The Samsara Crucible: A Progression Fantasy Epic (Book 4 of The Menocht Loop Series) by Lorne Ryburn

Author:Lorne Ryburn [Ryburn, Lorne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781956021103
Publisher: Timeless Wind Publishing LLC
Published: 2022-09-19T16:00:00+00:00

I circle the petrified corpse of the lizard-tortoise. Think of it as one of your mannequins. It’s just a big, wooden puppet.

But when I worked on Soolemar’s mannequins, I relied on saturating the wooden construct with energy, layering threads of Death over its surface like muscle sinews. The technique I learned from Soolemar had me placing my hands on the mannequin’s chest and back to hold a soul in place and bind it to the body.

As I consider the gargantuan carcass—large enough to take up an entire transport array hangar—my techniques seem inadequate. How do I control such a large body, much less invest it with a soul?

Take it one piece at a time.

I stop by the lizard head. Aside from hollow eye sockets, the head is remarkably preserved, the scales only decayed in a few patches. Even the head alone is the size of a boulder, far larger than anything I’ve worked on before. The legs and tail are all similarly huge—there doesn’t seem to be a good place to start.

I need something even smaller.

I move on from the head and approach one of the forelegs. I stop by the foot, then run my hand along one of its wicked, black talons.

A single toe rivals the size of a person, but it’s a size I can actually work with.

Is a toe my limit? I grimace at the thought. I surmised giving Crystal the means to live beyond water was impossible less than a month ago. But as soon as I had an insight, the problem turned from impossible to challenging. I may be limited to a toe using my current techniques, but trying to attempt the impossible is how we grow.

Maria watches with interest as I begin to wrap the toe in fibers of Death energy.

“Can you even see what I’m doing?” I ask, turning her way.

“I can see you making gestures,” she replies. “I’m comparing your movements to mine when I create End arrays.”

I float a soul gem to my palm. “Do you want to see?”

She blinks. “Yes, that’s probably for the best. Just a warning, I’m not accustomed to seeing vitality.”

I crush the gem and send its liquid-like dust into her eyes. She flinches and squints, then blinks rapidly.

“I’ve done this twice before, several years ago,” she murmurs. “I always found it disorienting. Heat vision is already enough when combined with my normal sight.”

“Do you see what I’ve been creating now?” I ask, pointing to the lizard’s toe.

“It’s messier than I thought. Almost like you’re trying to knit a Death fiber sweater over the toe’s surface.”

I stare at my handiwork dubiously. “How is this like a sweater? The fibers emulate muscle.”

“I have no means of showing you how my practice works, but I can try drawing an array out in the dirt,” she remarks, pulling a thin rod from a small trinket on her belt—a void storage. The rod extends to the length of a walking stick. It’s clearly some kind of training staff.

She draws a circle on the ground.

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