Amdirlain’s PoV - Maze

While her body wasn’t a perfect replica of Mortal flesh, it certainly had hunger, thirst, and fatigue down perfectly. It was odd after going so long without needing rest to depend on Psi techniques she’d learnt to wash other people’s fatigue away. After months of holding her body’s desire for rest at bay, she wasn’t sure how long she’d slept, but she had to acknowledge she felt better.

Amdirlain blinked, bemused by her desire to sleep a little longer even though she’d slept on grass rather than a mattress. She could feel the vines' minds in their current near dormant state through the links she'd set in place months ago.

When she sat up, the motion woke the vines from their slumber, and they went from dormant to active instantly. They hadn’t roused when she did, only after the activity had caused new information to cross their perception. The whispered sounds of the grass shifting position painted her movements in their awarenesses.

The notification she’d received after hitting a hundred had been niggling at her the last few days of combat. She focused on her meridians as the details and questions swirled inside her thoughts. Having already memorised every leaf, thorn, or vine visible from above she concentrated on the depths. Cycling the Ki and Psi through her pattern painted the vines with power. When the process began again, she slowed the pace further and added extra unfocused energy to drift along in its wake.

Mist-like, the golden energy concealed her Psi presence as the energies drifted downwards. She reached among the leaves and through the many layers of vines concealed beneath. Drawn along by the dominant power in the pattern, the mist painted out the pathways of the vines, convoluted highways that crisscrossed each other as they wrapped around her Soul. Yet, with the Ki concealing the sparking Psi energy, the vines didn’t so much as twitch under her observation.

Hours of cycling later, she had to halt and took satisfaction with her progress, now significantly further into the depths than any previous attempt. In a few spots, she felt hints of her own Soul’s outer layer were almost within reach. Those spots had tempted her to push on, but she stuck to her routine.

The first Guardian that appeared grounded its spear’s butt and tilted its head at her in consideration. “You’ve still not taken either a new Prestige Class or transformation?”

“Why would I do either yet?”

“After being absent for days, I thought you must have had some grand plan afoot for this next pointless exercise.”

The news halted Amdirlain’s move to attack, and she drew back a few steps and bowed politely. “I appreciate you letting me know I slept so long. Any ‌reason for your chattiness today?”

“Athena left months ago, as you measure time now. You’ve been at this for a year and not bothered to push past Tier 6.”

She ignored the Guardian’s inference of laziness and smiled instead. “Ebusuku mentioned she turned up as a Lantern Archon.”

“How the mighty fall by the time a Mantle's insidious effects are done with them. You, or I should say, Ebusuku, has far more powerful lantern archons in her service.”

The Guardian's dig didn't bother her, but its earlier words had Amdirlain's lips twitch. The pointless jibe had her recall an old comic about first-edition clerics, and she motioned to his spear. “Oh, and this exercise isn’t pointless. You all have those.”

As the Guardian responded, Amdirlain teleported behind and shattered its skull with an elbow. When the next unit appeared, Amdirlain spun on her heel to face it and lashed out with a kick. The empowered Ki Strike not only shattered the metal, but her saturated flesh let out an eruption of Ki in line with the motion. A sliding step took her past its partner’s thrust, and Amdirlain tried once again to replicate the effect deliberately. The energy barely extended beyond her skin, it was more a haze than an eruption, but her fist still drove through its face.

All this practice without Farhad’s treatise to read, I’m sure I’m missing something.

Cycling to keep her flesh saturated with the radiant energy Amdirlain continued through the waves. Each obliterated with strikes and kicks until the Tier 4s appeared. It was then she stopped cycling and began to deliberately burn Ki and Psi energy alike. As the fight continued, she ran herself down towards exhaustion.

The vines erupted on schedule, tiny bristling protrusions barely breaking the skin, as they tried one of their alternative approaches to disrupting her. In Zen State, the world slowed around her, and the familiar blossoming of pain felt like breathing in freezing air on a winter's run. The sensation crinkled through her flesh, not distracting the way it had done all her life. Where pain had ‌been something that she’d, like most, previously just endured, an evolution of Pain Tolerance now gave everything a crystal-clear clarity instead.

