Meteoric rises to power are, well I'd hate to say common place on Fracture, but they aren't rare. I suppose it really comes down to your definition of meteoric rise, it should take about a year to reach Stygian's level and at that point most plateau. So doing all that Stygian has accomplished in three months is impressive, but the power Leon the mourning wood has collected is more so.

Of course Tekanis meddled with Leon make the boy what he is, making it less impressive, but still. Leon would never have risen so fast if he hadn't died. To an even greater extent Leon would have exploded and been dead forever if the Lost Woods hadn't tried to use Tekanis to kill him. The Woods as deadly as she was, also happened to be fatally overconfident and didn't see a problem with her mentality. This is why she has lost so much power and how come Tekanis has been so successful in his campaign to destroy her.

The Woods felt regret for sending Tekanis towards the Mourning Wood. After all an entire swath of her forest had been destroyed but the no longer little-tree-ghost, but she wasn't worried. She had new pawns, each with boundless potent with their assistance and loyalty she would become stronger than she had ever been before. With a bit more time Stygian and Vaelin could even challenge Tekanis, at least that's what the Woods believed. She was vastly underestimating Tekanis. He was believed to be one of the most powerful wizards of the age.

At least so far.

Stygian and Vae scouted the section of dead forest the ghost tree was last spotted in. The forest had no idea where the ghost tree was because it had pulled the life out of everything and the energy that connected it to the rest of the Lost Woods. After half a day of searching the duo found what must have been the ghost tree, though it didn't look anything like what the Woods described.

It was more treant than tree-ghost. Fortunately it was still small at half a meter tall, but that still meant it was double Stygian's height and more than three times bigger than Vae. The tree had a spectral blue aura, mixed with green around it. Three glowing green circles made it look constantly surprised. Comical if not for the fact it radiating menace and power in equal measures. Vaelin had read of the oddities known as a Mourning Wood. This thing may have once been one, but it was changed now and who knew what it was capable of.

Well one thing was for certain, the treant-ghost-thing could definitely still pull the magic and life from plants and other weak living things. Meaning that Vaelin was outclassed. Even though she was a Siphon she was still a very, very new Siphon. She could buff Stygian and maybe try and protect the bug, but it would be foolish to use magic against it directly. High pressure situations mixed with ample magic often caused unexpected deviations. Like the treant suddenly figuring out how to pull magic directly from spells.

So the plan was to buff Stygian to its eyeballs, and for Vae to remain unseen. She would only occasionally intervene so as to not give away the game. Stygian should be able to keep up with it. Afterall Leon was a mindlessly beast, and our deväk was an experienced beast.

The back up plan if everything went to shit was, burn everything. Leon might be able to pull the energy out of fire, the duo didn't know, but it should buy them some time to escape at least. Stygian molded A Knight's Fork into something reminiscent of a halberd. That way it would still gain the bonus from the spear and function like an axe.

Treant Leon was just standing in the what was probably once a natural clean spring. Full of life and the essence of an idealistic nature scene. Now though? Now everything that was once vibrantly alive, was not but a husk. It was as though all the plants had been mummified, and the animals? Well dear friends, the animals were not but ash.

The forest, or whatever you'd call the remains of it, was quiet. Eerily so. Nothing was alive, nothing was there to chirp or scurry. The ghost tree seemed to be doing it's best tree impression, and hadn't moved since the duo had first arrived. Unbeknownst to our pair, Leon was in a mental struggle for control and had been rooted in place ever since he finished draining the energy of this section of the Woods.

Stygian began a slow approach pushing Lurk its utmost, but it was for not. As soon as Stygian reached a meter away the tree-ghost sprung to life. The treants arms grew longer and becoming whip like. Stygian began to evade as the tree flailed its arms in an attempt to strike the little bug. The swings were wild and unpredictable. Easy to dodge, and if the tree had been slower Stygy could have kept it up forever. Alas after one particularly frenzied barrage Stygian was left wide open and would have been hit if not for the fast shield work of Vae. Unfortunately, the tree seemed to notice and that's when two things happened. Firstly something green glowing and almost human shaped shot out of the hostile tree. Secondly Vaelin's plan began to fall to shit.

