Mana Channeling 956 >> 971

  The cost for the spell had certainly shot up, but the extended duration was a welcome relief. With that taken care of, I got back to the task of finding out whatever I could about this place.

  The interior of the structure was nothing like the open sanctuaries I remembered from Earth. This was a command hub masquerading as a holy site, its vaulted ceilings etched with sunburst reliefs that doubled as conduit channels. I could feel power moving through the stone, circulating constantly, feeding wards, alarms, and reinforcement glyphs layered so tightly that most mortals would never notice them. The Order hadn’t built this place to inspire faith. It was yet another sign of the Lawgiver’s domination of this world.

  I passed a cluster of Lawkeepers standing at ease near a side chapel, their armor polished and their posture rigid. Their auras were disciplined but shallow, bright with borrowed conviction rather than earned strength. None of them reacted as I slipped past within arm’s reach, their eyes sliding over the space I occupied without catching. It confirmed what I’d hoped. Assassin’s Veil was actively rewriting how perception resolved around my presence. I’d long since given up on a stealth build as not being my thing. That hadn’t changed, but it was good to have the occasional reminder of how useful it could be.

  Deeper in, the hierarchy became clearer. Infiltrators moved differently than the others, their steps lighter, their mana signatures folded inward like coiled blades. I watched one pause near a junction, checking the angle of a corridor before signaling a pair of Lawkeepers to move on. Even without seeing me, they were cautious, trained to expect threats from unexpected angles no matter where they were. It was a good habit, just not good enough.

  I was intrigued by the fact that no alarms had gone off. I got the sense that they were searching for me, but perhaps not within their headquarters. No one was running around in a panic.

  I slipped into a broad nave that had been repurposed into a planning hall. Long tables were covered in maps, tokens, and glowing markers that shifted subtly as updates came in real-time. A Truth Flame stood at the center, murmuring prayers that felt more like data exchange than worship. I recognized the cadence—it was the same type of mindless droning that some cults used.

  Perhaps my earlier estimation was wrong. The Lawgiver might have been more interested in worship than I’d thought. That raised an interesting question for me. I understood what the worshiper got out of worship. There was the sense of peace that came with it, and the hope in something greater than yourself. But what did the god get from worship?

  I wasn’t naive. These gods were not the same ones my Sunday school lessons had presented. These wanted servants and had agendas which could be advanced by their followers. But the actual act of worship? I was wondering what they got out of that. I glanced toward the ceiling at the ornately carved starbursts. They seemed to be collecting mana, and that might have been the beginning of an explanation, but I couldn’t afford the time to unravel the mystery.

  I drifted closer and leaned over one of the maps, reading labels and movement routes without fear of discovery, despite a pair of Lawkeepers on either side of me. Patrol paths crisscrossed the city and extended outward into the surrounding countryside, tightening slowly like a net. Basetown wasn’t under siege yet, but it was preparing for one, boxed in by methodical pressure. The Order wasn’t reacting to Tad anymore. They were aiming to turn the entire town into a trap. The siege would come from the inside.

  As I moved among them, I further tested the boundaries of my concealment. I brushed close to another Truth Flame who stood near a column, eyes closed as she chanted softly, radiant motes orbiting her like drunken fireflies. Her aura was deep and layered, far denser than the others, but even she gave no sign of awareness. The light bent around me without touching, and her chant never faltered. Whatever perception she wielded wasn’t enough to pierce what I’d become.

  The farther I went, the more oppressive the atmosphere grew. This part of the temple was older, the stone darker, the magic heavier. Rounding a corner, I found a guard standing before a sealed door etched with symbols of judgment and confinement.

  I was curious what prisoner they might be holding. For half a second, I considered trying to free them, but the reality was that the enemy of my enemy was sometimes just another enemy. They’d have to fend for themselves. I’d save time to feel bad for them later, if I made it out of here safely.

  I took the time to study the guard and the door, but only because I was trying to understand the Order better. Every bit of information I gained now was something I wouldn’t have to learn in the midst of combat.

