MAGUS INFINITE

The countless eyes on the field of flesh all focused on the Sovereign at the same time, and her cold voice spoke, ”What madness is this? You carry a piece of the Firmament?”

Sovereign Caldus did not acknowledge the demon, which I found to be extremely brave, or he might just be insane; at least I know that some of his thought processes were not normal, as no normal person would condemn millions to die just to flush out the enemy.

He continued talking to me in my soul, as if he was determined to teach me, even as the world was going mad around us.

”You can see my grimoire is a dimension,” He pointed out. ”Mine is not so large, perhaps the size of a small city; I have spent three thousand years furnishing it. Inside, thought does not take time, and a working can be examined, corrected, torn down, and rebuilt, then carried out here and released whole. We call it a Mental Space. Every Sovereign has one. No two are alike.” A pause. ”You cannot be a true mage without a Mental Space.”

The Grimoire suddenly chuckled, and it spoke, ”Second Rule... Flame Is Not Extinguished By What It Enters.”

I felt this Law settle on top of the first that the Sovereign had made inside his domain, and the world seemed to have no choice but to take both at once, and this casual demonstration of power that was rewriting laws in front of me was deeply unsettling, as in this instant, every flame in his domain stopped being quenchable.

What had been happening as the flesh of the Pale Matron expanded was that it had been swallowing the Sovereign’s fire, folding wet layers over the burning fire, and smothering it by sheer mass when it used its own bulk as a blanket. It was filling all the space with the bulk of her flesh, and with the law unleashed by the Grimoire, this stopped working in a single heartbeat.

Fire that had been driven into the flesh went on burning inside it, and began spreading through the wet interior of the flesh, and the five hundred square miles of pale flesh lit up from within, glowing, its many eyes going bright and then bursting.

”Ahhh... It burns...” the voice of the Pale Matron sounded both pained and excited, and it was sickening to hear that sound, but my main focus was still on the Grimoire, and I swallowed, ”Is it... alive?”

Sovereign Caldus glanced at me, ”Of course it is alive. You do not pour a soul into a place for three thousand years and expect it to remain furniture. Mine woke eight hundred years ago and has been growing ever since.” Something crossed his face. ”It has been reading the brand on your soul since I arrived, Elric. It does not like what it finds, and it will not tell me why. That has never happened before.”

I blinked; could it be possible that the Grimoire could read me in the same way that the Grimoire of the Shadow of the Sovereign of the Stars did when it discovered the loop bound to my soul?

The weird cry of the Pale Matron drew my eyes back to the sea of flesh, as she cried out, seemingly in both pain and pleasure, `

”Ah, little book,” the Pale Matron screamed from ten million mouths, with what I swear was fondness. ”Your kind always did love the pretty little boxes you keep your smallness in... You take the Firmament and shrink it into a box.”

The mound of flesh was shrinking and growing repeatedly, as it did not matter how much flesh was being consumed by the flames; there always seemed to be more to replace it. However, as I watched this cycle of endless regeneration, I could see that the miles of flesh were subtly growing... even with two laws that had turned this domain into a place where the temperature could melt steel in a fraction of a second, the flesh of the Pale Matron was still flourishing.

I did not understand the full meaning of what she said, but the Sovereign flinched, and I saw rage appear in his eyes. With a growl of anger, the pages of his Grimoire turned, and he proclaimed a new Law.

”Third Rule... Ash Is Fire Not Yet Finished.”

Every time the body was burned and regenerated, it left behind massive mounds of ash that could fill up a river, and all of that ash reignited.

The sound of this ignition was among the loudest things I had ever heard, and I had ridden a freaking Caelith from space that crashed like a meteor. Every particle of ash became a sort of mini sun, and half the mass of flesh came apart in a continental sheet of white fire that lit the underside of the clouds from the far edge of Aelmar.

Even the cries of the Pale Matron were swallowed, and I had to cover my eyes with my hands, but even through my hands, the light from the explosion filtered through.

I crouched in the circle laid by the Sovereign, as my soul felt like it was being squeezed by a gigantic flaming hand. There was no way I would survive this, not unless I was able to push my Adamantium Flesh far past what it was now and gain several Sovereign Tier skills.

And in the midst of this devastation, I heard the voice of Sovereign Caldus, and it sounded weird, and then I realized that it was because the Sovereign and the Grimoire were speaking at the same time.

”Fourth Rule. Fire Consumes the Memory of What It Burns.”

∞

I felt the world take this law, and there was a loud groaning sound that almost felt as if the materials of space were breaking, as if the world was straining to hold this new rule in place.

I forced myself to look through the brightness, and my soul began to burn, but I did not care; my Adamantium Flesh was holding my soul in one piece, and I needed to know what wielding Laws was like.

Holding back the moan of pain from my soul that was crumbling to ash, I watched the massive tide of flesh begin to slowly vanish. It was slow, but somehow the endless regeneration of the tide of flesh was now being countered.

For the first time, the Pale Matron’s voice changed.

”Oh,” she said, from ten million burning mouths, and the amusement was gone. ”Oh, you clever little Magus. You are burning the remembering.”

”You are just a memory of material,” Caldus said. ”I am the Master of Flame. Everything burns, demon, even this broken record.”

”Then let us see how much of me you can read.”