Dark Matter Ascension

Jace got back to the portal leading to The Cosmic Corridor. Hualong was still coiled around the entrance, and she raised her head as he let his Dark Energy Mine fade, his legs clanking onto the stone. She gave him a slight nod and then set her head back down.

Jace popped into The Cosmic Corridor, Quinn emptied out his TPSB, and he returned back to Harkon Secundus. "What's next on our list," he asked Ollie.

Get closer to Hualong, and ask her if she can allow you to interface briefly, his Wayfinder replied.

Jace walked up to the enormous dragon and cleared his throat as he deactivated his helmet. "Excuse me. Can I interface with you?"

The enormous serpentine dragon raised her head, "You wish for a localized update?"

"Yes?" Jace replied with a slight edge of a questioning tone.

She held out one of her claws and tapped Jace's left hand with his symbols. "Done." She pulled the claw away, "How has your hunting been?"

"Pretty good," Jace replied. "Once you figure out an animal's patterns, then hunting them is a lot easier. I'm surprised at how many of the creatures here have multiple lives, or ways to cheat death."

She nodded, "Yes, the benefits of cultivating one's innate power. I am surprised that you were not able to despite falling into a deep meditation before. Perhaps due to The Cosmic System."

I have synchronized her localized data with Xera's planetary scans. We need to head to a vast lake region that is the opposite direction from where we have been heading. Lakes with floating rocks above. Ollie chuckled, should give you easy maneuvering with the grapple.

Jace nodded and looked up to the temple that Hualong had come down from, "What is up there?"

"My chambers," she replied. "One of several temples where the Divine Beasts reside as we monitor The Cosmic Corridor portals. But before that, these were locations of spiritual significance. If you wanted to attempt meditation once more, doing so in the chambers above may result in growth-oriented outcomes, rather than your dip into…that deeper layer of The Cosmic System."

Jace shook his head, "Thanks for the offer, but hunting down these animals and getting the Stardust and sellable components is more important. We have to get to Tier 10."

Hualong dipped her head in a slow nod, "Do not devalue the potency of meditation oriented to cultivation. None said that Stardust came only from physical objects."

That does not make sense, Ollie replied in Jace's head; but also through his armor's external speakers just above the shoulders. Stardust is matter in its rawest form.

Hualong laughed, "And what makes you think that such matter exists in only one state of being?" She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. Jace saw glittering Stardust crystalize around her form before being sucked into her scales, causing them to illuminate with a bright pink and green hue. Opening her eyes, she frowned slightly. "I am surprised that your Wayfinder does not know this."

Xera's voice came over the comms and Jace's external speakers, "I was not aware of this. Magic is hard to wrangle into a System."

"Agreed," Hualong replied, "I am surprised that the ancient Architects chose to do so. Magic should not be tamed and bound; it should be free. On worlds where it still exists, that magic can be condensed down into Stardust through willful meditation. Gathering the floating magical power and turning it into something recognized by your System."

"It may be viable," Xera stated, "But I don't have a lot of data on magic." She switched to just the comms to speak to Jace, "Xero was responsible for the magic integration System-side. It could be that he did not know about this more…spiritual form of magic. The Cosmic System works well with number and symbol-based magic, hence why magical formulas could be forced into the confines of our constructs."

"Let's try it," Jace replied. "It can't hurt anything by trying, right?"

Hualong nodded, "Ascend to the temple above, and take a seat on one of the cushions. Clear your mind, focus on your breathing just like before." She set her head down and closed her eyes.

Jace jogged up the steps and entered an enormous stone doorway that was wide open. The scent of lilacs wafted past his nose. An enormous, open chamber with dozens of cushions extended before him, with a fountain in the center that burst up with pink-hued liquid before that crashed down into the pool. At the farthest end of the chamber was an enormous dais that Hualong most likely slept on.

Jace sat down on one of the cushions and shut his eyes. "Ollie, mind doing that thing where you turn stuff off so I can focus?"

On it!