The tree-ghost became tree and a ghost. More accurately, the altered mourning wood had been changed by Tekanis, into a treant and wood nymph hybrid. Wood nymph's normally despise treants, being their monstrous counterpart. This wasn't the first combination of the two, but it was the first that only had one soul. The treant was controlled by Leon's beastial side while the wood nymph was governed by Leon's ever awakening consciousness.

So Leon attacked Vaelin with a combination of spirit, plant, and devourer threads. While Stygian fought a young wild treant with copious amounts of strength, agility, and dexterity. In short they were outclassed magically and physically, despite that our duo was quite stubborn. Even though Vaelin was camouflaged Leon could somehow detect her, they both began to speed around in the air. Both left trails of lights in the air there were occasional flashes where their different magic's collided. Beautiful and deadly, the air thrummed with their expended power. Between the two Leon had the stronger energy drain capabilities, have an actual thread tried to the treant-nymph's job.

On the meathead side of things, Stygian was doing just a bit better. The treant was weary of attack since Stygian had looped off half of an arm. It was unfortunately regrowing, but it gave Stygian enough time to focus and summon fifteen host-worm controlled fyreflies. The bugs began to scorch the treant while it was otherwise occupied with attacking. This gaven Vaelin a few moments of breathing room while the nymph Leon absorbed the fire preventing his tree from dying. If a nymph's tree dies they die, and if a nymph dies their tree dies. Leon's case is no different, it's just that his tree is mobile and well defended.

Several of Stygian's fireflies got injuries and the treant began to target them instead of Stygian. Not wanting to lose any of its things, Stygian recalled the injured one and summoned new ones. It seemed like Stygian with the help of its tamed worms might actually defeat the treant. Feeling more and more confident, our psyling began to feel hopeful of its victory. Then there was a scream. Horrible. Loud. And feminine. It was Vaelin.

Stygian whipped its head around, and saw a very odd sight. A pink aura surrounded Vae, and Leon's arm was sticking out of her head. There was no blood, no wound and Leon was more apparition than physical, but it still terrified our deväk. Then the treant whipped Stygian into a dead log a full strength. Sending the bug nearly ten meters in a moment, the stunned bug could only watch as the nymph and treant took away a limp Vaelin.

She wasn't dead, she couldn't be, not yet they had so much left to do, so many adventures still to go on. Stygian refused to believe otherwise. Rage kindled inside the deväk, unimaginable rage the kind that comes from wanting to reshape reality. The kind that would see the world burn just to undo a single moment in time.

Wrath

You're action have caused you to fall into the pit of fire few can climb out of. Wrath is the most destructive sin, you'd start and inferno just to keep warm. As this sin progresses, the effects will worsen. Like sliding down a slippery slope. Careful, don't get burned by your own fire. It is hard to distinguish friend from foe, but you revel in violence. Combat prowess increased tenfold. You feel, Blood soaked... 0%

The bug was hurt, but could probably follow Vaelin's captors. However it needed an edge something to make sure that when the bug faced both nymph and treant it would be the winner. This new development was interesting, but untested an unreliable. Our bug shackled the sin and immediately felt the mind numbing rage subsided a bit. This sin would be helpful in combat, but Stygian needed more. Stygian needed magic.

Summoning up the thread-scape Stygian began to ponder what magic was to the deväk. Magic was. Well, magic was... That is actually a tough question. Stygian had seen a fair bit of magic in its life and it was hard to pinpoint what it thought of first. Stygian began to redouble its efforts, Vaelin was in mortal danger and she needed her knight. And her knight needed the power of magic.

What is magic to you? Magic was power, power overwhelming.

What do you want to do with magic? I want it to be my strength. I want to save my friends with it.

What does raw magic look like to you? White faded to blue like the lightning Vae had once taught me about.

What does magic feel like to you? It is pulsing, thrumming, so alive and so potent that the air becomes charged with it.

