Turned out we actually hadn't been at the top of the volcano. I supposed that made sense, since I hadn't experienced any trouble breathing. Well, minus the terrible air quality. Point was that the air wasn't thin like how it'd normally be high up a mountain.
I only recognized the occasional word here and there when I talked briefly with the young cultist, but I understood that the cult didn't even have access to the top of the volcano. As such, they had used a secondary vent. That didn't feel grand enough for a ritual sacrifice to me. Like if I had been the god getting a Sacrifice from a secondary volcano vent, I'd be pissed.
We passed through coal-black, leafless trees before we reached a clearer path that ended in a more populated area. Or well, there were more dwellings here, which suggested the existence of a population. The lack of lights wasn't very encouraging on that front, though.
Speaking of which, I had finally taken a look upwards, just to confirm if nighttime was why everything was so dark and gloomy here.
Only to discover that the sun here… wasn't much of a sun at all.
It looked more like a red dwarf star than the kind of sun I was used to. The realization brought on so many questions—mostly centred on how anything was even alive on a planet with a sun like that—that I actually didn't get around to asking any of them. The Weave. The mana. There was literally magic. I suspected most of the answers I'd have received would boil down to that.
Conversation was difficult, what with the language barrier and all, but I tried for the basics.
"Hey," I said as we walked. "What's your name, by the way?"
The youth glanced back at me. "Aurier."
Huh. I felt like I could understand it. Assuming that was his name and that he hadn't replied some more gibberish that my brain had scrambled thanks to the Weave and its limited comprehension. "Aurier, huh? Hope I'm not mispronouncing that. I'm Ross."
I still wasn't sure how much he understood me, but the nod I got back was encouraging.
As we walked, I tried to get more of a feel for my powers some more. I felt the same hollow sensation again when I focused on Gravity, the same exhaustion from overusing my mana. It wasn't exactly stopping me from using my mana, though. I could carry on. So I just remained careful and used little tendrils to test out my Aspect.
So far, I had used Infusion. All that did was increase the weight of whatever I targeted. There were two axes I wanted to go from there. One was trying to see if I could use Infusion on things besides myself, as in, apply the powers of Gravity externally.
The other was trying to do the opposite of Infusion. If I could increase the weight of things, surely I could do the reverse too. All I had to do was focus on it.
Thinking about changing my weight in that fashion made me wonder about the practical effects. If I could decrease me weight, I would be able to move faster. Conversely, if I practiced moving around while I was overburdening myself, then would that make my natural speed increase? Would it boost my Agility Attribute, if that was tied to my speed as I suspected?
It seemed like a silly thought, but then, controlling gravity itself was silly from my frame of reference, so…
I tried enacting the opposite effect of Infusion. As I walked, I sent singular tendrils to wrap around my hand and concentrated on the idea of drawing weight away from my limb instead of adding to it. A curious sensation followed. It was as if a thick current, like a stream of iron weights, was trying to come out of my hand.
I didn't quite succeed though. My hand's weight didn't fall, though I felt like I was making progress towards something—maybe a new Affix? Was that what I needed to draw weight away instead of adding it with Infusion? I felt like I was getting there.
It just would have been nice if I had some sort of progress tracker.
I also wasn't making as much headway as I probably could have because I was holding myself back. By using only singular strands of mana, I was letting my body focus more on recovering from this weird spiritual cramp that prevented excessive mana use. The rate of recovery was slow, though, going by how the hollow sensation wasn't really abating much.
Keeping the practice to a minimum also let me keep an eye out. There were scant few people on the way. Hopefully, everyone was at work because it looked like daytime, since we were facing the sun and not away from it, and not that this whole place was a ghost town.
It was overall dreary, though. The architecture was ramshackle, the streets more like dirt tracks cordoned by rickety wooden shacks and mud huts.
One large building towered over the area, however, and sure enough, we made our way to it before long. It was a broken-down temple, walls and windows missing here and there, with the impression that a giant had taken an axe to the bell tower and chopped it off. Considering the state of everything else I had seen so far, I wasn't surprised much.
Aurier halted me when we got close. Through one of the broken walls, we spied the old leader and that vampire from before. But they weren't alone. Two finely dressed people were talking with them. Or rather, talking over them while the robed men were forced to listen.
"Who're they?" I asked.
Aurier had a nasty look on his face. That told me more than what I heard from him. "******* ****** *** **** ** take **** *** ****!"
Asking for vocal clarification was pointless. I was just glad I was understood enough to receive some kind of answer. Besides, a little bit of observation and deduction was filling me in on the context already.
That said, I could ask simple questions to confirm my suspicions. "Are those nobles?"
Aurier nodded.
It wasn't just the fact they looked extravagantly rich compared to pretty much everyone I had seen so far. I only had to turn my head to see the strange but gaudy horseless carriage that obviously didn't belong in a neighbourhood like this. Hmm, that also confirmed this place wasn't very technologically advanced, especially since they clearly had magic as a substitute.
I thought back to how the cultists had acted both regretful and determined to carry out my sacrifice. Almost like someone had a metaphorical gun pointed to the temples of people they held dear.
"Do they have dirt on you?" I asked. Aurier looked at me blankly. I tried to reformat my question so that I could aid what I was saying with hand signs and gestures. "Are they the ones who made you try to Sacrifice me?"
A complicated series of emotions passed over Aurier's face. He eventually sighed, though the anger from earlier wasn't gone. "** ****** ** Sacrifice *** ******* ** ****, ***. **** **** **** ***** ****** taken **********."
