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Chapter 238 - More Steps on the Long Path
🕑 Added 2025-08-13 15:00:15 +0000 UTCMirian refined her early route, practicing both her efficient conversion of soul energy into mana and efficiency in binding myrvite souls for use. With greater efficiencies, she could speed up her accelerated levitation, cutting hours off her travel. She now retrieved supplies from Mahatan, deposited them in Torrviol, then headed north to grab her father. Instead of moving back south, she now had them fly north to Alkazaria. She could then open that Gate, bringing them to Palendurio. From there, they could grab mana elixirs and magichemicals needed for research, then Gaius could take them north by train while Mirian got off at Cairnmouth and returned to Torrviol to prepare the research effort.
With each iteration, she practiced getting more and more people to join the building or research efforts. Xipuatl could help Viridian with spirit constructs. Nicolus was useful for heading down to Cairnmouth to procure more shipments of magical materials, while Calisto could arrange shipments of live myrvites from her father’s guild.
That wasn’t all. Plenty of older students could be used as research assistants, or used to help the skilled artisans of Torrviol as they expanded the Myrvite Studies building or assembled artifacts or enchanted material in Akanan-style assembly lines. Within a few weeks, Torrviol was completely transformed.
Mirian didn’t spend all her time in the Labyrinth. Whenever there was a breakthrough on a new spell that was possible through a tri-bonded sequence, she ceased her exploration and worked on that. Gaius continued to teach her about the energy transmutation enchantments he used in his mummy soldiers, which led to her completely scrapping her old designs for the leyline regulators.
One of the biggest problems in dealing with a leyline was the sheer amount of energy involved. In one of her meetings with the professors, Mirian explained her reasoning: “We can create sequences of inefficient transmutation. Then, arcane energy can be both defused and put to work. Some will be released as heat, some as light, some as sound, some as electricity, and so on. That reduces how robust the materials we’re using need to be.”
Then, she made another connection. Both she, Xecatl, and Gabriel had located Elder relics in the Vaults that had special properties or could manipulate energy. In two cases, there were relics capable of absorbing an enormous amount of a given energy type. The one she’d found in the Frostland’s Vault could absorb heat, for example. Gabriel’s could regulate electricity.
Mirian became quite good at delivering concise lectures to both professors and apprentices. “Each leyline regulator can be designed around an Elder absorption device, including theoretical relics we haven’t found yet. Professor Xidi will be teaching a series of classes on energy transmutation. Then, teams will break off into groups and design devices or segments of the devices independently, before coming back together to collaborate and review each other’s designs. I’ve arranged teams in a way to produce different outputs each cycle, so please do not rearrange the teams,” she announced at the end of one lecture.
When she and her father weren’t monitoring research, she was in the Labyrinth with him, carving through horrors and abominations. By the fifth cycle of this, they’d cleared the fourth level for miles around Torrviol and were moving deep into the fifth level.
The first prize they found was an econode. Strangely enough, it was a desert node, some three square miles, absolutely full of chimeras, drakes, and manticores.
“Where do they get all their food from?” Mirian asked as they explored it.
Gaius shrugged. “My best guess is they must be able to eat the labyrinthine horrors. That might explain why most of the dens are next to the entrances.”
The econode acted as the perfect place to replenish mana and soul energy. Then they moved on.
Another cycle passed. Jherica reported Xecatl’s progress on a spirit construct designed to transmute energy and drain leyline energy. Ceiba Yan was attempting to grow his roots around the Labyrinth. Expeditions of diviners continued to search for a Gate in Tlaxhuaco, to no avail.
Mirian began to take language lessons from Song Jei. She already knew a few words from the exercises Jei had taught her some twenty years ago. It wasn’t much of a foundation. Gulwenen proved to be a difficult language to learn, and her progress was slow.
