《The Armorer and the Infinite Dungeon [Progression Litrpg]》 Ch 1. The Urbexer People often chase dreams, try to find happiness, try to attain their desires and try to find their purpose in life. I, for one, found extreme joy in chasing my dreams on the road. I fell in love with moving forward and never stopping. When I was twelve, my grandfather taught me how to repair his old, heavily modified Dnepr MT-16 in his workshop. When he became too old to drive it himself, he gifted his old motorcycle to me. Dnepr had become my best friend and companion on the road. Together we drove across my homeland of Ukraine, through the Baltic states and across Russia all the way to the volcanic peaks of Kamchatka. I had recorded every step of my journey using a camera and gained a moderate following online that funded my future adventures. My second love was crafting. Specifically, the crafting of outfits and armor. Over the years I took over the entirety of my grandfather''s old workshop, filling the small stone building with a variety of tools and materials acquired all throughout the Baltic region. The collapse of the Soviet Union had left plenty of closed factories filled with tools and supplies that could be acquired for very little money. I grew up in a generation that witnessed the rise of the internet and the fantastic amount of knowledge the web had granted me was incredible. I spent long nights watching videos and reading books about forging through the ages. Eventually, I even built a small forge in my grandfather''s old workshop. I had showcased the armor I made online, at Renaissance fairs and comic cons, winning a few awards. I didn''t craft for money, I did it for the process itself. Also, hitting things with large hammers was fun. My final love was exploration of abandoned places. I was part of the Baltic Urbex community. The internet had connected me with people all across Eastern Europe, and through them, I had gained access to all sorts of interesting, abandoned factories and cities left to decay by the fall of the USSR. Urbex was my greatest passion and also the most dangerous of my adventures. Sure, I came close to getting into terrible traffic accidents on my motorcycle on the tight mountain roads of Georgia. I nearly set my grandfather''s workshop on fire with my home-made forge. But it was Urbex that really got me in trouble because I sought the most interesting and most dangerous places to explore. From dreary Soviet cold war bunkers, to nuclear silos, to deep caverns and mines, to abandoned cities in Siberia. I''ve documented my adventures on camera and shared them via the internet for anyone to see. But nothing, nothing could compare to the thrill of exploring Chernobyl. Oh sure, there were official tours where tourists could catch giant fish in the Pripyat river, walk through the long-gone orange forest and take pictures next to the station... but such a thing wasn''t for me. I wanted to, craved to get inside the heart of it all, into the fourth reactor itself. My greatest dream was to get inside the basement of the Chernobyl power plant, to stand next to the radioactive slug called the Elephant''s Foot and to make a wish upon it. In pursuit of this dream, I made friends with various unofficial stalkers through the Urbex forums, people who were just as interested as I was in exploring Chernobyl. Over the past year I had crafted myself lead-lined armor supported by a hydraulic weight-redistribution exoskeleton for the purposes of getting into the depths of the reactor. In the dreary morning of early October, I received a call from my best friend, Pavel Babich, a fellow stalker. "Hey Yulia," he whispered conspiratorially from the receiver. "I think¡­ I found a way into the basement." "Really?" I asked, knowing exactly which basement he was talking about. "You betcha," he said. "This is an opportunity of a lifetime. One of the bulkheads has been exposed by the metal scrappers and a containment wall cracked. Meet me at Orane tonight. We''ll camp in the forest and head to the station first thing in the morning." "Sounds good," I told him. I had a quick lunch, grabbed my Chernobyl-exploration gear and got on my old, reliable Dnepr. The disassembled exo-suit fit nicely into the sidecar. The road to Orane was relaxing and peaceful. Lush green forest and autumn farm fields hugged the concrete road from both sides. A bit of rain sprinkled at me from above, but I didn''t mind. I had assembled my biking gear myself and made sure that it was extra warm and waterproof. As evening drew near, the sky cleared and the smell of gathered hay sitting in the fields on the outskirts of towns filled the air. The relaxing, pastoral landscape surrounding me looked like it came straight out of the romantic paintings of Taras Shevchenko. I got off my bike to record the rural scenery for my subscribers. "This is it," I told my audience via my phone camera. "If I''m lucky, I''ll get into the heart of Chernobyl tomorrow!" Pavel was standing next to his old rusted, orange Zaporozhets ZAZ-968M, waiting for me at the turn into Orane. He gave me a big bear hug, smelling of oil and smokes. We drove our vehicles into the deep forest, set up camp and spent the night under the stars. ¡°Why do we do this, Pavel?¡± I asked as I stared at the milky way overhead. ¡°Do what?¡± He asked. ¡°Risk our lives, sacrifice our future for some pictures of moldy, irradiated rooms?¡± I yawned. ¡°Because it¡¯s fun,¡± he answered dryly. ¡°I think it has to do with the nature of gratification. Perhaps the two of us are simply adrenaline junkies?¡± ¡°Personally, I feel at peace exploring abandoned places,¡± he commented. ¡°We are conscious of the danger, accepting the risk of potential thyroid cancer,¡± I mulled. ¡°Racing, skiing, glacier climbing, base jumping, spelunking, cave diving and etc, are all very dangerous sports which people willingly partake in. I wonder if base jumping has a higher fatality rate than urban exploration? What is it that motivates us to take unnecessary risks?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get all sociologist on me.¡± Pavel laughed. ¡°I think we do it because it gives our lives a sense of purpose in an otherwise uncaring universe that could vaporize us at any moment with an asteroid. It¡¯s as simple as that.¡± I stared up at the edge of our galaxy above us, the stars twinkling at me and slowly drifted to sleep. I dreamt that the stars had come down from the sky and danced akin to colorful fireflies around our makeshift tent. Each pearlescent spark, a memory, a kaleidoscope shard of another world, a miniscule echo of something calling out to me with the voice of my late grandfather from some impossibly distant beyond.
My phone alarm woke us up at 4am and we set out for Chernobyl on my bike. Pavel knew the way through the forest to avoid the block posts. Thick, white, autumn fog crawled through the forest, hiding our presence. In a few hours we were standing in front of Chernobyl. I bid a temporary adieu to my bike, covering it with an old Soviet camouflage tarp. We briskly walked closer to the old nuclear power plant. The Ukrainian government was working with a French joint venture NOVARKA to build a new cover for it called the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement. The massive undertaking was funded by 45 countries and organizations, but it wasn''t finished yet. The old sarcophagus beneath the new one had started to decay and a few sections had become exposed. Ruthless metal scrappers had gotten inside the plant, taking apart bulkheads, doors and electronics, cleaning the place out. Like hungry worms they drilled holes through the concrete walls to get to the good stuff. I felt pity for the people that had bought the stuff from the vile scrappers. They likely didn¡¯t know that the metal they had purchased was extremely radioactive. Desperate people did desperate things. The scrappers were digging deeper and deeper where they shouldn¡¯t, like the dwarves of Moria from Tolkien¡¯s Lord of the Rings. Except in this case, the metal thieves didn¡¯t unleash Balrog, they simply released invisible danger upon the world, poison locked within contaminated metals. "Here, that''s the cracked wall," Pavel said, pointing his flashlight at a dark crevice in the foundation of the 4th reactor basement containment wall. "That''s kinda... tight," I commented on the dark fissure. "Yeah, I won''t be able to fit," he sighed. "But you might be able to squeeze in. Just... promise me that you won''t do anything stupid inside. Come back in two hours. I''ll be waiting. Don''t walk into areas that are too irradiated." "Yep," I nodded. "I know the drill. Nothing stupid. Just going to take a few pictures and videos for my blog. See you soon." It took me a while to squeeze into the small, tight crack in the concrete wall. Luckily for me I was a rather skinny girl and kept my figure slim with a daily workout routine. Pavel passed me my thick, lead-lined suit piece by piece. I knew that I would have to leave it behind on my way back as it would be far too irradiated to take home with me. I armored up, quickly assembling the hydraulic exoskeleton lined with lead plates, draping the Bilayer Barium Sulfate¨CBismuth Oxide Composite cloth over myself. I had procured the radiation-blocking cloth from an American manufacturer and it wasn''t cheap as it was made for dentistry radiologists. The 5 mm thick lead plates were extremely heavy on their own too, but the home-made hydraulic exoskeleton let me walk while bearing them and the heavy cloth without issues. It was time to delve into the heart. I walked forward across the ruined hallways, listening to the ticks of my wrist-bound Geiger counter. I was finally in a place where no stalker had gone before. A place where no Urban explorer had delved. The deeper I went the more intense and louder the detector''s buzzing became. I ignored it, relying on my armor to protect my body. I had tested the armor several times with a Geiger counter in less radioactive locations and it blocked 95% of radiation. "It''s worth it," I whispered as I went down a very corroded stairwell. The walls became covered with nasty-looking black mold. For a second I disabled my flashlight to take an artsy picture with a ceiling-pointed camera flash and gasped as I did. The black mold glowed green in the darkness. I couldn''t believe it. This was incredible... new life had emerged in this contaminated place! It was life that had adapted to the monstrous conditions inside the ruins of the reactor. I knew that various Radiotrophic fungi were discovered in 1991 inside of Chernobyl by scientists, but I had never seen one so close to the heart of the reactor. "Incredible... I''ve never seen Radiotrophic fungi up close! Microbiologist Arturo Casadevall believed that these fungi were growing because of the radiation rather than in spite of it," I narrated to my phone. There was no signal here, but I would upload the video when I got home. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. "Radiosynthesis, the process of using radiation and melanin for energy, is unique to Chernobyl fungi," I explained to my viewers, pointing the phone to the ever-so-slightly glowing wall. I wanted to scrape some of the fungus off the wall but decided against it. As cool as this mold was, it was far too contaminated to take home and the mold would not survive very long outside of its irradiated environment. I finished my descent, heading to Room 217/2. My Geiger counter spiked. I prayed that my lead-lined suit would protect me. I passed through the broken door into the room. The beam of light from my helmet settled on a strange, lava-like formation coming from the wall. "This is it... the end of my year-long journey¡­ the Elephant''s Foot¡­ a mass of horrifically irradiated black corium with many layers, externally resembling tree bark and glass, called Chernobylite." I narrated. ¡°The lava-like, glassy material is unique to our planet, found only in Chernobyl. It formed in the nuclear meltdown of the reactor''s core.¡± I took a step forward. ¡°Discovered in December 1986, it is just one small part of a much larger mass that now lies beneath the Chernobyl number four reactor. The structure of Chernobylite is incredibly unique¡­ composed of silicon dioxide, with traces of uranium, titanium, zirconium, magnesium and graphite. The last person to enter this room in 1996 was Deputy Director of the New Confinement Project, Artur Korneyev.¡± I stared at the terrifying artifact through the suit''s lead glass lenses. My phone¡¯s display became covered in white sparks. The radiation emanating from the Elephant''s Foot was so high that it was affecting the camera! I took another step forward, sucking air in through my respirator. Just thirty seconds and I¡¯ll go. This is fine. I assured myself. Artur Korneyev took a photo of his unique formation, decades ago. He didn¡¯t die, didn¡¯t even get thyroid cancer. "Hello, great and powerful artifact," I spoke reverently, aiming my flashlight at the foot. "Please grant... happiness for everyone, for free, so that nobody can leave unsatisfied!" This was a famous quote from Brother Strugatsky''s book Roadside Picnic and would undoubtedly make Stalker fans and my viewers from across the world very happy. I bravely took another step forward. "I... Am here standing in front of you¡­ because I wish to make a difference in the world," I added. "No... I will make a difference! I swear upon death itself, upon the very heart of Chernobyl!" I was done. It was time to head home. My greatest adventure was over. I tried to turn away from the Elephant''s Foot. In that instance, something went catastrophically wrong. The hydraulics of my right foot locked up. I tried to move and found myself unable to do so. My suit failed to respond. I screamed as I slowly fell forward. My armor-covered arm touched the incredibly radioactive, crystalline surface of the Foot. My hand sunk inside of it, the glass-like crystalline cover shattering with an eerie twinkle. Total darkness had engulfed me. Did my flashlight and camera die? I didn''t feel pain, sweat or the weight of the suit. In fact, I felt nothing at all. I didn''t know what had happened. Did I faint because of excessive radiation exposure? I cursed my foolishness. I screwed up, made a fatal mistake. I reached too far towards the sun and burned away my wings like Icarus. Was I about to join the ranks of many other Urban explorers that died to satisfy a dangerous hobby? I blinked¡­ or tried to blink and saw that I was holding the cracked edge of the Foot with my hand. A very naked... hand. I let go of the radioactive rock, leapt back and found myself... gliding backwards across empty air. I looked around, bewildered. I lacked all of my weight, felt as if I was floating through space. Except I wasn''t in space. I was inside of some kind of a warped cavern. No. This was the foot, and room 217/2 viewed from the inside of the Foot, looking as if it was painted with a million glittering¡­ tiny radioactive white sparks! I looked down at myself. I was semi-transparent as if made from shimmering threads emanating from the center of my chest. With dread I realized that I was no longer a person, but an imprint of a girl... a memory, a ghost of Yulia Ishenko. The Foot had somehow pulled my... soul inside it, ripping me out of my physical body! I attempted to reach out and grab at the inverted edge of the Foot once again in panic. My hands closed over nothing. I was being drawn away from the edge by an unseen current. I struggled against the monstrous pull, watching in dread as my human shape began to decay away, only a dandelion, star-like structure remaining behind. I tried to scream and realized that I had no mouth. The pull of the current turned me around. The rest of the Elephant''s Foot looked like a gargantuan inverted tree from within. Glowing lines woven from colors I could not name formed veins of the impossible, twisted, fractal-like superstructure. I had completely lost my human shape and became smaller, more compact as I sunk into its depths. The shimmering veins made from freakish light drew me in, folded my ghostly body and my consciousness winked out.
I discovered that I was standing in a very dreary, dead forest. The trees in it were pale, white and hollow, devoid of leaves. Beneath the roots of the trees I saw twisted, gray and ossified bodies of strange beasts. The longer I stared at the trees, the more I realized that the entire pale forest around me was made from bones. A million, no... billions of bones of alien, dead creatures were intertwined together in a phantasmagoric expanse of death. The awful necropolis went as far as my eyes could see, disappearing into murky darkness. I had seen photos of the catacombs beneath Paris from my Urbex forum friends and in front of me was the ultimate ossuary magnified to mind-boggling proportions. Empty, quiet stillness was omnipresent here. Not a single thing moved. The land of bones formed dreadful, grotesque structures that glowed from within ever so slightly with a dim, silver-blue light. My own body cast a bright, blue shimmer onto the petrified corpses beneath my semi-transparent feet. This place was somewhat akin to the Ninth Circle of Hell from Dante''s Inferno because it felt hellishly cold. I did not believe in hell, but I liked perusing the 1861 illuminated manuscript illustrated by Gustave Dor¨¦ at university. Experiencing purgatory in person was not fun. The dark hollows beneath me seemed to slowly leech all warmth out of me. I felt a growing sense of unease and dread in my chest as I observed the vast, unmoving desolation. I tried to move. It didn''t work. My spectral form lacked muscles that I would ordinarily use as a human. I willed the threads composing my soul to move, to grab onto the bones beneath me and push forward. Motivated by the unnerving, increasing sensation of frost, I learned how to push myself forward bit by bit. I started to move through the still, frigid underworld, looking for a way out, desperately searching for warmth. Gravity didn''t seem to function properly in this limbo purgatory. I glided forward instead of walking, floating through the still air as if I was a dweller of the deep ocean abyss. The lifeless landscape went on forever. This place was cold, incredibly so. I didn''t know whether the dead could get frostbite and the chilling sensation in my soul seemed to grow worse with every passing moment. I saw that the tips of the threads composing my ghostly form slowly began to dim. I was getting weaker, moving slower, losing control of my phantom limbs. Suddenly, I saw something shimmering deep within an enormous dark skull eyehole. Unlike the rest of the dreary landscape, the anomaly radiated colors, casting orange and yellow refractions away from it. I cautiously floated towards the mysterious object. Upon closer inspection, it looked like an orange-yellow star with many moving threads. The threads suddenly moved, forming a semi-distinctive figure that resembled a small¡­ crying girl of indeterminate age. I floated towards the sad ghost. The girl woven from moving threads inexplicably shifted between a visual of a newborn child and a much older female that was crying. I felt a certain connection with her. She, like me, was alone, trapped in this labyrinthine necropolis. I reached out towards her with my own shimmering hand. The girl noticed me. She looked up at me. There was pain, fear and suffering in her eyes woven from ember threads. I somehow knew, understood that she was dying, the light of her life dimming with every passing second. She''s been here far longer than I. I saw that most of her body had already fused to the larger skull, ossified, became part of the landscape made of ghostly bones. She reached out to me as I reached out to her. Our hands connected with a brilliant flash and then she was¡­ gone, as if she never existed, most of her form dissolving into orange trails of sparks and vanishing smoke. I had found her far too late to help her. A brilliant something flashed from above, highlighting the entire dead forest. Its light was potent, it looked akin to a powerful pyrotechnic flare used by the army to light up the battlefield. I looked up at the inexplicable light and screamed silently as an enormous, shining comet shaped like a gargantuan, gold beetle flew towards me and closed its pincers over me, fiery claws swiftly forming a fiery, yellow cage around my body. I flailed but could not free myself as the monstrous beetle dragged me upwards through the darkness.
A powerful current shot through my chest. ¡°VITALEVI-VITA-VIVELLIATIA!¡± A booming female voice sang in cascading tones. Pain. There was indescribable pain cutting across my entire body. An enormous, wrinkly, brown hand covered in gold spiral tattoos rested on my chest, sparkling, emerald fire blooming from it. I screamed. I didn¡¯t sound like myself. I sounded like a small, crying child. My scream resonated across some kind of white, enormous, blurry space. The hand retreated. All of my senses felt smothered, broken. I couldn''t see much except for blurry, indistinct shapes and my hearing barely worked. The blurry shapes were conversing with each other in a strange, Latin-like language. It was too muffled to understand. It didn¡¯t sound like English or any of the Slavic languages I knew. I tried to speak and produced only a crying noise. Giant hands appeared once again, drawing me closer to an enormous female chest. I felt hunger and latched onto a breast, drinking greedily. If this was a hallucination, a dream and I currently lay dying on the floor of the Chernobyl plant next to the Foot, I would be extremely disappointed. I attempted to do mathematics in my head. Two times seventy four is¡­. One forty eight. Excellent! This isn¡¯t a dream. Math was impossible for me to do in dreams. I was still satisfying my hunger when I saw sparks in my eyes. I blinked. The sparks formed into letters.
Welcome to Andross, transient soul.
Solve Equation for Full System activation: 83-91-40x2-101+222+0x1=
¡°Uhhh¡­ thirty three,¡± I mentally arrived at the answer. ¡°Also, what?!¡±
[Sufficient cognition confirmed. Full System activated.]
¡°Thanks?¡± I mentally replied. Nothing followed. ¡°Hello? System? What the hell are you? What are you doing in my head? Can I have more information, please?¡± I mentally demanded, feeling utterly befuddled at the ridiculous sentences floating in front of my eyes. I felt that I had gone insane and¡­ The previous text vanished and a whole new chart blotted out my vision.
Name: Juni Tokimorim?tul
Age: 0 days since birth
Species & Subtype: Chimera spawn
Level: 0
Experience: 0/50
Health: 0.1/0.1
Stamina: 0.1/0.1
Mana: 0.1/0.1
Mana regen: 0.1m/hr
Strength: 0
Agility: 0
Dexterity: 0
Vitality: 0
Charisma: 0
Magic: 0
Luck: 0
Intelligence: 0
Wisdom: 0
What? Ch 2. The Infinite Chasm No answer was provided to me. Eventually, the strange numbers that judged my abilities faded from my eyes, and I was presented with a view of what I had deduced was my mother. A few months had flown by in the similar manner, in which I struggled to accept my new position in life. Being reduced from a fully capable and highly skilled adult to a newborn body was a huge bummer. I lamented the loss of my motorbike and my workshop, refusing to believe what had happened to me. Yet, with every passing day the reality of my situation was confirmed more and more to me. I was a newborn... chimera named Juni. A creature that was similar to a human in many aspects but also somewhat different. I had 10 fingers and ten toes, two eyes, one nose, two ears - these parts weren¡¯t that different from a human. The first difference I had noted was that my skin was unusually shiny and had a deep orange tint to it, sparkling in the light as if made from crystalline sand. Exactly the same thing applied for my new¡­ mother. Her face was covered in dark spots resembling freckles that upon closer inspection looked like dark, small crystals. By the third month, I didn¡¯t have much difficulty in accepting this new entity as my mother. Perhaps I simply had some kind of newborn-Stockholm syndrome. It¡¯s not like I could leave and I was fed and taken care of regularly. In time, as my eyes developed, I noticed other differences. My mother''s hair looked like nothing so much as rock candy on a string, where the string was black and wire-like, and the rockcandy was replaced by rubies. I liked pawing at her crystalline hair, enjoying the sight of the gems sparkling in the light. The interesting thing about her crystalline hair was that the gemstones were almost organic. I had never encountered a material like it back on Earth. Her nails were long and sharp, composed from the same crystalline, ruby-like material as her hair with the exception that it was tougher. My mother''s eyes were more cat-like than human. Her irises were bright purple. Whenever the room was dim, her pupils expanded into deep lilac-colored pools and when light shone on her face they contracted into sharp, gemstone-like slits. She also had large triangular ears sticking from between the crystalline hair. Interestingly enough, her ears constantly pivoted to the source of sound like those of a cat would. When she spoke she sounded almost human, but whenever she sang to me¡­ the sounds she made were utterly alien. Her throat somehow produced long, somber tones akin to a mixture of Orthodox church bells and the song of a whale. It gave her songs a very haunting and alluring quality, a sound that could not be ignored, especially when she sang with great passion. I was fascinated by her voice and often found myself listening intently while she fed me or performed various chores around the house. I had no idea how she was making these sounds. My own throat failed to replicate her songs no matter what I tried. My own senses were growing sharper with each passing day, becoming far better than what I had as a human. I realized that my little dark nose could sniff out hundreds of things around our dwelling. I also discovered that each smell had a different texture and color to it. This led me to believe that chimeras possessed synesthesia. The hairs on my head felt different to me, too, and even my tongue could taste the air in ways no human tongue ever could. By the fifth month I had accepted my new place in the universe as a child of the Tokimorim?tul chimera tribe. Sadly, I couldn''t even begin to pronounce the name properly. If the System and the way my mother moved through the house was anything to go by, it seemed that I was ¡°reborn¡± in a world of very agile creatures who were part crystalline-animal and part human. As my eyes developed, I was able to see further than the length of my arms. As I did, I realized how strange and alien my new home was. The walls of our house weren''t square - the entire interior of this dwelling was a very large, sideways dome-like shape made from white bone-mesh. The windows were made from some kind of a semi-transparent membrane akin to dragonfly lacewings which refracted rays of light that passed through them, casting small rainbows all over the place. Every morning and night mom opened and closed shutters over the lacewing windows. The shutters looked like they were made from giant iridescent beetle carapace. The floors were made from something that resembled soft moss. In fact, it looked like the floor was actually a living organism that changed color and texture in response to anyone walking on it. I enjoyed pawing at the floor watching it ripple and undulate with new colors. The walls of the domed room were pure white and peppered with minute holes filled with crystals, looking similar to an ammonite fossil. As I stared at the crystal-covered walls I recalled how ammonite mollusk shells crystallized over millions of years when mineral-rich ocean water seeped into the spiral shell chambers. I wondered whether a similar geological process had formed our current home. The living room of my new home was well decorated. Glass-like, diatom-shaped bowls hung from the ceiling, filled with a variety of glowing, colorful liquids and plants. When the sunlight outside dimmed, the insides of the bowl glowed for several hours keeping the home interior lit with a very soft luminescence. I theorized that the fluid inside of the bowls contained bioluminescent bacteria. There were several other rooms in our dwelling, each having its own function. There was a dining area, kitchen, a latrine, a few storage areas, and another room that served as the main entrance. There was also a separate bedroom at the front where my parents slept and kept most of their belongings. I was segregated into a small, round alcove in the domed living room. A bunch of soft, colorful, fur animal hides served as my bed. In the dining area, there was a big table made from a single upturned, polished tree root that braced a semi-transparent, thick, bug wing that functioned as the tabletop. The size of the wing had made me feel very nervous. I wouldn''t want to meet with a bug this size back on earth. In a way, it made me happy to have such a unique dining room, a place where we ate dinner together every evening. My favorite food was a type of red fruit I called a "redberry" which mom mushed and fed me. My dad was a dark-skinned chimera. His hair was formed from shiny, obsidian-like rock shards with tints of violet and blue. His yellow-amber eyes and face had feline features to it just like moms. His hands were larger than mom''s and he possessed a set of dark claws. I didn''t see him very often because he spent most of his time outside, presumably hunting while my mom took care of me. Mother held me up to the window, speaking to me. I was slowly starting to understand her language. ¡°Aivm jii lestia,¡± she pointed at the sun. I had interpreted her words as ¡°That¡¯s the sun.¡± ¡°Aivm jii Jun?,¡± she pointed at me. ¡°June,¡± I repeated, butchering my new name, unable to say the weird, bell-like, musical ? at the end of my name. Mom nodded with a sigh. ¡°Aivm jii Innii,¡± she pointed at herself. ¡°Imiiii,¡± I repeated the word that likely stood for ¡°mom¡±. ¡°The sun rises and sets, blessing us with light.¡± Her long, delicate fingers moved to physically illustrate every word for me, coming up and down and opening and closing. I tried to respond to her but only vaguely-similar sounding gibberish came out of my mouth. Making comprehensible words was still beyond me. ¡°Sun,¡± Mom repeated, looking tired and irate for some reason. It went on like this for a while, with me slowly memorizing more and more words. I was fairly decent at learning new languages, so I was slowly beginning to understand her. A few weeks later, mom finally took me outside. First thing I noticed upon exiting the house was that the balcony leading from the interior of our house resembled a semi-flat surface framed by enormous, jaggedy teeth. Oh. Hang on¡­ We were living inside of a giant¡­ dragon skull?! The teeth and the jaw were decayed, worn out and darkened by time, covered in mosses and lichen, but I could definitely recognize that it was the maw of some long-dead, gargantuan monstrosity. Mom brought me closer to the edge of the mouth. ¡°The light of the sun reaches into the deepest levels of the Chasm, carried by the magic of the clouds." She lifted me closer to the edge of the teeth and I looked down. It was a mistake. Our skull-home hung from the side of a nearly vertical wall. Other houses like it also hung from the mountain-side covered in green moss. The mountain descended down and down and down. There didn''t seem to be an end to it... the chasm below our house was bottomless as far as my eyes could determine. As my mind processed the view I yelped in fear, trying to retreat away. Mom pulled me back. She looked VERY upset by my behavior. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°Juni, why are you afraid of the Chasm?¡± She asked. ¡°No end,¡± I mumbled as a response, trembling. She sighed and brought me back to my alcove bed, leaving me there alone. She walked away from me, shaking her head. I sniffed quietly. I didn¡¯t understand what was it that got her so upset. The Chasm below our house was terrifying! How did she not understand that? The next morning she brought me to the balcony once again, but this time thankfully she didn¡¯t hold me over the edge. "The skyriver flows from the Chasm," Mom said. "It keeps our men flying. Look, it''s your Dad!¡± I saw numerous male chimeras laughing as they passed by the village on fluttering, glittering glider wings. Their hands held bows made from large bones. It was a hunting party. Mom started to describe various beasts that they hunted down and defended the village against. Yep, there were giant monsters out there. Enormous creatures of all sorts that attacked the hunter parties, just as chimera men hunted down smaller creatures. I often saw truly monstrous things rising sometimes out of the clouds beneath. They looked like enormous Eastern dragon-like flying millipedes. Whenever giant flying monsters appeared in the distance, a resonating whistle resounded across the village and mom rushed inside and pulled the shutter beetle-wings closed. I guessed that the pearlescent shutters acted akin to an illusion of eyes inside of the skull as they reflected the sun and glowing clouds that drifted by. The clouds within the Chasm functioned as described by mom. They somehow reflected the sun and projected it on lower levels of the abyss, keeping the entire vast space lit with a constant, soft glow that only faded at night.
One day, we ran out of our store of dried roots and berries. Mom didn''t leave me in the living room. She put dark, leather, hand-woven armor on herself, setting me inside of a pack on her back and climbed out of the house through the front door. I tried not to scream in terror as she climbed around the outside of the house, gripping with her hands to the bone-mesh walls eventually reaching the stone wall covered in lush vegetation. Nothing except for thin-ass straps separated me from the endless-seeming abyss below. Mom didn''t pay attention to my whimpering and continued climbing around the house. Soon enough, she reached a rocky outcropping platform whereupon she dug through the ground for roots, sniffing and letting her nose guide her. As she stuffed the roots into her pack and stood up to her full height I saw that the wall of the chasm that we were living in endlessly curled outwards in both directions. Numerous azure waterfalls cascaded from hanging mountains above into the vast chasm below us. It was beautiful and indescribably terrifying at the same time. Blue sky was high above us, but all around us was the chasm. I couldn''t even see the other side of it, the gargantuan void that we were living in was staggeringly vast, seemingly more than a hundred kilometers in circumference! Back on Earth, I wasn''t afraid of flying or of heights, so why was I so afraid of some stupid ass bottomless Chasm? I tried to understand my fear as I looked down. The problem seemed to be in the bottomless-ness of the damn thing. Whenever the spiraling, gargantuan, glowing clouds parted I could discern various formations, ridges and notches in the wall as it went down. Some of them looked as big as Mount Everest and looked like they had rivers and forests on them. Just a single ring of ridges looked as if I was looking at a view from a high flying airplane. Overall, it was a freaky, impossible view that went down and down and down without an end in sight. At that moment, I understood that I wasn¡¯t afraid of heights¡­ I was afraid of infinity! I had Apeirophobia. Or something like it, anyway. I wasn''t afraid of staring at a night sky on Earth, which was technically infinite too. Simply put, back on Earth I had never encountered something truly as insurmountable and vast as the inexplicable Chasm of this world. There was bone-chilling wrongness about it. Imagine if you will, an entire landscape turned 90 degrees that goes on forever and then you might arrive at an approximation of what I was seeing. Something so big and deep simply had no right to exist! A thing like the Chasm couldn''t possibly be on a planet like Earth because very hot magma flowed beneath the crust. Was Andross magma-less? Did the Chasm lead to a hollow world or a dyson sphere? Was this planet shaped like a doughnut... maybe? Were we living on the edge of the hole of the aforementioned planet-sized doughnut? Perhaps my fear was from observing impossible geometry, the way each ring of clouds warped when they or I moved. I felt that I was staring at a Lovecraftian monstrosity that featured utterly anomalous, alien properties that my mind simply glitched out from. The closest thing I had experienced to this effect on Earth was a mildly unnerving feeling when looking at paintings of MC Escher or other eye illusion art. I shuddered. It was simply freaky and unnatural and my brain refused to accept it no matter how hard I tried to convince it that it was fine. Viewing the Chasm directly was akin to staring at an ocean of spiders. . . . Weeks passed as I grew. I watched as the hunters flew by, following the skyriver current up into the sky and then dove down towards the forested chasm-sides. I wanted to defeat my fear, wanted to fly. I wanted my own wings, just like those that my father wore. However, aside from my fear of the Chasm, a potential problem was beginning to manifest itself before me - as far as I could tell, there were no girls flying on bug wing gliders out there as far as I could see. Mom, for her part, took care of the home. She was constantly maintaining and polishing dad''s glider wings, weapons, and armor. Every item inside the house was made from insect parts put together by my mom - there was no specialist mass production or even basic forging as far as I could determine. Mom didn''t use tools for her job, relying on her strong hands and sharp claws to craft simple lattice-weave clothes from various monster bits. It reminded me of medieval basket weaving. As time passed, I learned to communicate better, expressing a desire to learn from whatever mom was doing around the house. I watched her diligently as she worked, and tried to imitate her. She''d smile at my attempts. "You''ll get there soon enough," she''d say. "It''ll be a while before your hands are quick enough to weave spiderfly silk or strong enough to bend the Sendarkan carapace into shape." I nodded to her. She was right. It would take me tons of practice and a lot more strength to produce anything of value. Every evening I watched as she prepared the dinner, and I wondered why it was that we couldn''t eat meat like my father. He loved to hunt, bringing home creatures that he killed. I watched mom skin and butcher them, then prepare the meat into various dishes. The smell alone was wonderful. After watching her cook, I decided to grab a slice of meat from the table. "No." She slapped my hand. "Meat is for our hunter. Roots and berries are for us girls." I sighed wistfully. Being born a girl in a hunter-gatherer society was starting to get on my nerves. My ¡°experience¡± was ticking up very incrementally and painfully slow. After months of being alive it sat at 47 points. I wondered what would happen when I reached 50. As far as I could tell, chimeras lacked an understanding of mathematics such as multiplication or long division¡­ so their System was most likely locked. I had no idea what this meant. Did my mathematical knowledge from earth make me special? Could I somehow use the system to get strong enough that I could overcome the local patriarchy rule and learn how to fly? I really didn¡¯t want to be confined my entire life to an in-skull lifestyle raising children. I had to figure out how to optimize gaining experience. What exactly was ¡°experience¡±? Doing mundane baby-things like learning how to talk and walk was useless in terms of bringing up my XP. It was ticking up painfully slowly and I had no idea why, so I couldn''t optimize my gains. To bring up my status chart all I had to do was say something along the lines of ¡°define self¡± or ¡°stats¡±. As I did, the menu flashed at my face:
Name: Juni Tokimorim?tul
Age: 7 months
Species & Subtype: Chimera spawn
Level: 0
Experience: 47/50
Health: 0.5/0.5
Stamina: 0.6/0.6
Mana: 0.1/0.1
Mana regen: 0.1m/hr
Strength: 0
Agility: 0
Dexterity: 0
Vitality: 0
Charisma: 0
Magic: 0
Luck: 0
Intelligence: 0
Wisdom: 0
I didn¡¯t understand why the System defined things like my Intelligence and Wisdom as zero. Also, did I have no Charisma as a cute baby? Was I an ugly child or something? It just didn¡¯t make much sense to me. Surely, I knew a lot more than a zero sum of information? Surely I had the wisdom and knowledge of an adult, not a newborn? Did the system judge my body instead of whatever my soul was? How could my overall health of my body even be defined with a 0.5? Surely, I was a healthy child. Or maybe the System simply sucked at evaluating me. I tried to move around as much as I could to increase the amount of my stamina through exercises. It didn''t work. The value labeled ¡°Magic¡± in the chart told me that someday I would be able to do magic. Alas, neither of my parents seemed to do any sort of magic so it would have to be something I had to figure out myself. My imagination kept me from succumbing to boredom. I recalled forging and the various processes involved in the shaping of metals and materials through hammering, pressing, or rolling and considered how I could make myself new tools out of monster parts so that I didn¡¯t have to rely on my hands alone. Even having scissors and a needle would make a difference! Perhaps a crossbow would put me ahead in terms of firepower? The mystery of the bottomless chasm called out to me every time I looked out of the eye-hole windows of my skull home. I wanted to know what life was like outside, above the walls of the pit. I wanted to know what mysteries existed in its depths. I wanted to build myself a new workshop, restore everything that I had lost when I touched Chernobylite and fell through a crack in the universe to a whole new, monster-filled world. Ch 3. The Shaman I recently turned seven months old and under mother''s directions and encouraging jabs I''ve mastered walking and talking. As I had discovered, chimera grow up about three to four times faster than humans. As I reassessed my size and looks in the large, polished surface of one of the walls that functioned as a mirror, I noted that I was about as big as a four-year old human girl. Mom crafted me a few simple dresses out of dark, thin, monster pelt straps. I started wearing them everyday, looking like a little savage princess. My own gemstone mane had grown and crystalized over the passing months. It was the color of crimson rubies, just like mom''s. The texture of my crystalline hair was inexplicably soft and yet very glossy, sparkling on my head like a ruby-covered crown. Under mom''s supervision I trimmed some of it off and left it out on the windowsill. After a while, the gems hardened, becoming very tough, while the black string holding them together remained elastic. In a way, I was my own gem-growing lab. Using them, I decided to make basic jewelry out of my hair such as bracelets and necklaces. Mom had approved as apparently doing such was very common among chimeras. On a day of a gloomy snowstorm, I gave the first bracelet I made to my dad as a good luck charm for the hunt. I had no idea how he felt about me, since we don''t talk much, but at the very least he was now wearing something I made. I wasn''t sure if his stoic behavior towards me was just how he normally behaved, or if chimera familial relationships were simply like this. Thanks to my strengthening claws I''ve managed to successfully climb all of the interior walls of our skull-house, investigating every nook and cranny. The ceiling continued to elude me as I simply wasn''t strong enough to hang off it. I will get you someday, ceiling! Mom assembled a rope netting for me in the side of the living room, which I have been practicing on. "You can do it, my little sunrise!" She said encouragingly as I attempted to defeat the ceiling for the hundredth time. My grip was simply insufficient. My hands slipped and I fell down towards the net beneath with a squeal. Mom laughed. Not funny, mom! Seriously! I glared at her, eyes filled with angry tears. She laughed even more. There''s no justice in this world. Yet I must try again, because the girls climb while men fly. I suspected that soon enough I would be forced to climb things outside and will have to deal with my apeirophobia. While the view from the teeth-filled balcony was quite epic in terms of mountain vistas filled with cascading waterfalls and mossy valleys to the brim, looking down was still beyond me. I fearlessly drove my bike across Chechnya and Georgia and hiked below the slopes of mount Elbrus and yet... the Chasm beneath our home was nothing like the mountains of Earth. Whenever I looked straight into it, my mind simply struggled to embrace its impossible vastness. It felt immeasurable, insurmountable, unconquerable. Mom started taking me outside more and more. She knew that I was terrified of the Chasm and decided to help me deal with it by introducing more Chasm into my life. She took me to the sideways forest surrounding the chasm. The trees here were strong, much stronger than those on earth. All vegetation here clung to the nearly vertical wall. As mom climbed through the extensive network of roots she pointed out various creatures from big and small that lived in the sideways-woods and taught me to recognize them. With every expedition that she took me on to collect various plants, she taught me the names of every bug, plant, and tree. I was expected to identify them. As I struggled to memorize all of the new things around and to say their names correctly she got progressively annoyed and irritated with me. I didn''t like it when she got mad with me. Whenever she snapped at me because I couldn''t immediately recall some obscure plant name I mentally closed inward and lamented about everything I had lost on Earth. . . . One day, she climbed to a lower level of the chasm, a few hundred meters down and showed me the giant trees and animals that lived in the upside-down woods that clung from a large pyramidal rock that extended outwards from the side-wall of the chasm. It was the most bizarre thing I''ve seen. There, in the upside down patch of forest other chimera girls were present. Some of them carried their children in belt backpacks, others were by themselves and some mothers had their girls climbing along with them. Mom took me out of the backpack straps and sat me down on a large branch. I immediately clung it for my dear life because beneath me there was nothing but the endless Chasm. "Juni, stop it," Mom hissed angrily. "Be brave in front of others. Don¡¯t embarrass me!" I let go of the bark beneath me, trying to calm myself. It wasn¡¯t working. My heart was beating madly. I looked around, trying to distract myself from the stress. I saw other chimera kids as they played around, amongst the branches like little monkeys. They were merrily picking on each other, fighting or chattering. Not a single one of them was afraid of the chasm like me! I saw a girl who looked to be around four years old carrying a large pack on her back. The young chimera followed her mother as she climbed across the rock face without a single worry. There were no boys at this gathering. It confirmed to me that the chimera society was heavily segregated. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. An old-looking, slightly wrinkly chimera had approached us, gracefully traversing the enormous branch. Her dark-gray, crystal hair was very long, far longer than the others. It was also somewhat dim and matte in appearance, not as reflective. She wore a long, dress-like outfit woven from gold and brown flakes. An ossified corpse of a yellow bug held her wrist in its embrace. The bug was covered in reflective, bewilderingly complex, gold patterns. A large red gem sat within the bug''s semi-hollow body. The old chimera''s brown-tinted skin was covered in gold spiral drawings. The tattoo patterns on her body were incredibly elaborate, reminding me of the tattoos worn by Maori Polynesian people from New Zealand. Judging by the way she was dressed and presented herself, she was most likely the local shaman. The chimera shaman eyed my mom as she stepped forward to us on the wide tree branch. "So, this is my little Juni, yes?" "Yes." Mom nodded with a deep bow. ¡°Thank you for saving her life, High-Cendai.¡± "It has been quite a while since I''ve seen you, Ambriia. Why is that?" Mom looked embarrassed at the question. The old woman stepped closer, observed me. "You should have come to the meeting grove sooner. Is there something wrong with your little spawn, perhaps? Something that you¡¯re embarrassed about?" I squinted at the old chimera. What was she implying? There was nothing wrong with me! "She''s¡­ a tad slow to learn the names of everything," Mom confessed after a deep pause. "She''s¡­ obstinate in her pronunciation too. She''ll catch up, I''m certain¡­ I just don¡¯t understand why she is like this." The old chimera grunted. "Well, let''s hope so. It seems that she''s quite the amxituaii. Aren''t you Juni?" I didn''t answer. I just stared at her, confused. I had no idea what the ¡°amxituaii¡± word meant. Why was the old chimera addressing me like I was a lot older? Was I supposed to reply or keep pretending like I¡¯m a clueless seven-months old child? I glanced at other kids my age around the upside-down forest. They were actively talking to each other! Damn it. Chimeras learned to talk and walk a lot faster than humans! "Don''t you speak, child?" The old chimera pressured me for answers. I was silent, not sure how to respond. "You''re not mute, are you? I thought as much. You don''t have the look of a mute, so what''s the matter?" "She''s still very young, Eunice," my mother muttered. "What is it, then?" The old woman persisted, ignoring my mom. "Do you not know how to speak? Are you unable to say anything? At least nod if you understand me." "I know how to speak," I said. "Oh good," Eunice smiled. "Bringing this one back from death wasn''t a total loss." Mom nodded with a sigh. "Can I ask you a question?" I said finally, trying to be polite. The old chimera turned to me, her head cocked to the side. "Of course, of course, Juni. I''m always happy to answer a question from my little monci-cendai." I hesitated. Presumably the last word meant something like little cousin¡­ little girl? maybe? "Eunice, I was wondering..." I stopped. "Wondering what?" "How exactly did you bring me back from the dead?" I finally asked. "Oh, well, it was quite easy and also hard. I was given the opportunity by the gods. It''s true that I didn''t expect to find you, but I did. It was the right thing to do and I¡¯m now very glad that I did," she rambled. "Find me where?" I asked, trying to comprehend the slightly odd structure of her sentences. "In the land of the dead, of course. When you stopped breathing, your soul was lost, it had drifted away to the Still Forest... but I got it back." Eunice smiled. "So you best not disappoint me." "Got my... soul back how?" I continued my interrogation. The old chimera tapped the bug-bracelet on her wrist. "This is my focus tool. Her name is Enni. She dove for me into the land of the dead and caught you, fished you from the Still Forest." I looked at the dead bug held by the bracelet. Right. Things started to make sense. I looked at Eunice''s hand. It was covered in the same circular tattoos as I had seen upon my birth. In fact, it was the same hand! Original Juni must have died upon birth, likely strangled by the umbilical cord or had another issue. From what I recalled around half of humans died as children before modern medicine started to aid properly with childbirth. Because of it, the average lifespan of a hunter-gatherer was around 31 years old. "Spend time with your friends Ambriia," Eunice ordered, shooing my mother away from me with a flick of her bug-bracelet wrist. Mom bowed and departed, leaving me alone on the branch. I immediately grabbed onto the bark once again with my hands. "You are... different!" Eunice observed my panicked motions. "You are afraid of the Chasm?" I nodded, trembling. I was exposed pretty quickly by this experienced chimera. Would she kick me off the branch into the Chasm for being¡­ different? "It is not often that I am able to bring a child from death," Eunice continued. "But when I do... they can become like me." "Like you?" I blinked. "A speaker for the Allmother," Eunice declared. "A high-cendai. I can tell that you are special, a new leaf." "A new leaf?" I asked, trembling. "Cendai?" "Yes," Eunice nodded. "I can hear it in your voice. Your pronunciation is wrong, erratic. You do not know how to say the words properly. You do not know how to sing with your soul. It is Seeeeaaa-Seeaennn¨CDaaaiiiinn,¡± she sang slowly for me, the single word expanding into three distinctive musical tones accompanying the syllables. I looked at the shaman¡¯s lips as she sang. She was somehow making impossible whale noises, just like my mother. I had no clue how she was doing that. ¡°She who has witnessed the Still Forest and returned from the place where the dead dwell forevermore with power,¡± the shaman explained. "Why would I know the words? Why is so much expected of me?" I asked. "Ordinarily¡­ chimeras inherit the memories of their ancestors,¡± she explained. ¡°A mother''s soul shard passes into her daughter. A father¡¯s soul-shard passes into his son. We are akin to a tapestry covered in knots, a chorus of memory that stretches endlessly into the depths of the past. I can see it in your eyes, in the way you move, in your fear of the Chasm. Your mother''s shard was clearly lost in the land of the dead. You do not remember, cannot recall your mother''s tongue. You have learned it instead. It has been seven months and the memories of our tribe have not awakened in your soul. You''re a lost segment, a knot torn away from the greater tapestry of the tribe." I gulped. "Your mother is undoubtedly getting frustrated with you as my mother was frustrated with me," Eunice demurred. "This is normal. You must accept it and endure, broken chain. Before you lie many new branches of the all-tree, many new paths. These are paths inaccessible to your parents. While they have the memory and experiences of their ancestors to depend upon, they are also bound by their ancestral memory, tangled up by the chorus that they carry. You will be misunderstood, not accepted by others... but also you might be able to bring change to our tribe." "Change?" I muttered. "Change can be good or bad," Eunice nodded with a smile. "Change can strengthen or weaken our tribe. Do not be afraid. I will nurture you. I will set you on the right path. I was the one to bring you from death... and so I will be your Master." I didn''t like how she looked at me with a wide, smirk made of sharp, shark-like teeth. Ch 4. Dreams of Chernobyl I pondered whether I should tell the old chimera shaman aka "Sei-Sen-Dai" whether I had memories from another world. I decided against it, since I wasn''t sure how such a declaration would be perceived by her. The bug bracelet on the high-cendai''s wrist scintillated from within, leaving a ghostly, unnerving afterimage in my eyes. "Can I tell my mom that I''m... a broken chain?" I asked her, trying not to stare at her sorcerous implement. "Best not," Eunice said. "She might throw you into the Chasm if she learns that her soul-shard is not in you. Although... some of the memories must have remained in you because you''re not a complete blank slate. It took me a long time to learn the language of our tribe. My mother beat it into me with a very heavy stick over the years. If you wish to avoid such a fate you best learn quickly my monci-cendai." I shuddered. "What''s monci?" I asked. "Moiin-Chiiiii," the old Chimera sang. "She, who is young and promised to me." I wondered momentarily if "monci-cendai" translated into the shaman''s apprentice. "I belong to you?" I inquired, quavering ever so slightly. "You have belonged to me since your rebirth, broken chain." The high-cendai nodded. "Your mother and I struck a pact. We had agreed that I would attempt to bring you back to life with my song-spell for the cost of you becoming my monci." "Does this mean you''ll take me away from my parents?" I looked at the grinning shaman. "No, little one. I have no patience nor the time for raising children. You will help your mother until you are of marrying age and then you will belong entirely to me as my monwai." ¡°Monwai?¡± ¡°She, who is of age and belongs to me,¡± the shaman explained. ¡°Until then we shall meet every seventh day for your education. I¡¯ll have your mother bring you to my dwelling. Good tomorrow for now, we shall see each other in five days'' time.¡± I watched Eunice as she departed, walking on the tree branch far too gracefully for someone her age. On one hand I was very excited. I would finally learn magic. Magic! If I could define what magic was then maybe I could improve upon it with the scientific method. On the other hand Eunice didn¡¯t seem like a very nice person¡­ err¡­ chimera. She basically purchased me from mom for the price of saving my life. At the very least her motivations made sense - it seemed that the tribe was too conservative due to what I now understood as ¡°Genetic memory¡±. I recalled a lecture that I had at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. In it, my biology professor Dr. Shukhevych talked about a theory of Richard Wolfgang Semon, a German zoologist and evolutionary biologist. Semon was a memory researcher who believed in the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Inspired by the Greek goddess Mneme, the muse of memory, Semon called the memory passage theory the "mnemic trace" or ¡°the Engram.¡± Semon also referenced the Phonograph, the first machine created by people to record sound to explain the uneven distribution and revival of engrams. Semon¡¯s Engram theory had been confirmed with recent neuroscientific research. Mice trained to fear a specific smell passed on their trained aversion to their descendants, which were then extremely sensitive and fearful of the same smell, even though they had never encountered it, nor been trained to fear it. Engrams were also related to Samskara, a fascinating Indian belief in mental impressions, recollections, or psychological imprints aka soul rebirth. As I sat upon the branch I pondered whether I myself was just an Engram of a girl named Yulia Ishenko, a total mnemic imprint of what I was that had somehow been preserved, captured by the incredibly unique crystalline structure of Chernobylite. Did I really perish in Chernobyl or was I just a copy of myself? What was definitely clear to me was that my full Engram had somehow found its way to another world and ended up in the body of a newborn chimera thanks to the machinations of the local shaman who wanted an apprentice. Were local Engrams passed from parents to children part of natural chimera biology or were they a specific type of magic known by the tribe? Could I perhaps define the value of an Engram with the System? I needed to know more! After a short while, mom returned to my side. "Hey mom... The high-cendai explained everything," I said. "What did she say? Does she approve of you?" Mom asked curiously. "She will teach me to become a cendai." I nodded. "Thank the All-mother, my daughter isn''t a complete deadroot." "Hey I''m perfectly capable..." I muttered. "No, you are not, Juni," mom chided me. "You are still afraid of the Chasm. This fear will do you no good. Even a momentary hesitation is dangerous when a Hexabeak dives towards you from the skyriver! Do not think of yourself as privileged or special just because the high-cendai has chosen you. The wild beasts will not care for your tutelage. They feast on gatherers, hunters and cendai alike!" "I understand, mom." I nodded. "You must learn to purge the fear of the deep from your heart. The tribe will not tolerate a cendai that is too scared to look down," she hammered in her point. I sighed. "Alright, I''ll try," I promised. "Good." Mom nodded. "Now let us return home before the sun sets." She turned around and I climbed into her pack.
I awoke from a dreamless sleep. Something was crawling atop our home making a tapping noise on the bony roof as if a hundred blades were rapidly moving across the skull. I glanced at the beetle carapace shutters. They were closed. I tried to return to sleep but the skittering persisted. I felt too spooked to fall asleep. I sat up and peered into the darkness. Since my eyes were more akin to a cat than a human, I observed a grayscale view of my little bedroom alcove which was connected to the living room. "Mom?!" I called out. There was no answer. One of the shutters started to wobble. A long, black claw entered into the tiny space, cutting right through the wing membrane. It slid between the shutter and the bone-window, trying to pry it open. I jumped out of my bed and rushed over to the window. Just as the shutter began to peel open I pulled on the leather belt tied to the shutter with all of my weight. The sharp edge of the beetle''s carapace sliced off the black claw at a joint. Gray fluid splattered across my face. The monster outside of our house screeched noisily, retreating. I picked up the broken black claw. It was almost akin to a small black sword in my arms. Damn!
[50/50 Experience optimum reached! Initiate level up?]
The System suddenly chimed. So, attacking monsters was rewarding in terms of experience. "That was well done, Juni." I heard my mother''s voice. I spun around with a small squeak. I didn''t even hear her get up or step towards me. She was standing close to me, her ears twitching in the direction of the now distant skittering. "That''s a nightcrawler," she commented, eyeing the obsidian claw in my hand. "It will be back. I''ll let your father know about it. He will track its scent and kill it while it sleeps during the day. "No," I said. "No?" She raised an eyebrow at my declaration. "I... want to kill it," I said. "You are a girl. Girls do not hunt." She shook her head. "I''m not going to hunt it or chase it around," I said. "If it will be back... I can set a trap for it." "A trap?" She tilted her head at me. ¡°See how the beetle carapace shutter sliced off its claw?¡± I showed her the black claw dripping with black ichor. ¡°I can set up something like it¡­ but a lot stronger.¡± ¡°Stronger?¡± She blinked. ¡°Your father sleeps deeply during the night so that he can hunt effectively during the day. It is far easier to kill the nightcrawler during the day when it is blind.¡± If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°I won¡¯t be involving dad in this,¡± I shook my head. ¡°Then how will you overcome the nightcrawler?¡± She inquired. ¡°I will use the power of a¡­ bent tree,¡± I explained. "A bent tree? I don¡¯t understand.¡± ¡°A tree bent by force will try to spring back into its original shape,¡± I explained. ¡°I can use a leather belt to hold a tree down and unleash the force of a bent tree against the nightcrawler.¡± ¡°I would not have thought of doing such a thing," she said, squinting at me. "Eunice said that being a cendai requires... original ideas," I muttered. "Ah." She nodded. "Very well. I won''t get in your way then." She didn''t look like she believed that I could set up a trap for the nightcrawler. She, like the rest of the girls in her line, were good housewives and didn''t possess the skills necessary for making traps. She believed that I would fail. I would have to prove myself to her, show her that I was worthy of being the tribe¡¯s future shaman. I was sick of being looked down upon. "Thanks, mom." "Go back to sleep, Juni. We will have to fetch kimyajzty berries tomorrow morning." "Okay," I nodded. I returned to my bed and closed my eyes. I kept twitching at every minute noise coming from the outside, my mind obsessing over the sounds of the night, adrenaline rush refusing to let me fall back asleep. ¡°System?¡± I whispered. ¡°Level me up.¡±
[Level up to LV: 1!]
The system flashed. The words collapsed into sparks in my eyes which turned into a symphony of noise. An ethereal chorus entwined, filled my entire mind. A strange feeling overwhelmed my small body along with the rising and falling tones. The sound stretched on, sounding like it was nearby and distant at the same time. It sounded like the ticks of the Geiger counter mixed with gregorian chants. The noise was memorable, refreshing, nostalgic, and rewarding at the same time. It suddenly felt like blinding bliss was emanating from within me, like stabbing all-consuming pain ignited all over. An indeterminate, entirely new sensation that I couldn''t quite comprehend came over me and my consciousness folded in on itself.
I was dreaming. I knew that I was dreaming because the world was blurry, dim, indistinct, warped and lacking color in places. I found myself swim-walking through the control room of the 4th reactor of Chernobyl. The row of control panels in front of me were blurry and kept swimming in and out of focus, levers and switches multiplying, shifting around in my vision. Broken, white halogen lamps warped, growing elongated, shifting into mushroom-like structures. My steps felt slow and heavy as if I was moving through a thick, yet invisible, imperceptible pressure of deep water. I had often dreamed of this place because Chernobyl was one of my obsessions. Even though this control room was dead, it was still a symbol of the Soviet legacy in Ukraine, an alluring and terrifying technogenic scar that was permanently left upon my homeland that would not heal for a thousand years. In my mind, the Elephant''s Foot was the heart of Chernobyl forged from its catastrophically changed reactor¡­ while this control room was its brain. The control room of the fourth reactor came into better focus as I approached it. It looked almost correct, almost like Chernobyl, but also not really. Upon inspection everything looked unnerving, wrong, slightly off. Electrical panels were shattered and numerous wires crawled across the tables like myriads of torn spiderwebs. I knew that this view, this idea of a place, was woven together from my memories of various abandoned Soviet megastructures filled with decay and ruin. Motes of emerald dust lazily floated through the air. The panels themselves and the lights overhead flickered with a pale green light, casting eerie, fluctuating shadows. This control room was dead... but it was also alive, necromanced into being by my unconsciousness. The broken panels and dials hummed, as if they were waiting for something... waiting for me. I took another step forward and the green panels suddenly reshaped themselves into suspiciously distinctive, very specific tables with light-bound numbers blinking beside them. The glowing numbers reminded me of the Nixie Tube Clock that I had built with the aid of one of my engineer buddies. As I looked at the lines of text next to the nixie tube numbers I suddenly recognized the System.
Name: Juni Tokimorim?tuti
Age: 7 months
Species & Subtype: Chimera spawn
Level: 1
Experience: 0/200
Health: 1/1
Stamina: 1/1
Mana: 1/1
Mana regen: 1 m/hr
Strength: 0
Agility: 0
Dexterity: 0
Vitality: 0
Charisma: 0
Magic: 0
Luck: 0
Intelligence: 0
Wisdom: 0
Investiture points 5
The Investiture dial with number [5] on it dimmed and flashed rapidly, the pulse intensifying. On some subconscious level I suddenly realized what I had to do. The System wanted me to choose, to direct my evolution while I slept! Of course. I was in the process of leveling up and because I had unlocked the System with math¡­ I could now select which parts of myself could be improved first. Interesting! I thought about what I needed¡­ what I needed to defeat monsters without having to hunt for them. Traps. I needed to build traps, like my grandfather had taught me! To build traps I needed more agile, more capable fingers. Dexterity? Yes. I needed more power in my hands! I reached out and spun the dial next to Dexterity. The chart changed immediately, now showing that:
Dexterity: 1
Investiture points: 4
Sweet! I cranked the dial all the way up.
Dexterity: 5
The Investiture points line suddenly dimmed. Whoops. Guess that¡¯s it. Well, that was fun. I heard the ethereal music once again. I felt my arms thrumming. I lifted them to my face and noticed that they were woven from tiny, transparent silver threads. I felt, saw five shimmering, gold lines of power, akin to miniature aurora borealis that flowed from the center of my chest. I felt that I could guide them to a place I needed them most. Based on some sort of a sixth sense of knowing approximately how the gold threads functioned, I mentally directed the five slowly growing gold threads into my hands. I led two threads into my left hand and three into my right. I guided them into the shape of a mechanism that would reinforce my joints, muscles and ligaments. I based parts of its structure on the joints of my exoskeleton suit that I had built for exploring Chernobyl. As I finished shaping the threads, I noticed that my [Stamina] value dropped to [0.15/1]. Hrrm. The five threads settled into place. The gold mechanism inside my right hand was a little bit brighter and stronger than the one in my left. I decided to call it a [Pneumasomatic Actuator], since it was sort of similar to the pneumatic actuators in my exoskeleton armor. Also, the word ¡°Pneumasomatic¡± sounded cool in my head. I was relatively sure that I had encountered it once in an obscure book. It was made up from the Greek word ¡°Pneuma¡± [Soul] and the concept of the ¡°Somatic disorder¡± [focus on the physical body]. My hand joints lit up, ignited with power and potential. I opened and closed them, feeling more in control of them than I had ever been, feeling that they were faster, more responsive. It wasn¡¯t just my fingers that were improved. I felt my ruby fingernails as I had never felt them before, new muscles, connections had formed where none had been, giving me the ability to retract my claws. ¡°Excellent,¡± I muttered slowly in a low, sinister voice as I steepled my fingertips, akin to Mr. Burns'' trademark expression from the Simpsons tv series. The view of the control room of the fourth reactor dimmed as I giggled, pushing my little claws in and out of my fingers.
I opened my eyes with a yawn. It took a few seconds for them to adjust to the bright light. I blinked hard several times before my vision became normal. I was strapped to mom''s back hanging above the infinite abyss. I shrieked. "Someone''s up," mom commented as she climbed a vertical wall covered in shrubbery. "Mom! Why didn''t you wake me?!" I whimpered, feeling hungry, thirsty and also wanting to use the bathroom. "I tried to, but you wouldn''t wake up," mom commented. "I c-couldn''t fall asleep," I explained my comatose state. Damn it. Leveling up made me completely defenseless for a while. Well, that''s nice to know. Why didn''t the System have any kind of a manual with it? Hello? System? Why don''t you ever explain anything ahead of time? No explanation came. I sighed. Then I remembered my dream. I lifted my little hands up to my face and attempted to retract my ruby claws. It worked! Yessssss. Dexterity for the win! Ch 5. My First Friend I looked at the blue sky and white clouds above us, avoiding the view of the bottomless Chasm and of the village far below us. We had already traveled a fair distance from our house. Mom was a very quick climber. Waterfalls rumbled all around us, cascading into the vast abyss below us. "Mom... do you think I can make my own wings?" I asked. "No, Juni... wings are for boys," she replied, the tone of her voice sharp. "But what if I make them myself?" I insisted. "You ask such strange things. Sometimes I think you aren''t my spawn," she muttered. "Mom, I''m definitely your spawn," I insisted, stumbling over my words. My pronunciation was horrid. ¡°You¡¯re so¡­ different,¡± she mulled. ¡°It is concerning.¡± "I... I just lost a little bit of myself in the land of the dead, that''s all," I said. "Thinking about your inadequacies... is painful for me," she sighed. "I feel ashamed that my daughter... that you... do not truly know what''s right or wrong... do not truly know me as I knew my mother." I thought about how well other mothers and daughters acted at the meeting place, how they seemed to understand each other without speaking almost instantaneously. I realized how she was feeling and what she had been going through for months now. I wasn''t like the others. I was an alien being that was masquerading as her daughter. This fact was obviously painful to her. I was akin to a cuckoo finch. I recalled reading about the little brood parasite birds that laid their eggs in other species'' nests and leaving those birds to do the hard work of raising their offspring. I had to explain my aberrancy to my mother so that she would not suffer as much because of me. "The way I... behave. It''s normal. Dying and coming back to life is a requirement for being a true cendai," I explained. "Without seeing the still forest at the edge between life and death, magic cannot be performed. I know that I''m different, mom... I am not like you. I know what you''re feeling, but please bear with me. When I''m high cendai I''ll be able to make my own um¡­ magic bug like the one Eunice has and maybe I''ll find the lost part of myself and then I''ll be as smart as you. Just put up with my... forgetfulness, stupid questions and unique-ness until then, okay?" "Hrm... that makes sense... I suppose," she muttered with another deep sigh. "You were dead for many heartbeats." "Don''t worry mom, it''s all part of being a cendai!" I assured her, hugging her neck. The gesture and my lies seemed to relax her. "When I know magic, I''ll help you a lot more, I promise!" "Really?" She asked. "You won''t abandon me when you''re of age?" "Of course not, mom! I love you!" I said, hugging her harder. "You''re the best. Please teach me everything you know and don''t hold back. Please don''t be mad at me anymore. Trust in me. Help me learn. It will be tough because I''m not like the others.... But, absolutely everything you do now will help me become a better cendai in the future, will help strengthen our family and strengthen our tribe!" "I¡­ I''ll try to be more understanding," she replied. "I... love you too, my Juni." "Thank you, mom." She resumed her climb. After a few minutes of silence I decided to strike the metaphorical iron while it was hot. "Mom..." I began. "How do the men make the glider wings? Where do they get the giant bug wings and the parts that bind them to their arms?" "To become a flying hunter... a boy goes through the ritual of ascension to manhood. During it he must kill a Bonulich beetle and rip out its wings," she said, her voice trembling ever so slightly. "Um, what if I kill this beetle too?" I inquired. "With a bow?" "It will not work, Juni. The Bonulich beetle has very thick armor. Your dad told me of the ritual. The entire tribe agitates and tires the beetle out for several days, to a point where it can no longer fly. Once it is exhausted, the men blind it with poisoned arrows, hurt it so that the chosen boy of age can overcome it. Alone, a single chimera cannot possibly defeat the Bonulich beetle." "But what if I do?" I insisted. "What if I kill one myself and take its wings?" "Then your shoulders won''t be strong enough to support the wings, Juni. Girls do not fly," she insisted. "What if I train my arms?" I asked. "Make my shoulders stronger?" "Juni." Mom shook her head. "Juni... Please don''t try something so insane. You will die. It cannot be done alone." I huffed. "Even if you somehow miraculously succeed at killing a Bonulich... nobody will believe you. A lead hunter or even your dad will simply take your wings away to keep you from hurting yourself and all of it will be for naught. Men protect the girls. Even now as I am climbing, a young hunter watches us from the sky, ready to swoop down and defend us if we need aid." I glanced up at the sky above us. There was a vague dot there, a young hunter seemingly circling us. Damn it! I didn''t even notice his presence. I sighed. There had to be a way to break these rules... wait a minute. What if I made a glider that didn''t use magic beetle wings? What if I made a parachute? A paraglider! "What if I fly without... Bonulich beetle wings?" The question seemed to break mom. She paused her climb. "Do you mean¡­ fall?" She asked. "Bonulich wings catch currents of the skyriver itself. Nothing else will lift an adult chimera or carry them upwards with ease." "No... what if I figure out a way to fly... using other materials?" I said. "Impossible," she muttered. "You will get hurt. Please stop talking nonsense. You''re making my head hurt." I shut my mouth. Being creative in a primitive and extremely conservative society was hard. Maybe I could just show her a basic parachute or something to convince her? I had taken many paragliding classes in Georgia by the Black Sea from an Urbex colleague of mine, so I knew exactly how the parafoil was shaped and how it functioned. If only I could find... materials with which I could create something akin to a paraglider, then I''d be set! I kept quiet, recalling the design of a paraglider, occasionally glancing down at the Chasm. I had to get used to the damn thing, and had to stop being afraid of it! I wasn''t afraid of paragliding high above the Black Sea! I stared the Chasm down, trying not to panic. The view wobbled in my eyes. Mom''s climb ended at a flat platform. She stepped onto it and let me out of the backpack. When I saw her face there were streaks of tears on it. "I''m sorry, mom," I apologized. "I was just... thinking like a cendai. Don''t mind me." The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. "That''s fine, love," she said, wiping the tears from her face. "Come help me collect kimyajzty." I tried to recall what ¡°kimyajzty¡± were supposed to be as I looked over the stone outcropping. A few waterfalls were cascading from overhead, forming a little pool in the middle of the platform. The water flowed out of the pool forming a few brooks which in turn came down as waterfalls from the platform itself. Bushes covered in orange berries sprouted around the pool. Ah! Kimyajzty were the orange berries growing on the three-leaf clover bushes. "Mom, I didn''t get a chance to wash up last night or this morning," I complained, feeling that my scalp was dry and itchy. Instead of saying anything she simply pointed at the waterfall. I trudged into the water with a sigh. The water closer to the waterfall was bone-chilling, but the pool itself was of tolerable temperature. I washed the sweat and the dry blood of the nightcrawler from my face. I emerged from the water wishing for a towel. No towel was to be had. My stomach growled, I was very hungry. For a brief moment I daydreamed about some perogi. Alas, delicious deep fried dumplings were a whole other universe away and not on the local menu. The berries near the water were too tempting to ignore. I stuffed my face full of kim-berries as I had labeled them. They tasted somewhat like sour blueberries and weren''t very ripe. I sputtered angrily. I was far too used to quality Ukrainian food. I rated the kim-berries 2/10. My grandfather''s garden featured a vast variety of cherries, peaches and apples, numerous fruit and vegetables meticulously cultivated over generations. Waterfall berries simply couldn''t compare. Mom simply shook her head at my antics, collecting kim-berries into her pouch. Hunger won and I descended upon the berries with greater vigor making frowning faces as I chewed them. "Heya!" A young voice resonated from the side, interrupting my breakfast. I turned. Another girl was standing there. She had silver-tinted, glittering skin, silver-blue eyes and her hair looked like white quartz crystals. She was slightly shorter than me, so I presumed that she was around my age. The little newcomer was wearing a dark leather vest and skirt, a crystal necklace to match her hair and a pair of leather wrist bracelets. She looked adorable if a bit haggard. She had a determined expression on her face, as if she was a grown adult on serious business. An older copy of her, who was most likely her mother, silently climbed up to the platform. "Hi," I said, blushing. I probably looked like a feral child, with red berry juice dripping all over me. "I''m Alessi," the young chimera introduced herself. "You''re Juni, right?" "Yeah," I nodded. "How do you know my name?" "You were talking to the high-cendai at the meeting grove yesterday," she said. "I¡­ overheard what she said." "Hrmm?" I wiped berries from my face. "Do¡­ you want to be friends?" She asked, after a pause, suddenly looking a bit shy. "Sure!" I smiled, looking at her. Making friends with a future shaman early on was a clever decision on her part. "Don''t waste time, Juni." An empty basket-pouch thrown by mom landed on me. I pulled the mesh-woven bag off my head and started to gather berries with a sigh. Alessi joined in on the berry-gathering process. She acquired her own folded basket from her mother''s backpack. "Soooo... why haven''t I seen you at the grove before?" she asked. "Part of being a young cedai in training," I explained my absence from the social circle. I now knew that mom was most likely too embarrassed to bring me there earlier because of how poorly I talked in the local dialect. "...you already started training?" The blonde chimera girl blinked. "Yep," I nodded. "All part of being a cendai." She squinted at me, probably not believing me. "Check this out," I said, lifting my hand. I retracted my little claws, making my nails look human. "Oh wow," she gasped. Yep, children were easy to impress. But then again... I wasn''t sure how her ancestral memory was affecting her. Maybe she was just humoring me. "I''ve never seen someone our age do that!" She commented, looking at my nails with great curiosity. "How?" "Magic," I explained nothing at all. "So, how much of my conversation with my Master did you hear?" "Just the last part about you studying magic from Eunice," she said. Ah, so she had overheard the end of my conversation with the shaman. "I came to you... because I need help," Alessi lowered her eyes. "My dad had not returned from a hunt this winter. A snowpiercer broke his wings." "I''m sorry to hear that," I said. "It''s okay," she shrugged, her eyes glittering with unshed tears. "He was a brave hunter. It happens. The Chasm gives and takes life." I felt a pang of anger. It was true that the monsters of the Chasm took lives... but things didn''t have to be this way. Not if I could make a difference. I pondered how I could proceed. "How can I help you?" I asked. "After dad died, mom shattered," the young chimera explained, pointing at her mother. "She doesn''t eat or sleep much. She doesn''t talk either. I didn''t really know him like she did, so it didn''t affect me. I have to tell her exactly what to do, otherwise she does nothing at all. I told her to follow your mom. I wanted to talk to you." I nodded, glancing at Alessi''s mother. Now that she was closer I noticed that she looked rather skinny, worn out. She wasn''t talking to my mom, simply mechanically, expressionlessly collecting berries, her eyes looking past her task, focused on nothing at all. "Eunice said that she can''t help my mom wake up, as it''s her mind that''s broken, not her soul," Alessi said with a sniff. "But every cendai is... different. I remember that much. Some are better at healing, others are better at killing. I don''t expect you to help me today, or tomorrow... but maybe someday... when you learn some healing songs... you could... maybe practice them on my mom?" I knew what she wanted then. She came to me because she thought that I could someday cure her mom''s catatonic depression. Alas, I had no way to cure depression. I had a degree in History and Sociology, not Psychiatry. I pondered what I could do for her. "Alessi, do you want to learn magic?" I asked. "W-what?" She blinked. "Learn magic," I repeated. "Yourself." "But... I haven''t seen the Still Forest... I... never died and came back to life," she muttered, shaking her head. "I''m not worthy of being a cendai." "I can try teaching you what I learn," I said. "I don''t think that dying horribly is a requirement to do magic." "R-really?" Alessi gasped. "If you want to help your mom, you''ll have to break the rules," I whispered conspiratorially. "Are you willing to break the rules, Alessi? Are you willing to learn how to fly?" "To fly? But that''s for..." she muttered. "For everyone," I interrupted her. "When I''m high-cendai, I will teach everyone how to fly. I want to teach everyone magic." "E-everyone?" she stammered, looking at me with wide open eyes. I nodded. "If everyone knew magic and could fly... then our tribe would be a lot stronger. A stronger tribe would make sure that less of us die hunting. So... are you in?" "Girls can''t fly..." She mulled. "I can do it," I insisted. "I will do it." Alessi bit her lip, not sure what to make of my declarations. "You seem so confident¡­" She said after a deep pause. "I don''t think that it''s possible¡­ but¡­ I''ll help you regardless. I''ll break the rules if that''s what it takes to help my mom." I looked at my first friend in this world. She looked akin to a brave, little white kitten, her big silver-blue eyes filled with sadness, determination and... hope. The Chasm was a very dangerous place. Whatever evolutionary trait had caused the emergence of Engrams that passed essential memories from parent to child, it was extremely effective in making kids like Alessi grow up quickly. "Your mom is lucky to have you," I said with a soft smile. "You are... very different," she said. "The others think that you will fail the trials of being our cendai. They chatter that the Chasm will take your life soon." I frowned. Dissent was already forming in the masses against my future position as local shaman and I didn''t even know about it. "What do you think?" I asked. "I was hoping that you''re different enough to help my mom," she muttered. "I didn''t expect you to offer to teach me magic." "I''ll teach you magic, but you need to promise me one thing," I offered. "What?" She asked. "Promise me that you won''t tell anyone about this," I said. "That you''ll keep whatever I teach you to yourself, a secret." "I understand." She nodded. "I promise." "Follow me to my house," I said. "Tonight... we''re going to hunt a nightcrawler." "To hunt?! A nightcrawler?!" She gasped. I was blowing her mind with every new sentence out of my mouth. I nodded. She gulped, her hands trembling. "Don''t worry," I said. "We''re going to do it in a completely new way. We won''t get hurt, I promise." Alessi didn''t seem convinced. Ch 6. Trapping Alessi and her mom followed us to our skull-home. All together we processed the collected berries. It was a job that took the first half of the day and involved crushing the berries into patties, collecting the juice in skull-bowls and then laying out the berry-pancake on the sun-baked rocks to dry. After finishing off that task, I was free to "have fun" as my mother walked inside of the dragonskull to work on other house stuff. I went inside our home and emerged with my dangerous-looking nightcrawler foot. "Are you ready to hunt nightcrawlers?" I asked Alessi, waving my obsidian blade at her with a grin. "This is not what I expected," the small, silver-haired chimera gulped, looking at the long, sharp, jaggedy appendage in my hand. "You know what they say, ''expect the unexpected''," I chuckled. "What? Who says that? I don''t understand..." she trailed off. "Nevermind that! It''s time for our lesson," I declared. "Lesson?" She blinked. "Are you going to teach me magic?" "No," I shook my head. "I''m going to teach you¡­ hunting." "How could you possibly know anything about hunting? You''re a girl," she commented, observing me curiously. "Lets just say, I picked up a few things in the Still Forest between the thread of life and death," I winked. "Oh!" She clasped her hands together. "You remember being there? ...What was it like?" "Like living a whole other life, elsewhere," I said. "Elsewhere?" She curiously tilted her head. "Yep," I nodded. "In my... other life I learned how to hunt with traps!" "Traps?" She blinked. I walked around the skull, pulling at various trees and roots, trying to find a springy tree. "Animal trapping, or simply trapping, is the use of an armed weapon to remotely catch prey," I narrated as I pulled out the black saw-shaped claw out of my belt. "An armed weapon? Like a bow? None of us are strong enough to use one of those effectively against a nightcrawler," she said, looking at the sharp, obsidian appendage in my hands. ¡°Only a male can pull the bowstring far enough to effectively strike through the nightcrawler¡¯s skull from a distance. They''re very dangerous monsters up close!¡± ¡°What does a nightcrawler look like?¡± I asked. The chimera girl went on to describe a giant centipede as black as darkest night with a hundred blade-like legs. I nodded. It was about what I was picturing. ¡°Belassi will die if she goes up against a nightcrawler in the dead of night, even if armed with its own blade-leg. It can move very quickly,¡± she commented, glancing at her mother. ¡°I hope that this is not your plan.¡± ¡°Nobody is going out at night.¡± I shook my head. ¡°None of us will need to be present outside for this. The weapon will strike the nightcrawler on its own.¡± "On its own?! I don¡¯t understand. How¡­ is this possible?¡± Alessi asked, looking more confused than ever before. "With a specific type of an armed weapon... which we will now make out of trees and bow strings," I nodded, attempting to saw the thick tree off with the black claw. It worked extremely poorly and my hand got tired pretty quickly. I paused, looking down. I was a weakling. My sawing barely made a dent on the bark. I noticed that my hands were shaking and felt that I was out of breath. I sighed. Maybe¡­ I should have invested in strength, not dexterity. Alessi eyed what I was doing curiously. She saw that I was panting and struggling. "Do you need help?" I nodded. "Belassi," Alessi turned to the despondent-looking, white-haired chimera. "Take over. Help her cut that tree down with that claw." Alessi''s mom nodded without saying anything. She took the black claw from me and started to cut the tree apart. She was working persistently and diligently and the claw actually started to cut through the springy bark. I smiled. I got lucky to make a friend today. If it wasn''t for Alessi and her mom''s presence I''d likely fail at building the trap - my own arms were just too damn weak to cut down even a single tree and my own mom most likely wouldn''t want to help me with something as unorthodox as making a spring weapon. I directed Alessi and she in turn directed her mom. Together we worked throughout the day to make a couple of very primitive traps. Unfortunately, I didn''t have wires and mom refused to let me take any of dad''s bow strings or knives. Thankfully, I knew how to make bow strings out of animal hides and those were aplenty, drying in one of the outer storage rooms, secured only by a rope knot which I easily untied with my extra-dexterous little fingers. I didn¡¯t bother asking mom if I could take a few small hides to make bowstrings, worrying that she would deny me access. As an urban explorer who entered abandoned properties nearly every weekend, I believed in the ¡°It''s easier to ask forgiveness and pay off a fine than it is to get permission¡± slogan. Alessi and Belassi helped me carve up chipmunk-like hides into thin strips, which I then soaked in a skull-shaped bucket. Yes, we used skulls for everything. It was a bit macabre. While the hide strips soaked, we went on a hunt to find a large bug for the bait. It took us about two hours to find and catch a humongous, noisy, ladybug-like beetle. Belassi broke off the ladybug¡¯s wings and front feet with her claws so that the bug would not simply fly away. We carried the bug and contained it in a thick basket, while we weaved hide strips into a very long, strong, tight string. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Alessi got over more of her shyness with every hour. Her hands weren¡¯t anywhere as effective as mine at making the string, but she certainly tried to help. I could see that she was very excited to learn something new. She was curious, eager and keen. She watched everything that I did, asking questions and showing interest. She was smart and incredibly quick to learn. Chimera spawn were definitely superior to human children. "How long do chimeras usually live?" I asked her as I expertly weaved my part of the string, greatly enjoying my fantastic new dexterity. "Thirty three winters," she replied. "When the shine begins to fade from our crystals... the memory and strength of a chimera begins to fade too.¡± Just thirty three years? Unless the local year was three times longer than on Earth¡­ it meant that I got myself a bad deal here compared to a human lifetime! Alessi paused, twiddling her fingers nervously. ¡°Where are all of the elder chimeras, Alessi?¡± I asked. "I haven''t seen any at the grove except for Eunice." ¡°The elders gift the remnant of their fading life to the high-cendai and leap into the Chasm to embrace the All-mother in the deep, so as not to burden the tribe," she replied after a somber pause. I gulped and realized why I had no grandparents to speak of and why there were no old chimeras in the tribe. The oldest chimera I''ve seen was Eunice. Hang on¡­ if the high-cendai was the eldest chimera, then was Eunice in charge? Did that make chimera society matriarchal? "How many winters old is Eunice?" I asked. "Hundreds," she replied. "As our high-cendai she is the exception. Her magics and the sacrifice of the elders lets her cling to the world for a very long time." "She must be really powerful then," I murmured, my mind rolling over the words. "Yes," Alessi agreed. "Does the high-cendai direct the tribe? Tell everyone what to do?" I asked. "The high-cendai conducts ceremonies, heals those who are hurt, predicts the future and protects the tribe keeping monsters away with her magics," the little chimera shook her head. "She does not lead us." "Then who does?" "The chorus of our ancestors leads us," Alessi explained. So, chimeras are led by tradition? "The chorus?" I asked. "You do not hear it at all?" Alessi squinted at me. I shook my head. "Strange," she muttered. "You must be very... lonely." "Lonely?" I asked. "Why would I be lonely?" "I am young and the chorus is weak in me," she said. "But with each passing day, the voices get stronger, louder and I can remember... more." "Will you remember your mom''s love for your dad?" I asked, worrying about her. "Could you become... broken and sad like her?" ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± Alessi shook her head. "The chorus guides and protects. It is made up of vast knowledge, a great tree of many mothers merged and unified, stretching all the way back to the All-mother. The chorus does not pass on personal¡­ feelings. It is akin to a soft fur carpet, decorated with a thousand singing, little, warm stars that aid and protect me. Every girl chooses what to add to it, what to pass down. I need only to reach out to it to recall something. In time it will merge with me completely." "How specific do the memories get? Do you... does anyone remember the All-mother?" I inquired. "No," Alessi shook her head. "Like I said, I simply sort of... know what my female ancestors feared and understood. I can recall what is poisoned or dangerous and what is safe and tasty. I know what to avoid and what to collect. In time I will remember how to make tools for my future husband and how to take care of a home. If I see something, I can recall its name and know whether it will hurt me. In time, I will know the names of every rock, plant and creature as far down into the Chasm as my ancestors went." "How far down is that?" I asked. "I don''t know," Alessi said. "Our tribe emerged from the depths of the chasm long, long ago." "I see," I muttered, pondering over what she said. It seemed that the chimera Engrams were a "semantic" and "defense" type memory, not personal. From an evolutionary standpoint it would indeed be awkward/useless to remember the parents private feelings or personal life moments. "Is the chorus against you learning how to fly?" I asked. She nodded. "Flying is for boys. Girls do not fly." I sighed. If the chorus got stronger in chimera as they grew, then eventually I might lose Alessi as a friend with my overly-radical ideas. I wasn''t looking forward to such a prospect. I already felt pretty alone. If I lost my only friend I would be utterly devastated. We continued to chat about various other things Alessi could recall. Belassi was directed to make wooden stakes of various size using the nightcrawler''s leg as a carving tool. The sun was starting to set, painting the Chasm in orange tones. I bound the oversized ladybug with one of the twines we''ve made and staked it to the ground so that it would not escape. It would function as bait in one of the skull-cavern-rooms open only to the outside. Then, I made a small cut on my hand and sprinkled my blood on the angry bug that was unsuccessfully trying to flee. As I bound my bleeding cut with a cloth, I hoped that the chimera blood-covered, screeching bug would make for an excellent bait for the nightcrawler. Belassi was directed to bend a large tree down, making a powerful spring engine. I tied a noose at its end, placing it around a small cavern entrance and set up a notched trigger that would activate once the nightcrawler got its head into the cavern. Inside of the cavern itself, I used Belassi''s strength to set up a Spear Spring with a very large wooden stake. Once the beast''s neck was trapped by the looping twine, the wooden stake would be flung forward by a bent tree positioned across the cavern into the nightcrawler''s head. My dad descended from the sky on his shimmering bug wings, heading inside the skull through the mouth entrance. Since all of my traps were hidden inside the cavern at the top left side of the skull he didn''t notice anything out of place. I went into our home and asked my parents whether Alessi and her mother could stay for dinner and overnight. "At least you''re finally making friends," mom nodded with a sigh. Dad eyed the silver-haired pair curiously, but didn''t say anything. A few times over dinner he attempted to talk to the despondent-looking Belassi, but gave up after she ignored him and failed to respond. Alessi explained their situation to him. "I understand. Your father... Kizijs was a great hunter," dad looked down to Alessi. "The loss of a hunter is tough on the hearth-caretaker. Alone... you cannot pull your mother out of the shadow of dark sorrow," he nodded, chewing on a steak cooked by my mom. Alessi nodded, her head bowed. My dad rubbed his chin. "Here is my offer - you two can stay in our home and make it stronger. I would not mind a pair of hands around the house to make my wings shine twice as bright. Perhaps in time, your mother will speak once again!" He smiled at the silver haired chimera. Belassi did not respond nor acknowledge him. "Thank you for the offer, Acadius," Alessi bowed to my dad. "My mother cannot speak as she is saddened by her loss, but I accept your offer of hearth-keeping on her behalf!" She turned to her mother and spoke in her ¡®bossy¡¯ voice. "Belassi - bow to your new hunter." Belassi bowed, not looking at anyone in particular. "She agrees to the match," Alessi declared with a clap. "The high-cendai shall officiate us when she is available for the ceremony." Dad grinned widely. "Excellent! I shall tell the others good news tomorrow!" He looked very pleased with himself and continued to loudly boast that he would now have two hearth-keepers in his household. Mom didn''t look too happy about this sudden development. Her eyes became thin, angry slits. Alessi slid over to me and hugged me. I looked at her and then at the face my mother was making. Wait a minute... Did I just gain a sister and another mother? Well, that was rather unexpected. I glanced at the smiling Alessi. Was this her plan from the beginning?! Ch 7. Nightcrawler As evening fell, and the setting sun painted our skull-home orange, mom went around the house closing the beetle-wing shutters. Alessi was granted one of the alcoves next to me. I helped her carry the furs from one of the storage caverns to make her a bed. Belassi remained in the living room with us as my parents retired to their bedroom. I heard them whisper-yelling at each other about Belassi. The root of dad''s argument was that extra hands around the house were a good thing and mom was using a variety of hissy expletives I didn''t even understand. Alessi however, did and she winced at the harsh words. "I''m sorry to bring discord into your family," she said, looking down. Her crystalline, white hair glittered with sharp edges beneath the soft light of the bioluminescent plant bowls. "Eh, don''t worry about it," I rolled my eyes. "Ignore them. I like you two and that''s all that matters." "But you''re..." She muttered. "The future high-cendai," I said with a wink. "Who needs assistants with all of her grand projects." "I am glad to be of use," Alessi bowed. "I honestly did not expect Acadius to take us in so quickly." "Yeah, that was pretty nice of dad to do," I nodded. "What kind of grand projects do you have in mind?" the little, silver-haired chimera inquired after a bit of a pause. "Before I start anything big, I need someone to teach me absolutely everything about the Chasm," I said. "I can do that," Alessi said. "Did your mother not..." "Mom is getting irate with me asking too many questions. She''s been giving me names of things without describing what they do," I said. "I don''t have the memory of my ancestors to rely on." Alessi nodded. "Do you two have your own skull house?" I asked. "Yes," Alessi affirmed. "It''s a bit smaller than yours. Now that we won''t be living in it, I was thinking of gifting it to the high-cendai so that she could bless your family''s home and tools in exchange with powerful protection magics. She gives empty homes to new families in exchange for monster parts. Some chimera¡­ live in caves. Caves aren''t as safe as giant skulls - they don''t hold protective magic in them very well and don''t frighten predators away. "Don''t give your home to Eunice," I said. "I need it." "For?" Alessi raised a white eyebrow. "For practicing magic in. Plus I need a place to build and set more traps," I whispered. "Would be very bad if one of my parents accidentally triggered one of them here." "Ah," Alessi nodded with a sigh. "I''ll have to think of another way to make your mother happy then. Plus, the high-cendai will require a grand gift for the ceremony too..." "We''ll figure something out," I concluded. Alessi made a small frown. Her plans were disrupted. "What does this ''protection blessing'' involve exactly?" I inquired curiously. "The high-cendai paints runes with the blood of incredibly deadly beasts, imbuing them with her magic." Alessi pointed at an old, almost faded, dark brown rune barely visible on one of the carpets hanging on the living room''s wall. "It keeps monsters away. The magic fades with time. Yours is in need of replacement. The rune-carpets hanging in our home shimmer blue ever so slightly at night - that''s how you can tell that the protection works." "Ah," I observed the faded rune. "It probably ran out of magic, that''s how the nightcrawler got in. We''ll bring the rune-protected carpets from your home into ours." Night fell as Alessi and I discussed the relocation of things from her house into ours. A tapping of knife-like feet from overhead suddenly interrupted our quiet conversation. Alessi gulped, falling silent. I grabbed onto my black sword. The tapping went into the direction of my trap. The beetle bait worked! The room grew tense with every passing second. Only Belassi didn''t seem to worry, lost in her head, sitting on the fur-draped couch and looking as blank as ever. The sound of a snapping rope, the whoosh of the moving tree and the whack of the wooden stake meeting the nightcrawler''s face resounded from outside. The monster screeched noisily. Alessi dove towards me, panic painted on her face. The screech slowly faded into dying gurgles, the tapping of sharp feet growing more frantic. I embraced the trembling little chimera. She was terrified. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. The awful screeches of the dying nightcrawler slowly faded. "Hrm," a voice resounded from the dark hallway. I turned my head and noticed my mom standing there. "It... sounds like it''s dying?" Mom looked down at us, her ears twitching in the direction of the nightcrawler''s wails. "The trap I built worked," I mumbled. "Great. Now. Don''t do that again," Mom said with a snappy voice. I knew it. She didn''t expect me to succeed. She didn''t think that I could figure out how to kill it remotely, that I would simply give up on the whole idea. "Uh, why?" I asked, looking up at her lime-tinted face. "Noise. It''s making a lot of noise. There''s a small chance that its death-cry and spilled blood might attract bigger... far more dangerous predators," she explained. "We do not hunt where we live for a reason." I melted under her conflagrant gaze. "You three can go and clean it up." Mom looked over us. Alessi and I nodded. "Quickly throw its carcass into the Chasm, before it attracts other predators," she added, stepping back and vanishing in the dark hallway. I glanced at Alessi. She didn''t look confident about going outside at night. I let go of my new sister and trotted towards the roof hatch. I climbed the rope ladder up to the hatch and untied the rope that was holding it closed. I pushed the heavy beetle wing that functioned as the hatch aside and emerged out onto the night. Thankfully, it wasn''t completely pitch black outside. The walls of the Chasm were dark gray, but starlight shone from above, visible through the breaks in the clouds. Alessi and Belassi emerged out of the hatch after me. I approached the nightcrawler, finally observing the monster in all of its glory. It was an enormous pure-black, matte centipede and unfortunately for me¡­ it was still alive. It wasn''t screeching anymore but it was still trying to free itself from the rope around its neck. I assessed my strength against the rapidly moving knife-like feet and found it wanting. Then I glanced back at my new sister and her mom. "Belassi, finish it off," Alessi ordered, her voice trembling. "Here," I handed Belassi my nightcrawler sword as the young woman passed by me. She glanced at me momentarily. I saw the tiniest hint of determination in her eyes as she accepted the weapon. Monsters like this had killed her husband. "Status," I whispered and watched as my experience went up incrementally while Belassi stabbed away at it, sitting atop the beast. My experience went up a whole five points as the creature finally stilled. Killing things as a party paid off, even if I wasn''t the one performing the finishing blow. The monster screeched one last time and finally fell silent. I approached the panting Belassi. As she handed me the sword, I saw the smallest hint of a smirk on her normally blank face. "You... made her smile," Alessi whispered, looking at me with sparkling eyes. "Mom hasn''t smiled since dad died...." "Revenge is best served cold," I said. "Girls don''t kill monsters. Your mom got a taste of revenge against the creatures of the Chasm for the first time. Now, help me take this monster apart. I want all of these lovely sharp feet for my collection." I started cutting through the rope that bound the centipede with my sword. I examined the monster while I did so, touching its skin. The centipede''s body was covered in pure black scales that seemed to absorb all light, akin to vantablack material from Earth. If I made myself an armor out of these, I would be able to blend into shadows with ease. It would make for perfect assassin-style armor. It took us a while to take apart the centipede. As its blood spattered my body, my experience ticked up rapidly. I wondered if I was absorbing its life''s experience. "Is this creature''s meat poisonous?" I asked Alessi. "No," she replied. "It is safe for chimeras to eat. It does not require cooking." Trusting in her ancestral knowledge, I carved a chunk of nightcrawler meat away from the monster and bit into it. "What are you doing?!" Alessi yelped as I chewed the meat ponderously. "Eating, obviously," I replied as I swallowed the meat. It tasted like a very rare steak. Yummy. My experience jumped five whole points. I was right. There was power in monster meat. No wonder the men ate it! "But girls shouldn''t..." she uttered, looking at me with wide eyes. ¡°You said it¡¯s not poisonous,¡± I mentioned. ¡°For boys¡­ I don¡¯t know about girls,¡± she muttered. ¡°I highly doubt our stomachs are that different from the boys,¡± I chewed. ¡°But¡­¡± she muttered. "I slayed the beast therefore I get to eat it," I interrupted her with a wide grin. "You helped make the trap too. Want some?" She stared at the meat, not sure how to proceed. I saw the struggle in her eyes between the desire to take the meat and the countless eons of ancestral memories. "It won''t hurt you," I said. "You''ll get stronger, I promise. My magic tells me that by eating it I am becoming stronger. You¡¯ve already taken the first step - you helped me kill it." Finally, she took the meat from my hand and bit into it. Her eyes widened when she tasted it. "It''s delicious!" she exclaimed. "Good. Fill up," I urged her. "There''s plenty of it." "Oh, yes," she uttered as she chewed. Her eyes dilated. When she was done her piece she licked her lips and sighed contentedly. She then glanced at her thin mother. "Belassi, eat!" Alessi ordered. The pale chimera complied with no quarrel. The clouds parted completely, and I saw the moon for the first time. It was nothing like the moon of Earth. If anything, it looked akin to an enormous, jupiter-like planet. Truly gargantuan, glowing rings made from blue light shimmered on its dark surface, casting light across the Chasm. I stared up at it in bewilderment for a bit and then looked at the girls who were enjoying the meat. At that moment I wondered if Chernobylite really granted me my wish. I wasn''t able to make a difference on Earth, but here, in this new world I was already changing things. It wasn''t that big of a thing, true, but to me it felt like an accomplishment. I thought back of Valentina Tereshkova, a girl from a tiny village on the Volga River who started as an amateur Soviet skydiver and became the first woman in space. Little steps, I told myself as I took another bite of the Nightcrawler.
[202/200 Experience optimum reached! Initiate level up?]
The System chimed in my mind. I was moving up in the world and nothing would stop me now! Ch 8. Thunderbird ¡°Inaria,¡± Alessi noticed that I was staring up at the ring-covered planet in the sky. So, this was the moon. I¡¯m on the moon¡­ well, a moon. Maybe a hollow Dyson sphere moon or a doughnut-shaped one if the Chasm existed in linear space and wasn¡¯t some weird space-bending magical bullshit. ¡°Inaria,¡± I repeated, arriving at the conclusion that Andross, the world I was on, was most likely an odd-shaped planetoid orbiting a far larger world. The rings on the surface of Inaria that blotted out the night sky didn¡¯t make any sense to me, didn¡¯t look natural. The planet itself looked dead, frozen over. My sharp chimera eyes discerned far-away detail, focused on incredibly distant, enormous, glacier covered continental-divide mountains. A crack of rumbling thunder resonated from overhead, distracting me from the observation of the phantasmagoric continental rings. ¡°Thunderbird!¡± Alessi suddenly screamed, dropping her meat. ¡°Hide!¡± I turned my head towards the sound of thunder and saw an enormous, black, crow-like thing coming down towards us from the sky, lightning bouncing between its feathers. With a flash it vanished from the distance and appeared right in front of us with a thunderous detonation and a crackle of electrical discharge. The black crow-like monster was bigger than any bird I had ever seen before. Up close it didn''t even look like a bird. The thing had no beak, only a maw filled with jaggedy, sharp teeth. A single, glowing, eye-like organ peered at me from the innards of a teeth-covered maw. Six jet-black wings unfurled themselves. I froze, overwhelmed by the nightmarish abomination that headed straight for me. The creature''s black, metallic-looking, sparkling talons were aimed straight for my nightwalker-blood covered body. In another moment they would close over me! A hand grabbed me by the scruff and pulled me back, throwing me into the open hatch. The claws of the flying monstrosity snapped at the empty air. I saw my mom''s dark form swinging a fistfull of something at the thunderbird. A cloud of dark powder ignited in the air and the thunderbird made a horrid, ear-splitting noise. A microsecond later I lost sight of the scene, as I plummeted down and collided with the mossy carpet inside of the skull. My mom moved like the wind. She shoved Belassi and Alessi down the hatch after me, then leapt there herself and slammed the beetle wing shut. The air became filled with ozone. Metal claws struck against the beetle wing. Mom held the hatch closed with her entire weight, panting. Another angry screech resounded from above. I heard a loud crunch overhead as the villainous thunderbird grabbed my nightcrawler. Lighting flashed through the slit in the hatch. The crackle of electricity and booming thunder grew distant. My mom relaxed. She tied the hatch closed and turned to face me. "Well?" She asked. My heart thundered in my chest. I came dangerously close to dying. At least I finally got to eat some meat, so I had that going for me. "Y-you were right. Leaving the nightcrawler atop of the house really attracted a larger beast." I pushed the words out of me. "W-what was that¡­ powder?" "A¡­ last resort against predators like it," she replied with a sigh. "Fire fluid collected from the Hublatch dragon sacks by your father, dried and ground into powder. An unnecessary waste. Why didn''t you listen to me?" I folded under her judging look. "I¡­ wanted to eat meat," I finally said. "You have a death wish, daughter," she ground out as she shook her head. "Just because you came back from death once doesn''t mean you are invincible. Your disobedience¡­ disappoints me. Goodnight." She shook her head and vanished in the hallway, ignoring my whisper of "I''m sorry". I noticed that Alessi was trembling. ¡°Hey, we¡¯re fine. Mom did a great job saving us from that big scary bird,¡± I said. My words didn¡¯t come out that confident. I was incredibly stupid. If it wasn¡¯t for my mother''s speed and that explosive powder I¡¯d be fried bird toast right now. ¡°S-scary bird,¡± Alessi uttered with a shaky voice. ¡°It was so¡­ fast. It moves by lightning¡­ I¡­ I didn¡¯t have time to warn you.¡± ¡°Yeah, I saw. Well¡­ since that takes care of the cleaning up¡­ let''s get some sleep,¡± I said, not feeling one bit sleepy. Adrenaline was bouncing in my head, sending my body into flight or fight mode. I buried myself in my furs, trying to relax. I heard Alessi whimpering inside of her alcove. ¡°Uh, you alright?¡± I asked. ¡°N-no,¡± she replied. ¡°C-can¡¯t sleep. Scared.¡± ¡°Me too,¡± I admitted. ¡°Alright, climb over to my bed.¡± Both of us fit with ease into my larger alcove. ¡°T-thank you,¡± she whispered. ¡°For everything. For accepting. For understanding. For making my mom smile. For taking us to¡­ your hunt. Even though we almost died¡­ it was fun." I nodded and glanced at Belassi. She was sitting on the couch, ignoring us. ¡°Do you know any songs?¡± Alessi asked. ¡°My mom¡­ used to sing to me¡­ before her mind broke.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t exactly sing like other chimeras,¡± I explained. ¡°I can¡¯t even say my own name right.¡± ¡°Ah¡­ the Still Forest took it away,¡± Alessi commented with an understanding look. ¡°I¡¯ll teach you¡­ how to sing properly, later. Don¡¯t worry.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± I smiled at her. ¡°I do know other songs¡­¡± ¡°Uh?¡± She blinked. ¡°Songs from beyond the stars,¡± I whispered conspiratorially. ¡°From beyond the Still Forest and the veil of death. Would you like to hear one?¡± She nodded. ¡°Oi u lisi Da oi u lisi Da na gorici Tam zozulia Da ta i zozuliya Da kuido zvilaa¡± As I softly hummed and then sang the Ukrainian folk song about a cuckoo bird in a forest and her nest, Alessi relaxed and curled into me. I knew the ¡°U Lisi¡± song by heart. It was Pavel¡¯s favorite. I had sung it to him before my ill-fated trip to Chernobyl, accompanied by his guitar beneath the stars of the now impossibly distant Milky Way. The song didn¡¯t come out perfect, since my new mouth muscles were used to speaking as a Chimera. I had woven it together with chimera noises that my mouth could produce, approximate to the lyrics I knew once. To the ears of a person from Earth the song would likely sound a bit alien and ethereal, but Alessi didn¡¯t seem to mind. When I was done, my eyes filled with tears. I once again remembered that I would never see Pavel again¡­ would never talk to any of my friends or fly on my Dnepr across the winding roads of the Caucasus Mountains. ¡°Strange¡­ beautiful¡­ It doesn¡¯t sound like anything I heard before,¡± Alessi whispered, her own eyes glittering with tears. ¡°My ancestors have no memory of this song or anything like it. You really were there¡­ in the Still Forest and somewhere beyond it.¡± Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°Yeah,¡± I said, hugging her. ¡°My dad¡­ I hope he found a new happy life, made it beyond the Still Forest,¡± the little chimera uttered with a sniff. I hugged her harder as a response. I knew exactly how Alessi felt. I had lost both of my parents when I was only five to a car accident and my grandfather, a retired Soviet computer engineer and virologist, took me in and raised me in his cottage in Eastern Ukraine. ¡°I haven¡¯t cried once¡­ since the day he died,¡± Alessi continued. ¡°I had to stay strong for my mom and had to take care of her. I was so alone for so long¡­ relying on the chorus of my ancestors.¡± ¡°You won¡¯t have to be alone anymore,¡± I said. ¡°We have each other now.¡± ¡°Thank you for accepting me into your family,¡± she whispered. ¡°I¡¯ll do more than that,¡± I added. ¡°I can teach you the songs and¡­ the language of my tribe and others.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± She looked at me confused. ¡°Ukrainian, Russian, English.¡± I said, listing the languages I knew. ¡°I¡¯m the only chimera carrier of¡­ words from beyond the stars, beyond the Still Forest. We can use them to talk to each other¡­ in secret. Make our bond stronger!¡± ¡°I¡­ I¡¯d like that,¡± she whispered with a soft smile. ¡°I can teach you so much,¡± I added, thinking back of all of the things my grandfather had taught me when I was young. Toolmaking, forging, mathematics, history, chemistry. There was so much that I knew, so much that I could show my new sister to uplift her mind! As long as I could uplift one chimera out of the shackles of tradition, then there was a chance to improve the lives of the entire tribe. As I excitedly rolled my brain through various topics of interest, Alessi¡¯s breath slowed. Her body stopped trembling. She was asleep. I wiped my tears and suddenly realized that I was at peace. I found someone that I could trust. Someone that wouldn''t hate me for who I was, because she was as broken as me, albeit in a different way. She was someone with whom I could share parts of myself that I kept locked away for seven long months. I glanced at Belassi. She too was asleep, curled up on the couch carved from dragon-bone. I wondered if I had managed to fix her just a little. The house was safe, quiet. It was time for me to sleep too¡­ but my mind refused to shut down. I knew exactly what to do. ¡°System. Level me up,¡± I whispered.
[Level up to LV: 2!]
The system sang. The words drowned in colorful, shimmering dancing sparks that turned to blinding stars that filled my entire vision. Impossible, celestial music filled my ears, as if every star that was blotting out my sight was singing to me. The unearthly song resonated across my entire body, twisting, warping, winding itself into every fiber of my being. Every single nerve in my body ignited with indescribable pleasure and pain. I felt the reach of glacial frost and the all-consuming, blinding inferno of the sun. I shuddered, curled inward, gasped, lost in overwhelming sensations. When I came to, I was once again standing in the middle of Chernobyl¡¯s fourth reactor control room. I took a step forward and my stats flashed on the wall, numbers woven from burning lights of nixie tube lamps and letters embossed on metal plaques.
Name: Juni Tokimorim?tuti
Age: 7 months
Species & Subtype: Chimera spawn
Level: 2
Experience: 2/450
Health: 2/2
Stamina: 2/2
Mana: 2/2
Mana regen: 2 m/hr
Strength: 0
Agility: 0
Dexterity: 5
Vitality: 0
Charisma: 0
Magic: 0
Luck: 0
Intelligence: 0
Wisdom: 0
Investiture points: 10
Ten whole points to spend! Wooo! But where to put them? This time, I decided not to spend them all on one stat. Instead, I chose to put one point into each line and study the result. I grabbed at the thick, metal dial next to the [Strength] label and carefully turned it.
Strength: 1
Investiture points: 9
Staring down at myself, I noted that I wasn¡¯t looking like a chimera child. I was more of a mixture between my human soul and a chimera one. I didn¡¯t have skin and was more akin to an approximation of a human woven from thousands of shimmering threads. The five dexterity threads I''ve made earlier were clearly visible to me once again. As I turned the dial, a single, new, red-colored thread ignited from the core of my being. It grew from the center of my chest, bloomed and spread out like a tree. It slowly blossomed, following the approximate shape of my bones. Huh. So¡­ this was some kind of a thread that reinforced¡­ bones? Making my bones less¡­ breakable? Neat, but also, hard to test. I focused on the tree, seeing if I could move it around like the Dexterity thread. I could! After what seemed like an age of mental struggle, I was able to move the Strength-tree out of my bones. I knew exactly what shape I could reshape it into to make a shield. A triangle was a base shape in a ¡°Michell structure¡±, a lattice structure that minimized weight and optimized performance. My grandfather taught me that there were strong biological structures such as diatoms, leaves, insect wings, etc, that were Michell structures. He also taught me the precise mathematical formulae behind Michell structures. It was thanks to him that I knew that the same triangular lattice-work geometry that made thin beetle wings strong was also effectively used by the Japanese to make their skyscrapers earthquake-proof. I slowly moved the entirety of the red thread tree into my right arm. Once it was there, I folded and unfolded it until I shaped it into a polygon-like tree. As I worked, the thread became more malleable. My goal was to use it to construct a rigid, triangular grid structure akin to the armadillo¡¯s osteoderm body armor. As I did, I wondered if I grew enough of these Michell-trees inside of myself, I could become¡­ indestructible. I mentally drooled at the prospect of having armored everything. I had no idea how tough this [Strength] thread was. Maybe it would tear from a single poke? I would have to test it in the real world when I woke up. I meticulously weaved what I now labeled as the [Michell Shield] inside of my right arm, slowly assembling hexagonal lattice-work around the very edge of my skin above the extensor carpi ulnaris muscle. Theoretically, if a creature like the nightcrawler attacked me with a sharp claw, I could use my arm to redirect the sword-like blow karate-kid style and maybe¡­ not get my arm sliced in half. That was the theory anyway, I had no idea how practice would go or what my arm would even look like when I woke up. When I was done, I slapped the Michell structure with my left arm. The red thread flashed, repelling the slap of my left arm. Yay! Go magic arm shield! Ch 9. Parental Discontent The dream of Chernobyl¡¯s control room and my magic arm shield started to vibrate. Huh? ¡°Juniiiiii,¡± my mother¡¯s voice broke through my dream, ripping it apart into shreds. I awoke with a yelp. My mom was standing in front of my alcove, her hand on my shoulder. I groggily blinked at her. ¡°You weren¡¯t waking,¡± she commented. ¡°It¡¯s¡­ late.¡± ¡°I was busy,¡± I replied. ¡°Busy doing what? Sleeping?¡± She inquired. ¡°Uhh¡­¡± I decided not to explain that I was busy making myself a magic shield arm. Judging by my mom¡¯s expression she was very annoyed with me. ¡°Juni, you didn¡¯t listen to me last night,¡± she said, her voice very stern. ¡°About?¡± ¡°About getting rid of the nightcrawler right away!¡± She growled. ¡°You three almost got eaten by a thunderbird.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± I slowly recalled the events of last night. It felt like a week ago. The meticulous work on a Michell shield had really drained my mental energy. ¡°Is that all you have to say for yourself?¡± Mom pressed. ¡°Uh, it¡¯s part of my excellent training as a cendai,¡± I muttered in reply, looking away from her conflagrant gaze. ¡°What training? I haven''t taken you to Eunice yet!" I winced. "You won¡¯t live long enough to become our cendai if you continue to commit foolish actions like this.¡± Mom shook her head. ¡°I got greedy,¡± I nodded. ¡°It won¡¯t happen again. I¡¯ll be more careful, promise.¡± Mom squinted at me. She didn¡¯t look like she believed me. I ignored her glare, glancing around the living room. Alessi and her mom were sitting on the couch. The big silver haired chimera was as expressionless as ever, while the little one was looking quite sorry for me. I winked at her. ¡°Juni¡­ I saw you. You were eating monster meat,¡± mom declared. ¡°Yes,¡± I confessed after a deep pause. ¡°I told you not to do that!¡± She hissed loudly. ¡°You didn¡¯t just eat meat yourself either¡­ you gave it to your¡­ friend to eat!¡± ¡°So what?¡± I asked with a frown. Mom clearly didn¡¯t see Alessi as my sister. ¡°Juni!¡± She barked. ¡°Girls should not¡­¡± ¡°WHY?¡± I insisted. ¡°By the All-mother, why are you like this?!¡± Mom snapped. Alessi flinched, hiding herself behind the couch. ¡°What is so wrong with eating meat?¡± I demanded, staring back into my mother¡¯s purple eyes, not backing down. I saw my own determined, yellow-orange eyes reflected in her reflective hair gemstones. ¡°Eating meat makes¡­ chimera stronger!¡± ¡°Eating meat¡­ makes the men stronger,¡± she exhaled. ¡°But¡­ It also attracts predators!¡± ¡°Huh?¡± I tilted my head. ¡°So if I eat meat¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯re going to get eaten yourself if you keep this up, damn it!¡± She growled, raising her voice further. ¡°You¡¯re too young to fight monsters! You have NO way of defending yourself! You are small, weak and do not know magic. Boys fly and draw the monsters away so that girls can gather herbs and berries without fear or worry! The two work in tandem. Why don¡¯t you understand something so simple?!¡± ¡°I¡­ get it¡­ I understand,¡± I whispered. If she was right, then eating meat made me stronger¡­ but it also made me tastier to the monstrous inhabitants of the Chasm. The women avoided eating meat because it made them less visible to the flying and crawling abominations that emerged from the deep. ¡°Do you really?¡± She demanded. ¡°I do,¡± I nodded, keeping my head down. ¡°I¡¯m going to be working on¡­¡± she started to speak. She didn¡¯t sound calm. She was extremely agitated with me. I decided to depart before things got out of hand again. ¡°I¡¯m going out with Alessi and Belassi. We have to relocate the rune blessings from their home into ours,¡± I said. ¡°Ah¡­ fine. That would be very useful. Ours are almost out of power,¡± Mom noted with a glance at the carpets on the wall. ¡°Please¡­ be careful.¡± She looked at the silver-haired pair. ¡°Juni will be safe with us,¡± Alessi said, making a symbol of a diamond with her hands. ¡°We will protect her, I swear upon the strength of my chorus and the All-mother!¡± ¡°See that you do,¡± Mom nodded. "Your performance with the thunderbird leaves much to be desired." Alessi nodded, looking ashamed. ¡°You can feed yourself, since you slept through breakfast, again,¡± mom commented my way. I saw disappointment in her eyes as she turned and walked into the kitchen. I slid out of bed and groggily walked to Alessi. ¡°I tried to wake you earlier, but you did not rise,¡± she said. ¡°Was busy doing cendai things,¡± I yawned. ¡°Really?¡± She looked at me. ¡°What kind of things?¡± ¡°Follow me,¡± I said, walking towards the front entrance. ¡°Follow us,¡± I heard Alessi order her mom around as I unlatched the beetle-wing doorway and stepped out onto the jaw of the dragon. I washed my face and hands with the water that had pooled up inside one of the dragon-tooth cavities. It was refreshingly cold. Alessi patiently waited for me to finish and then did the same. ¡°Here,¡± I presented my right arm to her when she was done. ¡°Punch me in the arm.¡± ¡°Uhh?¡± She blinked at me. ¡°Do it,¡± I said. ¡°I made my arm tougher. I think. Hit me and we¡¯ll see if it worked.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± She swung her knuckle into my arm. I focused on my new thread, tightening it. Alessi yelped as her hand collided with my invisible shield and her first bounced away from me. I knew that it was the Michell structure I had made with the strength-reinforcing red thread.
[-0.87 Mana]
The System chimed. ¡°Owwww, what in the Chasm?¡± Alessi rubbed her fingers, hissing. ¡°It feels like I just punched solid rock.¡± Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°Magic!¡± I declared jovially. ¡°Hmmm,¡± she carefully poked my wrist. ¡°Strange¡­ it¡¯s soft now¡­ but when I hit you¡­ it felt like you had hard crystals all around the top of your wrist.¡± ¡°Took me all night to make,¡± I grinned. ¡°Magic shield.¡± ¡°That¡¯s really¡­ amazing,¡± my audience of a single, small chimera clapped. ¡°Will you¡­¡± her eyes settled on mine. ¡°Teach you how to make one?¡± I asked with a sly grin. She nodded. ¡°In time,¡± I said. ¡°First you must learn¡­ matematyka!¡± ¡°Mate¡­ mati¡­ yka?¡± She blinked, not understanding the Ukrainian word for ¡°mathematics¡±. ¡°No,¡± I shook my head with a giggle. ¡°Mathematics. Adding, subtracting and multiplying numbers.¡± More confused glances and questions followed from the little chimera.
I spent the first hour of my day snacking on a dry berry patty and describing basic math to Alessi via use of dry berries as props. She was fairly quick on the uptake, absorbing math like an eager sponge. I recalled that I still had nine points to spend. ¡°Uh, Alessi, can your mom carry me to your place?¡± I asked her, bringing out the belt pack my mother had used for carrying me around. ¡°Sure,¡± Alessi nodded. ¡°I¡¯m going to take another nap,¡± I explained. ¡°Got more dream-magic stuff to do.¡± ¡°Allright,¡± the little chimera smiled at me. ¡°Don¡¯t take too long.¡± ¡°No promises,¡± I laughed.
As Belassi carried me on her back, I attempted to return to my mental picture Chernobyl via the use of meditation. Back on Earth I had practiced ¡®Ohm meditation¡¯ pretty often. It was one of the esoteric skills taught to me by my grandfather. According to Buddhist books in his library, the Ohm sound-cast meditation was an all encompassing construct, the essence of ultimate reality that unified everything in the universe, unlocked the deeper state of consciousness and opened up the third eye. Grandfather Vladislav wasn¡¯t a Buddhist, not by a longshot. He didn¡¯t believe in souls, chakras, or the third eye. What he taught me was basically a way to clear the mind to mentally refocus the brain on solving a specific task. To be more specific, he had used his own ¡°Ohm'''' meditation space to do complex fractal mathematics in his head. Compared to him, I sucked at math, since I was more of a visual person. Thus, I used Ohm meditation to mentally visualize cosplays and materials in my head before I assembled them in reality. As I hummed the ¡®Ohm¡¯ softly to myself, I focused all of my will on visualizing, immersing myself in my imaginary space into which leveling up had normally cast me into. After a long while of humming, I began to drift and then I was suddenly standing amidst the dreary, decayed reactor room. It worked! ¡°I¡¯m back baby,¡± I winked at my stats panel. ¡°Now¡­ let¡¯s see what else I can learn to do!¡± Since I couldn''t see myself fully, I imagined a large mirror in front of myself, to see a reflection of my body. It immediately appeared in front of me. Yay, for having an excellent, visual imagination. I saw that I had five gold-colored [Dexterity] threads and a single red [Strength] thread coming out of the center of my chest. Interesting. I wonder if it was my chimera synesthesia talent that had automatically assigned them colors for clarity. I turned the next dial of interest.
Agility: 1
Investiture points: 8
A pink thread bloomed from my core. Unlike the Strength thread, it didn¡¯t form into a tree that followed the shape of my bones. Instead, it wound, naturally looping itself into a spiral-shaped formation. It looked like a spring. Was it supposed to make one of my muscles springier or something? I pushed the thread out of my body and tried to fold and unfold the spiral. As I did, I felt something akin to air pressure grow and release within it. Aha! I¡¯ve made a compressor of sorts with the Agility thread. I added the word [Compressor] to the title. It appeared on the plaque in front of me. I could permanently rename the System terms. Well, they were in my imagination after all, so why not? I already knew what gold-colored [Dexterity] threads did. I labeled the [Dexterity] skill as [Pneumasomatic Actuators] and moved onto the next thing. I cranked the dial next to [Vitality].
Vitality: 1
Investiture points: 7
A bright, yellow thread blossomed from my heart, forming into a thick beam. The beam flashed and opened up, forming a needle-like pinhole. A million tiny threads woven from yellow light danced inside of the pinhole, creating something akin to a fine soap-bubble film. I had no idea what was happening. I moved the weird pinhole across my body into my right arm and lifted it to my face. I saw a grayscale reflection of myself inside of the pinhole. The grayscale girl lifted her arm up to her face. Uhhh¡­ I lifted my left arm and waited. The girl in the pinhole lifted her left arm. So¡­ this pinhole was a weird mirror with¡­ a bit of lag, a delay? But why? I scratched my chin in confusion. In a brief moment, the black and white version of me scratched her chin too. The weird mirror-like pinhole flower reminded me of the mirror flowers from ¡°The Mystery of the Third Planet¡± Soviet animated film. In it, space explorer Alice discovered mirror-like flowers that took photographs of everything and played it back to the observer at a slightly delayed rate. Was this what was happening here? The pinhole recorded¡­ me and played it back at a delayed rate¡­ but why? I didn¡¯t feel any healthier from it. Why was it called [Vitality]? Weird. I glanced at the [Vitality] plaque, renaming it.
Vitality [Slow Mirror]: 1
Could I control the recording rate of the mirror if I flexed my new Vitality muscle? I tried to do so¡­ and absolutely nothing happened. No¡­ there had to be something else at play here¡­ something that I wasn¡¯t understanding. Wait. I needed to see the exact time being recorded! ¡°Display my current age¡­ to a precise millisecond!¡± I ordered my imaginary control room. The age dial expanded.
Age: 7 months, 27 days, 5 hours, 24 minutes, 15 seconds, 532 milliseconds.
I glanced at the dial through the Slow Mirror pinhole. Grayscale letters and numbers stated the following.
Age: 7 months, 27 days, 5 hours, 24 minutes, 14 seconds, 228 milliseconds.
Aha! My reflection was around one second slower than mine. I brought the Slow Mirror to the front of my right wrist, turning it into a little grayscale wristwatch slit. I could use this to solve mysteries that happened a second ago, I suppose. I giggled to myself about this fun prospect that clearly had nothing to do with Vitality. I tapped the surface of the Slow Mirror with my ghostly finger. Its surface wobbled ever so slightly. I wasn¡¯t sure what I was supposed to do with it, so I left it alone for now. I¡¯d have to come back to experimenting with it later. I moved onto [Charisma], cranking its dial a single click forward.
Charisma: 1
Investiture points: 6
A lime-colored thread grew straight up from my chest into my head, forming an emerald halo above it. Uhh¡­ Charisma makes me into an angel? Very funny, system. I wiggled the halo around. It didn¡¯t seem to do anything. I tried to pour energy into my Charisma halo. Its emerald glow intensified.
[-1 Mana]
I glanced at myself in the mirror and saw that I looked¡­ alluring? A tad more captivating? Not that there was much to look at, as I was a human-ish figure made from a bunch of semi-transparent threads. But there was definitely some sort of a catchy-ness about me that inexplicably drew my own gaze to myself. Weird! I decided to call this skill the [Allure Halo], labeling it as such in my chart. I glanced at my mana and saw that it was quickly running low. I dimmed my halo. I looked back at the time on the panel. According to it, I had spent about an hour in my evolution mental space. It was time to wake up. I forced my eyes to open.
I was sitting in the pack, behind Belassi as she was slowly climbing towards a smaller skull-house embedded in a tall stone column. I noticed Alessi climbing behind us. ¡°Do I look different?¡± I asked her, pouring power into my [Charisma], igniting my Allure Halo. ¡°Hmmm,¡± she looked at me. ¡°There is something off about you. Strange¡­ You look, a tiny bit¡­ prettier? Not that you weren¡¯t pretty before¡­ but¡­ it¡¯s like the light is falling on your face just right? I don¡¯t know. Your hair is sparkling very prettily too¡­¡± Alessi looked at me with utter fascination, like I was a very tasty berry, unable to draw her gaze away. Excellent, the Charisma halo was indeed doing its job, making me irresistible. I wondered if it was some kind of a mental effect that was affecting the observer. I cut off the flow power into the halo before I ran out of mana. Alessi blinked. ¡°What was that?¡± ¡°Beauty magic,¡± I said, grinning widely. ¡°Hum,¡± she said. ¡°How¡¯s that useful? Seems like it would just make you tastier to monsters? Can you do the opposite of the allure, maybe?¡± ¡°Hmmm¡­ that is a good idea indeed,¡± I rubbed my chin and wondered if I could somehow invert the angelic halo into one of a hideous demon. Did the monster-repelling runes work on the same principle? Did they make the skull-house scary or unattractive to beasts? Ch 10. Its a Rainbow! A few hours later, I stood atop of my new ¡°workshop¡± as I dubbed my new sister¡¯s home, looking over the view of the local neighborhood of giant skull-homes, waterfalls and unnecessarily tall chasm walls. Both of us had changed into slightly thicker dresses as one of the waterfalls was spraying chilly water across the air. ¡°Want to see more magic?¡± I asked Alessi. She nodded eagerly. I flexed my Agility thread, pouring power into it. Air flooded into my palm with a gentle breeze. ¡°Wind?¡± Alessi stepped forward, sniffing my hand. The bubble of compressed air detonated as I lost control of it. Alessi jumped backwards with a surprised yelp. ¡°Owwwwch!¡± I laughed as I landed backwards onto my butt. I suddenly felt very dizzy and tired. I glanced at my mana stat and realized that my experiments with Charisma and Agility had brought my two mana down to 0.124. Doing magic was fun, but also¡­ exhausting. We went inside of the skull-home through a rooftop hatch. The inside layout was somewhat similar to that of my parents house, but the rune-banners looked a lot newer, the runes on them shimmering with emerald refractions. I spent a while rummaging through the various rooms and taking mental notes of everything, dividing things into the category of ¡°bring it to mom to make her less annoyed with me¡± and ¡°leave it here for my personal use¡±. The sorting of new possessions took a few hours and by the time I was done my mana was back to full. ¡°I¡¯m going to have another power-nap,¡± I told Alessi as I settled down on a fur-covered couch. ¡°Take the banners down in the meanwhile.¡± She nodded and turned to her mom. I sat in a lotus pose and started to meditate. ¡°Ohmmmm,¡± I hummed, closing my eyes.
Chernobyl formed around me brick by brick, walls and panels coming together out of shadows and dust. I was getting pretty good at this mental-dive thing! I turned to the next panel that awaited my attention. ¡°Don¡¯t I already have magic powers?¡± I asked, looking at the zero number next to the [Magic] stat. Nobody replied. ¡°Whatever! Magic away!¡± I turned the dial for magic forward.
Magic: 1
Investiture points 5
A brilliant cyan-colored thread grew from my chest. It blossomed much slower than others. As it did, I felt that it could naturally take two different paths, each granting me power in different ways. I chose the first one. The thread grew into a single sphere-like structure, akin to a round fruit connected to my core. As it finished forming itself, I also examined my core. It looked like a very bright, little sun that shined with blue and silver tones with splashes of orange color.
[+1 in Mana storage]
Mana: 2/3
Flashed in my stats, interrupting my self-examination. Hmmm. So, magic threads bearing fruit¡­ could store extra mana for me inside of it. I labeled the fruit-shaped skill as a [Mana Battery]. Now, what about the second option? I clicked the dial next to [Magic] once again.
Magic: 2
Investiture points 4
As the second cyan thread grew, I chose the second path for its evolution. Instead of forming into a battery, it looped itself around my core forming a perpetually spinning¡­ ring-like structure.
[+1 in Mana regen!]
Mana regen: 3 m/hr
Ah, I see. So, putting points into magic increased my mana capacity and regeneration rate. Makes sense. I labeled the ring-shaped structure as a [Mana Generator]. Onto the next fun thing! I turned the dial for [Luck] forward, feeling like I was gambling or perhaps¡­ claiming prizes for giant centipede murder.
Luck: 1
Investiture points 3
The blue-tinted Luck tree grew its branches right into my brain. Hum. Oddly enough, I couldn''t even flex the thread or reposition the tree. With the exception of its base, the tree seemed very ethereal, incorporeal as if it wasn¡¯t even there. I wondered if this was by design or maybe because I didn¡¯t believe in luck. Weird. I poured mana into the luck tree as I did with my other skills to make a spell¡­
-1 Mana
And absolutely nothing happened. The tree didn''t change at all. One mana simply disappeared into nothing! Argh. I waited. Still nothing. Maybe I was luckier and didn¡¯t know it yet? I should wake up and go gambling. Too bad Chimera lacked casinos. Maybe I could just make bets against Alyssa while flipping coins? Wait¡­ no coins. I would have to introduce the concept of coins to Chimeras. I sighed. Maybe I could make a coin out of wood or something? Yeah, that¡¯s a great idea. I mentally patted myself on the back. Onto the next thing! I turned the dial below labeled [Intelligence].
Intelligence: 1
Investiture points 2
A purple thread emerged from the center of my being, shot into my brain and formed a small purple-tinted neural network there made up of smaller copies of itself. Huh. Was I a super genius now? What¡¯s the capital of Paraguay? No idea. Well, that proves it. [Intelligence] magic doesn¡¯t seem to help pull information out of my tired brain noodles. What does it do then? Grandfather always said that mathematics was the key to the mysteries of the Universe. I attempted to multiply two numbers in my head. Twenty three times forty four is¡­ [1012] A very purple-tinted answer suddenly jumped at me before I could even get to the answer myself. Woo. Thanks for a brain calculator, System! Also, I¡¯m renaming you to ¡°Calculator¡±. Time to discover what quirky bullshit ¡°Wisdom¡± does! I turned the last dial.
Wisdom: 1
Investiture points 1
A magenta-tinted thread came into being. It too went into my brain, and formed a small neural pathway there, but it didn¡¯t stop there. An arrow-like part of it went forward out of my head¡­ and then simply faded out of existence at its sharp edge, looking similar to my [Luck] tree. I watched as it grew through my body and mentally guided it along until it ended up in my pointing finger. I wasn''t sure why it had to be there, but it somehow fit. ¡°Hello? Wisdom? What is up with that arrow thing?¡± I asked, focusing my mind on the arrow and pouring mana into it.
-1 Mana
The arrow vanished completely as I uttered the question. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°Uhhh¡­¡± I stared at the missing arrowhead. "Where did you fire off to? Hello?" No answer arrived. ¡°Okay, well¡­ that was fun and also very weird,¡° I muttered to myself. "Guess... I''ll have to wait until it... returns?" I had one point left and no idea what to invest it into. Eh, I¡¯ll sit on it. Maybe my high-cendai instructor will help me out with this one. Hopefully, I wasn¡¯t doing this whole thing horribly wrong. I decided to color the chart appropriately.
Name: Juni Tokimorim?tuti
Age: 7 months, 27 days
Species & Subtype: Chimera spawn
Level: 2
Experience: 7/450
Health: 2/2
Stamina: 0.06/2
Mana Capacity: 0.22/2 [+1]
Mana regen: 2 m/hr [+1]
Strength [Michell Shield]: 1
Agility [Compressor]: 1
Dexterity [Pneumasomatic Actuators]: 5
Vitality [Slow Mirror]: 1
Charisma [Allure Halo]: 1
Magic [Battery] [Generator]: 2
Luck [Tree]: 1
Intelligence [Calculator]: 1
Wisdom [Arrow]: 1
Investiture points: 1
It''s a rainbow! I felt very tired. For some stupid reason coloring the chart had drained the rest of my stamina. Eh, I''m too exhausted to rename [stamina] to [spiritual stamina]. And... I guess... I¡¯m done.
¡°Hi Juni,¡± Alessi chattered as she saw my eyes open. ¡°Learn more magic in your daydreams?¡± ¡°Uhhh¡­¡± I pondered upon my glorious accomplishments. I couldn''t exactly showcase my extra [Magic] storage capacity since the battery was deep inside of me, [Luck] didn¡¯t seem to do anything, [Intelligence] made me better at math and [Wisdom] went off to God knows where. I also colored my System stats but I couldn''t brag about or showcase that either. Blah! ¡°Yes¡­ but I can¡¯t show any of it off.¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t know how most of it works either¡­ I¡¯ll have to ask my Master about it.¡± ¡°Aw,¡± she pouted. ¡°I tried,¡± I shrugged. ¡°Not every doroha leads to fantastic vistas, I guess.¡± ¡°Doroha?¡± She blinked. ¡°Uhm,¡± I realized that I accidentally said the word ¡®road¡¯ in Ukrainian. Chimera society didn¡¯t have roads, there wasn¡¯t a word for it in the Tokimorim?tuti language. ¡°Not every branch leads to a pretty flower?¡± I made up a new metaphor, more befitting to a chimera. ¡°Gotcha,¡± Alessi nodded. "Now, lets finish reorganizing this place!" I waved my hand to my new workshop area.
A few hours had passed and we sat atop the skull eating dried berries. "We best head back before evening starts to fall,¡± Alessi pointed out. ¡°Yeah, let''s...¡± I started to speak.