  The guard was a Lawkeeper according to Identify, but level 100, the highest I’d seen for a Lawkeeper. That sent a chill down my spine. If the Order was starting to level up or even awaken more of their weaker members, then this fight could be all that much harder.

  As for the magic on the door, it wasn’t an enchantment, as it didn’t stay active on its own. I’d already learned that the Fey System handled such things very differently. No, this was an active spell, keyed to a mana stone which sat on a small table next to the guard. The connection was obvious, and the trap seemed to draw power from within the room. I wanted to learn everything I could about mana siphoning, but again I felt the press of time. Instinct told me my opportunity to explore the temple was limited.

  By the time I reached the inner sanctum, I understood the shape of the Order here. This wasn’t a religious occupation force hoping to convert the population. It was a surgical apparatus designed to remove threats and assert control with minimal waste. Certainly, they had mechanisms in place to use faith as a tool against the people, but they thrived on the fear of the public. I thought they probably had more pretense before, but that was being actively withdrawn in their desperation to find Tad.

  I slowed my breathing and checked the flow of mana again, ensuring Assassin’s Veil kept humming along. So far, no one had even glanced my way, but that advantage wouldn’t last indefinitely. I intended to use every second of it while I could.

  Chapter Fifty-Seven: The Price of Hubris

  The moment came without warning. One heartbeat I was drifting past a row of reliquaries, Assassin’s Veil doing its job, and the next a sharp spike of awareness scraped across my senses like a hooked blade. I froze mid-step, every instinct screaming as I felt a gaze slide too close, too deliberately to have been a coincidence. The air tightened, and I knew someone had brushed the edge of my absence hard enough to feel the void where I should have been.

  A Light Seer turned slowly, her eyes snapping open as radiant sigils flared around her head. “You!” she screamed, voice cracking as she pointed straight at me. “You’re here. I can see the distortion.” Assassin’s Veil tore away in a rush of displaced air as her spell slammed into it, light detonating across the space I occupied. The spell collapsed with a sharp backlash that rattled my teeth, and suddenly I was standing in full view.

  I didn’t wait for the second shout. Wayfinder had been in my hands the entire time. I lunged forward, spatial mana folding just enough to put me inside her guard. She barely had time to raise her staff before my blade punched through her chest, but even as she fell, I felt the trap spring. A Dreadnought crashed through a side arch in a thunder of armor, while an Infiltrator peeled off the wall behind me, blades flashing with practiced precision.

  Light chained through the air as the Seer’s death triggered some punitive effect, and bands of radiance snapped toward my limbs. I twisted and burned mana, Here Not Here dragging me sideways just enough that the chains tore into empty space. The Infiltrator capitalized instantly, his dagger grazing my side in a shallow cut that burned with anti-healing energy. Pain flared sharp and immediate, and I felt the familiar thrill of a real fight lock in.

  The Dreadnought hit like a rockslide. His hammer came down in a blow that would have flattened a building, and I barely got a force construct up in time to bleed off the worst of it. The construct shattered, the impact driving me to one knee as stone exploded around us. I answered with lightning, a focused arc that slammed into his chest and staggered him back a step, but he recovered fast, aura flaring as discipline and training took over.

  The Infiltrator vanished and reappeared behind me, blades carving toward my spine. I spun, Wayfinder ringing as I parried once, twice, then drove my shoulder into him and detonated a point-blank lightning burst. He flew across the hall and hit the wall hard enough to crack stone, but he rolled and came back up, bleeding and smiling. These weren’t amateurs. They moved like a unit that had drilled together for years.

  The Light Seer’s body blazed with divine illumination, and a secondary effect healed her wound. I quickly realized this was a contingency spell rather than a trinket meant to undo death. Either way, her hands now blazed with light as she cast judgment bolts that hammered into my defenses. Each impact burned with an arrogant certainty that tried to tell the universe I had no right to stand where I did. Judgment Rejection wasn’t active on me like it was on the golems, and I felt every hit. I forced myself forward anyway, teeth clenched as I closed the distance.

