God of Nothing

"Lady Iona." Aleph called as his disciples left his home. The woman looked up from her stacks of papers with an air of confusion, but Aleph knew it was put on.

"I need your assistance in crafting the items I mentioned. Will you do me this favor?"

"Finally! I thought you'd never ask!" She said excitedly. She plopped her stack of papers down where she was sitting and followed him to the makeshift smithy he had set up behind his house.

Aleph asked as a formality, but he knew she would accept. Rayse mentioned her curiosity over his creations, so he thought it would be beneficial to include her in the process. He had a good idea what to make for each of his disciples, but a second pair of eyes couldn't hurt. She looked over his shoulder as he laid out the materials that he had.

There were eight mana hearts in front of him, and six horns to match. He took a long look before finally picking out a pair of them. He handed it over to Iona before digging into a crate to gather some of the leather he got from the village raid.

"I'd like to start with Lacey's armor. What do you think?" 

He had his back to her, but he could almost hear the gears on her head turning. He unfurled the harbinger leather down on the workbench, the skin looking a lot less disgusting now that it's been cured and tanned. He finally heard Iona's input as he marked out some measurements to be 

"A wind heart is a good choice. It bolsters Lacey's fire magic as well as her mobility. But why choose these horns to go with it? wouldn't it be pointless?"

Aleph just smiled. He reached towards a nondescript rock on his desk. He held it up for her to see.

"Lady Iona, forgive me for saying so, but this country's artificing is quite behind the times. Have you ever worked with this material?"

"A pressure stone? But what is-" She stopped herself, looking back and forth between the rock and the pair of blue horns she was holding, putting it together.

"You can do that?" 

Aleph's smile grew larger at her reaction. He knew he picked the right assistant for this project.

__________________________________

These days, Rayse spent most of the time helping rebuild the damage to the town, all the while thinking about how to scale Berserk back to a more sustainable state. He tried to alter the image he was using to a less fierce one, but all that left him was the spell failing or losing potency while retaining the terrible after effects. He tried consulting with Iona on the matter. He found her chiseling away at a smooth, grey rock.

"Huh? You need help with Berserk?" She asked distractedly. She didn't look away and just kept at it, creating symbols across the surface of the rock. She consulted a piece of paper every so often, and if she got stuck, would walk over to Aleph, who was hammering away at an anvil.

Rayse was fascinated at their efficiency, almost completely forgetting why he came by. By the time Iona answered him back, he had been sucked in, fetching items here and there for Aleph.

"...Yeah, a different spell is your best bet. You might need to make it yourself, though. Not many people can harness mana of that attribute, you know." 

"Eh? But I thought most of the soldiers turn into mages by absorbing harbinger crystals?"

Iona stopped and stared at him, eyes widened in disbelief. He turned to look back and forth at him and Aleph, then started shaking her head.

"For the love of… How are you the best artificer I ever worked with while also being completely inept at basic magic theory?"

Aleph ignored her, pouring the dust Rayse just handed him over a mold. Iona sighed dejectedly before continuing.

"Listen, a mage's aptitude depends on three things: Body, natural capacity and the attribute of the mana used in heart cultivation. Some, like Vaynard, overrides whatever mana they take in and turn it into their unique attribute. For most of us, though, whatever spells we can cast depend on the mana we took in when developing our hearts."

Rayse took that in for a bit before immediately finding fault with it.

"...Wait, that can't be right. Me and Lacey use different attribute spells all the time. Heck, I've seen you cast a nature and a fire attribute spell on the same day."

That response only made her more disappointed in him. She sighed once again, giving Aleph another look of annoyance before responding.

"Like I said, it depends on what we used to develop our mana hearts. I used Lava Stones, making my mana's attribute fire. Bramble Maze-" She held up her hand, showing Rayse a green orb, one of the ones that were floating around her during the battle.

"-was casted with the mana from this mana crystal. Otherwise, I'd run myself dry as my mana heart converts the mana I naturally have into one that the spell requires. That leads to some loss. It's fine for some utility spells, but for massive, wide ranging stuff, people generally stick with a single attribute. Carrack's Illuminate, for example, requires so much mana that he needs to convert other mana sources into his in addition to his natural capacity."

"Then how come we don't have that limitation?"

"That… I think those mana crystals had to do with it. I ran some tests on the ones Aleph gave me, and found that they contain a mana I hadn't seen before. It was kinda like the Abyss attribute, like what you use to power Berserk, but infinitely more malleable. My sessions with Lacey also showed that. I had her cast multiple attribute spells with very little difference in mana consumption. Mages that use these to develop their hearts will be incredibly versatile."

She rummaged around her pack for a bit after that, handing him a strange rectangular object. It was sleek, with a burnt wood finish, and several notches along one side at regular intervals.

"See for yourself. Press this into your chest when you cast spells. It will light up along the notches, telling you how much mana you're using for each spell. Could help you monitor your new Berserk Lite too. Something tells me the amount of mana you're spending on it is a large part of why it's messing with your body."