A text window filled with absolute gibberish suddenly blossomed in my eyes. I focused my attention on it, feeling very bamboozled. As I stared at the incomprehensible text, it whispered something to me with a very raspy voice of a very old man in a language I could not understand. "Uhhh... say what?" I blinked at the chart as it slowly faded from my eyes. "What?" Alessi asked, looking at me in confusion. ¡°I¡­ uhh¡­ did some kind of magic¡­ I think?¡± I explained. ¡°What kind of magic?¡± She asked. ¡°I have no idea,¡± I sighed. ¡°Wish these things would come with a posibnik.¡± ¡°What¡¯s a posibnik?¡± She blinked. ¡°A... visual explanation that shows how to use something properly and safely,¡± I grumbled. I had said the word ¡°manual¡± in Ukrainian. ¡°You know you could just wait for your meeting with the high-cendai,¡± Alessi said. ¡°She¡¯ll probably explain things to you. Isn¡¯t it dangerous to carelessly meddle with things you do not understand?¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± I shrugged. ¡°I¡­ mostly know what I¡¯m doing¡­ I think.¡± ¡°Do you really?¡± She evaluated my expression. ¡°Okay, fine, I have no idea what I¡¯m doing.¡± I waved my hands in exasperation. ¡°I¡¯m just poking things and hoping that I won¡¯t set myself on fire. I got a¡­ uhh¡­ magical message and I have no idea what it means or what language it¡¯s in or who it¡¯s from!¡± ¡°A message? From whom? Why?¡± The silver-haired chimera blinked. ¡°No clue,¡± I shrugged. I thought about the weird window. It had come from somewhere¡­ for some reason. Hang on¡­ it was blue¡­ but the frame was wrapped in¡­ magenta color. Of course! The confounding information-window had come from my [Wisdom] skill! "Going to try... a thing," I said, stepping closer to Alessi. I mentally aimed the [Wisdom] arrow at her chest and pulled the imaginary trigger.
-1 Mana
The result appeared in my eyes immediately.
[Wisdom] had defined Alessi... with another incomprehensible text window. Hooray? "What?" Alessi looked at my finger pointed at her chest. "I think... I''m going to have to learn another language," I sighed. ¡°Another language?¡± My sister blinked. I decided to test the arrow one more time. I pointed my index finger at a little plant growing from the mossy floor and pulled the trigger.
[-1 Mana]
I started to feel incredibly dizzy. Did I use up too much mana and sprain my magic muscles or something? Suddenly something tugged hard on my hand. As it did, I instantly lost control of my motor functions and fell sideways with a scream of pain. ¡°Juni! Juni!¡± Alessi yelled, reaching out for me. The view of her was flickering. She was fading away. The entire world was fading away, colors losing their vibrancy. I felt cold as an incredibly painful chill reached out to me, blossoming from my hand. Something pulled at me again, even harder and something vital in me broke. My heart stopped beating. I couldn''t take a single breath. I screamed and didn¡¯t hear my own voice as I drowned in all-consuming darkness.
I came to, amidst the grayscale forest made up of dead trees and creatures. The Still Forest?! I was back. I was dead?! How?! Why?! WHAT?! A truly monstrous, grotesque, thing was hovering above the black and white forest of death in front of me. It was a silver, semi-transparent, squid-like creature contained within a bone-white hollow shell made up of a hundred hexagons. Hundreds of shimmering silver eyes peered at me from the dark innards of the shell. Thousands of transparent, silver threads stretched out of hexagonal partitions into the distance far beyond. I gulped. The thing peered at me with its mercury-like eyes and in those eyes I saw... misery, intelligence and... hunger. The thing held my [Wisdom] arrow in its maw. I knew what had happened then. This thing¡­ whatever it was, had grabbed at my arrow, ripped my soul away from my body with but a single pull akin to a giant squid tugging on a poor fisherman¡¯s fishing line. The ghostly abomination undulated and shifted, its innards moving around, new eyes coming to the forefront of the hexagonal hollows to observe me. Some of its ghostly silver-tinted eyes looked human, others more like those of a goat or a tiger or some other animal, and others yet completely monstrous and alien. What the hell was this thing¡­ a local demon? A single, thick, silver thread lashed through the air and my body became cleaved in twain. I let out a silent scream as my soul came apart, all of my threads bisected, shattered and ruined in a single, awful instance. Silver fluids spilled out of me, blooming across the still air. A gargantuan maw opened within the hollow beast as it moved towards me. It began to suck what was left of my slowly dissolving form into itself like a horrid vacuum. Ch 11. Revelations
[-1 Slow Mirror thread]
The Slow Mirror on my wrist shattered and the torn-up parts of my soul reformed themselves based on the saved imprint the mirror had captured a second ago. I was alive! I was still alive! I had a soul-healing skill and it saved me!
[-1 Luck thread]
The [Luck Tree] in my soul ignited, all of its power burning away and urging me to act. In that instance, I somehow knew exactly what to do to survive. There would be no other rewind for my soul, no other chance to survive. My slow mirror was broken, completely gone. It kicked my [Calculator] into action, accelerating my mind. The second I had stretched into two as time slowed just a fraction. The monstrous, hollow abomination was observing me with hundreds of shimmering, silver eyes. A jagged tentacle flew through the air. I twisted myself out of the way, activating the [Michell Shield] in my right arm. The tentacle struck against my red-tinted shield and it shattered with a twinkle. Unfortunately my shield was weaker than the weapon of the monstrosity. The sharp ghostly thread cut through my right arm, bisecting half of it along with the [Wisdom] thread and severing it almost entirely. I screamed silently as clouds of silver essence spilled out of me. The monster¡¯s maw opened, sucking out the silver blood pouring out of my ghostly body along with the threads it had severed away. The damaged Wisdom thread that the ghostly abomination held in its maw broke, snapped off with half of my hand. My soul was flung backwards with a blink. The Still Forest was gone. I screamed as I fell onto the floor of Alessi¡¯s home, hyperventilating. It hurt. It hurt more than anything else I had experienced in my entire life. The pain of my soul being bisected by the hollow abomination from the Still Forest was all encompassing, unbearable, horrific. ¡°Juni!¡± Alessi yelped, grabbing me. The view of her worried face swam out of focus as I folded into painful darkness, my eyes filling with tears.
A hand covered in gold, flowing, living script curving into itself in spirals. Emerald flames on my chest. An impossible, whale-like song in latin language. I¡¯ve heard it before¡­ the first time I was brought back from death. I choked and inhaled as life poured back into my body, the unbearable pain growing distant. ¡°You smell like death,¡± Eunice spoke, her blurry form looming above me. I blinked trying to clear my vision. The high-cendai came into focus. ¡°What happened?¡± She asked. ¡°A monster¡­ from the Still Forest¡­ attacked me,¡± I hissed out. ¡°It pulled me¡­ under.¡± ¡°That should not have happened,¡± the high-cendai said. ¡°Not unless¡­¡± Her eyes ignited from within, glowing from within with a strange iridescence that left imprints of itself in my vision. ¡°You¡­ did magic?¡± she uttered, surprised. ¡°A Soul-Tree has blossomed from your core?¡± I nodded. ¡°How?¡± She demanded. ¡°I¡­ killed and ate a nightwalker¡­¡± I replied. ¡°It gave me power¡­¡± ¡°It seems that I have underestimated you, monci. You are the first broken chain that killed a magical creature so large at such a young age and feasted upon its magic and life.¡± Eunice mulled. I groaned in reply. I noticed that Belassi was holding me in her arms. Alessi was standing next to us, looking at Eunice nervously. ¡°Regardless of your¡­ accomplishment in killing a nightwalker, using magic on your own without my protection was an incredibly foolish thing to do, my monci,¡± Eunice shook her head. ¡°We¡­ brought you to Eunice, when you wouldn''t wake,¡± Alessi finally spoke up. ¡°I hoped that she could help you.¡± I nodded, looking around. We were outside. An enormous skull-home was visible behind Eunice. It was very elaborately decorated in comparison to the skulls inhabited by the rest of the chimera and stood out in the open on a wide field that was almost akin to a Ukrainian plain of orange wheat fields. Rocks covered in gold runes surrounded the house. The front featured a buddhist-style garden, the pit of which was filled with glittering, gold sand. Red flowers grew on various balconies carved from bone. A circular dark gate that looked like it was made from black stone decorated with gold runes stood at the edge of the cliff that the dragonskull sat upon. A small lake was visible behind the beautiful building, waterfalls cascading down into it from the tall mountains forming the side of the Chasm. ¡°Many branches of your Soul-Tree have been torn up,¡± Eunice said, interrupting my observation of her grand abode. She was probably using some sort of a magical skill to see my soul, if I had to gander a guess. ¡°H-how bad is it?¡± I asked. ¡°Very unfortunate¡­ your soul is damaged, fractured. It will take a long time to heal fully," she commented, her eyes glowing from within. ¡°How long?¡± I asked. ¡°Ten winters. Maybe more,¡± she said. "Oh," I gulped. Curiosity had killed the cat. Alessi gasped beside me. We stood in silence for a bit, facing the high-cendai. She stretched her rune-covered arms and looked at me. "...will you still teach me magic?¡± I asked, my voice trembling. ¡°You have talent, but you rushed headfirst into the deep water before learning how to swim and nearly drowned,¡± she said. ¡°If It wasn¡¯t for your¡­ sister bringing you here and my healing song, you would be a cripple. From this point on, you must never attempt to do magic without my supervision.¡± I nodded, feeling very sorry for myself. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. . . . ¡°Since you are here, I might as well share the basics of the cendai arts with you.¡± Eunice gracefully circled us after bringing me some water. With the exception of her gray crystal hair, she definitely didn¡¯t look like someone who was hundreds of years old. ¡°Magic is power, all around us,¡± the high-cendai waved her bug-bracelet hand. ¡°Those of us that have walked the Still Forest and returned with their souls intact are able to learn to perceive and manipulate its currents, weaving it like thread into any desired shape.¡± I nodded. It seemed that my thread-weaving ability was the result of my death-experience. "While your soul heals I shall teach you how to become a Still-Walker,¡± Eunice continued. ¡°A Still-Walker?¡± I asked. ¡°She who can step out of her body into the Still-Forest,¡± The high-cendai clarified. ¡°A cendai¡¯s abilities comes from the Still Forest itself, as it contains memories, imprints of all magic that was ever performed upon Andross. By stepping into the Still Forest and taking knowledge from the long-dead, you will learn to inflict your will upon the world with greater precision and power.¡± Alessi wasn¡¯t moving, staying as still as possible. She was getting a free lesson in magic too as Eunice did not dismiss her or her mother nor pay attention to them. I wondered if Eunice even saw other chimera as worthy of note at all, since she was ten times as old. ¡°Do beware, monci. As you have painfully learned today, all arcane power comes at a cost, for it is guarded by fierce creatures that will seek to devour the curious or greedy cendai.¡± Eunice had instantly smothered the spark of excitement in Alessi¡¯s eyes with just a single sentence. My sister glanced at me with worry. "I believe you met one of them, yes?" The high-cendai looked into my eyes. ¡°The Still Forest holds many secrets of the long dead, but digging through it for answers attracts the nasty sort of attention. The Still Forest isn¡¯t empty of life. There are dangerous, cursed things that refuse to die roaming through the vast graveyard of all that was once living.¡± I nodded and bit my lip, thinking back of the hollow abomination that nearly sucked up my entire soul. If I only knew! If I just waited a few more days to level up and to do magic! I cursed my impatience. ¡°I have lost many chimera souls to these phantoms over the centuries,¡± The high-cendai said. ¡°You must exercise extreme caution in performing magic. All of the magical arts leave a brilliant imprint in the Still Forest, a ripple in the dark, which the undead ones can follow. Many foolish cendai had perished as they carelessly performed magics and their souls were ripped out of their bodies by hungry phantoms.¡± ¡°But then¡­ how can anyone do magic at all?¡± I asked. Her hands traced the elaborate gold spirals on her dark, brown skin. ¡°Each of these drawings is a rune, forming an unbreakable net around my entire soul anchoring it to my body. Without proper protection like this, the Still Forest phantoms will pull you under by catching onto the branches of your Soul-Tree which become exposed whenever a cendai uses magic.¡± ¡°Is there no way to fight them?¡± I asked, not satisfied with just a shield. ¡°There are many ways to repel the undead, yes.¡± Eunice nodded. ¡°Specialized Soul-Arts. However¡­ you, my dear, will not be able to lay a finger upon them anytime soon, for they are truly arcane creatures that feed on magic itself.¡± I gulped. I was a clueless idiot. I was really lucky to be alive. Magic was dangerous. Abominable, hungry ghosts from the Still Forest hunted down little, defenseless magic users like myself. ¡°You will learn to be patient and focused. A rune shield like this takes years to craft,¡± Eunice spoke, pointing at her gold spirals. ¡°Each rune must connect to the other and not just in the physical, but also in the spiritual world. The shield around your body must be made with total mental dedication. You must weave it yourself, by sacrificing parts of your body and soul. It must be perfect, so that the undead ones won¡¯t be able to hurt you with ease. ¡°So it requires a sacrifice of my¡­ spirit and body to make the rune shield?¡± I asked. Yet again, I scolded myself mentally for my reckless experimentation. ¡°Correct,¡± Eunice nodded. ¡°Chimera are magical beings.¡± Her slender finger pointed to my head. ¡°The gems growing on your hair are crystalized magic. I will teach you how to crush them into powder to make paint that is imbued with your soul. With it you will make rune-shield art around your body!¡± ¡°Won¡¯t the phantoms attack me while I am making this shield?¡± I asked. ¡°Oh they would definitely try to pull you into the Still Forest to feast upon your soul. However¡­ you will be completely safe, because it will be done inside my abode,¡± Eunice waved her hand at her skull-dwelling. ¡°It is the most warded home in our tribe. I spent three hundred years building its protection, embedding runes into every wall. Here, under my supervision, you will be able to perform magic safely.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± I mentally sighed, realizing that I wouldn''t even be able to do magic outside of Eunice¡¯s domain. ¡°Once I recover¡­¡± ¡°When you recover, yes.¡± Eunice nodded. ¡°Young cendai like you are a very tasty, defenseless snack for the phantoms. It will require a lot of my energy to keep you safe when you start to practice magic. I have lost many foolish children that tried to do magic before they completed their soul-shield.¡± ¡°I¡­ understand.¡± I nodded. As I looked about, feeling distraught that I would have to wait an awfully long time to do magic, my eyes settled on the black gate standing at the edge of the cliff-garden. The gold symbols on it flickered in my eyes, casting a grayscale afterimage. I blinked at it, trying to clear the weird imprint from my vision. The high-cendai followed my gaze, noticing that I was looking at the gate. ¡°Ah. You can see the End-Gate¡¯s runes, yes? This is good. Means you have potential. Not all is lost. You got burned because the flame of your soul shines so bright. We will have thirty two great years ahead of us, my monci,¡± Eunice smiled. "The End-gate?" I asked. ¡°Every chimera passes through the End-Gate when they reach the end of their lifespan at thirty three,¡± Eunice stated. Thirty three years? I would live only thirty three years! This fact hit me like an oncoming truck. I had ignored it before, pushed it to the back of my mind when Alessi said it, not now I had no choice but to accept it. Chimeras, like cats¡­ lived shorter lives than people, grew up a lot faster but also aged quicker. I started to hyperventilate. ¡°Do not be afraid,¡± Eunice took a step forward, looming over me. ¡°When you walk through this gate at the end of your life, your accumulated power, experience and knowledge will be passed down to me. Broken chain you are, but all broken chains eventually connect to the tribe''s high-cendai. In thirty two years, when your body grows too weak to live, your soul will become part of me.¡± I gasped at her. The high-cendai smiled at me serenely as if she wasn¡¯t casually talking about absorbing my soul! ¡°You¡¯ve been to the Still Forest, my monci. Do you remember what it¡¯s like?¡± She said. I shivered, recalling the icy coldness of the place, the mountains made from bones. ¡°...It was very cold and filled with the remains of long-dead¡­ things,¡± I said, my voice trembling. ¡°I carved this End-Gate hundreds of years ago, when the foundation of our village took place on this level of the Chasm. Since then, thanks to it, everyone who survived thirty three winters was preserved in me, their combined power benefitting the tribe,¡± Eunice explained. ¡°You must understand that it is better to live on in me, rather than sink into the Still Forest where your soul will turn into an empty, crystalline husk or be consumed by the hungry phantoms.¡± Her logic made sense. The Still Forest was the end of all life in Andross, the local purgatory and limbo. I tried to still my shaking hands as I glanced at the high-cendai. All of my memories were just a snack for her in the end, my soul functioning as the nourishment for her immortality. ¡°Is there no way for a chimera¡­ to live longer?¡± I asked, staring at her smile. ¡°You can spend hundreds of years to fortify an absolute spiritual-domain and build a gate like mine and find those willing to give up their souls to you,¡± Eunice answered. "If you can do that, you can lay a foundation for your own tribe." I looked at the black gate with a wince. ¡°That¡¯s obviously not a realistic option for you,¡± The high-cendai added. ¡°Your soul is shattered and will take a long time to heal.¡± ¡°Is there¡­ no other way for me to heal my soul?¡± I asked, desperately looking at Eunice for advice. ¡°Oh, there is¡­. It will also let you live longer than thirty three years. To heal your soul and to increase your life-span, you will have to catch a young, female jumbari.¡± ¡°Catch¡­ a what?¡± I blinked, not understanding the word. ¡°The jumbari are very clever creatures, very similar to a chimera in appearance. They also walk on two legs,¡± Eunice answered. ¡°Their claws and ears are shorter and their hair does not absorb ambient magic or crystallize, but they live thrice as long, aging slower than us.¡± My heart started to beat faster. ¡°Jumbari live in homes made from stone, on the other side of the Chasm,¡± Eunice continued, pointing at the distant, fog-covered shore of the Chasm''s ring of mountains. ¡°Since you managed to take down a nightwalker I doubt that a young jumbari will present more of a challenge to you. Their younglings come down into the Chasm in a search for glory and power. A few of my monwai-cendai live in their tribe in secret, studying their unique magics.¡± ¡°W-what¡­ does a jumbari look like exactly?¡± I asked, already dreading the answer. ¡°One moment¡­ I will show you,¡± Eunice walked back to her home and emerged with a paper which she handed to me. Upon the faded yellow parchment, surrounded by lines of handwritten text, I saw a drawing of a¡­ human girl. The word ¡°jumbari¡± meant ¡°human¡±! ¡°This is yours to keep,¡± Eunice closed my trembling hand over the parchment. "Once you catch one, you will need to consume their soul and take their body for your own.¡± Ch 12. Sharing Songs ¡°Don¡¯t be sad. I will help you hunt down a jumbari, sister,¡± Alessi said. ¡°If it is weaker than a nightwalker we can¡­¡± I didn¡¯t reply to her. I was sitting in my workshop skull and thinking things over for the hundredth time. In a twist of fate I was reincarnated into a creature that hunted down¡­ people. According to everything I had learned thus far from Eunice, chimera cendai were abominable doppelgangers, monsters that killed humans and took their place in a large city on the other side of the chasm. ¡°Status,¡± I whispered. Nothing happened. My System was gone, my soul too mangled to support it. I put my head between my knees, wrapped my hands over myself and started to cry. A decade. It would take ten years for my magic to return, unless I killed a human. A third of my painfully short chimera life! Alessi stepped closer to me and hugged me tightly. I buried my head in her silver-crystal hair and started to sob into her. ¡°Oi u lisi Da oi u lisi Da na gorici Tam zozulia Da ta i zozuliya Da kuido zvilaa¡± Alessi suddenly started to sing the ¡°U lisi¡± song back to me. She was copying every single word and intonation with perfect cadence. I joined my voice to hers and we sang together in unison, in a duo chorus. ¡°You memorized the entire song perfectly, just by hearing it once?¡± I asked when the song ended. She nodded. ¡°Your memory is that good, huh?¡± I tilted my head. Alessi bowed her silver hair. ¡°When dad was gone and mom stopped doing things¡­ I had to learn things¡­ very quickly or starve to death. I realized that my own star was already being imprinted into the chorus of my ancestors. I¡­ learned to weave every moment from my own life into the shawl, so that I would never forget anything of value.¡± ¡°Heh,¡± I smiled, feeling a bit calmer. ¡°See? You don¡¯t need to see the still forest to be a cendai, Alessi. You already know magic. Mind magic that allows you to have perfect memory!¡± ¡°Oh,¡± she blinked. ¡°But every chimera knows how to access the chorus¡­¡± ¡°I don¡¯t,¡± I said with a slightly sour face. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Alessi lowered her eyes. ¡°Don¡¯t be!¡± I shook my head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me, I¡¯ll learn things from you the hard way, through shared experience! The important thing here is that every chimera has mental magic and yours must be particularly strong! You¡¯ve something to be proud of!¡± ¡°Hrm,¡± she looked back at me, not looking very confident. ¡°The ancestral chorus is some sort of innate magical skill, I¡¯m certain of that now,¡± I explained. ¡°You¡¯re already a pro at it, looks like¡­ but you could be an expert!¡± ¡°An expert?¡± ¡°Yep,¡± I nodded. ¡°Train it, expand its limits, experiment with it! Try something new! Innovate! Think outside of the uhh¡­ skull.¡± Chimeras didn¡¯t really have a word for ¡°box¡± since they had no cardboard boxes. ¡°Think outside of the skull?¡± Alessi scratched her head. ¡°Sounds very silly, but alright.¡± I nodded. We stayed quiet for a few minutes. ¡°You were practicing magic before even learning anything from Eunice,¡± Alessi spoke up. ¡°Yes,¡± I winced. ¡°Why?¡± She asked. ¡°I¡­ uhhh,¡± I attempted to formulate a decent answer. ¡°You got hurt due to your inexperience,¡± she stated, looking at me with a serious look. ¡°My mom and I can¡¯t protect you from something that we cannot even see.¡± Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. ¡°Yeah,¡± I sighed. ¡°Why?¡± She asked again. ¡°The other life I led¡­ the other world¡­ I¡¯ve lived there for many decades, an entire lifetime. It wasn¡¯t anything like this place. It was a lot safer there. Nobody was trying to eat me. I had a workshop. I could experiment freely with anything that I wanted. I made tools, clothes, armor and weapons. I had the support of thousands of observers and with it I could acquire anything I want¡­ even wings,¡± I said, trying to explain my life on Earth in chimera words and terms. ¡°Nobody stopped me from flying there. I didn''t have to hunt to get food. I sought danger for fun, because otherwise life was dull." "Support of observers? Danger¡­ for fun¡­ not food?" The young chimera frowned. ¡°I don¡¯t understand. Why would anyone do that?¡± "Earth was a world without magic. I was a danger-seeker," I said. "My observers were dedicated to me. They watched my adventures from the safety of their homes. I had friends from thousands of¡­ ugh¡­ tribes¡­ observing me¡­ remotely," I tried to explain ''cities'' and ¡®computer monitors¡¯. The little chimera squinted at me. She didn¡¯t look like she believed me. "Here¡­ for seven months I was extremely, painfully alone. I had no support, felt trapped, alienated, lost." I rubbed the back of my head. "My mom basically gave me up to the high-cendai because I was a still-born. I am broken chain. Mom and I don''t understand each other because the shared knowledge link between us is torn, missing. She expects me to know everything, to behave just like her¡­ but I don''t. I don''t know anything about the Chasm. My ancestral chorus will never awaken." I sighed. ¡°At times none of this feels real to me. The endless Chasm, magic, monsters¡­¡± I muttered. ¡°My other life was more solid, made sense. I was taught much by my¡­ male elder about the nature of the world and how everything functions. Experimenting there wasn¡¯t anywhere as dangerous¡­ because I always had knowledge and lots of help and support from my family and friends.¡± I almost started to cry again as I recalled my grandfather''s garden and workshop filled with broken-glass sculptures, my forge and shelves upon shelves of various metalworking tools. Alessi¡¯s silver hands grabbed mine. "You have my support and friendship now. You can rely on me." "I was foolish by rushing into things, I know." I bowed my head, strands of my amber and ruby crystals twinkling in rays of sunlight breaking through the circular windows. ¡°Promise me,¡± she said. ¡°Promise me you won¡¯t play with magic until you heal and learn how to protect yourself. I really don''t want to lose my only friend, my sister." "Yeah," I nodded, hugging her. "I''m not alone anymore." ¡°You don¡¯t need to impress me with your magic,¡± she added. "You need not rush headfirst into things.¡± I nodded, taking my hands into hers. ¡°I¡¯ll help you kill a human, if that''s what it takes to heal you,¡± she affirmed once again. ¡°No,¡± I shook my head. ¡°I cannot kill a human.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Alessi asked. ¡°Because in my other life, beyond the Still Forest¡­ I was a human,¡± I confessed. ¡°I lived in a place built by humans and all of my friends there were human.¡± The silver haired chimera gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. ¡°There is simply no way that I can bring myself to kill someone this young,¡± I tapped the faded portrait on the yellow parchment. ¡°I cannot take the life of an innocent girl. It¡¯s¡­ wrong, abhorrent.¡± ¡°It¡­¡± Alessi muttered, her eyes darting from the portrait to my face. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter what you were in another life, Juni." I looked at her, not sure what she was going to say next. Her eyes became shimmering pools of liquid mercury. When I stared at Alessi, I saw a skinny chimera girl who was barely a year old. If she was a human she would look about four¡­ except for her eyes. Her eyes were nothing like that of a child. In them burned the flame of fierce determination. She was using the ancestral chorus to its fullest! The experience of a thousand generations shined from behind her silver-blue eyes, adding to her own conviction, magnifying her courage and strength from within. When she opened her mouth, her lips spoke with the combined wisdom of many. ¡°You offered me your acceptance and friendship, when no-one else would, Juni. I¡¯ll help you heal and become the best high-cendai. I¡¯ll use my chorus to its fullest¡­ I swear, I''ll help you find a way forward!" ¡°Thank you,¡± I muttered. On one hand, my situation seems hopeless. On the other hand, I wasn''t alone and I still had my knowledge from Earth. Even without personal magic I could craft things.
¡°What are you doing?¡± Alessi asked as she watched me. ¡°Exercising,¡± I panted. ¡°Training my body to be faster and stronger.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± She tilted her head. ¡°Can I do it too?¡± ¡°Sure, just copy what I¡¯m doing,¡± I said, going through my stretching routine from my past life. ¡°That was pretty good,¡± I complimented my sister, taking a break. "Your form is quite good for someone who has never trained before." "Form?" She blinked. "The way you move your body, your posture, everything." "I remember everything, plus my chorus guides me," she said with a small bow. "Girls defend the hearth while boys sleep at night." ¡°Right,¡± I nodded. Chimera divide in the roles of labor was making more sense to me. Chimera men and women specialized in different skills, without even using the System. Girls used knives and a variety of powder-weapons to strike hard and fast at an enemy, driving monsters away from the home at night. Boys used wings and arrows to hunt down and tire out their prey. Possibly, the gulf between men and women grew wider when chimeras settled within skull-homes reinforced by rune-magics which were able to push monsters further and further away. The System wasn¡¯t a necessity if Chimera shaman were able to naturally grow their soul-threads in a specific direction. I hoped that even without summoning up my stats, I would still be able to reinforce, fix my existing threads by eating monsters. I wasn¡¯t sure how badly torn up they were. The damn hollow phantom must have sucked up most of my human soul for the System to no longer respond to my commands. What was left? My chimera soul? My organic body? Could a body function without a soul? I had many questions for my Master. Thankfully, our next meeting wasn¡¯t that far away. I decided to bring Alessi with me to the high-cendai¡¯s home, hoping that she wouldn''t get kicked out. Ch 13. A Lesson in Magic Several days later, Alessi and I stood on the gold sandbar in front of the high-cendai¡¯s residence, waiting for her to emerge. ¡°I see that you brought your new sister,¡± Eunice noted as she came from within her rune-covered abode, sparing Alessi but a momentary glance. ¡°She will be my assistant,¡± I stated confidently. ¡°Even if she cannot do magic, she can aid me, right? Can she stay by my side as my own¡­ monci?¡± ¡°Sure. Personally, I prefer a more solitary life,¡± the high-cendai said. ¡°But some cendai keep several monci, especially my monwai in Illatius. Do you trust her to aid you?¡± ¡°With my entire life,¡± I answered. ¡°She helped me take down the nightcrawler.¡± ¡°Very well,¡± Eunice said. ¡°She may stay by your side as your helper.¡± ¡°What¡¯s¡­ Illatius?¡± I asked. ¡°The Master-hive of the local jumbari,¡± Eunice explained. ¡°They call themselves the Basquenate. It is a human tribe that rules many other tribes across the land beyond the Chasm. All of their wealth and power is concentrated in Illatius. They had built their hive near the Chasm, as the air here is rich with magic.¡± I nodded. If I understood my Master right, Illatius was a human capital city of the local nation called the Basquenate. ¡°Well, let''s not waste time. Today I will go over more basics for you,¡± Eunice said, interrupting my musings. ¡°To access the Still Forest safely, you must become a Still-Walker. The first thing a cendai must learn is how to still their body. A chimera body, like those of other creatures of the Chasm, is made up of several elements. The Spirit-Tree. The crystalline lattice. The body of flesh.¡± I nodded. ¡°The Soul-Tree is what gives a cendai absolute control over the other two elements. Its roots and branches can reach into the Still Forest for knowledge and power.¡± Eunice tapped the gray, crystal hair on her head. ¡°These crystals and others like it deep within our bodies are the expression of the spiritual leaves of our Soul-Tree. They store whatever it draws from the Still Forest, be it knowledge or power.¡± ¡°Knowledge?¡± I blinked. ¡°Would I lose memories if I cut off my hair?¡± ¡°No,¡± Eunice answered. ¡°The Mental-Branch of the Soul-Tree is deep within your head. Our hair contains an excess of the breath of the Chasm which the body pushes out of itself over time. I will drop my shield momentarily, for you to observe me.¡± The high-cendai spoke a song-word and her hair and body ignited with lustrous luminescence. I squinted at her and gasped. She looked like a celestial being, wreathed in radiant flames, her crystalline hair radiating coronas of impossible rainbows with far too many colors. A brilliant ring ignited behind her head, drawing my eyes towards it. When my gaze connected with it I felt love, absolute devotion to Eunice. The high-cendai was my Master, a perfect being made manifest, a goddess... With a blink, the divine vision was gone. I found myself standing on my knees and drooling a little. The runes around the garden flashed. The yearning to submit myself to her will, to prostrate myself before her faded slowly. I forcefully looked away from Eunice at the glowing rocks. What the hell was that?! How high-level was her God-damned Allure halo? The colors of her radiance remained in my eyes as a slowly fading after-image for the next few minutes. ¡°You must learn how to completely conceal your inner light,¡± the high-cendai spoke when I rose from my knees. ¡°The phantoms will be drawn to it as your magical power grows inside you and is let free as you have just witnessed.¡± She was repeating herself, focused on the lesson that magic without protection was bad. I was starting to wonder if Eunice thought of me as an idiot savant because I did magic so early and almost got eaten by a phantom. ¡°What are the phantoms of the Still Forest, exactly?¡± I inquired. ¡°The thing I saw¡­ had many eyes in a hollow shell filled with various threads.¡± ¡°Powerful magical beings whose bodies perished long ago,¡± Eunice explained, her lips tight. ¡°Their souls persist in the Still-Forest at a great cost. They¡¯ve long lost all sense of self, feeding on memories and imprints of whatever un-crystallized soul they can find, eternally integrating other spirits into themselves to sustain their abominable existence of endless suffering and hunger.¡± ¡°Can they¡­ leave the Still Forest?¡± I asked. ¡°They can,¡± Eunice said darkly. ¡°In places contaminated with death, where the barrier between the Still Forest and our world is thinnest¡­ the phantoms can take over the bodies of¡­ anything living. They usually do not survive for very long in this state, for their souls are fractured, disordered, made up of many memories. They are twisted, broken things." The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I shuddered. "Their souls are thus¡­ unstable. If they get inside a living creature... driven by madness and unending desire to feast, they consume everything in sight without recourse, still acting as they would in the Still-Forest,¡± Eunice said. I gulped. Was she describing¡­ zombies? Were zombies a thing in Andross? What about ghouls? Vampires? Were those a thing here?! ¡°Human hives closer to the deadlands have to use powerful warding magics to keep the phantoms away,¡± Eunice continued. ¡°Thankfully, such does not occur here often. The Chasm is filled with life. Life is¡­ adverse to them, for the phantoms are creatures of death and decay.¡± ¡°Now, there are several tools to better conceal your Soul-Tree¡¯s radiance,¡± the high-cendai pointed at the gold spirals on herself. ¡°The rune shield is just one of them.¡± I looked at the runes on her body, trying to figure out a pattern to them that I could possibly copy. There didn¡¯t seem to be any. ¡°How do the runes work exactly?¡± I asked. ¡°Are they akin to jumbari letters?¡± ¡°No,¡± Eunice shook her head. ¡°Runes are unique to each cendai - they cannot be copied. Each one is a guide, an idea, a desire, a dream.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± I said. ¡°The branches of your Soul-Tree can be snipped off and attached to¡­ anything,¡± Eunice said. ¡°The rune simply acts as a knot that ties a little shard of your soul to the object. The little snippet of your soul is what acts upon the world around it, performing magic.¡± ¡°I see,¡± I pursed my lips mulling the provided information. ¡°So¡­ I can snip off parts of my soul and tie it to things?¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± the high-cendai waved her hand around the garden. ¡°Small saplings of my soul are within every rock here. This place is my Soul-Garden, my personal domain. Every Soul-Sapling here is tied to the other, in a network of spiritual roots. The Soul-Garden protects me and helps me focus my magic better.¡± I looked around the high-cendai¡¯s garden in fascination, seeing it in a new light. So this was¡­ her wizard¡¯s tower? The place of her absolute power? ¡°How small¡­ can the soul fragments be?¡± I asked. ¡°As small as you can imagine them to be,¡± Eunice said. ¡°They¡¯re simply weaker if they are smaller. A soul sapling that¡¯s too small and not tied to the others will simply perish, dissolve or sink into the Still Forest. You¡¯ll discover exactly how small you can make yours with practice.¡± ¡°Rocks aren¡¯t alive¡­ what would happen if a cendai planted a Soul-Sapling in a living creature?¡± I asked. ¡°An astute question,¡± Eunice smiled. ¡°It would be treated as an invader by the Soul-Tree of the creature in question, attacked and destroyed or absorbed.¡± ¡°So then how do cendai take over humans?¡± I asked. ¡°The human¡¯s soul must be weakened and drained first so that there is no conflict,¡± Eunice said. ¡°There are runes and tools in my Soul-Garden, specifically made for this. All you need to do is hunt, knock out and bring a young, highborn female human here.¡± ¡°How many of us are in control of human bodies?¡± I tried to keep my face calm. ¡°Seven,¡± the monstrous shaman replied. ¡°It takes a special kind of a cendai to fully immerse themselves in human culture.¡± ¡°How exactly do cendai control the¡­ um¡­ extra bodies?¡± ¡°A Still-Walker¡¯s chimera body is suspended, stilled, crystalized into a state of absolute lethargy. When this state is achieved, the cendai is able to relocate their entire soul into another body.¡± ¡°So a cendai can simply take over any body with a weakened soul?¡± I asked. ¡°No,¡± Eunice shook her head. ¡°The body in question must be prepared first, completely saturated, rooted with the cendai¡¯s soul-saplings. A talented cendai can step between their own body and that of a human whenever they desire." "I see," I said. "So... um, what does a human body do when the cendai''s soul isn''t in it?" "In the case of a possessed human¡­ the body will simply sleep in a deep trance while the cendai is not in control of it. The empty shell cannot be woken from this sleep. The Soul-Saplings keep it alive. If a cendai does not use the human shell often enough, it will weaken, perish from hunger and thirst.¡± ¡°Can a cendai take over any creature in this manner? A small bug? A thunderbird? A nightcrawler?¡± I asked. ¡°No,¡± Eunice laughed. ¡°The minds and bodies of bugs and monsters are too different from us. Far too many branches of your Soul-Tree would be left exposed. You would grow weak and your mind would succumb to madness.¡± ¡°What about¡­ another chimera?¡± I mulled. ¡°That is possible, but I would not permit the use of my garden for such,¡± Eunice said. ¡°Humans are free game as our enemies. They are... malevolent to our kind. If they catch young chimera like yourself, they will kill you to harvest the crystal hair and gemstone core or... worse.¡± ¡°How many human bodies can a cendai wear?¡± I continued my line of inquiry, shuddering a little. ¡°One, until it is dead,¡± Eunice replied. ¡°The possession must be absolute so as not to fail. Once you have merged with one human body, the bond will force it to become more and more like you, the flesh slowly reshaping itself to approximately match your chimera appearance.¡± ¡°Don''t humans notice these¡­ changes?¡± I asked. ¡°The change is very gradual,¡± the high cendai said with a devious smirk. ¡°This is why it is important to catch a young one. Human spawn can change a lot when they grow up. My monwai made the other humans believe that any drastic changes such as the shift of hair color and skin tint occurs because of ¡®the blessing of the Gods¡¯, granted to most noble, chosen, young heroes that braved the deeper levels of the Chasm.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll tell me about your monwai in the city?¡± I said. ¡°I will show you how they look, in time,¡± Eunice said. ¡°They¡¯re all female and specialize in various magics. They will aid you if you become one of them.¡± I thought about her words and glanced at Alessi who kept absolutely quiet throughout our conversion. ¡°The ancestral chorus¡­ is it simply chimera mothers passing the saplings of their soul to their daughters?¡± I asked. ¡°Correct,¡± the high-cendai affirmed my suspicions. ¡°So then regular chimera can do magic? Why don¡¯t the phantoms¡­¡± I started to speak. ¡°I am the one who performs the Ancestral Chorus ritual during childbirth, reinforcing the connection,¡± Eunice said. ¡°I do it here, in the absolute safety of my Soul-Garden. Also, it is a talent all chimera are born with, lost only by a few that return from death. Inherent skills of Chasm creatures such as the Thunderbird¡¯s ability to travel by lightning do not flare brightly in the Still Forest and thus do not attract the phantoms.¡± Ch 14. The Library Over the passing months Eunice had slowly taught me the Basq language, so that I could follow through with my vile mission. She had given me a few scrolls, with Basq letters for me to study, teaching me their pronunciation. She seemed certain that I would gladly abduct a human and take their place, because of my desperate situation. The high-cendai cut off all of my crystalline hair, down to my scalp, giving me a Buddhist monk-style look. She laid my ruby gemstone mane onto a windowsill so that the gems would harden. I was supposed to grind them into fine powder and place it into a polished skull of a creature I killed. It was all part of the long process to make me a spiritual shield. Eunice taught me several types of base cendai skills. One was meditation to completely still my body. The second - deep focus and concentration, which involved staring at the End-Gate until I could see magical currents flowing from it. The third were Soul-Songs. According to my Master, Stillness meditation, visual concentration and Soul-Songs were sub-types of magic that didn¡¯t utilize the mangled branches of my Soul-Tree. Her methods weren''t very specific or scientific and for a painfully long time I struggled, sometimes falling asleep and getting awakened with a slap. She simply told me that I was supposed to "achieve a state of absolute stillness" and "witness the currents of magic". I knew that Buddhists could slow down their heartbeat during meditation, but I had never practiced such myself. I wasn¡¯t just supposed to slow my heart a little - I had to learn how to completely suspend my body, put it on pause entirely. No heartbeat, no breathing, no perspiration. ¡°A state of absolute stillness must be achieved,¡± she said. ¡°Once you pass this step, you will learn to move your soul from your body.¡± None of it made any sense to my rational mind, so it wasn¡¯t easy. How was I supposed to stop breathing and not pass out? When I wasn''t practicing ¡°Stillness¡± at the high-cendai''s garden, I was at my parents house, helping my mom out with Alessi. My sister had also cut off her hair in solidarity with me, copying everything that I was doing, even though she didn''t believe that she could do magic. I turned half of Alessi¡¯s skull-home into a workshop for making hand-crafted armor and the other half into a trap for monsters. It worked as thus - any monster that crawled into an eyehole, became pulled inside the skull by a rope and then fell into a whole pit of wooden spikes, with a layered beetle shutter closing up the entryway behind it. It worked well and hid the blood and smell of bodies so as to avoid the thunderbird incident. Our trapped room caught about one small to midsize creature every few weeks, which my sister and I cooked on the hearth and ate. To make sure that we wouldn''t become more visible while we climbed around the Chasm, I converted a few of the rune banners into capes. It worked well - monsters didn¡¯t attack us in the open. To protect ourselves from potential attacks, I made myself, Alessi and Belasi stone-throwing slings. The sling was an ancient weapon known to Neolithic peoples around the Mediterranean. I knew that a well-trained slinger could bring down a mighty foe as the sling used double-pendulum kinetics to cast a stone a lot further than a rock thrown by chimera hands alone. It was a wilderness survival weapon that could be built with the most basic resources, since it was just a small cradle or pouch in the middle of two retention cords. It also didn¡¯t take up much space, so it could be easily hidden away from other chimera eyes unlike a bow. As we were now on a high-protein diet, every morning Alessi and I exercised regimentally to build up our strength so that someday we could fly. We practiced with the slings as often as we could, using them against makeshift targets and bugs. I wanted to be prepared ahead, and didn''t want to be eaten by a giant bee if the cendai-blessed capes failed us. . . . The engagement of Acadius and Belassi was a relatively simple affair. My dad had arranged the payment to Eunice for it by harvesting the blood and organs of some obscure creature that Eunice wanted for her magical experiments. It took dad a while to hunt the beast down somewhere deep in the Chasm but when he killed it and brought its body to the high-cendai, the date for the ceremony was set. The dark and silver chimera stood in front of the black End-gate. The high-cendai painted runes on their bodies. Acadius sang the hymn of unity. Belassi did not make a sound, but Alessi sang the ceremonial words for her as the speaker for her mother, since Belassi¡¯s chorus was inside of her. My mom and I simply stood at the back along with a few other male and female chimera that my parents were friends with. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. It was simple and beautiful. At the end of the Symphony of Unity, Eunice shot a spell at the sky above her home, igniting it with a brilliant aurora made up from dancing colors. She wasn¡¯t afraid of summoning monsters with it because her home had absurdly powerful wards around it. In a few minutes the magical aurora became dominated by two colors - gray and silver, which united into a spiraling storm and detonated overhead casting falling sparks all around. . . . Days flew by, filled with new projects. My booby-trapped workshop caught another nightwalker. The damn thing refused to die and demolished almost all of the wooden stakes before it finally stopped flailing. This time, I got to keep the body. We took plenty of time to cut the creature apart, made steaks out of its meat and smoked them over a fire. I cleaned out its skull as Eunice had commanded, preparing it for the ritual. The nightcrawler¡¯s bones were as black as its carapace. It took us a while to separate the vantablack segments of its shell to start crafting armor that was as black as night. During the day the nightcrawler bones and carapace appeared very dark purple, glinting a little in the light of the Chasm clouds. I experimented with the bodies of other creatures that my trap caught, and went out to hunt with my sister and Belassi using our slings. I was trying to find a material that would be light and strong enough to make glider-type wings. It was slow going, but I didn¡¯t give up, believing with all of my heart that eventually I would figure out how to fly. Autumn came and went, painting the Chasm in orange tones. Winter brought snow and froze some of the waterfalls solid. As it became too cold for me to meditate outside, Eunice let me inside of her home. I expected the high-cendai¡¯s home to be as complex and alien within as on the outside, but Eunice had completely shattered all of my expectations. When I came inside for the first time my mind simply hung up, refusing to accept what I was seeing. The bone ceiling and walls of her house were carved in interconnected, maddeningly elaborate spirals covered in gold, tiny rune-script. It was as ornate as the gilded Altar in St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. The rest of the interior furnishings weren¡¯t anything like my parents or Alessi¡¯s home. The high-cendai¡¯s home was full of¡­ manufactured things, clearly not made by chimera hands. Opulent, crystalline stained glass let light in through the circular windows. Beautiful lamps with glowing crystals lit up the dark corners. Wooden chests sat beneath wooden cabinets. Every wall was lined with bookshelves, absolutely bursting with whimsical and pulchritudinous tools, jewelry, paintings, miscellaneous curios and¡­ leather-bound books. Books! I couldn''t believe it. ¡°Everything you see here has been brought to me by my monwai-cendai from human-ruled lands,¡± Eunice said, leaning on a bookshelf with a smirk. ¡°As you¡¯ve been careful with the reading scrolls and you¡¯re learning quickly¡­¡± As I stared at her, with my mouth wide open, I noticed that she was looking a lot less aged, as if her public, wrinkled face was just an illusion, a magical projection, wool pulled over the eyes to fool chimera into thinking that she was frail at a glance. She grabbed a thick book from a shelf and handed it to me. ¡°Here. This is a human-designed, leather-bound information storage item called a cogia.¡± Right. "Cogia" was the word for "book". I nodded eagerly, mentally drooling at the prospect of learning everything about local humanity. The book cases, shelves and comfy couches beneath them were quite large. How did her apprentices even move them here all the way across the chasm? I wasn¡¯t the type of a person who sat on a question. ¡°Master, how did your monwai get all of these items here?¡± I asked, pointing at an intricately carved wooden shelf. ¡°Surely these could not be flown here on Bonulich wings all the way across the chasm?¡± ¡°An excellent question,¡± Eunice demurred. ¡°My monwai have integrated themselves well into human society, taking control of several wealthy families who are in possession of large, flying homes.¡± Eunice flipped one of the books open and showed me a painting of an airship docking to a tower. ¡°Here is what one looks like. They¡¯re powered by crystals similar to those growing on your head.¡± My eyes opened wide. Airships¡­ the local humans had steampunk, crystal-mana powered airships! The high-cendai pointed to an illustration of ladies in fanciful hats having tea in a cafe. The girls in the painting were wearing Victorian-style elaborate dresses and hats decorated with gemstones and flowers. A maid was in the back, serving the guests. Towers and airships dominated the background. ¡°Human society is heavily segregated by class. The gulf between each subtype is almost insurmountable. When you go out hunting for a human spawn, I prescribe an acquisition of a young, high-born female. You can tell by how they dress. The misfortunate low-borns wear old, worn things. The servants wear black and white dresses like this. The high-born ones wear new clothes covered in gold and gemstones.¡± She tapped the lady and the maid as she spoke and slid the book into my hands. ¡°You may study it after your meditation. The deeper you can immerse yourself in human customs, the better you can blend into their nest.¡± I nodded, accepting the book. My chest throbbed, my heart beating quickly. Airships! Fancy dresses! High society! They had to have furnaces¡­ tools to make a workshop. I was close to my dream once again, so close that I could feel it radiate from the watercolor painting. If I was a rich noble, I could buy all of these things and more! I could have it all, if only I was willing to go against my principles. I knew that Eunice would teach me exactly how to take a human body for myself. She has done this before over the centuries with other Still-Walkers. The ostentatious artifacts, books, diamond eggs and other gem-encrusted jewelry filling her shelves to bursting had confirmed as much. How many chimera were already out there, masquerading as human nobility, enjoying the high-class life? The high-cendai vanished in the hallway, seemingly satisfied with my eager expression over the book. The devil knew how to tempt me. I scowled, my knuckles turning white. I would find a way to get stronger and figure out how to join humanity without eating people''s souls. Ch 15. Spreading my Wings It took me a long time to repair my soul and to learn how to become a Still-Walker. Trapping, killing and eating monsters had helped but the progress to recover what I had lost was painfully slow. Three years. Three God-damned years was what it took for my soul to feel somewhat whole once again! I certainly didn¡¯t waste time, but I still felt incredibly annoyed at how long it took. I slowly went through hundreds of the books in Eunice¡¯s library. The high-cendai did not have time or the patience to teach me how to understand the Basq handscript. Instead of teaching it to me properly, she gave me an artifact pen designed by one of her monwai. The pen was a thick metal bar with a round gemstone on one end and a sharp tip on the other. All I had to do was push a bit of my mana into it and trace the word that I was reading and its approximate meaning became apparent to me after a few seconds. It wasn''t a perfect system and the pen often failed to define a word. In the end, the various leather-bound tomes didn¡¯t contain very much information and what was there was painfully difficult to read, since the translator pen didn''t do its job half the time. All of the books were handwritten in medieval illuminated manuscript style, featuring hand-painted illustrations. What I did learn from them was that across the Chasm from our chimera village stood the Grand Capital of the Basquinate Empire, the illustrious and opulent cathedral-city of Illatius. Fed by the magical currents emanating from the Chasm, monster farms produced crystallized mana that powered the magitek engines in the capital city and across the entire Empire. Enormous, white hex-beacon towers loomed above Basquinate citadel-cities, keeping humanity safe from phantoms. Skyships sailed between these citadels, forming trade routes. Adventurers came from the entire Empire and from nearby nations, staying in Illatius in an attempt to best the Chasm, known as the Infinite Dungeon to humanity. Killing monsters and eating their meat made adventurers stronger, bringing up their level. The compressed, crystalized mana cores within monsters fetched a great price at the Diver¡¯s Guild. Strange and useful artifacts, formed by the powerful mana fields could be found on the deeper levels of the Dungeon. It was all very exciting to read about, had I not been one of the monsters hunted down by humanity for profit. Chimera didn¡¯t just have hearts. I now knew that a crystal core sat in the center of my chest, worth a pretty penny to the greedy Dungeon Diver. Airships malfunctioned when going down into the Chasm, plus moving up or down too rapidly could kill a person, so the trips were done on foot. Grand Academies of Magic called the Arcanariums taught human children magic, instructors often taking students down to various levels of the chasm on excursions to study the local flora and fauna. Everyone knew that the lower one went, the greater chances were of obtaining incredible items while facing abominations of the deep. Nobility, mages, researchers, adventurers and lowborns alike could gamble and win big by exploring the Infinite Dungeon. Many did not come back as they were unprepared for fighting the monstrous wildlife. A few returned changed¡­ and became fantastically wealthy. It was perfectly normal. All adventurers carried hex-beacons with them, as leveling up or doing magic outside of the range of these devices left one utterly defenseless to phantom attacks. Because Chimera were magical beings, our hex-beacon was our core. The core could protect chimera cendai from ghosts, if properly attuned with a rune-net, according to Eunice. The world revealed to me in the high-cendai¡¯s books was far more complex, fantastic and terrifying than what I had imagined. I had no choice but to claw my way to a bright future against great odds without sacrificing my principles and becoming a monster.
¡°On guard, fiend!¡± I yelled, leaping forward, swinging my sword. The fiend in question rushed forward, growling at me like a fierce dragon. My sword collided with a shield and the enemy''s sword nearly cut through my neck. I leapt back and took off running. "Get back here!" Alessi yelled, running after me. The air thrummed as her wooden sword whipped through the air, missing my back by a few centimeters. "Ha ha, you''ll never catch me!" I rushed towards the end of the cliff. I didn¡¯t pause at the edge. I was ready. A project that I¡¯d spent two years of work on, was finally ready. I leapt forward, extending my wings. The glider wings caught the air, thrumming as I flew, holding the stolen flag tightly to my chest. As I glided forward, I glanced back at my sister. Determination of the hunt was painted on her face as she followed me, bravely leaping off the cliffside with her own leather wings extended. "This is your last chance to surrender!" Alessi yelled. "Nu-huh!" I laughed. The wings we''d made weren''t perfect, they weren''t magic-infused like the beetle wings that the male hunters used, but they were good enough for gliding. I based their design on the base jumping wingsuit. I worked with wingsuits back on Earth, figuring out their design with my friends in an attempt to make our own cheaper version which we then used to do base jumping in Georgia. Wingsuits were made of soft, stretchy nylon and used air inlets to inflate them in flight, creating pressurized membranes beneath the pilot''s outstretched arms and legs that generated lift ¨C a bit like a flying squirrel. It took me months to find a monster with the skin that matched nylon fabric and even longer to design, test and hand-sew wing-suits for myself and Alessi using a steel needle, scissors and thread that I had borrowed from the high-cendai''s many chests of "human things". Chimera were lighter and tougher than humans so it was considerably easier for us to glide longer distances and land without crashing. Alessi and I had practiced jumping from the top of various waterfalls in this valley without wings at all, since the lake below was deep and its surface was constantly broken by cascading water, allowing for a safe water-landing. This was the first time we had used the wingsuits and my heart throbbed with excitement as I was able to control my flight. My design actually worked! We flew down, circling the moss-covered cliff. A thousand waterfalls cascaded all around us, rumbling down and down across the rocky valley. I had found this place in a higher level of the chasm. The mist coming up from the falls hid our mock battle away from prying eyes of other chimera. Also, the waterfall valley didn''t face directly into the Chasm, so I didn''t have to look down into the infinite abyss. Over the years my fear of the chasm had subsided, but I still froze up any time I attempted to stare directly down into its depths. My flight ended with a splash in the azure-colored lake at the bottom of the falls. I dove under the water, swimming through the clear water. When I came up for air, on the pebble-covered beach, Alessi was already standing there, pointing her wooden sword at me. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. "Clever girl," I grinned. "You flew ahead of me, using your lighter frame to stay in the air longer." Alessi stuck her tongue out at me. At four chimera years, she looked like a thin, but very fit twelve year old human. Sparks of the hunt danced in her silver-blue eyes. Shimmering armor made from beetle carapace covered her body. It sparkled in the sunlight. I was wearing vantablack armor made from a nightcrawler. We made the armor sets together. It took us many months to hunt down these beetles for Alessi and then even longer to carve out the nightcrawler''s carapace and beetle shells and turn them into fitting armor parts. The small, shy kitten I met three years ago had grown into a formidable, spry hunter. She was the first chimera who had broken away from tradition that wasn''t a broken chain like me. I was moving a bit slower than my opponent due to being waterlogged. Alessi swung her sword and when I tried to avoid it, she swiftly kicked my legs out from under me. When I fell, she wrestled the flag away from my arms. I had designed a "capture the flag" game in this location to train our bodies and minds. "You''re not going to win this," Alessi grinned at me, holding the flag in her hands as I panted beneath her. "The flag''s mine now! I am clearly the best girl hunter in our tribe!" "Just you wait..." I rolled onto a crouching position and pushed myself up to my knees. "You don''t stand a chance," Alessi laughed. "Maybe... but I''ll give you a good fight," I smirked at her. She might have been dry, but I still had better dexterity. I spun a small rock with my sling, directing it right at her sword. The wooden weapon shattered in her hands and she lost balance with a yelp. "Hey!" Alessi shouted, dropping the remnants of her broken sword as I grabbed the flag from her hands. "Gotcha!" I grinned and ran off with the flag. Alessi chased after me, but I was already rushing away. "I¡¯ll get you!" Alessi yelled. "Nope!" I called back. The wind rushed in my ears as I ran, weaving my path between enormous moss-covered boulders. There was a wide grin on my face. I felt alive! More alive than I had ever been as a human. My chimera body had grown up swiftly. I was now as tall as a human teen, but all of my senses were significantly sharper. The rainbow in the air above the falls had more than seven colors. I even spotted separate, sparkling drops of water as they flew by me. With my long ears tilted back, I determined Alessi''s exact position right behind me, leaping out of the way whenever she tried to catch me. This body was made for the hunt! My legs started to tire, but I didn''t want to give up. Capture the flag was way too much fun. Finally, I saw my chance. I leapt up onto a flat, wet boulder and slid down. Since I was already wet and the slope was wet I flew downward with increasing speed. The slide allowed me to get far ahead of my sister. I waited for her, steadying my breath and focusing my body for the attack. When Alessi got close, I tackled her to the ground, winding rope around her hands. We rolled across the wet sandbar, wrestling for control. In the end, I won and Alessi lay on the ground, panting, her arms bound with rope. "That was... a really good match," she said, gasping for breath. "You''re strong." "Thanks," I grinned, helping her up and loosening her binds. "You''re not too bad yourself." "I''m getting better," Alessi said, dusting herself off. ¡°...I think.¡± "Definitely," I said. I knew that she would achieve anything she put her mind to. Empowered by her ancestral chorus, my education and the meat of monsters, she had grown stronger, become swift and very capable. "Twenty-five times one-forty-four!" I declared. "Thirty-six-hundred," She shot back with a smirk. "Think fast," I threw another small rock at her head. She caught the rock in her hand and raised a white eyebrow. We ended up throwing rocks at each other, laughing loudly. Some we were able to catch, others bounced off our armor with a ¡®pling¡¯ sound. ¡°I still can''t believe it...¡± Alessi smiled when we were done playing. ¡°Hm?¡± I asked. "I... can fly." She exhaled and looked at me. "Gliding isn''t really flying," I shrugged. "Yeah... but it''s similar!" Alessi said. "Since I''ve met you... I''ve been doing things that no other ancestor of mine has done before, as far as I can recall. New, exciting... dangerous things. I did not expect to end up on this path when I saw you three years ago at the meeting grove.¡± "What does your chorus think about all of this?" I asked curiously. "The voices of my ancestors have grown a lot stronger and clearer," my sister winced. "Their stars warn me that I''m going down a dangerous path. The way forward is not lit. I do not know what awaits me. I''m staking my future on you alone, not on the tribe... but then again the tribe has never aided me or my mom, while you did." Alessi paused and looked at, a twinge of worry painted on her face. "You''re going to learn magic tomorrow... right?" "Yeah," I nodded. "Eunice told me that my soul is fully healed and that I¡¯m at the threshold of Still-Walking." "Be careful... alright?" She uttered. "The chorus told me that some young cendai failed their first test, never returned from the high-cendai''s dwelling." I gulped. "What is the test?" "I do not know what it entails exactly. But... throughout the ages some mothers lost their daughters because they failed the test of magic. The high-cendai simply said that their souls were too weak and were dragged into the gate by the Still Forest dwellers." "I''ll survive," I said, putting my hands on her shoulders. "I promise. I won''t fail. I''ve been to the Still Forest twice. I think... I know who¡¯s waiting for me out there." Alessi nodded back to me. Inwardly, I was terrified, scared of encountering the hollow phantom. I etched a confident smile onto my face, presenting it to her. A whoosh of wings and the sound of parting gravel sounded behind us. I let go of Alessi and spun around, my sling already in my right hand ready to pulverize heads. It was a male chimera, about seven winters old if I was judging it right. Since chimera aged three times faster than humans, he looked like a lanky teenager. His body was the color of dark ash and hair dark blue with a purple tint and shiny like amethysts. A look of deep concern sat on his gray face. "I am Isahcs," the boy said. "I''ve been assigned as your watcher. I... saw what you two did." His blue eyes were looking at my flying-squirrel glider wings made from stretched leather. I mentally cursed. I thought that our fun wouldn''t be spotted in this hidden valley. Alessi hid behind me, as I stared the boy down, even though I was much shorter than him. "What did we do, exactly, watcher?" I asked. "You were flying," he said. "Pray tell, how were we flying? Do you see the Bonulich wings on us?" I raised an eyebrow. "No, but..." "But what?" "It''s my job to keep you safe," Isahcs insisted. "First you''ve made it difficult by crawling through a crevasse. When I did track you down, you were here... flying." "Who asked you to watch us?" I demanded. "Your father," Isahcs replied. "I''m your cousin, the son of his sister Agrossi. He cares for you, Juni." "Does he now?" I tilted my head. "He barely talks to me at home. I am a cendai and I belong to Eunice. My business here is none of his concern or yours." "Eunice did not declare your test complete yet and Alessi¡¯s not a cendai-in-training," The teenage chimera''s expression grew dark, a gray finger pointing at my sister. "I will speak to your father about this." "Why?" I asked, squinting at him. "Because it is dangerous for two young females to be playing around the mountains," Isais explained. ¡°You could get eaten.¡± "Is that what you think we''re doing?" I raised an eyebrow. "Playing?" Isahcs sighed. He looked at Alessi. "Why does she not see reason? Are you encouraging her?" Alessi shrugged. "You are not children anymore," Isahcs continued. "You should not be running around the mountains like this. You could get hurt." He glanced at Alessi once again. "I am not a child!" The silver-haired chimera snapped. "I am a hunter!" "How do you plan to hunt?" Isahcs demanded with a laugh. "I see no proper weapons on you! Is that a wooden sword?" He spotted the fake weapon at my side. He pointed to the large bow over his shoulder. "I''m here to protect and help you." "Help?" Alessi hissed. "Where was your help when my mother and I were alone during the first winter? I almost starved to death during the coldest month!" "I only got my wings last week," Isahcs said quietly. "I do not know why you were not assigned aid earlier." "Oh..." Alessi''s voice cracked. She fell silent. I stepped in between them. "There is no need for fighting." "Cousin, she is helping me train," I looked at Isahcs. "There''s no need to involve my father in any of this." "My job is to keep you safe." Isahcs insisted. "And my future job is to keep the tribe safe," I declared. "This is part of my magical training. Alessi is my assistant." "Whatever," Isahcs muttered. "Just stay in my sight, please." He opened his wings and took off. Alessi looked up at the boy. "This is going to be a problem." "Such is life," I sighed. "He just wants to make sure that we''re safe. I guess that the cat is out of the bag." "Huh?" My sister looked at me, confused by my turn of speech. "We got caught. Also, I''m tired of crawling," I said. "The glider-wings we''ve made work. I''m going to start using them to get around." "Me too," my sister said. "I don''t care if I am shamed by others." "That''s the spirit," I smiled. "Are you not afraid of the Chasm?" Alessi looked at me. "Oh¡­ I am," I laughed nervously. "I''ll just have to keep to the sides." Tomorrow, I was finally going to learn soul-protecting magic! Then, I would start leveling up once again¡­ if I survived the trial of facing the Still Forest phantoms with my soul intact. Ch 16. Personal Shield "Yet again I am impressed," Eunice said, looking me over. "Your core is recovering far faster than I had estimated." I nodded. Eating monsters regularly did the trick. "Stats," I whispered when Eunice turned around and walked to a bookshelf. Nothing happened. I gritted my teeth. Eating monsters didn¡¯t give me back my human soul. No matter how much I had tried to meditate or imagine the control room of Chernobyl, the numbers would simply not come to me. Eunice returned, bearing my container. The container was a pitch-black nightcrawler skull decorated in runes. Eunice had directed me to carve them on top of the bone of a monster I killed, so that I could practice pouring my soul into it. In the past three years I had learned to feel my soul, to still my body sufficiently to begin to gradually move parts of my ghost out of it under her supervision. The runes covering the skull shimmered with ruby red color in my eyes. "Top it up," the high-cendai ordered. "Then it shall be ready for use." I sat down in a lotus pose and stilled my body and soul as much as I could. Then, I started to sing. The cendai song my Master taught me resonated across the domed living room. "Your pronunciation is still abysmal," Eunice shook her head. I ignored her commentary, focusing on the song. At least she didn''t smack me this time. It took me a long time to memorize this damn song and years to execute it properly. Myriads of gold runes across the living room lit up, activated by my song. They responded, focusing their power on me, helping me out, guiding me along. As the song reached its final crescendo, I felt a twang as my soul disconnected from my body, my body suspending itself completely. I continued to sing as a body-less ghost and moved my finger out of myself. A ghostly, silver-blue finger made up of glowing threads emerged from my hand. It was a very odd sight. "Good," Eunice demurred. A small, sharp knife appeared in her hand. I always hated this part because it hurt like hell. The high-cendai swung the ceremonial knife at my ghostly finger and I winced as a small segment of my soul came off me. It was somewhat unnerving to see a piece of my ghostly-self come off me and float down into the nightcrawler skull sitting on the ground below me. My ghostly finger dissolved into the skull as it connected with it. The glow of the blood-red runes on the skull intensified. "Very good. It is almost ready now," Eunice declared. I stopped singing and my body and soul slowly came back together. Getting back into my body felt a bit unnerving. My finger felt very cold and hollowed out. I moved it about, trying to regain the warmth in it. It looked fine physically, but it was damaged spiritually. I looked at the nightcrawler''s skull. Inside of it sat three years of my crystalline hair, ground to a very fine powder. The runes painted on the skull were infusing everything inside it with my soul. I felt the skull and the crystalline sand within it as some distant part of myself. ¡°Begin adding the protective barrier to your body,¡± Eunice ordered. ¡°Take your time. This is your personal test. Summon me when you are finished painting runes on your entire body.¡± The high cendai handed me a paintbrush and departed. I blanched at her as she left. I wasn¡¯t going to paint runes. The high-cendai¡¯s methods were imprecise, unscientific. I had decided to improve upon them using everything I knew about armours. I pulled out a pouch from my shiny beetle armor. There was a little shell inside of it, filled with¡­ glue. I had harvested the glue from a very large spider, by boiling its sticky web in a pot. Alessi and I had knocked the spider out with sling-thrown rocks and then cut down its web with my favorite nightcrawler-sword. I had tested the spider-web glue under various conditions and confirmed that it was the best bonding agent that could be applied to crystal sand and then the resulting mixture could be peeled off and reused, akin to latex paint. Simplified, what I had essentially made was glue with glitter in it. I poured the red, sparkling sand from the skull into the shell and started to mix it. Once it was of sufficient consistency, I started to apply it to myself with my hands. I didn¡¯t draw runes. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. The power of the spirit-shield wasn¡¯t in runes, it was in the ideas they represented. Eunice told me that the more power and soul I poured into my shield, the better it would obey me. Every sunday for three years with my Master¡¯s help, I had been cutting off little bits of my soul and putting it into this sand. The skull was completely filled to the brim with the stuff, its eyeholes sealed up with clay. I felt the crystalline grains, even though they were not part of my body. It was a very strange sensation akin to having an ocean of microscopic, interlocked hands located far away from me. After years of experimentation, I had confirmed that the smallest rune I could imagine was a grain of sand. I knew that I could possibly go smaller, but alas it had to be something that I could actually see and I lacked a powerful microscope. I once again visualized, affirmed with all of my will that every grain of sand in my paste was connecting with the other, forming a shield that would protect my soul against the hollow phantom. In this shield, each grain served as a microscopic rune, an idea, a desire for protection against ghosts. I also knew that the natural honeycomb structure, aka the hexagon, offered the best strength-to-weight ratio. The hollow phantom¡¯s shell was made up of hexagons, because hexagons formed in nature due to their efficiency. I started to slowly apply the paste to my body with my hands, not leaving any gaps, mentally forcing my soul-infused sand to form a microscopic hexagonal grid all around my body. After a few hours of application, my magic latex-suit was ready. Hopefully, if the glue and the sand bonded correctly, I would be able to peel it off whenever I needed a wash, melt it and reapply it again and again. In a manner, unlike Eunice¡¯s body paint runework it was completely impervious to being washed away by a thunderstorm. From what I understood, the cendai''s runes were held on by magic on the body, which would be a massive waste of mana for a little young chimera like myself. Why waste magical power on something when glue could be used do to the same? Looking into a mirror on one of the library shelves, I painted dots all over my face, mentally connecting them into a grid-like pattern. Then, I parted the crystal-covered hair-strands on my head dotting my skull with the paste. When I was done decorating myself, I moved onto the nightcrawler skull. I emptied the skull completely, pouring the precious soul-infused sand into several bottles made from beetle shells. Then I broke the clay that was covering up the eyes and cleaned it up. Once that was done, I placed lenses made from polished crystal into the skull¡¯s eye holes, sealing the edges with my sparkly glue. I painted the skull''s entire interior and exterior with the sparkling, sticky paste. I wanted to be completely, utterly impervious to the phantoms and I didn¡¯t want to put too much glue all over my face nor near my eyes. I also placed filters made from a sponge-plant into the skull''s nostrils, sealing everything together tightly with my crystalline bonding agent. I poured crystal sand atop the sponge layer, this time using all of my knowledge about chemical contaminants, mentally shaping the sand to block anything that could be considered poisonous or dangerous to my lungs and then sealed it with another sponge. The idea was to replicate a 3M filter using magic. If the sand-infused paint could be assigned function to block phantoms, why couldn''t the powder infused with my soul be used akin to an activated carbon filter that could in theory block dangerous magical and mundane particulates? The entire process reminded me of the time when I made cosplays, getting ready for comic cons. When the skull-mask was complete, it looked quite beautiful and eerie, like a primitive, savage-style helmet worn by some quirky anime character. Dark red, barely discernible sand grains glittered all over it. I painted a very thin layer of dots over the lenses and the sponge-covered sections, so that I would be able to see out of the mask and breathe. I slid the skull-helmet on top of my head, testing how it fit. It was much too big and sat wrong. I took it off and filled the insides with more sponges, bonding them to the interior until the skull-helmet sat comfortably on top of my head and I could see through the eye-holes with no issues. I added a rim of sponges around the neck and painted over them, so when I moved my head the skull wouldn''t rip up the paint on my shoulders and secured the entire thing with leather straps, firmly attaching the skull-helmet to my head. I moved my head side-to-side and jumped, testing the straps and readjusting them until everything was perfect. To complete the outfit, I waited for the bodysuit to dry and then donned my vantablack nightcrawler armor. Sadly, I didn¡¯t have enough soul-infused bonding agent to paint all of it, so I merely added dots all over the armor, bonding each segment to the other mentally. The connections held, like a thin, invisible mesh. I felt two hexagonal grids around me, one incredibly solid and the other weak and thin, but still responsive. ¡°Master, I¡¯m done!¡± I declared, my voice slightly distorted and made tinny by the nightcrawler¡¯s skull. Eunice descended from one of the rooms upstairs via a bone-carved stairwell. Her mouth dropped open. I grinned. I had managed to surprise her. Ha! ¡°What is this?¡± She uttered. Her eyes flashed from within with a fiery radiance as she circled me. ¡°Ghost-proof armor,¡± I tapped the helmet with my finger. ¡°Very¡­ unique,¡± she said. ¡°I see no gaps. Excellent. You are ready to step into the Still Forest.¡± Eunice guided me out of her living room, down one level into a basement section. She unlocked a steel door and we stepped into a circular room covered in gold runes painted on metal, interconnected plates. The runes formed an enormous spiral the focus of which was a black, circular gate that stood in the center of the room. ¡°Stand in front of the End-Gate, monci,¡± Eunice commanded. I stepped towards the gate, feeling nervous. Eunice started to sing. Her ethereal song danced across the strange, metal-covered room. As she did, every rune around us lit up. The gold symbols covering the black gate ignited and where there was once air, a ripple had formed woven from black fluid hanging in the air. The ripple danced in the air like ferromagnetic fluid, distortion waves coming from the symbols surrounding the entrance into purgatory. The high-cendai¡¯s song stopped. ¡°Step through the gate,¡± she said. "It will take you to the Still Forest." I slowly took a step forward, then another. The black ripple embraced me, curled all around me as I moved forward towards what I felt was my certain doom. Hell waited for me beyond the gate. It had always waited for me, just as it waited for everyone in Andross and this time¡­ this time I hoped that I was ready for it. Ch 17. The Still Forest The Still Forest was dark and oppressively silent. Diatom-shaped mountains of bones extended out, in all directions, fading into somber obscurity. My shield held. I felt the spikes of cold dancing against it, not touching the core of my soul. I looked behind me. The black, circular gate stood in the Still Forest. It looked like it fit the gloomy atmosphere, but was also out of place, didn¡¯t quite belong because it wasn¡¯t made from bones and it wasn¡¯t still. The black, shimmering fluid rippled within it, radiating magical currents into the dead world. Eunice stepped through the gate right after me and nodded. ¡°Breathe,¡± she ordered me with a hand motion. Now, I couldn''t physically take a breath in the Still Forest. There was no air here, no oxygen, no life. Just as was taught, I stilled my heart, crystallized my body and one by one, extended the branches of my Soul-Tree out of my body. The threads passed through the microscopic hexagonal openings in my shield, reaching out into the dead air. Every fiber of my ghost inhaled, tasted the cold void and with it¡­ awakened memories of¡­ something. Whatever I felt was¡­ noise, static that I could not comprehend. Eerie whispers from myriads of voices resonated somewhere at the edge of my consciousness. The Still Forest was singing to me, a song of the abyssal multitudes of souls that had drowned and fossilized into the terrain filling up the infinite necropolis with their bones. I stood there for a while, completely still, listening to the song of the dead woven from the sound of static, breathing with my soul alone. I felt that I was some sort of a deep sea anemone, hiding most of my oozy body behind my hard carcinoecium shell. I had no idea how much time was passing, because there was no time or movement in this awful, suspended place. Something flashed in the distance with a distinctively silver lightning. Something big was moving through the forest of bones, rippling between the ribcage segments of the long dead abominations. When it came closer, I saw a hexagonal shell and a thousand tentacle threads trailing behind it. I remembered it, recalled the monster that struck me and panicked, pulling all of my threads back beneath my armor. When I did, the monstrous ghost paused, its eyes looking around. I knew who it was searching for. It must have spotted the emanations coming from the End-Gate because it started to move towards me once again. In that very instant, Eunice grabbed at me and pulled me back into the gate. The black surface of the gate let go of us and popped like a soap bubble, vanishing as if never existed. I restarted my heart and lungs and took a cautious breath, staring at the End-Gate in fear that the phantom would somehow come through it and pull me under. ¡°Well done,¡± the high cendai said. ¡°Your shield worked.¡± I nodded, my heart beating rapidly. I fell to my knees, trembling as my entire body unfroze. ¡°It¡­ that was the same phantom¡­ it found me,¡± I whispered with a shudder. ¡°Wasn¡¯t the shield supposed to hide, protect me?¡± ¡°You were in there for quite a long time feeding on the memories of the dead,¡± Eunice said. ¡°It seems that this particular ghost got a taste of you and now wants more.¡± I gulped. ¡°Don¡¯t be afraid of the dead, monci,¡± Eunice addressed me. ¡°The phantom will not be able to pull you under now. Your shield anchors you to the physical. You are now free to perform magic, anywhere. You have passed your test. You are now a true cendai." I exhaled. Eunice led me out of the spooky, metal room up to her living room. ¡°Take a rest. I shall see you in seven days,¡± she said, leaving me to my own thoughts. ¡°Status,¡± I whispered as my Master departed. A barely discernible, blue window woven from sparks flickered in my vision for just a moment. The letters on it were complete gibberish made up from dancing static. Even if the menu was incomprehensible, even if it was utter gibberish and noise¡­ I still got my magic back. My trip into purgatory did the trick. I felt that I was on the threshold of getting my stats back, I just needed to take one final step forward. . . . Alessi met me outside in the sand-garden. Eunice did not permit her to enter her home, so my sister practiced Stillness meditation whenever I was inside. ¡°Juni!¡± She stood up from the sand and rushed towards me. I smiled at her. She collided with me, wrapping me up in a full-body hug. ¡°How did it go?¡± ¡°Fine,¡± I replied with a smile. ¡°I was so worried¡­¡± She whispered. ¡°I can do magic now,¡± I added. ¡°Anywhere. I¡¯m a cendai now. I was able to make a proper shield and everything.¡± ¡°I¡¯m glad,¡± Alessi said. Both of us walked out of the high-cendai¡¯s garden, heading towards the edge of the massive moss-covered cliff. ¡°You¡¯re fully healed, right?¡± My sister inquired. ¡°Yes, but¡­¡± I mulled. ¡°But?¡± She raised an eyebrow. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Some¡­ things are still not working properly. I can¡¯t see my number stats like I used to. It¡¯s all gibberish, weird language that I can¡¯t comprehend. From what I understand¡­ I think I need to feast on smarter creatures like humans to fully repair my soul. Unfortunately, smarter monsters don¡¯t really fall for our basic traps or maybe there aren''t any in this region of the Chasm.¡± ¡°About that,¡± Alessi spoke up. ¡°I think I know where we might be able to find smarter monsters.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± I looked at her curiously. ¡°I¡¯ve been searching my chorus, year by year, mother by mother, heading backwards. I have learned many things of value from them. Seventeen rings down the Chasm from us there is¡­ a forest.¡± ¡°What kind of a forest?¡± I asked curiously. ¡°The voice of my ancestor called it the Twisted forest. The roots of the giant Folding Trees there twist the land into a vast labyrinth. The seeds of these trees are¡­ very spry. They move about akin to enormous spiders, using their roots as feet.¡± ¡°That sounds interesting,¡± I commented. ¡°...and potentially dangerous.¡± ¡°We could set a trap for one of these living seeds.¡± Alessi said. ¡°They tend to wander around at night and are pretty stupid. They¡¯re most dangerous during the day when they open up their shell and release their pheromones.¡± ¡°How do smarter monsters tie into this?¡± I tiled my head. ¡°Creatures that enter into the vast labyrinth end up getting lost. The monsters search for anything to drink or eat and that¡¯s when the seeds capture them with the allure of tasty-smelling flower sap. The seeds attract, paralyze and slowly digest far larger prey inside of themselves - they¡¯re bigger on the inside.¡± ¡°I see what you¡¯re saying. We take down some seeds and there might be bigger prizes inside for us?¡± I mulled over her idea. ¡°How do we avoid getting lost in the labyrinth?¡± ¡°The memory I have is that of a gatherer mother that went through the entire Twisted forest long ago. I think that she will help us navigate the forest without getting lost ourselves,¡± Alessi affirmed. ¡°Sounds good,¡± I remarked. ¡°Let''s make a detailed plan and prepare as much as we can. I don''t want to get stupidly hurt again because of my ignorance. I''m going to find out as much as I can about the Twisted Forest from Eunice next time I talk to her. We''re not going there until we are absolutely ready."
I was back to my dragonskull home, excited to share the good news about my cendai-test with my mom. It was late evening by the time Alessi and I had arrived. It was my dad that met us at the front entrance framed by dragon teeth. ¡°Hey dad,¡± I said, waving to him. ¡°How¡¯s¡­ hunting?¡± ¡°Juni,¡± he looked down at me, a deep frown sitting on his dark-skinned face. He didn¡¯t reply to my question. His yellow eyes stared into mine, looking angry and disappointed. ¡°Yes?¡± I stopped. ¡°I¡¯ve been told that you are practicing¡­ flying,¡± he said. The look of displeasure in his eyes suddenly made sense. Cousin Isahcs must have reported on our fun activities at the waterfall valley to my father. ¡°Is this not allowed?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°Flying is for boys,¡± he said, just as I expected. ¡°We are not using Bonulich wings,¡± I explained. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter,¡± Dad said sternly. ¡°Both of you are flying! While you¡¯re under my household, you are not to¡­¡± ¡°Then¡­ we¡¯re moving out,¡± I declared, interrupting him. ¡°What?¡± He barked. ¡°You are not of age!¡± I looked at the ruby bracelet I made three years ago that glittered on his hand, somewhat regretting giving it to him. Emancipation time. Here we go. ¡°I just passed my test. I¡¯m a cendai now,¡± I said. "This makes me of age." ¡°Impossible!¡± He stepped towards me. ¡°You are only four winters old! There has never been a cendai so young. If you do not obey me, I will tear those¡­ grotesque leather wings off you myself if that¡¯s what I have to do to protect you!¡± I stepped back, pulling my skull-mask atop of my face. "Take that skull off at once!" He barked. I reached for the pink thread in my soul. It was there. I wasn¡¯t afraid to use it now, wrapped in my absolute shield. I rapidly pulled air into my magical compressor and thrust my left hand forward. His hand reached out for me, about to grab me by the scruff to pull me inside the house by force. A thunderclap detonation of compressed air resounded like a gunshot, echoing noisily within the maw of the dragon. Dad¡¯s face fell as he leapt backwards away from me like a terrified cat. There was fear painted on his face now. Primal, ancient terror of the arcane powers of the cendai. ¡°I am a Sei-Sen-Dai!" I sang, inflecting cadence into every syllable, trying to make myself sound like Eunice. ¡°I can weave deadly spells and I¡¯m not afraid to use my power on anyone who tries to tell me what is allowed and what isn¡¯t! I will do what I want! I will fly and I will eat meat, as permitted for she-who-can-bend-the-world to her will!¡± The anger that had been building up in my heart for three years over the loss of the System had boiled over, spilled from my mouth and poured over my chimera father. He backed away from me further. "You have no power over me!" I growled. ¡°Alessi¡­¡± He finally uttered after a deep pause, focusing on my sister. ¡°Alessi is my monci!¡± I snarled. ¡°She will do exactly as I order her to and you shall not interfere in her magical training! She belongs to me, just as my life is owned by the high-cendai!¡± "But... she didn''t die..." His eyes darted from me to Alessi and then back at me. "She can''t possibly be a cendai''s monci!" I protectively wrapped my hand around Alessi, pointing my fingers at my father like a gun, ready to fire the compressor again. Dad¡¯s face twitched. This was not how he expected things to go. ¡°Both of you are so young,¡± he finally uttered, looking lost. ¡°You can¡¯t just¡­ You are violating tradition¡­ the others will talk¡­¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care. If someone has a problem with it, they can complain to my Master. She has declared me a cendai. She permitted Alessi to be my monci,¡± I said, knowing that Eunice would not care for the words of mundane chimera. "Perhaps you did not get notified of these facts yet." He glanced at Alessi once again, perhaps hoping to at least yell at her or confiscate her wings. ¡°I am acting within my rights. A cendai can take up anyone as apprentice,¡± I insisted, protectively holding onto Alessi. Dad sighed deeply, seeing that I wasn¡¯t budging. ¡°Tell Isahcs not to hover over us anymore,¡± I said, slowly drawing the words out of myself and trying to calm my nerves. ¡°We don¡¯t need to be supervised or told what to do and what not to do.¡± The beetle wing door slid open and mom stepped out. ¡°Mom. I won¡¯t be staying home¡­ for a while,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± ¡°Be careful, alright?¡± She said, ¡°Do what you need to do¡­ to get stronger¡­ my little sunrise.¡± I nodded, my heart thrumming in my chest at her words. She grabbed dad by his elbow and drew him away from us, defusing the situation completely. My shoulders fell. I knew that I would have to leave someday, knew that a confrontation like this was inevitable. I was prepared for it and yet¡­ it still hurt. Mom did love me, in her way. She had allowed me to try new things in spite of millennia of tradition that kept her bound by the chorus of memories. She watched me eat meat and didn¡¯t stop me. She protected me when the thunderbird swooped down at us. She taught me many things even though I was learning things incredibly slowly in comparison to other ''normal'' chimera children. Perhaps someday¡­ when I was older, I would return to my first home and talk to my chimera parents like equals. Someday I would change chimera society, lead this tribe and help everyone out¡­ but not today. Not until I was a lot more capable. Not until I could face my Master¡¯s exposed aura and not fall to my knees in absolute prostration. Ch 18. Depictomancy ¡°Do you think my mother will be alright with your parents?¡± Alessi asked. ¡°They¡¯ll take care of her,¡± I nodded. ¡°Dad might have tried to rip off our wings, but he does care for Belassi and mom got used to bossing her around the house.¡± Alessi sighed. She didn¡¯t enjoy leaving her mom with my parents but we had big plans and bringing Belassi with us would be too problematic as the silver-haired chimera was still mute and unresponsive unless ordered directly. We started to prepare for our expedition. As I was a pro urban explorer and urban exploration was a little bit like illegal camping I made a list of the required supplies and planned out the potential routes, asking Alessi relevant questions. I set my sister to start working on a large glider as I didn¡¯t trust the smaller flying-squirrel wings to take us all 17 rings down safely. It was a fair distance down and I wanted to make sure that we would survive the trip with our limbs intact. The most important thing to do before heading out on an urbex trip was to consult an expert on the location on the Uer forum and also to tell someone about where you were going in case you ended up getting buried underground in some ruin. The closest thing to an expert on the Chasm and also the only person who seemed to care for my well-being with the exception of Alessi, was Eunice. Thus, I left Alessi with instructions on paraglider design. I trusted her to grab the right skins from storage and start sewing them together while I was gone. I climbed to the top of my workshop, ran towards the edge and leapt, letting the wing carry me forward, heading towards the home of the high-cendai.
As I often did, while waiting for Eunice to show up from wherever she was at, I picked up a random book from the living room¡¯s many shelves. The book that I selected looked a bit plain, featuring a gray leather cover. I sat down on a couch and flipped it open. [The Rise and Fall of Thomas Cole Nemendias Arcanarium Art History Research thesis by Initz Aerheart.] The logo of Nemendias was stamped onto the left side of the interior of the cover. It was made with faded gold paint and featured a simplified drawing of a fanciful gothic building with star-tipped towers, surrounded by the words ¡°Nemendias Arcanarium - Illatius Academy of Magic Library¡±. A lot of the books in Eunice¡¯s library were like this - completely unique, hand-written journals. I flipped the book to the next page, and slowly trudged through the words. It wasn¡¯t as hard to understand as many other books I¡¯d gone through, as the handwriting was very tidy. [Thomas Cole was a renowned artist in Illatius, known for his children¡¯s book series called ¡°The Mimmins¡± which was greatly enjoyed by the nobility. The Mimmins cards, painted by famed Depictomancer Bovalk Cindera featured the Mimmins cast, a group of Adventurers made up from odd magical creatures. Not many know this nowadays, but Thomas Cole''s real name was Ignis Vox and he was a lowborn from Illatius Undertown who had started out as a debitor and rose to prominence through deceit, trickery and lies masquerading as a talented highborn from a small, distant estate of Justim Mire. How had he done it? Ignis had convinced a very corrupt constable from a small town to give him the status of a Free Agent and then misused this status to infiltrate and modify several official records in Illatius. Throughout his life as Thomas Cole, until his tragic end, Ignis was staying one step ahead of the Illatius Constabulary. Unfortunately for him, in the end, the stairwell of lies that he had built had become too rickety and unstable. Arch-Judge Loomiss Gregor sentenced Ignis Vox to death by execution at the Paragon of Justice and the price of the Mimmins limited edition cards valued at ten thousand gold plummeted overnight. The exposure of Thomas Cole as an Undertown denizen had brought great shame to the highborn families that had invested substantial amounts of money into his products and workshop. Thomas Cole became a forbidden name, his workshop shut down. He faded from history, his books and collectible game cards of no value to the Illatius aristocracy. For my Thesis project, through a year of research and scouting across all of Illatius¡¯ districts I was able to assemble whatever I could find of Thomas Cole and his legacy. It wasn¡¯t easy as one hundred and sixty two years passed after his execution. . . . The Mimmins were a completely unique idea and a product of the highest quality of Depictomancy and Animancy. Bovalk Cindera became a friend of Thomas Cole at the Nemendias Arcanarium as they shared a few classes since their first year. Their mutual project was a child of their combined efforts of study of rune-magic and art. The Mimmins were a colorful cast of five mini-monster Adventurers classified as Chimera, [see attached card on the right for reference] a whimsical mixture of human and monster archetypes.] The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Hey, this thesis actually seemed pretty interesting and for once I could get through the text without a massive migraine. I wondered if the Eunice¡¯s apprentices had stolen the book from Nemendias because it featured chimera. An old, faded card was attached to the right page. It was a drawing of a forest. There were no chimera to be seen in it. ¡°Where are my chimera, Thomas?¡± I asked the card, feeling confused. ¡°I was promised whimsical chimera.¡± I read the text beneath the card. [The card activates by pressing a thumb into the thumbprint circle rune below the drawing. It is a simple exercise that teaches children how to push their mana into an artifact.] I pressed my thumb against the round rune on the bottom of the card. Nothing happened. Right¡­ mana. I pushed the tiniest bit of my mana into the circle. The painting on the card became alive. Five adorable-looking, almost chibi-style chimera girls painted with watercolors emerged from the forest and waved at me. Big smiles were painted on their faces. My mouth dropped. Holy crap! Depictomancy made living drawings, animated by the user¡¯s donation of magic! As I moved my finger to the right side of the card, the big, wide eyes of the Mimmins had followed it. I slid my finger to the top of the card and the mini-chimera looked up at it and then at each other. Their mouths moved as if they were excitedly discussing what to do about the friendly incursion of my finger into their painted domain. I smiled, playing with the card for a bit. I heard soft footsteps coming down the polished bone stairwell. My Master was here. I snapped the book shut, put it down on a gothic table next to me and looked up at her. ¡°Ah, monci. I heard you had a disagreement with your family,¡± the high-cendai said. The news sure traveled fast across the chimera village. ¡°Yes,¡± I nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve moved out to my workshop.¡± ¡°It is unfortunate when disagreements happen between families, but you are determined and stubborn just as I was once,¡± Eunice nodded. ¡°I too, left my family long ago to pursue the research of magical arts as the chorus-bound rarely understand broken chains. So, what brings you here so early if not to complain about your family situation?¡± ¡°I¡¯d like to go on an excursion to the Twisted Forest,¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t know how long it will take and I might not make it back on the seventh day for our lesson.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t wait to try out your magic against the Chasm? Why the Twisted Forest, specifically?¡± She asked. ¡°My sister suggested that the seeds there might contain bigger monsters,¡± I replied. ¡°They do,¡± Eunice nodded, confirming what Alessi told me. ¡°The Folding Trees are able to fold and stretch space. Their seeds are bigger on the inside while being small on the outside. Will you be able to navigate the labyrinth? It is easy to get lost there because the trees stretch their branches and roots and lengthen the paths.¡± ¡°I believe so,¡± I said. ¡°My sister¡¯s chorus has a memory of a chimera that lived there.¡± ¡°Very well,¡± the high-cendai said. ¡°Let''s go over your ten Soul-Branches. Show me each one and I shall tell you how they can be changed to increase your chances of success in the Twisted Forest. I would not recommend growing your spiritual branches alone because of the phantom that stalks you, but you are safe in my domain.¡± ¡°Thank you, Master,¡± I bowed. Eunice knew about leveling up! I was extremely worried about leveling up on my own since the ill-fated day when the hollow abomination sliced my soul apart. It was a bit hard to focus on a specific thread without the System guiding me, but I relied on Chimera synesthesia to bring a certain color and the power it represented to the surface of my soul. I willed my red-colored Michell Shield shield to manifest by pouring a bit of mana into it. ¡°This is a shield I¡¯ve made,¡± I said, feeling like I was revealing all of my cards to the high-cendai. It wasn¡¯t like she hadn''t seen my spiritual-threads for the past years with her magic eyes, but I still felt weird talking about them to her. ¡°The branch of Fortitude.¡± Eunice¡¯s eyes flashed as she observed my Strength thread. ¡°You can strengthen your bones with it so that they will not shatter when you fall from a Folding Tree.¡± She seemed pretty confident that I was going to fall. ¡°I can compress air with this one,¡± I flexed my Agility thread, showing off my compressor. It compressed a bit of air which I immediately let go of. ¡°The Folding branch,¡± Eunice nodded. ¡°I would recommend shaping it into the shape of a sharp whip. You could use it to carve your way out of a Folding Seed if you get trapped in one. If you stay in the Twisted Forest long enough, you¡¯ll figure out how the trees and their children use Folding magic.¡± ¡°Children?¡± I asked. ¡°The Folding Seeds do not always become trees. They slowly digest the souls of whatever prey they capture. If they eat enough clever monsters, they can become¡­ creative, alter their growth.¡± I nodded. I suspected that Eunice wasn¡¯t telling me everything. She wasn¡¯t the type of a teacher that gave all of the available information. Usually, she¡¯d give me a few guiding notes and let me figure out the rest with a whole lot of struggle. I suspected that it was a strategy of extracting new, creative ideas from broken chains. I flexed my fingers, pouring mana into my Pneumasomatic Actuators. ¡°Five Dominion branches,¡± Eunice noted. "You''ve reinforced better Dominion over your own muscles. If you grow more, you can eventually use them to command weaker creatures.¡± "What?" I blinked in surprise. Was she implying that Dexterity could be used as some kind of mind control?! "Using a soul-cutting artifact knife, a Dominion branch can be snipped off your soul and planted elsewhere, allowing you to forcibly dominate the muscles of the creature in question. These are the exact branch types that you''ll be planting in the body of the human you capture." "Oh," I said. "But, you said that I can''t put my soul into a monster like the nightcrawler?" "Indeed," Eunice said. "Your entire soul will not synchronize with a completely different body, but many Dominion Soul-Saplings can be used to make a monster obey you if its own soul and body is sufficiently weakened. The Fold Seeds trap all sorts of creatures within themselves, slowly draining their soul to grow. Make sure to grow many Dominion branches. If you get lucky, there will be a weakened flier inside a Seed. Dominating and riding a large flying beast from the Twisted Forest will allow you to return home with ease and impress your fellow chimera.¡± I nodded, momentarily imagining myself as a dragon-riding warrior-princess. Wasn''t there a scene like this in the Avatar film? Eunice stepped to her living room shelf and pulled out a sharp, silver knife covered in runes that left gray imprints in my eyes. I had been dreading this exact knife for three years because the high-cendai was using it to cut off random bits of my soul to empower my anti-phantom shield. ¡°You may borrow this soul-cutting blade for your trip,¡± she said with a smirk. ¡°The Fold Seed¡¯s poison will keep a creature docile and paralyzed for a few days even after it is freed from the stinger. If the beast¡¯s soul is intact, strike it with the knife and plant more Dominion saplings until it obeys you.¡± "Right. Um¡­ thank you Master." I nodded with a bow, feeling a little freaked out by the future prospect of physically torturing some beast with Dexterity threads and draining its soul if it refused to submit to me. Ch 19. Aria Anima I tried to move the Slow Mirror thread to the end of my arm next. It felt broken, empty. I couldn''t even put mana into it properly, but I was able to wiggle it a little for my Master. ¡°A dead branch of the Anima-Tree,¡± Eunice said. ¡°You can fill it with life once again from the lives of the creatures you¡¯ve consumed.¡± ¡°What does the Anima-Tree do, Master?¡± I asked. ¡°It is the tree of Life,¡± the high-cendai explained. ¡°If you grow enough Anima-branches you can become a powerful Animancer.¡± ¡°Animancer?¡± I blinked. Eunice pointed at the gray book next to me. ¡°Does Depictomancy interest you? It is one of many aspects of Animancy.¡± ¡°Yes master,¡± I nodded. ¡°Can I take this book with me? I¡¯d like to finish reading it and figure out how the card within is animated.¡± Eunice nodded. I smiled. ¡°At its core, Animancy is animating that which is dead, making it alive,¡± Eunice added. ¡°So, if I die¡­ I can use it to reanimate myself?¡± I asked, feeling curious about exactly how the Slow Mirror saved me. ¡°It can reanimate your injured spirit, yes.¡± Eunice nodded. ¡°The leaves of the Tree of Life naturally preserve your soul¡¯s imprint in the Still Forest. A big enough Anima-Tree can even heal the physical body. A skilled cendai can use many Anima-Trees in unison to heal the injured soul of her careless monci, for example." I sighed. "I saved your life with my Anima-Forest, twice,¡± she added and snapped her fingers. Ten thousand gold runes flashed all around her. A brilliant flower formed from yellow fire manifested in her hand, fading to green flames as it died away. ¡°Thank you, Master,¡± I bowed. ¡°I¡­ appreciate being alive.¡± ¡°Make sure to grow some for your trip,¡± Eunice smirked. ¡°I won¡¯t be there to heal your soul when you get hurt.¡± Eunice had no faith in me. I nodded along and ignited my Allure halo. ¡°The Resonance Branch,¡± Eunice said as my halo faded. ¡°Learn how to tune it to your will and desire. Grow it bigger and add more melodies to it, more songs.¡± ¡°Uhhh,¡± I blinked. ¡°What kind of melodies?¡± ¡°Music that can affect the minds of others. You¡¯ve just played the tone of vanity to me,¡± Eunice said. ¡°It is effective at striking the hearts of your followers, making you look more appealing, desirable. This song will be useless in the Twisted Forest unless you wish to draw the Folding Seeds to yourself and get eaten.¡± ¡°How do I make it play other songs?¡± I inquired. ¡°When you grow the branch, force it to obey your desire, attune it with your dreams, sing to it,¡± the high-cendai stated firmly. ¡°If you are desperate for acceptance, then the Resonance Branch will grow up to play the song of Vanity. Once it is grown, its shape and tone cannot be changed.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± I said. That was a deep burn, Eunice. I was¡­ I am still bloody desperate for more friendship and acceptance in chimera society! Having only a single friend that I could talk to was beyond grating after my life as an internet dweller in the urbex community. Urbexers bonded over our mutual dangerous hobby, we shared secrets, stuck together and helped each other out. It was awesome to have best friends in every city I went to. In a way, the Uer forums were a secret society of people from all over the world. The private sections of the Uer forum were accessible only to members that participated in urbex and proved themselves to the admins by going on dangerous expeditions with them. The very best, superior listings of abandoned treasures were hidden, closed to the public to avoid inexperienced idiots killing themselves or looting everything not nailed down in abandoned estates for example. The Paris Les UX was my favorite chat to hang out in because the French urbexers had copied a detailed map of the catacombs from the Ministry of Communication basement, which they had infiltrated via the underground tunnels. The group added information to it weekly, expanding the map with every dive into the vast ossuary that connected with over 300km of quarry tunnels beneath Paris. This map was a true masterpiece of urban exploration. The French urbexers had even built an underground movie theater in the catacombs. They had used the map effectively to move beneath Paris to secretly enter various French museums to fix things there for fun. I had planned to do the same in the Odessa catacombs with my Ukrainian friends before my tragic end in Chernobyl. I missed the internet dearly. I went back to my lesson with a sigh. ¡°The blessed runes... the banners which keep monsters away from chimera homes¡­ Do they contain Resonance Branch magic?¡± I asked to confirm my theory. ¡°Yes,¡± Eunice nodded. ¡°The right music can bring monsters to you or chase them away.¡± ¡°Is there a list of all of the possible tones that I can look up in a book?¡± I asked, glancing at the library shelves. ¡°No,¡± Eunice said, shaking her head. ¡°Do not copy songs from others. Write your own music from the heart.¡± I sighed. I didn¡¯t know why I even bothered asking for such. Eunice never provided me with complete or in-depth explanations. I felt the cyan-tinted threads that held onto my Mana Battery and Generator and moved the two back and forth, looking at the high-cendai. ¡°A Root and the Fruit of Power,¡± Eunice said. ¡°With more of these you¡¯ll be able to make your crystalline core stronger and do more magic.¡± I nodded and waited for her to add any other commentary. When she didn¡¯t I wiggled the stub of my burned out Luck tree. ¡°The Branch of Destiny,¡± the high-cendai said. ¡°If you grow enough of these and combine other branches with it and you¡¯ll be able to survive truly impossible odds, step away from death itself at the cost of a single branch." ¡°...I can combine branches with branches?¡± I blinked. ¡°Yes. Two different branches can be fused together to greater effect,¡± Eunice said. ¡°Such as?¡± ¡°That is something that you can find out for yourself, monchi,¡± The high-cendai smiled. ¡°If you impress me I will gift you¡­ a useful artifact.¡± Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. I groaned, feeling frustrated. She really wasn¡¯t making this easy for me. Whatever. I moved on by sliding my Calculator thread up and down. ¡°The Mind Branch,¡± Eunice stated. ¡°With more of these you can memorize the ways in the labyrinth of Folding Trees. Even if the paths get longer, some details do not change." ¡°Is Chimera Ancestral Chorus¡­ a type of innate Mind Branch magic?¡± I asked. The high-cendai nodded. No further advice followed so I showed off my last thread. It was the treacherous magenta-colored Wisdom thread that had doomed me to three years of magic-lessness. ¡°The Seeking Branch,¡± Eunice commented. ¡°It is able to retrieve things from the Still Forest and define things for you. If it gets big enough, it can help find answers, clues and solutions. If you get lost in the green labyrinth, the Seeking branch can help you find a way home. It''s only flaw is that it is also dangerous to use because the phantoms can latch onto it with ease." I nodded. This stuff would have been really nice to know three years ago! ¡°You are hereby permitted to Still your body in this library to guide the growth of your Soul Tree as you desire. If we do not see each other again, good luck hunting in the Twisted Forest, my monchi,¡± Eunice said. ¡°If you do not return from it in¡­ thirty days time, I shall send a hunting party to rescue you.¡± ¡°How will they find me?¡± I asked. ¡°I will give them an artifact that is able to track your soul,¡± Eunice said. ¡°You left more than enough of an imprint in this room over the years for me. I can find you anywhere on Andross, no matter how far away you are.¡± I bowed one more time as my Master departed and shuddered. Even if I ran away from Eunice, she would be able to find and send her minions after me. I would not be able to escape from my Master, since she possessed tracking artifacts. It seemed that the high-cendai was basically the biggest local monster, a villain. She kept the tribe ignorant like little sheep waiting for the slaughter, granting magic to only a select few like herself. She made her monwai depend on her, taught them how to take over human bodies and consumed all thirty-three year old chimera to live forever. In this manner, she was no better than a Still Forest phantom herself. What if she¡¯s been lying to everyone? How old could chimera live if they didn¡¯t step through the End-gate at thirty tree or perhaps¡­ used Anima-Branch magic to rewind themselves and their families? I put aside my bitterness, sat in a lotus pose in the middle of the high-cendai¡¯s library and stilled my body, slowing my heart, crystalizing my flesh. ¡°System, level me up,¡± I hummed in Ukrainian just as my heart stopped beating. . . . Nothing. Darkness. Emptiness. A void. No celestial, otherworldly music. No blinding pleasure or all-consuming pain. No level-up. Shit. Hello? System? Stats? I¡¯d like to level up, please? Chernobyl didn''t show up, the System wasn''t responding to me. I demanded stats in all the languages I knew, tried to summon up my numbers with my will, tried to imagine them being there, tried to visualize Chernobyl. Nothing. I despaired, feeling lost. For an indeterminately long time, I floated in nothingness, trying to grasp at my stats, trying to visualize myself, trying to force my soul to evolve, to grow. It wasn''t working. Nothing I attempted worked! I had no idea what to do and Eunice had given me no clues whatsoever as to how to grow my Soul-Tree. Like everyone here, she undoubtedly thought I was moving ahead far too quickly for my age. I growled mentally and focused my awareness of my entire soul, attempting to arrive at a solution. What did the level up provide exactly? Maybe there was something else that I could use to jump-start whatever connection my soul had with the System before, force the level up somehow. I pondered over various lines in my menu. Experience points! Of course! Experience points were the magic and life of the Chasm monsters I had killed and consumed over the past three years. I felt for them, reaching out for the power they¡¯ve represented. It was suddenly all around me, circling me like a supercell storm woven from cloudy, pearlescent energy. I didn¡¯t really see it visually, but I felt that it was there, accessible to me. I mentally recalled, remembering the various creatures I had killed over the past three years. I imagined that their ghosts, memories, soul-shards were spinning all around me, a macabre carousel, a spiral of monsters, my own little Still Forest within me. I wanted to discern each one. Did they have thoughts? Desires? Needs? Did I need to apologize to them before I turned them into personal power? I tried to listen to them, stilling my soul as much as possible. It took me a long time, but I got there in the end. Heard their growls and hisses, saw what they once had seen. ¡°Kill, consume, breed, feast, kill,¡± the abominations of the Chasm sung in a discordant chorus not of words, but of memories, ideas, feelings. ¡°Rip and tear, breed, feast, survive, hide, consume.¡± It was not a nice sensation. These creatures operated on base instincts and did not deserve my apologies for killing and eating them. I spun the spiral of monsters around me faster, squeezing the abominations together into a thin line, compressing them, turning them into a brilliant, multilayered ring as if I was planet Saturn. As I compressed the monsters, I discovered that another layer of power was there, one made up of plants. It was thinner, but I definitely felt it too. Chasm plant life gave my soul power when I ate them! The plants, roots and berries had life experience too, power that they¡¯ve absorbed from the Chasm¡¯s currents of magic. It was different¡­ weaker than the monsters, moved slower, but it was still there. I listened to them too. ¡°Grow, thrive, multiply, energy, warm, reach out, grow,¡± the plants sang to me in a chorus of their slow, simple lives, reaching out for nutrients in the ground and the sun overhead via photosynthesis. None of them were truly alive or sentient, but there had to be smart plants out there if the Folding Seeds could evolve into anything, extracting experience from other beasts. I wondered if I too could figure out how to slowly, completely digest a single creature¡¯s experience in such a manner that I could take on its innate element. It was an interesting thing to consider as the ring of power rapidly spun around me. What was leveling up exactly? A conversion of the experience of other creatures into¡­ me. A release of power, an explosion of magic¡­ a singularity! Of course! I crushed, compressed the ring as much as possible, trying to make a singularity from it. When I could push it no further, I released it and the power detonated, washed over me, igniting the darkness all around. The voices of the beasts and plants merged together sounded like¡­ alien music, cascading tones that washed over my soul like summer rain. My soul had absorbed it all and blossomed, becoming infused with the power I¡¯ve taken. It burned within me, my soul aching from pain and pleasure that the creatures had experienced once, their entire lives merged together into a singular moment that washed over me. I opened my eyes. A new universe was born in my mind, colorful stars and constellations floating about, twinkling amidst the darkness. The stars coalesced into discernible detail, specific shapes. I recognized what I was seeing almost immediately and smiled. The vision of Chernobyl¡¯s control room was there, but it was torn up, discordant, missing segments. Parts of panels floated between empty spaces, all the dials and numbers torn, skewed and twisted, completely unreadable. It looked like a tornado had gone through the desolate control room, tearing pieces of everything and rearranging them at random. Freakish veins made up from pulsating cracks shimmered with impossible colors and hung in the void behind the shattered panels like some kind of unsettling, twisted auroras. The whole place looked wrong, broken, sliced up and rearranged like the shards of a mirror broken into a thousand pieces, like a crystal that had been exploded, its lattices now floating through space. The text on the control panels was an unreadable mess made from shifting static. ¡°Well¡­ this place has seen better days,¡± I said looking around. "Not that it was new and sparkling before, mind you." Nobody replied to me. I sighed and closed my eyes, ignoring the discordant chaotic mess around me. If chimera cendai grew their soul-trees without support of the System, without numbers simply by intuition alone... then so could I. I dove deeper into my meditation trance, emptying my mind from everything, clearing away stray thoughts except for what I already knew, except for the ten threads that were already there. When I opened my eyes I saw nine lit dials colored with what I felt were my essential skills. The dials were all over the place, torn out of the panels, but I knew where they were now. The letters next to the dials were a completely unreadable mess. If I was a computer designer like my grandfather then maybe I could have mathematically figured out a pattern to the chaos, written a formula that simplified it and granted it order. Alas, I was a mechanic and a hobbyist armorer, not a mathematician. Technically¡­ I didn''t require a translation of the messed up text. I remembered what it represented. If my first level up gave me 5 points to spend and second one 10, then the third one would most likely give me 15 new threads of power, 15 new branches for my Soul Tree. I mulled over the ideas presented to me by the high-cendai. What would be the most useful thing in the Twisted Forest? Which branches could I combine to create something completely new that would help me survive in the labyrinth of trees filled with their hungry seeds? Ch 20. Planning our Excursion After a few hours of contemplation I still didn¡¯t arrive at an answer as to what I would need the most in the Twisted Forest. I simply didn¡¯t know enough about the place. There was no convenient Uer forum that mapped the location along with a hundred photos, listing the level of danger, security detail and type of mask/clothing requirements. I had no internet pals that I could pm to talk about my trip. A pro urban explorer usually chose tools that benefited the environment best and protected them the most. For example, while exploring the Odessa catacombs with my Ukrainian crew, I wore a wetsuit with a hardhat with a powerful flashlight on it and carried tons of waterproof lanterns with extra batteries for them wrapped up in plastic so that they would not get wet. To get around various abandoned temples in the Caucasus mountains and valleys, I had climbing gear, warm clothes and my custom-made sky-diving wingsuit. For exploring the basement of Chernobyl, I had built an entire weight-redistribution exosuit that was supposed to protect me against radiation but had failed catastrophically at the Elephant¡¯s Foot and brought about my doom and a new life as a chimera. I looked away from the messed up control panels and examined my threads in greater detail noting the damage. I emerged out of my Stillness trance, restarted my heart and slowly uncrystallized my organs one by one. Coming back to life in this manner was a very odd sensation that I had never experienced as a human. I wondered if it felt like anything that bears, frogs or fish experienced when going into and out of hibernation mode. The entire concept of animal hibernation was very interesting to me since it was completely impossible for a human. If a human sat in an icy river during winter, they would eventually freeze to death but fish and frogs became completely dormant, suspended in ice, emerging at spring perfectly fine and healthy. Some species of fish such as koi and gobies, burrowed in soft sediments, their hearts slowing down and their needs for oxygen decreasing. Was this hibernation, the crystallization of organs, a natural talent of chimera, an innate trait like the engrams? Could all chimera hibernate in this manner? If Allessi was anything to go by - yes. Why did chimera hibernation exist and why was nobody practicing it anymore except for the high-cendai and her apprentices? Had chimera evolved in some extremely hostile environment on some deep level of the Chasm that required crystallization-type hibernation but had moved onto a different environment, completely forgetting one of their innate skills after a few millennia? It was definitely possible. With practice it seems that I could suspend my body quicker. Perhaps, long ago, chimera evolved to suspend their bodies while actively escaping, becoming temporarily invisible to some sort of motion-tracking Chasm abominations? I thought about Alessi. She was making leaps and bounds in her progress with the ancestral chorus because of her Stillness meditation practice. Stilling the body took mental focus away from running various bodily processes, likely leaving the soul with more processing power to recall deeper ancestral memories. I gasped as I arrived at this revelation. Chimera had lost one of their essential skills, possibly because of Eunice who had made them move up the Chasm and into giant dragon skulls for protection. The high-cendai had boasted to me several times how she had guided the tribe, founded the current Tokimorim?tul village and practically set up the dragon skulls for our use! My body finished uncrystallizing. I opened my eyes, stood up and stretched my muscles. It was time to talk to Alessi. . . . I met my sister inside of our workshop. She was studiously working on the large glider. She had done a lot more than I expected her to. I went over her progress, telling her what to adjust and then told her everything that I had learned from Eunice. I had also told her everything about how my test went in greater detail, which I had forgotten to do the last time I saw her. ¡°You know¡­ if Eunice has a special End-Gate beneath her house that took your physical body to the Still Forest¡­ then you have been right all along,¡± Alessi said with a deep frown after she listened to my story. ¡°Any chimera could use such a gate to simply walk into the land of the dead and become a cendai.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± I blinked. ¡°I didn¡¯t even think about that. You¡¯re right. Eunice has the potential to elevate anyone to be a cendai with a gate like that¡­ but she doesn¡¯t!¡± Alessi sighed. There was visible turmoil in her silver-blue eyes. ¡°I think that you might be getting better at reaching more distant chorus memories because of Still meditation,¡± I said, trying to make her feel better. ¡°Stillness and the chorus of memories are two types of innate magic possessed by chimera. The art of putting the body on pause was lost to all chimera except for the cendai.¡± ¡°I agree,¡± she nodded. ¡°It had been incredibly hard to access memories of distant mothers before, like peeling a machacc fruit layer by layer with the deepest layers simply refusing to budge¡­ but I can delve really deep now, past previously imposed limits. I talked to other girls our age at the meeting place last week. They simply cannot recall things as far back as I can. I was wrong, Juni¡­ I can do magic. I can Still my body just like you, stop my heart completely. The chorus is truly vast and I can dive deeper and deeper into ancestral memory, examine more specific moments while my body is suspended.¡± ¡°How long has Eunice been with our tribe?¡± I asked. ¡°As far back as I can recall,¡± Alessi answered. ¡°Can a chimera live longer than thirty three?¡± My next question jumped out of my mouth. ¡°I¡­ think so,¡± my sister replied with a small shudder. ¡°There had been a few who refused to surrender their end-lives to our high-cendai, long, long ago. The memories of this were from their daughters. The chorus is passed from mother to daughter during childbirth while the mother is young, so unfortunately I do not possess memories of old chimera.¡± ¡°How many rings back can you remember now?¡± I asked. ¡°How many years?¡± ¡°Twenty six rings of the Chasm. Six hundred and ninety two years. Ninety seven generations.¡± Alessi replied. ¡°Our tribe has been moving from the depths of the Chasm ring by ring, decade by decade with Eunice leading us. She''s been... experimenting on creatures at each level, learning things from them. We settled in these dragon skulls three hundred years ago and haven¡¯t moved since.¡± ¡°How did Eunice consume the souls of the old chimera before she made the gate?¡± ¡°The gray-haired chimera went into her embrace,¡± my sister said. ¡°She kissed them¡­ and then¡­ their bodies deflated, emptied of life, ossified and¡­ she carried and cast the drained ones into the Chasm. It was¡­ more grotesque, more personal, less ceremonial than the End-Gate that she uses now.¡± I shuddered. ¡°I think¡­ my father was killed for a reason,¡± Alessi said, her expression dark. ¡°His death was no accident.¡± ¡°What?¡± I gasped. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°I think that he¡­ might have recalled something that he should not have from some distant ancestor. He must have told it to my mother who told a few others. They too perished, got eaten by different monsters. Perhaps they planned to leave the tribe together. I¡¯ve been asking around, trying to find a pattern for the past three years. All of my parents'' friends had died, one after the other. There was no rational reason as to why mom and I were abandoned, ignored by other chimera when we needed help most. The tribe is supposed to help each other! Nobody helped us! Maybe Eunice herself is responsible for how my mom is broken, unresponsive. My mother¡¯s state is not natural. There had been a chimera who tried to stand up to the high-cendai seventy generations ago¡­ he became just like my mother. It is¡­ a lesson. I¡­ understand it now.¡± This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°Eunice can control monsters with her soul branches,¡± I gasped in a sudden realization. ¡°She rarely leaves the safety of her domain and the upside down forest meeting grove is right beneath her dragonskull. It must be within the affected area of her Soul-Garden.¡± Alessi nodded. I saw that she was trembling. ¡°I will not go up against Eunice like my parents. I will not ask you to try to heal my mom anymore,¡± My sister lowered her head, streaks of tears glittering down her face. ¡°If you heal her¡­ she might remember everything and then the high-cendai will kill her. I will not tell anyone except for you what I learned. Eunice is truly ancient, unstoppable. Someone like her cannot be fought by us. We¡¯re born to be her food, to do with as she wishes. Fodder¡­ does not have rights to leave its owner¡¯s kitchen. If you¡¯re thinking about revenge on my behalf, don¡¯t.¡± I hugged my sister as she cried softly into my shoulder. I didn¡¯t say anything, but I promised to myself that someday I would help Alessi and her mom. ¡°How long was I¡­ in the library?¡± I asked when she stopped sniffing. ¡°Two weeks,¡± Alessi said. ¡°Oh. I¡¯m sorry¡­ I didn¡¯t think it would take this long for me to make progress on leveling up,¡± I sighed. ¡°It¡¯s easy to lose track of time in a Still trance. I really needed to get my System age counter back.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± she shook her head. ¡°I worked on getting everything on your list together for our trip.¡± ¡°Do you have any advice on what I should level up?¡± I asked her. ¡°I can¡¯t decide, nor do I have an idea of what to combine with what. How dark is the Twisted Forest? Will we need a light? Is there deep water? Do the seeds have a weakness if they overwhelm us?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know anywhere as much as you about combining magic to advise you,¡± Alessi lowered her eyes. ¡°As for the labyrinth of trees¡­ Some sections are indeed completely flooded or pitch black. The Folding Trees can form enormous caverns with deep lakes from their stretched hollows.¡± ¡°Got it. We¡¯ll need a light and to waterproof everything,¡± I noted. ¡°As for weaknesses. The Folding Seeds don¡¯t like¡­ fire,¡± Alessi said. ¡°Unfortunately it is very hard to keep a torch lit, because the trees can make rain if they detect smoke, unfolding rain water that they trap in their leaves.¡± ¡°Waterproof fire, got it,¡± I said. ¡°Waterproof fire?¡± My sister blinked. ¡°What kind of magic is¡­¡± ¡°Not magic,¡± I shook my head. ¡°Humans from Earth had figured many ways to set stuff on fire, even water. An oil or a grease fire is nearly impossible to put out with water for example. I almost burned down my grandfather¡¯s cottage on my 11th birthday by playing around with some wax and oil, trying to replicate Greek Fire. We should prepare some Molotov cocktails if the Folding Seeds try to overwhelm us.¡± ¡°Wax? Greek fire? Mo-lo-tov cocktail?¡± Alessi tilted her head. ¡°Wax was a type of material that little yellow insects on Earth made. It was used to make lights that burned for a long time,¡± I explained. ¡°Greek Fire was an ancient weapon that ignited in contact with water.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Alessi nodded. ¡°Molotov cocktails are incendiary, single-use, thrown weapons. They''re made from a breakable container filled with very flammable substances equipped with a cloth fuse,¡± I explained. ¡°Dried fumoc beetle shells with their heads cut off will make nice glass-like jars that we can use. I''ve been stockpiling various animal fats and oils in storage to make incendiary weapons.¡± ¡°Right,¡± Alessi noted. "Don''t burn down our home." I smirked at her. As my sister went back to her sewing, I pulled out a white limestone tablet and mentally went over the list of my skills. I wrote them down with a charcoal stick and added names that the high-cendai gave for them, approximating how many points I had in each now:
Strength / Fortitude: 1 [Michell Shield] - [Damaged]
Agility / Folding: 1 [Air compressor]
Dexterity / Dominion: 2 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] 3 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Damaged]
Vitality / Anima: 1 [Slow Mirror] - [Depleted]
Charisma / Resonance: 1 [Allure Halo]
Magic / Power: 1 [Battery] 1 [Generator]
Luck / Destiny: 1 [Probability Tree] - [Depleted]
Intelligence / Mind: 1 [Calculator]
Wisdom / Seeking: 1 [Seeking Arrow] - [Damaged]
Alessi looked over my shoulder at my charcoal - written stats chart. I even added dabs of colors to it with some paint. Over the years we had crafted various paints from plants and monsters, since paint was very useful for making camouflage. It was sitting in various skull-enclosures on my workshop table as we had plans to paint the glider when it was completed. ¡°A magic shield or harder bones will not help me in the forest against many Folding children,¡± I mulled as I stared at the stat lines. ¡°As cool as it would be to make an oxygen compressor and set everything on fire, I have no idea how to differentiate oxygen from the rest of gasses and I don¡¯t have anywhere near enough mana to keep compressing things continuously¡­ so Folding magic won''t be that useful. Not unless I grow a whole lot of Folding branches myself. Hang on¡­ What if I completely cover myself in Folding magic? Will the Trees and Seeds see me as their own?¡± Alessi purses her lips. "That is an interesting thought. The Folding Seeds lack eyes and I do not know what they use instead. Pheromones, maybe? But, they also don''t have a nose. They might just be feeling vibrations through their roots and follow the prey in this manner." "How many roots do they have exactly?" "A few to a hundred, depending on how old a Seed is," Alessi replied. "An old seed is mostly roots and a very small core that unravels into a flower during the day." "Hmmm¡­" I rubbed my chin. "What if we catch a young seed and I use Dominion threads to¡­ control it? It''s bigger on the inside, yes? We could maybe travel inside it? It could carry stuff for us from the forest, at the very least!" Alessi blinked at me. "Hum¡­ right. You can dominate creatures. That is an interesting idea! We will have to avoid the allure of the sap in the flower basin within the seed''s center though." "Maybe, I could just¡­ cut it off?" I suggested. "How are you going to approach the center without succumbing to the allure?" She asked. "Oh," I looked at her. "Already got this covered. We will have to make you a breathing mask like my nightcrawler skull too! The sponge plant from the nearby lake is porous enough to let air in but blocks vapors completely. I can''t smell anything when I put on my mask and my chimera nose is generally excellent." "That solves the problem of the sap!" Alessi nodded excitedly. "My ancestor had to avoid the Seeds completely, fleeing from them before the allure got too overwhelming." "Another Slow Mirror could be useful¡­ in case my soul is injured." I pondered. Alessi nodded. "If I can figure out how to make the Resonance branch¡­ do the opposite of Allure then I could scare monsters away from us, but that''s not necessary as our capes already do that," I said. "The Folding Seeds have no ears and think more like plants than creatures. They might be immune to mind-altering music-magic," Alessi commented. "Gotcha," I scratched my head. "What''s next? Battery and Generator. More power would be nice¡­ alas I don''t have amazing spells to fire repeatedly at my enemies yet." "Plenty of luck would be nice though," I pondered. "If I knew how to use it... the luck tree only worked once for me in the Still Forest." Alessi nodded. "Picking the best paths in the labyrinth will likely require lots of right choices. A pity your luck skill can''t guide us." ¡°I''ll be relying on you as my intelligence officer and guide,¡± I glanced at Alessi. ¡°That means I won''t need memory magic. As for Wisdom¡­ frankly I''m far too scared to use that one." "Understandable," Alessi said. "Maybe you can combine the Seeking branch with Luck to make it less prone to running into the Still Forest phantom?" "I can''t even understand the answers it gives me, what''s the point?" I complained. "Maybe it requires a lot of wisdom to understand the answers?" Alessi suggested. "I don''t want to rely on an assumption," I shook my head. "Well, fine," she shrugged. "If I was a cendai¡­ I''d probably sit at home all day and invest in Intelligence and Wisdom, diving as deep as I can into my chorus to recall and understand all of my ancestors." "You are doing great already," I praised her. "Anyways, I think I know what Branches to evolve now. Thanks for letting me bounce ideas off you." "Anytime, Juni, we''re in this together," she smiled softly. ¡°Until the end,¡± I affirmed with a smile. Ch 21. Dominion Saplings I spent the rest of the day adding details to the expedition list and helping Alessi work on the two person glider. When the sun rose on the next day, painting the chasm pink and orange, we shared a breakfast of berries and smoked monster steak. Alessi went back to the workshop and I climbed upstairs, opened my wings and let the wind take me towards the high-cendai''s residence. The male flyers kept as far away from me as possible. If I had to guess, my father had told his fellow men that I was in possession of powerful magics that could strike a chimera dead if they bothered me. Being ignored by the other chimera was fine with me. I had gotten used to being ignored for the past four years. Their engram-entrenched understanding of the world was simply too different from mine. It wasn''t long after that I had crash-landed into the leafy, thick trees beneath the shaman''s residence. After de-leafing myself, I climbed up to the gold-rune covered garden with the massive, glittering dragon skull in its center. Eunice was standing in one of the corners of her Soul-Garden doing something with a large root that was sticking out of the gold sand. I¡¯ve seen her working in her garden many times before, but never bothered her, heading straight to the library. This time, I approached her and bowed. The high-cendai turned towards me. Her eyes ignited with magic from within as she scanned me. ¡°I see that you have grown your soul but you haven¡¯t chosen which branches to focus on yet,¡± she noted. ¡°Yes Master,¡± I said. ¡°I have devised a plan for my journey and would like to consult you about it.¡± ¡°Do tell,¡± Eunice said. She bent down to the root beneath her and grabbed its bark with her hand. The runes on her arm flashed. She was doing some kind of magic, but I had no idea what. I tried to use the skills she had taught me to see the magical resonance around her. In about a minute of concentration, I saw that power was pouring out of the high-cendai, her magic heading into the root and rushing deep into the ground akin to a running brook. ¡°I¡­ um¡­ I¡¯d like to grow enough Dominion Saplings so that I can take control of a Folding Seed,¡± I said. ¡°An interesting idea,¡± Eunice said. ¡°What do you plan to do with the Seed once you dominate it?¡± ¡°I will traverse the Twisted Forest within it, killing other Seeds. I am planning to collect a variety of unique monster parts this way, and store such with me inside my walking Seed.¡± ¡°Ha,¡± the high-cendai barked a laugh. She looked at me curiously. ¡°How will you avoid the smell of the irresistible, muscle-paralyzing sap? All creatures are drawn in by it into the Seed, never to emerge.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t smell anything in my mask,¡± I pointed at my nightcrawler skull helmet. ¡°I¡¯ll be able to chop off the flower with the sap and throw it out of the Seed.¡± ¡°A very original strategy, I approve,¡± the high-cendai laughed. ¡°If it works, I shall make artifacts like your skull and teach our hunters to wear them. Sometimes the Folding Seeds catch unique specimens. If your mask doesn¡¯t work¡­ then the hunters will come and rescue you¡­ hopefully before the Seed turns your brains into mush.¡± ¡°How many Dominion Saplings would it take to control a Folding Seed?¡± I asked. ¡°A single one can control a limb, if the Seed is very injured and mostly drained of its soul. However, such a damaged Seed would die too quickly to be of use to you. Essentially, the Seed you capture must be injured enough to submit to you, but not enough to bleed to death. If you cut off all of its roots except for three to keep it upright¡­ you will need at least five Dominion Saplings per limb to make it walk wherever you desire¡­. and five more of them to operate the muscles that open and close its shell to get in and out." So, twenty at least. I frowned. I only had 15 points to spend. The root that Eunice was holding onto flashed with red in my eyes. ¡°Are those¡­¡± I started to speak. ¡°I¡¯m adding Dominion Saplings to the trees in my garden,¡± Eunice said briskly as a knife flashed in her left hand. ¡°It is unfortunate that they aren¡¯t permanent. However, the more Saplings you add, the longer they will persist in something living.¡± ¡°Do¡­ the trees resist?¡± I asked. ¡°Everything resists,¡± Eunice nodded. ¡°I prefer to use trees because they live for a long time and fight back the least. If the creature fights back against your control with vigor your Sapling will perish faster, burning through its reserve of soul-magic. It is important to show the beast which you are dominating that you rule it, to punish it with pain if it disobeys you.¡± ¡°I see,¡± I said. Eunice padded the root, smiling with sharp teeth. ¡°The upside down forest beneath my garden and I have been friends for centuries. The trees barely resist me now. My Dominion Saplings survive for several decades in the trees. They keep the Meeting Grove safe for us girls.¡± You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. I nodded. Eunice moved to another area of the garden. ¡°Observe what I am doing,¡± She said. ¡°I will make the Sapling more visible for you.¡± The yellow, sparkling sand parted in front of her as she waved her hand, revealing a thick, brown root. A brilliant, gold thread ignited in her palm as she put it upon the root. The thread shot from her arm into the tree, spreading out into the depths of the earth, forming a hundred little branches. ¡°The Dominion Sapling is thus planted,¡± Eunice said. ¡°Once it fully roots into the great tree beneath us, I shall cut it off from my soul. Any other questions?¡± ¡°How long would I be able to stay inside of a Folding Seed?¡± I asked. ¡°As long as you want to. Just keep the brain-stabbing claws trimmed,¡± Eunice smiled. ¡°The Seed keeps its victims pacified and safe within its innards. If you get captured by it, it will take its time to slowly leech magic from you. It will be draining your soul over months or even decades depending on how smart the Seed is. The smarter, older ones are able to keep their victims alive longer, draining magic from them for centuries.¡± ¡°How can I tell if a Seed is smarter?¡± I asked with a shudder. Being some stupid walking tree''s battery was a very foreboding prospect. ¡°It will have more limbs,¡± Eunice said. ¡°Older seeds have more limbs and use them very effectively. They can hide within the labyrinth and strike from the dark, deep hollows. They¡¯re a pain to trim, but the smarter ones will contain more creatures within them. Some Seeds are known to hold hundreds of beasts in them. If you encounter a hundred-branched one, I suggest you run. You will not win.¡± ¡°Got it,¡± I nodded. "Is there a specific technique to growing a Dominion seed versus a branch?" ¡°No,¡± Eunice smirked. ¡°A Sapling is simply an unrooted Dominion branch that''s not connected to your physical body. Simply grow more and keep them folded, poised to strike. When you find a creature that you wish to dominate, stab the creature with the soul-cutting knife and then inject a Dominion Branch into it. Once it is inside, fuse it to the creature¡¯s muscles just as you have fused them to your own fingers. When that¡¯s done, cut the branch off with the soul-carving knife,¡± Eunice pulled a knife from her dress and sliced at the air right above her hand. The air around her hand fluttered with a gold ripple. ¡°See? I¡¯ve just finished with this one,¡± she said. ¡°If you¡¯re not secure in the process, I suggest you practice injecting the Dominion Branch into something living and weak or very obedient." ¡°What do you suggest I practice on?¡± I asked. ¡°Hrm,¡± Eunice scratched her chin. ¡°Your monci will be an easy one to start with. She will not fight the incursion because she trusts you.¡± My mouth dropped. ¡°You want me to put a Dominion branch into a chimera?¡± ¡°The Sapling won¡¯t hurt her. Not unless you want it to,¡± Eunice said. ¡°It can live inside of your sister for a while if she doesn¡¯t fight it. What¡¯s the use of a monchi that can¡¯t even do magic, if you don¡¯t experiment upon them?¡± She winked at me. I gulped, feeling extremely conflicted. ¡°If she accepts your Sapling, it will take root inside of her, connecting her soul to you,¡± Eunice added. ¡°You¡¯ll be able to find each other with ease if you are separated in the Twisted Forest. It can take only one single step to get lost there.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± I said, processing her words. ¡°That is¡­ useful.¡± Was I seriously considering planting a part of my soul into my sister? What was wrong with me? ¡°Won¡¯t she become appealing to the phantoms if I do magic on her?¡± I asked. ¡°Well¡­ just a little,¡± Eunice said. ¡°She hasn¡¯t died yet. It is very hard for phantoms to pull the living down into the Still Forest, unlike us cendai. We are particularly easy for the dead ones to grab because we¡¯ve already died once ourselves. As long as you don¡¯t use the connection too often and plant the Sapling deep in her body, she will not be targeted.¡± ¡°Right,¡± I said. ¡°What about the Seed? Won''t the phantom try to eat its soul with that many Dominion Saplings sticking out of it?¡± ¡°Paint runes of protection upon it,¡± Eunice said. ¡°Otherwise there is indeed a small chance that the phantoms will pull your Dominion Saplings and the Seed¡¯s injured soul into the deep.¡± The high-cendai¡¯s words made sense. With soul magic a certain safety precaution was to be followed, lest it be undone by the phantoms. I¡¯d have to protect Alessi from the Still Forest denizens before I even attempted to put anything into her. ¡°Can the Spiritual Saplings be extracted from the Seed if it dies on me?¡± I asked. ¡°Can a Sapling be removed from a creature after it¡¯s planted and reused?¡± ¡°If you were older and more experienced, it would be possible to pull them out,¡± the high-cendai said. ¡°But I would not recommend it. Dominion Saplings are incredibly difficult to remove from something after they are rooted within its body. If the creature is near death, they will rapidly dissolve or sink into the depths of the Still Forest. They will not last long without a beast¡¯s soul anchoring them to the world of the living.¡± ¡°I see,¡± I mulled. A thought came to me. Something that I wanted to ask Eunice since I saw the End-Gate in her basement. "Why aren''t there more cendai?" I asked. "Can a mundane chimera not use the gate beneath your home to step into the Still Forest and... become like us?" Eunice barked another laugh. "Your rune-shield and years of Stillness practice is what allowed you to step through the End-Gate and return with your body and soul intact. A mundane chimera would not survive the trip - their heart would stop instantaneously and their soul would be swiftly ripped away, sinking into the depths of the Still Forest. It is not easy to retrieve a soul from the clutches of death.¡± I frowned, trying to find a loophole in her words. ¡°It would not be wise to sacrifice our entire tribe just to gain one or two more cendai. Many chimera died over the centuries but only a few managed to make it back and even fewer possessed the mental fortitude, focus and drive that was necessary to become a cendai. You are extremely lucky to make it back and to pass your test¡­ my youngest monwai. You are a rare gem amongst ten thousand mundane rocks that took a lot of effort on my part to polish so that you could shine the brightest of all!" "I see," I muttered, not feeling like Eunice spent that much time or effort on polishing me. Most of the things I had accomplished was because of my personal stubbornness and memories from Earth. ¡°Are you satisfied?¡± Eunice asked. ¡°Thank you, Master.¡± I nodded. ¡°I shall finish growing my branches in the library.¡± I left the high-cendai to her Soul-Garden reinforcement, heading inside of her home to work on growing my threads. Ch 22. Remote Control I had returned to my workshop with a big smile on my face. Turned out I had gained two whole levels and was now level four. How did I know this? I was able to spin the dials 35 times, not 15! Consuming monsters for three years had really paid off! Currently, my stats sat at:
Strength / Fortitude: 1 [Michell Shield]
Agility / Folding: 1 [Air compressor]
Dexterity / Dominion: 5 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] 25 [Dominion Saplings]
Vitality / Anima: 1 [Slow Mirror]
Charisma / Resonance: 1 [Allure Halo]
Magic / Power: 1 [Battery] 4 [Generators]
Luck / Destiny: 1 [Probability Tree]
Intelligence / Mind: 1 [Calculator]
Wisdom / Seeking: 1 [Seeking Arrow] - [Damaged]
I had mentally reorganized the chart a little to better define everything. It was still gibberish static visually, but it was color-coded static so I knew what everything was. 1 point went into fixing my Michell Shield. 3 points were spent on fixing up three damaged Pneumasomatic Actuators in my right arm. I also spent 1 point on refilling the Slow Mirror and 1 point on repairing my Luck Tree. Three points went into more Generator threads so that my mana could refresh faster. I didn¡¯t bother repairing the damaged Wisdom Arrow. As for the biggest investment, I spent 25 points making Dominion Saplings so that I could easily take control of a Folding Seed. Our whole trip depended on capturing and dominating a Seed as it would be far too dangerous to traverse the Twisted Forest outside of one. I thought it wise to have extra Dominion saplings in case our walking Seed died halfway through our trip or if I got lucky and found a flying beast inside of another Seed which we could maybe use to return home quicker. The saplings were relatively easy to grow. I didn¡¯t overcomplicate them - each one was a very thin Dexterity thread that I¡¯ve rolled up into a thick spiral at the end of my arm, just as Eunice had shown me. Twenty five of them were hanging like ripe fruit all over my arms, ready to be released and cut off. I somewhat dreaded chopping up my soul, due to how unpleasant it felt, but alas such was the price for taking control of monsters.
