A faint smell of charcoal immediately filled the room, prompting Nick to circulate the air to avoid choking.

  He hadn’t laid his eyes on what was left of his wyvern wand since examining it after Sashara’s Descent, but time hadn’t lessened the annoyance he felt when looking at it.

  “What a bitch,” he muttered under his breath.

  The once-pale bone had turned completely black and seemed coated in a shiny patina, yet when he touched it, it left no smudge on his hands.

  Turning [Empyrean Intuition] on it revealed more of its true nature.

  The wind affinity that once made it sing was no longer present, having been entirely consumed by the divine fires. Now, it was replaced by an idol of purification, something that gradually filtered through the ambient mana, cleansing it of any remaining taint.

  In a way, it was basically a magical charcoal filter, although he doubted the goddess meant for it to be seen that way.

  No, she sent a clear message that I shouldn’t interfere with things beyond my understanding. The fact that this still has some utility doesn’t mean much beyond its symbolism, at least to her.

  But Nick was not one to throw something away just because it annoyed him to look at.

  Tapping a finger against the wand, he sent a spark of mana through it, then quickly withdrew his hand, relieved to find that nothing happened.

  In the ether, the mana was released as unaligned, neutral energy, and it was quickly dissipated in the swirling mists.

  Nodding to himself, he grasped the handle with more confidence and pushed a stronger stream through it. Still not a real spell, but enough that any alteration would be noticeable.

  Once again, the charcoal stick absorbed everything he gave it and released it as pure mana on the other side.

  Nick tilted it, examining it under a new light, but couldn’t find any residue inside.

  “I guess she is a goddess of purification for a reason.”

  Initially, he planned to use the burnt wand as a simple framework, something to give the new focus a purpose, but with how thoroughly it had been cleansed, he might not actually need to. Instead, it would serve well to filter out any extra influence the other ingredients might carry.

  With more focus, he crafted a [Wind Blast], something that had once come almost naturally to the wand, barely requiring his input, and pushed it through, expecting to see something.

  What happened instead was just more of the same. The spell formed correctly, but when it tried to pass through the charcoal, it disintegrated easily, even though Nick tried to keep hold of it.

  Nothing came out of the tip, not even a gentle breeze. Instead, the mana he’d used was once again released in a wave of pure energy.

  “Huh.” It wasn’t that surprising, but he would have expected some resistance. Instead, the spell simply ceased to be as soon as it touched the charcoal. It was so quick that there was nothing he could do to keep it intact.

  His next attempt was more cautious, yet simultaneously more reckless. The spellform for [Windburst] was significantly more complex than [Wind Blast], and dismantling it wouldn’t just require disruption but actual interference.

  He took his time crafting it, ensuring there were no flaws or hidden cracks that could be exploited to breach it.

  Yet, the moment he pushed it through, the structure collapsed. The mana flowed into the ether effortlessly, once again as pure as if untouched.

  Having observed the entire process with [Empyrean Intuition], Nick had to admit there seemed to be nothing he could do to pierce through the charcoal. He couldn’t precisely divine its inner workings, but it was evident it would keep purifying any mana it encountered, regardless of how shielded or intricate.

  This is giving me a dangerous idea…

  Summoning the orichalcum again, he paused to see if the two materials would react, but it didn’t seem like they would.

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  He even went so far as to tap the wand against the cube and push mana through it.

  Unsurprisingly, he lost control of it the moment it passed through the charcoal, but he was able to watch it move through the orichalcum without any trouble.

  “So, they are pretty compatible,” he muttered.

  The two components disappeared at his silent command, and Nick retrieved the next divine relic he planned to use as a building block.

  The golden scales of Eztie appeared, and immediately, he felt something resonate through the ether. The wave shattered against the [Ritual of Abnegation], and Nick thanked his lucky stars for his paranoia.

  I don’t know if that was meant to commune with the god or to do something else, but I definitely don’t want it to go through while I am about to start experimenting on it.

  Unlike the seemingly inert charcoal, the scales were clearly actively magical. If the golden glow wasn’t a dead giveaway, the constant tilting of the scales, as if trying to measure something, would be enough to know for sure.

  “Ah, so that’s what that was,” Nick sighed in relief. He still didn’t intend to let the scale connect to the rest of reality, but he felt better knowing it had only been trying to judge his soul, rather than alert Eztie to what was happening.

  It was surprising since it hadn’t done anything like that when he took it out of the ruins, but then again, it had just been exposed to Alexander’s divine devouring flames. It was more surprising that it was still intact.

  Once the shock wore off, Nick started poking and prodding at it, trying to figure out how it worked.

  Karmic magic was not his specialty, but he had read enough about it in ancient texts back on Earth to know it shouldn’t be tampered with without the proper precautions.

