Two days passed as Daniel remained in Pinion's Point, acquainting himself with his new level and the advantages it had brought. The most unexpected was his new method for awakening powers while in Beast Mode. What exactly had happened he wasn't sure, only that he had awakened Empower Insight the moment after anticipating Gadriel's strike. This had been accompanied by an odd feeling, almost as if he had drawn something from the Hero at the same time.

He'd tested it more the next day, reserving the rest of the night to finish Khiat's bow and managing it without losing any sleep thanks to Craftman's Repose now allowing him to ignore 4 whole hours. At this rate he could neglect sleep entirely so long as he enchanted. As far as his new life as a blue mage, success had been harder to come by.

He had repeated the phenomenon by sparring with Hunter, gaining a level 2 variant of Springing Strike from watching then emulating the ringcat as best he could.

Shimmer Dive (Ability, Dexterity, Attack, Domain: Destruction, Semi-Committed, Level: 2)

You possess the Power to make an enhanced leap before falling upon a chosen target for a modest Mana cost. While this ability is active, you gain a small chance to ignore Damage: Primary from attacks that hit you, scaling with your Attribute: Luck, and Attribute: Dexterity to a lesser degree. Upon contact with the target, you deal significantly more Damage if any attack was negated in this way. You may cancel this attack at any point while it is active. This is a Magical Ability that does not function in an area of Magical Suppression.

This one experience taught him a lot. First of all, he didn't gain an exact copy of what he stole but one that fit the level of his unawakened powers and the attributes they came from. Springing Strike was both level 1 and strength-based, and neither property had carried over. He also needed to be able to mimic the ability used in some way, even if it wasn't magical but a representation of talent like Gadriel's insight. This posed a problem for more purely magical abilities like Tounaki's fire arsenal or Hunter's Lion Charge, neither of which he was able to steal. Lograve's theory that the powers had to relate to his attributes also felt right.

It meant he wouldn't see the full benefit of this method of training until he became adept enough with mana control and the seventh sense to move his mana like his target's. Even if this didn't lead to directly manifesting the ability like how he had reached Bridge Space, Daniel felt that he just had to get close enough before the power would awaken. He didn't really mind the drawbacks as it was a way forward, even if he wasn't sure how he'd awaken features like this.

On the enchanting side of things, he had been busy preparing gear sets for Wingcraft. Ironically, he didn't make any more boots or lightning wings as the level 2 variants were good enough for travel purposes. No one was envisioning fighting and sustaining flight at the same time once they left Threst unless the right circumstances came up.

What he did do was remake armor for everyone, even Khiat, using the chromatic vest formulae from the cloudborn scion. Together with patchwork, self-repair, echo durability, and the heightened bonus from Defensive Craft, the team as a whole would become as hardened as regular Knights once they reached their next level. The process hadn't exactly been easy, but Quick Mind's assistance and all the work he'd put in previously got him through the hurdle even with enchanting with the level 3 wyvern scales.

On that note, he was beginning to run out of all but the evolved wyvern parts that were saved for special uses. Tak and Hunter brought in the occasional salvaged kill which kept his bone reserves healthy, but armor was a different story. Now that the mass he put in equaled the mass he got out of the enchanting process he'd have to be stingier with who he made gear for outside the primary team. Khare's secret project was already using a ton of material, both on his side and Padri's.

The last major development with his enchanting was Ammunition Surplus' multi-enchantment mode. As expected, it both vanquished Bullet Math as a tangible threat to his time and posed a graded challenge for him to conquer. Using the same degree of concentration he'd needed for Khiat's armor, Daniel could currently manage to make level 3 ammunition 5 at a time. When enchanting at rest or in the middle of a conversation it dropped down to 3, though every round that formed was another small step to mastery.

That wasn't considering the fact that the primer Daniel used to propel each shot was level 2, which he could manage 8 of at a time. He could've calculated out how long each round cost him in terms of minutes or seconds, but Daniel was simply happy to claim victory.

It was when he was slotting some of this new ammunition into magazines that an Arcadian notification he had been waiting for came through.

Arcadian Security Alert

>Corruption at Bridge node fully purged.

>Total remaining corruption: 31.7%

He scrambled for a sending stone. "Zolyra, they did it!"

The response came quickly. "I know. Get here as soon as you can. The tower hanger is clear."

"On it." His heart was pounding. The bridge had been the last major rift left in the back section of the Arcadian. With it cleansed the mercenaries could move on to the forward and middle lower power cores and the rifts under those. Fully purging the corruption there was important, but the bridge held something he was hoping would relieve him of needing to stay in Threst for the remainder of the process. Command and control functions, which the railgun battery had implied existed.

