Irwin's Journey 500: Number four

"You are sure having one body on Eluathar isn't going to cause issues?" Scintilla asked.

Irwin hesitated, then shook his head. "Sure? No. But I've discussed it with Ambraz, Daubutim, and some of the other smiths, and we all agree on one thing. The worst that can happen is that both my bodies get pulled into my soulscape. If that happens, I'll just be here in full."

"You are going to fill it while you are here," she asked slowly as her eyes went distant. "You will feel the draw, and you expect either your other body to be pulled in, or to just remain dormant. Either way, you will move inside after that to finish the soulcard."

"Exactly," Irwin said. "When I completed my second soulcard, my being went back into one before splitting, but this didn't happen during my third soulcard completion."

"And the time dilation?"

"I'll move it until it is as close to Eluathar's as I can get it," Irwin said, not surprised that she'd picked up on that.

Scintilla inhaled deeply, then sighed. "Well, I guess it can't be more dangerous than heading out across the Portal Gallery on our own."

Irwin leaned back, eyebrows raised. He'd asked this part of Scintilla before if she was going to join him, and she'd been uncertain. There were risks, and if this part of her died, even if Scintilla's main body remained and a new cloned body eventually regrew, it was still uncertain if she'd retain who she was. Daubutim's experiments had been inconclusive. He had given his old friend half of the body double cards he'd made, which had then been divided across the most powerful beings on Eluathar, and some of those had been willing to see what happened if one died. 

Sadly, the results weren't the same.

Basil, for instance, who had been one of the first to receive one, had become closer to Irwin himself. His mind seemed constantly connected to both bodies, and when one of his bodies was killed, his mind barely noticed.

Well, besides the whole dying part.

Irwin recalled the big guard's curses and the fact that he'd had to wait for half a year for the body to regrow, only days after he'd gotten the card, had made him even more annoyed. Irwin had brought him along for a short trip to Scour to help with that, but without heat-resistant cards, Basil had been relegated inside for nearly all of it.

"What are you grinning about?" Scintilla asked, eyebrows raised.

"I was thinking about Basil again," Irwin said.

Scintilla snorted, then shook her head. "I can't believe that big lump of ore actually tried a second time! You would expect that he'd learned!"

"Well, he wasn't wrong when he said that it might be random," Irwin said, unable to grin even wider.

Scintilla flinched, and Irwin felt his joy fade.

"All tests we did showed that it works the same each time," he said, reaching out and grabbing her hand. 

"I know," Scintilla muttered, squeezing it. 

"You don't have to come…"

"What? And leave you all on your own during that trip?"

"I won't be alone," Irwin said. "Ambraz will be with me, and I'll likely be picking up a lot of survivors."

Scintilla hesitated, then shook her head. "I'm coming. If I end up dying, and the next body double I make isn't me, I'm sure that the other me will be just as great. Besides, otherwise I'd have to stay on Eluathar, and who wants to be around themselves all day?"

Irwin smiled. "You didn't seem to mind much last time we were there."

"Yes, well, that's because both mes are awesome," Scintilla said with a grin. It faded almost instantly as she looked at her hands. "Did I tell you we decided what we will do in the future?" she said slowly, tapping on the cardslot that held her Crathan card.

Irwin blinked at the sudden change of subject. She knew full well she hadn't, and he hesitated.

"And?"

"We will wait till the kids are grown, then we are going to ask you to reforge my cards."

Irwin leaned back, staring at his heartbond, partner, and the mother of his children. With how long the two of them had been on Scour now, he had long since gotten used to her new form. Still, each time he saw her Ignitzian form on Eluathar, he couldn't help but be glad to see that form of her, too. 

"That will mean you are going to change into a Crathan," he said slowly. "And I'm not sure I'll ever be able to create a card that will allow one of your bodies to turn into an Ignitzian again."

"We know," Scintilla said, looking up at him, her eyes calm. "But I'm more real like this. It's hard to explain, but this body feels like it truly fits the world. Stable and compact. My other form feels almost gaseous in comparison. I told you before, but it feels almost like I condensed a second time after I moved out of the lava long ago. I've talked with the others, and they feel the same way."

Irwin didn't have to ask who the others were. Although not a lot of Ignitzians had wanted a Crathan card, with how long his jumps had become, a lot of time had passed since he'd arrived on Scour again. Close to three thousand years, to be exact. That was enough time for even those few to accumulate, and by now, a few thousand Igniz'Crathanathair existed within the Blackglass Empire. 

