“Now, as I was saying, we plan to make you an archlich, though the specific type is up to you. Archliches are, as the name implies, the advanced version of a lich. You can create undead much faster, exert greater control over them-- though you have few issues with that-- and you can raise liches as your minions,” Kel’rk’ath explained.

“You’re also as powerful as me in terms of sentient energy. The red stuff I know you know how to use,” VII added, “Also soul power. And fortitude. And-”

“Your soul will become stronger,” En’gem’ia said, “That is what it means to upgrade your ‘being,’ as poorly chosen as mortal vocabulary is to describe it.”

Sa’ar’kik shook her head lightly, taking the last fruti from the platter and biting into it, “You can’t expect mortals to have as good of a language as we have, En. Not even draconic is good enough for us.”

“Moving on,” Kel’rk’ath cut in, “You become stronger, both in body and soul, and you can raise liches. That is the baseline. Despite that, there are options. As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted,” he said, shooting an annoyed glance at the two gods and VII, “You can choose a type. The actual ‘Variant’ idea. The system we created was put into place because we wanted a way not only to modify soldiers on the fly, but also to catalog the specific combinations of mana that result in unique beings and creatures. For example, a vampire that fuses their blood curse with, say, Sun-attuned mana would… well-”

“They’d die, most likely,” Sa’ar’kik finished, “But if they had some other mana, like Resilience mana, they might be able to fuse their blood curse with the sun mana and come out of it able to step into the daylight.”

Mori tilted her head, “Might? It’s not guaranteed to work?”

Sa’ar’kik rolled her eyes at the question, “Mori, you’ve already learned this lesson with your fire versus burn mana question; by the way, En, we have to talk about your worshippers on Granulous later.”

Mori thought for a few moments, but she did not understand what Sa’ar’kik was trying to draw her attention to. Fara suddenly snapped her fingers, “Oh, it’s the nuances, right? Fire burns, but burning is its own concept-- especially if Mori knows about things that burn without being fire. So what you’re saying is that the nuances of each mana type have to play nice?”

“Exactly!” Sa’ar’kik cheered, “It’s the nuances! It’s kind of hard to explain, but think of it like this: If a vampire ‘forsook the sun to gain power,’ then they won’t survive this sort of fusion. If the thinking is the other way around, and they embrace the moon or something like that, then they can probably survive the fusion. Always remember this: power can be derived from an infinite number of sources, ranging from the most primeval forces to the most modern luxuries. All that matters is the mindset behind the mana.”

Mori hummed in understanding, “Doesn’t that make it way too easy to become powerful? If that’s the case, then why isn’t the multiverse overrun with powerful mages?”

The gods chuckled a bit, even VII smiling at Mori, “Because, dear, most methods have weaknesses, becoming powerful like us takes far too long, and not all methods are made equal,” Sa’ar’kik began, “Vampires are weak to the sun, unless they fused with something to let them survive it. Werewolves lose themselves in their killing instinct. Mages who take power from physical sources need to have those sources nearby to actually make use of it. Undead are weak to a slew of mana types that target them specifically and typically can’t break free from the basic force that raised them. You understand what I am trying to tell you here.

“As for time… Well, to really take in power, to upgrade your soul to match even a normal Riftborn, someone would need thousands of years of constant improvement. Getting to the Rift is a challenge, not to mention the fact that its existence is so esoteric that most wouldn’t think it was real, so that is another way that many are blocked from roaming the rest of reality. On top of that, the Rift is a dangerous place. Even for us.

“And, inequality… We’re impossible to kill, Mori. Most others are not so difficult to deal with. You yourself are quite difficult to kill, while most mages are not so.”

“Okay then… what were we talking about again?” Mori asked.