It was my turn to sigh. "I can't understand most of what you say, remember?" I looked back at the temple. "But I get you, I think."
Take. I'd understood that much from Aurier. And a look at the other two cultists' expressions confirmed they didn't share any positive feelings either. The old leader had plastered on a fake but strained smile and the vampire looked like he was seconds away from chomping down on the two nobles' jugulars.
I almost wanted to get closer and see if I could actually decipher what the conversation was about, but no. A different idea was working itself out inside my head.
"One last thing," I said to Aurier. I once again gesticulated to explain what my words potentially couldn't, letting some of my mana threads turn heavy purple around my hand. "Is there a way to trace mana back to its source? Like, if I used my magic on you without you seeing—" I thrust my hand in his direction "—is there a way for you to tell it was me?"
Aurier frowned. I wondered if I needed to repeat myself or find a different way to ask the same question, but then, the youth shook his head. There wasn't any hesitation in his answer.
With that confirmed, I turned left and walked over to the carriage.
Aurier hissed at me, probably asking what the hell did I think I was doing. I didn't respond. He was going to see soon anyway.
More threads of mana sparked to life within me, along with the cloying hollowness. I had magic. In this world, I had real, actual power. Aurier and the rest of them seemed to be too caught up in whatever web those nobles had woven to do much about it, but I certainly wasn't. Plus, if I endeared myself to the cultists, it'd probably help me join and not get Sacrificed again.
And if I could test my powers in the process, then all the better.
I inspected the carriage. It was a ride worthy of a noble. Trimmed in gold and panelled with what looked like mahogany—though I was left wondering if real wood could even grow on this world—it was definitely a statement piece. A picture of ostentatiousness. An engine-like box sat in front where the driver's seat should have been, with chains dropping out and looping around the wheel axles.
Reaching out, I placed a hand on the large wheel and focused on the only Affix I had once again. Infusion.
The hum came back to life, buzzing through me like a carbonated waterfall. With it came the purple threads, and a sense of great weight flowing through me like a turgid river. The nagging question of whether I could change the weight of things besides myself finally got its answer.
Turned out, I could. The purple threads manifested outside of me, running down my hand to sink into the ground around the carriage. A second later, they rose up and tied the carriage down, lashing over every inch of it.
The drain was already noticeable. This thing was more massive than me. It would need more magic. So I focused on the hum, felt the buzz rise to a pitch that made the nerves vibrate in my body.
And then I staggered back as the emptiness took hold of me again. It was deep, almost spiritual in a sense, but the feeling of a growing hole inside my body didn't abate. Maybe I had used up a little too much mana there…
Not that it changed the countdown for my core. Twenty-one hours to mana implosion now. Annoying.
Aurier was hissing at me again, with greater urgency this time. I heeded him, mostly because the nobles were done flaunting their imperiousness and had exited the temple. They were heading straight for us.
I let Aurier drag me away before we were spotted too suspiciously close to their ostentatious ride. My eyes were entirely on the nobles though.
One of them had a demonic cast, sporting horns kind of like that asshole of a wizard had, though he had a lot more all around his head. The other one was yet another vampire, tall, thin-faced, scarlet-eyed, though he had a certain presence that my shooter lacked. He looked around the cultist vampire's age, though. Weren't vampires supposed to be immortal?
I ignored how the feeling of a hole growing bigger was starting to consume me on the inside. The fruition of my little experiment was about to happen, and I was not missing that.
The nobles got into their fancy vehicle, the tail ends of their suits—one maroon, the other black-and-gold kind of like the carriage—flapping a little. My purple threads had faded when I had left my target, so I was left wondering if all the mana I had spent had just gone to waste. Maybe I needed to keep touching something to maintain the infusion.
A few glints popped up within the carriage, illuminating the cabin, followed by brighter lamps on top of the engine-box. The engine box glowed with what looked like runes and thrummed to life. Then the wheels started rolling. Very, very slowly.
The carriage didn't move.
I grinned. It had worked. So I could infuse other objects with Gravity to weigh them down, and I didn't need to maintain direct contact to do so. The question remained on how long it would last…
The carriage's headlights grew brighter as its engine thrummed harder. Its wheels were rotating just a smidge faster now. Greater weight meant greater inertia, and those wheels and that engine just weren't built for it. Glimmering sparks shot out of the mechanical box, some of the runs fizzing out as the carriage turned, threads phasing out of it only to sizzle into nothing.
Best of all was the looks on the nobles' faces. They had been bewildered at first, and now their annoyance was giving way to actual anger. I couldn't hear them, but it was obvious they weren't far from starting to yell and curse.
I had to laugh, wobbling on my feet.
"**** ** *** **** *** you **?" Aurier asked, mouth agape.
Before I could figure out his question, and then my answer, my Aspect's effect ran out. The carriage suddenly zoomed away, both nobles screaming in shock as it disappeared down the street. There was a distant sound of a crash, and then more carriage-zooming noises fading into the distance.
With a triumphant smile, I faced Aurier and the other two cultists who had come out and were staring at me. "You're welcome!"
[ Rank Up!
Your Gravity Aspect has risen by one Rank.
Gravity: Iron II ]
"Oh, neat!" A sudden heaviness dragged at my awareness instead of my body. I just managed to lock eyes with Aurier. "You better not Sacrifice me again…"
I didn't even get to finish my sentence. The emptiness suddenly grew overwhelming, swallowing my consciousness whole.