Which left something Irwin knew none of those wanted to talk about a lot, but which he knew would have to be addressed eventually.

"What about your bladesisters?" he asked softly. "Have you spoken to Nisziz and the others?"

Scintilla didn't respond right away, then she let out a weary sigh. "The others are split on it. Some, like Nisziz, care little and are even somewhat interested. Some of the others… fear it. They seem to think it's a danger to our way of life, and they feel that those who change have given up what it means to be Ignitzian in a cheap bid for power."

Irwin didn't react, staring at Scintilla, knowing more would come. He'd not been blind to the reactions of some of the original species. The Viridians just seemed to think it was hilarious, and to Irwin's utter disbelief, not a single one had come forth for one of the cards. Most of the Accenti had seen it as an escape from their past, and although a few small pockets still remained, most had consumed one of the Crathan cards. The Oxarite and the Ignitzians, however, both were far more conflicted. It hadn't been as bad at the start, when the Crathan Empire had been only a small, unknown player, but that had changed when it had become the fourth major power.

"I think it's fear," Scintilla said slowly, seeming to struggle for words. "They fear that if many of the younger ones feel like we do, or hear what it is like, that they will all want to change."

Irwin grimaced. "They do realize that I have made only a limited number of Crathanathair cards? I can't and won't be creating more and more…"

"They don't, and that's one of the problems," Scintilla muttered. "Even though we have spread out how it works, and that you make only a hundred every time you are here-"

"Less now," Irwin mumbled.

"-rumors have started spreading that the Blackglass Empire is trying to become the sole power by just turning everyone into Crathans," Scintilla continued. "Tensions have been rising for a long time, and although it's not too bad yet, the only reason it keeps winding down is because our time here keeps shortening. The cards you leave here are spent after a few decades to a hundred years, after which hundreds of years pass, causing it to turn into nothing but a story to most people." 

Irwin nodded as they shared a weary look. He'd heard the same things. It was a good thing that most people on Scour only lived for two hundred years. Even with the larger number of cardsmiths and a greater ease of gaining good cards, many people still favored the Amethyst cards, limiting their eventual age and allowing for the dissipation of the rumors, as Scintilla had said. However, there was one thing that kept stirring the pot, as his mother would say.

"And then we return."

"Yes," Scintilla said. "Each time we do, the council asks for new Crathanathair cards, and the stories turn back into reality."

Irwin sighed. "Well, this won't be happening much longer. Do you think…"

Scintilla nodded. "Yes. If we eventually don't return, tensions will fade again as the stories turn into legends and eventually fade away. There are already a lot of people who don't believe it at all, because they have seen young Crathans running around."

"What about the Grove Elders and the Council of Steel?"

Scintilla's weariness faded into a wide grin. "Oh, those old fogies fully remember you. The reason there won't be any true wars over this is because not a single one feels confident in angering The Titan Smith."

Irwin grimaced. "They still call me that?"

"Oh yes, or Giant Smith, Burrow Breaker, and some of the birds call you Callamity Singer," Scintilla said, grinning wider. "There are also less nice titles you've gained over the ages. Wanna know?"

"No! No, thank you," Irwin said, raising his hands in surrender. "I'll go and talk with the Blackglass Elders tomorrow and tell them that the next batch of Crathanathar cards will be the last and that they are to save those for special occasions. No more giving them out as rewards."

"You are sure none of the other smiths will be able to create a soulseed for it?" Scintilla asked, getting up and getting a bottle of a slightly red-glowing local liquor from the shelf. 

"I wish," Irwin muttered, accepting his glass. "No. So far, only three smiths here have been able to make a cardseed at all, and each is based on their primary type."

"So, just Flowrishin, Rubini, and Rorin?" Scintilla asked.

Irwin took a sip, sensing the super-spicy liquid flowing down his throat. "Yes," he said. "There are many close, but for some reason, they just can't seem to take the next step. I think it's got to do with the limits of some of the smithing types. For some reason, most of the others who use music can't seem to get to the point I'm at. Flowrishin and Rubini, who use logic and patterns, seem almost limited to a single soulseed, though Flowrishin might finish a second before…" Irwin grimaced.

"Before she finally dies?" Scintilla said, taking a sip and smiling at him. "We knew this would happen. As old as Viridians become, even they don't live forever."