  Identify told me I was in deep with these three.

  Light Seer—Level 390

  Dreadnought—Level 386

  Infiltrator—Level 379

  They all had more than a hundred levels on me and were clearly used to working together.

  I cut down at the Light Seer with a brutal horizontal strike, intending to split her from collarbone to hip, but the Dreadnought slid into place between the two of us and parried my blow with his heavy hammer. An instant later, the Infiltrator slid in and stabbed a blade through my armor, deep into my thigh. I shifted space around me to create some distance.

  As they steadied themselves, I cast Celestial Restoration, letting out a sigh of relief as the wounds, which had already been healing, cleansed themselves of any residual ill effects, including whatever debuff the first wound had put on me. It had been slowing my healing but hadn’t been enough to entirely stop it.

  In a moment of misguided inspiration, I let Trailblazer’s Aura flare out of me. In retrospect, I’d been an idiot. The spell might as well have been a beacon announcing my presence to anyone strong enough to sense the aura. I was only thinking about the combat applications in the moment. Not only could it intimidate foes, even suppressing those who were too weak, but it had also been formed with my previous ability, Vampiric Aura, and would drain a chunk of the damage I delivered to heal me, slowing my enemies’ regeneration in the process.

  If any of them were intimidated by my aura, they didn’t show it. In fact, I felt a faint pulse of something inside each of them, that same divine-tier fragment I’d felt before.

  The Dreadnought roared and charged, hammer swinging in a wide arc meant to end the fight. I met him head-on, pushing him back. He was strong, but not as strong as me. Once again, it was their teamwork that saved them. The Light Seer landed a bolt of light right in my face, causing me to blindly stumble backwards as I sought to protect myself.

  The effect only lasted a second, but it was long enough for me to feel the weight of the hammer and the sting of a dagger against the force shields I’d instinctively thrown up to protect myself. My vision healed just as the last shield went down, and I sent out several thrusts of force, drawing blood from the Infiltrator and Dreadnought and forcing them back onto their heels.

  The Infiltrator made an odd gesture, his hands blurring, but not from speed. A ripple ran through the air above us, and the sunburst carved into the ceiling flared with hungry light. The moment I reflexively reached for mana, it tore out of me and vanished upward in a blinding stream, swallowed by the symbol like water down a drain. The sensation was nauseating, like having my lungs pulled inside out, and I staggered as the spell I’d been forming collapsed into memory.

  The Infiltrator laughed softly as he circled, blades low and ready. “Ha. Now you see the error of your ways. None but those who have sworn body and soul to him can stand before the judgment of the Lawgiver. All your magic is his to use, as he wishes.” His armor glowed faintly as the sunburst pulsed again, and I understood the trap with cold clarity. As long as that thing was active, any mana I touched would be ripped away and fed into the Order’s machinery.

  The Dreadnought advanced in perfect sync with the Infiltrator, heavy steps shaking the stone beneath us. I couldn’t afford to be pinned between them, not without my usual tools. I leaned into my body instead, letting Psi surge outward as I triggered Body Enhancement. Power flooded my muscles, my perception sharpening as Precognition flared, feeding me fragments of intent rather than images.

  The Infiltrator struck first, vanishing and reappearing at my flank with impossible speed. I twisted into the movement, Psi hardening into a blade along my forearm just in time to catch his strike. The impact rang through my bones, but the construct held, and I drove my knee into his ribs with enough force to send him flying. He hit the far wall hard, stone cracking behind him, but he rolled back to his feet with a grace that would have done nothing for my confidence had I not been who I was.

  The Dreadnought came down on me a heartbeat later. His hammer blurred toward my head, and I ducked under it, feeling the wind of the blow tear past. I answered with a Psi construct shaped into a short spear, driving it into the joint of his knee. It didn’t pierce all the way through, but it bit deep enough to stagger him, and I followed with a brutal elbow to the side of his helmet that rang like a bell.

