Thunderbird’s Nest...

Thunderbird Emperor had agreed to witness the Ascension of Sages sworn to His service. Nominally such things could have been done with a Stormcrown Eagle, but it was a bone to throw to His Human followers, and didn’t actually require Him to do anything... while also ensuring that nobody was going to interfere in such a thing in the future.

It was also a given that I’d probably be there to help them, especially the first one!

The whole KIA and main SAR teams were there for this. Everyone involved was an Archmage, so there were no problems with the set-up for the Formation they were going to use to help give him a boost.

My success with Cameron Dow’s Ascension was naturally known by everyone, but like anything else, relying on me being there was a fool’s game. The idea was to make this something that could be done by teamwork among equals, helping push and lift one another up together!

The Mick had been a half-Sage for some time. He had Fives on all his Stars, and was Mage-tier in Sixes. It was highly unlikely he was going to get Sixes in all Stars in any Element for a long, long time, however, as every Universe he opened was another fourteen thousand Stars he had to Temper!

Seventy thousand Stars was a lot of work to do, as Cameron was finding out. Even with the accelerated speed and skill of being a Sage, tempering everything to Five involved a LOT of effort and resources, and would keep him busy for years.

It was probably a commentary on just how much fighting everyone had done that the KIA and senior SAR teams actually had enough Soul Crystals to advance all those Stars to Five! They all had at least one Element to Mage-tier/Six, and almost all of them had Novice Stars to Seven, because extremely overpowered minor magic they could Cast all day was simply too useful not to do that.

Thunderbird and His Stormcrown Eagles watched with great interest as the Seven Stars Elemental Formation, doubled up to take advantage of the Archmages here, began to ramp up with the skill and power that came from frequent use. It was used in the field and at home by all Coralost Mages, the enhanced Mana Draw of working together hammered into them as something not to skip if it was possible.

There was basically always one such Formation going at Coralost and in the Broom Closet, people continually coming in and leaving, the Formation automatically shifting and adjusting as they did so.

I Sang to help harmonize things, but I didn’t give the Mick the push that I had Cameron. I had perfect recall of how much energy it had taken to help Cameron Dow Ascend, and this was a test to see if the Archmages present could duplicate that.

I’d done it with Caster Level, they could do it with teamwork and Huando Meshing Method Elemental Synergies.

The Mick began his Reaching as the Mana poured into him, raising his arms and calling out to the heavens above. Thunder rumbled and white clouds circled, drawing back to reveal a starry sky in the middle of the day. Lightning crackled and circled about the hole in space, reacting to his strongest Element, and soon the great Pattern in the sky, matched by a similar Pattern in the Nest below, flared into magical visibility. Thrumming Mana that wasn’t all Lightning began to flash and flare in regular strokes between Earth and Sky.

The Mick’s Elements were Earth, Lightning, Void, and Air. He had just empowered the Heaven and Earth Formation here, and was using it with the help of his friends and their lovers and wives to reach towards the sky above with all the fury of the Elements.

He would complete his Thunderbird Trifecta with Thunder, and be the most complete Lightning Mage who had ever existed in history when he did.

I felt the shattering of his Lightning Galaxy and its eruption into a Universe first. The Mana stream and his Reaching didn’t stop, attempting to emulate the success of Cameron by completing the assembly of a perfect array of Elements for Lightning and Thunder.

The cracking flash of Lightning and other Elemental energies continued, drawing the attention of Beasts from all over Thunderbird’s Domain. The Mick’s Caster Level was a full 23 as a Twenty Human and Ten Wizard, and so his advance to Sage was practically guaranteed as long as he was physically tough enough, which wasn’t an issue.

His Earth Galaxy shattered and broke through next, followed almost instantly by Air, and the Heaven and Earth Formations spinning and connected by flashes of power shimmered with the acknowledgement. He reached out for the emptiness of the Void, and with it embraced Thunder via Force.

The crashing, slamming Note of completion as a Universe was born and a final one broke through was whole and complete, a thrumming Chord of perfection that would accompany every spell he ever threw for the rest of his life. An internal Formation of Thunder and Lightning crackled within him, completed yet ninety percent empty, waiting now to be filled.

Hopper flapped his stubby wings of gold, purple, and azure feathers, his own song of excitement and enthusiasm carrying that selfsame Note between himself and his Contractor. The Storm Runner was a Duke, verging on a King of his kind, but with his Contractor becoming a five-Element Sage, his path to Emperor was open and waiting for him, if he could but refine his Mana properly!

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I could tell Thunderbird Emperor was impressed by what He was seeing. The Mick’s five Elements actually were a complete set for the power of Lightning and Thunder, giving him a combined power and insight that might eventually exceed Thunderbird’s own, if the Mick could advance as far as I had.

The Mick’s arms came down as Hopper laid his big head on his Contractor’s shoulder, while the Contracted Beasts present added their enthusiastic calls and congratulations to the exhausted Human before them.

“LET ALL KNOW THAT THIS HUMAN IS THE THUNDER RUNNING SAGE, AND HE SERVES ME!” Thunderbird declared, and His voice rang out for over a thousand miles in all directions, specifically sweeping across the entire continent of North America and alerting everyone faster than the internet that there was another Human Sage in the world... and the Emperor of North America was his Patron!