Suddenly, as though snapping out of a trance Stygian was in front of thread that positively radiating energy. The psyling wasn't sure if someone was asking it those questions or it was just asking itself. The finding of one's first thread was different for everyone, but it always an otherworldly experience. Most never forgot it.

Our bug reached out its mental hands, and the thread jumped into to them, binding itself to the Stygian.

Congratulations, magic level increased to 10. Congratulations on reaching magic level 10. You have been awarded a job based upon your newly bond thread. You can accept or reject this job, however you will never be offered this choice again.

Stygian was understandably shocked, but reaching level ten in magic only required a personally created bond or sufficient knowledge of magic. Stygian not even bothering with the bonus skill at level five, decided that a starter skill would be better. Or in this case a starter spell.

You have earned the job:

Fount Mage

You have bonded yourself to a thread of pure power, a fount mage specializes in providing and taking in power. Usually a support member they can recharge an entire group of mages on their own. Though they do not have any direct attacks, they can still pull any type of non-hostile energy into themselves.

This is a single slot job for magic. Accepting will take 1 slot and you 4 slots remaining. This can be expanded further by intertwining new a thread/threads.

Will you accept?

Yes / No

Without a second thought Stygian accepted already feeling the exhaustion that binding a thread causes. However our bug was determined to choose a starter skill, or spell.

Please select starter skill(s)/spell(s), for Fount Mage Fount: The trademark spell of this job. Always the caster to share their potent and deep capacity for energy with allies. Can be performed as long as the caster has energy to share. The conversion rate is poor, but will become better with more levels and slots. Will you devote 1 slot to this spell or 0 slots? Physical Conversion: Convert the magical into physical. You can relieve fatigue and exhaustion by expending magical energy. It is easier to do on yourself, rather than on others. This spell grows more efficient with levels, and slots. Will you devote 1 slot to this spell or 0 slots? Whirlpool: It is rather like the inverse of Fount. This can pull in excess energy to restore the caster, but only in small amounts. The conversion rate will become better with more levels and slots. This skill will not fall under your job, but can be added later when there is a slot available. This is a bonus skill, offered because of your sin gluttony, and can be picked up for no extra cost. Do you want the bonus skill? Yes/No

Reading the skills Stygian began to feel disappointment set in this is not what the bug wanted. The was low tier at best, and definitely non offensive. More of a support job, but not useful to Stygian unless the bug gained another magic job oriented on offensive spells. In short Stygian needed another thread, but was far too tired to... Unless Stygian picked up whirlpool and physical conversion. The bug could start a forest fire and pull in the excess energy, then use physical conversion to reduce its fatigue. That might just work.

Without hesitation the bug started a fire and let it grow, pulling in all the energy it could. The conversion was shit, but Stygian felt better by the second. Finding another thread that resonated with the bug on a fundamental level would be time consuming, but luckily that wasn't necessary. Now that Stygian had created a bond the bug could also strength bonds it already had, and the psychic thread seemed like a good choice.

Stygian pulled in all the energy it could at a steady rate, careful not to let the fire grow out of control, or just go out. Then Stygian summoned up the thread-scape, but instead of looking outward our bug looked inwards. The psyling expected to see a simple and small bond representing its connection with a psychic thread as the only other bond besides the one it just forged. Stygian was greeted with hundreds of miniscule bond all of different shapes and sizes trying to form a bond with Stygian's center. Stunned the bug just looked at them all with growing concern. There was only so much space in ones center, or soul. It would expand with age and experience, but not enough to accommodate so many threads. There was of course, quite a few work arounds for this issue, but if Stygian couldn't reach higher levels. Well they would be quite impossible to employ.

Disregarding the over abundance for a moment, Stygian sought out the strongest of the weak bonds and to the bugs surprise there were two threads of almost equal strength. One that was clear and strong looking like it held a great force within. The other was purple and looked like a deep trench, or a deep mind. Curious about both Stygian began to pour strength along the bonds. The psyling watched as they grew bigger and stronger, exhausting both body and mind, but the bug kept going. Determined to see this through.