Gabriel reported making another attempt to take Sanctuary Road through the Jiandzhi to Zhighua, but had gotten eaten and was pissed about it. Liuan reported another sighting of Scebur’s agent, out in Westshire of all places. The far west of Akana Praediar had little industry, and was time consuming to navigate. There was also no sign at all of Gates out that far. Mirian couldn’t make heads or tails of what Scebur would be doing over there. Her best guess was that it was a distraction, designed to pull Liuan out of place while Scebur did something in eastern Akana, and she told Liuan as much. Liuan replied with a snippy letter saying she already knew that.
Ibrahim remained missing.
Mirian’s efforts in Torrviol now involved moving a great deal of gold and material around, to the point where it was having an influence on the politics and economics of western Baracuel. Merchant investors would often show up, as would Crown Investigators looking for fraud. However, by the time they showed up, Mirian’s forged bank papers had already been sent into circulation in Cairnmouth or Palendurio, and untangling her fraud would take longer than the investigators had.
As for the religious ramifications, Pontiff Oculo was caught up in General Corrmier’s coup plot. Two months was still too fast for the Luminate Order to make a decision on declaring a Prophet, especially one who seemed content to muck about in a remote town. Most of the time, a delegation of priests and bishops made their way up to Torrviol, but arrived near the end of Duala, too late to do much. She could tell that the longer the cycles went, the more she’d have to care about what Palendurio and Alkazaria were doing. For now, she could ignore them.
At night, her dreams were full of the Ominian’s thoughts. Finally, she dreamed of the Mausoleum again.
***
When the dream came, Mirian was ready. First, she checked the Ominian, sitting on Their throne. There were still two temporal anchors. The first was Troytin’s. She still didn’t know where the second one had come from.
She turned and quickly made her way to the colossal doors at the front of the Mausoleum. Mentally, she pushed them open. Above the Mausoleum was another Gate, she knew, but that wasn’t what she was interested in this time. No, she wanted to see what had been left behind. The last Triarchs of the Persaman Empire had done something to this chunk of Mayat Shadr. It was connected to the destruction of the city, and the things that had risen up high above Enteria with the city had stayed there for centuries.
When she’d last dreamed of this place, she’d been focused on looking out over the planet. Now, she went to where necromancer-priests had fallen.
Most of the runes and glyphs on their scepters and robes were dull, any lingering arcane energy long since extinguished. The solidified forms of the glyphs were still there, so their magic could be recreated. As Mirian looked through the glyphs, though, there was nothing that looked particularly useful. She noted heavy use of myrvite bones in the construction of the priestly armor, and the form was reminiscent of a rib cage.
Curious. Endresen’s research on mana flow seems to suggest that form is one of the more efficient ways to move high amounts of arcane energy. Perhaps they stumbled upon it. It was, she had to admit, a rather wicked looking aesthetic.
She made her way over to a dais. There were the remnants of massive runes scribed into the stone. One sequence seemed to circle around the entire Mausoleum. The other thing that was everywhere was the bones. They lay in giant heaps. Thousands and thousands of them. A sick feeling churned in her. Something terrible happened here.
At the dais, the corpses were more finely decorated. The robes had become sun-bleached, but she could still make out the embroidery and faded glyphs.
In the center of a ritual circle was what could only be the Triarchs. There were three of them, each wearing armor that still glittered white-silver in the light. Mythril, she knew. How many souls did it take to make so much mythril? The regulator-armor she was designing would need a lot of mythril. This would be everything I need. I would just need to reforge it. She looked down at one of the ornate scepters clutched in a skeletal hand. The runes they’d used had also faded, but the imprints and trace magichemicals left over might be enough to learn new runes. Worth retrieving and studying, she thought.
She looked around at the vast numbers of runes and glyphs that had been deployed. If we can find out what they were doing, it could help solve the crisis.
