Chapter 176 - Unbroken

Having already broken the illusion and reconnected with his real body, Harvey knew the vision was over. Drawing on the power of his legacy, the tiny apartment was engulfed in forgefire. He winced as the starving demon boy burned to ash, starting with his ribs poking out from under his skin. Even knowing that this was all just a vision of Varek’s past, he’d do anything to help that child.

[That was definitely not what I was expecting.]

You could see the vision too?

[Not until you broke the illusion. The tattoo was a poker chip. I thought we’d be watching some fun nights at the casino, not murdering your squad and devouring their life force.]

Varek got there eventually. You saw that suit he was wearing at the end. Now I understand why I had to watch the whole vision for the ink to work.

[To learn more about greed?]

No. I needed to learn more about Varek. The resonances might be the same for everyone, but how you use them depends on the person. For Varek, it was never about the money. He just never wanted to be hungry again. I felt just how helpless he was sitting alone in his apartment, hoping and praying his dad would come back or his mom would get out of bed long enough to buy him something to eat. Once he got a taste of the freedom that came with money, he was never going to let anyone starve him again.

[That’s why he killed his squad leader, right? He threatened to get him kicked out?]

Exactly. Even Varek knew that was all empty bluster. The odds of getting thrown out when it wasn’t really his fault that the demoness died were basically zero, but at that point, an empty threat was enough.

Back in his real body, Harvey watched the ashes dissolve inside the inkwell, leaving behind a roiling sea of black and gold resonance swimming amongst his blood. Remnants of his own legacy had glommed onto his blood, and it took conscious effort to suppress his own nature and force the hunger inside. He briefly considered adding extra ingredients to push the composition closer to a generic infernal aura, but with the time crunch and his lacking resources, he wasn't about to gamble with success.

Beads of sweat were dripping down his nose by the time the runes inscribed on the inkwell winked out. Even with his monstrous pool of Willpower and Julian’s help, his soul was exhausted after contending with the unbridled essence of three bereft legacy aspects in one day. Drying his face on his shirt, he inspected the outcome of his effort

Item: Insatiable Ink | F-Grade | Rare

Ink mixed from the blood of Harvey Thorne and the bereft legacy of Varek Lucero. Filled with Varek’s insatiable hunger for power and control born from the desperation of a starving child, this ink seeks to consume the world.

[Doesn’t exactly scream demon to me.]

Harvey ignored Julius, too caught up in an idea born from the ink’s description. With his ample use of flames in both his skills and arrays, he’d struggled to find a way to propagate the inferno after ignition. A burst of forgefire was great, but wouldn’t it be better if it spread rather than burn up once the essence fueling the burst ran out? He’d seen some success with his thanefire bullets and wildfire charges, making use of thanefire’s inherent ability to feed on life force and stuffing anything that burned into his wildfire ink, but nothing as strong as if he could combine his other concoctions with Insatiable Ink. Was combining two different inks even possible? He couldn’t see why not. Either he could paint the runes with a mix of the two, or he could pour both back into the inkwell and break them down again.

[Harvey!]

Hmm.

[Lost you for a second there.]

You can literally read my mind. You know what I was thinking about.

[I know, and I’m trying to stop you before you get it into that thick skull that you should spend all night combining inks like a pretentious bartender who insists on being called a Mixologist. You have to go to bed!]

Just think of what we can…

[BED!]

He’d been up even later almost every night this week, but he could feel his body yearning for the warm bed waiting upstairs. All the fighting and forging was catching up to him, and if everything went according to plan, his one day of rest that week was going to be spent roaming the streets of hell looking for a chance to assassinate a demon lieutenant.

[You can keep tinkering in the morning.]

Fine.

Harvey carefully bottled the Insatiable Ink before carrying the cauldron inside and washing it in the kitchen sink. Then, he took a quick shower. In the past, he’d complained about how hot Cleo kept the water whenever they showered together, but now he found himself forced to turn the knob as hot as it would go for the water to feel even a little bit warm. He hadn’t really considered how his new heat resistance, courtesy of his Forgefire Mark, would affect other aspects of his life, but it looked like he’d never have to worry about scalding himself again.

