Overpowered Wizard-Chapter 254: B3: C44: Long Distance Call

“Kilt or cloak?” Para asked, as Zarian floated up into the night sky. “Or do you like me as I am? I seem to find the serpent motif a comfortable look. We really are like a chimera.”

The stars seemed to wane a little as Zarian rose a few hundred feet above the rugged fortress foothills, patches of stone forests, and various gardens sprawled around flowing river moats.

The more he elevated himself with Aura Mastery, the more the darkness of the night deepened. His presence seemed to weigh on the dark element in every place nearby, even with his seals fully engaged.

His darkness was stronger. His seals weren’t as strong as they were prior. That was a little worrisome.

Thankfully, the last week with Ruvaria taught him much on how to proceed forward in his many pursuits.

Before he got going, he first helped Para in the choice of fashion. He was glad Bianca wasn’t here right now or they would’ve gotten a full PowerPoint class.

“How about a kilt of serpents?” Zarian offered.

“Hm? A kilt of serpents? Maybe some serpents will have fingers fused with their heads. Or some will be more like bone-headed tendrils. Others can have very long and steel fangs, like combat knives. Hm. Yes. I have options. It’s almost like making art with your body.”

“As long as you don’t do too many freaky things with me. I still like the core concepts of my identity.”

“Understood.”

Para repositioned and shapeshifted from his back to around his waist. Black and dark red leather strips hung down at first. Then she reshaped them until they were more-like different serpents.

Some had mouths with long, knife-like fangs. Others had pointy, bony heads that could pierce armor. Others had faces made with claw-tipped fingers.

Then there was one that was a simple snake head that served as the buckle to the kilt. Once finished, all the serpent strands coiled and moved independently around his lower body.

Altogether, Zarian looked like he had monster serpents for legs.

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Zarian chuckled at Para’s eccentricities and constantly changing appearance. He offered some advice, such as merging some of the plain features of a ragged kilt with the serpents. That way, it could hit the right levels of uncanny without giving the game away too easily.

“Brilliant! You’re an artist, too!” Para complimented.

Para took to his advice swimmingly, making less do more. Now she appeared as a more subtle collection of various serpent bodies intermingled with thick strands of the kilt.

Most people could easily confuse the kilt with a strange article of clothing from afar. This effect would get the benefit of Zarian’s Eldritch Existence, making Para’s form harder to discern while coming across as unsettling to some. It merged well with his black elven bottoms and boots, too.

“Okay, now that we are fashionable, it’s time to see if we can do long-range contact,” Zarian said. “I know what we’re doing on our way to the Windy Strider Kingdom, but that depends on if the others need us to be more prompt.”

“Oh, interesting, can I help?” Para asked. “I’ve been thinking about how to better improve our synchrony now that we can’t unravel like before. I was thinking of weaving more of my threads through your brain synapses.”

“Sounds like a fun idea with my favorite parasite.”

Para laughed from the multiple serpent heads before proceeding with a more thorough threading of strands through his brain. He watched the process with his aura.

First, Para created thinner strands, going down to microscopic sizes. Then she carefully threaded the strands with his brain meat and along the nervous system. Finally, she used Aura Mastery without hunger aura and linked herself more to the structures of his nervous system closer than ever before.

Zarian felt something akin to static and some negative feedback that resulted in a few migraines. A trickle of blood leaked from his nose.

Para cleaned it all up with her threads before everything seemed to lie in place and the migraines disappeared. Then Zarian’s awareness of his entire body expanded, becoming more involved based on Para and all the power she drew from his stats and abilities.

Para’s perceptions expanded as well. Their thoughts ran alongside each other with a synchrony that was far better than before.

Yes, Zarian and Para had the benefits of being linked through the skill, through the Star System. But this felt like less an effort from the System, and more of a benefit of their progress as a wizard and his parasite. This was also more efficient compared to using pure aura to approach something close to perfect synchrony.

Still, this would’ve been far more difficult to do smoothly if it wasn’t for his growth in Willpower and several other buffs that made Para stronger, better, more in tune with him. Better yet, Para could easily turn off her part of the connection to give Zarian more space, like flipping a switch.

“Fine work, Doctor Para. You would make a killing as a brain surgeon back in my old world,” Zarian said.

“Your old world is boring, without magic, and filled with trauma. I think our lives, despite certain issues, are more interesting here.”