The physical efforts of the vines also hindered her far less than they’d once done. From what Amdirlain could tell, their renewed shyness came from the understanding that the Tier 6s now barely hampered her. The combination of factors made quite the difference in the total she destroyed before she finally stopped.

[Combat Summary:

Maze Guardian - Tier 1 x 258

Maze Guardian - Tier 2 x 514

Maze Guardian - Tier 3 x 1,026

Maze Guardian - Tier 4 x 2,050

Maze Guardian - Tier 5 x 4,098

Maze Guardian - Tier 6 x 3,588

Total Experience gained: 513,748,000

Fallen: +102,749,600

Scion: +102,749,600

Sora Master: +102,749,600

Psion: +102,749,600

Warrior Monk: +102,749,600

Death Strike [M] (81->84)

Greater Teleport [M] (45->46)

Ki State [S] (48->49)

Ki Strike [S] (47->48)

Universal Life [M] (95->96)

Tremor Sense [Ad] (9->10)

Acoustic Mapping [Ad] (5->6)

Agile [S] (92->93)

Danger Sense [S] (16->17)

Psychoportation [M] (30->31)

Silent Storm [S] (116->117)

Telekinesis [S] (9->10)]

Washed and stretched out on the grass of her chamber, Amdirlain let exhaustion weigh her down. The notification message she’d received upon obtaining level 100 in all her classes niggled at her. Her mind, still high on the adrenaline days of combat had released, raced around poking at questions she’d held at bay.

[Replacement transformation routes are unlocked by the accumulation of five hundred levels.

The following options are available based on accumulated class types, powers, and skills:

Greater Malfex Greater Corruptor Greater Martinet Greater Profaner Greater Deviant]

Amdirlain was sure that Pain Tolerance's evolution at Master rank had opened the last option; its new name was unsavoury enough, but the description was worrying.

[Pain Eater:

Pain no longer distracts; instead, it increases your mental clarity. Only those who have deliberately sought and endured pain in various forms come to possess this Skill. ]

Though she’d hoped to maximise the number of merges, holding out for the highest increase set might be the only advantage. She’d held off for a week or more reviewing the numbers, but with her mind avoiding sleep, Amdirlain gave into temptation at last.

“Ki is spiritual energy, so unless I get Analysis explicitly to state it, I can only hope Malfex includes the Monk’s skills and powers. Though the offered Willpower increases alone will help my Monk classes.”

[Greater Malfex

Increases the chance of gaining insights into powers and skills directly related to the Fallen’s arcane and spiritual classes.

Attribute adjustments provided by new species:

+8 Strength per Level

+4 Intelligence per Level

+4 Willpower per Level

+8 Charisma per Level

+12 Free Attribute Points per Level

+9 Melee Attack Power per Level

+12 Magic per Level

+10 Defence per Level

Unlock Powers:

Mana Drain

Increased Mana recovery. ]

A growl from her stomach prompted her to use Sustenance, and Amdirlain drew up more information with Analysis while her hunger pangs eased. As she tried to get comfortable, she considered what else she needed to learn.

[Fallen:

These powerful celestials have turned from the path of light they once embodied. Their fall might have been instantaneous or a progression through a period of denial and suspicion. While able to seek redemption, it is a long and difficult path and many choose to embrace their new ways instead.

Though powerful in their own right, Fallen can become more potent still, and many seek to evolve or transform into greater beings among the lower planes.]

“I’ve never tried to find out what happens with a Fallen’s evolution,” murmured Amdirlain and nervously licked her lips. Repeated attempts with Analysis finally came up with unsettling information.

[Fallen Evolution:

Fallen are the only entities that can bypass the requirement for an established religion to become a Demon Lord or Lady. They can do this either through evolution or transformation. To transform involves risking their strength at an Abyssal Transformation Site, allowing them to fuse their power and status into a new species.]

