You smirk, crimson divinity crackling at your fingertips as you salivate at the idea of striking a deal. Even without the system involved, you've become so accustomed to striking bargains that such affairs have become a part of your soul. You have everything you need to strike a binding agreement.

Your lips part, mock-surprise dripping from your tone in a manner that borders on contemptuous, “Oh?” you say, coyly lifting an arm that wasn’t before present to your lips, the sudden change in anatomy causing the princess to recoil backwards in shock, “Her highness deigns to make a deal with something like me? What an honor.”

“I’ve no time for your jokes, witch.” The princess spits, “I need you to help me expose my brother. I know you two were collaborating.”

You tilt your head, suppressing a chuckle as you reply, “What’s in it for me? Even if we were in cahoots, surely everything so far has been going according to plan. Why should I suddenly turn traitor now?”

“I know what you are, and I know what you want. Father trusts my brother and I wholeheartedly– say the word and the records are yours.”

You frown, “I think asking isn’t gonna be enough.”

Her eyes widen, prompting you to explain your insights, “Your father bears the dignity of a king, and the resolve to put his nation first and absolutely everything else second. More to the point, he lacks the naivete of your brother and the cold, amoral calculations and unfettered arrogance of you, your highness, and your brother.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

“It’s human nature, really! A predator prey response, the unyielding terror of witnessing something higher up on the food chain. A man who trusts his instincts could never trust something like me.”

Her gaze wavers, lips agape for a moment before she musters a reply, “What would you have me do?”

>Enter under false pretenses
>Steal the records
>Gain the throne right now
>Do whatever you want
>Write-in

>>6178489
Was the deadline deal with Casziago a soul contract?

>"You claim to know what I am, but-"
>T1000 ourselves through the metal bars and take our usual Ate form on
>"You call me a witch, that's not what I am. I was human once. I used the power of my soul to slowly shed myself of mortal restrictions. I'm on my way to become a god. I even have millions of humans who adore me where I am from-"
>"I couldn't care less about this dimension, I have friends to get back to in mine. You will do whatever it takes to get me home safely. And you will help empower me while I am here, but for that you don't need to go too out of your way. Just maybe give me some prisoners who were sentenced to death anyway."

links please

>>6178540
support

>>6178489
>Steal the records
If we find what we need among them we'll do as you ask

>>6178632
Past Threads
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?searchall=Olympus+Incarnation+Quest
>Rentry masterlink, includes character sheets, shop information, inventory, and general information
https://rentry.org/olympus-quest-links
>Inquiries: olympusqm@gmail.com

>>6178489
>Do whatever you want
Oh DESIRE, Lovely lovely DESIRE. Aren't you grand?

>>6178840
Thanks for providing the links!

>>6178540
>>6178654
>>6178864

“Honestly, I couldn’t care less about the specifics of your tactics. Feel free to get it in any way that you want! That being said–” you rise, slipping out of your cuffs as your bones and flesh liquify, black ooze seeping into the rough outline of the <Figure Unspeakable>, pausing briefly before warping and shifting into your usual visage. The princess’s face goes white with terror, body trembling as she staggers backwards, magic instinctually sprouting to life at her fingertips as the iron of your cell creaks under the pressure of your body pressing casually against the bars, “you only have three days. If you don’t get me those records by then, I’m leaving this cell to get them myself.”

“Y-you dare threaten me?”

“Duh.”

She clicks her tongue, “I don’t care what you are, if you try to take the records, you shall surely fall at the hands of the Dragoncutter even if you can manage to strike me down.”

An interesting title– you take a mental note of it before replying, “If that happens, your kingdom is doomed. Again, I don’t belong here– you’re not doing me a favor by sending me home, you’re saving yourself as well.”

Her eyes waver, so you decide to press her. “Besides, your brother is responsible for my state,” you croon, technically telling the truth, “I was only working with him because I had to, but he almost doomed your entire world. Can you really bear to let him become king?”

You reach your arm through the bars, bending the metal as you offer the shaken lady a handshake, “I’ll prove to the court that he and I are in cahoots. I’ll tell your brother too, so that he’ll finally man up and use the <Scales> on Casziago. All I ask is for you to give me the one thing we need to keep both of us from being annihilated. What do you say? Do we have a deal?”

Tentatively, she shakes your hand.

Crimson light crackles between the two of you, her body wrenching in pain as her existence rejects your foreign influence. You feel a sharp sting yourself, though likely much lighter than the one she’s experiencing thanks to the difference in magnitude of your souls.

>Degradation: 8%

You snicker, “By the way, our bargain states that you need to give me the records. That means that if I get them from Casziago first, or from any other avenue for that matter you don’t get any guarantees.”

“I understand that. Besides, my soul is on the line– you will have what you requested.”

A smile spreads across your face. “I’m looking forward to it,” you declare, your body snapping back into the binds and appearance of the false Casziago, “Best get to it then.”

Somewhere between a contemptuous exit and a terrified retreat, the princess departs from your cell.

>Explore the castle
>Speak with someone (specify)
>Meditate on the <Ritual> until one of the royals shows results
>Write-in

>>6179203
>>Meditate on the <Ritual> until one of the royals shows results

>>6179203
>Meditate on the <Ritual> until one of the royals shows results
We got all the kids on the job, one will probably succeed.

>>6179203
>Meditate on the <Ritual> until one of the royals shows results
Ultimate divine power sure is a lot of homework

>>6179310
>>6179379
>>6179443

>Meditate on the until one of the royals shows results

You close both sets of eyes, only passively observing the areas around your main and substitute bodies for threats or updates as you peer into your <Soulscape>, attempting to understand the schema behind the Ritual in order to make the notes more useful once you manage to acquire them. Re-entering the sandstone library of your miniscule castle, you pull the book containing the <Art> you desire from its place, shivering a bit at the impetus lingering in its pages as you flip through the tome.

It’s important not to conceptualize physical space when you open a gateway between one dimension and another– indeed, outside of the confines of a particular reality, <Space> is irrelevant; this is the same principle that Perdix mentioned when he was talking about how <Divinity> was capable of defying the confines of spacetime to enable instantaneous transportation of information, items, and energy. You begin to trace a circle in the sand, its surface becoming soft and pliable at your touch, representing the world you come from. Overlapping with it, you draw a square, representing the reality of the Uncrowned King. While there are corners or edges breaching the point of overlap, most of the area exists in both. This almost seems sufficient but…

You sigh– this won’t do. You have no way of knowing if you’re on an edge or not. In effect, even though the shapes are just an analogy, you effectively have to square the circle, an infamously impossible task.

You smirk, digging your fingers beneath the square drawn on the floor and lifting it as one solid tile before pulverizing it with your will, shaping the resulting sand into a rough circle. To strain the analogy, nothing says you need to use a compass and a straightedge: since you’re ignoring space itself anyway, as long as you line things up properly, everything should be fine.. right?

You frown– it’s difficult to tell how effective this is going to be until you run some trial runs. In particular, triangulating a specific dimension is going to be a lot more difficult than simply picking a random reality and forcing a gate. The soulscape won’t do, you think to yourself, you’re going to have to perform some experiments.

~

>Degradation rate: 10%

The midnight of the deadline, you hear footsteps echo through the cold stone hallways of the castle basement. You frown– the clunky iron clanks of armored soles suggest someone other than either of your signatories, but their perfect, almost metronome-like regularity betrays a level of training and discipline unbefitting of a random guardsman and surpassing the level of the Kieldrich of this world. You have no guarantees, but your gut is telling you that danger approaches.

>Wait for them to enter
>Try to escape
>Set up an ambush
>Write-in

>>6179830
>Set up an ambush
Just in case they decided to be foolish
Perhaps leave a meat puppet in the cage and hide on the ceiling?

>>6179830
>>6179834
+1

>>6179830
>>6179834
sure, but don't attack first, try and gauge their intentions first

>>6179834
>>6179908
>>6180124

>Set up an ambush

You pause, considering scuttling over to your cell and using the false body as a decoy for the ambush, but you decide it prudent to stay where you are, activating the vestiges of <Stealth> and <Guerilla Tactics> embedded in your soul as you extend your fingers into talons sharp and fierce enough to pierce rock, tipped with your offensive <Art> to make the process easier as you scuttle to the ceiling of the room, clinging to the cool stone roof like a spider observing the edges of its web.

You feel the presence approach, the size of the soul not unusual for this world’s denizens, but, as it grows closer, you sense a certain sharpness, a sense of anxiety welling in your gut like that of a child holding a weapon in their hands. Almost on instinct, the muscles and bones in your body reinforce and harden, preparing for the oncoming threat.

The footsteps slowly but surely grow louder, pausing only briefly as the figure steps through the illusory wall guarding this secret catacomb: whoever it is, they’re headed right for you.

A man enters the room alone, one you recognize from the trial as the Archduke of something or other– you knew when you were inhabiting the Prince’s mind, but you had since purged the information as less than useful. However, you remember a title, one that the princess had unwittingly reminded you of in your little visit.

This man is the one they call Dragoncutter.

He sighs, prim black clothing contrasting nicely with his greyish, almost sickly looking scarred white flesh and the deep black hair cut neatly in military fashion far above his sharp, icy blue eyes. As his title is Archduke, you imagine he probably has some royal blood running through his veins– his eyes, so very much like Kieldrich’s despite having so different a soul behind them, seem evidence of a shared line.

He places his hand on his blade, almost lazily shifting his gaze to stare directly at you. It seems like the notion of an ambush was dead in the water. You snap your neck with a resounding crack, hoping to strike some fear into his heart to gain some psychological advantage, but he seems utterly unphased as he keeps his gauntlet rested casually on the pommel of his sword.

“You’re the outsider the prince told me about,” the Archduke states as matter of factly as a bureaucrat reading out the information on a visa application, “The one who showed up out of nowhere and demanded he steal the ritual to send you home.”

You can’t help but laugh– Casziago really is a rat through and through.

>>6180568

He’s a liar,” you retort, “He’s the one who brought me here. Far from framing him, I actually bailed him out of quite the pickle.”

“Regardless,” the man shrugs off your revelation, seemingly fully aware of the second prince’s true nature, “You’re a liability. We can’t rely on your sorcery alone to keep something so dangerous from leaking from the confines of the vault.”

“Get to the point.”

“Gladly. His majesty has decided to grant you the documents which you seek. After all, this incident has proved such texts to be far too dangerous for the general public.”

Your eyes widen– that was a lot easier than expected. Before you can graciously accept, however, the warrior adds a caveat.

“However, we cannot afford the risk of having you melt down near our kingdom and its people. Or, in fact, in this world at all.” he adds, the almost clinical timbre to his voice remaining despite the absurd nature of his words, “We will be sending you, as well as your accursed documents, to Sortara.”

“Sortara? You don’t mean..”

“That’s right. The white world’s second moon.”

You balk at the ridiculous ultimatum– while you have been surviving reasonably well without breathing in this world’s air, surviving the temperature, radiation, and complete lack of air pressure of outer space for an extended period of time is another matter entirely. Even supposing you can survive and keep your necessary organic matter functional through sheer force of will, it will surely consume enough of your concentration to massively expedite the degradation of your soul and, worse still, put you on an even more stringent timer to return home.

“You understand that if I fail, your entire reality could die?”

“The king considers this the most sensible decision.”

“Stubborn old fool,” you scoff, mostly to yourself, “Are you sure he hasn’t gone senile?”

“Think what you want, demon,” the Archduke dismisses your comment, “I care not for the opinion of something like you.”

You would kill him where he stands, but the powers and magics of this world are currently beyond your understanding. Even if you were to ignore the tension lingering in the pit of your chest, you’d be taking a considerable risk by fighting.

>Accept the terms
>Fight back
>Write-in

>>6180570
>Ask for a lead shield, preferably a small dome that can house us
>Ask for a large water bag
we should be able to do electrolysis to make oxygen
>Ask for any remaining coppiest of the research to be destroyed for good.
>Ask for Casziagos soul, he wanted to merge with a demon, he can live in our belly

>>6180570
>Accept
Is it really so bad? Once on the moon we can burrow under the surface and plug it up, which should cover temperature and radiation.

Maybe we can accept if they throw in some compressed air for us to release once our lair is complete to take care of that last component, surely they can provide that if they’re going to send us to the moon

>>6180570

>Accept, pending acquisition of key supplies to increase our odds of success

How much can they teleport? Can they bury it underground? Could we get by as a flesh soup sealed in a lead sphere? Understand, we are trying to avoid your reality melting.

>>6180570
>>Accept, pending acquisition of key supplies to increase our odds of success
I also want Casziagos dead. And I want Kieldrich to do it. Cas is the biggest threat to the kingdom after us, and Kieldrich needs to stop being a pussy and starts acting like a king

>>6180621
>>6180664
>>6180672
>>6180717

>Accept, pending acquisition of key supplies to increase our odds of success

“Those are difficult terms, Archduke,” you pout, plopping onto the floor from the ceiling, retracting your excess arms back into your torso to take a more conventionally pleasing shape as you add your own stipulations, “I need an airtight lead sphere or box at least two lengths of your body height in diameter, filled with pressurized air or an inert gas.”

“Inert gas?”

You sigh, recalling this world’s lack of scientific information, “Air is fine. Can your mages manage it? Remember, if I die, your entire reality could implode on the hole I leave behind.”

He pauses, briefly considering, “It will take time to make.”

You tilt your head, “Your mages can’t manufacture it?”

“It’s doable, but we still need to acquire the metals and bring the specialist in. Factoring in the process, two days is the fastest we can manage.”

“Well, you’d better start now. The sooner the better, for both of us.”

“Do not order me around, demon.” He narrows his icy blue eyes, his grip on his blade tightening ever so slightly.

“Not an order,” you reply, lifting your arms in mock surrender, “Just a suggestion.”

“..it shall be done. Anything else?”

“I need to speak with the first prince again.”

“I’ll convey a message.”

You shake your head, “I need to show him myself. I don’t think words alone can convince him of how great a threat his brother represents.”

He stands still, stalwartly refusing to humor your request. You exhale, cooling your head slightly to calmly explain the situation.