Mirian was about to move on when she sensed something. She stopped and looked back. Not all the scepters were identical. One of them still had some sort of active magic; she could feel it, the faintest prickle of her arcane sense. Interesting that still works here. She bent over, putting a hand out towards the Triarch’s scepter. She’d studied the old Persaman scepter Torres had, and she’d seen a few in her father’s collection. She knew how to disassemble them. Her arm flickered with black and white energy. She wasn’t really here; it was some sort of soul projection. Still, if she could open doors…
Mirian closed her eyes, then used a burst of raw magic to hit the scepter in the release point. The top of it clicked open, revealing the catalyst.
If she could breathe here, her breath would have caught. The catalyst shone with unreal light, seemingly both indigo and orange at the same time, with colors the mind couldn’t parse. Not just any catalyst. The catalyst of a myrvite titan. The cataclysm beast slain by the First Prophet.
It had lain here, all this time. A catalyst even more potent than the one that she’d taken from Apophagorga.
***
The next morning, Gaius found Mirian scribbling down notes while she clacked around with an abacus.
“These aren’t for the Labyrinth,” he said, glancing over them. “Or your usual artifice.”
“No, it’s for another project.”
“Well, you can hit these numbers on a heat shield spell easily. But what in the Gods name do you need that kind of horizontal levitation speed for though?”
“It might be the better option.”
Gaius made a face as he looked her other notes. “This sheet has you levitating upward at maximum speed for ten hours. Where are you trying to go, the bloody m—oh.”
“Precisely,” Mirian said.
“I see.” Her father seemed at a loss for words. “Could an airship help? I’ll admit, I don’t really know much about these new… spell engines.”
Mirian grimaced. Spell engines had been around for two hundred years, and widespread for a hundred. “No. The spell engines use most of the fuel for force propulsion. The levitation mostly just keeps them aloft, and the way the conduits are designed mean it isn’t much good for sustained rapid ascent. Possibly, a new engine could be built in one of Tyrcast’s factories… but from my conversations with the Akanans a few years back, retooling a factory takes quite a bit of time. I could, perhaps, build a Baracueli airship spell engine in time, but the Akanan ones are a lot more complex. Then there’s the issue of fuel, and how more of it weighs more, so you need more to deal with the extra weight, and so on and so forth,” she said, gesturing at another pile of calculations.
Gaius frowned. “The third solution looks like the most realistic one, then. I’d guess… you’d need 160 myr at a minimum. Possibly 170. You’d still want to start at height on an airship. And you’d need perfect timing.”
“So it seems. Any more tricks for increasing spell intensity?”
Her father chuckled. “More of what you’ve been doing. You’re still young.” He smiled. “With where you’re at right now, I can’t wait to see where you’ll end up.”
Mirian smiled back at him. He was proud of her. That felt good.
She set the notes aside. “A project for another time then. I feel like we’re getting close to the sixth level. Let’s keep going.”
***
That evening Mirian and Gaius emerged from the Labyrinth, ragged, but intact. They’d discovered a magic suppression field deep in the fifth level, and Mirian had collected samples. As they emerged from the tunnel she’d made by the lake, though, something was wrong. There were strange noises in the night. She heard cracking sounds in the distance.
“What day is it?” she asked suddenly, but she already knew the answer. She set down her satchel of Labyrinth wall fragments.
“Thirdday, the 28th of Solem, if I’m not mistaken. Though I have been known to lose track of the months from time to time. Or years, really. One time, I—” Her father cut himself off as another, louder sound echoed.
“Liuan didn’t prevent the invasion this cycle. Fuck! No one’s prepared. I didn’t form a militia or even—fuck!” She turned to Gaius. “It’s an Akanan army group. Focus on the artillery. I’ll destroy the airships.”
Her father’s face grew grim. “We’re low on soul energy and mana. You know what that means.”
“I do,” Mirian said. “They’ll massacre the entire town and blow the Gate if we don’t stop them. No mercy.”
“Very well,” he said.
Together, they ascended. Gaius cast his black shield and headed north as Mirian aimed for Torrian Tower.