Almost immediately Jace felt his consciousness sinking. As if he was laying atop a pool of water and slowly being dragged down into the depths. He fell through the Starlit Sea once more, passing through the black and gold space. Deeper down, to the silvery under-sea that he had been to before and found Troxanir's blob. That space was empty, but he assumed it was due to Xera working on isolating him to a specific node.

Deeper he went, until he felt himself settling on the bottom of that black and silver emptiness. The various Cosmic and Ascended power symbols floating around him were dim and did not shine with as much luminosity as before. Now what? He thought. There's nothing this deep.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

The blackness under him opened, and he fell through that into pitch black darkness. Nothing existed, and he floated in an endless abyss as something nudged him down. Might as well keep going, he thought. The last time I did this I was in something under the System. Maybe if I go deeper…I'll be at whatever was there before the System existed? He oriented his body to be head-down and began pushing forward, swimming just like he used to when he was diving for scavenge able loot at the bottom of the Hudson.

The blackness was all encompassing and warm; a soothing embrace that hugged him from all sides. It was peaceful, and he felt all sense of anxiety, fear, anger – every emotion was washed away leaving him with nothing except a sense of who he was.

The blackness suddenly gave way, and he found himself sitting on a rock in the middle of a large pool. The liquid was bright pink, just like the fountain in the temple he had sat down in. All around the skies extended to the horizon – the gorgeous night skies of the planet he was – well, was still on. The floating mountains tilted and tumbled in their gentle dance across the expanse.

A green and pink dragon, a miniature version of Hualong, swam through the water and up to him. "Ah, you have arrived."

"Arrived where?" Jace asked.

"The best way to describe it is that you are finally, actually, meditating and connecting to the spiritual realm of Harkon Secundus. To put it in your more technological minded terms: Cosmic Infusion means you are one with The Cosmic System. When you meditated before, your mind traveled into that place, and then into the deeper parts of the System. But you have finally pushed your mind, your spirit, your Soul past the System."

"Couldn't I just turn off Cosmic Infusion to get here faster?"

Hualong's face screwed up into a confused expression before she laughed lightly, "You could have! I completely forgot you could turn that off. Well, that will speed things up, absolutely."

"I'm where people who lived on this world used to get to," Jace reasoned.

"Correct! Magic comes in many forms. On this world, the magic comes from the Soul, and the environment reinforces the power of the Soul. On other worlds, the magic exists in the environment, and the Soul is what is used to manipulate it. The Architects were able to get that type of magic which relies on spells, formulas, runes, and symbols into a framework. But Harkon Secundus, and other cultivation-styled worlds, were shoved into that framework despite functioning in a very different fashion." She flew up to his eye level. "Your Oslia friend, Priam? He would be a potent cultivator, given his natural inclination."

"I think I get what you're saying," Jace replied. "The Architects tried to capture and constrain something they did not really understand. They assumed that this…Soul-based magic functioned just like the magic from other worlds with more formulaic underpinnings."

"Also correct," Hualong replied as she continued to float in front of Jace. "Now…let us try to have you cultivate some Stardust. Focus on your breathing, and I want you to visualize yourself as a magnet, and all the Stardust surrounding us as iron filings."

"What about a vacuum? That's a bit easier for me to visualize."

"That works."

Jace nodded and closed his eyes. He practiced the breathing his dad, his mentor, had taught him to stay calm, cool, and collected no matter the circumstances he found himself in. He visualized himself as a vacuum, sucking up the air around him. He could feel something faint in the air. Something that tingled slightly and tickled his nose. He persisted and felt something soft touching his skin. Almost a gentle caress of a loved one – like when Shhiv traced her fingers along his chest. He sank deeper into the breathing, trying to focus on that single visualization of the vacuum.

He did not know how long passed. It could have been minutes, hours, or even days – but Jace felt something tugging on the top of his head. Something tapping him on the temples. Opening his eyes, he saw nothing save for the glittering, shining light of Stardust; the light-blue and sparkling glimmer filling the space around him. It all condensed to a single point, and instinctively he reached out and grabbed it.