“Where I come from, there’s a monster,” you begin, “an invader from another universe. My version of this universe. That beast bears the weight of an entire reality in its gut. It ATE this entire reality.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” He remains stoic, but you can feel the doubt welling behind his cold expression.

“If Casziago had completed the ritual as intended, that would have happened here too. He made– no, he BECAME that monster. Just by being summoned instead, I saved your universe. Now, presumably having lost standing pulling whatever stunt he just tried, the prince is just as desperate now as he was when he pulled me here.”

“Get to the point.”

“I think you already know.”

He stops for a moment, seemingly lost in thought before turning around and walking away, “We shall prepare your lead box.” He declares as he exits, “You are not to leave this room.”

You click your tongue– his sort really are a pain to deal with.

>Go find Kieldrich
>Use your contract to contact the princess
>Meditate on the ritual until the archduke comes back
>Write-in

>>6180829
>Meditate on the ritual until the archduke comes back

>>6180829
>Use your contract to contact the princess
Tell her the second prince has set the Dragoncutter on us to silence us and cover up his crimes, so she'd better hurry

>>6180829
>>Use your contract to contact the princess

>>6180844
>>6180910
>>6181220

Sometimes, your brother betrays you.

It was cold. I could feel the frosty air of a winter’s night prick against my skin as I stood there, looking out over a kingdom, my world, the people and places and things I poured everything into. I can’t help but laugh at my own stupidity– only a fool would drag a child who refuses their touch kicking and screaming to become hers, to go the way she knows it must. Only a fool, or a mother, perhaps.

I can hear its whisper in my head– the call of the demon who promised me Casziago– it hurts when she does, like a buzzing cicada embedded under my skin and bone, buzzing and shrieking and writhing in protest as I refuse to heed its call and do as it will. Still, it whispers, and still, I hear its call.

I look down at my hands, porcelain white. For a moment, they seem larger, gruffer, foreign. I can taste cheap liquor on my breath, and feel the weight of a sturdy aluminum club in my empty hands. Never before had I felt so strong, yet so heavy, so burdened by the weight of inertia that moving at all was paralyzing. I take a step forward, slender white legs pushing against a deluge of powder snow that my dress passed effortlessly through. This too, I thought to myself, was a phantasm, though it felt realer to me than the gown dragging behind me ever could as I trudged back into the castle walls.

It wants me to bring it to Kieldrich, to show him what I’ve seen, to burden him too with this weight on my shoulders and have him, not I, prevent the horrors it foresaw. The visions, the presence, the eyes. The thing they call the Uncrowned King. I double over, retching and gagging, but only the faintest dribble of bile leaks from my spastic episode. I had long since lost my appetite, as well as anything unfortunate enough to find itself in my gut before I had.

I see him looking at me– looking UP to me. A child, my beloved baby brother, fluffy golden hair and round, lustrous blue eyes curved into a perfect little smile.

My mother told me to watch over him, to protect him and keep the hyperactive boy out of trouble. She didn’t really mean it, I think– I was much too young to be burdened with such a thing, but I had still dedicated myself to the task after she passed, not for mother, but for him. Still, I whisper to her an apology. I must abandon that duty early.

>>6181416

I feel the blood on my face as well, crusty and hardened brown and black. I feel the weight of shackles around my wrists, like a prisoner marching to the gallows. Determined, however, I step forward, one foot at a time, going to where I know Casziago to be. My breath hitches in my throat as I remember his youth as well– perhaps, if I had loved him more, if I had understood who his mother was, that she was in no position to bring new life into the world, maybe I could have stopped this. Thoughts race through my head even as my body desperately resists movement. I failed, and I know it.

I open the door to his room– he was locked there in house arrest, having convinced, or at least welled a reasonable doubt in Father that he was manipulated by the demon into doing what he did. I was certain that this was false and, as the hinges creak and reveal the bloody ritual on the floor, I was proven grimly correct. There is no satisfaction in it anymore, however. The game had ended long ago.

My lips part on their own, gruff, out of character words leaking naturally from my tongue. “You fucking knew, and you did this shit?” My tone is dry and resigned despite the vulgarity, almost like reading a report. Icy blue magic crackles at the tips of my fingers, my mind in perfect focus as I weave together the formulae. Ten rings hover over my hand, and, with a bitter chuckle, I realize that now of all times, I had become the first Archmage in over a century.

Not that it matters, of course. My story ends here.

~

>>6181421

Something went wrong. You’d been trying to contact the princess for almost a day now, but something about her has been resisting you. You’re still not great with long distance, especially in absence of the guiding hand of the system, so you’d mostly been communicating ideas and intentions instead of using words. Even though she didn’t reply, you could feel her impetus move and react to your missives. Now, though, the link seems.. gone. Is it because she passed over the deadline, thus ending the deal? It’s possible, but something about it seems off. Well, that isn’t any business of yours– you’ve done all you reasonably could to help this plane. Now its fate is in its own hands.

The Archduke returns earlier than anticipated, with him a corps of somber men in long black robes, presumably the mages. In an almost absurd sight, held in a single hand like it was a basketball, a lead sphere made (by your rough estimate) to all the desired specifications. casually, he cuts a piece off the top large enough for you to enter. It's perfectly smooth, almost industrially precise, and shines with a dull purplish luster. It's probably not just pure lead: you can feel a faint mana emanating from the shell.

"What did you add?" You ask, ensuring that there isn't some trick.

"Adamantium." The warrior replies, "The hardest metal in existence. With this, nothing should be able to damage the casing. Well, nothing except me."

"Is that a fact? Any idea how that works?" The existence of magical metals is intriguing for you, but, given the circumstances, you're hardly in any position to stop and do research.

“The deal is made, demon.” He ignores your question, an unanticipated emotionality in his voice that you can’t quite place, “Get in.”

“And my texts?”

“Here,” he passes you a stack of books and papers, neatly organized into a leather parcel, “I presume you can make your own light?”

You nod, flipping through the materials and feeling for the lingering <Impetus> characteristic of the rebel’s work and, upon finding it, place it inside of your body.

“Get in.” The man repeats, a newfound insistence and contempt in his voice as he orders you to hold up your end of the bargain.

“You really must do something about Casziago,” you nag as you slowly walk towards the capsule, “He really will be the end of everything if you don’t.”

“...the situation is under control,” the Archduke deflects, “Get. In.”

>Comply
>Fight back
>Run away
>Write-in

>>6181423
>Run away
On second thought I'd like to keep holding you all hostage for sure, thanks
Maximize my insurance and all that

>>6181423

> Questions about Adamantium
> Nothing can damage it? Can it be teleported through, scryed through? You're not looking to seal me up in a box and letting little old me rot and hoping it contains the blast are you?

>>6181423
>Only have them teleport you outside the sphere, we'll get in once we're on the moon.

I'll wait a few more hours for a tiebreaker, otherwise I'll decide the outcome randomly

>>6182529
I can swap to >>6181799

>>6181436
>>6181486
>>6181799
>>6182621

>Only have them teleport you outside the sphere, we'll get in once we're on the moon.

The Archduke pauses, looking first at the sphere and then back at you.

“I have no intention of putting a door on this thing.”

“That’s fine,” You reply, “Just put the air in steel canisters and I’ll use those once I’m inside.”

He frowns, “How are you going to seal yourself back in?”

“I’ll figure it out when I get there.”

He shrugs, then orders the mages to comply with your request. It takes a few hours for them to prepare everything to your specifications, as well as the time it took to prepare the teleportation ritual itself. You briefly try to analyze the method behind it, but give up once you realize that the ‘programming language’ of this world’s magic is currently beyond you.

Three dull steel canisters of air are placed inside the sphere, falling with a clunk as they rattle and slide against the smooth interior of the lead sphere. The hooded figures begin to circle, purple light crackling at the tips of their fingers as they harmonize into a low, simultaneous chant. The divinity in the air trembles and shakes, bending at their words as they speak in low, powerful tones, their shaded eyes looking off somewhere far away. Far from speaking lines of code, these men seemed more like messengers, dutiful heralds bringing about a divinely ordained conclusion as reality itself bends its laws and will beneath the unparalleled authority of the divine.

Your eyes widen in awe at the majesty of the tempest– this, you think to yourself, is the handiwork of a real god.

You feel the space beneath you bend and warp, power crackling in the air as the light becomes confused, shifting and swirling wildly as the concept of space becomes distorted and meaningless. You brace yourself, reinforcing the outside of your skin with hard armor, proteins and bone forming airy, lightweight structures modeled after the skeletons of birds, hoping to use the air in the sponge-like structure as an exoskeleton to protect you from the elements. A sheath of airtight connective tissue extends over your body, wrapping the armor and maintaining the pressure differential as the spell fully activates.

>>6183229

Your body struggles to adapt, consuming divinity rapidly to maintain homeostasis as energy slowly but surely leaks from your new form into the vacuum of space. Still, far from horrified, you briefly find yourself captivated by it all– the stars, unmuddled by light pollution and the trappings of an atmosphere, seem more radiant than you could have ever imagined, sparkling with the clarity of a sea of diamonds against the luscious black void of space. The sun bears down on the ground around you, illuminating the ruddy iron-laden sand beneath your feet in pure white light, transfigured by the touch of the dry soil into an incandescent orange-red, bathing the pallid exterior of your adapted body in a glow both beautiful and ominous.

Finally, your attention turns to the planet below, a dazzling sapphire painted in blues and greens and yellows, white clouds and black shadow framing the world beautifully. Even if you could use this world’s air to sustain yourself, you would still be caught breathless at the majesty of it all. This is the glory of the cosmos.

You quickly shake your head, snapping out of your fancy as you reckon with the situation at hand– you need some way to close off the adamantium sphere after entering it before you can release the air into the shell. Ideally, you would weld or otherwise melt and reattach the metal cut away for your ingress, but you currently have no means of doing so.

What should you do?

>Try to hold it closed with the <Fetters>
>Develop a new <Art> to create heat
>Use this world’s magic to do it
>See if the Bandit King has any way of sealing it
>Write-in

>>6183232
>Develop a new <Art> to create heat

>>6183232
>Try to hold it closed with the <Fetters>
Swiss army knife

>>6183232
>Develop a new <Art> to create heat

And then Atë said "Let there be light.'

>>6183232
>>Try to hold it closed with the <Fetters>
>>Develop a new <Art> to create heat
I don't see why we can't do the first to give us a reprieve
material science wise we only need to create enough diffusion between the door and the sphere to seal it.
work smarter not harder

>>6183255
>>6183267
>>6183295
>>6183622

>Try to hold it closed with the
>Develop a new to create heat

You decide that the easiest solution is to bind yourself closed with your <Fetters> first and reseal the shell once you’re securely inside. You decide that the first and easiest order of business is to drill a hole for your lead casing, helping to both keep air and heat in and keep any radiation that somehow manages to leak into your shell out. You activate <Down to the Core>, microscopic particles of crimson energy replacing the air to compensate for the vacuum as the vortex tears through the soft rock and dust of Sortara’s surface, kicking up a plume of tawny particulate, the rusty cloud almost blinding you as you manifest your <Fetters> to increase your rate beyond the grip of your hands.

After the hole is big and empty enough, you transfer the larger portion of your metal sphere into it, making sure it remains clear of debris or contaminants before plucking the smaller piece from beside it and carrying it with you into the pit, descending slowly, almost angelically downwards.

You chuckle to yourself as you close the gap, now relying only on your <Eyes> to see as you find yourself in absolute darkness– even with the greatly enhanced degree of detail provided by the basic application of divine vision, you can’t even see the seam in the shell. You sigh, grateful that you hadn’t picked a fight with a monster capable of cutting an alloy of such absurd strength with such impossible precision with a casual swipe of his blade.

You take a moment to adjust to seeing an object while simultaneously seeing through it, as well as the impartial, absolute vision emanating from your very being rather than a cluster of receptors buried in your face. Even keeping the detail as low as you can manage, the process is disorienting. That being said, being able to perceive and extend your soul’s domain to the area outside your shell is most helpful, allowing you to cast your <Fetters> detached from your physical body, coiling and tightening around your shell to keep it sealed. After it feels contained, you manifest a second set of chains, these with the task of sweeping the dirt and rock you dug from the cold ground back into its place, burying and packing it into a rough approximation of the rest of the surface.

You consider what you’ve done, using the basics of what the Bandit King taught you about aura to stretch and expand the influence of your very essence– is this the principle behind <Divinity Manifest>? You shake your head, deciding to focus on more pressing matters: you’ve expended a lot of your remaining divinity, and even then, you still find yourself in an unstable position.

>Degradation: 15%

>>6183964

Claustrophobia begins to eat away at you as you settle in, shapeshifting your lower body to create a cushion upon which to sit as you begin to dwell on how to create enough heat to weld the sphere shut. Thinking quickly, you burst open one of the canisters of air, helpfully just enough to restore atmospheric pressure and a vaguely habitable temperature to your new enclosure. The seal holds, keeping the air in at least well enough for you not to notice a leak even as seconds melt into minutes.

You lean back in contemplation– how are you going to deal with this problem? (Regardless of your selection, you are encouraged to name the proposed <Art> and add any specifications or details you wish to)

>Induce heat directly into the target object
>Create a pseudo-flame from divinity
>Galvanize the air into plasma and use that to weld
>Manifest highly condensed light to recreate a laser welder
>Write-in

>>6183965
>Galvanize the air into plasma and use that to weld
We've got some experience working with air from Down to the Core. Maybe use it as a base, but focus on the abrasion and heat of grinding to branch into <Molten Core>.

>>6183965
>Induce heat directly into the target object
Seems the most efficient method, and we're feeling the divinity usage pretty hard here

Actually Molten Core is too nice a name to not support >>6183973

>>6183965
>>6183973
+1

>>6183965
>>Galvanize the air into plasma and use that to weld
sounds dope, let's do it

>>6183973
>>6184087
>>6184250
>>6184457

>Galvanize the air into plasma and use that to weld

Now having access to air, you close your eyes, meditating on <Down to the Core>. The core principle of that technique is the imbuement of kinetic energy into the particles in the air, directing and shaping their movement to create the effect of a high power drill. At the atomic level, heat, too, is a form of kinetic energy: the molecules spin and strain and quiver and stretch along and irrespective of their bonds.