** *** **
Marshal Emera Cearsia stood at the bridge of the Might of Liberty, hands clasped behind her back, the closest thing to a smile she ever got on her face. The invasion was going smoothly. Not that she expected much else. The Baracueli vermin seemed to think that Akana didn’t know about the terrible Elder weapon they’d discovered under Torrviol.
“Load earthshaker shells in the forward batteries. If the special artillery unit doesn’t take out that tower, we’ll follow up with our own volley. That tower is the nexus of their genocidal experiments. I want it ash do you understand?”
“Yes sir,” came a chorus of voices. The bridge was full of chatter as her orders were relayed.
“Observation reports a slight misalignment. Recommends course correction of three degrees starboard.”
“Correcting course. Adjusting course three degrees starboard,” her navigation captain said.
A moment later, a glyph on a communications console lit up. “Marshal, forward batteries report earthshaker shells are loaded. Observation reports an uncontested advance on all axes. Special artillery is in position and will be firing shortly. No changes on the timetables.”
Officer Troytin approached. “We finally received a report from one of our agents. He reports there is no Baracueli division incoming by train, as was expected.”
Cearsia frowned at the young officer’s report. That was unfortunate. She’d hoped they would be able to pin and annihilate the Fort Aegrimere Division in a moment of vulnerability. Having to deal with them behind their fortifications in Cairnmouth would be more annoying. They’d lost contact with most of their agents in Torrviol a few weeks back, which indicated Baracuel must have had some inkling as to what was coming. And yet, they were ceding their most powerful weapon uncontested. Something wasn’t adding up.
She could figure that out later. One didn’t hesitate in war.
“Very well. Accelerate the advance, then. The faster we secure the objective, the better.”
Operations continued. Then, she noticed one of her officers looking puzzled. “Repeat last message,” the officer said. Then, looking at Cearsia, she said, “Republic’s Justice reports… the special artillery attack appears to have been blocked. Some sort of shield that appeared in front of Torrian Tower.”
“Impossible,” said one of the munitions officers. “They were using spellpiercer ammunition. That should have cleaved right through the enchantments.”
Cearsia didn’t hesitate. “Then bring Might of Liberty into position. Navigation, implement Route 3. Fire control, hold all fire on the tracks.” That couldn’t have been Medius, could it?
They continued forward. The distant echo of artillery fire carried across the evening. Then, the communications officer’s eyes grew wide. “Starboard observation reports… please repeat. Repeat.” The officer’s face went white. “Ob-observation r-reports… it’s unclear. But we just lost a lot of people. The 5th Artillery Regiment appears to be… dead.”
Marshal Cearsia snapped her head in the officer’s direction. “What!?”
Suddenly, all the consoles’ communication glyphs started going active. Emergency priority communications.
“Reports of mass casualties from the 12th Artillery—”
“—the 2nd Mechanized Brigade hit hard. Reporting dozens of casualties. Suspected necromancy spells.”
“Observers reporting emergency flares along the northwest axis—”
“—17th Artillery is requesting immediate support! Enemy spellcasters are—”
“Sir, the Republic’s Justice is reporting emergency flares going up across the—”
Cearsia felt a chill run down her spine. “How many attackers?”
“We don’t know.”
The Marshal turned to climb up the top observation post, shoving aside the observer and casting her own lens spells to survey the battlefield. She peered down. She heard distant gunfire echoing up from the ground. If there were high powered enemy spellcasters or artillery firing back at her forces though, there should be explosions. Where are the explosions?
She caught sight of an intact regiment moving towards the north of the town. Suddenly, there was a mess of black lines cutting through the ranks. She could hear the blood-curdling screams even above the roar of the wind whipping by. A black sphere of some sort passed by a moment later, but by the time it did, she could see no movement where the regiment had been. She tried to replay the moment. The regiment had auramancers and spellshield engines. They hadn’t done anything.