Slipping on his pajamas, he crawled into bed, making sure to leave his door unlocked in case Max came to cuddle in the morning.

[Now that I know you won’t get up, are you worried the Insatiable Ink isn’t infernal enough for Cash and Celeste to blend in around the demons?]

I would if I hadn’t seen that brief piece of Varek’s Mark. The ink might not have worked, but I got a better idea of what the infernal resonance is all about.

[Care to share with the Class?]

I’ve been wondering what the Holy resonance really is, and how different religions that used to kill each other over different interpretations of it could all share the same resonance. Remember how I said that even if the resonances are the same, the interpretations can be different? I think holiness boils down to submitting to a higher power and adhering to whatever rules they establish. That higher power and the rules they set still probably have to fall under the umbrella of what the Tapestry sees as good, but like the resonance, they’re open to interpretation.

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[Skip the lecture, please. We don’t have time for a Philosophy class.]

I’m getting there, geez. You know, Julian would never talk to me the way you do.

[He didn’t have to deal with being stuck inside your brain 24/7.]

Fair. Anyways, I think the infernal resonance is more about self-indulgence than just being the opposite of whatever holy is. Doing what you want, when you want, no matter who gets hurt in the process.

[And what does that have to do with the Insatiable Ink?]

What’s more self-indulgent than consuming your every desire?

Harvey awoke to find his brother nestled against him, snoring loudly. The alarm clock on the nightstand showed it was still early in the morning, but his body felt as refreshed as if he’d slept until noon. Max stirred as Harvey rolled over, and they spent a few minutes playing on the floor with some toy cars Max retrieved from his own bedroom. Harvey didn’t know where all these toys had come from, considering this wasn’t actually his parents’ home, magically plucked from the suburbs of Arizona, but he appreciated that the angels provided enough creature comforts to give someone like Max an easier transition into life under the System. He may not agree with their methods when it came to preparing the adults who would have to fight for their place in the new world, but he was glad to see the System wouldn’t allow for child soldiers. Ascension wasn’t possible for humans until they reached their late teens, so kids still got to be kids, playing with toy cars on the bedroom floor.

“Morning,” Steve called out, pushing open the door. “Want some breakfast?”

“Sure,” Harvey replied. “Come on, bud!”

The family all ate together and chatted around the table until it was time for Steve, Cassandra, Eleanor, and Max to head to angel school.

“I know I probably can’t level my Profession enough to evolve before the end of the week, but I’m going to try,” Steve said. “I hope Celeste doesn’t get on your case too much about me not helping prep the battlefield today.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Harvey said. “We’ll see you guys tonight. Your shield will be ready by the time you get back.”

“Oh, really?” Steve replied, surprised.

“Yep, all that’s left is to inscribe it,” Harvey smiled.

“Thanks,” Steve beamed. “I can’t wait to see it.”

“What are you going to do today?” Harvey asked Tyler once the rest of the family closed the door behind them.

“Whatever Cash tells me to do,” he shrugged. “Now that I can’t get a Profession, all I can do is wait for something to kill.”

“Maybe we can rope Adrian and Celeste into backing us up on another raid later. There’s no way we push past that wall today, but that doesn’t mean we can’t lob a few shattersmite cores over it.”

“I’ll talk to them,” Tyler agreed. “When do you want to go? I know you’ve got a lot of projects to get done today.”

“Inscribing Dad’s shield should only take an hour or two. We should go as soon as possible so I can burn through my essence and recover while I finish up the shotgun. That way we can go out again once we’ve had some time to rest.”

“Works for me!” Tyler said. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

With that, Harvey walked out to the garage and flipped on the lights. He’d been thinking about the shield all morning and thought he’d come up with a pretty good plan to make the most out of the three essence crystals he’d left to power his inscriptions.

Arrays could either be powered by ambient essence drawn in through gathering runes, essence infused directly by the person using them, or drawn from essence and resonance crystals acting like magic batteries. Harvey had experience with all forms, but some of his arrays he’d only ever tried with one.

