“So much for mass production of these kind of things,” Sama murmured, eyes focused on the mental image. “I’m aware you can Harden these things way up, but a 28 is getting mauled like this... what, maybe ten more left before it shatters?”

“In that area, sure. I used it six times, and yeah, it is damn nice. A sixty-fourfold increase in damage is godly, you’re basically jumping almost an entire Class.” Said jump would normally be x80, so very close to the results of a spell using seven times as much Mana! “That is a LOT of money to put in for something you can’t use even twenty times. I can try a Harden on top of it, which should help some...”

“But it’s pumping through the equivalent of 256d6 of energy, without Valence structures or Meta modulation.” Sama got it. “Even using a QL 36 Rod, Laenwork for Light affinity, Enhancing it with Soulbound, it’s burning out its Matrix. If we can find the point where it doesn’t, that at least is something.”

“I’ll try Mending this and see if I can repair the Matrix damage. Then I’ll Harden it as high as I can go and see if it can deal with the damage.”

“Damn expensive to market as a consumable,” Sama muttered. “Would making it unidirectional instead of directed help?”

I was caught off-guard, considering it as she tossed the Rod back to me. “Huh. Hard to say. Instead of omnidirectional dispersal we could, say, add rifling to the Matrix... but then you’d actually have to physically aim and hit your target.”

“So, we have a viable Laser gun, instead of an extra spell channeler for Mages. Second, can you put that matrix into a disposal form?”

“Like, say, a cartridge?” I asked wryly.

“From grades one through six, ideally,” she nodded.

“That... huh.” Variable impact ammo. Technically, a Novice could be shooting off something better than Adept spells with the ammo. There were definitely some people who’d pay for that kind of firepower in an emergency.

“Secondly, do you think you could do it with the Mage Tier?” she asked me.

I winced despite myself. “You’re talking a times 4096 damage multiplier!...” Still, couldn’t help running designs through my head. “You’re talking seven Rods in parallel, probably, no way anything could handle that in series. Spin them through the Matrix pattern, it won’t be handheld... it could conceivably be done? Since it won’t be mobile, we could make everything bigger and spread out the stress?”

She gave me a funny look. “You’re talking about a Gatling Rod Laser Cannon?”

“Might have to combine it with disposable cartridges for optimal efficiency.” If we could make cartridges, they could take all the resonance stress on the shell casings. Probably disintegrate, but who would care?

“Or make a really big cannon with really big shells?” she grinned enthusiastically.

I considered the fact that battleship shells in another world’s history could weigh a ton or more, but had no idea how much such things could cost. But that was what defense budgets were for, only here that money was spent on egotistical people instead of cannons, and cannons couldn’t run away.

“While I laud the sentiment behind it, are you sure you want to go down this tech tree, Sama?” I asked calmly. “Because it’s the beginning of the end for the Great Beasts if you do. This tech tree is going to take you all the way up to nukes-level magic, you know that.”

Her mouth opened, closed, and she glared at me for shooting down her fond dreams of magitech everywhere. “Damn, you’re right.” Disposable munitions allowed those who prepared them to whelm more offense on a spot than any defense could endure, and that included the defenses of the Great Beasts. This Rod was a pricy way for Novices and Adepts to shoot a more powerful spell. Ammunition was a way to bury somebody in dakka.

Someone was always going to want something more powerful to use, as long as there were creatures stronger than us, and then they’d want to use those powerful things to their own benefit, regardless of the long-term effects of such things.

Had a feeling neither the Synod nor the Curia would object, either, as their ultimate masters wouldn’t be affected. Neutralizing such things was literally a stray thought to a Realm Lord, if I had the power levels right.

“Let me think on how to approach this. It’s really not that much different from a Formation if we leave out the ammunition side of things...”

Consumables kill!, I thought, wondering how she’d address it, but having faith she wouldn’t go down that rabbit hole quite yet.

--------------------

Time passes, Stone is Shaped, and a Pyramid begins to take form at the top of the world...

“COULD YOU CLAIM IT?”

The last Block of the day lifted out of the mountain stone. I had passed through it with Shaping Stone, fixed any cracks or flaws in its internal structure, then carved the entirety of its Infusion Pattern into it at QL 75, a profoundness that went beyond just precision in carving stone. The Pattern MEANT something on a metaphysical level, and magic responded to its purpose.

Lightning crackled underneath it, a thread of voltage darting up to the sky in response as the ten-foot-cube of stone spun slowly, lifting and aligning itself towards the greater pattern as it did so.

Purple-silver Lightning reached out from the long line of waiting blocks there, thirty cubes long, touched a side, and drew the newest and final Block for the line in.

The line erupted with Lightning and snarling plays of voltage as it completed, and then all thirty Blocks were reached out to by the greater square of 29x30 as the bigger Formation called to them. Tongues of Lightning Mana leapt together, coiled about happily, and drew carved stone to carved stone.

The line joined the rectangle, and became a complete square. The entirety of the new level lit off, nine hundred separate strands of electricity surging towards the sky and dissipating into the clouds, and then the first twenty-nine steps of the Pyramid underneath thundered after them, reaching up, grabbing the floating square, and drawing it down and into place atop them.