More screams echoed up, and as she swiveled to aim her lens spell at another regiment, she saw it was being devastated just as quickly. She caught sight of one of the auramancers turning black, his flesh disintegrating. As he died, all the people around him screamed and collapsed to the ground.
The chill in her bones deepened. “What in the five hells is happening?” she whispered.
That was when she heard an explosion—this one off the port side. She whirled, just in time to see a bright beam pierce the deck of the Republic’s Justice, smoke and fire pouring from the hole.
The Marshal hit the glyph relay and sent to the bridge, “Prepare emergency repair teams to board the Justice by skiff—they’re—Oh God.”
The dreadnought airship suddenly dropped out of the sky, the massive steel bulk slamming into the ground a moment later. There was a bone-chilling rumble, then another explosion, this one sounding like the sky had ripped open. Cearsia gaped at it, her mind reeling. She prided herself on nothing breaking her composure, but this—this was impossible. Even if a team of archmages had boarded the Republic’s Justice, there should have at least been a fight. If Medius Luspire—that faithless prick—was fighting… but he couldn’t manage what had just happened. Her mind reeled.
“—Marshal? Marshal Cearsia? Sir? Bridge to Marshal Cearsia, your last communication cut out. Awaiting confirmation of—”
“Belay that last order,” she whispered hoarsely. “Activate all security. Switch onboard assault teams to defensive posture.” As she spoke into the remote voice spell engine, her eye caught a faint distortion of light, moving fast towards the ship. One of the doors leading down to the hull burst from its hinges, spinning off overboard. Her heart started hammering. “Secure the engine room!” she said, starting to connect the dots. “Full lockdown! All security teams, all assault teams, defend the engine room, now!”
She scrambled back down the ladder to the bridge, and had just reached the bottom when the first explosion rocked the ship. The bridge had become chaos. Reports kept coming in of casualties in the army below. People were dropping dead a hundred at a time, and from the reports, it sounded like soul damage. A brigade of God-cursed necromancers. How deep has Baracuel’s sin gone? she wondered. But there wasn’t time.
“Captain Markus, you have the helm. Security, with me!” Cearsia said, levitating her spellbook in her hand as she rushed for an entrance to the lower decks.
There was another explosion, and another. Then, a powerful beam spell pierced the deck, burning bright enough she had to throw a hand across her eyes.
Then, there was a tremor, and her stomach lurched as suddenly the airship began to drop. A figure shot up from the hole in the deck and into the sky. The woman who had emerged glanced back, and all Cearsia could see were eyes of blazing silver light.
“Ominian save us,” she whispered. There was a terrible silence, and then the Might of Liberty hit the ground.
** *** **
Mirian looked down at the carnage with disgust. She cast her amplify voice spell, enhanced for maximum intensity. She spoke in Eskinar to the scattered army below. “Akanans! You stand against a Prophet of the Ominian. Your leaders have lied to you. I will not. Flee, and your lives will be spared. Continue fighting, and you will die.”
She hovered above Torrian Tower, prismatic shield glimmering in the twilight. Just west of town, the two Akanan dreadnoughts burned. Several buildings in Torrviol had collapsed from the resulting quakes.
With her detect life, she surveyed the battlefield. A squad of Akanans was still wildly firing down by Bainrose. She snuffed them out with a few disintegration beam spells, then looked around again. Most Akanans were beating a terrified retreat.
Mirian started flying around. If anyone fired on her, she killed them. By the end of the hour, no one was firing at her anymore.
She met Gaius in Bainrose Plaza.
“They’re fleeing west. I’ll spend tonight organizing a militia so that we don’t get any more surprises. We’ll cut the train tracks to Cairnmouth later, though I doubt the Akanans will come up from that way.” She sighed. “We headed off the worst of the attack, but the Myrvite Studies building and Torrian Tower took some hits. Hopefully, that doesn’t set back the research too much.”