Zarian agreed.

Now that they were perfectly in sync, they could double the output on many of Zarian’s abilities except for Overwhelming Darkness and Lion Prince. Zarian didn’t even have to explain himself or think too hard, since Para was in perfect sync with him.

Together, they floated in the sky, legs crossed, hands folded in front of their naval. They closed their eyes and focused on a single shining thread among tens of thousands spread about the Walled Continent.

They could tell this thread was special for the way it shone with more activity. It was a brighter blue in the dark space between linked minds.

Once they had the right thread, they used Overpowered Times Two, but not for the skill boost. That was unnecessary. They just pushed themselves with more concentration, more effort.

They jumped from 25% to 50% added to all stats, before factoring all the other buffs. Then they cast Void Domain to alter the surrounding sky a little, triggering the buffs from Outer Planar Scourge.

The intensity of the power increase was grand. Willpower, Wonder, and Mysticism rose the most out of all five stats.

Para benefited from this directly, becoming even more powerful, which buffed Zarian’s body and made their synchrony even greater, especially with their Thematic Law/Floridian Mindset acting as a bedrock to their wizard-parasite bond.

But wait, there was more.

They summoned the Intense Arcana Hat +1. The moment the dark and crooked conical wizard hat landed on Zarian’s head, their aura prowess expanded to an incredible degree. The expansion reached out for three dozen miles because of their concentration and buffs.

That would seem like too much aura for any person to handle all at once. But not only did Zarian have a stellar partner in Para, they had one of the best traits in the universe, Aura Mastery, a legendary ability that Ruvaria had instructed them to work on advancing.

Zarian nearly ruined the synchrony when he felt tempted to use Lion Prince.

He quickly decided against it. They were powerful enough without the reality-bending skill. It didn’t mean he would ignore it for long, but he could go without it while working on more immediate concerns.

Thus, Zarian and Para took all of their aura and ran it down the network thread they signaled out. Just for kicks and giggles, they also pushed Devourer of Secrets and Stories down the thread with their aura.

They fed into their mind the journey of a long-distance network call. They could’ve used the Supreme Crystal Ball, but where was the fun in that?

Down the network thread, while using Devourer of Secrets and Stories, they saw the western banks of the Stone Sea River. They saw the demolished and weird open space where the Grimrock Castle Mountains should’ve stood. The strange, forlorn, and broken vista faded behind them quickly enough.

They saw the deep waters and rising towers of hard, dark stone, which was part of the reason the Stone Sea River had gotten its name. They saw leviathans, krakens, ships on a journey through treacherous waters, and flying monsters crossing the immense river by air. They saw creatures that were nightmarish and without purpose other than to exist as twisted playthings of an evil shadow goddess – the corrupted.

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Then, after a long journey across water and stone, they reached the other side, where the Walled Continent continued to extend eastward.

They saw a giant barrier reef of many islands. They saw fortified island towns with docks for seafaring travelers. They saw people avoiding the dangerous waves and monster-infested waters by taking to the skies by whatever means they could.

Then Zarian and Para passed over a hundred islands before reaching a giant island mass in the middle. They passed over a bustling walled city. They went past some violent protests between vagrants and powerful men with polished armor. Their vision passed through the walls of a ritzy and expensive hotel.

Then they found Hannah dressed in a high-quality and fancy robe while in a lavish penthouse room. She had dumpster-size stacks of documents surrounding her while she was flipping through research material at superhuman speeds.

Finally, they were inside of Hannah’s head where a mind spider received them.

The Runic Artificer Master froze.

She looked in the direction that the long-distance call came from. She quickly realized that was pointless, since there was a wall in the way, but that didn’t stop her heart from racing with excitement and frustration.

“Zarian!” Hannah blurted out.

Because of the long distance of the transmission, Hannah had to lend her mouth and voice for him to speak with words instead of thoughts. It felt more familiar that way, almost like how they first started when he’d proposed to put his spiders in their brains a year ago.

“Hey, Hannah Banana, it’s probably been a long while.”

Para took over Hannah’s mouth and voice next.

“I missed you, too, Hannah. It’s been quite the ordeal ever since Zarian and Naomi demolished a mountain range and damaged two moons with their dark quarrel.”

They returned full control of herself back to Hannah as she walked into the fancy bathroom that was attached to her grand penthouse suite. She looked into the mirror with a smoldering pout, her bronze-colored eyes glowing as the surrounding air became electric with her aura traits, mechanic and generator.