Fundamentally, then, the principle should be similar– first, gather the air molecules into the desired structure, then imbue them with kinetic energy, right? You extend your hand, attempting to recreate this process, imagining the extent of your movement being reduced from the macro scale to the micro scale. You concentrate on <Down to the Core> itself first, feeling the sensation of the wind gliding across your fingertips, before attempting to reduce the scope of your energy smaller and smaller.

It takes hours of pure, exhausting concentration to even approach the intended effect. Still, for a moment, you feel something– a smile blooms on your face as heat finally begins to tickle your skin. Your ecstasy is shattered in seconds, however, as the warmth created merely disperses into the surrounding air, failing to create the intended plasma effect.

You frown, stumped, but eventually realize the issue: the principle behind <Down to the Core> is based on the power of a cyclone. While the <Structure> of a tornado or hurricane is constantly maintained, its energy kept intact as it spins and tears through cities and plains alike, the actual composite mass is constantly exchanged for new air as it moves from place to place. Unlike in the case of such a rotation, this phenomenon is not so easily replicated with heat, especially enough heat to create plasma.

You sigh, leaning back as you contemplate the problem. How do you fix this?

><Output>: Who cares if it disperses? As long as you keep adding more, eventually everything nearby will break down
><Speed>: If you increase the temperature quickly enough, not even convection will act quickly enough to disperse your <Art>
><Precision>: If you keep the point where heat is being applied small and concentrated enough, the dispersal will work in your favor to create your desired dimensions
><Control>: Simply minimize loss by increasing the restraint you have on the affected air
>Write-in

>>6184662

><Precision>: If you keep the point where heat is being applied small and concentrated enough, the dispersal will work in your favor to create your desired dimensions

>>6184666
>Simply minimize loss by increasing the restraint you have on the affected air
The most controlling option

>>6184666
><Precision>: If you keep the point where heat is being applied small and concentrated enough, the dispersal will work in your favor to create your desired dimensions
we a microwave

>>6184666
>><Precision>: If you keep the point where heat is being applied small and concentrated enough, the dispersal will work in your favor to create your desired dimensions

>>6184667
>>6184688
>>6184883
>>6185197

><Precision>: If you keep the point where heat is being applied small and concentrated enough, the dispersal will work in your favor to create your desired dimensions

The process of convection has limits.

Just as the hollow pillar of flame at the tip of a candle stays in its place even as the gas floats and disperses into the air around it, so too can the semi-contained ionized conflagration of plasma you intend to place at the tips of your fingers.

As you create the image in your head, you remind yourself of some important key factors to keep under advisement.

First, you are not making a combustion. The only fuel you need is your own divinity and, rather than helping it grow and burn, attempting to feed your blaze will only dilute its heat.

Second, you must keep the point at which heat is applied smaller and denser than the totality of the art. You imagine a large <Spiral>, sucking the plasma in on itself and returning the colder parts to be reheated at the white-hot center, containing and utilizing the convection process rather than completely fighting it.

In other words, you need two <Layers> of manipulation: the first, the larger <Form> of the construct, based heavily on your previous art; the second, the miniscule <Core> of heat, burning so hot and bright that it ionizes the air around it, breaking down the gasses into a hot, amorphous sea of electrons and their sources.

Hours turn into days as you restlessly practice your <Art>, desperately racing against time and entropy as you try to develop your technique before you run out of air. Despite your preventative measures, you can feel the gas quantity of the chamber slowly but surely drop, not helped by your experiments with heat dramatically increasing the pressure of the air, helping it along as it seeps out of the invisible cracks in your shell.

>Degradation: 18%

Eventually, after a time you estimate to have been three days, you create something passable: a radiant fuchsia glow whirls and plays at your fingertips, the natural bluish purple of ionized air blending and amplifying as it mingles with the supernatural crimson glow of your soul, the slight hum of electromagnetism as the charged particles spin rapidly at the tips of your fingers, and the occasional bolt of current crackling out of your impossibly hot <Art> all pointing to your successful implementation. Even with the protection from your own abilities, you can feel a terrifying, almost claustrophobic grip of warmth and power at your fingertips.

>>6185228

>Down to the Core (1->2) (Effective Level: 7)
Strength, sharpness, and rate of rotation increased. No additional effect.

>Down to the Core, First Link: <Molten Core> (Incomplete) (Effective Level: 8)
Uses divinity to simultaneously blend rapid rotation and incredible heat into the air around your hands, creating a cyclone of plasma capable of cutting, melting, or even completely disintegrating a target. Cannot function without air. Unhindered by air resistance.

Deciding to act first and bask in your exceptional talents later, you bring your hand to the point of contact between the two pieces of the lead sphere, reducing the cutting power and amplifying the heat of your <Art> as you attempt to cauterize the Archduke’s slice. It works just as well as you’d hoped it would, the metal glowing a dull red and merging together (though deforming ever so slightly> beneath the vice-grip of your <Fetters>. You wait, confirming that your efforts had been a complete success.

You grip the second canister of air, not hesitating to wrench it open and unleash the gas back into the system to compensate for the pressure lost to the moon’s empty skies as you rest your mind, briefly considering your next steps: the degradation process seems to be compounding on itself– the more control of your soul you lose, the weaker your ability to hold what remains together, a vicious cycle that could very easily spiral out of hand if you allow yourself to wait too long. However, a hasty activation of the completely safeguard-free version of the Ritual could have consequences far more dire and immediate than even that.

You sigh, returning your body to a more comfortable, human shape as you consider your options. Regardless of your choice, please select between a <Desperate>, <Reckless>, <Normal>, or <Cautious> roll:

>Act with reckless abandon: read the ritual and activate it as soon as possible
>Act quickly: be willing to omit full understanding the underlying theory as long as you’re confident you know the steps necessary
>Act cautiously: try to fully understand the ritual before attempting to use it
>Write-in

>>6185229
>Act cautiously: try to fully understand the ritual before attempting to use it
Interdimensional travel is dangerous, and whatever time we save in being hasty has a huge chance of backfiring if we fuck up and have to make multiple jumps.

>>6185229
>Act cautiously: try to fully understand the ritual before attempting to use it

Probably best not to rush things, even if we're falling to pieces.

>>6185229
>Act quickly: be willing to omit full understanding the underlying theory as long as you’re confident you know the steps necessary
We don't need full understanding, just enough to survive

>>6185229
>Act quickly

>>6185229
>>Act cautiously: try to fully understand the ritual before attempting to use it
with a <Normal> roll

>>6185243
Ah, forgot to mention a roll type because my brain was like 'you already said cautious'
> Cautious

>>6185229
I think the call for rolls needs to be greentexted like the vote options, everyone always misses it

>RECKLESS

>>6185870
>I think the call for rolls needs to be greentexted like the vote options, everyone always misses it

Yeah, I'll have to highlight it next time

>>6185242
>>6185243
>>6185340
>>6185458
>>6185683

>Act cautiously: try to fully understand the ritual before attempting to use it

Seems to be the winning vote with a tie between <Cautious>, <Normal>, <Reckless> for the roll. I'll wait a little longer for a tiebreaker, otherwise <Normal> will pass by default

>>6186318
I'll switch to reckless if no tiebreaker arrives.

Cautious sure, reckless sure, but normal? Never normal.

>>6186323
>Reckless

Please give me 3 rolls of 3d30. In case a reminder is necessary, the most extreme roll, farthest away from the median of 46.5 will be taken, with priority given to the higher result in the case of a tie

Rolled 6, 6, 3 = 15 (3d30)

>>6186439
Get ready for this 90

>>6186497
FUCK
MY LIFE

Rolled 24, 2, 22 = 48 (3d30)

>>6186439
WE'RE GONNA DIEEEE

Rolled 22, 17, 23 = 62 (3d30)

>>6186439

>>6186439
can you tell us the different dice rules again?

>>6186687

>Cautious
Of the three rolls, takes the one closest to the expected value (In this case, 46.5)
>Normal
Of the three rolls, takes the one in the middle with no respect to EV
>Reckless
Of the three rolls, takes the one farthest from the expected value (In this case, 46.5)
>Desperate
Compares the 3 highest and 3 lowest results from all three rolls and subtracts a penalty of 3 from both final values. Then, takes the option farthest from the expected value in absence of the penalty

>6, 6, 3 = 15

For the life of me I can’t begin to understand it. An infinity of power and they still chose to harvest the insignificant bits of human souls. Why? It’s incomprehensible. Is it just convenience? It couldn’t be, it’s so… cruel. Too cruel. It insults the divine.

The ravings are mad. Sometimes you pull a usable scrap of theory or some hit to their application, but these really do seem like nothing but the ravings of a delusional shaman.

How could someone so divorced from sense create something as simple and elegant as the <Ritual>?

Humans are terrible sources of mana. So weak compared to the Beasts of the Chaos, and on the scale of the Gods, it surely amounts to nothing. They must be harvesting something else.. Was this the purpose behind our creation?

You think you’re beginning to understand it, but only insofar as a mechanic understands the internal mechanisms of a car: sure, they know what parts do and where they go, but the science behind it all remains as much a mystery to them as to any other layman. You feel a fundamental <Impetus> in the work that continues to elude you.

I can only conclude that they’re eating our hearts. THE BEAUTY AND THE SUFFERING AND THE VICTORIES AND LOSSES. THE GLORY OF YOUTH AND THE WISDOM OF AGE. THEY DINE UPON IT.

You bleed from your fingertips, the only ink you have as you draw your circles and inscribe the runes. With each one, you leave behind a piece of your will, your divinity, your intentions, a tiny fragment of a greater puzzle built painstakingly bit by bit. You feel more like you’re copying the pigments on the individual pieces, rather than learning how to paint the picture in its totality. You try to understand, you really do, but something eludes you.

I’ve been meditating on the theorem and I think it’s because they never got to live. Our impetus is like… a nutrient they can’t make themselves. They needed a source. Our whole planet always was a farm.

But that means we can make it our own: a power, a necessity that transcends the gods themselves.

>>6186703

You can’t understand what he’s blathering about. You feel like he’s lecturing you, practically rubbing your face in an obvious answer, but you just can’t figure it out.

What’s the principle? What’s the point of leaving this existential crisis to his successors?

You must remember what it is you defend. An animal fighting to preserve itself– it'll always find itself limited. It can never strike too hard, with too much commitment, lest it break its body or leave itself vulnerable to attack. To accomplish the impossible, to conquer the almighty, you must never forget what makes you human.

With trepidation, you activate the ritual.

~

You can’t see.

Your body feels heavy, yet somehow light, movement slowed to a crawl as you float in an endless, murky abyss. At first, it felt like an illusion, but you can only conclude that it really is water as the cold touch against your skin persists as your consciousness returns to itself.

Man, you really donked that one up.

You stagger, fighting the urge to vomit as a massive presence, smaller perhaps than the Uncrowned King, but sharper, and, more to the point, right up close. Even if you weren’t in a hostile plane where the air is poison, your body would be so overwhelmed that the notion of breathing would be a nigh impossibility.

Oops. Probably spooked you.

The pressure lifts, replaced by a small, warm blue light in the darkness.

>Ask what it is
>Ask to go home
>Try to escape
>Write-in

>>6186704
>"I need to get back to my friends."

>>6186704
>”Thanks for not eating me”
>”Are you one of the gods?”

>>6186704
> "Uh...hi?"

>>6186726
>>6186732
>>6186767

“Uh.. hi?” you speak, seemingly unfettered by being submerged as your words carry as effortlessly as they would through air, even as you feel the water in your mouth.

Howdy.

“Uh, are you one of those gods I’ve been hearing about?”

The water trembles, the entire vast, endless deep thrumming like a massive larynx as a guttural, entirely inhuman voice rumbles in response, shaking you to your very core with each syllable it spoke:

”I am that which moves the boundless sea, the arbiter of change and the master of veils. I see beyond sight, beyond possibility, with a gaze and a might that transcends reality itself. I am one, and I am a thousand. I am every drop of water, every puff of steam or chip of ice that courses through the lifeblood of this world and everything in it. I am the cycle, the ebb and flow from life into death.”

As quickly as it appeared, the voice vanishes, the water stilling as the presence opts to speak without words once again.

But, that’s a whole lotta words, so you can just call me the Man in the Sea.

“Um, sure, your… holiness?”

No need for that.

“Right, uh, anyway, could you send me home? To my friends, I mean. People waiting for me.”

The request is what I was expecting but the framing is weird. You didn’t seem the sort to– oh, heh, I get it. You’ve bought into the Devil guy’s BS, huh.

“W-what?”

He was kinda.. not all there. Bought way too deep into his own crackpot theories.

“But, the ritual failed because I–”

The ritual failed because you fucked it up, dingus. Not because you didn’t have enough love in your heart or whatever. Look, the guy who made that <Art> was undeniably a genius, but he was obsessive. Saw something so beautiful and tragic and impossible that it poisoned his brain.

You frown, unsure whether or not you can take the god at its word. Sensing your reticence, the Man in the Sea continues:

He’s not entirely wrong per se, at least in the fact that altruism and self sacrifice are a stellar source of impetus. But, even if gold is heavier than iron, enough iron could easily outweigh all the gold in the world. Do you understand?

You nod, the image of the Bandit King crossing your mind as you remind yourself of the nature of the human spirit. “An obsession with nobility is a folly in its own right, I guess.”

>>6187166

Exactly. Anyway, you want me to send you home, huh? Sure, I can do that. But… it’s gonna cost ya.

“Cost me what?”

It’d be irresponsible to let a ritual as dangerous as the one you picked up leak into other worlds without being finished. If you try a half-baked application like that without someone watching, you could seriously mess up the fabric of your reality.

“So, what, you’ll remove it right from my soul?”

Yup. Your brain, too.

“Can I.. try fixing the issue? If I finish the ritual properly, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t get to keep it.”

Sure, I don’t see why not. But, failing once was pretty bad for your soul already. Fail again and who knows what’ll happen? You really could die you know.

>Degradation: ??%

You click your tongue, wracking your brain for the answer: this <Ritual> is your key to multiversal domination– true, absolute power. If you don’t keep it, this entire pilgrimage would have been for nothing, and you have no way of knowing if it’s even possible for you to figure it out yourself. Then again, maybe surviving the King’s assassination attempt is all the victory you need.