She looked down, her detect life spell catching glimpses of human souls below. “Oh, great. Akanan squads are still running around in the underground. Can you take care of them?”
“Of course,” her father said. “Only… I don’t actually know how to get down there. The only passage I know about is the one we carved out near the lake.”
“Right.” She gave another heavy sigh. “I’ll show you the one by the theater. Then, make your way up north to Bainrose.”
“This might be a good opportunity to show you a form of necromancy we’ve been unable to practice,” Gaius said as they flew southeast.
“Sure,” Mirian said. What a headache, she thought. She was dreading how much time it would take to assess the damage the Akanans had done to her projects—and to her people. She’d have some words with Liuan about this. But Jherica didn’t warn me either, and this was one of their Akana cycles. Yet another thing to take care of.
Behind them, black smoke belched into the air, and the snow was covered in blood.
Comments
Shaoraka
Unless Liuan is the dead one, and Jherica is with Xetacl I think ? So maybe she just doesn't know.
Saphy
Hm. I don't trust Liuan, but I do trust Jherica - it's very odd that this attack happened with no warning. Unless Liuan killed Jherica off or otherwise intercepted any warning, I would guess this is a result of outside influence. It's also possible Jherica simply didn't think to warn, or didn't notice at all, but still... This is just weird. Liuan is shady, but appears quite competent at controlling this part of the cycle. I can't see why she just... Wouldn't do it this time.
FuriousDee
I wonder if they will have any adamantium on them as well.
UraniumPhoenix
Fixed, thanks.
lenkite
> 17th Artillery is requesting immediate support from enemy spellcasters 17th Artillery is requesting immediate support from *allied* spellcasters
tentacles4all
Crazy tin-foil hat theory (well , until next chapter) Could Miriam and her dad be teleported to another timeline by some wierd room in the Labyrinth? One where she hasn't met the other prophets yet and she has died earlier on in the loop. Because the attack doesn't make sense at all. EDIT: no , this doesn't makes sense either. If they went on another timeline then the hole to the Labyrinth wouldn't be there.
Kiera
It was established that the tree is a little special since it was communing with the "prophet" of Tlaxhuaco during the start of each cycle, allowing the memories to move forward. However, this was a unique circumstance and insofar as Mirian is aware can't be replicated the same way to bring others into the cycle
Cellinia
Why doesnt Mirian save and share memories with Jei, like how the tree does? That would be a nice way to somewhat have her progress through the loops
UraniumPhoenix
You'd need some biological materials for runes, but not as specific as the magichemicals needed for glyphs. Agencies like the RID and priests of the Luminates are scribing runes with specific myrvite souls, but Mirian figured out how to move soul energy 'down' on a gradient, which means she can use souls more flexibly (similar to her figuring out how to decay a soul into mid-grade mana). Certain runes do require a certain strength of soul, though. At this point, Mirian isn't encountering many glyphs she doesn't know, but there's still a lot of runes to cover, especially because so many were lost during the collapse of the Triarchy.
UraniumPhoenix
Three square miles. Thanks for catching that, it's fixed now.
Léon Geide
Pity that Patreon doesn’t have the Edit Suggestions function like RR has… Anyway: Is the desert node three square miles? Or three miles across (some 7-8 square miles)?
Michael Vonica
How do people make runes, again? Are they made of pure soul energy, or magichemicals and soul energy, like glyphs are magichemicals and arcane energy? Does any soul work, as long as it is strong enough, or do specific myrvite souls match up with specific runes? Also, I wonder how many glyphs and runes Mirian has found that she still can't write, or doesn't understand.
Amadhe
Everything feels so… fast… as of late.
Tim
Is Liuan testing to see how strong Mirian has become by not stopping the attack? Or was she killed early in the loop? If she was testing, I don't think she'll like what she finds.
Mr NerfGun
Because the First Prophet's Cataclysmic Beast was a much bigger and stronger myrvite Titan than Apophagorga.
