Down at the center of the temple, Percy let Thalos fall into the lake at the bottom of the shaft, laughing as they both swam toward the shore.
"You're lucky that I needed to cool down," Thalos said, still feeling the phantom heat of Lethel's flames.
Percy chuckled watching Thalos dry himself, his stone body meant his clothes and hair were unsoaked. Then they walked by the crystal beasts to the central cave.
The small room that hadn't seen anyone in the past five hundred years had a lot of people inside today.
Dina and her kids sat in one corner sharing a small meal that she carried with her, Hugo and George were watching Ramona, who was still fighting against the gravity trap.
At the center of the room, on a white stone altar, was the myriad lines of a multilayered circle. And at the center of the circle was Percy's real body still sitting there with his eyes closed. A golden box rested on his lap.
"When are you going to leave that?" Thalos asked, concern leaking into his voice.
"I can't leave now," Percy answered truthfully. "There's gonna be some backlash to controlling so many golems at once. But I need them to keep going while I try to discover how to reliably create spells."
Thalos' first thought was that creating spells was impossible, but after knowing Percy for the last thirteen years he decided to mind his own business.
"Will you be seriously hurt by this?"
"No, mainly just mental fatigue, I expect. I'll sleep for a while, but I'm making a magic tool to help me recuperate while we travel."
"You want us to keep going even while you're unconscious."
Percy nodded; he was going to be out for a while. Based on the healing circles implemented on the top floor, Percy found that it was normal for people who served as the interface for the generator circle to be impacted by it.
So he would use that time to get some much-needed rest. But if they slowed down the journey anymore, they would return to Dema in a month.
The spirit affinity ceremony ran all year long, but the special ceremony that everyone with any status would attend would be held four days from now. After that, they needed to hurry back home. This update ıs available on 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭·𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮·𝙣𝙚𝙩
This would mean their journey would still take the original three weeks they had planned for. He was somewhat thankful they'd left early, all this would have been harder if they'd left Dema late.
Hugo walked over with George and slapped Percy on the back, smiling somewhat softly.
"Good work, kid. I'm still somehow surprised that we're all still alive right now. The moment I saw Lethel, I thought it was over."
"We've faced the most interesting opponents recently," George remarked. "This will be a story for the ages. So many bedtime stories in one day!"
You'd need a lot of those when you have nine freaking children.
Percy shook his head, chuckling.
"You folk don't believe in us. We sent Lethel packing, but some woman came at the end and just barely saved his life."
"Woman?" Hugo's face darkened. "Don't tell me it was Phoebe."
"Is she famous?" Percy asked, raising an eyebrow. She was strong—a bit unfair, actually—but he had never heard of her.
"The Sixth Moon, that's what they call her," Hugo explained. "There aren't that many sightings of her, but it's said that she can be in multiple places at once. And that she is Rank 5 at worst."
Percy turned a bit pale. It didn't really correlate with how she fought, honestly.
"At worst, like she could be stronger?"
That was strange, why didn't she just wipe the floor with them then?
There was probably a reason though. He turned to Thalos, who simply shrugged, and then released a sigh.
"Well, at least we're all alive."
Hugo nodded, brushing back his grey hair, his eyes darting between Percy's physical body on the white altar and his real body here.
"So, how is any of this possible? The clones, the Spirit manifestation. Is this because of Hermetics?"
Percy just watched him for a moment then just nodded. It was a very complicated and long story, so he'd do his best to just summarise it.
"I used the circles I stole from the altar to create the second version of my Spellcore. The Spellcore is a device that lets me store spirit energy and constantly access it without the danger of creating an evil spirit."
Dina and the kids came over, so he also tried explaining some things more in depth, appreciating the look of awe that Kurst was giving him.
"The first version of the Spellcore is limited by charging time and the amount of energy that can be drawn from it. This was a personal limit that we added because of the misalignment that happens in circles. If the power in a misalignment is too high, then it'll cause an explosion."
Percy drew a second-version Spellcore from his storage. This was the Spellcore he used in the Spellcannon that Lethel's explosion destroyed. It was protected by layers of steel so it wasn't damaged by the attack. He retrieved it just before the heat could destroy it.
It used the gear technology that he'd used in the Guiding Eye to change between multiple circles depending on what he needed it to do.
"This version of the Spellcore reduces misalignment with the gear method, but it also has a circle that allows me to interface with the spirit in the Spellcore and increase its intelligence. This allows it to monitor and prevent problems in all the circles it powers. It also allows me to add my own affinity to the spells used."
"That's… amazing." Hugo was lost for words, both because of his awe and the fact that he barely understood what was being said.
"Yep, it allowed me to connect myself to the spirit in the altar. Which gave me access to all the defensive circles scattered throughout the temple."
Thalos blinked twice when he stopped zoning out. He simply nodded at Percy's words, then turned to Ramona.
"What are we going to do about her?"
Percy looked at Ramona wistfully. He opened his mouth to say a couple of things, then walked over to her.
"Hey kid, are you still angry at me?"
"I hate you," she groaned through the gravity. "I'll-I will never forgive you for this. You could have saved him! If you used all that power, you could have found a way. Why would you do this to us?"
Percy sighed; maybe she was right. He couldn't know for sure, but with the calculating speed available to him now, maybe he could have. But it wouldn't change the fact that Philip didn't ask to come back to life.
"I'm sorry about that. But the Baskers, your family, whatever they're planning can't be allowed into this world. I won't allow it, because I was brought here to protect this world."
None of them could understand. They all just thought he was being dramatic. But Percy knew that it was his duty, a favor to Nyx, and he would make sure he upheld it.
"The world I want to create when your brother reincarnates will be better. Will you forgive me if I can do that?"
Ramona shuddered, sensing the depth of his purple-grey eyes and the solid foundation behind those words. They didn't call Perseus Amphene the Future for no reason. This was the person Sebas was trying to kill. The thought put a bitter taste in her mouth.
"I—I want to experience that with Philip. I don't want to do it alone. He was all I had… he was all I—"
The gravity trap suddenly faded. Ramona solidified and was lost for breath, barely even conscious. Percy took her hand, smiling brightly.
"You aren't alone. I know a little girl back in Dema that would love to be your friend, and if you ever need a wise old senior to talk to, I'm here."
Ramona's mind faded as she fell unconscious, the corners of her vision darkening. She stared at Percy and murmured, "I'm your senior." Before passing out.
He raised her body and did something a bit risky. Her body disappeared in a flash of white light as he put her into his storage. He was a bit glad it worked.
The storage mostly worked on things he owned or was touching. He turned to Thalos and the others. They all looked rightfully confused by what just happened.
"Ohh, so I'm seeing this thing in my head," Percy started. This was a good chance to explain how he got a system. He'd just blame it on the temple.