first invocation

[redprayer]

Priest's Progress [Vault]

In a corner of one of the Vault's training rooms, Rezo is standing very still, holding a shakujo-style staff in front of him. At the same time he can be heard chanting in a foreign tongue, and as he chants, air begins to swirl around the tip of his staff, rattling the metal chimes together. The currents grow faster and stronger, whipping his hair and the ends of his coat around dramatically, and then-

"{Diem Wing.}"

-Rezo stomps the end of his staff against the ground and the wind whooshes outward in a circle away from him, knocking over several targets in the process. The closer they are, the more likely it is they've been sent flying.

Of course, any coolness is then undermined by Rezo having to shuffle around and right the targets up again...

Dewey Decimal-less [Vault]

It's been long enough since he was rescued that Rezo has gotten more comfortable with reading Imperial, such that he's started to read more for specific subjects than he is for the sake of reading practice.

That said, he's still learning to navigate the Vault library and his reading isn't exactly fluent yet. After another shelf proves to be of no use to him, Rezo exhales; then perks up when he hears someone approaching.

"Excuse me. I'm trying to find books on a particular subject...?" Hopefully you're someone who normally helps out at the Vault library. Or that you're a generally helpful sort.

Spirit Surgery [Locked to Ziel]

Rezo's fairly sure that Ziel doesn't believe that Rezo can help him. Or maybe it's Rezo who has his own doubts. Still, Rezo does have a little background in soul research- in manipulating astral bodies beyond just exploding them- so he seems to be the best shot Ziel has at treating such an unusual injury.

Settling on a time to meet in between the preparations for the Corsairs' latest mission was simple enough even if nothing else is likely to be, and when the time comes by Rezo is sitting quietly in his room awaiting a knock at the door. When he hears it, he answers it promptly.

"Ah, Ziel? Please, take a seat."

Rezo flips on the overhead light and stands aside so Ziel can enter. The Vault dormitories aren't exactly the most reputable of spaces for a doctor's office, but Rezo's doing his best with the space he has. His room is neat and tidy, with most personal effects tucked away, and he's found a spare chair and a set of medical tools that he's set on a side table.

As soon as Ziel's inside and the door is shut, Rezo asks "How have you been feeling?"

Comments

[redprayer]

The horns do catch Rezo by surprise when his hand brushes against them.

"Oh-" After a little breath of surprise, Rezo begins feeling out the shape of them. This may or may not be weird for Ziel.

"Are these natural?" Rezo asks. The rest of Ziel's body is perfectly human, as far as he can tell.

[achelord]

“No, it’s a goldsign. A side effect of a ritual I underwent when I was a boy. Makes certain kinds of magic easier to use.”

It also made him particularly vulnerable to the specific kind of torture he had gone through. Some Imperial officer out there had done research on the best way to completely disable someone like him. Ziel contemplated this hypothetical person and his face twisted into something between a smirk, a grimace, and a growl.

It wasn’t for Rezo, so it was just as well he couldn’t see it. Keeping his voice steady despite the moment of rage and frustration, Ziel went on to list any details he could think of that the blind priest might need for this.

It’s a whole bunch of magibabble. We probably don’t need to cover ALL of it.

[redprayer]

The magibabble is a little tricky for Rezo to parse, being very technical talk in Rezo's second language, but he patiently listens and asks a few questions when he isn't sure about the meaning of anything.

He also at one point taps his fingers against one of Ziel's horns and asks "Can you feel this?" Followed by rubbing it and asking "What about this?"

This isn't strictly necessary, Rezo's just a curious guy.

Once he's satisfied he understands the nature of Ziel's goldsign, Rezo's quiet for a bit, mulling over the information. Eventually, he admits "Your situation is reminiscent of something that a few people have undergone in my own world. Though it isn't always voluntary. We call them {chimera.}"

[achelord]

“They don’t have feeling but I can still tell you’re poking my head.”