“That sounds like my Tier 7 evolution option would turn me into a Demon Lady. Fuck! What are those sites? Are they how Moloch changed himself from a Rutterkin? Did Balnérith use one of these? Too many questions.”

[Abyssal Transformation Site

These places of intense abyssal energy allow demons to transform from one species to another by compressing all their accumulated strength. The deeper the entity can progress into the site, the longer the transformation takes and the stronger they emerge if they survive. These transformation attempts are not without risk and can cause the Demon’s destruction, regardless of the location of their home Plane—or planes—relative to the transformation site.

Generally used by weaker demons that have grown enough to know their limits, few risk a transformation more than once. The noticeable exception is the Demon Lord Orcus, who endured the transformation process eight times in his progression from Larvae to Balor before becoming a Demon Lord.

The Abyss corrupts any celestials or mortals who stumble into these sites, turning them into either a Demon or Bodak.]

“I wonder.”

[Demon Lady Balnérith:

While progressing along the route of Grand Martinet, Balnérith stumbled upon an Abyssal Transformation Site in the Abyss’ primordial depths. Her trip through the site ended several things, including her beauty and Fallen status. She emerged a genuine Demon Lady instead of merely the self-proclaimed title she had used after her fall. Twisted by her transformation, the former Solar fully embraced her new path. The nascent Sisterhood of Blood expanded rapidly after this and established their first strongholds on a half-dozen planes.]

“Grand Martinet, so more layers for transformation routes.”

[Analysis [S] (24->25)]

It took multiple attempts that revealed only hints, but with the Skill’s progress she finally got the information she sought.

[Fallen Transformation ranks:

Selection of a route option locks out any further selection:

Base (Requires four hundred levels) Greater (Requires five hundred levels) Grand (Requires six hundred levels) Arch (Requires eight hundred levels) Lord/Lady (Requires a thousand levels) Royal (Requires twelve hundred levels)]

“No point in going for less than the top shelf, but royal means I’ll have to be careful when I prestige. If I keep pressing to 110, then Prestige, after that, I’ll have to get my next two Prestige classes to 110, plus whatever base Class I take. Wait, I slipped a number. I’ve only got 10 class slots, including my species, so that’s 1,100 if I go for 110.”

She quickly repeated previous Analysis checks to confirm the numbers required.

[Accumulated experience requirements 110 to 115 range

110 requires 8,700,000,000.

111 requires 9,400,000,000.

112 requires 10,100,000,000.

113 requires 10,800,000,000.

114 requires 11,700,000,000.

115 requires 12,600,000,000.]

[Accumulated experience required for a class to reach 120 is 17,500,000,000.]

[Accumulated experience required for a class to reach 125 is 23,000,000,000.]

“Okay, so get them all to 120; glad I was already aiming for 110. A few days fighting to get a half billion doesn’t make this feel impossible. Though if I need that experience amount for each Class, it's more than slightly insane. Effectively three days to add 100 million into each Class. I need to get rid of my guests to push harder. Unless a better path comes up, I’ll take Malfex. So what do you look like?”

[Royal Malfex:

Increases the chance of gaining significant insights into powers and skills directly related to the Fallen’s arcane and spiritual classes.

Attribute adjustments provided by new species:

+15 Strength per Level

+15 Intelligence per Level

+15 Willpower per Level

+15 Charisma per Level

+30 Free Attribute Points per Level

+14 Melee Attack Power per Level

+50 Magic per Level

+18 Defence per Level

Unlocked Powers:

Mana Drain Mana Rift Energy Drain Planar Rift

Highly accelerated Mana recovery. ]

“Holy cow, those numbers are insane; it makes me glad Balnérith was on her Grand route. I don’t know what her Demon Lady stat gains are like though since Analysis insists each Lord or Lady is unique. But she had taken Grand Martinet, so?”

[Grand Martinet

Increases the chance of gaining significant insights into powers and skills directly related to the Fallen’s Commander variant classes.

