(Aera Tylidae's) Secondary Magic Training (Private)

It was the first day. I sat myself in the middle of one of the many forgotten deserts, so that I wouldn't be disturbed. I wandered for hours to find a spot stable enough to hold my weight, and was decently out of the way of most sandstorms, and meditated. For hours, I held this meditation, in pose. I held my arms out at my sides, straight, and pointed towards the earth. My first thought was "What is this new magic?" and for hours I contemplated this first issue. After about 18 hours of contemplation, I came up with an Answer: I will call it Ascendancy magic, and it will be devastating. So, I set myself into my meditative form, and called up the magical energy within the ground underneath me. with this new energy, I lifted myself off of the ground, and tried harnessing this magic, calling forth an entity from another world. For hours, I spent painstakingly difficult and meticulous hours shaping this first spell, and by the end, it still didn't show. So, I continued this meticulous sequence, drawing energy from earth beneath me, forcing my body upwards and stationary against the force of gravity, and creating this massive entity which would be either my first, or last spell in my repertoire with this new magic. After hours and hours of painstaking work, I produced nothing, but I did get a sense of what needed to be done, in order to create this first spell, but I would have to wait, I spent 2 hours sever days in to eat, recuperate, and recover slightly from this extreme stress I put my body through. It took me a while, about an hour and a half, to just recover the energy I needed to move, because I spent my time strenuously, without sleep, continuously trying to create this first spell, without luck, and with pure concentration and dedication, and I passed out behind the rock I hid behind for rest, falling asleep in the ever shifting sands... WC:338/9000

Its been seventeen weeks since I last wrote in my journal, but I have made a little headway.
I decided that, of this spell, it would be the first spell, and I would have a hellish time creating the next one. My first spell is based of the Buddha, a set of gods and demi-gods from another realm. More specifically, a 100 arm Bodhisattva, a combination of 25 Bodhisattva, and a major boost to my ability as an offensive mage. The problem, however, is that I am unable to fully form it yet, the furthest I've gotten was the first arm of my 100 arm Bodhisattva. The golden arm itself manifests just above my left ear, and looks amazing. Once again, I must say however, because I cannot get it to move, nor can I manifest the rest of this Bodhisattva. I spent the better part of two weeks creating this, and hopefully, it will be a little easier to manifest more. I spent another three weeks, and I manifested eight full arms, and a part of the Bodhisattva itself. The rest of the time of the twelve weeks I spent continually manifesting the Bodhisattva, and I have 50 arms manifested, and I fully manifested the Bodhisattva itself. By this time that I've written to you, I haven't slept since that day, 17 weeks ago, but I still managed this process of manifesting the Bodhisattva, through the continual process that I described last time, 28,743 times. Now you've been caught up, my friendly journal, and hopefully, I'll remember to describe what happened next, but who knows. In spent the better part of the next eight weeks after I caught up in my journal continually cycling through the motions, manifesting this Bodhisattva into its full form. It is absolutely majestic, and awe-inspiring WC:301 TWC: 639/9000

Time flew as I rested from the summoning of the 100 Arm Bodhisattva, I spent who knows how long I spent recuperating, but all I know is that many days and nights I spent resting came and went, and by the time I was ready to meditate once more, the desert became indescribably cold, but I pressed onward into my training, ignoring the cold, as I meditated once more, drawing energy from the earth to both bolster my training, and keep myself warm. I sat there for days, waiting for inspiration to strike, when the cold finally crept into my thoughts, causing massive cold shivers throughout my body. As I shivered, inspiration came to me. I would use a cold god, again, from another world. As I concentrated, I called up the myth of the Norse god Loki, and thought about the cold around me freezing my bones, blood, and body. As the winter grew colder, my inspiration grew more and more, until after 3 weeks, I could call up a phantom of Loki, a specter, with no power within it. but the cold only grew, limiting the amount of time I could train, leaving Loki's time to be less then adequate. spending 14 weeks doing nothing but training for a few hours, usually around 4 or 5, before using the rest of the time to try and keep myself warm, usually taking the rest of the day. For a large number of weeks, I kept training even though I was freezing, trying to work through the cold. After what seemed for a long period of time, I finally managed to form a corporeal form of Loki, which meant I had to work on the skills I had in mind for the two aspects I had created. "This'll be difficult, but hopefully, it will be worth it," I said to myself, hoping for things I must work on to be useful. WC:321 TWC:960/9000