Ziel doubted how much this part of the procedure was necessary, but humored him. Not much bothered him, anymore.

He couldn’t help a flicker of interest in what Rezo was saying. “{Chimera}, huh?” He mused, carefully pronouncing the foreign word.

“The gold ritual requires a lot of meditation and cultivation of power, so it would be difficult to force someone through it against their will…” how WOULD you forcibly ascend someone? Ziel supposed a powerful enough mage could do it, but the results wouldn’t be terribly impressive compared to someone doing it on purpose.

this would be a lot more risky if rezo still had shabranigdu latched on

[redprayer]

"Well, either way I have some experience with treating {chimeras}-" With making them. "-So I don't believe your goldsign will complicate your treatment terribly much."

Rezo withdraws his hands from poor Ziel's horns, but gently presses two fingers against Ziel's forehead.

"In order to examine your spirit body," Rezo says, "I'll need to make contact with it using my own. It may feel strange, but please bear with it."

Still keeping that bit of physical contact, Rezo begins to work himself into a meditative trance. He breathes slowly and evenly, lets his mind empty, and listens to the sound of Ziel's own breathing.

The astral sense is oft compared to other, physical senses, chiefly sight, but as Rezo's own sense of sight is borderline nonexistent that analogy doesn't come to Rezo's own mind for explaining what he senses. For him, it's more like tracing the edge of something with a cane, distantly feeling out all the bumps and edges...

And what he does find feels rough. Rezo may not know how Ziel's astral body used to be shaped, but it's obviously misshapen now. There are blockages where it should be flowing freely, connections made where they shouldn't be, buildups of dead astral substance... It's just a mess, only just in good enough condition to keep Ziel functional.

Well. Functionalish.

As Rezo explores, a hazy light suffuses the room, and the magic hums as it's carefully manipulated.

Sure let's throw some demon lords at his soul. It hasn't been fucked up enough already

[achelord]

Ziel's first reaction at feeling another mage's focus on him like this was to withdraw inwards and bring up mental shields, but he forced himself to relax.

There honestly was much for him to do right now other than wait, and try not to hope. He probably wouldn't be able to do anything. He probably would be as dumbfounded as the rest of the healers he had seen, even with his weird foreign magic from another world. There wasn't any reason for him to get his hopes up.

Dammit. It was happening anyway. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't stop himself from thinking it.

Maybe this time.

Maybe this time it would work.

He might get lucky and it would augment his powers!

[redprayer]

Rezo's astral touch burrows its way deeper through the network of spiritual channels that make up Ziel's astral body, probing his way to the center. A sheen of sweat begins to form on Rezo's brow back on the physical plane; the sheer delicacy of the work makes it tense.

"Such a vast, complicated form..." Rezo murmurs. Shaped properly, the magic capacity of Ziel's astral body must have been immense. Trying to cleanse and untangle the whole thing is a daunting proposition. But as with any daunting task, the only thing to do is to get started, chipping away at it one piece at a time. Rezo picks a channel connected to the core and touches it.

Mazoku are astral beings that heal by absorbing miasma, the energy created from negative emotions. Their antithesis, the gods of Rezo's world, are naturally the opposite and empowered by the positive emotions of those who worship them. But what does the astral body of a human- even an empowered one like Ziel- draw power from?

Well, Ziel had said his powers come from force and energy. What can Rezo invoke that would have a similar effect?

"{Source of all power...}" No, that doesn't seem quite right. "{Floating within eternity, source of all hearts... Hear this humble prayer, and deliver this soul from the darkness.}"

As he incants, Rezo's astral touch begins to massage the channel in a rhythm with the words of the invocation. And very, very slowly, the channel begins shifting, growing lighter and looser.

[achelord]

Ziel’s eyes snapped open almost immediately after Rexo got to work. Whatever he was doing, it hurt.

It wasn’t the pain he was used to, though. It felt like chiropractor made of lightning and fire was working on him. There was agony, but also a distant feeling of relief. Like setting a bone or burning out an infection.

