Silver Stars (Guardian of Aster Fall Book 8), page 13
He’d had to resize the trophies with dimensional enchantments, but if they wanted to display the originals, they could expand them.
The scales and claws were magnificent materials and even once they were handed out, there would be enough material to make dozens of ships larger than the Ice Drake. Perhaps they could be the Silver Army’s elite transports.
Once they all had trophies, he began to distribute the other treasures from the Vos’Rekan to the emissaries.
As the celebration continued, he turned his attention back to his main body.
All around Silverguard, the massive amount of stone left behind by the Vos’Rekan was floating in a slow disk that he had gathered.
It was more than enough to expand the island to a hundred miles across and twenty miles deep, vastly increasing its size.
It would’ve been nice to get an aura from the Vos’Rekan too, but it had completely shattered in the explosion when it died. The beasts didn’t let go of their energy easily.
He was pretty sure he could have used it to forge a Divine artifact without additional Fragments of the Primal Void.
The aura had gone into the primal energy it released, however, so it wasn’t a loss.
A flare of silver runes rose up from his hands and headed out to the field of stone.
There was a primal glint to the runes’ light, something that spoke of age and endless depths, as if every one of them was carved from the early Chaos, their lines unadorned and immortal.
Six divisions of light spread outward. Each of them divided off a small section of the material.
At Sam’s command, the stone began to fuse together, and before long six smaller islands that resembled Silverguard were floating in the Void.
Beside them, he added six stellar cores from the Vos’Rekan. Each of them was the compressed core of a star that the beast had eaten, and now they floated in the Void like miniature silver suns as he began to imbue them with astral quintessence.
They would form the core for each fortress.
These six fortresses would be the outer defense of Aster Fall to protect it in the Void and linked to Silverguard.
One of them would be at each side of the world, plus one above and one below. Once they were finished, they would be about five miles across and a mile deep, even bigger than Silverguard had been originally. They would have support cores to extend the reach of Silverguard’s enchantments around the entire world.
When that was done, he turned his attention to his avatars and began to swiftly create more new ones, followed by replacing the older ones with stronger versions.
The nagas made him smile, but he left the speeches and the celebration to his avatar.
His attention was on other things that needed to be done as soon as possible.
Now that his intelligence had risen again, he was able to make up to 31 avatars.
One by one, he created them and then recreated his older ones, all but the one that was far distant in the Void. When they were ready, he sent the ones back to the Moonlight Relic that were stationed there and then sent the rest to work on the six new fortresses.
As soon as he created the 31st avatar, he felt a weight settle on his spirit from keeping them all active. It was like a heavy lead blanket on his shoulders.
That made him frown as he studied the flow of essence.
The avatar was just as powerful as the others and moved without a problem, but it felt harder to communicate with it, like he was pushing through wet sand.
With a frown, he dismissed the 31st avatar and the feeling disappeared, leaving his spirit light.
It seemed the last one was pushing the natural limit of what the ability could do at the Heroic tier. It wasn’t enough to stop him if he needed the avatar for something, but it would slow his reactions down, an effect that would extend across all of his avatars.
Right now, that wasn’t worth it.
30 avatars was a good enough number, even ridiculous compared to what avatar abilities generally allowed.
He had a feeling that without his domain and insight into primal chaos, his limit would have been much lower, Heroic Ability or not.
The last mental division would still be useful with his main body, speeding up his thoughts and allowing him to work on complex problems more quickly.
Future gains from intelligence could go there for now.
He sent one avatar into the World Seal, where it took over watching the Blood Realm, and he left the one in the Deep Void alone.
After that, he sent 15 of the avatars back to the relic to oversee the repairs. They should be finished with all of the major work in less than a month.
Now that he was at the Fifth Star, his ability to repair the relic had leapt forward dramatically. Complex transfers of aura lines and reinscribing powerful runes were the work of a moment, rather than a difficult undertaking.
It would only take him two days to repair the key components on the Fifth Layer, followed by three days for each of the lower layers.
That included repairing all of the elemental structures, like the water pools, lakes, and streams, the orchard and crop enchantments, weather guard enchantments, core buildings, and innate defenses.
23 days to completion.
He was almost there.
The work that he’d spent so much time on was nearly done.
Based on the complexity of the core enchantment, he could tell now that Cerei, the builder of the relic, had been at the Sixth Star, which explained why she’d been able to create something so powerful on her own.
It was a Divine artifact, which meant it had been crafted originally from Fragments of the Primal Void, just like the ones he had.
He considered using another on it, but then he shook his head. The result would be minimal.
He had a better plan for them.
The division of effort left him with 13 avatars at Silverguard and he set them to work on shaping the new fortresses, two to each, while the one in the great hall stayed there.
It would be best to create the cores for the fortresses as quickly as possible, so that they could create a dimensional link to Silverguard and begin supporting the defense. Their enchantments could follow and establish a stronger barrier.