Rayse accepted it, studying the strange object even further. He stuck one end of it over his chest to test it out.

"Flame."

A standard flame spell blossomed from his other hand, fluttering into life. Rayse extinguished it quickly, inspecting the device. three notches lit up on its side, representing how much mana the spell required. The light went out a few seconds after that, allowing him to test it once more.

"Snowball."

This time, he summoned an orb of packed snow in his hand. This, as far as he knew, should be an equivalent spell to Flame, and sure enough, it also registered as a three.

"See, if I cast Snowball, it would have registered on the device as a four or five. See what I mean? even with small spells, it's at least a third less efficient for normal people. You can use it for practice, just return it once you're done."

Seeing the item in action finally shook Aleph from his flow. He marveled at the little box, taking it from Rayse to try for himself. Various things in the smithy started to float as Aleph fiddled with it, scratching out figures directly on his workbench as he could not find anything else to write on. Rayse asked for it back, eliciting a surprisingly reluctant response from his master.

"That is a useful tool. Do you any more?" 

"Uhhh, sorry, Aleph, that's probably the only manameter you can find around these parts. A friend of mine at the capital makes them. I could get you a good deal on some..."

Rayse decided to leave before Aleph changed his mind. Iona's voice trailed off as he made for the forest, going a bit deeper so as to not disturb them any further.

Once far enough away, he began casting spells, trying to gauge their output based on the number in relation to how he was feeling. He didn't bring anything to write with too, so he made do with writing on the dirt. It went well enough until he thoughtlessly casted Tailwind, causing his findings to be swept away by the breeze.

The results were as follows:

Flame: 3

Firebolt: 10

Thrust: 10

Flying Thrust: 15 per second

Steel Rain: 10 for each spear used

Burning Thrust: 30

Tailwind: 50 per second

Haste: 10 per second

Seeing his mana expenditure like this was an enlightening exercise for Rayse. It occurred to him that besides his spearmanship, he really hadn't taken the time to develop one decisive skill. Burning Thrust was good, but as good as Aleph's spears were, repeatedly superheating the tip wasn't sustainable.

"Maybe I should ask him to make me a better one…" Rayse mumbled. He sat down beside the tree, absorbing harbinger crystals for recovery. He knew he was stalling, but he couldn't help it. He blacked out every time he used Berserk, making him reluctant to even test it out. 

Eventually he fully recovered his mana, and thus had run out of excuses. He stood, stretching a bit before casting the spell. He once again put the manameter on his chest, before shouting.

"Berserk!"

His body lit up once again, as if a painter had traced his blood vessels with glowing purple dye. The surge of power exhilarated Rayse, almost making him forget about the aftereffects. He breathed deeply, calming himself down as he cut off his mental connection to the spell. The glowing subsided, as did the burgeoning power from his body. His legs shook a little, but he withstood it better than he thought, regardless of how short he used Berserk for.

"Whew." He didn't black out this time. So far so good. He quickly had a look at the manameter before it reset, making his eyes go wide.

Berserk: 90 per second

"Damn. Yeah, maybe I shouldn't be using this."

It was almost double what he used to maintain Tailwind. That dispersed his mana over a large area, creating favorable winds for allied archers and spell casters. Although it wasn't directly comparable, he was still packing twice that amount of mana into his body to force it into overdrive.

He sat back down, staring at the bright blue notches on the manameter as it slowly powers down, for the first time understanding how hard he had been pushing it lately. He was like that for a while until he heard a voice.

"You alright there, man?" Brandon called out.

Rayse turned to see him walking along with a sword over one shoulder and something wrapped in cloth tucked under his armpit.

"Yeah, just amazed at how I survived this long." Rayse said.

"Been wondering the same thing, my friend. Aleph said you'd be here, and had me bring you this."

Brandon offered Rayse the cloth wrapped thing before picking up  the manameter off the ground, inspecting it while his friend opened his package.

Rayse almost dropped it in surprise. Aleph made him a round shield, a sleek, albeit hefty thing that felt too heavy for its size. He admired its finish, running his hand along its surface. It was made with a bunch of metal plates, like dragon scales, arranged in wider and wider circles from its center.

"What's this?"

A piece of paper fell out with the cloth. Rayse picked it up, In it was a crude drawing of two shields, one arrow pointing to the other. And underneath it were two words.

"Siege Mode."

The shield opened up, the scales moving outward to show even more metal underneath. Rayse dropped it this time, but thankfully, the rounded bottom was replaced by a spike that stuck to the ground, keeping the now tower shield upright. Rayse found a mana heart right where he was holding it, with only a little bit exposed, Rayse assumed, so if he had to, he could siphon off some mana in a pinch, or give it more juice to power whatever functions Aleph had loaded this thing with.

"It's a bit extra for a shield, but it looks pretty good." Brandon said from his side.