The Mother of Monsters

Mack sat down as ‘Ianna’ and Azrael stepped aside to speak with one another. Miranda sat with him and Delilah. The woman was remarkably pleasant for someone who supposedly worshiped the literal Demon Queen. He frowned, I need to stop thinking of her that way. The Azar aren’t demons. I’ve seen that plainly. He chastised himself as he crossed his legs and let out a breath. He glanced down at the two shards in his hand. He could only pick one ability from each tree. Before he only had the Presence aspect to pick from and he’d wasted several levels just trying to survive and hadn’t given it any thought.

Now that he was here, with a strong aspect to complement Presence, he needed to carefully review what route he was going to take. Sure, he’d heard that eventually he could pick out the others later on, but that would require living long enough to level up again. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully and pulled out his journal to activate the menu. The screen appeared in front of him and he took a little time navigating to the ability selection screen. Been a while, hasn’t it? He thought ruefully before the window he was looking for finally opened.

He took a moment to read it all before raising his eyebrows with surprise, “Woah, that’s a lot to pick from.”

Delilah glanced up and walked over to join him, Miranda taking notice as well. “What options do you have?” She asked quietly as he read through the descriptions on his own. He took a moment to consider his first knee-jerk picks before turning to her and the priestess. “I’ve got two picks and six to choose from,” He said happily, grinning ear to ear, “It looks like if you get more than one ability to start with from an Aspect, each of those abilities creates its own branch!”

Ianna walked over as well, that cat of hers relaxing on her shoulder. “They didn’t explain that to you?”

“No,” He said, shaking his head, “The more senior heroes didn’t like to talk much about builds and how aspects really worked. It kinda felt like they were keeping that kind of stuff secret. I don’t really recall any of those of us who weren’t brought in favorably having an aspect with more than one starting ability.”

Ianna nodded, “Controlling information then.”

“Builds?” Azrael asked.

“A build is the order in which you select abilities,” Mack explained, “Picking things in the right order to help optimize your path.”

Ianna sighed, “I wish I had that kind of luxury back then, I was just picking whatever seemed would help me survive longer,” She said wistfully as she sat down across from him and the others. Azrael sat down next to her and gave him a thoughtful look. 

It was the cat, however, that brought them back on topic, “Please do tell your choices, young man,” The cat said in that jarring baritone of his. He sounded like the narrator for a book or some kind of handsome prince from a cartoon movie. “Perhaps we can be of assistance, I assisted mother in choosing several of her finest abilities in the past,” The feline said, tilting its head up high.

“Did you?” Ianna asked incredulously, “I seem to recall those conversations differently.”

“Poor thing, you must be tired, Mother,” The cat-Nephral-was that its name? Said with mock patience and sincerity. Azrael snorted a little and turned her head away to cover a laugh while Ianna gave Nephral a deadpan look. The feline turned towards him again, “Apologies, please continue.”

“Uh… sure,” Mack mumbled and looked at the list again. He read them all aloud first before he moved on to give his own thoughts before anyone could cut in, “[Minor Auras] is just awesome,” He said thoughtfully, “I bet if I took it as is right now I could pretty much zero out the cost for [Halo] which would be a huge benefit. [Glare] on the other hand could be used for all sorts of things, even taking out flying enemies with a look.”

The others nodded along as he continued, “[Soothing Halo] is great, passive healing is always welcome, but it increases the cost of my [Halo] which would pretty much cancel out [Minor Auras], pretty much the same with [Brilliant Halo],” He rubbed his chin, “On the other hand if I took [Minor Auras] and one of the [Halo] improvements, I’d basically just be back to casting [Halo] at it’s normal cost with the added benefit.”

He tapped his finger on his knee, “[Luminous Bolt] is just solid damage, a good ranged attack to add to my arsenal. Simple and to the point, I can appreciate that,” He paused, “However, [Sear] is awesome. If I use control presence to buff the area of my [Halo] to within my immediate area and use [Sear] that’s stacking damage over time, double trouble!” He laughed.

Nephral murred for a moment before speaking, “I would suggest [Glare] it is a effective tool for controlling a fight and could prove invaluable in the future.”

Ianna tilted her head, “Hm. I was going to suggest [Brilliant Halo] but honestly right now that would be more beneficial to Azrael, Miranda, and I.”

Miranda and Delilah looked at one another and turned to him before just smiling encouragingly. He groaned. This was such a hard decision. He had a thought of which direction he could go but he really needed the advice. Delilah gave him an apologetic look before speaking, “I think you should follow your instincts, Mack, you’ve got good ones. They’re your abilities.”

“Agreed,” Miranda said, “To me it sounded like you had two strong picks already,” She added with a shrug, “Far be it from me to discourage you.”

He finally glanced at Azrael who gave him a stony look for a moment before getting an elbow from Ianna. She let out a sigh and scratched her neck and tilted her head up in thought. She let out a sharp breath from her nostrils before leaning forward and staring at him, “If I were you, I’d pick [Minor Auras] and [Sear], the combination you described would be very effective and enjoying that benefit at a reduced or even nullified cost would be outstanding. It would also improve your survival odds until your next chance to pick.”

He leaned back, surprised for a moment before breaking into a smile, “You’re right, I was leaning in that direction but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t just deluding myself. Abilities really do sync up that well, don’t they?”

Azreal hesitated for a moment before she laughed and pointed over at Ianna, “You have met the queen of synchronized abilities, right? All of her abilities are a single unit at this point. It’s a bit silly sometimes,” 

“It’s not that wild!” Ianna shot back.

“Your monsters can use your abilities!” Azrael countered, keeping her voice a little lower.

Ianna opened her mouth to protest and then quickly shut it, frowning and crossing her arms. She huffed but remained seated as they all turned back to Mack. He looked down at the two shards in his hand and nodded to himself, “Alright, I’m gonna do it.” 

He took a deep breath and took the first shard in his free hand, squeezing it a little and concentrating. A moment later a prompt appeared offering up the same list of abilities as before. He selected [Minor Auras] and felt a change begin to take place in his body, the shard dissolving in his hand. He squeezed the second one and selected [Sear].and felt a second wave of strength wash over him. After a few heartbeats he let out a breath and looked at the others, “Thanks, everyone.” He said.

The women all gave him a nod before Teyva stretched her arms up and yawned, “Now we should probably get some sleep. You need to distribute your attributes and I would like a nap before another day of flying, if you don’t mind.”

Nobody argued the point.