  I suppose it makes sense for a god of justice to wield karmic magic, but I wonder how common that knowledge is. Do the worshippers realize that their souls are constantly being judged?

  The answer to that was “probably.” It certainly wouldn’t be the most invasive thing a god had done, as far as he was concerned. Sashara was very present in the daily lives of her worshippers, even before Marthas began expanding her domain, and Ulter didn’t seem to be much better.

  The scales didn’t respond to any mana application, seeming impervious even to direct damage attempts, and Nick noted it all, adjusting his plans for the ritual that would create his new focus.

  “I definitely need to add some karmic protections. Being in the Tower alone isn’t enough to stop this kind of thing, but maybe in the summoning chambers, I won’t need to use as much power, given how open to dimensional magics they are…”

  Eventually, he put the scales away because they, too, did not react with the orichalcum, aside from the karmic pulses passing through it just like any other mana.

  I shouldn’t try to fully preserve its original purpose, since it's still connected to its god, but it's a very esoteric material. It should be easy to adjust it just enough to make it highly compatible with spiritual mana, especially if I have a strong enough fuel source.

  By now, Nick could probably summon that much power himself, but he wondered if he couldn’t find another spirit or two to do the job for him.

  Once the scales were back in the ring, he took out the last divine item he planned to use.

  As always, the Compass of Interesting Times was a black hole to his mystical senses, visible only because he could see it with his eyes.

  After his recent encounters, it didn’t take long for Nick to realize that it was made of the same material that protected the Duke’s vault.

  Yet, this was also clearly enchanted, as the needle began spinning the moment it was removed, and soon, it pointed him north, which didn’t tell him much, really, considering that in that direction were Tholm’s office, the townhouse where he’d found the Circle of Pure Souls’ base, and further off, the mountain range where Berea’s forces were fighting against the dark dwarves’ incursions.

  It was, perhaps, the best gift he’d ever received, but it also came with many strings attached, starting with who it had come from. Marthas was undoubtedly powerful enough not to need to resort to cursing him, but Nick remained distrustful of religious authority and did not want to become dependent on it.

  “It’s not like I actually need it to find trouble anyway,” he muttered. Instead, the compass would be much more useful as the centerpiece of his ritual.

  Its mana-avoidant nature would make it difficult to work with, there was no doubt about that, but he had a few ideas for how to make it work. Even more importantly, it would serve as an excellent linchpin for the more dangerous parts of the ritual, where the divine energies would clash.

  I’d still need a counterweight to make sure the result isn’t biased toward faith magic, but I might just have the thing for that.

  Attempting to affect it with simple mana manipulation failed, and even direct telekinesis just slid off, confirming his initial assessment.

  Vanishing everything took him a few minutes, but he was careful to make sure even the smallest chalk stains were gone before leaving the room, with a much clearer plan in mind for how to approach the forging.

  I need to do this soon, before the tensions in the Tower reach a boiling point or Tholm takes us on the field trip he mentioned.

  “What do you mean by the day after tomorrow?” Nick asked, incredulous.

  “Exactly what I said,” Raphael appeared unaffected by his shock. “The Archmage was clear that we need to be ready to leave in forty-eight hours. He will take us on a planned field trip. You’ll like it, don’t worry. We’ll be out in the wilderness, fighting monsters, learning practical skills that would be impossible to develop here.”

  “I’m not really worried about what we’ll do there. It’s just so sudden!” he complained. He had been making good progress on his forging timeline, but he still needed a couple of days before he was confident he could go through with it, especially because he hadn’t yet found another suitable spirit.

  The Deep Diver could have been powerful enough as a catalyst, but unfortunately, he found it too early, and he knew the city was filled with priests, meaning any other resentful spirit was probably either hiding or in the process of being exorcised.

  Raphael gave him a long look. “I don’t want to know what you have planned, considering your track record, but you should be more aware of what’s going on around you. I already told you about the situation with Hone. Is it any surprise we’re moving out for a little while to let tensions ease?”

  Nick shrugged. “I kinda thought you were on the warpath? It definitely seemed like you were about to go hunt those guys down.”

  “Ah, but that’s the thing, you see,” Raphael smiled, and for once, his friendly demeanor vanished, revealing a dark glint in his eyes. “Our field trip, which has been planned well in advance and is therefore beyond question, will just happen to take place in the southern plains, near House Hone’s lands.”

  Nick’s eyes widened. “Are we going on the attack, then?”

  “Nothing so crude,” Raphael chuckled, but it wasn’t particularly reassuring, given the way his hands clenched and unclenched. “We will be based out in the wilds, so there should be no way to encounter anyone else. Not unless those people learn of our presence there and take it as an offense, but that is very unlikely, since the Tower Master is currently enforcing a truce. No one would be that dumb.”

  I might need to speed up the forging timeline. It seems like we're heading to war.