Each thread reach around the same size as the first one, and snapped into place as a full connection. Stygian now had three connections one to power, another to the mental manipulation thread and a third to the thread of force. An odd one but Stygian knew now that its chitin hid a small connection force that repelled foreign substances, and that it's psychic thread centered around one mind connecting with another and directly affecting the physical. Like a hive mind and telekinesis.

Stygian had the connections, but now came the hard part, our bug wanted to link the threads together. Thereby creating a unified job instead of three individual jobs. Using all of the will available to the deväk, it bent and twisted the bonds around each other. Stygian managed to two points of contact with each thread before giving out. The bug just sat there in the thread-scape letting the energies from the fire flow into it restoring it slowly but surely. As the bug continued to use both whirlpool and conversion it noticed that both the longer each was uses the more inefficient they became.

Dowsing the fire and the skills Stygian opened its eyes to several blue prompts waiting for it.

Your job has been modified:

Valus

You have bonded yourself to a thread of pure power, a thread of force, and a thread of the mind. A Valus is a power house they excel in using a large number of spells frequently. You have great luck, as the force thread also negates some of the physical forces directed towards you. You have absurd physical defense for a mage and the possibility of exceedingly potent psychic attacks.

This was a single slot job for magic, it is now a 3 slot job. You have 2 slots remaining, linking more threads will expand this job. Strengthen your center to increase slots.

Please select starter skill(s)/spell(s), for Valus Force Wave: Buy some breathing room. With this skill you can push enemies when things get overwhelming. Available because of you habit of fighting hordes. Higher levels will increase the range of the wave, more slots will increase the force of the wave.Will you devote 0, 1, 2, or 3 slots to this spell? Repulse: Many will find it hard to be near you, and not just because of your looks. Repulse creates an area of force that pushes away anything that gets to close. Extremely taxing, but can turn aside arrows and other attacks that could otherwise be fatal. Grows stronger with levels, grows more efficient with more slots. Will you devote 0, 1, 2, or 3 slots to this spell? Telekinesis: When words are not enough, a good demonstration of pure psychic will should put them in their place, as long as you put them there. The ability to move things with your mind only limited by power and your own mind. Levels will increase the power of this skill, and slots will increase what you can do.Will you devote 0, 1, 2, or 3 slots to this skill? Physical Conversion: Convert the magical into physical. You can relieve fatigue and exhaustion by expending magical energy. It is easier to do on yourself, rather than on others. This spell grows more efficient with levels, and slots. Would you like to keep this skill, or remove it? Keep/Remove Fount: The trademark spell of a fount mage. Always the caster to share their potent and deep capacity for energy with allies. Can be performed as long as the caster has energy to share. The conversion rate is poor, but will become better with more levels and slots. Will you devote 0, 1, 2, or 3 slots to this skill? Whirlpool: It is rather like the inverse of Fount. This can pull in excess energy to restore the caster, but only in small amounts. The conversion rate will become better with more levels and slots. Would you like to devote a slot to this bonus skill? Yes/ No

Repulse, telekinesis, physical conversion, and whirlpool. Force wave was very tempting, but with telekinesis Stygian felt it was a waste. A good kit for a beginner mage, and an even better one for one as gifted in combat as Stygian. The bug wasn't sure how rare this class might've been, but it had never heard of it before so that was promising. Unfortunately there was much our bug hadn't heard of, but it was right to assume that it was rare. Why was this important? Well dear friends, rare classes offered the most opportunities for advancement. Usually at a faster rate than tradition advancement.

The bug stretched out into its new powers and felt glee and dread in both measures. Power was nice, but Vaelin was more important. The bug wanted to charged off in the direction that she had been taken, but felt that it would be more than a little difficult to find her.

Instead Stygian search the ground, hoping against hope that it would be there. Thinking about the fire Stygian began to feel like a moron, what if the inferno had ruined the bugs only chance, but there it was. A pink lock of hair Vaelin had cut off and given to Stygian before the fight. It was her way of making sure that the bug could find her if they got separated. So for the first time Stygian used its skill match, and began to track down its losts lady.