Attribute adjustments provided by new species:

+4 Quickness per Level

+4 Endurance per Level

+10 Intelligence per Level

+10 Charisma per Level

+14 Free Attribute Points per Level

+14 Melee Attack Power per Level

+10 Magic per Level

+10 Defence per Level

Unlocks Power:

Enduring Dominion Name Bind Pact Torment Conscript Pact

Increased Mana recovery. ]

“Oh, poor Balnérith. I don’t know what you were like as a Solar, but that gives me hope of getting close to you.”

Amdirlain knew ‌raw numbers didn’t help her Skill difference, ‌regardless, they lifted a bit of weight from her worries, and she lay down again. This time, with fatigue weighing her mind, Amdirlain had barely settled down when she crashed into slumber.

When she awoke, careful touches on the vines’ minds checked their near dormant state. Not moving, Amdirlain eased her hunger pangs away before any sound might alert the vines. With them eased, she drew herself along the link to the weakest mind, intent on an expedition far beyond its surface thoughts. With the link and long practice breaching the mental static between them, the process went smoothly, and its mindscape opened around her.

Its mind duplicated its apparent physical form, and she slipped into its depths. The route was a winding path overrun with fibrous growths like the hairs along a bristly leaf. Not wanting to attract its attention, Amdirlain was careful not to disrupt the thoughts rushing along the vine's length. Sparks lept between the growths, but their infrequency aligned with the steady dormant state.

When she reached its inner depths, she’d moved far past the layers of its conscious control. She found the mental areas that controlled its autonomous instincts and began studying how it drew sustenance from her. The pain and death it needed were ambivalent to the living Ki, and she slowly extended her plan.

Before she left, she set a tether line directly to the depths of its mind. Her slow ascent challenged her patience, but her resolve for completeness remained. She compared each pause she made to avoid alarming the mind with a free diver's careful return to the surface to prevent the bends. The twisted mind of the pain-eating vine beneath her made that particularly apt. Whenever aphids and other bugs that seemed to represent its mental defences scampered close, she held her position, waited, and watched.

Only halfway to the surface, the mind’s surrounding areas came awake in fits and starts. Each time it took them longer to settle down, the extent of the defences' activity grew. The clicking mandibles of aphids and bugs would be nothing in the real world; here, they represented mental assaults. Untrained as their defences seemed, only the risk of what the vines might learn from their destruction deterred Amdirlain from attacking.

When the activity surged again, Amdirlain settled beneath a curled leaf and listened closely to her surroundings. A fragmented image of her lying on the grass was enough to determine what had happened when another sound pulse painted her skin. Her body’s hunger pangs caused another growl, and the vines stirred further into full awareness. She continued her ascent in fits and starts, darting between closing gaps in its understanding until, at last, she risked breaking free from its thoughts.

Adrift in the mental static between their states, Amdirlain deliberately kept clear of the tether lines she’d set and focused on her body. With her concentration on it alone, she pushed to make her fingers twitch, and eventually, her mind’s awareness filled her flesh. Another rumble echoed up from her gut, and she sat up with a start, hoping the vines would consider it a surprise reaction.

“Took too long.”

The extent of the grumbling in her gut made her aware almost twelve hours had passed, and she held still while she eased her hunger. When she stood, the vines shifted almost imperceptibly. Unsure how long her plan would take, she crawled inside the hidey-hole and lay on her side against its back wall. They settled down when she didn’t move further, but she could feel their alert state.

Cycling to help restore depleted Psi energy, she let the combined mist roil and drag along in the pattern’s wake. Inspired by the mental image of a free diver she’d conceived during her exploration, she took a different approach to extending the mist. Weighed down with intent, it plunged past the phantasmal vines until she felt the wisps contact her Soul's surface. The formation of her Soul, enforced by the Maze, let the mist’s tendrils map out its wounds and scars.