"It's because she won't let me make her last heartcard," Irwin grunted, glaring into his drink with a sudden burst of anger. "She's so stubborn."

"Yes, and we don't know anything about being stubborn," Scintilla said, taking a drink, clearly to hide her smile.

Irwin sighed, his anger fading as fast as it had come. "She says she's seen it all, done it all, and even if she manages a second cardseed, it won't matter in the grand scheme of things."

For a short while, it was quiet in the smithy as Irwin thought about how weird it was to live somewhere for a few years only to see it jump forward by hundreds of years. People had grown old, and many he remembered from only a few years ago had died of old age.

"I don't think I like living here like this," he said, giving voice to something that had been growing slowly over the last few years and time jumps. "It's nice, but…" he waved around. "Every time we return, we clean away a thicker layer of dust, listen to hundreds of years of stories and history, and hear about those we knew who died."

Scintilla nodded slowly. "Or to hear about who had children, who then had children, and so on. Remember how we met Nimlarel's last kid and his great-great-grandchildren last time?"

Irwin grimaced. "I do. How is she?"

"Old," Scintilla said, leaning back and tapping a finger on the table. "She and Rinbus have moved into a smaller house near the forest, and one of their children -don't even ask which one- is now running the restaurant."

"After we return next time, I'll not be returning here again," Irwin suddenly said, shaking his head. "At least not until the time dilation returns to something amenable. Someone else can do it. There are a few people with body clones who can move things back and forth already, and this will only grow. I'll focus on creating those this time."

Scintilla stared at him for a while before nodding. "Okay. What about Rindiri and the rest?"

Irwin hesitated. He hadn't spoken to Rindiri and Brecka yet after they returned a few weeks ago, as the two had to reconnect after being away for hundreds of years. 

"Brecka won't stay here. I know that much," he finally said. "As much as she loves being in Blackglass City, she still hasn't given up on the idea of returning to Charxian to see if her father is still alive. Rindiri… I don't know. Earilla remained behind the last jump, and I have no idea how she is now. If she is even still alive."

They continued talking about the different people deep into the fake night of the Blackglass Cavern. When they finally moved to bed, Irwin was mentally weary but also felt a sense of excitement for what lay ahead. He'd been focused on creating cardseeds and soulforce constructs for dozens of years now, lots of which felt like a blurry haze if he thought back to it. 

The idea of finishing another soulcard, preparing for his next heartcard, and setting out made him feel an excitement he hadn't felt in a long time.

--

Irwin stood in the center of his smithy, focused on how the final bit of soulforce leaked from the Ancestral Copperion and was absorbed by his soullake. He'd greatly underestimated the sheer amount he needed, having felt like he'd have plenty, only to find out that he actually had barely enough. 

"The last bit is going in now," he said, turning to Ambraz, who had returned from Frisyuustis early that morning.

"About time! Oh, I can't wait to see how much it's going to expand this time!"

Irwin nodded, feeling the same. Every time he'd gotten a soulcard, his soulscape had grown greatly, and with it his power. 

As he saw the final drop fall into his soulscape, he felt a shockwave ripple from the heartcard that had hung above his lake for longer than any other. 

"Here it goes," Irwin said as he felt himself pulled towards his soulscape. 

He didn't resist, and a moment later, he appeared high in the air beside his soullake. He had enough time to realize his aura was fading, his sense of being able to create aura clones disappearing, when all of the soulforce within his soulscape seemed to start churning. 

Within moments, it grew into a chaotic storm that rivaled those he'd seen during the great storm in the Portal Gallery. But this one kept growing.

Soulforce rippled outward, roiling clouds of the different types his soulscape had, forming into massive thunderheads that dwarfed even his giant body. A howling wind blew throughout his entire soulscape, and he saw both the sound trees of his second soulcard and the Volcano Tree constructs sway and bend, branches of the latter ripped off and blown around. Leaves were blown from the bushes across the foothills of his first soulcard's mountainous area, as was the now loose sand around the bank of his lake.

In the center of his soulscape, a swirling mass of soulforce began rotating rapidly.

'Kid, how's your other body?'

Irwin held back a curse, splitting his focus between remaining in one spot while the still-growing storm buffeted him and reaching out to his other body. It felt like he was pushing through a powerful current, and as he reached out, he felt a fluctuation from Scour's ambient soulforce. 