He could've used sending stones for this next part, but instead Daniel just spoke into the air. "Spinner, I'm going back to the Arcadian. Is anyone on the team here?"

After a delay, faint current began to trace along otherwise invisible lines of thread on his walls. "Sorry Daniel, most of them are out for the day," Spinner replied, her somewhat electronic voice coming at him from all sides. "Tak is currently in the library with Lograve and they do not wish to be disturbed. I can contact someone through sending stone if you would like."

"No, thank you Spinner. Just let them know where I am when they come back." He could imagine the drider smiling in response. Spinner still had a strong drive to be helpful and it was good to involve her when they could. Her performance was evidence enough of what fostering her control of her webs would lead to. To that end, "Hey, could you patch me through to Tlara?"

"I will see if the Mistress is available," Spinner replied politely.

It took half a minute for her to get back to him, during which time Daniel donned his armor and checked to make sure he didn't have any leftover level 2 weapons stored in his carrier bags of holding. "The fuck you want?" Tlara asked, her voice translated into Spinner's current before being routed to Daniel's room and replayed.

"Wanted to ask you about Willow," Daniel said as he mentally instructed the straps on his armor made from moth fur to tighten. "I haven't had a chance to talk to her much over the past few days."

"So bother her," Tlara sniped back, though her words were less harsh than they had been initially. "Already spending too much time helping that blockhead."

He really, really wanted to dig to see if there was any potential spark between Tlara and Padri given how long the Engineer had been able to tolerate her presence but decided he didn't want to piss off the person whose orders his home security system unquestionably followed. "It's about our next steps. Is she making progress with Wisp?"

"…yeah." Tlara grew guarded, smart enough to see where this was going. "They've been crawling through all the stuff I've dominated but they like the frost wyvern the most. Figures they'd have good taste. No idea when they could be ready but Willow says they're closer. Sparrow bastard is still going slow, though. He's letting Willow use his mana but we're still not trusting him with a body."

"Sounds reasonable. So you know what we have to do?"

Tlara sighed heavily, the sound coming across as static. "The Crest does it have to be you for? Plenty of idiots who would go off and die if it meant saving a god."

"They can't track me, Tlara," Daniel answered. He'd told her about the plan Zolyra, Festra, and he had agreed to try when it came time to try and rescue the sleeping gods as a matter of course. Willow's method of spiritual awakening required Daniel's presence for the final step, and if she was coming along it meant Tlara and Spinner were too. "I'm not asking either of you to fight with us, but I have to be in the same region as Willow if Wisp is going to heal. My trip to Vellus isn't that long a delay and it'll be easier to pop back here if we think they're ready, but once we pick a Realm to infiltrate we'll have to minimize our exposure."

"Gods damnit, I know," Tlara huffed. "If this was anyone else, for anything else, I'd tell all of you to fuck off."

"But?"

"I'll talk to her about it again, make sure this is all important enough for her to be risking her life and mine." There was no question of what Willow's answer would be and both Daniel and Tlara knew that.

"Thanks, that's all Tlara." The spot on the wall where the Beastmaster's voice had come from grew dark. "And thank you, again, Spinner."

"Of course, Daniel. Have a safe flight!"

…

Daniel flew into the Arcadian from the back, opening hangar doors that were placed two thirds the way up the massive column. The engines themselves were entrenched across the middle section, smaller exhaust ports arrayed along where it began to sweep out to the side. These posed the biggest risk for locations where monsters could sneak in, though that would hopefully only last until they got the starship fully working. Assuming they don't need that 'rainbow drive' or any type of exotic fuel to function. Worst case our plan should still work, Zolyra will just have to find a way to move it to a safe region.

Trepidation filled him as he took one of the elevators that were the tower's counterpart to the trams of the lower section. The doomsday clock was ever ticking, and if he was wrong about the bridge it would cut into the trip he had planned with Shuni. It sounded selfish, but it was really important to her to have some time completely alone with him, and there wouldn't be much of that once they got rolling on the gods.

Daniel navigated the rest of the way to the Bridge using his Arcadian map. There were multiple entrances to the large room, most secured by doors he had to manually bypass. Once inside he saw a room full of tables, monitors, and chairs all arranged in rows facing the front of the Arcadian. It was a similar setup to a lot of what he'd seen in science fiction, which made some sense considering humans had built this place. The bridge was a room with multiple rifts, mainly positioned near where there were multiple doors to act as a means of easily accessible teleportation.