Though the mapping was far from complete, with her skin aglow, Amdirlain stopped cycling. Laying still, she sent her awareness inwards again, trying to use Ki Infusion to touch the vines’ phantasmal presence. As her experimentation continued, hundreds of failures provided only the faintest hint of contact. However, each attempt burnt away at the accumulated Ki until her body’s glow was at last muted.

Days turned into weeks, with an endless repetition of cycling Ki, Ki Infusion, and exploration of their minds. Her constant state of apparent inactivity lulled the vines into a deep, dormant state. Working through their minds, she moved the tether lines deeper into each awareness and shortened the time for subsequent expeditions. Progress was gradual and carefully paced, but eventually, the tether lines rested beneath the conscious level of each awareness. The link’s placement allowed her to ensure their Acoustic Mapping received only silence more easily.

Sitting under a tree is fine if you’re a shrub.

Amdirlain’s absent recollection of Master Cyrus’ words almost sat her bolt upright, but she stopped and considered the thought. Focused on her fingers where the fronds of the vines had enfolded, she concentrated on the Ki Infusion across her left hand. Her attention reached into the Power and imagined hair-thin wires descending like roots towards the shadows beneath her meridians. The progress felt glacial, but a tactile impression from an incorporeal leaf finally rewarded nearly an hour of work.

[Ki Infusion [S] (32->33)]

With the approach determined, the following contact only took minutes, and from there grew faster until all that was required was the intent. Amdirlain slowly teased the serrated leaf’s edge from her Soul, and the excess Ki rapidly sealed the wound. A burr at a time, Amdirlain worked along the vine’s frond until it reached a tipping point and started to coil back onto itself. Years of working with imagery for Psi techniques turned Ki Infusion’s shell into latticework. Then, rather than allow an uncontrolled fall, she secured it against Ki Infusion’s underside, like a gardener training a growth. The first frond carefully secured, the work resumed until it reached the first finger's base, and she started clearing the next.

Extra extensions descended from Ki Infusion’s shell to support the loose lengths of vines. Her progress moved from the fronds onto tendrils, and as the growth thickened, she reached the first genuine thorn. Stuck into her wrist, it had been the marker point she used to tear the first section from her flesh. A wire mimicked the thorn’s intrusion and slid beneath her Soul's surface, easing its way downwards between scar tissue and thorn.

When it reached the thorn’s tip, it shifted to form a cap in case the attempt slipped. New wires lowered and secured the vine to prevent it from driving deeper. Gradually, the cap changed shape, expanding upwards like an inflated bouncing castle. Between its support and the wires reeling in, she eased the thorn upwards but stopped when it put pressure on the main vine. Pain stabbed along her arm as deep wounds threatened to reopen, and her new Skill showed its approval.

[Pain Eater [M] (5->6)]

With a method determined, Amdirlain returned her attention to the dormant minds and plunged back into the first. With the tether lines set, the trip that had once taken hours now required a mere thought to access the heart of its awareness. An initial test revealed their natural telepathy with each other didn’t provide sufficient protection against the techniques she’d learnt.

She went to work with surgical precision, impersonally dissecting their capabilities. Mind blades eliminated their ability to communicate with each other, and in its place, she set constructs ready to let loose insidious whispers of self-doubt and loathing. The silence Amdirlain had imposed on the vine's Acoustic Mapping was no longer needed as she sliced the understanding of the Power from their minds.

The roots she’d begun with turned into block and tackle arrangements to lift the vines' upper layers to access areas she’d mapped beneath. She freed her flesh from burrs and thorns a millimetre at a time, raising the areas of connected vines to train them in the same fashion.

The careful approach wasn’t only in case she’d missed something within their minds; the vast amount of old injuries they’d inflicted simply didn’t allow for speed. Before reaching the midpoint of her forearm, thousands of wounds had reopened to allow the vines’ element, whether a thorn, burr, or serrated leaf edge, to be lifted free. Some produced agony that would have once seared her nerves and left her screaming on the floor. Now her Pain Eater Skill merely acknowledged and devoured each while the work continued.