Dammit! Irwin thought as he forced more of his focus on it, feeling his body within his soulscape begin to drift to the side. With a grunt, he lowered himself to the ground, landing in the mountains within a cavern that blocked part of the storm.  

He gritted his teeth and, for a moment, forced most of his focus on reaching out to his other body. For a split second, he sensed it, lying as it had on Eluathar, perfectly still. Then he was yanked back into his soulscape, and both of his selves were almost forcefully compressed together. Still two, but now as a single point of focus, he looked up and shot back into the now nearly pitch-black air. 

Storm clouds filled all of his soulscape, and he could sense how the storm was feeding on something… growing larger, and-

'The Ancestral Copperion!'

Irwin spread his senses down into the bedrock of his soulscape, feeling how the soulforce that had remained within the Ancestral Copperion was violently ripped from it by the storm, increasing its power. 

Irwin felt his skin crawl as he realized that although it had been nearly empty compared to what was drained for his soullake, the under ten percent that remained was still enough to greatly increase the power of the storm. Before he could even think about what to do, the final bit was ripped clear and the storm went into overdrive. 

Blobs of magma were being pulled from the titanic caldera of the Volcano, flung around in the storm. 

Hanging within it, Irwin clenched his hands as he felt the storm building to the final stage. 

'What will happen if all this energy gets compressed into a soulcard?' he mentally shouted at Ambraz. 'It's far more than there should be!'

'Not that much more, just a tenth or so,' Ambraz shouted back. 'And there's nothing we can do but wait it out!' 

Irwin didn't respond, staring in growing dismay as the storm began pushing against the barriers around his soulscape, violently expanding them outward. He could feel the strain on his soulscape, but all he could do was merely hover there and hope.

At some point, Irwin felt tiny parts of his soulscape start to balance out the strain, seemingly causing a counter-pull. It took him a few moments to realize what they were, and when he did, his eyes widened. 

The Volcano Wyrms are doing something!?

He tried to focus on them, but the storm was too powerful; his senses, even within his own soulscape, were dulled to the level a regular person would have. Still, he could feel some of them burn up and whisk away, the counterbalance weakening as they did.

Come on, hold on, Irwin thought, suddenly wishing he'd made far more of the Volcano Wyrms.

Time passed excruciatingly slowly, but eventually a sense of calm came from the center of his soulscape. The storm that raged around it began flowing towards it, slowly at first, but ever faster, until a stream of dark clouds flowed inward like a torrent.

Irwin sensed that only a handful of the Volcano Wyrms were still alive, well, alive if that was what the Soulforce Constructs actually were. 

In the center, a thick crust of soulforce had clumped around his heartcard. From below, the soullake seemed to rise up, and a funnel of liquid soulforce rose from the center, touching the heartcard. There was almost a sense of relief, then the soulforce began draining from the lake below, causing the heartcard to burn ever brighter. 

The drain lasted longer than Irwin had expected, and longer than he thought he recalled his previous card's drain had, but even then, when the Heartcard let out an enormous pulse, just over a quarter of the soullake had been drained.

With a final resonance, the heartcard shattered. 

The first time, and even the second time, Irwin had been worried when that had happened. Now he knew what it meant, and he felt a sense of calm as a fourth entity joined the three others that had already been there. 

As he had with the first four, he focused on it, and a moment later, a tiny soulcard appeared in front of him. As he focused on it, it grew closer and bigger while text appeared on it.

Card: Surging Soul Aura

Type: Soulcard, Ammolite, Aura, Fire, Soul, Mutation, Forged by Irwin Roddington

Owner: Irwin Roddington

A mutated masterpiece of Aura manipulation that allows the owner to use an aura clone. Although a massive drain on soulforce, this mutated card allows the user to field an aura clone. 

Passive: Massively increased strength and physical density

Passive: Aura clone [True clone]

Passive: Greatly increased aura control

Passive: Greatly increased aura size

Passive: Massively increased control over flames

Active:  Surging Growth [28x] 

[Active][Mutation]: Summon Aura Gauntlets

[Soulcard passive]: Immunity to aura pressure from anything not at least ten times stronger than the wielder

He felt a slight movement as Ambraz appeared beside him, his ability to move showing that the time dilation was likely still the same.

"Oh! Oh…. you… You are just not normal," Ambraz exclaimed as he shot up in the air. 