“Potential types of archlich you could become,” Kel’rk’ath answered, “As I was saying, you could meld another mana type to your body and soul, attuning yourself in that direction further. You could also simply ignore this option and simply become a normal archlich. It is up to you. We can also remove or add a few Traits to better tailor you to what you want to do. And yes, Traits work just fine. The problem comes in when you attempt to put the system into the Rift.” He continued explaining their options, going through the three steps they were giving her and Fara

Mori nodded as Kel’rk’ath explained. She had the option of becoming an archlich with another mana type-- Fara having another option with Sa’ar’kik that the goddess pulled the woman over to speak about, the option of taking Traits with her-- though she could not change them in the future, and being given some sort of knowledge that pertained to their interests. Mori thought about her becoming an archlich first, and wondered what mana type she would want to fuse with.

When she thought about it, she never really loved a mana type, apart from her death mana. She liked them well enough, but none of them were nearly her enough. They were all either bulk standard types anyone who could manipulate mana could make, or taken from someone else. The only other mana type she could think of was the Bargain mana she somehow created in her previous life, but that was still not… her. From what she vaguely remembered and could guess, that mana came about from extreme desperation, a desire to pay any price to continue living. 

It was made out of helplessness. And she was no longer helpless. 

She tried to think of any other mana types she created, but none jumped out at her. She had made different mana types, but none of them were very emblematic of who she was as a person. When thinking about it, she realized that the only things that were truly hers were her death mana and her sentient energy. Suddenly, she remembered how she created her death knights. She remembered how she took a heaping helping of sentient energy and, with a large number of thought-aligned mana types, used them to uplift her death knights. She used her sentient energy like mana at that moment, so could she not do the same then, when she was creating her new form? “Kel’rk’ath,” she said, “Isn’t it possible to replace the extra mana types with sentient energy? What would happen then?”

The god looked into her eye-flames, visibly thinking, when he shrugged, “I do not believe we have tried something similar before. My hypothesis was always that you would blur the lines between body and soul. I personally do not know what would happen. If you do that, then you would probably incorporate your armor into your soul. Are you sure you want to do that?” he asked.

Mori thought for a moment, pondering whether or not she wanted to make the armor her first friend had given her into the shell of her very soul. The decision was not a difficult one, “I’m sure. I just hope Fara’ll get to tinker with it once it’s all said and done.”

“What about me?” Fara asked, turning her head from Sa’ar’kik, who simply smiled a knowing smile.

“Oh, I was planning on doing some… weird stuff to my… what is this, by the way? Evolution? Ascension?” Mori asked, “I think evolution would work, since I’m going from lich to archlich, but I don’t know…”

“We call it upgrading, but we aren’t the ones who have our bodies changed, so ascension would probably work better,” Sa’ar’kik answered, still smiling.

“Ascension, then. I’m fusing my sentient energy with my body to make… something. I dunno. I was just hoping you would be able to tinker with the armor you made me if it gets stuck to me,” Mori explained, “It would be a shame to not let you have your fun.”

Fara smiled, “Aww, you don’t mind me poking around in that tin can of yours?” she asked, patting Mori on the head, “You’re great, Mori.”

“I try,” Mori answered.

“Come on, you guys won’t let me in on this?” En’gem’ia suddenly asked, her black-steel face pouting, “You’re giving them both a retirement benefit, so why can’t I pitch into hers?” she whined, nudging her head to Fara.

The two gods shared confused looks, VII sat in her chair radiating silent embarrassment, and Fara herself appeared bewildered. Mori shook her head, “No one thought of it since you literally just stopped a millennium-long war about ten minutes ago. I’m still coming to terms with the fact that the goddess who I thought I would be fighting for my entire unnatural life is a doting mother, so clearing up the not-at-war bit will take a while.”

