Building a magic system on threat of destruction

Jack sat up, taking in the basement and feeling the familiar hum of his bore-bot body. He looked over and saw the body of Abac lying on the table next to him. The bore-bot trio of Reph, Glimm, and Dirge all looked to him expectantly, hope burning in their eyes. Reph looked at Jack expectantly, "Well? You were gone for quite a while, what happened?"

Jack took a long moment, going over what he was going to say in his head one more time. The time had finally come to bring the bore-bots into the fold. This was no longer a secret Jack could afford to hide, he had to tell them the cold, hard truth.

"I have some unfortunate news for you. Then...I have something I need to confess as well." Jack looked around and didn't see Jeler. The animalus often waited upstairs whenever Jack's soul wasn't in the mechanical body. "Can one of you go get Jeler, please? This is something I need to tell him as well."

Reph's expression had grown tense, and his gears clicked loudly in a way that Jack interpreted as anxiety. Glimm put a calming hand on his shoulder before going upstairs to fetch Jeler.

Dirge looked between Jack and Reph, their eyebrow raised at the tension between the two of them. They spoke after a long moment, "Reph, we all knew that it was a long shot. There's no reason to get upset with Jack over something we don't even know yet."

Jack glanced at Dirge, smiling appreciatively before returning his gaze to Dirge. The clockwork bore-bot continued to stare down Jack as his gears continued to spin faster than normal. "Something is wrong with Abac, and Jack seems to know what it is." He spoke slowly and softly, but Jack could feel the emotion in Reph's voice. It was heavy, and Jack felt pressure like a physical weight at the words.

He didn't say anything until Glimm returned with Jeler. The cat man had obviously been told something was wrong because he didn't greet Jack as he came down the stairs, his expression remained completely neutral. Once everyone was assembled, Jack swung his legs off the table and stood, looking at the assembled group. "To start, I'll explain why Abac isn't waking up."

The bore-bots all tensed, the emotion coursing through all of them differently. Reph's gears seemed to freeze for a moment before continuing their rapid clicking. Dirge's steam suddenly increased in a big puff before returning to its usual output. Glimm's reaction was closest to a human's, her body physically stiffening as the mana inside of it stopped flowing for a moment. Jeler was the only one who didn't show an obvious reaction, though it would be strange if he reacted as intensely as the bore-bots. This was their life's work and it represented the continuation of their family.

"I suspect that it has nothing to do with Abac themself. As far as I know, you guys made the body perfectly. The issue is that there's no soul to inhabit Abac's body." He paused, looking at everyone around him. Everyone seemed shocked, but Reph got over it very quickly. The clockwork bore-bot suddenly seemed lost in thought, as if he was doing the math about the idea of acquiring a soul for Abac.

Jack held up his hands, forstalling questions as he continued. "Maybe I should rephrase that. Currently, souls are not being put into bodies they way they are supposed to be. It's not specific to Abac, as far as I know, even new children won't be born..." That statement caused looks of horror to spread throughout the group.

"Wait! What? How is that even possible? Are you sure?" Glimm's questions came quickly as if she couldn't wait long enough for Jack to answer. She took a step toward Jack, her hands flailing as she desperately berated him with questions. Dirge placed a hand on her shoulder, gently pulling her back. She whipped her head around to look at them before seeming to collapse slightly. Her shoulders drooped, and she allowed herself to be pulled back.

Dirge looked at Jack, and it was clear they were trying to remain calm. "Jack, how certain are you of this?"

"Completely. I returned to the white void and found spirits there. Hundreds of people who died and aren't reincarnating. They weren't the only ones either, there are apparently plenty of other spirits around the white void as well. I don't have an accurate count, but it's a lot."

Jeler's frown deepened, "How is that possible? Is it related to..." he paused, glancing at the bore-bots. The matter of Plexion still existing was a secret.

"It's not related to Plexion, not directly anyway." Jack turned to the bore-bots and revealed Plexion's secret. They were shocked that the former King of all Demons was still kicking around and that his big secret was a magic spell to hide from the High Deity. It was another surprising revelation, but not as impactful as the bombshell Jack had already dropped. But the bomb he was about to drop would be much, much bigger.

