The Power of Ten, Book Five: Versatile Wizardry

So, that was how my days wound down. I was leisurely making twenty-foot cubes for a fifty-stepper Pyramid for the Beast Realm, one that would lock down and really make vivic consumption of any future Breaches a Big Thing.

If and when Mr. Dark Realm Lord realized what was happening and put some muscle into breaking the connection, He was going to have to really spend the power to break this. If He ever tried to make a new connection to get revenge, it was going to come right back here and start up the vivic burn again, as would a connection from any other universe.

The Beast Realm would be well-protected.

The Pyramid was not totally solid. I put in a sixty-foot wide and tall passageway into the middle of the place, where a powerful Great Beast could sit on a Formation there and monitor the flow of vivus, or simply feel and adjust the power moving through the Pyramid. It was unaligned energy, so it wouldn’t be all that great for their cultivation, but it would be a soothing place to sleep, barring other matters.

From four days a level, to three, then two, and at Twenty-Five, a level a day. The Pyramid rose faster the higher it went, contrary to normal physics, the scribed Blocks levitating and moving slowly up the slopes of the greater Construction to their proper places.

The last ten Levels I worked out in one day. I put the Consecrated Altar at the top in salute to Aru because it was the proper thing to do, not that I thought the Beasts could or would use it. It resonated nicely with the Healing Circle nearby, helping all Beasts within miles heal more effectively and contributing to the vitality of the landscape.

It also meant my job here was done, and there was little more I could positively contribute.

-------

Some days later...

I heard the howls from miles away, coming closer. I also felt Reynard coming closer, and sighed to myself. He truly was incorrigible in some ways.

A few minutes later, a swirl of golden light solidified out of the moonbeams, and the new Golden Ghost Fox ran laughing up to me, a crystalline skull in his jaws that had belonged to an Undead Noble of some kind.

His scarlet fur was completely gone, replaced by a coat of what looked like burnished gold that could nevertheless disappear into the light like a passing illusion at will. He had the buds of what looked like horns growing out of his head now, and there might or might not have been wings starting to sprout from his shoulders.

In any event, he was no longer a Crimson Ghost, and he was also twice as big as he used to be, the size of a tall and powerful horse, although it hadn’t affected his agility in the slightest.

I rolled my eyes as he deposited the Crystal Skull at my feet. His sire was pretending to nap nearby, and was clearly amused when he rolled one eye open to stare at the trophy, given to me like a proud pup fetching a ball for the first time.

I sighed as Reynard laughed at me, clearly happy at his task. “Dumb Wolves wouldn’t give you the Skull to improve for them, so you went and took it so you could do so?” I filched it up to my hands. “May I ask which Wolf Pack you took it from?” I asked fatalistically.

“The Green Thorn Pack!” he replied proudly. I turned my head to Winkle, who slowly raised his. Our eyes met, and he laughed as I rolled them.

“They are one of Emperor Ice Mountain’s vassals,” Winkle informed me, noting the Emperor of the White Mountain Tigers who was Flowing Silver’s neighbor. “Very proud, very aggressive. I do not recall any even coming here for Healing. They healed by killing more of the enemy.”

“And correct me if I’m wrong, but their Baron is with them and leading them here,” I said fatalistically.

“They could not have followed him otherwise,” Winkle agreed. “They will not break the neutrality of this place, but they will be aggressive.”

Which meant unreasonable. I wasn’t frightened with Elder Winkle here, and a dozen Noble Beasts were just lounging around and enjoying the atmosphere.

Also, the Pyramid was sitting right over there, floating above the ground with a natural ease that not even a Noble would be able to make happen. Trying to use magic against it just sucked the power away into the local Manafield, which just drank it down. A Noble might be able to smash it to pieces with a little time, but all the Beasts knew that the favor of the Beast Lord was on it, and doing so was basically a death sentence.

Pragmatic to the extreme, even if it was an artificial construction and an eyesore to some of them, none of the Beasts would dare touch it... although I’d indicated that if they wanted to plant stuff on it and overgrow it with vines and flowers and stuff, that would not harm the Pyramid in the slightest.

The column of Light from the top of it was simply meant to make it easy to find. The local trees could all grow taller than the Pyramid, even if it was a thousand feet high, but having the pillar to focus on made it easier for those seeking Healing to find the place, even if the forest was rising rapidly around this place once more.

My Title of Lord of Pyramids for the Beast Realm was firmly in place, which had made me smile. Any Beast could sense the power of the Pyramid was mine, and any of them who’d been in the Healing Circle could sense the same thing.

“Well, I’m not going to work on his trophy without his approval,” I admonished Reynard, who just laughed and worked a very bushy, fluffy tail. “So, we’re just going to have to wait for them to give us permission.”

Reynard looked over his shoulder meaningfully at the rapidly-closing howls, turned back on me, and melted away into the moonlight.

“He’s getting pretty good at that, Elder,” I told his dad, although I could actually track Reynard perfectly through both our Bond and my Detects. See the Invisible was a basic Divination which could even be made Permanent.

