Nature spirits tirelessly channeled the primal magic of Wildspace into the Silver Tree, day and night. The tree grew steadily, its expanding root system spreading beneath the skin of the world and burrowing into the Inner Planes, where it drew nourishment from the pure elements. With that, the Silver Tree entered a long period of rapid growth.
As the divine tree flourished, the divine essence gestating within it also matured at an astonishing rate.
Skyl could feel the divine spark deep within his chest growing stronger by the day. Tempered by divine fire, his flesh and bones were gradually changing in nature. If his former mortal body had been comparable to loose gravel, it was now beginning to transform into hardened ceramic.
His physical strength increased daily. The scars and imperfections left by his wanderings through Wildspace began healing on their own, and his body steadily developed toward a state of perfection.
At the same time, Skyl could feel a hollow space gradually expanding inside him.
The body of a god of Law was the vessel of an Elden Ring.
As the cavity expanded from the size of a grain of rice to the size of a fist, an unbearable weakness and hunger crept into his heart. Skyl's arms trembled faintly, while his fingers flexed and swayed as though submerged in flowing water. His body was urging him to act.
Just as hunger drove living creatures to seek food, and cold drove them toward fire, the new instincts born from his quasi-divine body were urging Skyl to forge an Elden Ring.
By D&D standards, Skyl currently possessed no divine rank. At best, he could be considered a quasi-deity, not even a demigod. Forging an Elden Ring was the key step that would allow him to cross that threshold.
An Elden Ring was composed of Great Runes, and Great Runes were vessels of Law. Therefore, forging an Elden Ring was equivalent to forging a divine portfolio of Law.
When the Silver Tree reached ten feet in height, Skyl sensed a space of pure nothingness forming within its trunk. It grew alongside the cavity inside his body.
After merging with its divine essence, Skyl had effectively become the Silver Tree itself. That was why the space within the tree resonated so closely with the hollow inside him.
Skyl was not unfamiliar with this newborn space. It was the stone platform, a unique plane suspended between reality and illusion. It was where the Elden Ring would be housed, where Law would operate, and where the Silver Tree's Soul World resided.
The stone platform's emergence called to Skyl once more.
It was time to forge the Elden Ring.
All he had to do was close his eyes to see the stone platform.
Skyl had once visited the Erdtree's stone platform. It had been a cold, iron-gray expanse of rock beneath a silent, pitch-black sky. When the Elden Beast appeared, the entire place transformed into a mirrorlike lake, while distant phantoms of countless Erdtrees filled the heavens.
The interior of the Silver Tree was similar. It contained a desolate platform of pale marble, utterly empty beneath a lightless sky.
Skyl waited patiently for another two weeks. During that time, he occupied himself with the countless details involved in constructing Skylrael. He also began spreading contracts throughout Faerûn, gathering more Candle Flames.
Only when the trunk had grown thick enough that two people could barely encircle it with their arms did Skyl enter the stone platform in his true body.
The Silver Tree welcomed his return. Skyl merged into its trunk and became one with it.
Standing upon the cold platform, Skyl raised his head and summoned the flames. The Candle Flames hanging from the tree's crown fell into the stone platform like meteors. They converged at its center and smashed open a blazing crater.
"Lights Inside the Skull, the flame of the soul. Every divine portfolio is born from the mind. The spirit of the universe is the spirit of all living beings. Where the thoughts of countless souls converge, gods are born from storms, gods are born from fire, gods are born from love, and gods are born from death."
The pure white, formless Candle Flames produced genuine heat within the stone platform. Powerful convection currents swept through the air, making Skyl's white robes snap like banners in a gale.
He removed the door-shaped mark from the back of his hand. It transformed into a piece of glowing silver, which he cast into the fiery crucible.
Skyl would forge the door-shaped mark into the first Great Rune of his Elden Ring.
"I am the gate, and I am the key. I am the gate to every road, the mystery beyond all mysteries."