Time came after a couple of weeks of rest, to work on the skills I had in mind for the two Summon manifests. The first skills I had in mind were numerous, but I had them finished before two hours past, since they were relatively simple. 51-99 hands skills were increasingly difficult, requiring me to have motion in m hands that surpassed the naked eye, or at least left after-images of my hands and arms in view. I had to spend the next few days practicing the 48 stances and actions, and then a few weeks, and finally, after a month, I had perfected these motions, and left me wanting for more. The final move that the 100 Arm Bodhisattva use, was nearly impossible. It required mana unlike any other spell I had done previously. It was called Zero Hand. it used two hands to clasp a target in place, then a blast of white light, like a star, erupted from the mouth of the 100 Arm Bodhisattva, causing devastation unlike anything I've yet seen. Finished with the Bodhisattva, I turned to Loki, and I found that it was extremely difficult comparative to the Bodhisattva's skills, since it required mana in amounts that dwarf the Bodhisattva's in comparison, draining all of it in one fell swoop. This skill took weeks to master, since every time I used it, I collapsed into a exhausted lump. After 3 weeks time had passed, however, I finally got a handle on the skill. I drew upon the memory of the sub-zero chills from the nights of winter in this desert, and I had Loki cast a spell I dubbed "Cold World", because all around me, whatever was near me within a radius I couldn't measure with my eye, everything was frozen solid, and turned into an iceous material, most unlike ice itself... WC:308 TWC: 1268/9000

After finishing with my training, I had to rest. By rest, I mean that I practiced something other than training the new magic I was making. I went for a run around the whole desert, took me a couple of days, then I practiced flight in this sandy atmosphere. I flew, until I grew tired, then landed in my usual spot. I had to fly out to one of the villages on the outskirts of the desert, to my surprise, they said that more than half a year had passed while I was away. Well, I took the food they gave me, and flew off back to my campsite. After my return, I tidied up the place, made it look clean, then, I sat in my meditative stance once more, and practiced for hours, or what felt like hours.
I sat there, and pulled the familiar connection to the earth back to me once more, and I calmed myself, wondering how or why I could've let time pass by me so much. I eventually came to the conclusion that the time I took making progress was immeasurably slower than anticipated. If it took me this long to find myself inspiration for these two, how long will it take for three more? I sat there, and thought endless amounts of idle thoughts, while the world around me kept on moving, I was stood still.
After I sat there for who knows how long, I decided to continue training up the two Summon Manifests I already had. I called out the manifest of my Bodhisattva, and I trained with it for few lucid hours I had from out of my meditative trance. I trained for several long hours, making all motions for the attacks of the Bodhisattva fluid and nearly invisible, making it difficult to see which moves I was coming up to next.
WC:312 | Total WC:1580

My Bodhisattva. It has high destructive capabilities, and high defensive capability. However, it is difficult to control. So i spent a few days flattening out the landscape of the desert around me, creating solid land in a few miles around me. Any rocks not destroyed by any of the 99 hands, were obliterated the Zero Hand, for a few miles, I did this, and waited, wondering when another sandstorm would hit, and yet, it never showed. So, I walked back to camp, wandering in a thoughtless manner, tired from the exercise that the Bodhisattva gave, both mentally and physically. When I got back to camp, I felt something stirring beneath the semi-movable sand that I spent hours pounding into  a stable landmass. From underneath the sands, came a mighty sand wyrm, a tall, sleek mass of pink-grey flesh towering much taller then a building. Having my adrenaline kick into overdrive, I called upon my Bodhisattva, towering near the same height that this monstrosity did. I called upon every Hand techniques, from 1 to 50, and the thing that stood tall before me, after taking all that abuse. I kept trying, not wanting a dastardly fate to be the only thing I got from training. A flurry of Golden hands emerged battling this gargantuan foe, upon reaching my penultimate hand technique, 99 Hand, The towering monster, still alive, but battered, and enraged, dropped to the ground, and started snaking forwards, moving toward me at a pace I wouldn't have found possible for this gargantuan thing. So, I clapped my hands together, raised my head up, and screamed as loud as possible, watching as my Bodhisattva clapped their hands on either side of the monster, opened its gaping mouth, and with a noise that deafened mine, a beam of white light, not unlike starlight, enveloped the monster, bathing the thing with a radiance, that would spell out to be its doom. In the aftermath, a charred stump was all that was left of the head of the gargantuan beast, whilst the remains of the creature, slumped back down into the earth, leaving a hole at least 300 feet wide, and deep beyond my sight.
WC: 362. Total WC: 1942/9000