You bite the inside of your cheek hard enough to draw blood. What do you do?


>Take your free ticket home
>Try again (Devil’s philosophy)
>Try again (Man in the Sea’s philosophy)
>Write-in

>>6187167

> Warn him about the Uncrowned King

>Try again (Devil's philosophy)
We've never been one to give up easily.
> Ask Jane for help understanding the Impetous of the ritual.
Pocket therapist, activate!

>>6187167
>Take your free ticket home
I bet we can figure it out ourselves
If not, surely Dorota can

If we do try again though I’d like to use the man in the sea’s philosophy

File: Spoiler Image (560 KB, 1280x800)

560 KB PNG

>>6187167
>>Try again (Man in the Sea’s philosophy)

>>6187240
they literally said they'll delete it from our hard drive

>>6187167
>>6187414
also:
>tell them about the uncrowned king

>>6187414
The Devil made it from scratch without even knowing it was possible, we’d have a leg up on him even with all details scrubbed

>>6187470
There's probably a nontrivial chance the man in the sea (is the sea a sea of souls?) will scrub even our awareness of the ritual's existence. It's what I would do anyway if I was going to try and avoid a catastrophy.

>>6187497
Even then we'd be back where the Devil was, and he succeeded
Plus unless literally the entire trip gets scrubbed we'd know we went there and got back somehow

>>6187589
because we have so much time on our hands

>>6187606
Do you think we're going to be conquering the multiverse right now? We can't even take our own planet. Once things on Earth are settled yeah, we will have nothing but time.

>>6187219
>>6187240
>>6187414

It's a three way tie, but since the only vote to go home preferred it if you were to try again, we'll go with:
>Try again (Man in the Sea’s philosophy)
>Warn him about the Uncrowned King

“Before I go,” you say, still unaccustomed to the odd sensation of speaking underwater, “I should probably return the favor by warning you about the threat that I just stopped. As long as that <Ritual> exists in your world, someone is gonna try again. And when that happens… everything will be devoured.”

No need to be so melodramatic. he chuckles, seemingly not at all worried about the situation at hand, I knew, and I saw what happened in your <Plane>

“Then, why–”

That world had no gods left. They all ran away.

Your eyes widen, and, detecting your understandable confusion, the Man in the Sea elaborates:

You’d think it would be as simple as burning the texts, right? But the Devil, like I said, was a clever sunnuvabitch. He crafted an <Art> powerful and sophisticated enough to embed itself into the system of magic we’ve created. In other words, into the laws of reality itself, with the sole purpose of keeping his records intact.

“And not even the gods could remove it?”

Exactly– so they decided to just uproot and try again. Usually, I follow them (in about 95.7% of realities I’ve checked, to be specific). But I stayed, because I recognized something from it.

“Being?”

The clear blue sky is beautiful, is it not? A blanket of cerulean light, varying in luminosity and depth with wisps of moisture like brushstrokes on the painting of the cosmos. It’s magnificent, really– I remember when I first saw one, and I could hardly contain myself. Now, it’s commonplace. Isn’t that odd?

You wait for him to clarify, but he doesn’t. You suppose gods must just enjoy being cryptic.

“I’ll need a room to perform the ritual in,” you state, changing the subject, “And, uh, ideally one with air if that’s possible.”

Gotcha.

At its whim, crystals, shimmering onyx weaved with ice-blue stone, solidify from the endless abyss, first a tiny cluster a foot beneath your toes, then growing, expanding into a solid circle. It almost seems organic as it stretches upwards, a dim white light twinkling from the brighter crystals as they manifest, stretching upwards like a hungry plant reaching for the sky.

~

>>6188141

Blood lines the floor beneath you again, meticulously and intricately placed exactly as prescribed. You exhale, reminding yourself why you’re doing this: this isn’t about love or survival or anything like that: you could have had all that and more just by accepting your free ticket out. This is about your drive, the motive that’s carried you from a miserable nobody to the Star of Death, a walking calamity that even governments have to keep in mind as they plan: your bottomless, obsessive ambition.

Divinity crackles at your fingertips, wavering and flickering like a dying flame. This really is your last chance.

Please select between Cautious, Normal, Reckless, and Desperate

>>6188144
>Normal

>>6188144
>RECKLESS
Is it really possible to bomb a roll twice

>>6188144
> Reckless

>>6188169
There is a long, long, long history of heartbreak at the roulette that answers that question.

But...reckless is so very inherent to our nature. We are Folly, and it may be our very own Ruin.

>>6188161
>>6188169
>>6188218

> Reckless

As before, give me 3 rolls of 3d30. I wish you better luck this time

Rolled 11, 18, 29 = 58 (3d30)

>>6188564
where we're going, we don't need luck

Rolled 21, 27, 13 = 61 (3d30)

>>6188564
Nat 90!

been reading the archives on an off for a while, guess I'm finally at the live

I like this interlude, it's one of two to four times we've been free and not under someone's boot
after quest start, we got free from out boss and landlord,
then we might have gotten under the boot of our feathery rumor goddess
after, we joined in with Eris, which, while somewhat lax, also gave us a bunch of obligations
but both of those were more partnerships, nothing where we were overwhelmed, we could have attempted to kill both and had very good odds of success

then came the commander, we lost our full autonomy and got locked in a box
more followed, both americans are treating us as pawns, Gaia slaps us around, taking the only hidden ace we had and giving us a little push on our wagie rat race in return, gee, thanks
and then the chink, certifying out status as a mutt on a leash, how glamorous

at least we have a brief vacation here, a sliver of true freedom, even if we have to leave it as quickly as possible because we'll die if we don't,
a sliver but not quite
we get chastised by Ocean Man anyway, certifying that the freedom was an illusion anyway, but until we knew that, it was still true

at this point, we spend more time crying about our internal trauma than mindmurdering the masses
no matter how much is optimized, we can't get out under the heel
fuck, we didn't even stand a chance against that Dove bitch, and she's not a major player, just a psycho bitch obsessed with murder
we don't stand a chance against the king's forces with our own powers, nor against the americans
we just get our ass kicked when we try anything
no matter how anyone stacks the numbers, the outcome doesn't change, our power could be multiplied or divided by ten, and I wouldn't notice a difference

Rolled 12, 20, 16 = 48 (3d30)

>>6188564
Well Atë, it's been a lovely ride. I always suspected your story might end in a moment like this though. Here's to Folly, Ruin, and Desire.

>>6188695
>>6188651
>>6188595

61 I believe. Is it enough...?

>>6188655
>>the outcome doesn't change, our power could be multiplied or divided by ten, and I wouldn't notice a difference
I really don't think this is true. We really only end up in bad situations when we roll poorly or go in without preparation: we lost our bet with Dove because we waited too long to attack Isa (and while we'd probably lose to her one on one with just physical fighting I think with Pallas and our main power set of mind fuckery we can probably beat her), we lost to Rosa because we rolled really badly, we were wiping the floor with the Penitent dude until the King showed up and we rolled horribly to resist, etc. Plus, we can leave our contract with Eris and the Austrian whenever we feel like it, and our deals with Pheme and Ye Min are pretty even all things considered. Once we master our arts and start eating interwraiths I think we can start really wrecking shop

>>6188816
>we can leave our contract with Eris and the Austrian whenever we feel like it,
Eris probably, the Austrian, it's unknown
he could pull the same shit Americans can and have a unit that counters us, with us being able to do exactly jack and shit against it

>our deals with Pheme and Ye Min are pretty even all things considered
Pheme, yeah, Ye Min, not really
she, or anyone in her round table, could stomp us like a bug, and we're trading in funny money (galaxies, an incomprehensible scale)
I don't even know why she keeps us around when she could both stomp us, and have one of her underlings fill the role of the controlled opposition

I'd say that part of the problem is that when shit gets fucked, we get a whole part of the quest about how fucked up we got (or at least multiple full length posts purely focusing on it)
and when we win (be it wiping a huge amount of people, or killing someone alright sized enemy), we get half a paragraph of kills being cut off, autosorted rewards, and no real progress because our real power gain comes from talking about our feelings in front of a metaphorical soul mirror

>>6188851
>I don't even know why she keeps us around when she could both stomp us, and have one of her underlings fill the role of the controlled opposition
Not anymore with the pact we signed


>I'd say that part of the problem is that when shit gets fucked, we get a whole part of the quest about how fucked up we got (or at least multiple full length posts purely focusing on it)
and when we win (be it wiping a huge amount of people, or killing someone alright sized enemy), we get half a paragraph of kills being cut off, autosorted rewards, and no real progress because our real power gain comes from talking about our feelings in front of a metaphorical soul mirror
Overall I think you’re complaining too much about not having “true freedom” and not being able to solo the entire world and win, but this bit kinda strikes true lol

For the rest of it though this isn’t a god quest where we have effectively infinity power and no one can contest us. It was never advertised as that and I wouldn’t want it to be like that.

>>6188856
I'm fine with being weak, if we can at least truly enjoy in the moments we're not
it is something we did a lot early on, and even did a bunch in this interlude, but don't do in our normal life, pretty sure I could write down and find the instances of playing mario games being more common than reveling in slaughter

>>6188595
>>6188651
>>6188695

>48,58,61 (Reckless)

The geometry on the floor erupts in a burst of crimson light, blazing like a raging fire against the futility of existing in this plane. Unfettered by the confines of reality, the glowing matter extends above the ground, twirling and shifting, slowly at first, then with exponentially increasing speed, whirring and spinning faster than your eyes can track. You cackle as you feel reality itself warp around you, the fabric between one world and another pressing and folding in on itself, a 6-dimensional mobius strip resisting the corrective force of the plane.

A giddiness runs through you, like a kid who figured out how to pry open the cookie jar without permission: this power is yours.

>New Art: Cosmic Dominion (incomplete) (effective level ???)
Allows you to create tears in spacetime by which you or others with your permission may travel to other dimensions. Interplanar travel is also possible but thoroughly unrecommended

You close your eyes, steeling your will for what exists beyond it, and the potential oblivion lying at the other end. With trepidation, but the will to gamble it all for the glory and power that awaits, you take a step into the abyss.

~

You float alone in the vacuum of space. However, despite it all, a sense of congruity runs through your body. This reality is still poison, and the conditions are still hostile, but you feel… tethered. You can feel the binds around your fingertips, the connections you have to your servants and your allies alike pulling you, tugging you back to where you’re supposed to go. You chuckle– this deep beyond the veil, it all seems so.. tenuous. It feels like you could snap the tiny, fraying little strings at a whim.

>(Optional write-in: break any bargains of your choosing, excepting your soul pact with Ye Min)

You exhale, gripping onto those chains with all your might as you dislodge yourself from existing at all.

~

>>6188877

You awake to a familiar palette of redwood flooring and crimson carpet. Music, a tragic symphony of power and might, of grief and suffering and loss accents the dimly lit symphony hall as you stagger to your feet. You breathe intaking friendly air and allowing your soul to finally let itself unclench.

You did it.

You’re back.

You double over, laughing like mad, as you feel your soul begin to sort itself back as it ought to be, the system’s guiding hand finally there to help fix what the King broke.

>Soul damage detected! Initiating emergency repairs
>Divinity compromised! Restoring lost data
>Restoring incarnation data
>...
>...
>Integrity Restored

The system has rewards waiting for you, but you have something more important right now:

The Flagellant who kicked off this mess in the first place lies prone on the ground, crimson chains binding every inch of his writing body to the pristine wooden slats: it seems like not a single second has passed since you were banished. Your grin grows so wide, your laughter so persistent that you can feel the edges of your mouth and your diaphragm ache. The King’s intervention was for nothing: you came back stronger than ever, and his pawn is still helpless, his very life fully at your disposal.

>Try to interrogate him
>Twist the dagger
>Put him down quickly
>Write-in

>>6188859
We literally just got a whole arc of throwing our weight around in a world where we far eclipse everyone except ocean man and maybe the dragon cutter guy.

>>6188878
Oh pog
>Twist the dagger

Gonna wait to vote on the broken pacts until I can read them over in a couple hours but almost certainly want to break the one to Kronos

>>6188877
>>(Optional write-in: break any bargains of your choosing, excepting your soul pact with Ye Min)
>Non-Aggression Pact with Eris

>>6188878
>Taunt him with knowledge of "Casziago, prince of Malgha"
>Try to interrogate him

>>6188878

AHAHAHAHAHA SUCK IT UNCROWNED KING! YOU WERE A LOSER THEN, AND YOU'RE A LOSER NOW!

>Twist the dagger

>>>6188877
> Break Kronos
Yeah, with Ye Min's backing we don't really need him, and that frees us up to destabilize his territory.

Totally fucking random, but did we ever get the pantheon bonus? Or do we need to like, stick it in someone?

>>6188878
>it seems like not a single second has passed since you were banished
so what I'm hearing is that we should train up on dimension hopping and dupe time to train the only powers that matter
sure our soul might get hurt, but the system will fix it when we come back
the whole process costing us nothing except possibly some resources for the system to fix shit

>>6188881
I explicitly mentioned the arc in the post, though I called it an interlude
though I think saying we were stronger than anyone in the world, where we saw only a single kingdom of what is a whole planet is making some big assumptions

>>6188896
Something tells me the System will be less kindly if we yeet ourselves into a poisonous universe on purpose as opposed to dueling its main adversary.

I wonder how badly the system would react to us trying hack it, now that we know a bit about how such a thing might be done.

>>6188898
I say push it to see if it starts screaming before we get fucked anyway, either by it, or happenstance (see Gaia taking away our free levelups), we need every advantage we can get

>>6188902
It's been pretty chill about issuing warnings in the past. And hey, maybe there's a dev console.

>>6188878
>(Optional write-in: break any bargains of your choosing, excepting your soul pact with Ye Min)
>Non-Aggression Pact with Eris
>Taunt him with knowledge of "Casziago, prince of Malgha"
>Try to interrogate him

hmmmmm so that bond is that strong sort of want her to fail this ye min

>>6188888
>Totally fucking random, but did we ever get the pantheon bonus? Or do we need to like, stick it in someone?