Once it was complete, even if that larger Vos’Rekan returned, he should be able to face it.
As his avatars set to work, he turned his attention to the more complex changes of his Fifth Star, especially his domain. It had vastly improved, but he wanted to know how much.
The effects were recorded on his status sheet as part of his Fourth and Fifth Stars, so he let the Titan Star add emphasis to the ones that had changed.
Star of Primal Runes (Fourth Star):
[The Fourth Evolution is the beginning of domains. A domain is the area where your aura temporarily rewrites the laws of existence, making your personal law more powerful while suppressing others. It will enhance your power and reduce that of others. Entities within your domain are subject to having their laws suppressed by you, although they are capable of resisting if they are strong enough.
Your domain focuses on the primal laws of the elements and the Void, as well as the runes that create them. Your elemental attacks, the runes you employ, the artifacts you hold, and related abilities within your domain resonate with the primal runes of Chaos and become more powerful.
With the addition of your Fifth Star, your domain boosts the effectiveness of your abilities by up to 100%. It can be countered by a strong opposing domain.
It works in concert with your aura and your Blessing of Silver Stars, enhancing your allies and followers by an additional 30% of your Charisma.
As the Sovereign of Primal Runes, artifacts crafted by you gain an additional 30% strength to their enchantments, and while crafting within your domain, you have a 99% chance to successfully change the runes of an artifact and alter its laws.
Your domain’s power allows you to reshape reality around you in increasingly permanent ways.]
His domain was twice as strong as it had been before, and the same went for the bonus that the Blessing of Silver Stars added for his followers and allies. He looked at that next.
Blessing of Silver Stars (Legendary):
[Allies within your aura will now receive 20% of your Charisma to all attributes, an upgrade of one tier to all skills with a maximum of Epic, and improved attack and defense.]
It was twice as much as before. As for his followers, the improvement was even better:
[Followers sworn directly to you will receive +50% of your Charisma to all of their attributes while they are within your Domain of Primal Runes, an upgrade of one tier to all skills with a maximum of Epic, and a unique ability to attack and defend as a group.]
Each of his Silver Nagas would have over 9,000 points added to every single attribute while they fought beside him.
Compared to warriors of a similar rank, they would have an awe-inspiring advantage. Their levels were around 430 now, and their average total attributes were close to 30,000.
With the Blessing, they would have another 63,000. That put them around the early to middle Fifth Evolution, about a hundred levels higher than they really were.
He smiled as he considered what an army of quasi-Fifth Evolution nagas could do, and how much they still had to grow.
With the World Core to help and their bloodline advantage from following him, there was no barrier to their rise before the Sixth Evolution.
The name of the Silver Army would shake the sky.
Someday soon, once he got the teleportation platform on Caelus working, he would have to take them back to their homeworld and let them recruit a few more, if any more nagas wanted to join him.
The thought of a massive army of nagas acting as the Silver Army across all of the Void flashed through his mind, but then he pulled himself back to the present.
His domain’s effect on his crafting had also improved.
[Artifacts crafted by your hand will be innately imbued with your astral aura, granting them an astral blessing that suits their nature and improving their characteristics by two tiers or 50%, as long as your power is great enough to allow it.
+40% improvement with Domain of Primal Runes. +99% ability to change laws within your domain.]
It was an improvement of one tier and 30% to his crafting, giving him a 50% overall bonus, and his influence over laws within his domain had jumped from 50% to 99%.
The 99% was an estimate, like a reminder that the ability could still fail, but it was usually going to work.
He raised a hand and created a flow of silver flame across his palm, sensing the potential in the energy to change according to his will.
It felt like he could sunder the energy of nearly anything and then reshape it.
Shatter Aura, Modify Aura, Stellar Conversion...all of his aura abilities had come into their own, giving rise to this.
Recreating that energy was limited by his understanding of runes and how to craft the result, but he could also channel it to his Elemental Mastery or Elemental Smithing.
Creating new material for golems and Silverguard would be easier than ever.
The Law of Primal Runes was an overwhelming force, the first appearance of order from chaos. With the Mandate of Chaos to reduce energy inside his domain back to its earlier form, there wasn’t much that could resist his command.
It was very similar to a Sixth Evolution Truth, but it relied on primal laws, rather than creating a new one of your own.
It should make it possible to fight the Avatar of Blood on a more even footing.
First, however, he was going to push through the last few levels to the Fifth Evolution and pick up those abilities, and use these Fragments of the Primal Void.
One each should be enough for the support fortresses, while Silverguard would get two.
His bracer and cloak would get at least one more each as well. That should be enough to raise them the rest of the way to the true Divine tier.
Then he would have two Fragments left over to use either on his equipment or Silverguard, whichever needed it more
A wave of his hand brought the twelve fragments out in front of him, where they began to float. Their black depths were slowly turning silver to match his own essence, like shards of a bright mirror.