Now, I had to practice with Loki. My first set of training I set myself upon, was simply summoning him. The spell itself was draining of its own, so, I summoned him every day, trying for longer and longer periods of time for which I could summon him. Everyday, for who knows how long, I practiced. Loki was highly different compared to the Bodhisattva, in the way that I summoned the God with my manifest, so every time I summoned him, we would be able to speak to one another, learn from one another, until it came time that I could no longer support the spell. For what seemed like a long time, I did this daily, learning, growing, and flowing with the natural powers of the planet. Then, there came a time where I could sustain him for a full day and night. The next day, I decided to have another conversation with this god of the Icelands, and my conversation went as thus: "Hmm, you've grown stronger, mortal. What is it with you mortals that can grow so strong so quickly?" he asked nonchalantly, waving his hand in the air, almost brushing aside the topic carelessly. "well, seeing as we'll be working together, I'll tell you: We have to work for our strength. Most don't, but, those who do, seem to move up the food chain with the spiteful vengeance for those who were born with the strength we want and need." He cackles madly, as if he found my response amusing. "Ahahahahaha! Its been a while since a mortal dared sass me, or any of the gods, for that matter. I like you, mortal. I might do you a favor, once in a while. Call me when you need me." he then turns and disappears into the Aether. WC: 301 Total WC: 2243/9000

Taking time off for a couple of days, I struggled to find something relevant to my magic, a new god to take flight into the lands of Inspiration, but alas, I couldn't. For weeks, I sat there, trying my utmost to find some muse for a new god. After a few hours, I jumped up, and took flight. I flew for hours, flying around in the sandy wastes that has been my home for who knows how long now. Amid flight, I thought of an old game popular amongst the youth of the time period in another world. The worshiped in-game two dragon Gods, one a god, the other a goddess. The Goddess-Dragon was named Tiamat, and she was the arrogant, greedy split from the singular god Io, who faced off with a titan, and consequently slain. I chose her, and had the utmost difficulty thinking of what this Dragon Goddess would look like, since the books which they played the game off of, only gave minor descriptions of this powerful goddess. I spent the better part of three weeks, just coming up with the color, which I settled with an iridescent crimson. From that point, I had a hellish time coming up with the shape of the dragon, which itself was task harder than i faced when manifested both the Bodhisattva, and Loki. I spent most of the days since I came up with the Idea just working on the flesh of the Dragon Goddess, every inch a pulsating mass of red-black flesh. Each scale took hours of meticulous crafting, making each scale worthy of this great dragon goddess. Each scale, refractive, and yet imperturbable. Once I reached the final piece of my masterpiece, her wings, stinging winds blew harder then they have in a while, heralding the coming the autumn season, leaving scratches on my face. WC:308 Total WC: 2551