Oh shit I totally forgot about that uh I mean since you never officially had Lethe join your pantheon before or after acquiring the last <Myth>, the bonus hasn't kicked in yet

Anyway of the four votes half want to cut ties with Eris and 1 (and one uncommitted) of four want to break the deal with Kronos. I'll give you guys some time to sort that out, otherwise I'll take the comments from >>6188851 as a vote to sever both bonds and do so.

Thanks for reading, by the way! While I can't control player actions, the upcoming arc is probably going to be a more action and development heavy one as opposed to the introspective stuff from 7-9 so stay tuned.

>>6188989
Break Kronos for sure, but Eris? Cmon guys she's like our sis from another miss.

>>6189033
Amusingly I can't even bring myself to see Eris as a threat either. It's like, we're just going to eclipse her eventually.

>>6188878
>break with Eris and Kronos
>Taunt him with knowledge of "Casziago, prince of Malgha"
>Try to interrogate him

>>6189033
>>6189051
I want to be in total control of our pantheon, can't do that with not being able to put the thumb on her

>>6189347
support best to do it all changing my vote
just wish we could plunge china into chaos

>>6189516
that choice is seemingly permanent, we're locked allegiance

>>6188886
I can add Kronos to my vote, but Kronos' contract has an exit clause.
The contract with Eris doesn't, that's why I've been more insistant on it.

>>6188989
I assumed it was because we were missing the one for Famine in Yemen?
Then when we met up with the pantheon again the Korean one was also missing(?)
But now we're actually complete?

>Assemble your pantheon to gain a bonus to the effective level of all authorities, as well as a bonus authority that is only available upon full pantheon assembly
lay it on us

>>6189583
Not sure why'd we want to keep Kronos
The only thing he wants from us now is to harass and weaken China, and that's no longer an option with the Ye Min pact.
Exit clause requires giving him healthy warning time, better to just cut it all at once
He might think it means we died

>>6188882
>>6188886
>>6188888
>>6188938
>>6189347

>Break ties (Eris, Kronos)
>Try to interrogate him
>Twist the dagger (Tell him about Casziago)

You stroll across the walkway, the heels of your boots clicking against the wood beneath them as you slowly but deliberately make your way towards your captured prisoner. The masked knight writhes against the restraints, trying his damndest to snap them, not knowing that there’s nothing physical present to break. His own faith, his own righteous indignation– and the humiliation which burns beneath– are nothing but fuel atop the fires of the <First Link>. You smirk: the King isn’t here to protect his child anymore.

“Tell me what you know.” You order, tightening the <Fetters> with a dramatic (though totally unnecessary) flourish of your hands. He grits his teeth beneath his mask so hard you can hear one chip as the blood pouring from his orifices flows stronger than it had been. This is his only reply.

“Do you like this place? You might not see it, but it’s changed!” You snicker, patting the sturdy wooden frame of one of the benches as if to emphasize its durability, “I’ve changed. This place, it isn’t strictly real, and it isn’t strictly me. It’s a subspace created by the system. But!”

Crimson water begins to flood the room, somehow leaving the carpets and wooden paneling completely untouched as it whirls through the symphony hall, its effervescent rapids bringing with them the smell of the sea, and the distinct metallic sweetness of blood.

“After spending a little time managing ALONE, I’ve gotten better at asserting it. Send my regards to your boss. Oh, you can’t hear him? Must be tough.”

“Water does not scare me, Devil.”

You lift your hand to your mouth, pulling a mocking faux-gasp into your parted lips as you do, “So he speaks! I’ll make my demands clearer then. I want locations– all of the locations you have– for nodes, compounds, dusty little cult training grounds, the works. As well as all the info you have on your King and fellow courtiers. If you don’t talk-”

You lean forward, baring a mouth full of impossibly sharp fangs, unhinging your jaws to reveal rows and rows of needle-like teeth. Another mouth opens on your neck, finishing your sentence for you as crimson saliva leaks from the one on your face, “-I’ll show you something much worse than water.”

“Your threats are nothing– YOU are nothing– before the glory of the King.”

You return your body to normal, laughing scornfully at his confidence in his god, “You don’t have a king. You have a prince! A lowly little loser so cowardly and desperate for power that he’d stab his entire family in the back. I met him, you know. He cowered at my feet.”

>>6189833

He returns your laughter to you, an eerie chuckle reverberating through his cobalt blue face-covering. “That boy is not our king,” he declares, “merely a single gear in the clockwork of his being. He is infinite, He is beyond time and space and power. Only He can create eternity. Compared to that,” he pauses, then repeats, “you are nothing.”

You stop to think for a moment, then let out another little snicker, this one entirely involuntary. “Your king,” you begin, “Had the know-how to kick me into another Plane. You might not know this, but that’s pretty hard. A lot harder, actually, than moving someone to another reality on the same plane– even I can do that, after all.”

“...get to the point.”

“It would be much easier, in other words,” you continue, completely ignoring him, “for him to just… bring me to his “eternal infinite power” or whatever you call it. His reality. But he didn’t! Instead he did something a lot more difficult and a lot more dangerous. Why?”

“The King’s will is beyond our-”

“Yeah yeah ineffable cosmic plan or whatever, blah blah blah. But you’re wrong! He definitely doesn’t like me, and he proved it when he went so out of his way to kill me. So: why. like. this?”

He silently glares at you, waiting for you to finish.

“I have a little piece of the System in me. Wherever I go– well, wherever in THIS plane I go– it comes with. And where it goes, I can only imagine, whatever it is that made it can see.” You lean in close enough to see the scarring and crusty, clotted, scabbing blood in his eye sockets, “Your king couldn’t bring me to him because he’s afraid.”

He screams, shouting profanities and threats at you as loudly as his lungs can manage, attempting to force his hands around your throat against your fetters as he tries to enact them. In your <Manifestation> (and probably yours alone) the King cannot save him anymore.

“So, like I said: tell me what you know.”

“I know,” he spits, breathy with exhaustion and burdened with the finality of his service, “that the king will come. And when he does, death will come for you.”

Suddenly, and without warning, his soul ceases to exist, crumbling to dust and blowing away as if he had been hit by Pallas’s <Ruination>. You wonder if all the high ranking courtiers have this power as you stand fully upright once again.

>Manage the system rewards
>Lay waste to the Compound
>Seize the Node before reinforcements arrive
>Write-in

>>6189836
>Seize the Node before reinforcements arrive
Nom
Then
>Lay waste to the Compound

Cool stuff, I didn't think we had improved enough to block the King out of anything, big and buff as he is
Didn't think his followers would have known his origin either

>>6189845
Support!

Probably only the highest echelons know. And it might simply come down to, with the System's restrictions, that vertical yeet is the only attack he can hit us with directly.

And all it did was make us stronger.

>>6189836
>>6189845
sure, +1

>>6189845
+2
though getting out alive is more important, so have someone keep watch for that reinforcements to arrive

>>6189792
because he also wont attack us?
I'm not sure if he still has to hold up his end of the bargain

>>6190151
Not too concerned about him attacking us while we’re in China, and we can make preparations to be safe before leaving

Being able to hit his territory hard for power without warning is far more appealing

>>6190217
yeah, but we also have protection for our subortinates, namely our mafia with whom we never really did anything, nor followed up on the belarus thing

>>6190265
>our mafia with whom we never really did anything, nor followed up on the belarus thing
If we never bothered to follow up or do anything with them, are they really worth limiting ourselves for

>>6189845
>>6189862
>>6189934
>>6190151

>Seize the Node before reinforcements arrive
then
>Lay waste to the Compound

You exit your <Choir>, feeling the arid heat of the Taklamakan beat against your skin. The dry air and dust tickle your throat but, despite the discomfort, you can’t get enough of the sensation of simply breathing, existing in a world that isn’t actively eroding your very being and threatening to dissolve you entirely if you let up for even a moment’s notice.

You activate <Stealth> and <Guerilla Tactics>, changing your shape into that of a falcon as you give a nod to your subordinates, gesturing for them to stand by as you bolt through the now undefended gap in the compound’s defenses.

You soar through the city, similar in make and architecture to the lesser compound you destroyed previously in search for the Node. Modern skyscrapers bearing the traditional motifs of ancient China, a glimpse of what could have been without their discouragement decades ago slip beneath your talons as you fly straight towards the towering temple at the center, a glorious white edifice adorned in burgundy and gold, its pristine surfaces radiating the unsettling, terrifying essence of not-black. You are reminded that this… thing and Casziago of Malgha are, despite your taunts, in no way comparable. Even with your newfound protection, remembering how it felt to bear even a fragment of the full wrath of the Uncrowned King sends shivers down your spine. Still, you have a mission.

The compound beneath seems a bit too quiet– empty streets save a few vehicles speeding to wherever it is they need to go, bustle and sound reduced to whispers as the entire city, despite the oppressive light of the sun, seems to have gone dark. You’re running on borrowed time.

You dart past the guards unspotted, utilizing your practice in the other Plane to keep your divinity from leaking at all, erasing your presence from the eyes of the lower-level Courtiers left behind to guard the Node. Your eyes narrow: this is almost too easy.

You eventually come across a door, locked and sealed with <Gifts> that you can’t hope to crack without taking long enough to be noticed. You could probably make it through if you had someone to open the door for you, or you could take a.. less intended method of ingress.

>Ignore the door and through the wall
>Find a higher ranking courtier and use them as a key
>Try to slip in through a crack or gap somewhere
>Write-in

File: big_dumb_heroes.jpg (271 KB, 1535x1758)

271 KB JPG

Also pic unrelated, here are some doodles for some of the antagonists. Designs aren't completely final, of course, but these are where my head's at

>>6190709
>Find a higher ranking courtier and use them as a key

>>6190709
>Ignore the door and through the wall
OH YEAH

>>6190710
Woah Prometheus is an antagonist? I thought he was only a future antagonist

>>6190709
>Ignore the door and through the wall

And by wall, I mean rod from god from above, through the ceilings. The door is definitely protected. The walls are probably protected. The ceiling and floor above them? Seems less likely.

>>6190709
>>Try to slip in through a crack or gap somewhere

>>6190269
more like we're ADHD and only ever do the next interesting thing and have no follow up to anything really

>>6190763
>>6190785
>>6190790
>>6190964

>Ignore the door

You decide to circumvent the matter of the door and enter with brute force. You consider busting down a wall, but decide that you’ll have an easier time with a bit more momentum; silently exiting the facility, you manifest the <Cloak of the Pegasus>, bolting into the sky and settling as far above the temple as the protective dome around the compound will allow. Wasting no time, you manifest your <Palladium>, placing your <Cloak> on its shoulders as you puppeteer its body, growing a metal drill at its feet, pushing your <Thousand Faces> authority to its limits as tungsten begins to crystalize beneath the soles of the construct’s boots, first gradually, then with increasing celerity until a cone so dense that each cubic inch weighs almost a full pound floats suspended only by your power.

You see through the eyes of the <Palladium>, feeling plummet feet-first, the gravitational pull on the half-ton of tungsten being exacerbated by your own efforts as you activate <Supernatural Speed> in tandem with your cloak’s speed. You feel your false bones creak and shake as a massive shockwave erupts from the tip of the improvised missile, nearby buildings trembling and losing their windows to the pressure as a devastating sonic boom explodes over the hushed city. If they didn’t know you were here before, they certainly do now.

Just before you make contact, you activate <Down to the Core> at the point of the drill, compressed air spinning and shredding through anything that wasn’t completely obliterated by the impact. The wooden construct splinters and shatters, allowing you to swoop into the obliterated house of the King uncontested. You pluck your artifact from the floor, dusting the woodchips and dust off of the feathers and cloth before slinging it back over your shoulder.

>Congratulations!..
>Congratulations!..

You search through the detritus, using your <Eyes> to easily spot the massive thrum of divinity emblematic of a <Node>. You snicker as you find it, the marble and the stone pedestal it sat upon left perfectly intact despite having fallen over due to a lost foundation. You ignore the screams of agony and terror of the scant survivors flooding the air around you, strolling casually over to your prize as you pluck it gingerly from its place.

<Omen> tingles slightly, warning you of the usual dangers of consuming a node, as well as an oncoming danger. Reinforcements are soon to arrive.

>Devour the <Node> here and now
>Run away for now and eat it later
>Stand your ground and fight the approaching courtiers
>Write-in

>>6191641
>Devour the <Node> here and now
It's a tradition to eat things we shouldn't in places we shouldn't!

>>6191641
>Devour the <Node> here and now
We're invincible!

>>6191641
>Run away for now and eat it later

>>6191641
>Run away for now and eat it later
tactical retreat

>>6191641
>Run away for now and eat it later
I want to try fileting it like eating a soul

>>6191701
>>6191724
>>6191841
>>6192135

>Run away for now and eat it later

Clutching your spoils in your claws, wrapping its divinity with your own to keep it contained and static, you rise from the rubble and bodies, careening towards the exit from which you came. You see your subordinates on the way out, chatting about something you presume to be trivial as they stand in an oddly causal manner beneath the blistering desert sun. You grow a second set of arms, extending and reinforcing them as you rocket past your <Servants>, plucking them from the ground and bathing them in your stealth authorities as you rocket towards the safe spot you had in mind like a missile seeking the heat of its target.

~

“What are you doing in my office?”

Shattered glass litters the austere, spacious office as you leisurely stroll towards the chair across from its owner. Chairwoman Min sits still and straight, her face only belying slight perturbation as though she were more offended by your barging in without appointment than your destructive method of ingress. Despite the dramatic entrance, not a single speck of debris sits upon her fresh-pressed suit or tidy raven hair, her cleanliness and composure almost comedic against the wreckage behind and below her. Bits of ruined window crunch beneath your feet as you reach your destination, plopping down on your seat after tossing your underlings behind you (though mercifully outside the area coated in glass shards).

“Sorry. Emergency getaway. I had tails.”

You weaken your grip over the <Node>, allowing a surge of the King’s divinity to seep out from between your fingers. Even at such a minimal output, a nauseating dread accompanies it, seemingly affecting the Chairwoman far more than you. She frowns, clicking her tongue and sharpening her gaze, leaning forward as if to communicate that she meant business. With a flick of her wrist, she beckons for you to recontain the Node's power, and you happily oblige.