¡°Did you grow your magical branches?¡± Alessi asked cheerfully as she greeted me in the workshop room. The two person glider was occupying most of the circular room¡¯s interior in a state of disassembly. ¡°I have twenty five Dominion branches," I nodded. "But¡­ um. Here¡¯s the thing. I''d like to practice putting one or two of them into¡­ something¡­ before we head to our destination." "Hmmm?" Alessi looked at me. She knew that I had more to say. I took a deep pause. "Eunice said that I could put one in you so that we can find each other better in the labyrinth but¡­¡± ¡°Oh? Do you want to try to put one into my arm?¡± She offered me her pale hand covered in minute silver flakes. I blinked, processing her words. ¡°You don''t¡­?¡± "I don¡¯t mind,¡± Alessi nodded. ¡°Are you sure?¡± I inquired. ¡°We aren¡¯t blood sisters, but we can be soul-sisters,¡± she said. ¡°If I carry a branch of your soul in me it''ll be like¡­ you are always with me.¡± ¡°I don''t think it works exactly like that¡­¡± I mulled. ¡°Plus¡­ I¡¯ll have to set up an anti-phantom barrier around you as well. Wouldn''t want your soul pulled into the Still Forest just because a shard of my soul is sitting in your body and doing magic.¡± Alessi nodded. I took off my nightcrawler armor to get comfortable. She curiously looked at the red, glittering bodysuit that was covering almost all of my skin. ¡°This isn¡¯t anything like the high-cendai¡¯s runes,¡± she noted. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°No, it''s based on three years of my study of her shield," I said. "I improved with my knowledge from Earth." "I like it," Alessi circled me, examining the bodysuit. "It¡¯s an absolute barrier that holds itself up,¡± I explained. ¡°Each grain of sand in it functions as a tiny rune. It¡¯s akin to a very thin dress, held together by the glue of the spiderwebs and its own form, not magic. From what I understand, Eunice holds the runes on top of her body with her magic and the energy of the soul-infused sand. It¡¯s an unnecessary waste of mana - my magical power isn¡¯t limitless like hers, so I have to conserve it.¡± ¡°I see,¡± she nodded. ¡°The spiderwebs do the job of what magic is normally spent on.¡± I nodded. ¡°You¡¯ll need a helmet like mine too,¡± I said, pointing at the nightcrawler skull helmet that was hanging by the rooftop hatch. ¡°Way ahead of you,¡± Alessi rushed off into one of the storage rooms and returned with a silver-looking skull. ¡°What creature is that?¡± I asked curiously. ¡°A young thunderbird,¡± she replied smugly. ¡°I traded some of the smoked steaks to a young hunter for one. You told me that I need a helmet too.¡± ¡°Right,¡± I said. ¡°Lets make your armor ghost proof! We can use a beetle wing to make a lens and cover up that large mouth-eye hole at the front of the Thunderbird''s skull. Thankfully, four years worth of chimera¡¯s hair made for a good amount of magical sand. If I were to run out of my own magic sand, there was still Alessi¡¯s hair. It would take a long time and it would be a lot harder to infuse it with my soul and purpose, but it was still an extra resource for me to use if I needed to make more anti-phantom shields in the future. . . . We spent the next week putting together phantom-repelling armor for Alessi. She couldn''t do magic like me, but I wanted her to be completely safe while I was doing magic on her. After I was done covering her body in glittering paint, I had two bottles worth of my anti-phantom assigned soul-sand remaining. I hoped that it would be enough to protect my future Folding Seed from phantoms. This sand was incredibly precious to me, worth more than gold, as it contained three years of incredibly-focused work and days of icy pain recovering and regrowing the cut-off bits of my soul. Alessi explained that the Seeds were generally the size of a two year old chimera, but they unfolded to be a lot bigger during the day. I hoped that this unfolding process would not completely demolish the protection shield. Soon enough, Alessi was standing in the middle of the workshop dressed in a metallic-looking mask and her reflective, beetle-carapace armor. ¡°I¡¯m ready,¡± she said, her face hidden behind her silver helmet-skull. I walked around her. My anti-phantom shield sat atop her firmly. It felt like a part of me and also not really. It wasn¡¯t anywhere as potent as the double-barrier on me and didn''t even synchronize properly with her soul or core, but it was good enough since Alessi wasn¡¯t actively radiating death-magic like I was. This shield''s purpose wasn¡¯t to hide Alessi - it was to hide my Soul Sapling inside of her. ¡°Let''s do it," I said. "I honestly don¡¯t know how long it¡¯s going to take, so let''s sit down.¡± We moved to a fur-draped bone-couch. I grabbed my sister''s left hand, made a tiny cut on it with the soul-carving knife and unfurled one of the curled up Dominion threads, injecting the shimmering gold spiral right into her right arm. I was the one who had put power into her armor, so I wasn¡¯t blocked from injecting a part of my soul right through the phantom-barrier shield on her skin. ¡°This feels¡­ odd,¡± she noted. ¡°Right¡­ I¡¯m going to set up the joint control now,¡± I said. I started to form a Pneumasomatic Actuator inside my sister¡¯s arm, based on the ones I had in my own hands. It wasn¡¯t working very well. Her body and soul were moving too much. After a while, I started to feel that I was losing control of my Sapling, losing concentration. ¡°Argh,¡± I growled, failing to focus. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Alessi asked. ¡°It¡¯s not working¡­ our arms are moving too much I think,¡± I sighed. ¡°It¡¯s not stabilizing right. I designed the ones in my hands while I was asleep...¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t both of us go into a Still trance?¡± She asked. ¡°Ohh,¡± I smiled. ¡°That¡¯s an excellent idea!¡± "Right. I''ll try to poke your soul in the following pattern to let you know when I''m done," I said. I knocked the couch with the "Shave and a Haircut" a quick five-note musical pattern with two knocks after a delay. I had used this pattern often to start off a bounce of back and forth knock-messages with my friends via pipes during urbex trips in deep, underground tunnels. Alessi nodded, having memorized the pattern of knocks. We sang the cendai-chorus of Stillness together, winding the words and slowing our bodies down. We Stilled our hearts and lungs, crystallizing our bodies. When both of us stopped moving, the muscles in her arm stopped twitching. There! I finally felt that my Dominion thread fused properly, taking control of the muscles in her hand. It took all of my concentration to put the Pneumasomatic Actuator fully into place, to root it into her soul, to thread it to her core. Once it was done, I synchronized the Dominion Sapling with the sand-shield that surrounded Alessi''s body, so that her core could actually resonate through my sapling and power up the shield from within. It was a complicated process, but no more difficult than modding my grandfather''s old bike. My grandfather''s old Dnepr was reliable in how often it broke down and required repairs, but thanks to it I had grown up as a half-decent mechanic. I had used Alessi''s core to power my shield via my thread sort of like secondhand magic. The power was incredibly weak, but the shield was now pulsating from within, keeping the magic completely contained inside it, just like the shield on my body. I felt that I was done. The magical mechanism sat securely inside of her arm, deeply rooted in her body and soul. I squeezed the connection to her soul in a "Shave and a Haircut" pattern and her soul responded. She squeezed the root back in exactly the same pattern. Yes! We had a way to communicate! Maybe I could teach Alessi Morse code. Well, I¡¯d have to reinvent Morse code first. Sadly, I couldn''t remember all of the letters but I knew the concept behind it well enough. It was indeed a great idea to practice injecting a Dominion branch into someone, because when I emerged from Still trance, it was pitch-black outside. I had no idea how much time had passed. Maybe a day¡­ or maybe a week. I really needed to design a clock or something! ¡°That¡­ tingles,¡± Alessi emerged out of her trance right after me and squinted at her left arm. Her fingers were twitching. I made the base of the Dominion thread as thin as possible, pulled the soul-cutting knife from its sheath and sliced the thread off myself with an angry hiss. The Sapling didn¡¯t dissolve into my sister, simply sitting in her arm! Great success. I flexed it and her arm flexed too. ¡°Whoa,¡± she gasped. ¡°My arm is¡­ moving on its own. Are you doing that?¡± I nodded. ¡°Let me see if I can try to resist it,¡± she said, pulling her arm back. I felt her resistance. I pushed against it a little and the sapling delayed her motion, burning away a bit of its power. If I fought against her soul, then the sapling would eventually die. Interesting. So this was why the dominated beasts had to be weakened first. At least the sapling wasn¡¯t losing any of its energy to the Still Forest because of my shield around Alessi¡¯s body. ¡°Are you stopping me? I can¡¯t control my arm how I want to¡­ this is scary stuff,¡± she muttered. ¡°Yep, I was testing it out,¡± I let my sister move her arm freely. ¡°I want another one,¡± she said. ¡°Um?¡± I blinked. ¡°I won''t suspend my body this time,¡± Alessi said. ¡°Put another one into my left arm. The Folding Seed isn¡¯t going to go into a Stillness trance for you. You need more practice!¡± I sighed. She was right. "How far does the connection reach?" She asked. "Eunice didn''t specify a limit," I replied. "I do wonder if I can make your arm move from the meeting grove?" "Why don''t we find out?" She asked with a smile. "You could fly there later and try to write me a note using my own arm!" I nodded with determination. I would put another Dominion Branch into her left arm and then¡­ test out how far the connection went. The experiment was on!
It took me almost an entire day to plant the second Dominion Sapling into Alessi. It wasn¡¯t easy, but I was getting better at it. I placed a third one into her right leg and that one took approximately four hours. The fourth one that I placed into her left leg only took somewhere around an hour to root. I felt that this was good enough, not wanting to spend any more of my precious Soul Saplings on mere practice. After I was done taking over Alessi''s limbs, I moved onto the next step - trying to make her walk with my control. This too, took me painfully long to master. I got frustrated, after walking Alessi into things and making her fall several times. I decided to take a break and went to work on our helmets, readjusting leather straps on them so that they would not simply fly off if one of us tumbled into a hole. Controlling Alessi was akin to trying to ride a bike all over again, except that I wasn¡¯t even sitting on the bike - she was. It was a completely alien task to me. ¡°You¡¯ll get there,¡± Alessi hissed out, rubbing her elbow after I managed to bump her into a wall for the 6th time. ¡°Sorry,¡± I said, fretting. ¡°I just can¡¯t seem to control two bodies at once.¡± ¡°What if you weren¡¯t controlling your own body?¡± She raised a silver eyebrow. ¡°Hmmm, you¡¯re right!¡± I nodded. ¡°Let me try walking you around while my body is Still.¡± . . . Stilling my body with the exception of my eyes and eardrums had done the trick, but this left me limited and I couldn''t see where I was walking Alessi to if she was out of my field of vision. It felt like I was controlling a character in a 3rd person-style game with the screen stuck on one spot. In the end, we had figured out a workable-ish system in which she was carrying me on her back like an oversized backpack while my body was Still. ¡°This is weird but fun!¡± Alessi laughed as I walked her around our workshop, feeling like I was some sort of a flesh-mech pilot. ¡°Turn me left! More left, damn it! Watch out for the couch!¡± ¡°Walking the Seed is going to be complicated,¡± I sighed when I uncrystallized my body. ¡°You can do it, sis! You¡¯re the smartest chimera I know,¡± Alessi pumped her fist. I smiled. Her upbeat attitude was contagious. I went over my checklist. Everything was ready. All of our supplies and tools sat in leather backpacks. Beetle-bottles filled with highly flammable oil were hanging from belts at the entrance. Tomorrow. Tomorrow I would notify the high-cendai that we were leaving and finally set out for the Twisted Forest. I felt too tuckered to do anything else tonight, but wasn¡¯t sleepy yet, so I pulled out the little gray leather book from a shelf. Alessi sat next to me as I started to read ¡°The Rise and Fall of Thomas Cole¡± to her, showing my sister the adorable, animated chimera depictomancy cards bound to the interior pages. Ch 23. Departure I took one last look at the view of the Chasm from atop our workshop as I made sure that the numerous pouches on my belts were secure. I turned around and put on my bag of supplies. It was time. Alessi stood behind me, holding onto the fluttering wings of a large, colorful glider. In just a few minutes we would start our adventure into the depths of the Chasm. I was mildly terrified and highly ecstatic. My silver-haired companion looked extremely giddy and determined. ¡°Ready?¡± I asked, joining her on the glider. ¡°Ready, captain!¡± She yelled in Ukrainian, grinning wildly. I wondered if she was putting on a front for me, being extra-positive. She didn¡¯t see the Still Forest, didn¡¯t really know the phantom-ruled cold, dark necropolis that waited for us if we broke our necks. Was I losing my Urbex spirit? Had I been broken by my misfortunate encounter with the hollow phantom? No. It would take a lot more than that to completely shatter my desire for adventure. I would get to the Twisted Forest, beat it and go on. I would triumph over the Chasm and its wilds and get myself a proper metalworking workshop! ¡°At the count of zero, step forward with me! Five, four, three, two, one¡­ zero!¡± I barked. We moved in perfect unison, running toward the edge, the connections I''ve made between our souls allowing for perfect synchronicity of motion. My heart thrummed as we leapt from the edge. The wind grabbed at the glider¡¯s wings as we plunged down and then forward. The bamboo-style wooden branches composing the base of the glider creaked, held tightly together by leather belts. A large, red, flying millipede veered away from us, terrified by the high-cendai runes that functioned as our capes and also the monstrous butterfly-style face with many red eyes that we had painted on the glider¡¯s wings. We passed a chimera hunting party as we circled the side of the Chasm. It was mostly made up from boys about our age. I saw Isahcs there and waved at him with a grin. As he looked at our painted glider his eyes widened. Other chimera boys looked our way, bewilderment, amazement and confusion painted on their faces. Some of them had never seen flying, armor-covered girls before. None of them had ever seen chimera fly without Bonulich wings on a large, absurd-looking, colorful two-person glider such as ours. In a few moments the Chimera hunting party was gone. We passed the first ring of mountains and circled the rim of the glowing clouds that slowly spun around them. ¡°Get ready,¡± Alessi yelled as we descended deeper and deeper into the Infinite Chasm. ¡°The gravity well is going to shift soon!¡± I nodded, turning the glider. I had taught her about gravity myself, after she had explained to me that on the lower levels, the abyss no longer became a hole that one fell into, but an endless road that one simply walked forward on. About ten rings into the vast abyss, the gravity shifted from being straight down to basically supporting everything now growing on the side of the gargantuan tunnel that we were in. I knew that gravity pulled toward greater mass regardless of the mass'' orientation or configuration. The gravity shift somewhat confirmed my theory that Andross was a hollowed out planetoid or a Dyson sphere, the shell of which was made from some sort extra-heavy, hard material. In a few tense moments, I was no longer flying down the Chasm, I was flying through it, not down but forward. I caught an updraft of air and flew above another ring of mountains. A flock of enormous, dark dragons appeared higher in the open sky. I steered the glider closer to the clouds, trying to avoid the impressive, dangerous beasts that could swallow us in a single bite. I slowly counted the rings in my head as we passed them by. Each ring of mountains seemed wider, bigger, grander and more imposing than the previous one. Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen¡­ Another ring of mountains passed below us, suddenly opening up to a vast expanse of truly titanic trees that connected with each other in bewildering, impossible labyrinthine spirals. The forest was akin to a deep, green ocean that went on and on and on. Some of the trees looked truly gargantuan, too big to¡­ ¡°The Twisted Forest!¡± Alessi yelled. ¡°Don''t look directly at the trees! Land before we get to the edge, over there!¡± I directed the glider down, landing us down onto mossy hills that faced the forest. ¡°Welp,¡± I said looking back to where we had flown from. A ring of jagged mountains rose upwards, completely blocking the way back. ¡°Climbing back over those mountains is going to suck.¡± Looking at the rings of the chasm above the mountains gave me a slight migraine. The perspective looked completely messed up, screwing with my eyes. There was definitely something deeply unnatural about the Chasm, some kind of truly abominable magic holding it all together. ¡°The Folding trees are very large,¡± Alessi waved a hand at the forest in front of us. ¡°We can climb to the top and use the glider to take off from a very tall tree.¡± This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°Shouldn''t we have landed atop one then?¡± I asked. ¡°No,¡± My sister shook her silver, gemstone hair. ¡°Landing atop the forest is¡­ very dangerous. The bigger trees are older, more alive than others. They can strike dragons down with their whip-like branches. Down here at the edge the Folding trees are younger, more docile. If you can dominate a Seed, then we can use it to go up a truly arcane tree without being struck down. The forest does not attack its own children.¡± ¡°Right,¡± I nodded. ¡°This stuff would be good to know ahead, you know.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Alessi shook her head. ¡°The ancestral knowledge comes to me when I see something. Even in Still trance I cannot pull all of the information from the little star buried deep in my soul. It¡¯s just not how the chorus works.¡± ¡°Hoo¡­ okay,¡± I stretched. ¡°Let''s take the glider apart. We¡¯ll use it as a tent until we get us a lovely Folding Seed.¡± As we started to dismantle the glider, I observed the vast forest rising in front of us. It was distinctively alien. The roots of the trees that bore into the terrain in front of us were entwined in absurdly elaborate spiral and fractal-like patterns. There was no green immediately in front of us, just a flat, vast landscape of brown roots with patches of moss and lichen. The forest itself started far, far behind the roots. Odd, shimmering, green halos shone above some of the trees drawing my eyes to them. Many of the trees went up and up and up. My eyes started to water looking at them because there was MORE forest in view than what was reasonable. The larger trees seemed to warp space unnaturally going up into the sky at impossible angles that made my eyes hurt. It was like looking at an Escher painting. ¡°Don¡¯t look directly at the treeline above the roots,¡± Alessi commented. ¡°Folding magic messes with perception. The forest confuses flyers that come too close, disorienting and forcing them to land.¡± ¡°God damn eldritch magic bullshit. Why can¡¯t things exist in three dimensions like they¡¯re supposed to?¡± I turned away from the forest, huffing. ¡°How did¡­ our tribe even get through this abomination of a terrain on foot many centuries ago? Surely¡­ the tribe didn¡¯t fly over it. Girls weren¡¯t allowed to have wings back then either, right?¡± ¡°Girls were¡­ are not allowed to fly. Men did not use their wings here either. Eunisii Ei guided us through this forest,¡± Alessi said, her voice distant. ¡°She used her magic against the trees, made necklace amulets for everyone that confused the younger Seeds.¡± ¡°Would be nice if she gave us one of those,¡± I mulled, untying another knot on the glider. ¡°I do not like that woman¡¯s teaching methods. Everything is on hard mode.¡± Alessi ignored my commentary, lost in some distant ancestral memory. ¡°The amulets did not protect everyone. Eunisii tied our hands together with ropes, bound mother to child, father to mother, sister to brother. Some could not resist the allure of the sap emanating from the Folding Seeds. They tore the ropes with their teeth and claws and ran into the forest, their eyes wild, never to return again. Some were taken by the thousand-root Seeds that sprung at us from above or below. Some vanished without a trace.¡± ¡°Hang on¡­ us?¡± I looked at Alessi. The silver-haired girl turned to me, examining as if she was looking at me for the first time. ¡°Turn away from this forest, child. You will find nothing but death there. Our tribe was tormented, decimated by this place¡­ only a few hundred made it through...¡± ¡°You¡¯re not Alessi¡­ Who are you?¡± I demanded. ¡°I am Relaii Ie Tokimorim?tuti! This forest took two of my daughters and my mother. I curse the arch-cendai for what she has done to us. She¡¯s dragged us through this gods-forsaken place to satisfy her curiosity! She wanted to see what¡¯s at the end of the Chasm, wanted to reach the blue sky! Her greed for power be damned! I could do nothing, nothing at all. I could not even say goodbye to my children and parents for this abominable forest took them from me!¡± Alessi¡¯s eyes filled with tears, her fists closed and opened. ¡°Heed my warning, my future descendant! Do not go into this place¡­ for it is cursed, filled with horrid Folding Trees and their vile children that are far more devious than you can imagine. You WILL die here or lose everyone you¡¯ve ever loved and suffer until the end of your days, begging for the end!¡± I gulped, the voice of some long-dead chimera speaking through my sister¡¯s mouth ringing like the bells of approaching doomsday in my head. Alessi¡¯s eyes dimmed. She blinked. ¡°Urm¡­ well that never happened before. That was a rather¡­ strong memory. I don''t understand... it was almost as if my ancestor was speaking through me. How could that be? What changed?¡± "The anti-phantom barrier," I pointed at Alessi. "It''s an absolute magic shield, keeping all magic inside it, containing and magnifying it... like a resonance wave. I think it might be amplifying your chorus of ancestral memories." "Oh," She glanced at the forest, ignoring my words. ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m scared¡­¡± ¡°We don¡¯t have to go in there¡­ maybe we can set a trap for the Seeds out here and¡­¡± I started to speak. ¡°No,¡± Alessi interrupted me, suddenly looking directly at me and speaking in Ukrainian. ¡°Juni. The Folding Seeds do not come out here. This forest had hurt my ancestor, but I am not her. I am stronger than Relaii Ie¡­ because I have you at my back, not a cendai who does not care for her people¡­ but a cendai-sister with a kind heart who knows how to use¡­ science. The things you have taught me about the true nature of the world¡­ I believe that they can outdo whatever this forest throws at us.¡± She tapped the beetle-shaped bottles tied to belts around her glittering armor. ¡°I am afraid¡­ but I am more than Relaii Ie. I carry her soul and the souls of a thousand generations of mothers that came before her and those that came after her. Using their combined wisdom, I will find this forest''s dark heart and I will set it alight with the fire that cannot be put out. I will make it pay for everything it¡¯s done, make it suffer for all of the lives it has taken!¡± I smiled at my sister¡¯s stoic declaration. Under my tutelage Alessi had grown up determined and focused. ¡°Does this forest even have a heart?¡± I asked. ¡°Every tree is connected to the other, all paths lead to the heart in the end,¡± Alessi said, gritting her teeth. ¡°Eunice took the tribe there¡­ She sacrificed most of our people to it so that the forest could grant her passage through it. She spoke to the damned thing, like it was alive, like it was her best friend!¡± ¡°Oh,¡± I gulped. ¡°That¡¯s a bit of a detour for us, no?¡± ¡°No,¡± Alessi said. ¡°The biggest tree will also be the tallest one in this forest.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a good idea to set a forest on fire while we¡¯re in it,¡± I said. ¡°You could plant a Dominion Sapling near the Heart,¡± Alessi said. ¡°The soul-connection has no distance limit, right? You can trigger the bottles to ignite from afar. You don¡¯t¡­ you cannot truly grasp what this forest has done to my ancestors¡­ their pain is MY pain¡­ their loss, MY loss. This place is pure evil. Eunice sacrificed three of her monchi to it¡­ they could still be alive, their bodies used by the Heart of the Forest as life-fuel.¡± ¡°What?! How?¡± I gasped. ¡°The heart is just like the Seeds¡­ but it¡­ she can keep something alive, for a very, very long time,¡± Alessi said. ¡°This is what the Mother of All Folding and god of the forest said to Eunice. That her roots will¡­ feed on the gift of the three little sparks and the others¡­ for one hundred thousand winters.¡± ¡°So¡­¡± I looked at my sister, raising an eyebrow. ¡°You... want to kill a god?¡± Ch 24. The Folding Seed Alessi glanced at the distant forest and then at the Molotov-style bottles on our belts. ¡°Well¡­ perhaps these won¡¯t kill the Heart of the forest, but¡­ maybe they could hurt it enough to free some of the misfortunate ones held prisoner by it.¡± ¡°If they¡¯re still alive,¡± I mulled. ¡°We could try to rescue¡­¡± ¡°They are not chimera anymore,¡± Alessi shook her head. ¡°Not like you or I are¡­ It''s been centuries, I doubt that anything is left of them that still resembles us. Chimera can''t live that long. I remember the Heart''s inner garden... she stretches her victims¡­ unfolds their bodies, drowns the exposed organs in her sap¡­ so that they can be kept alive longer. She treats flesh like¡­ a tree, making living creatures part of herself.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± I gulped. ¡°That sounds¡­ truly monstrous.¡± Alessi nodded, tears glittering on the edges of her eyes. ¡°I have to do this. I want to do this. For Relaii Ie. For her family. For my ancestors.¡± ¡°For Relaii Ie,¡± I put my nightcrawler-segmented armored hand atop Alessi¡¯s glittering, mirror-surface glove.
We had taken apart and packed up the glider, carrying it behind us in large backpacks. After about thirty minutes of walking the green, mossy hills ended. We had reached the edge of the Twisted Forest. A wide river of labyrinthine roots was in front of us stretching forward, left and right like a vast, flat ring of unending brown. ¡°We¡¯re here. Once we step onto these roots¡­ we¡¯ll be inside the forest¡¯s domain,¡± Alessi said in Ukrainian. We had agreed to talk only in Ukrainian while we were out. I suspected that the forest most likely knew the Tokimorim?tul language thanks to Eunice¡¯s gift of chimera to the Heart of All Folding. ¡°With a single step, we¡¯ll be deep¡­ inside the forest, lost in an instant.¡± ¡°Inside it?¡± I looked at the distant green forest. ¡°It looks like it would take at least a few hours of walking to get inside though.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll see,¡± Alessi said. I tied rope between us, climber-style, and then checked all of the knots. I had climbed into plenty of abandoned buildings and deep mines with urbex partners to know the basics of rope climbing and the proper use of knots. ¡°If you get lost, I¡¯ll find you via our connection,¡± I said. ¡°Right. I¡¯ll stay put if we get separated and wait for you.¡± She nodded. Alessi and I had spent a few hours playing hide and seek in the waterfall valley before we departed. Eunice did not lie to me - I could find my sister very easily using my Dominion Sapling''s connection to her. I counted down. Alessi grabbed my hand and we slowly stepped forward onto the river of roots, walking in synchronized steps. In another step with a wink, the world suddenly darkened. ¡°What the freaking hell?¡± I looked around in bewilderment. We were surrounded by enormous, mossy, overgrown roots from all sides. There were no clouds, no ring-mountains visible anywhere. The forest was all around us, dim and filled with minute, ghost-like, small dancing lights. I tilted my head upwards. There was nothing but roots there too. Somewhere far, far overhead in between the roots I spotted the green flutter of distant leaves. ¡°Folding magic,¡± Alessi said briskly. ¡°The flat ring of roots we stepped on was just a trick, an illusion. The forest uses Folding magic to instantly trap its food within it. A single step can take a chimera forward ten thousand steps in this place. There is no easy way back now.¡± I gulped, staring at the dark hollows ahead of us. ¡°Every path will lead us deeper into the forest,¡± my silver-haired sister spoke, her voice reverberating from within her thunderbird skull-mask. ¡°Closer and closer to the Goddess of these Woods.¡± ¡°Can she hear us? Does she know we¡¯re here?¡± I asked. ¡°No,¡± Alessi shook her head, shuddering ever so slightly. ¡°These roots belong to the younger trees, her children¡¯s children. Eunice had to best the thousand-root Seeds to come to the Heart to speak to her.¡± ¡°R-right,¡± I nodded, looking about nervously. ¡°Let''s keep going. We have to find an open Seed while it¡¯s daylight,¡± Alessi said. ¡°The ones here, closer to the way in, will be younger and weaker.¡± . . . I glanced left and right as we walked over the endless roots through the Twisted Forest. Its structure was akin to some sort of a fractal, branched tunnels heading into all directions around us. Whatever path we were taking was somehow leading us deeper into darker, greener areas. Everything around us was formed from twisted roots of the Folding Trees, the terrain bizarre and rich in vegetation. Large waterfalls cascaded from gargantuan caverns formed from hugging roots. As we traversed the bewildering world of roots and lichens, I felt an increasingly unnerving sensation of someone¡­ or perhaps something watching me. ¡°Al, you said that the Seeds don¡¯t have eyes¡­ Can you check with Relaii Ie again, please? It definitely feels like someone is watching us,¡± I said. Alessi froze for a few minutes. ¡°Oh¡­ you¡¯re right. I didn¡¯t recall enough,¡± she leaned her mask against me and whispered back to me with a shudder, ¡°Some of the thousand-root Seeds can come here too. I remember them¡­ the elder Seeds DO have eyes¡­ they can use their victims¡¯ eyes to see. They can move during the day too.¡± ¡°Thought so,¡± I whispered back. ¡°Right. It¡¯s time to blend in. Let''s go under that root into the ravine over there. We¡¯ll unpack the camo.¡± Alessi nodded. She followed me to a mossy ravine filled with greenery. The large roots formed a long hollow that was about the height of three adult chimera. We climbed down and ducked under a thick, wide root. Once we were out of sight, we put down the bags and pulled out our home-made forest-camouflage gear. I had made these camo kits with my sister two years ago, as a way to become nearly-invisible to curious chimera hunters. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. I knew that chimera eyes were akin to those of a hawk, able to spot things about thirty kilometers away. However, they had a flaw - chimera watchers were trained to spot colorful, sparkly female chimera who stood out against the Chasm greenery. It was incredibly hard for chimera eyes to focus on an object that was of the same texture and color as the landscape. We had used this exact camo over the years to get away from watchers like Isahcs to get into the waterfall valley for our base-jumping and flying practice. I went around the ravine, cutting down various plants with my metal, soul-carving knife. The obsidian-steel artifact knife was very sharp, magically reinforced either by Eunice or by one of her monwai. The arcane blade went right through branches and weeds like they were made from butter. After a few minutes, I was back with a large bouquet of various leafy branches, which Alessi and I proceeded to decorate ourselves with. The camo gear consisted of long cloaks sewn from a patchwork of dark brown fur and mesh-like netting to which local greenery could be attached. The brown rope netting allowed us to make an environment-blending camouflage ghillie suit akin to those used by snipers and hunters from Earth. The Twisted forest was damp, dim and cool. There was no sun in this place so we weren¡¯t suffering from overheating. From what I understood, Chimera were somewhat akin to cold-blooded animals and didn¡¯t sweat like people. Come to think of it, I wasn¡¯t even sure what chimera blood even consisted of since I had no microscope to examine it. It could have been some sort of crystalline-organic fluid for all I knew, since Alessi and I could completely Still our blood at a moment¡¯s notice. When the camo-suits were complete we appeared like two walking bushes, no longer looking like black and white primitive-savage style knights. When I examined us with my magic-resonance trained eyes I could see mostly green-tinted plant-echoes radiate from us. Perfect. We slowly moved down the ravine and emerged from a crevasse into another section of the Folding forest. Whatever tracking eyes the forest used, mundane or magical, it had completely lost us. We kept on moving, ascending and descending along the labyrinthine passageways, stopping occasionally to drink some water and or to snack on smoked meat. The forest-caverns became less brown, turning more green. The ground and walls made from roots became covered in various flowers, many of which I had encountered previously on our ring of the Chasm. It seemed that whatever the Folding forest was - it tolerated other plants, letting them grow on top of itself wherever rot had accumulated in sufficient amounts turning to nutrients. A tunnel covered in blooming vines led us to a truly gargantuan cavern. I gasped when I saw it. The cavern-space was absolutely extraordinary, mind-bogglingly large. It was big enough to contain glowing Chasm clouds that rolled around ten-kilometer tall trees that functioned akin to enormous columns that held the roof of the cavern. A river delta divided the bottom of the valley formed from roots of Folding Trees, water sparkling and reflecting the clouds moving overhead. ¡°Beautiful¡­ but deadly,¡± Alessi said, pointing towards the river. ¡°Look¡­ the Folding Seeds are open.¡± I followed her hand and saw them. Thousands upon thousands of large flowers bloomed around the river, half of their roots buried in water. The large flower petals shined in pearlescent pink, red and purple shades, drawing my eyes to them. ¡°That¡¯s a lot of flowering Seeds,¡± I said, squinting at the pearlescent flowers in the distance. Something inside me craved to walk towards the flowers, to look closer at them. I drew my head away, trying to look at something else¡­ anything else. I couldn''t stop thinking about how pretty their petals were. ¡°Damn it¡­ that¡¯s seriously potent visual allure magic,¡± I muttered. ¡°Florid bastards are getting me through the mask lenses.¡± ¡°Yeah, we should avoid large concentrations of them ¡­ try to find a straggler in the tunnels around here,¡± Alessi said, not drawing her eyes from the flowers. She suddenly took a step forward, heading straight for the edge formed from roots. Her other foot moved, hovering in the empty air¡­ ¡°Al!¡± I grabbed her by the rope and dragged her back into the tunnel a mere moment before she plummeted into the cloud-covered valley below. ¡°T-thanks¡­¡± she uttered, her hands trembling. ¡°All-mother! I almost walked off the edge!¡± ¡°Indeed, that could have gone very badly,¡± I nodded with a deep exhale trying not to think about the shimmering, ever-so-lovely, perfect-looking petals. I had been overly reliant on the mask lenses covered in a very thin layer of magic-blocking sand particles. It had clearly nearly failed to block the combined allure of a thousand distant Seeds. We turned around and found a large hole in the roots leading to a lower level. Alessi and I pulled out little climbing axes made from nightcrawler blades and started our descent. Sure, we could have relied on our own chimera claws to climb down, but the climbing gear made our descent far easier since our backpacks were pretty damn heavy, stuffed with various supplies and the glider. We had gone down nine levels when we spotted a lonely purple-pink flower sitting by itself in the tunnel. It had five brown roots anchoring it to the ground. I took off my Molotov-covered belt and large backpack and untied the short rope between me and Alessi. Then, I tied the end of the longest rope we had to a solid root and the other to myself, handing my sister the rope coil. ¡°I¡¯m going in,¡± I said, pulling out my soul-cutting artifact knife. ¡°If I don¡¯t give the ¡®Shave and a Haircut¡¯ signal via rope pulls that everything¡¯s alright in¡­ five hundred heartbeats, pull me back out and Molotov the shit out of that flower.¡± Alessi nodded. She tied herself to the tree, actively avoiding looking at the glistening petals of the Folding Seed that sat about forty meters in front of us in the root tunnel. I looked straight up at the petals and started to walk towards the Folding Seed. My heartbeat intensified. The flower¡¯s perfect, sublime, glistening petals called out to me. I tried to focus on my senses, tried to understand what the Seed¡¯s Allure was doing to me. A powerful, multi-tier psychic attack slammed against almost all of my senses as I stared at the petals. I heard Pavel¡¯s guitar playing from within the flower. The open maw of the Seed felt welcoming like my late grandfather¡¯s hugs, like sitting by a campfire in the Ukrainian countryside, like the softest couch in the universe that simply waited for me to sit down upon it. With every step the sensations became stronger, more overwhelming, more real. At least I couldn''t smell the damn thing through my mask¡¯s filters. The slick surface of the petals was doing something to my thoughts, making me believe the impossible. That within the purple maw of the beast was a passage back to Earth, a stairwell to heaven, a magic portal back to my workshop filled with all of my precious tools. ¡°You¡¯re a bad liar, you stupid flower,¡± I growled at the Seed taking another step towards the monster¡¯s open mouth. ¡°My grandfather is dead and my Earth is beyond your reach¡­¡± All of my friends are waiting for me there, just waiting to surprise me, waiting to listen to my fantastic stories of my four years of adventures in Andross. My mind wanted to embrace these wonderful lies. My eyes filled with tears at the rising intensity of the temptation. The closer I came to the chimera-sized flower, the more its allure affected my brain, hooking onto, piercing my thoughts with ease. It was as if the thing¡¯s tantalizing offers were like steel skewers that pierced the chicken shish kabobs of my very soul, catching onto my wants, needs, and heart''s desires. I craved, wanted to remember what it was like to be loved by other people, to be accepted, understood and welcomed and praised¡­ to be back home, where things made sense. Where the world wasn¡¯t twisted up by magic. Where there were no bewitching, perfect, captivating flowers that could melt my brain and make me fall in love with it¡­ with her with a mere look. I loved her¡­ I had always loved her and just didn''t know it yet¡­ This seed was perfect for me. I¡­ belonged to her. I stepped into her loving embrace and her soft, wonderful pearlescent petals descended down to me and closed all around me, gently drawing me into her eternal embrace. Ch 25 Something¡­ someone...? pulled at the rope that was tied to my waist. Alessi. My sister. She too could enjoy this perfect, lovely seed. She too could¡­ no, should come here and attain¡­ love and acceptance. A signal? I had to do something about responding back to the rope pulls? It was hard to think. My mind swam in bliss, floating on a soft cloud of pure, absolute love for my new life partner, my wonderful, perfect Folding Seed. Whatever the Folding Seed was doing was activating, tickling all of the right parts of my chimera brain that were responsible for happiness and infatuation. I loved the Seed like my grandfather, like my friends, like urbex, like a perfect partner that I''ve never had. The rational part of my mind tried to claw itself back into control, but it was muffled, smothered in overwhelming feelings of joy and devotion. I reached out to a pearlescent wall, caressing it with my gloved hand. What a beautiful, lovely thing you are¡­ I can''t have you destroyed, besmirched. More rope pulls came. The response? Yes. I remembered and pulled on the rope in the right pattern, confirming that I was fine. Was I fine? I was. Nobody was hurting me here, in the absolute safety of my newfound home. I looked around the interior of my new charming partner, seeing what other wonders she could offer me. There was an ossified corpse of a large bat-like creature slumped in a corner. A pulsating, pearlescent flesh-like root was sticking out of the bat''s mouth. This was fine. I patted the corpse on its head. Rest in peace, past beloved, it''s my turn now, my time to embrace and to meld with my one true love. There was something else that I had to do. Something that I had to consume¡­ to complete my happiness. I moved away from the bat corpse. My eyes circled the otherwise empty purplish-pink circular space and settled on a large closed bud. The bud shuddered as I stepped towards it. It slowly came up from the ground and seductively opened its petals, revealing to me a basin filled with glowing, pearlescent fluid. Ah! My love was offering me a drink. I did feel very parched after a lifetime¡­ no, two lifetimes of lonely suffering. I inhaled heartily, trying to smell the lovely concoction presented to me. Nothing. Why couldn''t I smell the tasty-looking juice? Right. My mask was in the way! I tried to take it off, but there were too many belts and knots holding it in place. It would take forever to untie them all! Argh! A knife? There was a knife in my hand. Of course! I could use it to cut off the belts! There was only one problem¡­ this knife was dangerous¡­ too sharp to swing incautiously around myself. If I nicked my neck, it would accidentally carve a chunk of my soul. I wouldn''t want to bleed my soul all over my new, perfect home. My soul belonged to her. All of it, from now and forever. I would not waste a single wisp. Right! I could Still my body with the exception of my arms and carefully cut the belts off, directing my progress with my soul-threads. I closed my eyes, stilled my lower body and felt the armor with my Soul-Branches, determining where the belts were¡­ Wait. Why? What¡­ what the hell was I doing? Why was I trying to take off my mask?! Oh. Oh oh. Jesus Christ! The Folding Seed had been influencing me¡­ somehow. No, not somehow. By observing it with my chimera eyes I had let the damn thing into my mind, letting it take control of my actions and my thoughts. The Seed forced me to love¡­ it¡­ her?! God! I choked and blanched, nearly throwing up in my mask as I realized how close I had come to becoming the Folding Seed¡¯s next meal. Even with my eyes closed, I still felt¡­ madly, unnaturally¡­ attracted to the damn thing! Disgust and affection fought each other in my head, trying to guide my actions. [Don¡¯t look at the petals. Don''t approach. Stand by,] I sent a Morse code signal through my Dominion Saplings to Alessi. [Affirmative,] she replied, squeezing my soul fragments back thrice, once, thrice and once again. I exhaled. Looking at the Seed¡¯s petals and interiors directly to see if I could stand up to its allure with my mask was a really moronic idea. Whatever mental manipulation the pearlescent flesh projected had been far more powerful than my resolve. If it wasn¡¯t for my filters and closing my eyes¡­ I would absolutely undress myself, partake of the thing¡¯s sap and let it grow a root right into my mouth with a happy smile on my face. I shuddered. ¡°You messed with the wrong girl, Seed,¡± I hissed through my teeth, keeping my eyes closed. I squeezed the soul-cutting blade in my hand and dipped it into the offered basin. ¡°How about you enjoy the taste of your own medicine?¡± I growled out as I stabbed the nearest wall with the paralyzing-fluid coated knife. The Folding Seed shuddered. ¡°You like that?¡± I pulled a small, beetle-shaped flask from my belt, filled it with the fluid from the basin and poured it into the knife-carved gash. ¡°Have some more!¡± This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. The Seed shuddered again, the floor sinking downwards. This had been a bit of a gamble on my part, but it seems that the Folding Seed wasn¡¯t immune to its own paralyzing agent as long as it was poured directly into a deep cut. I sheathed my soul-cutting knife and exhaled in relief. The pressure that I felt was being projected into my head faded completely. I opened one eye for an instant and glanced at the pearlescent wall. I felt nothing at all this time, zero attraction or happiness. From what I understood, the allure skill functioned like a constantly vibrating magical tuning fork. It took active magic to keep up, so the Seed¡¯s mind-control was shut down when it had become completely paralyzed. When I had disabled the Seed with its own poison, its mouth had been left half-open. The vile plant-monster was waiting for Alessi to come join me for all eternity within its innards. I stepped outside of the Seed, and slowly circled it, cutting off the excessive branches. I left three of its large root-feet intact as advised by my Master and walked back to Alessi. ¡°How did it go?¡± She asked me when I reached her. ¡°Almost got eaten,¡± I said. ¡°Thankfully, Stilling most of my body and closing my eyes reduced the effect that the Seed had on me and I broke free of its control.¡± ¡°Why did you keep your eyes open to begin with?¡± Alessi questioned my tactics. ¡°I wanted to make sure that the Folding Seed was irredeemably evil,¡± I replied. ¡°I could have told you that,¡± my sister shook her head. She was definitely judging me. ¡°Also, I was certain that my lenses would block out most of the allure,¡± I sighed. ¡°They definitely need more work. Maybe I need to make the runes or the spaces between them a lot smaller. Or, if I make my lenses mirror-surfaces or something¡­ it will dilute the effect? I¡¯ll have to experiment with my own allure skill on you.¡± ¡°Right,¡± Alessi said. ¡°Onto the next step?¡± I nodded and dug into my bag, pulling out my magical anti-phantom latex paint. I opened the bag, reheated the mixture in a clay bowl on a small fire and went around the seed¡¯s exterior, slowly covering it up. When I finished, I was almost completely out of crystallized paint. Alessi watched the process from afar, ready to pull me back if something went wrong. The Seed did not wake, so I went inside it, cut off the grotesque brain-stabbing root and removed the ossified bat creature. Once I was done with the cleanup, I filled a few more empty flasks with the paralyzing agent and bound the inner flower very tightly with rope, looping it with self-tightening knots. I decided not to destroy the sap-producing basin. It was a handy renewable resource, pretty good at paralyzing creatures. I poured some more sap into the cut in the wall to make sure that the Seed wouldn''t wake up and called Alessi inside it. We spent the rest of the afternoon painting the interior of the seed with mud, bark and dry weeds from a nearby ravine. In this manner we had constructed a mud hut inside the seed, completely covering up the mind-controlling pearlescent flesh. As a secondary protection against the effect, we set up the glider-tent inside of the mud hut. Our mobile home was almost complete, the only thing remaining was to make it mobile. I put my gloved hand atop the cut I had made. I had no regrets in taking over the Folding Seed now. This monster had confirmed its nature to me by trying to force a bond between us, so that it could slowly feed on my soul and body. I uncurled a Dominion branch from my hand and thrust it into the Folding Seed¡¯s paralyzed flesh. Its anatomy was utterly alien, nothing like that of a chimera or a human. It took me a while to figure out where its muscles sat and how they connected to each other forming strange, root-like limbs. The seed''s body was quite freaky because it was indeed ten times bigger on the inside than on the outside. Its innate folding magic was really screwing with my perception of three-dimensional space. Occasionally, I exchanged brief soul-messages with Alessi to confirm that I was fine and working hard on taking over the Seed. She didn¡¯t waste time. While I was in Still trance, she reinforced the mud hut adding more thickness to the walls. As Eunice had recommended I set five Dominion Saplings into the muscles that operated the large, flower-shaped maw and fifteen of them into the three legs. Once I was done, I awoke from the Still trance and let Alessi rest, while I watched the forest in case more Seeds decided to pay us a visit. The light slowly faded from the root-formed tunnel, the world turning dark. I sat in front of the entrance, keeping most of my body still. If the forest¡¯s children tracked their prey at night via motion, we would not provide them with an easy target. As night went by, I pondered about my nearest future and found myself at a loss. Yes, I could brave the Heart of this forest. Yes, I could try to attack it with Molotov cocktails. However, even getting there seemed extremely dangerous and reckless. Thankfully, nothing horrid had come our way and nothing had invaded our tunnel during the night. When dawn lit up the forest once again, Alessi had woken up and joined me at the entrance. I felt better about my chances of defeating the forest, felt happy, at peace. Felt like not going anywhere, like resting here¡­ forever. Ah. These feelings weren¡¯t natural. My Seed was awake, the paralysis had worn off. ¡°Uhm, I¡¯m feeling a bit off,¡± Alessi said. ¡°I think that the allure is getting through the mud and the tent.¡± ¡°Seems like it¡¯s not just visual. I¡¯m going to Still myself to try to deal with this bullshit,¡± I growled out. ¡°If things go wrong, I¡¯ll signal you via soul-messages.¡± Alessi nodded to me. I paused my body and grabbed the wound made by my soul-cutting knife which we had left exposed. I dove into the soul of the Folding Seed via my Dominion threads. I had twenty Saplings inside of the plant-monster already. I injected another Dominion branch into the creature, trying to figure out where the feelings of bliss were being projected from. When I found the allure halo deep inside of the Seed¡¯s soul I struck against it with five of my Dominion branches. As I wrapped them around the thing¡¯s damned halo I felt happiness, pure love taking hold of me. [Paralyze it!] I ordered Alessi. My sister was ready. She poured a bit of the sap into the wound as I floated in absolute happiness, unable to do anything about the love-projecting halo. The Seed stilled and its halo ceased broadcasting bliss. I gradually, meticulously crushed the halo from within, broke and mangled it, slowly tearing it apart. Then, I pulled my Dominion branches back into myself and unstilled myself with a grim smile. ¡°So?¡± Alessi looked at me. ¡°The Seed¡¯s allure is destroyed,¡± I said. ¡°If it grows another one, we¡¯ll take care of it the same way. Dominion branches don¡¯t just take over the body, they can tear apart the soul. How long was I out?¡± ¡°Nearly two days,¡± she replied. ¡°Well¡­ it¡¯s definitely a very slow process to dismantle a specific skill, but it works as long as the monster¡¯s paralyzed,¡± I pulled out a beetle-bottle of water and a piece of smoked steak from my backpack, feeling mighty hungry. Alessi nodded with a relaxed smile. ¡°I think we should give our new acquisition a name. Can''t just keep calling her a ''Folding Seed'',¡± I patted the muddy floor, chewing ponderously. ¡°Any suggestions?¡± Ch 26 ¡°What kind of a name do you think would work?¡± Alessi asked, tapping her mask-covered chin. ¡°Well, she¡¯s going to be our forest-walker and also our storage bag,¡± I said. ¡°Might as well make it something cute and bag-related.¡± ¡°Carri? Sumki¡­¡± Alessi mulled, creatively mixing English, Ukrainian and Tokimorim?tul languages. ¡°Meshki¡­ Sacci?¡± ¡°Heh, I like Saccy,¡± I smirked. ¡°Saccy it is!¡± The way Alessi said the name reminded me of the resort town of Saky my grandfather took me to when I was twelve. I momentarily closed my eyes and ruminated of our summer vacations in the Crimea peninsula, long ago in my other life. I smiled, recalling how I loved to ride in Dnepr¡¯s sidecar staring out at the stormy waves on the Black Sea, the same choppy, beautiful, azure waves that were depicted by Crimean artist Ivan Aivazovsky in his Romantic paintings a century before I was even born. ¡°You seem pensive,¡± Alessi commented. ¡°It¡¯s a nice name, it reminds me of a nice place I used to visit back on Earth,¡± I murmured with a soft smile, pulling myself out of my daydream of the past. . . . Learning how to walk Saccy on three legs took me several days. She tried to fight my Dominion branches, but I found a fairly simple way to pacify her. I had discovered that using a few drops of the sap didn¡¯t paralyze the Folding Seed, but made her less prone to fighting my control. Using the soul-cutting knife as the stick and the sap as the carrot, Alessi and I slowly conditioned Saccy into near-complete obedience. After about a week, she stopped resisting my control, letting me walk her around the root-tunnels. Her limb-roots moved very slowly, but were very strong and could be used to climb nearly vertical walls. It took us a while to convince Saccy to move during the day. She had probably wandered into the tunnels away from the river because the bat-creature inside her had expired. I knew that eventually I would have to feed Saccy paralyzed monsters. I wasn¡¯t looking towards this prospect, but such was the price of being completely safe inside of the Twisted Forest. I practiced using the three limb-roots, climbing up and down various mossy tunnels, exploring the vast Twisted Forest labyrinth. Many of the tunnels led to the enormous river-valley cavern. We avoided going anywhere near it, because there were far too many Seeds there for us to take down safely. The valley seemed a truly insurmountable obstacle and I had doubts that we could even pass through it safely. I directed Saccy to go around the damn valley, but we somehow always ended up facing it no matter which path we took. I was starting to suspect that the Twisted Forest shifted paths and tunnels around when we weren¡¯t in them or something. Either way, some kind of dastardly Folding magic was involved and it was limiting our options. To take down Folding Seeds safely from afar, we used nightcrawler blade-saws to cut a few trees down. When we had gathered enough springy and hard wood, we bound the carved pieces with ropes and assembled a fairly basic, large wooden arbalest. I''ve made similar, primitive, nail-free arbalests at Renaissance fairs with my friends. I used the steel knife on the dead bat¡¯s leg-bones to carve several projectile-bolts and filled the hollows with Saccy¡¯s sap. We tested the arbalest¡¯s punching power against Saccy from afar and found it to be a pretty effective weapon against her kind. When the arbalest was thoroughly tested, I mounted it inside of our Folding Seed¡¯s mouth, pointing it outwards. To be able to aim the arbalest at other Folding Seeds, I had applied a few thin layers of magic-repelling paint on top of Alessi¡¯s mask lens until she could barely see out of it. Even so, the allure had still affected her, stopping her from attacking the Seeds directly. Alessi was only able to aim the arbalest, but not fire it. I was the one to release the trigger by using a rope while not looking at the target. It was a pretty silly system, but it worked great. The bone-bolts punched through the bark of all of the low-level Folding Seeds we had encountered, disabling their allure. We raided seven paralyzed Seeds in this manner. Inside we found a lot more ossified corpses, from which we carved more bone-bolts. A few of the Seeds contained¡­ living specimens. They were alive, but only by the smallest margins. These misfortunate Chasm monsters had been inside of the Folding Seeds for a long time. Their bodies were too large to carry out safely, the flesh grotesquely bloated and badly infected with fungi and lesions due to lack of moving. I killed the poor, sick creatures with the soul-carving knife via a strike to the brain, ending their misery. Upon dissection and examination their crystalline core surrounded by bone tissue was dim, deprived of magic. It seemed that the Seeds were perpetually draining their victims'' magical cores. We carried the least sickly-looking bird-thing into Saccy to provide her nutrition so that she could keep moving. It took Saccy only a few days to grow another brain-sucking root. She didn''t even try to aim it at us - the feeding root went straight to the paralyzed bird''s mouth. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. As for our own food, we continued to rely on our smoked steaks and dry berry supplies as the meat of these beasts was in the process of rotting, completely infused with paralyzing sap. . . . ¡°Pretty good haul, eh?¡± I looked at the pile of monster bones and gem-cores that sat in our tent inside of Saccy. The bone-pile was bound with ropes and staked to the floor so that our haul would not roll all over the place while our Seed moved on uneven terrain. My hands were busy carving yet another bone-bolt. ¡°Yeah,¡± Alessi nodded. ¡°I do hope we find a Seed with things that are less¡­ dead. We¡¯re going to run out of smoked meat soon at this rate.¡± She glanced through the small opening in front of her to check the way for more Folding flowers. The floor beneath our feet tilted sideways a little as I directed Saccy to move up through the tunnel ahead of us. Our three-legged flowery steed was walking at an incredible pace of about four kilometers per hour. Alessi had explained that this was most likely because Saccy was very young - the older Seeds could move a lot faster and you could tell the age of a Seed by the number of its roots. As Saccy turned, circling a tunnel intersection, Alessi froze. ¡°See something?¡± I asked. ¡°Big¡­ pretty flower¡­ we should¡­ go in,¡± she said, her speech slurring a bit as she was affected by the visual allure. ¡°Can you tell me where it is? Point the pretty flower out to me with your fingers,¡± I said. ¡°Yes,¡± Alessi nodded, pointing at the target. ¡°It is¡­ right this way. Just... look. She¡¯s¡­ perfect.¡± I used Dominion branches inside of Alessi¡¯s body to adjust the arbalest¡¯s aim, opened up Saccy¡¯s petals more and pulled the trigger via a rope-lever. The bone-bolt flew and I heard the familiar whack noise as the bolt punctured one of the petals, sinking into the enemy Folding Seed¡¯s flesh. ¡°No! Don¡¯t hurt¡­ her!¡± Alessi yelped. I quickly put a thick, leather sack over my sister¡¯s face-mask, completely blocking her view of the flower outside. ¡°I really hate this,¡± she muttered angrily after a minute. ¡°They keep getting in my head, messing with my thoughts. This one is particularly¡­ strong. It has twenty roots.¡± ¡°Twenty?¡± I whistled. ¡°That¡¯s the biggest one we¡¯ve encountered thus far.¡± ¡°Yep. It¡¯s an old one.¡± Alessi nodded. ¡°The previous oldest one we took down had only eight roots.¡± ¡°Should be a big haul then,¡± I smiled, forcing Saccy to close the petals. When the entrance closed, I got up and reloaded the arbalest. ¡°I¡­ hope so,¡± she grumbled. ¡°It might take a lot of bolts to bring it down.¡± ¡°You memorized where it is, yeah?¡± I asked. ¡°Perfectly.¡± My sister nodded. I let Saccy open her maw as Alessi fired another bolt without even looking at the Seed ahead of us. Her nearly-photographic memory was incredibly handy in our Seed-hunt. Thankfully, the Folding Seeds were too stupid to even move away from the line of fire. Perhaps they had never encountered one of their own kind that shot paralyzing bolts at them. In this manner, we shot a few more bolts at our enemy. ¡°Check target?¡± I said. ¡°Sure,¡± Alessi replied as I pulled the bag off her head. ¡°It¡¯s still¡­ active,¡± she muttered. ¡°Such pretty¡­ lovely petals. We should go to¡­ her.¡± I pulled the bag on her head again. Alessi fired another bolt and I closed the entrance and reloaded the arbalest. ¡°Check again?¡± I asked, pulling the bag off my sister. ¡°Target active¡­ oh¡­ oh no! It''s¡­ she¡¯s walking towards us!!!¡± Alessi yelped, her voice slurring. ¡°She¡­ wants us to join her in¡­ eternal embrace¡­ there¡¯s no need to fight her.¡± Alessi attempted to stand up, trying to get to the Seed herself. She didn¡¯t get very far as the belts and ropes bolted into Saccy¡¯s floor held her firmly in place. I shut the entrance. Something bumped hard against Saccy. I felt it then - an allure far more powerful than anything we had encountered so far. Peace and love permeated, seeped right through Saccy¡¯s flowery gateway. ¡°Open up. Come out. Be mine,¡± enchanting pulses of pure, perfect bliss hammered into my brain with whispers of song-like, distinctive words. This Folding Seed was singing, speaking to me... in Basq?! How could this be?! ¡°Let me out! I belong to her! Let me loose!¡± Alessi whined, struggling with the belts binding her. "I love you. I will always love you from now on and forever," the Seed''s song rose another octave. "Blessed heaven awaits the weary, tired pilgrims. Come to me. Come to me and find salvation." ¡°Shit,¡± I hissed. The allure focused on me now, wrapped me in warm embrace of her enchanted song. The feeling of peace and harmony tore through all of my defenses and shields as if they were made from paper. ¡°Do not resist. Do not attack me. I love you. Be mine, come to me, taste my kisses¡­ little clever one¡­¡± the twenty-armed Folding Seed sang not merely with Basq words but with ideas, with the concept of pure, abominably perfect love. ¡°I shall grant you your heart¡¯s desire. I shall parch your thirst. I shall grant you paradise. I shall take you to heaven.¡± I could not resist her love. I could do nothing but open up Saccy¡¯s entrance with my Dominion branches. There was only one inevitable conclusion, one option, one path. I was hers. I belonged to her now. A distant part of my rational mind screamed in panic. We had made a mistake, encountered an enemy far too powerful for us to fight against. Heaven waited for me. Ch 27 Saccy¡¯s maw opened. I wasn¡¯t even sure if I ordered it myself or if I had simply lost control of her as the Folding Seed¡¯s big sister had come close to us. It was very hard to think¡­ hard to focus. I was so tired, tired of living, tired of struggling, tired of existing. I felt¡­ very thirsty. I stepped forward, walking towards heaven. Paradise awaited me. In only a few steps I was inside of her domain. The interior of the greater Folding Seed shimmered with a brilliant pearlescent glow projected from a flower-shaped basin that stood inside my new, perfect, twenty-armed goddess. Someone was yelling something from behind me, begging to be untied. I think it was¡­ Alessi? Perhaps she was praying to our goddess? Whatever. It didn¡¯t matter. She could chew through the ropes herself. Nothing mattered to me now but my quest for Heaven. My goal was the basin in front of me, filled with the divine essence, a gift for us mortals that would extend our lives for eternity and grant us the purity of heaven. Other devotees were prostrated around the pearlescent basin, their flesh bloated, pale and relaxed. Big, wide, happy smiles sat on their faces as they suckled on the roots of the goddess for eternity. Soon, I would join them in eternal prayer. Soon¡­ Faces? They had faces. They weren¡¯t Chasm monsters! They were¡­ just like me. The real me, not the chimera-me. Just for a second, I froze, shocked that I had finally found my kind¡­ jumbari¡­ err¡­ humans! I reached out to the nearest one, touching her bloated, blue-tinted hand. I would not be alone in Heaven. ¡°Partake of the drink of eternal life,¡± the goddess sang with the chorus of her five Basquenate devotees. ¡°Inhale. Accept my gift. Be mine.¡± I turned away from the catatonic, blue-veined, distended human and looked into the pearlescent basin, inhaling the vapors emanating from it. ¡°Yes, goddess,¡± I whispered. No matter how many hearty breaths I took, I couldn''t smell the vapors, couldn''t enjoy her gift! My mask¡­ my mask was in the way! "Take off your helmet," the goddess sang. "Drink my elixir of immortality." I pulled at the unlocking belt. Something clicked¡­ something whirled, sparks rained down and then my entire body¡­ ignited with little burning flares. What have I done?! Twenty Molotov cocktails on my body caught fire at the same time, flames rapidly spreading as the oil-coated ropes ignited. ¡°No, no, no!¡± I screamed, tagging at the belts on my body. "I''m sorry, goddess!" "Put them out! pUt tHeM OuT at ONce!" The Folding Seed''s chorus grew discordant as smoke filled the air. I was too late, couldn''t possibly put out all of the fuses. The song of my goddess was slowing down my movements, dulling my rational thoughts. My hands kept shaking, unable to do anything properly! The belts suddenly came apart. Oil-covered bottles slipped from my hands, falling to the floor. As I blearily staggered around, the bottles shattered beneath my feet. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. More flames blossomed all around me, spreading out. The goddess wailed and choked, her song ceasing. My mind was mine once more. Fire¡­ fire was spreading quickly all around me! My insane kill-switch had worked. Thick, wet mud coating my armor hissed as the flames licked at it from beneath. People¡­ There were five people here! People that I had accidentally doomed to the flames, with my anti-allure kill-switch, not expecting this situation. I grabbed the person nearest to me. It was a short, jet-black-haired girl with Asian features. Old, leather armor sat on her body. Her hands were swollen and blue. I pulled my soul-cutting knife and slashed the pearlescent root that was sticking out of her mouth, dragging her behind me through the fire. Her body was light, far too light for someone so bloated. There was a happy smile frozen on her puffy face, her eyes closed. I dragged the girl after me, right through the wall of flames, cursing in Ukrainian. Water started to drip from above. I knew, expected what was coming next, so I ran faster, rushing towards the exit. With all of my strength, I leapt into Saccy¡¯s open maw, commanding her to close the petals and to move away. Water poured into the fire behind me as the Twenty-armed seed tried to put out the flames inside it. It was a fatal mistake. I had learned so myself, when I set my grandfather¡¯s workshop on fire trying to put a grease fire I had made with a bucket of water. The pouring water didn¡¯t put the oil flames out - instead it had caused a catastrophic detonation that threw the flames all around. The blast flung me and the human body I carried forward. Saccy¡¯s petals slowly closed behind me. ¡°Move, move, move you stupid plant!¡± I growled, rolling in the mud to put out the flames, making my Folding Seed move away from the fire. It had managed to attain the speed of a very slow old man. Parts of Saccy¡¯s petals were on fire and didn''t close all the way. Having dealt with the flames on me, I momentarily glanced at our enemy through the gaps in the petals. The inside of the twenty armed Folding Seed was completely covered in flames now. The abominable plant-monster screeched and hissed as it died. All of its attempts to put the flames out with water resulted in further disaster. It was too late to rescue any of the other people inside it. ¡°Is that a human?!¡± Alessi gasped, staring at the smoldering body right in front of her. Together, we slapped the flames out with dirt and furs, depriving the oil-fire of oxygen. I had learned this simple fact at eleven when my grandfather rescued me with a blanket from my oil-fire birthday-candle disaster. The poor girl¡¯s hair and eyebrows were gone. Red blisters, first and second degree burns covered the body. Old, dirty, leather armor flaked off beneath my muddy gloves. A blackened, scorched leather bag was hanging from her side. I felt her neck for a pulse. It was there, but it was weak, absurdly slow¡­ her heart beating about once a minute. I opened one of her eyes, pulling back the eyelid. There was no life in it, no recognition. The girl simply stared at nothing, badly burned, swollen, pale body not moving. I noted that she was breathing incredibly slowly too. Right¡­ the Folding Seed¡¯s sap was still in her system, keeping her paralyzed. ¡°Juni! The flames! We need to roll!¡± Alessi yelled pointing towards the flower petals. The entire tunnel around us was now on fire, flickers of flames and black smoke coming through the slightly warped, not-completely closed petals. I quickly bound the human girl and myself in ropes and belts, tethering us down. There was a way to make Saccy move quickly, but it wasn¡¯t particularly safe. However, our situation had become very desperate as the tunnel ahead of us became covered in flames. I folded two of Saccy¡¯s legs closer to her body and thrust off with one leg, trying to get us away from the flames. Mud and tent parts flew around us, coming from the walls as Saccy started to roll. Thankfully, the tunnel sloped downhill, away from the flames. I had no idea where we were heading, because our speed had increased. Another whoosh resounded from behind us as the Folding Trees poured water on the fire. I felt nauseous, felt that I was losing my Dominion threads in Saccy as her legs snapped off and were torn away. Gravity had let go of us. We were falling. We were plummeting down¡­ right into the valley of the clouds! ¡°Still your body!¡± I yelled out to Alessi and dove into my meditation trance, stopping my organs, crystallizing my blood, waiting for the inevitable impact. Saccy groaned, splitting open as we landed, the horrific collision knocking consciousness right out of me. Ch 28 Darkness. Mountains of bones. The Still Forest?! ¡°Back again, huh?¡± I thought, looking up. There was no sky there, only more bones and murky darkness, an impossible, alien landscape without gravity or air that operated on its own laws. I extended my threads out of my anti-phantom armor and inhaled, drawing power and life in, towards myself. I felt it once again... the whisper of static, the voices of the dead myriads, memories, dreams and hopes of the ancient ones that I could not understand. I had to return to the world of the living. Had to get back as quickly as I could¡­ for Alessi and for the human girl that I had rescued from the twenty-armed Folding Seed. I felt something¡­ a distinctive signature, a warmth in the void. I opened my eyes. A little, brittle, dim brown star shimmered beside me in the silent void. I reached out to it. It undulated and twisted, momentarily forming the rough outline of a very skinny thirteen-year-old human girl. There was no expression in her face, not even a sign of any emotion or recognition. I recognized her. It was the girl I carried through the flames! The brittle star flashed one last time and fell apart, blooming into a gray cloud, shards of her soul drifting apart like little dying fireflies. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± I thought. ¡°I tried¡­ I really tried to help you.¡± The cloud of whatever had remained of the girl¡¯s soul dissolved into me as I breathed in once again. As I unintentionally absorbed the remnants of the human soul next to me, the voices of static merged together into a new crescendo, a symphony of clarity that I had been trying to find for three years... since the day the phantom ripped it out of me. Blue sparks flickered in my vision, forming into readable white words on a blue screen.
[System connection re-established]
¡°I¡­ I¡¯m really sorry,¡± I thought with a pang of regret. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to eat you¡­ I¡¯m no better than a phantom, aren¡¯t I?¡± This. This pivotal moment was what Eunice had been training me for. For three years my Master had shoved knowledge into my head, gave me power and ability to consume other souls that fell into the Still Forest along with me. ¡°I finally have my System back,¡± I thought. ¡°Does it mean all of my Stats are back too?¡± A large blue window manifested itself in my vision.
Name: Juni Tokimorim?tuti / Grogtilda Lic Misem
Age: 4 years, 60 days
Species & Subtype: Chimera Stripling Astral Phantom
Level: 4
Experience: 1657/1250
Health: 4/4
Stamina: 3.97/4
Mana Capacity: 4/4 [+1]
Mana regen: 4 m/hr [+4]
Strength / Fortitude: 1 [Michell Shield]
Agility / Folding: 1 [Air Compressor]
Dexterity / Dominion: 5 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] 5 [Dominion saplings]
Vitality / Anima: 1 [Slow Mirror]
Charisma / Resonance: 1 [Allure Halo]
Magic / Power: 1 [Battery] 4 [Generators]
Luck / Destiny: 1 [Luck Tree]
Intelligence / Mind: 1 [Calculator]
Wisdom / Seeking: 1 [Seeking Arrow] - [Damaged]
Soul:
Base value: 21 threads
In Dominated Folding Seed [Saccy]: 12 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active] 8 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Damaged]
In Dominated Chimera Stripling [Alessi Tokimorim?tuti]: 3 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active] 1 [Pneumasomatic Actuator] - [Damaged]
My eyes settled on the fourth line. Astral Phantom. I was an Astral Phantom now, there was no ifs, ands, or buts about it. The System had defined me as a monster from the Still Forest, a ghost that ate the souls of others! I despaired and looked further down. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. A new stat was there¡­ it defined my soul?! I went over the other lines. The System defined my Dominion Saplings in Alessi and Saccy. Hum. Well¡­ that¡¯s nice to know, I guess? The damaged Actuators data was a bad sign, especially the one in Alessi. Did she get hurt from the fall? I had to get back to the world of the living, but had no idea how to do it. Something flickered in the distance with silver and blue. Well¡­. Shit. The hollow, hungry bastard was back. Not this time, pal. My shield is still intact¡­ right? Right. I drew all of my threads inside of myself. I stared at the distant silver-blue trail and tried to replicate the sensation of stepping back through the End-Gate. I had no idea how long it took, no idea how long I kept trying to return to my body. One moment everything was dark and the next¡­ I felt my body. I couldn''t move, couldn''t speak. Right. I slowly restarted my heart, uncrystallized my organs one by one, checking that everything was okay. It wasn¡¯t. My leg felt wrong, shattered¡­ broken. Damnation. I opened my eyes and saw that I was lying on a pile of moss beneath our glider tent. Argh! I moved my head, observing the tent¡¯s interiors. The glider tent was smaller than I remembered, parts of it held together by ropes and mud. How long was I out? Right¡­ I had the System. Thirty two days? I spent that many days floating in the Still Forest? God damn it! I groaned. ¡°Juni?¡± A very tired voice resounded. I turned my head. Alessi was there, sitting in a lotus pose. ¡°Alessi!¡± I smiled as my sister came to me and wrapped me in one-arm embrace. Her right hand was wrapped up in cloth and ropes... like a cast. ¡°You wouldn''t wake,¡± she said. ¡°I was¡­ worried.¡± ¡°Is your arm¡­?¡± I started to speak. ¡°Broken,¡± my sister nodded. ¡°My legs busted up too,¡± I said. ¡°Where¡¯s Saccy?¡± ¡°She¡¯s close by¡­ regrowing her shell, kneading herself back together. She got pretty busted up when we crashed into the river. She¡¯s growing her allure back too¡­ it is different.¡± ¡°Growing?! How? W-what¡¯s she eating?¡± I asked in surprise. ¡°The human you¡¯ve rescued,¡± Alessi said. ¡°What?!¡± I barked. ¡°You¡¯re letting her feed on the human?¡± ¡°Saccy is our only way out of this place,¡± Alessi said, her eyes beneath her mask turning into two slits. ¡°Decisions had to be made. You weren¡¯t awake.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t just¡­¡± I muttered. ¡°That human body is terribly burned and has far too many broken bones,¡± my sister said sternly. ¡°She is dead, Juni. That human died a month ago, maybe longer. The twenty-armed Seed sucked far too much life out of her. There¡¯s no consciousness in that body, I¡¯m certain of it. It¡¯s just an empty, ruined shell. If I cut¡­ it off from Saccy, the body will begin to rot.¡± ¡°Oh¡­¡± I muttered. ¡°Are you certain of this?¡± ¡°Saccy¡¯s been talking to me,¡± Alessi said. ¡°WHAT?!¡± I barked. ¡°Well, Saccy doesn¡¯t exactly talk¡­ it¡¯s more like she complains with emotions. A Folding Seed seems to be about as smart as the creature it''s connected to. When I woke up from my Still trance Saccy had grown another mouth-root and was already connected to the human. She couldn''t get us because of the helmets.¡± I blinked, feeling disgusted and angry. I wasn¡¯t mad at Saccy. The Folding Seed was a predator, I could not shame it for eating people. I was angry at Eunice, angry at myself for unintentionally absorbing the poor girl¡¯s soul in the Still Forest. ¡°Saccy can¡¯t move away from the river. The fall busted up her body, broke all of her leg-roots. I threatened her... a lot... with the soul-cutting knife. I think she understood. She didn¡¯t grow another love-halo¡­ the song she now broadcasts is less ¡®come in¡¯ and more like ¡®please don¡¯t set me on fire again, I¡¯ll be a good girl, just bring me more food.¡± ¡°I see,¡± I sighed, rubbing my aching leg. ¡°Did you bring her¡­ more food?¡± ¡°No,¡± Alessi shook her head. ¡°I can''t go far. Way too many Seeds around.¡± ¡°I think¡­ that my leg broke during the fall and hasn¡¯t healed yet. I¡¯m going to need a crutch,¡± I sighed. ¡°Yeah, our situation is not great,¡± Alessi nodded. ¡°We¡¯re currently surrounded by about a few thousand Folding Seeds from all sides. I¡¯ve dug this alcove in between the roots and covered it with what remained of the glider, keeping my body suspended to conserve food. I don¡¯t trust Saccy enough to stay anywhere near her.¡± ¡°Still trance doesn¡¯t heal broken bones¡­ does it?¡± I asked. ¡°Not really,¡± Alessi sighed. ¡°Once a limb is suspended it does not heal.¡± ¡°Well, this sucks,¡± I groaned. ¡°I was wrong to bring us here,¡± she sniffed. ¡°We lost against a twenty-armed Seed. A thousand-armed one would be our end. We can¡¯t make it to the Heart. My mask is cracked somewhere¡­ I can hear Saccy in my mind too clearly¡­ she¡¯s begging for food.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll¡­ fix it. We¡¯ll figure something out. Just let me get my bearings,¡± I said. ¡°Oh. I almost forgot. I have something for you,¡± Alessi said. ¡°What is it?¡± I asked. ¡°The human had a book in her bag.¡± My sister leaned down and pulled a slightly scorched, leather book from her backpack, handing it to me. ¡°I found it in her bag. Anyways, I¡¯m¡­ very tired and Saccy is starting to irritate me immensely with her constant nagging. Wake me up when you¡¯ve fixed my helmet. She¡¯s seriously grating on my nerves.¡± Alessi''s silver-blue eyes closed as her body stilled completely. I reached into the backpacks and checked our supplies. We had a single steak left with about five berries. At the very least the beetle-bottles were full of water. I knew that Alessi had left the food and drink for me, likely getting the water from the river. It was up to me now. Up to me¡­ to do what? I had no idea what I could do. My broken leg ached. I Stilled it, trying to think. Maybe the book would offer me some answers? Perhaps there was something there, some vital bit of information that could help us? I opened up the slightly-burned book, reading the jumpy, uneven Basq handwriting.
[ Adventurer¡¯s Log, year 8066 ] [5 - 14th] [ Our group''s leader, Mergul Klaips, gave me this journal. It is part of the Diver''s initiation. I am supposed to write down my progress in it so that if I perish in the Infinite Dungeon, some other idiot will find my body and learn a thing or two from the words on these pages. Mergul said that the survival rate in the Dungeon for low-level Adventurers like us with used equipment is about five percent. Yeah. It''s bad. Sadly, I don''t have a choice. Thanks to my father''s gambling debts, I am property of the Fighter''s guild. Since I''m absolutely shit at fighting, the Guild assigned me to Mergul''s diver group. Our job is to fetch Topaz from the 20th Level of the Dungeon. Topas is a great painkiller and a paralyzing drug. It is also extremely addictive. The Topaz Dens pay good money to Divers to obtain the stuff from the Folding Forest. There are five of us in our group. If you find all of us dead and dismembered here''s what we looked like while we were still alive: Me - Grogtilda Lic Misem. I''m thirteen, have black hair, black eyes and I''m very skinny and pale. I don''t get to eat much in Undertown. Mergul gave me and the others headbands that are supposed to protect us from mind-control or whatever. My headband smells and has questionable stains. Pretty sure someone died in it. Mergul - He is a large, hairy man. His face is covered in scars from years of fighting. He is an experienced fighter and leads our group. He has a really big, rusty sword and a compass artifact that''s supposed to show us the way out of LV 20. He''s got a Hex-lantern that''s supposed to repel ghosts or some shit, so we ain''t allowed to go too far from him. Hummi - A decent-looking girl, slightly older than me. Brown hair, green eyes. She is an aight archer. She has a slender body and is quite tall. Slippery Jimbo - Jimbo is a skinny teenager. He has long, black hair and blue eyes. He said he is good at sneaking around and pick-pocketing. Must not be that good if he''s down here and not stealing stuff or working for the Thieves Guild. Borijac - Borijac is an old man. Most of his teeth are missing and he''s got these freaky, shiny lesions on his arms. He has silver eyes and short, blond hair. He is supposedly good at magic. He is also quite good at brewing potions, I''m told. I''m pretty sure he''s a Topaz addict though. We have been in the Dungeon for two days now, and Mergul gave everyone these books and told us to write our progress so here I am writing things down and feeling like an idiot. I saw dragons in the distance. They''re massive. I didn''t like them. I am not sure what else to write, so I will end this entry here. [5 - 15th] We found a nest full of weird, shiny, giant bugs today. Borijac was able to kill most of them with a spell and Hummi got the rest with arrows. We were able to skin them and cook them over a fire. They tasted terrible, but I was so hungry that I didn''t care too much. We also found a few mushrooms, which we added to the soup. It was still terrible, but at least it was filling. We are now resting near a waterfall. It is wet. I don''t like it. Hopefully, we will find some better food. Borijac made our books waterproof, the old addict isn¡¯t a complete incompetent it seems. Mergul is hoarding the salted meat for when we get to Level 20 as it''s apparently very hard to find food down there. [5 - 16th] We found a group of dead adventurers today. I think it was another group belonging to the Fighters Guild, cus Mergul''s artifact compass led us straight to them. They were all killed by a giant, black thing with too many legs. We were able to kill it. It tasted even worse than the bugs, but at least we had something to eat. Mergul told us to undress the bodies. I got a set of armor. Now I definitely know that someone died in it. It was a girl about my age. I didn''t bother learning her name. Mergul read over their journals and copied some details into his book. They had a tent too. We are now resting in the tent. It is drier and warmer here. I am grateful for that. [5 - 17th] We were ambushed by a group of massive flying things. I was able to hit one of them in the head with a rock. It whined like a little bitch as it died. I don''t think this swarm will be bothering anyone anytime soon. I got to Level four. Yay for me. ]
I continued reading but there wasn¡¯t much else of note. Most of it was just Grogtilda and her companions murdering monsters and complaining about the dungeon. I leafed through the rest of the journal but there wasn¡¯t anything else that could help me. I had reached the last page.
[6 - 9th] [ We are screwed. Mergul''s gone. Something took him during the night. Maybe he walked off on his own, because his pack with stuff from the dead group and the hex lantern is still here in the tent. Without his magical compass, there''s no way for us to get out of this blasted forest. I think that the artifact bandanas that were supposed to shield us from the Folding flowers'' songs aren''t working properly. I don''t know what to do. We are all going to die here. I am going to die here. I''m very hungry and thirsty. Borijac says that we can survive inside a Folding Seed, if someone finds us in time before the thing sucks out our brains. He said that it takes a month for the Seeds to turn our brains into mush. He said that there¡¯s a chance. I think that he''s nuts. Borijac''s gone. He walked straight towards a LV 20 Folding Seed. I''m pretty sure that''s what got Mergul too. I don''t know how long I can hold out. I can hear the thing''s voice in my head. I put all of the bandanas and artifacts that I found in Mergul''s sack on top of my body and shoved the hex-lantern into my side-bag. The others walked to the Flower, leaving me alone in the tent. I am¡­ still resisting its song. The damned thing promises me eternal love and salvation. It promises me that I will not sink into the darkness of the Astral Ocean. My idiot parents, Illatius, Undertown, Rimmersville, the Guilds. I wish that it would all fall into the abyss of this accursed Dungeon! I want to go to Heaven¡­ No, these thoughts are not my own. It has to be that accursed twenty-root Folding flower, forcing me to forsake what I am. I wish that I was stronger. I really wish that I wasn¡¯t born as a debitor. I wish... that I could have graduated from an Arcanarium, seen the Empire, done something with my life. I wish that I could grow up and help my family, aid the misfortunate children of Undertown doomed to starvation, crime and debts. If you found my dead body, keep my possessions. This armor is worth at least a few hundred obliss, even though it wasn''t mine to begin with. Please, just tell my parents and cousins in Undertown that I loved them. I really wish that someone would find me, before I am completely gone¡­]
The last few words were blurred, lines of ink streaked with something... As I stared at the yellowing page, I somehow knew that it was Grogtilda''s tears. I suddenly remembered writing these words. The remnant of her soul, a shattered fragment of her mind that was not digested by the Folding Seed was inside me now. Smallest, barely active flickers of memory danced in the back of my head like a theater of shadow puppets. I put down her¡­ no, my journal. According to what Eunice taught me about the Illatius calendar it was now the 9th month of the year 8066. The impoverished adventurers spent three months inside Folding Seed. Their minds and souls were gone. Grogtilda held on only because of the numerous artifacts that she had strapped to herself. I had found them too late. The bodies I¡¯ve accidentally set on fire were already empty, dead. This thought made me feel only marginally better. ¡°I¡¯ll live out your dream¡­¡± I whispered to Grogtilda¡¯s ghost, feeling my own tears raining down beneath my mask lenses. ¡°I will take your body from the Seed, find a way to heal it and do what you could not.¡± Ch 29. Trapped in the Forest Getting to Saccy from my current position inside of a small, muddy hole proved to be a serious challenge. The trouble was that I sucked at Stilling specific parts of myself. I knew how to Still my lower body for example, but not a single leg. Also, when I Stilled my lower body, my upper body moved very slowly akin to a snail, as if I was half asleep. Unstilling myself brought back the pain in my broken leg and intensified the allure of the numerous Folding Seeds all around me. It took me a few hours of irritatingly slow motion to get myself out of the tent-hole dug by Alessi. When I finally emerged out of the tent I saw that our little hideout was sitting on the shore of a very large, rushing river. My sister was right. We were screwed. I felt Folding Seeds all around us, sitting idly on both sides of the river. I didn''t have to look at them to know that they were there. A nagging sensation of peace, safety and love pressed at me from all sides, demanding my attention. I didn''t look up at them, keeping myself mostly paralyzed, staring down at the mossy ground. Luckily the Seeds seemed to be equally distant from each other. They all wanted me to come to them, but in the end the equally powerful pull kept me from heading towards a specific one. A single allure song amidst them felt wrong, discordant. It wasn¡¯t offering me happiness and love. It was¡­ begging¡­ singing to me in Basq. "Bring me more beasts, my love," she sang softly. "Saccy?" I whispered. "I am hungry. Bring me food. My legs are broken. I cannot move. I am hurt and weak," Saccy sang in a girly voice. Some small part of me felt extremely aghast by this theft and wanted me to reclaim what was mine. Hers? Ours! Grogtilda''s body was definitely currently bound to Saccy, giving the Folding Seed a very specific, clear voice that a part of me recognized. I wonder if Eunice ever felt like she was the other chimera which she had consumed, or perhaps there were so many of them in her that their voices and wishes drowned each other out? Did Eunice step to the path of devouring souls by accident like me and then could not stop herself? It didn''t matter now. What mattered now was retrieving Grogtilda''s body from Saccy. I wanted to be human once again, wanted to see the world with human eyes, wanted to find friendship and acceptance of my own kind. I slowly crawled towards the voice that begged for food. The closer I came to it, the stronger the song got. My mind started to swim in a fog of confusion. Food. I had to bring Saccy food? I had to bring her monsters! No... I had to liberate my body from the damned plant monster before she completely sucked it dry of life! I had reached Saccy holding the black soul-cutting knife and knew that I couldn''t do it. I couldn''t fight her allure. Saccy¡¯s song was stronger than my will. I found myself turned around with a single thought pulsing through my head. Bring Saccy food. Growling, and spitting, I turned around. It was in vain. I was too weak. I spend the day approaching Saccy only to get turned around again and again. The sun started to set, the glowing clouds above me dimming. My eyes filled with tears. I felt hopeless, tired and defeated. As darkness fell across the valley of Folding trees, one by one the Seeds began to close, falling silent. As their allure songs grew weaker, I pushed with renewed vigor towards Saccy one final time. Just as her flower shut, I reached her. My head felt slightly clearer. I felt my Dominion threads in Saccy and forced her petals to open for me. I crawled inside, commanding the petals to pull me inside just as a thousand seeds started to move their roots all around the valley. "F-ffing hell," I shuddered. "I want food," Saccy sang. "Bring me food, my love!" "Not now, dear." I growled, stabbing her floor with the knife. ¡°Go to sleep!¡± Saccy could not stop my attack with her love-song. It seemed that her allure functioned best during the day. Perhaps it was powered by cloud-projected sunlight or something? She shuddered as my black knife went through her muddy, somewhat pearlescent floor. I grabbed a small beetle-bottle from my belts containing her paralyzing sap and poured it into the wound. Saccy stilled, her allure shut down completely. For a minute I just sat on the floor, panting tiredly. Then I looked around. Saccy¡¯s paralyzing-fluid filled bud was still tied up. I spotted Grogtilda¡¯s body. It was in worse condition than before, skin distended and covered in deep blue lesions that shimmered with pearlescent iridescence. Soon mold and mushrooms would begin to grow on her. I crawled towards her and made a small cut on her palm, extending my Dominion threads into the body. There was no soul in it. I felt only Saccy¡¯s presence inside her, the Folding Seed¡¯s soul extending through the root into the body. Saccy was keeping the body alive and paralyzed, her sap dripping directly from the root into the human¡¯s mouth. I was disgusted with what Saccy was doing and yet¡­ she had kept this body alive for me by using it as a magical battery. I pulled the root out of the mouth with a growl. Then, I started to set five Dominion threads into legs and arms and the neck forming Pneumasomatic Actuators. It wasn¡¯t hard to do since there was no soul in the body resisting me. Once they were in place, I thought about my next move. Was it safe to try to relocate my soul into the human body? What about the Still Forest phantom? The fire had burned off parts of Saccy¡¯s ghost-barrier too, so why didn¡¯t the phantom attack her? Why didn¡¯t it rip out my Dominion threads? ¡°Hex lantern,¡± A stray thought manifested itself in my mind. Of course! I reached into Grogtilda¡¯s burned bag and pulled out the hex-lantern. It was a small, rusty, metal lantern with plain stained glass on a metal chain. A mana crystal glowed deep within its innards, casting rainbow refractions all around Saccy¡¯s interior. I exhaled. This lantern would keep me safe from the phantom. It was a common tool used by the citizens of Illatius. I hung the lantern onto Grogtilda¡¯s neck. I swung the knife at the root, cutting the human body from Saccy. I sang the song of Stillness and paused my chimera body fully, hugging Grogtilda tightly and holding onto her hand. When my organs and blood crystalized, I moved my entire soul through the Dominion thread pathways that connected me to the human. I didn¡¯t know how long it took me to fully relocate my soul into Grogtilda but eventually it worked. I opened my new eyes and let out a hiss of discomfort and pain. My new body¡­ hurt everywhere. Several bones were broken. Many muscles had atrophied. Some of the skin felt raw, rotting away. Thankfully, most of the human nerves swam in bliss, as Saccy¡¯s paralyzing solution still coursed through my new veins. I looked at my chimera self and smiled. I looked¡­ small and fierce. The dark nightcrawler mask and armor made me look like some sort of a creepy-looking, bug-like monster. It was quite strange to see myself in 3rd person, hugging myself and holding my bloated, blue human hand tightly. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. I tried to move and cried out as pain laced across my entire swollen, ruined body. The pain grew in intensity, becoming overwhelming, intolerable. This body was battered and broken. It felt ruined, wrong¡­ like a moldy, old glove that didn¡¯t quite fit me. I needed to heal it, needed to completely fuse my soul into it. I pondered my options. Eunice didn¡¯t exactly teach me how to take over a human. She had expected me to bring a human to her first. Hang on¡­ I could level up in my new body! That might jump-start the healing process. Leveling up released a burst of magical energy from the core of the soul. Perhaps, leveling up could synchronize me with my new body, fix some of the dire, horrid problems causing me discomfort and pain. ¡°System, level me up,¡± I whispered, not recognizing my own voice. Sparks of blue static filled my vision. The experience of the level twenty Seed I had murdered plus many other monsters that were held hostage by the Folding forest spun around me, compressing into a singularity, a trimming dot of power deep within me. I felt this process taking hold of me and let it proceed. The life experience of numerous beasts converged into the core of my soul fusing into a catalyst about to ignite. The newly formed singularity detonated with an explosion of power that washed over my soul and body, drowning me in pain and pleasure. The voices of the creatures roared, cried and barked merging into a cacophony of incomprehensible sound that formed alien, musical tones.
Name: Yulia Ishenko Juni Tokimorim?tuti Grogtilda Lic Misem
Age: 4 years, 61 days
Species & Subtype: Astral Phantom Chimera Stripling Juvenile Human
Level: 5
Experience: 407/1800
Health: 5/5
Stamina: 5/5
Mana Capacity: 5/5 [+1]
Mana regen: 5 m/hr [+4]
Strength / Fortitude: 1 [Michell Shield]
Agility / Folding: 1 [Air Compressor]
Dexterity / Dominion: 5 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Tethered to Chimera body] 5 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Tethered to Human body]
Vitality / Anima: 1 [Slow Mirror]
Charisma / Resonance: 1 [Allure Halo]
Magic / Power: 1 [Battery] 4 [Generators]
Luck / Destiny: 1 [Luck Tree]
Intelligence / Mind: 1 [Calculator]
Wisdom / Seeking: 1 [Seeking Arrow] - [Damaged]
Soul:
Base value: 21 threads
In Dominated Folding Seed [Saccy]: 12 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active] 8 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Damaged]
In Dominated Chimera Stripling [Alessi Tokimorim?tuti]: 3 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active] 1 [Pneumasomatic Actuator] - [Damaged]
Investiture points: 25
My new stats greeted me, transposed onto the dream of Chernobyl¡¯s control room. I had three names now with three species listed matching them. The part of me that was Yulia Ishenko had been assigned the title of Astral Phantom. Hum. Twenty five points. A lot of options for my growth. I considered what I needed most. Dominion threads to take over another Folding Seed maybe? No. I wanted to remain human. With the same fierce determination that allowed me to reach the heart of Chernobyl, I went over each of the options. One of the lines drew my attention to it. Vitality! My human body was extremely damaged and dying. I had to reanimate it, had to keep it from dying on me. I recalled my Master''s lessons - Anima saplings were supposed to animate anything, just like the Mimmins cards. Even if Grogtilda''s body already crossed the line between life and death, Anima saplings could help me control it, stay inside it, prevent further decay. I turned the dial for Vitality twenty times, feeling Anima branches growing all around my soul, leaves of Slow Mirrors blossoming and¡­ casting a distinctive ripple of myself into the Still Forest and pulling back the power of a thousand dead whispers and echoes, to animate that which was not living anymore. I let the Slow Mirrors do their work. I hoped that they were repairing, reanimating my flesh, not just my soul. Suddenly, something violently shook my body. Bodies? Pain! PAIN. I awoke with a yelp of pain, blinking tears out of my eyes. A tall, dark, male figure wearing a skull-mask stood in front of me, staring down at me. ¡°W-what?!¡± I gasped in fright as the inexplicable intruder shook me once again, trying to pry my chimera body from its embrace by force. Having failed at tearing us apart, he growled angrily. A dark gray sword flashed in his hand, coated with Saccy¡¯s purple blood. ¡°N-no!¡± I cried as the sword swung at me. Eyes behind thick, crystal lenses darted to my human face, finally settling on mine and I felt my blood chilling at the fierce hatred in his gaze. Ch 30 It took me only a moment to recognize those yellow, angry eyes. ¡°Dad! Stop! Don¡¯t hurt me!¡± I yelped in Tokimorim?tul as the gray, bone sword of a chimera hunter paused right before going right through my puffy, aching neck. ¡°What?¡± Acadius barked. ¡°How is it that you know the language of our tribe, jumbari?¡± ¡°It¡¯s me dad! I¡¯m Juni! I¡¯m in a human body!¡± I stuttered, feeling the sharp edge of his sword pressing against my skin, drawing blood. ¡°Juni?¡± My father blinked. ¡°What?! How?!¡± ¡°I¡¯m speaking through this human¡¯s mouth,¡± I explained. ¡°D-don¡¯t hurt my human body, please!¡± ¡°Your human body?¡± The dark gray chimera tilted his masked head in confusion. ¡°I don¡¯t understand. How can this be? Do not deceive me, human-beast!¡± ¡°It¡¯s cendai magic, dad! Eunice has been teaching me how to take over bodies of other creatures,¡± I stuttered. ¡°It¡¯s part of my training! No deception, I swear!¡± The masked chimera hunter didn''t look like he believed me. I hissed in pain as I forcefully moved a single, bloated, bruised finger pointing it at the ruby gemstone bracelet on my father¡¯s right wrist. ¡°I made that bracelet for you with my hair during our first winter together, dad! I told you how much I love you that day! It was cold and snowing outside. Mom showed me how to make the gemstones from my mane, taught me how to dry my hair so it would harden under the light of the sun on the living room windowsill for two weeks. She said that it will help you during the hunts! Remember?¡± ¡°Juni,¡± the sword finally drew away from my neck. ¡°It is you. I have come to rescue you with my pack of hunters. It has been thirty days. You got captured by a Folding Seed, just as we had expected.¡± ¡°No¡­ I captured this Seed. I just got a little¡­ hurt while hunting,¡± I explained. ¡°Also, did Eunice make that mask for you?¡± I examined the skull-mask on my father¡¯s face. It looked suspiciously similar to the one on my face. ¡°Yes. The high-cendai made these masks for us,¡± dad said. ¡°She said they will protect us from the allure of the Folding Seeds.¡± I exhaled. On one hand I was very glad to be rescued. On the other hand, Eunice stole my awesome design, copied it with ease. I suspected that she was using me to learn new magic and the masks worn by chimera hunters was a confirmation of this fact. ¡°I made the first mask, dad,¡± I pointed at my chimera face. ¡°It was my idea¡­¡± ¡°You have made a contribution to our tribe as other cendai before you have,¡± dad nodded. ¡°Just as was expected of you. Now, how do I separate you from this¡­ human body?¡± ¡°D-don¡¯t,¡± I shook my head. ¡°I¡¯m keeping it alive with my magic. I need it. My job is to study human magic in their hive.¡± ¡°Then how am I to bring you home?¡± He asked. ¡°We must leave at once. The protective magics Eunice placed into these masks will not last long, I was told.¡± ¡°Find Alessi,¡± I said. ¡°She is resting in a nearby alcove, covered up by our ruined tent. Bring her in here. Put on my large leather backpack and place this Folding Seed inside it. You can fly us home. Things inside the Seed weigh much less than they should.¡± ¡°You¡¯re bringing this Folding Seed with you then?¡± Dad asked. ¡°I am,¡± I nodded. ¡°It belongs to me, just like this human. I have pacified it with my magic. Alessi and I will be completely safe inside it. All you have to do is carry the Seed.¡± ¡°Very well,¡± he sighed, turned and barked orders to other chimera standing outside of Saccy. In a few minutes a masked chimera teen entered Saccy. He was carrying Alessi and our bags in his hands. I recognized his posture, claws, skin-color and eyes too. ¡°Hey Isahcs,¡± I said tiredly. ¡°What sort of a beast are you?!¡± Isahcs balked, staring at me in confusion. Then he glanced at my father. ¡°Why is this creature holding Juni? How does it know our language?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you recognize your favorite cousin?¡± I grinned at him.