It came time for me to work on the masterpiece of each wing, tending to every sinew, tendon, joint, and muscle, making each selective inch as powerful and beautiful as possible. The first wing took me several weeks to complete, nearing the cold months once more. Every scale a work of art, unlike any other scale on this manifest. The wing ended up being 250 feet long, and every inch as beautiful as a piece of art. The second wing took more than double the time, because every inch was completely different, in terms of scales. I spent many hours crafting each scale, interconnecting each scale with shapes that were completely original everytime, and them once I finished each minor detail, I magically applied a morphing quality to each scale, so every scale would morph in size and shape indefinitely. Marveling in the magnificence of my 500 ft tall masterpiece. I spent months after that thinking about what  personality this Dragon Goddess would have, and after 4 months I had finely crafted the Soul I would use for this goddess, and once inside the vessel, a giant white flash occured, and the being I meticulously crafted, morphed down into a woman, about my height with white hair and dragon horns.  "Hail, Summoner," she started, near royally dismissing me as a person. "Who are you to craft this fine body for my being?" I curtsied, and introduced myself, and wondered aloud: "If I may ask, where'd the Soul I made go?" She laughed a cackling laughter and said: "Frail mortal, I consumed it my price at being summoned here. Did you think that I would just, blindly allow some other pauper's soul to run around in my visage? How dare you! I only let you live so that I may keep this body." I straightened myself up, looked her in the eyes, and said unto her: "You may keep my masterpiece, but you will allot some of your time to me, and use your skills to aid me in battle, or henceforth, you will be my enemy, and I will use the Two gods I crafted bodies for before yours, and I will make YOU bend the knee..." As I said this, Tiamat's complexion became startlingly pale, and she laughed a nervous laugh. "What other gods could there be in your repertoire? Certainly no one powerful." She scoffed and turned away, when I whispered in her ear both. She paled and apologized. "Call upon me when you need me," she said quietly, "We'll have much training to do." she disappeared into the void, and I was left in an exhausted clump on the ground, asleep, for I extended myself beyond my means, and I had no ability to move after. WC:466 Total WC: 3017/9000[/color]

Over the next few days, I became acquainted with the Dragon Goddess herself. She could shift, at will, between the two forms. She had legions of worshipers back in her dimension, and had a five headed dragon form in her original dimension. "What are you needing, specifically?" she asked, with an inquisitive expression on her face. I laughed to the confounded rageful expression that accompanied what I said: Nothing in particular, I just want powerful allies which will either help me willingly, or I could exert dominance. Also extremely powerful entities that I don't know if I can swing, but who knows?" I howled with laughter at her expression once she heard this, and I just kept sitting there after I calmed myself. [color:a1d7=ff3300]"So... This is basic human power garnering?" she said, with an almost hopeful tone in her voice. I laughed, shook my head, and pulled out my Necklace of Harmonia. [color:a1d7=cc99ff]"Nope, I have a basic Immortality. You'll be stuck with me for a long time." She grunts in rage, and vanished that day. The day after, I called her back up, and I said it was time to get to work, she sighed, and shifted back into my master piece of a form. I told her that the skill she will be using was her "Primordial Roar", something that can rend the very time from an area. I protected myself just in time, as all things around vanished, except a lucid barrier I set up in the area. Now, the energy of the earth will a visible, and tangible thing, making it a golden light-mucus. I directed her to stop, and the world reformed around us, except for no time could be felt in passing, almost... giving me time to work on my magic in peace, away from the needs or wants of normality. WC:306 Total WC:3323/9000 1/3 Post mark! YAY!

After I fell down exhausted, tired from supplying the magic for the Primordial roar, Tiamat vanished, leaving me in a space where neither the sun nor moon shines, where the sands that once cut me, now lay still in mid-air, as timeless as a frozen hourglass. I rested, but when I awoke, time around me still hasn't moved, everything trapped in a grey haze of timelessness. I summoned Tiamat, and asked simply: "What has happened?" taking in the general lack of color, and perception of time. she looks at me with general surprise, and hurt. "What you mean to say, is that, you summoned me here, without knowing what powers I had, what I could do?" she said this with such voracity, that, when I nodded, she scoffed and disappeared into the wind. The next day, or what felt like the next day, I called her back, and she arrived, and gave me a lecture like no ones ever seen. She went through her back story, from how she was first a Primordial goddess from an ancient civilization called Mesopotamia, and from there, she described how she went from having true believers, to having no one really believe in her, being displaced in the realm of gods, fading away into a fictional goddess, only having the power over dragons. "Do you know what it's like, becoming a fake goddess? Well, since you could never know, I'll tell you: It feels like all source of life for you, all the golden magnificence of the life you've lived, taken by another, and having it dwindle from your eyes, heart, and soul." and with that, she disappeared once more, vanishing with the wind. Over the next couple of days, (again, what felt like days,) I had Tiamat describe to me what happened to the world around me, and she explained: "Well, my roar displaces all authority of Time in an area, making it as effective as a newborn kitten fighting a bear. As for the color, well, it also distorts the world around me, removing all sense of matter, basically making it a space like entity, with no solid matter to be seen. It also allows for access to the purest form of the Earth's Will." WC: 379 Total WC: 3702/9000

