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Re: Chasing Godhood (Blueslime)
Nala reserved her judgment on the archangel and his designs in this matter. It may be that all he said was true, to a point and certainly she would put his word over a demon's, given her personal history; however she couldn't help but feel that she was somehow aiding the angel beyond what he said.
Nevertheless, she had come back to Ch'Hiesol to do this: to unleash the power of Janis from its dormancy, and to claim what control she may of the awesome, nigh unfathomable and eldritch might of the god's grave.
It would begin, she knew, with an act of recognition.
She gazed deeply into the tree, beyond its material bark and underlying sap, and indeed beyond the buzzing aura of magic that it possessed. These were incidental things, and not a reflection of what she truly sought to understand - the immense network of life and nature. Raw, yet ordered chaos in arcane form, spreading out from the tree as supernatural roots, underpinning the biosystem for miles and miles around her. She sensed where it melded with the ley line, and would connect with the nodes of power around Donevrion. It was a river that fed the world. One of several, but a major one. And she was here to drink it.
She knew that her present body could no more contain the power of Janis than a teapot could hold the contents of a sea. What the angel had said was true - her body was insufficient and there would be pain involved in accommodating to the power she sought to claim. To accomplish this, she must discard her body and do so without losing possession of her spirit. What would happen to her after that was the matter of speculation, but she hazarded a guess that it might be similar to what had occurred when she was inside of Matthias' soul over two years ago.
She extended her arcane senses more, to examine each artery of power, noting the current of energy that pulled along like a slip stream within the life network of Janis. The network was vast, awe-inspiring, and worthy of reverence - as Kalevi and the other druids had done for far too long. The secret of what held it all together, to make it work when it shouldn't work, was a mystery that Nala felt, deep inside, would be the key to truly harnessing the full potential of this battery, and perhaps it would be the knowledge necessary to restore what she knowingly and willingly was about to break.
I must become a part of the network, she thought. The process of absorption will destroy me if I resist its pull entirely. I cannot fight against the current, but I can ride it, and swim across it. It is a labyrinth of life magic, but the consciousness inside of it is dead. I need to become that consciousness. I must not fear to take this step. This will be quick and hesitation will be my true death.
She knew that in touching this delicate balance, there would be no going back. Were she of a truly suicidal mindset, she might attempt to destroy Donevrion outright. But she was doing this to change and save this world, not to end it, and she would prove to all others and to herself that such was her destiny. Matthias had seen something in her. The other goddesses had seen it as well. To any being that threatened those she held in high regard, Nala would be a force to be reckoned with. She had that drive and desire.
The witch elf reached out her hand to the tree, saying a mental goodbye to that hand even as she did so. Her purple hued fingers hovered a hair's breadth from the tree bark.
"Everything dies. Everything changes. Everything begins anew."
She bound herself in her magic. Emerald and Amethyst energies howled about her in the vigorous swirling green ribbons and crackling sparks of violet, kicking her blue hair wildly above her head. She would need her most powerful aegis active when she moved to the tree, as soon magic and spirit would be all that she was.
She did not give in to thoughts of hope. She told herself that there would be something for her on the other side of this, and that was Nala's last thought as her fingers and her spirit made contact with the tree.
Her every thought in that first moment was to divert the channels of power away from herself so as to survive the initial sundering. She wove her spiritual link into the most obvious and stable nodes of Janis' power, tethering herself to it in a metaphysical manner similar to how Esmerala had shown her how to absorb spiritual power from a lover.
Everything the witch elf did now was with a firm, even fatalistic confidence. Once the torrent had begun and the pain assaulted her, she knew that she was already dead, and that the only alternative to oblivion was to push her consciousness through the next moment, and the next, and the next after that, letting the power of Janis crumble and destroy the land around her while her spirit sipped and supped of energy. The wild entropy that made up Nala's aegis was there not only to shift dangerous energy away from Nala's spiritual core, but also to change her physical body to conform to the influx of energy.
If it were necessary, Nala would destroy her physical self to maintain the connection and ride along with the current, but she would not do so until she was sure it was the only way forward.
So much wasted power slipped by her, and yet, she was confident that it could be - and would be reclaimed. And she swore that she would be the one to do it, no matter how long it would take.