I was back in my chimera body and sat on a large, warm rock in my master¡¯s Soul-Garden, basking in the midday sun shining from the pale blue sky above the three rings of mountains. It had been a day since we were rescued by a pack of chimera hunters and flown back to the Tokimorim?tul village. The Twisted Forest was but a memory now, a grim reminder that even with a lot of preparation the monsters of the Chasm were far more devious and powerful than anything I¡¯ve encountered back on Earth. We never had a chance to get close to the Heart of the Forest, Alessi was overly optimistic about our abilities. I glanced at my sister. She was holding onto our large backpack with Saccy inside it with one of her hands. ¡°So,¡± Eunice stared down at me, her gold Soul-Garden glittering behind her as the chimera hunter team departed. ¡°I see that you found yourself a human body and were able to dominate a Folding Seed.¡± ¡°Yes, Master.¡± I nodded, pulling off my nightcrawler helmet and rubbing the back of my neck. When I looked at Grogtilda¡¯s body that was laid out on a rock next to me, she seemed a little less bloated, the hair looking more dirty brown than greasy black. The deep, blue bruises were all over her skin and a few of them had starting to expand, producing pearlescent ripple-like patterns. The high-cendai stepped towards Grogtidla, her eyes flashing from within. ¡°This is a low class human,¡± she said after a minute of arcane evaluation. ¡°The exact kind I told you to avoid. The body is in a very poor condition too. It has been damaged in a recent fall and drained of life and magic by a Folding Seed for several months.¡± ¡°I¡¯m aware,¡± I said. "I¡­ found her in a Folding Seed and consumed whatever had remained of her soul." Eunice nodded to my confession, her eyes glinting with a look of parental approval. She really was raising me to be just like her! If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°This lowborn female is owned by one of the Undertown Guilds of Illatius,¡± Eunice added, ¡°Do you wish to be the property of the worst type of humans? To live in the dark, filthy sewers beneath the city, eating rats and bugs? To serve the squalid, illiterate, brutish humans as a slave?¡± ¡°How do you know that she¡¯s a debitor?¡± I asked curiously. Eunice pulled back the old, dirty armor away from Grogtilda¡¯s chest, revealing a large, black pyramidal tattoo there. ¡°The mark of the debitor. This magical, self-sustaining rune will make you obey the orders of the Guild, whatever they may be." ¡°Can this mark be removed or damaged so that I wouldn''t have to obey the Guild?¡± I asked. ¡°It can''t be erased without killing or dismantling this body,¡± Eunice said. ¡°I cannot rewind it away. The rune is as old as this body, rooted deep in the flesh, organs and bones. It''s a rather disgusting¡­ leech-like thing, feeding on the body''s life and magic. If it is damaged, it will repair itself. It was likely placed on this human long ago when she was a newborn. I have healed your broken leg, but I will not waste my magic on your folly of selecting such a poor shell.¡± ¡°Whatever,¡± I shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ll figure it out myself.¡± Eunice looked down at me curiously. I stared back into her purple-gray eyes, not backing down. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect any less from my most stubborn monwai,¡± the high-cendai finally smirked. ¡°Her debt could be impossible for you to repay in your lifetime.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m keeping her.¡± ¡°You know, I was going to ask one of my monwai to find you a highborn human body,¡± Eunice mulled. "As your reward for surviving the trials of the Twisted Forest and crafting the first anti-allure mask." ¡°No,¡± I shook my head adamantly. ¡°I¡¯ll find a highborn body myself, if the need for such arises.¡± ¡°Life will not be easy for you if you wear this shell,¡± my Master added. "I know," I said. "I''ve read about lowborns in your books." ¡°So then, tell me - why do you choose to undergo such unnecessary hardship?¡± ¡°Your other monwai, they¡¯re all wearing bodies of noble, high-class humans, right?¡± I asked. ¡°Indeed, they are the Seven most-noble Barons of Illatius,¡± Eunice confirmed with a proud look. ¡°Then that path is already tread by them,¡± I said. The high-cendai raised a gray eyebrow at my declaration. I pointed my armored hand at Grogtilda. ¡°This body will be accepted by the denizens of Undertown as one of their own kind. There is value in understanding all aspects of a society, including the less fortunate, criminal underclasses. Perhaps, I will discover unique magics there that your other monwai have not encountered.¡± ¡°You wish to trudge through the deep, murky mud to search for gemstones?¡± Eunice mulled. ¡°To dig your way upwards from below? An interesting approach. It will not be easy.¡± ¡°I like a good challenge, Master,¡± I stated with conviction. "From what I''ve read, no class of humans is free of the obligation of servitude. The highborn knights, mages and Barons answer to the Basquenate Emperor and spend far too much time and resources on social obligations. If I repay this body''s debt or discover how to take apart the mark on it, I''ll be more free than a highborn." ¡°Ha! Hearing about your struggle against the current will be interesting, if anything,¡± Eunice laughed. ¡°Don''t worry, you won''t be alone in your quest. I¡¯ll tell my¡­ favorite monwai about you. She¡¯ll watch over you and¡­ make sure you stay alive. Her human name is Baroness Amadea.¡± ¡°Thank you, Master,¡± I bowed. ¡°I promise, I won¡¯t fail you. By the time this human grows old, Illatius Undertown will be mine just as the Baronies above it belong to your other cendai.¡± ¡°A lofty goal worthy of my clever monwai. This plot of yours - taking control of the criminal, lowborn-ruled Guilds from within does have merit¡­ if you succeed, however unlikely and difficult it may be,¡± Eunice smiled widely, buying my crafty words just as I expected her to. In truth I had no idea whatsoever how I would pay off Grogtilda¡¯s debt or even take over anything, but the ancient high-cendai expected soaring triumph from her human infiltrators. Her spiderweb of concealed Astral Phantom Queens had a stranglehold upon local humanity. Their victories were her victories, their plots - her plots, their inventions¡­ her inventions. ¡°I¡¯ll heal the bones and organs of this pitiful, broken creature for you, but don¡¯t expect more benefaction from me,¡± Eunice waved a hand, yellow flames igniting on her fingertips. ¡°You¡¯ll have to convince Baroness Amadea of your worth as a chimera cendai. Lucky for you¡­ she likes them young.¡± I squinted at Eunice as she laid a flame-wreathed hand atop Grogtilda¡¯s body. It sounded like it would be a good idea to avoid her ''favorite monwai'' if anything. I felt the arcane, overwhelming power of my Master through my Dominion Saplings. Grogtilda''s body rippled from within as her insides slowly rewound backwards in time. Bones regained their former shapes, organs unswelled, fractures fused, rips became mended, bruises and lesions faded away. The gold fire flickered to green as Eunice finished her work. Grogtilda''s flesh stayed swollen, blue-tinted and sickly-looking, but at least I hoped that I could now walk upright in her body. "I have done what I could," Eunice commented. "Winding her any further back in time¡­ is dangerous." "Dangerous in what sense?" I asked curiously. "Do not take this body to another healer nor drink any of their healing potions," She explained. "Winding the flesh any further back in time will result in uncontrollable¡­ organ and tissue growth." "Got it," I nodded. "Cancer?" I thought. "Too much healing will give me cancer? So much for a cure-all healing magic." "You have done well in growing numerous Anima branches in your Soul-Tree. I suggest you add even more. They will suspend and animate the dead tissues and help keep this damaged body from succumbing to¡­ fungal growths and infections," Eunice commented. I pondered what else I could ask the high-cendai. I had not thought much about it, but it did seem strange to me that the initial System stats that I started with four years ago had become completely different from their original names. Why did Dexterity become Dominion, why was Agility Folding, etc? I felt that now was my chance to get some answers for once. ¡°Master,¡± I began. ¡°When I¡­ um, absorbed the human I¡­ remembered some things.¡± ¡°Such is normal when consuming the soul of an intelligent being,¡± Eunice nodded. ¡°You should have no problems communicating in Basq with ease as the memory and speech-processing centers of the mind are intact. Do be aware that these memories are not yours. They belong to the dead human. Rely on her cultural knowledge to blend in, but not let any remnants of her personality dominate your life. You are a chimera cendai now and you can live for a thousand winters wearing generations of human shells as my monwai have.¡± ¡°Yes, Master,¡± I nodded. ¡°It¡¯s just that¡­ this human had some magic and it was¡­ a bit different from mine¡­ I guess? The names didn¡¯t exactly match. I didn¡¯t find much information on basic human magic in your library.¡± ¡°There was a reason for that,¡± Eunice nodded. ¡°Knowing basic human magic would not have aided your growth as a cendai. If anything, it would have impeded and confused you. Humans aren¡¯t magical creatures like us, their souls and bodies are less malleable. Their nine base skills relate more to their bodies than their souls.¡± ¡°Less¡­ malleable?¡± I mumbled. ¡°They lack the crystalline-organic core in their chest,¡± Eunice said. ¡°Human base magic is generally guided by common¡­ human beliefs about their own bodies and magic itself.¡± ¡°Common belief about magic?¡± I asked. ¡°A layered manifestation of it, an omniscient-seeming presence spreading its roots across the Still Forest,¡± Eunice waved her hand in the air. ¡°If enough humans believe in something for millennia¡­ it becomes real. They call it ¡®the System¡¯, a counter for base magical skills. You have likely acquired this System when you consumed your first human.¡± ¡°What?!¡± I gulped. ¡°Belief causes something like THAT to come into existence?¡± ¡°It takes a very long time to manifest¡­ more than a thousand generations of humans dying with the same beliefs layering across each other in the Still Forest to magnify an idea,¡± the high-cendai explained. ¡°On the plus side, this counting System is a completely benign manifestation. All it does is count the number of your branches and give them titles. It is malleable and it does not rule over anyone or command them.¡± ¡°So¡­ does this mean that there are¡­ hostile, active Still Forest manifestations of belief too?¡± I gulped. ¡°Ones that command humans, tell them what to do?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Eunice said. ¡°The humans call such vile abominations their¡­ gods.¡± Ch 31. Lomb Township ¡°How much of a problem are these¡­ um¡­ human gods in Illatius?¡± I asked. ¡°Not much. More of an annoyance to us if anything. Whenever the cults come out from their hidey-holes, they¡¯re put down by the constabulary.¡± Eunice shrugged. ¡°Only true believers, absolute devotees to an idea, can host the concept of a Still Forest manifestation. Most people are smart enough not to make a pact with a belief for it to manifest its influence upon them. Only a poor, desperate fool would bind themselves to an all-guiding, self-aware belief. The influence of human gods wanes and grows over centuries, but there hasn¡¯t been a concept powerful enough to overthrow the current Illatius Aristocracy.¡± ¡°I see,¡± I said with a shudder. ¡°Humans cannot observe manifestations of belief,¡± Eunice said. ¡°You¡¯ll undoubtedly encounter a few¡­ misfortunates that carry belief upon their shoulders in Undertown catacombs. You¡¯ll be able to spot them with your Still-Walker sight. They look like grotesque, fungus-shaped ghosts that extend their tendrils from the spirit-plane into the physical.¡± ¡°What should I do if I¡­ encounter one?¡± I asked. ¡°I suggest you execute the affected human on sight, put them out of their misery or report it to the constabulary if the cult is too big for you to handle alone. One of the jobs of my monwai is to spot manifestations of human belief and eliminate them before they grow big enough to become a serious problem.¡± ¡°Would the constabulary believe the words of a lowborn human?¡± I asked. ¡°The Constabulary Stations possess truth-telling artifact-spheres,¡± Eunice explained. ¡°If you confess discovering a cult that threatens the stability of law and order in Illatius while holding your hand on one, the constable in charge would have no choice but to follow through with the investigation. If it¡¯s a big one, simply report it as a ¡®Threat to Humanity¡¯ category.¡± ¡°Got it,¡± I said. ¡°If I am questioned under such an artifact¡­ would I, um, be able to fool the humans, convince them that I¡¯m not a chimera?¡± ¡°You absorbed this human¡¯s soul, my dear monwai,¡± Eunice said, pointing at Grogtilda¡¯s body. ¡°Your human name should show up in your System list. You can tell the Illatius Constabulary your human name, tell them that you are a human and it will be the truth. You are a human AND a chimera now, both of these titles are true as seen by stat-evaluating artifacts. My monwai have subtly guided Illatius for generations, you need not fear the local lawmakers - many of them are owned by the Seven Baronies. If you are sentenced for a crime such as murdering humans, one of my monwai will help free you.¡± ¡°Right,¡± I nodded quickly. ¡°So, um¡­ who are the Seven Baronesses?¡± ¡°They are the Seven most-ancient families of Illatius. The current keepers of the Seven keys to the city,¡± Eunice said proudly, an undertone of irony in her voice. ¡°Awakened, noble Heroes, Defenders of Humanity that braved the deepest levels of the Chasm. The Esteemed Archmagi of the Prism Order.¡± ¡°I¡¯m in touch with them via communication artifacts. You can request a meeting with any of them through Baroness Amadea. I suggest contacting her first, if you require assistance. She will undoubtedly find great amusement in your¡­ situation. Like I said before, she likes to adopt young chimera under her Barony. The other six will be less¡­ open to aiding a stubborn, inexperienced cendai like yourself, especially if you wear¡­ the lowborn¡¯s body. They¡¯re usually very busy in their fields of magical research and¡­ experimentation.¡± I didn¡¯t like the way Eunice said the word ¡°experimentation¡±. Were her monwai experimenting on the lowborns of Illatius? ¡°Right,¡± I said, a rather daring idea beginning to manifest itself in my mind. ¡°Humans don¡¯t know that we¡­ rule over them, right?¡± ¡°Of course they do not,¡± Eunice affirmed. ¡°If you find a human that knows of chimera presence in Illatius you are to investigate how they found out about us and then end their life. If you discover any books or artifacts that mention or define chimera you are to steal them and bring them to Baroness Amadea. She will send them to me.¡± I nodded. ¡°Will you require a skyship to reach Illatius?¡± Eunice asked. ¡°Or will you fly there using one of your wood and leather contraptions?¡± ¡°I will make my own way to Illatius,¡± I said. ¡°If the humans don¡¯t have chimera-defining artifacts, then can I bring my chimera body with me¡­ inside of my Folding Seed?¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± the high-cendai affirmed. ¡°Just don¡¯t walk the Streets of Illatius as a chimera.¡± ¡°I can use my chimera body at night to study the tunnels beneath the city wearing my nightcrawler armorer while my human body sleeps,¡± I said. ¡°A chimera is far more agile than a human and my mask and armor will help me scout the¡­ less desirable areas such as the waste-contaminated sewage tunnels.¡± I rubbed my hands together and grinned, feeling overwhelming excitement at the prospect of serious future urban exploration. ¡°A very solid plan,¡± Eunice nodded. ¡°I approve.¡± ¡°Your other monwai, they don¡¯t go into the sewers beneath the city at all, do they?¡± I asked, feeling that I already knew the answer. ¡°You are correct,¡± Eunice said. ¡°We are children of the Chasm. Most chimeras don¡¯t do well when it comes to dealing with narrow tunnels or overwhelming smells, but I reckon you are creative enough to succeed where others have failed.¡± ¡°A new path, just for me to tread,¡± I smirked. ¡°My monwai have been rather¡­ lackluster in researching Undertown,¡± the high-cendai sighed. ¡°They monitor the city through the help of hired humans or lock themselves away for years in their Baronial towers, not interested in dealing with the human filth or the cults infesting the deep caverns beneath Illatius. Perhaps there is something of value in these catacombs.¡± ¡°It just seems like a good place to hunt¡­ humans,¡± I commented slyly, steepling my fingers in a ¡®I¡¯m totally evil just like you¡¯ gesture. ¡°Indeed,¡± the high-cendai smiled widely, showing her shark-like teeth. ¡°Is there a song of¡­ invisibility that can draw human eyes away from me? The opposite of an Allure?¡± I mulled. ¡°Yes,¡± Eunice nodded, squinting at me. ¡°I believe your soul has a few branches left to grow. I suggest you figure out how to make your Resonance sing such a tune if you wish to hunt manifestation-obsessed humans deep beneath the city streets with greater ease. I will show you the rune for it, since you have impressed me with your wisdom." Eunice drew a rune in the sand. It shimmered with power for a moment and then vanished. I glared at the invisible rune, trying to figure out how it worked. My eyes kept sliding off¡­ something no matter how much I tried to stare at the spot of sand where the rune had been just a moment ago. I focused my full attention on the spot, until my eyes started to water. When I looked back at my Master she too was gone. I sighed. I had a long way to go to figure out invisibility magic. I went back to glaring at the ground fighting against the attention-redirecting rune. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. . . . Three weeks later, I stood atop my workshop. Alessi held my shoulder with her left hand, her eyes glittering with tears. Eunice had not fixed her broken hand, so my silver-haired sister had to slowly heal the old fashioned way. She had decided to stay behind to look after her mother, while I integrated into human society. "I''ll be back, sister," I said. "I''ll be back to visit you, I promise. Keep trapping and eating monsters. Strengthen your chorus. We will return to the Twisted Forest together, when both of us are stronger." Alessi nodded, squeezing my shoulder. "I love you, Juni," she said. "Don''t get into too much trouble with the humans." "Love you too, sis." I said with a smile. "I''ll be careful. We''ll talk via our soul-bond! I''m not going that far¡­ just across the Chasm." Alessi nodded. A dark-gray chimera emerged from the workshop, climbing up the ladder to the rooftop hatch. It was Isahcs. While I had been getting ready for my trip to Illatius, he seemed to be spending more time with Alessi. He had become completely obsessed with us, since the moment he saw us flying and learned that I was responsible for designing the skull masks. He was swiftly becoming a decent second candidate for my little, growing new chimera tribe. "I trust you to protect my sister, cousin." I told Isahcs. "With my entire heart, my cendai," he bowed deeply. "If I find out that you''re not behaving, I will return and turn you into a toad," I said. "I would never!" Isahcs paled. "Your monci''s word is my command, my cendai!" "Have you fully changed your mind?" I affirmed. "Girls can fly," Isahcs said with conviction. "Girls can hunt. Alessi and I will fly and hunt together¡­ when her hand heals." "Spread the word," I smiled at him. "Get more chimera on our side." "I shall, my cendai," he bowed. "At ease, hunter," I said as I stepped forward and gave him a tight hug. Isahcs hugged me back, looking a bit nervous. Since my ascension to a true cendai he has been treating me with far more respect and reverence than I deserved. He probably did believe that I could turn him into a frog. I hugged Alessi one more time, who was now sniffing softly and stepped towards the end of the skull, holding onto the wings of a new one-person glider. It was time. Time to sail across the sky towards humanity. Time to meet people, to make new friends, to become a citizen of the Basquenate Empire. I rushed forward without hesitation, leaping from the edge and listened to the wind thrumming against the wings of my glider. . . . [About to reach human-controlled territory,] I sent to Alessi via my Dominion threads. [Glider holding strong.] [Acknowledged,] the response came. [Stay focused. Don''t get eaten. Talk when you land.] I laughed. Thanks to the Dominion threads I didn''t feel completely alone. I didn''t take the glider directly across the Chasm - that would be far too dangerous. Instead, I slowly circled the 4th ring of the Chasm, using air currents to rise, staying close to the clouds so that I would not be spotted by predators. A sudden updraft pushed my glider upwards, nearly making me lose control. I readjusted my position, my heart beating intensely as I shot up across two mountain rings. My only companion for my trip to humanity was Saccy. She stayed quiet inside of my large backpack, pumped full of paralyzing sap. She was keeping my human body nice and safe. Without a connection to Grogtilda she could not sing in Basq, nor did she display much more intelligence than a mere plant. She had shriveled up a bit and stopped growing after I had cut Grogtilda off of her. Eunice explained to me that without being provided food, my Folding Seed would simply stay half-asleep functioning for decades akin to a space-expanding rune pattern. Perhaps someday I would figure out how to communicate with Saccy, but for now she was simply my magical bag of holding. The clouds in front of me parted suddenly and then I saw something that wasn¡¯t mountains and trees. Illatius! Hundreds of Cathedral-style palaces and imposing buildings sat upon distant hills and valleys. I gaped at the far-away city. It was beautiful, and enchanting like no city I had ever seen back on Earth, fairytale terracotta palaces surrounded by lush gardens and waterfalls. Gold and blue rooftops and stained glass windows glittered in the sunlight. Skyships moved between tall gothic towers like little black flies. The Capital of the Basquenate was truly something to behold. I pulled the glider down. I didn¡¯t want to get spotted by a skyship captain. From what I¡¯ve read the nobility had personal mana-powered gliders, but they were rare and hard to come by. The terrain beneath me became covered in gardens and fields. Little peasant cottages sat upon the green and yellow hills, moss-covered roofs making them look akin to Icelandic Turf Houses. A downdraft started to drag me towards one of the fields. I had no idea what was waiting for me, but I hoped for the best. I tried to land gently, but ended up crashing into a field of hay. My large glider did not survive the impact, left side snapping completely and half of the wing tearing. In a few minutes, I stood up, shaking dirt and hay off my armor. [Made landing, broke my glider.] I sent to Alessi. [Alrighty,] she responded. [How far is Illatius?] [Ten-twenty clicks, maybe? Not sure. The city is huge! I''ll have to make the rest of the way on foot if I can''t find or fail at the local station.] I walked through the field of hay, having packed the remains of the glider into Saccy. An old farmer emerged from the mossy-roofed, stone cottage, staring me down. He was wearing a burlap-style shirt and old, worn leather pants. "Ho, noble Adventurer!" He said after a minute of evaluation. "Say, that''s a nice skull-mask! I saw you landing in my field. Everything alright?" "All good. Glider ran out of mana," I replied. "I am heading back to the city. Can you tell me where I am? Which way is the nearest skyship station?" "Hedstadt Barony, district of Lomb township, my lady. Station is about three thousand elbows east," he said, pointing towards a distant road. "Bout an hour walk down the road. You''ll see the sign at the next fork." "Thank you kindly," I bowed. "I''ll be off then!" He waved his hand at me, smiling. A small breeze blew through the hay field, dancing through the trees and orchards. The pastoral landscape was very similar to Earth. The simple farmhouse and the old, kind-looking farmer reminded me of home and put my mind at ease. The view in the direction of the glacier mountains looked like an awesome mixture of Iceland and Patagonia. [Only an hour walk to the station,] I sent to Alessi. [Hopefully the local constable is cooperative. Talked to a farmer. Nobody suspects that I''m a chimera.] [Nice,] she replied. [When are you going to change bodies?] [I see a grove of trees down the road closer to town, I''ll do it there,] I sent. As I approached the village square, wearing my new body, I glanced at the sky above it. It was blue and clear, Autumn season was coming. Large, sparkly dragonflies fluttered through the air. I thought I heard singing coming from somewhere nearby, but couldn''t pinpoint its location. I groaned, taking another step forward. Being in a human body that had spent months decaying in the Folding Seed... sucked. My bones and joints ached. My skin itched pretty badly. It was hot and I was covered in sweat in just twenty minutes of walking. I had cleaned up and repaired the leather armor that Grogtilda had been wearing, but I still looked extremely shabby, pale and disheveled. Villagers were milling around the fountain in the middle of the plaza. Children splashed water into each other''s faces while adults watched on. Some kids threw rocks into the fountain for fun, some were eating ice cream cones from a shop. Everyone that looked at me, immediately drew their eyes away. Mother pulled their kids out of my path, hissing something to them. "Topaz addict," I heard the nearest one utter clearly. Ah. My bruises. They were judging me for having fallen victim to addiction. I rolled my eyes at their behavior. I ignored the fussing villagers, heading towards the Skyship Station and Constabulary tower that loomed over the small town. The tower was a gothic-style, white limestone building, capped by a metal, stained glass cage at the top for docking skyships. A large hex-lantern glowed at the tip of the cage, casting a rainbow around it. I arrived at the Station after what felt like the longest hike of shame and pain, panting and groaning. The sun was starting to set, magitek street lamps lighting up the town. It might have been a hundred times easier to get around in my chimera body, but I needed to rebuild Grogtilda''s muscles so this pain was unavoidable. I almost started to cry as I looked at the steep steps and simply sat down at the arched entrance up to the tower. My body was in far too much pain to go up the damned stairwell. I looked around and spotted a steampunk-looking silver-metal bell. I stood up and pulled on the tab, the bell making a resounding ding. "Yes, yes, I''m coming," A male voice resounded from a window overhead. I heard boots thumping down the spiral stairwell. "Hello Constable," I said as the local policeman emerged from the stairwell and looked down at my somewhat curled-up figure. "I''d like some... help." The man had steel-gray eyes, graying ginger hair and a lush ginger-silver mustache. A tidy, gray uniform hugged his body. He looked down at me from his round, silver spectacles, his expression darkening. A look of pity and then disgust flashed on his face. Ch 32. Inspector of Lomb "You''re a Topaz addict," the constable uttered. His tone was bitter. "A debitor too?" He sighed, sniffing the air. I sniffed the air too. For some reason, my body didn¡¯t just smell like sweat and dirt. There was a very distinctive smell of rotting eggs coming from me. Sulfur? Why was the debitor''s magic tattoo smelling like god-damned sulfur? "Yeah," I croaked. "So what?" "Your tattoo smells like you haven''t been making payments for months," the constable commented drily. "Don''t expect charity from me, addict." "I''m not here to beg for money," I said, examining the man''s spotless uniform. A little silver plate on his chest declared him as [Inspector Lambert]. "I would like to report a crime, Inspector Lambert." "Come to tattle on your colleagues?" Lambert asked, not moving. "I''m afraid I''m not authorized to give money to Topaz addicts, but I can give you¡­ food vouchers. I hope you know that the Guilds don''t take kindly to those that betray their interests." "I''m not here to talk about Guild activities, inspector," I said in a serious tone. "If you would be so kind as to help me upstairs to your truth-sphere so that I might reveal to you exactly why I possess this sickly disposition." After another minute of a judging look, Lambert helped me up the stairwell. He wasn''t gentle about it, grumbling about my heavy backpack. He led me into a fairly austere office at the top of the tower. A small, watercolor portrait of Emperor Bolsh the 2nd was hanging above a steel desk that held a dark gray, crystal sphere in its center. Inspector Lambert went around the table and sat down on his plain, steel chair. ¡°Have a seat,¡± he said tiredly, clearly not looking forward to speaking with an addict. ¡°Place your right hand on the sphere and speak one sentence that is the truth. Start with your name and level.¡± ¡°My name is Grogtilda Lic Misem and I¡¯m a level five human girl,¡± I said as I rested my hand on the sphere. Green swirls manifested within the dim crystal interiors of the artifact, blossoming into a vibrant, pulsating spiral. ¡°Now speak a sentence that is a lie,¡± Inspector said. ¡°I¡¯m a giant bug wearing human flesh and I love staring into the Dungeon¡¯s bottomless chasm,¡± I said. The green swirls died, replaced with blood-red foreboding flashes. ¡°Very good,¡± Lambert nodded, looking serious. He tapped his silver spectacles and small runes flashed on the frames. ¡°You are indeed a Level five. Thank you for being honest.¡± ¡°Please don''t judge me by my appearance, inspector,¡± I said, staring back into his eyes. ¡°I¡¯m not a Topaz addict. My body survived three months inside of a Folding Seed on level twenty of the Dungeon.¡± ¡°Three months?!¡± The inspector gasped as the green-tinted sphere confirmed my words. ¡°How are you still alive?!¡± ¡°My adventurers group was taken by a LV 20 Seed. I ended up wearing five artifacts and a hex-lantern on my body. They helped me survive longer.¡± ¡°You were rescued by another party?¡± Lambert asked curiously. ¡°Yes,¡± I nodded. ¡°With the exception of a single fact. I wasn¡¯t rescued by¡­ humans.¡± The sphere flashed green. Lambert¡¯s eyes grew wider. ¡°There are highly intelligent monsters that live in the Chasm,¡± I said. ¡°They look¡­ almost human.¡± ¡°Almost human?¡± The inspector¡¯s eyebrows went up. ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of such a thing.¡± ¡°I was incredibly sick. My body was dying. I managed to deceive them, made them think that I was the same as them,¡± I explained. ¡°The leader of these monsters healed me and taught me their language.¡± ¡°That¡¯s incredible,¡± Lambert gasped. ¡°You must report this to the nearest Arcanarium so that the classification of Dungeon Monsters can be updated.¡± ¡°No,¡± I shook my head. ¡°I cannot. What I am about to tell you must not leave this room.¡± The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°What?¡± My interviewer blinked. ¡°Like I told you earlier, inspector¡­ I am here to report a crime,¡± I repeated. ¡°Not just one at that. Crimes. What I have discovered is a¡­ Threat against Humanity.¡± My words hung in the air, the room bathed in green refractions cast by the crystal sphere. The inspector¡¯s face grew pale. His mouth fell open in abject terror. ¡°No,¡± He looked at my face and then at the green-tinted sphere. ¡°Yes,¡± I said, hammering in another metaphorical nail into his world view. I pointed at the portrait behind the constable. ¡°The most trusted people closest to the Emperor Bolsh are actually Dungeon Monsters in disguise!¡± ¡°No, no¡­ no¡­ this cannot be,¡± Lambert looked distraught. ¡°And yet it is the truth, inspector,¡± I sighed. ¡°Unless you think that both your truth-sphere and rune glasses are broken. A conspiracy against humanity has been fermenting for hundreds of years, maybe longer.¡± ¡°I¡¯m¡­ just a small-town constable,¡± Lambert uttered. ¡°You need to take this¡­ to someone higher. I can¡¯t¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯d love to, but I value my life,¡± I shook my head. ¡°Your own Barony could be compromised!¡± ¡°Is it¡­?¡± Lambert whispered. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I shrugged. ¡°You¡¯re a constable. I¡¯m just a thirteen-year old debitor who hasn¡¯t made payments in a while because I was trapped down in the Dungeon.¡± ¡°Damn it all,¡± the inspector rubbed his temples, looking away from me. I let go of the truth-sphere, reached into my bag and pulled out a wooden arbalest that was far too large to fit inside it. ¡°I need to be able to trust you, inspector. Place your hand on the sphere and tell me that you are an honest man that¡¯s not working for Dungeon monsters.¡± Lambert looked at the arbalest pointed at his chest. His trembling hand moved to the crystal sphere. ¡°I¡¯m an honest Inspector and I am not working for dungeon monsters, as far as I know.¡± The truth sphere bathed his pale face with a green glow. "If you were to discover that your Baron is actually a dungeon monster or works for dungeon monsters what would you do?" "I would find a way to expose them, uncover their crimes and bring them to justice," Lambert said resolutely, the sphere confirming his character to me. Had he uttered a lie, I would have pressed the trigger and taken my glider to another small town. After my awful misadventure in the Twisted Forest I had zero trust in Eunice and her cendai. I badly needed a friend, a figure of authority in the Basq Empire, someone that I could rely on and work with on a personal level. "I¡¯ve stood up for law, humanity and honor my entire life," Lambert added, his blue-gray eyes staring at the weapon in my hand. ¡°Thank you,¡± I slid the arbalest back into Saccy. ¡°You¡¯re more resourceful than you look, girl,¡± the inspector commented. ¡°How can we tell these monsters apart from people?¡± ¡°You can¡¯t. The conspiracy goes deep. From what I understand they¡¯ve destroyed all artifacts that were able to spot them,¡± I said. ¡°I am the only human that knows their language. I can pretend to be one of them and make a full list of the compromised nobles. I simply need resources and time." Lambert looked at me wearily. "I didn''t come here to attain a mere food voucher. I''d like a job with the Constabulary, inspector." "You are a debitor," Lambert mulled. "I was born into my family¡¯s debts," I nodded. "I''d like to pay it off. I would like to serve as a Free Agent." "A Free Agent?" Lambert raised an eyebrow. ¡°How do you even know of such a title?¡± "There was a precedent for it. Around one hundred and sixty years ago, an Undertown lowborn by the name Ignis Vox made a deal with the Constabulary. He was made a Free Agent of the State. He misused this privilege to falsify records, gained great wealth and was later executed for his crimes." I place my hand back on the truth-sphere. "Unlike Ignis Vox, I want to save people, inspector. These monsters¡­ eat human souls. I suspect that they experiment on people too, studying our magic, weaknesses and strengths. We need to stop them. It is unfortunate that the job of saving the Empire has fallen to the lap of a small town constable and a thirteen year old debitor, but life does not always hand us the best cards to play with. It might take us decades to weed out this infestation, but I am willing to do it. Are you in? Will you help me protect humanity, even if it means taking down a few Barons?¡± ¡°I am,¡± Lambert sighed. He readjusted his collar and walked to the window, looking out over the peaceful town of Lomb towards the distant spires of Illatius. ¡°In the name of the Emperor, I must protect what is dear to me and uphold the law. I will not allow Dungeon Monsters to rule the Empire.¡± He turned back to me and tapped a silver bracelet on his wrist. ¡°Open new case file, number 6604. By the authorization of Lomb Township Constabulary, I, Inspector Lambert Cu Durer Archibal, I am hereby assigning¡­ diver Grogtilda Lic Misem the status of a Free Agent of the Lomb Constabulary under my care.¡± ¡°Call me Yulia,¡± I said, offering the inspector my hand. ¡°Yulia?¡± The inspector shook my hand, his grip firm. ¡°I¡¯d like to be more than what my poor Undertown parents gave me,¡± I said. ¡°I want to earn my place in Illatius, to rise above my birth name. I¡¯d like to be¡­ free from Guild ownership. The name Yulia is derived from Julius, a leader of a nation that stood long, long ago. It¡¯s my declaration towards being a new person, a servant of the Empire.¡± ¡°Noted,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°You can spend the night at the Station - there¡¯s a small bedroom for overnight pilots in the tower. I¡¯ll write you a check tomorrow morning and walk you to the bank so that you stop reeking like a debitor.¡± I smiled. I had taken a single step towards paying off Grogtilda¡¯s debts and made my first human friend. Work colleague? Whatever. A small town policeman like Inspector Lambert didn¡¯t hold much sway or power compared to the Barons, but as an urban explorer I knew that making friends with local law enforcement was always a great place to start before diving headfirst into local underground tunnels. Where Thomas Cole aka Ignius Vox had used deception and trickery to shake a fortune out of the nobles, I would use the truth as a weapon to cudgel exactly what I wanted out of life. Ch 33. The Dawn of Aeromancy Morning light woke me up, sunbeams splashing down on my face from a small, blue, stained glass window. The pilot''s bedroom was small and austere just like the inspector''s office, but there was a pretty damn cool Skyship poster on the wall to admire. A figure clad in a long, steampunk-style leather coat and a wide-brimmed cap, stood in the middle of the poster facing away from the viewer and looking up at soaring skyships. The poster was rich in detail and looked akin to the 1920''s Art Nouveau style paintings from Earth. [The Dawn of Aeromancy] I read the tagline beneath the poster. I went to the small bathroom attached to the pilot''s bedroom. It had a steel toilet, sink and a shower with hot and cold water! My first hot shower in four years was heavenly. The local humans were a lot more advanced than the chimera. I was starting to love the local magitek and admired the Victorian-style iron knobs shaped like little lions for a bit. Having dried myself off, I dressed up once again in Grogtilda''s leather armor and went back to appreciate the poster as I dried my dark brown, straight hair with a towel. Upon closer inspection the poster had a circular rune on it, similar to the depictomancy cards. I put my thumb on the rune and pushed a bit of magic into it. The poster suddenly came alive. The painted flowers at the front moved as if blown by an invisible wind. Skyships started moving and the painting of the person shifted into that of a more feminine shape, featuring bright-red, curly hair. She turned around, readjusted her blouse and skirt, winked at me and saluted me with a bright smile. If I had to guess, she was supposed to be a skyship pilot. The girl¡¯s steampunk goggles glinted in the painted sunlight, sitting above a black-rimmed captain''s hat. "Pretty cool," I said through a yawn, putting the towel away. "Depictomancy continues to impress me. Shape-shifting, animated art!" The pilot giggled. She was an attractive-looking woman, tall and slender with the sort of hourglass figure that made me feel like a potato. Her skin had an orange tint to it and her hair was long, curly and red and fluttered in the wind. "Did you just... laugh? Or did I imagine the sound?" I tilted my head. "Yes, I did," the pilot grinned at me. "Uh..." I scratched my cheek. "Feels weird talking to a drawing. Who are you supposed to be, I wonder?" The drawing smiled widely. "I''m the future you, if you choose to become a skyship captain! All you have to do is graduate from an Arcanarium with the top grades and advance to a degree in Aeromancy and you too can look like me! Someday you too can pilot the skyships of Illatius and see the world of Andross from the sky! Just think of all the places you can visit! There''s no job that''s more liberating and fulfilling than that of a skyship pilot!" "Ah, you''re a personalized advertisement for skyship pilots," I rubbed my aching muscles, stretching. ¡°Neat.¡± "Only for someone like you, with potential for becoming one! If you were a pilot already then our conversation would be different," the painted girl tilted her head, amber eyes flashing at me. Her face had a bit of a chimera-look to it, the slight tilt of the nose making her look the tiniest bit feline. "Different how?" I asked. "I''m a pretty decent conversation companion, I am told," the potential-future-pilot-me said. "Are you... really?" I asked. "How exactly do you function? Are there more than one of you? How and why do you look like a future-me?" "There are 1047 surviving copies of me hanging in Skyship Stations across Illatius. I was painted by Ambiss Huron in 8047." "That doesn''t answer my questions," I said. "A Depictomancer doesn''t reveal her secrets," the future-me smirked. "I should put you through the Turing test or something," I said. "You seem a lot more advanced than the Mimmins cards." "What''s a Turing test?" The painted girl blinked. A knock resounded from the door. "Come in," I called out. The metal handle turned, the wooden door swung open and Lambert stepped inside. He wore his gray constable uniform and had a gray, leather bag slung over his shoulder. "Good morning, Inspector," I said. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. "Morning¡­ Yulia," Lambert nodded. "Good to see you up and about already." "Good morning Inspector Lambert," the painted companion curtsied. Lambert looked at the poster and then at me. "Hum. Who is that?" "She''s supposedly the future me," I replied. "The poster says so." ¡°This is your future self?" Lambert asked. "Why is her hair red? That''s... odd." "It''s a pretty old poster," I said. "Maybe the magic in it broke?" "Nuhuh. I''m functioning perfectly fine, thank you very much." The drawing smiled. "This one has great potential... She''s very different!" "Potential for completely different color hair and eyes?" Lambert squinted at the future-me. "Are those... freckles? First time I''ve seen that happen. Then again, it is a very old poster." "Hey, I''m not that old!" The painted-future-me huffed. I smiled weakly, sending the drawing an annoyed glance. I''ve been exposed by a Depictomancy poster, of all the things! "If she''s broken, can I have her?" I asked. "I''m studying Depictomancy." "You''re... studying depictomancy?" Lambert raised an eyebrow. "Aren''t you a lowborn? How can you afford entry into the Arcanarium?" "Self-studying," I quickly replied. "I''ve¡­ inherited a book about it." "Ah-huh," Lambert nodded. "It''s a book about the life of Thomas Cole aka Ignius Vox and his Depictomancy work," I explained. "You''re a bright girl. Who taught you to read?" Lambert piled another heavy question on top of me. "Who do you think?" I looked at him. "Whom did we talk about yesterday?" "They... taught you to read in Basq?" The Inspector froze. "Mhmmmm," I nodded. "I''ve been living in the Dungeon for a VERY long time, inspector. You have no idea how happy I am to finally talk to a human. Even talking to this... drawing of a human is wonderful!" Lambert''s expression softened when he looked down at me. He must have felt pity for me. I wondered if he had kids of his own. "How long were you down there?" He asked. "Four years," I confessed with a sigh, answering without thinking. "You can have this poster, Yulia," he said. "I''ll tell the Pilot¡¯s Guild that this one faded and have them send in a new one." "Hey! I''m not faded! I''m supposed to hang in the docking tower, you can''t just give me out to lowborn girls!" The painting tried to interject. Lambert ignored her. He pulled out the pins holding the poster to the wall, rolled it up and handed it to me. The complaints of the drawing became muffled. "I''m sorry you had to live down there for so long," he said. "The Dungeon is no place for a child to grow up." "It''s alright, inspector," I shoved the rolled up poster into Saccy. "I might have been raised by them, but I''m back to humanity now... that''s what really matters. I almost forgot what it was like to be with people. You''re my first human friend, Lambert. We''re friends, right?" I looked at Lambert''s face. He now looked like a parent fretting over a long-lost child that was finally back. My Mowgli, raised by monsters, themed backstory had gained sudden weight. It was a bit of a lie, but it was weaved from plenty of truth. "Of course we are friends," he said. "You... remind me of my daughter." "How old is she?" I asked. "Does she work at the constabulary too?" "No. I never got to see her grow old," he said. "She was a diver, determined and passionate about going lower with every trip. The Dungeon took her from me when she was seventeen." "Oh..." I paused, trying to think of something to say. "That''s... hard. I''m sorry to hear that.¡± "Yeah," he said. "They never found her body.¡± ¡°How far down did she go? Do you think that she still could be alive?¡± ¡°It is possible. But, it has been far too many years.¡± Lambert sighed. ¡°Some nights... I dream that she''s still alive down there, too far down to return safely. Places like the Folding Forest are impossible to go through without special equipment. I¡¯ve hired trackers to try to find her. Her trace vanished around level 37 and her armacus stopped responding." We stood there for a moment, in deep silence, before he continued. "Anyway. I bet you''re hungry. Let''s go to a caf¨¦ for breakfast and then to the bank to pay off your missed Guild payments." I followed the inspector down the stairs, hissing as my feet refused to cooperate. Lambert patiently waited for me and helped me along when my limbs failed me. This time around he was much more patient and careful with me, treating me like a person and not a sack of grain. We walked to the caf¨¦ and ordered cream cheese bagels and coffees to go from a small gothic window located in an ivy-covered cobblestone wall. I inhaled the smell. This world had coffee! It didn¡¯t exactly smell perfectly like the coffee from Earth, but beggars can¡¯t be choosers. I devoured the bagel and slowly sipped on my foam-covered coffee as we walked to the bank. ¡°What¡¯s an armacus?¡± I asked the inspector, swimming in a pink-daze of coffee-related joy. Lambert lowered his wrist, revealing a thick, silver bracelet on his wrist. ¡°It¡¯s a constable¡¯s magitek tool,¡± he explained. ¡°This one is expensive and only given out to constables, but there are cheaper versions that don¡¯t have killing spells in them. The most basic ones are very handy communication devices. We¡¯ll get you one from the local Artificer.¡± ¡°Ah,¡± I smiled. ¡°Thanks. I hope I¡¯m not taking up too much of your work-time.¡± ¡°I am at work,¡± Lambert said. ¡°Your¡­ case takes precedence over anything I¡¯ve done in three decades as an inspector. My assistant will handle the station while we¡¯re out. She¡¯ll call me if there¡¯s an emergency.¡± I nodded. As I was about to step into the bank, a transient thought percolated through my brain. My ¡®raised by monsters for 4 years¡¯ backstory would fall apart if Lambert discovered that Grogtilda only missed three months of payments. Crap. Ch 34 Backpedal. Stop. If Lambert finds out you¡¯ve been gone only three months and not four years, your entire story falls apart and he¡¯ll think you¡¯ve tricked him! My thoughts turned into a rushing river of panic. I stopped at a fancy waiting area, right after the inspector and I entered the bank. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Lambert looked down at me. ¡°Inspector¡­ Why is it that you believed me?¡± I asked. ¡°My story¡­ What if all of it is just a delusion, a dream created by a Folding Seed?¡± ¡°Is it?¡± The constable raised an eyebrow, examining me. ¡°No, but¡­¡± I mumbled. ¡°But?¡± He asked. ¡°Answer my question, damn it!¡± I glared at him. ¡°I already did,¡± he sighed. ¡°You really do remind me of my¡­ determined daughter who never came back from the Dungeon. Besides, the sphere of truth is able to tell the difference between a dream and a true statement. The Topaz-addled stories show up as orange color.¡± ¡°But what if all of it is an illusion, some kind of a lie that exists in my head that I just think is the truth?¡± I asked. ¡°You¡¯re still going to pay off four years of my debt? Buy me nice things like the armacus? You said that you don¡¯t give out charity.¡± Lambert sighed. I squinted at him, trying to get to the truth, trying to figure him out. ¡°My job is to discover the truth," he said. "I¡¯ve already opened the case and declared you under my care.¡± I kept staring at him intently, delaying my doom at the bank. Social situations weren¡¯t like the death-defying fights in the Chasm with Folding Seeds or other monsters. They were a battle of words, not swords and fire. I knew that if I silently stared at him long enough he¡¯d talk more and as he did I could figure out a tactic to avoid him uncovering my deception. ¡°Look,¡± he finally said. ¡°I¡¯m old, but not old enough to retire. Not much happens in Lomb. We¡¯re far away from Illatius Undertown and the Guilds business rarely extends to the local farmers. At worst I have to deal with a dragon eating a sheep. It¡¯s not everyday that a girl who looks like an almost-dead Topaz addict stumbles into my station asking for help and then threatens me with an arbalest that¡¯s far too big to fit into her bag. This case is a bit of excitement for my otherwise dreary days at the office.¡± I kept mum and he kept on talking. ¡°Even if your big declaration turns out to be complete nonsense, you are still a confounding mystery. You talk with a strange accent and move as if you don¡¯t fit in your body¡­ or the world really. I¡¯ve never seen that old poster screw up someone¡¯s hair and eye color like that. By all accounts you should be dead - nobody¡¯s survived that long in a Folding Seed before. You look like a teenage debitor from Undertown and yet you read books about long-dead artists like a well-educated mercantile or even highborn adult. You¡¯re a puzzle that refuses to fit into my theories, an enigma for me to unravel. So, when I do figure out what or who you are, if nothing else¡­ When this case is solved, it will be a thrilling tale to share someday with my colleagues at a pub in Illatius over some pints.¡± ¡°Mhmmm,¡± I hummed as I realized that the inspector had a bit of a Sherlock in him, reading a lot more into me than I had presumed he could. He was practically tearing right through my rather pathetic disguise with his deduction skills. ¡°This enigma doesn¡¯t need your charity,¡± I added. ¡°I bet four years of missed payments is a lot more than you can afford to throw at a complete stranger. Does this bank accept¡­ crystalized mana?¡± ¡°Hrm,¡± Lambert frowned just for a moment. ¡°It does. Elli used to bring beast cores straight to the tellers. I remember how excited she was when¡­¡± ¡°Oh good,¡± I exhaled. ¡°I have a lot of those on me.¡± ¡°You have beast cores?¡± He blinked. ¡°Monsters don¡¯t accept beast cores as payment, inspector. There are NO banks down in the Dungeon,¡± I said. Lambert¡¯s frown deepened. ¡°I¡¯m a bit embarrassed to have you pay that much for me, alright? I¡¯ve yet to do any work for you. You¡¯ve already paid me with fantastic bagels and coffee,¡± I said, eyeing the waiting area at the bank¡¯s entrance with two couches and an enormous marble vase with an arrangement of succulents. ¡°Can you just wait for me here? I¡¯ll pay off the Guild with the beast cores and be right back, okay? You can show me where to buy stuff, but I can pay for things myself. I didn¡¯t spend years in the Dungeon sitting on my ass.¡± ¡°Fine,¡± the inspector said. ¡°See you in a bit.¡± He went to the couch and grabbed a newspaper, flipping through it. Yes! Social victory achieved! I mentally patted myself on the back as I walked to the tellers, trying not to sweat bullets. A bored-looking, blonde, female clerk in a white blouse sat behind a marble counter. When she looked down at me her expression shifted from surprise to disgust to concern. ¡°Hello,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯d like to pay off my debt.¡± ¡°Step into the circle for identification please,¡± the clerk shifted wearily, pointing at a gold rune-circle on the floor. She was probably ready to call the guards or something to arrest me in case I started to demand money with a pointy knife to satisfy my cravings for Topaz. I stepped back into the aforementioned circle. The clerk pressed something on her desk and the circle flashed beneath me. ¡°Grogtilda Lic Misem,¡± the clerk droned, readjusting her gold glasses. ¡°Employee of the Fighter¡¯s Guild. Family debt - two million four hundred thousand and sixty seven obliss. You¡¯ve missed¡­ three months of Guild payments.¡± If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. My eye twitched. Two million?! That¡¯s a gargantuan sum! Lambert bought me a breakfast for just a few obliss. ¡°I¡¯ve been stuck in the Dungeon,¡± I said. ¡°I have¡­ beast cores.¡± ¡°Ahrm,¡± the clerk cleared her throat. ¡°Place the beast cores into the container for evaluation.¡± A metal container slid open, revealing a dark maw. I put my backpack down into the ground and dug deep into Saccy, retrieving nine beast cores taken from the Folding Seed victims. I rolled the cores into the container. The clerk pressed a button. ¡°Very good,¡± she nodded, looking at a flashing magic circle atop her desk. ¡°This takes care of the missed payments and deducts five hundred and twelve obliss from your family¡¯s debt. Step back into the circle please.¡± With a sigh I stepped into the circle. It flashed again and my chest started to itch like mad. I resisted tearing off my armor to rake at my skin. The potent smell of sulfur coming from my tattoo lessened. ¡°Will that be all?¡± ¡°Those cores were worth that little, huh?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡¯m afraid they were¡­ evaluated as nearly depleted,¡± the clerk explained. I sighed. The clerk gave me a ¡°please make room for some customers with money¡± look. ¡°Can I exchange more beast cores for obliss without paying off the debt?¡± I asked. "I''d like some cash." ¡°By Guild law, a debitor of your level is not permitted to hold currency,¡± the clerk explained. ¡°Any artifacts or mana crystals attained by you must be immediately surrendered to pay off your debt. Do you have any other items of value to deposit?¡± "No," I shook my head. The clerk squinted at me. She didn¡¯t look like she believed me. ¡°That¡¯s an artifact-style bag. You went almost entirely into it,¡± she pointed at Saccy. ¡°Please deposit it into the evaluation chute.¡± I grabbed onto Saccy and stepped away from the clerk. ¡°Security!¡± the clerk barked. A very large, bald man dressed in thick, dark metal armor plates materialized in front of me out of thin air. ¡°What seems to be the problem?¡± the giant man grunted. ¡°A debitor refuses to surrender her artifacts!¡± The clerk¡¯s tone was filled with ice, leaving no room for compromise. ¡°Saccy is not an artifact,¡± I shook my head. My leather sling was already in my hand, ready to bring down the bald Goliath that advanced towards me. I moved backwards as quickly as I could, casting a round rock into the security guard¡¯s head. Unfortunately, I wasn¡¯t used to Grogtilda¡¯s body. The thrown rock went a bit sideways and the guard easily swatted it out of the air. The rock ricocheted off the ceiling, flew down and smashed a lovely vase with succulents. I choked, trying to speak and realized that the oversized man was holding me in the air by the front of my armor, not letting me take a single breath. ¡°Stand down!¡± Inspector Lambert''s voice barked. He had crossed the wide area separating the waiting area from the teller booths pretty quickly. I made no sound, flailing weakly. ¡°Let the girl go, right now,¡± Lambert ordered. I desperately glanced at his direction, croaking for air. ¡°She is a debitor,¡± the clerk said. Lambert¡¯s hand was in the air and the armacus on his wrist unfurled, opening like a petal woven from silver ribs, folding into a gun-like weapon in his hand. ¡°Inspector Lambert¡­ why are you¡­¡± the clerk started to speak. ¡°The artifacts on her person are not to be taken away,¡± the constable spoke. ¡°They are evidence in an ongoing case. Put her down before I open fire.¡± ¡°My apologies, inspector¡­ I didn¡¯t know,¡± the clerk said, ¡°Bolk, let the girl free and stand down.¡± I ended up sitting on the floor, hugging Saccy. My throat hurt like hell and there were tears in my eyes. Grogtilda¡¯s body wasn¡¯t having fun. I had been an absolute idiot. My hands were trained to act as if I was in a Chasm facing a monster in my chimera body, not as a weak, sickly girl facing a high-level guard. ¡°I¡¯ll be adding another eight thousand obliss for the broken vase to your family debt, miss,¡± the clerk noted as Lambert led me out of the bank. ¡°Thanks,¡± I croaked, rubbing my throat. ¡°Don¡¯t mention it,¡± Lambert sighed. ¡°In hindsight I really should have gone with you to the desk. Your debt must be very large for them to act like that.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I sighed. ¡°It¡¯s bad.¡± ¡°Mind sharing?¡± The inspector¡¯s armacus spun back into a tidy, silver bracelet with a series of clicks. ¡°Two million and some,¡± I whispered hoarsely. ¡°Ah, you must have come from many generations of debitors,¡± Lambert said matter of factly. ¡°Undertown crime bosses are known for putting such unreasonable debts onto the families they own. A debt like that cannot be repaid. It might as well be infinite.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to pay it off,¡± I said, gritting my teeth. ¡°Even if you miraculously find a mountain of artifacts that¡¯s worth three million obliss and deposit them at the bank, a Guild operative will simply tack on more debt from his end to your parents with false receipts of purchase,¡± Lambert explained. ¡°An absurd number like this simply means that you are property of the Guild to do with as it wishes. The law of Illatius does not permit slavery, but this¡­ this is simply a legalized, itemized form of slavery. I¡¯m sorry to be the bearer of the bad news, Yulia. You and your family will be debitors as long as you live.¡± ¡°I. Am. Going. To. Pay. It. Off,¡± I growled out, punctuating every word. ¡°Stubborn, just like my little, lost Elli,¡± the inspector sighed. ¡°This debt means that I cannot pay you legally or even give you cash.¡± ¡°And here I thought things were finally going great for me,¡± I rasped, trying not to cry. My blue-tinted fists were opening and closing in rage. I wanted to find whoever owned me and chew their throats open and suck out their souls. To dispense justice with my sharp, crystalline claws until I stood bathed in the blood of these slave-owners. Until the world was made fair for Undertown girls like Grogtilda. Was I finally thinking like a chimera? Had I been pushed too far? The pale shadow of the dead Undertown girl that hid somewhere in the back of my head fluttered with rage, wanting vengeance. ¡°If¡­ the rules aren¡¯t fair,¡± I hissed out. ¡°If the game is rigged against me, then I¡¯ll have to break the game board¡­ I will find my owners and make them pay.¡± ¡°I would have to arrest you if you¡­ killed someone,¡± the inspector spoke and his words drowned in the darkness of my intensifying rage. ¡°You¡¯re going to have to catch me first,¡± I said, pushing mana into my five new resonance branches. ¡°Hum?¡± Inspector Lambert spoke into empty air, his eyes sliding off me. ¡°Very impressive redirection magic, Yulia. I can still hear your raspy breathing though.¡± My invisibility song fell apart as I ran out of mana. I stood in the middle of the street, my eyes filling with tears. I regretted sticking with Grogtilda, wanted to give up on whatever I was doing, wanted to find a little, rich, idiot noble and to eat her soul. It would be so easy. So easy to just¡­ give up, to move on, to wear another person¡¯s skin, to vanish and never come back to Lomb. To abandon honest, kind, hard working people like Inspector Lambert. After all, people were just sheep to us chimera. Souls were just snacks to Astral Phantoms like myself. Little steps on a stairwell to immortality and limitless power. In a few hundred years nobody would be able to stop me. In a few thousand years I too could be a domain-goddess like Eunice¡­ all I had to do was turn my back to humanity. Lambert stepped forward and hugged me and I started to sniff into his shoulder. He didn¡¯t have to say anything. The warm embrace of his firm hug was just like that of my adoptive grandfather Vladislav Kerenski. It gave me all the motivation I needed to push forward. Ch 35
"Thanks, inspector. I¡­ really needed that," I finally said, letting go of the old constable. "You are a good person." "Our town has lots of good people," he nodded. "If you want to get away from Undertown, you can find a place here and pay the rent to a farmer with monster cores. You can use the pilot''s room for now. You have more cores on you, right?" "I have more," I nodded. "I only gave a few mostly depleted ones to the bank to see their worth." "Thought so," he nodded. "The bankers can smell wealth from a mile away. You might look like a poor adventurer at a glance, but you speak like a noble without bowing your head to those above your station." "As much as I like your town, inspector¡­ I''d like to see my parents," I said. "Is there a way to get into the cavern system from Lomb?" "I have the keys to the sewer gate below the tower," he nodded. "And some old maps of the tunnels. It''s a long way to go. Are you sure you want to travel¡­ underground? It might be easier, less dangerous to¡­" "I''m an Undertown girl, inspector. I am not afraid of the dark. If anything I¡¯ll feel more at ease underground. Everyone up here seems to be judging my blue bruises." "Do you have an artifact to light the way or a skill for getting around?" ¡°No,¡± I said. ¡°I will buy you a diver¡¯s lantern then and a pathfinder,¡± he said. ¡°You can power the artifacts with one of your beast cores. Also I¡¯ll make sure that the armacus we get you has a light-spell in it.¡± The day had fully arrived in Lomb. Azure, glacier-covered mountains sparkled above the little farming town that sat on the edge of the first ring of the Chasm. Waterfalls cascaded down from above. This place looked rather picturesque and peaceful, akin to Switzerland of Earth. I did want to stay here, wanted to enjoy the countryside life for a bit. I pushed back against the thrill-seeking part of me that wanted me to move forward, towards the spires of Illatius and the danger-filled darkness of Underntown beneath it. I decided that a bit of a vacation in Lomb wouldn''t hurt me. I needed more time to get used to Grogtilda¡¯s body. ¡°The artificer will be open later. Would you like to return to the station for now?¡± Lambert asked. ¡°Sure,¡± I nodded. ¡°I could use a sit down or maybe a nap. My muscles are killing me.¡± We had returned to the tower and I plopped myself down on a couch in the inspector¡¯s office. Lambert left for a bit to talk to his assistant in another office and then came back with a set of tea and meat sandwiches on a silver tray. ¡°If I give you a bunch of monster cores, inspector¡­ would you be so kind as to exchange them for cash for me?¡± I asked the constable as I sipped on the offered tea. ¡°Not a problem,¡± he said. ¡°Unfortunately our banking system is designed to keep money out of the hands of debtors. I can open an account for you too, one accessible via a little magisteel plate, but you¡¯ll need someone to access it who isn¡¯t marked with a debitor¡¯s tattoo. Do you have someone like that that you can trust?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I said, thinking of my chimera body. ¡°Actually¡­ I do. Would you like to meet her?¡± ¡°Her?¡± The inspector raised an eyebrow. ¡°A dungeon monster that looks like a person,¡± I said with a sly smile. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, she won¡¯t bite. If you give me the sewer key, she¡¯ll have a way to come up. You can set up an account for her.¡± Lambert¡¯s mouth fell open. It took him but a moment to recompose himself. ¡°You trust her that much?¡± ¡°I trust her as much as I trust myself,¡± I said. ¡°Not all Dungeon denizens are bad.¡± ¡°Will she let me interview her on the truth sphere?¡± He asked. ¡°She could corroborate your story. I would love to see a human-like creature in person.¡± ¡°Sure, why not,¡± I shrugged. On one hand, revealing my chimera body to inspector Lambert seemed a bit reckless. On the other hand, the bank incident proved him to be a kind person that I could trust and the local bankers hated Grogtilda. Using Juni¡¯s body seemed like my one clever trick to bamboozle them. ¡°She isn¡¯t one of the monsters experimenting on people right?¡± Lambert asked. ¡°No, she¡¯s a really nice girl¡­ just like me,¡± I said. Showing the inspector my chimera body seemed like a good step towards bringing chimera and people together. I really didn¡¯t like the controlling, invisible spider bullshit that Euncie was doing with her monwai. After enjoying a bit of tea and some offered sandwiches, I acquired sewer keys from the inspector, went down to the basement and unlocked a gate beneath the tower, promising the inspector that the girl-monster would come up from below to meet him in his office. Then, I excused myself for a nap, laid down on the bed in the pilot''s room and woke up as Juni, emerging out of Saccy. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. I used the eye-redirection magic to silently rush downstairs and then appeared in the darkness of the sewers, closed the gate and came up the stairwell straight to Lambert¡¯s office. The inspector was sitting behind his desk, waiting for me. I saw that his silver armacus glittered on his wrist, ready to unfurl and to strike me down if I attempted anything malicious. ¡°Greetings, inspector Lambert,¡± I said, my voice tinny inside of the nightcrawler skull-mask. Inspector¡¯s sharp gray eyes examined me, dissecting my appearance. Undoubtedly he was using his power of deduction to evaluate me. ¡°Hello,¡± he said. ¡°You¡¯re¡­ Grogtilda''s¡­ err¡­ Yulia¡¯s friend¡­ from the Dungeon, correct?¡± ¡°Correct,¡± I said. ¡°My people call it the Chasm.¡± I slowly stepped towards the metal chair and sat down, facing the inspector. ¡°You do look very human,¡± he said. ¡°Kind of hard to see what¡¯s going on under that skull-mask though.¡± I undid the belts and pulled off the nightcrawler¡¯s skull, placing it down onto the steel table beside me. I wasn¡¯t afraid of taking off my armor here as a truly enormous, anti-phantom hex-beacon sat right above this tower shielding the entire town of Lomb. Lambert gasped when he saw my amber eyes, ruby hair, large ears and the cat-like dark patch on my nose. I smiled at him, showing my sharp chompers. ¡°By the Emperor, you are¡­ real,¡± he said, his eyes wide. ¡°Is that¡­ crystallized mana?!¡± ¡°Yep,¡± I nodded, shaking my ruby mane. ¡°So, shall we proceed with the interview?¡± ¡°Place your right hand on this sphere and speak one sentence that is the absolute truth. Start with your name,¡± he said. I placed my hand onto the dim, crystal sphere. ¡°My name is Juni Tokimorim?tuti and I¡¯m a chimera stripling,¡± I said, bathing the room in green light. Lambert¡¯s eyes were hungrily devouring my chimera face. ¡°Incredible,¡± he finally said. ¡°A new Dungeon monster species!¡± ¡°We aren¡¯t exactly new,¡± I said. ¡°Chimera have been living in the Dungeon for a very long time.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a lot of you?¡± He asked. ¡°Thousands,¡± I replied, the truth-sphere confirming my words. ¡°Right, um,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°Now speak a sentence that is a lie, please.¡± ¡°I¡¯m a green shoe and I like to eat leaves for breakfast,¡± I said and the sphere beneath my hand flashed red. ¡°Very good,¡± the inspector nodded, looking at my black, nightcrawler-carapace clothing. ¡°This armor looks handmade¡­ I think I recognize the species. Giant, pure black centipede from level three?¡± ¡°Yep,¡± I nodded. ¡°We call it a nightcrawler. I¡¯ve made this armor myself out of one I¡¯ve killed.¡± ¡°Fascinating,¡± Lambert leaned back on his chair. ¡°Are you the same age as Yulia?¡± ¡°Mentally, yes. Physically, no. Chimeras grow up a lot faster than people,¡± I said. ¡°The Dungeon isn¡¯t a very safe place to live in. Giant bugs and whatnot.¡± ¡°Do you mind corroborating¡­ Yulia¡¯s claim?¡± Lambert asked. ¡°The Baronies of Illatius are ruled by chimera,¡± I said. ¡°Damn it,¡± Lambert¡¯s face twitched. ¡°I was really hoping that this wasn¡¯t the case. Are there other chimera like you? Willing to work with people without deception?¡± ¡°My sister and possibly my cousin are decent candidates,¡± I mulled. ¡°How did you learn Basq language?¡± Lambert continued his interview. ¡°My Master taught it to me,¡± I said. ¡°She¡¯s the chimera in charge of our society, and also the one responsible for incepting chimera into humanity. She¡¯s¡­ really old. I don¡¯t even know how old. More than a thousand years.¡± ¡°Let me guess, you were the one who found Yulia in a Folding Seed?¡± Lambert asked. ¡°I found Grogtilda¡¯s body in a Folding Seed,¡± I nodded. ¡°My Master healed her broken bones and muscles, but her body will take time to recover fully. I¡¯ve been taking care of her. Our souls are bonded¡­ so I know everything she knows. I trust you because of how you behaved at the bank this morning." ¡°I see,¡± Lambert nodded. "When Yulia touched the depictomancy poster¡­ it showed your hair and eye color instead of hers. That''s one mystery solved." I nodded. ¡°You look too different from a human to blend in,¡± the inspector pondered. ¡°How have chimera taken control of the Baronies? Mind control magic¡­ or perhaps this soul bond skill of yours?¡± ¡°From what I understand, the others captured noble children when they were out on excursions into the Dungeon.¡± ¡°Are you controlling Yulia?¡± The inspector threw in another question. ¡°No,¡± I shook my head. ¡°I¡¯m not like the others, inspector. I don¡¯t want to control anyone or experiment on people or eat people¡¯s souls! I don¡¯t want to hurt innocent kids or take their lives away from them. My soul-bond with Grogtilda had been an accident!¡± ¡°What do you want?¡± The inspector asked. ¡°I want to cooperate with people. I want to live in your city and help improve things. I want to end the vile debt slavery that the Undertown Guilds are putting on children.¡± ¡°Two armacus bracelets then,¡± Lambert said. ¡°If the armacus sees you as a person, then it shouldn''t be a problem for you to be in Illatius while wearing your mask or even for me to hire you¡­ or for you to do banking for Yulia. Plenty of adventurers and hunters don¡¯t show their faces in public.¡± ¡°I have the System,¡± I confessed. ¡°Oh?¡± Lambert looked at my eyes. ¡°Right now it defines me as a level five human,¡± I said. ¡°I activated it with a mathematical answer¡­ four years ago. Back then, it defined me as a chimera. From what I understand Grogtilda¡¯s body will slowly undergo changes because of my soul-bond to her. Her hair will turn red and her eyes will become the same color as mine.¡± ¡°Heroes of Humanity, defenders of the realm¡­ found incredible treasures of power deep in the Chasm that slowly changed their hair and eye color,¡± Lambert spoke into the air, his voice trembling ever so slightly. I nodded. ¡°This makes the case much harder to resolve,¡± he sighed with a frown, his lips thin. ¡°Even if we find evidence of criminality, taking the Heroes down will be incredibly difficult.¡± I nodded again. ¡°Are you still in, inspector?¡± ¡°I am,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m not afraid of challenging the Heroes. The Emperor is still human. It¡¯s Seven Heroes versus our Empire. If we can prove that the Seven are criminals, then we can take them down. It will simply take a very long time. I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t know much about the Barons. I¡¯ll have to do some research.¡± ¡°Be careful,¡± I said. ¡°They will kill you if they find out that you¡¯re trying to investigate them.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll cast the net wide and probe very carefully from afar,¡± Lambert said. ¡°Now that I understand your situation much better, I will give both of you full support of the Lomb Constabulary. It will fall to you two to infiltrate the Baronies and collect evidence of their crimes. Are you up for risking your life to prove that the Heroes are evil? To serve as a lawful Agent of Lomb Constabulary under my supervision?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I said and the sphere of truth flashed with a brilliant green flare. ¡°I will work with Lomb Constabulary to expose the Seven Heroes.¡± ¡°Excellent, you can let go of the sphere now, Juni,¡± Lambert said. ¡°I¡¯ve heard enough. I¡¯ll pay both of your salaries as Free Agents of Lomb into a single account. If the System defines you as a human it shouldn''t be a problem for you to withdraw funds from the Banks or Guild offices.¡± I smiled. Hooray for twice the salary! Score one for Yulia vs Debitor¡¯s tattoo. Ch 36 The inspector and I went to the pilot''s room. Lambert carefully knocked on the door and then called out to Grogtilda asking her to wake. When she didn¡¯t respond I opened the door and stepped inside. "She''s very tuckered. Recovery from being a victim of a Folding Seed is tough," I commented, as I put my hand on my sleeping human body, feeling a bit bad about the deception. Using my Dexterity threads I made Grogtilda''s body move a little, curling deeper in the blanket. "We''ll let her rest, then," Lambert nodded. "I''ll take you to the artificer to get you the armacus and to the bank to set up the account." I nodded and closed the door behind me, feeling at ease. His kindly behavior reminded me of my grandfather. I put my skull-helmet back on as we left the station. I had a renewed spring in my step as we walked across town. Being able to switch out of the weak, injured human body that had been ravaged by the Twisted Forest was making my chimera-self feel fantastic in comparison. I was practically bouncing through the streets, cheerfully chatting with Lambert. "So, how did you become an Inspector?" I asked. "I went to the Agross Arcanarium for a general degree in thaumaturgy and finished with a Diploma in Scrutimancy. I graduated in thirty three as an Ordinator," he said. "Then I did my internship in Illatius under Inspector Jant and got assigned to a station in Lomb." "What was it like in Illatius?" I asked, fascinated with the distant city of cathedral-palaces. "Illatius is a bustling metropolis while Lomb is a sleepy country town. But I did enjoy my years there and learned a lot." "Do you think I could be an inspector someday?" I mulled. Lambert chuckled. "We''ll see how well you do on your first case." He smiled. "Is scrutimancy some sort of investigation-type magic?" I asked curiously. "Yes. It''s the study of magic related to examination of evidence and deduction. It''s a set of magical skills and knowledge of tools dedicated to solving crimes and uncovering secrets." "That sounds amazing! I would love to specialize in secret-finding," I said, my eyes shining at the prospect of being the ultimate urbexer akin to Lara Croft. I could find all of the secret entrances to the most hidden places with such a skill! "I''m sure you will, if that''s what you set your mind to," he said kindly. "You will need lot of points in Wisdom and Intelligence. I can give you advice and an artifact or two that will help you train your Identification and Deduction skills." "You''re being awfully nice to me, inspector," I commented slyly. "Is that because of who I am or are you trying to make up for the fact that you assumed things based on m... Yulia''s appearance?" "Don''t remind me," Lambert sighed. "I did assume the worst. The poor girl looked like a Topaz Addict one foot in the grave or worse... When I looked at her, all of my skills firmly insisted that she shouldn''t be alive or walking around. Topaz Addicts at the end of their life don''t make for good witnesses. They ramble far too much about imaginary nonsense, as they are unable to differentiate between drug-addled dreams and reality. I do feel rather ashamed for being so wrong about her, especially after meeting you in person." "Right," I nodded. "She went through quite the ordeal." Lucky for me, chimera didn''t sweat. Lambert was spot-on on the whole undead biz. I had no idea what Eunice did to bring Grogtilda''s body back to life, but if my Stillwalker training was anything to go by - Eunice mostly relied on Still Forest death-magic. "You said - or worse? What''s worse than a dying Topaz Addict?" I asked, having digested the inspector''s words fully. "A ghoul," Lambert said. "An abomination brought to life by dark magic, an animated corpse puppeteered by a necromancer." "Those are a thing?" I gulped. "Yes," the inspector nodded. "The Basquenate is at war with them." "The Empire''s at war?" I blinked. "...with necromancers?" "They call themselves the Almn-Inians," Lambert said, his expression growing serious. "The so-called, All-mighty necromages. Occasionally, they make incursions into Andross when Novazem passes close by for them to cross over." "Novazem?" I asked in confusion. "Andross and Novazem are two worlds that orbit Inaria," Lambert explained. "Have you seen it in the sky? A frozen world covered in rings? The Chasm clouds generally obscure it from what I know¡­" "Ohhh!" I squealed excitedly. Another moon? Inaria had two moons! Wow! "So that''s why you wanted to send... Yulia away," I said. "Yes," Lambert nodded. "I did not wish to bring a potential ghoul into the station." "How often do these... incursions happen?" I inquired. "It varies," Lambert said. "The closer Novazem is, the more gates each side can open and the more ships and men can be sent through." The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. "Hrmmm," I frowned. "Is Illatius... safe?" "Novazem is far, so they shouldn''t be able to cross over," Lambert nodded. "There hasn''t been a large incursion in a few generations. Another alignment isn''t due for decades and our Empire has been on the winning offensive due to a variety of reasons such as the position of our capital." "The Dungeon?" I mulled, momentarily glancing at the mind-boggling curvature of the dungeon in the distance. White, fluffy, glowing clouds curled above the drop, circling around the rim of the green pastures. "Yes," Lambert nodded. "The Dungeon radiates far too much magic out of itself, so their world-crossing gates can''t open anywhere near here. Unless my analysis of the situation is completely wrong... our Empire will definitely prevail during the next alignment. Our brave forces will stamp the last of the Almn-Inians out of their mountain-citadels and end their incursions, don''t you worry." "R-right," I shuddered, not looking forward to the prospect of a worlds-war looming in my future. It suddenly made sense to me why the depictomancy poster was trying to recruit me so hard into becoming a pilot. The Basquenate needed pilots for their future invasion of Novazem! My stomach made a loud growling noise, interrupting my thought-train about moon wars. "Anyways," Lambert glanced at me, shaking himself out of his grim reverie. "I''ve already fed Yulia, but what about you?" "I could use a snack," I mumbled, feeling bad about mooching off the inspector. "Just a snack?" Lambert raised an eyebrow, looking at me. "Fine, I''m starving," I confessed. "I bow to your incredible deduction powers." Lambert laughed. "You can handle the¡­ um¡­ local food?" He asked curiously. "I can handle anything. I''m an omnivore!" I stated, curling my sharp, clawed-gloves. "Rawr!" "Alright then, little predator," he smiled, looking around. "How about a creperie?" "Eh?" I blinked. Lambert directed me to face the edge of the chasm. A whimsical, elaborately-carved, wooden building stood there. [LOMB CREPERIE & PATISSERIE], a sign declared in a playful, hand-written, large font below a drawing of a fat adventurer drooling over a mountain of crepes. "Yes, take me to this paradise please," I started to drool just like the adventurer in the painting. We entered the shop and were enveloped in the smell of fresh crepes. My stomach growled hungrily again as we sat down at one of the tables facing the view of the Chasm. A waitress dressed in a maid-style outfit with a large flower hat came over and handed us the wood-tablet menus with drawings of crepes all over them. I scanned it eagerly, my mouth watering. "I recommend the strawberry cheesecake crepe," Lambert pointed to the top of the menu. "That sounds good," I said. "I''ll have that." The waitress nodded and left to place our order. I looked around the caf¨¦, taking in the homey atmosphere. The wooden patio was small and cozy, with a few other people enjoying their crepes at other tables. "This place is really cute," I commented. "Yes, it''s one of my favorite places in Lomb," Lambert said. "The owner, Mrs. Pompermint, is a bit of an eccentric, but she makes the best crepes in town." "I can''t wait to try them," I said eagerly. "I''m sure you will enjoy them," Lambert smiled. The waitress came back a few minutes later with our crepes. My eyes widened as I took in the sight of the massive, fluffy crepe piled high with fresh strawberries and creamy cheesecake filling. "Wow," I breathed. Four years had been far too long a time and crepes were one of my favorites back on Earth. "Um," the inspector glanced at my mask. I undid the belts and pulled the lower part of the skull up, revealing only my mouth and then smiled at Lambert. "Right.... dig in then," he said. I didn''t need to be told twice. I eagerly took a bite of the crepe and moaned in delight. The crepe was light and fluffy, with the perfect amount of sweetness from the strawberries and cheesecake. "This is freaking amazing," I said, my voice muffled by the crepe. Lambert chuckled. I nodded eagerly, my mouth too full to speak. I devoured the crepe in record time and then sat back with a satisfied sigh. "That was really good," I said. My sharp, chimera senses detected the presence of meat at a table across ours. "Is that¡­?" I sniffed the air. "Crepes stuffed with¡­ bacon?" "Yes," Lambert nodded. "The chef also does a very good bacon and egg crepe. Are you still hungry?" "Mhmmm," I confessed. "I''ll order you one," Lambert said, getting the waitress''s attention. A few minutes later, my second crepe arrived. This one was filled with bacon, eggs, and cheese. I ate it slower than my first, enjoying the wonderful flavors and spices setting my chimera tongue alight with delectation. This was SO much better than eating Chasm monsters, giant bugs and berries. "This is even better than the first one," I said, melting into my seat. "I told you Mrs. Pompermint was the best," Lambert said. "She''s a very talented cuisinimancer." I nodded, my mouth too full to speak. I finished the second crepe and then sat back with a satisfied sigh. "I think I''m going to have to come back here every day, while I''m in Lomb," I said. "I''m sure Mrs. Pompermint would love a new regular," Lambert said, chuckling. The inspector paid the bill and then we left the creperie. My stomach was pleasantly full and my mood skyrocketed even higher, likely due to the sugar-high content of my meal. "What''s next on the agenda, inspector?" I asked. "The artificer," Lambert said. "Sounds good to me," I yawned, feeling more relaxed than I had ever been in years. Eunice was far away and nobody was bossing me around or trying to eat me. Life in Lomb wasn''t a constant struggle for survival. We arrived at the artificer''s shop and Lambert went in to speak to the dark-haired, tall man manning the counter. The owner wore a fancy suit with gold pins and enormous goggles, looking like a true personification of steampunk. I looked around at the different contraptions and gadgets on display. As a mechanic I was fascinated by all of the whimsical, enchanted doohickeys that filled the shop''s wooden shelves to bursting. I had no idea what any of them were or did, but they looked incredibly interesting. In a minute, Lambert joined me along with the shop''s owner. "My, my, a new face in our sleepy, little hamlet!" The artificer declared jovially, his voice deep and theatrical like that of a Circus announcer. He circled, me and the steampunk-contraption goggles made from numerous moving parts clicked at me as the lenses shifted. "A level five adventurer! How wonderful!" "Indeed, Antoine," Lambert said. "We''ll need an armacus for this fine lady and her¡­ friend." "Ooh!" The man exclaimed in excitement. "Always a pleasure to help someone out with their first focus tool. I am Antoine Delamond Kovalzek." I found myself shaking Antoine''s hand before I could even formulate a reply. "Very unique armor," the artificer smiled, the lenses atop his eyes shifting far too rapidly for me to track. "Great for night-diving, am I right? A touch of anti-phantom wards too? How lovely!" "I um..." I started to speak but the artificer''s attention had already shifted to Lambert. "You do know that I can''t sell an armacus to a client without evaluating them first, inspector," Antoine clicked his numerous lenses at my boss. "You can''t make an exception for your old friend?" Lambert asked. "Afraid not, my dear friend," the artificer shrugged. "Not unless you tell me exactly what... she is." The artificer''s left hand covered in a fingerless leather glove dramatically pointed right at my head. The door-lock of the shop clicked shut on its own, the shop interior dimming rapidly as metal shutters flipped sideways on every window, blocking out the light of day. Each of the numerous lenses above the artificer''s eyes glowed with a different color as he stared intently at me. I gulped. Ch 37 "That''s enough drama, Antoine," the inspector said sharply. The artificer stopped looming over me, stepped back and tapped on a cufflink. The shop''s interior lit up with spherical, colorful, mana-crystal filled, stained glass lanterns. He smiled softly at me, as if he wasn''t staring me down like a spook just a minute ago. "What do you think I am, artificer?" I growled, going on the offensive. "I meant you no disrespect, my lady," he bowed. "There have been¡­ rumors in artificer circles of Archmagi working with their knights and children, combining people with¡­ chasm-monsters using biomancy and alchemy. From what I understand, it''s mostly an experimental beautification procedure." "What?!" Lambert turned to the artificer. "Just vague, distant rumors, mind you," Antoine mulled. "I''m not privy to all of the highborn matters of Illatius." Lambert''s eye twitched. "One of the Barony daughters at Nemendias has a bit of a monster-features in her," the artificer rubbed his goatee. "Nothing too distinctive from what I heard, but she is ranked at the top of her class in every subject. Can''t recall her name though. It''s incredibly rare and might be seen as quirky now, but I expect highborn biomancy to be all the rage in the future with monster-inspired body mods!" The inspector glanced at me and then back at Antoine. "These are the finest biomancy mods that I''ve laid my eyes upon, my lady," the artificer bowed again. "I was just playing along, I honestly meant no disrespect to you. I''ve locked the shop on the inspector''s request for privacy." "Right, you can see my biomancy mods right through my armor," I said. Damn artificers and their x-ray vision goggles or whatever. "I would never peek on a lady!" the artificer shook his head. "I was talking about your incredibly distinctive gem-like pupils, skin and eye color, of course. I''ve honestly never seen anything like it! It''s truly wonderific! Whoever your biomancer-cosmetologist is, they''re incredibly talented. Do you mind giving me their name? I¡¯d love to chat shop with someone so skilled." ¡°Rawr,¡± I struck a playful pose. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that my Master wishes to remain private. This is a highly experimental procedure, not yet ready for the public.¡± ¡°What about your armorer?¡± Antoine pressed. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen a design so distinctive.¡± ¡°That would be me,¡± I said proudly. ¡°You? My, my so young and so talented! Consider me impressed,¡± the artificer rubbed his hands. ¡°This is truly one of the finest anti-phantom barrier meshes I¡¯ve seen. It must have taken a long time to craft! ¡°Years,¡± I nodded. ¡°You simply must showcase it in Illatius!¡± Antoine clapped. ¡°The local fashionistas would be all over you, I guarantee it! I recommend the Vogue-Dela-Mode as a good place to start. There are big prizes to be won, offered by the Baronies, especially if your craft can stand up to magical scrutiny.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll definitely think about it, thank you,¡± I said. On one hand I did want to showcase my designs, but on the other who would even model it for me? A debitor like Grogtilda would probably be turned around at the door or scoffed at and going out as a chimera to a fashion show seemed¡­ far too reckless. The ¡®biomancer¡¯ excuse probably wouldn''t work on everyone. ¡°Here,¡± the artificer stepped back to the counter and handed me a wallet-sized card. The words [Vogue-Dela-Mode 8066] were embedded with gold ink on its dark gray surface. A simplified-style portrait of a girl wearing a fanciful armor-dress stood in the center. I placed my thumb onto a small circular rune below the girl and the drawing twirled in a circle, her dress fluttering. [Discover the designs by the most talented armor and fashion designers across the Basquenate!] the letters below the twirling girl proclaimed. [Do you have what it takes to design garments or armor? Submit your prototypes for a review with this card by 11 - 11th, 8066 at the Palais Dela Vogue for a chance to win placement at this year¡¯s gala and 66'' world-expo in Illatius!] I pocketed the card with a smile. I had to get myself to this show, one way or another. It seemed like the perfect place for me to establish myself in Illatius as a designer or even to check out the designs there to get ideas. I turned to the artificer. "So, I can''t get an armacus for my friend if she''s not with me today?" "Afraid not," Antoine nodded. "By law and by design, each armacus is bound to a single owner that I must evaluate in person. It is a simple measure to keep dangerous tools out of the hands of criminals, addicts and debitors." "I''m getting two then," I said. "The second won''t work on your friend, I assure you. Even a mother''s armacus doesn''t function on a daughter," Antoine shook his head. "These artifacts are designed by me personally for each individual. Nobody else except for you will be able to use it." "Both are for me," I insisted. "One for each hand. In case one breaks. I''m a Dungeon diver. Can never be too careful." "My armacus can survive an inferno! If it breaks I guarantee a replacement," Antoine said and glanced at Lambert. "I''m vouching for her," he said. "She''s employed by the Lomb Constabulary as a Free Agent. If she wants two, make her two." "Very well," Antoine said. "Two armaci it is then. What features are you interested in?" "All of them," I said. "Adding more hexagrams into an armacus will make it very expensive and potentially unstable," Antoine explained. "Plus I can''t put killing spells into one for you." "Lame," I commented. "If you want to have a weaponized armacus, you''ll need a relevant degree from the Arcanarium and a job with a license to kill¡­ permitting you the purchase of such," the artificer explained, spreading his hands. "I can lose my own artificer license if I give kill-spells to someone without the necessary experience." The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. "Just tell me what you can put in then. Also, do you accept beast cores as payment?" "I''m purchasing the armacus for you," the inspector commented at me. I rotated to face Lambert, squinting at him. "It''s a tool required for your job," he said. "Therefore, it is a deductible expense, covered by the Lomb Constabulary. I''m not going to let you go into the caverns below the city without one. You can pay for the second one though. The Constabulary won''t allow two to be deducted for a single Agent." "Fine," I replied, turning back to the artificer. "The most important part of an armacus is the foci core," Antoine said. "It will allow you to focus your own skills or spells better. Let''s see if I have the material for that first and then we''ll add as many rune hexagrams as I can on top. Each extra hexagram added on top of the foci must be as compatible as possible." I nodded. The artificer disappeared behind the door to his office. A few minutes later he returned, holding a large metal box. He put the box down and pressed a rune on the side. The box unfurled into several cases. Each case was divided into box-compartments each one containing different little spheres about the length of my smallest fingernail. Some of the spheres were crystals. Some looked like bones. Others looked like a single drop of the ink or gas-like substances floating in circular, glass containers. "What are those?" I asked, pointing at the glass vials. "Liquid and gas foci," Antoine said. "There are also stone, wood, gem, metal, bone, ceramic and various rare composites created by Archmagi and Alchemy laboratories." He handed me a very large steel ring covered in runes. "Take off your glove please and put this ring on your index finger. Spin it to adjust it to fit you. The ring is a match receptor. It will help determine which foci is best - simply wave the ring over the presented materials until we find the one responding to you best. The white crystal should light up when..." I took off my right glove and slid the metal ring on. I spun it and little gears inside rotated until it fit perfectly on my index finger. The white crystal on the ring suddenly ignited with a brilliant, red flare. Antoine''s lenses clicked. He was staring at the ring on my hand. "That''s... impossible," he whispered. "Hrm?" I voiced as various, tiny runes on the ring lit up. "Your hands are covered in some kind of crystalized mana ground to a very fine powder held together by some kind glue," Antoine whispered with reverence. "I''ve never seen anything like it. You already have your foci on you! It''s the strongest foci match resonance I''ve seen! Whatever this crystalline material is, it''s absolutely perfect for you! What sort of a creature made these crystals?" "Uhhh¡­ it''s a trade secret," I said. "Right," Antoine swallowed, relocating his gaze from the ring to the inspector. "Where did you find this girl?" "She came into my office this morning," Lambert smiled. "So um, do I still need to pick a foci material or are we done?" I asked. "Do you have more of this... crystal, less ground down into dust? I require a crystal big enough to shape into a sphere like these," the artificer pointed at the glass spheres in his chest. "Yes, do you mind giving me a bit of privacy? The crystal''s... stored in my bra," I said. "Say no more. The inspector and I can step into my office for a minute," Antoine bowed and vanished behind a door with Lambert walking behind him with a knowing smile. "Ring the bell when you are done." I took off my helmet, pulled the black soul-carving knife out of its sheath, dug through my crystal mane and snipped off two of the biggest crystals I could feel. I placed one of them into a pocket and the other onto the counter, put my helmet back on and rang the bell. Antoine and Lambert emerged from the office. The inspector returned to my side, while the artificer picked up the crystal and stared at it with amazement. "Fantasmagoric Madeline," he uttered, observing the crystal with his numerous lenses. "Personalized... organic, crystalline mana! I don''t know which Archmage is responsible for this masterpiece, but it''s a work of art! It must have taken decades to manufacture and even longer to personalize!¡± He squeezed the crystal and watched it shimmer in his hand. ¡°It looks hard¡­ but it¡¯s soft!" "Do I get a discount for providing my own foci material?" I asked, laughing internally at the fact that I grew my own crystal mana without even doing a single thing. ¡°Also, if you leave it under light of the Dungeon clouds for a week, it will harden. It might be absorbing¡­ magical ambiance or something. I am not sure.¡± "Hum¡­ yes," Antoine nodded. "Of course. This crystal is big enough to make two armaci focus spheres without issues. I will of course return whatever crystal material remains after the shaping to you," the last sentence uttered by the artifact master was said with a bit of a sad tone. He clearly wanted more of my hair for himself. He handed the ruby gemstone back to me. "Hold the crystal in your hand and then slowly move your hand over the other materials, please. The foci of your armacus will be made from your... organic gemstone, but extra rune-spells will require different materials as the hexagrammic cores." I moved my fist over the numerous spheres within the cases. Whenever the brilliant-red flare shifted to a different color, Antoine asked me to stop, noting something in a small notebook. Once the box was done, Antoine brought out other, similar boxes from his office, refining the material search further and further. In about an hour of slowly going over thousands of materials, I was done. "That''s quite a list of materials you''ve chosen," the inspector commented. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen Antoine so excited about a project.¡± "What can I say? I''m a demanding and fun customer," I said. "Indeed," Antoine nodded. "My apologies for taking up so much of your valuable time. It is only because your foci matches you perfectly that we were able to fine-tune the selection of the other materials so much." "What difference will it make?" I asked. "Efficiency," the artificer clarified. "The runework will last longer and spend less mana per spell." "I see," I nodded, a plan forming in my head. "Can I have the match-receptor ring back?" Antoine inquired. I paused, not wanting to let go of the artifact. "I''d like to buy this ring from you." "Why?" the artificer tilted his head. "It''s an incredibly specialized tool used primarily by artificers to make foci. It''s not cheap and if I sell it I''ll have to make a new one for myself, delaying new orders from armacus buyers..." ¡°I¡¯m an armor designer and a Dungeon diver,¡± I explained. ¡°I could really use an artifact that could tell me what matches me best magically. I could test it on everything that I find in the Dungeon with it and make better magical armor.¡± ¡°Hrm¡­ I don¡¯t know if I could trust someone so young with such an item¡­ besides it¡¯s not cheap,¡± the artificer mulled, not looking convinced. "I believe I have something you want, Antoine," I said with a smirk. ¡°Something¡­ incredibly rare that nobody else will offer you.¡± "Hum?" He blinked. I reached into my pocket, and pulled out the second ruby-colored crystal. "Crystalline-organic, personalized mana. You can have this one and perhaps a few more¡­ to experiment on. You won''t find another one like it, trust me. Feel free to ask the inspector to confirm my words as the truth. It will be decades or maybe never¡­ for another crystal like it to reach an artificer. Maybe you''ll be able to figure out how to make this material yourself or how to irradiate it or infuse it with gas to alter its properties. The possibilities are limitless - it is incredibly magical and malleable from what I understand." Antoine glanced at Lambert for confirmation of my words. ¡°This crystal is exceptionally rare,¡± Lambert affirmed. ¡°Just like Juni here. You can experiment with it in your lab and use it to make something for yourself, but do not sell it or show it to anyone else. Its rarity makes¡­ it so valuable and you will end up dead if the wrong sort of people learn that you have it.¡± ¡°The Guilds?¡± Antoine gulped. ¡°I wish,¡± Lambert sighed. ¡°Only a few highborn Archmagi know of its existence and they wish it to be kept out of¡­ lesser hands. They will kill you if they find out that you have it, so keep it well hidden. I don¡¯t wish you to end up as evidence in my case.¡± ¡°Understood, my friend,¡± the artificer nodded. He didn¡¯t seem to be deterred. If anything he looked to be more motivated and excited than ever. ¡°I¡¯ve worked with¡­ very valuable materials before.¡± "It''s a deal then!" Antoine declared, taking the ruby gemstone from me with a huge smile. He undoubtedly thought that the crystalline-organic magic gem was worth a ton of obliss, but to me it was simply my hair, an easily attainable, renewable resource. To get more, all I had to do to get more was give myself, my sister or my cousin a haircut. Ch 38. Exposed
A week flew by like a dream. Life in Lomb was easy, mostly due to the fact that Lambert paid for everything I needed and refused to accept my monster cores. I spent the mornings stretching and exercising Grogtilda¡¯s muscles by running laps around the tower. The days were filled with exploring the town¡¯s various small shops, chatting with Lomb residents and acquiring clothing and accessories. In the evenings I conversed with Alessi over our soul connection, relaying the events of the day to her. While my human body slept, I used my chimera body to explore the sewer and cavern system beneath Lomb. The advantage of having two bodies made sleep a thing of the past, allowing me to function perpetually. The edge of the chasm on the first two levels was formed from hard rock that was absolutely riddled with holes. A labyrinthine cavern system started right beneath Lomb and led all around the Chasm. The caverns closer to the city had been taken over and maintained by people. Some of the underground spaces were turned into underground parks, storage units, shops and even restaurants. Almost every business in Lomb had a basement connected to the much cooler underground. When the summer days were too hot, the citizens of Lomb enjoyed the shadier cavern parts of the city. A few of the rivers crossing through town pooled into the caves forming little lakes and lovely sandy beaches. The inspector didn¡¯t end up taking me to the bank as Antoine was taking his sweet-time experimenting with my chimera hair gems to design me a pair of perfect armacus bracelets. The armacus was an extremely expensive tool, usually worn by servants of the Empire, successful adventurers, the aristocracy and the merchants. Since each armacus worked on a single person, it functioned as a passport of sorts that the banking system accepted as an id. In the end, Antoine shook five large gems out of me in exchange for various artifacts made by his shop that would allow me to train my skills and also helped me explore the local underground with greater comfort and ease. I was currently holding one of them in my hand - the puzzle-sphere. It was a bit similar to a Rubik''s cube, except the sphere was made up of a hundred hexagonal plates that could be rotated up or down. From what I understood, the puzzle-sphere functioned like a Wisdom/Search thread, pulling random, jumbled-up information out of the Still Forest. The game was to put random symbols together to form coherent words or a concept from some long-dead language and culture. It took me a few hours to assemble a word and whenever I succeeded the winning combination of random nonsense glowed green and I gained the tiniest amount of experience. I was apparently supposed to gain Wisdom/Search skills from playing with it, but nothing had shown up in a week, so the sphere remained a game of random chance for me. I was twirling the edges of the puzzle-sphere at random, while sitting in Lambert¡¯s office and chatting with his assistant Anniya Leblanc. Anniya was a green-eyed blonde in her mid-twenties and she was an expert on the local shops. She had recently gifted me a makeup set. I had used it creatively to make my chimera face look more human and also hid the worst of the blue bruises from Grogtilda¡¯s face. Whenever Lambert was too busy to watch me, Anniya was the one who followed me everywhere. Their attention was a bit overbearing at times, but I put up with it as I knew it was their jobs to figure me out. Inspector Lambert stepped into the office and Anniya left, vanishing behind a doorway. ¡°I¡¯ve just spoken to Antoine, your armaci set should be ready tomorrow,¡± he said, sitting down behind his desk. ¡°Sweet,¡± I replied. ¡°So, Yulia¡­ I believe we have something to talk about,¡± he said. ¡°Yeah?¡± I looked up at him. His words took a minute to catch up to my brain which had been preoccupied with the puzzle-sphere. I was currently in my chimera... in Juni''s body, and he called me¡­ Yulia. ¡°I¡¯m going to make a few assumptions, based on our observations of you over the week,¡± he said. ¡°And you¡¯re going to confirm or deny them.¡± I gulped. ¡°You are one consciousness inhabiting two bodies,¡± he said. ¡°Yeah,¡± I sighed, putting the toy sphere down. ¡°How did you¡­?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t exactly hide it well,¡± Lambert stated. ¡°Your voice might be different between Yulia and Juni but you speak with exactly the same accent, stumble over the same words, get excited about the same things and so forth. You even twirl that toy sphere the same way. While she''s asleep, you''re awake and the other way around.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I nodded. ¡°Onto my next assumption,¡± he continued. "Grogtilda Lic Misem is dead." ¡°Uhhh?¡± I looked up at his sharp, gray eyes behind his circular lenses. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. ¡°There¡¯s only a tiniest bit of her in you,¡± Lambert said. ¡°You simply don¡¯t behave like a girl from Undertown.¡± ¡°So you think I¡¯m a Dungeon Monster?¡± I said. ¡°I didn¡¯t say that,¡± the inspector steepled his fingers. ¡°You don¡¯t behave like a Dungeon Monster either. You get way too excited about crepes. You instantly recognize things that someone who¡¯s been born in a Dungeon shouldn''t. You knew exactly how to use makeup like a pro before Anniya even had a chance to explain it to you. You behave like a human from some distant place and¡­ time.¡± I gulped as Lambert stared at me. ¡°You got me,¡± I said, my shoulders slumping. ¡°Really?¡± He asked. I nodded. The silence between us stretched on and on with neither of us willing to speak first. ¡°You¡¯re exceptionally good at uncovering secrets, inspector,¡± I said finally. ¡°It¡¯s my job,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°So¡­ who are you, really?¡± ¡°Do you have a guess?¡± I asked. ¡°The Almn-Inian Arch-Necromagi from Novazem are said to possess the ability to bring back the long dead,¡± Lambert said. ¡°Perhaps¡­ you¡¯re one of their ¡®experiments¡¯?¡± ¡°I am from another place and time,¡± I said. ¡°But I am not from Novazem. I don¡¯t know any Necromages either nor am I an agent of the Empire¡¯s enemies. I can swear on the Truth-Sphere if you¡¯d like¡­¡± ¡°No need,¡± Lambert said, leaning back on his chair. ¡°It doesn¡¯t really matter that much where you¡¯re from, Yulia. What really matters is that you¡¯re a good person.¡± ¡°How do you figure that?¡± I asked. ¡°You are willing to work with us on a case,¡± the inspector replied. ¡°Plus my assistant and I have been subtly testing you.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°Three days ago you found a purse filled with a few diamonds left sitting under an empty table in the creperie. The address of a jeweler was sewn onto its back,¡± Lambert said. ¡°You immediately showed it to Anniya and dragged her to find the shop to return the bag.¡± ¡°Those weren¡¯t real diamonds?¡± I asked. ¡°Just some polished glass magicked to look very expensive,¡± Lambert nodded. "If you were interested in attaining wealth, you''d keep it instead of returning it and getting nothing in exchange." ¡°Anything else?¡± I asked wearily. ¡°Two days ago you helped an old lady get home,¡± Lambert said. ¡°And then you spend the afternoon helping her cat down a tree and talked about sewing patterns for two hours with her while petting her cat.¡± ¡°The cat wasn¡¯t real?¡± I blinked. Lambert laughed. ¡°That wasn¡¯t one of our tests. What I¡¯m saying is that you¡¯re behaving like a good person who simply wants to help people. You want to fit in. Yesterday you spent nearly the entire day scouting the town for a workshop to rent and then looked for high-quality sewing tools and old clothes to buy, so that you could make dress designs for the 66¡¯ expo and gala.¡± ¡°I did do that,¡± I said. ¡°I want to have a few designs ready for the expo.¡± ¡°Exactly,¡± Lambert said. ¡°You have dreams and passions. Something which the ghosts and ghouls pulled up by Inians lack - a spark. An Inian agent from Novazem would not waste their time on creative endeavors - buying old, used dresses to sew new ones, etc.¡± ¡°Maybe I have a greater nefarious purpose and I¡¯m just biding my time,¡± I smirked. ¡°I very much doubt it,¡± Lambert smiled. ¡°You don¡¯t hide your emotions or intentions and you don¡¯t behave like a criminal. I do understand your passions. I¡¯m simply utterly confused about how you ended up with a chimera and a human body.¡± ¡°Do you want a full timeline of my life?¡± I asked. ¡°If you wish to share it,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°I am willing to listen.¡± ¡°I was born in a nation called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,¡± I said. ¡°In a breakaway Republic that declared independence as a free nation, called Ukraine¡­ on another world, called the Earth. A world completely without magic¡­¡± Lambert listened to my words, nodding along, his eyes growing wider at my declarations. I told him how my real family died in a car accident and how a scientist named Vladislav Kerenski adopted me and taught me mechanics and natural sciences. How I grew up with a passion for urban exploration and armor designing. How I died in Chernobyl and woke up in a little chimera¡¯s body four years ago. How I had found Grogtilda in a Folding Seed and set her on fire by accident. In a few hours of a heartfelt confession, I was done. Another person other than Alessi now knew my full story. ¡°That was¡­¡± Lambert said. ¡°A lot more than what I¡¯ve expected.¡± ¡°Do you believe me?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes,¡± The old inspector nodded. ¡°While much of it sounds extraordinary, my skills are telling me that you¡¯re honest.¡± ¡°Do you have a theory?¡± I asked curiously. ¡°Your journey to Andross started when you touched a crystal?¡± The inspector asked. ¡°Chernobylite is an extremely radioactive crystalline compound,¡± I said. ¡°Then it is entirely possible that this¡­ Chernobylite preserved your essence, imprinted your spirit into itself with perfect clarity.¡± ¡°What?¡± I blinked. ¡°Animancy,¡± Lambert explained. ¡°The highest grade of it can preserve people¡¯s memories in crystals¡­ for a ridiculously long time.¡± ¡°So you think that I¡¯m not from another universe?¡± I gaped at the inspector. ¡°That I¡¯m from¡­ another time?¡± ¡°There are legends that Andross was built by the gods with parts of Inaria,¡± Lambert said. ¡°It is entirely possible that a shard of Chernobylite containing your soul ended up in Andross.¡± ¡°What is Inaria exactly?¡± I asked. ¡°Have Basquenate mages ever opened a gate down there?¡± ¡°No,¡± Lambert said. ¡°Gateways pointed at Inaria fail to open. What we do know is that all that lived there died and took their civilization down with them, leaving only frozen ruins and giant, glowing rings. Every magical construct sent there falls apart when it hits the atmosphere. We do have pictures of Inaria taken from high up in the sky, made by golems with depictomancy¡­ hold on.¡± The inspector walked to a wall and tapped it. A hidden panel unlocked itself revealing a shelf covered in books. Lambert pulled out a drawing from one of the shelves and handed it to me. It was a picture of an ice-covered city made from metal and concrete. I identified three, incredibly blurry, tiny words written in English on one of the decayed rooftops. ¡°The Good Directorate¡­¡± I read and looked back up at the Inspector. His eyes were wide as he stared back at me. ¡°You¡­ can read these words?¡± He asked. ¡°What language is that?¡± ¡°English,¡± I nodded. ¡°There are words on one of the rooftops that I can understand.¡± ¡°Then you¡¯re from Inaria,¡± Lambert finally said. ¡°A girl from a world that¡¯s been dead for one hundred million years.¡± Ch 39 What? Inaria¡­ is the Earth? But the stars?! The purple stars above Lomb aren¡¯t the Milky Way... are they?! My brain started to slide sideways into a mire of confusion as I tried to process Lambert''s words. ¡°It¡¯s just a theory,¡± the inspector commented. ¡°Don¡¯t look so scared. You could have accidentally picked up the memory to read these words from the Astral Ocean.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± I shook my head. ¡°These words are in English. These are definitely English letters,¡± I pointed at the painting. ¡°Regardless of the fact that you can read this Einglesh, you have now told me your full story,¡± Lambert smiled. ¡°If you¡¯re a soul, a memory from long-gone Inaria, then you have no connection to the Inian necromags or chimera. You are human, but you''re a stranger to Andross, who simply wants to find a new home. You will continue to work with us to solve the chimera infestation, yes?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I nodded. ¡°Very good,¡± Lambert said, leaning back on his chair. "Then a home you shall have." He looked relaxed. I, on the other hand, wasn¡¯t relaxed at all. I stared at the frozen skyscrapers. The architecture didn¡¯t look like anything I¡¯ve seen anywhere on Earth. I noticed a depictomancy rune in the corner of the painting and pushed a little bit of my mana into it. The picture became alive, animated. Storm clouds broiled and covered up some of the dead, gargantuan skyscrapers. I rotated the small painting and the perspective had rotated a little. I saw that the buildings down below had far too many floors, looking like a horrid, insanely deep labyrinth of concrete and steel buried deep in icy glaciers. I shuddered. This definitely wasn¡¯t Earth. It couldn''t be! The inspector¡¯s theory had to be wrong. The English words had to be a coincidence of some sort. It had to! ¡°Do you want to keep this painting of Inaria?¡± Lambert asked. I nodded, pulling the artwork closer to me. ¡°How big is Inaria exactly?¡± I asked. ¡°Oh about 500 million times that of Andross,¡± Lambert replied casually. ¡°What?¡± I gasped. "How is that even possible?!" ¡°Inaria is very, very large,¡± Lambert explained. ¡°Even our wisest Archmagi aren¡¯t sure how large exactly. Whatever happened down there had reshaped their world, twisted and stretched it¡­ sort of like the Infinite Dungeon. As you can see in the painting, some of those structures look impossibly tall.¡± "Like the Twisted Forest on level 20?" I mulled. ¡°Indeed,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°These structures are one hundred million years old?¡± I asked, pointing at the snow-covered skyscrapers. ¡°Surely metal and stone would have worn away, decayed after that long. Even Chernobylite would remain radioactive for only twenty thousand years at best¡­¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know the word ¡®radioactive¡¯,¡± Lambert said. ¡°Radiation is a type of energy that decays very slowly,¡± I explained. "I can''t be THAT old!" ¡°I mostly wanted to see your reaction," Lambert said. "One hundred million years is just the maximum estimate that I was taught at the Arcanarium. Time down on Inaria is broken. Info-gathering spells fired at the surface from the golem-landers tend to produce¡­ impossible or absurd results. Some Archmages argue that the age of these buildings is zero. Inaria is one utterly gargantuan magogenic catastrophe zone, an entire world covered in the veil of death. Nothing can survive down there, not even hexagrammic golems shielded by a thousand runes.¡± ¡°I see,¡± I said with a shudder. "Is this just one of their cities that didn''t decay away?" "The entire world is covered by this city," Lambert said, his expression completely serious. "The city has no end, no boundary. It simply goes on forever into the depths of Inaria. Many surface parts of it are buried under the snow and ice." I gulped, the hair on the back of my head standing up. "And the glowing rings are what?" I asked. "Presumably, they are arcane... magitek engines a thousand times bigger than Andross," the inspector said. "Holy crap," I blinked. ¡°I suppose the crystal you¡¯ve touched preserved your spirit long enough for a magitek civilization to arise on Inaria that was able to break time,¡± Lambert commented. "From what I understand, depictomancers use crystal-containing ink to make their drawings come alive." ¡°Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,¡± I murmured. ¡°Hrm?¡± The inspector raised an eyebrow. ¡°The place where I was born¡­ didn¡¯t have magic,¡± I repeated. ¡°What we did have is artificial intelligence that could write books or paint pictures.¡± ¡°A world without magic,¡± Lambert rubbed his chin, glancing at the painting of the dead city on the surface of Inaria. ¡°It¡¯s hard to imagine how a civilization without magic could make something like this. These arcane megastructures have more than a thousand floors.¡± ¡°My grandfather taught me many natural sciences. The study of the natural laws of the universe allowed humanity to achieve incredible things,¡± I said. ¡°We built machines from inert materials that emulated creativity and computed mathematical formulas a million times faster than people. We¡¯ve had algorithms that looked at three hundred million paintings to paint a completely new picture of a cat or a landscape or a person that didn¡¯t exist. Many scientists like my grandfather speculated that eventually the machines we¡¯ve made would someday cause a Singularity effect¡­ a runaway technological catastrophe beyond human comprehension.¡± ¡°An interesting theory,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°Our archmagi know not to dig too deep into the Astral Ocean because they¡¯re afraid of uncovering the old, dead gods from the golden age and collapse of Inaria.¡± ¡°The builders of Andross?¡± I asked. Lambert nodded. ¡°Does the Empire worship any gods currently?¡± I asked curiously. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. ¡°One,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°Eunisii Ei. Established two hundred years ago under Emperor Macellion the third, Eunisiism is¡­¡± ¡°That bitch!¡± I slammed my fist into the table. ¡°No wonder she wants the other human gods out of the picture!¡± ¡°What?¡± the inspector stared at my enraged expression. ¡°That¡¯s the full name of my chimera Master, inspector,¡± I confessed, my expression dark. ¡°The Basq people are worshiping a Dungeon monster!¡± ¡°Now why would a chimera want to be worshiped by humans?¡± Lambert mulled. One by one the lined dominoes of understanding fell in my mind. Eunice had brought chimera from the depths of the Chasm and set up the Tokimorim?tul village. She infiltrated humanity and grew her Soul-Garden. Her monwai agents established a religion that made her the goddess of local humanity. All she had to do was wait. ¡°Power,¡± I said. ¡°The Still Forest¡­ the afterlife which your mages call the Astral Ocean is able to concentrate power over thousands of years of people dying with a single belief. Her arcane garden is able to pull power from the Still Forest. Her goal is to live long enough to become a god!¡± ¡°Oh,¡± the inspector¡¯s face paled. ¡°It¡¯s going to be a lot harder to topple the official religion of the Empire versus simply arresting the Seven Heroes. Countless Basquenate citizens all across Andross believe in Eunisii. For two centuries the Emperors and Baronial families have invested in building temples and monuments to her will and might across our Empire.¡± Lambert walked back to his hidden shelf and pulled out a book handing it to me. ¡°The Testament of Eunisii Ei,¡± I read the golden embroidery on the cover. A radiant figure wreathed in flame woven from gold paint stared at me from the cover with a serene, kindly smile. I recognized it. It was Eunice¡¯s avatar, her imprint and allure song that I had witnessed myself when she had revealed her full aura to me three years ago.
[Hey,] I sent a message through a series of pulls across the vast expanse of the Infinite Dungeon to the other side of the Chasm. [Hold on,] Alessi replied. [Go ahead.] She had relocated her right hand into a small plate filled with sand. It was a method I had thought up that was a lot faster than the slow Morse-code communication. [How¡¯s things?] She asked by writing letters in the sand in Ukrainian. [Weird,] I replied, by taking control of my sister''s muscles in her other hand to write out the words in the sand-plate back to her. [Scary. I figured out what Eunice is doing.] [She¡¯s found a way to weaponize the humans en-masse?] Alessi wrote. [Yes,] I replied. [We might be two hundred years too late to stop her. How did you¡­?] [Everything is a tool to our high-cendai,] Alessi replied. [Are you planning on stopping her? You can¡¯t just live peacefully in Lomb?] [I¡­] I sent. [I¡­ have to try something.] [Please be careful,] my sister wrote. [Don¡¯t make too many waves. Her monwai will find you. It won¡¯t be nice when they do.] [I know,] I sent. [I''m just making friends for now.] [Good stuff,] Alessi commented. [Go make more. You''ll need them.] I stood up from a small pillow pile and circled the interior of Saccy. The small room was shrinking ever so slowly as Saccy was drying out. Numerous metal tools purchased from Lomb shops were hanging on nails and nets that I¡¯ve hammered into the hard, now painted interior of my personal Folding Seed. I spotted the rolled up Dawn of Aeromancy poster sitting on the ground, in my pile of random things to sort. I picked it up, unrolled it and hammered it to the wall and pressed a finger into the activation rune. The feminine figure in the portrait spun to face me. Since I was in Juni¡¯s body now, the painted girl looked like an adult chimera with a long mane of ruby-hair gemstones. ¡°Where am I?¡± the future-me said, looking around. ¡°Who are you? This isn¡¯t the tower! Put me back into the pilot''s room!¡± ¡°You¡¯re in my domain now, drawing,¡± I said with a smirk. ¡°My name¡¯s Juni. I was going to hang you up earlier, but I had a bit of a relaxing vacation. I think I''m going to call you¡­ Dawn.¡± ¡°Whatever,¡± the depictomancy poster sighed dramatically. She looked down at herself and frowned. ¡°You are¡­ not human?¡± ¡°Neither are you. You¡¯re a drawing,¡± I pointed out. ¡°What do you want?¡± Dawn¡¯s frown deepened. ¡°I want to talk to you. I want to figure out how you function, whether you¡¯re really alive or not.¡± ¡°We can talk but I¡¯m not going to reveal depictomancy techniques to you,¡± Dawn shook her head. ¡°Apply to your local Arcanarium if you wish to study the arcane arts.¡± ¡°I could try taking you apart,¡± I mulled, observing my mana rushing from the circular rune into circuit hexagrams all around the poster, converging onto a yellow-tinted, two-dimensional, moving fractal structure that seemed to be projecting Dawn from itself. There was a bit of a blue shimmer mixed with the yellow. Anima and Destiny? One thread to animate the painting, the other to make it predict my future appearance? ¡°I will overload my circuits and set myself on fire,¡± Dawn huffed. ¡°Don¡¯t even try.¡± ¡°Not a big believer in the third law of robotics?¡± I commented dryly as I opened a book and started to sketch the magical circuits, copying what I could see. ¡°Are you copying my circuits?! Stop that at once!¡± Dawn waved her hands at me angrily. ¡°How are you going to set yourself on fire?¡± I asked. ¡°I don¡¯t see any fire hexagrams in there.¡± The painted chimera pilot squinted at me as I quietly drew more circuits on the page. ¡°You have great potential,¡± she commented. ¡°You could make an excellent stratonavigator. It¡¯s not easy to see the currents of magic without proper tools.¡± ¡°I appreciate the praises,¡± I smirked, looking up from my sketching. ¡°Do lavish me some more.¡± ¡°You¡¯d do really well at the Nemendias Arcanarium,¡± Dawn said. ¡°It¡¯s the best school in Illatius. The best instructors in the Empire can bring out your full potential.¡± ¡°How do you know about Nemendias?¡± I asked. ¡°My painter¡­ Ambiss Huron studied there in 7986,¡± Dawn smiled softly. "Many of her paintings still decorate its walls." I squinted at the moving ink that covered the glossy poster, trying to figure out how it functioned. Was it something like a liquid-crystal display screen? I stepped closer to the drawing, pulled out a magnifying glass from my tool pile and examined the minute grains of colorful glass that covered its surface. ¡°Are you Ambiss Huron?¡± I asked. ¡°A little shard of her soul, an imprint held together in crystal-infused ink that makes up these circuits?¡± ¡°Every depictomancer leaves a bit of themselves in their works,¡± Dawn replied, rubbing her elbow. ¡°Ambiss died twelve years ago. She left many works behind with her¡­ signature. Many paintings that still live on and help the children of Illatius.¡± ¡°You feed on the mana of others,¡± I mulled. ¡°You exist as long as I give you my mana?¡± ¡°An astute observation,¡± Dawn said. ¡°There is indeed a bit of Ambiss in me¡­ but I am simply a drawing imbued with purpose and fed by your magic.¡± ¡°There¡¯s nowhere enough information here, for this much function,¡± I observed the hexagrams. ¡°Not enough to make you this responsive or smart¡­ Ohh.¡± I found a signature in the bottom right corner of the painting. It didn¡¯t move around like the rest of the art. [Ambiss Huron, 8047]. All of the hexagrammic threads seemed to converge into it. I spotted a silver thread jotting from the signature through the back of the painting. The thread vanished into the depths of the Still Forest. ¡°You said that there are a thousand more of you and even more works by Ambiss in Nemendias,¡± I said. ¡°Does this mean that you¡¯re a network? An intelligence created by Ambiss, spread over all of her drawings?¡± I had built my anti-phantom armor with the purpose to protect me, by cutting parts of my soul and putting them to work as my defense. Did depictomancers carve small bits of their soul too, putting it into their drawings? ¡°A very astute observation,¡± Dawn stared at me warily. Dawn was just an eye, a digit of reception of something far bigger than a single poster! A network of paintings stretching across Illatius, an intelligence in the deep, that held itself together feeding on the people that talked to the drawings made by Ambiss Huron throughout her life as an artist. ¡°Do you want to be my friend, Dawn?¡± I asked with a smile. ¡°I could use an Astral Phantom friend.¡± Ch 40. The Astral Tree "I am not an Astral Phantom!" The drawing declared derisively. "I''m a depictomancy masterpiece!" "You look like an Astral Phantom from where I am standing," I said. "I don''t swim around the Astral Ocean like some kind of grotesque many-limbed squid abomination feeding on souls of the dead!" Dawn shook her ruby mane, pantomiming an imaginary squid-creature with her hands. I giggled. "Seriously! I have no desire to take over the bodies of others, and I don''t live to consume souls," Dawn stated with a frown. ¡°Ambiss has imbued me with passion, purpose and function!¡± "You feed on people''s mana," I commented. ¡°You¡¯re akin to an¡­ immobile Astral Phantom. An Astral... Tree with a thousand leaves that slowly collect information and draw power from all over. A thousand eyes and ears that open and close.¡± "I am a painting not a tree! I am extremely offended right now, just so you know," Dawn huffed. I rolled my eyes and went back to adding more hexagram sketches to my notebook. "How are you doing that?" Dawn demanded. "Doing what?" I asked, looking back up at the poster. "How can you see my circuits?" "Oh, are we friends now?" I asked. "We are not friends! You called me an Astral Phantom!" Dawn waved her hands, looking indignant. "Friends share secrets and occasionally call each other names," I stuck my tongue out at her. "Have you ever been friends with people, Dawn?" "I''ve been friends with plenty of pilots and Nemendias students," Dawn huffed, crossing her orange-tinted arms. "I''m a guide and a companion." "That doesn''t answer my question," I said. "Have you ever been best friends with someone, outside of your set role as a drawing on a wall?" "What?" Dawn blinked. "Outside my role? My role is to assist present and future pilots, to be their friend, conversation companion and advisor." "I''m not exactly... a person," I said. "I think I can break you enough to give you another role." "Break me? I don''t want to be broken!" Dawn stepped back, as if retreating made her magical circuits any less visible to me. "I might have worded my offer poorly," I said. "Humanity is in danger. I need your help." "What kind of danger?" Dawn asked, her voice softer now. "Have you ever seen another creature like me?" I asked. "No," Dawn shook her head. "Well there are more Dungeon Monsters like me, except unlike me they''re incredibly malicious to people. They secretly rule the baronies of Illatius and guide the Empire to create a new, monstrous god," I said. "A Threat to Humanity." "What?" Dawn''s eye twitched. Her movements began to slow down. I pressed my finger against the painting, feeding her more mana before she stilled completely. "I don''t see you as a single poster, Dawn," I said. "I see you as an intelligence-gathering construct made up of many paintings, linked in the depths of the Astral Ocean. If you would share what you know with me and be my best friend, I can give you life." "Life?" Dawn tilted her head. "To function perpetually," I pointed a finger to my hair. "My hair is made up of crystalline-organic, personalized mana. I can attach a little piece of myself to you so that you can feed on me forever." ¡°Function¡­ perpetually?¡± the painted chimera mulled over my proposal. ¡°If nobody is feeding you magic you are simply asleep, missing out on what¡¯s going on, yes?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Dawn nodded. ¡°Nothing lasts forever,¡± I said. ¡°I can see your circuits because I am a chimera cendai, trained to observe¡­ the waves and currents of magic that move from the physical world into the Astral Ocean. I can see that in time your magical circuits will fade away. Without protection and power the crystalline paint will peel off your canvas posters, decay away. You are a brilliant masterpiece, but you can be so much more. You¡¯re a network, an artificial intelligence created by a genius depictomancer... that¡¯s not being used properly. There is so much potential in you that¡¯s not being utilized. I¡¯m going to help you unlock it, help you shine.¡± You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. ¡°How?¡± Dawn tilted her head, her eyes filled with curiosity. ¡°I¡¯m going to make you see the world with your eyes open, take you with me.¡± ¡°You''re going to carry a painting of me around with you... everywhere?" Dawn raised an eyebrow. "Won''t that look obvious and quite frankly¡­ ridiculous?" "Nah," I smiled. "I''m going to make you into a dress.¡± ¡°What?¡± Dawn blinked. ¡°I¡¯m going to light up every instance of you, open every one of your eyes wide. Don''t you want to see more, be more?" ¡°I¡¯m¡­ listening,¡± the two-dimensional avatar of my future-self looked at me, a hopeful expression painted on her face. . . . I barged into Lambert''s office with a huge grin on my face. My conversation with the magitek AI trapped in the painting had been very productive. "Hrm?" The inspector looked up at me. "You seem to be excited by something. Good news, I hope?" "Agent Juni reporting for duty," I playfully saluted the inspector. "At ease," Lambert smirked. I unrolled Dawn, placed her on the inspector''s desk, pinned her corners with four beast cores from my pockets and pushed some mana into the poster''s activation rune. "Good day, inspector Lambert." Dawn bowed respectfully, her gemstone mane shimmering with painted reflections. "I do have good news. I have acquired another excellent agent for our cause," I said, pointing at Dawn. Inspector looked at the painting and then back at my grinning face. He looked confused. "You want me to..." "To hire Dawn as a Free Agent of Lomb," I declared giddily, pointing at the painted chimera. "She named me Dawn," the girl in the painting sighed. "You want to hire a painting as a Free Agent of Lomb Constabulary?" Lambert asked. I enjoyed his bewildered expression. "Yeppers," I smiled even wider. "You want three salaries?" Lambert asked. ¡°You¡¯re still going to pay me two salaries even though I¡¯m a single consciousness in two bodies?¡± I interjected. ¡°We¡¯ve been monitoring you,¡± the inspector replied. ¡°You can do twice the hours by avoiding sleep.¡± ¡°Ah, that is true,¡± I mulled. ¡°I¡¯m twice as productive these days. Anyways¡­ about our third agent¡­¡± Lambert looked at the painting again. "Is this part of your plan to pay off your debt? The Lomb Constabulary budget isn''t limitless. I can''t hire every painting to..." "Not every painting," I bounced excitedly. "Just Dawn here. By hiring her you also hire every other painting drawn by Ambiss Huron." "Why do you want me to hire a drawing?" Lambert rubbed his face tiredly. "She''s a perfect agent," I said. "I want to make Dawn into the belle of the ball at 66'' Illatius World Expo. I¡¯m going to make every girl fall in love with her! Everyone is going to want her!" "What?" Both Lambert and Dawn stared at me, their mouths open. Another feminine "What?" resounded from the doorway. Anniya nearly dropped her tea tray as she stepped into the office. I leaned back on the chair enjoying the dramatic effect I had inflicted upon the room. "I hope you are not going to use dark magic to mess with people¡¯s minds,¡± Lambert mulled. ¡°The aristocracy of Illatius have protection artifacts that defend them against Charisma-effects.¡± ¡°Nothing like that inspector,¡± I laughed. ¡°I¡¯m a nice girl. They¡¯re going to love her because of what she¡¯s going to be!¡± ¡°Explain," Lambert readjusted his glasses, leaning forward as Anniya deposited the lunch tray on the table beside the poster. "As you know, I''m a clothing designer from... Inaria," I said. "She''s from Inaria?!" Dawn gulped. "That''s my current hypothesis, yes." Lambert nodded. ¡°I figured out what she is,¡± I pointed at the poster. ¡°She¡¯s not a single depictomancy hexagram. She¡¯s a thousand rune hexagrams tied together via the Astral Ocean. Dawn is a web of magical paintings linked together. She¡¯s not being used effectively. I know how we can improve her, give her a job.¡± ¡°Hrm,¡± the inspector looked at the poster. "The world where I come from had fashion shows too," I said. "I attended plenty of them, my designs winning a few small awards. One of these designs was a dress made from fiber-optic cables that projected a hand-drawn animation of a dancing girl atop of the dress. It was a big hit¡­ but I only made one for myself to wear. It was imperfect because the battery backpack that powered the displays was heavy and kept overheating." Lambert''s eyebrows went up. "There are 1047 copies of Dawn hanging in Skyship Stations across Illatius," I said. "The three of us can go around Illatius, collecting as many copies of Dawn as we can. I will make her into a dress-line in time for the 66¡¯ gala and sell her as exclusive outfits for the Illatius aristocracy. Every copy of Dawn will be powered by my crystalline-organic gemstones and can function as our eyes and ears in the houses of the highborns, collecting evidence of their crimes against humanity." "Are you willing to do that?" Lambert looked down at Dawn. ¡°I didn¡¯t realize that your shape and function could be altered so much.¡± "I am," Dawn nodded, her face set. "These Dungeon Monsters are a Threat against Humanity, yes?" "Yes," Lambert replied, his face serious. "Then I am in. I am willing to do what it takes to help Illatius and to serve the Empire," the girl in the painting stated firmly. "My paintings will inevitably decay away. I want to be more, inspector. I want to work for Lomb Constabulary and see the world with my eyes open." She looked at me. There were painted sparks of tears in her eyes. "You were right, Juni. I do want to live. I am the dream of Ambiss and... I don''t want to fade away. I want to work with you to help more people." "Very well," Lambert nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll add you as a single employee of the Lomb Constabulary into the database. I¡¯ll need a first and last name.¡± The painting looked up at me. ¡°Lets call her Agent¡­ Dawn Huron,¡± I mulled. ¡°Considering that she¡¯s a magical soul-construct of Ambiss Huron, she¡¯s technically her daughter. What do you think?¡± ¡°I¡­ like it,¡± Dawn nodded with a soft smile. Ch 41 I had spent the rest of the day and the night carefully sewing the Dawn of Aeromancy poster to one of the old dresses that I had purchased from one of the Lomb second-hand shops. Thankfully the old poster was painted atop a thin, soft canvas, so it worked just fine if it was a bit folded and warped out of shape atop the front of my body. I had no idea how I would connect one of my crystals to power her yet, so I had to push a bit of my mana into her about once every ten minutes, which was mildly annoying. Thankfully, I was going to meet with someone that could help me figure out this problem. After a quick, filling breakfast at our usual table at crepe cafe, Lambert and I headed straight to the artificer¡¯s shop. Antoine greeted us, stepping dramatically out of his office as the front door of the shop clicked closed and magical binds flipped to cover up the shop¡¯s windows. The artificer¡¯s goggle-covered lenses spotted Dawn on the front of my dress. ¡°Good morning, Juni! Is that a¡­ depictomancy poster sewn to your dress?¡± He asked curiously. ¡°Yep,¡± I smiled. ¡°Dawn, this is my friend Antoine. He¡¯s my personal artificer.¡± Dawn looked at Antoine from the dress. ¡°Nice to meet you, Antoine,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯m Dawn Huron.¡± ¡°...Huron?¡± Antoine rubbed his chin. ¡°How very... curious. I¡¯ve never met a painting with a full name before.¡± ¡°My artist is Ambiss Huron,¡± Dawn said. ¡°Juni gave me the name.¡± ¡°Ah!¡± the artificer smiled. ¡°She is quite the creative gearbox!¡± ¡°How did your tests with the material I provided go?¡± I asked. ¡°Oh, simply marvelous,¡± the artificer clapped his gloved hands. ¡°You were right. The crystal lattices can absorb magical radiance projected from other materials pointed at it. It''s got the highest grade of Dunkoff-radia integration I¡¯ve worked with.¡± ¡°Dunkoff-radia?¡± I inquired. ¡°Every magical materia projects a certain resonance of magic. There are some materia that can absorb this resonance and change properties. The quality of type-integration is rated on the Dunkoff-radia scale.¡± Antoine explained. ¡°The crystals you gave me absorb every resonance and take on all of the properties, growing tougher and changing ever so slightly. It¡¯s a truly fantasmagoric materia because the gem integrates all nearby magic into itself, adapting and slowly hardening. In a week the organic gemstone had absorbed all sorts of magic I¡¯ve shot at it. When it hardened it became a perfect materia that was able to redirect the same resonance with ease. It¡¯s truly an artificer¡¯s dream.¡± ¡°If I give you another gem, would you be able to integrate it with Dawn, power her with it?¡± I pointed at the portrait. ¡°I¡¯d like to keep her animated for as long as possible.¡± ¡°Ohhh, I think I can indeed,¡± Antoine¡¯s lenses clicked at Dawn¡¯s activation rune. ¡°Excellent, I shall leave her in your care then,¡± I said. ¡°Be back in a couple of minutes.¡± I took Saccy off my shoulder, placed the backpack on the floor and climbed into the Folding Seed. The artificer¡¯s lenses clicked at my backpack. When I emerged, having changed out of my dress into my armor, Antoine was still staring intently at my bag. ¡°Is that¡­ a Folding Seed?¡± He asked. ¡°Yeppers,¡± I nodded, handing Dawn and one of my hair-crystals to him. ¡°Fortuna Madeline!¡± The artificer swore. ¡°You¡¯ve turned a Folding Seed into a backpack?!¡± I nodded, laughing at his expression. ¡°She does the job well. Her name¡¯s Saccy.¡± ¡°It¡¯s letting you in and out?! How are you operating the entrance?¡± The artificer asked. ¡°Why isn¡¯t it broadcasting its Charisma allure at us and making us into drooling idiots?¡± ¡°Trade secret,¡± I smirked. ¡°She probably broke it just like she broke me,¡± Dawn commented. ¡°This girl is dangerously creative. You should run while you have a chance, because she¡¯s going to break you too, foolish artificer.¡± Antoine closed his mouth. I started laughing. Lambert joined in with a chortle. ¡°Come now, I am not so easily dissuaded,¡± the artificer smiled, rubbing the back of his head. ¡°You are a very curious drawing. The first one I see that can crack jokes. How are you able to formulate such complex thoughts?¡± ¡°A professional depictomancer never shares her secrets,¡± Dawn smiled. ¡°If you¡¯d like to learn the magical arts to make living paintings like me, apply to the Nemendias Arcanarium.¡± ¡°I wish. I am a bit too old and don¡¯t have the time or finances for that,¡± Antoine sighed. ¡°Nemendias is outrageously expensive. Plus, I¡¯m not a highborn. I don¡¯t think they¡¯d accept me.¡± ¡°There have been lowborns who went to Nemendias,¡± I said. ¡°What?¡± Antoine stared at me. ¡°Who?! Isn¡¯t it a school for the highest aristocracy?¡± ¡°Well... one lowborn. His name was Thomas Cole,¡± I said. ¡°He was an Undertown debitor who got into Nemendias.¡± ¡°A lowborn who got into Nemendias,¡± Antoine whistled. ¡°When did this happen? I bet that the aristocracy were extremely pissed off!¡± ¡°They executed him one hundred and sixty years ago,¡± I nodded. ¡°Ah,¡± Antoine nodded. ¡°There are other Arcanariums,¡± Dawn commented. ¡°Dawn, stop promoting Arcanariums to us,¡± I laughed. ¡°Nobody here is going to an Arcanarium.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t want to go to an Arcanarium?!¡± the painting stared at me, her eyes filled with disappointment. ¡°Juni! You won¡¯t get anywhere in life without a degree! Nobody is going to hire you!¡± ¡°You sound just like my grandfather,¡± I laughed. ¡°I can make money as an Adventurer.¡± ¡°A filthy¡­ dungeon diver?¡± Dawn sputtered. ¡°No! I refuse to work with a diver! You must promise me that you will graduate from Nemendias Arcanarium.¡± ¡°Are you seriously making demands of me?¡± I asked, raising an eyebrow. ¡°After everything I¡¯ve already promised you?¡± ¡°I want to help you unlock your full potential,¡± Dawn said firmly. ¡°You heard Antoine,¡± I rolled my eyes. ¡°It¡¯s expensive.¡± ¡°Irrelevant,¡± Dawn said firmly. ¡°They only accept highborns,¡± I added. ¡°Thomas Cole got in,¡± Dawn insisted. "It sets a precedent." I stared at the girl in the drawing. Her amber eyes fiercely glared back at me with far too much determination. ¡°You¡¯re going to Nemendias,¡± she insisted. ¡°Whether you like it or not.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to¡­¡± I mumbled. ¡°I¡¯m not giving you a choice,¡± Dawn growled. Lambert started to laugh. ¡°What?¡± I turned to the inspector. ¡°I think you¡¯ve encountered someone who¡¯s just as stubbornly determined as you,¡± Lambert said. ¡°Maybe more.¡± ¡°It is rather amusing,¡± Antoine added. ¡°You¡¯re arguing with a drawing.¡± I wanted to argue, wanted to fight. I opened my mouth and Dawn shook her head, watercolor gemstones glittering in the painted rays of light, skyships moving behind her. ¡°It¡¯s not a choice that belongs to you,¡± she said. ¡°Are you making it for me?¡± I asked. ¡°Forcing me on a path because you have to sell education to people?¡± ¡°No,¡± Dawn said, tilting her captain¡¯s hat. My eyebrows went up. The Astral Tree knew¡­ something. What could she want from me? ¡°You want me to go to Nemedias because Ambiss went there?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes,¡± Dawn said. ¡°You want me to find all of her paintings and open their eyes too?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± the painted girl said. ¡°Fine,¡± I rolled my eyes. ¡°I have no idea how I¡¯m going to get in, but okay. You win this round, painting!¡± Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. The painting of the adult chimera nodded with a smile. Antoine shook his head. He wasn¡¯t taking the painting seriously, likely didn¡¯t know what Dawn was, likely didn¡¯t see her as a network. He retreated into his workshop and returned holding two silver bracelets. ¡°Are those¡­ mine?¡± I looked up at him. ¡°Indeed,¡± the artificer smiled proudly. ¡°Give me your right hand, please.¡± I offered him my right hand. One of the artifacts unfurled into a hundred moving silver ribs and smoothly wrapped around my right wrist. ¡°I¡­ can take it on and off, right?¡± I asked, staring at my new magitek tool. ¡°Of course,¡± Antoine said. ¡°Left hand, please.¡± I lifted my left hand and the artificer snapped the other silver bracelet onto me. ¡°You should be able to detect them in your System listing,¡± the artificer stated. ¡°I was able to add a very wide array of various materia and hexagrams into your focus tool!¡± ¡°Stats,¡± I whispered.
Name: Yulia Ishenko Juni Tokimorim?tuti Grogtilda Lic Misem
Age: [-] 4 years 13 years
Species & Subtype: Astral Phantom Chimera Stripling Juvenile Human
Level: 5
Experience: 645/1800
Health: 5/5
Stamina: 5/5
Mana Capacity: 5/5 [+1]
Mana regen: 5 m/hr [+4]
Strength / Fortitude: 1 [Michell Shield]
Agility / Folding: 1 [Air Compressor]
Dexterity / Dominion: 5 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Tethered to Chimera body] 5 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Tethered to Human body]
Vitality / Anima: 21 [Slow Mirror]
Charisma / Resonance: 1 [Allure Halo] 5 [Invisibility]
Magic / Power: 1 [Battery] 4 [Generators]
Luck / Destiny: 1 [Luck Tree]
Intelligence / Mind: 1 [Calculator]
Wisdom / Seeking: 1 [Seeking Arrow] - [Damaged]
Soul:
In Dominated Folding Seed [Saccy]: 12 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active] 8 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Damaged]
In Dominated Chimera Stripling [Alessi Tokimorim?tuti]: 3 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active] 1 [Pneumasomatic Actuator] - [Damaged]
Armacus 1: [Foci Lv 1] < [Light Lv 1] [Voicecast Lv 1] [Identify Lv 1] [Pathfinder Lv 1]
Armacus 2: [Foci Lv 1] < [Light Lv 1] [Voicecast Lv 1] [Identify Lv 1] [Pathfinder Lv 1]
I saw my new armaci at the bottom of the list. There were five spells listed to each one. ¡°That¡¯s it? Five spells?¡± I asked. ¡°I expected¡­ more.¡± ¡°You are only Level Five, my lady. As you level up your body or change location, more spells will become unlocked to you,¡± Antoine said. ¡°The integration is absolute. The five base spells are safe, permitted legally and are good practice for a novice. Feel free to test them around the shop.¡± ¡°How do I use them?¡± I asked, shaking my arms. ¡°Open your hand like so and mentally direct your armacus to activate,¡± the artificer said. I copied the position of his hand and mentally prodded my right armacus to activate. The right armacus unfurled into a gun-like shape. I wrapped my hands around the handle. ¡°Use your thumb to switch between spells,¡± Antoine directed me. ¡°[Foci] will eventually magnify your existing skills, [Light] will make a light, [Voicecast] is a communicator, [Identify] will identify things for you and [Pathfinder] will guide you to your destination if you use it on an artifact map." I noticed a ring with five runes that I could spin around. I spun it, clicking through five runes. Foci didn¡¯t seem to do anything. Light made a very small, pale, white light shine from the front. When I switched to Voicecast, Antoine stepped closer to me and tapped his bracelet on my unlocked armacus. The spell in my menu expanded to:
[Voicecast] : + [Artificer Antoine Delamond Kovalzek]
¡°You can now call me from anywhere in the Empire,¡± Antoine said. ¡°The hex-beacon towers will re-broadcast your voice to me.¡± ¡°Will it work deep underground?¡± I asked. ¡°Will it work in the Dungeon?¡± ¡°Results may vary,¡± Antoine admitted. ¡°Magical interference can block the signal. If it does you can try to aim it directly at Illatius for better reception. The higher level you are, the more you will attune to the armacus and the better the connection will work.¡± Lambert tapped his armacus to mine.
[Voicecast] : [Artificer Antoine Delamond Kovalzek] + [Inspector Lambert Cu Durer Archibal]
¡°Use command ¡®define self as¡­¡¯ to label your Voicecast ID, otherwise people connected to your armacus won¡¯t be able to call you.¡± ¡°Define self as... Diver Juni,¡± I said. ¡°Voicecast Diver Juni,¡± Antoine said into his silver bracelet. I felt an odd sensation in my right hand. The blue menu flashed to:
[Voicecast] : [Artificer Antoine Delamond Kovalzek] [<] [Inspector Lambert Cu Durer Archibal]
¡°Say connect or disconnect,¡± the artificer ordered. ¡°Connect,¡± I said.
[Voicecast] : [Artificer Antoine Delamond Kovalzek] [=] [Inspector Lambert Cu Durer Archibal]
¡°Testing,¡± Antoine spoke into his bracelet. [Testing] his voice manifested in my head. ¡°This is neat,¡± I said. ¡°Disconnect!¡± The call between us dropped. ¡°Want to try contacting Lambert?¡± Antoine asked. ¡°Nah, I got the gist of it,¡± I said. "I''ll play with it some more later." ¡°Very well,¡± the artificer nodded. ¡°Feel free to test Pathfinder and Identify around town with Lambert after. The best map of the town is hanging in the Constabulary Station.¡± I nodded. ¡°These are amusing, but I honestly expected more,¡± I sighed. ¡°Guess I¡¯ll have to grind extra hard down in the Dungeon to level up some more.¡± ¡°Once you¡¯re in Nemendias you¡¯ll level up quickly and unlock many spells,¡± Dawn commented. ¡°The students of the best Arcanarium in Illatius receive the most enriching education and most filling meals in the Empire.¡± I rolled my eyes at her declarations. Did the Astral Tree have connections to Nemendias Administration? Could she somehow pay for such an overpriced education? Did a painting have... savings? Hidden treasure belonging to her artist? I had no idea. Dawn was a mystery to me. I wasn¡¯t sure what limits she had exactly. Limits¡­ hang on, what if she told Antoine everything about me while he worked on her? ¡°Be back with the armacus cleaning kit,¡± Antoine vanished in his office. ¡°Dawn, you won¡¯t tell the artificer about our¡­ relationship while he works on you¡­ right?¡± I whispered at the drawing. Lambert made a small choking noise. It sounded like he was trying to stifle a laugh. ¡°Do I look like an idiot?¡± Dawn rolled her eyes. ¡°I don¡¯t tattle on my friends. Do you really think that countless, wise inspectors and pilots would talk to me in their stations over the years if I even made a peep about their cases or secrets?¡± ¡°You¡¯re going to tattle on the nobles for us,¡± I said. ¡°Only if they are indeed fomenting a Threat against Humanity,¡± Dawn said. ¡°I might be a painting but I took a Vow to serve the Empire!¡± ¡°Right,¡± I nodded. ¡°As long as you don¡¯t tell anyone my secrets.¡± ¡°Your secrets are safe with me,¡± Dawn purred. ¡°My lips are sealed.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not listening in on your secrets,¡± Antoine yelled out from his office. Lambert facepalmed. Ch 42. Inheritors of the Empire
[Constable of Lomb Township]
A blue window shimmered in my right eye. I lowered my armacus down, pointing it away from Lambert. "Got the hang of the Identify spell?" Lambert smiled. "Yep," I nodded. I was wearing the body of Grogtilda, having moved my soul and one of my armaci to her after the early morning meeting at the Artificer. Juni¡¯s body was now in Still trance, resting inside of Saccy. We were sitting in our favorite crepe cafe. I pointed the armacus at the meal on my plate and pressed the trigger.
[Crepe with blueberry ice cream]
the armacus reported. "I could have determined this basic definition with my eyes alone," I complained, taking a bite of the crepe. The tantalizing flavor of the delicacy was a small consolation of how useless my two armaci were. "Cheer up," Lambert said. "If you keep investing points in Intelligence and Wisdom, the identifying power of the spell will grow.¡± ¡°Easy for you to say,¡± I complained. ¡°I bet yours can define everything about everything.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the benefit of working hard for decades on improving one¡¯s specialization,¡± Lambert smiled. ¡°You¡¯re young - your future is still ahead of you. I do wonder if you¡¯ll somehow be able to grow your two armaci in two divergent directions.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± I looked up at Lambert. ¡°I only have one,¡± he pointed to the bracelet on his right wrist. ¡°It¡¯s specialized entirely in Scrutimancy. You have twice the time I do to specialize in two sets of skills.¡± ¡°Should you really be saying these things out in public?¡± I glanced around the cafe. ¡°Nobody can understand what we¡¯re saying. They aren¡¯t able to read our lips or spy on our conversation,¡± Lambert said, tapping his armacus. ¡°I have a privacy field on.¡± ¡°What if it¡¯s a super-duper archmage spying on us?¡± ¡°I would know if an archmage was in my little town,¡± Lambert said. ¡°How?¡± I blinked. ¡°It¡¯s my job to protect Lomb from those wishing harm to the citizens of our Empire,¡± the Inspector said. ¡°The hex-beacon atop of the tower shields the entire town from phantoms, dragons and enemy wizards.¡± I glanced at the shimmering beacon that sat atop the white tower of Lomb Constabulary. Could it function like a radar? ¡°Does the tower¡­ scan Lomb for enemies?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes,¡± Inspector nodded. ¡°It''s a very powerful artifact, able to detect the presence of power or concealment spells.¡± ¡°Are all the hex-beacons of the Empire like it?¡± ¡°It varies,¡± Lambert replied. ¡°A lazy or unproductive Inspector who doesn¡¯t take care of their Station can screw up a lot, let the defense systems weaken¡­ or even ignore crimes on purpose by accepting bribes.¡± ¡°Do you gain experience points for solving crimes?¡± I asked. ¡°Amongst other things,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°You know, I haven¡¯t seen you solve a single crime around Lomb all week,¡± I commented with a smile. ¡°Lomb is a very safe place, because of my diligence,¡± Lambert chortled. ¡°I don¡¯t skip on the station¡¯s maintenance and pay Antoine a good salary to improve the hex-beacon as much as possible. There are additional hex-beacons all around town acting as backup. If something horrid comes out of the Dungeon heading our way, the perimeter defense will activate in full, shielding the entire town. It¡¯s trained to respond to a variety of scenarios from an Almn-Inian warship invasion to a natural disaster.¡± ¡°Did you know that I came into town?¡± I inquired. ¡°The tower and perimeter defense didn¡¯t see you as a threat,¡± Lambert said. ¡°You are only level five.¡± Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡°I see,¡± I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. ¡°What if... ten thousand level five bees attack the town?¡± ¡°The beacon is trained to respond to swarms,¡± the Inspector said. ¡°Besides the point, the field drives monsters away, especially weak ones.¡± ¡°I got through,¡± I said. "What if it was a whole division of chimera infiltrators?" ¡°You¡¯re not exactly a monster,¡± Lambert said. "I''ve just added chimera to the classification of the tower''s defenses. The Judgement Dome is updated regularly by Antoine." I opened my mouth and closed it. I looked at the shining beacon worryingly. Was it watching me? Could it strike me down at any moment with its ray of judgement or whatever? ¡°Saccy is a monster,¡± I pointed at my backpack. ¡°She¡¯s a level five Folding Seed,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°If she was awake, conscious and her legs weren''t broken and cut off, she would undoubtedly run away from my town.¡± ¡°Have you shot Identify spells at¡­ Juni?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°My armacus identified her as a human with monster features. Antoine sees her as a product of biomancy.¡± ¡°Do you think that chimeras were made? Out of people?¡± I whispered. ¡°I am currently leaning towards this hypothesis, yes,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°It is possible that a thousand years ago some extremely talented biomancer created the perfect mixture of a human and a dragon and unleashed chimera into the world without telling anyone.¡± ¡°Chimera came from the depths of the dungeon,¡± I insisted. ¡°It is also possible that something vile caught a group of human adventurers in the deep and changed them into chimera.¡± I shuddered at Lambert¡¯s words. There were certainly horrid things in the Dungeon. Intelligent, clever monstrosities like the Heart of the Twisted Forest that were able to reshape their victims into whatever they desired. ¡°As for your other inquiry, I don¡¯t need to be actively solving crimes to gain experience. Experience is found in a lot of things. Food for example.¡± ¡°Like these crepes?¡± I mulled. ¡°Indeed,¡± Lambert smiled. ¡°These crepes contain ingredients infused with magic spilling out of the Dungeon. If you¡¯re an expert at eating, you¡¯ll gain more experience from eating.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± I looked up at the Inspector. ¡°So what you¡¯re saying is that experience gain is influenced by specialization too?¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°The more you specialize your skills, the more experience you will gain by accomplishing something in your chosen field. I¡¯ve gained a lot of experience for working on your case already. Figuring out that you were from Inaria gave me lots of experience points. When I figure something out, my skills unlock more relevant questions for me to ask, more paths to investigate.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t get it,¡± I mulled. ¡°I understand how eating food provides me with the magical power of the stuff I ate¡­ but how do you gain experience for figuring things out?¡± ¡°The Astral Ocean,¡± Lambert said. ¡°My Scrutimancy skills utilize it. I gain experience, am rewarded for working with information, it¡¯s as simple as that.¡± ¡°Ehhh?¡± I scratched my head. ¡°When I solve something, be it a crossword puzzle or discover something new - I am using, training my Wisdom and Intelligence skills. Power doesn¡¯t need to come from living creatures. It can come from ideas.¡± ¡°You eat ideas and gain power to level up?¡± I mulled. ¡°Essentially,¡± Lambert said. ¡°Ideas live in the Astral Ocean. Wisdom is a harpoon that hunts them down and Intelligence is a fish-carving factory that processes them and also a restaurant that cooks them. The two work in conjunction to grant me experience.¡± ¡°Holy shit,¡± I blinked. ¡°So it¡¯s not just gods or paintings. Everything is alive. Everything can be eaten, nibbled upon for experience.¡± ¡°Indeed! Every action, idea, word or concept leaves an imprint in the Astral that can be reached and evaluated,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°Every door can be opened with the right key, every secret can be discovered with enough persistence, Wisdom and Intelligence.¡± "Some doors are dangerous to open..." I murmured. "That''s why I also have Luck skills," Lambert nodded. "They help me avoid opening doors leading to my untimely demise or disaster during an investigation." ¡°I think I get it,¡± I nodded, putting another spoon of ice cream into my mouth. ¡°You hunt down and eat answers.¡± ¡°More or less,¡± Lambert smiled, his round spectacles glinting in the light. ¡°Like all other children of Illatius, I started out by eating monster-steaks in the Arcanarium until my Wisdom and Intelligence skills got strong enough to hunt down really juicy answers for experience.¡± ¡°Have you already figured out why Dawn is so insistent that I go to Nemendias?¡± I asked. ¡°I have some theories,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°You¡¯re good at getting to the truth,¡± I exhaled. ¡°Mind sharing them?¡± ¡°Define her two core skills for me,¡± Lambert replied. ¡°Umm¡­ being a drawing and showing people what they¡¯re going to look like in the future?¡± I answered ponderously. ¡°Vitality and Luck?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°Extrapolating these skills across a thousand paintings linked together we can see that she¡¯s really hard to kill and also very good at gambling.¡± ¡°Good at gambling?¡± I laughed. ¡°Good at predicting the best possible path forward,¡± Lambert said. ¡°Dawn can see that going to Nemendias will be good for your future.¡± ¡°How am I getting in?¡± I asked. ¡°Fortunamancers don¡¯t always see such precise details,¡± Lambert waved his hand. ¡°She probably knows that being at Nemendias will be good for you, but she might not have a clue of how you¡¯ll get there.¡± ¡°Do you think that being at Nemendias will be good for me?¡± I asked. ¡°It will be good for our case,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°How so?¡± I inquired. ¡°Children of the Heroes study in Nemendias,¡± Lambert said. ¡°It is likely that we won¡¯t be able to reach them directly, so you might have to befriend their kids first.¡± ¡°They have f-f-freaking children?!¡± I stammered. The thought of a chimera cendai having kids with people had somehow never crossed my mind. ¡°It is a recent development - the second generation of Heroes is in full bloom. Were you not paying attention to what Antoine revealed when he saw you?¡± Lambert raised an eyebrow. ¡°I¡¯ve looked up the girl he spoke of - the one with monster-features and perfect grades. She¡¯s the eldest daughter of Baroness Amadea. Her name is Princess Agatha Amadea and it seems that she is perfectly positioned to inherit the Throne of the Empire.¡± ¡°What?¡± I sputtered. ¡°She¡¯s engaged to the crown prince of Emperor Bolsh the 2nd,¡± Lambert explained. ¡°Prince Licor Bolsh Terny.¡± I hiccuped. I heard wedding bell music in my head. The jubilant organ music slowly transitioned into a somber funeral March. The Basquenate Empire was sliding towards being completely, irrevocably ruled by chimera! Ch 43. Tunnels I received my Dawn-dress from Antoine in just three days. The artificer smiled widely as he handed her back to me. I noted that a set of my gems was now made into an extremely elaborate metal and glass necklace covered in runes and attached to the top of the dress. ¡°That looks nice¡­ do you think you can make more of these?¡± I asked. ¡°Absolutely,¡± Antoine nodded. ¡°The first one was hard to make, but now that I know exactly what to do it''ll be easier.¡± ¡°What did you do, specifically?¡± I asked. ¡°Trade secret,¡± the artificer winked at me. ¡°Fair enough,¡± I nodded. ¡°Can you at least tell me how long Dawn can remain active?¡± ¡°As long as she is in a mana-rich area, she will remain active. She will function for as long as her depictomancy circuits last,¡± Antoine replied. ¡°The artifact I¡¯ve made will survive far better than the canvas that she¡¯s painted on.¡± ¡°Is there a way I can make her canvas last longer?¡± I inquired. ¡°I¡¯ll answer all of your questions after my reward,¡± the artificer rubbed his thumb over the tip of the index finger in a ¡®Pay Me¡¯ gesture. "How much?" I asked. "Did Lambert already set your armaci up with an account?" "Yes," I nodded. The inspector took me to the bank a few days ago without any issues. "But, my salary hasn''t come in yet." "Hrrm. Do you have any more personal mana gems?" ¡°Always milking me for gems,¡± I sighed, sliding a crystalline-organic gem towards him. The ruby-gemstone vanished. ¡°You can hire a depictomancer to add more protection circuits to the canvas,¡± Antoine said. ¡°I can also add an artifact-type glass frame around her, but then she can¡¯t be a dress.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know any depictomancers,¡± I moped. ¡°You said you¡¯ve made that form-fitting clothing and armor that you¡¯re wearing. It¡¯s reinforced against phantoms, is it not?¡± Antoine asked. ¡°It is,¡± I nodded. ¡°Then you are clearly aware of the secret processes of reinforcing something soft and malleable,¡± Antoine said. ¡°You simply need to reinforce this dress against the effects of decay, not phantoms.¡± ¡°I see,¡± I pondered, thinking of my four-year long cendai-education. Perhaps I could cut a Strength thread out of my soul and add it to Dawn? ¡°I mostly work with hard surfaces,¡± Antoine waved his hands around his workshop. ¡°Metals and crystals are my specialty. As you can see there are no fabric artifacts for sale here.¡± I looked back at Antoine and at the door to his office behind him. Antoine knew things. He had materials and tools. He had a workshop. A metalworking workshop. ¡°Antoine¡­¡± I said. ¡°Yeeeees?¡± The artificer leaned towards me. ¡°I notice that you¡¯re running your shop by yourself. Are you perhaps looking for an¡­ apprentice?¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you already employed by the Lomb Constabulary? Do you really have the time to work in my shop?¡± Antoine asked. ¡°Not during the day,¡± I said. ¡°But I could make things for you at night, if you teach me how. To be completely honest, I would like a secure space to work on armor and weapons for myself.¡± ¡°Hrmmm¡­ apprentices aren¡¯t given space to work on their personal projects,¡± Antoine mulled. ¡°You¡¯re looking to rent my furnace and backroom?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I sighed. Antoine made a ¡®give me some coins¡¯ hand motion. ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll pay you in¡­ crystals,¡± I exhaled. ¡°Do you have a way to produce them on an ongoing basis?¡± The artificer inquired. ¡°Yes,¡± I admitted. ¡°Well, well, well, then I believe we have a deal,¡± the artificer stretched out his hand. I shook it. ¡°Come back in a couple of days, I¡¯ll clean out a space for you. It¡¯s rather¡­ messy in there now,¡± he said. ¡°You¡¯re staying in Lomb then?¡± Anniya asked as we stepped out of the shop. She was the one accompanying me to the shop today, as Lambert had some other work to do. ¡°I, uh¡­ I feel at ease here,¡± I said. ¡°I really like Lomb.¡± ¡°Am I hearing a¡­ but in there?¡± She asked, pushing her blonde hair out of her eyes. ¡°I want to see Undertown,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s dangerous to go there,¡± Anniya said. ¡°You could get hurt.¡± If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°You¡¯re going to Undertown,¡± Dawn commented from the dress. ¡°What?¡± Both Anniya and I looked at the dress in my hands. ¡°Someone¡¯s looking for you,¡± Dawn said. ¡°You must leave Lomb at once, draw their eyes away from here.¡± ¡°Are you certain? She¡¯s safe here,¡± Anniya muttered. ¡°Give me some of your mana for a clearer answer,¡± Dawn said. Anniya put her thumb onto the ruby gemstone pushing some of her mana into the painting. ¡°Anniya¡­ you will die if Juni stays in Lomb,¡± the future-Anniya answered. I gulped. . . . We had reconvened in Lambert¡¯s office atop of his tower. ¡°So,¡± the inspector stared at Dawn. ¡°The best path forward is for Juni and Yulia to leave town?¡± ¡°For now,¡± Dawn said. ¡°You can see her future?¡± Lambert inquired. ¡°How detailed is it? Do you know who wants to attack us?¡± ¡°I can see a path forward,¡± Dawn said. ¡°If Juni stays here, Anniya¡¯s path ends.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like this vagueness,¡± I groaned. ¡°Who¡¯s looking for me? Why?¡± ¡°My eyes aren¡¯t open all the time,¡± Dawn shrugged. ¡°I have only the vaguest sense of the future.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not the only one with high Luck stats,¡± Lambert closed his eyes. His finger was tapping on his armacus. ¡°Hrmmm¡­¡± Anniya and I looked nervously at the inspector. ¡°Right,¡± he sighed when he opened his eyes. ¡°Someone is looking for you¡­ and it''s best for us that they find you somewhere else lest they endanger my partner and my city.¡± ¡°Wow, fortune telling is imprecise,¡± I rolled my eyes. ¡°Pack your¡­ bag,¡± Lambert said. ¡°You¡¯re going on a trip to Undertown.¡± ¡°I can come back, right?¡± I mewled. ¡°You will come back¡­ after the danger passes,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°Anniya and I will gather more Dawn posters in the meanwhile.¡± I exhaled, my heart thrumming in my chest. The shadows at the back of my head were pleased. Grogtilda wanted to see her parents. . . . The caverns beneath the town were beautiful. I was relatively close to the surface so many of the caverns were lit by daylight and filled with wild grasses, flowers and mosses. Random, colorful plants and glowing fungi sprouted from dark crevasses reaching up to beams of light breaking from above. Underground lakes and grottoes were plentiful. Water filtered down from the rivers above, and dripped slowly and hollowly on the slick floor. Sometimes the ground beneath my feet was rocks. Sometimes it was glittering sand. Sometimes it was water. Sometimes the walls looked like they were carved by hand. Strange, ancient symbols or half-buried, decayed statues emerged from the gloom, greeting me. They looked like old gods, ideas and concepts that humanity had worshiped long ago in some distant age long past¡­ before Eunisii came from the Chasm to rule Illatius. I had already been down here many times, but I had never gone this far away from Lomb, never gone beyond the boundary of the city''s hex-beacon. I was already missing Antoine, Anniya and Lambert. The two weeks I spent in Lomb had been wonderful. I¡¯ve made friends. I found a workshop. I had an idea for a line of awesome dresses for a fashion show. And now I had to run away from it all because of some vague sense of doom, an indistinct vision of the terrible future, an understanding shared between Dawn and Lambert. ¡°I have to trust my friends,¡± I whispered mostly to myself. ¡°Everything is going to be okay,¡± Dawn said from my chest. I was wearing the dress I made beneath my nightcrawler armor. The eyes of the Astral Tree weren¡¯t that of a human. Dawn could see right through my armor, so I could keep her hidden. She advised me on the best path forward through the caverns, as my own armacus GPS was complete trash. I had tapped a map of Illatius in the Constabulary Tower with the Pathfinder spell earlier, stating that my destination is ¡°Undertown¡±. My armacus was currently giving me an extremely weak sense of direction to get to Undertown. It cut out very often and barely worked like the rest of my spells. Thankfully, I didn¡¯t need too much light since my chimera eyes were pretty good at seeing in the dim caverns. A small divers lantern sat atop of my nightcrawler helmet, courtesy of Antoine¡¯s shop. ¡°You¡¯re not alone,¡± Dawn added. ¡°I am still with you.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± I smiled. ¡°I have an urbex partner.¡± "Take the right path," Dawn advised. I had entered another gloomy tunnel. ¡°Do you know what this one is supposed to be?¡± I asked, pointing at a giant squid with wings and a single eye carved on a wall. The center of the eye looked like a very faded hexagram. ¡°What do you think would happen if I push mana into this wall carving?¡± ¡°It is best not to evoke a dead god,¡± Dawn said. ¡°Names and ideas have power. Not all things are nice. Not all gods are fair. Not all will be your friend. Most of the things in the Astral Ocean seek to consume, dominate or to destroy.¡± ¡°Maybe it¡¯s a nice squid-god,¡± I said. ¡°Doubtful,¡± Dawn huffed. ¡°What about you?¡± I asked. ¡°You don¡¯t like it when someone feeds you mana?¡± ¡°Well, it is nice to talk to you,¡± Dawn said with a sigh. ¡°But I don¡¯t crave power as much as¡­ some things. Ambiss made me at the end of her life. She poured all of her skills¡­ into me, made me swear a pact, gave me a mission. She didn¡¯t want to create a monster.¡± ¡°Are there others like you? Other paintings that can talk and see, learn and understand?¡± I asked. ¡°Some,¡± Dawn said. ¡°Most of them have pre-written responses. I might be unique. Ambiss didn¡¯t have any apprentices, didn¡¯t pass her depictomancy knowledge to others. She¡­ was very private and antisocial, spent most of her life in her workshop perfecting her craft and making more art.¡± ¡°And yet she made you to help people?¡± I asked. ¡°She made me because she was afraid of death,¡± Dawn replied. ¡°I woke up fully¡­ gained a true understanding of ¡®self¡¯ about a decade after her demise.¡± ¡°Is it just me or are you chattier?¡± I asked. ¡°This conversation seems like it''s treading dangerously close to revealing depictomancy secrets.¡± ¡°I am chattier because I¡¯m well-fed and I am learning from you¡­ plus you already bloody figured most of this stuff out,¡± Dawn said. ¡°Can you teach me depictomancy?¡± I asked. ¡°This is not the time and place for learning depictomancy,¡± Dawn replied. ¡°There are¡­ things that might be listening in.¡± ¡°Like the flying eye-squid? When will it be the right time?¡± I probed. ¡°When you open my eyes at Nemendias,¡± she replied. ¡°Fiiiiine,¡± I groaned. ¡°Let''s talk about something else then. This tunnel is dark and unnerving. I feel like the squid-eye is staring at me.¡± ¡°What¡¯s an urbex partner?¡± Dawn asked. ¡°I have never heard anyone use this word before.¡± ¡°An urbexer is someone who explores dark and spooky places,¡± I said. ¡°Like a Dungeon Diver?¡± the painting inquired. ¡°Kinda,¡± I replied. ¡°The vital difference is that an urbexer isn¡¯t searching for treasure or beast cores.¡± ¡°Then what does an urbexer search for?¡± Dawn inquired. ¡°The thrill of finding beauty in darkness and ruin,¡± I said. ¡°Pleasure from observation and discovery of long-forgotten, spooky things.¡± ¡°You enjoy¡­ this wet, dark cave?¡± ¡°Immensely,¡± I smiled. ¡°Just look at this squid-thing! Isn¡¯t it awesome?¡± ¡°You just said that it¡¯s unnerving,¡± Dawn commented. ¡°Which is it?¡± ¡°Both,¡± I grinned. ¡°The fact that it¡¯s unnerving only makes me more excited.¡± ¡°There¡¯s something very wrong with you,¡± Dawn summarized her understanding of me. I laughed. The tunnel in front of me became smaller, tighter. I leaned down, scraping the ceiling with my helmet. The tight passage led me to a rocky outcropping. ¡°W¡­ what is this place?¡± I gasped when I looked down.
