Chapter 402: Becoming A Lord
Have you ever been at a concert, surrounded by others with lots of different noises everywhere, all around you? Or maybe an amusement park? Or a monster truck rally? And despite all that, everything in your personal space was quiet, like the entire outside world was all locked away behind a thin veil, maybe due to headphones, or ear plugs?
Laz sat in silence as the energy of the world poured into the circle, but not yet into him. The energy entered the outer circle first and stayed there, swirling around and around while condensing in on itself. Laz got the feeling that the energy would continue doing so until it had the ability to pass into the second circle.
As for what would happen then, Laz had no idea.
Instead of watching it though, Laz decided to begin working on finding the barriers that existed within himself.
’The first of the three realms of rule, the Void Lord realm. Within this o realm, one is no longer just a master of their house, but a ruler of all that is seen.’ Laz knew that he needed a wider view that just standing within his center and looking at the palace of gold and black. In the outside world, the palace would just be an image behind him, like a reflection of the thing that sits within his center. In his center though, the palace was a massive structure. If Laz were to measure it, it would equal out to almost two thousand feet in length and almost a million square feet of space within it. Obviously it was empty right now as the castle itself was only a representation of the amount of energy that Laz had at his disposal. As for how much energy that was, Laz had no idea. But he knew that at some point, it wouldn’t be enough.
Why was it different from having a palace as to having land? Well, just because you owned the home didn’t mean you owned the land upon it. And land was what made you a lord.
Remembering all of these things, Laz knew the next step was to look outward from the castle and begin to build the land around it.
Right now, looking out, Laz would only see a vast emptiness, like a void. Of course this was the reason he had called the realm what he did. But knowing it and seeing it were two different things.
’How do I build land?’ Laz thought to himself. Putting his attention on the area outside of the wall, Laz decided that since energy was the mase model for all things, dirt, stone, grass, etc. Laz would first need the energy to begin building. As such, Laz reached down to see what kind of land he would form with his own energy.
Laz felt the draw from within, then put his attention on the outside and began imagining dirt and stones and grass, all in an effort to use his will to make the land form. He tried again and again, but ended up not even seeing a spec of dirt for his troubles.
’I’m doing something wrong,’ Laz thought to himself. It felt like the massive amount of energy he had was there, but it didn’t want to stay together.
’Think.... think... think... I need to start at a spot and begin to draw the land around it. That spot should be the center, not just where I can see the void.... wait. So... Center. Void. RIGHT!!!’ Laz almost laughed at such a foolish mistake. Underneath him was the palace he had made for himself out of his foundation. Looking down, Laz could see all of the layers of the palace, but when he looked closer, he understood that there was nothing underneath the palace. It was just one big bit of nothing, of void or open space. If Laz wanted to find the center of his own lands, the first spot would be where he stood as the master of the palace.
With this, Laz begin to expand his land, bringing forth the dirt and the stones, the grasses and the flowers. What was once just nothingness underneath him became an island of land within the void. Even in the open areas of the palace upon which there was simply a floor made of nothing, there was suddenly trees and grass and bushes of all kinds, making the once lifeless castle come alive.
In the outside world, the outer circle was full, the energy of the world having been collected and brought in by the dozen witches who sat in the circle as Celes led them along. Once the energy draw was complete and the girls were drained, both mentally and psychically, they held the stones in their hands and began slowing drawing in the energy, helping nourish their drained bodies. This was a backup plan that Nora had suggested to help ensure their safety. While the stones could be used by the girls to allow them to keep funneling energy, it would actually do far more harm to them as opposed to the benefit of Laz. Instead, they gave their all to draw in the energy from outside until the point of exhaustion to then bring themselves back with the stones. This proved to be not only better for the energy draw for the ritual, but it actually allowed them to further expand their own strength by taxing themselves and then recovering.
This type of result was far better than Gretchen had hoped for and now looked forward to see what kinds of things they could do with the ancient magic they had long since given up. Perhaps their modern thinking could even improve upon old ideas?
Now that the energy in the outer circle was as dense as it could get, Celes used her black flame to open up a gateway between that outer circle and the second layer. Soon, the condensed energy began moving about in the second circle, lighting up the runes which then cause four points of flame to erupt as well, at the four major compass points. As the energy flew through those points, it was further purified and condensed, the mini black flames burning away the impurities of the energy to allow it to be easier to take control of. After several rounds of purifying, Celes noticed the energy was now a perfect shade of white, like pure flowing strands of light. She then proceeded to point the big, wooden staff at the the circle and mutter something, allowing another hole to open. Just as before, the pure white strands of energy entered the new circle.
This time, as the runes became active, there was no new energy added to the white strands. Instead, the blood formed runes glowed red hot as they started melting. As the blood was burned away, from the ashes of the blood, green strands of energy rose up to join the whirlpool of white strands. The more laps the energy took, the more green stands joined until all the blood runes had disappeared. While the white strands were pure energy, the green stands had more of a feel of vitality to it, like pure strands of life.
Seeing this, Celes smiled as she again pointed her staff at the final circle and spoke, allowing the final barrier to fade away. With that, the pure white and pure green energies finally found a vessel with which to be drawn to. As such, the whirlpool of energy gathered around Laz as it began to flow gently into his body, the tidal rush held in check by the faint glow of the mat upon which Laz sat.
...
Laz could barely keep the expansion up. While he had grown it to the edges of the palace, he couldn’t expand it outward due to how massive the palace was. It was taking all the focus and energy he had to hold it in place, but it refused to bond together and form the island under the palace that was the first sign of the beginning of the lord realm.
’This would be so much easier if the space was so fucking big,’ Laz swore to himself while he held on, waiting. He knew that there would be help for him shortly as he trusted those outside, it was just a question of when.
Just when Laz felt like his head would split in half from the effort, the white and green stands of energy enter the world within him and without even needing his direction, flew into the ground. As more pure energy and life energy flew it, the ground, refusing to be compressed together, soon formed a clay like substance. The energies acted like rain on dirt to form mud, or a bonding agent to keep things together.
With this, Laz felt the island come together in harmony as the land beneath the palace was filling up and filling in, becoming exactly what he had wanted. Not only that, but another foot was added to the entire circumference and then another. And another. As the pure and special energy was used up, the land beneath the palace grew out, more and more. Just when it hit almost a hundred feet out, it stopped as the energy was all used up.
Knowing what he knew, Laz knew he had now become an early stage, Void Lord, possibly the first one in the world.
But he wasn’t done yet.
Reaching out to the five stakes that had been left untouched by the calling of the witches, Laz grasped for them as the ancient energy upon them was suddenly awoken at his calling. It strummed and vibrated, like it desired nothing more than freedom from these iron stakes within which it was imprisoned.
Just as Laz was about to call forth and draw the energy over, he got a bad feeling, like a chill upon his spine despite being within himself.
Drawing back his mind, Laz decided to leave it alone for now as he had already made his break through. What he needed to do was to consolidate it and try his best to understand the changes before he had to fight the god, Zal.
Just when Laz had decided to leave the strange stake energy alone, something else moved and the trapped energy become like a bullet, heading straight for him. Before he could even get his bearings, a loud shout rang out as the ground began to shake harder than ever before fault.
"I AM FREE!!!!!!!"
