Rather than summon Henry right away, I emerged from my umbral dimension to find a cloth-wrapped bowl of food sitting by my tent that I promptly reheated and tended to before I settled in for a few hours of meditation.
After the same repeating dream as always, I stirred from my torpor to hear a rattling of wind and snores threatening to tear down my lean-to from the ground up. So I took refuge in my chair with a hot plate to cook up a light breakfast and admire the view.
And what a view it was.
From this altitude, most of the horizon was shrouded in a perpetual blanket of white. Yet, even then, green mushroom caps could be seen peering above the clouds. Each them unbelievable distances way.
The closest of them was due south. Our destination, the Bodhi Tree, appeared as nothing more than a blot on the horizon. Like a dark cloud that separated the white 'ground' from the blue-black sky.
At a higher elevation, the blanket broke apart to a scattered sky pocked with glimpses into the different many realms scattered across the Plane. Through a combination of gravitational lensing and adjusting the way my eyes perceived the light, I could see all the way to the cloud of rock gas billowing before the Terminal. Vagua was a red rim dominated by a black and red tree that looked as large as Mercury did from Venus' cloud tops. Paradise was like a lush ring of archipelagos, swamped with vibrant blue waters that went on and on for literal light minutes. With only two singular landmasses breaking up the space.
Betrarth was to the west. Stretching from the Steam Line to the White Wall. And Youtera was much the same. Only, it was separate from the other realms via a winding 'river' as thick as my arm, even from this distance.
I was high enough for the air to have thinned out considerably. Yet, I was not even a fraction of the way up the White Wall.
Regardless, I was in a blissfully still environment to enjoy my meal in. And after, I created a domain of dilated time and went through some combat drills in the air.
After dedicating an hour to train my hands, my spear prowess, and my dagger play, I canceled the spell and returned to my chair to smoke and admire the sunrise.
While the rest of the Mortal Plane was a sight to see, I couldn't help but pay attention to the sprawling landscapes around me as well.
To the east, was an unbridled view of the rest of the continent. As the books said, the entirety of it was completely lacking in flora. An untamed sea of dunes. Broken apart only by the occasional outcropping or flicker of movement from some leviathan or animal. It stretched on and on to the coasts thousands of klicks away. Where a few shrublands or savannas lined the jagged beaches in place of white sands and reefs.
Past that we could see more. The expansive sea and even Rook Island off the coast to the southeast. And beyond the oceans ahead we could see the wide coast of Phaegrath and the thin strip of green from the voluminous forests on its high coast.
And opposing it, to the west…
In an effort to turn my mind away from the prize, I began thinking of my few weaknesses in this life.
Besides the physical aspect, I became aware of one flaw that was keeping me from realizing my potential as a mage.
I had no imagination.
Thus far, my focus had been on using magic in ways I knew the phenomenons already behaved. But magic was about doing the impossible. It was about bringing the imagination into reality. Something I was severely lacking in.
I could make a weapon out of lightning or some type of radiation, I supposed. But I was at a loss as to what I could do with my least used magics: Nuclear and the Void. My mind was just too logical to think of something so abstract.
So, with nothing else to go on, I decided to go with what I already knew was possible: giving things false life. Like Grandpa Lich's necromentals and Azrael's spell, I could create 'living things' with our without souls. So I thought long and hard about what I wanted to create before I put it into action.
I imagined something innocuous, small, and seemingly harmless. But terrifyingly devastating to anyone it turned its sights on. I began pulling things I saw from the Menagerie or other creatures I've seen or heard of throughout my lives and started to mold them into mental shape. Hatchi's barbed tentacles, Gero's croak, Jake's growth capacity, the Beholder's eyes, the Flames of Moil, Leech Hand, claws, carapaces, fangs, antennae. Anything I thought was terrifying, deadly, or both was solidified in my mind and merged with every ounce of Arcana within me. Save a tiny fraction of it. Which was withdrawn and infused into my voice as I chanted. "Eldritch Emergence!"
My grimoire appeared at once to flip through its contents to a blank page and document my new spell while my arcana was guided through my core almost remotely.
In tune with what I imagined, the majority of the energy was sent ejected after being tuned to shadow arcana. But the guiding hand allowed a hint of death and twinge of the void to be added to the concoction and even threw in a pair of Rage Souls for good measure.
Followed by a couple of Aegis Souls to balance it out.
