Because of its subconscious nature, it’d taken Vir a while to wrangle the knowledge into his conscious mind. Luckily, the task had proven far simpler than learning it from scratch, and so Vir managed it in the weeks he took to expand his blood’s capacity.
By running one repulsion pattern and another attraction pattern—and by adjusting the blood flow such that the attraction pattern was slightly stronger, Vir slowly coalesced prana against his skin and kept it there. Although the two forces fought each other, rendering the attraction effect weak. It forced Vir to wait several minutes before prana accumulated around his skin to a level that rivaled the Domain Lords he’d fought on the Mahakurma’s back.
Definitely not something I can summon on demand, he thought.
There was another issue with it as well—whenever he sucked in prana to power a Talent, the layer of armor would be damaged. Made of pure prana as it was, it simply got sucked into his body to feed the Talent.
Which meant part of his body would be armorless for a minute or two until the cycling patterns restored the prana layer.
It was certainly a restriction, though not a crippling one—Vir could always suck prana from the ground instead.
The other interesting observation was that when active, the attraction effect was always active. And that meant it never stopped pulling prana toward him, condensing it around his body, tighter and tighter. There would naturally be a limit beyond which the attractive force would be insufficient to compress the Prana Armor any further, but even after ten minutes, Vir hadn’t reached it.
Good for surviving a single, lethal hit, but bad in a protracted battle.
Still, Vir couldn’t wipe the grin off his face. It was more protection than he’d ever had before. It was more power than he’d ever had, and that felt so incredibly satisfying.
Yet power was useless without purpose.
Vir strode up to his gallery of canine onlookers who’d now gathered on the street.
“Easy, easy! I mean you no harm.” He opened his palms, scanning the pack for—
“Found you,” he said, noticing the runt of the litter.
Vir walked up to the wolf, who eyed him warily.
“You’re the one who found me at the Ash Gate, aren’t you? You’re a little smaller than your brethren.”
The wolf growled, baring its teeth.
“Okay, good. So you can understand me. Normal Ash Wolves are smart, but you guys are just… more. I figured you might be able to help.”
Vir pulled out the two broken halves of the orb he’d destroyed and slotted them together. Promises were sacred, yes, but which was more important? Vir’s honor… Or Ashani’s life? It wasn’t even a question. Whatever ire he earned from the goddess, he’d gladly endure. If there was even the tiniest sliver of a chance of saving her, Vir would gladly go, in spite the risk to his own life. Ashani was simply that precious. To him… And to the realms.
“The vault. Where these are. Can you take me?”
The other wolves closed in around Vir, surrounding him.
“Listen to me!” Vir said, raising his voice to be heard. “Ashani—your master—is dying. I can help her, but I need you to guide me. Will you help me?”
The wolves looked at each other. The Alpha had perished in their earlier battle, and so Vir sensed some confusion among them.
To his surprise, it was the runt who howled, attracting the attention of its brethren.
The wolf barked sharply, then turned, loping away. Several others followed.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Vir said, pocketing the broken orb. “Let’s do this.”
38DIVINE MAUSOLEUM
Vir and his wolf guides Leaped along Mahādi’s empty streets in silence. The oppressive weight of death always hung over the dead city, but now, without Ashani to accompany him, Vir felt it more acutely than ever.
Trying to keep his mind off such dark thoughts, he focused on his power gains instead. It wasn’t tough to do with the world appearing in slow motion when he activated Haste. Previously, it’d sped him up to just over twice his normal speed. Now, it was closer to five times faster.
So fast, in fact, he actually had to keep it off most of the time, or the world simply became frustrating to interact with. Forget speech, any interactions with other creatures were tedious. Luckily, if he wanted less of a boost, he could always reduce Prana Current.
The ability did, however, allow Vir plenty of time to admire the Imperium city. While the streets had their fair share of unique touches—like the black material of the road and the marks that bordered it glowing blue—Vir found them analogous to roads he’d traversed in the Human Realm. Which wasn’t true with the highway system. It was unlike anything he had ever seen. Fifty paces wide, tall walls stretched on either side, and above them, even taller buildings soared into the sky. Imperium engineers had excavated into the ground to submerge the thoroughfare that wound through the city like a snake’s body. Sometimes passing through dark tunnels miles long, the road seemed to run forever.
Vir could scarcely imagine the amount of traffic the highway had supported in its glory days. When added to the Imperium’s aerial modes of travel, it hinted at how truly gargantuan Mahādi’s population had been. Sonam was quaint in comparison.
While Vir initially worried that the Ashfire Wolves would be blinded by the tunnels’ total darkness, if they had any issues, they certainly didn’t show it. The beasts navigated the tunnels with ease, dexterously bounding over obstacles and slinking under others. Vir wondered if they possessed sight similar to Prana Vision.
Of the dozen wolves Ashani kept as her companions, seven had stayed behind to guard her home, leaving five to guide Vir to the vault. The runt of the litter was among them, serving as leader. It came as a surprise to Vir. He’d have thought its larger brothers would have taken that role, but the pack seemed to respect this particular wolf.
Runt was a relative term in this case. The beast was a good deal larger than the largest wolf he’d ever seen in the Human Realm.
They guided him expertly, leaving the thoroughfare to avoid roving Ash Beasts along the way. In the tunnels, they would sometimes duck into maintenance passages that ran parallel to the main one, both to bypass collapses and to avoid beasts that lurked within its depths.
The serpentine corridors were both cramped and full of blind turns, but the wolves navigated through it all without hesitation or fear, and the journey proceeded uneventfully.
Vir admired their intelligence—and was also thankful that the prana in this realm drove most beasts insane. If all Ash Beasts kept their minds, Mahādi would be even more dangerous than it already was.
The prana grew denser by the minute as they pressed on, forcing him to reactivate Barrier to keep the prana at bay, though he intentionally kept it weak. Every moment he spent in these prana-dense lands would strengthen him. Vir only wished he could spend another few weeks here to acclimate, but the danger was too great. He’d have to take what he could.
Vir breathed in relief when they finally emerged from the dark tunnels. There was something about dark, dangerous places that still scared Vir; the trauma from his experience under Daha still haunted him to this day. Ironic, given that he relied on the power of shadows extensively in fights.
The wolves guided him up and out of the highway, and Vir began hungrily scanning the terrain. When he’d first set out, he hoped to find something useful in the rubble that dotted the streets. Even Imperium junk was bound to be a treasure in its own right, after all.