I moved where I will within this space, within these sands that were frozen in time. I as traversed these sands, Tiamat, of her own will, warped into existence beside me. I commented on the still sands, how it seemed to have just stopped. "Time is relative, not an absolute," she started, dictating when, or where, more precisely, each grain of sand would move. "It seems to mortal minds, who cannot possibly understand, that each second past has to happen. This zone is a perfect indicator of what I said. This zone, unbound by time, has no motion, for each second can be either a millennium, or faster than the human mind can comprehend. No one can dictate what happens outside these zones, but within them, boundless possibilities can occur, like boundless identities for one simple moment. Say, for instance, here in this moment, none of our conversation exists, or rather, does and does not. Every possible word that could have been uttered, and those words by which were never said, exists in this moment. Continuity, and further more, Time, Revels and abhors these special places of the world. They can move nothing, and yet everything within these bubbles, so they close them off to mortals, who cannot comprehend the fabrications perceived with their eyes, is simply... no where. It exists in the fabric of reality in their own minds, like only looking into a shard of a broken mirror. It shows you one truth, while able to refract others off like light bounces through the infinite colorlessness that is its truth. I treasure a mortal who can keep up with my mental processes, for though you are mortal, your mind has seen many fabrications, by delving into others like simply, well, looking in a broken mirror." With that, she faded once more, returning only once more, unto the breach.  WC:310 Total WC: 4012/9000

On my last day of training with her, she came to me with a dour face, faced filled with the inevitable gloom of the fabricated non-existence of the area around me. "I fear our time together, though you will be able to call on me, will come to a close after this final encounter. Afore I must say my inevitable goodbyes, I must say this: You will not be able to call me for quite some time, I'm afraid. The reason being that I no longer have the strength to lend you for the active summoning and stasis that has bound you here for the 6 years that have passed around you. Yes, you've been able to leave on the rarest occasions, but this timelessness has taken a toll on you, reducing the limit of energy I can provide you, to where summoning me is not... reasonable, anymore. I have lost enough power over this... extended visit, that I can no longer afford to continuously maintain that bubble you've been deprived in. When you've grown in strength, you can call on me once more. Until that day comes, however, we shan't see each other as often as we have now. From now, I must bid you adieu.  With that, she vanished, taking away the grey veil of my new reality, slowly, inch by inch, until nothing remains of that grey haze, leaving me back to my stinging winds. I read books behind my rock, the rock I used to sleep behind before the time disturbance. Ire struck me, because the silence that once was filled by my conversations with Tiamat, were now encroaching upon me once more, leaving me to my demons once again. For hours, I spent my time reading, looking for new information, and new muse. I spent what felt like eons, leafing through each page for knowledge long forgotten, and long disregarded. I finally gave up, setting the book aside, and resting my head against the sand, and sleeping for what felt like the first time, in a lifetime.
WC:343 Total WC: 4355/9000

"Stupid mortal. Why waste your time sleeping in this Gods forsaken desert? I'll never understand Mortals, and their compulsory need to shut off their bodies." a deep, grumbling voice sounded from out of the blue, and behind me. I saw a God-like being, who stood 15 feet tall, had a hickory brown colored skin, which looked like a tree trunk. His head was interesting, as it had no mouth, except for two skull mouths intersected by a line of flesh, and had a beard, sideburns, and hair that was like fire. His eyes looked hollow, almost dejected. As he spoke, he left an impression of an angstful teenager, or an anarchistic brute.  "Well, Mortal, I gathered the whiff of someone who can summon Gods, their smells are all over you. My name is Dagda, and you're going to sign a contract with me now, or face the fury of a god." He then ripped a piece of paper from the ground, with a contract that goes as such: "To whom it concerns, The summoner, who's signature will be written below, will summon Dagda out of his never ending boredom. The summoner gets the ability to summon Dagda for a period of time designated by the user. Signature: Aera Tylidae." I finished reading the document, and after signing it, Dagda laughs sinisterly, almost beckoning to question of whether or not I made the right decision. He turns to me and said: "Don't worry, mortal. I'm not going to do anything bad to you. Its just that I finally found a summoner stupid enough to sign a contract with me. Don't worry. I'll lend you my power, once you're strong enough. For now, you'll have to settle with just training."  He then buggered right off, vanishing into the wastes like he was never there. WC: 302 TWC: 4657/9000