When all was done, my Mana Well had been emptied and the Eldritch horror I spawned had condensed into a sort of carapace-coated jellyfish.
Or, more aptly, it was a sphere of roughly textured chitinous plates stacked haphazardly around an amorphous nucleus. Forming both an armor and a sunshade for the abyssal creature inside.
Through a pair of stilt-like tendrils, it was feeling its way around my chair. Probing and tip-toeing, tip-toeing, and probing its way around with the utmost caution.
"You're adorable."
As if in agreement, it let out a blood-curdling crack of its carapace. Allowing four tendrils to break through and be recoated by the armor. Allowing it to skitter up my arm and disappear into my shadow.
***Roheisa***
"Finally." I sighed to myself as I closed the small booklet.
Since our travels began, I hadn't had much time to document much of anything we'd done. I'm thankful that we'd set enough time aside so that I could catch up in my diary, even though that wasn't our intention. Still, everyone seemed to share in my mentality.
Just like me and Lucia, they spend hours of each day in their tents, going about their hobbies or interest. From what I could see, Jaimess and Edward spent most of their time as I did. Reading or writing in their tents whenever they weren't eating, sleeping, or enjoying the views. Toril took part in the former as well, albeit to a much lesser extent than the rest of us. Instead, he sat on the twin peaks or sometimes, took to the sky with Amun to train in their magical affinities.
I thought about joining them on more than one occasion. Ever-increasingly, in fact, though with the academy on the literal horizon. I chose instead to make use of the little free time I had left and took to wandering the plateau.
"May I ask what you're writing?" I asked, approaching Jaimess.
He shot his eyes up as if he were startled, then slowly turned back to his paper. "I'm taking inventory." He explained with a flick of his pencil towards two stacks of black fabric sitting next to him. "And preparing a shipment."
"I see." I nodded, both in admiration and annoyance. "Do you ever write anything else?" I asked.
"Like what?"
"Like a… logbook, or something." I carefully explained. "About what we've seen so far."
"You mean a journal?" He asked, turning to me with a raised brow.
"Er. Yeah."
"Yes, I have a journal." He muttered into his books. "No, you may not read it."
"What, are you searching for ideas?" A sudden voice snickered behind me.
Just as I turned, Amun moved past me and stopped beside the smaller of the packages.
"I'm only trying to be friendly." I hurriedly turned about again to face him. "Since we're partners, it'd be good to get to know each other, right?"
"Whatever you say, Princess." Amun condescendingly snorted. "If you're bored, watch this."
I subdued my annoyances and watched silently at him slipping a small box into the fabric before he palmed the bundle. Then just stood there with his eyes closed for a long moment.
With a sudden influx of mana, the light around the parcel began distorting, bending, and warping under a field of crackling and whipping energy until it disappeared before our eyes.
And in its place, sat a large clump of steaming snow. Intermixed with twigs and acorns that didn't belong to this part of Maru.
"Was that-"
"Yes." Amun grinned. "But there are limitations. I'll let you wonder about what they are. In the meantime, there are a few things you and Lucia need to think about."
"Oh?" I turned. "Like what?"
"Well, like the others, you and Lucia will be in charge of different facets of the guild. You'll essentially have your own sub guilds. Jaimess will be in charge of the diplomatic side." Amun gestured to him. "Ed's in charge of engineering. Letta's in charge of commerce. Giorno is in charge of wellness and leisure. And Toril will be leading the military."
"And what will you be doing?" I asked. "What is Jonet in charge of?"
"If I'm not exploring, I'll be making enchantments and researching things." Amun shrugged. "And Jonet's in charge of espionage."
"She's a spy?!?" I gasped.
Amun shrugged again. "Every leader needs a good spy."
"I suppose that's true."
"Since Lucia is a knight like Toril, it'd be wise for her to take up a specialty role within the military. Based on her affinity, I'd say she'd be a perfect fit to command an areal unit. But the question is." He splayed his finger out toward me. "What will you do?"
"Based on what you said, you plan to work as a scout when in the field. In that case." I tapped at my cheek. "With Toril in charge of the front lines and Lucia overseeing an elite air unit, I believe I'd be most useful in a support role. My Lava Magic excels at long ranges and has a wide area of effect. And if need be, I can fight up close as well."
"Then it's settled." Amun smiled and began walking off. "Also, we're going to be doing a little recruiting while we're at the academy. Bring those you trust or respect to our side while we're there.
"Cause when we come back to Maru, there'll be no stopping this train."