“I’ll send for someone to repair the window.”

“Not charging me?”

“Such a thing is inconsequential. That being said–" she twists her lips into her usual politician's smile, a perfect subtle expression that never touches her eyes. However, despite her flawless poker face, you can sense a sardonic, almost amused bite to her tone, "if you intend to use my Knights as a human shield.. that much will cost you.”

>”I’ll be quick,” (consume the node as you always have)
>”Actually, this is for you,” (gain credit with Ye Min)
>”Put it on my tab,” (experiment with it here)
>”Just stopping by,” (consume the node elsewhere)
>Write-in

>>6192447
>”Just stopping by,” (consume the node elsewhere)
Let's pop back to our pocket dimension before doing anything that explodes everything from the torso down. I do like the idea of trying to slowly consume the node and get more of its power.

Absolutely fascinating that the node's power is threatening to Ye Min. We must have one of the larger, if not largest souls on the planet, excluding Gaia.

It's tempting to casually hint at having interdimensional travel, but I think I'd like to keep that one under our hat for now. On the other hand the information is probably worth a mountain of value.

>>6192447
>”I’ll be quick,” (consume the node as you always have)
Yeah even with our recent victory I don't want to take the King's solidified power back to home base

>>6192599
Yeah, that's part of why she chose us. All that node eating gave us an absolutely massive divinity pool.

>>6192447
>"Everything's an transaction with you isn't it?"
>”Just stopping by,” (consume the node elsewhere)
>"By the way, I think we should officiate our foeship in front of the world sometime. Preferably in some way that would make it seem like I weakened your power in some way. Having others underestimate you will be in your favor too."

>>6192447
>”Just stopping by,” (consume the node elsewhere)

>>6192613
I don't want to show her how we grew our divinity pool like that

>>6192599
>>6192613
>>6192965
>>6193507

>”Just stopping by,” (consume the node elsewhere)

“Always a transaction with you,” you sigh, dusting off your leggings as you rise from your seat after having only sat down for a mere moment, “Oh, and one last thing before I go.”

“Do tell.”

“I think we should make it public information that you and I are enemies. It’d make it a lot easier for me to move around.”

“I’ll take it under advisement. Of course, if there are damages involved–”

“Yeah I know, it’ll cost me.”

She frowns slightly at being interrupted but doesn’t object to the claim, “If that will be all…” she waves her hand, gesturing to your friends still lying on the floor behind you, “You ought not forget your companions.”

“Hey, did you really just toss me into a wall for a ten second conversation?” Pallas whines, rolling her shoulders and trying to work out a crick in her neck, “That was like, two emails of content!”

“I thought it was quite entertaining,” Dorota replies, slipping into your shadow as you pick Iwana back up, once again lugging her beneath your arm like a piece of luggage. She sighs, at this point having learned to assume the position as you take flight once again.

As you fly, you can feel <Omen> thrumming in the background, the danger slowly but inexorably increasing as you spend more time with the <Node>. As long as you have it, their pursuit of you will be relentless, despite the potential risks. You’d like to use your <Manifestation> to temporarily remove yourself from the physical plane, but thanks to <No Encore> you have to wait another day before using it again. Dorota snickers, seemingly understanding your dilemma.

“If it pleases you, I have a tidy solution to your current issue. My <Maw> would be perfectly safe, and you could take all the time you need while your hunting dog and I outrun the courtiers.”

Despite the flawless logic, you really don’t want to do that. Then again, do you really have a choice? What should you do?

>Bring Brigita out and ride on her
>Have Pallas carry you while she runs
>Flee into your <Divine Realm>
>Take Dorota up on her offer
>Write-in

>>6193706
>Have Pallas carry you while she runs
as I said, I want to try and filed the node better to not have the system take the lions share again.
taking it all will still be difficult, but we should at least try and meditate on its nature to see how best to utilize it.
and I don't think putting the node in Dorota's "mouth" would be what we want after knowing what happens when we put one into ours.

>>6193706

Could we use
> Clockwork Encore
> You may use this authority after the use of another authority or item which incurs a cooldown. That cooldown will be doubled and transferred to <Clockwork Encore>, allowing the original authority to be used again immediately.

To jump into our manifestation?

Because if that's an option, let's do that.

>>6193706
Backing >>6193756
We got and levelled that skill for a reason

>>6193706
>>6193756
+1
i feel like that the manifestation specifically doesn't work with that

>>6193713
>>6193756
>>6194015
>>6194140

>Use <Clockwork Encore>

You remember the authority you picked up in your fight with ADAM, the one that allows you to transfer cooldowns from one ability to another. You decide to test it out, hoping to be able to activate your <Manifestation> again, and:

> <Clockwork Encore>: 46:50:12

It worked. Thinking quickly, you tell Dorota to make herself physical as you part your lips, a triumphant melody erupting from deep inside your chest as a field of crimson energy warps the space around you.

~

Pallas and Dorota watch from the empty rows of seats as you sit on stage, dozens of phantasms of yourself shimmering and glowing as they perform a quiet, contemplative melody. <Omen> persists, warning you of the poison of the King despite your retreat to somewhere that should be safe. Still, you can’t afford to waste any more time: your jaw unhinging from its socket and stretching beyond the human limit, you shove the <Node> down your throat.

<Preservation Instinct> begins to scream as you diverge from the usual method, trying to pry as much divinity from the node as possible. You feel the eyes of the King back on you, watching you, cursing you, its will sharpening and galvanizing the divinity in its hard-won crystallization of pure power to thrash and spew and slash and burn. You double over, <Regeneration> and <A Thousand Faces, A Thousand Voices> trying and failing to deal with the consequences. A spear emerges from the node, piercing through your brain and injecting enough power to cause your cerebral fluids to instantly evaporate, the pressure enough to cause your brain to explode.

Panicking, you manifest your <Figure Unspeakable>, Dorota helpfully covering Pallas’s eyes from the sight of you as she views your wretched appearance unphased. You concentrate as much as you can on repairing the damage and reinforcing the part of you with the misfortune of keeping the node in place while you digest it.

How is this possible? The king shouldn’t be able to affect you here– otherwise, why would it leave one of his best servants to die? Worse still, you’ve only managed to digest about five percent of the <Node>, and you’re already in serious danger.

Divinity: 5,730->7,200
If you accept the system’s help now, you should be able to consume at least a tenth of what remains without much additional risk. Alternatively, if you figure it out on your own, you could increase your total divinity pool almost fivefold.

What should you do?

>Quit while you’re ahead
>Try to eat it all (requires a roll: specify between Cautious, Normal, Reckless, and Desperate)
>Write-in

>>6194622

> A spear emerges from the node, piercing through your brain and injecting enough power to cause your cerebral fluids to instantly evaporate, the pressure enough to cause your brain to explode.

I really love that we're at the point in our career where this is more inconvenience than life threatening.
> Spit it out and try to 'Tenderize' it.
I'm guessing this thing is in some capacity or another a small slice of the Uncrowned King, essentially a twisted mess of interwraith and souls. It definitely has a strong desire to fucking murder us, so let's try to use that against it.

Hit it with Fetters of Atë Mind Link and the Manifestation Powers. These all draw power from their target, so hopefully they can scale to the fact that this thing is five times our size, and use its powerful desires against it.

Maybe Dorota can slam it with some of her horror torture shit too.

> Cautious

>>6194622
There is formatting going on in this post that I didn't even know was possible

>>6194655
+1 if possible
We got time in here
Spit it out, take a breather, try again

If it's not possible to just spit out
>Quit while you’re ahead
More than a 20% divinity increase is nice, especially when we already have such a massive pool

>>6194622
>>6194655
>> Spit it out and try to 'Tenderize' it.
>> Cautious
was always the plan

>>6194655
>>6194707
>>6194914

>Spit it out and try to 'Tenderize' it.
>Cautious

Please give me 3 rolls of 3d33

Rolled 33, 14, 20 = 67 (3d33)

>>6195138

Rolled 7, 27, 13 = 47 (3d33)

>>6195138

Rolled 10, 2, 7 = 19 (3d33)

>>6195138

>>6195163
Damn, good thing we didn't go reckless this time

>>6195141
>>6195149
>>6195163

>67, 47, 19 <Cautious> (47 accepted)

You spit the <Node> out of your gullet and onto the floor, a black sludge seeping out of it and dissolving into the air as ebony dust. It seems like, having no means to escape, the jewel of the King is trying to eliminate itself. If He can’t have it, you suppose, nobody can– but you were never one to play by other people’s rules. You flex your soul, <Fetters> wrapping around the node and keeping it in one piece as you attempt to make it a bit more digestible.

You try a simultaneous activation of your <Ordinance> and <Gaze of the Usurper>, fighting through the pain as the renegade cluster of power writhes and struggles against your influence. Your breath hitches in your chest as you observe the network representing the node’s <Impetus>– unlike the neatly, organically woven webs that sprout and weave from the will of a more natural organism, the King (or at least the node) is more like a mosaic: a thousand different wills and hopes and desires and dreams petrified and stuck into a massive, incomprehensible wall of will. Though the surface has colors and desires you can latch onto, trying to understand the essence of the Uncrowned King is an impossible task, like explaining Infinite Jest to an ant.

Still, you persist, a single tendril of your power sinking into each and every contradictory impulse you can understand, teasing and prying it away from the core of the <Node> and taking chunks of the parts subsumed fully by the King with it. You have to implement a <Supertask>, black blood seeping out of your mouth as your body begins to rot from the inside out at the immeasurable strain caused by trying to process so much so quickly. <Regeneration> works in overdrive, new flesh growing and withering and dying in an increasingly taxing cycle.

Still, despite the pain, you push through because it’s working. You sculpt and project hundreds of illusions at a time, quelling the desires and regrets of the fragments of humanity and life still poking out from the endless oblivion of the not-black. In a way, you’re like an exorcist, bringing relief to the wretched, screaming ghosts trapped in the belly of a horrible beast. The notion is almost amusing.

Still, you can feel the node succeeding in its resistance: the inner parts, the majority of the remaining power, are imploding and annihilating themselves, putting you on an even more strenuous clock as you try to process near infinite information in what is in reality only a matter of seconds. In the end, you lose the race against entropy, but not without a hefty consolation prize:

>Divinity: 10,500

You rise, nose crinkling at the smell of scorched brain matter and necrosis. You return to a more human shape, trailing rotting corpse-slime behind you as you make your way to center stage, taking a bow for your enthusiastic audience of two.

~

>>6195490

“Eeeeeaaaguh,”

You make a sound you don’t think you ever have before as you slump down on your soft, wonderful couch, sinking deep into the cushions in a blissful bout of laziness. You forgot how comfortable real furniture is– it certainly beats stone floors, iron cells, or a magic lead coffin on the fucking moon. Despite having gained a lot in your little excursion, you really are happy to be home. You pause for a second, surprised that you were even capable of believing a statement such as that.

Still, there ain’t no rest for the wicked– you have much to do.

>Manage the system
>Touch base with Pheme
>Actually, a break does sound nice (optional write-in, specify activity)
>Write-in

>>6195492
>Manage the system
>Jam Lethe into the pantheon damn it

>>6195492
>>Actually, a break does sound nice (optional write-in, specify activity)
>"Olive Garden? I need some breadsticks"

>>6195492
>Touch base with Pheme
We can take a break with her after

>>6195492
Supporting >>6195501. Business before pleasure.

>>6195501
>>6195558
>>6195628
>>6195681

>Manage the system (We’ll deal with the pantheon after rewards are sorted)

It seems like you really had accumulated a reasonable number of rewards since you’ve last checked:

Influence: 14,759->17,483/409,600

>Congratulations! You have gained the Fable grade title <Divine Parlay>! Please select from the following rewards:

>Hint: <A Question to the Sea>
>Architect Grade Relic: <Mirror of the Infinite Self>
>Fable Grade Trait: <Perfect Solvent>
>Architect Grade Authority: <Absolute Everywhere (A)>
>1,000,000 Influence

>Congratulations! You may select the Mythic grade title <Cosmically Obnoxious>! (should you choose to accept, select from the following rewards):

>Legendary Trait: <Petulant Pest>
>Fable Grade Consumable: <Chains of Sisyphus>
>Mythic Weapon: <Gadfly’s Sting>

>Congratulations! You may select the Architect grade title <One Who Returned From Beyond Existence> (should you choose to accept, select from the following rewards):

>Architect Grade Trait: <Perfect Anchor>
>Architect Grade Privilege: <One True God>
>Hint: <Devourer’s Guide: Combat For Dummies>
>Hint: <Spirit of Winter’s Legacy>
>5 Incarnation Levels (no influence gain)

>Congratulations! You may select the Fable grade title <Oathcutter> (should you choose to accept, select from the following rewards):

>Mythic Trait: Contract By Proxy
>Fable Grade Authority: Crooked Deal
>Architect Grade Consumable: Semele’s Salvation
>100,000 Influence

>>6196152
>accept all
>Architect Grade Relic: <Mirror of the Infinite Self>
>Mythic Weapon: <Gadfly’s Sting>
>Architect Grade Privilege: <One True God>
>Fable Grade Authority: Crooked Deal

>>6196152
>Accept all

>Hint: <A Question to the Sea>
>Legendary Trait: <Petulant Pest>
>Architect Grade Privilege: <One True God>
>Mythic Trait: Contract By Proxy

Huh, I didn’t think we’d get system rewards for stuff done in the other dimension since we didn’t have the system there

>>6196152
Architect!? Is that a step above Fable?

>>6196246
I presume it has some sort of spyware installed in our soul. It definitely likes us taking steps toward true godhood though.

> <Divine Parlay>
The hint is tempting, but...
>Architect Grade Relic: <Mirror of the Infinite Self>
Maybe something that can help with divine super tasks? The Alkahest is probably super handy too, might let us break down souls exceptionally well.

> <Cosmically Obnoxious>
>Legendary Trait: <Petulant Pest>
Beautiful, beautiful doesn't take up anything slots traits

> <One Who Returned From Beyond Existence>
>Architect Grade Trait: <Perfect Anchor>
I really have to wonder what a Privilege is.