Josiah
You know, if it's possible to communicate with souls in the temple, what if Scebur was communicating with the first prophet? What if Scebur never existed as a companion when the first prophet was alive, but instead was a companion for the first prophet in the temple dreams. What if this Scebur chose the alias Scebur from the legend but ended up becoming the real Scebur via the Bootstrap paradox.
orinatic
Do we know why the first prophet's focus is supposed to be more powerful that Mirian's current one? Aren't they both from myrvite titans?
UraniumPhoenix
It's a heat/light spell, but Mirian doesn't know what a laser is. It's a focused beam that drills a hole, it's not like the d&d 3.5 spell
mike
No, it's horizontal. If you are standing on a big ball and move horizontally instead of vertically you will still leave the ball. She was calculating how fast she would have to go to reach escape velocity horizontally instead of trying to do it vertically and how much mana it would take to do it. Rockets in real life do that too, to a degree. They don't go straight up the whole time. She was trying to calculate the most "fuel" efficient path to leave the planet.
Mr NerfGun
What does the disintegration beam exactly do? Does it disintegrate just what it touches or like for example, the whole body of the person touched by it?
FuriousDee
I wonder who has been wiping out the Akanan spies in Baracule or if they were just referring to the ones in Torvrol
Josiah
Troytin made the attack more effective, but the attack happens regardless. The conspiracy was in motion since before the loop started and happens on the first loop when none of the loopers knew anything. There were only two dreadnought airships as they only have two leyline repulsor devices.
Enthernal
Wow, what a packed chapter! So much to sort through, but I like it all. the invasion being back and how it catches Mirian off guard really spoke to me. How she takes down the ships is chef's kiss, if only there could've been a bit more interaction between Cearsia and Mirian it would've been perfect. It seems a common issue with Mirian to not follow up on confirmations/let things go unchecked for too long. If it wasn't that the second needle appeared before the council he attended I'd be sure it was his. She really should check on him, for all we know he went into hiding/gets taken down at the start of the loop. We know he starts the loop in a scuffle, so just getting a good curse or something on him might be enough. Similar with scebur, she shouldn't be leaving it all to Liuan/assume it's purely an Akanan issue. Considering the invasion is the default behaviour, this sounds a lot like Liuan/Jherica are in trouble. Finally, even more reason to make a trip to the moon, I'm looking forward to it :)
Mr NerfGun
Or an Elder God, they may actually mistake her for one.
Morog T Tiny
just a couple questions, wasn't the attack originally driven by the prophet that is not a prophet any longer, weren't there 3 airships in the attack, not two, why wouldn't the 17th request support to help against enemy spell casters vs from them.
Anotherb Account
Yes. Loved not only how brutal it was, but also the fact that the entire first insurmountable plot point was now a half chapter casual rampage. Aided by her dad tbf, but even alone
Josiah
There can't be unless it is someone else who is talking to the 6th prophet in the dream, but that would be a weird twist considering he is making the armor Mirian is designing. He removes himself from the loop when he sees there are three needles, so I guess depending on how the time works between the prophets, there could be a thrid needle. I assumed because they probably speak in the dream, the third needle can't be in the Ominian until they talk to him. Now that I'm thinking about it though, there are two other beings that can exist across time. Whether or not the gate guardians would communicate for them or not is another thing entirely though. Seems more likely the prophets will just use soul communication when they see each other in the dream.
Josiah
I think it's more likely Liuan and Jherica were killed or imprisoned by Scebur this loop. Whether Scebur is Liuan, Celen, or someone else who knows?
Michael Vonica
Gaius already gave her rock shatter. Much less efficient, but works much faster.
Orion Fritz
No there were some myr ratings between then and now, though I couldn't tell you the chapter they're in. She's hit at least 140 for general spells, I'm 80% sure. She hit above 150 using greater lightning for 100% sure though, since I remember her commenting about beating the old archmage that hit 150 with disintegrating ray.