En’gem’ia pouted, “I tried being rude and queenly a long time ago, back when I was first claiming faith-worlds, and I ran into this rude Riftborn who basically spat in my face when I told him to serve me. I chased him and his weird little posse for a while, but I gave up…”

“And that ‘rude Riftborn and his weird little posse’ is now one of the most well-hidden seller of destructive weapons to untouched worlds,” Kel’rk’ath remarked, “If you just let us help, they would have been caught long ago, and you could’ve made him into a servant or whatever you wanted. But then you let pride get in the way…”

En’gem’ia scoffed, “First of all, rude. Second of all, I didn’t really care that much! I just wanted their souls, since they would make good soldiers, if they actually stopped being so defiant…”

“That’s besides the point,” Mori said, “A war just ended. What do you expect?”

“Fine, I’ll admit that you have a point. But, I still want to contribute! These are the first ones any of my children have really befriended! I’ve gotta be a good mother and be kind to the other children in the neighborhood,” the goddess defiantly said, crossing her arms.

The hosts both looked at each other, and turned back to En’gem’ia, “Well… there is something you could help with…” Sa’ar’kik said, twiddling her thumbs.

En’gem’ia narrowed her eye-gears, something that Mori was clueless as to how it was possible, “I know this, Sa. Whenever you twiddle your thumbs like that is when you’re about to ask something so outlandish that not even I could’ve predicted it. And ninety percent of the time, I agree. Alright, tell me what it is.”

Sa’ar’kik smiled sweetly, “Alright, so you see, Fara has a… somewhat similar soul to yours. Though, without being a goddess. She’s been able to predict the outcomes of things before. And… Do you see where I’m going with this?”

“I do…” En’gem’ia answered, “It’s a burden, you know? Is she really ready for this?”

“Well… she did get that Trait, [Simulation], that we modeled off of your ability… so I think she’s ready,” Sa’ar’kik replied, twiddling her thumbs even harder.

En’gem’ia stared at the two gods for a long moment, “We’re going to have words about that. But, if that’s really true, then she’s ready. I’ll work on that, and a little gift of my own, so you two finish up with whatever you were doing before.”

Kel’rk’ath turned back to Mori once Sa’ar’kik and Fara resumed their discussion, “So, you want to fuse your sentient energy with your archlich ascension, then. Next is Traits. What do you want to keep, be given, or be removed?”

Mori did not need to think too much about the things she wanted to keep, instead thinking more in terms of what she wanted and what she did not want any more. She came to her answer quickly, “I want to keep the integration and manipulation Traits, for one. I want to keep [Emotive Skull], [Enhanced Mind VI], the Granted Traits, and every casting spiritual Trait. As for what I want… I want two things. The first is to make every rib in my ribcage be a [Mana Rib], so I can store more mana.”

“Those are quite easy. I have a feeling that the next one is where you go out on a limb,” Kel’rk’ath guessed, “Go on. It is better to ask now than to regret later.”

Mori nodded, thinking about how to properly articulate her last request, “I… want whatever lies at the end the three psychic Traits I have, [Psychic Affinity], [Psychic Conduit], and [Psychic Flail]. Whatever that is, I want it,” she stated, staring into Kel’rk’ath’s eyes. 

The god paused for a second, then stroked his chin, “Hmm… you want the ‘full package,’ as Hel would say, in being a psychic. That should not be too hard. Alright, anything else?”

“The rest of my Traits, like the plates on my chest or [Mechanical Affinity], I want to get removed, please. I haven’t had any use for them, honestly, and they just seem pointless to me, considering where my interests lie.”

Kel’rk’ath nodded, “Understandable. The bone plates in particular may get in the way. Now then, I already know what I will give you for knowledge, so there is no need for you to choose from a catalog. Besides, you cannot decide what you want to know, without knowing it first. It has been nice seeing you, Mori, but this is where we part ways, for now. My suggestion is this: defeat the rouge Forgeheart and, when that matter is sorted, prepare for your retirement. Bring whoever you want, gather what you want to bring with you, etcetera. Now then, farewell, and good luck.”

Mori’s sight began to shift, then it cut into complete darkness, and she fell into unconsciousness.