“I’m so upset with you two.” Hannah gripped the sink and crushed it in her grasp without thinking. She pouted down at the pathetic constructions, then quickly moved on. “You made us worried. We knew you should be fine because of the spider network, but the extent of the damages had me thinking whatever you and Naomi did had gotten so serious you, well, left us.”

All the way on the other side of the Stone Sea River, Zarian jolted in shock. He hadn’t realized Hannah and the others would feel abandoned.

Maybe he should’ve. The fight between him and Naomi had turned out extreme. Then there was radio silence right afterward.

Zarian took over Hannah’s mouth again. “I’m sorry, Hannah. Things got out of hand. We were egging each other on. Maybe Naomi more so than me, but I stopped caring and just wanted to prove a point.”

Zarian sighed through her before moving on. “So … Naomi might’ve hit Third Ignition while pushing her abilities beyond the limits of her humanity. I went up to Three Percent Darkness, and it nearly cost us the universe again. Ruvaria saved us, at a cost to herself. It’s a lot to go over like this, really.”

Hannah pursed her lips and looked at herself in the mirror sourly. She didn’t hide the relief, anxiety, disappointment, irritation, and happiness she felt. That was clear on the network.

She was cold sometimes, but she could also be warm or even feisty, too, especially with him. The fact that she was revealing so much of her emotions despite everything was both positive and painful for him.

It meant Hannah cared a lot. It also meant she really was hurt.

After some silence, Hannah tried to put on an amicable act to move things along.

“Well, we didn’t lose the universe again, thankfully. We still don’t know how many loops we have and what happened in the previous loops. I would like to receive a full report about this battle between you and Naomi. I wonder how powerful you two are compared to the rest of us now. Is it possible for me and Gilbert to close the gap?”

“Not Bianca?” Zarian replied.

“She’s her own monster now. She’s a Master Ranker, in fact. I almost want to say she’s a step or two behind Naomi. Gilbert’s at Level 99. How long will it take you to get to us now? No more detours, please.”

Both Zarian and Para felt their heart clench. They missed Bianca’s Level 100 rank up. They didn’t even know the extent of Bianca’s changes before that point, since Bianca wanted to keep it a secret until he saw her again.

Zarian sighed. “I was going to say that it might take a week. Maybe longer. I can probably squeeze it down to seven hours or fewer. My plan right now is to cruise over the Stone Sea River while practicing some stuff. I’m Level 115, by the way.”

Hannah’s mouth fell open. “We’ve been fighting corrupted and mutated moon creatures, some of which are considerably above Level 100, and I’ve only leveled up three times so far. Bianca’s gotten deadlier and more … celestial now. She’s been playing a role from every range, even to the point of safeguarding me when I’m distracted. She’s Level 102 now. Gilbert’s been struggling. I’m a little worried about him. I really hope becoming a Master Ranker will help him.”

“I’m glad that we all have the belief that we’ll become Master Rankers together,” Para said. “There is always a chance that it doesn’t happen. In fact, it is more likely not to happen to most creatures.”

“Nah, Gilbert’s done plenty of hard work. He’ll make it. It is sad to hear he’s struggling, though.” Zarian took a moment to think. “How upset is he with me?”

“Quite upset,” Hannah answered. “I also think that’s contributing to his, um, slowness. I’m trying not to overstep my bounds. I think we both know I can be a little heavy-handed in how I approach things, especially with the apparent difference we can feel as Master Rankers compared to non rankers.”

Zarian sighed through Hannah’s mouth. “I’ll talk to him. Maybe I should speed things along.”

“If you need the time to sort things out, take it.” Hannah clenched her hands in front of her stomach. “But it would be better to have you back. You mean a lot to us, Zarian. If I hadn’t said it enough already, then I’ll proudly say it again. You are both the destruction of old and the creation of something new. You, um, inspire me like nobody else. So, please, don’t leave us in the dark too long. And please don’t leave us behind, if you can. You and Naomi.”

Zarian took a while to respond. “Yeah, I know. I feel that. I’ll be there in six to five days. Without Naomi, unfortunately. I’ll explain more about that when we meet up, but know that Naomi’s okay. She just needs to rest for a while longer.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll be expecting you in ten days then. See you, Zarian.”