Nala reserved her judgment on the archangel and his designs in this matter. It may be that all he said was true, to a point and certainly she would put his word over a demon's, given her personal history; however she couldn't help but feel that she was somehow aiding the angel beyond what he said.
Nevertheless, she had come back to Ch'Hiesol to do this: to unleash the power of Janis from its dormancy, and to claim what control she may of the awesome, nigh unfathomable and eldritch might of the god's grave.
It would begin, she knew, with an act of recognition.
She gazed deeply into the tree, beyond its material bark and underlying sap, and indeed beyond the buzzing aura of magic that it possessed. These were incidental things, and not a reflection of what she truly sought to understand - the immense network of life and nature. Raw, yet ordered chaos in arcane form, spreading out from the tree as supernatural roots, underpinning the biosystem for miles and miles around her. She sensed where it melded with the ley line, and would connect with the nodes of power around Donevrion. It was a river that fed the world. One of several, but a major one. And she was here to drink it.
She knew that her present body could no more contain the power of Janis than a teapot could hold the contents of a sea. What the angel had said was true - her body was insufficient and there would be pain involved in accommodating to the power she sought to claim. To accomplish this, she must discard her body and do so without losing possession of her spirit. What would happen to her after that was the matter of speculation, but she hazarded a guess that it might be similar to what had occurred when she was inside of Matthias' soul over two years ago.
She extended her arcane senses more, to examine each artery of power, noting the current of energy that pulled along like a slip stream within the life network of Janis. The network was vast, awe-inspiring, and worthy of reverence - as Kalevi and the other druids had done for far too long. The secret of what held it all together, to make it work when it shouldn't work, was a mystery that Nala felt, deep inside, would be the key to truly harnessing the full potential of this battery, and perhaps it would be the knowledge necessary to restore what she knowingly and willingly was about to break.
I must become a part of the network, she thought. The process of absorption will destroy me if I resist its pull entirely. I cannot fight against the current, but I can ride it, and swim across it. It is a labyrinth of life magic, but the consciousness inside of it is dead. I need to become that consciousness. I must not fear to take this step. This will be quick and hesitation will be my true death.
She knew that in touching this delicate balance, there would be no going back. Were she of a truly suicidal mindset, she might attempt to destroy Donevrion outright. But she was doing this to change and save this world, not to end it, and she would prove to all others and to herself that such was her destiny. Matthias had seen something in her. The other goddesses had seen it as well. To any being that threatened those she held in high regard, Nala would be a force to be reckoned with. She had that drive and desire.
The witch elf reached out her hand to the tree, saying a mental goodbye to that hand even as she did so. Her purple hued fingers hovered a hair's breadth from the tree bark.
"Everything dies. Everything changes. Everything begins anew."
She bound herself in her magic. Emerald and Amethyst energies howled about her in the vigorous swirling green ribbons and crackling sparks of violet, kicking her blue hair wildly above her head. She would need her most powerful aegis active when she moved to the tree, as soon magic and spirit would be all that she was.
She did not give in to thoughts of hope. She told herself that there would be something for her on the other side of this, and that was Nala's last thought as her fingers and her spirit made contact with the tree.
Her every thought in that first moment was to divert the channels of power away from herself so as to survive the initial sundering. She wove her spiritual link into the most obvious and stable nodes of Janis' power, tethering herself to it in a metaphysical manner similar to how Esmerala had shown her how to absorb spiritual power from a lover.
Everything the witch elf did now was with a firm, even fatalistic confidence. Once the torrent had begun and the pain assaulted her, she knew that she was already dead, and that the only alternative to oblivion was to push her consciousness through the next moment, and the next, and the next after that, letting the power of Janis crumble and destroy the land around her while her spirit sipped and supped of energy. The wild entropy that made up Nala's aegis was there not only to shift dangerous energy away from Nala's spiritual core, but also to change her physical body to conform to the influx of energy.
If it were necessary, Nala would destroy her physical self to maintain the connection and ride along with the current, but she would not do so until she was sure it was the only way forward.
So much wasted power slipped by her, and yet, she was confident that it could be - and would be reclaimed. And she swore that she would be the one to do it, no matter how long it would take.