seen the benefits of it. The Class was a direct link to the Framework, allowing one the use of it like a tool. Like the great Soul Weapons of his time. Pieces of his time were everywhere. Cultivation empowered the body, it taught one how to get closer to a single Aspect. In a way it was a lesser version of the contracts that Raazel once held. It was disappointing that physical manifestations of Aspects no longer existed, his power was lessened for the lack of it. Once he had held the might of a world, and now he only had his rune mastery to depend on.

Which was why he had tried to gain access to this new Framework, and repeatedly failed. More power was never a bad thing.

It was the middle of the night as he walked down the street, the light from the posts set along the edge of the road illuminated the darkness created by the towering buildings. He glanced down at his compass, the runes he had carefully etched in it pulsed in rhythm, guiding him toward his target. The city had protections, though most of them were geared toward things that did not account for what Raazel was doing, still it did mean that he could not just act with no concern of others.

He was powerful, but he had learned his lesson in the Ethereal. He did not fully understand the powers that this Framework granted, nor was he immune to mistakes. He was not as powerful as he once was, not in the same way at least. His power had grown in other ways, but he had lost the largest part of his power that had been tied to the Aspects and his contracts with them.

His device pulsed in his hand, and Raazel glanced up, seeing a being standing in front of a building, talking with another. He knew his target immediately. Wearing a suit of armor that was impressive even by the standards of Raazels craft, the other was of no consequence. A cthul, as most in this place were, Raazel kept his distance and watched.

He knew that the building they stood in front of was some kind of a guard station, and his target the leader of it in this sector of the city. Raazel knew that the being in front of him had reached the peak of his chosen profession and focus, the peak of Class. And that was what Raazel was after, the last one had been close to the peak, but not quite. He had adjusted his compass since then, and was sure that this one is what he was after.

He turned away from that one, he didnt understand that power. Next one was across the lands that these people called the Core, on the opposite side of where he was now. Distance was nothing to Raazel, but the Skill user was both bright and large. It seemed very promising.

With an effort of his own will, he carved a rune, lamenting the fact that he couldnt just command reality directly. His will just didnt find purchase on reality unless he carved a rune. His soul flowed through his hand and a glowing rune appeared in front of him, he continued, writing several more connected runes.

KaLioSaviuNemOmWior

The space in front of him split open then bent as he forced it to connect to a point far away. Without hesitation, Raazel stepped through. He had chosen a location near his target, but far away enough to ensure that he wouldnt be seen or detected.

He stepped into a forest, then consulted his compass and started walking. It didnt take long for him to find signs of people. Carefully, he found a secluded place on top of a hill to observe.

Before him stretched a massive city, not as large as the one he had just left, but impressive in a different way. It did not have buildings that scratched the sky, and the manner in which it was built reminded him of home. Built predominantly with stone, it was clearly in the midst of a vast construction undertaking. Its walls were made in the image of concentric rings, with the outer walls still being built, while some others were finished already.

Immediately the runes in his armor sensory runes alerted him to the defenses of those walls. He could tell that his target was in the center, and that the defenses there were strange. They were made with this realitys version of runes, so he could tell some of what they did. It was going to be hard to pass through unnoticed. It seemed like they had runes that watched out for the amount of power the people that passed through the walls had. It was unlike the measures that he had encountered so far.

He didnt know how that would read him, but he did not want to find out. There were a lot of people down there from what he could see. He felt an echo of pain from the wound in his shoulder, he didnt know the strength that they held but he was reminded that while he was very powerful, ignorance was a great weakness.

He continued to watch, using his devices to scout out the city and wait for his target to leave. Only they never did. Days later, and the target remained in the center of the city, the most defensible area, filled with guards at every step from what he could see.

Raazel was starting to lose his patience, and he had to remind himself to be careful. But then an idea occurred to him. He pulled out an orb and looked inside his storage, it was filled with pieces of the spirits he had harvested, bodies too, of those that he hadnt used or that hadnt been exactly what he had been searching for.

He looked at the city then back at his storage. Perhaps a distraction might be what he needed. With a grin on his face, he turned away, heading into the wilderness to search for a secluded place where he could plan.