The sole exception was the rift built into the floor at the front center of the room. A screen was set in the wall in front of it, stretching halfway across to the sides. It was a large space all things considered, the desks themselves could comfortably sit over a hundred people, but there was only one other living being there.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Zolyra. She stood near the rift on the floor, beckoning him with a claw when she noticed him enter. "You came alone?"

"Figured in the best case I could go back and get people ready for our leveling trips," Daniel answered smoothly, trying not to be intimidated by the dark atmosphere. The lights playing off the Commander from below made it seem like she was about to tell a campfire story. "Has Festra said anything about the contacts?"

"We have them, for those two regions at least," Zolyra affirmed. "It's harder for them the further we go. The stunt your Totem Warrior pulled didn't help. It sounds like the earth gestalt as a whole are still waiting for us to prove ourselves."

"Damn." Don't let it get to you. There's still time for someone among the earth gestalt to make the right decision in the right place. Once one god is on our side, it should make spreading our influence that much easier. Daniel floated over to Zolyra, letting his boots do the work for him as there was enough height to the ceiling to allow flight. "This looks like it would've been a hard fight."

"They took two casualties. Five total, so far." Zolyra frowned, but the expression passed quickly. "I'm having them clear both of the remaining power cores tomorrow so you can give me the last rift locations. Between that and what we find here, it should be enough." She gestured to a nearby console and Daniel perked up.

"I can set you as an administrator?"

"It seems so." There was a flatness to Zolyra's voice that quelled Daniel's rising joy, which was quickly replaced by apprehension as she summoned a Scriptural Sanctuary to cage them both in.

"Zolyra?"

"I was examining what else this station controlled," she explained, indicating the screen once more. She'd been able to learn the language of the Arcadian just as quickly as English and was one of only a few who had managed it outside of translation powers. Not every room allowed just anyone to access Arcadian functions without Daniel being present. It seemed to be restricted to absolutely critical functions, like the railguns in case of defense. The bridge, out of anywhere, would have the most open access. "I found something."

"I'm just going to go ahead and say that if they have a container on here full of 'The Flood', do not open it," Daniel joked weakly, trying to cut the tension. "What is it?"

"Watch." Saying that, she walked over and pressed a button. Lights across the room dimmed, and Daniel stepped back as he saw a hologram begin to project from the rift on the floor. It began as a trichromatic mix of gold, blue, and white, but quickly shifted into full color.

A man was led by two others onto the surface, all three wearing the strange cross of a lab coat and jacket that he'd first seen on the mural in the subway tunnel. The first was bound by some kind of bulky shackles that connected by tubing to a device hugging his back. One of the two leading him inserted a large key into a slot of the device after sharing a grim look with the second. Latches began to audibly click, and the spider-like device released at the same time the shackles did. The two wordlessly removed the device and manacles, hauling them off the screen to leave the first man standing alone.

The clothes he wore were dirtier than the others had been, and there was a haunted look to the face that told Daniel he had been a prisoner for at least some time. He breathed in, deep and slow, and then opened his eyes. Daniel's heart stopped when he saw them.

"Grave." Outwardly the man looked human, but the eyes were different. They had the purple crosshairs Hunter had described, but the eye was otherwise normal, no trace of the darkness which had infested him. It reminded him of the blue ring around Hammer's pupils, similar but different.

"That's what I was afraid of," Zolyra said by his side.

"What the hell is this?"

"Keep watching," she said simply. "He's about to begin."

Grave first turned to inspect the bridge as a whole, looking at the ghosts of those who'd once manned the stations, before his attention turned toward the station Zolyra had activated the playback from. He opened his mouth, and began to speak. "This is the final log of Captain Azamir Ro Talim, grade 9 and soon to be ascendant." He closed his eyes again and seemed to be holding back both fury and tears. "I warned you. I warned you!" He shouted to the view screen above. One place in particular held his attention, but it was only the space immediately above the rift that had been recorded.

Eventually he calmed, and returned his gaze to where Daniel stood frozen. "This is a message for the future. A warning." The word had as much bite to it as when it had been shouted. "Should our last, desperate gamble fail and the enemy eradicate us, may these words prevent whoever hears my voice from repeating our mistakes."

Grave gestured to the room at large but now he didn't turn from where he presumed future explorers would be. "Where you stand now is the Arcadian, one of our people's greatest works. We come from a world that has been cursed. Barely any manage to awaken themselves to reach the first threshold of power, and the mana they invest taints them, preventing any chance of reproducing. Our population was stagnating due to the selective pressure, slowly becoming magically inert. We knew not where this curse came from or how to correct it, only that for the sake of future generations, we had to escape it."