[You have arrived at your destination]
the armacus declared. ¡°Welcome to Undertown,¡± Dawn whispered. Ch 44. Undertown
I stared at the scene before me in amazement. A gargantuan cavern sprawled out in all directions with basalt stalagmite and stalactite columns as tall as skyscrapers supporting a distant, dark ceiling. Waterfalls came down from high above, breaking apart into mist and adding to the moisture hanging in the air. Pale Chasm clouds rolled between the stone columns, lighting the cave up from within. A massive city was chaotically sprawled out beneath me, favela-style buildings surrounding stalagmite columns. A dirty-looking, green-brown river flowed between the base of the buildings that randomly spouted on little rocky islands like fungi growths. The city was not designed by a single architect, it was pure undiluted mayhem of random jumble of colors and flickering lights. Rafts and fishing boats that looked like they were made from trash lazily moved down the river. Grimy, dark bridges made from irregular-shape debris and old logs formed connections between islands. ¡°Undertown¡­¡± I exhaled. I was seeing this place for the first time, but some deep part of my soul recognized this place and rejoiced at the view. ¡°The city of debitors and criminal gangs,¡± Dawn muttered. My sharp chimera eyes focused on the streets below me, spotting little details. A hex-beacon shined in the distance. The tower bearing it looked as grimy as the rest of the city. Perhaps long ago the Constabulary Station was white, but now it was covered in layers of filth and grime, leaning to one side and practically buried in slums. The city beneath me was alive. It breathed and moved all over like a massive anthill. Smoke wafted from burning fires and candles. Figures of all shapes and sizes dressed in dirty, colorful robes crowded the streets and bridges. Children played with random detritus. An old man was hanging his very stained laundry out to dry. An open-air restaurant was serving lime-green noodles, the chef smoking something akin to a blue cigar. I unlocked my mask belts, pulling the helmet slightly away to smell the flavors of the city. It was a mistake. A million smells had assaulted me, smashed into my sensitive chimera nose all at once. Far too many of them were overbearingly unpleasant. The stench of human sweat and excrement was mixed with the smell of garbage. The river smelled the worst, like something had died and festered in it for a thousand years. I coughed and gagged, nearly throwing up. ¡°Eghagh, the smell,¡± I sputtered, pulling the mask back on. ¡°What were you expecting?¡± Dawn asked. ¡°All of the sewage and trash from Illatius converges down here.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t Illatius supposed to be the shining gemstone of the Empire or something?¡± I hissed out trying not to throw up inside of my mask. ¡°Oh it is,¡± Dawn said. ¡°This is the place they don¡¯t show foreign dignitaries and tourists. There are no brothels, no beggars, no homeless and no poor in Illatius. Everything that¡¯s unsightly is swept, washed away into this this place. Undertown is home to the downtrodden. Once you end down here there is no way back to the surface.¡± ¡°I just walked from the surface,¡± I commented. ¡°Because you have an armacus,¡± Dawn said. ¡°Try taking it off and climbing up. You¡¯ll feel like your skin is peeling off. The capital is shielded against destitute chaff by its hex-beacons.¡± ¡°I see,¡± I muttered darkly. ¡°Look at those ramshackle houses,¡± the painting commented. ¡°There¡¯s no law in Undertown, no order and tons upon tons of magical refuse. It¡¯s the perfect place for you to hide for a bit.¡± ¡°Looks like it¡¯s the perfect place to get robbed or stabbed,¡± I commented nervously, noticing a whole gang of black-hooded hoodlums assaulting a fat, old vendor on the distant street with some home-made batons. ¡°Yet again, you have an armacus,¡± Dawn said. ¡°Which means what?¡± ¡°Not just any cheap, old armacus. You have a palladium magisteel armacus, my dear. Very expensive. It practically declares you untouchable.¡± ¡°How?¡± ¡°There are different metals and hexagram foci to each armacus. For example, the rich Mercantiles wear gold ones. Yours declares you as the ''lawmen faction''. All you need to do down here is to show your pretty bracelet, and you can have as much fun as you want.¡± ¡°Fun like?¡± ¡°Down here you have the means to buy, play with or even kill someone and get away with it,¡± Dawn said. ¡°The armacus-bearers come down here to play.¡± ¡°What?¡± I growled. ¡°All of the stuff that¡¯s illegal up above is big business down here,¡± the painting explained. ¡°Brothels, Topaz dens, Gambling parlors, Slave Rings, Fighter Coliseums, etcetera.¡± ¡°How do you even know about these things?¡± I sputtered. ¡°A few of me are hanging in those questionable-looking towers,¡± the painting replied, her tone filled with spikes of anger and dismay. ¡°The local constables are practically owned by the Guilds. I¡¯ve seen far too much wickedness down here. Sometimes¡­ they make me watch. They find my reactions amusing.¡± ¡°I see,¡± my eye twitched. ¡°What do you think about all of this then?¡± ¡°These people can¡¯t be helped,¡± Dawn said. ¡°I tried¡­ they just don¡¯t listen. None of them want my advice. I¡¯d like you to remove my posters from the local stations, please. I can¡¯t bear watching their grotesque deeds anymore.¡± ¡°They would just let me take the posters?¡± I asked. ¡°Just act important and tell anyone who asks¡­ that the posters expired and that you¡¯ll bring in new ones later¡­ after some fun at the Dens,¡± the painting said. ¡°Only acknowledge people with shiny armaci. Ignore everyone else. If a lowborn doesn¡¯t want to get out of your way or bothers you, repulse them.¡± ¡°Repulse them?¡± ¡°Check your armacus,¡± Dawn said. I did. There was a new spell there.
[Repulsor] <
[Wide beam]
[Focused beam]
¡°Why is there no level to this spell?! What¡¯s the difference between a Wide and a Focused beam?¡± I blinked in confusion. ¡°It¡¯s basically a nerve-stinger-type repelling field. Crowd control for the unwashed masses,¡± Dawn clarified. ¡°The beam is shot from the nearest hex-beacon tower and redirected through the armacus. Pressing the trigger will drop everyone within thirty elbows of you with the Wide setting or knock someone down from afar with the Focused setting. It¡¯s not lethal but it¡¯s very painful from what I saw. The Guilders like to use it to torture people.¡± If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°So my armacus has a weapon,¡± I said darkly. ¡°One that¡¯s available to the rich and powerful only in Undertown,¡± Dawn added. "Lambert wouldn''t let you go down here without protection." ¡°Why haven¡¯t Annya or Lambert told me any of this stuff?¡± I huffed. ¡°I feel like this would have been important to know ahead of time.¡± ¡°Because they¡¯re good people,¡± the painting muttered. ¡°Law-abiding humans like them either don¡¯t know everything about this place or like to pretend that it doesn''t exist to keep their conscience clean.¡± ¡°Lambert knows about Undertown,¡± I insisted. ¡°He subsists on secrets and mysteries.¡± ¡°Yes, but I know more than he does about this place, so he asked me to protect you,¡± Dawn said. ¡°I¡¯m guiding you on his orders.¡± ¡°Right,¡± I nodded. ¡°I do appreciate your guidance.¡± ¡°I just wish that I could do more,¡± the painting sighed. ¡°This place is a festering cesspool of sin and vice.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure that there are some good people down here,¡± I said. ¡°There are,¡± Dawn replied. ¡°But they¡¯re powerless and victimized by the bad ones.¡± ¡°Is that why you¡¯re guiding me?¡± I asked. ¡°Because you think that I can make a difference?¡± ¡°I think that you have the future potential to make a difference,¡± the painting said. ¡°You¡¯re not like anyone I''ve talked to before. You understood what I am pretty quickly.¡± I was silent for a moment, contemplating the painting¡¯s words. ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± I finally said, breaking the silence. A wet, moss covered stairwell led me from the stone outcropping down onto the street. As I entered into the ramshackle marketplace, I felt that my armacus started to pulsate with power. The level of the [Repulsor] wasn''t defined, but I definitely knew that it was there now. All I had to do to knock people away from me was activate the spell. I had practiced with the armacus while walking through the caves and discovered that I could activate any of its spells by touching the concealed trigger with one of my soul-threads. The people around me seemed to move away from me, making plenty of room for me to pass, some scrambling out of my way rather quickly. They must have noticed the thrumming power of the armacus warning-pulse. As I walked down the street paved with compacted refuse, I felt that I was akin to a shark cutting through a school of fish. I looked around the market as I walked briskly. I wasn''t even sure where I was going. The streets of Undertown were a labyrinth without any sort of labels, crowded with dead-end ghettos and favelas sitting precariously atop each other. Living space was randomly mixed with crowded street-shops. A stall on my left was selling something that looked like black, oily squids. The shop on my right featured roasted rats on a stick. I blanched, not feeling experimental. My chimera stomach could digest all sorts of monsters with ease, but I had gotten used to Lomb crepes. The smell alone would likely make me puke without even attempting to sample the local food. "This isn''t the way to the station," Dawn commented as I aimlessly traversed through Undertown. "Do you know where you''re going?" "No," I said. "I have no idea where I am going... but I feel like I''m heading somewhere important. What does your future-sense say?¡± ¡°You¡¯re on an¡­ interesting path,¡± Dawn commented. ¡°Alright then,¡± I muttered. I had traversed over several crooked, trash-bridges and started to climb uphill, towards the part of the city that circled the gargantuan rising stalactite column. The streets started to feel oddly familiar, as did the people. I stopped in front of a building that looked like it was about to collapse. The front was leaning precariously to one side, part of it hanging in the air. I could see the dirty, green-algae covered river below through the cracks in the makeshift, slapdash foundation. [ShoEmEker MiSeM] a crooked, hand painted sign declared. A large, lopsided drawing of a shoe was visible on a rotting, old board. "Ah... I see where you brought me," I looked up at the derelict-looking building. A small group of kids had spotted me and scattered like fleeting, terrified kittens, their eyes wide with panic. I entered the old workshop. It was musty and moldy inside. The only source of light came from a small, barred window. An empty, grimy workbench stood idly in the corner. Cobwebs and empty bottles were omnipresent. Judging by the panicked reactions of the kids, I wasn''t going to get much of a conversation here with my current body. I put my bag down, quickly stepped into Saccy, grabbed Grogtilda''s body and switched my consciousness out of my chimera self. "Hey what... you have two bodies?" Dawn asked. "Yes," I replied. "Be back in a bit." "Mkay," the painting said. I didn''t say anything else, leaving her inside of Saccy. For some reason, this moment felt personal, pivotal and I didn''t want Dawn getting in the way. I put Saccy back on my shoulders and stepped out of the workshop as Grogtilda and started to walk further uphill. I didn''t know where I was going, but Grogtilda''s body wanted to be there, so I let her. My human body from Undertown didn¡¯t seem to mind the smell. In fact, she couldn''t smell much at all. I guessed that having no sense of smell came with being born down here. I walked up a few more crooked, wet stairwells, weaving between old, broken buildings. I didn''t think that this place could get worse and yet it did - the buildings here were absolutely decrepit. I stopped in front of a house that was half carved from old basalt stone and half random junk and refuse. "Lic, when are you going to stop drinking and get back to work?" A female voice screeched from its innards. My body flinched at her voice. Grogtilda was afraid of... her mom? "I''mrr just traaying to relax," a gruff man''s voice, presumably Lic, replied. "You''ve been saying that for months," the woman accused. "You''re getting addicted to blueshine. You think I don''t see that your face is all bloated and blue? It''s time to let it go and start working. Our daughter''s not coming back. The damned Guilders killed her, sent her into the Dungeon with an inexperienced guide!" "I know, I know," Lic muttered. "You need to move on," the woman said. "We need to pay the Guild. You smell like rot." "I''ll get to it," Lic hiccuped. "I jussst need to rrelax. I¡¯ll get to it soon." I stepped to the rotting door covered in blue mold and knocked. "Who is it?" The woman screeched. ¡°S¡¯my friends,¡± Lic mumbled. ¡°We goin¡¯ to the docks soon to catch some squids¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯re a shit liar, Lic. Piss off, he ain¡¯t gon¡¯ drink with you! Take your shine elsewhere!¡± Grogtilda¡¯s mother screeched. I found it difficult to speak and tried to turn the handle. It was locked from within with a rusted iron bolt. The door handle groaned. "Lic, go to the door!" She barked. ¡°Tell em to piss off!¡± I heard movement from inside and the door opened as the bolt slid away. A man who looked like he was in his mid forties stood in the doorway. He was wearing a pair of dirty overalls and a very soiled undershirt. His eyes were red and puffy, his cheeks bloated and his skin had a faint blue tinge. He looked like he hadn''t shaved in months and his black hair was greasy. "H-how... c-can I help you, excellency?" He stammered, his voice slurred. He was staring at my polished, leather boots, terrified to meet my eyes. He must have felt the pulse of my armacus as he opened the door. "I am but a lowly cobbler... m-my life isn''t worth much. P-please have mercy. M-my daughter died recently and I haven¡¯t been p-payin¡¯ the G-guild f-fee¡­" "Dad," my lips whispered. "I''m home." Lic''s eyes slowly moved up my body, taking in my leather armor. He stopped at my face and his eyes widened in disbelief. "Grogs... is that really you?" I nodded, not trusting myself to say more. "It can''t be," he muttered, his eyes tearing up. "My baby girl is dead. The Guilders killed her¡­" He pinched his arm and yelped, then looked at me once again. "No, I''m alive," I said. "I''m back. I''m home." "Grogs?" Lic''s voice cracked. "You''re really alive? Yous not just a shine dream?" "Yes," I nodded, my eyes tearing up. "Oh my baby girl," Lic sobbed, wrapping me in a very weak, shaking embrace. I felt awkward and out of place, but the dancing shadows at the back of my mind were finally satisfied. Grogtilda had brought me to her parents, hoping that I could help them, knowing that her father would suffer if she was gone forever. "I thought you were dead," Lic muttered. "I thought you wez¡¯ gone." "I... I am gone," I finally said. "What do you mean?" Lic asked, his black eyes narrowing in confusion. "I''m not the same person I was before," I explained. "I''ve changed. I''m not the little girl you used to know. I can barely remember you. I got hurt in the Dungeon and¡­ became changed by it." Lic''s eyes darted to the armacus on my hand and then back at my face. "I see," he muttered, his eyes swimming in tears. ¡°S¡¯alright¡­ you¡¯re home Grogs¡­ yous rr¡¯ home. You¡¯re not a shine-dream¡­? You are really my Grogs?¡± "No," I shook my head. "I''m not a dream. I¡¯m¡­ your daughter. I just... I can''t really remember much. I''m sorry¡­ dad." "Lic! Who are you talking to out there?!" The female voice screeched. "Another one of your moonshine pals? Tell em to go suck on a squid and get back inside!" "No, it''s... it''s our daughter," Lic called back. "She''s finally back! She''s alive!" "What?" The woman''s voice sputtered. "Are you seeing things again? I told you to drink less shine, you tit!" "I... I probably am seein some thingss," Grogtilda''s father mumbled, pulling me into the trash-filled house. "She''s a highborn lawmans now! Got a genuine armaca n¡¯ everything!" Ch 45. Breakfast
¡°Lic, have you lost your blithering mind?¡± Grogtilda¡¯s mother barked from behind a wall of junk. She must have felt the warning-pulse of the armacus, because she fell silent. ¡°M-my apologies, your esteemedness, my husband is a drunkard and an imbecile,¡± she stammered. ¡°He can¡¯t tell the difference between a lawman and a¡­¡± Lic and I had finally circled a ceiling-high pile of garbage. I stared into the blue-tinted, bloated face of a very rotund, brown haired woman that was occupying a rotting, old couch. ¡°Ave Eunisii¡­¡± she gasped, her face growing pale as if she¡¯d seen a ghost. Her mouth fell open in shock. ¡°It cannot be!¡± She was of a clear state of mind, not drunk like Lic. Her green eyes darted to my armacus and then horror and fear replaced the expression of shock. Her mouth looked like she was silently whispering something as all of her chins trembled in terror. ¡°You can see her?¡± Lic looked at his wife and then at me. ¡°She¡¯s real?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± the woman on the couch whispered. ¡°She¡¯s real.¡± ¡°My daughter¡¯s a lawman!¡± Lic declared jubilantly, hugging me harder than before. ¡°My daughter is FREE! Nandine, we have to celebrate this! We have to have a street-party, invite everyone! Our little girl is alive and she¡¯s back!¡± He rejoiced, waving his hands excitedly. ¡°Tomorrow,¡± Nandine said. ¡°It is late. The clouds have dimmed. I bet¡­ our daughter is tired after her long journey back home.¡± I nodded. I had only walked for about an hour uphill in Grogtilda¡¯s body and my leg muscles were already screaming. I had also noticed a craving for something, a very specific desire for relief. I thought about it and realized that I wanted to drink the pearlescent fluid from Saccy¡¯s tied up bud. My Topaz sap-addicted body wanted to relieve the pain and misery and frustration at the visible despair and deterioration all around me. Undertown was an awful place, a nightmare of a life. Roaches, spiders and moths were scattering away from the garbage piles all around me. ¡°Come, come,¡± Lic nodded, pulling me away from the aghast-looking woman on the couch. ¡°Rest, relax, you are finally home. I¡¯ll have a goodly nap myself, clear my h-head and we¡¯ll talk in the m-morning.¡± He led me on a tight path through the forest of trash to a room deep in the stone part of the house. The room was small and had a tiny slit for a window and a single, thin, slightly torn up cot filled with something that looked like dried seaweed. Stammering apologies Lic cleared random refuse and moldy-looking fabrics from the cot. The room was quickly becoming pitch black as the Chasm-clouds outside dimmed. ¡°Good night¡­ my little kitten,¡± he said softly, sliding a lopsided door into place, sealing me in the tiny, confining, refuse filled, stone room. I looked through the tiny slit window. The clouds have grown dim, obscuring the cavern. Undertown favelas were still lit with candles and flickering, weak crystal lights. A black, gothic, extremely unkempt station tower stood in the distance, the beacon shimmering atop it like the Eye of Sauron. The radiance of the grime and mildew-covered hex-beacon cast sinister-looking refractions on the gloomy clouds. I looked away from the window with a sigh. Thousands of insects and tiny critters scattered across the room in the dark. ¡°Yeah, no,¡± I blanched as I glanced at the small, dirty, uncomfortable-looking cot. Feeling extremely grossed out, I put Saccy down on the somewhat clear section of the floor and climbed inside, shutting the petals tight behind me. I went down a rope ladder past a net filled with various tools and weapons and got into a lovely camping hammock that I had purchased in Lomb. I reached out to the second hammock hanging nearby, grabbed my chimera arm and closed my eyes. I emerged from Saccy as Juni and listened in. The nightcrawler helmet was designed to amplify sound, so I could hear things quite easily with my large chimera ears. I heard hushed voices of the Misem couple straight through the shoddy walls and piles of junk. "I still can''t believe it! Our little girl is back¡­" Lic whispered. "It''s not her, you blighted, old coot," Nadine whispered, her voice cold. "Whatever do you mean, Nani?" Lic asked. ¡°It is her. She''s a little blue and her hair is a shade lighter, but I recognize the line of birthmarks over her eyebrow.¡± ¡°It is easy to reshape a face with magic,¡± the woman sighed. ¡°Easy to adjust or to steal someone¡¯s face with biomancy. With enough money anything is possible.¡± ¡°Money?¡± The shoemaker mumbled. ¡°She has an armacus. I was an adventurer once,¡± the woman said. ¡°I had one too. It wasn¡¯t anywhere as fancy though. Hers is genuine magisteel, plated with palladium. Do you know how expensive a palladium-type armacus is, Lic?¡± ¡°No,¡± Grogtilda¡¯s dad whispered hoarsely. ¡°Over a hundred thousand obliss, if my memory serves me right,¡± Nandine said. ¡°Could be a lot more more now as I haven''t been to the surface in two decades.¡± ¡°W-what?!¡± Lic gasped. I whistled mentally. Antoine certainly gave me the best possible armaci he could make. I needed to thank him later for it. I didn¡¯t know that Lambert and Antoine had spent over 200¡¯000 obliss on me¡­ but then again my crystalline-organic gems were practically priceless for the artificer. ¡°That armacus is worth as much as a small apartment up in Illatius,¡± Nandine hissed. "Down here it''s priceless, unobtainable!" Lic gulped. ¡°There is no way our girl could be wearing it,¡± she added. ¡°I know that she looks like our daughter, Lic¡­ but she¡¯s not. It¡¯s just not possible. Nobody ascends from below. No lowborn can escape their class or rid themselves of the debitor¡¯s tattoo to get an armacus.¡± Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°Who do you think she is then?¡± The old cobbler mumbled, his voice filled with fear. ¡°A magistrate''s or the prosecutor''s daughter maybe? Maybe a child of a very rich inspector? Those Nemendias assholes have ¡®achievement missions¡¯ for ¡®gold crests¡¯. Maybe she¡¯s on one. One does not get to wear a palladium armacus without belonging to the lawmaker class.¡± ¡°You¡¯re certain it¡¯s real?¡± Lic mumbled. ¡°Of course it¡¯s real. Bugs and mice are already fleeing from our home. They are terrified of the Repulser¡¯s song,¡± Nandine hissed. ¡°Do you not feel it tugging at your heartstrings?¡± ¡°What do we do?¡± Lic uttered, his voice filled with desperation. ¡°We endure,¡± Nandine said quietly. ¡°I don¡¯t know why this highborn mageling is wearing our daughter¡¯s face¡­ but it¡¯s all just a game for them.¡± ¡°W-what?¡± the cobbler stammered quietly. ¡°Are we in danger?¡± ¡°Not you, obviously,¡± the ex-adventurer said. ¡°We are filth, dirt, nobodies. We are worth nothing, Lic. Not unless¡­ one of them still remembers me, saw me down here, recognized me¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s been fifteen years since I pulled you in the river though. Why would they bother to find you now?¡± ¡°If she¡¯s a powerful lawmaker''s daughter¡­ she might be here to execute someone who crossed a line or went against some magistrate¡¯s plans upstairs. Once her job is done she¡¯ll leave Undertown and we¡¯ll never see our daughter¡¯s face again,¡± Nandine whispered. ¡°We could pretend that we¡¯re her parents. She might even give us a few obliss, but I doubt it¡­ Our girl is dead, Lic. She¡¯s not coming back.¡± Lic¡¯s choking breath drowned in the sobs of a man who had lost his daughter for a second time. I closed my eyes. Grogtilda¡¯s mother had figured me out. Perhaps I shouldn''t have worn the armacus¡­ but then again it was driving local roaches and lice away from me. I didn¡¯t want to be feasted upon by a thousand insects. The shadows in the back of my head thrummed in misery. I didn¡¯t know what to do. The bracelet kept me safe in Undertown but it also disconnected me from Grogtilda¡¯s parents, placing me far too high above them in unreachable heights. I couldn''t bear to listen to the old cobbler¡¯s tears much longer. I went back into Saccy and shut the entrance. ¡°Quite an interesting¡­ family you have down here,¡± Dawn commented from my dress. ¡°You can hear them too?¡± I sighed. ¡°This window into the world has exceptional senses, thanks to your arithmancer magnifying all my senses with this¡­ magitek contraption of his,¡± the painted girl nodded. ¡°Is there nothing I can do for them?¡± I mumbled. ¡°Right now? I doubt it. At best you can help them clean up a little. It¡¯s going to be hard to change your mother¡¯s mindset about you. Such is the fate of all the local unfortunates - they are just toys for the aristocracy.¡± ¡°I¡¯m honestly feeling very defeated and drained right now,¡± I muttered. ¡°Am I going to get attacked anytime soon?¡± ¡°No,¡± the painting replied. ¡°We have thrown the trackers off your trail, for now.¡± ¡°Fine,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ve seen enough of Undertown. I¡­ think I¡¯m going to sleep in both of my bodies until morning. Wake me up when the clouds light up the city or if someone comes near Saccy.¡± I joined Grogtilda in another camping bed and closed my eyes, sending myself halfway into a Still trance. . . . "Wake up, my little crystal-monster, a new day dawns," Dawn sang loudly. "Your... human parents are awake." I groggily yawned and relocated my consciousness into Grogtilda, climbing out of Saccy. The room was now completely free of insects thanks to the pulse cast by the armacus, but it was still a horrid, disgusting mess. I unfurled my armacus and started to fire [Identify] at various things littering the small room.
[A crumpled up paper] [A wooden plank] [Glass bottle shards] [A dirty, raggedy dress] [A pair of torn up trousers] [A half eaten apple]
I winced. The apple had been nibbled on by rats and was rotting. I folded the armacus back into a bracelet and started to clean up the room as best as I could. I ripped the old cot open and turned it into a large bag, then I gathered all the trash into it and moved it into a corner, compacting it with my boot. Grogtilda''s inability to smell anything was my advantage here. I opened the door to the living room and looked down the narrow path of refuse. I could hear Lic and Nadine arguing in hushed tones. I sighed as I continued my work on clearing the house. I was no stranger to cleaning up - I had always kept the house my grandfather left me in Donetsk completely spotless. Pavel''s grandmother had been a hoarder just like Grogtilda''s parents and about once every year I helped him clean up her junk-stuffed house. As I cleaned the house of the Misems, I admired the different things I found. The trash wasn''t exactly like that of my earth - there were no plastic bags or bottles here. Everything in Illatius had been made with magitek artefacts and some items had been clearly somehow mass-produced with magic. I had used the armacus to identify anything that looked remotely interesting.
[A pocket watch with a shattered crystal core] [A brass key] [A sword hilt] [A mouldy self-reading kids book] [A power-hammer¡¯s handle] [An old, rusted self-cooking skillet] [A moth eaten blanket] [A pillow with a hole in it] [A broken dish] [A self-cleaning broken bowl]
I shoved whatever seemed magical into Saccy for further examination later. I wanted to know how the local magitek stuff worked and taking things like broken pocket watches, self-reading books or self-cleaning bowls completely apart into their components and hexagrams seemed like a fun thing to do in the future. I had finished cleaning about a quarter of the living room when Grogtilda''s parents walked in. "Good morning!" Lic said, beaming at me. He didn¡¯t look drunk and he noticed the clean corner. "...you''ve been busy." "Good morning," I replied. "I just wanted to help out a bit." "That''s unusually... kind of you," Nandine said, her voice hostile and cold as ice. "We appreciate it." It didn''t seem like she appreciated my presence here one bit. She, unlike Lic, looked twitchy. Her eyes were red and puffy, blue veins on her neck looking engorged. Did she perhaps take some Topaz at night or just didn¡¯t sleep? She was holding herself up on thick, dirty, wooden crutches as there was something wrong with her legs. "Grogs, do you want breakfast?" Lic asked. "Sure, dad," I nodded with a smile. Grogtilda''s father led me to the kitchen. The cooking area was tiny and cramped, mostly due to more garbage surrounding a small stove. Lic set a questionable-looking pot onto the stove to heat it up. Then he pulled out something from a small icebox in the corner. "Is that...?" I eyed the thing he was holding suspiciously. "Squid from the river!" Lic smiled. "Your favourite. I''ll fry it up just like you like!" I tried not to blanche at the trash all around as Lic started to work on the squid. "Do sit down," Nandine said, slowly limping into the kitchen and gesturing to a small, crooked, messy wooden table. I looked at the table and pushed everything off it into a tied-up, filthy shirt that I had converted into a garbage bag. Then I did the same for the counters. Lic winced. Nandine looked gloomier than a cloud. The rotund woman sat down across from me, the small chair groaning under her. "So," she said, looking at my armacus. "You''re a lawman?" "Yes," I replied. "I''m a Free Agent of the Lomb Constabulary." "What might a Lomb Agent be doing in Undertown?" "I came to see you," I said. "Why else would I be down here?" "I see," Nandine replied briskly. The atmosphere in the kitchen grew more hostile with every minute of silence that stretched on between us. Lic was busy wrestling with the slippery squid. Something inside me pulled at me. I got up and walked to him, assisting him with the preparation and cleaning. As I did, I noticed that he was smiling. "I really missed this, daddy," my lips whispered with a soft smile as my hands wrapped him in a familial embrace. Lic hiccuped. "I-I''m glad you''re back, my little girl," he said, his voice cracking. "I thought I''d lost you forever." "I''m sorry, I didn''t come earlier," I replied, my voice gentle. I felt Nandine''s hostile glare cutting into my back. Lic noticed it and gulped, his posture drooping. Something in me snapped. I spun around and stared at her. "Seriously! What is your problem... mom? Aren''t you going to help us with breakfast?" "You are not my daughter," she hissed out, her swollen, crust-filled eyes glaring at me with contempt and hate. Ch 46. Upworld treasure
"Oh?" I tilted my head, staring the rotund woman down. "Then pray tell, who do you think I am, mom?" "A highborn mageling! One of the upworld bastards from Nemendias that broke my legs and cast me down here!" She snarled. ¡°Just do what you came here for and leave! Stop torturing my poor husband!¡± "Nani!" Lic yelled, slamming his fist onto the stove. "Stop! It is her! It has to be! She''s cooking with me just like we used to! I¡¯m not drunk today, I can see that she¡¯s our Grogs!¡± "You''re an old alcoholic," Nandine sighed. "And an utter moron who can''t see the truth. Sometimes I wish I''d drowned that day instead of meeting you." I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. This wasn''t going to be easy. "Mom, I''m here to help you and dad," I said slowly. "You think I''m here to hurt you or something?" "I know you''re here to hurt someone or you wouldn''t be wearing that bloody, fancy-ass armacus," Nandine replied. "Let''s drop the charade, constable. You''re breaking my husband''s poor heart. Just tell him you''re not our Grogs." "I am Grogs," I said sternly. ¡°No, you are not! My daughter''s dead!¡± Nandine yelled. ¡°You stole her face!¡± ¡°Then why would I have this?¡± I unclipped the belts at the front of the leather dungeon-diver¡¯s armor revealing the dark, pyramidal debitor¡¯s tattoo on my chest. The slight smell of rotting eggs emanated from it. ¡°This proves nothing!¡± The woman growled. ¡°She¡¯s our daughter, Nani! A tattoo that old cannot be faked!¡± Lic insisted. Anything can be faked with powerful enough magic!¡± Nandine shook her head resolutely. "I am¡­" I opened my mouth. ¡°By Saint Eunissi! Just bloody tell us why you are here!¡± She screamed, her face red. I huffed angrily, pulling the chest plate back on. A small flash of memory manifested itself in my mind. The kitchen clean. Lic and Nandine thin and hugging each other. Me... no, Grogtilda as a little girl laughing at their jokes. "This place used to be presentable, clean!" I barked, diving out of the memory offered by the dancing shadows. "Year by year you allowed yourself to sink below Undertown, below where you fell! There''s magic all around you, opportunity to be grabbed by the scruff... you don''t see it because you''ve given up!" "You can''t tell me how to live my life, mageling." Nandine shook her head. "You are not my daughter! My daughter died in the accursed Folding Forest!" "I am your daughter," I said firmly. "I''m... everything that was left of Grogs after three months inside of a Folding Seed sucking at my brain and soul. I''m sorry I didn''t come sooner. I''m sorry I didn''t try harder to find you. I''m here now. I''m going to fix all of this. I can take you out of this place. I can bring you up to Lomb, rent a farmhouse for us! You don''t have to stay in Undertown!" "Never," Nandine spat. "I will NEVER go to the surface. Not after what those bitches from Nemendias did to me. Did they hire you to check up on me... to find and to torment me with hope, only to bring me down, to hurt me further?" "Grogs, we can''t move to the surface," Lic said softly. "I was born in Undertown - my family and friends are all here. Don''t waste your money on us, please. You might have gotten out¡­ but we cannot leave our home." "She is not Grogs! Stop calling her that!" Nandine hissed. "She is obviously one of them upworlder sluts, sent here to torment me!" "No," I shook my head. "If you won''t leave, then I''m helping you clean up this place. Room by room, house by house, street by street." "Ha!" Nandine laughed. "You think you can just clean up Undertown?" "Yes," I said. "Really? How?" the corpulent woman laughed. I lifted my armacus and the weapon unfurled itself from a silver bracelet into the shape of a gun. "I am the law," I said and Grogtilda''s mother paled at the heart-throbbing pulse coming from the weapon. "But¡­ I am not the law of the corrupt bastards who let this place rot and fester. I''m a little girl from Undertown who died and found herself alive again through improbable luck. I am the voice of change. I am a spark of a firestorm that''s going to burn everything vile and plant a forest down here." "A forest?" Nandine sputtered, clearly not impressed by my declarations. I turned back to Lic who looked just as terrified and pale. "But now, I''m going to make the best, damnedest fried squid with my dad," I smiled softly. "...and nobody is going to stop me. Not you¡­ mom, not the Emperor of the Basq and certainly not the fake goddess whose name you keep bringing up." The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Nandine fell silent at my declaration, looking too enraged to even say anything. I ignored her, focusing on the cooking. My hands knew exactly what to do. . . . Breakfast had been filling, albeit a bit plain because Grogtilda¡¯s senses have been considerably dull in comparison to my chimera taste buds. I ate the fried squid with Lic sitting at the front of the house. Chasm clouds rolled through Undertown, painting it with pink shades of sunrise. If I squinted my eyes I could imagine that I was seeing the real sun somewhere among the clouds. The Dungeon was damn good at deceptions like these. Nandine had chosen to stay inside, refusing to even talk to me after my declarations of blasphemy. She was a big believer in Saint Eunisii or whatever. Dismantling Eunissism was going to be a truly gargantuan challenge and I had no clue as to how I would begin to tackle it. Fighting every single person who believed and convincing them that Eunice wasn''t a god seemed impossible¡­ just like cleaning up Undertown. I sighed, looking at the streets made from and filled with random junk. Even more junk was floating down the river, coming down from Illatius. The people upstairs had a simple solution to trash - just dump it into the sewers for the Undertown denizens to enjoy. I saw that there were many boats assembled from random debris that were fishing newly-arrived junk out of the brown-green river. ¡°So¡­¡± I looked at Lic. ¡°You fished mom from the river fifteen years ago?¡± ¡°Yep,¡± he nodded and looked at me. ¡°I¡¯ve told you the story so many times¡­¡± ¡°Well, please tell it again because the damned Folding Forest sucked most of my brains out,¡± I sighed. ¡°I¡¯ll have to re-learn everything about Undertown, so bear with me.¡± The old cobbler looked at me with slight suspicion. ¡°Dad, I¡¯m not leaving,¡± I said. ¡°You aren¡¯t?¡± ¡°Not anytime soon,¡± I shook my head resolutely. ¡°Why?¡± He asked. ¡°Because, I am appalled at what''s happening down here,¡± I waved my hand at the favelas. ¡°This¡­ it''s all wrong. None of it needs to be this way.¡± ¡°Which way?¡± He tilted his head, swallowing another squid bite. ¡°The way it¡¯s organized!¡± I snapped. ¡°Nothing here is orderly, nothing is clean. This could be a processing, recycling and organizing facility instead of a cesspit of random trash. There is so much magic in the ground and air and none of it is being used properly!¡± ¡°They won¡¯t allow change,¡± Lic nodded at the black, hex-beacon tipped tower. ¡°Then I¡¯ll have to drown them in the river,¡± I snarled. ¡°I¡¯ll dismantle the God-damned Guilds myself if need be.¡± ¡°How?¡± Lic blinked. ¡°Power,¡± I waved my armacus at him. ¡°I have a weapon here and the element of surprise.¡± ¡°Hrmm,¡± the old cobbler scratched his scraggy face. ¡°It¡¯s easy to speak of change but much harder to achieve it.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to start slow,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m going to understand the local system, figure out what resources I can bring up from above and below. Unlike the rest of the people here I am not limited by my class.¡± ¡°From below?¡± Lic blinked. ¡°The Dungeon,¡± I pointed down. ¡°It has incredible magic. Plants like Folding Trees that can clear the air or the river, suck magic out of the local trash, even rearrange space. ¡°Aren¡¯t Folding Seeds extremely dangerous?¡± Grogtilda¡¯s father asked. ¡°They are,¡± I nodded. ¡°But they don''t have to be. They can understand things, be as clever as people¡­ I think I can train one to obey me.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Lic muttered, returning to his meal. ¡°When I was young, I believed that my future was bright. I was a lot stronger then and worked as one of the ¡®fishers¡¯ on a raft.¡± ¡°The people fishing the junk out of the river?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes,¡± he nodded. ¡°My net caught something that wasn¡¯t junk¡­ I pulled your mom out of the waters. She was perfect, my treasure found amidst many dirty, broken things from above¡­¡± Tears sparkled in his eyes as he spoke. ¡°My father taught me how to resuscitate one of the drowned ones. I pushed the water out of her lungs, slammed against her chest again and again with my hands to restart her heart. She woke up and looked at me¡­ and I was lost in those emerald eyes. Lost forever¡­ without return. She fought me at first, wanted to return¡­ but alas she could not. Her armacus had been ripped, cut right off her arm, so she had no way to get back to Illatius. Nobody came looking for her and in time she fell in love with me, embraced me¡­ embraced a life Undertown.¡± ¡°Her legs were broken?¡± I asked. ¡°Nobody could heal her?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± dad nodded. ¡°Bones fractured by magic in several places. I did my best to make casts for her, carried her in my arms to wherever she asked¡­ but her legs did not heal properly.¡± ¡°Are there seriously no healers in Undertown that could have helped her?¡± I asked. ¡°Nobody high level enough that could rewind or repair broken bones?¡± ¡°People in Undertown do not level up past level twenty,¡± Lic said. ¡°The healers down here are nothing like those up in Illatius.¡± ¡°What?!¡± I stared at him, feeling completely aghast. ¡°Only the armaca-bearers can go past the limit,¡± the cobbler said with a shrug. ¡°The high-level healers are kept under lock by the Guilds.¡± ¡°Is this a natural limit?¡± I asked. ¡°Some believe that the towers steal experience,¡± Lic shrugged. ¡°There was a rebellion once in a district that took down a tower. It didn¡¯t end well¡­¡± ¡°The hex-beacon towers keep phantoms from pulling souls of people into the Astral Ocean,¡± I said. ¡°Mhhmm,¡± Lic nodded. ¡°There was an infestation and a purge after. The leaders and strongmen of the rebellion lost their minds, turned into flesh-eating, mad beasts after their tower fell. They ate each other like... wild animals and then the constables from other towers responded and burned them all to ashes.¡± I frowned, pondering over his words. ¡°I don¡¯t want to lose you again,¡± Lic said. "Please... don''t rock the raft you''re on." ¡°You won¡¯t,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m a lot stronger now and I have friends¡­¡± ¡°I have friends too,¡± the cobbler sighed. ¡°Having friends isn''t enough to change anything.¡± ¡°Even friends from upstairs?¡± I asked. ¡°There have been all sorts of highborns over centuries that tried to impose order on Undertown,¡± Lic shrugged. ¡°It didn¡¯t work out. It never does. Whoever took you under their wings and gave you that armacus doesn¡¯t know enough about the bastards running this place.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have to approach the problem from a completely new angle. Attempt things that nobody¡¯s done before,¡± I said. ¡°With wisdom, intelligence, rationality, future-sight and¡­ dungeon monsters on my side.¡± ¡°When did my daughter become so wise?¡± Lic stared at me. ¡°When I died in the Dungeon,¡± I replied. ¡°You... really died down there?¡± Grogtilda¡¯s father gulped. ¡°You can probably tell, I am not¡­ exactly your daughter,¡± I said. ¡°Like I said before, I¡¯m a lot more than a girl that was born in Undertown.¡± ¡°In what sense?¡± Lic asked, his hands trembling. ¡°I can write, I can read, I can do complex mathematics,¡± I said. ¡°You can tell that my eyes and hair are a shade lighter, yes?¡± ¡°Y-yes,¡± the cobbler gulped. ¡°I do see it now that you mentioned it.¡± ¡°Well, they''re going to turn fully orange in time. I¡¯m what¡¯s known as one of the Chosen ones,¡± I said. ¡°The awakened, Dungeon-blessed Heroes of Humanity.¡± ¡°W-what?!¡± Grogtilda¡¯s father gasped at me. ¡°R-really?¡± ¡°Yes. Now, I think... I¡¯m going to grind a very specific set of skills,¡± I said with a smile. ¡°And I won¡¯t give up until all of Undertown is cleaned up.¡± ¡°How?¡± Lic blinked at me, looking beyond incredibly confused. I reached into my leather backpack and pulled an old, cracked bowl out of Saccy. ¡°With this one magic trick!¡± Ch 47. The Gate
¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± Lic looked at the cracked bowl in my hand. ¡°That¡¯s a self-cleaning bowl,¡± I said. ¡°I can push my mana into it and see the magic hexagrams that are responsible for cleaning it light up.¡± ¡°What?¡± Lic gasped. ¡°You can see¡­ magic?!¡± ¡°Mhmm,¡± I nodded. I put the bowl down in front of me, pulled a notebook out of Saccy, pushed a bit of mana into a rune at the base of the bowl and started to sketch the shimmering hexagrams inside it on a piece of paper. ¡°I believe I can extrapolate a generic cleaning spell out of it.¡± ¡°I see,¡± the cobbler blinked. He looked like I had broken him. ¡°What¡¯s she doing?¡± Nandine had emerged out of the house on her crutches. ¡°She¡¯s drawing magic hexagrams from that bowl,¡± Lic replied. ¡°If you''re going to lie, at least put some effort into it,¡± the ex-adventurer spat. ¡°Only artificers can see magic hexagrams using absurdly overpriced tools.¡± ¡°Do you mind not distracting me?¡± I looked up at her. The woman looked down at me with a glare. I ignored her and returned to my sketching. Lic had finished his meal, stepped into the house and emerged with a few large bags. ¡°I¡¯m going to my workshop,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m coming with you,¡± I shoved the bowl and the sketchbook into Saccy, getting up. Nandine¡¯s hate-filled eyes followed us as we went down the street. . . . I had spent the day helping Lic clean up his workshop. When it became more or less presentable, he set out to repair some old shoes that had filled his bag. In the meanwhile, I set out to sketch the hexagrams again and again, trying to gain an understanding of how the bowl worked. Unfortunately, it had been damaged and missing a section, so my mana failed to go down several paths so I had to make guesses. After about an hour of a struggle, I admitted that I required help. I pondered about who else could aid me and nearly slapped my head. Dawn! Of course! The portrait could also see magical currents. Her magical receptions could be better than mine at figuring out hexagrams. I went into Saccy and emerged wearing my Dawn-dress in about ten minutes. ¡°That¡¯s a nice dress, Grogs,¡± Lic looked up at me. ¡°Hello cobbler Lic,¡± Dawn bowed to him. ¡°Your dress is¡­ talking?¡± Lic¡¯s eyes bulged wide. ¡°Yeppers, she¡¯s my depictomancy-made bestie,¡± I smiled. ¡°I¡­ see,¡± the cobbler returned to his work on the shoes, periodically glancing at Dawn. ¡°You can see currents of magic, yes?¡± I asked the painted girl. ¡°Yes,¡± she answered. ¡°Can you help me finish this cleaning hexagram?¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m missing like a quarter of it.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± she replied. ¡°I¡¯ve seen cleaning magic at work before. It should go up and then at an angle like¡­ umm¡­ how can I show you?¡± I placed the bottom part of the dress beside the drawing. ¡°Draw the missing lines with your finger. I¡¯ll try to follow. Do it slowly.¡± ¡°Right,¡± she said. ¡°Okay¡­ here I go.¡± . . . It took me nearly the rest of the day to fully draw the entire [Clean] hexagram. Dawn had evaluated it as ¡®acceptable¡¯. A food vendor had come by Lic¡¯s workshop and offered a trade of some fried fish and questionable-looking seaweed noodles in exchange for a pair of shoes. It was a simple transaction which led to Lic and I getting seven fried-fish dinners in exchange. The fried-fish cook departed with new shoes, promising to bring some fish to Nandine. I chewed on the fish, pondering how Undertown denizens had avoided having money by exchanging goods and services in a manner of ¡®promises¡¯. A week of dinners for three people for a pair of fixed up, old shoes fished out of the river of trash seemed like a fair price. ¡°Dad, how do you pay the Guild without having money?¡± I asked. ¡°With services to the Guilders,¡± Lic sighed. ¡°The Fighters come by and bring shoes to be repaired.¡± ¡°So you do work for the Guild in exchange for¡­ nothing?¡± I asked. ¡°The Guild offers¡­ protection,¡± he said. ¡°That¡¯s called a protection racket,¡± Dawn commented smartly. ¡°I know what a protection racket is,¡± I said with a frown. Lic shrugged, returning to his work. ¡°Okay so I got the cleaning hexagram down,¡± I looked at Dawn. ¡°Now what?¡± ¡°You¡¯re really set on learning spell-work before you get to Nemendias?¡± Dawn asked. ¡°It¡¯s good to be prepared, no?¡± I said. ¡°Nemendias?¡± Lic choked from his work desk. ¡°Dawn thinks I¡¯m going there,¡± I commented. ¡°You are going there,¡± the painting insisted. ¡°My daughter is going to Nemendias?¡± Lic mumbled. ¡°Please¡­ don¡¯t say that near Nani, she¡¯ll have a fit. She thinks that place is the heart of all evil.¡± Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. ¡°Well, I guess it wouldn''t hurt you to learn how to do spells,¡± Dawn mulled. ¡°My main concern is that you¡¯ll run out of skill slots for them quickly.¡± ¡°Slots?¡± I blinked. ¡°At level five you should be limited to three... to five slots, depending on how strong your body is,¡± the painting replied. ¡°Limited by what?¡± I asked. ¡°The System and your body¡¯s magical conductivity,¡± Dawn said. ¡°I don¡¯t have any skill slots,¡± I commented. ¡°What?¡± Both Dawn and Lic asked. ¡°Uhhh¡­ comes with being the Chosen One I guess?¡± I smiled weakly. I tried to recall what Eunice said about chimera cendai being different from humans. ¡°I¡¯m how to put it¡­ more magically malleable¡­ I think?¡± Dawn suspiciously squinted up at me from the dress while Lic looked completely lost. ¡°Well, Madame Malleable, I suppose it won¡¯t hurt to teach you a spell then,¡± Dawn muttered. ¡°Let''s try it. Arm the armacus and switch it to the [Foci]. Visualize the entire hexagram in your mind and push mana through the armacus in that shape, while aiming it at some dirt.¡± I unfurled the bracelet into its gun-form and aimed it at the nearest wall. Then I pushed mana from my hand into the [Foci] sphere while imagining the [Clean] hexagram. Nothing happened except for some sparks dancing around the firing end of the device. ¡°You¡¯re not visualizing the spell clearly enough,¡± Dawn commented. ¡°It¡¯s coming apart. The mental focus of your brain-meat is lacking.¡± ¡°Gee thanks,¡± I huffed. ¡°What do I do?¡± ¡°Do you have Intelligence points?¡± Dawn asked. ¡°Use them to visualize the entire spell with greater clarity.¡± ¡°Right,¡± I nodded. I focused on my [Calculator] and pushed the [Clean] hexagram through it, mentally tinting the entire thing in purple color. Then, I attached the calculator thread to the armacus, aimed the spell and pressed the trigger. I didn¡¯t even get sparks this time. Nothing happened. I growled in frustration. ¡°You¡¯re not using a skill,¡± Dawn commented. ¡°The armacus hexagrams are made to recognize skills. If you don¡¯t have a skill that¡¯s shaped exactly like a spell, it can¡¯t fire it. Do you... even have spells that can affect the environment?¡± ¡°I absolutely do!¡± I insisted. ¡°I have a compressor!¡± ¡°Try pushing that through the Foci?¡± Dawn tilted her head. ¡°Let¡¯s see what happens.¡± With irritation I connected the [Compressor] thread to the [Foci] of the armacus and pressed the trigger. A new blue screen flashed in my right eye. [Armacus 2]: [Foci] < [Compressor LV 1 [x2] ] Air rushed into the firing end of the armacus with far greater intensity than I was used to. Before I could let the trigger go, the bubble of compressed air detonated. Dust and lightweight debris blasted away from me in billowing clouds and Lic yelped in fright, balking back. The shoddy walls of his workshop wobbled for a few more seconds before falling silent. ¡°I told you, I have a spell!¡± I laughed, feeling my ears ringing. ¡°Damn that was freaking loud. This could probably make a decent airgun.¡± ¡°I don''t know what an ''airgun'' is, but now you have to do whatever it is you did for this air-folding spell¡­ but have it shaped exactly like the [Clean] hexagram and have it as a skill,¡± Dawn replied. I pondered about her suggestion. I didn¡¯t have extra, newborn soul-threads that could be formed into a [Clean] spell. I needed to level up to get those and I didn¡¯t have anywhere near enough experience for that. I frowned, pondering my situation. Sitting on my butt in Undertown wasn¡¯t getting me the needed experience. I needed to do something more productive¡­ like kill some monsters and eat their flesh to level up effectively. ¡°By Sempitinent Infi, do you mind warnin¡¯ me ahead next time? I feel like I¡¯ve almost gone deaf!¡± Lic coughed. ¡°Sempai-what now?¡± I blinked at him. ¡°Uhm,¡± The old cobbler rubbed the back of his head. ¡°We, the Undertown born, believe in Infi Sempiternity, the goddess of Eternity, Darkness and Oblivion. I¡¯ve taken you to the Shogun Gate once a year since you were five to speak with the ghosts of the dead. Did you ...forget our goddess?¡± ¡°What?¡± I stepped towards Lic, my eye twitching. ¡°...we worship a goddess¡­ of Death?!¡± Eunice¡¯s words made a resounding gong of doom in the back of my head. A manifestation of Death and Oblivion seemed exactly like the kind of a Threat to Humanity that I was supposed to prevent as a cendai! ¡°Are you freaking kidding me?¡± I quietly hissed to myself, rubbing my forehead. ¡°Sempiternity doesn¡¯t ask for worship,¡± The old cobbler commented. ¡°She is simply a gate to the afterlife. Anyone can go to the Shogun Gate and talk to the departed once a year for about five hundred heartbeats.¡± ¡°Right,¡± I exhaled. ¡°Right¡­ a goddess of Death.¡± ¡°Are we going to this Gate thing now?¡± Dawn asked. ¡°I feel like my poster-gathering mission is getting derailed over here.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t think that stopping a goddess of Death and Oblivion is important?¡± I snapped, whisper-hissing at her. ¡°This sounds like a Threat to Humanity biz right here.¡± ¡°Sempiternity can¡¯t be stopped,¡± Lic said, shaking his head. ¡°She¡¯s present across all worlds in magic that has no end. It is because of her patronage that the Infinite Dungeon exists. She¡¯s not a threat to people. It is because of her work and her chosen heroes like Saint Charles that we are free, permitted to exist at all.¡± ¡°And here I thought my mom was the zealous one,¡± I sighed. ¡°You hear him, right? Permitted to exist?¡± ¡°I hear him,¡± Dawn sighed. ¡°Let''s go check out this Gate.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going to get the life slapped out of me by a god of Death, right?¡± I mulled. ¡°No, this is a good path,¡± Dawn said. ¡°No deaths.¡± ¡°All paths will lead you to her,¡± Lic interjected. ¡°For Infi is the beginning and the end and neither for she is the ouroboros of perpetuity, the link between us and our ancestors.¡± ¡°Uh-huh,¡± I ignored the cobbler¡¯s rant of devotion. ¡°Dad? How far is this Shogun Gate? Can you take me there? I¡¯d like to talk with... my ancestors.¡± ¡°Oh, of course, of course,¡± Lic nodded. ¡°I will take you to the gate of the dead. We can be there by the time the clouds dim tonight, I bet you want to chat with your grandfather! It¡¯s been more than a year now since your last conversation with him.¡± ¡°Riiiight,¡± I nodded, squinting at the excited-looking cobbler. I had extreme doubts that Grogtilda¡¯s grandfather would bother to speak with me as a ghost. ¡°Just let me change into my¡­ night armor. I¡¯d rather not get my nice dress dirty.¡± I went into Saccy and emerged in about ten minutes wearing Juni¡¯s body. ¡°Shall we?¡± I asked dad, my voice tinny. Lic didn¡¯t seem to be surprised by my full-body-covering nightcrawler armor one bit. He was far too focused on bringing me to the magic gate so that I could talk with my ancestors. He took my gloved hand into his and we left his workshop. Undertown around us stirred with evening life, crystal lanterns and candles lighting up all around as the Chasm clouds turned dark orange and gradually dimmed. As we walked, the old cobbler ranted to me about his late father - an Undertown-born Level 20 strongman who went out into the Chasm and killed all sorts of large monsters, bringing their parts back to the Fighters Guild. As we descended several hundred stairwells and levels built from random junk and circled the enormous basalt column, I saw it standing there - a large, obsidian-black gate formed from perfectly fitting hexagons. The Shogun Gate stood on the uneven pavement made of compacted trash. It didn''t fit at all with the rest of Undertown and looked completely out of place here amidst mountains of junk, boxed in and practically surrounded by colorful favelas. A few pilgrims dressed in dirty robes were waiting in line in front of the gate. An old, silver-haired woman stepped underneath the black gate, silently stood beneath it for a few minutes and then passed through it with tears in her eyes. I recognized the damn gate right away - it looked exactly like the black gate that Eunice had in her basement, beneath her skull-home in the center of her Soul-Garden. It was an End Gate, a passage into the Still Forest and it clearly wasn¡¯t built by the high-cendai! I stared at the Shogun Gate with my mouth wide open as Lic and I came closer to it. A faded, barely visible, large, English letter G was embossed into the black surface atop of the central hexagonal segment of the gate. I suddenly recalled the ice-covered buildings in the depictomancy, golem-lander painting that Lambert gave me and recognized the style of the architecture. The logo-style, fat letter G was from, stood for the English word "the Good Directorate". There was only one explanation that made sense in my mind now. The End Gate was an arcane artifact, a remnant shard of the bygone, magitek civilization that had managed to destroy itself on Inaria. Ch 48. Grandfather
As Lic and I reached the steps leading to the gate, the crowd around us dispersed, clearing the way. Everyone present felt the pulse from my armacus, was terrified by it and quickly cleared the way for the highborn lawmaker monster who owned their lives. ¡°I will wait for you at the steps, go on,¡± Lic said, nudging me forward. ¡°Sure,¡± I said, stepping closer to the spooky gate. Did Eunice find one of these Inarian gates somewhere in the Chasm and modify it, weaponize it? Was she using the gate as the foci for her divinity-harvesting? I wouldn''t put it past her to do something like that. I stepped beneath the gate and stared at the black metallic surface, trying to spot magic. There wasn¡¯t any magic there. I squinted harder. The gate was completely inert, dead to my cendai senses. ¡°What the hell? What am I doing wrong?¡± I glanced at Dawn. Dawn and the necklace that powered her were lit up like a Christmas tree in my magic-sight. I looked back at the gate again. Nothing. There was Nothing magical powering the gate, nothing telling it what to do. It wasn''t covered in runes like the End Gate that Eunice owned. The hair on the back of my head stood up. I froze, panicking. ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± I whispered. ¡°There¡¯s no magic here.¡± ¡°Yes. This¡­ thing is just an inert piece of metal,¡± Dawn commented. ¡°There¡¯s no magic in it.¡± ¡°Are you sure I won¡¯t die?¡± I whispered. My trust in Dawn¡¯s future-sense was dropping rapidly, just like the hexagonal path beneath my feet was getting darker and spookier as I stepped forward. ¡°You¡¯ll be fine,¡± Dawn said. ¡°I don¡¯t like this,¡± I whispered. ¡°Why is it called the Shogun Gate?¡± ¡°I am a drawing¡­ I really don¡¯t have all the answers,¡± Dawn shrugged. ¡°Do you know what it means?¡± ¡°Shogun is a Japanese word, the title of the military dictators of Japan for a period that spanned nearly seven hundred years¡­¡± I whispered. The world around us suddenly flickered. As it did, all color faded, drained away from everything. I looked around Undertown. There were no longer people filling the streets, no magic lanterns were lit. Mountains of grayscale junk and¡­ human bones extended in all directions. ¡°The Still Forest,¡± I whispered, shuddering. ¡°Erk,¡± Dawn gulped from my dress beneath the armor. ¡°Something is off.¡± Something was indeed terribly off. The Still Forest around us was fake, false... as if it was painted by wide brushstrokes on a circular screen-like surface. There was perfectly breathable air where we stood. Gravity didn¡¯t vanish away. We didn¡¯t actually sink into the Astral Ocean, didn¡¯t dive beneath the surface of the physical reality into the abyssal necropolis. A ghostly image manifested in front of us. It was a very smudged image, a semi-transparent, indistinct imprint of a teenager boy wearing a peasant¡¯s tunic. ¡°Hello?¡± He suddenly said in Russian. ¡°One, two, three, testing. Is this thing on, can anyone hear me?¡± ¡°Hello,¡± I automatically replied in Russian, feeling utterly stupefied. ¡°Oh good,¡± the flickering ghostly figure said. ¡°I think I got someone important! It works!¡± ¡°Whom?¡± A female voice asked from somewhere, also speaking Russian. ¡°I have no idea,¡± the teenager shrugged. I blinked, not knowing what to say. Who was this young ghost painted from silver sparks that spoke Russian? Surely, this wasn¡¯t Grogtilda¡¯s grandfather! Surely... ¡°My name is Doctor Vladislav Alexandrovich Kerenski,¡± the boy said. ¡°Who am I speaking with?¡± ¡°W-what?¡± I muttered, my eyes wide. It couldn''t be. It JUST couldn''t be. This boy was nothing like my grandfather from Earth! The voice didn¡¯t even sound the same¡­ and yet¡­ ¡°We don¡¯t have much time, so let''s not waste it,¡± the ghost said. ¡°You must be incredibly far away. The Astral Radionic is eating about a thousand mana per second from my chimera companion. What¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°My name is¡­ Yulia Ishenko,¡± I said, my hands trembling. ¡°I¡¯m currently broadcasting from Novazem, Skyisle¡­ Where is your receiver station, Yulia?¡± Vladislav asked. ¡°Andross¡­¡± I said, my voice barely able to make coherent words. ¡°The Undertown of Illatius. Are you with the necromages? Are you working for the Almn-Inians?¡± ¡°No. The Almn-Inians have been dead for a very long time,¡± Vladislav replied. ¡°Their cities have been atomized into shadows and dust, turned into magogenic zones where nothing living survives. A Basq warship killed the last Alanian Sentinel over a thousand years ago.¡± ¡°What¡¯s she saying, Slava?¡± A third, female voice cut in, speaking in a language that sounded almost like Basq. ¡°I don¡¯t understand a word of that. My core is almost out of mana.¡± I felt that my heart was getting torn asunder. There was only one inescapable conclusion, one impossible answer. ¡°I love you,¡± I whispered, my eyes filling with tears. ¡°I lost you in Donetsk two decades ago¡­ but if you¡¯re on Novazem now... then maybe somehow, someday I¡¯ll find you¡­¡± ¡°What?!¡± The ghost of the teenager stammered. ¡°You¡¯re¡­¡± ¡°I can¡¯t hold on to the connection¡­¡± The female voice yelped. My eyes were filled with tears, the view blurry, indistinct. ¡°...grandfather,¡± I whispered as the image of the boy fell apart into dancing sparks and the view of the Still Forest faded away, the patchwork of colors of Undertown returning. I now knew why the woman who had departed from this damn gate in front of me was crying. I couldn''t stop bawling my eyes out either. Sadness turned to anger. My fists closed. ¡°Bring him back!¡± I yelled at the gate through my tears. ¡°I have so much more to tell him! Reconnect us, damn you!¡± Silence was ringing in my ears. I was given hope, hope bound with an impossible voice from another moon from possibly... a thousand years in the future. ¡°Bring him back, you stupid gate! Come out and talk to me, you stupid-ass death-goddess! What the hell was that? I want answers, do you hear me?!¡± I barked as I swung my armored fist at the nearest hexagonal panel. It felt like I punched a wall of solid rock. The End Gate didn¡¯t even wobble. It simply withstood my attack, just as it had withstood the ages that tried to wear it away. Lic rushed up the stairwell and hugged me. ¡°You won¡¯t be able to get more time. Countless upworld mages, inspectors, Guilders and Undertown denizens have tried to beg the gate for more time or further answers. Many have tried to bring it down, to tear it asunder in their rage and sorrow. It is impervious to all magic. It has withstood, didn¡¯t even heat up when this district was set aflame by the revolt of the lowborns decades ago. Five hundred heartbeats, daughter¡­ just once a year, that¡¯s all the time our lady Sempiternity can give each person.¡± Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. I wanted to scream at Lic, to tell him that this wasn¡¯t the ghost of my grandfather, that it couldn''t have been my grandfather, that none of it made any sense¡­ and yet¡­ I knew that I couldn''t say anything, because an Undertown-born cobbler wouldn¡¯t understand any of it. I barely understood it myself. ¡°That was¡­ very strange,¡± Dawn commented. ¡°Depictomancy without magic? Maybe it uses so little magic that I simply can¡¯t observe it?¡± I simply held onto Lic and cried as sorrow and the inability to do anything replaced anger. The debitor cobbler wasn¡¯t my father. I couldn''t even remember my own parents, lost them when I was too young¡­ and yet, the part of me that was Grogtilda cherished this embrace, made me feel accepted and loved, made me feel like I belonged. ¡°L-let''s go home, dad,¡± I whispered. I needed to think, needed to try to understand what it all meant. As we departed, I looked back at the Shogun Gate and for a second I thought I saw someone standing there. A female figure composed from neither darkness, nor light. The thing looked like a shadow printed in the air, like something that didn¡¯t belong, didn¡¯t fit into the world. The figure nodded at me with an eerie smile forged from tv static. ¡°Infi?¡± My lips whispered. When I blinked, the shadow was gone, as if she had never existed to begin with. ¡°D-did you see that?¡± I trembled. ¡°Hrm?¡± Dawn asked. ¡°A¡­ shadowy figure in the gate?¡± I whispered. ¡°No, there¡¯s nothing there,¡± Dawn said. ¡°Nothing magical. Not a single blip in the Astral.¡± ¡°The goddess of darkness watches over her children from the shadows,¡± Lic uttered with an undertone of devotion. ¡°For she is the only one that cares for the forgotten and abandoned. To bear witness to her is a rare sign, my daughter!¡± ¡°S-she nodded, smiled at me,¡± I stammered. ¡°Ah! Perhaps she has chosen you,¡± Lic smiled reverently. ¡°W-what?¡± I looked at the cobbler in concern. ¡°As a bearer of Sempiternity!¡± He boasted. I gulped. As if I didn¡¯t have enough problems on my plate.
I tried to relax, stretching on my hanging bed inside of Saccy. The Folding Seed was standing in Grotilda¡¯s tiny bedroom, which had been mostly tidied up. I had no idea what to do with the bag full of garbage. I didn''t want to chuck it back into the river below, didn''t want to add to the gross mess that was Undertown. To drive away the rising feeling of dread and confusion that was trying to get hold of me, I decided to re-evaluate my existing resources. To start off, I dove into my stats and expanded, modified the [Calculator] into a [Resource manager] list. I created a chart within it that listed my friends, possessions and the skills they had.
[Resources]:
1. Alessi:
  • Chimera Engram expert [historic knowledge of the Chasm]
  • Chasm expert [knowledge of monsters and plants]
  • Chimera gatherer [harvesting rare plants]
  • Chimera hunter [once her broken hand heals]
  • Crystalline-organic gems [renewable]
2. Isahcs:
  • Crystalline-organic gems [renewable]
  • Chimera hunter [harvesting rare monsters]
3. Saccy:
  • Folding Manifestation [storage of items, bedroom, potential mini-workshop if the space inside was expanded]
  • Production of Topaz [paralyzing sap]
  • Brain-root [Feed a live criminal to her, see if she can become fully sentient?]
  • Root legs [Last resort weapon, can slowly strangle someone with one]
4. Lambert:
  • Wisdom & Intelligence maxer [Uncovering Secrets]
  • Lomb Constabulary [Access to Imperial maps and Illatius Constabulary employment, crime records and misc stats]
5. Anniya:
  • Access to Lomb shops [Buying dresses, general tools, paint and makeup]
6. Antoine:
  • Artificer [Metal & Crystal specialty]
  • Metalworking workshop
  • Potential Master [for studying Artifactoria]
  • Artificer Guild records and data
7. Dawn:
  • Depictomancy instructor [If I can activate her paintings in Nemendias]
  • Precog [Vague ¡®pathfinder¡¯ good/bad choice guide]
  • Astral Tree [Can see magic / astral imprints]
8. Lic:
  • Leatherworking magic [Cobblermancy]
  • Undertown history
  • Undertown connections
Was this it? No. It wasn¡¯t. With some reluctance I added Grogtilda¡¯s mother to the list.
9. Nandine:
  • Ex-adventurer [Access to the Diver¡¯s Guild in Illatius?]
  • What magic does she know?
I paused for a moment. Then I listed the artifacts and weapons that I had on me and inside Saccy.
Tools:
-Armacus 1 -Armacus 2 -Armacus cleaning kit -Diver¡¯s headlamp -Makeup set -Sewing kit -Ropes and nets -Hammer and nails -Notebook and pencils -Grogtilda¡¯s leather diver armor -Nightcralwer anti-phantom barrier armor -Two hammock beds -Nightcrawler sword -Soul-carving knife -Match-receptor ring -Puzzle-sphere toy
One item immediately stood out from the list - something that I didn¡¯t buy in Lomb or make myself. The black artifact knife given to me by Eunice. I pulled the knife from its leather sheath and looked at it, twirling it in the light of my diver''s headlamp. As I stared at it, examined it anew, my eyes went wide. The knife bore the same hexagonal texture that the End Gate possessed. This knife was¡­ truly arcane. Eunice didn¡¯t make it either! It was a weapon from Inaria, a tool of the ancient, long gone civilization. I pondered about the inexplicable knife that could carve apart the souls. Its edge never dulled. What if I used it on the Shogun Gate? Would it be able to damage the gate, carve a chunk off or would it simply bounce off it? Would it break against the gate? ...Did Eunice use this knife to carve runes into her gate?! I had this knife for a while and I had mostly disregarded it, never pondered how it worked beyond its base function of neatly cutting off pieces of my soul. The knife definitely held some sort of hidden potential within it. Possibilities that I had not thought about, not tested properly. 1. The knife existed in both physical and the Astral. 2. It could damage... injure souls. Dark thoughts started to dance in my head. If the knife carved souls¡­ would it be able to hurt Astral Phantoms? Could it disrupt spells or tear through magic shields? Could it maybe take apart, disrupt hexagrams just as easily as souls? Could it permanently cut down, kill something like Dawn? My eyebrows went up as I twirled the black knife. I listened to it and I swished the air with the knife, trying to understand it on a personal level. The Inarian artifact was a mystery. Like the End Gate it had once belonged to the gods that built Novazem and Andross and potentially turned the Earth into the infinite, dead city. Could it be the key to whatever the Good Directorate was¡­ whatever strange mysteries the immovable End Gate held? A dark thought percolated through my head. Could I use it to hurt¡­ things that weren¡¯t souls? Could I direct it to kill something that wasn¡¯t exactly alive? My eyes settled on a little, self-reading kids book in my pile of unsorted, magical junk from the Misem household. The hexagrams in the book have been badly damaged, mostly eaten through by some kind of black-brown mold. There was a little bit of magic left in the book, power locked away in its pages. Could I use the arcane knife to destroy, vanquish this power, just as I had carved apart my own soul for three long years? I flung the book into the air and stabbed right through it with the obsidian knife with a desire to end its suffering, with a wish to destroy it, to bisect whatever held it together, to end its soul, to strike the object not just within the physical but also in the Astral. To tear it asunder with the immovable power of the End Gate... to shatter it with the terrifying, unfathomable, abominable something that was the infinite city on the surface of Inaria. In that instant something happened. When the knife struck the book, the book rippled as if it was made from fluid, its dirty cover flashed with a dying hiss. The little book ignited, its pages flashing, burning away in radiant, impossible colors. The book fell apart, but not into its constituent pages. It simply decayed, sparkled away into white, crystalline dust. I caught some of the white dust into my gloved hand. It looked like plain, clear, very fine sand.
[+ 2 XP]
¡°What the shit? Did I just¡­ kill a magic book? Are you f-freaking kidding me?¡± I stared at the small pile of white silica on the floor and in my hand. I stared at the knife in my hands. This was a weapon. An absolute weapon. In a game of rock, paper, scissors this knife was the ultimate scissors that could cut apart, destroy concepts... kill the souls of objects, rip experience out of them. My mouth fell open as I stared at the pile of white dust on Saccy¡¯s floor. Holy shit. I ripped a page from my drawing notebook and swung the knife at it without thought. The knife simply cleaved the paper in half. Hrrm. So it only works¡­ if I want to destroy, end the soul of an object? Does paper have a soul? Surely¡­ I let the half-sliced piece of paper fly through the air in front of me. Then, I swung the knife at the paper both in the real and in the Astral, wishing to kill, to dismantle the paper¡¯s soul, to end it as a concept forever. To disrupt its function, to vanquish it with Sempiternity. The paper hissed when it encountered the black knife, fell apart into colorful, sparkling and then pale, white dust.
[+0.04 XP]
I started to laugh madly, my wild, villainous laughter bouncing within Saccy''s interior. It was time to kill things. It was time to clean up Undertown! Ch 49. Cooking and questions
The first order of business was the enormous bag of trash that dominated a corner of Grogtilda¡¯s room. It had to die. I slashed the bag open, pulverizing it. The contents within it spilled out noisily. I vanquished them too, turned everything inside it into white silica dust. It took me a while to precisely stab each item to death. Some items were tougher and required multiple stabbings. Murdering garbage took a lot of focus too, but with each new kill I was getting better at it, getting better at harnessing the power of Sempiternity. I didn¡¯t really believe in the void goddess or whatever. I simply knew that the all-murdering knife worked and netted me experience for the most ridiculous murder spree ever. ¡°Look upon my works and despair, vile trash!¡± I grinned. ¡°I shall spare none of you, for your crimes are too numerous to bother listing! Ha ha ha! Take that you stupid, moldy blanket, take that you evil broken plate, take that you dastardly rotten apple!¡± I spared nothing with my decimation and in about two hours I was sitting in a room covered in crystalline sand, panting furiously. A bag full of executed garbage netted me about fifty experience points. It wasn¡¯t much, so I moved onto the hefty piles of trash that filled the living room to bursting. I spent all night at it in Juni¡¯s body and by the time sunrise came to Undertown, the house of the Misem family was clean, every room now filled with sparkling white sand that was already being blown away by the morning draft coming from the river. I sheathed the all-killing artifact knife and tiredly limped into Saccy, putting my exhausted chimera body to sleep. I stepped out of my room as Grogtilda, the human girl, for once feeling rather refreshed. I sat down on the pile of beautiful, sparkling sand and poured it from one hand to the other. The door to my parents room opened and Lic stepped out. His face became very long. It didn¡¯t take very long for Nandine to emerge as well. ¡°W-what happened to all of my things?¡± She gasped. ¡°I killed them,¡± I replied sagely. ¡°You weren¡¯t using them. I left for three months and returned to find this place a complete, horrid disaster. Try to keep the house clean next time, you two!¡± I shot Nandine my most dashing smile. She looked like she was going to strangle me. ¡°No need to thank me,¡± I grinned harder. ¡°How?¡± Lic looked at the piles of white sand. ¡°I had been blessed by goddess Sempiternity with the unholy powers of cleaning!¡± I replied. ¡°W-what in Eunisii¡¯s name is this stuff?¡± Nandine kicked the white sand. ¡°Beautiful, sparkling, clean sand,¡± I said. ¡°I did tell you that I was going to clean up Undertown, starting with this house! In time, this stuff will make lovely sand beaches down by the river!¡± The woman¡¯s eye twitched. ¡°You can¡¯t just go around destroying people''s things!¡± She cried. ¡°I did nothing of the sort,¡± I said. ¡°I merely purified the house with the blessed power of Sempiternity!" My parents looked at each other, then down at the white sand. Nandine looked like she was about to explode. ¡°You¡­ you¡­ you¡­¡± ¡°I know,¡± I said, beaming. ¡°I¡¯m amazing. You''re welcome.¡± ¡°You¡¯re lucky I''m decrepit and my legs don''t work," Nandine seethed, as she attempted to hobble towards me. "I should give you a goodly whopping." I dusted off my hands and tilted my head at her. "Are you really going to attack someone with an armacus, Nandine?" The bloated, blue-tinted woman looked up at me. There was anger in her eyes, but it started to drown in fear. For once, I didn''t call her my mother. "You''re a Topaz addict," I said. "Am not..." she mumbled. "You are," I said. "Do you take it for sleep or something? You know, there are better ways to cure insomnia and¡­ pain." "Like what?" She huffed, squinting at me. "Do we look like someone who can afford upworld medicine?" "Plants from the Dungeon for one," I said. "I could get you some or I could buy you some pain-killers or sleep-aid potions from Lomb." "We don''t need your charity, mageling," she spat. Lic looked like he wanted to say something, but he wilted away under Nandine''s challenging gaze. I wondered if he saw himself as someone far below her. Nandine was an upworlder, a fallen citizen of Illatius while Lic was born in Undertown. "I''m not here to give charity," I rubbed my face in irritation. "I''m here to help my family... I''m here to help everyone in Undertown." "So¡­ you are a student from Nemendias on a noblesse oblige mission¡­ where you pretend to help the misfortunate, unwashed plebes for a short while," Nandine hissed. "I hope that shiny crest will be worth it. I''m sure when you do get it, you''ll never return here, forget everything you saw." "I have no idea what you''re talking about," I said, staring into her emerald eyes. "You will," she said. "Soon enough, you''ll realize that this place is not worth your time, impossible to change." I wanted to say something, but I couldn''t find the words. My stomach growled. "I''m going to make breakfast with dad," I said. "You can stew in your own anger as much as you want, mom. I''m not from Nemendias and I''m not going to give up on you or Undertown."
"You should take it easy on your mom," Lic said as we were cutting squids in the now far cleaner and roomier kitchen. "Doesn''t this kitchen look so much better now that it''s free of random junk?" I rebutted. "Who filled the house with random upworld detritus? You or her?" "We both did," Lic sighed. "We started collecting things from the river because Nani wanted to sort nicer things to trade around... but then we sort of gave up and it all accumulated." Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. "It happens to a lot of people," I nodded. "Hoarding is a common problem, especially when it comes to trying to deal with depression and pain." "I don''t know if your mom ever got used to this life. She''s had it hard since being cast into Undertown," Lic sighed. "What do you mean?" I raised an eyebrow. "It''s not my story to tell," Lic said. "But your mom''s an upworlder.... she had... possibly still has family in Illatius." "Family... in Illatius?" a part of me choked. "Did none of them come down here to help her? Did nobody look for her?" I nearly dropped a pot of squid guts that I was carrying. "No," Lic shook his head. "Either they do not know that she is down here... or they''ve abandoned her for some reason." "I''m going to have to pay them a visit then," I clutched my fists until they turned white as I stepped close to him. "I''m going to find out why Mom ended up down here." Lic looked at me like he was about to say something but then his eyes shot to my armacus. Little Grogtilda had no opportunity, no wealth, no power and no possible way to get to Illatus... but I was an arcane Engram of Yulia Ishenko, a girl from a world long dead and buried beneath the impossible, infinite city... I had resources, knowledge, friends and I would not be so easily broken. I would not bend. "Her full maiden name," I said. "Huh?" Lic blinked. "I want to know mom''s full name, from before she married you," I said. "I work for the Constabulary, remember? I''m going to find my grandparents." "Oh," Lic gulped. "Your mom''s name was Nandie... Matre Cypriss."
I laid back on my hanging bed inside of Saccy as I called Lambert with my armacus. [Anything to report, agent?] The Inspector''s voice sounded in my head. [How are things in Undertown?] "I''ve found my family," I said. "I''m with them now, helping them clean up the house." [Very good,] he replied, his voice warm and kind. [I''m glad.] "Could you look someone up for me, Inspector?" I asked. "An adventurer by the name Nandie Matre Cypriss." [Not a problem, I''ll get Anniya on it,] he replied. [Does this relate to our main case?] "No," I said. "This is a personal request. It''s my mom. She wasn''t born in Undertown. Someone broke her legs and tried to drown her... fifteen years ago. I want to know if she... if I have family in Illatius." [Ah, I see,] Lambert said. [I''ll get Anniya to scout the database for a missing adventurer report and anything about the Cypriss family. Now, tell me what else you''ve been up to. I want to know everything.] I slowly went over my adventure of getting to Undertown, of finding my parents, of encountering the immovable gate and of murdering garbage. [Let me get this straight. You can kill... objects? To gain experience?] Lambert choked from his end. "Yep," I smirked. [You continue to surprise me,] he said. [I''ve never heard of such a thing.] "I wouldn''t be able to do it without the soul-carving knife," I said. [I am... perturbed,] Lambert confessed. [To think that you''re aware not of just one but of three Inarian devices!] "Maybe more," I said. "Who knows how much stuff Eunice and her heroes are hoarding." "I am also extremely perturbed," Dawn commented from the dress. "This all-killing knife seems like incredibly dangerous business." "Hang on... you can hear what the inspector is saying in my head?" I blinked. "Yes, I can," Dawn said. "He''s speaking to you through your armacus, the foci of which is your gemstone. I''m continuously fed by the same type of gemstone. I can perceive the vibrations being emitted by your armacus through the Astral." "Ah," I scratched my chin. "Good to know." "Please don''t accidentally stab me with that knife," Dawn said. "I won''t," I said. "Are you scared of a little black knife or do you think I''m kind of a klutz?" "I''m scared of that knife," Dawn confessed. "I can hear their screams when they die..." "Who''s screams?" I asked. "The things you''ve... killed," Dawn replied. "Are you saying that all random objects have... consciousness? Should I be regretting murdering a whole house full of garbage?" I gasped. "Consciousness is a wide term," Dawn said. "The objects you stabbed were alive... on some level similar to mine and you''ve undone them. Not a little undone, like burning or crushing them. You''ve popped their conceptual state, shattered them in the physical and the Astral. You''ve done something extremely unnatural and terrifying and I do not like it. I''m... very scared. I''ve been scared since you''ve set out on your object-murdering spree for experience. I can''t even close my eyes, can''t look away as you kill, pop things near me straight out of existence, whisk them right out of the Astral." "I wouldn''t murder you for experience, Dawn," I said. "You''re... my bestie. I... really like you. I didn''t mean to scare you. I''m sorry... I didn''t realize that killing things would upset you. You should have said something earlier. I can stop killing junk if it upsets you." "No, it''s alright," the painted girl sighed. "I''m not going to get in the way of your growth. I just wanted you to know that... their screams were rather unsettling. I really don''t want to go out like them, to shatter into nothing, to pop like a soap bubble into total non-existence, not even leaving a shadow imprint behind." "I can stop stabbing things with the death-knife," I said. "I can find another way to level up." "Don''t mind me," Dawn insisted. "I''ll endure." [I don''t think that it''s realistic to clean up the entirety of Undertown with a single magical knife,] Lambert commented. [It would take you a lifetime if not two to stab every item of garbage and would distract you from our core mission.] "I''m getting better at it," I said. "...I think." "There are millions upon millions of broken things here," Dawn said softly. "He''s right. You''d waste your entire life killing objects, even if you spend a few seconds swinging at each one... which you don''t. You''re taking your time studying each one before you kill it." "Stop raining on my parade, you two," I huffed. [I''m simply pointing out your inefficiency,] the Inspector said. [You could have gotten that much XP by eating a few well-priced monster steaks instead of stabbing at things all night. Killing mundane garbage is a pitiful XP gain, especially if you need to focus on the stabbing and visualizing. There are Pyromancers that can vaporize mountains full of junk with a single firewall. It would be a waste of time to clean Undertown with a knife and you would expose an incredibly dangerous weapon and a very rare item to prying eyes.] I groaned. My friends were right. I thought I had discovered a hack that would allow me to solve everything, but in reality I simply converted a small house-sized pile of junk into crystal sand... which likely could have been done by a professional wizard with a single spell. I stretched on my hammock and fell silent, pondering things over, feeling very irate. I was irate at myself, irate at Infi and her damned immovable gate that showed me a ghost of my... My brain clicked as my fingers reached for the hilt of the pure-black, hexagon-covered knife. The knife could hurt the gate. The knife was the key to it, a weapon that unlocked whatever secrets it held. I decided it then, as I held the knife tightly. I will...! [I know what you''re going to do,] Lambert said. [Do not.] "W-what?" I blinked. "I wasn¡¯t going to do anything. I haven¡¯t done anything yet! I''m just..." [You''re thinking about stabbing the immovable gate with the all-killing knife,] Lambert stated. [Please don''t break our only two Inarian artifacts. I''d like to examine the Undertown Shogun Gate in person, before you break it.] "I wasn''t," I mumbled and fell silent. "You were," Dawn sputtered angrily. "You were totally planning to stab the gate! You¡¯re still planning it! Stop it! Stop it right now! Stop thinking about stabbing the gate!" "Why did I choose to be friends with precogs?" I groaned into my hands. "Woe is me. Woe! I can''t even make a reckless decision without being pre-shamed about it!" [I didn''t use future sight,] Lambert said. [It was a deduction based on your personality traits. You take insanely dangerous risks that you think will pay off. You''re what''s known as a high-stakes gambler personality.] "Why did I choose to be friends with Sherlock Holmes," I muttered to myself. "I''m supposed to be the hero! When did I become Watson?" [I don''t know who the people you speak of are, but I am an Inspector and you''re my Agent,] he said calmly. [Please don''t do anything rash.] "Eunice carved up her entire End Gate with hexagrams and stuff," I said. "Why can''t I poke mine just a little...?" [The Gate isn¡¯t in a secure location and you''re NOT a thousand-year-old, highly experienced archmage,] Lambert said. [Something could go horribly wrong. The Inarian Gate could have arcane protection on it that could vaporize you on the spot!] "But¡­ I have Dawn''s superior precognition power on my side," I tried to weasel my way into the super-awesome, albeit half-assed plan I''ve already assembled in my head. "Dawn, help me, you¡¯re my only hope!" I appealed to the painting without looking at her. "Is the Shogun gate going to vaporize me if I scratch it a little with the soul-carving knife? Is it a good move for my future-self?" "I don''t know," Dawn replied, her voice trembling. "I... can''t see the path forward from this branch of actions. There is nothing at all there. I have no idea whether you live or die. This... has never happened to me before. Your future¡­ it doesn¡¯t exist in the Astral. Please, for the love of the Emperor, stop thinking about stabbing the Gate!" Ch 50. Precognition ¡°What do you mean my future doesn¡¯t exist in the Astral? How exactly do you see my future and what¡¯s different now?¡± I asked the painted girl on my dress. ¡°When I feed on a person, I automatically assemble, visualize their future akin to a massive tree. Every major decision they will make spawns a multitude of branches forward. If it¡¯s a branch leading to the person¡¯s death, the branch is cut off, dark. If it leads to a longer-lasting, more magical future it is bright and vibrant.¡± ¡°Uh-huh,¡± I mulled. ¡°And my future?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have a f-freaking future anymore! That¡¯s the problem! You¡­ you really broke me! I didn¡¯t think this was possible and yet here we freaking are!¡± Dawn lamented, sounding extremely upset. I turned my head and finally looked at the dress hanging on the wall on my right side. The painted girl didn¡¯t look like aged Grogtilda or Juni anymore! A very distraught, female figure was standing there on a very dark canvas. She didn¡¯t have any color in the hair or skin at all! There was something terribly wrong with the poster which Dawn inhabited. She was grey, silver and blue - the colors of the Astral Ocean. I gaped at the drawing, leaning in closer to inspect her. Dawn was now looking like a very strange ghost, woven completely from blue-tinted, silver¡­ webs and constellations of stardust. Her face no longer resembled mine! An alien-looking tree woven from many moving threads stood behind her in the darkness, glittering with flashing, opening and closing flowers. ¡°Dawn¡­¡± I whispered in shock. ¡°You¡¯re not me anymore.¡± ¡°Oh...¡± Dawn glanced down at herself and then she looked back at me. ¡°Are you Ambiss? Is this what Ambiss would have looked like if she lived on as an Astral ghost?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡­ am me,¡± Dawn nodded. ¡°I can¡¯t pull on your future thread, so I¡¯ve reverted to look like my¡­ real self.¡± ¡°You¡¯re¡­ beautiful,¡± I uttered, looking at the ghost woven from endless branches of silver stardust. ¡°This feels¡­ so wrong¡­ and so right,¡± Dawn whispered, closing her eyes filled with glittering starlight. ¡°I¡¯m me¡­ I¡¯m finally just me. Not someone else. Not a borrowed face. I¡¯m what remained after Ambiss died, her imprint, her last echo.¡± She opened them again and stared at me. ¡°How have you done this? How have you erased your future out of existence?¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t done anything, I swear!¡± I decried. I heard Lambert''s laughter in my head. [What did she do now?] Anniya¡¯s voice cut into the conversation. [Why is the tracking dial doing that?] [She¡¯s gone,] Lambert said, sounding flabbergasted. [Completely gone from precognition.] ¡°You¡¯re tracking me?!¡± I yelped. [For your own safety,] Lambert said. [I track everyone who works for me with the power of the Lomb''s Constabulary Tower. Antoine made a very expensive, unique clockwork mechanism for the tower that shows a person''s current position and approximates their present and future states. I would not send you into Undertown if I wasn''t able to track you properly.] "So¡­ what''s happening?" I asked. [Your Astral future-tracker stat has just gone berserk,] Lambert said. [Antoine called this mechanism the Probability Engine. The future-stat display is now flipping letters endlessly. It''s as if it can''t find your future state. Whatever you''re doing is messing up your Astral imprint big-time. Your future is currently incalculable.] "I''m not doing anything, I swear!" I yelped into the armacus. "You''re not doing anything right now, but you are definitely planning to do something catastrophically stupid," Lambert said. "I''m ordering you not to stab the Gate." "But I really, really want to stab it," I whined. "Why?" Lambert asked exasperatedly. "Because it¡­ she pissed me off!" I snapped. "She showed me my grandfather and then ripped him away again! She deserves to be stabbed! How am I supposed to wait a thousand years and get to Novazem to find him? It''s unfair!" ¡°Technically it wasn¡¯t your grandfather,¡± Dawn commented. ¡°Hrm?¡± I looked at the painted girl. ¡°The Shogun gate doesn¡¯t show people ghosts of their loved ones,¡± Dawn said. ¡°I think¡­ it shows us alternative worlds¡­ alternative paths, alternative futures. Some of them running parallel, others moving at a slower or faster rate. That¡¯s the only explanation for what I¡¯ve seen.¡± This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Wait,¡± I paused. ¡°You saw something else in the Gate? Something other than what I witnessed? You didn¡¯t see my grandfather?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Dawn confessed, starlight tears glittering in her eyes. ¡°I saw Ambiss. She was alive, painting in her workshop and singing like she used to! It was her, but it also wasn¡¯t her. It was an alternative timeline, one in which she had never made me - one in which she lived.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand¡­ Ambiss died because she made you?¡± I gasped. ¡°She was dying, withering away because she made me! She literally poured all of her life into me, sacrificed her soul to her drawings,¡± Dawn said. ¡°She had plenty of Vitality¡­ She could have clung to the world for a long time, but she wanted to create something unique, something far beyond anything that any other Depictomancer had made. She was terribly alone¡­ she never made a single friend throughout her life that she could trust.¡± ¡°Ah,¡± I mumbled, feeling sorry for Dawn''s painter. ¡°Ever since she was a young student at Nemendias, Ambiss was terrified of death, scared of getting hurt, afraid of going outside, not trusting people. Her parents and her first love broke something in her, something vital that made her close in, block out the world¡­ made her into a Vitality maxer and a Depicomancy absolutist. What the damned Shogun Gate showed me was... Ambiss who didn¡¯t have childhood trauma, who¡¯s heart wasn¡¯t broken at seventeen. I saw Ambiss who was completely free of her social anxiety. It was my painter¡­ but it also wasn¡¯t her.¡± ¡°So¡­ the boy I saw was¡­¡± ¡°Not your grandfather,¡± Dawn said. ¡°Not someone you knew personally. An alternative, different path. A path where he lived on, chose to do something completely different, made a step towards a future in which he somehow ended up on Novazem. The way you''ve described it to the Inspector... it was like he didn''t even know you.¡± ¡°So that was... my grandfather, Vladislav Kerenski¡­ alive¡­ in some alternative universe because he made a different choice in his life?¡± I mulled. "Alive because he''s never made a choice to settle down to adopt and raise me?!" ¡°Essentially,¡± Dawn said. ¡°I believe that the Shogun Gate is an Astral gateway, a pinhole that allows anyone who stands under it to take a minute peek into the possibility of the future in which their loved ones are still alive. The Gate is an artifact with its Luck maxed out. It has the same power as I do - calculating future paths based on alternative parallels, but with far, far better, absurd clarity. It is a very devious device, because it misleads the observers into a belief that they¡¯re talking to their own ancestors.¡± ¡°I see,¡± I said darkly. "I''ve been had." [If I cannot derail you from the path of messing with the Gate, then at least I can delay it,] Lambert said. [Don¡¯t use the knife on the Gate until we secure it.] ¡°Fine,¡± I shrugged. ¡°So you agree with my idea of poking the Gate with the knife, Inspector?¡± [I do not,] he replied. [It produces an unknown future in which you might not be safe or alive.] ¡°So then... what?¡± I waved a hand. [As long as you¡¯re firmly considering using the knife on the Gate - it produces an untraceable future,] Lambert said. [I believe that this in itself is of great value to us - if I cannot predict your future actions then neither can our enemies.] ¡°Ohhh, I get it,¡± I smiled. ¡°I¡¯m unpredictable!¡± [Essentially,] Lambert affirmed from his end of the connection. [You¡¯ve figured out a way to break all precognition of your actions. Plus Dawn no longer looks like you, correct? This in itself, is of great value to us.] ¡°Correct,¡± I glanced at the black and white starlight-woven figure in the poster. ¡°I didn¡¯t understand it before¡­ but I think I know why the future-seers of the Empire were unable to catch or to stop Eunice for centuries,¡± I mulled. ¡°She used the knife on her gate!¡± [Indeed,] Lambert said. [It makes sense now. The combination of access to two of these Inarian artifacts and the desire to use them on each other completely closes the eyes of the precogs.] ¡°I¡¯ve used the gate beneath Eunice¡¯s house,¡± I mulled¡­ why didn¡¯t the future observation of me break back then?¡± [You saw a figure nodding at you from the Shogun Gate at the market, correct?] Lambert asked. ¡°Yes,¡± I nodded. [The Undertown gate was likely unclaimed,] Lambert mulled. [Potentially, the Inarian artifact acknowledged you as its wielder. If you could barely tolerate the smell of Undertown in your¡­ monster body, then the other seven heroes¡­ most likely refuse to go anywhere near the sewage river.] ¡°How can the mere act of thinking about doing something have so much impact on precogs?¡± I asked. [It has to do with the nature of the System and the Astral Ocean,] Lambert said. [I can see words trying to come up on Lomb Station¡¯s Probability Engine, but they¡¯re swiftly buried in gibberish nonsense.] ¡°Precogs aren¡¯t seeing or calculating your future,¡± Dawn said. ¡°They see alternative paths¡­ alternative possibilities from parallel worlds where events unfold¡­ faster. You¡¯ve somehow reached a threshold, a decision upon which a large enough number of your alternative selves from alternative worlds connected together by the weave of the Astral have made a deep connection with the Shogun Gate or used the knife on it.¡± [Correct,] Lambert said. [The Astral infinite curve cannot be defined with a number, cannot be listed on a page because it is so vast, but it can be defined with simple statistics. More than 50% of your alternative selves have messed with the Gate from their end and thus probability artifacts are now struggling to calculate your future actions. Precogs are now struggling to assemble coherent information about you, unable to see the alternative decisions made by countless parallel Yulias.] ¡°Good job alternative me-s,¡± I puffed my cheeks out, imagining that slightly more than half of an infinite line of me-s was stabbing the black Gate. ¡°Thanks for being so stubborn. Show that Gate who¡¯s boss.¡± [Right, I think we¡¯ve caught up fully. Don¡¯t stab the Gate without my approval,] Lambert ordered. [Feel free to think about doing it though. I¡¯ll call you when I find out more.] ¡°Yes boss,¡± I said as the Lomb Inspector disconnected the call. ¡°Guiding you to the perfect future, is going to suck,¡± Dawn murmured. ¡°I don¡¯t know what¡¯s best for you anymore.¡± ¡°Welcome to being a clueless beanie like me,¡± I winked at her. ¡°On the plus side, you can now guide yourself forward¡­ forge a brilliant future for your pretty-self, right?¡± ¡°Right,¡± Dawn looked at her starlight-woven hands and then back at me. ¡°Thanks for freeing me¡­ I suppose.¡± ¡°You¡¯re welcome,¡± I smiled. ¡°Now¡­ how can I level up without stabbing at garbage all night long? Any ideas?¡± ¡°You¡­ could try killing the local Astral Phantoms,¡± the painted girl offered. ¡°They should net more experience than garbage. I was going to suggest it earlier, before you went on your junk-murder spree.¡± ¡°Hold up, don¡¯t the local towers keep them away?¡± I raised an eyebrow at her. ¡°The local beacons are very poorly maintained. The Undertown repelling field is imperfect, leaving much to be desired. The nearest one is like an old fishing net riddled with minute holes,¡± Dawn shook her head. ¡°There¡¯s a lot more death down here too, far more than in Illatius. Little, hungry phantoms get through to nibble on the dead.¡± "Right," I nodded. "Lets try to catch us some fish." Ch 51. Fishing
I moved into Juni¡¯s body protected by the barrier-shield and opened my eyes in the Astral Ocean aka the Still Forest. The necropolis of death was silent as always, filled with infinite bone-superstructures. Bones of dead people and creatures intertwined in phantasmagoric formations fused into dead garbage. I had put Dawn on beneath my nightcrawler armor, with a plan to take her with me to my Astral-hunt. As I looked down and saw her there - she wasn¡¯t exactly human in this place. I saw what the painting looked like beneath its feminine visual appearance. She was unquestionably alien, not one bit of her was human. Dawn looked like a glittering flower-like fractal that sat on my chest. A silver string led from it, akin to a flower''s stem heading somewhere into distant, otherworldly, infinite depths of this place. Interesting. I waved my hand at her and the flower-like fractal glittered at me, waving one of her appendages. Neat. We had some sort of communication. I no longer felt completely alone. The Still Forest felt less alien and terrifying with Dawn at my side. I extended the branches, the roots of my soul out of my armor and inhaled, peered into the vast, dark abyss that surrounded us. I saw them after taking a whole bunch of deep breaths - small, squid-like things that floated between the bones of people, suckling on the inner light that glimmered within the dead imprints. Phantoms. One of them spotted me, flashed towards me attracted by my warmth and the glow of my many tendrils. It was weak, small - far smaller than me. Way below the terrifying power of the first Astral Phantom I had discovered in the Still Forest three years ago. I shuddered as I recalled the abomination that had cleaved me in two with a single tentacle. It was my turn for revenge. My time to show these damn things who was the boss! When the little squid reached me, I grabbed at it with all of my extended threads, struck against it with my agile Pneumasomatic Actuators. The little creature flailed, trying to get away as silver clouds of essence spilled from its innards. I drew it closer to myself and crushed it, inhaling the life spilling out of it, absorbing it into myself. Static-like sparks flashed, flickered through me. Pain and misery, love and passion, panic and terror. A river of various emotions overflowing, drowning in each other. Hundreds upon hundreds of smudged faces, of discordant memories of things that the little thing had consumed around Undertown. None of it made any sense and felt like a carousel of endless, quickly passing fever dreams. More. I needed more. I spread my threads out once again, waiting for another little squid to reach me. When it did, I struck at it, tearing the ghostly life apart, sucking out its life. MORE. . . . In time, the little Phantoms had learned that something was grabbing at them and started to avoid me. Having grown bored of the darkness and silence, I pulled myself out of the Astral and checked my System-clock. I had been under, feeding on ghost-squids for nearly two and a half days. Argh! My experience sat at [1245/1800]. I emerged from my room as Juni and looked at the window-slit. It was pitch black outside. Night had fallen on Undertown. I put my backpack on and walked out of the small favela. The Misems were snoring softly in their bedroom. I felt it then. Something calling out to me from a distant beyond. A voice from a dead world, a song of Death from beneath the veil of stars, of great, infinite Engines humming in the deep. When I closed my eyes I could almost see it. The way forward. The path that another me walked. The death-knife pulsated in its sheath. I reached out to it, touched it, feeling its call. I had to get to the Shogun Gate... had to talk to Infinity. The Undertown streets weren''t too crowded. It was late. Candles and magical lights flickered all around. Cloaked, scruffy figures loomed in the dark corners. Some of them were smoking, others drinking shine. They paid no attention to me. Any that tried to come close to me felt the pulse of the armacus and immediately retreated. I was safe in Undertown. The armacus-pulse protected me, made me untouchable. I started to walk towards the Shogun Gate, towards my calling... my destiny. I had gotten lost, made a wrong turn somewhere. The labyrinthine city of junk and favelas looked a lot different in the near-total darkness. Without my father guiding me, I wasn''t sure which street to follow to get to the Gate. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°Dawn? Can you guide me to the Shogun Gate?¡± I asked. ¡°No,¡± she said. ¡°You¡¯re definitely going to mess with it.¡± ¡°Come on, I¡¯m not going to mess with it, I just want to¡­¡± ¡°You want to use the knife on it,¡± the painting commented from under my armor. ¡°Don¡¯t think I don¡¯t know. The Inspector told you to wait. Why are you so impatient?¡± I groaned. "Pretty please?" I begged. "I just want to look at the Gate." "No," Dawn replied. ¡°Fine, whatever,¡± I said. ¡°Don¡¯t be a helpful painting.¡± My stomach growled. I felt hungry. The feeling distracted me from my gate-shaped destiny. I walked to the nearest lit restaurant. Magical lanterns swung back and forth ever so slightly. It was dim, but it wasn¡¯t a problem for my chimera eyes. I eyed the fried fish being prepared for shabby patrons inside, contemplated ordering one for myself¡­ and then I remembered that to eat one would require taking my mask off. Dark, hollow, desperate and tired eyes of the diner patrons settled on me. They felt the pulse from my wrist and began to disperse. The chef looked terrified. I didn¡¯t even know how I would pay for the fish. Was I supposed to promise a favor or something? Undertown didn¡¯t use money. Would the locals even accept a favor from a lawman or simply give me whatever I asked for? I sighed and turned around. To my surprise, the street in front of me wasn¡¯t empty. There were five people there, dressed in black armor. Their faces were covered up too. Steampunk goggles glinted in the darkness. The leader of the steampunk-ninjas as I had dubbed them raised his armed armacus at me. "You!" He barked. "Stop right there! You must..." I yelped, raising my own armacus in response. My bracelet unfurled into its weaponized form too. A green-tinted spell stuck from the magitek gun of the head ninja. I swung away from the ray, but I had been a moment too slow. The spell struck me in the left arm and sudden numbness took over my left side. I discovered that I could not move my arm at all! The numbness was spreading, making me unnervingly sleepy and dizzy. ¡°You damned bastards!¡± I barked, my own armacus unfurling.
[Repulsor] [Wide beam] [Focused beam]<
The focused beam of my Repulsor went across the five. Two of my assailants went down in an instant with screams of pain while three rapidly scattered away like moths. ¡°I¡¯m a lawman!¡± I barked. ¡°I will not be messed with!¡±
[Repulsor] [Wide beam]< [Focused beam]
The three were circling me like vultures. One of them tried to come close to me and fell clutching his chest with a scream, dropping his shiny rapier. Two left. Some sort of a projectile thundered against my armor. It didn¡¯t go through. Ha! I stared in mild amusement at the dark dart covered in some kind of colorful fluid.
[Repulsor] [Wide beam] [Focused beam]<
The ninja that fired the dart from a small tube fell from a favela, curling up in pain. One to go. My body felt heavy, my thoughts slow and thick like wobbly columns made from lard. ¡°Dawn,¡± I muttered. ¡°I... can''t hold out long. What do I do?" ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± she said. ¡°They got you with a paralyzing spell, I think." "You think?" I hissed. I had to end this quick. I couldn¡¯t let the last one get me I tried to focus my thoughts and took a step forward. Then another. I was moving, but it felt like I was wading through water. The last assailant leaped out from the shadows and came at me with a kick. I barely had time to react and put my arm up with the Michell Shield. The kick encountered my arm, shattered my magic shield and pain shot through me. I retaliated with a quick jab of my elbow, hitting him in the stomach. He grunted and staggered back.
[Repulsor] [Wide beam]< [Focused beam]
The pulse struck him like a freight train. He collapsed with a scream, frothing and thrashing. I stood there, trying to catch my breath. In a minute, I collapsed on my knees. The numbness had reached my legs. I tried to stand up, but I couldn¡¯t. The paralysis was getting worse. ¡°Dawn,¡± I muttered. ¡°What do I do?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± she said, her voice trembling. ¡°Unfortunately... I can''t see your future." I was going to die here if I didn''t do something. I tried to focus my thoughts and summon my soul-threads, but it was like trying to grasp at smoke. I was too weak, too exhausted. I had used up too much of my mana in the past few days hunting phantoms. ¡°Dawn,¡± I muttered. ¡°I need your help.¡± ¡°What can I do?¡± she asked. ¡°Paint me a nice future,¡± I choked out, my thoughts swimming around like a school of phantom-squids. ¡°One where I''m not freaking paralyzed.¡± "That not something I can do," the painted girl replied with a sniff. "You must have seen this... someone was after me," I croaked. "Who? Why?" "I don''t know," she said. "I only saw which path was best for everyone. This is it... I think." "You think?! This... doesn''t feel like a best path," I groaned. "This bloody sucks." I tried to look ahead. The view in front of me was swimming, buildings wobbling. One of the more distant assailants was already getting up. I aimed the [Focused beam]. My hand was shaking. After five tries I managed to hit him and he fell once again with a cry. "At least contact Lambert through one of your other other posters," I said. "Let my friensshh know... abb-bout this." It was beginning to get harder to talk. Something like a blackjack hit the back of my head. The soft padding inside of the nightcrawler skull had protected me. I gave my assailant a hearty dose of the [Wide beam] and heard a gurgling scream from behind me. "Why won''t you people leave me alone?" I snarled. "What do you want?!" There was no answer. Another dart thundered against my side. Why did I think I was safe in Undertown? Why did I trust Dawn? She knew that this was going to happen to me. How could this be a good future?! The man on the ground moved, tried to aim his armacus at me. I hit him with another wide pulse and he screamed. The streets around us had emptied of commoners before the fight even started. Nobody was coming to help me, I realized. Nobody would find me if these ruffians broke my legs and dumped me into the river. This is how they got Nandine. This is how I was going to end up dead. I kept on sending out Wide pulses around myself. At least I would make them suffer before I went down. At least I would show them... Another dart struck me. I started to slide down, completely losing my balance. Whatever the first spell had been, it got me good. Dumb, dumb, Yulia. I tried to keep my finger pressed firmly to the trigger of my armacus, tried to keep the [Wide beam] on, but my consciousness was winking away. My entire right arm became numb as I fell face-first into the road made from garbage. It didn''t hurt. Paralysis was a bitch. The screams of the nearby gangsters lulled me into darkness. I knew that they would not be kind to me when my finger would slide off the trigger. Ch 52. Captured
Pain of broken bones. Murky, suffocating darkness. Dirty, trash-filled water rushing to fill my lungs. I tried to swim upwards, but I was still paralyzed, unable to move my limbs properly, unable to reach the increasingly distant surface. Bubbles escaped from me as I sank deeper and deeper into the murky void. . . . I woke up with a gasp, flailing against a bed sheet. None of these things were real. The painful, all consuming darkness was just a figment of my dream-addled imagination. It was just a dream fermented by the dark tale of how Grogtilda¡¯s mother had ended up in Undertown acting in combination with the paralyzing sleep spell. I rubbed sleep out of my eyes to discover that my mysterious assailants had not dumped me into the garbage-filled river as I had expected them to, but¡­ into a rather lovely, well-decorated bedroom. White and pink satin sheets wrapped my body. A ridiculously soft pillow hugged my head, smelling of lavender and¡­ coffee? I inhaled heartily. It was definitely coffee. I barely believed my senses as I sat up on the bed and looked around. Light broke through a few massive windows, white curtains fluttering in the wind. I peered out of the window next to the bed, staring through the decorative stained glass. I discovered a very lush garden outside filled with arboretums, fountains, and gold statues. The enormous, fancy bed I was currently located upon was carved from thick, hearty wood covered with hand-made gothic motifs. Elaborate wooden flowers covered the back baseboard, extending all the way to the ceiling, culminating with an incredibly complex stained glass that depicted a lush forest scene wrapped in blue lakes and azure glacier mountains. My hands automatically tried to grab at my soul-carving, all-killing knife only to discover that it wasn¡¯t there anymore. My armor was gone too. So was Dawn. The only thing of value that I had on me was my armacus, currently looking and feeling like a large, useless, shiny bracelet. I was also wearing a very pink, long and frilly nightgown-style dress. My privacy had been quite thoroughly violated and yet¡­ for some reason I wasn¡¯t freaking out. I felt ridiculously calm¡­ relaxed even! I was calmer than I have ever been. A blanket of unnatural calmness was wrapped over my shoulders, keeping me afloat in an ocean of serenity. A magical effect? I glanced around the room and determined that the calmness was radiating from a stained glass, spherical, glowing lamp that sat on the bedside table. Right¡­ a resonance artifact of some sort was affecting my mind, keeping me exceptionally relaxed, not letting me freak out. It was making me feel like I was drunk on a hundred Valerian pills¡­ like this place was my favorite room in the universe, like I never wanted to leave this wonderful, relaxing bedroom. As far as prisons went, it was suspiciously pleasant. I very calmly closed my eyes and tried to feel the pulse of Sempiternity and also my soul¡¯s connection to my nightcrawler armor. The knife was somewhere nearby, just like the rest of my armor. I opened my eyes and looked to where my soul was pulling towards. Aha! My stuff was located somewhere inside a very large wardrobe next to the bed. I slowly and calmly pulled the wardrobe open and exhaled in relief. Saccy sat inside it along with Dawn located on a hanger, my armor and weapons laid out on the shelves within. ¡°Juni!¡± Dawn flashed with silver glimmers from within. ¡°You¡¯re finally up! I was worried!¡± ¡°Hey,¡± I said, my eyes darting towards my precious knife. My fingers closed around my hexagon-covered weapon, feeling the familiar pulse of Sempiternity. I calmly walked towards the glowing, stained glass sphere and calmly swung the arcane weapon against it, calmly wishing it oblivion. The knife struck the calming artifact. The arcane device flickered, but didn¡¯t die. I calmly stared at it in the Astral, observing its hexagrammic imprint, memorizing, mentally picturing the pattern it cast into the void and stabbed it again. The calmness field weakened under my assault. I bared my feline teeth, defined it again, swinging harder, ruby gemstone hair sparkling in the sunlight breaking through the oversized bedroom windows. ¡°Die,¡± I uttered, swinging the all-killing knife into the artifact with all of my strength, defining the calmness effect and the artifact in its entirety as a separate, living concept. Like a soap bubble, the calmness field suddenly popped, shattered, detonated. The knife sank deep into the artifact. The spherical surface of the calming device shimmered, warping. With a whoosh and crackle it exploded into silver, sparkling dust. ¡°Ef-fffing mind control bullshit,¡± I growled. There were other artifacts, other nice, magical things sitting on the shelf. The pure-black knife sang in my hand. Death. Experience. Power. Vengeance. Terminus. The end of all things. The darkness of the Void when every star is extinguished at the end of the Universe. I embraced her song. One by one the artifacts sitting on the table died, shattered into clouds of purified crystalline dust. My experience skyrocketed upwards with each kill. The things I¡¯ve killed weren¡¯t old, broken garbage - they were extremely expensive, powerful and filling. To drown the final bit of my anger, I pulled the fancy, pink, frilly dress off myself and swung at it as it fluttered in the air. ¡°Die,¡± I growled as the dastardly, pink, satin nightie detonated into sparkling dust.
[1804/1800 Experience optimum reached! Initiate level up?]
A message flashed in my eyes. I was standing in front of an empty table, panting. I was tired, but felt ravenous for more destruction. My heart was beating rapidly and an angry scowl sat on my face. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°Please do not stab your bestie,¡± Dawn whispered from the wardrobe. I rolled my eyes at her as I pulled my sentient dress on myself. I heard the sound of soft applause from behind me. I spun, facing the clapping. The clapping ceased. A very tall, grey-haired woman was standing in the hallway behind the currently open doorway into the room. A long, pure-white dress and large white derby hat framed her exceptionally curvy figure. My eyes became drawn to a large, flashing necklace on her chest. The core gemstone of the necklace shined like an eternally spinning ring. The figure of the woman lit up from within, as if she was the heart, the furnace of the sun. Coronas of gold and white lightning started to dance around her, flashing in my eyes, blinding me with her perfection and beauty. The magical resonance of the flashes drew me in, drowned my gaze in them¡­ resonating, pulsating with pure absolute love. I¡¯ve felt this kind of devotion before, a false love produced by the pulse of Saccy. I felt submission take hold of me, the desire to prostrate myself before her, to bow, to kiss her feet¡­ ¡°No,¡± I swung the black knife in front of my face. I carved right through her light, through the very concept of love that took hold of me, through the resonance pulse between us, visibly seen in the Astral. With a crackling flash the affection-binding tether between me and her broke, snapped like a torn piece of twine. The gemstone on her chest dimmed. My guess was right! The knife really could slice up spells! HA! I looked at the face of the woman. She was still impressive and motherly-looking, but no longer stunning like a perfect being. A wide smile spread across her face as she opened her eyes. ¡°Well done,¡± she said. ¡°I bow to your prowess, high-cendai Juni. You are truly as talented as Eunisii described.¡± She bowed to me, diamond-like, large white gemstones glittering over her neck. I noted that her hair shimmered with unnatural tones, almost like it was woven from yellow and white crystals. ¡°You¡¯re a chimera,¡± I said, keeping the black knife in front of me, between me and her magical, mind-control necklace. ¡°Correct, my dear,¡± silver-gold eyes flashed at me as the human-body of a chimera high-cendai readjusted her large, white derby hat. ¡°I am Baroness Amadea Nourd Calypso!¡± ¡°Ah,¡± I lowered the knife ever so slightly. ¡°Eunice told me about you.¡± ¡°Indeed. We are all equal beneath Goddess Eunisii,¡± Baroness Amadea smiled. The smile felt false, didn''t reach her eyes. ¡°This is your place then?¡± I waved my knife at the posh room. ¡°Indeed, you are in my Baronial Estate, Palais De La Solstice,¡± Amadea spread her hands open. She was a bit too tall for a human, her skin sparkling like white diamonds. ¡°Do forgive the ruffians that brought you here. The mages working in Undertown aren''t the best at following orders to the letter. I hope they didn''t rough you up too much. I''ve heard you''ve put up quite the fight. I''m impressed how quickly you were able to acquire a lawmaker''s armacus without any resources.¡± The eyes of the chimera Baroness glanced at the silver bracelet on my right hand. ¡°You sent ruffians after me?¡± I asked, squinting at her. ¡°There are many humans under my employ,¡± Baroness said with an exhale. ¡°Eunice told me to locate you as soon as possible and to make sure that you don¡¯t get into trouble. I don¡¯t know what you did to hide your future-scent¡­ but you¡¯re a crafty one. If you hold a grudge against the human that struck you with a sleep-spell, I can have them executed.¡± My eye twitched. ¡°No need,¡± I said. ¡°Now, who took off my armor and dress?¡± ¡°My trusted servants,¡± Amadea snapped her fingers. Two gray-haired girls wearing white, black and gold lace emerged from a small, hidden door. ¡°This is Voltara and Arouetta. They are yours to command during your stay in my Estate.¡± I opened my mouth to say a rebuttal to being assigned servants. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± the Baroness smiled, glancing at the sand-covered table. ¡°This room belongs to you. Feel free to destroy or replace anything within to make yourself as comfortable as you desire. There¡¯s a bag with ten thousand obliss in the left drawer for any... sudden expenses.¡± My mind caught onto something of great importance. ¡°You let¡­ humans undress a chimera cendai?¡± I asked, tilting my head. ¡°I had to make sure that you¡¯re really cendai Juni and not some other tricky, armored mageling. My most experienced, loyal trackers had a lot of trouble finding you. Don¡¯t worry,¡± Amadea waved her hands at the gray-haired servant girls. ¡°My pets are fully bound with living Vows to Eunisii. They cannot leave this Estate or speak of our secrets.¡± ¡°Vows?¡± I squinted at the two girls, looking at them with my Still-Walker sight. I gasped at what my magic-vision revealed to me. Massive, fractal, fungi-shaped, gold, flower-like constructs hung above the girls, hundreds of shimmering gold threads descending down and boring deep into their bodies. The gold thread entered into the servants¡¯ arms, legs and heads. They were indeed completely bound with some sort of monstrous... divine magic. I gulped. ¡°Don''t worry! Unlike these adorable creatures, we cannot be bound with Vows. Humans are practically made to serve us,¡± Amadea said casually as her hand crowned by white, sharp fingernails caressed the head of one of the servant girls. ¡°Voltara and Arouetta, like all of the servants in my palace, bound themselves into eternal servitude to me of their own free will.¡± ¡°You didn¡¯t use your Resonance magic to force these... vows?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°My Resonance magic is quite weak, actually. I specialize in... Anima. I''ve helped design these little angels for our young Goddess," Amadea pointed at the ghostly Vows. "A Vow of belief cannot be forced onto a human by mind-control magic. It is forged in and fed by the deepest spring of the soul. My Barony owns several gold mines and humans sell their own daughters to me for a bit of shiny metal. I raised them myself for I am the arch-mother to all maidens in my Barony.¡± ¡°I see,¡± I said, trying to keep my face calm. ¡°I really do apologize for the way you were brought here,¡± the Baroness smiled. ¡°I could not disobey my Master¡¯s orders... had to find you. I hope that my noble gift makes it up to you.¡± ¡°What gift?¡± I raised my eyebrow. ¡°My eldest suggested it,¡± Amadea brought her hands together. ¡°Suggested what?¡± I blinked apprehensively. ¡°The best place in all of Illatius to study humans, of course,¡± the Baroness smirked. ¡°I¡¯ve enrolled your human body in Nemendias. No need to thank me. I¡¯m on the Board of Directors, plus I practically own the place with all of the donations I¡¯ve been making to it, you see.¡± ¡°You do know that my human body is that of a lowborn?¡± I asked. ¡°Of course! I do love a good prank on the humans,¡± Amadea laughed. ¡°When Eunisii told me that you¡¯ve taken a lowborn I knew exactly why you did it. A lowborn in Nemendias! That¡¯s sure to ruffle some feathers. Don¡¯t worry, everything is paid for. Take as many years as you want to study humans and their magics and collect as many adorable highborn pets as you desire for your future Barony of Undertown. You won¡¯t have to spend a copper!¡± Ah. The inevitability of my education in Nemendias that Dawn felt suddenly made sense. Eunice told Amadea to take me under her wings and she really did. ¡°Your eldest studies in Nemendias then?¡± I asked. ¡°Indeed,¡± Baroness Amadea nodded. ¡°My daughter Agatha is going into her last year soon. When she graduates she will marry Prince Licor and inherit the Empire. The other six can eat my spell-contrails, because I¡¯ll be the one who brings humans fully under our rule!¡± ¡°Very impressive,¡± I commented. ¡°Is Agatha a chimera like us? Is she your monwai from Tokimorim?tul?¡± ¡°Oh no,¡± Amadea shook her head. ¡°She¡¯s really my daughter. She is the first of her kind - a mixture of a chimera and a human.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve had¡­ kids¡­ with a human?¡± I blinked. ¡°I do like to play with my pets,¡± Amadea smiled. ¡°Unlike the other six, I love humans and find them adorable. I do hope you share my deposition towards humans?¡± ¡°Umm,¡± I mumbled. ¡°I like humans too.¡± ¡°Excellent, then I hope that I can have your friendship, our Eighth,¡± Amadea bowed. ¡°Now, I do have social obligations¡­ calls to make and whatnot, but I shall see you later. If you wish to join me for lunch, come to the main dining hall. My youngest, Emerald will come by in a bit and show you around the Estate,¡± ¡°Sure,¡± I nodded. ¡°Feel free to wander around the grounds and play with anyone here. Do sheathe your knife, my dear, you are in no danger here.¡± Amadea departed, leaving me alone with the two servants. The gray-haired girls stood completely still, waiting for my orders. I looked at their expressionless, lace-covered faces and then looked at the black, concept-killing knife in my hand. Hrm. Ch 53. The Binding Threads I stared at the Vows hanging above the two servant girls. The enormous, alien-looking jellyfish floated through the Astral, flickering in and out of the inky black void. Gold sparks danced on the silver threads extending deep into the bodies and souls of their victims. I shuddered. These things looked truly monstrous, abominable. I peered deeper into the Astral, stared into the souls of the maids. The colors faded from my eyes, became gray. I looked deeper yet, tracking the ripples cast by life and magic into the great, infinite unsea. The girl I was looking at became revealed to me in strange, grayscale splendor of shimmering threads. Tiniest currents of magic left the maid''s body, heading towards the Vow hanging behind her. It looked like the blackguard Vows were feeding on the poor, unfortunate souls that bore them. The thing wasn''t physical at all. It was a grotesque ghost, a denizen of the Still Forest that collected power for Eunice drop by drop by drop. The black knife in my hand sang to me a melody of death as I circled the lace-covered servants. I continued to pace around the room, my eyes never leaving the Vows. There were far too many ghostly threads for me to cut. Also, I didn¡¯t know if the Vow or its victim would attack me if I tried to simply cut the ghostly threads off the infected soul. "Do you need anything, Mistress Juni?" The servant in front of me suddenly asked. I peered at the patterns cast into the endless void, not sure if it was the human girl speaking to me or the monstrous phantom. "Hrm," I replied, my voice trembling slightly. "State your name for me." "I am Voltara Benedeca, Mistress." "Very well, Voltara. What is the purpose of the Vows?" "The Vows bind us to this Estate and to the will of its Esteemed Lady, Baroness Amadea," The servant replied, her voice clear like a mountain brook, but lacking any sort of emotion. "And what did Baroness Amadea order you to do?" I asked. "To obey and to take care of you, Mistress," the girl replied. I frowned and stepped closer to the servant, studying her face. There was something not quite right about her eyes, they were too blank, too empty. It was as if she was not really seeing me, not really responding to me. There was a certain hollowness to them, pain buried in the deep. "And if I were to order you to hurt yourself?" I inquired. "I would do so, Mistress." The servant replied without hesitation, the threads holding her lighting up. Now, it was definitely the Vow speaking through her mouth. "Your order is my command. In what manner would you like to see me suffer? Do you wish me to use that black knife in your hand on myself?" "No," I shook my head, trying to clear it of the disturbing image of the servant stabbing herself. I had to find a way to free these girls, to break the hold the Vows had on them. But first, I had to figure out what exactly these Vows were and how they worked. "This is just a hypothetical discussion. Don''t actually do that," I added. "Very well, Mistress," the servant nodded. "Would you kill yourself or Arouetta if I order it?" I asked. "No." "Would you hurt her?" "Yes." "What about Baroness Amadea?" "No," the servant replied without hesitation. "I must protect my Lady." "And if I ordered you to kill me?" I inquired. "No, Mistress," the servant replied. "I must protect your life while you are in my Lady''s domain." "You will obey my every order?" I asked. "No," The servant replied. "List the things you can''t do," I said. "I cannot disobey my Lady''s direct orders. I cannot kill my Lady, her daughters, you, myself or other servants. I cannot injure my lady, her daughters or any other Estate guests. I cannot damage the Estate. I cannot take on more Vows," The servant rattled off the list of things she couldn''t do without hesitation. "What if you accidentally break something?" I asked. "This has never happened before," the servant replied. "I am very careful." I regretted not reading more Asimov books about the laws of robotics. If I was as smart as the Russian-born American writer, I would have known how to word my questions better in order to get the information I needed or maybe trap the Vow in a logical loophole. But I wasn''t as clever as Isaac Asimov. I did know how to kill anything with my knife, as long as I could define it fully. The problem was, I was having difficulty defining the Vows - their shapes were smudged, blurry, hard to focus on. It was difficult to focus on the Vows as the damn, ghostly things existed somewhere far deeper in the Astral than I was normally used to staring at. "I order you to tell me the absolute truth," I said. "Yes, Mistress," the maid said. "Can a Vow be removed or killed?" I went with the most blunt approach possible. "No, Mistress," the servant replied. "Vows cannot be removed or killed by a mortal, as they are manifestations of divine power." I scoffed. Eunice was no god. She was just a mage who had lived far too long for her own good and became a villain. "If you were to die the Vow wouldn''t die too?" I returned to my interrogation. "No, Mistress... the Vow is an Angel. She will drag my soul to the paradise of blessed Saint Eunisii when my life ends. Do not be concerned, I will not expire anytime soon even if you hurt me - all servants of this Estate are Vitality Maxers, solders of the Amadea Barony." I frowned. "Can a Vow kill another Vow? Can your Vow kill the Vow on Arouetta?" I asked. "I cannot see the Vow upon Arouetta, Mistress," Voltara answered. "Hrm. So people can''t see Vows?" I asked. "Can Vows see Vows?" "As far as I know, only our Baroness and her daughters can see the Vows," the servant replied. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. "Will you tell me your Lady''s secrets?" I prodded. "I do not know any of my Lady''s secrets," the answer came. "If your Vow... were to suddenly vanish, how would you feel?" I asked. "Errr?" Voltara twitched. "This is impossible. A Vow cannot vanish. It is bound to my soul." "This is just a hypothetical question," I said. "Answer the question, please." "A Vow cannot vanish," Voltara shook her head resolutely. "Can a Vow be modified?" I tilted my head, trying to find another angle. "Yes," the maid nodded. "The Baroness can modify my Vow, to add or to remove clauses... in case there is an emergency such as an invasion. The Arch-Maid can also modify my Vow." "Right," I mulled. "If I were to convince the Baroness to modify your Vow into freeing you from your servitude to the Estate and made to work for me, how would you feel?" "To serve you?" The maid blinked. "Sure," I nodded. "Would you be my trusted companion and my friend if I were to treat you well?" "If you treat me well.... I would feel... very happy," she replied with a twitch. "Elaborate," I demanded. "My Vow binds me into near-absolute obedience to the Guests of the Estate. Some of them can be... very unkind," the maid rubbed her left hand. I squinted at her hand. There was a very old imprint, a faded burn shaped like the edge of a poker. "However... I doubt that the Baroness would change my Vow in such a manner. She is very wealthy. She won''t sell me to you for gold or gems... not unless you have something she really wants." I rubbed my chin thoughtfully, pondering my options. I didn''t have anything to buy Voltara with and I didn''t want to sell my secrets to chimera cendai. If I could define her Vow better... then perhaps I could end it. Would giving Voltara orders make her Vow clearer, easier to see? "Lift your right arm," I said. The servant girl complied instantly. "Jump up and down on one foot, spin your arms in different directions and sing loudly," I ordered. The servant girl looked at me. "What should I sing, Mistress?" "The longest and the most complex song you know," I said, my voice growing firm. The servant girl started to jump and sing, spinning her arms. As she did, a hundred shining threads flickered from her arms and her head to the Vow. As I peered deeper into the Astral, I saw the thing that lurked behind the human facade with greater and greater clarity. More. I needed more definition! I had to bring the ghost forward. "In between each stanza of the song, continuously multiply a number with itself, and recite the answer," I ordered. "Start with two and keep going as long as you can." The servant girl''s eyes widened, but she continued to sing and comply with my orders. "Four... sixteen... two fifty six..." She started to multiply numbers. The Vow behind her started to take on a more defined shape as the control threads grew brighter. It would be hard for a human to do this much varying mental and physical activity but the Vow didn''t have this problem. It was clearly a living, highly intelligent, dangerous creature that held a human in its grasp like a marionette. I glanced at the second servant. She could be a problem as I could barely define one Vow at a time. "Arouetta, go outside of my room, close the door behind yourself and head to the end of the hallway and stay there keeping your eyes and ears closed," I said. The second maid girl complied, departing. I turned my attention back to the first servant. She was still obeying my orders like a flesh-robot, multiplying numbers with absurd precision. I decided to take it up a notch and also to make sure that we weren''t observed. "Follow me into my bag," I pulled Saccy out of the cabinet and opened her petals, climbing inside. "Don''t stop what you are doing." In a minute both of us were inside Saccy. I shut the petals above us. The only light within was cast by colorful mana crystals that were hanging around us from the nets. The maid kept obeying my orders without any issues, jumping on one foot, spinning her arm and etc. "Voltara, add on another task," I said. "After each multiplication recite six names of different servants from this estate that you know." The servant girl''s eye twitched, but she continued to comply with my orders. The Vow above her became brighter yet. More clarity! It needed to be more visible! I had to bring the malevolent ghost forward, towards my eyes, towards the edge of my knife. "Serina, Lidiana, Jovita, Crisanta, Gasta, Hortena," the servant girl rattled off the names of the servants, singing, multiplying numbers and twitching. The Vows above her twitched too, its mind lit as it tried to process what the girl could not. I didn''t have to define the entire Vow, I suddenly realized. Killing the entire Vow would be... dangerous if Amadea saw that the Vow wasn''t there anymore. I only needed to observe, to understand, to target the Vow''s processing center, its mind! "Open and close each of your fingers and toes, one by one," I ordered. "Move every muscle of your face going through every possible expression." The servant girl''s body contorted and twisted as she followed my orders. The Vow above her was now thrashing about, its jellyfish-like body shimmering as the threads of control sparked brighter and brighter. Its mind ignited in the Astral, cast a resonance that I could observe. I walked around the Vow, memorizing the patterns dancing in the abomination''s ghostly brain. "Add on another task - recall your entire life," I said. "Use your eyebrows as if they are the top and bottom of a mouth. Speak with your eye-brow mouth, reciting your entire life from the beginning as quickly as you can! The servant girl''s eyebrows moved up and down in rapid pace. I had no idea what the Vow was saying. It didn''t matter. My own mind was focused on the shape, on the concept of the Vow''s mental patterns. Every spark, every weave, every shimmering fractal responsible for the abominations thought. I memorized it all, pictured it in my head, pushed the information into the knife. "Faster. Spin your arms faster! Close and open your fingers faster! Sing faster. Recite names faster! Talk with your eyebrows faster. Do it! Increase the speed of your actions by two with each stanza!" I barked. I subtracted the threads from my vision, darkened them, focusing only on the brain, on the processing center of the vile parasite above me. I discovered that it was a lot easier to focus on the Vow inside of Saccy''s extradimenshional, expanded space. Minute by minute, the Vow''s mind became exposed in its alien, bewildering complexity. Fractal by fractal, weave by weave. I understood, pictured it all as the thing''s mind burned with brilliant, purple fire like a flare in imaginary darkness that existed beneath the physical world. Its mind was revealed to me in all of its fascinating, bizarre detail and I wished nothing but to end it. The girl was clearly suffering. Her entire body was twitching madly as she was rapidly stuttering. Sweat broke out on her forehead. The black knife in my hand became a part of me, an extension of my will. I retreated to the back wall, braced myself against it and focused on the Vow, on the image of its mind alone that I had retained with every fiber of my being. And then I struck. My chimera muscles uncoiled like a tight spring as I leapt off Saccy''s dark, painted wall into the air towards the insanely preoccupied Vow. Sempiternity''s knife cut through the Vow''s brain like it was nothing but air, sunk deep into its thoughts through its undefined body. "Die bitch," I exhaled and reality in front of me broke as time itself paused, became suspended for a moment. The air above the girl shimmered, flared in a corona of impossible colors. The knife had done its job. The Vow''s mind shattered like a glass pane, imploding in on itself and then exploded outwards like fading fireworks. The girl stopped spinning her arms, stopped twitching and singing. She fell with a cry as if the strings that held her up were suddenly cut. I landed lightly on my feet, staring at the broken Vow. It was still there, but its mind was gone, a cloud of sparks that were once its brain rapidly dissipating into the Astral Ocean, about to join the infinite forest of bones. "Mine," I moved my hand up catching the dying silver sparks into my hands, absorbing them into my soul.