My first day of training with Dagda came on an auspicious day, The Sun, cracked in two, giving off red and blue light in the heavens above. "Ah, its finally started." Dagda began with an almost purr-like quality to his voice, making the deep rumble in his voice drag on longer, making it even more sinister. Among this clouded color battle, the sands themelves began to dance, as if they were alive. The very desert itself banged itself on the wind, making the desert itself beat like a massive drum. "The other kid that I called upon, a lost, dead soul, wandering around in the afterlife with some purpose, is battling against an usurper god in another dimension up there. I'm there too, granting him my power as he alone stands and fights against him. I'm both here and there, because I draw my power from the earth beneath me, because I used to be part of each earth I visit, but I was cast out by the usurper up there."


From that, the Red colored sun vanished from the sky, leaving a pale blue sun in its place, coloring the sky a bright blue, almost so bright that anyone with a normal eye couldn't see it. With that development, the desert and all of the forces beneath  the sands settled back into the old routine that dogs my day to day normality, barring this one strange event from becoming a normal, yet entirely new thing in the sky, a general neutrality setting in, as though nothing changed in of itself. "Don't worry kid, this has happened in a number of ways throughout time, this is just one of the things that happens from time to time. Many have seen it, but have never known what could've happened. around this sun, is a million fractured pieces of the same whole. All truth became fractured in the simplest instance, leaving behind millions upon billions of differing eons. Your's is one of many, fractured, stuck in time, and yet has moved forwards, almost all people in this world are under the thrall of time and death, all ending in my domain. All except those who left the sway of time behind, leaving nothing more than an empty existence, standing alone, outside of the people you once were. Nothing remains for those who live beyond their years, leaving nothing but empty husks of existence. There are a very chosen few who live, even when the weight of life sits upon their very existence, their very soul. Bah, enough with the chit chat, lets see what you bargained for, shall we?" he turned away from me, turning his face away, into the barren wastelands of this forgotten desert. He raised his hand, and a monsoon level of a downpour was unleashed upon the desert, near-instantly soaking the area around me with a tidal downpour that this desert hasn't seen in a couple eons at the very least. The ground soaked itself almost within a snap of a moment, leaving nothing but regular dirt for a distance past the eye can see. Then, Dagda snaps his fingers, and with a disgust scoff, sat aside and began to monologue:


"Did you know, that once upon a time, I was the rain that drenched the earth, and the winds that blew? I used to be nature, just a piece of nature that was called a god and was thanked? Me and my mother both, we just existed as the winds and waters of our lands, moving the seas to bring fish to the life we bore on our shoulders, grew their crops when you mortals couldn't. Now, I'm trapped in this horrid shell, thanks to the god that the other summoner cast down, and threw aside. I'm no longer trapped in that universe, but in this one, I became this husk of a being that just was. I just existed in this shell, walking along you mortals unseen. Pah, I'm talking over something I really think you should see... He then forcibly turned my head to the desert, watching the sand become dirt, than dirt becoming a deep bown and fertile, and then golden barked trees sprouting from the fertilized earth. Each tree went through several thousand lifetimes in the blink of an eye, growing tall, and becoming a magnificent golden grove, hidden away in a desert that has fallen from living history. 