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Humans and Beasts had made their obeisance and departed, the Mick grinning ear to ear and likely going to crash for a full day when he got to his rooms beyond the Broom Closet Portal that had opened up and then closed behind them.

“YOUR FORMATION WORKED WELL. FIVE UNIVERSES AT ONE TIME, AND DONE MERELY WITH THE POWER OF TEAMWORK AND HARMONY.”

My Sublime Chord had been more about raising the Mana Draw here than anything else. The two teams had plenty of experience working together and harmonizing on their own, they hadn’t needed me to do that portion... and actually, they’d had more than enough power to power the Reaching.

The only way a Five-Element Ascension was not going to happen was if the Mick himself had been weak, and even then, the first Reaching would have been fine, which would have eventually led to the rest, the process most Sages used.

The Mick, however, was not goddamn weak by any measure of ability! Making Sage also meant making Lesser Exemplar!

“Good people doing good things together, Elder,” I replied from where I was hovering in the air next to Him.

“HIS THUNDER WILL BE UNIQUE TO HIM.” He delicately lifted a talon and tapped it on the stone of His nest, near to where the Altar of the Heaven and Earth Pyramid broke through. “IT IS COMPLETE, IN A WAY MINE IS NOT.”

He wasn’t regretful or disappointed, merely stating a fact. He was Thunderbird, unique and powerful in His own way and time.

I smiled at Him knowingly, and He caught it, tilting His head curiously.

I pulled a large gold-over-diamond Ring out of my Pocket. Well, it was more like a torc, really, given the log-sized talon it was made for.

“Might Elder be interested in learning to wield a variant Ring of Earth Elemental Command to complete His own Lightning Pentad?” I asked, and the great golden eye actually blinked at me in the closest thing to shock Thunderbird would ever give me. “At the very least, Elder should be able to erect the Earth half of the Heaven and Earth Formation anywhere He cares to, with merely a little practice...”

Which was practically saying He could bring His Demesne with Him wherever He went, and He’d also quadruple His power inside His Demesne here, at least!

“HUMANS AND THEIR LITTLE TOYS...” He murmured to me, the talons bearing Dreadskulls of Dragons and Aquatics tapping the stone of His Nest once each. “WILL YOU TEACH ME OF EARTH, TOO, HEALER FAE?” He asked in amusement.

“Elder, it would be my honor to do so!”

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Mexico City...

The number of undead doing battle seemed to increase every day. That was fine, as the number of undead dying also increased every day.

Despite the fact they were fighting every single day, the Undead Hunters were only increasing in numbers. Every week, more of them arrived from preliminary training to bolster the numbers of those already there, instantly joining the fighting with vim, vigor, and fresh enthusiasm.

The whole nation was watching as the Coralost-trained Undead Hunters, their Scepters in hand, unleashed their Holy magic and vivus upon the undead, striking them down with greater speed and power than any force their size had a right to.

Over a million undead had died to the combination of effects so far, and the toll was only increasing. Instead of becoming tired and worn out, the humans involved were instead growing more and more enthusiastic and energetic!

They were now joined by the Thunder Running Sage, Colonel Mick himself, standing on overwatch against interference by the powerful undead, and a week later by the Red Phoenix Sage, also new to his Title. Red was now capable of wielding Silver Magic and acting as an extremely deadly magical duelist. Combined with his healing, offensive, and defensive abilities, he was a very popular fellow among the lesser mages as well!

With Red came hundreds more Fire wielders eager to contribute, just as more Lightning wielders had arrived with the Mick. The whole KIA team was here, and more and more followers of their Elements were showing up, pre-vetted, pre-trained, and ready to Tier up their Stars, improve their Scepters... and earn a Phoenix Blessing from myself or Red.

We didn’t have Seeds for them, but by and large, the enthusiastic Undead Hunters did not care. Tempering their Stars did the same thing, and their Scepters were improving every day... and soon enough the first ones Slotted in Disruption, and things took another leap forward.

With Disruption, there was a chance of an instant kill when any spell damaged a netherworldly creature. It wasn’t much, but it was raised by the Enhancement bonus of the Scepter it was attached to. With Soulbound Slotted, Enmity/Netherworlders added on, and a Baneskull to Undead attached, the base 14 Save was up all the way to 20, which was an 80%+ chance to kill Servant undead, 60% to kill most Warriors, and 20-30% to kill Commanders.

That didn’t sound like much, but Disruption also doubled the base damage of a spell against those creatures, and Scepters were also really good at overcoming magical defenses. Hit an Undead or Shade with a spell of the same Tier, and the chances of insta-killing were excellent, especially with AoE’s able to blast more than one target at a time.

End result? As more and more Disruption came online, more and more undead were dying much, much faster! Spell Penetration was still a needed Feat, but the Scepters were also helping with that, and so more and more undead were getting hit with spells and instantly wiped, instead of taking several enhanced barrages of lesser spells to be killed. Since even Commanders could be killed by lower-Tier spells getting through their resistance to magic, the kill rates and ability to penetrate the undead lines was simply going up and up.

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Author’s Note: A Reminder that Rods increase To-hit and Damage of spells, but Scepters increase Spell Penetration and Save DC’s, which is more important here.