When a double-chime sounded in the Maze from somewhere, Amdirlain ignored it to focus on her prize. Ki Infusion structures slowly pushed all the thorns and creepers that had pierced her to the surface. Repeatedly, Ki cycling renewed the energy available for healing old wounds. Unwavering willpower kept her on track until she finally completed the first stage after months of work. A latticework shaped by Ki now supported the vines that had once rested on flesh. In time, another double chime had signalled the trial’s end, but Amdirlain gave it even less attention than the first.

With the last of them no longer resting against her Soul, the Ki cycling through her meridians showed her a topography as battered as the moon's. The puckered scar tissue around where the roots had dug in were the last vestiges of their intrusion. Each root cluster seemed placed above vital organs or locations she was familiar with through cancer in life. The upper sets had sunk deep into what would have been the lymph nodes in her armpits and, from there, had once coiled around her shoulders before they’d proceeded to her fingers. Others had sunk above her heart, kidneys, liver, and lower chakras.

Another week of careful preparation ensured Ki sheathed each root to its lowest nodule, leaving them nowhere to cling. Consuming all the excess Ki to prevent preemptive healing, she set to work. Keyhole surgery had Ki wires become blades, and she reopened the scar tissue that reached far into her Soul. Icy blades slithered across her thoughts, with each spike of pain that set her Skill aflutter with excitement.

Amdirlain opened her eyes, and Aura Sight showed her the first writhing vine slipped free from her flesh. When the lattice holding it shifted the entity clear, the Psi technique Disintegrate lashed out. One after another, they breached her form's surface and met the same fate.

When the last came free, a muffled sound whispered across her awareness. When Disintegrate ripped through that final vine, a trio of notifications ran through her mind.

[Combat Summary:

King's Spite (Legendary True Song Construct) x17

Total Experience gained: 41,650,000

Fallen: +8,330,000

Scion: +8,330,000

Sora Master: +8,330,000

Psion: +8,330,000

Warrior Monk: +8,330,000

Ki Infusion [S] (33->34)]

[Resonance Unlocked!

Resonance (1)

Notice: Power subsets detected. Unlocked Skill will subsume‌:

Tremor Sense [Ad] (10)

Acoustic Mapping [Ad] (5)

Resonance (1) -> [Ad](21)]

[New Class option unlocked:

Ostimë ]

The muffled sound became an overwhelming thrum of multiple beautiful choruses, her mind identifying each. Her practice with the other powers allowed her to identify the originating points of every piece of music. From the surrounding stone, her flesh, the earth her long motionless body had sunken into, down to the chamber’s blades of grass and the trees’ leaves.

[Ostimë:

True Song's creator is the only being able to possess this primordial version of the Glinnel Class. It allows the possessor to employ the full range of the True Song, a natural blending of the sounds available from its twin aspects. Complete mastery allows for the creation of solar systems or the ending of a reality’s existence. Enjoy!

Note: I’d say welcome back, but you’re still you.]

[Achievement: Hedge Clipper

Congratulations! You finally got your bush under control.

Note: If only cleaning up your past life’s messes counted, but it doesn't, so too bad, so sad.]

The snarky comment only earned a raised eyebrow from Amdirlain before she teleported free of the hidey-hole. The Power’s usage sounded a compressed burst of music across Amdirlain’s new perception, though it quickly faded. All around her, the long silent Maze was alive with entire orchestras; some close but far more were a hum of white noise in the distance.

Glancing down at herself, Amdirlain winced. Across her body, where the tattoos had once spread, now white scar tissue revealed the injuries they’d inflicted. Fortunately, a quick test showed that her flesh didn’t possess the tightness of burns; still, her skin was an unsightly mess from neck to toe.

“Small price to pay. The appearance here is just the Maze’s rules at play.”

The sound of her spoken words buzzed across her awareness and prompted another notification.

[Language: Polyglot Unlocked!]

The notification sang through her mind. Without Analysis confirming it, Amdirlain knew she could now speak and understand any spoken tongue she wished.