With our return to the Fleshcrafter's hideout, we were welcomed back by the ladies. They had begun the preliminary trials of creating a new body for Shirou while we were away. Just some minor things with the use of the research I had provided. Things like replacement organs and such. Useful things if they actually knew how to safely implant them.
Nevertheless with our arrival they were quick to drag us to the Gates of Madness. The Ritual Circle itself was a sight to behold. It turns out the Realm itself produced the circle when necessary. A side effect of the original process.
A look into the ritual led me down a rabbit hole of thought as I tried to make sense of it. You see, normally with magic circles you would need the basic understanding of the rune to be able to utilize it in the circle to cast the spell. This ritual threw that out of the window more or less. Not completely mind you.
With thinking on it well for a whole thirty minutes, a damn near soul searching endeavor, when it comes to what I had been doing for months so far. I finally pieced together a significant part of why the ritual works. At least in theory.
You see, with normal spells they DO require a certain understanding of the runes. The ritual however, uses another's understanding. By tapping into the realm, The Shivering Isles compensates for the lack of inherent knowledge. This allows for the ritual to be completed due to the Realm doing a portion of the heavy lifting.
The closest example would be the ritualistic magic in the origin of my pathways. In a process to receive, say a charm of a deity or entity of a certain pathway, The subject would offer something to the entity in question. The response if they so choose to accept the offer would be the bestowment of the power inherent of their domains. This power would then be overlaid onto the charm in question.
The process of this would be where the "help" comes in. The Subject gives the means to accomplish the task and then offers to the entity, The entity gives the power to the object and then exacts payment.
In the case of the Ritual for the Gatekeeper, Relmyna set the original ritual with Sheogorath's help. Then he powered the ritual through his realm. Relmyna just began the process and Sheogorath's realm did the work. Relmyna the subject, and the Shivering Isles the entity.
Though watching the process was interesting for a while, once I understood the underlying principal it became boring for me. The other two just kept talking amongst themselves and chatterbox was taking notes.
As I was resting though my intuition triggered. A vision appeared of the crystal obelisks shooting to the skies around the ritual site. When my sight cleared, I was quick to inform Shirou and Throgor of the impending threat. Only when I finished talking the ritual gave an explosion of Magicka sending most of us flying. Shirou was fine though.
As I rolled to bleed off the momentum and to right myself, When I looked up I could see the form of the Gatekeeper once more. My intuition spiked again that moment and I yelled to the stunned group, "Regroup at the top of the Gate!"
As soon as I finished speaking, dozens of obelisks rose from the ground surrounding the Courtyard of the Gate. With my words we rushed to the stairs of the gate. but any thought of a tough battle was thrown out with the roar of the Gatekeeper.
"Rooooooaaahhhhhhh"
The sound echoed in the near empty courtyard. But most of all was the explosion of Magicka that emanated form its form. It practically bled red Magicka from it's form as it charged into battle. Ripping apart the many Knights of Order in its way. Nothing could stand it's cleaver. Nothing could survive being crushed by it's stomps. The Magicka never seemed to cease as it tore apart the attacking incursion.
We didn't have to do anything as it moved at speeds unlike in our original fight. Flashing about in great speeds as it tore through the enemies like vegetables. The storming of its feet heralding the arrival of death. Magic seemed to brush off of it's form as the few spells to land on it were far from enough to do anything meaningful.
With this fight I firmly understood the worry Granny had for the creature as when we first arrived. The little wounds the forces of order created were soon healed back together in no time at all. Then it was back into the fray.
When all was said and done, only 20 minutes passed as the forces at bay were decimated. A small cleanup with myself and Shirou tossing a few hearts led to the end of the incursion. The forces of order were once more pushed back.
With all of the cleanup we acquired quite a number of materials for later use in experiments. Hearts of Order, their swords, a few pieces of armor. While nothing may have been off limits, we did have the decency to not strip the robes off the priests of order. The knights were a different story as they were closer to constructs and didn't quite have an anatomy.
With our new goodies stored in Shirou's Marble of Oblivion, which he now had complete access to now that it had been opened. We made ourselves escorts to the ladies back to the dungeon/Lab. With that we were finally ready to head back to the palace.
The walk back was relatively painless. We also met Granny Viola on our way back as well. In which i showed off making projections of a Tea set. She did say she was proud of me. Though the look she gave me... I think it was one of those looks you give to a small child who just did something normal for most of society but you celebrate it like it means the world to them. Or maybe i was just reading into it too much.
Shirou also told her of the new changes as well as the experimental body that was being developed. She was happy for him. Grandma Viola invited us to the village she was staying in for the night. It was a smaller settlement on the outskirts of Mania.
We also got to meet the couple from one of Sheogorath's most famous stories. They were an Argonian woman and a Nord man. They happily introduced themselves as Swims in Seas and Therin. The interesting child who was a human looking person with scaled arms and legs. There were also scales on the outsides of his face, marking him as a true hybrid between the species.
It took a literal act of a god to make an Argonian woman bear a child, as such they were well liked, being blessed by Sheogorath did have it's perks.
The son, Touron of Sheo was a happy child. I decided to put on a little magic show for the boy. Using cantrips and slight of hand I did a more traditional form a magic show for the boy.
The final thing I did was use Tarot Card divination for him. The cards he drew in order were the Wheel of Fortune turned upright, The Pope upside down, and finally the Tower turned upright.
His fortune was as I interpreted, Major fortune was ahead of him in the present. He would not become a religious figure in the future, and finally the life of a mage would potentially suit the future if he choose that path. The boy was bewildered as to some of the things we spoke of, But was overjoyed at the cards and how they looked. They were my design that followed the standard deck in the Lord of Mysteries standard.
In the end we enjoyed the night but we must keep moving. Granny was set to head to another location as well just not the palace so as we all left the village we separated on the path.
Still we made good time and arrived at New Sheoth before noon and were ready for the next task that would be upon us.
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can Khajiit haz stones?
An: Slightly feeling under the weather with the changes in season. Also webnovel decided to delete my chapter as I was Writing it, twice! so apologies for the shorter chapter. Also The updated first prolog chapter is here. Fixed a few things but the overall vibe of the chapter is still there. Just a bit easier to read.
I know my own short attention span gets to me when the paragraphs are too long and too clumped together.
Love you guys!
Thank you all for the support