  Light flared again overhead, the sunburst drinking greedily as the Seer chanted from behind her allies. I felt my mana reserves clawing to escape my control, and I forced myself not to touch them. This fight wasn’t about magic anymore. It was about timing, position, and raw power.

  The Infiltrator came back fast, blades flashing in a storm of shallow slashes meant to bleed me out. Precognition screamed warnings into my skull, and I moved on instinct, weaving through attacks that would have opened my throat a second earlier. Psi constructs formed and dissolved around me, shields and edges snapping into existence only long enough to do their job. A blade slipped through and opened my shoulder, but I welcomed it. Pain kept me grounded. It was amazing how well you could use a tool when your life depended on it.

  I seized his wrist as he overextended and crushed it with strength enhanced by multiple systems. Bone snapped, and he howled as I ripped the dagger from his grasp and drove it back into his gut. He twisted away at the last second, the blade glancing off armor instead of sinking deep, but he was slower now. I could smell blood and fear beneath the sanctified stench of the rancid incense that permeated the temple.

  The Dreadnought roared and came at me again, abandoning defense entirely. I braced, formed a Psi bulwark around my forearms, and met his charge. The collision sent a shockwave through the hall, dust raining from the ceiling as we locked together. I could feel his strength grinding against mine. But it wasn’t enough, and thanks to Precognition, his movements turned out to be easily predictable.

  I shifted my grip and headbutted him, my reinforced skull slamming into his visor with a wet crunch. He reeled, and I drove a Psi spike up under his chin, pouring everything I had into it. The construct punched through armor and into flesh, and when I ripped it free, his head came with it in a spray of blood and light.

  The sunburst pulsed harder in response, but it couldn’t touch my Psi. The Seer screamed in rage and unleashed another barrage of spells at me. The thing was, their light spells could be devastating if they landed, but they were limited in their scope. They didn’t have much imagination. It was always beams or chains, chains or beams. Once I’d seen the pattern a couple times, there was nothing surprising about it.

  The Infiltrator lunged again, desperation driving him, and this time I didn’t dodge. I let him come, read the strike, and stepped inside his guard. My Psi blade took his arm at the elbow, severing it cleanly, and I finished him with a brutal thrust through the chest that pinned him to the stone floor. He gurgled once and went still, eyes glassy.

  Only the Seer remained, hands blazing as she poured everything she had into a dome of light that formed around her. Even Wayfinder had absolutely no effect on it. Any physical force was negated before I ever reached the shield, almost as if it had never existed. Light arced around her like a cage, and I could feel the sunburst straining, nearing some critical threshold.

  She hurled a lance of judgment at my face, and I raised a Psi construct that shattered under the impact, the force slamming into me hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs. But I couldn’t stop. My weapons and body might not be able to hit her, but I had other tools, chief of which was a stubborn streak. Her allies were dead, but more would be coming.

  I gathered spatial mana, lightning mana, life mana, and even a bit of temporal mana for good measure. The lightning that formed in my hands flashed with green, purple, and silver. I could feel the siphon effect from the starburst pulling at the ability as it formed, but I wasn’t going to be denied. I poured more and more mana into the spell until, suddenly, I heard a resounding crack.

  The sunburst in the ceiling split like a rotten melon, the force blasting the top off the tower, exposing it to the rainy weather outside.

  The Light Seer fell to her knees as the rain and wind whipped her face. “Impossible!”

  I smiled. “That’s just Tuesday for me.”

  Her eyes widened as I grabbed her by the throat and squeezed, Body Enhancement pushing my grip well past mortal limits. The light around her flickered as her concentration broke. I felt mana rush back into me in a sudden, dizzying wave as the siphon collapsed, and with a final wrench I snapped her neck.

  The hall fell silent except for my breathing and the crackle of dying enchantments, accompanied by the whistle of wind and the patter of falling rain. Blood soaked the stone beneath me, and my body screamed in protest as the adrenaline faded. I didn’t give myself time to rest. I turned to run, or at least that had been my intention. My feet were moving, but nothing was happening.