"This is what I used to be. I wasn't some glorified conductor at the height of the stage. I was the instruments, and beautiful music they played. The feeling of being the air of which you mortals breathe was, and will always be, indescribable." He turns away, an obvious loathing in his voice, laced with painful longing. "I may be able to." I said to his disbelieving scoff. "No mortal has any sort of power that could even..." he trailed off with a lingering tone in the air, sighing in a depressed manner. I motioned for him to move closer to me. He bends down, almost in an almost threatening manner. I wrapped my hands around the undefined temples of his forehead, and with a wraith-like voice I whispered: "Forfeit your mind." and with that I delved deep into the mind of this god, probing his memories, felling the infinite boredom and depression that the many eons of his existence, and the many different forms of existence he's been through. I opened my mind, and my heart, and I felt every modicum of pain that he'd been through, and that when I opened my eyes to console him, he was no where. When I tried to stand, I stood myself in a righted position, and yet I stood many heads higher then I usually did, and I felt... weightless. I was wrapped in a bark-like skin, my hair became flowering grasses and plants, and I felt... weightless. I also felt a crushing despair, like the mantle of the world was once on my shoulders, but now, taken by another. Shaking off those thoughts, I decided to "test" this new form, though some innate part of me... knew. I ran, well I say that I ran, but rally, I glided in a sort of breeze-like way, making it feel like I never touched the ground. Every path I took, no matter how hot the desert got, I felt as cool as a moving stream, and as I moved, the path behind me was laced with new growth, before withering away. One thought kept nagging at me, however. That notion I held in my mind was the question: "Where'd Dagda go?" This thought soon alluded my conscious thought as I continued reveling in this new state I found myself in. Though soon, I became weary of this power, so I sat and thought of what I'd call this form, when Dagda's voice screeched in my head "That form's name is Danu. It is the form of my mother." At that moment, it felt like my head was being ripped in two, and from then to an unexpected amount of time, I lost consciousness. 

After awakening, I noticed Dagda sitting over on my rock, laughing wistfully, as though he felt nothing, and yet everything in that weird encounter, looking like a haughty teen being caught after a party. He laughed a huge laugh, upon seeing my face awoke from slumber. "Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahaahahahahaha, that was... unexpected, kid. Well done. No one's been able to surprise me in a few eons on this pathetic wretch of a planet. It's not as bad as others, but people here grow powers able to kill me. Me! Hah, I'd like to see them try. Especially once you've grown stronger. I'd dare say you've stronger gods ahead of me. So, who'll it be? Let me guess... Fafnir perhaps? Or maybe Kali? Huh, neither of them suit your style. Ah, Shesha, the Infinite one. Not bad. Not my first choice, but it'll do. anyway. Listen kid, my time here is shorter now, since more of my energy is being used elsewhere. Before I go, which I do have to, I have to tell you about the final thing you can call me for. I can write up a contract with a fallen ally or foe, depending on your choice. Now kid, I don't have enough energy or time to give a demonstration, so you'll have to take me at my word. Whether or not you believe what I said. I must now go, kid. Summon me when you're stronger. See you, kid."  He then started turning into a vapor-like substance, and faded away into the desert heat.


For days afterwards, I struggled to find the inspiration for anything, after I moved into the grove that had risen in the desert. I wasn't sure how long it would remain, but it stilled the sands around me, so I held myself within the plentiful, golden grove that hid itself within an empty wasteland. I rested there, reading, and then writing over and over again, assuring myself of the civility that still rested upon my mind. After about an hour of that, I started training my arms and legs, moving them back an forth as fast as possible, until I started upon the training of my arms in truth. I stood there, waited a moment, and punched, again and again. I moved my arms for so long, that I grew tired to the point of falling asleep on the dirt underfoot.


After days and days, and at least a couple of weeks in itself, where I struggled to create this monstrosity, hours upon hours wasted upon this fruitless endeavor. I spent the better parts of at least three weeks working on the barest modicum of this new beast-god, and from hour to hour, day to day, for weeks I worked on this new creation, building Shesha's body, and after a couple of weeks I gave it up, naming it a lost cause. I felt bitterness well up inside of me, casting a caustic feel to my every movement and thought, burning away the happiness that I felt from just making the progress that I did. I took to wandering through the desert from that moment, feeling myself seethe a little, even though I tried to calm myself. After a couple of days, I took myself over to one of the local springs that lay astride the grove, and sat in contemplation, trying to understand the rage I just now began to feel at my lengthened solitude. I sat for an hour, or thereabouts, before a massive rumbling took over the ground beneath me. I didn't concern myself until a few minutes later, when a massive roar erupted from the ground. This inhuman bellowing soared right up into the sky, along with a massive spire of sand, which fro within, a dragon, encased in sand, threw out his wings, and blocked out the sun. I got up, and sighed. I got ready for battle. I first summoned Tiamat, or at least I tried. When I tried summoning Tiamat, her link broke, unleashing her energy back into me. I got hurt from this backlash, and I pulled together a weaker spell out to form. My backlash from the energyke, started contorting, bending and reshaping itself un