"The reason this is happening...is because Plexion and I put Deis in a magical coma." The air in the room suddenly became heavy. Mana began roiling across the bodies of the three bore-bots as their expressions all twisted. Jack took a half step back, and Jeler suddenly appeared in the space between them. The animalus held two daggers out defensively, and a defense screen appeared in front of him.

It was Jack's turn to be shocked. Why were the bore-bots acting this way? He had expected some small amount of distress, but they seemed ready to attack him outright. However, after a moment, Glimm and Drige both made a visible effort to calm themselves. Their mana subsided, and they both put a hand on Reph who was still visibly upset.

"Reph, calm down. Let him explain himself." Glimm's words were calm, but it was clear that her attitude was forced. There was tension in her voice, and she kept her gaze on Jack and Jeler as if she expected them to suddenly try something.

Jack calmed himself down. It was easier in the bore-bot body than in his human form as he had more control over the mechanical aspect of his insides. Jeler maintained his defensive position, and Reph continued to glare at Jack, mana rolling off his body in waves. Jack chose his words very carefully. "Deis was going to destroy us. Ever since he summoned me he's been threatening to obliterate my soul, and Plexion and I did something that really set him off. Everything we did was in self-defense, and kind of an accident."

There was a long, tense moment, and Reph slowly pulled his mana back. He crossed his arms, then glanced at Jeler. "You can calm down now. I want to hear him out." Jeler relaxed his stance slightly, putting his knives down and dismissing his defense screen. The room deflated slightly, and Jack let out an internal sigh.

"I'll be very clear. The magical coma that Deis is in is temporary. I possess the ability to wake him up at any time, but doing so would mean Plexion and I both die horribly. As far as we knew, there was no real downside to our solution, but apparently we were mistaken." Jack sighed, he felt tired. The nonstop work he had put into survival and trying to improve the lives of the people around him had worn him down. Admitting that he had potentially done real and lasting harm, even on accident, was hard to get out.

"Plexion and I both recognize that this isn't ideal, and I think we both intend to wake Deis up." There was visible relief on the faces of the bore-bots, though Jack suspected they felt relief for different reasons. There were varying levels of relief about Abac, but there was a surprising amount of relief for the High Deity as well. He hated to cut the hope short, but he needed to explain himself. "Hold on, it'll still be a bit before we get to that point. There's someone I need to talk to, an expert on godhood who can help me deal with the fallout of this."

Jack opened his mouth to continue explaining, but Dirge interrupted him. "The cloud?" Everyone in the room turned to look at the bore-bot, who shrugged. "If you scramble the letters in ducol around, it spells cloud. That whole business with the storm was nuts, and I made a guess. Besides that, some rumors are going around that worry me about the cloud."

This time, it was Jack's turn to look worried and anxious. Dirge held up a hand, "let me explain. The areas where there was drought, the paces that the clouds vanished from? The people who live there are experiencing a sickness. It came and went pretty quickly, and I hear that no one has died from it yet, but it happened all over Drowl. There are some magical theories about how the nature of Deis' power is harmful in large doses, and the sun is the representation of his power. When all the clouds vanished, people got sick for a while, only to get better after the clouds came back. You said that it hinted at potential consequences for it staying above us. It knows things, right? About the nature of this world, and the nature of Deis' power."

Jack absorbed the words and felt the truth to them. The ducol was the only person Jack had ever seen who possessed the [Deity Resistance] skill. It was possible that the cloud had that skill on purpose, that his duty was to be the barrier between the High Deity and his people. The ducol had claimed to be a former god, perhaps this was his role on this strange world. "Yes, I think that it does have answers to all those questions. In fact, I think that it knows almost as much as Deis does."

"So..." Jeler chimed in. "We need to get its attention somehow? Get some answers?"

"Yes. If the ducol can help Plexion and me, then maybe we can wake up the High Deity for the rest of the world."