The King of Many Colours continued chiseling until, simultaneously, his finger-chisel wore away and his antler-hammer crumbled to dust. It was a few minutes, a few centuries, and an instant, but by the time it was over, the timespan only registered as “long enough to embed one’s entire identity into carvings.” Krahe genuinely couldn’t conceive of a way to quantify it in linear time, beyond describing it as terribly long, yet far too short.
“It is done. SAKAR. ACHRA. DAOLOTH.”
The pronunciation of the three “words” was the only thing that stuck in Krahe’s head, like splinters, while their true meaning washed over her, leaving the impression that it was for the best.
There came no grand display, no transformation of the obelisk into a more portable form. At one instant, the ritual was there. At the next moment, it had transformed into a slab-like executioner’s sword a third of a meter wide and as tall as Krahe, with a handle-and-guard formed by fanged tendrils, giving the appearance that the obelisk-sword was emerging out of a Wound-like Grin. Even scaled down it retained the full detail of its carvings, both sides depicting different versions of the same grand unified diorama. Despite the distance and vastly reduced scale, it was perfectly legible just at a glance; the profound meaning embedded into it surpassed causality and directly portrayed what and who Krahe was.
It floated, waiting for someone to pick it up, and it was the King of Many Colours who did — with visible effort on his part, which, in turn, spurred him to express surprise, albeit only through facial expression.
“How weighty, this one. Such are those with the will to usurp something of the Outer Gods, I suppose,” he remarked. Turning his head with the sword that was Krahe’s entire identity in his hands, the King of Many Colours took up a stance that Krahe truly didn’t like, because she recognized it. It was the Stance of the Keyhole, a stance in classical germanic swordsmanship, used for thrusting through defenses. “I have two things to say to you, interloper. First, I do this for your benefit, for you are not yet strong enough to properly wield your own self as a blade. Secondly, grit your teeth — this must be embedded into your astral body such that it remains fixed in place until you have both the strength to pull it free and the wisdom to not do so lightly.”
The instant the words sunk in, Krahe witnessed the King of Many Colours from up close, as he had just traversed the distance and plunged the Binding Obelisk halfway into her stomach.
To describe it as transcendently painful wasn’t quite appropriate. There was no physical pain to speak of. It was shock, an inability to comprehend, like her mind was lagging, simultaneously being fed an overclocked sensory stream and having that datafeed cut out and reconnect over and over, a hundred times per second.
The Wound-like Grin lurched open in her mind’s eye, and the same took place down the length of her stomach, from the sternum to the pelvic bone.
At this moment, Krahe was not aware, yet she was also fully lucid. She couldn’t think, but her mind was racing. She could do nothing, and yet she tore the Obelisk Sword from the King of Many Colours and swallowed it in a single gulp.
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When she came-to, it was not in Zor’Aguhastra, nor somewhere in the Astral Gulf, but in the basement of Sorayah’s home, left with only the knowledge that the King of Many Colours had sent her back, as he had done for countless others before her.
All things considered, she felt remarkably good; exhausted, both mentally and physically, sure, but that was all. No pain, no soreness, no headache. She was also covered head-to-toe in a membrane of plasmic slime. To an unknowing onlooker, her return from the gulf would have appeared as if she had been birthed or perhaps spat up by the void itself.
After carefully making her way up the basement stairs and getting into the bath, Krahe sloughed off the layer of astral ectoplasm, and looked inward.
In the place where only Barzai and the Chthonian Eels had once dwelt, there was now that executioner’s sword, fixed in place by two means. Six chains were wrapped around its guard and grip, reaching upward, each held fast to one of the Six Maxims Control Rods, hanging in the void above the sword. The second was the Wound-like Grin itself, savagely biting down on the sword just below the halfway point, just below where Krahe, her eidolons, and her closest allies stood in each version of the diorama.
The Seven Spokes System recognized the sword as a graft.
[THE MURDERER OF MURDERERS]
[Tags:]
Inseparable
Binding Obelisk
Astral Body Graft
And the world will be better for this…
[Details:]
Grants a Restraining Greater Eidolon Vault, containing the Greater Eidolon “Y’Alha’Zor of the Crucifixion.” This Eidolon Vault possesses the unique characteristic of “Absolute Restraint,” preventing the eidolon from any form of direct rebellion against the contractor’s will. Commands and conditions may be written within the vault to further adjust the eidolon’s behavior.
Grants an Enthroned Greater Eidolon Vault through the power of the 516th Zor’Aguhastra Guidestone Fragment, containing the Greater Eidolon “Zhah-Rhan-Thule.” This Eidolon Vault possesses the unique characteristic of “Enthronement.” Zhah-Rhan-Thule may be designated as the King-Regent for any number of contracted Lesser Eidolons, so long as they are all of the same original type. These Lesser Eidolons automatically become Fire Vampires and benefit from both their native characteristics and those of the Fire Vampires; Fire Vampires possess a lesser form of Zhah-Rhan-Thule’s Pyrovampirism, but do not possess Palefire. Zhah-Rhan-Thule may be employed as part of any eidolon summoning ritual to guarantee that the summoned eidolon is a Fire Vampire.
Incorporates and reinforces the Snare-sign of Blackest Pitch. Improves the efficiency of theurgies conducted using the eidolons contained within the relevant vaults; therefore, the relevant eidolons may be capable of fueling additional theurgies. No further discernible effects.
This graft grants the Lesser Heterodox Cycle, reinforcing the owner’s Astral Body and enhancing their ability to host and summon eidolons.
This graft’s effects grow in proportion with the owner’s “Personal Legend.”
This graft’s effects grow alongside the eidolons bound by the Lesser Heterodox Cycle.
Further details have been sealed by the King of Many Colours, he-who-once-wandered, praise be upon him. The seal upon this sword-that-is-you shall come undone when you possess the strength to wield it and the wisdom to not do so lightly.
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