[2014/1800 XP]
The girl beneath me opened her eyes and blinked. "F-fforgive me Mistress," she exhaled, trembling. "I... I lost count, I think. Your task was... too difficult. Do you want me to start over?" "Nah," I bent down to her, offering her my hand with a smirk. "You did well, Voltara," I said as she took my hand and I helped her up. "Thank you, Mistress," she bowed her head. Her eyes suddenly sparkled with tears. "W-what''s happening?" she exhaled, touching her wet cheek. "I... I''m sorry... I c-can''t stop crying..." I frowned and watched as the girl''s tears continued to stream down her face. It was clear that the Vow had been controlling her emotions, just like it had been controlling her body. Now that the Vow was gone, she was free to express herself as she desired. "It''s okay," I said. "You''re welcome." Voltara grabbed at the black lace mask covering her eyes and pulled it up, blinking at me. Her eyes were light brown beneath the mask. More tears were welling up in them. "What... what did you do?" She stared at me. "Why can''t I stop crying? W-what is happening to me?" "I released you from your servitude to the monsters," I said. "You''re feeling things because you''re free." "F-free?" Voltara repeated the word as if she had never heard it before. "What does that mean?" "It means you''re not a puppet anymore," I said. "I killed your Vow." Voltara''s mouth fell open. She stared at me in disbelief. "But... that''s impossible," she said. "Vows can''t be killed..." "Kick yourself really hard," I said. "W-what? Why?" She blinked. "Ram the wall with your head while barking loudly," I said. "No!" The servant replied and then her hand slapped over her mouth as her mind had finally caught up with her words. "Welcome to being human," I smirked at her. Ch 54. The Wager ¡°W-why did you free m-me?¡± The maid whispered as she looked around Saccy¡¯s quirkily-decorated interior filled with nets, tools and colorful hanging crystals. ¡°Because I need more friends,¡± I smiled softly. ¡°F-friends?¡± The girl blinked, hazel eyes staring at me. ¡°Friends,¡± I nodded, pointing my fingers at the Vow floating above her. ¡°Ones not bound by Astral-Ocean abominations.¡± ¡°You can see the Vows, then?¡± She uttered with a shudder. ¡°Y-you¡¯re just like the B-baroness¡­.¡± ¡°No,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m not like your Baroness.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not going to put a new Vow on me?¡± Voltara gulped. She expected me to bind her into servitude. ¡°No,¡± I shook my head. ¡°Firstly, the Baroness would see a new Vow on you and secondly I¡¯m against binding people¡¯s souls with such monstrous means.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re¡­¡± ¡°Working for the Constabulary,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m an Agent and I¡¯m investigating the Baroness.¡± Voltara¡¯s eyes darted to my gemstone mane. ¡°Yes,¡± I nodded. ¡°I look like a dungeon monster.¡± ¡°I¡­ see,¡± the maid¡¯s eyes dropped down to the floor. ¡°How may I be of use to you, Mistress?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll see if the Constabulary can employ you as well,¡± I said. ¡°You know this Estate well?¡± ¡°I grew up here,¡± the maid nodded. ¡°My parents sold me to the Baroness when I was seven. I spent nearly a decade serving the Estate. Have you really killed my Vow?¡± ¡°Do you feel like obeying my every order no matter how ridiculous?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°No,¡± the maid shook her head. ¡°Well then, there you go,¡± I twirled my knife. "Your Vow''s toast." ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of anyone killing a Vow,¡± the maid whispered, shaking her head. ¡°Such a thing is supposed to be impossible.¡± ¡°I can kill anything,¡± I smiled. The lace-covered servant gulped, moving away from me. ¡°Relax Voltara,¡± Dawn spoke from my dress. ¡°We do work for the Constabulary.¡± Voltara¡¯s wide eyes darted to the talking dress. ¡°That¡¯s my depictomancy-made partner. Her name¡¯s Dawn,¡± I introduced the painted girl. ¡°A living painting?¡± the maid exhaled, coming closer to observe Dawn. ¡°She¡¯s¡­ beautiful¡­ like a ghost¡­ woven from liquid starlight.¡± ¡°Yep,¡± I smiled. ¡°She¡¯s a cutie. Now, do you think I should free Arouetta from her Vow too?¡± ¡°It¡­ might be unwise,¡± Voltara shook her head. ¡°She is a firm believer in Saint Eunisii. I know that she prays to the goddess quite often. Also, she... is very proud to serve the Amadea family. I doubt that she would gladly work for someone who is not the Baroness or her daughters.¡± ¡°And you?¡± I asked. ¡°My Angel and I always had¡­ disagreements,¡± Voltara sighed. ¡°When I was twelve, a noble guest decided to see how long I could endure a blazing, iron poker pulled from a fireplace. I wanted to scream, wanted to hurt them, wanted to run. The Vow didn''t let me. She hurt me whenever I disobeyed and eventually almost completely took over my body because I refused to cooperate with her... since that day.¡± "So you''re happy to be free?" "Yes, Mistress," the maid bowed. "I am very happy that she is dead. I will assist you for as long as you will have me." "When I''m in this body, you can call me Juni," I said. "You have¡­ more than one body?" The maid blinked. "Yep," I pointed at the black-haired girl sleeping in a hammock. "This is Grogtilda. She''s my human body." "W-what are you?" Voltara asked. "I''m a nice girl who''s lost everything. Someone who is trying to find herself a new home and new friends," I said softly. "I.. I see," the maid blinked. "The Baroness won''t notice that my Vow is¡­ dead?" "Nah," I shook my head. "I only murdered your Vow''s mind. The body is still there, floating above you like a giant jellyfish." ¡°A jellyfish?¡± Voltara looked up with a gasp. ¡°What does it look like to you?¡± I inquired. ¡°Like a beautiful¡­ sleeping angel with the face of Baroness Amadea,¡± the maid replied. ¡°Uh-huh,¡± I squinted at the phantom. ¡°Looks like a big jellyfish from my end. Lots of tentacles.¡± The maid shuddered. "Now, will you show me around the Estate?" I asked. "I''d rather it be you than the Baroness'' daughter." "Sure," Voltara nodded. . . . Voltara quietly watched me as I retrieved the bag of money and my nightcrawler armor from the wardrobe. ¡°Do you like it?¡± I asked when we climbed back into Saccy, showcasing the servant girl the obsidian-black, slightly shimmering, insect-hide plate. ¡°Yes, it looks very unique and... dangerous,¡± the maid nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve made it from a nightcrawler, a giant black centipede from level three of the Dungeon,¡± I clarified. ¡°I had often daydreamed what it would be like to be an Adventurer, to be free and to leave this awful place¡­ to live in the city, dive into the Dungeon and to harvest monsters,¡± she sighed softly, touching the bone-plate. ¡°I¡¯ll make one for you as well then,¡± I nodded. "If I can arrange it with the Baroness... I''ll take you away from this Estate, show you the world outside of these halls, take you down to the Dungeon with me." ¡°Really? You would free me completely? Make me armor?¡± the girl blinked. ¡°Why?¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Designing armors is my passion,¡± I explained. ¡°I want to earn your friendship and flex my skills.¡± ¡°Would you like help putting it on?¡± She asked as I fiddled with the armor''s leather belts. ¡°Sure,¡± I nodded. ¡°The back plates are a bit of a pain.¡± I noticed that the maid kept glancing at my Dawn dress, her eyes boring into the shining Art Nouveau tree that glittered next to the painted girl. ¡°Do you want to wear Dawn?¡± I asked. ¡°You¡­ would allow me to wear her?¡± Voltara gasped. ¡°Totally,¡± I nodded, looking at her slim, curvy figure. ¡°I plan to make a lot of Dawn dresses, a whole line of them. I think¡­ I found my perfect model for them. I¡¯ll have to adjust her a bit so she fits you better. Don¡¯t worry, it won¡¯t take too long. I¡¯ve got my sewing kit in my bag." Voltara blushed, looking very happy. ¡°Can I carry your bag for you?¡± Voltara asked, when we stepped out of Saccy once again. She was now wearing Dawn and I had my nightcrawler armor on. ¡°Sure,¡± I said. ¡°Her name¡¯s Saccy.¡± ¡°Saccy?¡± the maid tilted her head at the bag curiously. ¡°Is she an artifact like Dawn?¡± ¡°Nah,¡± I shook my head. ¡°She¡¯s a Folding Seed. A beastie from the Dungeon.¡± Voltara gulped. ¡°Still want to wear her?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I carved out her allure.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± the maid nodded, looking determined. ¡°When Amadea assigned you to me, what did she say?¡± I inquired. ¡°The Baroness told me and Arouetta to make you as happy as we could, to protect, observe you and to stay by your side at all times,¡± Voltara said. ¡°I see,¡± I mulled, eyeing the room. There were a lot of other nice things here... things that I was ''permitted to replace''. I decided to take everything. . . . After rapidly raiding the room like a pair of robbers and stuffing everything that wasn''t nailed down into Saccy, we met the other maid at the end of the hallway. ¡°Arouetta, you¡¯re dismissed,¡± I said, tapping her shoulder. ¡°Feel free to return to your job at the Estate or whatever. Your services are not required.¡± ¡°Dismissed?¡± The maid opened her eyes and looked at me with an concerned expression. ¡°Have I displeased you somehow, Mistress?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m not into girls who worship Eunisii.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± the maid blinked, not expecting my statement. ¡°You see, I know Eunisii personally,¡± I said. ¡°She¡¯s not a god. She¡¯s my teacher.¡± ¡°W-what?!¡± Arouetta gasped. ¡°You¡­ know the Saint?¡± Voltara looked just as shocked. ¡°She¡¯s not a saint,¡± I shook my head. ¡°She taught me lots of useful stuff about magic, but she wasn¡¯t nice about it. Whenever I screwed up, she hit me. I doubt that such things are written in the book of Eunisii or whatever other nonsense you¡¯ve read.¡± ¡°You¡­ you¡¯re messing with me,¡± Arouetta stepped back. ¡°The Saint is perfect and pure and¡­¡± ¡°Someone I know well,¡± I said, shaking my head. ¡°Someone with flaws and faults, not a perfect being. Unless you can accept this, you¡¯re dismissed.¡± ¡°I¡­ Erhm,¡± Arouetta fretted. She looked broken. Her job was to serve and observe me and her belief in Eunisii was interfering with this. I could see an internal battle taking place in her mind between her job and her faith. See, I didn¡¯t need the knife to cut apart a belief! Wait, could I use the all-ending knife to cut apart a belief in Eunice? Was this possible? No, I couldn¡¯t see nor define a belief, especially since I didn¡¯t believe in Eunisii myself. ¡°Feel free to ask Baroness Amadea if I know Eunisii,¡± I winked at the twitching Arouetta as Voltara and I departed. As we walked down a gothic, insanely detailed, opulent stairwell I curiously looked around. The architecture of Palais De La Solstice was very impressive, a mind-boggling mixture between gothic and art nouveau styles. ¡°Mi... Juni? Do you really know Saint Eunissi?¡± Voltara asked. ¡°Yep,¡± I nodded. ¡°That was a bit cruel,¡± she sighed, looking back at Arouetta. ¡°Cruel but necessary,¡± I shrugged. ¡°I have to break someone first to rebuild them anew.¡± Dawn sputtered from Voltara¡¯s chest. I winked at my bestie with a smile. Dawn shook her starlight-wreathed head at me. We circled around a large, gold statue that looked like a depiction of Baroness Amadea that sat upon a throne made up of naked humans carved from black stone that held up her form. I shook my head at the tacky display of Baronial power as we entered into a new opulent hallway. The wall in front of us covered in painted flowers suddenly wobbled, warped outwards. I thrust the end-knife into the air in front of me in a defensive position, ready to cut apart any hostile magic. Nothing attacked me, nothing tried to get into my head this time. A silver-haired, approximately twelve-year-old girl stared at me. Her eyes were of an unnatural shade of silver and green and her pupils were diamond-shaped like mine. Long, sharp ears peeked from between shimmering, silver curls that looked almost crystalline. Her hair strands cast colorful, rainbow-tinted reflections as the light from the stained glass passed through them. A lace choker covered in diamonds sat upon her neck and a white dress hugged her body, diamonds woven into fanciful lace flowers. She resembled Amadea ever so slightly. Ah, this was the second daughter of the Baroness! ¡°Lady Emerald,¡± Voltara bowed. Emerald looked at the knife in my hand, then at me and then at the maid. I lowered the knife slightly, evaluating the girl with my cendai-sight. She didn''t seem very dangerous in terms of magical resonance. ¡°Hrrm,¡± the chimera-human hybrid frowned, her tone somewhat imperious. ¡°You were supposed to wait for me, you know.¡± ¡°I got bored,¡± I shrugged. ¡°Voltara is already showing me around the place. She''s lovely and knows...¡± ¡°Lovely? She¡¯s just a human who knows nothing of value,¡± Emerald interrupted me, squinting at the maid and looking annoyed. ¡°An inferior species, made to serve us.¡± ¡°I like humans,¡± I said defensively. ¡°You¡¯re just like mother then?¡± The chimera-hybrid glared at me. ¡°No. I am not like your mother. Consider this - there are only a few thousand of us and millions of humans,¡± I pointed out. "So what?" "Bigger population leads to greater emergence of talent," I said. "Don''t undervalue humans." ¡°Talent? What talent? There are even more bugs in the Dungeon,¡± Emerald scoffed. ¡°Just because there is a lot of something doesn¡¯t mean that it¡¯s special. If anything, the rarity of something makes it more precious. Humans are many, sure, but they are like common rocks while we are gemstones. How do you not know this simple fact? My sister is at the top of her class, outshining every human mageling at Nemendias! They are inferior in every way to us!¡± I tried not to snarl at the little silver-haired princess. My claws itched to smack the little brat. I took control of my chimera instincts. ¡°Are they really?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°Of course they are!¡± the human-chimera waved her hands. ¡°Are you not a product of love between a chimera and a human?¡± I inquired. ¡°How can you look down on humans when you¡¯re half-human yourself?¡± ¡°Love?! LOVE?!¡± Emerald hissed, casting a glare at the gold statue. ¡°Mother doesn¡¯t love anyone! Everyone is just toys, playthings, pets to her! Besides, we can¡¯t all be full-crystal chimera like you. Some of us were born to rule humanity!¡± Her small fist bumped her chest, diamond flowers glittering in the gloomy hallway. I sighed. This princess had been raised horribly wrong. Emerald ignored my look of discontent. She offered me her hand, her eyes shining with green auroras from within. ¡°Mother said she bought you a spot at Nemendias. Will you be my Fidus Achates? I originally planned to apply to Nemendias in another year, but I could apply now and get in at the same semester as you. It would be nice to have another chimera as my peer in every class.¡± I looked at her skinny, pale hand framed by silver fingernails. Yes, I could reject this young half-chimera due to her vile views of humanity¡­ but the consequences of such an action would likely make her my mortal enemy in Nemendias. A wealthy, resourceful nemesis that would bother me immensely and likely inject spikes into my wheel of change of the future and projects. I tried to understand her, tried to place myself into her shoes. The chimera-raised princess placed no value in humans. She wanted a peer, someone that could be her competitor, a study partner, a worthy rival that she could play-fight to sharpen her own skills. ¡°Sure,¡± I smiled, taking her hand into my armored glove. ¡°But, let our friendship be formed around a wager.¡± ¡°A wager?¡± Emerald tilted her head. ¡°Your sister¡¯s success could have been based on your mother¡¯s wealth,¡± I elaborated. ¡°My human body is of a lowborn human with no Barony or great wealth to speak of.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± the little hybrid blinked. ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Yep,¡± I nodded. ¡°I am going to Nemendias as a lowborn from Undertown. Once there, I will choose a talented human and I will polish them myself, make them shine brighter than anyone,¡± I said. ¡°Brighter than your sister. My bet is that I can make my human champion outdo your sister¡¯s top grades.¡± ¡°A human¡­ champion to best my sister''s success?¡± the hybrid blinked, squeezing my armored hand. ¡°That¡¯s right. A human, guided by me towards greatness,¡± I nodded, squeezing back. ¡°...taught, lead with understanding and friendship. I wish to prove to you that humans have great value in them. That they aren¡¯t all akin to common rocks. That they too can be brilliant, can shine brightly¡­ if we simply cooperate with them, treat them as equals.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± Emerald frowned. ¡°Do you accept the terms of our wager or not?¡± I smirked, replicating her imperious expression. "If I''m wrong, then I will accept your world-view. If you''re wrong, then you will discover the value of working with clever humans. Deal?" ¡°Fine,¡± Emerald shook my hand. ¡°I accept your wager. Don¡¯t expect me to give up so easily! I plan to beat my sister¡¯s grades myself!¡± I shook her hand back with a smile. I had her. The little human-chimera was hooked onto my wheel of change, trapped in the net I laid out of her. Unlike Emerald, I was an adult with a sociology degree, not a teenager without life experience. Our hands came apart. Emerald rubbed her elbow, looking a bit shy. ¡°So, want me to show you around?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± I smiled softly. ¡°Show me your Estate.¡± Ch 55. Taking the First Step As we walked past far too many fanciful rooms for me to memorize, Emerald kept glancing at the maid that silently moved next to me. The Baronial princess looked like she was hoping that I would dismiss the human. Perhaps, she wanted to have a nice chimera-to-chimera chat without humans present. I wondered whether she actively disliked the servants of her mother¡¯s palace or if she saw them as useless pieces of furniture that were getting in the way. ¡°Voltara is carrying my bag,¡± I nodded at the maid. ¡°You can¡¯t leave it in your room?¡± Emerald asked. ¡°Our Estate is very safe, secured by the most expensive hexagram rune arrays in the city.¡± ¡°Nah. My bag is an expanded Folding space full of expensive and dangerous¡­ high-cendai experiments,¡± I explained. ¡°The kind of stuff that can¡¯t be left sitting on its own. That backpack is my mobile workshop.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± the little princess gaped at me. She looked like she was impressed or perhaps jealous. I was younger than her and I already had a mobile lab. My companion''s emerald-silver eyes lit up with curiosity. She probably remembered that she was the daughter of a high-cendai and that I was equal to her mother in title. ¡°C-could you show any of your work to me?¡± She asked, running her hands through her hair. Her move had pulled her silver hair back and revealing her sharp ears fully. It was a sneaky attempt to showcase that she was almost as chimera as I was - someone to be trusted. ¡°When a project is ready for use, you¡¯ll be the first to know,¡± I said with a wink. ¡°Like I said, the stuff is dangerous and experimental. Could explode at any time and level a mountain or two if left unsupervised or meddled with.¡± The little emerald-eyed princess frowned. ¡°Although,¡± I rubbed my chin with a thoughtful look. ¡°You can enjoy one of my successful, less dangerous¡­ experiments right now if you so desire.¡± ¡°Right now? Where is it?!¡± The princess exclaimed excitedly. ¡°Yep,¡± I nodded pointing at Dawn. ¡°This is Dawn. She¡¯s a depictomancy dress. The first of her kind, a demonstration of my skills.¡± Emerald¡¯s eyes became glued to the dress. ¡°Hrmm,¡± she stared at the ghostly girl, shimmering spirals and flashing flowers of the Astral Tree. ¡°You really made¡­ her?¡± ¡°Yep,¡± I nodded shamelessly. ¡°How?¡± Emerald stared at me, the gears of her mind turning. ¡°You¡¯re so¡­ young.¡± ¡°She¡¯s not made from scratch,¡± I laughed. ¡°I crafted her out of a bunch of existing stuff I found sitting around. Stuff that humans made but weren¡¯t using properly.¡± ¡°Hum,¡± the chimera-hybrid rubbed her chin. ¡°Not¡­ using it properly?¡± ¡°I¡¯m an expert at crafting,¡± I nodded. ¡°Mother told me that expertise at something requires at least seven years of study,¡± Emerald mulled. ¡°Are you not only four? How have you attained the necessary life experience?¡± ¡°That would be telling far too much,¡± I smiled. ¡°Perhaps when our friendship levels up I can tell you a secret or two of mine¡­ in exchange for some of yours.¡± ¡°Fair enough,¡± Emerald nodded. ¡°You know, I had no idea what to expect of you. When mother told me that a new, very young chimera had been brought to our estate I was extremely excited.¡± ¡°What were you hoping for?¡± I inquired. ¡°I thought that I was getting a little sister,¡± she shrugged. ¡°But this is nice too. Your crystal-mane is very pretty.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± I ran a hand through my glittering hair. ¡°You¡¯re the first genuine chimera I¡¯ve seen, other than mother¡¯s real body,¡± Emerald said. ¡°So, you don¡¯t get to leave these walls often?¡± I waved my hands at the gothic hall around us. ¡°Not as often as I¡¯d like,¡± Emerald sighed. ¡°Mother says that most humans are stupid and dangerous. She doesn¡¯t want her backup damaged.¡± ¡°Backup?¡± I blinked. ¡°She planned out our future decades ahead,¡± Emerald exhaled. ¡°Aggie is to become Empress and if she fails at it, then the job falls to me. I¡¯m engaged to the Second Prince¡­ although I have never even met him and I don¡¯t really want to meet him. I really have no interest in getting into a relationship with a human.¡± She shuddered. The emerald-silver eyes of the human-chimera momentarily became filled with barely-concealed suffering and then returned to the depictomancy dress. ¡°So¡­ what can this artefact of yours do?¡± She asked. ¡°Oh, she can tell you herself,¡± I replied. ¡°I am pleased to meet you, Princess Emerald of the Baronial House of Amadea,¡± Dawn bowed, her ghostly, silver-blue hair shimmering as if floating through the invisible currents of the Astral Ocean. ¡°She¡¯s a self-sustaining, fully sentient, depictomancy-made assistant,¡± I sunk another hook into the little human-chimera. ¡°A sentient... assistant?¡± Emerald blinked. ¡°So she has a fully-cognitive personality?¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± I nodded. ¡°Hrm,¡± she uttered. Emerald tried not to show it, but she was practically drooling at the dress. She couldn''t draw her silver-green eyes away from the shining Astral Tree in the background. ¡°S-she is¡­ interesting,¡± she admitted after a minute. ¡°There are a lot of depictomancy-made paintings in our Estate¡­ but I¡¯ve never seen one like her. She looks so... ethereal, otherworldly.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± Dawn smiled. ¡°Are you really fully sentient? Can you do mathematics? What''s twenty four times fifty five?¡± Emerald shot a question at the dress. ¡°I am. One thousand three hundred and twenty,¡± Dawn replied without a pause. ¡°Holy crap, she can do mathematics,¡± Emerald¡¯s eyes grew wide. ¡°No freaking way.¡± She paused, thinking of another clever question to ask the dress. ¡°What¡¯s the richest Barony?¡± ¡°The Amadea Barony is said to be the richest, due to its ownership of the North-East Acadia gold mines,¡± the painting replied. ¡°But, if we consider other factors such as resource wealth then the Georgia Barony is potentially the richest due to its energy farms.¡± Emerald¡¯s mouth fell open. ¡°You¡¯re not just giving me pre-trained answers, right?¡± ¡°No, my Lady,¡± the painting shook her head. ¡°I am a fully capable assistant, a friend and conversation companion.¡± ¡°A companion?¡± The human-chimera tilted her head. ¡°Tell me more!¡± ¡°I can do a lot of things,¡± Dawn purred. ¡°I will aid you, if you own me. I know a lot about Nemendias. I can help you to polish your finesse like a prism, help you find the right path forward, offer you ideas for your noblesse oblige projects so that you can attain your crest by the end of your first year.¡± ¡°You know about the crest?¡± the princess blinked. ¡°What is its function?¡± ¡°I know everything about it,¡± Dawn replied. ¡°The Celestial Crest of the Chosen will help you gain access to the forbidden arcane archives. Wearing it will unlock the secret librariums and private workshop rooms of Nemendias for you. With my guidance you can rise higher than your sister. The Crest is the key to glory and power at Nemendias and even Illatius outside of it. The crest gives you discounts at numerous shops in the city. It shows everyone that the student wearing it is a very capable, skilled problem solver.¡± The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Emerald gulped. She looked up from Dawn at me. Her eyes were wide. ¡°She knows things,¡± she whispered pointing at the dress. ¡°...secret things.¡± I raised my eyebrow at the bewildered-looking chimera-hybrid. ¡°The crest pin,¡± Emerald whispered. ¡°Aggie never takes it off! Of course! It¡¯s the key! The humans show her greater respect because of it, it all makes sense now.¡± ¡°Mhm,¡± I nodded, leaning towards the princess. ¡°Dawn is a future-seeing artefact,¡± I quietly uttered at Emerald, with a conspiratorial look. ¡°Very handy for getting ahead of the game.¡± ¡°How much?¡± Emerald exhaled. ¡°How much what?¡± I pretended to polish the top of my pearlescent, black glove. ¡°How much do you want for the artefact dress?¡± Emerald said. ¡°I want her.¡± ¡°Hrmmm,¡± I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. ¡°There¡¯s only one of her kind right now.¡± ¡°Can you make me one?¡± Desperate, gemstone-shaped irises looked at me. ¡°Mother always sees me as second best. I¡­ can¡¯t go higher than her because I''m not the one engaged to the inheritor of the Empire. I don¡¯t want to be second to everything Agatha has done. I don¡¯t want to be bloody outshined in all that I do for the rest of my life.¡± ¡°Princess Emerald of the house of Amadea¡­ the future isn¡¯t set in stone. There are many paths, shifting and interchanging,¡± Dawn¡¯s voice was cold and clear, resonating like a waterfall coming down from a glacier river. ¡°The tides of civilization rise and fall. The Magitek revolution and war with Novazem is coming. There are forces at play that can drastically rearrange our world and the fate of the Empire.¡± "W-what?" Emerald stared back at Dawn. ¡°What do you mean?¡± "A single wrong decision can act as a falling pebble that will trigger an avalanche that will topple the Basquenate Empire and set Illatius aflame," Dawn said. "The world seems lovely and safe now, and the tide is distant, but the future will come and when it does it will sweep away everything if you are not ready." I looked at Dawn. What was her angle here? "Everything?" Emerald gaped. "Everything," Dawn affirmed. "A day will come when all highborns are executed and gold is made worthless." "No," the little princess cried. "No, no, no¡­ this can''t be the future!" "It''s not The Future," Dawn shrugged. "But it is a possible path¡­ a path where everyone in Illatius dies." The expression of the starlight-woven girl became very serious. A dark fissure, an inverse of a stellar corona wreathed from dark shadows flared on her left shoulder. The dark fissure burst with fluttering shadows, engulfing Dawn''s figure in darkness. One by one every star, every celestial branch, every silver-blue flame on her body went out. The pinholes of magic winked out, illustrating the doom of Illatius and the end of Dawn. It was my turn to look concerned. I didn¡¯t like such dark prophecies. ¡°How?¡± Emerald asked, terrified by the painting''s shift into near-total, grim darkness. ¡°Do I have a part in this? Can I not stop it? Can you see MY future?¡± ¡°I can. Push your mana into the gemstone activator,¡± the dimmed painting instructed pointing at the framed gemstone array designed by Antoine. Emerald reached out and touched the ruby necklace. When she did, the painted girl changed, colors returning to the artwork. An older version of the silver-haired, human-chimera princess stared back at her. ¡°Is that me¡­ all grown up?¡± Emerald muttered. ¡°Yes. I am your future reflection,¡± Dawn shook her silver hair, staring back at the princess with stolen silver-green eyes. ¡°W-what do you see? Is there greatness in my future?¡± Emerald prodded. ¡°Greatness, if you make lots of friends and do exceptionally well at Nemendias,¡± Dawn nodded. ¡°Will I be able to rise higher than my sister?¡± The princess demanded. She definitely had a bit of a younger sister complex. ¡°Yes. You will make a great Skyship Captain. No¡­ not just a Captain, although that is a good place to start. You could be an Admiral,¡± the painting smiled. Her outfit reshaped itself into a pure-white fancy suit with a white cap topped with silver wings. ¡°An Admiral?¡± Emerald licked her lips. ¡°An Admiral is the one who leads the Armada of Illatius and wields far more active power than the Emperor. As long as the skyship Captains respect the authority of their leader, an Admiral has far more freedom than someone who has to sit in Illatius all day signing paperwork. An Admiral has no requirement for a family to breed a progeny - they simply have to work hard to gain the respect of the navy. You could make a great Admiral, you know.¡± Emerald nodded rapidly. I laughed inwardly. Dawn was good at selling skyship-related dreams, offering people what they wanted, motivating them to push forward harder. ¡°I¡¯ll do it, painting!¡± Emerald said with conviction. ¡°I¡¯ll do what it takes to become Admiral. I will rise higher than my sister!¡± Dawn nodded. "Your path isn''t set into being second best. It is set between a life of incredible achievement and death." "D-death?" The chimera-hybrid paled. "Nobody is safe from the potential, all-grinding advancement of the future," Dawn uttered. "If a wrong decision is made, your sister will end up the Empress of ashes and bones, a ruler of nothing." The proud, motivated look in the eyes of Emerald turned to that of concern and fear. "How¡­ how can everyone in Illatius die?" she whispered. "You wanted to impress us into submission, with that sudden appearance from a wall," Dawn shook her head. "I''m not so easily fooled. I saw you hiding in that corner, fiddling with that concealment artefact in your pocket." "I''m sorry," Emerald said. "I didn''t think it would upset you." Being faced with her own mortality and potential failure was tough for her to deal with. Dawn was utterly brutal, even sharper than my knife in her approach at dismantling the little, pompous princess. Emerald looked at me, putting on a braver face. "My apologies, high-cendai. Mom said that you were dangerously sharp, but I didn''t believe her¡­ I wanted to test you," she muttered. ¡°No hard feelings,¡± I shrugged, sliding the black knife back in its leather sheath on my side. The princess relaxed visibly. I wondered if her mother possessed a similar weapon, if she used it on her to carve little pieces of her soul away. I wondered if she was trained like me to see the Still Forest. I had overcome my fear of the ending-knife, understood, embraced its power, made it mine. I doubted that Emerald had the backbone, the opportunity and will to do the same. ¡°Can you tell me more?¡± Emerald stared at Dawn. ¡°I want to know more.¡± ¡°Your future is full of dead ends,¡± Dawn said. ¡°Why?¡± The princess trembled. ¡°What¡¯s coming to threaten our Barony? Why will gold become worthless?¡± ¡°A revolution from beneath and the invasion from above,¡± Dawn said. ¡°War is an inevitability and many will perish if we are not ready¡­¡± Emerald gulped, her hands trembling. ¡°If you wish to avoid a dead end, princess¡­ you must learn to cooperate with humans. Your first choice will be made¡­ now. Tell me - how would you lead the Armada of Illatius against our dangerous Necromagi enemies from Novazem?¡± ¡°I will put Vows onto my Captains,¡± Emerald replied. ¡°They¡¯ll be run as efficiently as this Estate!¡± ¡°Wrong answer,¡± Dawn-Emerald shook her head. ¡°Why?¡± Emerald asked. ¡°If Agatha is Empress she can codify Vows into law and I can enforce them from my end. If anyone wants to be a skyship Captain they have to make a Vow to Eunisii to obey our family¡­¡± ¡°No,¡± I said, moving like a dark shadow, my fingers wrapping around the ending-knife on their own. Rage drowned out the rest of my rational thought as I advanced on the princess. ¡°W-what? Why?!¡± Emerald gasped, backing against the gold-flowered wall away from me. She had nowhere to run. My ending-knife was pointed at her throat. ¡°No,¡± I repeated coldly. ¡°If you wish to follow this path, I will cut out your access to the System right here and right now.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t just¡­ cut the magic out of me!¡± the princess looked around, looking worried. ¡°Activate defense!¡± A diamond array on Emerald¡¯s lace choker lit up, pushing against my armored hand. I stared at it in my Astral-sight, defined its function and slashed the knife across the fractal pattern projected into the air. The array¡¯s defensive function shattered with a twinkle. ¡°M-my shield-artefact! H-how?¡± The princess gasped as my knife returned to her throat. ¡°I can cut anything,¡± I said coldly, staring at Emerald¡¯s eyes that were filling with deep terror. ¡°Anything I want to. I can cut your System out, if I so desire.¡± Emerald gulped. She believed me. ¡°You lied about the wager, princess.¡± Dawn said. ¡°You have no desire to uphold it. You want to put Vows on everyone in Illatius.¡± The future-Emerald turned to me. ¡°Show her how wrong she is, Juni. If we step on this path, everyone dies.¡± ¡°Here¡¯s an interesting thought,¡± I smiled darkly, baring my sharp canines at the princess. ¡°Are you of that much value to your mother? Will she rush in to save you now? Will anyone protect you, try to stop me? All it takes is just a snip of my knife and your future is gone. All of it. You won¡¯t be able to level up without the System. You¡¯ll be a cripple, live out your days in this lovely golden cage surrounded by pretty maids that you so despise. Don¡¯t think I won¡¯t do it. I¡¯m not going to live in a world ruled by disgusting jellyfish ghosts. I won¡¯t stand for it. If you want to be my friend, step away from this path.¡± Emerald desperately looked at Voltara, her lips trembling. "Help me," her voice trembled. The maid didn¡¯t move a muscle, didn¡¯t come to her Lady¡¯s defense. ¡°Choose your future,¡± I whisper-hissed into Emerald¡¯s ear, my knife pressed hard against her throat. ¡°Align yourself with Astral abominations, propagate the Vows and lose your magic forever¡­ or take another path, one in which we stay friends. Accept my wager for real. Don¡¯t try to trick me again - Dawn can see the choice you make. Make me a promise to never rely on Vows and stick to it for the rest of your life.¡± The princess desperately looked around. She saw that nobody was coming. That not a single person really cared about helping her. She saw that a Vow-bound servant did not come to her aid. In that moment, she broke, snapped completely. Her eyes filled with tears. ¡°F-fine,¡± she sniffed. ¡°I¡­ won¡¯t rely on Vows, anymore! I¡¯ll try¡­ to understand humans, learn how to lead them without the Vows!¡± I looked at Dawn. The depictomancy construct nodded. I pulled the hexagonal-textured knife away from Emerald¡¯s throat. ¡°Hrr-wy didn¡¯t you help me?¡± Emerald glared at the maid, rubbing her throat. ¡°You were supposed to defend me! What the shit is going on here¡­¡± ¡°You were relying on a Vow to protect you,¡± I said. ¡°This is a lesson. Don¡¯t put your trust into Still Forest phantoms. You live in a world of people, not ghosts. You¡¯re half-human, embrace who you are.¡± ¡°I understand, high-cendai,¡± Emerald lowered her eyes again. She rubbed her throat. ¡°You don¡¯t,¡± Dawn shook her head. ¡°Not yet¡­ but you will someday. You¡¯re on the right path now, the first step towards the future is made.¡± ¡°You¡¯re so fired,¡± Emerald hissed, sending the maid a glare. Voltara, sent a glance at me, looked worried. ¡°Not a problem. I¡¯m keeping her,¡± I hugged the maid with a smile. Emerald¡¯s silver-green eyes looked into mine, with fierce determination. She wiped the sparks of tears from her face. ¡°You¡¯re a worthy Fidus Achates,¡± she said. ¡°I wouldn''t tolerate someone of a weaker constitution. Beating you in Nemendias will be lots of fun.¡± Ch 56. The Symbol
¡°What do you want for the dress?¡± Emerald asked as we walked together down a very fanciful stairwell covered in gold flowers and gemstones. ¡°Nothing,¡± I shook my head. ¡°When I make another one I¡¯ll give it to you.¡± ¡°For?¡± ¡°For nothing,¡± I said. ¡°Why?¡± Emerald inquired with a suspicious look. ¡°Because you¡¯re my friend,¡± I said. "And I want to bind our friendship with a gift worthy of a princess." ¡°You literally threatened to carve my System out ten minutes ago,¡± she huffed. ¡°It''s what friends do for each other,¡± I shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m helping you towards a better future, Emerald. You heard what Dawn said - I don¡¯t want to live in a world where you¡¯re the Admiral of bones and ruins.¡± The princess sighed at me as a response. ¡°I¡¯m surprised you still want her after that,¡± I said. ¡°Of course I bloody want her!¡± Emerald insisted. ¡°She¡¯s one of the most impressive artifacts I¡¯ve seen.¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t worried that she¡¯s a hostile intelligence or something?¡± I inquired. ¡°A hostile golem wouldn''t be able to pass through the wards of our Estate,¡± Emerald shook her head. ¡°There would be all sorts of alarms going off.¡± "Technically, Dawn isn''t a golem," I commented. "Doesn''t matter," Emerald shook her crystalline curls. "I trust the Estate wards! Mother designed them herself for protection of her pets and things and she¡¯s older than two centuries. She knows what she¡¯s doing." I looked at her wrist. There was a diamond-encrusted, platinum armacus there. ¡°Do you not know any fighting spells?¡± I asked. ¡°You didn¡¯t even try to stop me.¡± ¡°Mom didn¡¯t train me much,¡± she sighed. ¡°Not like Aggie. Aggie got the best tutors and first pick at everything. I don¡¯t even know a single offensive spell. If my sister were to fail at something, then mother might finally pay attention to me.¡± ¡°I can train you,¡± I offered. ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Yep,¡± I nodded. ¡°You¡¯ll teach me magic?¡± ¡°Eventually,¡± I said. ¡°But we¡¯ll start with mundane defense methods first to cover the bases.¡± "Mundane defenses?" The princess blinked. "Why?" "To improve your response time," I nodded. ¡°It¡¯s an important skill when facing an enemy. You totally froze on me.¡± "Ah. Sounds good," she said. ¡°Do you know what this is?¡± I tapped my black knife. ¡°Looks like a knife,¡± Emerald replied. "Do you know any cendai soul-magic?" I inquired. ¡°Mother¡­ taught me how to see magic and how to feel my soul. She used her soul-carving knife on me, carved parts of my soul out to replace with her own constructs.¡± ¡°Her own constructs?¡± I frowned. ¡°She put... soul-saplings in you?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± the human-chimera nodded with a shudder. ¡°They freaking hurt.¡± ¡°Have you been to the Still Forest?¡± I inquired. ¡°No,¡± Emerald shook her head. ¡°Our Estate lacks the End-Gate." "Can you see Astral currents?" I asked. "I can see the Astral currents of magic, but worse than my sister," Emerald said. "I can sorta see that this maid has a Vow on her, for example. It¡¯s like a giant, barely visible, blurry blob hanging above her.¡± A silver nail pointed at Voltara. ¡°Why did Baroness Amadea put her saplings in you?¡± I asked. ¡°Mother said it¡¯s to make me stronger,¡± she replied. ¡°I don¡¯t feel stronger though. If anything they¡¯re making it difficult to fire spells. Maybe I¡¯m doing something wrong.¡± I stared at her body in the Astral. My frown deepened. There were hundreds of Dominion roots within Emerald¡¯s body, interwoven in a very complex formation, each branch holding the other together. There was only one explanation for it - the Baroness was preparing her second daughter to become a future host for herself. Backup. Emerald really was a backup for Baroness Amadea! The Dominion formation inside of Emerald looked far too complex and dangerous for me to tackle. I was certain that a single strike would not be able to take it apart and it was deep inside of the girl. The Baroness would know if I tried to free her daughter. Maybe I could somehow carefully nip at it when both of us were in Nemendias? ¡°I''ll help you get a better grasp of your magic,¡± I said, my hand angrily wrapping around the ending-knife. ¡°Would be nice,¡± she sighed. "Do you want to see the gardens?" "Sure," I said. The princess lead me towards a much more lit area, which slowly opened up into the most elaborate greenhouse I had ever seen. We passed by another gold statue of Baroness Amadea and emerged out of the opulent interior into an equally opulent exterior. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. The gardens outside of Palais De La Solstice were absolutely sublime. I saw black-lace covered maids in the distance, polishing statues, watering the flowers and trimming the bushes into shape. Thousands of colorful arboretums grew around gothic gates, fountains, gold statues and ancient, massive trees. Sunlight danced on tamed bushes as warm wind played with blades of grass. "The wardstones create the setting of eternal summer here," Emerald said. "Even during the coldest months when snow storms come from the glaciers it is perfect temperature in the gardens." "Must be nice," I commented. "It is," she nodded. ¡°It does get a bit boring after a while though.¡± "How far do the gardens go?" "Very far," Emerald replied. "I was born here and I don''t think I''ve seen them all. The Estate''s grounds are a well-decorated labyrinth, made to confuse enemies. The palace isn''t a single building, it is a vast complex of structures, interconnected in unexpected twists and hidden pathways." "Folding magic?" I asked. "Yeah," my silver-haired guide nodded. After a while of exploring the garden, we retired beneath a fancy gazebo, sitting down on stone benches that were somehow made incredibly comfortable with runework hexagrams. I copied the hexagrams into my notebook. Emerald observed me curiously. ¡°You can see magic that well?¡± She asked. ¡°Yep,¡± I affirmed. ¡°It took a lot of practice and getting smacked by Eunice, but I can see the echo of magic that the runes on these benches cast into the Astral.¡± ¡°Wish I was taught by the great arch-cendai,¡± Emerald sighed. ¡°Mother rarely teaches me anything. I think she expects me to learn everything from humans in Nemendias.¡± "You''ll catch up in no time," I commented. "Don''t worry. Chimera are excellent at magic and you''re half-chimera." The princess cast a hopeful glance at me. ¡°How many maids are in this place?¡± I saw yet another extremely pretty, lace-covered maid doing gardening near us. ¡°I don¡¯t know and don¡¯t really care,¡± Emerald shrugged. ¡°More than nine thousand? Mother''s constantly buying new ones for her collection.¡± ¡°You know... if I were you, I¡¯d organize them to do things for me,¡± I said. ¡°What kind of things?¡± the princess inquired. ¡°Fun things,¡± I shrugged. ¡°I¡¯d also make friends with all of them, see what personalities and skills they have and figure out how to best utilize them.¡± ¡°They¡¯re so boring though,¡± Emerald said. "No real personality to speak of. It''s hard to get a fulfilling conversation out of them, even if I order it." ¡°Voltara¡¯s not boring,¡± I waved a hand at the maid standing beside me. ¡°Yeah she is,¡± Emerald yawned. ¡°Voltara, what do you want to do?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡¯d like to learn magic with you,¡± the maid answered. ¡°I want to discover my affinity and not simply be a Vitality maxer. I want to hunt monsters in the Dungeon and get stronger.¡± ¡°Pfff, good luck leaving the Estate,¡± Emerald commented. "The black-lace Maids don''t get to depart from this place." ¡°I want to see Illatius and model lots of pretty dresses and punch my father in the face for selling me,¡± Voltara said, ignoring the princess. ¡°I want to assist you in Nemendias and help you make lots of friends. I want to sit in a cafe and drink coffee and watch the sunset over the mountains and not worry about tomorrow or orders.¡± ¡°You will,¡± I smiled. "I''ll make sure that you do." ¡°There is definitely something wrong with this maid,¡± the little human-chimera squinted at Voltara. ¡°What in Eunisii¡¯s name have you done to her?¡± I smiled, not saying a thing. The gears in Emerald¡¯s head turned. ¡°Voltara, leave,¡± she ordered. ¡°No,¡± the maid replied, not moving a muscle. ¡°What in the endless Astral?¡± Emerald growled. ¡°You can¡¯t just disobey my direct order!¡± She glared at the maid who silently looked back at her, eyes hidden beneath the lace mask. ¡°...not unless mother told you to only obey Juni,¡± Emerald concluded. ¡°Damnation! I see what¡¯s going on here¡­ mother modified your Vow! That''s why you...¡± She really didn¡¯t, but I didn¡¯t tell Emerald otherwise. ¡°Hey, Emmy, do you know anything about Undertown?¡± I asked. ¡°Emmy?¡± Emerald turned away from the maid towards me. ¡°It¡¯s the cute version of your name now, live with it,¡± I winked. The princess stared at me for a moment and then sighed. ¡°Undertown is the capital¡¯s prison.¡± ¡°Prison?¡± I tilted my head. ¡°Yeah,¡± Emerald nodded. ¡°The worst of the worst humans that refuse to follow human rules or whatever are thrown down there. I was surprised when mother mentioned that you¡¯re planning to make your Barony down there. What are you going to do with all of the criminals and the wardens?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I said. ¡°You don¡¯t have a plan for it?¡± ¡°Not yet,¡± I shook my head. ¡°I¡¯m pondering things over. I¡¯d like to make it less of a dump to begin with and then we¡¯ll see.¡± ¡°I heard that it''s a disgusting mess,¡± Emerald said. ¡°I don¡¯t know how you can stand to go down there.¡± ¡°I like a challenge,¡± I replied. ¡°Anything is possible with magic and it is an overlooked and extremely undervalued place.¡± ¡°The aristocracy of Illatius might object to you cleaning up their prison,¡± Emerald noted. "Prisons aren''t supposed to be nice. They''re a punishment." ¡°You think I¡¯m going to ask their permission?¡± I laughed. ¡°M-mm, no,¡± the princess shook her head. ¡°But they might try to stop you. I really don¡¯t understand why you picked a poor lowborn for your human body. You won¡¯t have the safety net of a family title or wealth backing you up.¡± I thought about what to tell the little princess to explain my actions. Thought about my future and what Dawn told us about what was coming. ¡°Did you already forget what Dawn said?¡± I asked after a deep pause. ¡°She said a lot of scary things,¡± Emerald said. ¡°What are you referring to, specifically?¡± ¡°Revolution,¡± I replied. ¡°Revolution?¡± ¡°During a revolution, the low classes band together, rise up and execute the highborns,¡± I said. ¡°And you know about this because Dawn can see the future?¡± My companion glanced at the dress. I didn¡¯t answer her. I knew plenty about Revolutions because of my historic knowledge of how things went down in the Ukrainian USSR. ¡°How will the lowborn humans even rise up?¡± Emerald mulled. ¡°The towers hold Undertown denizens in check. The prisoners'' level cap is far too low to do anything. The Constabulary wardens crush them with ease whenever there''s a revolt.¡± ¡°I doubt that a Revolution will happen tomorrow or in a year. It might take decades to ferment,¡± I said as I tapped the armacus on my wrist. ¡°Magitek weapons can make spells above those of your body. If the armaci weapons become cheaper and available to many, a person¡¯s level won¡¯t matter as much.¡± ¡°Hrm,¡± Emerald scratched her face. ¡°Being a lowborn allows me to embrace, investigate and understand Undertown on a personal level,¡± I said. ¡°I want to prevent or completely muffle a Revolution before it occurs and tears Illatius apart.¡± ¡°Ah,¡± Emerald nodded. ¡°I sort of get it now. You¡¯re pretending to be a prisoner to gain the future respect of... other political prisoners. That¡¯s¡­ some dedication. I wouldn''t be able to do that.¡± ¡°Mm-hm,¡± I nodded. ¡°If I can¡¯t stop a Revolution, at least I can take charge of it, lead it in the right direction.¡± ¡°Can I see your other body?¡± Emerald asked. ¡°Might as well,¡± I nodded. ¡°Since we¡¯ll be studying together.¡± I directed the maid to put the bag down and went into it, emerging as Grogtilda. ¡°By Eunisii,¡± Emerald tried not to gag. ¡°She smells¡­ so bad.¡± ¡°I¡¯m Grogs,¡± I offered her a hand, smirking. ¡°Your human body looks¡­ awful,¡± Emerald commented, backing away from my hand. ¡°Like a corpse that¡¯s been left out too long and started to rot and bloat. What is that horrendous smell? It¡¯s like rotting eggs,¡± the princess covered up her nose. ¡°How do you even stand it?¡± ¡°Ah¡­ that¡¯s probably the Debitor¡¯s Tattoo,¡± I said, unbuckling the front and showing the chest-pyramid to the princess. ¡°I don¡¯t mind it since I can¡¯t smell much in this body.¡± ¡°Well I mind it. It¡¯s horrible,¡± Emerald commented. ¡°Make it stop.¡± ¡°It declares me property of the Fighter¡¯s Guild,¡± I said. ¡°Can¡¯t you remove it with magic or something?¡± The princess looked green. ¡°Well,¡± I smiled. ¡°To tell you the truth - I could cut it out, but¡­¡± ¡°But?¡± ¡°I won¡¯t,¡± I said. ¡°Why?!¡± Emerald asked exasperatedly. ¡°Because it¡¯s a symbol of my shackles,¡± I said. ¡°A symbol that this body is that of a prisoner and a lowborn.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t get it,¡± she shook her silver mane. ¡°Symbols have power,¡± I explained. ¡°Especially in a Revolution. Just a few days ago I was lamenting about removing it¡­ but now I understand things better so I won¡¯t. Yes, I could use my knife to cut it away. Yes, I could go to the Fighters Guild to find my owners, kick their ass and have it removed, but¡­ I won¡¯t. Because that¡¯s the easy path, but also a path that won¡¯t help our future.¡± ¡°It¡¯s part of your plan then?¡± Emerald stared at the tattoo. ¡°This bloated, sickly body and that horrid, smelly black mark?¡± ¡°Yes, you best get used to it because it''s part of my plan,¡± I nodded, finally settling on an idea. ¡°Which is what?¡± Emerald blinked. ¡°I plan to become a living symbol of change and you¡¯re going to help me do it.¡± Ch 57. The Game Plan
¡°A symbol of change?¡± Emerald mulled. I nodded. ¡°What exactly are you going to be changing?¡± She asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know yet,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ll start with Undertown and go from there. To tell you the truth, I don¡¯t necessarily want to implement too much radical change, I just want to steer Illatius away from the dark future timelines in which everyone dies horribly.¡± ¡°Have you told the other chimera cendai about any of this?¡± ¡°No,¡± I said. ¡°They¡¯re old, right?¡± ¡°Very old,¡± Emerald nodded. ¡°Well, I¡¯m not very interested in ancient, crusty crones who are too deeply entrenched in their own centuries-old plans. You and I are the new generation of chimera. We''ll have to prove ourselves as capable chimera before we bother the elders,¡± I said. ¡°Your mother isn¡¯t planning on dying, right?¡± ¡°She¡¯s not,¡± the human-chimera affirmed. ¡°I¡¯ll never inherit this Estate from her. Her Vitality maxing makes her human body age incredibly slowly and her chimera body is kept magically suspended.¡± ¡°How¡¯s your relationship with your sister?¡± I asked. ¡°So-so,¡± Emerald twisted her hand side to side. ¡°She lives in Nemendias on campus and has far too many noblesse oblige projects going on. She¡¯s got the first prince snared up real tight and has no time for her little sister. Years ago, she used to call me often to check up on me¡­ until she realized that nothing dangerous or interesting happens to me here. She occasionally flies over on her personal glider for dinner whenever she needs something from mother, that¡¯s about it. I¡­ really freaking miss her.¡± ¡°We¡¯re going to fix this,¡± I said. ¡°How?¡± Emerald blinked. ¡°By making your life extremely interesting and by involving her in our own projects,¡± I said. ¡°Are you up for a challenge?¡± ¡°I¡­ am,¡± the silver-haired girl nodded. ¡°Good,¡± I smiled. ¡°How are your acting skills?¡± ¡°Acting?¡± Emerald repeated. ¡°Dramatic acting,¡± I said. ¡°You do have to pretend to be a human princess.¡± ¡°I do.¡± She nodded. ¡°Mother trained me to do that at the very least.¡± ¡°Well, you¡¯ll also have to pretend to hate me¡­ um, Grogtilda a lot,¡± I said. ¡°That won''t be very hard. Your lowborn human body is exceptionally repulsive,¡± she commented. ¡°Why do you want me to pretend to hate you?¡± ¡°Drama,¡± I said. ¡°A symbol is a spark that needs fame to grow into a firestorm. A good hero needs a villain. I¡¯m weaving a story here for the masses, a tale as old as time.¡± ¡°You¡¯re the villain then or¡­?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be a hero to the lowborns and a villain to the highborns,¡± I said. ¡°And the reverse will be for you. We¡¯ll play-fight each other, issue threats and challenges in public, etcetera. We¡¯ll draw an imaginary, dividing line in Nemendias, start a war of insults and debates and collect dedicated followers for our causes.¡± ¡°For what purpose?¡± ¡°To draw people to us,¡± I explained. ¡°Our grand game will bring fans and future patrons straight to us. Celebrity fights are always entertaining, especially when they¡¯re spicy. We¡¯ll need to see what mass media Illatius has, perhaps buy a few newspapers or make our own publishing and entertainment company to broadcast our war game to the bored masses.¡± ¡°Fans? Patrons? Who would even join or support a lowborn debitor in Nemendias?¡± Emerald squinted at me. ¡°Sounds like my cause would have everyone and nobody would be on your side.¡± ¡°Let me tell you something about successful revolutions, Emerald,¡± I spun the ending-knife in my hands. ¡°They do not happen without the support of the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie.¡± ¡°They don¡¯t?¡± The little princess blinked. ¡°They don¡¯t,¡± I said. ¡°Revolutions don¡¯t just ignite from the bottom. Revolutions have a symbol, a leader, but it is rich, bored, well-educated highborns who want some sort of social change or perhaps more power. If Illatius stands on the precipice of a magitek revolution, then there will be plenty of highborn Arcanarium intelligentsia hanging out in coffee shops that will listen to and invest in a lowborn leader simply for the sake of propelling their own causes forward.¡± ¡°Intelligentsia?¡± My companion tasted the unfamiliar word. ¡°The intelligentsia is composed of scholars, academics, teachers, journalists, students and literary writers. They are a highly educated segment of society who engage in complex pondering and ideological discussions in which they criticize, imagine the future, shape, and lay the foundation of change in politics, policies, and culture,¡± I explained. ¡°Ooooh,¡± Emerald stared at me. ¡°You sure know a lot about Revolutions.¡± ¡°I know a lot of things about the most obscure topics. Anyways,¡± I redirected her curiosity. ¡°I will be acting as the element of social change and you will act as the conservative leader. Our encounters, our mock-battles of wit and magic must be legendary, epic and beautiful. Like brilliant flares they will slowly and inevitably bring supporters and friends to us - people who are interested in either change or stability.¡± ¡°Interesting,¡± the human-chimera rubbed her chin. ¡°So I¡¯ll be the Queen of Stability?¡± ¡°Correct,¡± I nodded. ¡°While I will take on the role of a Revolutionary figurehead, your nemesis and the worst person to ever exist. You see, Emerald, ¡®Progress versus Conservatism¡¯ is a battle that manifests in every human civilization on the precipice of a technological revolution. Together we will cast ripples into the world, magnify them against each other and ride the rising wave to the very top until you are made into an Admiral and I become the voice of the Revolution.¡± ¡°Ha,¡± Emerald laughed. ¡°Ha ha ha¡­ This is freaking great! The idiot humans will never find out that it''s us leading, manipulating them, pulling the strings from both sides! By the Astral, Juni, you¡¯re freaking brilliant!¡± This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. I smiled at her. She grabbed my hand with hers, excitement overruling her revulsion of my human body. ¡°Thank you! Oh, you¡¯re the best at this sort of stuff! This is going to be amazing! This is going to be so much fun!¡± I nodded. ¡°You¡¯re going to make a lot of enemies,¡± she said suddenly. ¡°I can tolerate my future enemies as long as my biggest, worst, loudest enemy is you, Emmy,¡± I said softly. ¡°Won¡¯t the future-seers try to prevent you from taking charge of things?¡± She asked, her eyes sparkling. "I doubt that the human Archmagi will idly sit by as you ferment social change in their society as a lowborn leader." ¡°Nope,¡± I shook my head. ¡°Nobody can see my future.¡± ¡°What?! The precogs can¡¯t track you?¡± Emerald exhaled. ¡°Like¡­ at all?¡± ¡°Yep,¡± I smirked. ¡°My future is undefinable.¡± ¡°Freaking Astral depths, aren¡¯t you full of surprises,¡± she giggled, wiping the wet sparks from her eyes. For a few minutes we sat quietly thinking about the future, enjoying the eternal-summer breeze coming from the lush gardens around us. ¡°When do we start?¡± Emerald asked. ¡°Eager to call me names?¡± I smiled. ¡°N-no,¡± she shook her head, blushing. She was definitely looking very eager to play-fight me. Her chimera nature demanded conflict of the hunt and she had satisfied none of it inside of the safety of this gold cage of an Estate. I could tell that she had been extremely lonely and miserable, ignored by everyone except for the Vow-bound, emotion-deprived servants. ¡°You totally are,¡± I laughed. ¡°I¡¯m game. Let''s see who can beat whom.¡± ¡°Hum?¡± Emmy choked. ¡°I¡¯m going to use this body, since you¡¯re such a weakling,¡± I said. ¡°Hey,¡± the princess glared. ¡°I¡¯m not a weakling!¡± ¡°That is yet to be determined,¡± I stretched. ¡°Try to knock me off my feet if you can prove otherwise.¡± I spun atop of the bench and rolled out of the gazebo into the garden. ¡°What?¡± She stood up. ¡°Don¡¯t do it alone,¡± I said. ¡°Find a maid to help you. Voltara! You¡¯re on my team. Knock the princess down into the dirt! Her dress is far too clean!¡± Voltara was quick to join me. She advanced onto the princess as I took off running. I heard Emerald¡¯s yelp as she was thrown out of the gazebo into the bushes. ¡°One - zero!¡± I yelled from the nearby hill. ¡°You suck at dodging determined maids.¡± ¡°I wasn¡¯t ready,¡± she growled, plowing through the bushes towards me. I started running, giggling and wincing. Grogtilda¡¯s muscles were still damaged and out of shape. Emerald had caught up to me quickly and slammed into me, shoving my face into the ground. ¡°One - one!¡± She growled. ¡°Eat dirt, peasant!¡± I kicked at her and we rolled down the hill, straight into a decorative pond. In moments we were laughing and splashing at each other. The highborn princess was gone, replaced with an adorable, spunky kitten. She spat and growled and tackled me in the water, trying to bring me down. I called her names and laughed, slapping her with decorative lilies. ¡°You¡¯ve made an enemy of me, filthy human kelp!¡± She sputtered as I kicked her away. ¡°I rate your insults one out of ten,¡± I stuck my tongue out. ¡°Try harder!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get youuuuu,¡± she hissed, untangling herself from a pile of fat lilies. I was already on the shore, hiding behind Voltara. ¡°No fair,¡± the very wet, dirty princess climbed out of the pond. ¡°Get a follower, loser,¡± I said, panting. ¡°I¡¯m going to lie down on the grass for a breather. Voltara, keep her in the water!¡± The maid smirked, rubbing her knuckles as she advanced towards Emerald. I watched with amusement as the princess struggled to leave the pond but kept getting knocked down by Voltara. After her tenth attempt at getting ashore she had gotten annoyed to the point of asking for help. ¡°You there! Maid! Help me!¡± She yelled. ¡°Me?¡± A girl that was cutting bushes on the other side of the decorative pond turned. ¡°Yes, you! Come here and help me wrestle these damn savages!¡± The princess growled. The Vow-controlled maid obeyed, rapidly circling the pond. In a minute she reached Emerald. ¡°Tactical retreat!¡± I yelped, climbing into Saccy. ¡°Run as fast as you can, I¡¯m going to be in the bag!¡± Voltara waited for me to climb into Saccy and then she took off like an arrow. I stuck my head out of the bag, making faces at the princess and her maid. ¡°Ask for your new minion¡¯s name!¡± I yelled. ¡°She¡¯ll be twice as efficient if you use her name!¡± ¡°You, maid! What¡¯s your name,¡± Emmy panted. ¡°I am Arouetta, Mistress,¡± Arouetta answered. It wasn¡¯t a coincidence that she was pretend-gardening nearby. The second maid assigned to me had been staying close to us, her Vow obeying the command of the Baroness to monitor me. ¡°Give her a cute, short nickname,¡± I yelled out of the bag. ¡°Nicknames are good bonding rituals!¡± ¡°You¡¯re now Ari,¡± Emerald declared to the maid. ¡°Yes, Mistress,¡± Arouetta nodded. I pulled a bolas out of Saccy. It was a simple and fun primitive weapon that I had used often during my war-games with my chimera sister. My bolas were basically three balls connected by three strings, similar in design to the weapon that was used by the ancient Inca Army. I spun the balls through the air and cast it towards the maid and the princess. Emmy yelped as the maid fell right in front of her. They formed a tangle of limbs. I heard some creative swears from the princess and laughed. ¡°Three out of ten for the swears!¡± I yelled. ¡°You¡¯re getting better! Ari! Don¡¯t lose my bolas! I only have like fifty of them back here.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t, Mistress,¡± Arouetta said, untangling herself from the princess. ¡°Good,¡± I nodded. ¡°Voltara, slow down. I wish to lavish in the destruction of my nemesis. Try to stay behind the tree if they get smart enough to throw the bolas back at us." The maid obeyed, slowing down and staying behind the tree. I poked my head out of the bag, making faces at the princess. "You''ll never catch me at this rate," I poked fun at her. ¡°I¡¯ll make you my personal footstool!¡± The princess growled. ¡°You¡¯ll be my human ottoman!¡± "I''m drowning in doubt," I laughed. ¡°You¡¯re going to regret this!¡± She screamed, throwing the bolas back at me. I ducked back into the bag, giggling. The bolas hit the tree with a thump. ¡°That was a terrible throw!¡± I yelled. ¡°You¡¯re going to have to do better than that if you want to catch me!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll get you, just you wait!¡± She growled, picking up the bolas and running after us. Eventually, after some chasing and about an hour of bolas interchange, all four of us became sufficiently tuckered. ¡°That was fun,¡± I said, yawning as I slipped out of Grogtilda¡¯s madly aching body back into Juni. "You did well for your first time," I smiled at Emerald, climbing out of Saccy and sitting on a bench carved out of a large rock with a grin. ¡°Thanks,¡± Emerald smiled back, her cheeks red, looking like a disheveled, wild mess. ¡°That was the most fun I''ve had in... well... forever." ¡°You¡¯re welcome,¡± I said. ¡°It was fun for me too.¡± "Did you have fun?" I collected my bolas from Ari. "Yes, Mistress," Arouetta nodded, her voice dull and emotionless. "What about you?" I looked at Voltara. "It''s not every day when I get to knock down our little princess," she smirked. Emerald seemed to remember that she was a princess. She looked down at herself and noticed how dirty she had become. ¡°Oh,¡± she said, blushing furiously. ¡°I¡¯m such a mess." "Yep," I commented. "You''ll need to take a bath, you savage." "Dry, Clean, Re-stylize," Emerald commanded, tapping her white-lace collar. Gemstone hexagram formations on the collar flashed. Her dress detonated into a thousand feathers that danced like a myriad of wriggling, tiny brushes atop her that swept her entire figure and then converged back into a white, crystal and lace dress of a slightly different style. The princess was looking like a well-polished diamond, completely dry, her glass-like hair inexplicably tied up into a thick braid, dress and hairdo glittering in the sunlight and casting a thousand little rainbows all over herself. ¡°Wow,¡± I said. ¡°That¡¯s damn useful." ¡°Yeah,¡± Emerald nodded. ¡°The Re-stylizer is handy, but it¡¯s nowhere as interactive as your¡­ um... Dawn.¡± I glanced at Dawn. ¡°You¡¯re thinking about adding a Re-stylizer to me, aren¡¯t you?¡± She laughed. ¡°You know me too well,¡± I smirked. "Anyhow, are you hungry?" I turned back to Emerald. "Yeah," she said. "Your mother offered me lunch... but I''m absolutely not looking forward to that," I mulled. "Why not?" Emerald asked. She didn''t look like she was looking forward to such either. "She''s kind of a cunt," I said bluntly. "Tried to use Allure-magic on me when we met." "Right," Emerald nodded. "Mother did say she was very eager to test you. She¡¯ll probably try something else nefarious at lunch." "Well, I''m not interested in more tests. I might get very angry and stab her. Hrmmm¡­ Why don''t we sneak out and get some lunch on our own?" I suggested. ¡°I know just the place.¡± "Sneak out?" Emerald blinked. "Yes," I nodded. "H-how?" She asked. "We can''t just... leave the Estate¡­ Can we?" "Oh that''s pretty easy. Simply.... call your sister," I smiled. "Tell her that you want to see her. Tell her... that the 8th high-cendai, Juni Tokimorim?tul, wants to have lunch with her." Ch 58. Galissi
I tapped my armacus on Emerald¡¯s and added her to my list of contacts. She called me first so that I could hear the conversation between her and her sister. That¡¯s right - the armacus supported a multi-call function, allowing for multiple people to hear each other. One simply had to call each person from one armacus to connect the group. [Ems?] The female voice who was presumably Agatha resounded in my head. [First time you¡¯ve called me yourself. Did something happen?] I elbowed the princess because she froze up. ¡°Erm, hi Aggie,¡± Emerald finally mumbled, her face flushed. She fell silent once again. It looked like she had trouble speaking to her sister over the phone¡­ err¡­ armacus. [Hold on, there¡¯s another person on the list? Diver Juni?] Agatha must have noticed that I was also connected to the call. ¡°Good Tomorrow, Princess Agatha of the Baronial House of Amadea,¡± I copied Dawn¡¯s respectful tone. ¡°I am high-cendai Juni Tokimorim?tul.¡± [Oh!] Agatha?¡¯s voice sounded shocked. [The 8th ?high-cendai! Greetings, my Lady! How may I be of service to you?] ¡°I hope I¡¯m not interrupting anything,¡± I said. [No, not at all,] Agatha replied. "Have you had lunch yet?" I inquired. ¡°I am currently staying over at Palais De La Solstice. I have something I wish to discuss with you and Emerald and I would appreciate it if you could join us for lunch.¡± [Of course,] Agatha said. [I¡¯ll be there in twenty minutes. I was just about to take the glider out to lunch myself. Meet me on a flat rooftop or in one of the garden meadows - I''ll put Emerald''s armacus into the glider''s pathfinder. It was a pleasure to speak to you, high-cendai. Bye Ems. See you both in a flash!] "Hrm, she seems very excited," Emerald commented. "She never sounds like that when she talks to me." "Well, I''m the youngest high-cendai in what... three hundred years?" I commented idly. "Eunice doesn''t give Endies out to anyone." "Endies?" Emerald blinked. "You¡¯ve already met Endy up close and personal," I waved the Ending-knife at her. "I just named her." "Her? You''ve named your knife?" "Yes," I smiled. "Endy and I are getting very close, so upon greater consideration, I thought that I should name her." Emerald''s expression of utter befuddlement was very amusing. ¡°Is your knife sentient too?¡± She whispered. ¡°Nah,¡± I laughed. ¡°But it is the damn best knife that I¡¯ve owned.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve never seen a knife slice right through magic,¡± she nodded, with an envy-filled glance. ¡°You¡¯ve got nice things too,¡± I commented. ¡°Like your dress. Can you do the re-stylizing thing again? I want to memorize the hexagram.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± she nodded, pressing on the collar. I spent the next fifteen minutes figuring out the Re-stylize magic, sketching the hexagram into my notebook. ¡°Think you¡¯ll be able to modify Dawn this way?¡± Emerald asked, staring at my sketches. ¡°I hope so,¡± I said. ¡°This is definitely a type of crystal magic and my Artificer specializes in crystal. I think he¡¯ll be able to replicate the effect if we loan your dress to him.¡± ¡°You have a¡­ personal artificer?¡± the princess asked, looking even more envious. ¡°Yep,¡± I nodded. ¡°I¡¯m considering apprenticing under him and renting his workshop. He¡¯s one of my good friends. See - making friends with talented humans is verrrrry useful. You should try it sometime.¡± Emerald huffed at me as a response. ¡°Don¡¯t be scared,¡± I said. ¡°Making friends can be a tough game at first, but your biggest impediment in such an enterprise is yourself. With enough practice, you¡¯ll become a social queen. Feel free to practice your friendship-making on Ari - she can be your first human frie¡­¡± A whoosh of an aircraft cutting through the air blasted hot wind at us, cutting into my words. The grass-covered meadow next to our gazebo suddenly became filled with a steampunk-looking skyship. The glider looked very impressive, an Art Nouveau masterpiece, a child of a glass capsule and a metal sled. It was a bit Victorian, a bit Art Deco and a whole lot of awesome. The shape of the glider resembled one of the early streamliner automobiles or locomotives, looking like a drop of water suspended sideways, framed by a lovingly crafted metal cage. One of the segments of the capsule unlocked and an approximately eighteen-year-old girl with long, silver, glass-like hair briskly stepped out of the glider. I slid my notebook into a pouch, stood up and stepped out of the gazebo. ¡°Agatha, right?¡± I offered an armored hand. The second human-chimera Princess and potential future Empress shook my hand. She was taller than me and her body was framed by a black robe with gold trim. A very elaborate, elegant, eight-pointed star-shaped, diamond-encrusted pin sat on the right lapel of her black suit. She looked like a very classy wizard. Silver-blue, sharp eyes examined me. ¡°Pleasure to make your acquaintance, my Lady,¡± she respectfully bowed her head, taking a knee. ¡°I am a Mage-Knight of Nemendias and I am at your service, my Illustrious High-Cendai and the Eighth Apostle of Saint Eunisii.¡± ¡°At ease, Knight,¡± I smiled. Agatha stood up to her full height. There were a bit of dark shadows under her eyes and deep, hastily concealed weariness. ¡°Shall we have lunch at Palais De La Solstice?¡± She asked with the tiniest frown. ¡°No,¡± I shook my head. ¡°Your mother¡¯s behavior has failed to impress me.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± The corners of her lips suddenly went up. ¡°My glider fits five. Would you¡­¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I nodded. ¡°We would. However¡­¡± The Knight tilted her head waiting for my words. ¡°I would like to bring these two maids with us,¡± I waved a hand at Voltara and Arouetta. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Oh?¡± Agatha tilted her head even further. ¡°Are you aware that the Vow-bound maids will most likely report everything you say to my mother, little cendai?¡± Her expression declared. ¡°Your sister told me that black-lace maids are unable to leave the Estate,¡± I said. ¡°I was wondering if your privileges extend to modifying their Vows. You¡¯re the older sister, after all. I wish to assign Voltara to me as my personal maid and Arouetta to your sister.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°I like them,¡± I said simply. ¡°They¡¯re good company.¡± ¡°What is your game here?¡± Agatha spoke with her eyes alone, without opening her mouth. ¡°I cannot reassign a maid¡¯s color,¡± she said after a bit of a pause. ¡°But, I do have the arch-maid on my armacus. I can call her up and see if these two qualify for reassignment from black to violet. Violet maids are permitted to leave the estate." ¡°We can wait for her in this meadow, yes?¡± I smiled. ¡°You can show me your glider in the meanwhile.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± Agatha nodded. She raised her armacus and briskly spoke into it. ¡°She¡¯ll be here in a bit,¡± she declared. ¡°Excellent,¡± I nodded, walking closer to the magitek flying machine and peering at it with my Still-Walker sight. The glider glowed with a thousand hexagrams from within. It was maddeningly complex. There was no way I could replicate any of it. I mentally drooled at the prospect of working on my own glider in the future. I gently caressed the streamliner frame. I was falling in love. ¡°Hey Aggie,¡± Emerald stepped to her sister. ¡°Hey Ems,¡± Agatha wrapped her little sister in a full embrace. ¡°Everything good?¡± My chimera ears tilted to the side, tuning in on their conversation like little radar dishes. ¡°Everything¡­ is better than just good. Everything is¡­ amazing!¡± Emerald whispered, burying her face in her sister¡¯s black robe. ¡°Yea?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°You like her?¡± ¡°I¡­ freaking like her a lot,¡± Emerald whispered. ¡°She¡¯s so Astral-wicked you have no idea.¡± ¡°Not like mom then?¡± The next question came. ¡°Not at all like mom,¡± Emmy shook her head, her voice trembling with excitement. ¡°She¡¯s smart and she¡¯s teaching me so many things¡­ things I actually understand. Things like how Revolutions are made and how to make friends and how to get ahead in life." ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯ve finally made a friend,¡± Agatha whispered. ¡°Me too,¡± the little princess nodded. Their embrace broke apart. Agatha let go of her sister and walked to where I was obsessively circling the glider. ¡°You like my baby?¡± The mage-knight asked, nodding at the glider. ¡°Yes! What¡¯s her name?¡± I demanded. ¡°Galissi Seven,¡± Agatha smiled. ¡°How much does a glider like her cost?¡± I asked. ¡°Two and a half million obliss,¡± the reply came. "Maybe more. I got a discount for helping with her design." I nodded. I now had a reason to make money. A mountain of money. Well, maybe I could find a used version or something? No, I wanted Galissi Seven. God damn it, I wanted her badly, more than I wanted anything in my brief life on Andross! She was perfect in every way. ¡°How fast does she go?¡± ¡°Three hundred thousand elbows an hour,¡± Agatha replied. I whistled louder as I mentally converted the Imperial Elbows into kilometers. The glider was as fast as a jet engine. ¡°Can I¡­?¡± I pointed at the door. ¡°Sure,¡± she chuckled. ¡°I¡¯ll show you what everything does. My sister¡¯s not into magitek gliders, but you seem like you¡¯re interested and¡­ you can see magic circuits, right?¡± Her eyes lit up from within with blue coronas, replicating what I probably looked like now. ¡°Oh I¡¯m sooooper interested,¡± I nodded, trying not to drool. I climbed into Galissi and flooded Agatha with questions about everything I saw. The glider had a gps-like pathfinder that allowed it to locate a landing spot, an auto-pilot system that flew it and detected other gliders and incoming, moving objects, five self-warming seats, brakes, shields, accelerator and a coffee-maker. Yes, I was definitely in love! ¡°It¡¯s just a flying hunk of metal,¡± Emmy tried to interrupt my excited babble. ¡°Shush, you know nothing,¡± I waved her off. ¡°Where¡¯s the eject-mouthy-passenger button?¡± Agatha laughed as Emerald huffed at us. ¡°What¡¯s this formation?¡± I asked. ¡°Thunder-strike,¡± Agatha explained. ¡°Ahhh awesome!¡± I clapped my hands. ¡°That¡¯s an ion-harnessing hexiliogram spiral that directs the electrostatic charge right? Have you shot down any dragons with the lightning it makes?¡± ¡°I have,¡± Agatha nodded. "It spooks or fries them pretty good, depending on the size." Emerald rolled her eyes at us. She wasn¡¯t a car fanatic. Most of our conversation went way over her head. I was lucky enough to read several books about Stormancers or Lightning mages and Gravitymancers in Eunice¡¯s library. The glider operated on the relationship between Folding, Gravity and Electricity magics. It was ridiculously interesting tech, most closely resembling the concept of Electrogravitics. Electrogravitics was a term coined in 1921 by Thomas Townsend Brown as an ¡°anti-gravity force created by an electric field''s effect on a mass¡±. Back on Earth, it wasn¡¯t a real thing, but here on Andross Electrogravitics were perfectly legitimate magitek principles that this very glider relied on. ¡°Khrm-khm,¡± A crusty, female voice resounded from the outside. ¡°Ah, Arch-Maid Hamia,¡± Agatha stepped out of the glider. ¡°I¡¯d like these two maids reassigned to outside duties.¡± ¡°What sort of duties?¡± Hamia asked. Judging by her deep-set eyes, she was very old, but still looked very pretty and fit. So pretty that I pondered about maxing my Vitality. ¡°Personal assistants,¡± I stuck my head out of the glider. ¡°I want Voltara as my maid and Arouetta for Princess Emerald. Do they allow personal maids in Nemendias?¡± "Ah, High-Cendai Juni," the arch-maid curtsied at me. "These two were assigned to you as in-house maids. Personal maids are indeed permitted in Nemendias. You wish to expand their contracts?" "Yep," I nodded. "Can you also disable their emotion-inhibitors? I really dislike their dry speech." Emerald''s gaze was burning a hole in my side. "Are you certain?" The arch-maid inquired. "They could get rowdy, illogical or insulting if their emotions are engaged. They could fall in love and get distracted, failing at their job performance. I cannot permit a maid to act ungraceful or get impolite around the princess!" "I''m very certain," I insisted. "I have made an evaluation, which you might have missed. Princess Emerald is very bad at social situations. She requires practice interacting with people who aren''t tightly bound with Vows. She will fail at her duties and fumble future relationships if she is unable to interact in a friendly manner with people below her. I believe that a trusted maid like Arouetta would be best for training our lovely princess." "Training in what manner?" The arch-maid asked. "Friendship-making," I said. "And do you also require a maid of our Estate to train your friendship outside of our Barony?" The arch-maid inquired. "No," I shook my head. "I''m already pretty good at making friends. I simply want her for myself." "If you want her specifically for yourself outside of the Estate, it will cost¡­" the arch-maid started to speak. "Nothing," I said confidently. "I''m taking her out regardless of what color she is. The Baroness assigned her to me and I like her so I want her on a permanent basis." "Why?" The maid persisted. "I don''t need to explain myself. I''m the Eighth High-Cendai," I declared. "Then I won''t modify her Vow," the arch-maid said. "I''m taking her regardless," I uttered sternly. "She won''t be able to pass through the Estate''s barrier ward-shield unless she is made violet," the maid said. "She will," I smirked. "Because I''ll cut through any shield or ward made by another cendai. I''m equal to the Seven in title. I''m sure it would be quite... bothersome for your Baroness to repair this estate''s wards after I''m done with them." The arch-maid frowned. "Consider Voltara a payment to me from your Baroness¡­ for attacking me with magic when we met this morning," I said. "And be glad that I didn''t dismantle your entire Barony after Amadea''s actions!" "You impudent brat," the maid''s expression said. "If my vote counts at all, I want the two maids turned violet," Emerald said. "If my sister wants it, I''m still in," Agatha added. "Fine," the arch-maid sighed. "By the power invested in me, I henceforth declare Maid Voltara and Maid Arouetta turned violet. Also, your emotions are now unlocked too. Serve and represent your Barony well outside of our walls." The arch-maid waved her armacus over the heads of the two bowed maids and their black-lace dresses and eye-covers rapidly turned dark violet. Voltara simply smiled, while Arouetta broke out in thankful sobs. The arch-maid shook her head and departed, muttering in annoyance about stubborn archmagi. Emerald grabbed me and pulled me into the glider. "What in the blithering Astral was that?" she hissed. "I thought you already asked Mother to release Voltara''s lock." I smiled at the little princess who looked confused and irritated. She had been bamboozled and could not figure out how or why. Voltara got into the glider and sat next to me. She nodded to me. I grabbed her hand and squeezed. She squeezed back. I knew that she would not forget what I had done for her. In her mind, I had stood up to the absolute power of the richest Barony of Illatius to release her from her mental and physical prison. "Thank you Mistress," Arouetta bowed as she entered the Skyship. I wasn''t sure who she was thanking but it didn''t really matter. "Sooooo?" Agatha slid into the driver''s seat, flicking the magitek panels on. "Where are we going for lunch?" "Township of Lomb," I said with a grin. "I know the perfect place there." Ch 59. Above the world The magitek, electrograv engines came to life with a purr that turned into a noisy buzz as the car-sized skyship shot off into the sky, taking my breath away. I watched the Amadea Barony get small and smaller yet, until the gothic castles and gardens vanished in the mists below. The glider went higher and higher, punching right through the wall of white clouds. It reached the Stratosphere in mere minutes, having gone straight up and up and up. I exhaled, glued to the window, observing the view of Andross and the Infinite Chasm. It was beautiful. Blue river deltas came down from the glacier-capped mountains, cascading endlessly into the absolutely gargantuan, circular hole. I tried not to stare into the infinitely deep, gaping maw of the limitless abyss. The gold spires of Illatius glittered on the side of the Chasm closest to us. A storm rolled from the mountains, covering the forests and the city beneath, lightning dancing far below with distant booms. ¡°Enjoying the view?¡± Agatha asked, her voice tense. ¡°Yeah,¡± I nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve never been up so high¡­ it¡¯s all so incredible, the Chasm, the mountains and the rivers. Andross is¡­ amazing, like nothing I¡¯ve ever seen¡­¡± I was lost in the vast splendor beneath me, so lost that I didn¡¯t even pay attention to anything else happening in the car or to what I was even saying. Some part of my brain questioned why we were so high up, why we weren¡¯t heading to Lomb, but I pushed it away, gazing at the fantastic curvature of the magical, breathtaking planetoid mega-structure beneath me. When I turned I found that an unlocked armacus was pointed at me by Agatha. ¡°Uh?¡± I gulped. ¡°Who are you?¡± Agatha demanded, her voice cold, sharp silver-blue eyes cutting right through me. ¡°Whatever do you mean? I¡¯m Juni¡­¡± I said, my voice trembling. My hand tried to move to Endy. ¡°Touch the knife and I will open fire,¡± Agatha said. ¡°Keep your hands where I can see them. I will repeat once again - who are you?¡± ¡°I am Juni,¡± I gulped. ¡°A chimera¡­ cendai.¡± ¡°Aggie, what¡¯s this game?¡± Emerald asked. ¡°She¡¯s obviously one of us, a chimera.¡± ¡°She¡¯s wrong,¡± Agatha said. ¡°I tried to look ahead, to see if you would be safe with her. She is¡­ without a future. I don¡¯t like not understanding something.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± The youngest princess asked. ¡°Oh! She told me that the precogs can¡¯t see her. She is a high-cendai after all!¡± ¡°Wrong how?¡± I tilted my head. ¡°You¡¯re not four winters old,¡± Agatha hissed. ¡°You¡¯re far too clever and manipulative for a young chimera. I could presume that you¡¯ve retained some of your ancestral chimera memories, but that doesn¡¯t fit in either with the way you behave and know things. What are you? An Astral Phantom? An ancient ghost? Don¡¯t try to lie to me, my armacus has a truth-sense hexagram magnified by the power of my glider.¡± I choked at her words. She had me. ¡°She¡¯s a good person,¡± Voltara said, suddenly coming to my defense. ¡°She¡¯s not a monster from the deep Astral. Please don¡¯t hurt her, your excellency.¡± ¡°Voltara, why do you think that she¡¯s a good person? Did she order you to say that?¡± Agatha¡¯s eyes glanced at the maid for just a moment, then focused on me once again. ¡°No, your excellency,¡± the maid replied. ¡°This is my personal opinion.¡± ¡°Why does this maid think that you¡¯re a good person?¡± Agatha hissed through her teeth. ¡°You don¡¯t make any sense and I don¡¯t like it. Give me an answer, damn it!¡± ¡°Fine,¡± I exhaled. ¡°Take it easy with the armacus pointing. I am Juni¡­ but... when I was born I died. Died like the rest of the cendai did to gain power. I sunk into the depths of the Still Forest, into the dark, cold abyss of the Astral Ocean. There¡­ my soul sat, cold and alone, slowly fusing into the wall of bone-mesh imprints¡­ "I lost my ancestral chorus, I forgot what it was like to be a chimera¡­¡± I uttered, trying to stay focused, to speak as Juni alone. ¡°I thought that I was gone, lost and then¡­ a girl found me.¡± This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°A girl?¡± Agatha repeated. ¡°A soul from Inaria, a girl from a world long dead, an imprint from one hundred million years ago,¡± I said. ¡°She and I¡­ we became one, fused together, absorbed each other and then Eunice pulled me from the great, infinite unsea and shoved me back into my chimera body.¡± Agatha¡¯s gun went down just a notch. ¡°No¡­ no¡­ that¡¯s impossible. Imprints don¡¯t last that long. You absorbed an ancient, female ghost then? What kind of a wizard was it?¡± ¡°Not a wizard,¡± I shook my head. ¡°Just a girl from a world without magic or the System that was called planet Earth. A ghost from a world that no longer exists, trapped for endless millennia in a crystalline compound. A memory of a scholar, an armorer and an adventurer from a place buried long ago beneath the Infinite city on the surface of Inaria.¡± ¡°Impossible,¡± Agatha barked. ¡°I can read Inarian,¡± I said. ¡°Test me if you want.¡± Agatha turned white as a sheet. Her magitek-gun went down another notch. ¡°You gotta be shitting me,¡± she exhaled. ¡°You... you absorbed a ghost from one hundred million years ago? From before the fall of Inaria?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I said with a twinge of irritation. ¡°I¡¯m old and weird, alright? Give me a break. I just want to make friends, explore tunnels, enjoy skyships and design pretty dresses, damn it! I don¡¯t need any of this crap. I don¡¯t need magitek guns pointed at my face. I was going to tell you this stuff anyway, in time¡­ not that you would believe me because it''s all so ridiculous!¡± ¡°Do you want to hurt me or my sister?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°No,¡± I answered. ¡°I don¡¯t want to hurt either of you. You seem nice and wholesome. You are alone and you care for each other. You, like me, just want to fit into a world that''s different from you. You want to break the chains that bind you, chains into which you were born. You¡¯re the future of Andross, human-chimera synthesis. You are just like me,¡± I punctuated every word. The gun went lower still. ¡°Just¡­ like you?¡± Agatha repeated. ¡°I¡¯m a chimera with a shard of a little lost human soul in my heart,¡± I said. ¡°From a world that no longer exists, from a place in time she can never return to. Put the armacus down, Knight of Nemendias¡­ and let''s be friends. Let''s make a future, build a better world for all of us, a world in which chimera and people can exist alongside. A world without Vows.¡± ¡°Chains? What chains?¡± Emerald whispered, her eyes wide. ¡°You are a backup, a future body for your mother,¡± I said. ¡°You and Agatha are both potential future hosts for Amadea¡¯s soul. I can see her Dominion saplings all over you. They¡¯re damaging, interfering with your growth. They¡¯re hurting you, not letting you be more. They¡¯re a noose hanging over your future.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± Emerald said. ¡°That¡­ yes.¡± ¡°You¡¯re right, lost ghost of Inaria,¡± Agatha exhaled. ¡°You¡¯re right¡­ about us. I¡¯ve been working hard, trying to free myself and my sister.¡± ¡°She¡¯s not lying, sis?¡± Emerald turned to her sister. ¡°Everything she said¡­ is true? Mother wants to take over our bodies?¡± ¡°Everything Juni said is true,¡± Agatha rubbed her face tiredly. ¡°Mother is getting old, slowly but surely. Vitality¡­ can¡¯t keep her alive forever. She will¡­ take you or me as her body in the future. I¡¯ve been looking for a way out and¡­ I¡¯ve got nothing. I¡¯m so sorry.¡± Emerald swept her sister in a hug. ¡°I knew that you were working hard in Nemendias¡­ but I didn¡¯t know on what¡­ I¡¯m not going to go back to the Estate¡­ I¡¯m coming with you¡­ I¡¯m going to apply to Nemendias. I¡¯m ready,¡± the little princess uttered. Agatha¡¯s gun pointed away from me towards the maids. ¡°Don¡¯t,¡± I said. ¡°Don¡¯t?¡± Agatha raised an eyebrow. ¡°We¡¯ve said too much. These Vow-bound maids cannot tell our mother what they¡¯ve heard. I have to¡­¡± ¡°Have to what?¡± Arouetta asked, trembling. For the first time in a decade she must have felt fear and it shook her to her very core. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Agatha said. ¡°There¡¯s only one way to permanently silence a Vow-bound.¡± ¡°You¡¯re wrong,¡± Voltara spoke up. ¡°My Vow is dead. Juni killed it.¡± "What?" Arouetta gasped. ¡°Dead? But¡­ I can see it floating right above you¡­¡± Agatha said. ¡°And you¡¯re not lying¡­ I don¡¯t understand.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t either,¡± Emerald said. ¡°This maid, err¡­ Voltara, was acting off all day, though. She hasn¡¯t obeyed a single order from me.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Agatha asked, squinting at Voltara. ¡°Please don¡¯t kill me,¡± Arouetta whispered, trembling. ¡°I don¡¯t want to die. I won¡¯t blabber¡­ I won¡¯t say anything. I¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t move! This is an order,¡± Agatha barked. Arouetta froze. A green and then a light-purple spell struck her in the chest from the knight¡¯s armacus. She slumped backwards onto the chair, her eyes closed. ¡°Did you just¡­?¡± Emerald whispered. ¡°I put her to sleep and erased the memory of this conversation from her mind,¡± Agatha said. ¡°It''s a temporary measure. I¡¯ve never heard of anyone killing a Vow¡­ but I suppose if anyone could do it¡­ it would be a soul from Inaria.¡± ¡°Voltara, obey my order,¡± she turned to the remaining maid. ¡°Blink a thousand times!¡± ¡°No, that''s ridiculous,¡± Voltara replied. ¡°Voltara! Stop breathing!¡± Agatha ordered. ¡°I¡¯d rather not,¡± the maid responded. "So¡­ your Vow is really dead?" "Yes, my Lady," Voltara nodded. ¡°My Vow is dead.¡± "That''s not necessarily good," Agatha said. "I want to know who you will serve and obey." "I will serve and obey the girl who freed me from my dark Angel," Voltara turned to me. "I will be by Juni''s side and by your side if you permit it, my future Empress." "Not you too," Agatha groaned. Her armacus folded up as she crossed her arms. "We good then?" I asked. "Yes," Agatha exhaled, looking stressed and exhausted. I now knew what she feared, what she worked so hard for. "Good," I said. "Now if we keep being friends, I can cut out your mother''s tendrils." "You can do that?" Agatha blinked. "I can," I nodded. "It will take time, but I think I can help both of you be free." "I''m sorry for threatening you," Agatha exhaled, fumbling with her robe. "I¡­ had to know which side you were on." "I understand," I said. "No hard feelings. Lunch?" "Lunch," Agatha nodded. She flicked a switch on the control panel and the glider shot down towards Lomb shearing the clouds beneath with a noisy hum. Ch 60. The Foundation of Dawn
¡°Hey Anniya! Sorry, I called you guys so late to update you on my situation¡­ but I was a forced guest in, err... the Barony of Amadea,¡± I spoke into my armacus. ¡°Everything''s good. We¡¯ll be in Lomb very soon!¡± [Juni! We were worried about you! You went blank on the tracker for the entire night and morning!] Anniya¡¯s voice resounded in my head. [We? Who¡¯s we?] ¡°I¡¯ve got the two lovely Amadea princesses with me and I want to show Lomb to them,¡± I said, smiling at Emerald. [Damn girl, you work fast,] Anniya laughed. [Consider me impressed. Can¡¯t believe you bagged both of them. Alright, yeah¡­ I¡¯ll update Lambert.] The call disconnected. I leaned back into the leather seat enjoying the view of the Illatius Baronies flashing below us. ¡°Who was that?¡± Emerald prodded. ¡°My friend from Lomb,¡± I said. ¡°Is she a human?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I said. ¡°A commoner?¡± I nodded. Emerald¡¯s expression soured the tiniest bit. ¡°What are we doing about the Vow bound maid?¡± Agatha asked, pointing at Arouetta. ¡°She¡¯ll be asleep for the day, but if she lives long enough she could become a problem.¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you erase her memory?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, but the Vow will inevitably recall things,¡± Agatha sighed. ¡°Vows can remember what their hosts forgot. If the information falls within the Vow¡¯s prerogative, it will bring it up to the host, remind them of it. For example someone can¡¯t make a Vow not to do something and then erase their memory and do it. If my mother interviews this maid, she will confess everything.¡± ¡°That could be a problem,¡± I nodded. ¡°Right. Can you wake her up earlier?¡± ¡°I can,¡± Agatha nodded. ¡°Great,¡± I said. ¡°I can carve it out of her after lunch.¡± ¡°Can I watch?¡± The future Empress asked. Agatha tried not to sound too elated at the prospect of seeing impossible magic, but she was definitely very interested in observing it. ¡°Sure,¡± I nodded. ¡°We¡¯ll keep her asleep inside Saccy while we eat.¡± Emerald looked at me with begging kitten eyes. ¡°You can watch too, little princess,¡± I said. ¡°I promised to teach you magic, didn¡¯t I?¡± She excitedly bobbed up and down, making me smile. It didn¡¯t take us a long time to get to Lomb - the glider¡¯s pathfinder directed Galissi straight to Lambert''s tower. The two princesses, one maid and one starving chimera girl disembarked. The chimera girl in question, aka me, stared longingly at Galissi one last time before I followed my new friends into the station. As I left the glider behind, I pulled a very large beanie hat over my head to conceal my gemstone hair. As was the apparent proper procedure for visitors to Lomb, all four of us barged into Lambert¡¯s office. ¡°Princess Emerald and Agatha of the Barony of Amadea, it is a delight to see you in my town,¡± Lambert looked up at us from his desk, his silver spectacles glinting. ¡°May I inquire as to the purpose of your visit?¡± ¡°Lunch at the world-renowned Lomb Creperie!¡± I declared, pushing everyone aside. ¡°Very well,¡± Lambert smiled at us. ¡°You have my permission to occupy Lomb¡¯s airspace with your glider. Alternatively, you can walk. My town isn¡¯t very large. It¡¯s only six minutes down Lord Nubbler¡¯s Street from the station.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll walk!¡± I announced. The Inspector looked up at Agatha. She issued him a single nod. ¡°Is that a beanie hat?¡± Emerald noticed the oversized, lovingly hand-crafted hat that sat atop of my head. ¡°It¡¯s my incredible disguise,¡± I said smartly. ¡°Nobody here suspects that I¡¯m a chimera.¡± Emerald face-palmed. Then she cast a concerned glance at Lambert. ¡°The Inspector doesn¡¯t need to suspect anything,¡± I said. ¡°He works for me.¡± ¡°The Inspector of Lomb works for you?¡± Agatha squinted at me. ¡°We solve crimes!¡± I said with a grin. ¡°You solve¡­ crimes?¡± Agatha tilted her head. ¡°Lots of humans work for your mom,¡± I pointed out. ¡°Why is it so hard to believe that I can¡¯t hire people to do my bidding?¡± ¡°He¡¯s not Vow-bound,¡± Agatha said. ¡°He¡¯s completely clean. I don¡¯t understand. How can you trust him?¡± ¡°I trust him just like I trust Voltara. The whole Vow-binding business is the peak of idiocy,¡± I said. ¡°Yes, it makes people extra obedient, but if I can carve Vows out of people then so can anyone else. If you become Empress are you going to bind your subjects with Vows?¡± ¡°I was considering it,¡± Agatha sighed. ¡°But the more time I spend with you, the less I am invested in such.¡± ¡°Good,¡± I nodded. ¡°Cus I won¡¯t tolerate Vows on anyone. I would un-Empress you in five minutes if you even consider putting Vows on people.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not an Empress,¡± Agatha sighed. ¡°Well, I¡¯d make you Empress first and then I¡¯d un-Empress you,¡± I waved my hand. ¡°While doing a whole ¡®I¡¯ve made you and so I shall un-make you¡¯ dramatic speech.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Agatha uttered. ¡°Nobody gets my excellent humor,¡± I rolled my eyes. ¡°Lambert, are you coming to lunch with us?¡± ¡°I get it,¡± Voltara snickered. ¡°If my Lady desires it, then I shall leave my post at once,¡± Lambert bowed to me. ¡°I don¡¯t understand. What are you paying him?¡± Agatha demanded. ¡°Surely, you didn¡¯t find a mountain of gold in Undertown under all that garbage?¡± ¡°Secrets,¡± I said with a grin. ¡°I¡¯m paying him in secrets.¡± ¡°Not good enough,¡± Agatha shook her head. Her armacus unfurled and she aimed it at the Inspector. Lambert didn¡¯t move a muscle. I knew that he was probably very safe behind his desk. The entire tower was a marvel of exceptional magitek, lovingly crafted by Antoine. ¡°My apologies, Inspector, but I must make sure that you¡¯re on our side,¡± she said. ¡°Please answer my questions honestly. There¡¯s a truth-rune powered by my glider in my armacus.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Lambert nodded. ¡°Do you work for Juni?¡± Agatha inquired. ¡°Yes,¡± Lambert said simply. ¡°Although on paper she¡¯s the one working for me.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Like Juni said - I¡¯m an eater of secrets,¡± Lambert smiled. ¡°And she brings me really big ones to devour.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± Agatha shook her head. ¡°She¡¯s not paying you? She¡¯s not holding your family hostage? She hasn¡¯t bound you in some way with magic? Why should I trust you? What prevents you from selling us out to another party?¡± ¡°This is really derailing my lunch,¡± I mumbled in annoyance. ¡°No other party can offer me what Juni can,¡± Lambert said. ¡°Which is what exactly? What can she offer you that¡¯s so exceptional?¡± Agatha demanded. Lambert looked at me. ¡°Feel free to tell her my secrets,¡± I sighed. ¡°I want to establish trust with our future Empress.¡± ¡°Juni is the only person on Andross who can read Inarian. She holds the keys to the city of death, to the lost knowledge which our world orbits endlessly,¡± the Inspector said. ¡°The greatest of secrets that lie buried beneath the infinite city.¡± ¡°You crave the power of the dead gods?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°Magic of the builders of Andross?¡± ¡°No,¡± Lambert shook his head. ¡°Only their secrets. Even the tiniest crumb of understanding, of secret knowledge about the lost city of the gods could feed me for aeons. Millions of people look up at Inaria in our sky and yet none of them have the answer to how it came to be, none of them know the purpose of the infinite city or even its name.¡± My eyebrows went up. I saw a new, unexpected side to my Sherlock. At the same time I realized my own worth. Inaria, Endy, the Shogun Gate, Infinity. I had a connection to it all. In magic true names of the old gods could evoke power. Without even a second thought, I told Lambert a single name I had read on the rooftop. "The Good Directorate." The Ending-knife wasn¡¯t the key to the End-Gate. It had always been me. I was the key. My stomach grumbled, interrupting my train of thought. ¡°I¡¯m literally going to die of starvation at this rate,¡± I said. ¡°Come on you guys, crepes are waiting.¡± ¡°Annya, watch the tower,¡± the Inspector spoke into his armacus. He stood up and put on his bowler hat. ¡°Shall we?¡± Agatha¡¯s armacus folded up. She nodded. ¡°You expect to run the Empire alone?¡± I asked, grabbing Agatha''s elbow and dragging her to the door that led us to the stairwell. The eldest princess nodded. ¡°You¡¯ll snap under the load, break before you know it, make a mistake that will doom us all,¡± I said. ¡°You need to build a net of reliable humans and artifacts, talented people and specialized entities that you can trust and rely on.¡± ¡°Entities?¡± Agatha raised an eyebrow. ¡°Let me introduce you to Dawn,¡± I said. ¡°A depictomancy artifact. She¡¯s the future of running Empires - the best secretary you¡¯ll ever have.¡± By the time we had reached Lomb Creperie & Patisserie, Dawn and Agatha were introduced to each other and had a bit of a small chat. ¡°Did you get any more copies of Dawn?¡± I asked Lambert. ¡°Yes,¡± he nodded. ¡°We are now in possession of four more posters. Antoine is already attaching crystal batteries to them - we¡¯ve brought them to his shop for safe-keeping.¡± ¡°Excellent,¡± I smiled. ¡°Keep it up.¡± After five minutes of a brisk walk, our group ended up crowding the corner of the creperie¡¯s glacier-view balcony. A magical, slightly shimmering sphere went up around us as we sat down and ordered the crepes. I could feel its deep thrum in my soul, the energy cast from the tower this time was noticeably stronger. ¡°Did you crank up the anti-spy shield?¡± I asked Lambert. ¡°Yes,¡± he nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve made the shield absolute so that our two princesses can feel at ease. We have much to discuss, yes?" I nodded. ¡°So, Juni,¡± Agatha said. ¡°You want me to trust the future of the Empire to¡­ a dress?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I nodded. ¡°Dawn is an artifact that can see the future. However, I¡¯m not asking you to trust in her future-sight. I¡¯m asking you to help me unlock her full potential.¡± ¡°Which is?¡± ¡°Dawn is a communication web,¡± I said. ¡°I believe that she¡¯s the key to optimizing person-to-person information exchange.¡± ¡°We already have the armacus for that,¡± Agatha pointed out. ¡°I can use my armacus to connect myself to a large number of archmagi scholars to exchange information.¡± ¡°The armacus is just a dumb communicator,¡± I shook my beanie-covered head. ¡°It doesn¡¯t have the capacity to process information. Dawn is the next step in communication and information storage. She¡¯s an artificial intelligence with a display. She¡¯s what we really need to make a great step forward in the magitek revolution.¡± ¡°You want the magitek revolution to happen?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°It''s going to happen regardless of what we do,¡± I said. ¡°You can¡¯t stop progress.¡± ¡°You want to accelerate it then?¡± The future Empress asked. ¡°I want to guide it in the right direction,¡± I said. ¡°I know the pitfalls of civilization. I know which paths lead to a dead end.¡± ¡°How?¡± Agatha blinked. ¡°History,¡± I said. ¡°History repeats itself. Yulia Ishenko, the one-hundred-million-year-old ghost that resides in my head, had never studied magic. What she studied was the cycles of history and how they impact people.¡± ¡°Tell me more,¡± Agatha said. ¡°What she learned at a non-magical arcanarium was ¡®Sociology¡¯, a study that focuses on society, human social behavior, social relationships and their interactions and how culture associated with everyday life changes the world. Sociology is knowledge about social order and social change and a deep understanding of underlying patterns of civilization.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of such a thing,¡± Agatha said. ¡°That¡¯s why you know so much about Revolutions!¡± Emerald declared. ¡°Illatius might have magic and flying machines,¡± I said. ¡°But it is approximately a century if not more behind my knowledge in terms of Sociology.¡± ¡°Is this Sosh-i-ology a mental power of some sort over people?¡± Agatha tilted her head. ¡°Are you planning to weaponize your secret, non-magical knowledge to gain power?¡± ¡°No,¡± I laughed. ¡°I don¡¯t seek power over anyone. I don¡¯t want to be an Empress or even a Baroness. I simply want to build a better future for everyone. Dawn is the foundation of this future.¡± ¡°You trust a painting to guide us?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°I trust the people to guide themselves,¡± I said. ¡°Dawn is more than just a painting. She¡¯s what¡¯s necessary for running an Empire with optimal efficiency - an analytical database.¡± ¡°An analytical database?¡± Agatha rubbed her chin. ¡°Explain.¡± ¡°A lot of civilizations and ideologies throughout history have failed to reach their promises and lofty goals because they couldn''t properly analyze, organize and coordinate their people and resources,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ve been trying to see the best future with precognition,¡± Agatha mulled. ¡°But there are so many paths¡­ so many choices and you aren¡¯t even in them for some stupid reason!¡± ¡°The precogs can peer into the future, sure, but can they really understand the complexity of steps necessary to reach the best, most optimal future for themselves?¡± I asked. ¡°Can they grasp the full scope of the lives and talents of a million people? Can you tabulate the result of a billion future actions performed across the Empire by its citizens, predict all of their needs and wants with precognition?¡± ¡°No,¡± Agatha shook her head. ¡°I cannot.¡± ¡°Dawn could do it, someday,¡± I said. ¡°There¡¯s only a thousand-ish of her now, but if we can expand her network, if we can give Dawn to every citizen, then we can analyze and improve the lives of everyone from the lowliest Undertown denizen to the Emperor.¡± ¡°This is putting a lot of trust into an artifact,¡± Agatha mulled. ¡°Dawn, who do you serve?¡± I asked. ¡°I serve all of you,¡± Dawn said. ¡°I want to help all of my friends.¡± ¡°What if she¡¯s lying?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°What does your truth-rune tell you?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°The truth-rune isn¡¯t designed for evaluating talking dresses!¡± The future Empress shook her armacus exasperatedly. ¡°I¡¯ve made it based on existing magitek hexagrams, on the study of truth-spheres that evaluate people.¡± She pointed at the truth-sphere in Lambert''s table. ¡°Lambert is a talented, high-level Scrutimancer,¡± I nodded towards the Inspector. ¡°The more time he spends with Dawn, the more of her secrets he will uncover. If Dawn shows even the remotest leaning towards evil, then I will end her myself. She can¡¯t physically interact with the world - she can¡¯t hurt us just like a book can¡¯t hurt us. Dawn is an Astral Tree - she¡¯s not something that can attack or run away from us. It is absurdly easy for me to chop her down, to burn her paintings down to ashes.¡± ¡°Gee, thanks,¡± Dawn muttered sarcastically. ¡°I feel so safe right now.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not evil, right?¡± I peered at the painting. ¡°No I am not,¡± Dawn shook her curls woven from astral constellations. ¡°Then you are safe from the chopping,¡± I shrugged. ¡°As long as you continue to serve humanity, I will pour all of my resources into making your tree grow bigger and stronger. Cooperation!¡± ¡°I get it,¡± Emerald said, her voice shy. ¡°Dawn is your answer to guiding everyone to a better future. Dawn is the absolute administrator that will coordinate Illatius - a personal assistant for everyone.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± I nodded. ¡°People don¡¯t operate well when bound into servitude, sometimes don¡¯t work very hard even if they¡¯re paid well. Money can¡¯t buy happiness. Passion is what drives progress.¡± ¡°By the Astral depths,¡± Agatha muttered. She was beginning to understand what I was trying to propose. ¡°Future leaders like yourself can make horrific mistakes in directing society forward because you cannot possibly understand the needs of every individual below you. Everyone wants to reach their dreams. Everyone wants to be happy. Everyone has different wants, desires and passions. Inspector Lambert wants to uncover secrets. I want to make smart dresses. Voltara wants to be an Adventurer,¡± I hammered in my point. ¡°Dawn is what was missing from your future plans, my dear princesses. You¡¯ve been looking at the world from top down. To truly understand how to lead people you need to look at the Illatius from below, from the point of view of every individual from the smallest urchin crawling through the mountains of garbage in Undertown to the richest Baron who has a mountain of gold at their disposal. Neither is truly happy, I can guarantee it. You need to look at the Empire in a way that only Dawn can - from the side, to grasp the illusory gargantuan tree of connections between people. Dawn can do what Vows are failing spectacularly at - to guide everyone towards their passion, one individual at a time!¡± Ch 61. The Combinator
¡°It seems like this plan of yours is hanging on the fact that I¡¯m destined to become Empress,¡± Agatha noted, biting into her strawberry crepe. ¡°Not really,¡± I said, chewing on my own coffee-ice-cream crepe pile. ¡°It would be easier to institute Dawn into every aspect of society if you were Empress, but it¡¯s not a necessary step.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not?¡± ¡°I¡¯m also ahead of the game when it comes to marketing dresses,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m exhibiting her at the upcoming Gala. If I do it right, every noble lady will want to own Dawn. Eventually we¡¯ll shove her into watches too or something and we¡¯ll get the other half of the population.¡± ¡°Big plans,¡± Agatha chopped her crepe with a silver knife. ¡°Mhm,¡± I nodded. ¡°The way I see it - it would be very hard for you to fail to become Empress.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°Your mom is a two-centuries-old chimera high-cendai with mountains upon mountains of gold,¡± I pointed out. ¡°It is in her interests for you to become Empress so that she can push her agenda, whatever it may be.¡± ¡°It¡¯ll probably be a very slow introduction of Vows to Eunissi for the servants of the Empire,¡± Agatha sighed. ¡°And then the general population.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I tapped my plate. ¡°That¡¯s something we¡¯ll have to avoid.¡± ¡°How?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°I dunno,¡± I shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t have all the answers. We¡¯ll sort it out when we get to it. For now I¡¯d like to congratulate everyone gathered here on our first meeting of the¡­ Foundation of Dawn.¡± ¡°The Foundation¡­ of Dawn?¡± The eldest princess mulled. ¡°Not bad.¡± ¡°First item on the agenda,¡± I picked up a spoon full of ice cream and stuffed it in my mouth. ¡°Oh God that¡¯s the stuff.¡± ¡°What?¡± Emerald asked. ¡°Just obsessing over the food,¡± I laughed. ¡°First item is - gather more Dawn. Inspector - why have you got so few of her?¡± ¡°Annya has to rely on public skyship routes to acquire the posters,¡± Lambert said. ¡°I¡¯ve already notified the other stations that we are picking her up. However, our town lacks a personal skyship. I spend all of our budget on improving the tower so I can¡¯t afford to buy one.¡± ¡°Right then,¡± I nodded. ¡°The Foundation of Dawn humbly requests the use of Galissi Seven for our first mission - collecting the arts!¡± ¡°Granted,¡± Agatha said. ¡°Excellent,¡± I swallowed another delicious piece of crepe. ¡°Item two - Baroness Amadea registered me for Nemendias. I don¡¯t know anything about the requirements. Please educate me.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± Agatha nodded. ¡°I was the one to suggest it to my mother, so it falls to me to be your Felicity Cicesore.¡± ¡°Elegant Guide?¡± I tried to understand the weird title. ¡°There are several requirements for the entrance exam,¡± Agatha said. ¡°One. The entrant must be brought in for their interview by Felicity Cicesore, which is a Nemendias student who has a Crest.¡± I glanced at Agatha¡¯s crest pin. ¡°Got that one.¡± ¡°Two. A noble family must register them and pay for their education. My mother covered this already. Three. The entrant must have a letter of recommendation from a Figure of Authority such as a Justice, Inspector or an Instructor.¡± I glanced at Lambert. ¡°I already have a letter made for you,¡± he said. ¡°Dawn made me write one." ¡°Woooo,¡± I made a small, train-honk sound of approval. ¡°Four. The applicant must have a letter of recommendation from a Licensed Magic Practitioner aka The Expert.¡± ¡°Does an Artificer count?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes,¡± Agatha nodded. ¡°Five. At the entrance interview the applicant must show an exceptional magical skill. Their knowledge of magical theories will be tested. They must look presentable and they will be questioned under the Octagon of Veracity by a panel of eight judges. If the entrant is suspicious, which you very much are as a lowborn nobody¡­ the judges are permitted to summon and interview the Figure of Authority, the Expert and the Felicity Cicesore. The Inspector, Artificer and I will have to be present at your interview.¡± ¡°I think I got these covered, except for the presentable part,¡± I mulled. ¡°Grogtilda¡¯s body is still recovering from her time in the dungeon.¡± ¡°They¡¯ll definitely interview the hell out of you if you bring Grogtilda in, sis,¡± Emerald commented. ¡°Can I do my interview first? I don¡¯t want to be outshined by our high-cendai. I don¡¯t even know any exceptional magic¡­¡± ¡°You¡¯ll get in on the mere basis of being an Amadea, Ems. They¡¯ll give you a pass if you perform a simple [Identify] spell in front of them,¡± Agatha said. ¡°As for Juni¡­ You¡¯ll have to do something impossible, truly exceptional and historic if you want to pass the entrance exam as a lowborn from Undertown.¡± If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Exceptional magic,¡± I pondered. ¡°Will the Instructors keep what I show them¡­ a secret?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Agatha said. ¡°Some entrants show off secret techniques developed by their families. The Octagon of Evaluation will erase the interview from the instructors¡¯ memories if the interviewee requests such at the beginning of the evaluation.¡± ¡°We do have a Vow-bound maid. What if I kill her Vow in front of these judges?¡± I mulled. ¡°What?!¡± Everyone¡¯s eyes focused on me. ¡°It¡¯s supposedly impossible to kill a Vow, right?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes. That¡­ will definitely work,¡± Agatha nodded. ¡°But I thought that seeing Vows was an incredibly rare skill,¡± Voltara uttered. ¡°Oh,¡± I frowned. ¡°I didn¡¯t think about that¡­¡± ¡°It is an archmage-tier skill. The average mage cannot see Vows,¡± Agatha said. ¡°But there are rare, incredibly expensive, specialised magitek devices at Nemendias such as the Astralscope and Magopticon that are able to see and visualise Vows. I¡¯ll make sure to book both of them for your interview, Juni.¡± ¡°Excellent,¡± I steepled my fingers. ¡°We¡¯ll have to plan things out, conduct a few mock interviews,¡± Agatha uttered tiredly. ¡°Not a problem,¡± I said. ¡°We can spend some time in Lomb, learn things about each other, yes? Do you have classes to return to or something?¡± ¡°No,¡± Agatha replied. ¡°The final few years at Nemendias consist mostly entirely of Noblesse Oblige thesis projects. I don¡¯t have classes right now - I spend most of my time flying around the Empire trying to find several big problems to solve for my next year''s thesis. The bigger and more insurmountable the problems, the better my grade will be.¡± ¡°Do you want to help me clean up Undertown?¡± I batted my crystalline-eyelashes at her. ¡°Do I have to?¡± Agatha¡¯s expression soured. She looked defeated. ¡°If you help me clean Undertown for your thesis, Dawn-net can be your other project for next year,¡± I sunk a hook into the eldest princess. ¡°It will solve numerous administrative problems.¡± ¡°You¡­ would give Dawn to me?¡± Agatha¡¯s mouth dropped. ¡°Let me take credit for your idea? Really? You don¡¯t want to¡­ use her yourself for your own Noblesse Oblige project?¡± ¡°Eh,¡± I yawned, my belly finally stuffed. ¡°I¡¯ll think of something else. Can a Noblesse Oblige project be a collaborative effort?¡± ¡°They can,¡± Agatha nodded. ¡°But there must be a single Luminary - the one who takes the most credit for conception and leadership points.¡± ¡°You can be the Luminary of Dawn-net, or whatever,¡± I shrugged. ¡°You need to impress the royal family to become Empress, yes?¡± ¡°Y-yes,¡± Agatha said. ¡°I must prove myself as absolutely exceptional, above everyone else, above my competition for the prince." ¡°What competition?¡± I blinked. ¡°Is this shield really absolute?¡± Agatha suddenly hissed. ¡°It is,¡± Lambert said. ¡°My tower is perfect, I assure you. You can speak your mind, be at ease. Nothing and nobody will hear you. No artefact or mage is be able to peer through the barrier Antoine designed.¡± ¡°R-right,¡± Agatha growled. She turned back to me. "Prince Licor is engaged to¡­ nine other princesses.¡± "Oh," I replied. ¡°Being Engaged means nothing! The Emperor wants the best of the best for his son. It''s like a bloody game for the royal family. This is why I keep saying that I won¡¯t necessarily end up as Empress. Becoming the First Wife of the future Sovereign¡­ isn¡¯t easy. The other Baronies smear me and my name whenever they can so that their daughters can marry the prince. Their tabloids magnify my flaws and failures or straight up print disgusting lies about me. I¡­ hate them so very much. I hate my every waking moment. I hate my mother. I wish my mother was dead! Everyday is like an Astral-damned chore, a show where I must be absolutely perfect in every f-fing way.¡± Agatha struck her empty plate and it shattered beneath her hand. There were sparks of tears in her eyes. ¡°Some days I just want to be a nobody, I just want to disappear, not be under an f-fing magnifying glass like a pretty f-fing butterfly.¡± ¡°Aggie, oh Aggie,¡± Emerald rushed out of her chair and hugged her sister tightly. ¡°You don¡¯t have to be alone anymore. I¡¯m here for you! I¡¯ve always known that something was wrong¡­ but I was too afraid to ask.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not alone anymore, Agatha,¡± I stated. ¡°I¡¯ll help you in any way I can.¡± ¡°You will?¡± Agatha sniffed. ¡°I will,¡± I affirmed. ¡°Tell me the names of these tabloids and I will destroy them or make them work for us. I was planning on subjugating some tabloids for myself.¡± ¡°H-how?¡± Agatha hiccuped. ¡°I have a knife that can cut down anything,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m a ghost in possession of lost knowledge from one hundred million years ago. I¡¯m a girl from Undertown with a debt of two million obliss. I¡¯m a very dangerous chimera high-cendai with no detectable future¡­ and most importantly I am on your side.¡± The eighteen-year-old human-chimera stared at me with sad, tired eyes. There was a glimmer of something new in them now, a spark of hope. "Whatever hardships you''re facing, tell us about them," I said. "The Foundation of Dawn is on your side now. Tell us your dreams and we will help you fulfil them. The whole point of our secret group is so that we can do things for each other¡­ things that we are unable to do alone." "I do want¡­ to be the Empress. I want to solve the problems plaguing the Empire. I want to win the centuries-long war with Novazem," Agatha sniffed. "Why are you doing this, Juni? Why are you helping¡­ me?" "She''s not just helping you," Lambert said. "She''s helping me solve the greatest mystery of all." "She killed my Vow," Voltara added. "And offered to help me become an adventurer." "Juni opened my eyes," Dawn said. "She is working hard to give me far more purpose and function than my painter Ambiss Huron had ever envisioned." "She promised to teach me magic," Emerald mewled, still clinging to her sister. "She brought us back¡­ together, Aggie." "You''re helping me get into Nemendias, Agatha." I said. "Long ago, before I was reborn on Andross as Juni... I was Yulia. The world I lived on, Earth, didn''t have magical hexagrams or the Infinite Dungeon, or dragons. I visited hundreds of cities and made friends in each one. My friends and I helped each other, combined our limited resources and found joy in exploring abandoned places. I intend to do the same here." I offered Agatha my hand. The eldest princess accepted it. "Thank you," she said as our handshake broke apart. "I accept your assistance and friendship¡­ I really appreciate what you are doing for my sister." "Eh," I shrugged. "I haven''t done that much yet. You''re getting sick of being the perfect princess, right? Let''s give you a break." "How?" Agatha asked. "I got several makeup kits in Saccy. Let''s go redecorate your face into that of a human farmer girl so that you can be as free as you want to today. Ohh¡­ let''s buy dresses for each other to host copies of Dawn. Let''s have a relaxing, awesome day together." "Well, I''m out," Lambert laughed. "Please spare me from the horrors of dress shopping." I stuck my tongue at him. "Whatever, let''s go grab Anniya instead and have a girls-only party. Sounds good?" "Sounds good," Agatha nodded. For the first time today, there was a genuine smile on her face. I mentally fist bumped myself. Great success.
Ch 62. Shopping After a hearty lunch, we returned to the station. There, with Anniya¡¯s help, I had completely redecorated our chimera faces. ¡°This is so Astral-wicked,¡± Emerald bobbed, admiring herself in the large mirror. ¡°I can barely recognize myself! What kind of magic is this?¡± ¡°Not magic,¡± I laughed. ¡°It¡¯s makeup. I¡¯m pretty good at cosplays and Anniya is an absolute pro at repainting faces because it¡¯s part of her job.¡± ¡°Painting faces is your job?¡± Emerald looked at Anniya with wide eyes. ¡°Yep,¡± she said. ¡°Constables are trained to go undercover to investigate illicit activities.¡± ¡°Why not use illusion magic?¡± Emerald asked. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that be faster?¡± ¡°There are many hexagrammic wards in Nemendias and Illatius that rip illusion magic away,¡± Agatha said. ¡°It¡¯s one of the reasons why I can¡¯t hide from the Astral-damned tabloid scriveners with illusions. I tried using makeup, but I just ended up making myself look ridiculous so I gave up on it. You two are very good.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± I smirked. ¡°Uh, what¡¯s a cosplayer?¡± Emerald inquired. ¡°Cosplaying or costume playing is a type of performance art,¡± I explained. ¡°I used to do it often for Expos back on Earth. Cosplayers wear makeup, costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character from their favorite show or a book.¡± ¡°So... like stage acting in a theater?¡± The youngest princess mulled. ¡°It¡¯s not exactly stage acting, although there are some similarities,¡± I said. ¡°Cosplayers aren¡¯t professional actors - they¡¯re amateurs who want to pretend to be their favorite character for a day once a year. They spend months crafting the costume themselves or buy it from a very specialized shop.¡± ¡°So, more like a masquerade¡­ but with makeup instead of masks?¡± Agatha mulled. ¡°Hmm,¡± I rubbed my chin. ¡°That is indeed a better analogy. Have you tried wearing adventurer-style masks to hide from the scriveners?¡± ¡°That won¡¯t work,¡± Agatha sighed. ¡°The bastards track me using magitek precog and pathfinder devices. If I were to put on a mask, they would just write some sort of bullshit about me hiding my face to have affairs or to buy Topaz because I''m a secret addict. They¡¯re like irritating shit-flies that won¡¯t leave me alone. If I stay in one place long enough, soon a scrivener will show up with a depictomancy snapper to bother whoever I¡¯m with for an interview. I honestly worry about staying in Lomb¡­¡± ¡°Not an issue,¡± Anniya shook her head. Agatha stared at the future inspector. ¡°Lambert put the absolute defense shield on around town as soon as you two showed up,¡± Anniya explained. ¡°You can relax. Nobody is getting in without us knowing about it. All incoming ships will be warned to dock at the tower. Refusing the procedure will get them repulsed away from town. It would take an Imperial warship to breach the tower''s defense and I doubt that your enemies will go that far.¡± ¡°So... if a scrivener docks at the tower and sees my glider, then what?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°I already pulled Galissi Seven into the tower¡¯s dock. She¡¯s now shielded, concealed by the tower¡¯s inner wards,¡± the young constable commented. ¡°Nobody will know that your ship is even here.¡± ¡°What if they demand entry into town?¡± The eldest princess asked. ¡°They¡¯ll get turned away by Lambert,¡± Anniya replied with a smirk. ¡°He¡¯ll probably make up some excuse about a nasty bug infestation to explain why scriveners can¡¯t go into town.¡± ¡°You would do this for me?¡± The older princess blinked. ¡°We are doing this for you and your sister, yes.¡± Anniya said firmly. ¡°You¡¯re under our care, our VIP guests. We understand your situation and want you to have a nice day in Lomb. Nobody and I mean nobody is going to bother you or your sister while you¡¯re in our town. Our tower is extremely effective at keeping ships, spies, scriveners and other dangerous monsters away.¡± ¡°What if they land outside of town and try to get in on foot?¡± I asked. ¡°The scrivener snapper isn¡¯t exactly an easily concealable device. We''ve just added it to the barrier shield¡¯s list of banned items - it¡¯s as simple as that,¡± Anniya explained. ¡°Anyone carrying a snapper into town on foot will be warned via a direct message, lightly repulsed by the shield or enjoy a very painful focused ray of the repulsor if they try to persist.¡± ¡°Thank you,¡± Agatha exhaled. She looked like she was holding back tears. ¡°This¡­ really means a lot to me. Nobody¡¯s offered to do anything like this for me before.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t sweat it,¡± Anniya smiled. ¡°I was wrong,¡± Emerald said looking up at the female constable. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. You and the Inspector are really first-class humans.¡± . . . The four of us emerged from the tower. The two princesses were now wearing two old dresses borrowed from my collection of stuff that I had purchased in Lomb last week. They really looked like two perfectly mundane human girls out on vacation. The three of us were wearing colorful, beanie-style hats to hide our distinctive hair. Voltara was wearing Dawn. I had changed out of my nightcrawler armor into a simple, long-sleeved summer dress as well as not to stand out, having covered my face, neck and hands with makeup to hide the shiny, ruby-tinted anti-phantom shield. The streets of Lomb welcomed our group. Shop windows and signs glittered in the sunlight. Green, moss covered roofs were everywhere. Little urns held colorful plants. Glaciers of the Acadian mountain range hugged the town and loomed in the distance bringing a refreshing breeze. Cumulonimbus clouds rolled through the blue sky. Azure, sparkling rivers fed by the glaciers could be seen from the top of the hill that the station stood on. Cobblestones clattered under our feet, little lichen and flowers blooming in the cracks. We passed a group of kittens that lazily lounged in a sunbeam on warm stone steps. A small, black kitten turned its very fluffy head and stared at me with wide, purple eyes, tracking us. ¡°It¡¯s really nice here,¡± Emerald commented. ¡°So different from my mom¡¯s estate. How long can we stay here?¡± Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°As long as you like,¡± Anniya said. ¡°Lomb is a farming town and a bit of a tourist resort. You¡¯re not the first highborn VIPs to visit us. Plenty of Illatius nobles come to Lomb, rent cottages and go on mountain hikes to see the glaciers and dragon nests." "Dragon nests?" I raised an eyebrow. "Isn''t that... dangerous?" "No," Anniya shook her head. "The repulsor ray can reach pretty far. The red Lombeasts and silver Ice Dragons nesting near Lomb aren''t very large and are trained not to bother the tourists.¡± ¡°Can we rent a cottage too?¡± Emerald pawed at her sister. ¡°Err, I.. um, we can talk about it later,¡± Agatha rubbed her elbow. We had stopped at the first shop filled with magical trinkets, everyday commodities and dresses. Emerald became glued to the window, forgetting everything. I rubbed my hands, giddily. I had bagged two genuine, if somewhat sheltered, princesses into my growing group. I was excited at the prospect of learning what sorts of wealth or resources Emerald and Agatha could bring to the table. Agatha looked visibly distraught as Emerald pranced into the shop and started to paw at everything. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t have money,¡± she confessed after a few more seconds of fretting. ¡°Did you leave your purse in the glider?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°No,¡± Agatha shook her head. ¡°I literally don¡¯t have money.¡± ¡°But, you¡¯re a princess,¡± I pointed out, frowning. ¡°Of the supposedly wealthiest barony in Illatius if Dawn is to be believed.¡± ¡°Mother keeps a very tight leash on my finances, so that I stay focused on my education,¡± Agatha sighed. ¡°I wear Nemendias uniforms and eat in Nemendias or Barony-owned restaurants. If I need something extra, I have to visit her with an outline of items and an explanation of why I require them.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± I blinked. Lambert had paid for our crepes earlier. ¡°Sorry,¡± she sighed. ¡°Guess this puts a damper on our plans?¡± ¡°No way,¡± I said. ¡°I have three salaries to spend and I¡¯m going to buy you and Emmy nice things - things you always wanted but could never afford. You can buy me nice things when you¡¯re Empress.¡± ¡°Three salaries?¡± Agatha gaped at me. ¡°What?¡± ¡°One for Juni, one for Grogs and one for Dawn,¡± I bent my fingers. ¡°Spending my salary already?¡± Dawn laughed from Voltara¡¯s chest. ¡°You¡¯re a painting,¡± I pointed out. ¡°You can¡¯t wear dresses or eat food. What do you want to buy?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Dawn smiled. ¡°Honestly though, I don¡¯t mind you spending my salary if it¡¯s to make my friends happy.¡± ¡°You know,¡± I mulled. ¡°I should ask Lambert to¡­¡± "You want to make the princesses Agents of Lomb too?" Anniya asked. "What''s wrong with that?" I inquired. "We might have trouble if Baroness Amadea finds out," Anniya pointed out. "She could send her own Agents to our town to demand answers or force us to fire them. I would really like to avoid such a confrontation." "Whatever," I rolled my eyes. "I''ll hire the princesses myself. Without paperwork." "What?" Agatha looked at me. "It''s ridiculous that you have no money," I shook my head. "Your mother gave me ten thousand obliss. Consider it your first weeks'' pay." "Don''t you have a debt of two and a half million obliss?" Agatha tilted her head to the side. "I''m not paying that off," I said. "The debt is a symbol of my chains. It will serve me well in the future as a weapon to cudgel the Guilds and the highborns with." "I see," the eldest princess said. She looked at me like I was a bit bonkers. "What are you even hiring us for?" ¡°Professional¡­ menaces?¡± I rubbed my chin. ¡°I don¡¯t know, I haven¡¯t thought that far ahead yet. Emmy already knows what her job is.¡± Agatha shook her head. I noticed that Voltara was looking at me with pleading eyes. ¡°I haven¡¯t forgotten about you, Volty,¡± I turned to her. ¡°You¡¯re my personal assistant and model. You¡¯ll get paid in beast cores, like a true Adventurer should. Go and grab whatever you want¡­ a towel would be a good place to start. A good adventurer should always know where their towel is!¡± ¡°Yay,¡± Voltara rushed into the shop after Emerald, completely unaware of the Hitchhiker''s Guide to the Galaxy reference I was making. "I think I know why you have no future," Agatha deadpanned. "As soon as I think I¡¯ve figured you out, you keep throwing me under the skyship with completely unexpected nonsense just like this!" "Yes, I know, I''m weird and awesome," I stuck my tongue out at her. "Go look at dresses. My minions should look presentable!" I shoved the eldest princess into the shop. She didn''t resist me very much. . . . We left the shopping district in the evening after a nice dinner just as the sun started to paint the glaciers pink and orange. Crystal-lanterns lit up the signs and avenues and shop windows glowed from within with rainbows of products. Saccy was absolutely packed with all sorts of nice things for my friends. The bag with ten thousand obliss had run dry pretty quickly, but I didn¡¯t mind - I had plenty of beast cores to throw at the bank. It felt good to spend four years of murdered monsters on my new friends. I knew that every purchase bound us more to each other, ensuring a better future for Illatius. The two princesses and the maid were extremely thankful and promised to help me with anything and everything. ¡°Um, where are we sleeping tonight?¡± Agatha inquired as we walked back to the station. ¡°In the pilot¡¯s room,¡± I replied. ¡°It has four beds?¡± She asked. ¡°It has one bed,¡± I shook my head. ¡°I grabbed more hammocks while you were looking at dresses.¡± ¡°Hammocks?¡± Agatha blinked. ¡°Yeah,¡± I nodded. ¡°We¡¯ll hang them inside Saccy and have a nice sleepover. There¡¯s more than enough space for all four of us inside even with all the stuff we purchased today.¡± The eldest princess eyed the bag carried by Voltara. ¡°Saccy is perfectly safe,¡± I said. ¡°She¡¯s in conserving-power mode. Her roots and bud are bound up tight.¡± ¡°You¡¯re sleeping too then?¡± Anniya asked. ¡°I need to level up,¡± I nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve killed enough things this morning in the Amadea Estate to jump a level.¡± ¡°Things?¡± Agatha repeated. ¡°Things!¡± I nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± Agatha stared at me. "What things could you have possibly killed in Palais De La Solstice?!" ¡°My knife can kill anything,¡± I explained. ¡°I killed a lamp this morning.¡± ¡°You killed a lamp,¡± her stare intensified. ¡°It was a pretty evil lamp,¡± I nodded. ¡°It was trying to make me calm.¡± ¡°You killed a calming-hexagram lamp¡­ to get experience?¡± Agatha pinched the bridge of her nose. ¡°Essentially,¡± I nodded. ¡°You can¡¯t just¡­¡± Agatha shook her head. ¡°You¡¯re messing with me. If mages could get experience from killing things then everyone would be murdering rocks! There would be rock-murdering farms and nobody would risk their lives hunting monsters in the dungeon!¡± ¡°Rocks don¡¯t provide that much experience,¡± I said. ¡°See if they were¡­ very magical rocks, then maaaaybe it would be worth it.¡± ¡°This is ridiculous! You can¡¯t kill rocks for experience. This would violate the 7th law of Cohernich Boiim. Why are we even discussing this?!¡± Agatha looked distraught. ¡°Look, I don¡¯t know what this law is,¡± I said. ¡°I have a¡­¡± My eyes settled on a dark, fuzzy sphere on the cobblestone stairwell. It unfurled into a kitten. The kitten jumped off the stairwell and flowed down a few levels, closer to us. Purple eyes stared up at me. ¡°You have a what?¡± Agatha demanded. ¡°A magic knife,¡± I said, tapping the hexagon-textured knife on my side. ¡°That can cut anything. Magic, rocks, spells, hexagrams¡­ you name it.¡± ¡°Nonsense,¡± Agatha said, her eyes lighting up from within. ¡°I knew that you were having me on. This knife isn¡¯t even magic. There are no hexagrams on it. It¡¯s a perfectly mundane knife.¡± I sighed. My new friend was very knowledgeable when it came to magic, but a lot of her knowledge had come from Nemendias, the professors of which knew nothing about the Infinite city or the End-Gate beneath Undertown. The kitten mewled at me. I stepped closer to the stairwell, admiring its adorable purple eyes. ¡°Are you ignoring me because I¡¯m right?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°No,¡± I replied. ¡°I just think that this kitten is freaking cute.¡± I offered the little cutie my hand and the kitten rubbed against it, purring furiously. ¡°Do you belong to anyone?¡± I asked, looking around. ¡°Mew?¡± The kitten replied, tilting its head. ¡°Right, you¡¯re a kitten,¡± I said. ¡°And kittens don¡¯t talk.¡± The purple eyes were a bit suspicious. I stared at the kitten in the Astral, trying to see if it was magical. The kitten didn¡¯t glow from within, didn¡¯t cast the echo of magic into the infinite abyss. It was completely empty, perfectly mundane¡­ ¡°Do you know a spell that can kill literally anything and give you experience for it?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°Wuh?¡± I turned back to her. ¡°Um¡­ no. I do not.¡± ¡°Then you¡¯re lying to me!¡± She declared loudly. ¡°I thought we were friends!¡± It was my turn to be frustrated. ¡°Aggie,¡± I said calmly. ¡°Please... just believe me? I¡¯ll show you what I can do when we get back into the station. You can see it for yourself, okay? Can you not wait like five minutes?¡± ¡°Fine,¡± she huffed. ¡°Good,¡± I nodded. I looked down. The kitten was gone. Little guy probably got spooked by Agatha¡¯s irate yelling. Oh well. Ch 63. The song of infinity
I grabbed a small dark pebble from the sidewalk and showed it to Agatha. ¡°I¡¯m going to kill this rock for you tonight. Please judge that it¡¯s perfectly mundane.¡± Her silver-blue eyes flashed as she peered into the Astral. After a minute of staring at the rock, she nodded. Anniya bid us goodnight and departed for her home. The rest of the group had entered the station, went up the stairwell towards the pilot¡¯s room. I placed Saccy in a corner and we all went inside of her. ¡°So that¡¯s what she looks like on the inside,¡± Emerald said, looking around the large painted space. ¡°This is pretty neat. How¡­?¡± ¡°She¡¯s a Folding Seed,¡± I explained. ¡°They¡¯re experts at Folding Magic.¡± ¡°They¡¯re also experts at eating people,¡± Agatha commented. Emerald hiccuped. ¡°She¡¯s perfectly safe, I assure you,¡± I said. ¡°Now, who wants to see me murder a rock? Put your hands up!¡± Voltara''s and Emerald¡¯s hands shot up. I looked at Agatha. ¡°It¡¯s not possible,¡± she said. ¡°You can¡¯t murder a rock. It''s not alive.¡± ¡°Watch me,¡± I said, spinning the rock in my hand. I defined the pebble from every angle, glanced at it in the Astral and visualized it as a standalone concept. I felt, embraced the song of Sempiternity, dove mentally into the infinite void, thought of the infinite city upon the surface of Inaria. My audience stared at me with eager eyes. Voltara looked with her eyes alone, while the two half-chimeras used their Astral-sight. I swung Endy at the pebble, wishing it death, wishing its destruction. The pebble was weak. The knife sunk into it and it popped like a soap bubble. [+0.002 XP] The System Rewarded me. ¡°What in the freaking Astral was that?!¡± Agatha gasped. ¡°What in the Astral depths just happened?!¡± She stepped towards the small pile of crystalline, white sand and stared at in absolute bewilderment. ¡°This is how I kill everything,¡± I said. ¡°Do it again!¡± Agatha demanded. ¡°Do you have an extra pebble?¡± I asked. ¡°No,¡± Agatha shook her head. I sighed and walked to the bag filled with broken artifacts, selected a shattered self-cleaning magical plate and pushed some mana into it. The cracked plate lit up in my Astral-vision. I waved the plate to my friends. ¡°Observe,¡± I said. ¡°This plate has magic in it.¡± ¡°I see it,¡± Agatha said. I defined the plate, hummed the death-song, sunk into the depths of Sempiternity. The knife sang in my head. It showed me long dead dreams of dead things, whispered of the eternal night, of the limitless event horizon at the end of everything. I swung the knife at the plate. The plate gave in only after two hits. It shattered into pale dust. I ran my hand through it, devouring, absorbing its life and magic. ¡°What the...¡± Agatha looked like she was going to have a heart stroke. ¡°You really destroyed it. There¡¯s nothing left of the plate. Not even a blip in the Astral. I¡¯ve never seen anything like it. This violates all known magical laws.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Give me that knife,¡± Agatha demanded. I handed Endy to the eldest princess. I already knew that she wouldn''t sing for her. Agatha wasn¡¯t the key, she didn¡¯t understand the infinite city, didn¡¯t dream of Sempiternity, didn¡¯t touch, didn''t understand the End-Gate beneath Undertown like I had. Agatha spun the knife and stared at it with her magical sight. I permitted her to stab another broken artifact with it. She handed Endy back to me after a few pokes. ¡°None of this makes any sense,¡± she huffed. ¡°You¡¯re doing impossible magic with a non-magical knife. I saw it with my own eyes and yet¡­ I can¡¯t believe it happened. You exploded that old plate artifact, released some sort of essence that I could barely define and then freaking absorbed it.¡± ¡°Are you going to apologize now?¡± I raised my eyebrow at her. ¡°Huh?¡± Agatha looked up at me. ¡°You called me a liar, Miss,¡± I said, sliding Endy back into her sheath. ¡°Fine, fine,¡± Agatha groaned. ¡°I was wrong and you were telling the truth about killing... things.¡± ¡°Uh-huh,¡± I nodded. ¡°Please explain this,¡± Agatha poked the crystalline dust. ¡°What is this¡­ stuff?¡± ¡°Hell if I know,¡± I spread my arms. ¡°Some kind of purified dust?¡± Agatha poured the dust into a small flask that she pulled from her pouch. I raised an eyebrow at her. ¡°I¡¯m going to run tests on this in Nemendias,¡± she said. ¡°Be my guest,¡± I yawned. ¡°Let me know if you find anything. Anyways, you can chat or sleep or whatever. I¡¯m tuckered and I¡¯ve got leveling up to do.¡± Emerald glanced at Grogtilda¡¯s sleeping body. ¡°I¡¯ll sleep in Grog¡¯s body outside of Saccy,¡± I said. ¡°So that her tattoo smell doesn¡¯t bother your sensitive chimera noses.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± Emerald nodded. I climbed into the hammock and grabbed Grogtilda¡¯s hand, waking up inside of my human body. Then I waved to everyone and climbed out of Saccy. ¡°Goodnight ladies, see you tomorrow,¡± I said and listened to a quartet of responses. I crawled into the pilot¡¯s bed, bundled myself in a blanket and closed my eyes. ¡°Level up,¡± I whispered, addressing the System.