For example, self-repair arrays almost always used ambient essence to slowly restore the equipment to its original state at the time the array was added. Depending on the damage, it could take anywhere from a few minutes to a few days for the array to do its work, and sometimes it wouldn’t work at all if the damage was bad enough. The reason most self-repair arrays used ambient essence was because they weren’t efficient enough to rely on direct infusion, but what if all you needed to do was some quick field repairs?

A shield was designed to take a beating, and Harvey couldn’t afford to make his father wait after intercepting a quick attack. It would take some adjustments to the patterns the angels had taught him, but he thought he could make a hybrid array that let the shield slowly recover out of combat or use the essence stored inside one of the crystals for a quick burst of repairs.

It’s just like a burst healing rune, but for the metal!

[Makes sense to me.]

Harvey already had his Dragon’s Fortitude Ink, so all he needed to do was run a few tests. Most inscribers couldn’t afford to experiment on their final product, but Harvey had the luxury of using Adaptive Inscription to make temporary arrays at the cost of a few drops of ink. Unlike other inscribers whose work was almost always permanent, he could test a few iterations until he found an array that could use both ambient and stored essence. The natural recovery rate would be significantly slower since he had to split the runes between each power source, but that was worth it if Steve could fix a dent in a matter of seconds.

[Alright, there’s one crystal sorted. You still planning on using the second for a few burst healing arrays?]

Yep.

Harvey’s healing ink was one of his weakest, but until he found a better ingredient than a standard health potion, it was the best he could do. He’d gotten plenty of practice with burst healing arrays, having added them to both his hammer and Julian’s sword, and knew that they came in handy when you didn’t have someone like Cash around. One essence crystal could power multiple bursts of on-demand healing. Weaker than a health potion, but reusable.

Once again, he used Adaptive Inscription to test whether he could inscribe both arrays without them interfering with each other. Angelic silver was great at conducting essence, but inscribing multiple arrays into the same metal was still a delicate balance. Luckily, the resonances involved were similar enough that he could compensate for their close proximity. The hard part was going to be adding his last array while leaving enough room for the general reinforcement runes that would make up for the silver’s inherent softness.

[What now?]

Well, the shield can heal him and itself. Now I want it to help him kill whatever’s attacking him.

Fangburner had slowly fallen by the wayside lately, especially as Harvey turned to guns rather than fighting with swords and hammers. But its G-Grade predecessor had saved him countless times back in that forest. A well-timed burst of force, or in this case, holy fire, could be the difference between life and death.

It took some work finding a pattern that wouldn’t interfere with the other arrays, but Harvey eventually managed to create an array that allowed Steve to release a short burst of Heaven’s Wrath on anyone who got too close. He could only use it twice before the essence crystal needed to recharge, and the flames only extended a few feet from the runes painted on the corners of the rectangular tower shield. Unlike Fangburner, Steve would have to activate the array manually, but it at least gave him another way to damage his enemies.

Finally, Harvey filled the rest of the metal with as many reinforcement runes as he could fit without breaking the delicate balance of essence coursing through the shield. Like most reinforcement arrays, these were powered by the ambient essence, providing a small but endless boost to the shield’s durability.

Satisfied with his plans, he got to work making the arrays permanent.

What started as a relatively austere shield turned into a work of art by the time Harvey finished painting the final lines. It was arguably the most complex creation he’d ever made, and the burst of light shining out from his weave proved it was enough to push him one step closer to E-Grade.

Your profession, Runeforged Artificer, has reached Level 49. +8 Endurance, +10 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +12 Willpower, +8 Free Points

He put the free points into Dexterity again, satisfied that his Vitality had finally caught back up with his Strength.

[That is one good-looking shield.]

I know, right?

Item: Unbroken | F-Grade | Epic

A shield crafted by Harvey Thorne to help his father stand Unbroken before all who seek to do his family harm. Inscribed with the power to heal itself and the one who wields it, this shield was forged with the stubborn determination of a son unwilling to watch his father fall and the promise to burn all who stand in the Thorne family’s way.