Irwin frowned at the sudden annoyance he felt from Ambraz. It couldn't be the card, because although it had definitely become better than from when it had been a heartcard, it wasn't that exceptional. A massive attribute increase instead of a great one, and an increase to his surging growth.

"Stop staring at that card and come up here!"

The soulcard let out what could only be called an annoyed huff of soulforce resonance before vanishing while Irwin shot up into the air. As he moved, he spread his senses out over his soulscape, and he felt his mouth fall open as he joined Ambraz at an altitude that would have been beyond the barrier a day ago.

His soulscape sprawled out below him, each part having grown massively, while a fourth section of his soulscape was no longer empty. As curious as he was to go to the misty area that now bordered the sprawling forest of soundtrees that was his second soulcard, his attention was fully on the scope of what he was seeing.

"It… It grew a lot," he muttered. "Can you see-"

"I'm calculating it now! Give me a moment," Ambraz snapped, flying around and muttering to himself.

Irwin knew he was ready when he let out a groan.

"Four… four times," Ambraz muttered. "It was close to five hundred square miles before… already beyond normal. Now? It's over two thousand square miles! It's… ridiculous!"

Irwin just nodded, sensing that the increase wasn't just sideways either. With his soulscape being spherical, the depths had grown beyond his previous imagination, with the previously massive lake of Ancestral Copperion that had spread below most of it now seeming small in comparison. 

What about…?

Irwin turned around and looked at his lake, feeling his eyes widen. When his heartcard had drained, it had drained only a quarter. Now, however, less than a quarter of his small inland soulforce sea -he failed to see how it could be counted as a lake anymore- was full, long stretches of dry seabed moving towards the edges. The few Volcano Trees stood like sad little sticks to the side, most of their branches snapped off, nowhere to be seen. A lot of the bushes he'd spread across his hills had joined them, many uprooted and gone, though the shelter of the hills had managed to save as many as were lost.

"Did any of those wyrms survive?" Ambraz asked.

Irwin hissed as he felt six of them, deep below the crust, moving sluggishly. Each was changed from what he recalled, and there was no sign of any of the smaller ones. The tens of thousands of tiny offspring they had created seemed to have vanished.

"Six," Irwin said as he sensed that at least three of the sexless creatures had a cluster of tiny eggs in their abdomen. "They should be fine, I think."

"Well, you might want to thank them," Ambraz grunted. "Without them and those trees, your soulscape would have exploded."

"Because of the Ancestral Copperion," Irwin muttered.

"Because of the soulforce within the Ancestral Copperion," Ambraz corrected him. "It was surplus that shouldn't exist, and you should be doubly grateful that you almost emptied it. If you hadn't, things would have gotten worse."

Irwin nodded, looking around. "Is that why my soulscape grew this much, you think?"

Ambraz was quiet for a while, then sniffed. "It wouldn't be a surprise, and before you ask, yes, we need to see if this is true because that means you need to get far more of those soulforce constructs before you make your fifth soulcard."

Irwin nodded as he slowly reached out to his other body on Eluathar. It was largely the same as how he'd left it, though he could sense an increase in its density and strength. At the same time, the soulforce resonance he was radiating had pulled the time dilation in Scour to be one-to-one with Eluathar, better than he ever had. 

"I guess if I can create more soulforce constructs, we can take in another large amount of Ancestral Copperion and do the same thing," he said. "Who knows how large I could get my soulscape?"

"Just tell me you aren't going to be focusing on only soulscape constructs again," Ambraz groaned.

"I won't," Irwin said, glancing at his now mostly empty soulsea. "Though I think we should talk with Basil and Scariander. I think I can safely keep four or five here now. That means I'll get a constant passive influx of soulforce, and if we reforge in here, it will slowly fill my soulsea."

"Soulsea?" Ambraz asked, incredulous, before hovering beside Irwin. "By the Rusted Moons of Granvox," he said. "I guess a sea is the right word now. Do you think we can pull Brazardian in here for a short while? I want to see his reaction so much."

Irwin thought about the immense rank seven worldanvil, recalling the fluctuations and power that roared from him constantly. "I doubt it… But maybe after my fifth or sixth soulcard?"

"Oh! I hope so! We really have to check on Ganvrox after we find Greldo," Ambraz said.

Irwin nodded in agreement before looking at the new, filled-in section of his soulscape. 

"Now, let's go and see what that's all about," he said.