His head fell. "That was our first mistake. Not that we would not find others on our journey, but that we would be unable to reason with or escape from them. Upon our arrival to this world, the underlying governance system of our vessels came into conflict with a foreign intelligence. We did not know why, we could not communicate with what we mistook as savage beasts in our arrogance and surety. We only knew it was keeping us here, even as our source of power, the rainbow drives, failed. We had no choice but to destroy what had trapped us."

He's talking about the monster's system core, Daniel realized, before another thought struck him. Vessels, plural!? If there are others, then wouldn't that mean-

"We learned then it was not a simple matter to destroy a world system," Grave continued. "We learned of gods and faith. The curse had kept our societies from advancing high enough to cross this threshold, but this world had no such inhibition. Though we unwittingly destroyed their system core, their gods remained. We could not slay them all before our vessels were permanently crippled. Our reserves were running low, we faced pressure from all sides, and the last hope for our people was slipping away. In these dire circumstances, our folly was born."

Grave's hands clenched at his side, anger welling up in him once more despite the brave face he attempted to wear for posterity's sake. "It was not a unanimous decision. Dissent was raised so strongly it was declared treachery. Protests were brutally suppressed, and the lone leader among us who would not tolerate this profane act was chained, rather than let his consciousness stand in the way of survival."

Grave's head turned up and he appeared to listen to something the recording didn't include. He scowled, but then nodded. "In our research of the enemy, we discovered the secrets of godhood. One had nearly been slain by our efforts, only for it to employ a defense far greater than its mana structure should have allowed. We discovered it had absorbed the souls of its kind, using them to save itself. This alone should have been a sign we were heading for disaster, but alas, it was far too easy for some to rationalize that these were lesser beings, inferior spiritually for all we shared. In fairness, it was war. They slaughtered us by the hundreds of thousands whenever our defenses on the surface broke. They would have killed us all, and yet standing here, I must ask if that would have been worse than what we invited."

A hand crossed his face as Grave covered his eyes. "We found a way to reverse engineer their use of souls for power, but in our ignorance we did not understand the nuance. These other beings we called monsters gave themselves willingly. But we did not ask. We did not ask when we captured their young in unconscionable numbers to experiment on, we did not ask when we constructed devices to burn them as fuel, and we did not ask why concentrations of wild mana began to rise as we did so. We did not ask if there was a better way. Only too late did we realize we had broken with the fundaments and cursed this world as we had our home."

The two living beings in the room were silent, staring at the soon-to-be-god as he finished his tale. "The Crest. We named it after the phenomenon of wild mana crashing over localized areas, like a wave. As our efforts grew more desperate to resist both this and the work of our enemies, we only fueled the fire more. Worse still, our governance systems began to become corrupted in the Astral, and we did not have the means to resolve this. We still do not, and we may never until our enemy is finally gone from this world." Grave beckoned toward Daniel with a hand. "Whoever you are, know this. There is such a thing as going too far, even if your back is against a wall. I join with my fellows now only because the cost of inaction has become too great. This message is the price I have taken from they who would otherwise see this truth buried. If we fail, and enough of the world remains to someday bring life anew I say only to learn from our mistakes. Abandon this place and never return. But if we fall and the world remains tainted, if our sin has outlived us…" Grave paused, struggling for words after what had otherwise been a practiced monologue. "Save them. Not all of the people we sacrificed were destroyed in full." He reacted as more happened off screen, mouth contorting into a grimace and words becoming more urgent. "The half-souls can be saved if you-"

And the image died, coming to an abrupt end. Whatever deal Grave had made to allow that recording must not have covered the topic of spirits. Daniel was shaken to his core. He had known some of what had been revealed, but not everything.

"The Spiritualists are right," he said numbly into the silence.

"I'm willing to consider this as outright evidence," Zolyra confirmed.

"The Octyrrum, it has to be another ship. They're using it as a system core. But how could they if all of them got corrupted?" The question was left unanswered. Daniel lowered himself to the ground slowly, trying to get his thoughts in order. Then he noticed that Zolyra hadn't lowered her barrier power. "Zolyra?" he asked worriedly.

"I'm going to delete this recording."

"You-" Daniel saw the logic, but still. "No! Zolyra, this is too important to just throw away. Remove it from here, sure, but we should record it ourselves. You have to be able to do that."

"I can, but I won't." The draconoid was impassive, though she also wasn't looking straight at him. "Daniel, you only saw this because it may have something you need to know down the line. Grave's true name, among other things. But no one else can know there is proof to what the Spiritualists claim."