That tug on his head grew stronger and he felt himself yanked up. The world went black, then silver, then gold, and he drew in a breath as he opened his eyes to see the temple once more.

Ollie had separated from him and was tapping his head. "Oh, you are back!"

Jace nodded and looked down at his hand, seeing the Stardust in his grip. He held it out to Ollie, "Let's see how much I got."

Ollie reached his paw out and sucked it up.

-----

[Stardust Acquired: 4,000]

-----

"How long was I out?" Jace asked.

"It is morning," Ollie replied as he pointed behind Jace and to the temple doors. "Four hours since we were up last night."

"I got 1,000 Stardust an hour?"

"Looks like it." Ollie swam in little circles around his head, "No clue how you did it, but maybe Hualong will share."

Jace stood up, and as he walked down the steps shared what the smaller version of the Divine Beast had told him. Xera's voice came over the comms, "So that's why it never worked properly. I really wish Xero had done more homework on this Soul based, spiritual cultivation style of magic. But, I can't really blame him for thinking it worked like the rest of the magic we came across."

"When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail," Jace replied. "You were scientists and approached it from that mindset."

He got down to Hualong and dipped his head to her. She smiled softly, "You have done it. Well done."

"Thanks," Jace said. "I'll be back to drop off more stuff I've hunted." He turned to Ollie, "Let's level up. One level is what we've got the Stardust for. I want another Rank into Void Removal – get it to a good fifty feet."

"You have got it!" Ollie threw the Stardust at Jace's chest.

-----

Name: Jace Seren (Aspirant, Tier 8)

Power [Class Level]: Dark Matter [Swordmage <Wrathblade> 100] / Void [Edge 56]

Skill Name (Rank) [Evolutions]: Universal Translation, Environmental Adaptation, Swordmage Stance (Rank 3) [Astral Annihilator], Dark Matter Dart (Rank 4) [Exploding], Dark Energy Mine (Rank 3) [Distant], Cosmic Infusion (Rank 10) [Innervating], Dark Matter Mending (Rank 4) [Vampiric], Energy Cost Reduction (Rank 10) [Siphoning], Void Brand (Rank 1), Wrath's Embrace (Rank 10) [Focused], Ruination Razor (Rank 3) [Wrecking], Raging Cleave (Rank 10) [Echoing Cleave], Aura of Wrath (Rank 11) [Voidflame Vestment], Void Blade (Rank 5) [Rending], Void Shield (Rank 6) [Reflecting][Wall][Sphere], Void Beam (Rank 3) [Limited Range][Horizon-Splitter][Piercing], Edge's Intuition (Rank 5) [Danger-Sense], Edge of Possibility (Rank 3), Void Counter (Rank 10) [Storing], Void Step (Rank 10) [Burst], Symbol Shift (Rank 1), Void Removal (Rank 10), Voidsoul (Rank 3), Void Stalker (Rank 1) [Group], The Architect's Gate (Rank 1), Arbiter's Anathema (3/day), Hope's Edge (1/day), Steel Gale Stride (1/day), Primalist's Command (1/day), Reaper's Shadowstep (1/day), Archmage's Admixture (1/day)

Stardust: 65

Equipment: (Returning / Adaptable) Nethaldrim, (Medium / Snowguard / Burnguard / Repairing) Reaper Armor, (Thrice Judged) Anathema Arm, (Overclocked / Lightfoot) Steelstalker Sabatons, (Terrifying / Sealing) All-Seeing Dragon's Eyes, Primal Hide, (Flexible) Adamantine Skeleton, (Reactive) NICIF, Guatch Grappler, TPSB, survival meals (x100), enhanced canteen, (Restful) Wildercloth tent, Devilsram wool bedroll, Blood-Infused Holy Water (x3)

Boons: None

-----

Void Removal (Rank 10) - As Rank 1, but increase the radius to 50 feet.

-----

Jace headed to the back side of the mountain, opposite from where he had jumped off before. The mists still clouded the depths below him. "Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1)." He placed the black dot on his chest, and leaped off the mountain.