Krahe continued:
“Capacitor charge at 80% projected capacity. 90%. 100%. 110%. 120%. Capacitor charge stable at 124% of projected capacity. Preparing laser pump array for connection. Connection successful. Initiating ignition. Capacitor discharge… Successful.”
The revolutions intensified, as did the reaction. Anathema began leaking out, coalescing around the shell’s exterior, granting it the appearance of a blood-red star. The room was bathed in red light. It even occasionally erupted with flare-like tongues, these soon being pacified when the talisman mistress adjusted her containment array.
“Capacitors 87 through 143 sending alerts, replacement in progress. Fusion reaction initiating. Activating TK Containment Field Emitters. TK Field operators injecting Psi-Amp fluid. Plasma field contained successfully. Fusion proceeding. Exotic particle emission within projected boundaries. Transmutation in progress.”
As Krahe recited the NHI reactor operator’s test report, the containment array’s revolutions grew to a fever pitch, as did the tangible tension within the room. It felt as if, at any moment, the whole thing might fly apart, but it never did. It went on for a span of time that Krahe could not discern; it felt simultaneously like mere seconds and hours, so wholly focused was she on the process itself. She couldn’t see it, but she felt it. The building pressure within the shell, the Hexkey’s gradual transmutation, the spindown of the reaction before the final surge. Yao gave a signal to say the final lines, but Krahe didn’t see it as her mind was wholly consumed by the star-like patterns of crimson light. She was, however, already speaking to begin with:
“Finalizing. Maximizing TK Field output. Venting remnant plasma. Test No. 66 complete. Estimated final transmutation ratio: 98.7348%. TK Field operators, inject Psi-Suppressant. Dispatching drones to extract reaction material… Rapid spectrometry has just confirmed: We have elemental platinum. King Solomon lives.”
The array abruptly came to a halt, as if frozen in time. A momentous and undeniable sense of change washed over them as the shell began cracking, blinding light shining through the cracks and piercing the layer of red. Yao’s eyes went wide and it seemed as if she wanted to call out in alarm, but she didn’t get the opportunity. With a thunderous, roar-like sound, the reflector shell flew apart in a hundred pieces, and a deluge of anathema poured out , only to be quickly drawn back in. Though abrupt and forceful, the blast was delayed and sapped from most of its force by Yao’s precautions, rendering it little more than a messy and noisy firework.
There, between the two of them, floated the Hexkey, the Astrocite Hand still grasping it. In the next moment, the hand crumbled to dust. The key’s shape had not changed, but all else was different. Its composition was neither stone nor coal nor anthrocite, but a perfectly homogenous mass of red, opaque crystal. A constant outpour of anathema flowed from the artifact, possessed of an equal purity and furious brilliance, a beacon of power. Yao instinctively threw up her barrier, taking the shape of nine talismans with a golden lattice of symbols between them. Krahe, meanwhile, bathed in the baleful brilliance, for as long as it lasted. It only took the talisman mistress moments to isolate the artifact, for good reason. With the voidkey enveloped in a spherical barrier, Yao sent it over to Krahe, barrier and all. It stopped in front of her, facing her with one of the papers which was positioned out of step with the pattern. The specific paper’s symbols slowly filled in as it soaked in the voidkey’s emanations, and once complete, it projected an appraisal readout. Krahe couldn’t help but notice that it was as detailed as her system readouts, unlike the shallower appraisals given by her glasses.
[ATOMICA REFULGENT, FRACTURED SOLOMONIC KEY]
[Tags:]
Fourth-order
Voidkey
Incomplete
Unstable (Temporary)
Imprinted (Brunhilde “Blackhand” Krahe)
[Details:]
Thaumic Throughput +C1
Entropy Tolerance +D3
Entropy Dissipation +D3
Thaumic Fusion Efficiency +15%
Isotope Tolerance +D1
Isotope Dissipation +D2
First-time implantation of this voidkey will reshape the holder’s Soul Furnace, permanently conferring the following Boon: “Astral Implosion Furnace”
This voidkey may be safely implanted only by the Imprinted individual. Implantation by any other individual will result in catastrophic Soul Furnace rupture (as with simultaneous implantation of two voidkeys).
[ASTRAL IMPLOSION FURNACE]
[Tags:]
External Source (Voidkey)
[Details:]
The holder’s natural Thauma-burning will take on some of the properties of Thaumic Fusion: Increased efficiency and heightened intensity of output energy. Lesser Thauma-burning methods will remain possible.
The holder’s natural ability to initiate and carry out Thaumic Fusion will grow in efficiency. This efficiency increase will compound with the voidkey’s direct fusion efficiency improvement.
The holder’s natural arcane attributes will be improved to a variable degree, with possible secondary physical effects.
“It’s as you said. No defenses whatsoever,” Krahe remarked, looking to Yao. “Do you think you would be able to complete it? If you were to have a suitable voidkey, could you simply graft its defensive capabilities onto the Atomica?”
“Were higher-order voidkey crafting so straightforward,” Yao grimaced, turning away and stepping to the writing desk. She sent a talisman paper downstairs, and moments later it flew back up, carrying a partly-filled inkstone. She began drawing another series of talisman papers, continuing to speak as she did: “The voidkey is in a state of flux, highly unstable. If you implanted it right now, it could very well tear you apart, or worse, injure you such that it can never be removed. It must be left to sit for some time, then quenched via first implantation - you will know when it is stable enough, it is not a subtle change. Such a quenching implantation tends to be… Energetic at the best of times. I suggest implanting it at a time and in a place where collateral damage will not be an issue. After that, I will require a suitable donor key and a suitable binder, such as material from a soulbeast, possibly other materials as needed. Depending on the voidkey’s stabilized form, it may even be better to avoid using another voidkey altogether. We can only guess at such things for the moment. Here.”
With a gesture, the papers containing the voidkey flew back to Yao, replaced by a swarm of no less than twelve others that plastered themselves all over the item, creating two or possibly even three layers. Their symbols quickly began to exude the same glow as Atomica itself, but much weaker. The voidkey’s presence lessened to a degree where it felt only slightly more significant than the Twin Serpent key.
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