The BOOM as they joined up into a greater whole could be heard clear to the horizon, rolling over the landscape and the mountains, echoing and re-echoing. The mad and joyful dance of the Lightning slowly faded away, but there was a distinct hum added to the Manafield now, and if you had the ability to see, the Formation in the Sky and the newer one in the Earth had grown once more in size and complexity.

I watched it all in satisfaction, gliding over to land atop the newest layer. A hundred feet above me, Thunderbird watched from the edge of His nest, the Pyramid literally being excavated out of the mountain directly under the Eye of his Domain. “Claim what, Your Imperial Majesty?” I replied, murmuring Detect Magic at V, Behold the Weave of the World, and studying the Patterns and Mana flow within them.

“THE SEED.”

I turned my eyes to the seething center of the Pyramid.

The intent of the Pyramid was two-fold: to give Thunderbird an even greater mastery of His Domain, and to grow Lightning Seeds more quickly and cleanly. Just doubling the power of His Domain would naturally accelerate the growth of Seeds of all sizes and types, but the Pyramid further purified and arranged proper Nodes for them to grow in.

There was one such Seed already in place, dancing and pulsing like a living thing as it sat there in the well at the center of the Pyramid, multi-colored tongues of voltage beating and pulsing about it from the stones all around, including both zipping sparks extending down into the mountain and those disappearing up into the sky.

That was what Thunderbird did beneath His Eye: He grew the most powerful Lightning Seeds in the world, the Thunderheart and Thundersoul Heaven Seeds!

The Seeds of Thunderbird were only known in tales and legends, as none had been gained by Humans for at least a century. Stealing one from Thunderbird was a good way to die, and the fate of the last thief who had tried, every little sound crashing against his mind and soul until he was literally scared to death by the sound of falling rain, meant nobody dared to steal from Him... even if they could overcome the six Stormcrown Eagles who guarded His Eye when Thunderbird was not here.

Only the Seven Elements formed Seeds, all the other Elements of Magic enhanced by other methods and means. Dark Magic had its Contracts and Demonic Boosts. Light Magic had its Benedictions and Blessings. Dimensional Magic had only Will, but Will transcended the Levels of Magery, and great Will could make even Novice-class Dimensional Magic hugely potent very early, you just wouldn’t have the reserves to Cast the most powerful spells.

“Is His Majesty asking if this one could Master the Seed, or if this one could endure the acquisition of it?” I asked Him calmly, clearly not all that overawed about gaining such a thing... despite it being something that some Sages would eradicate cities to gain.

The great head tilted slightly in lofty amusement. “BOTH,” He declared, with his aloof equivalent of a chuckle.

“Yes to the one, and maybe to the other, Your Imperial Majesty.” I considered the Seed, whose play of voltage had changed, as if it was listening to us... which it very well might be. “This one’s Matrix is something rather special, and this one is not sure she could maintain a Lightning Seed adequately.” Undeterred by the new beating display of the Thunderheart Seed, I glided over to the edge of its well, ignoring the blinding display it was putting on with Devasight, and as snapping lashes of accompanying Thunder slid past me harmlessly, I drew up on the lip of its well.

I lifted my arms, tilted my head back to the skies above, and Declared my Words of Creation!

“TRUTH! HOPE! VALOR!”

Thunderbird Emperor Himself reared back in shock as the Words broke over Him. The blazing, popping, snarling crackle of display of strength the Thunderheart Seed was putting on froze as colors of hallowed Gold, Silver, and Rainbow played over it, Heavenly Thunder roiling through it with a profound purity and power beyond any accumulation of Mana or Elemental intent.

With a hum, the display of power from the Thunderheart Seed vanished completely. Swirling with new Colors no Thunderheart Seed had ever known, it separated from its well, and came over to float before me, clearly waiting for me.

I let an external representation of my Matrix flow out around me, forty-nine sets of Seven Stars in a double hexagon array, with my Luan Firefrost Seed sitting there spinning hot and cold about the Valences in my Core Seven Stars, mirrored to all the others. Threads of Lightning reached out delicately to touch my hands, and the Thunderheart Seed Hummed to the Sublime Chord along with me as it danced along all 343 of the prismatic Stars of my Matrices, the 49 Cores, and the swirls of Five Valences orbiting each of them.

There was some interplay between the Fire and the Frost, but the Luan Seed had its own torus of circulating energy, and clearly did not need and could not use a Lightning Seed’s influence.

Lightning joined Earth and Heaven. I had almost nothing for it to anchor to and dance between.

I laid gentle hands on the Thunderheart Seed, which rippled sadly in my grasp and floated back into its well with a little push from me. Its dance started up, but this time, not so wild, the strands thicker and with glittering metallic purpose, touched by The Lights of Heaven.

It was waiting for me!

I turned to look up at Thunderbird, who was staring at me intently. “Your Imperial Majesty, this one cannot anchor a Lightning Seed in her Matrix at this time. This one would need an Earth Seed and a Wind Seed to do so, and for something as powerful as a Thunderheart Seed, both would have to be Heaven Seeds of their own, or they would be severely off-balance.”