"Cloak once told me there were secrets that they'd destroy regions, people and all to keep," Daniel said accusingly. "Would you, over this?"

"Yes." The answer left him cold. "You're young, Daniel. Just over two decades if we include all of your memories. I am over seven hundred years old. The last advancement I earned before fighting Zozar was from before I became the Commander of Aurus. At best, people will believe this is a forgery and anyone who is touched by it is denounced a traitor by those still loyal to the Octyrrum. At worst…" she trailed off. "What is so important in his words that we have to risk destruction to preserve them?"

"Memory. You can see the pain in his face from what they did. If anyone thinks for a second about throwing people into the cages around the main power core, we show them this!" Daniel exclaimed. "You heard him, it was people thinking of the greater good that led to the first spirits being made. What if it turns out we can only move the Arcadian if we sacrifice one soul for every meter we want to go. If it means saving the gods, is it worth it? Would seeing this change your mind? We have to save this."

Zolyra looked to where Grave had stood, and sighed. "Fine. I'll record it before I delete it, but I'm not telling you where I'm keeping the copy. That is so you cannot tell anyone else, willing or not."

He knew there was no way he could stop her if he tried, and would have at least restricted the playback if that were possible. Keeping it safe with Zolyra was a better solution as he thought about it more, since he trusted her to be honorable enough to not tear up the copy once he was out of sight. Daniel tried to remind himself that this was hard for her too, perhaps more so given how long she'd labored under false pretenses.

"Thanks." Daniel walked over to the console and examined the options on the screen. There were a few functions listed, including a 'full system restore' that was currently errored out due to lingering corruption. That would likely get the ship functional again. He wasn't worried about it conflicting with the Octyrrum as his Spoke had managed just fine back when he was partially affected by the Arcadian. This wasn't a completely alien system but a precursor to the modern day variant. Additionally, he knew from previous messages that a 'loyalty bond' was required for the Arcadian to do anything to someone, which meant all they had to fear from hitting the reset button was the Arcadian not having enough power to run properly.

Zolyra watched him closely, perhaps fearing he'd try and snag a copy himself through his Focus, but all Daniel did after looking around was navigate to a menu allowing administrators to designate individuals to various roles. Daniel's Focus buzzed as he tried to select the administrator role for Zolyra and he overrode the prompt, leaving a single selection left on the screen.

Confirm assignment of Administrator role to Zolyra Rosescale?

Yes/No

"I'm trusting that you aren't going to stab me in the back as soon as I hit this button," Daniel said seriously. "And that you won't just use this power to save yourself. We're in this to save the world, nothing less."

"Strong words for someone not from here," Zolyra returned.

"I am, and I'm not going to let this world suffer any longer." Daniel confirmed his choice, though there was no obvious change in the Arcanist or the room. "We're fixing this. This doesn't end until every spirit is restored, Hourglass is dealt with, and the Crest banished. If the Origin Beasts won't yield, so be it. But we can't stop trying to find a better way."

"Fair enough words for the occasion." Zolyra gestured to the console. "I can record that now. Better to let no one accidentally stumble onto it."

Daniel shook his head. "I can't watch that again. Not so soon. I'm going to let my team know we're a go for regional travel, you can do it as soon as I leave. About the admin role, though. I use my Focus to control things, are you going to have a problem?"

Zolyra looked thoughtfully at the runes around them. "I'll see if I can figure something out. If not we'll determine what you're absolutely necessary for and go from there. You're still clear for Vellus since we can recall you within a day's notice. Still, I have to ask. Who are you going to tell about Grave's message?"

"Hunter and Spinner deserve to know," Daniel answered immediately. "Beyond them, all of Wingcraft. I don't keep secrets like that from my team, and they were all there when we talked about my theory on the top of Aurus. Willow, even though that will be a hard conversation. Lograve. No one else."

"Suppose without the recording itself the knowledge isn't too harmful," Zolyra conceded. "Grave isn't a known god of the pantheon, the name wouldn't have meaning for most. Fine, fine. I'll have some things to talk about with your team in general, nothing about this, but it can wait until you're ready to leave. I'll confirm with Festra that her people are in place, but assuming nothing's wrong you can leave tomorrow. Do you think you'll need to delay?"

"No," Daniel instantly decided. He could wrap up what he needed to enchanting-wise with the rest of the day he had left. With every bit of his exhaustion in his soul, he looked Zolyra dead in the eye. "I could really use a beach right now."

"Heh. Me too, kid."

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