Bone Golem

Euphoria filled me as my latest near-death experience finally paid off. My true circuit was complete! The blurry edges around my will-core that worked to put the space separating the points of my will back where they used to be vanished. My will-core's presence within the mana also seemed to vanish into it, like it had become omnipresent through all mana. Not quite accurate, but it was a much more natural connection of space than it had been before. Like it didn't need to be connected to maintain control.

The other benefit I could feel right away was the weight of the will. I used to be a light and airy cloud floating through the sky with barely an effect. Now I was a fluffy cloud, pressing down on the air below me causing a light breeze. I didn't need runes. I could directly cause the world to move with my will. Runes were still far stronger, but I could make things happen with will alone. Most of my will was still depleted, but it was heavier.

Without the constant draw of finishing my true circuit, I had a ton of mana flowing through me. I wanted each of my constructs to have true circuits, but I had no idea how much mana that would take. The answer was making the first true circuit designed for mana acc.u.mulation. That left a puzzle as to how to go about making the perfect mana acc.u.mulation construct.

Bones to establish the lines of the first circle, held together with muscle, with blood flowing through them as the medium for the circle itself encased in skin. A perfect design as it had no extraneous parts. The skin would be enough for all the other circuits needed to make it function as I wanted it to while the rest was perfect for building a mana-core. The mana rune was the only rune equal to will with one hundred faces, but with my bone construct's abilities it wasn't difficult to break and reshape bones into the perfect shape to fit the purpose I needed.

Building the cage with bone and muscle was the hardest part, physically. It took a long time. Filling the bone cage with blood was effortless afterwards, as was rolling it in skin. The end result was taller than Glrt when I'd first met it but shorter than Nagt. Now was the fun part; constructing the circuit.

It was a different feeling, fitting the circuit to a pre-built formation rather than branding a circuit into something. Using blood as a medium was different as well. It would reinforce the circle, but it also required a lot more mana as the thickness of every line was so much larger. In response, the lines of every rune were thicker as well. Against my expectations, this true circuit was much easier than my will circuit. The mana cost was much lower as well. I wasn't sure if it was because it was being made in the physical instead of within mana itself or because it was built in a frame designed for it, but either way was good for me. The requirement for twenty first-circle runes was the same, though. I could repeat some, which was good because ten of them ended up being mana acc.u.mulation while five were mana storing.

As soon as it activated I felt like the world was tilting. The suction of this one core was exponentially greater than everything else I'd crafted. I hurriedly shoved it into the ground, sending it rocketing into the earth to be guarded by my first body.

Next I decided to build a nexus core for each of my constructs. I was limited to the singular constructs I'd built, but now that my will was improved, if I had a nexus point for each of them I could easily create as many constructs as I wanted and have each of them function as the current constructs did, the same basic principle as my own will. These were even easier to create as they were all sixteen faced simplified runes and sixty four faced true runes. The medium used for each was the material the nexus was made to control, but the bone, muscle, and skin cost was the same for each. The cost in bone to make all the cages nearly depleted my bone construct to nothing, though the rest of the materials were less affected. They were all finished easily, the cost to activate them far less than the mana true circuit.

The only one that proved difficult was the brood construct. It was multiple materials at once, and while the muscle construct was as well, the combined rune felt like it was missing something. It took me a long time to realize there was another missing ingredient to make it complete and found a slimy liquid the anti-splooge carriers excreted. With that incorporated into it, the true rune was complete and equal to the others. It also allowed the brood construct to move a lot faster. Strangely, the rot rune felt very different from the rest.

None of them had the same draw as the mana true circuit, but all had near-equal storage. With that much mana stored, I shouldn't run into the same depletion problem I'd just overcome. The mana true circuit would fill up fairly quickly, but then it could simply fill the others. A perfect system. I would have made more, but I was running out of bones.

Next, I turned my attention to Glrt and Nagt. Nagt was easy to deal with. He got the same treatment as the other l.u.s.t-centric creatures. Glrt was only more complicated because it carried another fifty creatures. My brood construct was able to get to the sack, but couldn't get past. Eventually I just punctured the sack and collected all the creatures, allowing the brood construct to hold them until they were ready to live outside. Glrt was a bit sad until it realized that it liked how my brood construct felt inside it. I didn't even need to turn the l.u.s.t toward the brood construct. Glrt did it all by itself.

I was about to start making the will circuits for Trgl and Mgrt when I felt a wave of mana start to pass over my will. I wasn't spread out very far, so I didn't have much time before the wave hit me. I immediately investigated the wave, following it into the air to a circuit. A very interesting circuit.

I waited just long enough to memorize it and follow it to its source before destroying it. As soon as I destroyed it, the human who had cast the circuit had its will suffused with fear as it started running away. The other humans followed. "Something noticed me and took out my scry! Whatever it is has a whole tribe of ogres!" disgust and a different color of fear entered its will. "Not sure if it's breeding them or what, but it was a massive orgy. Be thankful you didn't have to see."

I disconnected enough will to keep track of the party of humans and what they were saying before starting to think about how I was going to build will circuits for Mgrt and Trgl. "We need more than that, witch. What did you see exactly?"

Witch's will was colored with embarrassment and rage for a moment, but the fear wasn't going anywhere. "A white…slime, maybe? Don't know. Didn't see for long, but maybe they were branches or part of a magical machine or something? Anyway, I saw twelve female ogres with the long, white, pulsing thing in their crotches. Two others were standing guard, but they were holding pathetic weapons. Their fists would be a lot more dangerous." I had to give it credit for talking while running. It was clearly frantic, but it still managed to make clear sentences. "All of them were n.a.k.e.d. There was also a male one, but it couldn't see more than that it was thrusting into something before I lost my scry."

Fear colored the others to match Witch. "Sure's f.u.c.k sounds like breedin' ogres t'me, boss!" One screamed and started running far faster than Witch could. "Love ya, Angie, but ain't gonna die fer ya."

Witch…Angie? Angie slowed down after that. "It was weird, though. We were so close…the mana was calm. With that many ogres…the mana should not have been calm. An illusion? No…an illusionist would have had them ready for war. Unless…did they do that because they knew a woman was watching?" Confusion ripped through the fear for a moment, but then fear overwhelmed it again. Then the fear reached a whole new level. "Something's watching?" it shrieked and activated another very interesting circuit. Force echoed around its feet as every step propelled it much faster than it had been going. Angie caught up to the coward and passed it in very little time. The rest of the group had barely noticed Angie taking off before it was gone. "Something's watching!" Everyone else accelerated as well, but none of them managed to catch up to Angie.