The glowing silver seemed to melt within the flames. It flowed like mercury and gathered at the bottom of the crater like a pool of clear spring water.
Skyl reached into the fire and pulled out the molten silver. The flames ignited his white robes, and the outer garment scattered like pale moths crumbling into dust, revealing his lean, powerfully muscled torso.
A short stone pillar rose from the platform. Skyl placed the molten silver upon it, summoned a stone hammer into his hand, and brought it down.
Bang!
The scattering sparks expanded into multicolored bubbles of oil that drifted into the air. Each bubble refracted the strange and magnificent light of a different star-filled universe.
"With the Gate of All Gates, I forge Law. This shall be the Supreme Silver."
Bang!
Skyl's muscles rippled beneath his skin like bundles of tightly wound metal cables.
"The roots of the Silver Tree shall merge with the gate. They will spread into the endless corners of infinite worlds and bring magic to every realm."
Bang!
"The crown of the Silver Tree shall merge with the gate. It will create planes, support divine realms, and grant my followers a place to live, where they may peacefully enjoy its fruits."
Bang!
"I am the trunk of the Silver Tree. I am its foundation and its pillar. I have stood unbroken until this day."
Skyl lowered the stone hammer. A silver-cast Great Rune now rested upon the stone pillar.
The Great Rune formed a perfect circle with a narrow, three-degree gap at its crown. A vertical line rose from the bottom of the circle and extended through the opening.
This Great Rune was the core of the Tower's Elden Ring. The circle represented the gate, while the vertical line represented the Silver Tree. Joined together like a shadow within the sun, they formed the symbol of the High Tower King.
Skyl pressed the Great Rune against his chest.
The Elden Ring entered the cavity inside his body, filling the emptiness. His divine essence merged with his divine portfolio, becoming powerful, solid, and complete.
Skyl attempted to awaken the divine essence within him. Illusory radiance immediately poured from his body, surrounding him with a colorless sphere of light.
This was the exact appearance of the High Tower King within the Tower of Tomes, the first persona Skyl had ever created.
"Not bad."
The High Tower King carefully sensed his new divine power.
Becoming a god of Law felt very different from his unrestricted existence as Skyl. He was now all-knowing and all-powerful within a prison constructed from Law. His power was immense, but it was also restricted.
That was the nature of divine portfolios. The influence divine power could exert varied enormously between different domains. If a god's portfolio was the breeze, he could not summon a hurricane. If his portfolio was justice, he could not impose tyranny.
Skyl's divine portfolio was the Silver Law. However, the Silver Law was still in its infancy, and its current divine domains were limited to gates and the Silver Tree.
Under the iron laws established by Ao, gods were forbidden from appearing upon the Material Plane. Ordinarily, Skyl would now have to travel to an Outer Plane and establish a divine realm.
Fortunately, Skyl could store his divine portfolio within the stone platform. This allowed him to circumvent the restriction and continue walking the Material Plane in his quasi-divine body, with divine power available whenever he needed it. As long as he remained within Skylrael, his strength would not diminish.
When Skyl removed the Great Rune again, it had already condensed into a silver ring.
This was his Elden Ring.
Skyl placed it upon the stone pillar used for forging.
With a thought, his damaged white robes instantly restored themselves. He then summoned an azure gate before him with effortless ease, without consuming even the slightest trace of divine power. His control over portals had advanced to an entirely new level.
He took a single step through the gate and emerged inside a house near the summit of Skylrael.
Skyl walked outside and strolled along the empty street. Whenever Avowed from Candlekeep passed him, they placed their hands over their chests and bowed respectfully, none of them noticing anything unusual about the master of the flying enclave.
Stan, however, congratulated him. His true body had witnessed Skyl's entire journey toward godhood alongside Skyl and Ao, so he understood every step of the process.
"There's nothing worth celebrating. I've merely climbed another step."
"What are you planning to do now?"
"...Mia."
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