FuriousDee
Could Mirian turn mana into soul energy so she could convert it back later when needed? To reduce her dependency on living creatures nearby. Also would it be useful for her to design new spells that work better with massive quantities of mana.
Anonymous
No has she reached 150 Myr yet? Iirc last time she was at 127 but that was before 2 soul ascensions and training with her father
Anotherb Account
Hmmm something is afoot with Liuan. Color me intrigued/excited
Orion Fritz
"...Gods name do you need that kind of horizontal levitation speed for though?" Did you mean vertical instead of horizontal?
Milo
I don’t think the Omnian planned this exactly, the ‘infinite branching path that is half on fire’ vision from the prophet dreams makes it seem like it’s all a pachinko game for the fate of existence. The Omnian has rigged this game through the prophets but those dreams talk about growing and show some places where soul heightening is possible but not all. This makes me think he’s desperately trying everything he can, not constructing a perfect plan. Jei is the head researcher on the divine monument which the Akanans think is some kind of weapon so she is a valid target for that reason alone but there could be more.
Michael Vonica
Thanks for the chapter. Lots of interesting things going on. Labyrinth progress, better leyline regulators, a spaceship, and maybe we'll even get a look at what makes a magic suppression field work? About the Ominian's plan. Do people think everything is going exactly how he wants it to, or have his prophets been failing? If everything is going right, then that means he wanted to create the Dvir moon, and he wanted the leyline crisis to occur at this exact moment. If that's the case, there has to be more to this. Either a greater crisis that requires all these parts to solve... or he wants something, and is willing to risk everything to get it. Are we sure the Ominian is nice? The first time he showed up, I did not think the thing made of eyeballs, wings, and spikes was nice. What if he wants something kind of terrible? Wouldn't this be the perfect way to get it? Put the world in checkmate, and the only way to get out is to give him what he wants. Stop the moonfall, and the Ominian gets what he wants. Let it happen, and everyone loses. On another note, did we ever learn why the Akanans want Jei dead? I don't remember. Also, what do people think about Platus? Could there be more going on with him? Last we saw, he blew himself up while trying to "discover" something. What are the chances that there's more going on there than Platus just being dumb? What if he's actually found something valuable that inspired him to try the experiment, or had an actually good idea? I wouldn't put it past Pheonix to let something like that cook for 200+ chapters.
Erik Hansen
There is a good chance there is a third needle with the Omnian now. Jherica could be forgiven for totally missing the invasion plan because he was never awake during it being a priority and it was Liuan's circus.
zoarian
Sus
Zurko
I like that her final words were "ominian save us" when speaking about a prophet created by the ominian whos saving the world. People can really have the same ideals and still be on opposite sides of conflict.
Zurko
Kinda wanted to see her turn torrivol tower into a rocketship (because its a part of an old spaceship already) but her blasting herself to the moon like superman is also cool.
Milo
or it’s just a blatant cover for some other operation taking place anywhere else in the world.
Pete Magnuson
Lovely horror movie interlude. Poor sods accidentally poked the nascent demigod and barely got time to appreciate how fucked they were
Milo
This attack is a cover for something, probably some form of information gathering about Mirian. Maybe trying to get a lock on her total capacity/what she uses to defend her home?
João Vene
Ibrahim also dissapeared a while ago. Maybe there's another prophet hunting them. We don't know how that one anchor came back to the Ominian either, so maybe they can even remove anchors. Scary!
SlickMongoose
I wonder if someone has done something to Liuan and Jherica? Things were obviously going too well.
FuriousDee
I wonder if her armour is going to make her look like an elder beast
Doug Tanner
"who seemed continent to muck about in a remote town" -> Should be "content"
steamrick
Whelp, looks like Miriam might have to take a break from research to figure out wtf is going on in Akana
steamrick
incontinent :p
Touch
Edit especially one who seemed *continent* to muck about in a remote town Content(?)