<Oathcutter>
Fucking amazing that the system wanted us to circumvent it. I want to try and find its spyware next.
>Mythic Trait: Contract By Proxy
Ahh, I can see it now, Lethe and Philotes out there ensnaring souls into our web. Philotes in a cancer ward with healing, Lethe helping people with PTSD.

>>6196152
>We’ll deal with the pantheon after rewards are sorted
can we NOT add lethe to the pantheon just yet? I want to hold the completion of the pantheon hostage. before empowering any of them further we should deal with them.
conference with pheme on what to do

>>6196152
>accept all
ok, so the flat 1M influence +5 levels would catapult us to level 20
that'd be quite juicy, but I think nobody else would support

>>6196285
>Maybe something that can help with divine super tasks?
I don't think it will.
these divine supertasks have not been something we were doing within the system

>Architect Grade Authority: <Absolute Everywhere (A)>
omnipresence go!
>Legendary Trait: <Petulant Pest>
>Architect Grade Privilege: <One True God>
>Mythic Trait: Contract By Proxy

>>6196292
+1
I think we should get in each of their real names, so we can find them anywhere, and cross them off one after the other.
but I also kinda don't want any more contracts that'd forbid us to kill them

new IP, I'm >>6195149

>>6196292

See, I figure if we get 10% stronger and they get 10% stronger, we started at 100 and they started at 10, so it's to our advantage.

Admittedly wiping out/consolidating control over the pantheon isn't even on my todo list anymore.

>>6196354
can we just conference with pheme first?
sure, Narges is the one with combat ability, but the rest will have tons of utility stuff

>>6196382
I don't mind thinking it over, but it's going to be hella sus if we don't lock down the pantheon bonuses immediately.

>>6196186
>>6196246
>>6196285
>>6196292
>>6196324

>Architect Grade Relic: <Mirror of the Infinite Self> (Divinity Stored: 0/100,000,000)

A cheap replica of the magnum opus crafted by a god from a different version of a different reality. Capable of viewing versions of yourself from across verticality.

>Fractalize (100 divinity per second)
Scans realities within 10,000 strata of yourself for realities which were once identical to your own at the moment of utilization at a rate of 1 new stratum per second in every direction. Does not permit viewing

>Nosy Neighbor (1,000 divinity per second per stratum)
Allows you to view the present lives of your vertical selves, with the cost being proportional to the distance between yourself and them

>Pseudo-Prophecy (100,000)
Allows you to view any reality marked by <Fractalize>, starting from your present and ending at the present of the alternate reality or your death

>Spectator’s Glance (???)
Allows you to view any location in any reality of your choosing. Requires manual control.

>Legendary Trait: <Petulant Pest>
Once per day, when dealt a lethal injury by a person who you’ve managed to deeply upset, your body will regenerate itself and teleport to a location designated safe within 1,000 meters as it may with a <Lizard’s Tail>

>Mythic Trait: Contract By Proxy
You may strike bargains while possessing another person’s body, or have some other person bound to your service strike them in your stead. The unknowing signee will be bound to the terms as if you had been the true contractor, but your proxy will be beholden to the obligations of the contract instead. However, should the unknowing party gain knowledge of the trick, they may cancel the contract at their leisure.

>Architect Grade Privilege: <One True God>

Rather than a normal reward screen, you receive a new set of system notifications instead:

>Congratulations! God rank has shifted from C to <One True God>!
>Congratulations! Your total authority slots have increased by 10!
>Congratulations! Your total miracle slots have increased by 5!
>Congratulations! You have earned the privilege of a secondary domain! Please select one. Note that your new <Directive> and any new authorities will be related to your new domain.
>You may choose to <Bolster> an existing domain instead, creating a bonus equal to your incarnation level whenever you use a system ability related to that domain. Bonuses do not stack.

You tilt your head– can you really just add whatever domain you want to your <Myth>?

>Bolster <Folly>
>Bolster <Ruin>
>Add a new domain (Write-in)

>Congratulations! Your total authority slots have increased by 10!
>Congratulations! Your total miracle slots have increased by 5!
Holy shit it's the promised land.
>Pseudo-Prophecy (100,000)
Fucking hell, we could scan forward through our life, presuming the nearest strata are nearly identical. The cost is steep but the benefits could be god damn insane. Max level mastermind.

A new domain... I'm curious which of our abilities is which frankly. A flat bonus to our abilities would be great, though new tools would also be great. Part of me thinks we ought to do something like Shadows or Darkness, see if we can pick up more stealth tools. Or take something like Destruction or Chaos to amp up our wrecking ball tendencies.

> Gain the domain of Puppets/Manipulation
We're already spending a lot of time controlling people, might as well get influence for it, get traits for it, and get keystone abilities for it.

>>6196643
>>Add a new domain (Write-in)
>music
spiritually we don't just want to be a force of destruction. we want to be good at the thing we like doing

>>6196710
Wow, how did music not come to my mind?

> Switching from Puppets to Music

We've got a song out in the world as it is, a Music Directive might result in an immediate flood of Influence.

>>6196798
that too
but I think it will help us with Yours Truly
we became the goddess of Folly and Ruin, but we chose to be a streamer and make music ourselves

>>6196643
kino

>>6196710
+1
with the future shop items we can take philotes directive too
then we can really rake in Influence on the devotion and friendship

>>6196643
We balling now
>Add Control
Music is a nice hobby, but this is our core

>>6196946
See I really like Music because music has always had themes of control within it, from battle anthems to pied pipers to lulling dangerous beasts and weeping children to sleep. Even mundane music compels the body to move or feel in certain ways.

>>6196946
>>6196954
music is also our Divinity Manifest
"music" is more who we are than "folly and ruin"

>>6196655
>>6196710
>>6196798
>>6196918
>>6196946

>New domain (Music)

>Congratulations! You have gained a <Secondary Domain>!
>Congratulations! You have gained a corresponding <Directive>!


>Secondary Directive: Popstar Pandemos:
You gain influence whenever a person willingly listens to one of your songs for the first time. You may gain influence from the same person repeatedly by creating new music. Influence gained from any individual song will be halved at each increment of 100 listeners. Influence will be reduced based on what percentage of the music making process, by your estimation, is a result of your own merit and creativity.

You decide to do a bit of math– suppose 300 million people listen to a new song you make: you would gain 100 influence from the first 100 listeners, then 4,950 from the next 9,900, then 247,500 from the next 990,000, then 250,000 for the next 2 million. That would be a bit over 510,000 influence just from a single song. If you got that many streams on a 12 song album, you could get over 6 million influence in a matter of days. Your mouth waters a bit just at the thought of it.

>Congratulations! You have gained a corresponding <Authority>!

>Songweaver (EX)
You may imbue your will into objects via song, granting them divine properties related to the artistry, subject matter, time, and emotional investment poured into the song. However, any music used in this way will cease to have ever existed, and all memory of it will be removed from the world. If this process is used on an existing relic, it will alter its properties to match the song and amplify the power of the item.

You frown– now that you understand the concept of <Impetus>, you can see this new authority as what it is, essentially trading away your emotions and blood and sweat and tears in exchange for a bit of power. Still, unpleasant though the concept is, you can’t deny how useful it could be to you.

>Store this authority
>Grind this authority
>Keep this authority

Since there was some contention about it earlier, I’ll also run a quick vote about completing the pantheon:
>Have Lethe join
>Keep him out of it for now

>>6197770
>Grind this authority
Let's see if we get anything special from grinding an EX

>Have Lethe join
Even less concerned about our pantheon causing trouble after collecting all those rewards
Hell, half+ have fallen in behind us without us needing to make any special effort, I feel like we can just keep on keeping on and we'll naturally take a leadership role

>>6197770
>Have Lethe join
It feels to me that not bringing in Lethe essentially broadcasts a massive target on our back. With Popstar Pandemos it feels like we ought to work on getting songs in ears. With Neuroplaston we can literally mind control people into listening, and frankly we're pretty good at the music gig anyway.

> Songweaver (EX)
This one makes my stomach churn a little. Like, using Atë's Birthday as fuel for an artifact probably makes a doomsday weapon, but I don't think I'd ever pull that trigger.
> Store it
Hard to see it not being more useful as fuel for an artifact, or maybe spin up miracles off of it.

>>6197770
>>Songweaver (EX)
I think the danger here is to forget how deep we had to go to get the song made. Say Ate's Birthday. I don't think we should lose the memory of what we had to go through to bring it forth.
However, we can always make new songs, see how they turn out and then decide whether to keep the songs or use them for imbueing.
we got a few free slots on hand right now, so just keep it. I'm not pressed to see how much influence we gain from grinding an EX.
>Keep this authority
>Have Lethe join
I don't quite care all that much either way

>>6197770
>Keep this authority
>Keep him out of it for now

>>6197782
>>6197933
>>6198284
>>6198302

>Keep this authority
>Have Lethe join

You sigh, steadying your resolve as you use your ownership of his soul to manually add Ciotti to the pantheon.

>Congratulations! You have completed the pantheon <Spawn of Discord>!
>All members will receive a flat bonus equal to the incarnation level of the highest leveled member (13) whenever any number of authorities or miracles are used!
>All members gain access to the <EX> Rated authority <Maker of Mischeif>!

>Maker of Mischief (EX) (0/10,000)
Whenever you act to undermine the authority of governments, religious institutions, or any other power which creates laws or dictates which people are obligated to follow, you gain a number of charges proportional to the act. These charges may be used to increase the effective level of any number of authorities at a cost of 2^x charges per second, where x is the total number of levels distributed across all authorities. Reaching 10,000 charges will grant the user 15 <Inner Drop of Chaos> items from a random member of the pantheon and reset the charge count. Alternatively, you may convert each charge into a single point of influence.

You get up, stretching your limbs as you ready yourself to get back to work.
>Touch base with Pheme
>See if you can commune with the Bandit King
>Train <Arts>
>Meet with the Pantheon
>Meet with Ye Min
>Work on music
>Write-in

>>6198455
>Touch base with Pheme
Is what any sane person would do.

>Work on music
seems like an optimal path though. I'm hood with either.

>>6196152
>Influence: 14,759->17,483
had those two compounds only been worth like 3k influence?

Did the <One True God> privilege change anything else in our system?
>check shop

>Touch base with Pheme
>"So yeah, I met god. check me out with a Record Pass. Can everyone see that there's a level above Fable?"
I want to know how it looks from someone elses screen.

>>6198457
music after, I don't know how much time has passed in general since we got our contract.
We were supposed to be contacted with some other musicians contact or preliminary version to collab with.

>>6198455
do you have a timeline of events that already happened? when what occured

>>6198462
Speaking of timelines, I'd be curious to know how long the Minotaur's wife has been working her magic. I seem to recall us setting her on a mission to infiltrate a major media giant.

>>6198457
Support this seems like a good plan.

We've got to remember to run through our authority crystals and stick a few in since we have room for once. Body of Zagreus feels like it would go nuts with our body horror powers, to say nothing of being able to throw a rock and teleport to it with Here and There.

retake
- Lightbringer’s Spotlight
- Soul Eater
- Divine Will
- Body of Zagreus
- Born of Vengeance, Born of Blood
and level up the later two up until maybe new effects pop up.

Specter's Wail & Lightbringer’s Spotlight could make for a fun new miracle

since our soul is now 10k, a single nectar can fill up the dress entirely.
full force nuclear strike everything with Lightbringers Spotlight on top too
they are going to love us.

>>6198461
Oops, that 3k was just for destroying the temple at the Node compound. The compound you fully destroyed was not counted. Will dole out rewards and authorities for those later.

>>6198462
>Timeline?

I just trudged through the archives to make this. Let me know if you spot any inaccuracies:

Day 1: Deification, First Blood
Day 2: cyber_syren channel is founded
Day 7: Pheme's letter arrives
Day 14: Pheme introduces herself
Day 19: Baphomette debuts
Day 31: Epimetheus and the Calydonian Boar are slain
Day 45: cyber_syren releases her first song
Day 76: Ceryneian Hind is slain
Day 97: Baphomette's first solo ep Not A Call To Action is released
Day 99: Dysnomia and Tisiphone are slain
Dat 110: (Incomplete) Pantheon is assembled
Day 123: First divine servant, Brigita
Day 124: Bargain struck with Kronos
Day 126: Arrived at the auction, subjected Povondra, acquired Pallas
Day 129: Bargain struck with Perdix
Day 145: Battle for the Node/Isa Subjugation
Day 157: Acquired Lethe, Acquired Dorota
Day 174: Acquired the Minotaur
Day 188: Battle against Heracles and ADAM
Day 193: Meeting with Ye Min
Day 197: Subjugated last pantheon member, finalized bargain with Athena
Day 198: Atë is banished, Atë returns, Pantheon is completed

>>6198455
>>6198461
+1

If she can see, ADAM likely already knows

>>6198564
>Day 174: Acquired the Minotaur
that's the same day we made the contract with the music label
the guy there said they'll send us a sample "within the week"

>>6198578
Time to go murder them

>>6198539
> Specter's Wail & Lightbringer’s Spotlight
That sounds super fun. I really want to do Many Faced and Zagreus and see if we can take multiple flesh horror bodies to the next level.

>>6198455
>>6198461
+1
if there is any more stuff in the system now, also buy a record pass ourselves and see if we can see more about others too

>>6198457
>>6198461
>>6198484
>>6198566
>>6198935

>Shop check

At first, everything seems identical to before, however, you notice a couple of oddities:

First, the <Divine Relic> tab is back, at the same price as before. You definitely remember having already purchased it- maybe it's related to your <One True God> status and new domain you've gained? Secondly, a rather curious item seems to have been added under a designated shop tab all on its own:

>Slice of Omnipotence (150,000)
Grants you a new domain. Less random than you think. Price increments proportional to your completeness

You frown to yourself: the system sure loves being ambiguous.

>Titles?
You purchase a record pass and decide to check for titles. As expected, you notice a new grade previously absent from the system's interface: Architect. To your surprise, it seems like you aren't the first person to have such a title:

>World Seed: Gaia

You wonder for a moment what that could possibly mean, but decide to bring it up to Pheme in your discussion later after sorting through the rewards you got for slaughtering the penitent while you were searching for the Node.

>Resolve compound rewards?