Ziel gritted his teeth. Somehow, it was working! He suddenly felt prepared to endure a hundred years of this pain, if that was what it took.

[redprayer]

Rezo doesn't keep at it for a hundred years, but if Ziel endures Rezo does keep at it for a little over an hour. The entire time he murmurs various incantations in his own language, chaos words to a spell that is still in the earliest drafts as he experiments with words and intention. Raw astral energy, physical energy, and plenty of Rezo's own energy are called upon to fuel the spellwork and treat the damage to Ziel's spirit.

And yet progress remains slow. Rezo spends most of that hour just working on the one channel, clearing it and reshaping it painstaking bit by painstaking bit. And as time passes, he can feel his limbs grow heavier and his mind grow muddier with tiredness. Eventually he realizes that if he keeps it up for much longer he'll wind up severely harming either himself or Ziel. And so Rezo finally stops, involuntarily slumping forward, his hand slipping from Ziel's forehead to flop uselessly against Ziel's shoulder.

Rezo's only made the smallest of dents in the extensive workload ahead of them, but it's the best he can do for the day.

"...Ah... Hah... I think... We'll need to take a break... there, I'm afraid..."

Rezo pushes back against Ziel's shoulder and sits back, hard, in his own chair. Now that he's coming back to reality, he can feel a river of sweat dripping down his back.

"{Damn.}" He's sure he could have made so much more progress in the past!

[achelord]

When it finally ended, Ziel didn't exactly feel tired. Not in the way Rezo clearly did. The man was drenched in sweat and looked like he was about to fall over. He stared at him for a moment, concerned, but something more important tugged at him. Ziel closed his eyes and looked inwards, taking stock of his own condition.

It was still a mess. He wasn't miraculously restored. Channeling ether still felt like pulling barbed wire through his veins. Except...for one channel that had previously been unusable. It was still in bad condition, but it was working. Now that it wasn't blocked off and torn, it could actually recover on its own, like it was supposed to be able to.

There were still many more that were damaged, but that was more progress than he'd made in the last four years. He opened his mouth, but words got clogged up in his throat. He wasn't sure what to say.

"It...worked?" Reporting basic, observable facts seemed safe. His voice was hoarse. "At least a little bit. I was starting to think there was no one who could reverse the damage."

[redprayer]

"Oh. Good," Rezo says. He absently swipes a hand across his forehead.

"I'm afraid I wasn't able to do as much as I'd like... I haven't done that kind of intensive magic in many years." And as he'd told Ziel, this was experimental. Still, Rezo had hoped for more from himself... He remembers what the mazoku, Xellos, had said when they'd fought so long ago. 'Is that power really yours?' As loathe as Rezo is to admit it, it seems he really does owe a great deal of his status as a former Great Sage to Lord Ruby Eye.

Well. The Dark Lord is no longer present, so Ziel has to make do with just Rezo.

"Regardless, it seems the principles I had in mind are sound. If we continue to experiment regularly, I should be able to refine the technique and improve the efficiency. And we can keep making headway on your condition. That is, if you're amenable...?"

[achelord]

"I'm amenable, I think."

He felt like he should be happy, but he mainly felt drained. The effects of years of pain don't disappear overnight.

Still, Ziel did his best to summon up a smile. It looked a little forced, but it was better than nothing. "I haven't had much practice in being grateful, lately, but thank you for this. Genuinely."

[redprayer]

The gratitude in Ziel's words and voice settles on Rezo like a light snow, only partly sticking but leaving a trace all the same. It's hardly as effusive as the worshipful gratitude that has been bestowed upon the sainted Red Priest in the past, but it's considerably warmer than that of his fellow 'servants' when he'd forced them back to work in the Imperial work camps.

"I'm happy I was able to be of some assistance." Rezo straightens and returns the smile.

"...For now though, I think I should go make some tea." And probably wash up. And maybe take a nap- no, write down some notes on Ziel's treatment, then take a nap...