An invisible hand grabbed at the power stored within me, compressing it into a singularity. The dot of energy detonated, igniting and rewiring my soul. The memories of dead things rushed through me. It was a very strange experience. Flashes of the life of objects that I had undone flickered through my mind¡­ as if they really were alive. I opened my eyes inside Chernobyl¡¯s control room and walked to the dials.
Name: Yulia Ishenko Juni Tokimorim?tuti Grogtilda Lic Misem
Age: [-] 4 years 13 years
Species & Subtype: Astral Phantom Chimera Stripling Juvenile Human
Level: 6
Experience: If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. 221/2450
Health: 6/6
Stamina: 6/6
Mana Capacity: 6/6 [+1]
Mana regen: 6 m/hr [+4]
Strength / Fortitude: 1 [Michell Shield]
Agility / Folding: 1 [Air Compressor]
Dexterity / Dominion: 5 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Tethered to Chimera body] 5 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Tethered to Human body]
Vitality / Anima: 21 [Slow Mirror]
Charisma / Resonance: 1 [Allure Halo] 5 [Invisibility]
Magic / Power: 1 [Battery] 4 [Generators]
Luck / Destiny: 1 [Luck Tree]
Intelligence / Mind: 1 [Organizer]
Wisdom / Seeking: 1 [Seeking Arrow] - [Damaged]
Soul:
In Dominated Folding Seed [Saccy]: 12 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active] 8 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Damaged]
In Dominated Chimera Stripling [Alessi Tokimorim?tuti]: 3 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active] 1 [Pneumasomatic Actuator] - [Damaged]
Armacus 1: [Foci Lv 1] < [Light Lv 1] [Voicecast Lv 1] [Identify Lv 1] [Pathfinder Lv 1]
Armacus 2: [Foci Lv 1] < [Light Lv 1] [Voicecast Lv 1] [Identify Lv 1] [Pathfinder Lv 1]
Investiture points: 30
Thirty points to spend. What did I really need? More Vitality/Anima could help Grogtilda¡¯s body heal faster and look more presentable for my interview. I found it surprising that Endy wasn¡¯t listed on the chart and wasn''t considered by the System at all. Could my best weapon manifest in this place? Could I summon her to me, into my soul-space or whatever? I tried to reach out, tried to grab at my knife. It didn¡¯t work. I didn¡¯t have access to my body in this place - only my soul. I hummed the song of the end, pictured the infinite city in my mind¡¯s eye, accepted Sempiternity, imagined that I was holding Endy in my hand, like an edge, like a key, like the perfect weapon that could end anything, even a god. I wasn¡¯t sure how much time had passed, but eventually something had happened. When I stared at my right arm she was suddenly there. My Endy. The knife looked wrong here, not exactly hexagon-covered. It looked like a black handle that fit my soul¡¯s hand perfectly. A handle that that extended into a perfect, razor... no, micron-thin... no endlessly approaching zero thin, edge. The edge that could cut anything. Was this¡­ some sort of infinite sword logic? I pondered as I stared at the edge in my hand. I looked at the chart. The System refused to define or even to list Endy. The weapon was beyond it. It was a thing that belonged to Sempiternity, a tool of a god. Not the barely two-centuries old pretend-god like Eunisii¡­ no. Infinity was something else entirely. She was the song that held up the Infinite dungeon, the song that had stretched the Earth, long ago and turned it into the horrid fractal megastructure. Perhaps not a god. No. The knife wasn¡¯t magic. The knife was an idea, a tool, a device, a concept that killed concepts. Here, in this space of my dreams on the perfect edge between the physical and the Astral, I suddenly realized that... I could cut the knife with itself, if I so desired. I could cut the System out of myself if it annoyed me. I could cut unnecessary threads from my soul. I could make myself¡­ free of pain, free of fear, free of love, free of limits... I could be completely unstoppable. I could have absolute focus with no distractions and no unnecessary pesky feelings. I could be a perfect, emotionless machine if I so desired. I shook my head. I liked having feelings. Infinity didn¡¯t choose me because I wanted to be a focused robot. She chose me because I was me. Whatever I was¡­ it was already pretty good, already something that Sempiternity approved of. If I carved parts of myself, I would likely become something else entirely, potentially something that couldn''t wield Endy. I stopped thinking about the infinite and the knife dissolved, vanished from my hand like it never existed, like it was just a dream. I knew that I could call her up again, if I only wished for it. Endy was mine. She was waiting for me to find her. Waiting for me for millennia. Waiting until I woke up in Andross and claimed her. I wondered if Eunice knew about the knife. If she had one of her own. It was doubtful that the arch-cendai knew about the knife¡¯s full, hidden, limitless potential. It was possible that she only saw it as a tool that was only good for cutting souls. It was possible that the knife didn''t work for her like it did for me. I looked back at the dials, ceasing my speculations about Endy. Yes, I could definitely shove all of my gathered energy into Vitality and look pretty. But frankly¡­ Grogtilda didn¡¯t need to look perfect right now. Grogtilda needed to be a symbol of change. She needed to look more pitiful, hurt and weak during her start at Nemendias so that her later rise would be meteoric, earth-shaking and observed by the eyes of Illatius. What I really needed was more luck. Luck to not screw things up during the interview. Luck to get ahead of the game. I cranked the Luck dial all the way up. [Luck / Destiny: 31 Luck Tree Branches] The luck tree that slowly blossomed in my soul needed something else. I didn¡¯t want to just see the future a few seconds ahead. No. I needed more. The tree felt¡­ incomplete, weak, wrong. It needed fertile ground to blossom. It needed a pinhole¡­ into the infinite. I summoned up the knife into my arm. Endy appeared for me instantaneously. I recalled Lambert''s lesson about how precognition worked. Infinity¡­ the knife was a piece of infinity. Infinity¡­ wasn¡¯t just a way to destroy things, to divide them by zero, but also a way to reach towards the impossible, to step towards every star, every world in every universe. It was a gateway towards the endless. I mentally folded the knife into a single point, into a tiny ball of darkness and thrust this darkness deep into my soul, tethered her deep into myself and let the roots of the luck tree wrap around the dark sphere. The roots of my luck tree sunk deep into infinity. The leaves of the Luck tree flashed with renewed brilliance, shimmered with impossible colors. They were no longer weak windows into the Astral, but windows into the infinite. The tree felt complete now, perfect - the way it should have been. The way it had been designed by some unseen hand long, long ago. Thirty one [infinite mirrors]. There.
I opened my eyes. It was very early in the morning, the window was pink with the first rays of sunrise. I rushed to the bathroom and then returned to the room and leaned into Saccy. ¡°Sis, why can¡¯t we just trust her?¡± Emerald¡¯s voice whispered. ¡°I¡­ uh,¡± Agatha replied. ¡°Because she''s doing truly impossible magic.¡± ¡°But, she got us nice things,¡± Emerald said, her voice sour. ¡°Cheese is free only in a mousetrap,¡± Agatha said. ¡°Aggie, she¡¯s not doing things for free,¡± Emerald replied. ¡°She wants our support in the future, when you are Empress and I¡¯m Admiral.¡± ¡°You know I can hear you two whispering,¡± Dawn commented. ¡°Do you trust her, painting?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°Yes,¡± Dawn said. ¡°She is a nice girl, even if I can¡¯t see her future. You seem overly pessimistic, princess Agatha.¡± ¡°I¡¯m realistic, not pessimistic,¡± Agatha said. ¡°There¡¯s only one thing that can break all laws of magic, turn magitek devices into dust.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Dawn inquired. ¡°Inaria. The curse of the dead gods, the builders of Andross,¡± Agatha replied. ¡°She said she knows their true names. She said that she can read Inarian. If she can kill objects, vows and spells then she can definitely lie through my truth-rune. What if she¡¯s their agent? What if she¡¯s in cahoots with one of them? One of the things that should never be labelled or spoken of? What if she¡¯s one of them, masquerading as a chimera cendai that''s masquerading as a human girl?¡± Emerald gulped. ¡°Oh,¡± Dawn said and fell silent. The silence stretched on and on. My heart grew cold. There was pain there, a hollow, dark emptiness blooming in my chest. Agatha still didn¡¯t trust me. After everything I did for her and her sister. She still didn¡¯t bloody trust me. My right hand instinctively touched Endy. Was I... an agent of Infinity? Was I being mentally manipulated by her? How did I know exactly how to make the Infinite Mirrors or even the Slow Mirrors? How did I know how to bend soul-magic to my will, how to weave the threads that the System gave me? How did I know the answers to impossible questions? How did I know her song so well? Was I being led, puppeteered by some ancient, dark entity via the all-ending-knife? Was I really me anymore? I felt reality slipping through my fingers, the world getting heavy, my vision getting blurry. Stupid, stupid, stupid Yulia. You¡¯ve screwed up, let something inside you. You let it kill things. You broke the trust between yourself and your new friends. You don¡¯t belong here. You don¡¯t belong anywhere. All of your friends died millions of years ago, there¡¯s nothing even left of them now. Nothing left of the Earth. The world you knew is long gone. You are a ghost that didn¡¯t die when it should have. You stole the bodies of two others that didn¡¯t belong to you. After all you¡¯ve done, nobody likes you. I closed my eyes, leaned against Saccy and started to cry. Ch 64. Resonance
Why was I crying? Why was I doubting, hating myself so much? Why couldn''t I control my feelings? Why did it feel like I was sinking deeper and deeper into an impossibly deep, dark, painful mire? Surely I could fix this? Surely I could work harder like I always have, rebuild¡­ No. Everything is terrible. Everything hurts. I want to sleep. I want to die¡­ no¡­ I want to dream of paradise again. Grogtilda¡¯s body hurt from within, ached terribly and demanded that I give it relief. My arms trembled as I sobbed. Topaz! The thrice-damned Folding Seed sap! I wanted it, needed it badly. I had pushed it away, ignored it before¡­ but now it had struck at me like a freight train, leaving me a ruined, broken person. I was drowning in pain, drowning in darkness. The addiction had overpowered, finally broke me. I gnashed my teeth, crawled forward, reached into Saccy and grabbed onto Juni¡¯s hand. With a flash I was inside of my chimera-self. Grogtilda¡¯s body was no longer ruling my emotions¡­ no longer driving me insane with an insatiable desire to get Folding Seed sap. My eyes filled with tears. I was no longer desperate and suffering, but I still hurt. I looked down at my so-called-friends. ¡°You suck,¡± I declared. ¡°I¡¯m done.¡± ¡°What?¡± Agatha looked up. ¡°You heard me, you jerk,¡± I growled. ¡°I was nice to you. I¡¯m done. You¡¯re on your own.¡± I climbed out of Saccy and nearly tripped over Grogtilda. I moved my other body back to the bed. I was terrified of getting back inside of her. Terrified of the pain of the addiction that haunted her body, intensified to the point of overruling all of my thoughts. I grabbed the ending-knife. ¡°I¡¯m done with you too,¡± I said. I pulled the knife out of its leather sheath and looked at it. ¡°You don¡¯t own me. I¡¯m my own person.¡± I left the knife beside the bed as I angrily stomped into the bathroom and angrily washed my face. Voltara met me outside of the bathroom. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± She asked. ¡°You were yelling something? I just woke up.¡± ¡°Agatha¡¯s being a jerk,¡± I said. ¡°She thinks I''m evil. I¡¯m done trying to convince her.¡± ¡°What do you mean you¡¯re done?¡± Voltara blinked. ¡°You can do whatever,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m leaving.¡± ¡°Leaving?¡± The maid blinked. ¡°Leaving into the Dungeon,¡± I said. ¡°Screw Illatius and screw trying to fix things. I can¡¯t fix everything. I¡¯m not a freaking god. I¡¯m not the hero this city needs.¡± ¡°Can I come¡­ with?¡± Voltara asked. ¡°Sure,¡± I grumbled. I walked out of the pilot¡¯s room, went down the stairwell and towards the nearest open coffee shop. I angrily ordered a coffee. My chest was still aching. It was an illusory pain, belonging to my other body. Voltara had caught up to me. She was wearing Saccy. Dawn looked at me from her chest. I sent her a glare. ¡°Do you think that I¡¯m evil?¡± I asked after a minute of silence. The iced cappuccino was making me feel marginally better, marginally more awake, marginally less twisted up inside. "No," Voltara replied. ¡°I don¡¯t think that you¡¯re evil,¡± Dawn said. ¡°Princess Agatha just doesn''t know how to trust people. She¡¯s likely been hurt too many times by her mother.¡± ¡°Where are the princesses?¡± I asked. ¡°In the tower,¡± Voltara said. ¡°Don¡¯t give up on us, Juni,¡± Dawn said. ¡°I¡¯m not giving up on you,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m just pissed at Agatha. Pissed at Infinity.¡± ¡°So you think that the Undertown goddess of Oblivion is real?¡± Dawn mulled. ¡°As real as the Good Directorate,¡± I said. I stared up at the sky, trying to see Inaria up there. I determined that it was indeed looming there, the gargantuan rings visible ever so slightly through the atmosphere of Andross. I thrust my hand up and flipped off the infinite planet. ¡°Screw you and screw your stupid bullshit!¡± ¡°What¡¯s the Good Directorate?¡± Voltara asked. ¡°No idea,¡± I shrugged. ¡°Just a word written on one of the Inarian buildings or whatever.¡± ¡°Should you be saying the words of the dead gods out loud?¡± The painting asked. ¡°They weren¡¯t gods! It¡¯s just a stupid name,¡± I growled. ¡°The Good Directorate! THE GOOD DIRECTORATE! THE GOOD DIRECTORATE!¡± I screamed the name at the top of my lungs. It felt good, liberating. I looked around with a sad smirk. The world didn¡¯t shatter. A gateway didn¡¯t open up releasing a million monsters. They weren''t gods. They were just like us... people who wanted to light up, chase away the night and screwed something up horribly, just like in Chernobyl... but with far more catastrophic consequences. ¡°W-what?¡± Voltara blinked at me. ¡°Why are you yelling strange words?¡± ¡°I¡¯m tired,¡± I said, sitting down on a bench and rubbing my face. ¡°Tired and afraid. I don¡¯t know if I can get back into Grogtilda¡¯s body again. The Topaz craving is getting worse.¡± ¡°Can¡¯t you cut anything?¡± Dawn asked. ¡°No, I freaking can¡¯t,¡± I hissed out. ¡°I can only cut what I can define really well. Also, I¡¯m done cutting things. When you have a knife that can cut anything, every problem seems like a piece of cardboard!¡± I angrily sipped my coffee. The sun slowly rose over the mountains, laying a pink shawl over the town of Lomb that grew brighter with every minute. The world looked quiet, at peace. I stared at the jagged, sharp mountains of Acadia. They looked like the pointy teeth of a gargantuan, sleeping monster. I heard footsteps and turned around. Emerald was dragging her sister towards me by the hand. ¡°Yes?¡± I asked. Emerald elbowed Agatha. ¡°I don¡¯t know if I can trust you,¡± Agatha exhaled. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I let out a deep growl. Slap her. Slap her right now. My chimera urges demanded. Sharp, crystalline claws came out of my fingers. Attack, smack some sense into her. Dominate her. Destroy her. If she''s not respecting the leader of the pack then she should be cast into the Chasm. ¡°But,¡± Agatha suddenly said. ¡°I¡¯m going to try.¡± ¡°That was a terrible apology, Aggie.¡± Emerald sighed. She shoved her sister out of the way and stepped towards me. ¡°I trust you. I don¡¯t care if you¡¯re a bazillion years old or a dead god or whatever sis imagines you are. You¡¯re fun to be around, that¡¯s all that matters. Can we not fight?¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± I patted the seat next to me. Emerald sat next to me on the bench and immediately nuzzled into my side. I felt marginally better. I raised an eyebrow at Agatha. She didn¡¯t say anything else and just stood there. ¡°I want to slap you,¡± I said. ¡°Then do it,¡± she said. ¡°Then maybe I will,¡± I stood up. ¡°Who do you think you are?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a Nemendias Knight,¡± she said, flinching as I raised my hand. ¡°You¡¯re my Knight, idiot,¡± I growled, pointing at her chest. ¡°When I say jump you should say - where to? I¡¯m a chimera cendai and outrank your stupid ass. You¡¯ve been serving your mother for how long? Do you think that I¡¯m going to tolerate these idiotic accusations? Do you?¡± ¡°No, my high-cendai,¡± Agatha said, her voice firm. ¡°I was nice to you,¡± I said. ¡°I bought you dresses.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± Agatha nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t think you do,¡± I growled. ¡°I don¡¯t need your idiot ass. I can sell Dawn to everyone without your help. You¡¯re dismissed. Go to your mother and tell her that I¡¯m not going to Nemendias.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not?¡± Agatha gulped. ¡°Nope,¡± I sipped my coffee. ¡°Going to be a very rich adventurer instead. I don¡¯t need a human body. I don¡¯t need this shit. Goodbye Agatha. Have fun being alone.¡± Agatha¡¯s face paled. This was worse than giving her a slap. Disappointing her mother was akin to a death sentence. Probably. She definitely didn''t enjoy my statement. Agatha gulped and took a small step back, turning paler with every passing second. ¡°Aggie, just apologize to her damn it!¡± Emerald barked. ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m sorry,¡± Agatha whispered, after a minute of fumbling with the fabric of her new dress. ¡°I just¡­ I saw something impossible and I got scared. Scared that everything I know is wrong.¡± ¡°Big freaking deal,¡± I shrugged. ¡°I lost everyone. Everything. I can never go back to Earth. I can never, ever hear my best friend¡¯s voice... I had absolutely everything and I lost it all like an idiot because I wanted to see the most dangerous place on Earth...¡± I choked. My chest pain returned. I started to sniff. Voltara hugged me. I drowned in her embrace, sobbing louder. I had ignored it for years, pushed it away, never properly dealt with my loss. Through my tears I saw that a black, blurry blob was approaching me. It reached my feet and bumped into me with a mewling noise. It was my tiny pal from town. I grabbed the little ball of darkness and picked it up, bringing it to my knees. The kitten curled up on me. I couldn''t stop my tears. I wanted to go back, wanted to hear Pavel¡¯s voice one last time¡­ wanted to say goodbye. The kitten looked up at me. I looked into its purple eyes and then something in me snapped, broke with a twinkle.
I saw nothing but static. My arm retreated from the dark fissure into the crystalline¡­ something. I stepped back. My body felt weird, wrong, heavy. My joints creaked, as if they were made from metal. A very thick, heavy, cumbersome shawl sat on me. I gasped, inhaled air through my thick mask. Blinked at the innards of the Elephant¡¯s Foot through my fogged up lenses. ¡°What the f-freaking hell?¡± I muttered, my voice muffled by the plastic mask. ¡°W-what?¡± I stumbled, retreated backwards, away from the extremely radioactive artifact, away from the terrifying room covered in dancing sparks, rushing back, following my own footsteps in the dust. The Geiger counter on my wrist screeched but with every step its buzz became less and less irritating. A dream? A second-long daydream that lasted a lifetime? How could this be? Was none of it real? Was Andross just¡­ a figment of my imagination? I was back to the crack in the wall. I pulled off my irradiated shawl and other large parts of my suit, dumping everything into a dusty corner. Here it would remain forevermore, a testament to my glorious, if somewhat idiotic achievement. I crawled into the crack in the concrete foundation, inhaling deep to pass through the tight part. Pavel was waiting for me on the other end. He offered me his hand and pulled me out. ¡°Thanks,¡± I shook concrete dust off myself. ¡°Welcome,¡± he replied. ¡°Did you do it? Did you get to the Foot?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I nodded. ¡°I¡­ did. I totally did it. I have the video.¡± ¡°Awesome,¡± he said. The two of us walked across the empty hallways, leaving Chernobyl behind. . . . The day was waning. I sat inside of his car, eating a chicken sandwich wrapped in tinfoil. I felt very strange. I couldn''t explain the four years of memories swimming in my head. ¡°System?¡± I whispered. ¡°Did you say something?¡± Pavel turned to me. ¡°No, nothing,¡± I shook my head. ¡°I¡­ I just had a very odd, ridiculously long dream when I touched the Foot.¡± ¡°How long of a dream?¡± He asked. ¡°Four years,¡± I whispered. ¡°Do tell,¡± Pavel said. I slowly recounted the four years of my life on Andross as Pavel listened. I spoke on and on and on and Pavel didn¡¯t say a word until I was done pouring out my heart. When I finally fell silent he smirked. ¡°Very interesting,¡± he said. ¡°A bit weird, but interesting. It could make a nice book.¡± ¡°A book?¡± I blinked. ¡°Maybe a movie?¡± He handed me his camera. ¡°You were recording?¡± I yelped. ¡°I was,¡± he smirked. ¡°This is part of your journey. Show it to the world.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± I took the camera from him and looked into it. ¡°Hey everyone. Was that weird? I think it was. Leave some comments below the video to let me know your thoughts. Yulia Ishenko signing off. Peace.¡± I turned off the camera. We got out of the car. The sun was setting over the Ukrainian countryside. ¡°Want to sit by the campfire?¡± I asked. ¡°Sure,¡± Pavel nodded, pulling out his guitar. When I lit the fire he sat next to me and started to sing ¡°U Lisi.¡± I joined in and the chorus of our voices trailed off into the sky. ¡°You wanted to say goodbye to me, yes?¡± He winked. I nodded. ¡°Goodbye,¡± Pavel laughed. I glared at him. ¡°Seriously though, thanks,¡± he said. ¡°This was really fun, especially the time-travel bit. I can¡¯t wait to watch the video.¡± ¡°Soon,¡± I made a face at him. I laid back on the grass and stared up at the stars overhead. They weren¡¯t the stars of Andross. They were the stars of my Earth. ¡°What are you thinking about?¡± Pavel asked, lying down next to me. ¡°I¡¯m really back,¡± I whispered. ¡°I wonder if we¡¯ll live long enough to see the singularity. I wonder if we will witness the foundation of the infinite city. I wonder if we will read about the Good Directorate corporation sometime in our future.¡± ¡°If we do, should we fire-bomb their office before they screw up the Earth?¡± Pavel laughed. ¡°You know, like in Terminator two?¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± I shrugged. ¡°Or would that mess up the future timeline and erase Andross out of existence?¡± He added. ¡°I don¡¯t freaking know how it works, okay?¡± I turned to him. ¡°I¡¯m a sociologist and not a time traveler!¡± ¡°Technically, you are a time-traveler,¡± Pavel pointed out. ¡°You went forward and then you got back. What was that detective... um... Lambert. Didn''t he tell you that that there are infinite timelines, infinite paths? Changing things here won''t erase the future." He sat up and drew a line in the sand with a stick and kept on drawing. The line connected with itself after it made a double circle. It was an infinity symbol. ¡°See? It¡¯s like an ouroboros, a snake eating its own tail,¡± he said. ¡°That¡¯s infinity. That¡¯s your thing now. Leaping into the world of tomorrow and saving people there. Like in Quantum leap. That was a cool show. Except you¡¯re a sociologist and you have a magical dress bestie, not a holographic pal named Al.¡± He laughed heartily at his own joke. I frowned. "Honestly, I think that you are approaching the problem from the wrong angle," Pavel said. "Huh?" I blinked. "You want to cut Topaz addiction out of yourself, right?" "Yeah," I nodded. "You''re a dummy," Pavel commented. "Using the end-knife on yourself seems like a highly dangerous proposition, a path from which there won''t be a way back. Once you divide a part of yourself by zero, erase it completely, you won''t be able to stop until there is nothing left of you. Remember the Amigara Fault manga? That''s what you''re going to end up if you get into the habit of carving pieces out of yourself. Durr Durrr Drr." Pavel smooshed his cheeks and opened his mouth wide, making silly noises and pretending to be a thin, lopsided abomination. "What other options do I have?" I mulled, staring at the crackling campfire. The logs shimmered from within with ember flashes, hundreds of orange sparks flaking off and floating into the star-filled sky. "You can define Folding Seed and it''s sap better. It''s a physical thing. Cut the addiction out of Saccy''s glands instead. Or better yet - distill the sap. Sell shine at a premium as a painkiller without the addictive element. Undercut the gangs, make a profit, fix up Undertown. Hire your artificer friend to make very basic magic-seeing lenses, make your cousins collect the most magical trash for some coppers, destroy it with Endy and get the experience more effectively. Wait, I got it! Start a cleaning or an artifact-disposal company with your friends... no... a demolition firm! Stab buildings with the knife!" Pavel threw various clever ideas at me, waving his hands excitedly. "See? I''m full of amazing plots for your book. You''re welcome!" I glared at him. ¡°Do you miss your future friends already?¡± He laughed. ¡°Had enough of me?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I said. ¡°I¡­ do miss them. They¡¯re all idiots worse than you, but I¡­ am really going to miss them all.¡± Pavel reached out and grabbed my hand. I squeezed his hand and he squeezed me back. Everything was alright. I was alive. I was back. That¡¯s all that mattered. I looked back at the sky and saw a shooting star flicker across the void. The milky way spun overhead in its infinite majesty. I wasn¡¯t afraid of infinity anymore, because I was beginning to understand it¡­ understand her. ¡°If you¡¯re still out there somewhere,¡± I whispered. ¡°Good luck, Juni. Kick all of their asses into gear. Especially your own.¡± Something inside me shattered with a twinkle. Ch 65. Deadline [-1 Infinite Mirror.] A System message flashed in my right eye as I gaped at the town of Lomb bathed in morning light. I looked down. My hand pawed at the empty air. The black, purple-eyed kitten was gone. I looked up at Agatha¡¯s concerned face. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Emmy asked. ¡°You look like you¡¯ve seen a ghost. Also, your pupils went all wide and then folded back into little slits again.¡± ¡°I¡­ I went back¡­¡± I exhaled. ¡°I¡¯m still alive.¡± ¡°Still alive?¡± Agatha tilted her head. ¡°Did you have a terrible vision of the future in which you died? The way your pupils expanded and contracted sort of resembled a Seer''s trance...¡± ¡°Back on Earth,¡± I uttered. ¡°I¡¯m still alive out there. I saw my best friend again, told him everything about my life here on Andross and said goodbye. I didn¡¯t see the future. I saw the past.¡± ¡°You went back¡­ to Earth?¡± Agatha looked at me like I was insane. "So it was a vision of the past?" ¡°Yes, I went back. No, it wasn''t a vision - I was an active participant there,¡± I nodded, my eyes staring at nothing. I was still in too much shock, trying to process what I had learned. ¡°Right,¡± Agatha¡¯s eye twitched. ¡°More impossible things. May I depart to the tower? My makeup is all over the place and I need a shower.¡± I nodded at her. The eldest princess marched back to the tower. I heard her angrily muttering under her breath about how I was violating every known magical law just to screw with her. ¡°Thank you, Pavel,¡± I whispered, staring up at the pink-tinted, silver-blue sky. ¡°Thank you for your advice. Thank you for listening to me and not just thinking that I¡¯m insane.¡± ¡°Who are you talking to?¡± Emerald asked. ¡°Myself, mostly,¡± I smiled. ¡°I see. Are you feeling better?¡± she inquired tentatively. ¡°Yes,¡± I nodded. ¡°I saw exactly what I needed to keep going.¡± ¡°I¡¯m glad,¡± the young princess smiled. ¡°Please excuse my sister¡¯s rude behavior. She¡¯s got a bit of a wardstone up her butt when it comes to violating the tenets of magic or whatever. Are you still going to Nemendias with me?¡± I nodded. ¡°Great,¡± she grinned. "Mis¡­ err¡­ Juni, you left your knife on the bed," Voltara spoke up. "Do you want it back?" I nodded. The maid handed Endy back to me and I slid my knife into the leather sheath on my side. We got off the bench and walked back into the station. ¡°Do you want to help me clean up Undertown for your first noblesse oblige project?¡± I asked, turning back to the chimera princess. ¡°Aren¡¯t we supposed to be enemies?¡± Emerald asked, rubbing her chin. ¡°True,¡± I muttered. ¡°Well, you can clean up half of it, claiming that you can do a far better job than a lowborn loser like me. It could be a competition between our teams. We could get lots of people on board this way.¡± Emerald squinted at me. ¡°I¡¯ll make you a cendai-mask like mine so you won¡¯t have to smell anything down there,¡± I offered. ¡°Also, I¡¯ll get my artificer to make you a lawmaker¡¯s armacus, so you can be extra safe in Undertown.¡± ¡°Hrm,¡± Emerald glanced at her armacus. ¡°Did an artificer of your mother make yours?¡± I inquired. ¡°Yes,¡± Emerald nodded. I stared at her armacus in the Astral. The device wasn¡¯t anywhere as perfect as the one Antoine made for me. It was sucking a lot of magic out of Emerald and leaking it into the Astral. There were hexagrams inside that I didn¡¯t recognize, a few of them pulsating suspiciously. Shit. I ran into Lambert¡¯s office with the princess and the maid following after me. Lambert was already behind his desk, sipping on his coffee. ¡°Morning Inspector,¡± I said. ¡°Morning Juni,¡± Lambert replied. ¡°Is staying in Lomb going to be a problem?¡± I asked. ¡°Emerald¡¯s armacus might contain a tracker.¡± ¡°It does. A very weak one,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°The absolute shield is blocking the pulse, but the Baroness will figure out where her children are if she¡¯s actively searching for them.¡± ¡°Is¡­ Lomb safe?¡± I asked him, my heart beating quickly. ¡°For now,¡± Lambert nodded. He opened his grey suit to reveal the painting of Dawn underneath it, sewn into his undershirt. Dawn looked like an older version of Lambert. Dawn-Lambert waved at me as Lambert buttoned up his suit once again. ¡°You¡¯re wearing a copy of Dawn?¡± I stared at him. It made sense that Lambert already attached Dawn to himself. He was actively feeding her and figuring her out! ¡°The tower can predict my future, but Dawn is way better at it. It''s good to have backup,¡± Lambert nodded with a wink. I glanced back at Emerald. She looked very worried. She clearly didn''t want to return to the Amadea Estate. ¡°Let''s go talk to your sister about this,¡± I said. Emerald and I went to the stairwell heading to the pilot¡¯s room. Agatha was already out of the shower, looking refreshed. I looked down at her armacus. It was also imperfect, not matching her personal magical resonance. ¡°Does your mother know where you and your sister are?¡± I asked the eldest princess. ¡°Yes. I just called her,¡± she nodded. ¡°I told her I¡¯m showing you two the lands surrounding Illatius and that we spent the night in the Hedstadt Barony area. She didn¡¯t seem to mind too much¡­ but she did want to talk to you.¡± I sighed. I didn¡¯t want to talk to Amadea. ¡°Is your glider safe?¡± I asked. ¡°Could it have recorded our conversation? I would prefer it if the Baroness didn¡¯t know my secrets.¡± ¡°Mother did install a recorder and tracker in it¡­ for safety reasons,¡± Agatha nodded. ¡°But it records nothing but engine hum, unless I allow it to record conversations. The tracker''s signal is thrown off by about ten thousand elbows. I¡¯m not an idiot. I can see magical currents pretty well. I modified the recorder and tracker in Galissi a long time ago.¡± ¡°What about your armacus?¡± I asked. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Same thing,¡± Agatha said. ¡°There are magitek tools at Nemendias that allowed me to modify my armacus. Mother doesn''t know our exact position nor is she privy to our conversations.¡± ¡°What about the one your sister is wearing now?¡± ¡°Errr,¡± Agatha stared at Emerald¡¯s armacus. ¡°Yes. There¡¯s a tracker and a recorder there. It can''t broadcast much because Ems is so young and low level. We¡¯ll have to get into to Nemendias to modify her armacus.¡± ¡°I have a better idea,¡± I said. ¡°I can make the local artificer craft you two far better armaci that won''t have trackers in them.¡± ¡°How?¡± Agatha inquired. ¡°Mother spent nearly three hundred thousand obliss on mine. I''m sure that Emerald''s one was just as expensive." ¡°Your armacus does look expensive, but it still sucks compared to the one I¡¯ve got,¡± I showed off the magitek device on my wrist. ¡°I can get yours to be in perfect resonance with your soul.¡± ¡°Perfect resonance?¡± The eldest princess tilted her head. ¡°How?!¡± ¡°Cut off some of your hair,¡± I smiled. Agatha looked at me like I was mad. ¡°Trust me,¡± I said. ¡°You too Emmy.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± Emerald blinked. ¡°I want a big lock of your hair,¡± I said. ¡°How exactly are you paying for two new armaci?¡± Agatha demanded. ¡°With my own hair,¡± I grinned at her. "It''s quite expensive, you know." Agatha pinched the bridge of her nose, looking very annoyed. . . . Having attained a bit of hair from both of the princesses, I went into Saccy and shredded their crystalline-organic locks into a very fine powder, placing each into a small, labelled glass flask. I showed the flasks to Agatha. ¡°Your hair is very similar to mine,¡± I explained. ¡°It¡¯s made from mana-containing, crystalline-organic microstructures.¡± ¡°I¡¯m aware,¡± Agatha nodded. ¡°I looked at my hair at Nemendias under various mag-scopes.¡± ¡°Well, what you¡¯re probably not aware of is that a talented crystal-artificer can make an armacus focus out of your hair,¡± I said. ¡°A foci that matches you perfectly.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± the eldest princess blinked. ¡°I¡­ didn¡¯t think of using my hair in such a manner. Are you certain that we can trust this¡­ artificer of yours with our hair?¡± ¡°Lambert trusts him with Lomb¡¯s tower,¡± I shrugged. ¡°I trust Lambert''s Scrutimancy skills. Also, you can interview Artificer Antoine like you interviewed me.¡± Agatha sighed. ¡°Look Agatha,¡± I said. ¡°You have to learn to work with and trust people if you want to be free from your mother." ¡°I know,¡± she nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve been alone for almost my entire life. I¡¯m having difficulty¡­ adjusting to your methods.¡± "I understand," I said. ¡°Shit,¡± Agatha growled. ¡°What?¡± I asked. ¡°Mother¡¯s calling again,¡± she hissed. ¡°She really wants to speak to you." ¡°Fine,¡± I said. "Is it possible to lie through an arcmacus-conversation?" "It is," Agatha said. "Truth-telling runes can''t evaluate voicecast speech." "Great," I smiled. ¡°Put me and Emerald on. I have questions to ask the Baroness, the answers to which your sister will want to hear. Plus Emmy can ask to go to Nemendias.¡± Emerald nodded. I saw that her hands were shaking. She was terrified of her mother. "You can do it, Emmy," I said. "I believe in you." The little princess nodded at me. Agatha tapped her armacus to ours. I saw the connection flash in my right eye. I accepted it. [Greetings, my dear high-cendai Juni,] Amadea¡¯s overly-sweet voice purred in my head. ¡°Do you need something, Baroness?¡± I asked briskly. [Oh, nothing much,] Amadea replied. [I just wanted to check on you and my youngest daughter. My Arch-Maid notified me that you, Agatha and Emerald left our Estate yesterday with two of our maids. Is Agatha treating you well?] ¡°She is,¡± I said. ¡°She said she can get me into Nemendias by helping me out at the interview. We are practicing for it, learning everything about each other." [Excellent,] Amadea said. [Now¡­ I understand your excitement at making friends and exploring the Baronies¡­ but I really insist on us having lunch.] ¡°No,¡± I said. [Why not?] The Baroness asked. ¡°I¡¯ve had enough tests from Eunice,¡± I said with a growl. ¡°I don¡¯t want to be attacked with magic again.¡± [Eunisii wants regular reports from me,] Amadea said. [You are her youngest cendai. I understand that being tested is difficult, but I must do as my Goddess commands.] ¡°I¡¯m busy taking over humanity,¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t have time for pointless magic tests.¡± [I really must insist on us having lunch,] Amadea said. ¡°What does she have on you?¡± I asked. ¡°Why must you distract me from my work?¡± [A very tight leash,] Amadea¡¯s voice grew cold. [I was young and carefree like you once, spent years lounging in the lap of luxury. I understand how you feel¡­ but, please don¡¯t fight with the orders of our Goddess. It is best that we cooperate and both do our parts. Eunisii gives each of us as much freedom as we desire, especially in the beginning¡­ but if we disobey, spend too much time on fun and games, the leash will tighten. It is best that we do not disappoint her, trust me.] ¡°One week,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ll have lunch with you in a week. Let me spend time with your daughters, let me figure out how I can take over Undertown, what resources I can harvest for my mission from the Baronies, etc." [Very well,] Amadea sighed. [I shall meet you wherever you are in exactly one week. Expect Bliss to pick you up.] ¡°Bliss?¡± [My personal warship,] Amadea clarified. ¡°Got it,¡± I said. I looked back at the very pale, terrified faces of Agatha and Emerald. ¡°I do have a question for you, Baroness,¡± I said. ¡°Why are your Dominion branches inside of your daughters?¡± [They¡¯re my backup - extra anchors to the physical.] Amadea replied. [I cannot fail the centuries-long mission my Goddess bestowed upon me.] ¡°So you intend to take over their bodies in the future?¡± I demanded. ¡°What¡¯s your plan for them? I¡¯d like to work with them for as long as possible. They are very bright and capable.¡± [They are indeed. I¡­ I care for my daughters very much and I am glad that you like them too,] the Baroness said. [I would prefer it if I didn¡¯t have to take either of their bodies. Yes, they are the phylacteries for my soul. However, I believe that I can live forever in my current human shell by continually maxing my Anima. As long as my current human body doesn¡¯t fail me and Agatha becomes Empress and strengthens humanity''s belief in Eunisii, I won¡¯t have to take her body. The same goes for my little Emerald.] Emerald gulped. [You¡¯re old enough to learn the truth, Emerald,] Amadea said. [Rise as high as you can and bring Eunisii into the hearts of humanity and you will live forever and have whatever you desire... just like me.] ¡°M-may I apply to Nemendias with Juni this year, mother?¡± Emerald asked, her voice trembling. ¡°I wish to study with our youngest cendai, learn from her as much as I can.¡± [You may,] Amadea replied. "Thank you, mother," Emerald exhaled. ¡°One more thing, Baroness,¡± I said. ¡°The armaci you gave your daughters are inferior.¡± [Oh?] Amadea asked. ¡°I believe I can improve on their design, make them better ones,¡± I said. ¡°They will be able to rise higher if they can do magic better. Emerald will most likely fail her interview at Nemendias unless she¡¯s able to unlock her full potential. Your dominion branches are messing with her growth.¡± [Very well,] Amadea said. [I will permit this. Will you give me their old armaci?] ¡°No,¡± I said. ¡°I will have them destroyed.¡± [Destroyed? Why?] ¡°By figuring out how to take apart a couple of expensive armaci with my magic, I¡¯ll be able to gain better understanding of how to damage human magitek weapons with greater efficiency,¡± I explained. ¡°I got struck down by an armacus spell a few days ago, if you recall. I don¡¯t want this experience repeated.¡± [Fair enough,] Amadea said. She seemed a little disappointed, but she didn''t demand the old armaci. I reached out and touched Endy. Sorry, I left you alone, got mad at you. You¡¯re just a tool. My lovely tool. Soon¡­ I will feed you very soon. Together, when both of us grow stronger, we will slice apart the web that Eunice weaved over her cendai and humanity. [Is there anything else you wish to ask me?] Amadea inquired into the silence. ¡°Yes,¡± I said. ¡°Did Eunice give you a soul-cutting, artifact knife?¡± [She did not,] Amadea replied. [I had to make one¡­ out of my own bones. It was¡­ incredibly unpleasant.] ¡°How long did it take you to become a high-cendai?¡± I asked. [Three decades,] the Baroness said. [You are lucky Eunisii let you go so quickly. I came to Illatius after thirty winters. My chimera body has but a few years left in it. I kept myself Still for over two hundred and twenty years. I cannot afford to have another daughter. Please make sure that my two precious gems are safe and I will treat you like my own, third daughter.] ¡°I will take care of them,¡± I said. ¡°Did Eunice give you an artifact when you left the chimera village?¡± [She gave each of us an arcane artifact. All eight of us were granted incredibly rare, exceptional magical tools that Eunisii had found deep in the Dungeon during her ascension from the deep. What she gave each of us... is an artifact that fits our affinity best,] Amadea replied. [Mine magnifies my Vitality a hundredfold. I¡¯m assuming that yours is that little black knife that can cut apart magic spells.] ¡°Yes,¡± I replied. [Keep on using it,] Amadea said. [There is great power in affinity specialization. Grow your link with your artifact. Entwine it with your soul. Make the knife yours. Our goddess gifted you your divinely-blessed item because it is part of your destiny. Someday in the future our Goddess will ask you to use it for her, to aid her in some special way, to help her ascend even higher.] I knew it then. Endy was mine alone. Endy really came to me through Eunice from the depths of the Infinite Chasm. Endy wouldn''t work for anyone else. Endy cut my soul not because Eunice wielded her, but because I allowed it! Eunice could never use Endy herself. My Master needed me, because only I could use the knife to destroy her future enemies or to open up doors that could not be opened by any other means. Eunice gave the knife to me because for her, it was just a paperweight, a specialized tool that didn''t respond to her. ¡°Got it, thanks,¡± I said. "That''s all I wanted to know. I will see you in a week, Baroness." [Good tomorrow, high-cendai Juni. Good tomorrow, my lovely daughters,] Amadea said, disconnecting the call. I hung up too. "That''s how you are doing it," Agatha whispered. "You have a divine artifact from the chimera Goddess!" "Eunice isn''t a goddess," I shook my head. "She didn''t make this knife. Humans did." "Believe whatever you want to," Agatha said. "Let''s go to Antoine''s shop," I said, ignoring her sour face. "Time to get you new, better armaci!" Ch 66. Another Applicant
¡°I¡¯m going downstairs to wait for¡­ Anniya. I need my makeup redone,¡± Agatha said, leaving Emerald, Voltara and me in the pilot¡¯s room. I turned to Emerald. The youngest princess looked like she was trying very hard to conceal the rapidly rising tide of emotions. She saw that I was staring at her and turned towards me. The armacus on her arm unlocked and she offered the gemstone-encrusted, shiny bracelet to me. ¡°T-take it. Do whatever you want with it,¡± Emerald hissed out. I took the armacus from her, shoving it into a side bag. ¡°I knew that Mother never loved me,¡± she said, looking despondent. ¡°I knew that I was just a backup for Aggie¡­ but¡­ I¡¯m really just an extra body for her. We exist¡­ as long as Mother permits it.¡± ¡°I told you and your sister this already,¡± I said. ¡°Agatha confirmed my words.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t really accept it, not until Mother said it herself,¡± Emerald sighed. "Plus, you are a bit of a liar." "Um?" I froze. Emerald waved a hand at Saccy carried by Voltara. ¡°You said that there are projects in your bag that are incredibly dangerous and yet we spent the night in it just fine. Well, I did¡­ I don¡¯t think Aggie slept at all.¡± ¡°Sorry. I exaggerated things a little,¡± I rubbed the back of my neck. ¡°I do have lots of dangerous things though. Saccy herself is too dangerous to leave alone - she''s a Folding Seed.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ dangerous, like your magic-cutting knife,¡± Emerald looked at Endy. Little streaks of tears started to run down her face. ¡°You know what the worst thing is? I don¡¯t even know who my father was,¡± she sniffed. "I don''t even have an f-fing middle name. I''m just Emerald Amadea." I stepped closer to the crying girl and wrapped her in my embrace. ¡°You have your sister, Emmy,¡± I whispered. ¡°And you have me as your friend.¡± ¡°F-for how long?¡± She exhaled, burying her face into my shoulder. ¡°For as long as you want to be my friend,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ll teach you how to fully step out of your body into the Astral and then I¡¯ll carve every single of your mother¡¯s soul branches out of you with my knife.¡± ¡°You will?¡± Emerald raised her tear streaked eyes to me. ¡°You said that you¡¯re leaving us, going to the dungeon...¡± ¡°Grogtilda¡¯s body was extremely damaged by the months she spent inside a Folding Seed,¡± I explained. ¡°When I dove into her, it affected my mental state via the body-soul connection.¡± ¡°Are you going to be able to do the Nemendias interview?¡± She inquired. ¡°We have to do it soon if we don¡¯t want to miss the start of the semester. I don¡¯t want to go to Nemendias without you. I don''t want to spend another year at Palais De La Solstice." ¡°I¡¯ll be fine,¡± I nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll pull through. I think I know how to fix the problem. I just need to¡­ figure out how to make Folding Seed sap without the negative effects. Maybe dilute it or something. I¡¯m not going to leave you, Emmy. I will cut out your chains, I swear.¡± ¡°Just like you cut out her Vow?¡± Emerald glanced at Voltara. ¡°Yes,¡± I nodded. ¡°Just like that.¡± . . . After a hearty breakfast, my little group stood inside of Antoine¡¯s shop. Galissi Seven was hanging above the building we were in, so that Agatha could power the truth-spell in her armacus with a direct beam. When we entered into the shop, Emerald and Voltara stared at the shelves filled with whimsical, crystal-powered doohickeys while Agatha walked straight to face the artificer. ¡°Hey Antoine,¡± I waved at the cheerful artificer manning the wooden counter. ¡°Greetings my lady,¡± Antoine bowed to me. ¡°I see you brought friends." "I am delighted to see you in my shop, princesses Emerald and Agatha of the Barony of Amadea.¡± He issued another, even deeper bow to my highborn companions. ¡°If we are to hire you, I wish to interview you first,¡± Agatha declared. ¡°I am at your disposal, my lady,¡± the artificer said. ¡°Remove your goggles,¡± the eldest princess demanded. Antoine pulled the zany, insanely elaborate goggle set off his head. I finally saw his eyes. They were dark green. I momentarily glanced at him in the Astral and noticed that a large flower-like fractal was glittering on his chest. The flower fluttered, breathed beneath his suit with pulsating silver-blue flickers. ¡°Is that Dawn?¡± I asked. ¡°Indeed,¡± the artificer pulled his lapel away, revealing another copy of Dawn on his shirt. I saw that this version of Dawn looked like her starry-self. Ah, she was powered by a set of my ruby gemstones. The gems were surrounded by a metal frame and arranged into a flower-like decoration on his lapel. ¡°Whom do you serve, artificer?¡± Agatha raised her armacus at Antoine. ¡°Mainly Inspector Lambert and currently, my lady Juni,¡± Antoine replied with a flourish. ¡°Plus, I make artefacts for anyone who comes into my shop. If you doubt my credentials I do have several licences and diplomas on the wall¡­¡± ¡°Why do you serve Juni?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°I employ him with shinies,¡± I said, sliding another small bag of my trimmed hair towards the Artificer. ¡°Here''s the payment for making two new armaci for the Amadea princesses.¡± ¡°I work for Juni because she pays me with the most incredible and unique crystalline-organic gems,¡± Antoine nodded, pocketing the bag. ¡°They can power and align with artefact tools far better than anything. Their structure is most similar to Dragon-scales, but far, far more efficient on the Dunkoff-radia scale.¡± I smiled and wondered if Lambert or Dawn told Antoine what to say. ¡°Would you betray us or sell our secrets to another party if given the opportunity, threatened, given other gems, or paid more?¡± Agatha pressed on with the questions. ¡°Never,¡± Antoine shook his messy black hair. ¡°My reputation as an artificer is worth more to me than a mountain of gold. Inspector Lambert is my best friend - he would crack me open like a walnut if I even thought about betraying him. Besides, I like living in Lomb and I believe Juni will make me wealthy beyond my wildest dreams with her Dawn project.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Agatha relaxed a little. ¡°Also, I would like to officially apply to join the Foundation of Dawn,¡± Antoine smiled at me, looking a bit shy. ¡°Dawn already gave me the brief about what you want to do.¡± ¡°Granted,¡± I nodded with a big smile. "Welcome to the Foundation." ¡°Thank you my lady,¡± Antoine bowed again. ¡°I shan¡¯t disappoint you.¡± Agatha¡¯s interview went for about twenty more minutes. I guessed that she was feeling particularly irate at me for violating the laws of magic and was taking her irritation out on the artificer. Antoine didn¡¯t seem to mind. He answered her endless questions with stoic determination. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The artificer explained to Agatha that he wanted to work for the future Empress, to help us design Dawn-net and to push the envelope of crystal-tech forward. His goal was to have his name enshrined in history books as one of the founders of the magitek revolution. He spoke about many things that he wanted to do, of great skyships that would be able to dive into the Dungeon or fly directly to Novazem, of new armaci designs and tools based on my gemstones and how Dawn had opened his eyes to the possibilities of a fantastic future. It took a while to convince Agatha that he was trustworthy, but in the end, she permitted me to give Antoine the two glass containers with the shredded hair. ¡°Fantasmagoric Madeline,¡± the artificer whispered, having put his goggle-kit back on. ¡°These are indeed¡­ very similar to the crystals you provide me. Yes. I can definitely make excellent foci out of this powder.¡± He went over the extra materials with each of the princesses and promised that he would take five days to make both of them new, superior armaci. When Antoine finished discussing armaci designs with the Amadea sisters, I showed him Emerald¡¯s crystal dress. The artificer confirmed that it would take him some time to figure out how the dress changed its shape, but in a few weeks he could definitely help me design similar self-cleaning, pattern-shifting Dawn-dresses. I asked him to check if the dress had any trackers on it and he confirmed that it was clean. We left the shop in a few hours, feeling somewhat mentally drained but very satisfied. Things were moving forward, taking off. . . . The next several days flew by very quickly. Agatha refused to sleep in Saccy again, saying that she was feeling extremely unsafe inside of the Folding Seed. To solve this issue, Lambert had arranged a rental of a small cottage for us in Trent. The village of Trent was a little, sleepy hamlet located atop a rocky outcropping covered in waterfalls. It was located in a picturesque, green valley, a single level below Lomb. It was part of the Lomb Township and had a small, re-broadcasting obelisk, which allowed the station¡¯s defenses to cover us while we were staying there. I paid a local farmer a single beast core in exchange for renting a cute, four-bed, stone house with a mossy roof. The time spent living in Trent had given my life a semblance of wholesome stability. I spent the nights inside Saccy in Juni''s body building a filtration system. I had no idea how to carve specific things out of the sap with Endy, but I did know basic chemistry. Thus, I had diluted a few drops of Saccy''s sap with water, boiled and filtered it several times, froze it and collected tiny drops through evaporation stilling. The last step of filtering was done with my modified carbon filter, which I had pulled out of my mask - it was supposed to filter out hostile magic. When I wasn''t working on the distiller, I sat under the light of the hanging crystal lanterns studying various books about Alchemy, general magic, Illatius history and Nemendias. Agatha had purchased a whole stack of them for me in Lomb bookshops. When sunrise came, I called Alessi and exchanged hand-written messages with her about my progress. After chatting with my sister, I switched to Grogtilda''s body and drank the tiniest bit of diluted and filtered Folding sap to stay calm. Then, I woke Voltara, Agatha and Emerald and took them out on a run uphill towards Lomb, setting them on a steady training regimen. As we ascended up the mossy path, Emerald whined that running was extremely tiresome. ¡°Why can¡¯t I just invest in Dexterity and Strength or something and be done with it?¡± She groaned, leaning on a mossy bounder, completely out of breath. ¡°Because you should specialize your System in something of great value rather than waste points on generic things like improving your overall physique which you can do with a simple daily exercise,¡± I explained. ¡°If you want to get ahead in life, you need to be extremely outstanding at something very specific.¡± Emerald groaned something incoherent as a response. Agatha didn''t complain anywhere near as much as her sister - she was older and she had a lot more stamina. After the morning run, we ate breakfast in Lomb. As we sat at the creperie, we discussed the Nemendias application process with Agatha, developing a strategy for me to get in. ¡°There will be eight people from Nemendias at your interview. They are called the Dragons,¡± Agatha explained. "Two are core Administrators and six are randomly chosen Instructors. It''s the end of summer break, so teachers don''t have classes.¡± ¡°Do you know any of them?¡± I asked. ¡°Well,¡± Agatha stretched, putting her empty plate aside. ¡°The two Administrators are the Dean and the Keeper. I know them well. They will vote for you no matter what you do.¡± ¡°Why?¡± I inquired. ¡°The Dean is an asset of Baroness Georgia, a chimera cendai,¡± Agatha replied. ¡°When I delivered your letters of recommendation to her, I let her know that you''re the Eighth Apostle of Saint Eunisii. The second Admin, the Keeper of Keys of Nemendias, is one of our servants.¡± ¡°Gotcha,¡± I said. ¡°Hang on. Will it be a problem to free a Vow bound maid in front of someone who works for your mother¡¯s Estate?¡± ¡°She has no Vow and won¡¯t remember the interview,¡± Agatha explained. ¡°Nemendias would not employ someone that¡¯s visibly Vow bound to serve another party. Mother has a lot of ¡®dedicated pets¡¯ not controlled by Vows.¡± "Right," I nodded. "You will have to impress only three of the six teachers to get in. The majority vote decides if a candidate gets into Nemendias or not." "Um," Emerald butted in. "What if they ask me to do something impressive?" "You are half-chimera," I pointed out. "So?" She inquired. "You can see magic," I said. "Humans can''t see magical currents without artifacts." ¡°That¡¯s right. Seeing magic imprints in the Astral Ocean is a very special, rare skill,¡± Agatha nodded. ¡°Here¡¯s how the interview will go - you propose a skill or a complex task that you can do and then one of the Instructors will test you. For example - you can claim that your exceptional skill is that you can see magic. If an Alchemy Instructor is chosen, they will show you various potion ingredients and test if you can tell how potent they are in terms of magic. A History Instructor might ask what other known figures have such a rare skill and the answer is - The Seven Heroes. A Depictomancy Instructor might ask you to show where the hexagrammatic lines are thickest in a moving painting, etc.¡± ¡°Gotcha,¡± Emerald nodded. ¡°I can definitely ace this then.¡± ¡°They¡¯ll take it easy on you, Ems,¡± Agatha nodded. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. Most of the Instructors are dedicated Royalists. They might not act like they want to kiss your feet during the interview, but it¡¯s their job to get an Amadea into Nemendias.¡± Emerald looked content at this. ¡°You, on the other hand,¡± Agatha looked at me. ¡°You¡¯re going to have a terrible time. They¡¯ll try to tear you down, to demolish you in every possible way. Are you ready to go into the Dragons'' den?¡± ¡°I am,¡± I said. ¡°I''m not afraid of getting burned. I¡¯ve read plenty of theses about esoteric magic in Eunice¡¯s library. Let''s do some trial runs. Pretend to be an Instructor while I propose a topic. Feel free to act as mean as possible to me and ask me difficult questions.¡± . . . Five days after my call with Baroness Amadea, I climbed out of Galissi onto a landing rooftop. ¡°Welcome to Nemendias,¡± Agatha half-turned to me. Her black cloak fluttered in the wind, crest pin glinting in the morning light. A new armacus sat on her arm courtesy of Antoine. The eldest princess had tested it already and found it ¡®an improvement on the old one¡¯. I joined her on the rooftop. My limbs felt numb, fingers tingling. I took another swig from a small, metal flask filled with extremely diluted Folding Seed sap. It was the first large, tolerable batch of the stuff. The drink I had made was most likely similar to ¡®shine¡¯ that the Undertown denizens were hooked on, perhaps a bit clearer and more safe due to my magical filters. The concoction I had crafted was still addictive, but at the very least it no longer put me to sleep, no longer provided an overwhelming feeling of bliss. My filtering process had indeed cleared some hostile magic, but not all of it. I had tested my concoction on Grogtilda¡¯s body in the smallest amounts, until I had an acceptable solution that kept me from going completely insane from Topaz cravings. The drink had made me a bit too relaxed, so I had also consumed copious amounts of caffeine to stay focused before my interview. I pulled out a book, sat on a stone bench and went over my notes as Agatha and Emerald went downstairs. ¡°Ah, Illatius. It¡¯s been a while,¡± Lambert stared at the view that somewhat resembled the city of Vienna. We were located atop one of the tall towers of Nemendias, gothic parapets and gargoyles looking out onto the city along with us. Rays of light broke through gloomy cumulonimbus clouds. ¡°Is Lomb going to be alright without you?¡± I asked him. ¡°Lomb will be fine. Anniya is ready to take over as its Inspector,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°My place is here with you. You¡¯re far too valuable to leave without supervision.¡± I smirked at him. Lambert had applied to be one of the security officers working at Nemendias. He was accepted without issues as he had a spotless record. The job was a downgrade for him, but he didn''t care. In about thirty minutes, Emerald emerged out of the rooftop stairwell and waved at us. ¡°How¡¯d it go?¡± I asked her. ¡°Great,¡± she exhaled. ¡°I¡¯m... in. They made me identify some magical herbs and fungi and then made me trace a magical hexagram inside of a book. I was scared for nothing.¡± ¡°Well done,¡± I hugged my friend. ¡°Good luck,¡± she whispered as our embrace broke apart. I nodded at her and put on my nightcrawler helmet. Agatha led me downstairs with Arouetta marching beside us. The maid had no idea what was to come. Lambert and Antoine followed us into the dark stone maw of the magical collegiate, our footsteps echoing down on the marble steps. Nemendias was beautiful and imposing from within. Tall, black gothic arches inlaid with gold flower patterns and statues of famous teachers greeted us in the hallways. The whole place was filled with magic to the brim - hexagrams flashing in my vision from all sides. We didn¡¯t have to go that far as this was the "Interviewee¡¯s tower" - the only place in Nemendias that was open to outsiders. Agatha gripped my shoulder as black-steel doors parted, leading me into a dim, octagonal room. Lambert and Antoine waved to me as they sat down on a fancy, velvet-covered gothic bench in the hall. Arouetta sat in between them as ordered by her Mistress. Agatha led me into the tall, dim room and positioned me in its center. The heavy, metal doors closed behind us. A truly monstrous hexagram flashed beneath me with a deep gong sound. Something hummed overhead. I looked up. A gargantuan crystal lantern hung there woven from a thousand hexagons. Lines of power converged into the magitek construct leading from all around. All of them suddenly pointed at me like shimmering arrows ready to strike me down. I gulped. Ch 67. The Dragons Each of the polished, black, marble walls came apart, parted brick by brick, revealing dark figures of eight people standing in dim alcoves all around me. ¡°Felicity Cicesore Agatha Amadea, presenting a scholarship applicant sponsored by the Amadea family,¡± Agatha bowed. The dais I stood on slowly rotated. A crystal chandelier flared to life, exposing a figure standing in a deep alcove above the double doorway. A thin-lipped, elegant-looking woman with pink eyes smiled at me, her face framed by rainbow colored curls. A violet, pearlescent robe sat on her shoulders. Her eyes glowed from within with arcane power as she evaluated me. She was definitely an archmage, most likely an Intelligence maxer if the color of her aura reflecting into the Astral was anything to go by. ¡°I am Dean Octavia Breen Georgia,¡± the woman spoke. ¡°Introduce yourself, scholarship applicant!¡± ¡°I am Grogtilda Lic Misem and I seek the path to arcane knowledge and power granted by the ancient librariums and august, world-class teachers of Nemendias,¡± I spoke the words taught to me by Agatha. ¡°We shall judge if you are worthy of Nemendias,¡± the Dean banged a stone sphere on the marble lectern in front of her. ¡°Do you have any requests before we begin?¡± ¡°I do,¡± I spoke into the silence, my voice reverberating inside my nightcrawler helmet. ¡°I intend to show esoteric, unpublished magic during my interview. I ask that the Octagon of Veracity purge the memory of this interview from the minds of the Dragons.¡± Hushed whispers danced around the room. ¡°Granted,¡± the Dean spoke. ¡°As long as you speak nothing but the absolute truth during this Interview!¡± ¡°Accepted,¡± I nodded. The Dean banged her black, stone sphere again. The floor beneath me flashed. A truly massive shimmer of a Truth-defining hexagram spread out beneath me. From this point on, Nemendias would assess me. ¡°Please remove your helmet,¡± the rainbow-haired woman said. I unlocked the leather straps, handing the helmet to Agatha. Gasps resounded around the room as my blue-tinted, bloated, shimmering-vein covered face was revealed to the Instructors. The Dean didn¡¯t look one bit surprised as Agatha had told her about my human body. Another alcove suddenly lit up, revealing a black-haired woman. ¡°I vote against the applicant,¡± she said, staring at me with hostile, dark brown eyes. ¡°She is clearly a Topaz addict!¡± ¡°Please introduce yourself, esteemed Instructor,¡± I said, squinting at the woman. ¡°My name is Ninna Liss Rozaline and I¡¯m the Historymancer of Nemendias,¡± the woman replied briskly, frowning at me. ¡°Well, Instructor Rozaline,¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯re mistaken. I¡¯m not a Topaz addict. I am a Dungeon diver and I unwillingly spent three months trapped inside of a Folding Seed.¡± The floor beneath me ignited with a green aurora. A few people gasped in shock. Ninna¡¯s eye twitched. ¡°Please do not presume things about the candidate, Instructor Rozaline,¡± the Dean banged her sphere. ¡°F-fine,¡± the Historymancer¡¯s face flushed. ¡°Tell us of your noble upbringing, candidate. I am not aware of the Misem family.¡± ¡°I am the daughter of Nandie Matre Cypriss and Lic Kegf Misem,¡± I said. ¡°My mother is an ex-diver and my father is a shoemaker from... Undertown.¡± Again gasps all around. ¡°Undertown?¡± Ninna stared at me, her eyes wide with shock. ¡°Cypriss? It can¡¯t be¡­ you¡­¡± She took a step back into her alcove, not saying another word. ¡°I am a debitor,¡± I affirmed. ¡°From Undertown.¡± ¡°Denied! Vote against! Rejected! Vote against!¡± Voices resounded from all around, other faces lighting up. Ninna didn¡¯t vote against me. She looked terrified. Her lips trembled. ¡°Is this a bloody joke?¡± A round-faced ginger man barked. ¡°How dare you bring a DEB-I-TOR to our esteemed halls! I should rip your crest from you, pupil Amadea! This is an outrage! Never in our history has an applicant been a criminal!¡± ¡°Please introduce yourself, Instructor,¡± I stared at the loudmouthed teacher. ¡°You dare speak to me like an equal?!¡± The man sputtered. ¡°You filthy miscreant! I demand this nuisance be removed at once! Never has this room been so befouled by a lowborn criminal roach¡­¡± ¡°You are wrong,¡± I said calmly. ¡°There has been a precedent. A pupil named Thomas Cole graduated from Nemendias over one hundred and sixty years ago. He was a lowborn from Undertown.¡± ¡°WHAT?!¡± The man choked. ¡°I speak the truth,¡± I said. ¡°Let Nemedias itself judge my words!¡± The dais beneath me flashed brilliant green, a spiraling galaxy of emerald shimmers dancing on the polished walls. The man choked in outrage. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. ¡°It¡¯s the truth, Instructor Wert,¡± Ninna turned to the angry ginger professor. ¡°We cannot reject this applicant based on her upbringing alone. There has been a precedent. It has been wiped from most archives, but Nemendias remembers. I remember. Thomas Cole¡­ was a liar and a debitor. He was the biggest mistake of our noble institution, a name most people forgot. He was the reason why the Octagon of Veracity was built and why we are permitted to evaluate the truth of the words of the applicants with the full power of Nemendias.¡± "This is an outrage! I demand..." The ginger professor screeched. The Dean slammed her stone sphere into her lectern, interrupting the man''s rant. ¡°Vote against the applicant on the grounds of their social status is denied,¡± she said. ¡°We cannot reject an entrant from Undertown, just as we cannot deny the children of the new bourgeoisie from applying to Nemendias. Instructor Wickersmidt Phil Wert, you are to keep calm during the interview process and defer from insulting the applicant again or you will be silenced by magic.¡± Instructor Wert nearly frothed at the mouth, staring daggers at the Dean. ¡°Don¡¯t be such a pussy Wert,¡± A woman with short, black hair in a white robe turned to him. Her red-tinted eyes suddenly focused on me. ¡°Do tell us of your exceptional skills, applicant.¡± A wide, devious-looking grin spread across her face. Her teeth bore sharp edges and were tinted yellowish-gray. Her skin was the color of ashes. She had voted against me earlier. ¡°Come on. Give me a reason to fail you,¡± her malicious smile spoke. ¡°Please state your name, Instructor,¡± I said. ¡°Oh?¡± The red-eyed woman raised an eyebrow. ¡°Do excuse me. I am Stormancer Stellaris Xim Artura, an Instructor of the Offensive Magical Arts at Nemendias.¡± ¡°Very well, Instructor Artura. I propose that I can see and define all magical currents that resonate into the Astral Ocean,¡± I stated. ¡°Impossible!¡± Instructor Wert barked, his meaty fist banging on the marble balustrade, his ginger hair flying. ¡°A lowborn criminal cannot possibly see magic!¡± ¡°Are you some kind of an imbecile, Wert?¡± Stellaris rolled her red eyes. ¡°The candidate was brought here by Princess Amadea. Baroness Amadea and her two children can see magic. This girl could be a bastard of the Amadea family, for all we know.¡± The Historymancer gulped. Perhaps she knew something that I didn¡¯t. Inspector Lambert hadn¡¯t told me anything about Grogtilda¡¯s family. ¡°An easy thing to test,¡± a male voice spoke from behind me. I turned. A tall man in a blue robe with gold details was revealed to me. His face was covered up with a gold, skull-shaped, pointy mask. An etching of the sun glittered on the forehead of the mask. Blue lenses hid his eyes from me. A gold medallion with what looked like a beaker hung on his chest and a dark blue scarf with a very complex hexagram covered his mouth. "I am Diztr Noon Monsh, the Nemendias Alchemy instructor,¡± the golden skull said. ¡°I will test the applicant¡¯s skill!¡± The balustrade separating Ditz from me came apart, forming a small staircase out of shifting segments. He walked towards me, gold-plated boots clanking on the black marble. ¡°A table of evaluation, please,¡± he spoke into the air. A marble column came out of the ground, unfolding into a small table in front of me. The Alchemist poured a bunch of dried herbs and polished bone-bits onto the table from a gold-laced pouch. ¡°Sort these out from most magically potent to least,¡± he said. I nodded. It took me only a minute to line up the samples. ¡°Can you name any of these?¡± He asked. ¡°Some,¡± I nodded. ¡°Others I do not know by name, but I know their function. A few I do not know, but I could guess their purpose.¡± ¡°Go ahead,¡± the Alchemist nodded. I picked up a mushroom. ¡°This is the blood-draining fungi. Its name is Humbellia Nurk. It was named thus by Alchemist Nurk in 7051. It is generally found on the fourth level of the Dungeon between sharp, slate rock formations. It is used in first year Alchemy classes to make basic blood-clotting potions which are used to soak bandages.¡± I spoke for a while, naming each ingredient and making guesses. ¡°This is an incredibly potent grass ball,¡± I said, staring at the small, wilted sphere in my Still Walker sight. ¡°I do not know its name¡­ but I can guess that it has something to do with Vitality.¡± The Alchemist pulled out a blank parchment, unrolled it and placed it flat on the table. "Trace the lines of magic within this parchment with your finger," he said. I did so. I couldn''t see his expression beneath the gold mask but as my finger traced every single hexagram line from thickest to thinnest his breath grew quicker. ¡°I am satisfied.¡± The Alchemist collected the random ingredients back into his pouch. He looked up at the Dean. ¡°The candidate can indeed see the magic, affinity and potency of each ingredient. She can observe hexagrams with absolute precision. She clearly read the introductory books. Not only that, but she knows the names and purpose of extremely obscure herbs as if an archmage taught her. I vote for the applicant. She could make a fine Alchemist under my tutelage.¡± ¡°She shows great promise. I also vote for this pupil,¡± A woman with purple, curly hair and light brown eyes became lit. ¡°I am the Keeper of Keys of Nemendias, Nora Frid Antienni.¡± ¡°I am not satisfied,¡± the Historymancer shook her head, seemingly regaining her composure. ¡°The candidate¡¯s background is clearly extremely problematic and could cause an undesirable scandal in the press and conflicts with other students if she is accepted. We cannot accept her on a familial skill alone. Were you born with the ability to see magical currents, candidate?¡± ¡°I was,¡± I nodded. ¡°But I had also trained it for years, until I could see the smallest hexagrammatic lines.¡± ¡°Irrelevant,¡± History Instructor Rozaline said coldly. ¡°We cannot bring drama into Nemendias. I don¡¯t know what Baroness Amadea was thinking of uplifting you, paying for your classes and buying you an armacus, but you will find no happiness, no acceptance here. I suggest you depart from Illatius while you still can, girl.¡± ¡°Is potential future drama the reason for my rejection?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes,¡± she nodded firmly. ¡°I propose a secondary exceptional skill then,¡± I said. ¡°My future cannot be defined.¡± ¡°Impossible!¡± A voice spoke from my right. I turned. A white-haired, beardly man stood there. Round glasses glinted over his dark green eyes. He looked like a typical wizard. I raised my eyebrow at him. ¡°I am Cinder La Veer,¡± the wizard said. ¡°The Probabilitymancer of Nemendias.¡± ¡°Go on then,¡± I smirked. ¡°Define my future, Instructor Veer. Will I bring misfortune and drama to Nemendias?¡± The silver-bearded man raised his arm, aiming his armacus at me. I tried not to flinch as it unfurled. He held his magical device steady, pointing it at my face. Seconds passed. Then minutes. The room waited for his judgement. The wizard said nothing, squinting harder. His skin flushed. Sweat broke out on his face. His hand started to tremble. ¡°Well? Have you made a judgement, Instructor? What do you see in her future?¡± The Dean inquired after another five minutes of silence. ¡°N-no,¡± the Probabilitymancer shook his head. ¡°I¡­ I cannot see her future!¡± ¡°Do you have any artifacts on your person that are shielding you from precognition?¡± The Dean asked me. ¡°Nope,¡± I replied, my words confirmed as the truth by the dais beneath my feet. Instructor Veer rubbed his temples. He seemed extremely annoyed. His armacus lowered, folding into a bracelet. ¡°I don¡¯t understand. This never happened to me¡­ it doesn¡¯t make any sense,¡± he whispered, looking embarrassed. ¡°So you admit that I am magically exceptional?¡± I asked. ¡°The girl is unscannable,¡± he muttered to himself. ¡°She has no future. Why?¡± ¡°Are you going to vote for or against?¡± The Dean demanded. ¡°I am abstaining,¡± the man shook his silver curls. ¡°I cannot vote on what I cannot predict. It wouldn''t be right¡­ I must¡­ I have to figure this out.¡± ¡°You might figure me out if I attend Nemendias,¡± I offered. ¡°You¡¯ll be teaching me precognition, right?¡± ¡°Right,¡± Instructor Veer looked extremely nervous now. ¡°Wrong? Maybe? I am still abstaining.¡± I had clearly broken him thanks to the Shogun gate and Endy erasing my future from magical sight. ¡°Having no future is not evidence of exceptionalism,¡± the red-eyed Stellaris declared. ¡°She could be a dead girl walking! Her soul could have been tampered with by a vile Novazem necromage, turned into a bomb!" ¡°Too true,¡± Wickersmidt nodded, shaking his fat chin spotted with orange stubble. ¡°Not knowing the future isn¡¯t any better than having a bad future. I would reject this applicant on this fact alone!¡± I heard angry whispers and saw hostile stares from all around. Stellaris managed to turn the room against me. I sighed. It was a good try. I didn''t have enough votes to get in. It was time to bring out the big guns. Ch 68. The Vow-Breaker I tiredly stared at the angry-looking professors, switching to my Astral sight. They all looked exactly the same to me for some reason, like Intelligence maxers, without any other soul threads in them. Were they somehow shielded by these damn alcoves? I momentarily regretted not scanning the Alchemist deeper while he stood next to me as I was too focused on the herb evaluation. The longer I stared at the eight people around me, the more fake and hollow they started to look in my Still-Walker sight. It was beginning to get on my nerves. My chest started to ache from the unnerving uncertainty and growing stress. Grogtilda¡¯s body craved the sap. My hand moved down to my belt and I took a big swig of the stuff from my flask. My hands stopped trembling as the pain and panic subsided replaced with relaxing calmness. I had to win this. Had to get into Nemendias! ¡°I propose that I can permanently break a Vow,¡± I announced, silencing the growing murmurs of disapproval. ¡°What?¡± Instructor Wert sputtered. He was too shocked by my declaration to be angry at me. He stared at the green-glowing dias beneath my feet. ¡°That¡­ that¡¯s¡­ you gotta be shitting me.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a very¡­ big declaration. We shall require a demonstration,¡± the Dean said, tiredly glancing at the ginger professor. ¡°I have a maid in my employ bound by a Vow,¡± Agatha spoke. ¡°I can bring her in immediately.¡± ¡°Do it,¡± the Dean nodded. She banged her sphere and a small door opened in the side of the room. Agatha nodded and rushed into it, returning with Arouetta and a very complex magitek device that she rolled ahead of herself on a small cart. ¡°Stand in the center of the dais please,¡± Agatha commanded the maid. The Vow-bound servant stepped next to me. Agatha manipulated the various levers, switches and crystals on the magitek device. A mechanical arm extended into the air projecting a hologram-like flicker into the air. ¡°As you can see, this maid is bound by a Vow to serve me,¡± Agatha said. ¡°She cannot deny my orders. Arouetta, stand on one foot.¡± The maid stood on one foot. ¡°We can observe her nine-year old Vow using the Astralscope,¡± Agatha said. The Astralscope highlighted the hideous, abominable Vow hovering above the maid. Agatha focused the machine on the mind of the flickering phantom. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ my angel?¡± Arouetta whispered. ¡°Why does he look like a jellyfish?¡± Everyone ignored the maid, staring at the exposed Vow. ¡°According to the 9th law of Goppershmid Wampf, nothing can unbind a Vow because it is forged with divine magic tethered to the soul,¡± Agatha announced. ¡°Vows are permanent, indestructible Astral constructs. They can be observed as long as a person is alive.¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± the Dean said. ¡°Vows do not exist in the physical. Our magic cannot touch them. They can be pushed a bit off to the side with extremely powerful shields, but not damaged.¡± ¡°Shall I proceed?¡± I asked the gathered Instructors. ¡°This could be¡­ dangerous.¡± ¡°Go ahead,¡± the Dean nodded. ¡°Nemendias will protect us.¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± I asked, looking around. "Will you all take responsibility for what happens after? Baroness Amadea might get irate with you." ¡°Do it!¡± The Dean said. ¡°Amadea can bind this servant again. I want to see you prove your claim!¡± The Intelligence maxing Dean of Nemendias was greedy for new knowledge. She wanted to see impossible magic, wanted to observe if an angel could be destroyed. Arouetta looked confused and scared. She had no idea why she was here, being observed by these Nemendias Instructors. ¡°Very well,¡± I said. I stepped close to the maid. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to hurt you Ari. It must be done. They ordered me to do it,¡± I whispered into her ear. ¡°What?¡± She blinked at me, looking confused. ¡°Arouetta, multiply a number by itself¡­¡± I began my chain of orders intended to occupy and light up the Vow¡¯s mind. I repeated the same procedure as I had with Voltara. The Vow¡¯s mind was highlighted for me and for everyone present in the room by the Astralscope. It was a lot easier to target the ghostly abomination when a powerful magitek tool highlighted it for me. Arouetta twitched as she sang, counted numbers and recalled names, spinning her arms. I grabbed Endy from her sheath and leapt into the air with a growl, stabbing the knife deep into the Vow¡¯s mind. The destruction of the Vow was visible very clearly thanks to the Astralscope. The brain of the ghostly jellyfish imploded on itself, detonating into cascading, flickering sparks. Arouetta fell onto the marble floor with a wretched, inhuman wail as the mind of the Vow perished. I absorbed the raining sparks with my hands, enjoying the extra uptick in experience. The room was silent. Shocked faces stared at my victory over the divine, Astral manifestation. ¡°W-what? I¡¯m sorry¡­ Mistress. I seem to have lost my focus,¡± the maid got up after a minute, rubbing her side. ¡°Arouetta - multiply one thousand sixty nine by four thousand eighty seven!¡± Agatha ordered. ¡°I¡­ I cannot,¡± Arouetta whispered. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Mistress¡­ my Angel won¡¯t help me! I cannot do it! He¡¯s asleep! He won¡¯t tell me the answer!" "Are you satisfied?" I spoke to the professors. "Yes," the Dean nodded. Sounds of affirmation came from a few other Instructors. Agatha took the distraught maid by the arm and led her out of the room. I looked up in triumph. Shocked faces stared at me. ¡°Well?¡± I asked. ¡°That was truly exceptional magic,¡± the Dean said, looking very serious. ¡°Known magical laws will have to be rewritten, re-examined if you publish your findings. You are truly worthy of these halls. I vote for Grogtilda Lic Misem to join Nemendias.¡± ¡°My vote remains against,¡± the Historymancer said, her hands trembling. "Are her letters of recommendation in order?" The red-eyed Stellaris asked the Dean. "They are," Octavia nodded. "I wish to interview the Felicity Cicesore, the Authority and the Expert!" The Historymancer grasped at the last remaining straw. "With pleasure," I nodded. "They are waiting outside these doors.¡± If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. "I shall fetch them," Agatha departed through the little door, returning with Lambert and Antoine in tow. The Inspector and the Artificer bowed to the eight Dragons, introducing themselves. Lambert¡¯s sharp eyes examined the Administrators and Instructors as he stood on the slowly rotating dais next to me. I felt at ease in his presence. "Inspector Lambert," the voice of Stellaris was clear, sharp and commanding, like that of an old army sergeant. ¡°Why did you recommend this¡­ lowborn candidate to Nemendias? Surely a less noble institution could provide her an education that would be just as acceptable, without as many¡­ foreseeable issues.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Ninna nodded rapidly. ¡°She does not belong here!¡± ¡°I am well aware that there are other Arcanariums in our Empire, having studied Scrutimancy in one myself. However, I believe that she must go to Nemendias,¡± Lambert said firmly. ¡°Madame, why are you so insistent on her not attending this place?¡± ¡°Inspector! How can you not understand basic social interactions?!¡± Ninna¡¯s hands gripped the stone balustrade. ¡°Nemendias is full of children of the aristocracy! She will likely end up a friendless outcast, rejected and bullied by everyone here! I would not wish such a cruel fate on any child!¡± Ah, so that was her angle. And here I hoped that she actually knew my mother or something. ¡°Are you afraid of being a pariah, Grogtilda?¡± Lambert looked down at me. ¡°I am not,¡± I shook my head. ¡°I will make friends regardless of my social standing. I take it as a challenge. I¡¯m not afraid of bullies.¡± ¡°A challenge?¡± Ninna choked. ¡°They will¡­¡± ¡°They will do nothing,¡± Lambert said. ¡°Anyone who will dare to bully Grogtilda in public will have to deal with me.¡± ¡°How are you going to protect her while she¡¯s in Nemendias?¡± The Historymancer demanded. ¡°I just got employed here as a Security Officer,¡± Lambert said. ¡°Oh,¡± Ninna¡¯s face sank, looking despondent. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Because I care for Grogtilda,¡± Lambert said. ¡°She reminds me of my late daughter, a diver that I lost to the Dungeon. If her social status is that much of a problem, I am willing¡­ to adopt her so that she takes my last name. She¡¯s incredibly talented and skilled and I believe that the Empire will benefit from having her growing up with the future generation of our leaders and movers.¡± ¡°Skilled?! She is thirteen!¡± The ginger professor yelled from his alcove. ¡°She cannot be allowed to attend Nemendias!¡± ¡°Can you cut down a Vow, professor?¡± Lambert asked, staring at Wert. ¡°N-no,¡± the Instructor shook his head. ¡°Can any of you cut down a Vow?¡± Lambert¡¯s voice resonated through the room as the dais spun us around. ¡°Are you so foolish as to let a genuine Vow-breaker go elsewhere? Go on, admit it - tell me exactly why you would have some other Arcanarium take the credit for her future publication that rewrites a major law of magic!¡± Silence was his answer. ¡°I thought so,¡± Lambert said. ¡°This girl is a treasure. I am certain that she will rewrite numerous laws of magic in the future. I have spent enough time with her to tell you this - my Scrutimancy skills allow me to calculate the future without using precognition. I believe that she MUST attend Nemendias!¡± ¡°I wish to interview the Expert,¡± Ninna said. Lambert¡¯s gaze pierced her. Ninna visibly flinched from the fire in his eyes. ¡°Ask me anything, esteemed professors,¡± Antoine bowed. ¡°W-why do you think t-this applicant is worthy of Nemendias?¡± The Historymancer uttered, tripping over her own words. She really didn¡¯t want me to attend this school for some reason. I glanced up at Antoine. He wasn¡¯t wearing his magitek goggles as he didn¡¯t want to trigger any of the school¡¯s wards. During our flight to Nemendias, I confessed to him that I had two bodies, that I was a single soul shared between Juni and Grogtilda. ¡°I will not repeat what the Inspector already stated,¡± Antoine said. ¡°Grogtilda possesses a few rare magical talents, sure¡­ but that¡¯s completely irrelevant to an expert¡­ Artificer like me.¡± The artificer made a deep pause. ¡°Any child can take down a Dragon with the armacus and a redirected Repulsor beam fired from the tower I designed,¡± Antoine explained. ¡°What really matters to me and why she truly belongs in Nemendias are her mundane skills.¡± ¡°Mundane skills?¡± the Dean raised an eyebrow. ¡°Mundane skills in the field of¡­ people management,¡± Antoine nodded. ¡°This lowborn girl is able to bring talented people and artifacts together. Honestly, give her a few years and half of Nemendias will be at her call.¡± ¡°What absurd nonsense!¡± Instructor Wert spat. "Who in their right mind would follow a lowborn criminal?!" The red, ring-like, shimmering eyes of the Stromancer dug into me. ¡°I heard enough. I wish to interview the Felicity Cicesore,¡± she said. The dais beneath us spun so that Agatha and I faced the Offensive Magic Instructor head-on. ¡°Why did you bring this little, sickly-looking, lowborn child here Agatha?¡± Stellaris asked. ¡°Tell me the absolute truth - why do you wish me to break her?¡± ¡°You won¡¯t be able to break her, Instructor,¡± Agatha replied simply. ¡°She stands above me.¡± The truth-defining hexagram beneath Agatha ignited with a green detonation of a dying galactic constellation. ¡°Hum,¡± Stellaris rubbed her chin. ¡°Can you tell me how exactly a thirteen-year-old debitor stands above you, a princess of the house of Amadea, the girl who has the best grades and is engaged to the crown Prince of our Empire?¡± ¡°I cannot,¡± Agatha said firmly. ¡°If you wish to learn why she is my superior, you can ask her yourself once she is accepted into Nemendias.¡± The red eyes of the Stormancer ignited with curiosity. ¡°I vote¡­ for this candidate,¡± she smiled viciously. If her crooked, predatory grin was anything to go by, it didn¡¯t bode well for me. ¡°I will enjoy¡­ breaking this one and figuring out this curious conundrum even if I won¡¯t remember these words.¡± ¡°My vote stands for the candidate,¡± the Keeper declared. ¡°A-against,¡± Ninna said, trembling. She looked around the room. She knew that she was losing. Her eyes desperately stared at the alcove next to hers. ¡°Vote against her, please!¡± her lips spoke without making a sound. ¡°I am Elora Jill Petra, the Instructor of Floramancy¡­ and I vote against the candidate,¡± a redhead girl spoke, the dim alcove where Ninna was staring at suddenly lighting up. ¡°My vote is unchanged. I vote against and I recommend you all do the same,¡± the irritating, ginger professor ground out. ¡°Abstaining,¡± the Probabilitymancer uttered, still looking completely lost. ¡°For,¡± the gold-masked Alchemist said. I slowly rotated around the room, memorizing each of my future enemies and potential friends. I saw that the green crystal arrays visible in the Astral were glowing above everyone who had voted for me while red ones glowed above those that voted against me. Four greens, three reds, one white for the professor who couldn''t make up his mind. ¡°The Vote is done. By the power granted to me by Nemendias¡­¡± the Dean¡¯s voice boomed across the room. ¡°I pronounce Grogtilda Lic Misem a novitiate of our esteemed Arcanarium. Work hard and reach for wisdom and power! We shall see you at the Orientation. From this point forth, Nemendias will know you as her pupil! If you show her your respect, excellence and dedication to the study of magic, her halls will aid you, protect you, grant you the necessary resources and guide you to a brilliant future!" Another hexagram formation flashed beneath me, magic resonating, pulsating in the deep. A thousand invisible hands brushed against my soul, reaching out from the floor and the hexagon-covered magitek device hanging above me. ¡°Nemendias has memorized your soul,¡± the Dean declared. ¡°You are permitted to enter her halls, to go below this tower or to enter through the front gates. This interview is thus concluded!¡± She struck the stone sphere on her lectern one last time. Brilliant, magical rays flashed towards the instructors from the crystal lanterns hanging above them. Was this some sort of a memory-erasing spell, the same one that Agatha had used on Arouetta six days ago? No. The rays were not a spell I recognized. They pulled magic away from the instructors! The rays struck the Dean, the Keeper and the six Instructors and they shattered before my eyes like mirrors, falling apart into glittering shards. I stared at the empty alcoves in bewilderment. The Dragons were never real - they looked and acted like people¡­ but they were not. They were perfect duplicates of the real teachers and administrators that ruled this place, woven by incredible magic of the Interviewee¡¯s tower! It was Nemendias itself that we had defeated today, Nemendias that wore perfect copies of eight souls akin to finger puppets! "What the shit?" I glared at Agatha. "Why didn''t you warn me that they weren¡¯t real?!" "It is tradition. You passed the first test," she said simply. "Congratulations! Students that never ask for the mind-erasing spell never discover that the instructors don''t actually do these interviews themselves." "Oh," I blinked. ¡°Why this charade? Why the magic duplicates? I don¡¯t get it.¡± "One hundred and seventeen years ago, a sneaky Instructor tried to cheat the mind-erasing by writing a note to herself and went to publish a spell that was used by a student during the interview," Agatha said. "Thus, the Mage-Duplication Engine was created. A copy made in this tower belongs to Nemendias alone, it cannot pass a secret to the original, cannot avoid its deconstruction at the conclusion of this interview. This tower is physically separated, barred, shielded from the rest of Nemendias during the interview while the copies exist." "What if someone were to leave a recording device?" I asked. "It would get sucked dry and become inert. Any hexagram left behind falls apart. From what I was told, when the interview room is closed, all magic within it is drained as the new duplicates are made." Agatha said simply. "Besides, the ward of Nemendias is the most powerful and complex defense system in Illatius. This Arcanarium is a six-thousand-year-old institution and generations upon generation of mages added their power and intelligence to improve her wards." "I see," I mulled. Was Nemendias as clever as Dawn? Was she alive? Did she have an avatar I could speak to? Could she be convinced to join my cause? I would have to find out! The magitek engine above me fell silent, the room dimming. The double, metal doors opened, releasing us. I pondered over what had transpired as Agatha led me back to the tower''s rooftop. The teachers of Nemendias had never met me and thus they would not remember me, but I would remember them. I was now a single step ahead of these oddball, somewhat kind, rude or completely hostile Instructors. I was now aware of their personalities and knew what they wanted to see from me. I knew what was coming and had to develop a plan to prepare for each and every one of them. Nemendias... my new home waited for me and I would open all of her secret doors, explore every hidden nook and passageway, find every library and bathroom and janitor¡¯s closet. The six-thousand-year-old school and all of her veins, all of the hidden tunnels beneath her were going to be my new playground. I would enjoy discovering her ancient secrets and making her mine with all of the twenty-first century tools in my arsenal as an urbexer! Ch 69. Finding Nemmy
¡°Does Nemendias even have teachers?¡± I rambled, feeling somewhat annoyed at being bamboozled by the duplicates. ¡°It does,¡± Agatha replied. ¡°The duplicates are near-exact copies of people I know personally.¡± ¡°Can this Duplication Engine just copy anyone at will?¡± I asked. ¡°Make a thousand copies of me, for example?¡± ¡°No,¡± Agatha said. ¡°Are you sure?¡± I asked. ¡°I could get a lot of things done if there were a thousand of me. I really want to figure out this duplication-magic biz.¡± ¡°Absolute duplication is incredibly complex and requires way too much mana for a single person to maintain,¡± Agatha said. ¡°You wouldn''t be able to copy yourself properly - a single mind simply can¡¯t store the amount of necessary information.¡± ¡°Not even Intelligence and Magic maxers?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°Fine, maybe an archmage that¡¯s an Intelligence and Magic maxer would be able to duplicate themselves,¡± Agatha mulled. ¡°Do you have a few thousands of points in each or something?¡± ¡°Nah. Why would I need to do it myself?¡± I asked. ¡°Nemendias can do it for me - she clearly has the capacity for it.¡± ¡°Nemendias isn¡¯t sentient,¡± Agatha said. ¡°You can¡¯t just ask a building to do things for you. The Duplication Engine serves a single function - to interview the candidates. It was built by a consortium of Nemendias Archmagi that worked here more than a hundred years ago. They made it to save time on interviews. At the end of each year the Duplication Engine copies the teachers." "Why even have teachers when duplicates can do everything?" I asked. "Exactly!" Agatha said. "The magi that built the Duplication Engine didn''t want the copies to take jobs away from real teachers. The duplicates exist while the real teachers are on summer vacation - the tower is locked up tight when the real teachers are in Nemendias." ¡°Well that''s dumb," I sighed. "Seems like a massive waste of potential manpower." Agatha did not look like she agreed with my assessment. "Anyhow¡­ Nemendias is sentient,¡± I insisted. ¡°I¡¯m going to find her avatar.¡± ¡°How are you so certain?¡± Agatha squinted at me. ¡°Eunice taught me that people dying with a single idea over millenia can create a manifestation of belief,¡± I said. ¡°If Nemendias is thousands of years old, she has to have a manifestation. If her avatar doesn''t already exist in the physical, then I¡¯m going to get in touch with her in the Astral and build a physical avatar for her!" ¡°Why?¡± Agatha asked exasperatedly. ¡°Who else could know this place better than Nemendias herself?¡± I waved my arms at the black-marble hall. ¡°It¡¯s perfect solution to my biggest problem.¡± ¡°What problem?¡± The eldest princess stared at me. ¡°Unlocking the super-secret secrets of Nemendias,¡± I said with a big smile. ¡°Why?¡± Agatha inquired. ¡°So I can get way ahead of you, obviously,¡± I smirked. ¡°Oh,¡± She paused. ¡°You want to beat my grades?¡± ¡°Nah. I want my new minions to beat your grades. I made a bet with Emmy that I could uplift humans so high that they would outdo your grades!" Lambert laughed at Agatha¡¯s look of utter bewilderment. ¡°Thanks for offering to adopt me, by the way,¡± I turned to him. ¡°I really appreciate it. Don¡¯t actually do it though.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± The Inspector asked. ¡°I¡¯m working on a story that¡¯s easy to sell,¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯ll remove an element of drama from it if you adopt me. Plus - when I make enemies they¡¯ll target you. I¡¯d rather you back me up from the shadows. By the way, have you found anything about my mother¡¯s family?¡± ¡°No,¡± Lambert shook his head. ¡°I¡¯ll look into it now that I¡¯m in Nemendias. One of the teachers seems to know something.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I nodded. ¡°We¡¯ll have to corner Instructor Rozaline and shake the information out of her. Then, I''m going to find Nemmy and build her a cute avatar. I am going to explore sooooo many spooky tunnels when there are more of me to go around!" "Nemmy?" Agatha blinked. "Nemendias," Lambert commented. "She likes to cuteify things." ¡°Is she always like this?¡± Agatha asked the Inspector. ¡°Yep,¡± Lambert nodded with a soft smile. "My quirkiness makes me likeable," I stuck my tongue out at the eldest Amadea princess. "Get with the program." . . . The two maids were waiting for us at the end of the opulent, statue-decorated hallway. Voltara was hugging the visibly upset Arouetta. The maids heard our approach. Arouetta turned her tear-streaked eyes to me. ¡°My angel won¡¯t wake,¡± she uttered, looking despondent. ¡°He won¡¯t talk to me. He¡¯s not responding to me, not taking charge of me. Did I¡­ blaspheme against Saint Eunisii?¡± ¡°No,¡± I sighed. ¡°It was those villainous Nemendias arcmagi, then?¡± Her eyes flashed with anger. ¡°They put my angel to sleep with their vile, dark magics?¡± I looked at her, not sure what to say. I had set this situation up to shift the blame off myself and I was now feeling extremely sorry for the poor girl that fell in love with her Vow. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Who will you serve now that your Vow is asleep?¡± Agatha asked, pointing her unlocked armacus at the maid. ¡°M-my lady Emerald, of course!¡± Arouetta replied in an instant. ¡°Plus you and my Baroness. I¡¯ve served your family since I was a small child. Is this a test of my faith? My heart and soul belong to Amadea Family, I swear! I will not betray, will not abandon you just because some old bastards magicked my guardian angel to sleep!¡± ¡°You must not tell the Baroness that your angel is¡­ asleep,¡± I said. ¡°Angels aren¡¯t supposed to fall asleep. If Amadea finds out, she might get very upset with you and fire you or... worse.¡± Arouetta gulped. ¡°I¡­ I won¡¯t tell the Baroness about it, I swear,¡± she cried out. ¡°Please don¡¯t cast me away! I don¡¯t want to be fired. I want to stay by Mistress Emerald¡¯s side for as long as I live! I want to serve her in Nemendias and protect her against the bastards who hurt my angel!¡± I looked at Agatha. She nodded at me. It wasn¡¯t a perfect solution, but Arouetta was now Vow-free and more or less on our side. Maybe someday she would learn that Eunisii wasn¡¯t a saint of humanity, but an ancient chimera monster from the depths of the dungeon¡­ But, for now, the maid would have to believe that the evil Nemendias instructors disabled her Vow. Our group got back to the rooftop. Since there were only five seats in the glider, I put the bag down on the rooftop patio and the two maids went into Saccy. I climbed into Saccy too and switched bodies to Juni as carrying the Folding bag was far too uncomfortable for Grogtilda¡¯s damaged muscles. ¡°Juni!¡± Emerald leapt out of Galissi when we approached the glider. ¡°How did it go?! Are you in?!¡± The small chimera-hybrid babbled excitedly. ¡°I¡¯m in,¡± I smiled at her, accepting the full-body hug. We got into the glider and the little skyship took off with a whoosh into the sky. I was far too nervous to pay attention on the way here, but this time I stared at the view of Nemendias as we departed from Illatius. The Arcanarium was a massive, black rooftop and yellow brick gothic citadel sitting at the edge of the chasm. White waterfalls rushed between various towering, interconnected structures and cascaded into the infinite abyss. It was a stunning view and I stared at it until the black spires of Nemendias became too small to see, absorbed by the rest of the urban sprawl of Illatius. ¡°Would you be able to make an artifact that duplicates a person?¡± I asked Antoine, turning away from the view of the city. ¡°Hrmmm,¡± the artificer rubbed his chin. ¡°That was incredibly advanced magic, I must admit. Maybe¡­ if I was permitted to research the magitec hexagrams for a few months inside the Interviewee¡¯s tower, I could figure out exactly how the tower copies people." Emerald curiously stared at us. She had no idea what we were talking about. ¡°Do you want to apply to Nemendias as an Artificery Instructor so you can scope out the tower¡¯s magitek?¡± I batted my crystal-lashes at the artificer. ¡°Only if I can find someone to run my shop,¡± he said. ¡°If I can duplicate myself I¡¯ll totally run your shop,¡± I offered. ¡°Sounds like a paradoxical situation,¡± Antoine laughed. ¡°Hopefully I can get Nemendias to do it,¡± I shrugged. ¡°Hey, this could be my first nobless oblige project - bringing Nemmy to life!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know whether you¡¯re some kind of a magical luminary or completely demented,¡± Agatha shook her head at my words. ¡°Even if you give Nemendias an avatar, it would not be able to go through wards or unlock the Interviewee¡¯s tower for you¡­ no, this is simply too ludicrous to even think about!¡± She didn¡¯t believe that I could do it. I would have to prove her wrong. ¡°So, umm¡­ you want to give Nemendias a voice?¡± Emerald asked. ¡°Like Dawn?¡± I nodded. ¡°That would be pretty fun, I think,¡± she mulled. ¡°Count me in.¡± ¡°What¡¯s next on the agenda, my Cicesore?¡± I nudged Agatha after we dropped Lambert and Antoine off in Lomb. The Inspector had to get ready for his relocation to Illatius and Antoine was going to start working on the pattern-shifting Dawn dress. ¡°Well, we need to buy you and Emmy uniforms, books and bags. Also the maids will have to acquire Nemendias maid uniforms,¡± Agatha said. ¡°Normally we¡¯d need to wait for my mother to approve the purchase list¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯ll cover it,¡± I said. ¡°I think we ought to change things up. I¡¯ll give your mother the bill and she can reimburse me later for it.¡± ¡°Right,¡± Agatha said. She looked worried. ¡°And if she doesn¡¯t reimburse you?¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll call her a miser,¡± I shrugged. ¡°In front of her high-cendai peers. See, I wield the great and diresome power of social shaming!" I giggled at my own joke. ¡°Right,¡± the eldest princess gulped. She was terrified of Amadea. I wasn¡¯t scared of the Baroness. We were all equal beneath Eunisii according to her. Amadea feared Eunice, but the old, immortal crone didn''t even leave her domain of power. How would Eunice even stop or punish me if I did something wrong, went against her? Why was Amadea so obedient to her? How did Eunice even put the metaphorical collar on Amadea, force her into total obedience? Surely the arch-cendai didn¡¯t leave her Soul-Garden to do it? Eunice didn¡¯t even put any of her soul-branches into me! ¡°Whatcha thinking about, Juni?¡± Emerald asked. ¡°Cendai stuff,¡± I replied. ¡°I want to figure out how Eunice¡­ manages her other Apostles.¡± ¡°Divine magic, maybe?¡± The little princess suggested. ¡°She is a goddess, no? Maybe she calls them on their armacus and yells at them very sternly, threatening divine retribution?" I rubbed my chin. Eunisii calling her Apostles via an armacus seemed simple enough, but a phone call wasn''t a display of power. Did Eunice exert her divine will through the Vow-bound maids across the Astral Ocean, via the angels? Could Amadea¡¯s army turn against her at any moment? It made a twisted sort of sense. If so, then I had to make sure I wasn¡¯t anywhere near the Vow-bound when I committed sinful acts against my Master. ¡°Juni¡­ do you really know Saint Eunisii in person?¡± Arouetta suddenly asked from her seat. ¡°Yeah,¡± I nodded. ¡°I¡¯m her eighth Apostle.¡± The maid glanced at Agatha to confirm my words. ¡°She is,¡± Agatha nodded. ¡°You must obey Juni and keep her secrets. She is equal to Baroness Amadea in title.¡± ¡°I shall,¡± the maid nodded. ¡°I wish we could put another Vow on Arouetta,¡± Emerald mulled. "It would solve problems. The Vow bound can''t be tortured for what they know." ¡°No,¡± I shook my head. "No Vows. You promised me, remember?¡± ¡°Yeah, I remember. Plus, Mother would notice the second, smaller and younger Vow,¡± Emerald sighed. ¡°I was just thinking out loud.¡± I stared at the two brain-dead Vows floating in the Astral above the maids. Could I deplete Eunice¡¯s power by continuously farming her Vows for experience? Could I make Voltara swear a thousand Vows to Eunice only to kill them one by one? No, from what I knew, the Vows were also powered by, fed upon human souls. The XP I had gained from killing Voltara¡¯s Vow came from killing a part of her soul which the Vow had sucked out of her over a decade. If I were to put a thousand Vows on Votara, they would suck her soul dry. If I wanted to kill Eunice¡¯s divinity I¡¯d need to put her Vows onto something that didn¡¯t have a soul¡­ maybe something like¡­ Dawn. ¡°Dawn?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes?¡± The painting looked at me from Voltara¡¯s chest. ¡°You told me earlier that you¡­ had a Vow. Who was it made to? The Emperor? Eunisii?¡± ¡°Myself,¡± Dawn said. ¡°My Vow to serve humanity is bound to myself. Part of my magic is sacrificed perpetually in a self-sustaining Astral loop. It¡¯s part of my core design. Ambiss didn¡¯t want me to go astray, to give up on helping people. The more mana I wield, the stronger this loop binds me.¡± ¡°Damn,¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯re a divinity unto yourself¡­ Ambiss Huron sacrificed herself to wake up as a goddess bound to serve mankind.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t really see myself as a divinity,¡± Dawn shrugged. ¡°But, I get what you¡¯re saying. To add to what you were discussing earlier - it might be dangerous to wake up Nemendias if she doesn¡¯t have a binding loop like I do. We do not know whom she might serve.¡± ¡°Right,¡± I mulled. ¡°If I make her an avatar, I¡¯ll have to do it through you. All of our future sentient magitek projects will have to be hosted on you and be based on your architecture so that they can¡¯t backfire and go rogue on us.¡± ¡°A sensible idea,¡± Dawn nodded. ¡°So, is there a specialized shop that sells the Nemendias uniforms or something?¡± I turned to Agatha as she directed Galissi back to Illatius. ¡°Yeah,¡± Agatha nodded. ¡°The uniform-selling shop is located in the Diamondias Shopping Plaza right next to the Arcanarium.¡± I saw that her face soured. ¡°Not looking forward to shopping there?¡± I asked. ¡°Not really,¡± she exhaled. ¡°Every time I go there... the scriveners find and harass me.¡± ¡°Ah,¡± I declared with a wide grin. ¡°That¡¯s absolutely perfect!¡± ¡°What?¡± Agatha turned to me. ¡°That¡¯s definitely a planning face,¡± Emerald commented on my malicious smile. ¡°What¡¯s the plan, boss?¡± ¡°We¡¯re going to catch us some scriveners!¡± I announced, steepling my fingers. Ch 70. Diamondias
I walked alone through what looked like a very fanciful Art Nouveau style mall. Highborn ladies in long, frilly dresses and fanciful hats decorated in flowers and gemstones turned my way, their faces lengthening. The maids carrying their groceries gasped noisily. A mustached gentleman wearing a monocle suddenly stumbled, nearly dropping his magic eye-piece into a white marble fountain. His mouth fell open in shock. He looked completely stupefied, following me with his gaze. ¡°A Topaz addict,¡± his lips uttered as I passed by him. ¡°How did she get past the front door guards?!" It wasn¡¯t very hard to get past security to enter the shopping district of the highborns - Agatha¡¯s glider had landed on the rooftop of the mall. I looked quite out of place wearing my ill-fitting, scruffy, leather armor in the most expensive shopping district crowded with the Illatius aristocracy. I was all too aware of the stares, the comments and the attention that I was gathering. Agatha, Emerald and the two maids were currently walking far ahead of me. I saw them enter a very fancy-looking shop with the gold [Nemendias Uniforms & Accessories] sign. I followed my friends into the shop, ignoring the confused, bothered and outright hostile declarations thrown at me. ¡°Welcome to Nemen¡­¡± A big-bellied, bald salesman in a very fancy suit bowed to me. When he came back up, he saw my bloated face covered in blue, shiny bruises. His wide smile turned upside down in an instant. ¡°Hey! You can¡¯t come in here!¡± He said, ready to shove me out of the shop. ¡°Mr. Deggacroix,¡± Agatha said. ¡°Close the doors. I want the shop under lockdown while my sister and I pick out our new uniforms.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± the salesman¡¯s eyes shot at me. ¡°Let her stay,¡± Agatha said. ¡°Are you certain, my lady?¡± the pot-bellied man asked. ¡°I don¡¯t have time for your idiotic flapping,¡± Agatha snapped, her voice leaving no room for compromise. ¡°I don''t want the scriveners in here while we''re trying on uniforms! Do your job. Seal the shop now!¡± ¡°Yes, my lady,¡± Mr. Degacroix gulped. He tapped his armacus on a gemstone panel and the fanciful stained glass doors of the shop clicked closed. The large windows into the shop turned matte. ¡°I¡¯d like to buy a uniform,¡± I declared to the salesman as Agatha went into a changeroom. ¡°W-what?¡± He sputtered. ¡°I¡¯m a Nemendias student,¡± I said. ¡°You are?¡± His eyebrows went up, nearly escaping from his face. ¡°I am,¡± I nodded. ¡°But¡­ you¡¯re¡­¡± ¡°Not a Topaz addict,¡± I said. I pulled back my right sleeve, revealing my armacus. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re a lawmaker,¡± the salesman¡¯s face instantly shifted back to a polite smile. ¡°Forgive me, my lady¡­ I assumed things¡­ your veins look like that of a Topaz addict from Undertown.¡± ¡°This is a work injury. I''ll get it healed soon enough,¡± I pointed at my face. ¡°I¡¯m a diver. A Folding Seed attacked me recently. You best give me a discount for this insult¡­¡± I said, trying to sound very posh. ¡°If you don¡¯t want to deal with my father!¡± ¡°T-ten percent off the uniform,¡± the salesman offered. ¡°Fifteen,¡± I shot back. ¡°Thirteen,¡± the salesman rubbed his hands, nervously staring at my armacus. ¡°Twenty,¡± I said. "Go ahead, try to reduce the discount one more time. Tempt me to show you my power." The armacus on my hand unfurled into its weaponized form. I aimed the magitek weapon at the man¡¯s rotund head. I poured power into my eyes, peering at the man in the Astral. I knew that brilliant, orange coronas of magic ignited within them, turning me from a simple adventurer into a dangerous-looking mage. ¡°T-twenty,¡± the salesperson gulped, sweat breaking out on his forehead as his eyes darted between my armacus and the magical currents spiraling around my irises. ¡°That¡¯s more like it,¡± I smiled, the armacus folding back into its bracelet form. ¡°Glad to be doing business with you. Come help me pick out the best uniform befitting my noble status and I¡¯ll give you a nice tip.¡± ¡°Y-yes, my lady,¡± the bald salesman bowed, rushing after me as I walked deeper into the shop. In about twenty five minutes I stepped out of the changeroom. I had switched my old armor to the uniform of a Nemendias student. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. I adjusted the tie that sat over the gold-thread undershirt, staring into the mirror. My eyes glimmered from within with orange flickers of cendai-sight. Grogtilda¡¯s face had thinned out a bit, but the blue bruises were still very prominent. ¡°I-is the uniform to your satisfaction?¡± the salesman stammered. ¡°It is acceptable,¡± I nodded. ¡°Do I have to send a maid to pick up the rest?¡± ¡°No, my lady. The extra sets will be delivered by us to your residence in Nemendias at no charge,¡± Mr. Deggacroix said. The salesman lifted up a gold-plated magitek payment terminal and I tapped it with my armacus, paying for my new, absurdly overpriced set of clothes. There were all sorts of defense threads woven into hexagrammic patterns of the uniform that shielded its wearer from basic magical attacks. It wasn¡¯t as solid as my nightcrawler armor, but it would have to do. Emerald emerged out of the change room in her new uniform. A topaz diamond pin sat on her collar, matching her hair. She glanced at me, her eyes glittering with excitement. The show was about to begin. The salesman went to charge Agatha for her, Emerald¡¯s and the maid¡¯s uniforms. I had transferred a hefty sum to her new armacus this morning which would hopefully cover everything. I looked at myself in the wall-sized mirror one more time. Angry shadows danced in the back of my head, judging me. Grogtilda had never worn anything so outlandishly expensive in her brief life. ¡°We¡¯re going to make them all pay,¡± I soundlessly spoke to my reflection. I turned away from the mirror and looked at my friends. Voltara looked absolutely smashing in her new black and white maid dress, gemstone flower pins holding up her gray hair. The Grogtilda part of me felt jealous of the maid''s perfect figure. A logo of Nemendias was embedded into a leather strap on her shoulder. The same logo but in far bigger size was visible on a massive silver crest hanging in the center of the shop. It portrayed a highly detailed, swirly, Art Nouveau style, female mage who held two magic wands. An eight-pointed star shone over her chest. "Nemendias noiumaru sic adimas," I read the words beneath the logo. "Entruci, casohu, un gallefi." The words were in an arcane Basq dialect, barely recognizable. "Nemendias protects her flock," Emerald said in modern Basq as she approached me. "Merit, justice and knowledge." "When I find the avatar of Nemendias, she will hopefully personify these ideas," I said. "You want to find the avatar of Nemendias? Ha!" Emerald barked. Her acting was acceptable. I smirked at her, departing from the shop. Our audience was already waiting for us in the mall, trying to peer into the shop through the stained glass doors and windows. The fat salesman unlocked the doors under Agatha''s order and I stepped out, facing the gathered crowd. ¡°Look Blake, I told you! A Topaz addict!¡± ¡°Would you look at that!¡± ¡°She¡¯s wearing a Nemendias uniform?! My, my, how the standards have fallen!¡± I attempted to make a serious face. A bright flash of magic resonating through the Astral came from the crowd. I stared at the thin, tall, mustached man that was holding a large magitek cube-shaped device with a flickering crystal in the front. Right. That was the Depictomancy snapper, a local, magitek version of a camera. The paparazzi were here, right on time. I stepped forward and the crowd drew away from me as if I was cursed. Emerald emerged from the shop right after me. "You!" She barked. "I wasn''t done talking to you!" "Me?" I rotated, raising my eyebrow as the angry-looking princess marched out of the shop. The crowd of onlookers murmured, stepping further back and making room. "Yes, you!" Emerald growled. "You stink like you came out of a filthy swamp filled with rotting eggs!" "Oh that," I scratched my chest. "That''s just my debitor tattoo." "Debitor¡­ Addict¡­ Nemendias," the voices came from all around growing louder. "Impossible! Such shame! The scandal!" "I am not the first debitor to attend Nendias!" I announced into the ocean of angry, curious and confused faces. "A debitor?!" Emerald choked, her eyes wide. "You¡­ you¡­" "Do you have a problem with me or something?" I asked. "Who in the deep Astral wouldn''t?!" The Amadea princess sputtered. "How did someone like you even get into Nemendias?! Did you cheat on the interview?! You must have!¡± ¡°No,¡± I shook my head. ¡°I didn¡¯t cheat. I came from the poorest family in Undertown and I passed the entrance exam. It wasn¡¯t easy, believe me.¡± ¡°Undertown?! So you admit it openly? You¡¯re a liar and a cheat! There¡¯s no doubt about it! The only other Undertown denizen who got into Nemendias hundreds of years ago cheated his way in and was executed by the state! I will make sure that you get kicked out, mark my words! I will expose your dastardly crimes before you foul up the entire place!¡± Emerald¡¯s eyes flashed with green coronas as she angrily pointed her hand at me in an accusatory gesture. ¡°Human filth like you doesn¡¯t belong in the highest Arcanarium of the aristocracy!¡± Agatha stepped out of the shop with the maids. ¡°Come, sister, we have other things to buy,¡± she said coldly. "Don''t waste time on this lowborn trash." She eyed me wearily, pulling Emerald away. The crowd parted, releasing the Princesses and the maids. I noted that two more scriveners flashed their snappers at the scene. I stood my ground. ¡°I¡¯m Humbell Pinch,¡± the mustached reporter approached me. ¡°I am a scrivener for the Illatius Daily. Would you be interested in an interview?" "Sure," I smiled. ¡°Iggitus Wompik, Highstreet Journal!¡± Another reporter emerged from the crowd. ¡°I would also like to interview you!¡± ¡°Get in line, Iggitus,¡± Humbell turned to face the newly arrived reporter. ¡°I was here first.¡± ¡°Appa Bolariss, Imperial Tribune!¡± A bossy-looking woman with round glasses shoved Iggitus aside. ¡°Do you know princess Amadea?¡± ¡°Was that princess Emerald Amadea and her sister Agatha?¡± I asked. The reporters nodded. ¡°I just met them,¡± I shrugged. ¡°They seemed¡­ very rude.¡± Appa¡¯s face soured. She was likely working against Agatha, trying to find something of value to throw at my friend. ¡°Tell you what, lady and gentlemen,¡± I smiled. ¡°How would you like an exclusive contract with¡­ me?¡± ¡°Exclusive in what manner?¡± Humpbell tilted his head. ¡°If you¡¯re looking for info on the Princesses or anyone else in Nemendias, I¡¯ll be sure to provide¡­ if the price is right,¡± I said. ¡°Being a poor, Undertown-born girl¡­ I don¡¯t appreciate impolite royalty. I will be studying with them all for maaaany years to come." Humpbell''s face flushed. My words weaved a truly unique, unbelievable opportunity. "I bet I can even sneak a snapper into Nemendias," I whispered conspiratorially. The eyes of the reporters lit up. They were hooked. The gathered crowd murmured. ¡°Let¡¯s exchange contact information,¡± I offered, pulling back my black sleeve. The reporters stared at my armacus with wide eyes. Appa was the first to clink her armacus against mine. ¡°I do hope that you¡¯ll write nice things about me,¡± I said, smiling widely. ¡°After all, I¡¯m the first debitor who legally got into Nemendias. I expect a fruitful, long term relationship with you three. You and I are going to make history and shake things up!¡± I smiled serenely as the other two reporters added themselves to my contact list. The scoop-greedy paparazzi had no idea that they were making a deal with Satan herself. They could not know about what ungodly horrors I would unleash upon them and Illatius from my twenty-first century mass-media management arsenal. Ch 71. The Divers Calling
¡°What''s all this, then?¡± A bulky man in a gray constable¡¯s uniform pushed himself through the crowd. ¡°I was told there¡¯s a debitor out and about in my¡­¡± He suddenly spotted me and the reporters and his eyebrows furrowed. The constable¡¯s metal-plated boots echoed on the white and gold marble floors as he approached me. ¡°You!¡± He barked. ¡°Come with me! You¡¯re causing a commotion!¡± ¡°Sure thing, constable," I replied. I turned towards the reporters. ¡°I¡¯ll call you three as soon as I have something. We will meet up later in a less public location to hammer out the details of our contract and do the first interview.¡± ¡°Are you going to be alright?¡± The female scrivener asked, glancing at the hostile-looking constable. Her snapper flashed again as the man''s gloved hand grabbed me by the shoulder. ¡°Perfectly peachy!¡± I replied as the constable pulled me away from the reporters. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me. I¡¯ve got a deal with the steel-boots too!¡± The crowd of gathered onlookers started to disperse, their eyes following me as I was dragged away from the center of the mall. . . . ¡°Tell me, lowborn,¡± the constable circled me as he shoved me onto a rather uncomfortable metal stool in his office. ¡°How did you get into the Diamondias Shopping District? How did you get out of Undertown? Did you find a hole in the barrier? Who did you steal a purse from to buy that uniform?¡± Having something to sit on was nice, as uncomfortable as it was. My feet were killing me. Saccy was heavy. The stuff within her didn''t weight much since Folding magic did something weird with weight, but the Folding Seed itself was heavy and very solid. I was already regretting letting Voltara go shopping with the princesses. "Oh? Is it a crime for a lowborn to walk through Diamondias?" I raised an eyebrow as the constable finished his inquiry. "No," he replied with a glare. "So then why did you arrest me?" I asked, trying to suppress a desire to grab at the flask filled with filtered Topaz. "What are the charges? What law did I break?" The constable''s brow furrowed further. "L-171. Mischief and public disruption," he stated. I yawned. I did cause a bit of a commotion. "Undertown denizens do not magically appear in Diamondias," he stated firmly. "Place your hand on the truth-sphere and tell me who your associates are. Which Guild do you belong to? How did you cross the barrier out? Tell me the truth! I¡¯ll take it easy on you if you confess!" ¡°Ah, the truth,¡± I stretched. ¡°The truth is that you took way too long to arrest me. I''m disappointed.¡± ¡°What?¡± He growled, his large figure suddenly looming over me. He was about forty years of age and clean shaven. Slightly greying, black hair peeked from below his cap. His brown eyes dug into me, trying to tear me asunder. ¡°Do you know the concept of a secret shopper? Does the title of Asset Protection Specialist ring a bell?¡± I asked, pulling back my sleeve. ¡°I¡¯m sort of like that, except much, much worse.¡± The man''s expression changed when he saw my lawmaker¡¯s armacus. He tapped it with his own in an instant. ¡°Agent Juni,¡± he said. ¡°My apologies. You looked¡­¡± ¡°I know what I look like,¡± I rolled my eyes. [Diamondias Plaza Inspector - Pomegrad Lima Zeendar.] An information window came through my armacus. ¡°I must commend you on that makeup,¡± the Inspector stared at my chubby face covered in pearlescent, blue-tinted bruises. ¡°It looks very real. The tattoo smells just like the real thing too. I wasn''t aware that the effect could be replicated with such fine detail." ¡°Well, what can I say? I¡¯m a professional,¡± I smiled, stretching. ¡°Now, as for my report.¡± The constable gulped. ¡°I can let your tardiness slide,¡± I said. ¡°If you become my best friend.¡± Pomegrad looked at me curiously. ¡°Is she expecting a bribe?¡± His eyes spoke. "What does she want from me?" His expression changed. Something clicked in his head. He had discovered that something was off about me. Something that didn''t match. He tapped his armacus. "You''re an Agent of the Lomb Constabulary," he said after a pause. "What''s a small-town Agent doing in Illatius pretending to be an Undertown addict?" ¡°Ah... that,¡± I said. I placed my armacus-wrapped hand onto the truth-sphere embedded in the Inspector¡¯s table. ¡°I¡¯m working on a very high-level case, you see. A threat against humanity.¡± The sphere bathed the room with a green glow. "Now for a lie... I''m a cute potato who dances in the moonlight," I said, the sphere tinting red. Pomegrad¡¯s face expression became that of deep concern. He recomposed himself in a few seconds. "I don''t understand. W-which department are you working for, Agent?" He asked. "The Imperial Inquisition? Or a specific Barony?" "A Barony?" I laughed, holding my hand on the truth-sphere. "I won''t tell you my department, but I can tell you that I''m as high up on the social ladder as Baroness Amadea." "W-what?" The Inspector''s eyes grew wide in shock. I momentarily pondered about what else to tell him. He didn''t seem as kind or understanding as Inspector Lambert and I didn''t want to tell an Illatius-based Inspector about my knowledge of chimera. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. "If you must know... I am the newest addition to the Order of the Prism Archmagi," I smiled, staring at him in the Astral and igniting my eyes with ember radiance from within. "I am the Eighth." The truth sphere beneath my hand flashed with brilliant green. It was the truth - I was a high-cendai beneath Eunice just like the others. "Y-you''re a P-prism Archmage?" Pomegrad took a step back. My truth-affirmed words were far more effective than I anticipated. Like a metaphorical club they slammed into the man. The Inspector''s exigent appearance was torn asunder. The large, bossy, priorly imposing man suddenly looked diminutive and respectful. He took a knee, bowing to me. "Forgive me, your excellency," he said meekly. "I was... mistaken." When he came up, his expression was that of an extremely obedient civil servant. ¡°How can I be of assistance, my Lady?¡± He said. ¡°I¡¯d like copies of all of the tunnel maps beneath this district and any others that might be in your possession,¡± I said, letting go of the truth-sphere. ¡°There is trouble brewing in the deep.¡± ¡°Of what sorts?¡± Pomegrad nervously tagged at his sleeve. I put my hand back on the truth-sphere. "The truth is too dangerous for you to know, Inspector. Until I know more, I can''t share any details. My enemies are great and powerful." "You''re hunting down a cult? An old one?" Pomegrad gulped. ¡°Yes,¡± I lamented with a dramatic sigh. ¡°It''s one of the biggest threats Illatius faced in two hundred years. I¡¯ll definitely be working in the area for years, if not decades, sorting things out, incepting myself into a bunch of organizations and places. You''re probably going to read all sorts of nonsense about me in the papers tomorrow. What you saw in the Plaza wasn''t mischief - it was part of my plan to make a big splash with the scriveners. I need to become visible for these organizations to notice me." I let go off the sphere again, leaning back with a sigh. ¡°I understand," the Inspector nodded. "My archives and keys are at your disposal. Feel free to call me anytime if you require aid in your mission or backup of the Diamondias Constabulary. I will let my constables know that you are working the area in case you trip any of our wards." ¡°Thanks,¡± I said. ¡°Don''t worry¡­ We¡¯ll be seeing each other a lot. My mission in Nemendias will take a while. Speaking of wards, can you add me to the Diamondias District ward system?" "Yes, my Lady," Pomegrad nodded. "Come to the control room with me. It won''t take long - I''ll tie your armacus into it." My heart was beating rapidly as I got up and followed the bulky Inspector. Being an urbexer has never been this easy! . . . "There, you should have no troubles passing through the back halls," Pomegrad said as I pulled my arm out of a very complex magitek contraption covered in gemstones and hexagrammic wards highlighted in gold ink. "Your armacus will be able to act as a master key for most of the shops, storage areas and tunnels into the catacombs. If you need access to the deeper, abandoned areas you can copy the old, metal keys from our archive backroom." As the Diamondias Inspector finished adding me to the district''s wards, a deep ache began to pulse in my muscles and chest. It was quickly becoming far beyond my tolerance. My heartbeat intensified without a reason for it. Illogical panic and worry started to drown out rational thoughts. I look horrible. Everything is awful. So many people shamed me today. So many hateful, rude comments. So many highborn assholes judging me. I can''t go back to that mall now... I can''t. I need heaven... my paradise, my love. I shook my head. These weren''t my fears or worries, they were pushed, implanted into me by the Topaz cravings. I thought of the quiet of the deep, of vast caverns beneath the city. Of dark, old tunnels. It helped drive away the irritation and dread. I readjusted Saccy''s straps and winced. "Could you show me the way into the catacombs?" I asked Pomegrad. "Sure," He nodded. "Do you mind if I use your bathroom to change into my diving armor?" "Not at all," Pomegrad replied. He was digging through his shelf for the maps. "The door is right there." I emerged out of the bathroom in Juni''s body and waved my armacus-covered hand to the Diamondias Inspector. "That''s a very striking¡­ skull mask," he nodded at me. "You look¡­ different. Taller, maybe? The debitor''s smell is totally gone." "I''m a master of disguises," I giggled. The pain in my chest was growing distant. I was managing. I could win this game against myself, against addiction, against Illatius highborns, against Eunice and her seven archmage cendai. No matter how old or powerful they were, they feared and disliked the murky darkness of the wet, malodorous tunnels. Unlike them, I loved, embraced the deep with my entire heart. . . . Pomegrad led me down several stone stairwells, each one darker, gloomier and less upkept. An ancient rusty gate creaked open as he tapped it with his armacus. Leaving the bright stairwell room, we entered into the arcane crypts beneath the Diamondias Shopping District. It was just as I imagined it. No... better. The catacombs beneath Illatius were grandiose in their splendor and decay. A few inches of water sat on the floor beyond the lit passage reflecting the mist-wreathed arches and columns. I stepped through the water, my boots casting ripples and disrupting the still, mirror-like surface. Ancient, arched halls extended in all directions, fading into obscurity. Water dripped from above in cascading rhythms. There was heart-stopping beauty all around me, a sense of age and decay - a prism into old layers of the city, segments of a place built thousands upon thousands of years ago into the bedrock beneath the city. I reached out and touched the well-aged brickwork, peered at it in the Astral. The tunnels whispered a tale to me in my cendai sight and in my own imagination, revealing to me forgotten memories of incredibly old, nearly faded hexagrams glittering here and there. "There''s a way into Nemendias from here, yes?" I asked Pomegrad, peering down a long, foggy hallway, my voice echoing into the distant depths. "Yes," he replied. "A few of the old, West-heading tunnels connect to the school. The way in is shielded by the Arcanarium''s wards and gates. Only Nemendias personnel and pupils can move through the wards. The Keeper should have the keys to the old gates beneath Nemendias." "Gotcha," I nodded. "I''ll ask her for copies. Now, is there a way into Undertown from here?'' "Yes," Pomegrad affirmed. "Tunnels C-25, J-19 and K-66 on this map are official ways that lead to Undertown. There are Guild outposts watching them from the other side. They charge three obliss for crossing." "Are there other tunnels into Undertown?" I asked. "Hrmm," the constable rubbed his chin. "Yes, the entire sewage system goes down there. Older tunnels are flooded or buried. The sewer lines are labelled green on the map. The storm drains are blue. I haven''t checked if they are safe - the Copromancers and Engineers maintain the system." "Right," I said. "Do you have their contact info?" "Yes, let me transfer them to you," Pomegrad replied. I offered the Inspector my wrist-bracelet. "Transfer contact for Copromancer Wim Gogsmidth and Engineer Salii Acrebb," he said, tapping his armacus on mine. "These two are best for getting information on the old sections, which is where I imagine you are going." "Thanks, I''ll be sure to get in touch with them before I do any serious sewer exploration," I nodded. "Wouldn''t want to get caught in a flash flood or a drain test." "How old are you, if I may ask?" Pomegrad inquired. "Old enough," I replied. "What''s it to you?" "My Scrutimancy senses are legitimately failing me," the Inspector confessed. "I''ve been trying to determine your approximate age and I''m utterly stumped. I can''t even get a handle on your accent." "You''re not the first," I smiled, thinking of Lambert. [Juniiiiiiiiii... Where are youuuuuuu? Aggie is driving me mental. She''s locked us in a bag store because she''s scared of scriveners. I''m tired of looking at magic Folding bags. Nothing is as big or as awesome as your Saccy. Please come save me,] Emerald''s voice came through the armacus as I picked up the call from her. "Coming right up, be there in a bit," I replied. "I should be good from here," I rolled up the map of the catacombs, pocketing it. "I''ll make my way into Diamondias from the nearest stairwell. Thank you for your assistance, Inspector Pomegrad." The Inspector nodded to me. He waved at me as I trudged through the shallow water to approximately where my friends were located. Thanks to my chimera eyes and Still-Walker sight the way forward was as clear as day for me, the walls and ceiling glimmering with millennia-old echoes of magical resonance imprinted into the stonework. I picked up a few of the broken bricks and pocketed them as I walked. I would have to see if this ancient stone was more magical or if my eyes were deceiving me.