Influence: 17,483-> 208,442

Authorities (list the ones you wish to keep by letter, the rest will automatically be converted into influence):

>A) Sidewinder (1)
Allows you to inject divinity into your feet, gliding smoothly over any surface and increasing your movement speed

>B) Walking Parapet (1)
Creates a construct out of nearby materials that blocks incoming damage

>C) Weeping Executioner (EX)
Enhances all offensive authorities used to directly harm another proportional to your feelings of guilt or remorse for causing the injury, as well as the sympathy you have towards the target, with a maximum output increase equal to the level of the affected authority. This authority incurs no cost, but increases the cost of the amplified authorities proportional to their increase in effective level

>D) Burden of the Martyr (1)
Allows you to heal injuries on an ally by making physical contact. However, the injuries will be amplified and then transferred to yourself

>>6199208

>E) Bolt From The Blue (1)
Manifests a powerful burst of electric energy. When striking an unsuspecting target, this ability bypasses all defense authorities. May only be used once every minute.

>F) Puppeteer's Finesse (1)
When active, slightly amplifies the physical capabilities of all people within a 100 foot radius who are acting directly under your orders

>G) Flagellant's Helm (EX)
Covers your head in divinity, blocking your sight, smell, and taste and inflicting severe physical pain. Even by adding new body parts or using authorities or miracles, it becomes impossible for you to access any of these sensations while this authority is active. While this authority is active, any number of physical enhancement authorities are increased by your incarnation level. Consumes a number of divinity per second equal to the number of levels gained in this way.

>>6199209

Actually, note for <Bolt From the Blue>, should be:

>this ability bypasses all defense authorities within 5 levels of this one

>Keep A,D,E,F
>keep the rest too, can always be used as enchanting fodder

>>6199208

> Keep everything
Between Perdix, Authority Manufacturing, and random issues it couldn't hurt to have more options and fuel.

> Buy the new relic!
It's only 10,000 influence! And our ring is amazing.

>>6199208
>C, E, G

Backing the relic repurchase too

>>6199222
adding buying the new relic to my vote

>>6199208
>>Slice of Omnipotence (150,000)
>Less random than you think
You know I keep saying we have to (re)invent ourselves.
Complete Yours Truly, become [insert name here], the goddess of music, freedom, and defiance of authority

>>6199611
Gay

>>6199717
We can add "goddess of calling others gay online" to the list

>>6199611
Defiance would certainly suit us. I'm betting we get mad points for our usual reckless shenanigans.

>>6199222
>>6199283
>>6199407
>>6199611

So for authority selections we have

Unanimous: A,E
Majority (Optional write in: keep or store?): C,D,F,G
Minority (Majority vote to store): B

Influence

>Purchase new relic

You swap over to the shop, quickly purchasing the new relic associated with your musical domain:

>Secondary Personal Relic: Sliver of Amdusias (Fable <Omega> Piercing) (0/100,000)
Dramatically increases the vocal control of the user, naturally guiding their body to perfectly execute any melody they wish. Removes the user’s need to breathe. When the <Sliver of Amdusias> is in use, the user may have any piece of metal within a radius equal to X miles, where X is any number less than or equal to the user’s incarnation level emit both the sound of the user’s voice as well as any accompanying instrumentation. This effect bypasses all defense authorities and relics with a combined effective level below the user’s incarnation level and the grade of this relic.

Additionally, whenever a person is affected by any authority, miracle, or other effect transmitted via the <Sliver of Amdusias>, one charge is added to the relic. These charges may be converted into divinity at a rate of ten divinity to one charge, or they may instead be used to temporarily allow the user to increase the effective level of the resonance and bypassing function of the <Sliver of Amdusias>, with an increase of two effective levels per magnitude of 10 (Maximum increase of 10). Charges may also be used to add a flat bonus whenever a sound-based authority is used at an identical rate (Maximum increase of 10). These effects may stack.

You hold the tiny sliver of crimson metal in your hands, feeling it thrum with power as you without hesitation jam it into your tongue, allowing <Regeneration> to seal up the wound in a matter of moments. You decide to to test the corrective feature, and are surprised at its versatility: even without altering your physique, you can hit notes you didn’t believe were possible for you, and you find yourself having a shocking degree of control, gaining a capacity to finely tune your pitch so extreme that it unsettles you slightly, an uncanny valley between ethereal perfection and artificial tampering.

Satisfied with your current set of rewards, you decide to meet with Pheme. Knocking politely on the door of your <Realm> after connecting it to hers, you almost consider barging in for a moment before she hurriedly opens the door. She’s dressed causally (though neatly), with a deep black pair of jeans and a rich wine-red turtleneck sweater. You can actually see her face– her unruly raven hair pulled back into an almost comically voluminous ponytail, with her signature rounded sunglasses covering her eyeline instead of the usual bangs. She seems happy to see you, but probably not as happy as you are to see her. Still, despite yourself, you stay rigidly stiff.

>>6199819

“Hello! Back again pretty soon, huh? I suppose the <Horkos> affair went well?”

“What? Oh, right, yeah. That.” You find yourself reminded that, despite the fact that from your perspective you were gone for almost a month, from her perspective you met a couple of days ago. “Look, I have some stuff to tell you.”

~

This isn’t how you were expecting this to go.

You find yourself bundled up in a towering stack of blankets and pillows, almost forming a makeshift fort on Pheme’s pull-out couch. She seemed so appalled at the idea of your living conditions in the other world that she insisted on the comfort, as well as on the bottle of wine uncorked on the table. You reach your arm out from the (admittedly cozy) prison, snatching up a glass and taking a draught that probably cost more than your entire mortal paycheck.

“I think there’s something sacred about permission.” Marie sighs, scribbling some notes on a pad kept conveniently in her inventory. It’s enchanted, somehow, but you didn’t think to ask in what capacity. She continues, “The reason why the King was able to attack you when you brought its things– first its courtier and then its node– into your Manifestation, or, put another way, the physical manifestation of your divinity. I think it was able to send you to this “new plane” because it was just that much stronger and more experienced than you, but it didn’t want to “Invite” the system into its domain.”

“So you’re saying that my idea of shipping a low level incarnation into what used to be the White world–”

“-Probably a bust, yeah.”

You sigh– you thought that was really clever.

Pheme leans back in her seat, seemingly lost in contemplation, “Honestly there are too many unknowns here. I really wish I could pick the brains of that sea god guy.”

“Yeah, sorry, I was kinda focused on the whole not dying thing.”

“No, don’t apologize! Even from an “objective” perspective, you coming back alive with some intel is a thousand times better than dying with better information.”

>Discuss plans (optional write-in: propose projects)
>Ask questions (specify)
>Ask favors (specify)
>Offer to teach <Arts>
>Leave for now
>Write-in

>>6199820
>Ask if she has any idea wtf was up with that Dragoncutter guy
>Get our ass beaten in Mario Kart

>>6199820
>ask what she can read off us with a record pass
>ask her opinion on the vague wording of Slice of Omnipotence
>... and our own "incompleteness", combined with Jane's soul surviving within us.
>discuss plans to make tons of influence with music
>discuss plans to bring the chaos pantheon under our control as we cut our contract with Eris

>>6199820
>ask what she can read off us with a record pass
could be that Gaia always had "World Seed" but it is invisible to regular incarnations.
>pleasure first, mario kart
>>6199947
+1
>>6200023
+2
>Discuss plans (optional write-in: propose projects)
>>Pheme media company
Didn't we wanted to upgrade her reach too with a media company?


I've been skimming the archives a bit.
We struck a bargain with the tree guy who hypnotized the fake nation we were meant to take care of for the Belorussians.
Whose name we also never got...

>You shake a hand outstretched from the trunk. Chains coil around the trunk of the tree.
>>Congeatulations!...
>You smile- it is possible to deal directly with a soul after all.

Then we found the shaman who - we never got the confirmation - ate all of those people.
We didn't get informed that the tree guy was killed tho.
We also never followed up with the Belorussians
We don't even know if the shaman followed through with it or got stopped by ADAM

>Ask Pheme if she knows what happened to the shaman there

>>6199820
We ought to pass off the Minotaur's Wife to Pheme, she can probably make good use of her.

How much time do we have until the Uncrowned King spirals out of control? We've set him back several times but...

We've got two EX Authorities that I'm comfortable tossing into an Authority Manufacturer. Do you think Pandora's EX would be any fun?

>>6199947
>>6200023
>>6200374
>>6200404

>Ask if she has any idea wtf was up with that Dragoncutter guy

Pheme shrugs, seeming to be legitimately clueless about the matter.

“I have some hypotheses, but ultimately I couldn’t tell you any more than you already know.”

“Do you have any theories at least?”

She pauses, taking a sip of wine before continuing, “Well, Nargez said that what Kobayashi Hajime did was kinda perpendicular to arts, right? An entirely unrelated method of getting the same outcome.”

You nod, “Honestly though I’m not sure I agree with it really. I mean, the route to learning it might be different but the effect– using divinity to exert change on the world– is the same, right?”

“Well, maybe it is and isn’t at the same time.. maybe there’s something about the process of martial arts, thoughtlessly executing an action as if it were ingrained in your very soul, that allows for you to swing with more than just your arms… or maybe not. Maybe Nargez would know more?”

>Ask what she can read off us with a record pass

She purchases one, but, as expected, is unable to see the <Architect> grade titles. It seems like, unlike every other level, you need to either have one yourself (or perhaps have some other privilege) to be able to view them.

>Ask about <Slice of Omnipotence>

“The system seems.. mischievous, almost. Despite how cold and calculated it is sometimes, you can’t deny that the thing has a sense of humor. It probably means that whatever created it is sapient– complexly so– enough to put pranks in the god making machine.”

“So what do you think is going to happen?”

“Well, based on the wording, I’d imagine that the domains it spits out are at least going to seem random to you, but that there’s gonna be some underlying logic to it.”

“Do you think that the system is watching me? That the “Architect” is watching me?”

Pheme leans forward, her glasses sliding down her nose to reveal her pitch-black glass eyes, “It’s a definite possibility.”

A shiver runs down your spine– even the Uncrowned King is afraid of this guy. Who knows how powerful he might be?

>>6200507

>... and our own "incompleteness", combined with Jane's soul surviving within us.

Pheme’s expression hardens slightly as you mention Jane’s name:

“You need to destroy her.” she insists, her tone far harsher than it almost ever is, “A second consciousness in your soul is an immensely dangerous thing. I think that the Man in the Sea protected you from her this time because he was rooting for your escape, but if he hadn’t intervened you could have seriously died.”

“Do you think so?”

She leans even further forward, needing to use her arms to brace herself against the table, “Don’t you remember? You failed the first time you tried.”

“I think my mindset was just wrong.”

“She literally TOLD YOU that if you didn’t reform she’d try to kill you if you didn’t “repent” and meet her stupid moral standards. Do you really think she’d suddenly give up on that? Especially after you manipulated and tore the royal family apart?”

“I mean, I did technically save their world. Maybe that’s a good enough deed?”

Her brows furrow, “Why are you defending her?”

You try to respond but your words die at the tip of your tongue. You realize that you really don’t know.

>Discuss plans to make tons of influence with music

“It seems reasonable. Have you gotten any word back from the record company?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“...Did you even remember to check your Baphomette email?”

You pull open your phone, quickly swapping g-mail accounts. Sure enough, you really had received a .zip file presumably containing the audio files about ten days ago, alongside an apology for their message being a bit late– something about copyright negotiations. You laugh, recalling your brief thought to burn the entire company down in retaliation for breaking their promise.

“Anyway, I think you should make it your top priority,” she suggests. You speculate that the relative safety of music making is probably a driving factor for the insistence, but decide to take the advice at face value, “None of your other methods could even come close to netting that much without causing a major scene.”

You nod, “I wouldn’t want to kill off my livestock, so to speak.”

She smirks, smugly cradling her chin in her hands as a small chuckle escapes her lips, “Exactly.”

“Speaking of indiscriminate slaughter–”

>>6200509

>Discuss plans to bring the chaos pantheon under our control as we cut our contract with Eris

“If you want to do it without getting caught you’ll probably have to act fast– Eris has no doubt noticed your contract suddenly vanishing. Honestly though? Barring a couple of important resources, your pantheon is pretty worthless as of now. Really the only reason to even consider killing them off is to make sure nobody else does first.”

“Oh right, that would destroy the bonus, wouldn’t it?”

She nods, “That aside, the only members I think are particularly useful are Nargez and Isabella– maybe Saanvi too, but she’s a bit of a black box, so it’s hard to really say.”

You decide not to mention Eris; even now, it seems like a sore spot.

>Ask Pheme if she knows what happened to the shaman there

She shakes her head, “The <Ritual> has actually been attributed to– well, here.”

She passes you a newspaper– “ROGUE INCARNATION DESTROYS BRAINWASHED CITY” with the main picture being a rough sketch of your Rosa Huber persona.

“Are you serious?”

She nods, “I think that guy who showed up– Beelzebub, was it?– squealed on you to the press. Either that or the Belarusian government. As far as the media is concerned the shaman never existed.”

You swear under your breath– it didn’t seem like Beelzebub knew who you specifically were, but he got that anti-you helmet from somewhere. You’ll have to look into it.

>Media company?


“Ah, that. Actually, I have some stuff going on there already.” She flashes a roguish grin, “You’ll see.”

“Still, I have a present you might like.” You scroll through your phone and pull out the information you have on Mrs (now Ms) Steele, “You like?”

She glances over it, chuckling as she reads more about her recent meteoric rise (it seems like having your life on the line is pretty motivating after all), “Quite. I might ask for that contract later.”

“By all means.”

>Ask more questions
>Play mario kart (requires a roll. Specify between normal, cautious, or reckless)
>Write-in

>>6200510
>Play mario kart (requires a roll. Specify between normal, cautious, or reckless)
Reckless

Also
>Pheme’s expression hardens slightly as you mention Jane’s name:

>“You need to destroy her.” she insists, her tone far harsher than it almost ever is, “A second consciousness in your soul is an immensely dangerous thing. I think that the Man in the Sea protected you from her this time because he was rooting for your escape, but if he hadn’t intervened you could have seriously died.”

Finally some in character validation. Do this next.