“Later, Hannah.”

Zarian and Para ended the long distance transmission and powered down, turning off the perfect sync. By the time they were normal, Zarian felt his brain was hot. A little blood trickled down from his nostril that Para soon cleaned up.

A lot of power had run through his head when he and Para were synchronized. Without perfect synchrony, he felt a clear separation, even if they shared the same body and mind. The space didn’t seem like much, but it was there.

Para’s way of achieving perfect synchrony was a big improvement compared to their past attempts when Zarian unraveled. So that was the good news from this long distance call.

“I feel bad,” he said.

“That’s because you care,” Para said. “Which is good, regardless of alignments.”

Zarian sighed as he looked up at the night sky. “Seven months. It feels like enough time and not enough time. Ride-or-Die Village will be done with the mythical event shortly. We’ll have to consider what it will become when an entire region belongs to our home. Then there’s the tournament. Then the whole world ascends.”

Zarian shook his head. “But before all of that … we’ll finally get to crawl the Forgotten Kingdom Dungeon. I know Hannah’s stressing herself over that, but I’m honestly excited about something that seems pretty simple to me.”

“Shall we get to training, then?” Para’s kilt body of serpent monsters and hardy strands swished and coiled around Zarian’s legs. His lion tail moved with her to an extent, although its long length made it harder to blend in.

With a small smile, he turned toward the remnants of the former castle mountains. He looked up at the conjoined moons.

Then he raised his arms to the sides and summoned spectral spiders along them. They quickly spun a more intricate gravity spell array on his back that flashed bright purple upon activation.

Zarian chanted and hand signed as dark whorls and symbols covered his arms. He finished by saying, “Cultivation” before weaving his darkness through his inner channels and gates.

Zarian didn’t stop there. He removed his wizard hat with one hand. He reached down into his kilt. Then he pulled out the mythical container that contained his cursed gift from Ruvaria.

Para used her serpent hands to unlock the box and flip the lid, revealing what was inside.

The Barbed Crown of Ravthar the Absolute King hissed and muttered with a desire to consume aura and kill the wearer. Para’s many mouths hissed in return as she grabbed it with delicate, snake-like finger protrusions.

She placed the crown on Zarian’s head.

The barbs tried to sink into the flesh of his scalp. The skin didn’t give. Zarian was too tough for the barbed crown to draw blood.

The crown tried to dive into Zarian’s body and rip away his aura. Para fought back mostly on her own while Zarian concentrated on cultivating his Overwhelming Darkness.

Things were mostly okay.

Then Zarian dismissed the arcana hat, which led to the wizard and his parasite undergoing a hellish struggle like no other.

The cultivation was still hard on him, making wizard activities difficult. The mythical cursed crown had an appetite that rivaled Para’s, especially without the help of the arcana hat.

Because of Aura Magnificence and all of Zarian’s recent growth, the act of cultivating darkness while wearing a mythical aura-cursed crown remained in the realm of possibility. The wizard and parasite carried the immense pressure that would’ve killed most others

Eventually, after hours of wrangling both the cultivation and the mythical curse, the duo found a miserable equilibrium. It would seem like the training method was fully engaged.

But wait, there was more.

Still not satisfied, Zarian reached down into his kilt again with his right hand. He pulled out Aura Slayer and placed the big black wand of a sword on his shoulder.

Since he was a glutton for punishment, he channeled his Aura Mastery through it for different sorcery effects, like lightning, fire, or even ice. These elements weren’t naturally a part of his profile, which made them hugely costly for him and Para.

But he channeled these opposing elements through the sword anyway before they finally departed.

For the next week, this would be their training, a state of constant misery. Their only relief would be to summon the Intense Arcana Hat +1 to recover their bleeding aura quickly.

Then they would dismiss it again.

They aimed to keep this training method going even if they got attacked by powerful monsters, moon-touched mutants, Shadowfell’s corrupted toys, and all that the Stone Sea River offered.

And if that wasn’t a lot already, Zarian and Para were mentally constructing training methods for Bianca, Hannah, and Gilbert. Naomi wouldn’t be here to help with that. It was up to Zarian and Para to make sure the other three were up to par.

They might end up joining the tournament with him, after all. But such a thought was getting ahead of themselves.

First, they had to cross the dangerous Stone Sea River. All while heavily weakened with their insane dark cultivation and aura training.

No sweat.