“It is good to see,” the Seven-Tailed Silver Fox agreed with a hint of pride. “The Green Thorns are proud dullards, like many of Ice Mountain’s vassals. Speaking with them is like talking to a dungheap.”

He obviously wasn’t worried about even a Baron of the Wolves coming here. With his Will being what it was, he could totally face down many Nobles on his own. The Wolves no doubt knew it, and had probably been bedeviled by Silver Foxes pulling pranks in the past, judging by how lightly Winkle was taking all of this.

------

It was only a few more minutes before the Pack entered the area of the Breach. They had never visited it, even to heal, so they were a new arrival, and now nearly forty of them were coming here, especially without signs of being wounded.

The herbivores naturally scooted out of their way, except for the Nobles, who just regarded them leisurely. The Wolf Baron detoured around his peers and elders carefully, and the rest of the Pack gave healthy berths to them. A great Forestheart Stag grazing at the edge of the forest gave them a single warning snort, his massive rack sharpening like a hundred ready spears, and they didn’t get within a hundred paces of him.

They did wind their way through the press and wound up right in front of me, the Baron staring at the crystal skull in my hands with glowing green eyes.

There were three evolutions of the Timberheart Wolf here, the Timberheart being the Servant rank. Thornbark Wolves were the Warrior-rank, and numbered about thirty, with fur that looked like mossy bark, and wooden-looking spikes protruding from their spines, heads, and limbs, with extra-developed claws. Those stood about ten feet at the shoulder.

The Thornheart Wolves were the Commanders, starting at twenty feet at the shoulder and even greener and more barklike of fur, although their thorns normally laid flat except when in combat. The Green Thorn Baron was like a bristling mass of thorns, bubbling with Primal power, smelling of honeysuckle and loco weed, a truly interesting combination. His entire coat was basically jutting thorns as long as I was, capable of punching into steel and the like, and undoubtedly toxic to some extent.

His fangs were longer than I was tall, and he stood over sixty feet at the shoulder, rippling with strength and power.

He stared down at me, growling just once, and then Winkle leisurely turned his head the big brute’s way, and the growl faded away.

“Return this Wolf’s skull to me, little monkey!” he demanded of me.

“Do you want it improved first, or not, Elder?” I responded.

“Return this Wolf’s skull!” he repeated, crouching down and getting into my face. I would literally be like a mouse if he tried to eat me.

“Do you want it improved first or not, Elder?” I repeated calmly.

“RETURN THIS WOLF MY SKULL!!” he fairly howled at me, blowing back my hair. Breath was a weird combination of rotting meat and floral herbs. Kinda weirdly tasty.

“Do you want it improved or not, Elder?” I repeated again, even more calmly than before.

His glowing green eyes glared at me, trying to put spiritual pressure on me. He couldn’t bring the full force of a Baron’s Aura, and without it, this was just a Will contest.

To his utter shock, he was bouncing on my Will.

His head turned to glance at the floating Pyramid nearby, big enough for even him to acknowledge it, and just how tied it was to me. THEN he noticed that he had the undivided attention of at least nine other Nobles, and that attention was not friendly in the slightest. While his Wolves would naturally obey him to the death, that much attention was visibly making their legs tremble.

“His answer is yes, he wants it improved, he is just too dumb to say so to you,” Winkle spoke up from the side.

“FOX DOES NOT SPEAK FOR WOLVES!” growled the Green Thorn Baron, rounding on him.

Completely unflustered by the Noble Wolf, Winkle merely replied, “I am not speaking for you, I am interpreting your growlings for the little monkey who is trying to help you, Wolf. Do pay attention!”

“Steal my skull and help this Wolf?!” raged the Ruling Wolf in disbelief.

“Delivered it to her with no effort on your part, and would have been returned with the same,” Winkle corrected him mildly. “You could have howled at the sun for twenty-four hours, and finished picking off your new aphids to find the Skull right back where it was before, only marvelously improved. But I understand Wolves like going out for nice brisk runs for no reason, and you’ve never visited the Breach Zone before, and so a fine welcome to you and your Pack in this place the little monkey in front of you has made possible.”

The Wolf Baron almost flinched at the final bite in Winkle’s casual growls. The Silver Fox didn’t have near the volume, but he had all the knife. The green eyes turned on me, then looked around more carefully, finding a lot of Great Beasts staring back at him with more than idle interest.

He growled defiantly, but it faded quickly. This was not a place to start a fight. The hill-sized Crystalbone Bear over there did nothing more than shift a single paw slightly, and the Green Thorn Wolf backed down promptly.

“Ah, yes, Crystal Mont’s old spiritual injury he received those many seasons ago when fighting a Shade Baron. Why, the Healing Circle the little monkey made has completely fixed him up! The old duffer is feeling younger and spryer than he has in a very long time! Perhaps a Wolf would like to see how he does against a Bear?” Winkle went on shamelessly.

Lambent golden eyes met glowing green, and Green Thorn lowered his head promptly. Crystal Mont was under the Goldenback Ape Emperor, and the Crystalbone Bears were a fearsomely strong Bloodline that even the Shades and Undead had to respect. Only the absolutely mightiest of Wolf Bloodlines would not bow before him!