Death, Devotion, Dissonance

The Twelve were reborn once again, but their expressions were wrong. None showed joy at being reborn, instead only pulled out their cold, stiff bodies out of the ice and sat down to the ground, brooding.

They regarded each other's naked bodies for a bit of time, before the Sinmother spoke.

"Lan, can you pull out our clothes?"

"I'll try," the blonde-haired man spoke. "But… I'm not sure if it'll go well."

"Why?"

"Don't you feel it? There's something wrong with out magic."

"I do, but just do it," the Sinmother urged. 

The man sighed, then started absorbing mana. Soon, a golden circle appeared in the air, and the blonde pulled out clothes from inside it one by one.

It reminded Endra about Rith's spellcasting, except his was a notch more elegant. The Cosmic did not use a Storage Ring to hold her stuff, she could seemingly access such a place by herself. Sometimes, she'd quickly shove her paw through a circle of Therae energies to bring out a small snack. By the time she's finished putting it in her mouth, the circle would be gone as if it was never there in the first place.

But Lan's circle did not go out so quietly. 

The circle did to shrink into nothingness, but just before it was gone, it turned into a grand explosion. Miraculously, none of the Twelve were injured. The explosion's force was diverted away from them, hitting one of the pillars nearby.

Completely unscientifically, the pillar's base was completely obliterated, leading to the grand structure toppling over. The whole act resembled an overly tall man who had the rug pulled out from under his feet. 

Endra was worried for the Twelve who were about to get crushed under the falling pillar, but just before the thing landed, it slowed down and landed gently next to everyone.

Endra couldn't tell who exactly was casting such magic, since none of the Twelve were even looking at the falling pillar, let alone chanting or gesturing. They were much too preoccupied with getting themselves clothed.

But Endra's questions were answered.

"Is it the same for everyone? Feeling like something will go wrong if you cast?"

They all nodded grimly.

"How did you cast without the side effects, old man?" the Sinmother asked.

"The side effect did happen," the Keeper replied. "I took care of that as well, before it materialized."

"How? Wouldn't 'taking care of it' also create a side effect?"

"Yes, but for me, the side effects are always of lesser strength than the original spell, so technically, I only have to keep doing it until the chain reaction dies out harmlessly."

Just as the old man finished, a small explosion poofed into existence right next to him. Of course, the effects were considerably weaker than the explosion that occurred from Lan accessing his Storage Space.

"Oh," the Sinmother nodded. "Ah, but that's useless for me, since the side-effects of my magic seem unpreventable."

"What is it?"

"Everyone I work on loses all their memories afterwards… and they die?" she sighed. "Oh, I'm also feeling much more sadistic than usual. It doesn't feel like a kink anymore, more of a necessity. What's it like for everyone else??"

"I'm afraid my visions will age and corrode everything around me from now on," The Daughter of Time, Ori responded. "It would be fine if it was just that, but I can't control when I get my visions, and I also feel more mischievous than usual."

"Mischievous?"

"Yes. I know it's bad to stay around people with how I am, but I still feel the need to stay around people."

"Ah, my problem seems bad," the Father of Beasts grimaced. "Any beast I take control of stops accepting mana as their food, only accepting flesh and blood as their sustenance. And I now have this overwhelming urge to rear something as well…"

'How do they all know these things so clearly?' Endra wondered, but brushed it off as their expertise.

One by one, the Twelve shared their new weaknesses with each other. 

Endra could draw many conclusions from the exchange.

'They managed to reincarnate, but their abilities don't function as before. On top of that, they all feel forced to act more violently and dangerously.'

But why? Something that happened due to the reincarnation? Or perhaps…

"Damn the Pr- … Empress…" one of them stuttered. "I can't even say her old name!"

"Well, we did guess that she might do something to us when she gets hold of our souls," Ori said.

"But even so! And what's the point of all this? We can't cast magic without killing anyone, so does she just want us to wreak havoc on her Empire? And also that distasteful notebook we had to write… And this whole ritual we had to do! For almost a century, we toiled on reincarnating ourselves in our original bodies due to some instinct that was implanted in our psyches, but we're still not free from her influence?!"

"I am curious about her intentions… but what we don't know, we don't know," Ori said. "For now, let's finish the ritual. Lauwich, please."

The Sinmother nodded back and reluctantly made her way towards the green orb, which seemed to be the final product made by the green flames. 

She lazily etched a couple runes on the orb, and surprisingly, Endra could read it. They were terribly simple runes.

[Incineration -> Continuous burning], the rune read. Its function was simple. Upon activation, the rune would burn whatever device it was etched upon, and have it continue burning until it runs out of fuel or mana.

Then, the Sinmother threw the run outside the podiums surrounding her and activated the rune. 

Endra expected a great explosion, but there was none. Instead, a small green fire started growing from the orb and it started spreading wildly across the surroundings. It did not care whether the materials it was touching were flammable or not, it simply got on them and started whittling them down. 

'Ah,' Endra hummed. 'That must be the ever-burning green fire of the lost Hivemind capital…'

The Hivemind was not just destroyed, its lands still burned under the effects of a mysterious green fire. Anyone who touched it lost their memories and soon enough, they died in fear and confusion.

"Haah, such a waste," the Sinmother groaned. Her eyes were stuck on the green orb that was still spitting flames. Regret and desire filled her gaze.

"How long do you think it'll burn?" one of the Twelve asked.

"Maybe a couple millennia? Who knows?"

"That long? What the hell?"

"Yes. That's why it's such a waste… that was almost a hundred thousand souls you know? And since it was mostly us, the quality's top notch as well. I'd guess they're equal to about a million normal ones."

The other ones looked at the fire in a regretful light. They were all sighing for the wasted resource.

"Well, we've found our freedom at least," Ori spoke. "Despite how lacking it seems now. For the time being, let's explore the new Alvox for ourselves and see what our glorious Empress has in plan for us."

Some scoffed at that, but most of them seemed to have made peace with their fate.

"You can all go explore wherever, but please do come back here in a year to share your experiences. Perhaps we can develop countermeasures against these implants in our psyches sometime. And if all else fails, perhaps we can simply ask the Empress what she plans to do with us."

That solicited a few groans, but they all nodded and went their ways. The vision also ended at that, leaving Endra alone with many questions.