He stepped across the fortress to his Titan hall and stopped in front of the forge flames.
A stellar core appeared in front of him, its depths shining like liquid silver from the astral quintessence he’d already pushed inside.
It was time to start.
Chapter 12: Divine Forging
The forge fire soared above Silverguard, a pillar reaching a thousand miles high into the Void.
Sam stood in front of the flame as he took off his cloak and bracer and set them on a table to the side.
On his other side, the dozen fragments floated in the air.
The Fragments of the Primal Void were different from other materials and fairly easy to infuse into artifacts he’d already made. They didn’t require reforging the item, just integrating the energy.
It was impossible to control that process without being a Primordial race, but for him, the fragments were like his own breath.
The only question was what type of outcome he wanted.
Pushing the artifacts up to the Divine tier meant that they would become semi-autonomous and would develop artifact spirits of their own eventually, unless he prevented it.
They would also begin to exist in all dimensions, which would anchor their presence in reality, make them indifferent to the flow of time, and greatly enhance their durability.
They were linked to his aura and could regenerate with him, but this would make it harder for them to be damaged.
They would become true divine artifacts that resonated with his law.
Their abilities would also advance, which was where most of the power from the fragment would go once it upgraded their foundation.
Before he started, he examined the description on his bracer for reference.
It was a silver crystal bracer that reflected the flames with rainbow light. He’d forged it from a stellar core and a Fragment of the Primal Void, as well as the remains of his two older bracers, which had held auras of starlight and moonlight inside.
Silver stars drifted across the bracer, each in their own path. As he looked into it, the Void stretched out in the depths into star fields contained inside. Wisps of starlight and astral energy danced across the surface and runes formed among them, falling down into it before they reformed with new symbols.
Bracer of Primal Stars (Nascent Semi-Divine Artifact)
This bracer was forged from starlight and the essence of the Primal Void. It still holds both inside. As a Nascent Semi-Divine artifact, its primary attribute is its potential to advance and it is nearly unbreakable. It is a personal artifact of the Lord of Silver Stars.
Effects: Primal Starlight, Void of Silver Stars, Astral Wind, Stellar Bombardment, Stellar Bond.
Holds: 3,000,000 essence at the initial level.
As unbreakable as a sun.
Primal Starlight: This bracer is a creation of the Primal Void and starlight. It has nearly unlimited growth potential. It can absorb additional energy of the Primal Void, essence, astral energy, and elemental forces in order to improve itself.
Void of Silver Stars: This ability allows the wielder to divide the Void and create a secondary dimension in which to trap enemies.
Astral Wind: Summon an astral storm to sweep across enemies and lay waste to their defenses. The force of this storm is a concentrated form of the Void’s chaos wind.
Stellar Bombardment: Summon a storm of blazing starlight and icy comets from the Void to bombard your foe.
Stellar Bond: This artifact is linked to your essence constellation. No matter where it is, you will sense it. If it is damaged, it can repair itself by drawing on your essence.
When he made the bracer, he’d infused it with his Law of Primal Runes and his understanding of the Void, including the runes that he could see everywhere.
He looked at his cloak next.
It was an expanse of dark cloth that glowed with silver light. Stars shone from the depths, along with a mist of stardust that drifted across the surface, like stellar gas floating through the Void.
Runes appeared above it, similar to his bracer, glimmering before they fell into the material.
The result was a dark stellar fabric that was just as durable as his bracer but more flexible. It was dense and barely stirred even under the full force of the chaos winds, but it looked like it was ready to drift away at any moment.
Cloak of the Ethereal Void (Nascent Semi-Divine Artifact)
Effects: Primal Starlight, Aura of Frozen Stars, Armor of Ethereal Frost, Dimensional Storage, Stellar Bond, Ethereal.
Charge: 3,000,000 essence.
Both of the artifacts had the effect of Primal Starlight, which was the result of the first fragments when they had mixed with his law.
The future for them was the same path.
His path.
He set the cloak aside and placed the bracer into the silver flame.
All around Silverguard, his avatars flew into the sky and activated the support enchantments, channeling the energy of the chaos winds toward him.
Vortexes of starlight spun around the fortress and condensed into sparkling silver rivers of astral quintessence, which thundered toward the forge.
In his vision, the natural laws of the Void flared, burning in living runes. He could feel the strength of his domain resonating around him and the energy bent to his will.
All of that power poured toward the bracer as one of the Fragments of the Primal Void flew into his hand.
The fragment crumbled away, turning into a river of sparkling silver-black dust that felt like it was heavier than a world. Ancient runes that spoke of the Void’s origin took shape inside, shifting moment by moment, their energies on the verge of changing into something else.
The dust flew toward the bracer in the flames and merged with the runes and starlight falling inward.
The sense of primal energy in the bracer turned deeper as the starfields within stretched out, becoming vaster. The stars took on new colors, resonating with the signature of greater suns as ages seemed to pass.
