MAGUS INFINITE

The first thing it showed me was the seal.

[Soul Condition: Sealed — VOID]

[External authority not recognised in this epoch. Binding dissolved.]

That damned seal had been inside my soul for four months. Even with it, I had killed a god, built a pocket in my own soul, and nearly ended the world.

For a while it had been like dragging my entire body around with just a pinkie, and now all of my soul had returned. I wanted to let it burst out of me and show its radiance, and I knew that doing so would most likely kill everyone within a mile.

I almost felt like crying, and I am not going to apologise for that. I had been locked out of myself for four months, and I had endured a kind of lack that I never want to feel again.

I was blind, and now I see again. I was lost, and now I am found.

∞

[Processing retained growth. 1,217 entries.]

[Reconciling...]

[Name: Elric Voss]

[Age: 16]

I stopped there for a while. I had been three days from eighteen, and I had died at eighteen with the warband beside me. Now I was sixteen again. My soul changed across my journeys, so why did my age never change?

I ran a hand through my hair and wondered whether I would simply keep it white. At least that way I could see the passing of years. Not that the white signified age for me, but it was the thought that counted.

∞

[Titles: Heaven Beast Tamer (Mythic) | Demon Slayer (Epic)]

[Available Titles: Godslayer (Mythic), Death-Consort (Mythic), Lightning Arcanist (Legendary), Storm Bearer (Legendary), The Unbroken Titan (Legendary)]

My new Title had followed me out of the past. I had earned Godslayer in a valley of red glass with a pen and a bad attitude, and it had been sealed away from me within the hour, and now I could use it.

I wanted to delve into it, and I held myself back for now and kept reading.

[Anima Depth: 119 (Arcanist) — Broken-Celestial]

[Soul State: Crystallizing (Second Stage) — 33% → 95%]

[Domain: The Stillness of the Storm — 355 metres → 485 metres]

[Celestial Status: Archangel (Broken) — Provisional]

[Warden: Caelith Fragment (243^235) — Integrated]

The second crystallization of my soul was nearly complete. Looking inward, I could see that it was far clearer than before, and there were barely any flaws left to find.

Perhaps the seal had not been all bad news. It had forced me to use my soul in ways I would never have considered otherwise, and for that I was grateful. I wondered whether there was any mage who had crystallised their soul a second time. I did not think it was possible.

I did not need the screen to feel the Caelith in the distance. The integration had happened, and I deliberately did not reach for it, because I knew that the moment I did, the Jade Oracle would feel me, and events would be pushed into motion.

Before that, I would rather understand where I stood. I was integrated with this Caelith now, and that changed everything.

∞

[Disciplines:]

Lightning Edict: 96 → 108 (Legendary) — Broken-Celestial

Loom of Lightning: 101 → 114 (Legendary) — Broken-Celestial

Lightning Tribunal: 98 → 102 (Legendary) — Broken-Celestial

Heaven’s Verdict: 88 → 89 (Epic) — Broken-Celestial

Stormstep: 79 → 99 (Legendary) — Broken-Celestial

My spells had grown, and most of that growth had come before I went to the past. These were the spells I had built my whole life on, and I had not cast a single one in four months. I had killed a Minor God without using one of them, and I wondered how far I would have pushed them. Still, I lost on one side and gained on another. The chance to go to the past was invaluable.

I put my hand out and let a thread of the Loom run across my knuckles, just to feel it, and it came instantly, and I pulled it back.

I was back.

∞

[Attunement Skills:]

Lightning Resonance: 126 → 129 (Sovereign) — Epic

Space Resonance: 16 → 75 (Initiate → Adept) — Epic → Legendary

Earth Resonance: 90 → 97 (Arcanist) — Rare

Force Resonance: 94 (Arcanist) — Epic

Darkness Resonance: 92 (Arcanist) — Rare

Death Resonance: 56 → 71 (Adept) — Unique

Fire Resonance: 61 (Adept) — Rare

Air Resonance: 40 (Acolyte)

Water Resonance: 27 (Initiate)

Staff Resonance: 70 (Adept) — Rare

My Space Resonance had shot up by an unbelievable amount, and since that Resonance was the only reason I survived the journey to the past, fifty-nine points of growth was not surprising.

The rest had grown, and Death Resonance had gone from fifty-six to seventy-one. I smiled when I saw it. Every point of that Resonance gave me more ground to stand on against Death, and I knew a reckoning was coming between the two of us.

Death would not let me slip her grasp forever. It was only a matter of time before she came for me again, and I would not be the same lost boy she once used to butcher a continent.

∞

[Auxiliary Skills:]

Inscription: 99 → 137 (Arcanist → Sovereign) — Master Engraver → Grandmaster Engraver

Eldritch Perception: 59 (Acolyte) — Unique — New

Demonology: 119 (Arcanist) — Registered

Observation: 118 → 119 (Arcanist) — Rare

Anima Sensitivity: 112 → 118 (Arcanist) — Rare

Concentration: 110 → 119 (Arcanist) — Rare

Meditation: 96 → 99 (Arcanist) — Uncommon

Marksman: 89 (Adept) — Uncommon

First Aid: 69 → 85 (Adept)

Cartography: 59 → 71 (Acolyte → Adept)

Cooking: 16 (Initiate)

Thirty-eight points of Inscription, and a tier, and an evolution. That was not even counting the Legendary skill I had gained.

I had not considered Inscription to be this powerful, and there is a lesson in that. Although I knew the vast amount of essence in the past had contributed to it, the lesson was not to discount any of my skills. Most of them were sitting at the peak of Arcanist now.

Cartography at seventy-one made me smile. I had seen much of the world, and a map of the past was in my head, and one day I would fill it in.

∞

[Celestial-tier Skills:]

Adamantium Titan: 133 → 167 (Sovereign) — Legendary — Broken-Celestial

Mortal Shell: 119 (Arcanist) — Broken-Celestial

Lightning Incarnate: 109 (Arcanist) — Broken-Celestial

Hollow Avatar: 104 (Arcanist) — Broken-Celestial

Soul-Forge: 95 (Arcanist) — Broken-Celestial

Flesh-Scribing: 0 → 41 (Acolyte) — Legendary — New

[Laws:]

[Lightning Law Shards (9/9 — Complete)]

Law of Flesh — Integrated (Adamantium Titan)

Law of Sharpness — Bound (Inscriber Pen)

Law of Blood (Fragment) — Bound (Natal Weapon)

[Natal Weapon: Unformed — Bearer: Elric Voss]

[Anomaly: unregistered construct within bearer’s soul — contents: 11 descriptions]

I paused and pushed against my soul, and with a flash of lightning my Inscriber Pen appeared in my palm. I twirled it, and poured my soul into it instead of the trickle I had been giving it for four months, and it blazed in my hand, and I pulled the power back before any stray Law of Sharpness tore the earth apart.

My plan had worked. I had brought everything back with me.

I closed my hand and the pen vanished, and the compass appeared. I closed my hand and it vanished, and I opened it again, and a long sword lay across my palm... Tam’s sword.

∞

[Heavenly Bond: Moon Fox — 24%]

[Stored Essence: 912,870 / 2,000,000 — Sixth Earth Gate]

[Blessings: Anansi Web (Consumed)]

[Temporal Anchors: 3 placed, 1 unspent]

[Soul: Welded — Condition: Stable]

I nearly closed my status screen, and then I looked again at the number of items in the pocket inside my soul.

Eleven.

Nine weapons and the compass. That was ten.

I frowned.