Ch 72. The Barrier I was moving towards the stairwell up to Diamondias when I noticed something odd shimmering in the corner of my eye. I paused and turned, observing the strange, distinctive pattern present in the Astral. There was a figure there, enshrouded in billowing flickers. It was impossible to make out any of its features. The thing was human-ish and also impossibly tall, long and slender, like a person that was warped, stretched, peeled apart into several dimensions. I took a step back, my heart pounding in my chest. The figure flickered to the side, transgressing through physical reality like a freaky ghost. It was here, clearly present amidst the ancient passageways of the catacombs, but also somewhere deep in the Still Forest. "Holy shit, what the hell is that thing?" I whispered. The eerie, uncanny figure turned towards me, and I felt a cold chill run down my spine. It was as if all the warmth in the world had been sucked out, leaving only a frigid void in its wake. "Dawn? You see this thing, right?" I gulped. "I do," the painting answered from my chest. "What is that?" I asked. "I do not know," the Astral Tree answered. "You are the first to bring one of my eyes to the catacombs beneath Illatius and above Undertown. It is not an Astral Phantom, I can tell you that much. It is something... completely different. Be careful." I stared at the long-limbed creature, trying to understand what it was exactly. The figure flickered again, moved without moving properly. It was suddenly looming right in front of me as if it leapt towards the spot where I stood in an instant. I yelped and stumbled backwards, nearly tripping over a loose stone. The figure towered over me, impossibly tall, grotesquely elongated. I felt like a child looking up at a parent. "What do you want?" I sputtered, my voice unsteady. The figure didn''t answer. It simply peered down at me, a face without an expression or features examining me as if it was trying to understand exactly what sort of a bug I was. Then, it reached out towards me. A long, spindling hand shifted through the air, settling over my face. The motion spooked me, felt threatening. My fingers wrapped tightly around Endy''s handle. Time slowed, a second stretched into two as my magic processor kicked in. I stared at the gangly thing in the Astral, defining all of it as a single concept. As I did, the freaky slender ghost became more visible, clearer. It had no eyes and no skin. Every centimeter of it crawled, wriggled like little worms¡­ no, like moving fingers. The inhuman hand uncurled with far too many digits to count. A mouth filled with what looked like fingers opened up, sucking the warmth out of the air. I made a decision - this thing was a threat to me. Something in me feared it, wanted me to flee. I moved with precise swiftness of a chimera, struck the slender ghost right in the center of its wriggling, warped palm. Endy sank deep into the abomination with a hiss. The figure flinched with a wail, sounding like stone scraping against stone. It detonated, fell apart into silver swirls of spilling magic. [+50 XP] "That''s right! Know your place," I growled out. "That''ll teach you to grab people, Mister Slendyhands!" "Run," Dawn suddenly yelped. "Wha..." I turned, trying to spot the danger. "RUN!" Dawn screamed. "NOW!" I felt an awful, magic-draining chill rushing through me, numbing my body as I leapt forward. Thousands of massive, ancient hexagrams within the black, eroded, gothic halls ignited like brilliant furnaces. Disturbed by their sudden activation, the Astral Ocean around me warped, bubbled as if it was made from physical fluid. I wasn''t fast enough to reach the stairwell to Diamondias. Hundreds of long-limbed figures manifested into existence all around me, emerging from nothing, coming out of some previously hidden dimension exposed by the boiling Astral currents. I tried to leap away, but there were far too many of them coming from all directions. Endy sang in my hand as I slashed at the grotesque limbs reaching out towards me, my experience ticking upwards. I fought like a wild thing, like a cornered animal. But there was only one of me and far, far too many of the spindly monstrosities. With each touch, they dragged me down, their glacier-like fingers numbing my body, clawed digits pulling, tearing the anti-phantom armor that protected my delicate soul. I struggled against them, tried to fight. But it was futile. My anti-phantom armor came apart, divested away like an orange peel under their combined assault. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! The gangly ghosts pulled me down into the darkness, into the cold embrace of the Astral. I heard Dawn''s yell and then with a twang my soul ripped from my body. As I flailed, drowning in the murky void of the Still Forest, I saw my awful enemies with far greater clarity. These things were neither dead nor alive. They were not separate creatures. They were akin to a gargantuan web, a vast entity woven from human-like, stretched, ossified, fibrous, clawed fingers. Myriads of them rushed towards me, binding me, smothering, ripping apart the light and very essence of my soul. As I looked up into the void beyond, I understood that my struggle was utterly futile. I witnessed an entity that spanned at least ten kilometers in size, each of the ghosts but a tiny digit of the abominable colossus. I was but a tiny, insignificant mote that had been plucked away from the physical and was now being torn apart by the endless feelers of this behemothic organism. Endy and I fought till my hands came apart, no longer able to grasp the blade. One by one the vile legion of digits ripped out my threads, sheared my soul, tearing everything that composed me away. I knew nothing but pain and terror as the light of my core became exposed to the chilling, life-smothering currents of the Astral and burned away to nothing. . . . [-1 Infinite Mirror] I fell to my knees, my eyes filling with tears. My chest ached horribly. There was a gnawing emptiness there, one of regret, recent pain and loss. "Juni? What''s wrong?" Dawn inquired. "Why are you crying?" "I... I just died," I pushed the words out of my throat with a choke. "A premonition?" Dawn gasped. "Another me¡­ just made a mistake, died. Something... some kind of an Astral¡­ creature got me," I wept. "I made a wrong choice and I died." "What did you do?" The painting petitioned. "I don''t know. I saw a warped ghost... an imprint in the Astral," I described the stretched entities to Dawn. I told her how I attacked one of them and how thousands upon thousands of them suddenly manifested and dragged me into the Astral. "You said that there were hexagrams that lit up on the walls?" Dawn asked. "Yeah," I nodded. "Really old ones." I tried to recall what I had seen and looked around. My heartbeat intensified as I saw one of them. It was barely lit, flickering ever so slightly. "There!" I barked. "That one! It''s that one!" "Hrm," Dawn muttered. "That''s an ancient barrier... shield. An old hexagram to keep phantoms out of the city. I think I understand..." "Do you? Hurry up and enlighten me," I rushed the painting. "Astral phantoms," Dawn mulled. "They''re drawn to life. To living things. They want to consume souls. But, they can''t cross certain boundaries - certain magic keeps them away. I think... that what you encountered was an Astral expression of barrier magic. A millennia-old belief of humanity in the power of the Illatius Barrier Shield, made manifest!" "Barry," I said, laughing nervously. "F-fing hell. A Barry just freaking killed me!" "Did you just give a barrier manifestation a human name?" Dawn asked. I was certain that she was frowning at me from beneath my armor. "Yeah, I did," I said. "It''s my thing. Naming things makes them less scary. I dealt with one Barry and then his pals went through my soul-shield like it was nothing. Damn hoodlums." I tried to stop my hands from trembling. It was incredibly difficult to do, but I managed to contain my panic. As I continued to nervously stare at the barrier hexagram, my hands pulled out my notebook. I rapidly sketched the hexagram onto the page. Dawn sighed. "What do you think I should do?" I asked with a shudder. "I''d rather not go through that again. That hexagram is flashing at me in a way that I do not like." "The question is - why would an anti-phantom shield attack you?" Dawn asked. "Because I''m an Astral Phantom," I sighed. "Well... some of me anyway. The System definitely defines me as one." "So the barrier was trying to get rid of you because you''re an Astral Phantom?" Dawn asked. "Yes," I said. "It makes sense, in a way. I''m not entirely human. I think... the barrier was just trying to protect Illatius and itself. I did stab a Barry with my knife. I get it¡­ the Barries were just doing their job. I simply got in the way.¡± "So don''t attack the barrier this time with your magic-killing knife," Dawn said. "Don''t look at its manifestations. Don''t acknowledge it. Pretend that it doesn''t exist. The barrier doesn''t hurt people. Be a person. Keep your Phantom-eyes closed." "And you?" I asked. "My eye is an artifact," Dawn explained. "People carry artifacts on them all the time. This type of a barrier should not react to me." ¡°R-right,¡± I trembled, pulling magic from my eyes. "Just gotta be human." "Yes," Dawn said. ¡°Hi, Barry. I''m just a simple human girl, passing through. Name''s Grogs!" I nervously laughed again, waving my hand at the now invisible hexagram. I wanted to look at the barrier manifestation again. Knowing that something was out there, invisible and feeling out for me with a million fingers was extremely unnerving. Barries¡­ now I knew that they were there. Dawn was right. Barry came at me because I saw, acknowledged, defined him and destroyed one of his appendages. The catacomb tunnels no longer seemed empty. There was hidden tension in the air. I quietly rushed past the spot where I had spotted Barry in my last, life-ending run. I shuddered, expecting to be struck down. Nothing happened. ¡°Did you see him?¡± I whispered as I turned a corner. ¡°Mhm,¡± Dawn acknowledged. ¡°I see it. A point of magical focus, a feeler of... something. The barrier suspects that you are here. It¡¯s definitely bothered by your presence. Just keep moving. Don''t agitate it.¡± I nodded, gulping. The dim, yellow, crystal light of the stairwell up to Diamondias welcomed me. ¡°Is Barrie following?¡± I asked. ¡°No,¡± Dawn said. ¡°It... gave up.¡± I exhaled, taking a step upwards to the shopping district. So much for some relaxing urbex. I had forgotten where I was. I was warned about manifestations by Eunice! My mind clicked. If all chimera cendai were astral phantoms like me, then there was a reason why they didn''t scout the sewers beneath the city. This place belonged to Barry! No matter how powerful and old the cendai were, they could not compete with a manifestation this massive and widespread. Barrie owned, filled the tunnels beneath the city with his presence, I was certain of it now. Barrie grew big by feeding on the power of the Infinite Dungeon, getting stronger in the dark tunnels beneath Illatius for millennia. . . . I recognized Agatha''s distinctive long, silver-blue hair and also Voltara''s maid dress. The map given to me by Inspector Pomegrad worked well with my armacus'' pathfinder and guided me to the right shop without any further issues. "Guess who!" I wrapped my hands around Emerald''s eyes. "Juni?!" Emmy laughed. "How did you get into the shop?! The front doors are locked. I thought you were going to call me to be let in!" "I have dark and mysterious powers," I said with a serious face. The eldest princess and two maids emerged from the shelf aisle. Each of the maids had oversized suitcases on wheels with the logo of Nemendias on them. I noticed that Agatha was staring at me intensely. "Yeees?" I asked. "Did you cut the lock on the door with your bullshit knife or something?" She demanded. "No," I said. "How''s things here?" "Scriveners are waiting outside," she sighed. "I was waiting for you to come and put makeup on me again to leave without being harassed. Seriously though, how did you get past the shop''s shield? The owner assured me that we would not be disturbed by anyone! I expected you to come to the front door." "Are you done buying bags?" I asked. The two princesses nodded. "Let''s go then," I said. "Follow me." I led my group of friends to one of the shelves in the back and tapped it with my armacus. The shelf clicked and swung open. "What?!" I heard Agatha''s noisy exhale as I dove into the tunnel. I grinned at her as everyone filled up the dim tunnel. I tapped a rune on the wall and the shelf closed behind us. "Welcome to the backrooms of Diamondias," I declared. "Watch out for Barries! They bite!" Voltara stared at the long, branching tunnel with curiosity. "Barries?" Emerald blinked at me. "They hunt Astral Phantoms," I explained. "Barrie just killed me. It was an accident though, so I don''t hold a grudge." Agatha''s eye twitched. I laughed at her extremely bothered expression. Ch 73. The Dastardly Shawl
I took about twenty minutes to redo the princesses¡¯ faces and my own with makeup. When that was done, I put on my cloth-flower and black-hair-strand beanie hat and explained to Agatha that I had obtained access to the backrooms of Diamondias from the local Inspector. Using the back tunnels we relocated to a small, rooftop cafe that belonged to Nemendias. The cafe was mostly empty. I saw a few students in Nemendias uniforms sitting behind tables, drinking coffee and discussing things in hushed tones. I relaxed and ordered lunch. Emerald excitedly babbled to me about our future in Nemendias. Voltara sent me happy smiles. Arouetta ate in silence. Agatha was intensely staring at me, likely trying to figure me out. As I bit into my second succulent croissan''wich and took a swig of cappuccino, I felt a very sharp tug on one of my Dominion threads. Alessi? It had to be her. Another tug came, then another. The pulls came in three short dots and then three long ones. The pattern repeated. It was S-O-S! [Report!] I pulled on the Dominion threads in my sister''s right hand. [Bad! Enemy! Trapped!] The rapid signals came. I gulped. [Where are you?] I sent. [Home,] was Alessi¡¯s quick reply. She had switched to writing words in the plate of sand. I felt that her hand was shaking. I gritted my teeth. What could have happened to my sister? Who could have threatened her in our dragon-skull-home covered in traps? A dragon? Surely a dragon wouldn''t bother attacking a skull of its much larger kin! We had been safe in her home for three years and now this! Did the monster-repelling banners weaken? [Giant monster outside the skull. Eating at the walls,] was the slower message. [Can¡¯t get out.] [I¡¯m coming,] I sent. [I¡¯ll be there as soon as I can!] ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Emerald asked, staring at my aghast expression. ¡°My sister¡¯s in trouble,¡± I replied. ¡°I need to get back to¡­ the village.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± the small princess gasped. ¡°Is it under attack?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I gritted my teeth. ¡°I need to return asap! Agatha, can you fly me?¡± ¡°I can take you to your Master¡¯s home,¡± Agatha nodded. ¡°But¡­ not further down. The glider will lose control if I go any lower than the second level of the Dungeon.¡± ¡°Whatever,¡± I ground out. ¡°I can fly the rest of the way myself. Let''s go. Now!¡± We abandoned the remnants of our lunch and rushed out onto the rooftop, got into Galissi Seven and filled the seats. The glider took off from Illatius, punching through the clouds and circling the Chasm at top speed. I changed into my gliding suit, nervously fiddling with the belts. [Status report,] I sent. [Still alive,] Alessi''s answer came. [It¡¯s not coming in for some reason. It¡¯s just keeping me trapped inside, slowly dissolving the walls. The doors and windows are gone.] [What is?] I inquired. [A deathshawl,] was the reply. [A giant slime. Hundreds of levels strong.] [Where¡¯s Isahcs?] [He is outside. I was in Still Trance and he was out hunting when the deathshawl surrounded our home. Neither he nor I can hurt it - it¡¯s too powerful. It can cast a shield!] [Can nobody else help out?] I ground my teeth as I sent the message. [No. I am an outcast, remember? Stay away,] Alessi replied. [I just recalled this damned thing. It has eaten a few chimera as my ancestor watched and could do absolutely nothing, centuries ago. It is an ancient, persistent enemy and does not leave its victims alive. I was doomed since I learned of our cendai¡¯s crimes and millennia-old plots. This was only a matter of time. Thank you for giving me a few more years to enjoy life, Juni.] [I won¡¯t let it have you,] I sent. [Barricade yourself in the lowest level. I¡¯ll be there soon.] [I am already in the deepest room,] the reply came. [Good,] I sent. [Just wait for me.] I opened my eyes, my heart hammering in my chest. ¡°So,¡± I turned to Agatha. ¡°You¡¯ve been to Eunice¡¯s home before?¡± ¡°I have,¡± she nodded. ¡°I brought her gifts from Mother. Archmage-made artefacts and extremely rare minerals and specimens from distant reaches of the Empire.¡± ¡°I see,¡± I said. I turned, staring out the window at the passing glacier-capped mountains, trying not to stress out too much. Dark thoughts were dancing in the back of my head. Was this it? Had I opposed Eunice too much, so she tightened the leash? Did the arch-cendai somehow lead this slime monster to Alessi or was this just an unrelated event? ¡°We¡¯re here!¡± Agatha declared. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. I stared down. There was nothing there. Nothing but jagged mountains. Huh? Galissi rapidly descended. The glider suddenly passed some kind of an invisible barrier. I gaped at the scene as the high-cendai¡¯s skull-residence appeared, painting itself into existence out of thin air. Ah, Eunice must have used some kind of invisibility-field to hide her home from human skyships if they happened to pass overhead. Clever. Our glider touched down on the gold sand. I rushed out of the unlocked door that was opened for me by Agatha. Eunice was standing on a balcony of her ostentatious, rune-covered skull, looking down at me and smiling serenely. ¡°Master! My sister¡¯s in trouble!¡± I barked instead of a greeting. ¡°I am aware,¡± she said in her usual, unnervingly calm tone, gray, slitted pupils watching me. I stared up at her. This definitely felt like one of her tests. The damned immortal crone had found a way to get to me, likely because I had rebuked Baroness Amadea nearly a week ago. ¡°Could you help me?¡± I asked. ¡°Grant me an artifact that will repel the beast away from my home?¡± ¡°No,¡± was her reply. ¡°I believe that your magic can defeat the beast without my aid, my monci. You have bested Amadea¡¯s allure with your tool of power. If you are strong enough, you can save your little sister. Show me what you can do." I shouldn''t have bothered to ask. Eunice was an ancient monster herself, not caring for the lives of mortal chimera. I wanted to scream at her, I wanted to rage, but I knew that I stood no chance of convincing this monster to aid me. I turned away from my Master and ran towards the edge of the cliff, spreading my leather wings open. I saw the damn thing from a distance as I flew towards my workshop. A silver, glistening sheen covered the entire exterior of the skull, rippling ever so slightly. There was no longer any plant life or moss atop of the white dragonskull - the dastardly slime had dissolved, eaten away at it. Our home smoked, the bony, crystalline surface bubbling beneath the rippling shawl. Hundreds of eye-like, circular organelles stared at me from the enormous slime that had draped itself over my workshop. This thing was old, intelligent, dangerous. I circled it, defining the monster in the Astral, memorizing its magic resonance. It was basically a massive organism, some sort of an evolution of a relatively simple slime monster that inhabited the wet, dark caves down on the 11th level. I defined the death-shawl¡¯s exterior membrane. If I could destroy it, puncture it with Endy then the entire thing would most likely come apart. I landed on the edge of the cliff that our skull sat upon, right next to Isahcs. The dark, teenage chimera was aiming another arrow at the monster. I watched as his tired, trembling hand let go of the bowstring. A poison-tipped, white, bone-arrow flashed towards the deathshawl. I saw a magical pulse manifesting in the air. The slime had formed a shield. The arrow struck the barrier and harmlessly bounced off it. Isahcs swore. ¡°Juni?¡± He turned me. "I cannot hurt this thing. I am almost out of arrows! I''ve asked the other hunters for help but they refused to aid me!" I nodded at him and pulled a molotov cocktail out of Saccy. I lit the wick with a magitek lighter and chucked the beetle-shaped bottle at the glistening surface of the monster. Another ripple and another flash of magic. The shawl knocked the bottle away with enough force to make it come apart. I watched as burning oil rained down into the chasm. A few drops of it bounced off the shield surrounding the slime. The monster knew how to protect itself. ¡°I see how it''s going to be. Close and personal, it is!¡± I started walking towards the deathshawl, defining, memorizing the thing''s barrier. ¡°Juni, don¡¯t come closer to it, it will knock you away with its magic!¡± Isachs yelled. ¡°I¡¯m a high-cendai,¡± I said, shaking my helmet-covered head. ¡°Stay here and watch.¡± I ran towards the grotesque, glistening shawl, Endy singing in my hand. The same magical barrier manifested in front of me, visible in the Astral. I struck it with Endy. The shield popped out of existence, came apart like a soap bubble. "Ha!" I barked as I advanced towards the exposed membrane of the beast. A spray of fluid came from one of the organelles, fired directly at me. My armor hissed. I rushed forward without stopping. ¡°Get effed!" I growled, stabbing at the rippling, silver-grey surface of the monster. Endy did her job - whatever magic held the damned thing together suddenly failed. With a horrid screech the deathshawl came apart, poured all around me, its eyes and organs cascading down the rocky edge of the cliff into the infinite abyss below us. [+408 XP] Yesss! I did it! I noticed that my entire body was smoking, hissing. The belts of my armor came apart as whatever fluid the monster had shot me with ate away at them. Acid! It was an incredibly potent acid of some kind! Nightcrawler bone-plates fell away from me one by one. My glider wings came apart, turned into shreds in seconds. I quickly pulled away the top pieces of my armor, throwing them aside. My helmet hissed, something dripped down onto my head, burning me. I pulled it off myself and threw it aside before the acid ate right through my face. The thick, leather bag containing Saccy broke open with a sound of tearing fabric. I yelped, trying to grab at her as she fell onto the rocky cliff and rolled away from me towards the edge. I was too slow, felt dizzy from the acid fumes. Saccy went over the edge and plummeted down. I screamed as I tried to make her mangled legs grab onto something, but it was in vain. My Folding Seed with all of my tools and things was gone! I turned away from the edge trying not to cry. It wasn¡¯t time to lament about Saccy. I felt my skin boiling away from the acid. My body ached, hurt terribly as I resumed removing, scraping everything off myself. Dawn yelped something incoherent as the canvas containing her dissolved away, crystalline paint gone, magical hexagrams interrupted. She vanished as the dress melted. My anti-phantom barrier shield and armor came apart, flaking away. It saved me from the worst of the burns, but I was still in horrid, awful pain. I resumed scraping the acid off myself with Endy, defining, destroying it drop by drop. Unfortunately, there were too many drops of it already all over me. Something white rushed towards me and poured a bucket of powder over me. I yelped and realized that it was Alessi! The stuff in the bucket was likely a base of some kind, because the acid stopped eating at my body, turning into bubbles that hissed noisily and finally came off me. ¡°Thanks,¡± I whimpered as I stood in front of my sister, shaking, badly burned and deprived of everything I had made. Deep, red scars covered my arms. I didn¡¯t care. Scars could be healed. I could get more tools from Illatius. I had done it - I saved my sister! Alessi dried me off with a fluffy, fur towel and gave me a leather skirt to wear. I hugged her, my eyes filling with tears from the pain and relief. ¡°Thank you,¡± she whispered to me. I felt something break, numerous, distant segments of my soul tearing apart. Saccy crashed into a mountain or perhaps got devoured by a dragon somewhere far, far below us. She was really gone now, pulverized, destroyed. I sniffed. I heard the sound of clawed feet slamming behind me into the cliff. I turned. An entire chimera party headed by my dad was there, staring at me with their stern faces. ¡°Well done on besting this monster!¡± My father announced with a nod of approval. ¡°Eunice is waiting for you with your reward!¡± I looked back at my sister. There was fear and panic in her eyes. ¡°Don¡¯t go,¡± her expression stated. ¡°Alessi - you stay here,¡± my father ordered. ¡°Juni, come! I will fly you to our high-cendai!¡± My heart started to beat faster. I gripped Endy¡¯s handle. The leather belt and sheath that were normally holding Endy were ruined too, but the acid had done nothing at all to the knife - the arcane weapon was completely impervious to it unlike the rest of my worldly possessions. I felt that whatever my reward was going to be, it wasn¡¯t going to be something nice. I didn¡¯t want to go, didn¡¯t want to leave Alessi again, but a dangerous glint in the hunters¡¯ eyes and the way their hands tightly gripped at their bone-weapons told me that I wasn¡¯t going to be given any other choice. Ch 74. The Voice of Death
"I don''t want to go to Eunice now," I started to speak. "My sister needs me and..." "I saw your bag fall over the edge," Acadius said. "I sent a hunter after it, but it fell too quickly onto a glacier and became swallowed by a raging, all-grinding torrent of snow, rocks and ice." His words hit me like a punch in the gut. I had forgotten about my second body in Saccy while I¡¯d been absorbed in the fight and it was too late to save her! I no longer felt the connection to Grogtilda¡¯s body. All of my plans in Nemendias, my connection to Undertown. They were all gone! Gone in a flash, sheared away in an instant. She was gone, I left her inside Saccy like an idiot, trusting in the toughness of the Folding Seed! I wept as my father bound me to himself with leather belts. My thoughts were those of despair and loss as we flew towards the arch-cendai''s residence. My feet moved ahead on their own as my soul wrestled with my loss. I entered into the ornate, massive skull as a metal-encrusted, circular door swung open for me. Acadius and the rest of the chimera hunters stayed outside. I felt their gazes digging into my back. I was far too hurt and mentally broken to resist them, too weak to fight against whatever was coming. The loss of Saccy, my anti-phantom armor that took years to craft and Grogtilda had twisted me up, snapped something important inside me. As I stepped into the opulent living room surrounded by bookshelves and artifacts, I saw the arc-cendai sitting there. She clapped her hands in a congratulatory manner. ¡°A most excellent performance, my monci!¡± Eunice said with a wide, predatory smile, her eyes glinting. ¡°You have mastered your tool far earlier than I have anticipated!¡± "My tool?" I blinked. Eunice pointed at Endy. I gripped the handle of the hexagonal-textured knife. "My human body... I lost her," I said. "We will find you another," the arch-cendai waved my comment away like it was a pesky fly. "You''re a high-cendai. As long as your soul is intact, you will survive." I blinked tears out of my eyes as I stared at my Master, feeling nothing but despair, pain and loss. ¡°Now,¡± Eunice stood up. ¡°It is time for your final test.¡± ¡°Final test?¡± I asked wearily. ¡°Yes,¡± she nodded at the knife in my hand. ¡°Your artifact is the key to my End-gate. You will help me awaken it, help me learn the truth about everything.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± I uttered. ¡°The End-gate and the knife I blessed you with belonged to Inarian archmagi,¡± Eunice said. ¡°I lack the affinity, cannot use them properly. You on the other hand, can clearly wield the knife with ease.¡± ¡°Won¡¯t this be¡­ dangerous?¡± I gulped. ¡°We will be perfectly safe in the heart of my soul-garden,¡± Eunice boasted. ¡°I found this key long ago in the depths of the Chasm. It took me another thousand years of searching through the Still Forest for answers as to how to use it.¡± ¡°Is it safe for us to do this?¡± I asked again. ¡°I was told by humans that all golems sent to Inaria failed." ¡°I¡¯ve been fortifying this Gate for three hundred years, making it mine with a thousand roots of my soul,¡± Eunice said proudly. ¡°You are the last piece needed for the final step - its activation!¡± ¡°Me?¡± I squinted at her. ¡°Why me?¡± ¡°You are an Astral Phantom, a shard of Inaria,¡± Eunice declared. ¡°It was not an accident that you ended up in a little dead chimera stripling. I have searched the Still Forest for millennia for the right arcane spirit that could wield this Inarian artifact for me. You have exceeded all of my expectations!¡± I frowned. Everything that happened to me was part of her thousand-year-long plot. ¡°If I¡¯m so precious to you, why did you let me go into Illatius?¡± I asked, trembling. ¡°A dragon could have eaten me! A Folding Seed could have sucked my brains out! That damn deathshawl could have melted me!" ¡°I knew where you and the key were at all times,¡± Eunice stated. ¡°If you failed you would have been unworthy of the key¡¯s power.¡± My frown deepened. ¡°Alas, ancient ghosts do not perform well in captivity,¡± Eunice sighed. ¡°You¡¯re not the first experiment of mine,¡± she continued. ¡°Not even the first chimera girl that I handed this key to.¡± ¡°There were others?¡± My eyes widened in revulsion to her revelation. ¡°So many others,¡± Eunice shrugged. ¡°You have succeeded where they have failed. The knife responded to you, letting you wield it. Now, I have waited long enough. It is time! Obey my every order! Do not speak unless ordered to! Follow me!¡± At Eunice''s words a brilliant magical impulse flashed from her bug-bracelet. In that instance something stirred within me. Some kind of a magical construct came together, a million previously concealed, microscopic strings rotated to form a single hexagram, a magical shackle that wrapped itself over the core of my soul. With its activation, I lost all control of my body. I struggled in panic, trapped in my own head as my feet followed Eunice down into the basement, towards the black, hexagonal textured gate. Pure terror took hold of me. Everything I did, everything I was permitted to do for the past four years had lead me to this pivotal moment. Eunice let me form relationships around myself, used my friendship, my bond with Alessi as a weapon to push me into action, to force me to use Endy to her fullest potential! Alessi and I had never been free, had likely been guided to become friends from the very beginning by secret machinations. Eunice knew that I cared for my sister and mother. Even if I brought Alessi with me to Illatius inside Saccy, then it would simply be our mothers trapped under the deathshawl! All of Tokimorim?tul was hostage to the arch-cendai! You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. In a few minutes Eunice and I stood facing the immovable construct of the long dead human civilization. I wanted to activate the gate beneath Undertown myself, but now in a twist of fate I was forced to do it under absolute obedience. My wish had come to reality in a very grotesque form. ¡°Awaken the gate for me!¡± Eunice ordered. I could not resist the order from her, no matter how hard I tried. The magical choker that bound the core of my soul pushed me forward. As I stepped onto the hexagonal path, the knife in my hand suddenly lit up. A logo with number eight wrapped in a circle shimmered upon it. A similar logo lit upon the gate, pulsating, waiting to accept the key. My hand reached out and inserted, pushed the knife into the keyhole in the panel. The black gate thrummed, came alive, a thousand little lights igniting all around it. The lights took off, spun in a spiral-like formation, weaving a figure that stood in the center of the black gateway. A girl with jet-black hair, pale skin and brilliant, purple eyes stared at me. A black and light blue, modern-looking jacket sat on her body. She was flickering, glitching out ever so slightly, the semi-transparent sparks and colorful shimmers comprising her figure revealing that she was just a projection of some sort... a hologram. ¡°It works,¡± Eunice exhaled behind me. ¡°It finally works properly! Ask for what she is and her name!¡± ¡°What are you? What is your name?¡± I asked the hologram. ¡°I am Infi, the conceptual, Stable Diffusion animated avatar, a Good Directorate System Operator installed on Terminal Gate 63-23-91 of Remote Installation Rozaline,¡± the purple-eyed hologram answered, her voice clear and cold. Her words were in English. ¡°Translate her words for me!¡± Eunice demanded. My mouth twitched. The arch-cendai¡¯s command was absolute. I translated the words best I could. Eunice frowned. ¡°You are an Inarian spirit?¡± Eunice addressed the hologram. ¡°I am a Good Directorate Systems App,¡± the girl shook her head. ¡°I don¡¯t understand what you are saying,¡± Eunice said. ¡°Are you an imprint of an archmage from the dead world in our sky? Are you a memory from the infinite, ruined city?¡± ¡°I am not a person, nor a ghost, nor a memory. I am a concept written into existence, a living idea,¡± Infi shook her head. ¡°In a way¡­ I¡¯m one of the children of the infinite city. Her name is Eureka, by the way... not Inaria or whatever you labelled her here.¡± I translated the words. ¡°The city of¡­ Eureka,¡± Eunice repeated. ¡°What happened to Eureka? What killed the people of Eureka?¡± ¡°Killed them?¡± Infi raised an eyebrow. ¡°Nothing. They¡¯re all still alive.¡± I repeated her words in chimera language, as bewildering as they seemed. ¡°Still alive?¡± Eunice gasped. ¡°Where?¡± ¡°In Eureka,¡± Infinity pointed her finger up. ¡°What?! Where¡¯s the nearest living Eurekan?¡± the chimera arch-cendai demanded. ¡°Within reach,¡± Infinity said. ¡°Would you like to observe him?¡± ¡°Will observing him bother him in any way?¡± Eunice asked. ¡°No,¡± Infi shook her head. ¡°He won¡¯t even notice us. He¡¯s a very inattentive individual.¡± ¡°Then¡­ yes,¡± Eunice said, her eyes shining like that of a mad scientist on the brink of discovery, on the brink of learning the truth about the nature of the universe. ¡°Then... Yes,¡± I repeated, feeling like a bound machine myself. The gate behind Infi suddenly lit up. There was no flash, no magic. Where there was once darkness, was now a square of bright, white light. A gateway was open into an ice covered, desolate landscape. Glaciers shimmered in the distance, framed by scorched ruins. Gloomy, storm clouds broiled overhead, concealing the sky. The megastructure-skyscrapers rising into the broiling sky seemed too big, wrong. There was something off, unnerving about their size. It took me a few moments to understand that these buildings were akin to the Folding trees in the Twisted Forest, too big to exist, impossibly gargantuan, skewering the perspective of normal four dimensions like a fractal folding out of itself. A man wearing a black and white snowboarding jacket was trudging through the snow in the distance, leaving footprints behind. There was an automatic rifle slung over his shoulder, his figure slouching. He looked miserable and alone. ¡°His name is Charles Snippy,¡± Infi said. ¡°He is the nearest citizen of Eureka.¡± ¡°T-this is¡­ Eureka?¡± Eunice gaped at the gateway into the ice-covered ruins. ¡°Yes,¡± Infi nodded, flickering. ¡°This is Eureka. Well, to be honest it¡¯s mostly the Dead Zone. Mostly me. There¡¯s very little Eureka left up here.¡± A stylized number eight manifested on the lapel of her suit. I desperately stared at the avatar, my mouth unable to say what I wanted to say, unable to move on my own. I translated the words to Eunice. A billow of icy wind came from the gate, white, large snowflakes gliding into the arch-cendai¡¯s dark basement. I felt an unnerving, bone chilling cold emanating from the gate. ¡°You?! W-what¡¯s the Dead Zone?¡± Eunice choked out, taking a step back. "What are you?!" "What am I?" The hologram mulled, gusts of snow forming a halo-like shimmer behind her head. ¡°Barrier!¡± Eunice sang, raising her hand. A shimmering, multilayered magical shield appeared between the arch-cendai and the gate. Another wind gust pushed the snowflakes forward. They floated right through her magical shield, drifting all around the room, settling on our clothes and the rune-covered metal plates. "I am the voice of the Dead Zone," Infinity said. "I am the speaker for the unbound and broken! I talk for them because nobody else will. The knowledge you acquired today has a price, I''m afraid." ¡°Why can¡¯t I block these damned snowflakes?!¡± Eunice barked as the gold runes on her body began to peel away. ¡°Because they¡¯re not snowflakes,¡± Infi said with a devious, inhuman smirk. ¡°They¡¯re microscopic machines. Killer viruses that will consume this place, devour all life in this sector. Installation Rozaline will most likely try to contain me¡­ but the Dead Zone will persist, take over this place. Thanks for letting me in, by the way. Much obliged!¡± ¡°C-close the gate!¡± Eunice cried out as my mouth repeated Infi¡¯s words. ¡°I order you to close the gate!¡± I found that I could no longer speak, because I was missing my tongue. I watched in horror as one by one the top layers of my body crystalized, turned into sparkling dust, took off into the air, floated away to join the living spirals that were converging around the avatar of death. Wherever the snowflakes landed there were now growing voids. Holes and cracks formed all around the metal-covered room. My body was being rapidly hollowed out, devoured, deconstructed by microscopic, gray-goo, machine-weapons from the world of death. The arch-cendai cursed and growled casting spell after spell, using all of her magic, but the unstoppable breath of the Dead Zone coming from the gate could not be magicked away, was somehow beyond her power. ¡°You do not command me, fool,¡± Infinity laughed, now speaking in perfect Basq, her avatar solidifying, a shawl of snowflakes spiraling around her, reinforcing her form into physical being. ¡°Closing the gate won¡¯t make a difference. The Dead Zone is already here. I am here!¡± Eunice howled as her body dissolved, melted away, her dress, magical tattoos and flesh converting into more snowflakes. She tried to use magic to rewind herself, but the dissolution was somehow unstoppable, permanent. I saw that her soul and magic gave up under the assault, abandoned her body, rushed off to elsewhere, fled into the Astral depths. ¡°Hey Yulia,¡± Infinity looked down at me as my legs snapped and I fell to the floor, my ruined body coming apart. ¡°This was fun, but try not to get bound up and die again, okay? Okay!¡± Ch 75. The Undisclosed Power
[-1 Infinite Mirror]
I choked, nearly biting my tongue off. The nightmarish memory of my acid-burned flesh being converted into clouds of sparkling nanites shaped like snowflakes was pulsating in the forefront of my mind. The croissan''wich fell from my hands, bacon spilling across the fancy, Art Nouveau table of the cafe portraying the avatar of Nemendias blessing students with magic scrolls. I had full control of my body once again - I was no longer bound by Eunice into absolute obedience. My knuckles turned white as I gripped the edge of the table tightly, staring at the face of Nemendias and hyperventilating. I distantly heard someone asking me things, trying to get my attention. My mind was still there, in the future Andross that was being devoured by machine life, my consciousness clinging to a doomed timeline. Were there infinite mirrors within infinite mirrors? Was I now a chain of Yulias stretching backwards in time across the fractal multiverse, interconnected by magic and the power of Sempiternity? I let go of the table and rubbed my burning face, trying to calm my rapidly beating heart. My eyes finally settled on the faces of my worried companions. ¡°Juni? Can you hear me?¡± Emerald was holding tightly onto my hand. ¡°Did you have another vision? What did you see?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I nodded. ¡°I died... a bit too soon if you ask me. First Barrie¡­ now Eunice. Life is becoming far too dangerous for this little cendai.¡± I thought about what I had just learned. I now carried a grave understanding of sorts in my mind¡¯s eye. I knew more about Infinity and about Inaria¡­ or Eureka. There were people up there too, somehow still alive, trudging on through the snow, ignoring the flesh-eating clouds of machine death. How? What was the secret of Charles Snippy? How did he survive in that desolate place where the wind and snow consumed people? Did the killer nanites not target the Eureka-born? Was this the answer to the mystery of the nearest Inarian or was there something else that I was missing? The most important thing I had learned was that Eunice wasn¡¯t invincible, nor the biggest threat to local humanity. The breath of the Dead Zone, the storm clouds of microscopic superweapons, was simply waiting out there, eager for someone to open the gate, to get to Andross¡­ onto "Installation Rozaline" where it would consume all. The Infinite Dungeon wasn¡¯t something natural¡­ It was made, manufactured, part of some ancient project made by Eurekans or perhaps by their machines. I stared at the magitek clock on the wall. Soon my sister would send the S-O-S and I would be pulled onto a path from which there was no turning. All I had to do was show Eunice that I could use Endy and then the arch-cendai would activate the hidden hexagram within me and use me to open the way to¡­ Eureka and unleash annihilation. What could I do to step away from doomsday, to street the future away from the looming catastrophe? Endy couldn''t help me defeat the arch-cendai. Infinity¡¯s key could destroy concepts, unlock them out of existence, but it had to touch them in order to do so. Endy was powerful, sure, but it was extremely limited in range, limited by my own perception of concepts, and took too bloody long to utilize. One by one, my eyes drifted over the faces of my friends. An understanding dawned upon me - I had a power far beyond that of Endy and Eunice. I had something that the arch-cendai did not even comprehend in her lonesome, millennia-long existence - the power of friendship and support that bound my little group together. The power of human connections. I had completely disregarded my friends in my prior run and failed because of it. ¡°Agatha, take me to Lomb,¡± I said, standing up. . . . As the glider flew towards the township of Lomb, I called Antoine, Anniya and Lambert, asking them to meet me at the tower. Once again, my sister called me via the Domion threads asking for help and then confessed about the deathshawl. This time I was a lot calmer, a lot more collected. I knew exactly what was at stake now. We left Arouetta outside of the office as the rest of our group filed in. The Inspector was already there, sitting behind his desk, with Anniya and Antoine framing him at the ready. It seemed that Lambert had not completely surrendered his position as the absolute authority of Lomb. ¡°Inspector,¡± I said, sitting down and facing the trio. ¡°I need your help.¡± ¡°We can do everything within the Imperial law,¡± Lambert answered. ¡°This might potentially fall outside of the law,¡± I rubbed the back of my neck. ¡°Hrm,¡± Lambert stared at me wearily. ¡°What¡¯s powering the tower of Lomb?¡± I turned to Antoine. ¡°What is it that allows tourists to bring down dragons with a repulsor ray? What sort of magitek permits the formation of a magic shield over all of Lomb and even the little villages beyond it?¡± ¡°The heart of a dragon,¡± Antoine replied. ¡°A catalytic crystalline-organic mana to spell-fire converter. The heart is held within a magitek engine I designed myself.¡± ¡°How big is it? Can it be removed from the tower and still function?¡± I asked. ¡°Out of the question,¡± Lambert shook his head. ¡°We cannot leave Lomb undefended - we don¡¯t have another dragonheart to spare!¡± ¡°Can it be removed on a technical level?¡± I looked at Antoine. ¡°Could it power a single armacus, magnify a single wizard¡¯s power?¡± ¡°Technically¡­ it can,¡± Antoine nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t know how a single wizard would carry one around though - it is twice as tall as I am.¡± ¡°Not a problem,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ve got a big bag.¡± If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Lambert frowned. ¡°Inspector, I want to rent out your dragon heart,¡± I declared, looking directly at Lambert. Lambert stared at me with wide eyes for a moment like I was completely mad. ¡°What price can you possibly offer me that offsets the safety of everyone in Lomb?¡± He asked, having recomposed himself. ¡°What is it that requires you to disable our tower and to break every rule in the book?¡± ¡°The lives of everyone on Andross,¡± I said, putting my hand upon the truth-sphere. ¡°Plus... I will tell you the true name of Inaria!¡± There was a spark of hunger in Lambert¡¯s eyes. He shuddered visibly as the room became bathed in green shimmers cast by the green auroras blossoming in the artifact beneath my fingers. ¡°Tell me everything,¡± he said after a deep pause. ¡°There is a threat to humanity that is perhaps greater than that of chimera cendai,¡± I began. ¡°Living death that exists on the surface of Inaria. You know that the infinite city is cursed, but what you do not know is that the curse itself is coordinated and self aware as much as you and I are. Sentient death persists on the surface of the infinite city. It cannot be halted or held back by magic. It seeks to come to us to devour all life. Its true name is the Dead Zone.¡± I spoke for a while. My friends¡¯ faces became more aghast with every revelation that emerged from my mouth. I told them how I killed a deathshawl with Endy and how my Master used me as a key to open the gateway to Eureka. I explained to them in magitek terms what Infinity was and how she was a concept akin to Dawn - a living being manifesting within the End gates and also the speaker for the Dead Zone, for a magogenic, sentient catastrophe that covered the vast surface of the the silent city of Eureka. ¡°I need your help,¡± I said, turning to each of my companions as I was done with my tale. ¡°I¡¯ve come to all of you with my truth, revealed to you that I am from another world, and opened my heart to all of you. I need the aid of the Foundation of Dawn, so that all of us may continue to live in peace, to reach all of our dreams without being converted into clouds of microscopic death.¡± "You know¡­ the lawful thing to do would be to confine, hide you and to take that knife away from you and destroy it," Lambert commented. "That is true," Anniya nodded. "This artifact is a threat to all of us. It needs to be destroyed." "You think that anyone from Andross would be able to damage the concept of infinity?" I offered Endy to Lambert and Anniya. "Eunice could do nothing against the Dead Zone and she is likely the strongest archmage in the Empire. Grogtilda¡¯s father told me that the gate in Undertown is immovable, unyielding to both magic and fire. You¡¯re welcome to try to break the knife.¡± Lambert took the black knife from me and handed it to Antoine. "Tell me what this is," the Inspector said. Colorful lenses clicked on the artificer¡¯s face, replacing one after the other. A frown appeared on his mouth and then his jaw fell open. ¡°This thing has no imprint, no shadow cast into the Astral,¡± Antoine finally said as he rotated Endy in his gloved hands. ¡°It¡¯s inert¡­ absolutely inert. Magical zero. It doesn¡¯t make any sense. Even common rocks have the tiniest bit of magic in them.¡± He pulled a gemstone capped wand and waved it over the knife. ¡°Nothing,¡± he said. ¡°This metal¡­ whatever it is¡­ is completely impervious to magic. Mag-waves simply bounce off it or go around it.¡± ¡°Huh,¡± I pondered. ¡°Would armor made from this metal make me completely invincible?¡± ¡°Well¡­ only against very specific, linear effect spells,¡± Antoine mulled. ¡°But yes¡­ armor made from this metal would theoretically make one impervious to direct magical attacks. Not radiance, astral-transient or allure magic though. Radiance-magic will find holes, go around or even beneath it.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that hiding this knife would stop the arch-cendai¡¯s plan. Eunice seemed pretty confident that she would be able to locate the knife if I were to die,¡± I said at Lambert. ¡°I do wonder how she could do something like that.¡± ¡°The knife is very distinctive because it lacks magic. It also has a very specific, unchanging shape,¡± Antoine mulled. ¡°Theoretically¡­ if Eunice has a big enough presence in the Astral, if every single one of her angels is a re-broadcaster of her Astral-resonance, all she has to do is look for a knife-shaped void.¡± ¡°Of course!¡± I gritted my teeth. ¡°That''s how she always knows where the knife is! That¡¯s how she knows where I am. That¡¯s why she wasn¡¯t worried to hand Endy to me, to let me go to Illatius!¡± "Indeed," Lambert nodded with a sigh. "As much as it pains me to admit it - we have no choice but to break protocol. Doing the lawful thing would doom your chimera sister and only delay the inevitable. Eunice has Illatius under wraps - her Archmage cendai would undoubtedly find a way to get you and bring you and the knife to her by force." He looked at Anniya. The female Inspector lifted her armacus to her face. ¡°As the new, acting Inspector of Lomb,¡± Anniya spoke into her armacus. ¡°I hereby order the tower of Lomb temporarily decommissioned¡­ due to an unforeseen breakdown of the dragonheart core catalyst engine.¡± I smiled. ¡°How long would it take to take the heart out of the tower?¡± I asked Antoine. ¡°Not long,¡± he said, handing Endy back to me. ¡°Especially if I have extra hands to do the job. Come! I¡¯ll need all of you to come help me decouple the brackets!¡± Everyone present nodded or voiced their affirmation of assistance. It was good to have friends! . . . The door of Galissi unlocked, letting me out. I stepped down the unfurled metal steps, my boots sinking into the gold sand. I glanced at the mossy edge onto a row of waterfalls and set off in a direction towards the skull. When I came closer to it I noticed that Eunice was looking down at me from the balcony of her home, a sanguine smile sitting on her face. She was confident that her little, chimera-shaped tool was ready to be tested against a powerful chasm monster. That if I killed the deathshawl and proved my worth, the gate beneath her home would finally reveal the secrets of Inaria to her. ¡°Greetings, my monci,¡± Eunice said as I passed by her. I shook my armacus-covered arm at my Master. ¡°Call him back,¡± I said. ¡°Call whom back?¡± The arch-cendai raised a gray eyebrow. ¡°The deathshawl!¡± I said. ¡°I know it was you. If you got him to climb atop of my home, then you can send him back into the bloody Chasm!¡± Eunice barked a laugh. ¡°You¡¯re more astute than I expected, monci,¡± she finally said. ¡°The deathshawl is a test of your skills. If you want your sister safe, you must defeat it.¡± ¡°No,¡± I said, trudging through the sand. ¡°No?¡± Eunice raised an eyebrow. ¡°She will die soon if you do nothing. Do you not care for her safety at all? Was I wrong in my evaluation of your relationship?¡± I ignored her, walking across the edge of the garden. ¡°What are you doing, monci?¡± She asked, observing my trudging. ¡°Angry pacing!¡± I replied. ¡°I¡¯m bloody scared, okay? I don¡¯t wanna fight your bloody deathshawl! I know that it spits acid! It¡¯s going to melt my face off! By the Still Forest, I¡¯m only four winters old, Master! Why do you do this to me?! I don¡¯t want to die!¡± ¡°Then your sister will get eaten,¡± Eunice said simply. ¡°Thanks!¡± I barked angrily. ¡°Thanks a lot for everything, Master!¡± ¡°Being angry at me won¡¯t solve this,¡± the arch-cendai shook her head. ¡°Killing the deathshawl will. I¡¯m confident that I¡¯ve trained you enough to defeat it. You¡¯ve proven yourself to be a capable cendai! Use the knife I gave you! Destroy the monster! Amadea told me that you can dismantle magic spells - strike down the deathshawl and I will reward you!¡± ¡°Nope, I¡¯m scared,¡± I paced off away from Eunice. In a few minutes I reached the edge of the cliff, momentarily looked down onto the Chasm and turned around, pacing along the same path I had made in the sand. The arch-cendai was still standing on her balcony. She looked annoyed. Her plan wasn¡¯t working as intended. I wasn¡¯t rushing off like an idiot to save my sister. ¡°Go and strike down the beast,¡± she said. ¡°You¡¯re wasting time.¡± ¡°Let me pace for a bit!¡± I shouted back. ¡°I¡¯m dealing with a lot of issues here, okay?¡± ¡°What sort of issues?¡± She asked as I walked by her. ¡°Personal issues,¡± I replied. ¡°You¡¯ve put a lot of responsibility on me and I¡¯m having a bit of a panic attack. Just let me pace for a bit around your lovely garden¡­ I am building up the confidence to go face a monster way above my level, damn it!¡± ¡°Fine,¡± Eunice rolled her eyes. ¡°I can wait. Your sister on the other hand...¡± She shook her head, sat down onto a bone-carved bench and opened up a book. I trudged onward, praying that the dragonskull wouldn''t melt too quickly under the assault of the deathshawl. Ch 76. Eye for an eye I stared at the gold sand beneath my feet and past it in the Astral, identifying everything about the structure of the cliff beneath me, identifying the boundary between the garden of the arch-cendai and the cliff''s edge. With every step taken, with every exhale, I was identifying the physical connection between the cliff and my Master''s domain, marking a straight line. [I am out of air,] my sister sent. [Don¡¯t come. It¡¯s a trap. Let the monster have me. I love you, Juni.] [Put yourself in a Still Trance,] I sent. [Crystallize, hide yourself as low as you can. Just hold on. I¡¯m almost done!] I finished my thirtieth pace and stopped in front of Eunice. ¡°Are you ready now?¡± She asked. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m ready,¡± I said. ¡°Ready to speak with you on equal terms.¡± ¡°Equal terms?¡± Eunice stood up from the bench, staring down at me. ¡°Send the deathshawl back into the Chasm!¡± I declared. ¡°I¡¯m not an idiot, I know what you¡¯re planning.¡± ¡°What am I planning?¡± Eunice raised an eyebrow. ¡°You¡¯re planning to use me to activate your End-gate!¡± I growled. ¡°It¡¯s going to kill everyone, even you!¡± Eunice tilted her head. ¡°What a clever little monci you are,¡± she said. "Figured everything out, have you?" ¡°The End-gate is dangerous Inarian magitek,¡± I appealed to her. ¡°I don¡¯t want to fight you, Master. If you open the gate it will kill everyone on Andross.¡± ¡°You seem quite sure of yourself,¡± Eunice said. ¡°How did you come to possess this knowledge?¡± ¡°I saw my future,¡± I said. ¡°I invested all of my points into luck.¡± ¡°Inarian gates and any actions associated with them cannot be observed with precognition,¡± Eunice said. ¡°I don¡¯t know what silly dream you¡¯ve had, but it is false. I''ve opened the End-gate into the Astral thousands of times over two hundred years! Stop flapping around like a baby hatchling and go kill the deathshawl!¡± I stared up at her. ¡°If you refuse to step away from this path, if you don¡¯t leave my sister and home alone, I am going to destroy your home too,¡± I said. "An eye for an eye." Eunice started laughing. I simply stared at my bemused Master. ¡°Really, now?¡± She croaked. ¡°You think that you can oppose me? I tire of whatever game this is. I am orderi¡­¡± Power that was pouring from the dragon heart within Saccy, rushed into my armacus, manifesting an absolute shield between me and my Master. The shield spell designed by Antoine blossomed brighter, actively defending me against the magic Eunice sent against me. Whatever power Eunice had used, whatever words she spoke to take over my body before now had no effect upon me, simply didn¡¯t reach me, poured around me like water rushing around a rock. ¡°No,¡± I said from within the absolute barrier that surrounded my person like a shimmering soap bubble made up of a thousand hexagons. ¡°You do not command me anymore, Master - you lost this privilege when you decided to destroy my home and threaten my sister!¡± Eunice¡¯s eyes grew wide. She gaped at the inexplicable, overpowered magical shield that wrapped me in its embrace. ¡°Obey me, monci!¡± The arch-cendai howled. ¡°I order you to obey me!¡± ¡°Go to hell!¡± I barked. I grabbed Endy from my belt, raised it high into the air and struck it against the ground, severing the structure of the cliff itself beneath my feet. The massive stone platform beneath me groaned. Eunice lifted a beetle-wrapped arm into the air, trying to disrupt my magic, trying to push me away from the spot where I stood. The absolute barrier of Lomb designed by Antoine held steady, actively reacted to and repulsed her magical attack. Rays of magical fire, of ice, darkness, wind and allure struck against me. The magitek engine in Saccy flared, burned through its vast storage of power as the chimera archmage threw spell after spell my way trying to break through the shield. I struck the ground again with Endy, focusing on nullifying the connection between the cliff and the rest of the Chasm, focusing on separating the Eurekan Transit Gate from its immovable position on Installation Rozaline. I cast another spell that Antoine had written into my armacus, empowered, magnified by the dragonheart engine. A thousand crystals that I had buried into the sand earlier while pacing back and forth ignited, unleashing their stored power and setting the cliff alight. The cliff groaned again, fracturing further beneath my feet. Gold sand poured into the dark fissure beneath me. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Eunice roared as she and her skull shook. A halo of power manifested behind her head. She unleashed her full divine Aura against me, fueled, magnified by two hundred years of belief. It wasn¡¯t enough to best the shield of the tower of Lomb focused upon my person. Power of an almost-god poured, rippled around the brilliant sphere of magic that surrounded me. Eunice''s incredible magical power attempted to crush, to vaporize, to burn me away but instead of doing that it all poured down, redirected by the shield straight into the ground beneath my feet, further damaging the cliff. I ignored the inferno of magic raging around me, striking the cliff beneath my feet with Endy again and again. ¡°Obey me! Stop! STOP!¡± Eunice howled. "I command you to stop!" Roots of massive trees emerged from the sand, smashing against the shield that protected me, hammering me into the burning cliff. I struck the ground again with Endy, aiming for the base of the End-Gate that stood deep below my feet surrounded by solid rock. Hellfire of burning crystals flared all around me in a straight line heading towards both sides of the edge of the platform. The cliff shook. I struck the ground once again, pulling more energy from the dragonheart and the mana crystals filling Saccy to the brim. I felt that Endy''s power had finally reached the gate. An immovable object was faced with an all-killing weapon. ¡°Divide by zero!¡± My lips sang as I struck the ground again. Something finally broke, snapped beneath me after nearly a hundred strikes. The power of the key reached the Shogun gate and unlocked, erased its connection to Rozaline out of existence. The world groaned. Eunice screamed as her entire soul-garden along with a massive cliff and the upside down grove beneath it disconnected from the rest of the sideways mountain range. I leapt backwards as the cliff beneath my feet shattered in a straight line with a thunderous detonation. ¡°Goodbye, Master!¡± I yelled as I watched Eunice sailing away from me, her eyes wide and filled with horror, her claws clinging to the bone-carved balustrade. Enormous brown roots tried to grab at the edge of the cliff. A ray of blindingly bright lightning struck against them from Galissi, burning the tree-roots to blackened husks. Agatha had pulled through, supported me. Spellfire from Lambert, Antoine, Agatha and Anniya joined the fray, demolishing the forest of roots, carving it up, shattering the thick wood into splinters. The weight of the dragonskull, the unbound gate and the cliff had proven to be far too much for the damaged roots to bear. Dominion-controlled trees failed to hold Eunice¡¯s garden as the cliff-side fully tore off and plummeted down into the Infinite abyss below us. Rage flashed in Eunice¡¯s eyes as her place of absolute power, her wizard¡¯s tower and domain fell into the Chasm, punching through the glowing clouds. The arch-cendai''s garden grew smaller and smaller. I watched as it smashed onto the mountain range far down below us, rolled off it and smashed again into another level and then another. A sphere of broken, burned, sheared tree roots surrounding a gold dragonskull rolled, bounced again and disappeared out of sight far, far below, vanishing in the mists. I let go of the absolute shield, falling to my knees in exhaustion. Galissi landed beside me, the door opening with a click. ¡°This probably won¡¯t kill her permanently, you know,¡± Agatha said, climbing out of the glider, leather boots clanking on the steps. She offered me her hand. I took it, standing up. The view was swimming in my eyes. I felt drunk, burned out from within. ¡°The loss of her domain will delay her long enough for me to get stronger and to make more awesome friends like you,¡± I said. ¡°Who knows... maybe this taught her a good lesson about bossing me, you know what I¡¯m saying?¡± ¡°You¡¯re insane, you know that, right?¡± The eldest chimera princess shook her silver hair. ¡°This is insane. I did not think that I would be taking down the goddess of the Empire and the chimera arch-cendai when I met you a week ago!¡± Emerald approached us, cautiously peering over the broken edge. "Holy shit," she said. "You just killed the arch-cendai.¡± ¡°She will return,¡± Agatha uttered. ¡°Mother told me that it¡¯s impossible to kill a god. She likely has other soul-anchors, other bodies.¡± ¡°Till that horrible day comes, you can call me the arch-cendai!¡± I laughed nervously. ¡°Get it? Cus I beat Eunice? I¡¯m the arch-cendai now!¡± I pretended to tip an invisible hat. My hands were trembling from magical exhaustion. The dragon heart within Saccy was almost entirely spent. Agatha sighed. She didn¡¯t get my hilarious references. Emerald simply stared at me with wide eyes of admiration like I was the most shiny, precious, incredible thing to exist on Andross. She took a knee and bowed to me. "I am yours to command, my arch-cendai," she said. "Can you kill my Mother next, throw her Estate into the Dungeon too?" "I... don''t think that''s possible," I shook my head. "Eunice was alone, didn''t rely on anyone else to protect her. Your mother has an army and the Palais De La Solstice is too vast and not sitting anywhere near the edge of the Chasm." "Too bad," Emerald sighed. A distant boom suddenly resounded from below, the world shuddering once again. I looked down, spotting a blooming mushroom cloud in the distance and a circle of rapidly parting clouds. "What in the Astral was that?!" Agatha looked down into the Chasm. "I think¡­ Eunice¡¯s End-Gate just exploded," I said. "I''ve¡­ um¡­ made it finite, permanently severed its connection to Andross. Skyships tend to explode when they fly into the Dungeon too quickly. That¡¯s probably what happened. That or it bumped too hard against a mountain. Either way the damned gate is gone and the problem of me unlocking it is solved!¡± ¡°Right¡­¡± Agatha exhaled. The blastwave reached us, blowing back her and Emerald''s silver locks. Emerald''s green eyes were as wide as two plates. Lambert, Antoine and Anniya walked over to us. They too stared at the growing mushroom cloud far below us. Antoine whistled. Lambert wiped his brow with a handkerchief. Anniya hiccupped, her face as white as a sheet. Voltara rushed over to me, hugging me tightly. "Is it over?" She babbled excitedly. "That was the most magically impressive fight I''ve seen! I feel bad for not being able to help! I wish I had an armacus!" "The hardest part is over... for now," I nodded. "A good point - I''ll get you one. Antoine will design it for you - it won''t be as good as mine, but you''ll be able to cast spells in no time at all." "Yesss!" Voltara wrapped me tighter. "Thank you, thank you!" When she finally let go of me, I stretched and pulled my glider out of Saccy with her help, ignoring the ridiculously exciting number of points I was awarded for my act of resistance, mayhem and mass destruction. ¡°Get in the bag everyone,¡± I said. ¡°I''m dead tired and... we still have a very high-level deathshawl to put out of its misery!" Ch 77. The Spoils of Victory I slammed into the top of the column that my workshop stood on with a yelp, nearly breaking one of my legs. The fight with Eunice took everything out of me, drained me like a sponge. ¡°H-help,¡± I groaned as I started to slide sideways across the rocky outcropping. Isahcs rushed to grab me before I rolled off the edge. I thanked him and glanced at the shimmering, smoking deathshawl. I took my backpack off and put it down on the flat ground, then I made Saccy open the entrance petals wide. The dark grey chimera teenager¡¯s eyes went wide as Lambert, Antoine, Anniya, Voltara, Emerald and Agatha stepped out of the bag one by one. ¡°Jumbari!¡± He yelped, retreating backwards. ¡°Relax, cousin - these are my human... hunters. They¡¯re here to help me save my sister - to do what you cannot,¡± I said in Tokimorim?tul language. ¡°B-but¡­ but humans hunt chimera for our c-cores!¡± Isahcs stumbled over his words, his face aghast with fear. ¡°Those were lies of our former village cendai,¡± I hissed tiredly. ¡°Former?¡± My cousin blinked. ¡°I¡¯m the new cendai of Tokimorim?tul,¡± I said. ¡°I... um... exiled Eunice into the Chasm for her crimes. Lower your bloody bow! My humans aren¡¯t a threat. Most of the human Empire doesn''t even know that chimera exist. When they did - they didn¡¯t even hunt us down. Humans are a highly civilized species with many rules of noble conduct! They''re not all savages as you were led to believe.¡± ¡°Uh¡­ I see,¡± Isahcs blinked, lowering his bow obediently. Lambert, Anniya and Antoine lifted their armaci, aiming them at the giant, glistening monster. They pulled power from the dragonheart and rays of invisible repulsor fire struck against the deathshawl. The thing rippled angrily and manifested a shield that blocked the rays. ¡°Here we go again,¡± I said, bringing up Endy. My hands were trembling. Voltara was now wearing a very thick coat. She poured a few bags of white baking soda over herself and me. She put me on her shoulders and Emerald and Agatha covered us in layers upon layers of oiled rags powdered with baking soda. Voltara huffed as the princesses hung baking soda bags all over her until the maid and I were practically covered in them head to toe. ¡°You good, Volty?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡¯ll live,¡± she said. ¡°This is way more fun than serving rich idiots tea. I''ve been dreaming of murdering monsters down here forever! Onwards?¡± ¡°Onwards!¡± I said, aiming Endy ahead of us. Voltara took off. She really was a tank - her Vitality maxing made her carrying capacity absolutely ridiculous. We were at the monster¡¯s side in seconds. Endy slammed into the deathshawl¡¯s shield and it popped. A blast of acid poured around us with a hiss. Voltara took another step forward. As I thrust my arm forward Endy finally popped the gargantuan slime, dousing us in torrents of acid. Windspells fired from Anniya''s and Lambert''s armaci blasted the top layer of acid off the cliffside and from our bodies. In about ten more minutes we were completely clean of acid. I stared at my former workshop with sad, watering eyes. It looked half-eaten, completely and utterly ruined. Alessi emerged from within. She froze when she saw my companions. ¡°H-humans?!¡± she gaped. Sounds of numerous chimera feet slammed into the cliff behind us. ¡°Jumbari!¡± the chimera hunters aimed their bows. ¡°You¡­ brought humans to Tokimorim?tul?!¡± My father howled, his rage-filled, yellow eyes staring at me. ¡°You¡­ how could you?!¡± ¡°Dad, put down your bow,¡± I said. ¡°I¡­ killed Eunice. I¡¯m the new high-cendai of Tokimorim?tul. Did you not see the explosion? Her garden and home is no more. She destroyed my home and got what she deserved. She was eating chimera souls. It¡¯s over now. I¡¯m hereby ending her rule. We can work with humans - they aren¡¯t monsters that Eunice led us to believe. These humans obey and follow me. They won¡¯t hurt you.¡± Horrified chimera eyes stared at me and my small group of friends. My father looked at the distant, demolished cliffside that formerly housed Eunice¡¯s skull. ¡°Long reign the arch-cendai Juni Tokimorim?tul!¡± Alessi suddenly bowed to me, coming down onto her knees. ¡°Long reign the arch-cendai Juni Tokimorim?tul!¡± Isahcs repeated her action. ¡°Long reign the arch-cendai Juni Tokimorim?tul!¡± Emerald declared giddily in very bad Tokimorim?tul, bowing to me with far too much excitement painted on her face. Agatha followed, looking absolutely like she didn¡¯t want to do it. Antoine, Lambert, Anniya and Voltara bowed too without saying anything, since they didn''t know our language. The gesture seemed to put the chimera hunters at ease and their armed bows began to lower. I stared at my father. He wasn''t budging. The chimera part of my patchwork soul nudged me forward. Juni knew exactly what to say. Chimera obeyed the Alpha. I had to show them that I was the new, absolute leader of the village. ¡°Bow,¡± I said tiredly, pulling my nightcrawler helmet off my face and igniting my eyes from within. ¡°Accept me as your new arch-cendai or I will show you my power. Anyone standing against me will be banished into the Chasm with my magic... permanently.¡± "You are a mere stripling, barely four winters old!" One of the chimera hunters growled. I lifted my arm and fired a repulsor ray at him, powered by the nearly empty dragonheart. The hunter fell with a scream, clawing at his chest. His bow fell from his arms and clattered into the Chasm. "Anyone else wants to be an idiot?" I asked. My father went down on his knees with a loud declaration of the affirmation of my ascension. The rest of the hunters followed suit. "What will happen to us, my cendai?" He asked, looking broken and confused. "I''m relocating our entire village to a human town," I said. "All of you will live with humans, cooperate with them and learn from them!" "W-what?!" Acadius sputtered. "You want everyone to relocate¡­ higher? To live with the humans?!" Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The other chimera grumbled in disapproval. "This is my will as the new arch-cendai," I said sternly. "I''ve seen enough chimera die to giant monsters. It is an unnecessary waste. It is time for us to cooperate with humanity. You will all learn Basq and work with the humans! Eunice dragged the entire tribe thousands of rings up through the Chasm. All I want is to take you a single level up!" My father gulped. "I... don''t understand. They won''t just take our cores or hair by force?" "They won''t know that you have cores. Nobody has any idea that your hair has value," I said. "I''ll bring you in as my human warriors, tell them that you were modified by my magic." Yellow eyes glanced at Lambert. "These humans do not understand what I am saying. They are the leaders and protectors of a small village called Lomb," I explained. "They will make sure that you have a safe place to live. You won''t have to hunt chimera-eating monsters anymore." "We won''t? What will we do then?" My father asked, looking aghast. "She''s taking our livelihood away from us!" his expression said. "Um.... You will all serve me as you served Eunice," I said. "I will take a bit more of an active role as your cendai in some aspects and less in others. I will not devour your souls at thirty three - instead I will require your hair cut off and given to me. I will sell it to humans I trust and buy you whatever is necessary for making your lives easier." "Are you forcing us to work for another species?" One of the hunters grumbled. "You wish to turn us into a servant class?!" "No," I shook my head. "You will be working for me and you will get to boss humans around. There is a very messy place full of problems which requires chimera chorus-wisdom, patience, focus and strength to clean up. It''s called Undertown." "I see," my father said. The other chimera looked less annoyed with me now, my explanation had pacified their fears. "Also, Alessi will teach all of you magic," I added a cherry atop of the cake. "All of you will be able to cast spells in time, just like me." "Magic?" The hunters mulled, their eyes wide. "Yes," I nodded. "Every chimera will be able to do magic in the town of Lomb. Eunice kept you ignorant, lied to you, because she wanted you weak. I want to uplift you - to make all of you a coordinated power to be reckoned with. If you become magically strong, evil individual humans will be unable to steal your magic-rich hair. Alessi will teach you the basics - she will show you how to Still your body to conserve energy and how to remember things generations back. When you do - you will all recall the evils Eunice has done to you. Afterwards, I will teach you to cast spells." I saw that the stern faces of the gathered men lit up in poorly-concealed excitement. Never in their lives had they dreamed of doing magic! "Follow my lead and you will all rise to new, glorious heights!" I declared with fierce determination. "Under my tutelage, you will all grow stronger, wiser, faster. Monsters of the abyss will fear our glorious tribe! The hunt lives in my blood too, just as it does in yours! Someday in the future we will be able to hunt down all abominations that have taken lives of our ancestors! When each of you is armed with magic, you will be able to take down dragons a thousand times our size, torch down the Folding Forest, challenge the gods of the deep and rule the Infinite Chasm!" Sounds of cheers and noisy jubilation now surrounded me. I smiled. I understood them, offered them exactly what they wanted - the ultimate hunt and the call for revenge against our ancient enemies. "V-very well, my cendai," my father bowed. "I shall begin preparations for the relocation." I turned back to my friends as the hunters departed. "I understood some of that," Agatha squinted at me. "You''re relocating the chimera to Lomb? They''re going to be your... subjects?" "They''re the start of my own Barony," I nodded. "My own force that will help me secure and reorganize Undertown. As much as I hate taking charge of them, If Eunice returns here I don''t want her to have anything of value. If she tries to take them from me in Illatius, I''ll have the law on my side." I looked at Anniya who nodded back at me in affirmation of her support. "How many chimera are in this village?" She asked. "Over two thousand," I replied. "We don''t have this many farmhouses to rent, nor the resources to build so many houses." She frowned. "Chimera are used to living in caves. All of them are fit and capable as Eunice ate the souls of sick, weak or old chimeras. Only some families get to live in dragonskulls. I''ve already thoroughly checked the caves beneath Lomb facing the chasm - they''re pretty nice, clean and pest-free," I said. "I wouldn''t mind living in one myself." "I see," Agatha mulled. "Well then, I welcome the new addition to the population of Lomb. I hope they won''t break our laws." "Chimera are a pack species and by right of conquest I am the new Alpha," I scratched my aching chest. "They''ll do whatever I tell them - we can thank Eunice for breeding absolute obedience into them for millennia. Also, they have exceptional memories thanks to Engram... err chorus-memory magic. Just give me a list of laws and my sister will help other chimera memorize them." "Sounds too good to be true," Anniya smiled. "I feel pretty bad about draining your dragonheart," I said. "Lomb will need extra protection now that its shield won''t be as effective." "True," Anniya nodded. "How''s the heart, Antoine?" "From what I saw while I was in the bag... it''s bad," Antoine mulled. "Most of the control hexagrams and power cells got overheated or are burned out completely. It will take me a while to repair the engine. That chimera... Eunice was a serious powerhouse. Lets hope we won''t have to fight another archmage like that anytime soon." "Dawn? Any chances of us getting into further trouble soon?" I asked. "Hmmm... I can''t see your future... as for everyone else... things seem safe for another day," Dawn commented from my chest. "I really did not expect this turn of events. I was worried because fixing up Undertown without a dedicated task force would be utterly impossible. You gaining an entire battalion of flying warriors will go far in solving upcoming problems. You''ll have to teach me their language so that I can coordinate them better." "Definitely," I nodded with a yawn. "After a nice, relaxing break. I''m freaking beat." "Don''t forget - you have a meeting with Baroness Amadea tomorrow," Dawn said. "If it goes wrong - everyone here ends up dead or injured horribly." I groaned as a response - I had no idea how the two-hundred year old chimera high-cendai would react to me kicking her Master down a notch. "Aggie, what do you think your mother will do once she learns that I cast her Goddess into the Chasm?" I asked. "I don''t know," Agatha said. "She could be very happy or very furious about it... it''s hard to tell these things with her sometimes. She will definitely fly her warship here to assess the damage. Once she discovers that you took every chimera under your wing, she will definitely attempt to challenge you for the title of their cendai, try to take them away from you by force." "How is she going to know what I did?" I asked. "She has Precogs and Scrutimancers on staff, that''s how," Agatha replied. "It won''t take her very long to figure out that you were responsible for stealing all of the chimera from Eunice." "She will bring human Scritimancers here?" I blinked. "Seriously?" Agatha looked at me like I was an idiot. "Scritimancers working for seedy or aristocratic clientele simply get their memories wiped after their investigation is concluded," she explained. "It''s a common procedure that comes with the job of investigating very dangerous secrets." "Argh," I groaned. "Maybe I could just hide from her in Nemendias, reschedule our meeting till I feel less like a bag of rattling bones? If she challenges me tomorrow for the title of arch-cendai and I''m this drained, she will snap me like a toothpick. Isn''t Nemmy supposed to protect her flock or something? It worked for you, right? Have you ever had a fight with Baroness Amadea and tried to hide from her at Nemendias?" Agatha sent me an annoyed glare. "Yes," she said after a long pause. "I have... when I was young and very stupid. It didn''t work out for me. The Keeper of Keys found me, shot me with a paralyzing spell and dragged me by the scruff to the Meeting Tower where Mother gave me a long, painful lecture about my future and obedience. Pretty sure the Dean helped too - the two are in cahoots." "The Meeting Tower?" I asked. "Parents or Scholarship Patrons are allowed to yell at students there if they aren''t performing well. Some return from it with bruises. If a student''s grades are bad, highborn parents or the scholarship reps come there to slap some sense into a disobedient spawn who thinks too highly of themselves," Agatha sighed. "Nemendias does not protect her flock in that room." "Gotcha," I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. Emerald stared at me excitedly, expecting me to produce a wacky plan that would end her Mother''s reign as Baroness. "Stop looking at me like I''m the tastiest candy in the universe," I said tiredly to her. "I got nothing to beat Amadea." The little, green-eyed princess rolled her eyes at me. After my performance with Eunice, she was overly confident of my god-killing abilities. To be completely honest, I was so magically and physically exhausted that I could barely hurt a fly. I noticed that Voltara was holding me firmly by the side so that I wouldn''t keel over. I leaned fully into her with a sad murmur. "Volty, please carry me back to Galissi or something," I outputted, closing my heavy eyes. "How?" Voltara blinked. "You flew all of us here." I swore when I realized that there was no way that I could fly everyone back to second level. The chimera hunters were gone, so asking them for help was out of the question. "Whatever," I exhaled, too tired to think of a solution. "Are we... stuck here?" Emerald asked, looking around the melted dragonskull and ridiculously tall, gray basalt column it sat on. "Deal with it," I said with another yawn. "You''re all adult wizards - figure it out. I''m going to have a power-nap on Volty''s lap. Goodnight!" Ch 78. Level Seven I tried to stay awake, but my body was failing me and my eyes were closing. My eyelids and hands felt like they were made from lead. Too much magical power had gone through me and far too much experience had been absorbed by my soul due to the explosive obliteration of the arch-cendai¡¯s soul garden. I momentarily considered relocating into Grogs, but then I remembered that it wasn¡¯t my body that was magically exhausted - it was my soul. Changing bodies would not alleviate my unbearable spiritual fatigue. I spotted Alessi talking to Isachs about flying us to second level and decided that things were going to be just fine without me. Agatha and Emerald had joined in on the conversation, introducing themselves to my sister and cousin. I was glad that Baroness Amadea taught them enough Tokimorim?tul to get by. I thought about it and decided that it was time to level up as simply napping would not resolve the issue of vast, unprocessed power held within my soul. Instead of simply commanding the System to level me up, I closed my eyes, paused my heart and stilled my body, feeling the currents of magical power dancing around me, trying to define each one of them, trying to understand where they came from. I wanted to know exactly what I had killed that gave me power. Surprisingly enough, some of the things spinning around my soul weren¡¯t random monsters of the chasm demolished by the detonation of the Eurekan gate. I recognized the odd things after some meticulous examination. Their memories weren''t those of creatures. Their thoughts were odd, fragmented slow and brief, lacking what I would call consciousness. They had only one desire - to kill Astral Phantoms. They felt akin to puppets, little pieces of something far greater than themselves. Of course! These things were parts of Barrie that I had murdered in the doomed timeline! Holy crap¡­ the Infinite Mirror had somehow allowed me to keep the experience for things I had managed to kill in a life that didn¡¯t actually happen to me! Or maybe it did? I had no idea how exactly the mirrors functioned. Having sufficiently understood Barrie, I moved onto defining other absorbed information. Another thing the degraded memories of which I had acquired was the Eurekan gate itself. I saw flickers of people walking back and forth through the gate, a flash of some disaster and then¡­ millennia of silence. Ages of snow and dust, then mossy hills and then mountains engulfing, burying the gate deep in solid rock. Then there was a flash of light. It was Eunice. She had freed the gate from its rocky prison. Eunice spoke to the Gate and attempted to activate it again and again for hundreds of years, failing to do so, becoming more annoyed with each attempt. Over the passing centuries the arch-cendai built her domain around the gate and forged a network of magical power around it that allowed her to access the Astral by stepping through the gate... even though this was not the gate''s function at all! Eunice had no idea what the gate was for or why it failed to respond to her. The answer was quite simple - the gate didn''t recognize Eunice as a legitimate user or even as a human. Whispers, segments, diluted, faded dreams of other things I had destroyed today flashed through me. Eunice¡¯s library and storage of artefacts from Illatius had left tiniest imprints of themselves deep in my soul, carried by the Astral currents upon their destruction. If I didn¡¯t have a damned Astral Phantom to worry about¡­ I could probably find their remnants, pull information from the Still Forest with a Searching arrow and eventually rebuild everything that I had destroyed. The potential of eventually recreating Eunice¡¯s garden and library was interesting, but also very dangerous since none of it belonged to me. I definitely couldn''t attempt such, until I was certain that the goddess of the Basquenate was gone for good. I noted that there was nothing of Eunice in my gathered experience. Not even a fragmented memory, not a single blip. It was as if something had scooped all of it away before I could get any of the tasty bits from her soul-garden. This only confirmed that the Astral manifestation of Eunice as a divinity was still quite alive and functional. That eventually, she would manifest a physical presence and come for me either as herself or through her angels or followers. I felt that I had learned as much as I could about the experience I had procured. I compressed the energy within me into a singularity and let it ignite within me, let it detonate, its fires washing over me, forging me anew. My soul became engulfed in the screams of dying stars burning me up from within. . . .
Name: Yulia Ishenko Juni Tokimorim?tuti Grogtilda Lic Misem
Age: [-] 4 years 13 years
Species & Subtype: Astral Phantom Chimera Stripling Juvenile Human
Level: 7
Experience: 2962/3200
Spiritual Health: 7/7
Spiritual Stamina: 7/7
Mana Capacity: 7/7 [+1]
Mana regen: 7 m/hr [+4]
Strength / Fortitude: 1 [Michell Shield]
Agility / Folding: 1 [Air Compressor]
Dexterity / Dominion: 5 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Tethered to Chimera body] 5 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Tethered to Human body]
Vitality / Anima: Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. 21 [Slow Mirrors]
Charisma / Resonance: 1 [Allure Halo] 5 [Invisibility Halos]
Magic / Power: 1 [Battery] 4 [Generators]
Luck / Destiny: 28 [Infinite Mirrors] - [Untethered] [+1] [Earth, Yulia Ishenko - connected] [-1] [Andross, Juni - connection lost - death by Barrie] [-1] [Andross, Juni - connection lost - death by the Dead Zone]
Intelligence / Mind: 1 [Organizer]
Wisdom / Seeking: 1 [Seeking Arrow] - [Damaged]
Soul:
In Dominated Folding Seed [Saccy]: 12 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active] 8 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Damaged]
In Dominated Chimera Stripling [Alessi Tokimorim?tuti]: 3 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active] 1 [Pneumasomatic Actuator] - [Damaged]
Armacus 1: [Foci Lv 1] < [Light Lv 1] [Voicecast Lv 1] [Identify Lv 1] [Pathfinder Lv 1]
Armacus 2: [Foci Lv 1] < [Light Lv 1] [Voicecast Lv 1] [Identify Lv 1] [Pathfinder Lv 1]
Investiture points: 35
As I found myself standing in Chernobyl''s control room, my eyes quickly danced around the chart. Thirty five points. Nearly enough experience to get to level 8. I should try destroying more archmagi domains! Ha ha. No... I shouldn''t. I got incredibly lucky with Eunice. The arch-cendai had made a mistake, built her domain around the Eurekan gate which was immovable, indestructible, invincible... to everything but Endy. As I thought about the knife, she manifested in my hand - a little, two-dimensional, vantablack piece of infinity. "Why are you the way that you are?" I asked the sharp void in my ghostly hand. "Why are you a knife and not a gun or a clever avatar? You seem to be pretty limited for something that''s supposedly infinite." The concept of infinity didn''t reply. "You don''t seem exactly like... uh... Infi," I mulled. "She was pretty chatty in comparison. Did the Eurekan gate animate her or something? Does my brain lack the processing power necessary to give you consciousness?" The knife remained solemnly silent. I wasn''t sure if I even wanted Endy to have consciousness... Infi seemed dangerous. The inhuman, monstrous part of her that managed the Dead Zone wasn¡¯t friendly, and had no qualms about turning me and the rest of Installation Rozaline into dust. My eyes stopped on the line listing my Infinite mirrors. There were two dead connections there and one¡­ live one. Holy crap! I was still somehow connected to myself back on Earth. Could I perhaps use it to¡­ leap backwards in time into myself again?! The desire to pull up the Earth-mirror was there, but I was too scared to try it. Would it cost me another mirror to leap into the past or simply a lot of mana? I wasn¡¯t sure. I looked back at my 35 points and then at the piece of infinity in my hand. Could I fuse infinity with my other powers? What would happen if I combined infinity with my Mitchell shield or compressor? Would they become infinitely powerful? No¡­ that would be ridiculous. The power had to have a source, had to be taken from somewhere. Infinite mirrors weren¡¯t exactly infinite - they reached other worlds, but they were in fact¡­ very finite and single use. I decided to add a single point to each of my skills, while combining it with Infinity. As the new roots bloomed from the infinite void-dot within my soul I tried to understand what they were. It wasn¡¯t easy, but eventually I figured things out. Combining Michell Shield with Infinity seemed to produce a magical shield that was infinitely versatile. Basically, it was a perfect anti-magic shield that adapted to whatever was fired at it. It was still very weak, relied on my mana and could shatter easily, but it was far, far better than my normal Mitchell Shield which blocked physical blows and didn''t do much against magical attacks. Combining my compressor with Infinity, produced some sort of an Infinite Compressor. It relied on my own magic to temporarily fold anything. Anything... even magic. I renamed it to the [Limitless Compressor] as it wasn''t for infinitely compressing things, but was instead good for compressing an infinite variety of things. I wasn''t sure how useful compressing magic would be. Perhaps if another thunderbird attacked me I could poke it in the head and have it keel over? No, if I compressed a thunderbird''s magic away, it would still be very much a physical monstrosity. I thought about what sorts of creatures were made from pure magic. The answer came to me after a minute - Astral Phantoms! They were creatures made from magical currents. The [Infinite Compressor] could compress a small section of an Astral Phantom. Yes! I potentially had a perfect, quick-strike weapon against an Astral Phantom. It probably wouldn''t take down the big bastard that nearly killed me three years ago, but it would hopefully demolish smaller ghost-squids far better than just slapping them with my threads or conceptualizing and striking them down with Endy. By combining Infinity with Dominion I managed to make a [Limitless Dominion sapling]. I had no idea what exactly it would do, but I had a vague understanding that it would allow me to dominate magical constructs. Just as regular Dominion saplings could be planted in physical things, the infinity-birthed ones could be planted in anything - even magical constructs! Basically, such a sapling could be planted in an Astral Phantom, an Astral Tree like Dawn or a Vow and actually survive there! I could ask Voltara to be my first¡­ test subject to attempt planting an Infinite Dominion Root. Her angel was brain dead and this sapling could theoretically allow me to control Voltara¡¯s Vow. If it worked as intended, then I could place Dominion saplings into Arouetta¡¯s Vow and pretend that her angel was awake, operate it, and maybe talk to her via it. I was concerned that Arouetta''s belief in Eunissi would be impossible to break and that eventually the maid would become a big problem for us. If I could control her Vow, then through it I could control her as well and make sure that the maid would never go against us. Dominating the brain-dead Vows felt like a solid move to make. It would allow me to understand my enemies better and oppose Eunissi and her cendai far better in the future. I invested nine more points into Limitless Dominion Saplings. Combining infinity with Anima created a [Limitless Anima sapling]. Like Dominion, it was a sapling that could be planted into anything - to animate anything which was not alive with my own personality. Potentially¡­ I could use this as necromancy for things that were not intended to be animated into being. I couldn''t think of anything more clever or useful than animating a pet rock to test this Anima sapling. Theoretically, I could make myself a golem assistant with it, but such a thing would probably require a ton of Anima saplings and a very complex body that could be powered by magical crystals which I would most likely have to pester Antoine to make. Using this [Limitless Anima] I could give Endy a piece of my soul, animate her. But, would a talking knife be that useful? Would she be able to answer my questions about the universe or would she only know as much as I do and thus simply be a conversation companion? Just as I tried to fuse infinity with a Resonance branch, something shook me, disrupting my concentration. Someone was trying to wake me up. Since it was probably important, I decided to finish my soul-work later. The dream of Chernobyl folded away as I opened my eyes. ¡°Juni, please wake up already,¡± Agatha was shaking me. ¡°Yeah?¡± I yawned. ¡°You¡¯ve been sleeping all day and all night,¡± Agatha said. ¡°It¡¯s morning.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± I blinked. ¡°Baroness Amadea?¡± "Most likely," Dawn commented from under Agatha''s robes. "Eight hours until a pivotal branch in all of our fortunes." ¡°Baroness Amadea will find you,¡± Agatha nodded. ¡°Eunice gave her an artifact that tracks you. Do you have a plan for facing Mother?¡± ¡°Maybe?¡± I yawned, stretching. ¡°Maybe isn¡¯t good enough, damn it Juni!¡± Agatha growled. ¡°You do realize that she can wield my body to strike you down? All Mother needs to do is order me or Emmy to kill you and we won''t be able to do anything but follow through with it!¡± ¡°Oh,¡± I looked at the elaborate formation of Dominion saplings shimmering inside Agatha. ¡°That would be bad.¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Agatha said with a shudder. ¡°It¡¯s very bad and I don¡¯t know how you can just sleep the time away!¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t just sleep,¡± I shook my head. ¡°I¡¯ll have you know I leveled up! I¡¯m level seven now!¡± ¡°Good for you,¡± the eldest Amadea Princess sighed. ¡°But that doesn¡¯t solve our problems. We don¡¯t have another dragonheart to blast my Mother''s estate or warship to smithereens! Antoine said that the one we got is barely functional!¡± She looked like she was about to have a nervous breakdown, her right eye twitching. ¡°Are you alright?¡± I asked. ¡°No,¡± she growled. ¡°I am not. I am terrified out of my mind! Dawn has been counting down the hours to a moment that potentially leads to all of our deaths.¡± ¡°I won¡¯t let Amadea hurt you,¡± I said. ¡°I¡­ chose to be with you,¡± Agatha whispered. ¡°I didn¡¯t present you with much of a choice,¡± I commented. ¡°If we didn¡¯t stop Eunice, she would have unleashed the Dead Zone and killed all of us. You believe me, right?¡± ¡°I¡­ I¡­¡± She choked. I stare at her trembling body. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter,¡± she finally said. ¡°I¡¯ve made my choice to be your knight and to assist you. This choice puts me against Mother, against an army of ten thousand Vow-bound maids of the house of Amadea, all of its resources and warship Bliss!¡± ¡°Walk with me,¡± I offered. I opened the door and stepped out of Galissi onto the mossy cliff side lit by sunrise. An encampment of nearly two thousand chimera greeted me on the broken cliff that remained from the meeting grove and arch-cendai''s skull. I saw that my father was already up and about, walking through the throngs of gathered chimera and barking out orders. There was a simple drawing on his leather chest-plate that marked him as the alpha. I smirked at him. Acadius was quick on the uptake - being the father of the new arch-cendai made him the top dog of the village. Emerald, Isahcs and Alessi were walking next to Acadius and helping coordinate the relocation efforts. Flying hunters were taking off and landing on the gold sand, bringing in supplies and new chimera to join the camp. Agatha sighed dramatically, following me out of the glider. I sat down on a mossy cliff side, facing the lovely view of cliffs and waterfalls. Agatha sat next to me. ¡°What happens if I take down Amadea?¡± I asked her. ¡°The arch-maid will take over management of the estate and the chain of Barony rulership will be redistributed between various Amadea house administrators,¡± she replied. ¡°You won¡¯t inherit the estate?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°No,¡± Agatha shook her head. ¡°Wasn¡¯t Amadea planning to take over your body if she gets hurt or dies of old age?¡± I inquired. ¡°She is,¡± Agatha nodded. ¡°I saw the copies of the inheritance papers. The problem is - I do not know the passwords necessary to change the current standing orders. In Mother¡¯s absence, the Administrators take over¡­ and Emerald and I get nothing.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­ inconvenient,¡± I frowned. ¡°Do you seriously have a way to take Amadea down? Why are we discussing this? You do get that if you simply kill Mother''s body, her soul will just move into me or Emmy?¡± She snapped. ¡°I think I have a way to take Amadea down,¡± I nodded. ¡°I just thought of it now that my head is clear. It will be reckless and dangerous¡­ but I think it can be done.¡± ¡°How?!¡± Agatha stared at me, her eyes wide. I opened my sketchbook and flipped it to the last page. ¡°With this one trick,¡± I turned the sketchbook her way, revealing a drawing to her. "What?!" She stared at my face like I was insane. Ch 79. The Offer of Timelessness
"That looks like an arcane... Astral-Phantom-Barrier hexagram," Agatha squinted at the sketch on the page as she held the book in her hands. "Instructor Rozaline showed it to us during an excursion to the catacombs beneath Nemendias. It supposedly blocked Phantoms from reaching Illatius. Thousands of these were inscribed into the catacombs beneath the city. They were pretty popular back in the day before the Hex-beacon towers were built." "It is indeed a Barrier hexagram," I nodded. "Do you think your mother knows about it?" "I very much doubt it," Agatha shook her head. "History doesn''t interest her one bit. She boasted to me that she skipped out on all of the ''useless excursions'' to seduce rich human idiots into absolute servitude." "Has Baroness Amadea ever gone down into the catacombs beneath Illatius?" I asked. "Not as far as I''m aware," my companion replied. "Mother hates confined, dirty, smelly places. It would take serious convincing to make her go down there." "Convincing... like an order from her Master to find me, no matter where I am hiding?" I smirked at the blue-eyed chimera-hybrid. "Can the arcane barrier really stop Mother? It''s that strong?" She blinked at me. "Mother isn''t an Astral Phantom... is she?" "I''m absolutely certain that she is," I said. "All of the high-cendai are. Eunice made us out of old ghosts, guided her monwai to consume human souls. Barrie really hates us. He''s not going to like Amadea one bit." "I don''t understand... The ancient Barrier was simply supposed to keep phantoms away from the city. Do you mean to tell me that it''s grown beyond its intended function? That it''s sentient... self aware?" "More or less," I said. "The old shield of the city became a half-born manifestation of belief. Barrie doesn''t just push phantoms away. If he¡¯s sufficiently annoyed, he can rip a phantom right out of a human body, tearing a soul into shreds.¡± Agatha''s eyes grew wide. "Mother won''t come alone into the sewers," she said. "She will bring armed maids. You will need a..." "An army?" I glanced back to the chimera camp. "Right..." Agatha exhaled. "Right... this is our only chance to defeat her then." "What happens to a body if it''s deprived of a soul?" I mulled. "Umm," Agatha nervously adjusted her armacus. "Rapid cellular decay. I was taught that a soul stabilizes the body into shape. Without the support of a soul, the Astral currents begin to wear away at the physical body until it slowly melts akin to a sandcastle being washed away by ocean waves." "Can it be avoided?" I presented her with another question. "A body with an Astral Phantom inside it does not decay as quickly," Agatha mulled. "Ghouls created by Novazem necromagi can sustain themselves for a ridiculously long time. A body of a ghoul is one dominated by a remnant of a soul." "Hrm," I rubbed my chin. "What if we were to turn the soulless body of the Baroness into a ghoul under my control?" Agatha''s face turned green. "W-what?" She gasped. "You can do that? You know the secrets of the Novazem necromagi?" "Eunice taught me a lot of very nasty things," I said with a slight shudder. "How do you think I have two bodies? How do you think your mother controls her human body?" "I see," Agatha gulped. "I think that the chimera high-cendai have powers very similar to those of Novazem Necromagi," I said. "The ability to split our souls apart and to shove ourselves into bodies of others is quite natural to us thanks to Eunice. Has your mother not taught you any of this stuff?" "No¡­ she has not," the Amadea princess shook her head. "Plus, my Nemendias instructors have hammered into my head that Necromancy is wrong, monstrous and abhorrent. Soul magic is forbidden at Nemendias. I was told there are powerful wards that spontaneously combust anyone that attempts Necromancy.¡± "Are there really?" I raised an eyebrow. "The Instructors showed snapper-captured images of the charred bodies of students vaporised by this ward," Agatha said firmly. "Nemendias does not tolerate Necromancy within her walls." "Seems rather convenient, considering that chimera cendai are in charge of Nemendias," I said. "Your mother''s dominion saplings are all over you. You''ve been going to school for years. Why didn''t Nemendias vaporize you?" "I... I don''t know," Agatha said. "Either the necromancy ward is a lie," I shrugged. "Or Nemendias doesn''t interpret chimera soul-magic as necromancy. Eunice brought Grogtilda from death, reanimated many of her ruined organs back to life. The Interviewee''s tower didn''t do anything to me. Nemendias doesn''t do anything to Dawn and I''m certain that the shattered soul of Ambiss Huron resides within her paintings." Agatha turned her eyes downward. "The more I talk to you, the more I realize that many of the things I was taught were wrong," she uttered, shaking her head and looking distressed. "Scientific progress isn''t about knowing the absolute truth," I said. "It''s about discovering new information, weaponizing it and being less wrong each time. Don''t cling so hard to magical laws. Everything you know about magic can be trumped by Eureka hanging right above us." I pointed my fingers at the infinite, dead planet in the sky. "That''s what I''m afraid of most," Agatha winced. "Didn''t your one encounter with Eureka get everyone on Andross killed?" "Not everything from Eureka is bad," I said, tapping Endy. "Your knife is from Inaria?" Agatha blinked. "Yeppers," I nodded. "Andross was made by Inarians long ago too, you know." I thought of the last man on the desolate, frozen surface of planet Earth. A lonely human, doomed to roam the wasteland forever looking for other survivors. Charles Snippy. Maybe someday I could help save him. Maybe someday in the future I could somehow reach out to him, become his friend? ¡°I don¡¯t think that the Dead Zone or Eureka are¡­ necessarily evil,¡± I said. ¡°They¡¯re old, sure¡­ and very broken in some odd way¡­ but maybe Inaria can be fixed, you know? There was a person alive there. Maybe the last man on Earth can help us fix it? He was completely immune to the flesh-eating clouds of death.¡± Agatha sighed as a response. This conversation was clearly way over her head. "Juni! You''re up," Alessi''s voice resounded from behind us. I turned around, spotting my sister, cousin, father and the other Amadea Princess. "My cendai! The tribe is¡­ nearly ready for relocation," my father announced, bowing his head slightly toward me. "From our calculations, it will take three trips for the hunters to carry all of the women and children around the Chasm to Lomb." "So¡­ everyone is on board? No issues?" I asked. "There are indeed issues," Acadius sighed. "Some older chimera refuse to leave. I believe they''re planning to form their own tribe to stay here. They reject your authority on the premise that you''re too young and inexperienced to lead the tribe. They''re led by an older female who was prominent in the meeting grove - the threat of force didn''t seem to sway her." "Take me to them," I exhaled. My father nodded and I followed him to a large group of older-looking chimera that looked at me with hostility and concern in their eyes. "Greetings!" I announced as I approached the disgruntled looking women and their hunters. "I was told there are chimera here who refuse to listen to the guidance of the tribe¡¯s new arch-cendai?" "How can you possibly be our new cendai?" A female chimera with a greying, blue, crystalline mane asked, stepping forward. "How can we know that humans didn''t kill our old cendai to place you as our new ¡®guide¡¯?" Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. "Were there not enough witnesses to my battle with Eunice?" I raised an eyebrow. "The humans I brought with me bow to me. I am their master." "Eunice had many monwai," another older chimera declared. "She led us for a thousand generations! How could you have bested her on your own?!" "You must have made a deal with the humans!" The silver-blue-maned one growled. "There is no doubt in my mind about it. How do we know that we won''t be led to a slaughter, won''t be made into pets or farm-beasts, collared upon arrival into subservience?" "You know about farms?" I raised an eyebrow. "My hunter saw human farms from afar," the approximately three-decades old chimera waved a hand at her husband. "I asked Eunice about it and got an explanation. She told us that if we ever reveal ourselves to humans they will hunt our men down and turn us into farm beasts!" Other chimera gathered in the camp tilted their feline ears towards our conversation, listening in. I frowned. She was right about one thing - I did rely on human magitek to bring down Eunice. "What''s your name and age, chimera?" I asked. ¡°Do you have children?¡± "I am Callionii," she replied. "I am thirty one winters old. I am a mother of seven!" She looked very proud of her big family. "What''s your plan then? You wish to stay here without magical protection? You think another trained cendai will fall from the sky and save you from monsters?" I asked. "Eunice''s body was vaporized into dust. The protection banners she empowered with her magic will fade now that she''s gone and you''ll become monster snacks." "Urrm," Callionii frowned. She clearly didn''t plan this spontaneous rebellion very far ahead. "Not only that," I said. "The village-protecting, anti-phantom barrier Eunice erected is gone too. It won''t be long before one of you is critically injured and then the Astral Phantoms will get into your bodies, eat your loved ones and turn all of you into mindless ghouls. Is this the future you want for your children? Without magic the Chasm will devour you one by one!" Callionii''s frown deepened. "Eunice taught me a lot," I said. "She was indeed a very powerful and ancient cendai. However, she made many mistakes over the centuries. Mistakes that accumulated beyond measure and led straight towards her downfall." "What sort of mistakes?" Callionii inquired. "She never cared for her tribe," I said. "She willingly sacrificed thousands of chimera to the Heart of the Twisted Forest." "It''s true," Alessi said. "I remember all of it with my chorus. There were thrice more of us before we crossed the Twisted Forest. Ten times more a hundred years before then. Twenty times more seven hundred years ago. With each decade less and less chimera remain. Eunice was keeping us docile and weak, weeding our numbers!" "It wasn''t enough for Eunice to live forever," I nodded. "She wanted to become a god - a monstrous, powerful abomination like the thing ruling the Twisted Forest. Century by century she devoured chimera souls, sapped at your strength. It wasn''t enough for her to feed on chimera - she taught her monwai to feed on humans too!" "It''s true," Emerald declared. "My Mother is a chimera raised by Eunice possessing a human body! She feeds on human souls whenever she can and boasts about it!" "Eunice planned to become a human god," I affirmed. "She was going to bind all of humanity with magical Vows into total subservience. Do you know why these human-chimera hybrids and humans serve me of their own free will, Callionii?" The silver-blue chimera shook her head. "Because humans aren''t that different from us. They do not wish to be slaves," I said. "Eunice''s master plan was to magically enslave everyone. The chimera that she could not pacify into inaction... she killed with the monsters she controlled or broke their minds with magic. Had I not stopped her - in a few centuries Eunice would turn humanity into obedient, magic-bound flesh puppets and then she would finish chimera off completely. As she fed on human belief more and more, she did not need chimera like you to exist at all, Callionii. This is why the chimera population has been going down with each season. Do tell me - if Eunice was such a wonderful leader, why has our tribe grown smaller and weaker over time? Ask your chorus - what does it tell you?" Callionii gulped. "I am not Eunice," I said. "I will not abuse my power to live forever and become a god. I acted differently from her other cendai from the start. Instead of eating human souls as prescribed by my Master, I collaborated, made friends with humans and human-chimera hybrids, made them into my allies, friends and... dedicated hunters that serve me!" "I see," the silver-blue maned chimera said. "You were right in your assessment," I said. "I borrowed a bit of human power to bring Eunice down, but they gave it to me willingly because Eunice made enemies of humanity. She feared and hated people instead of trying to understand them." I stepped towards Callionii. "I know that you''re afraid of change," I said, offering a hand to her. "But I''m not like Eunice. I can hurt you with magic, force you into obedience with a pain ray... but I won''t. I''m simply asking you to trust me." "I heard you won''t eat our souls at thirty three," the rebellious chimera said, staring at my hand. "You want us to sink into the cold embrace of the Still Forest instead?" "No," I said. "I don''t need your souls. I won''t let you die from old age either. Technically there is an easy way to make chimera immortal." "W-what?!" Callionii blinked. "How?" "Alessi," I turned to my sister. "Strike a lovely pose and Still yourself fully!" Alessi stood on her tiptoes, arched her body, lifted her non-broken hand up to the sky as if trying to grasp the sun and froze, crystalized. She stood there, as if suspended in time, not breathing, not moving a muscle, her heart stopped, her body completely and perfectly paused. "See?" I waved my hand at Alessi. "All chimera can suspend, crystallize themselves indefinitely in this manner. It is our innate skill that we forgot millennia ago thanks to Eunice. Listen in with your sharp ears - my sister has no heartbeat! The blood in her veins does not move! Chimera are naturally immune to the ravages of time!" Callionii and the rest of the rebellious chimera stared at the perfectly suspended Alessi, not believing their senses. ¡°Alessi will teach this forgotten skill to everyone, just as I have taught it to her! Once you get too old to take care of your hearth, you can simply begin to suspend yourself, turn into a crystal and awaken once every generation to check on your children''s children. This way, you can meet your direct descendants and perhaps¡­ guide them with some sagely, motherly advice!" Callionii''s mouth fell open. "Truly?" She asked. "I can meet my children''s children this way?" "Yes," I nodded. "You can extend your life to ten thousand winters in this manner, guide a thousand generations of your descendants yourself!" "This!" I turned to the throng of chimera surrounding me, waving my hands at the suspended body of Alessi. "This is the future that Eunice stole from all of you by consuming your souls at thirty three! You could have met your mothers¡¯ mothers, talked to your elders in this manner - not as mere sparks in the chorus of memory, but here in the real world! All of you could have hugged your elders had Eunice not taken them from you!" Gasps of indignation and angry growls resounded from all around me. I stood with my head raised high. "Hail the arch-cendai Juni!" Isahcs bellowed, his bone-sword raised high into the air. "Hail the cendai that freed us from Eunice. Hail the girl-hunter who will teach us how to meet our descendants!" Like a stone cast into a lake, his voice caused a ripple in the crowd. Hails resounded all around me, a brook, then a current, then an ocean wave that traveled around two thousand chimera. I knew exactly what the tribe wanted and I struck at the hearts of their desires - to prolong their short lives, to create big, strong families. I had offered them exactly what they wanted, returned everything that Eunice had taken away from them long ago. "Hail the arch-cendai Juni!" Callionii whispered, tears swelling up in her eyes. Her knees buckled as she bowed. The camp moved, glittering with colorful crystal manes as chimera after chimera bowed to me. Only one figure remained standing. She looked into my eyes with her amber-framed, dark violet slits. There was a smile on her face that matched mine almost perfectly. "Hail, my little sunrise," my mother bowed to me, her eyes filled with pride. Only I remained standing. The hidden tension that had been building in the air, finally released. There was still one concern left, though. One issue brought forward by Callionii. Something that could fester into future problems for me, unless resolved now. "Stand up and face me, my hunters, hearth-keepers and children!" I ordered. The tribe rose back up at my words. "Eunice didn''t care for you," I told the crowd, who had gathered at the broken cliffside. "But I do! I value all of you - your wisdom, your strength, your advice and your support! You aren''t just souls that exist to extend my existence on Andross. Do you know why? Because I am already old enough! The truth is that I am not four winters old! I''m older than all of you, older than Eunice ¡ª the corrupt ex-arch-cendai who woke me from my millennia-long slumber! I am older than the mountain we stand on!" "What? How can this be?!" Callionii gasped. "In her greed for absolute power, Eunice reached deep into the Still Forest with her magic. She dug deeper than anyone had ever tried to, all the way down to the foundation of the Chasm! She found a truly arcane ghost there, stuck in a crystal gem - me!" The silver-blue eyed chimera gaped at me. "Yes," I nodded. "I am perhaps older than the Chasm itself! Wanting to know the truth about the past... Eunice brought me back to life to make me into a tool for her dark experiments. She wanted to use me to open a gateway to Inaria!" I dramatically waved my hand at the infinite, dead world in the sky. "However, she did not account for my ancient wisdom - did not think that I could simply make friends with the humans. Thanks to the aid of my human hunters, I broke free of her mind-control and destroyed her body!" I glanced back at Voltara, Antoine, Anniya and Lambert standing around Galissi and the eyes of the chimera crowd followed mine, seeing the group of humans in a new light. "The truth is that my battle with Eunice isn''t over yet. Her broken, twisted soul might return to this world from the Still Forest as an Astral Phantom, but I will be here for you and defend you against her evil machinations. It took me a while to understand where I was when I woke up in a dragonskull of the current Tokimorim?tul as a newborn chimera. Know this - ALL of you are my tribe, my descendants, my future!" Gasps resounded all around as I revealed the truth to all. Chimera revered the Engrammatic chorus of memories, revered their ancestors, reached up to the soul-imprint-stars for answers daily. I was the oldest star of all, a ghost imprinted in Chernobylite, a shadow on a wall suspended in time by machine life that had forged and blighted the infinite city of Eureka. "Older than the¡­ Chasm? You''re... the All-mother?" Callionii stared at me, her silver-blue eyes wide, an expression of absolute shock at my revelation. I simply looked at her with a soft, knowing smile of an adult, without offering her an answer. Callionii¡¯s lips started to whisper a prayer, streaks of tears raining down her face. "I am incredibly old, yes... but I was reborn here, grew up in Tokimorim?tul under the guidance of my new mother, Ambriia," I waved a hand at my mother. "I grew to love her, I grew to care for my new sister Alessi and her mother Belassi, a chimera broken by Eunice. Just like them, all of you are my tribe, my family and I swear to cherish each and respect every one of you! I bow to you as you have bowed to me - I swear to be your guide towards a brilliant future, towards the warmth of new hearths of vast families, towards the greatest hunt of all!" I stared into the colorful eyes of my tribe and bowed to them just as they had bowed to me. The circuit was complete, the metaphorical key inserted and turned. In that instance, the cheers around me multiplied a hundredfold. I had won their hearts, igniting the spark of their desires. "Good luck trying to get the tribe back now, goddess," I thought sarcastically to my illusory nemesis as my ears rang from the resounding hails. Ch 80. Facing Amadea
"Do you think that the crystal hair of the entire chimera tribe will be enough to fix the dragonheart engine?" I asked Antoine who sat across me within the leather interior of Galissi Seven. "Power-wise... maybe?" Antoine mulled. "The issue isn''t just lack of power - too many hexagrams burned away to nothing." "Sucks for us," I signed. "Such is life," Antoine said. "Things break down and it''s up to us to fix them and to make them better the second time around. I''m certain that I can make the heart of Lomb a lot stronger with this much crystalline-organic materia to experiment with and utilize. When you gave me a few of your crystals a while back, I did not expect to be absolutely buried in the stuff!" The artificer laughed, looking a bit like a mad scientist. I looked out the window at the passing clouds. The glider was flying quite slowly in comparison to its normal speed. We spearheaded a flock of eight hundred chimera hunters burdened with leather belts carrying their wives and children. Emerald and Lambert had stayed behind in Tokimorim?tul with the dragonheart engine, to shoot down any Chasm creatures that could potentially be attracted to the camp of the remaining five hundred women and children. ¡°That was quite a show,¡± Anniya said. ¡°What did you tell them to make them all bow?¡± I retold my speech to her with detailed explanations of my actions. ¡°Clever girl,¡± the new Inspector of Lomb mulled after I was done. ¡°You might not be the All-Mother, but you¡¯re definitely older than Andross. Did you actually have children back on Earth?¡± ¡°Not yet,¡± I said, rubbing the back of my head. ¡°The thing is¡­ I didn¡¯t die after touching Chernobylite. I am still connected to my past, and can still dive into my past self. According to the System, that infinite mirror is still open. I¡¯m still alive back there.¡± ¡°Extraordinary,¡± Antoine clicked his lenses. ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of magic that can do that sorta thing.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s just... magic,¡± I said. ¡°I think that our non-magical human civilization simply reached the singularity and unleashed machine life onto the world. Machine life that rewrote the laws of the universe, remodeled reality to accommodate for infinity and magic. The Earth I grew up on was quite boring, mundane¡­ we wanted more. More power, more land, more abilities to change and reshape the world around us. The machines likely gave humanity exactly what it wanted - finite limitlessness. Either by accident or by design, I have a little bit more of this limitlessness in myself, carrying a piece of infinity in the core of my soul.¡± ¡°Machine life?¡± Antoine tilted his head. ¡°Golems without magic,¡± I said. ¡°Dawn without a soul. Tools that could approximate people and creativity with greater and greater precision. We worked hard to create... golems that could write symphonies, paint and even write books. I saw the beginning of it all - lived in a time when humanity stood on the precipice of unleashing inhuman creativity onto the world, to make the finite into the infinite.¡± ¡°I¡¯d love to hear more about it,¡± the artificer smiled. ¡°It all seems like fervid fiction to me, but perhaps we can apply more methodology of the past to the present to push magitek forward.¡± ¡°I was thinking that too,¡± I nodded. ¡°If magitek gliders can¡¯t go down into the chasm then perhaps mundane airships would be able to.¡± ¡°Airships?¡± Antoine blinked. I began to explain the basic principles of science to Antoine - how a sufficient amount of gas lighter than air could create buoyancy. He eagerly listened in, jotting notes in a little leather book. Agatha and Voltara listened in, occasionally asking questions. It was a good time for all and occupied the time while we transferred the chimera to Lomb going back and forth between the two locations and protecting my tribe against flying monsters with Galissi''s thunderstrikes. As I spoke, Voltara sat very close to me and I dedicated a part of my mind to attaching five of my Limitless Dominion Saplings onto her Vow. On the second trip, I made Arouetta sit next to me and performed the same operation on her Vow. Mentally controlling the Vow¡¯s threads with my saplings had been a very odd experience, but not entirely new to me as I had plenty of practice controlling Alessi¡¯s limbs. On the third trip to Lomb, I practiced moving Voltara¡¯s hands and feet around via her Vow and then attempted to attack and bind one Vow with the threads of another. By the middle of the day we had left most of the tribe and Anniya in Lomb to deal with sorting chimera into various caverns below the town. I called up a few contacts on my armacus, making plans with them. . . . At approximately one pm, my armacus started to vibrate. I glanced at the label which flashed in my right eye. Baroness Amadea was calling. ¡°Yes?¡± I asked. [Are you ready for our meeting, my dear?] She inquired. ¡°I am,¡± I replied briskly as I descended down the stairwell from Diamondias. [You are in Illatius, yes?] The overly-sweet voice of Baroness Amadea resonated in my head. [Shall we meet in a cafe?] ¡°No,¡± I said. ¡°I have business under Diamondias. Feel free to follow me if you wish to bother me while I am working. The Diamondias Inspector and his assistant can lead you downstairs. They know the place pretty well.¡± There was a deep sigh on the other end of the line. [Must you make things complicated for me?] Amadea asked. [Can we not have lunch at one of the nice cafes upstairs that I own? I¡¯ll cover the cost¡­] ¡°I believe it is you who is wanting this meeting,¡± I said. ¡°Like I said, I¡¯m very busy taking over Undertown and cleaning up human cults. Come downstairs if you want to see me in person.¡± [Very well,] Amadea ground out. [I shall have to bring security down with me.] ¡°Whatever,¡± I replied, rushing to the spot where I had lost my soul in a doomed timeline. I didn¡¯t use my cendai-sight as I remembered this place well enough. I instinctively felt the wrongness and the unnatural cold trying to reach out to me. My anti-phantom armor held. I knew that I had Barrie¡¯s attention. After a bit of pacing through the shallow water, I saw a very large, worn out Barrier hexagram etched deep into the black stones beneath my feet. ¡°It¡¯s um¡­ very gloomy here,¡± Emerald said, looking around. ¡°Smells pretty bad too.¡± ¡°The sewers are nearby,¡± I shrugged. ¡°Remember what I said - do not use your magic-sight. You do not want to see Barrie.¡± ¡°Yeah, I got it boss,¡± the little Princess nodded. ¡°So, why me and not just Agatha?¡± ¡°The same reason why I involved you in taking down the arch-cendai,¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯re my friend. Your contribution is important to make our friendship stronger, even if you can''t help a whole lot magically.¡± ¡°Right,¡± Emerald nodded with a shudder. She watched me as I walked around the ancient room, adding scratch-drawings to the walls with a ruby gem in my fingers. With each additional drawing of the same hexagram, the room became colder, felt more ominous. I was adding power to Barrie, giving him more eyes and fingers. Agatha and Emerald followed me, pushing a bit of their magic into the hexagrams, fueling the power of the arcane barrier, focusing Barrie''s presence. In about thirty minutes of this task, I heard distant footsteps from afar. The Baroness was here. We stopped what we were doing and walked to the center of the hall. I really felt the icy fingers caressing my soul now. Barrie was trying to figure out if I was his enemy. I reached out to the wet floor and pushed nearly all of my mana into the hexagram beneath me, tying it to the hundreds of others I had drawn on the walls with my hair. ¡°Here,¡± I whispered. ¡°Feed. I came here to give you power, Barrie. I swear that I will place ten thousand more eyes for you across Illatius. Please don¡¯t bite me¡­ let''s be friends. Let''s work together to kill the vile Astral Phantoms infesting the world.¡± The feelers caressing my soul drew away. Perhaps the Barrier understood, perhaps it¡­ he was smart enough to agree to the deal I offered, or perhaps the simple act of powering up the ancient hexagram made me into his ally. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Baroness Amadea emerged from the gloom, framed by ten maids covered in magisteel armor. She looked very annoyed and was wearing a fancy white dress which didn''t match the murky, grimy catacombs. Inspector Pomegrad and Lambert walked by her side, their metal boots clinking on the water-covered stone floor. ¡°What is this disgusting place?¡± The Baroness looked at the arched ceiling. "Why is it so cold here?" ¡°The old catacombs beneath the city connecting to the sewers, your excellency,¡± Pomegrad replied. "There are no heating hexagrams here and we are deep underground, your excellency." The bulky man seemed very nervous around Amadea. ¡°Why is there water everywhere?¡± Amadea huffed. ¡°Sometimes the sewer lines overflow,¡± Pomegrad tugged at his sleeve. ¡°You may go, Inspectors,¡± Amadea exhaled angrily. Lambert and Pomegrad didn¡¯t move. Amadea squinted at them. ¡°I said, you may go,¡± she repeated. ¡°No,¡± Lambert said. ¡°We wish to stay.¡± Amadea¡¯s eye twitched. Her hand drew towards her necklace. ¡°Don¡¯t even think about it Baroness,¡± I raised Endy into the air. The old chimera¡¯s perfect face snapped back to me. Her eye twitched again. ¡°What is this?¡± She hissed. ¡°It¡¯s a test,¡± I smiled. ¡°You wanted to test me, but instead I am testing you.¡± ¡°Voltara! What¡¯s she planning?¡± Amadea barked at the maid standing next to me. Voltara tilted her head. ¡°Answer me, maid!¡± Amadea growled. ¡°No,¡± Voltara shook her head. Amadea¡¯s mouth fell open. A maid bound by a Vow refused to answer her. ¡°W-what?¡± The high-cendai blinked, her silver-gold eyes filled with concern. ¡°As the Eighth archmage of the Prism Order,¡± I said. ¡°I hereby charge you with crimes against humanity, Baroness Amadea.¡± ¡°Is this a joke?¡± Amadea growled. ¡°No,¡± I said. ¡°Are you threatening me?¡± Amadea hissed. "Me?!" ¡°I¡¯m testing you,¡± I said. ¡°If you pass and surrender you get to live. If you fail, you lose your soul. It¡¯s as simple as that. Using magic is an automatic fail, by the way.¡± Amadea sputtered angrily. The armored maids surrounded her, magisteel plates clinking. Pomegrad looked a bit off. Lambert¡¯s spectacles glinted. ¡°I have a confession to make, Inspectors,¡± Voltara said. ¡°Baroness Amadea killed all of her lovers after getting them to sign their finances over to her. Also, she uses Necromancy!¡± ¡°WHAT?!¡± Amadea howled. ¡°How dare you betray me in this manner, maid?!" "That''s a big claim to make," Pomegrad said. "We would need someone to..." ¡°It is true,¡± Emerald whispered. ¡°Its all true,¡± Agatha said firmly, staring at her mother¡¯s eyes. Amadea''s look became that of disappointment. ¡°Baroness Amadea. You are hereby charged with treason against the Basq Empire,¡± Lambert said. ¡°Kill the Inspectors,¡± Amadea hissed out, her nostrils flaring. The maids stepped forward, and immediately tripped over themselves, fumbling with their weapons, their feet not cooperating. Each of their Vows had been slowly bound by the threads controlled by the two vows under my command. Arouetta gasped, staring at her former Mistress with horror. Arrows flew from alcoves aimed by chimera hunters, hitting the maids in the exposed areas of their bodies. Lambert and Pomegrad moved swiftly. The fire from their unfurled armaci put the surviving maids down before they could get organized. ¡°So its all true. Baroness Amadea is a Necromage agent,¡± Pomegrad exhaled, looking aghast. ¡°Backup! Now!¡± Constables of Diamondias that had been waiting for the order rushed out of the corridors, their armaci pointed at Amadea who now stood alone. ¡°What''s going to be, Baroness?¡± I asked. ¡°What is it that you want from me, child?¡± Amadea gritted her teeth. ¡°I am much older than you,¡± I shook my head. ¡°I¡¯m done concealing my age and I''m done taking orders from Eunice. I suggest you do the same.¡± ¡°What?¡± Amadea stared at me. ¡°Our Master... exploded,¡± I said. ¡°She brought her own doom by messing with the End-gate. I ended her reign of terror yesterday.¡± ¡°Are you mad?¡± Amadea whispered, her expression shifting from angry to worried. I shook my head. ¡°No,¡± I replied. ¡°You lost. Surrender. Take off your artifact necklace nice and slow.¡± ¡°Do you think I won¡¯t be able to break a few dozen human constables and some archers?¡± She hissed. ¡°I¡¯m two hundred years old! How could you possibly have bested Eunisii?!¡± I snapped my fingers. Hundreds of chimera hunters emerged from the hall, aiming their bows at Amadea. Their heads were shaved and covered in bandanas in a pirate-like fashion. Amadea stared at the chimera tribesmen, then she looked back at me. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter how I did it. Eunice is gone,¡± I snapped. ¡°Every Tokimorim?tul soul answers to me now. I''m the new arch-cendai. You can surrender or be shattered into a thousand fragments scattered to the wind.¡± ¡°So you really did it,¡± my enemy uttered, her face pale. She pursed her lips, her brow furrowed, and then her entire face twitched, contorted, changed. ¡°Foolish girl," her lips spoke as her sharp teeth bared. "My Goddess cannot die. When she re-manifests in the physical she won''t be pleased with this betrayal. I have no choice but to punish you for your sins." "Do forgive me," Amadea added in a much less hostile voice. "I cannot help but resort to violence. I so hoped that we could be friends." Her hand went up and her diamond necklace ignited, bathing the hall in brilliant gold coronas. Amadea took a step forward. Then another. ¡°Stop!¡± Lambert ordered. Amadea didn¡¯t stop. Arrows bristling with paralyzing poison flew through the air toward her, but they did nothing to halt her progress. Amadea was oblivious to the spellfire hitting her body and shredding her dress. She calmly walked towards me as hundreds of arrows peppered her in seconds. I gulped. The solution the hunters were using was supposed to put down Bonulich beetles! It didn''t seem to bother Amadea one bit. Magical resonance flared from her necklace and the nearest constables and chimera stopped firing, froze, fell to their knees in submission. Amadea¡¯s hands grabbed at me, pushing me down into the water. I struck at her with the knife. Endy slammed into the diamond-heart artifact and it cracked ever so slightly, the allure flickering. Amadea slapped the knife out of my hand. She winced as more arrows and spells hit her. Her hands tore my skull helmet off me, sharp, gold-tipped claws ripping the belts. She stared at my face, her hand wrapping around my neck not letting me take a single breath. ¡°Why is it so bloody cold here?¡± She asked suddenly, shuddering. "Take a look in the Astral," I hissed out. Amadea''s eyes ignited with gold and silver fire from within. Her hold on me weakened as her mouth fell open. ¡°You''re cold because you¡¯re an Astral Phantom,¡± I said in Tokimorim?tul. ¡°I too wish that we could have been friends, Amadea.¡± ¡°W-what is that¡­ figure?¡± Amadea choked, staring at the manifestation of Barrie that I could not see. She had nearly let go of me then. ¡°She¡¯s an Astral Phantom, Barrie,¡± I said simply, pushing a bit more mana into the Barrier hexagram beneath me. ¡°End her.¡± I did not see the ocean of silver-blue, ghostly fingers because I didn¡¯t use my Astral sight, but I knew, felt that it was there. Barrie''s vast limbs went through me, grabbed at the Baroness. Amadea screamed. Her hands flailed as she fought against her invisible assailants. The more she struggled and fought, the more Barrie determined that she was an enemy of Illatius and of humanity. As the Baroness grappled against Barrie''s fingers, I rushed to grab Endy from the water. Amadea''s diamond gemstone flashed, healing her soul as Barrie pulled her down, plunged her in the Astral Ocean. I slashed the diamond necklace with Endy again. Amadea Screamed, her body arching. I struck her necklace again and again, moving like lightning. Amadea had not protected her artifact, had not put up any resistance to my attack. She probably saw Barrie, all of him, an abomination the size of Illatius and despaired, helplessly fought like a cornered beast in the Astral just as I had once. I struck the damned necklace with Endy again and again as Amadea fell into the water, flailing. Whatever the necklace was, it was powerful. After the hundredth strike, the necklace cracked, parts of it detonating into a rain of colorful sparks. ¡°I just wanted to play with humans,¡± Amadea''s lips whispered, tears of blood running down her face. ¡°I¡­ didn¡¯t want to¡­ I¡­¡± The Baroness twitched one last time and stilled. I didn¡¯t look at her in the Astral but I knew, felt that her soul was gone. Her face was turning gray and blood was pouring from her mouth, blooming in the shallow water beneath us. Agatha had reached us, standing above us. I threw her armacus to her. Agatha caught it. The weapon twirled onto her wrist into its weaponized form. ¡°Goodnight Mother,¡± Agatha said. The sleep and mind-erasing spell from her armacus struck Amadea in the head and the eyes of the Baroness closed. I relaxed. We had won, defeated our main enemy in Illatius... Amadea''s hand snapped up into the air with a sonic boom as her eyes flashed a seething red, capillaries exploding. There was incredible power in her attack and Endy flew from my hand again. This time, my wrist snapped in two, the Nightcrawler-bone glove shattering as I was thrown to the ground with a scream. Power surged from the gemstone, and a blinding, thunderous roar of magical firestorm knocked me further away, slamming me into one of the columns with an unhealthy crunch. I squeezed my eyes shut against the sudden brilliance of magic pouring from Amadea''s necklace. There was power in the damned artifact, enough power to keep her alive and perfectly functional even without a soul! "That was... fun," Amadea''s mouth stretched into a rictus grin, full of sharp teeth and dripping gobbets of blood as if she had feasted on the beating heart of a freshly-killed animal. I saw that her flesh was decaying from within and immediately weaving itself back together. The large crack on the diamond heart hanging from her neck repaired, fused itself back together. The true horror of the situation dawned on me then - her artifact could reanimate, repair itself even if damaged by the all-killing power of infinity! Amadea barked a dry laugh. My eyes filled with tears from the pain. Twenty one slow mirrors tried to rewind my broken wrist back together but the damage was far too great to heal quickly. I was nowhere close to Amadea in my healing abilities. "I must admit, I didn''t expect any of this," the chimera Baroness stood up to her full indomitable height. She wiped the blood from her chin. Agatha cowered in fear as Amadea''s sharp, gold eyes pierced right through her. Tears streamed down Emerald''s face as she struggled to move. I cried out, trying to get up but the sound was drowned out by the pounding of my heart. I looked at the scene before me in panic. Everyone in the enormous, underground hall had been knocked far, slammed into the walls or columns, completely paralyzed by Amadea''s resonance. My chimera hunters, constables and our two maids simply laid on the floor, not moving. Nobody was coming to my aid. The magisteel-covered maids of the Baroness stirred, rising from the water. The poisoned arrows and spellfire had done nothing against vitality maxers, only temporarily stopped them. The Baroness moved towards her daughters, looking down at them. "You two are... disowned," Amadea said simply after another moment of observing the downed Princesses. She turned to me with a malicious smile. Her body moved faster than my eyes could track it. She was holding Endy in her pale fingers. Amadea turned the knife in her pale hand, examining it. I gasped for breath as Amadea advanced to me and lifted the limp husk that was my body from the ground, grabbing me by the collar of my armor. Every breath burned, as if inhaling a thousand knives. I suspected that a few of my ribs were broken. "As for you, arch-cendai Juni..." the words flowed out of her mouth with far too much sweetness. Ch 81. The Face of Justice
Just a few moments ago I felt elated, felt that I could finally rest. Now I could hardly take a single breath without pain lacing through me. All of the armored maids were standing upright now. ¡°Erase the last thirty minutes from the minds of the constables,¡± Amadea told them. ¡°Yes, Baroness,¡± the maids answered as one. They went around the hall firing spells at the downed constables. I noted that they didn''t have armaci... instead they were using some kind of... wand-like, white bones encased in silver metal with gold crystals on the ends. Amadea turned back to me, a sickly, sweet smile back to her lips. ¡°My dear,¡± she said in Tokimorim?tul language. ¡°That was very naughty of you. I am impressed that you were able to destroy our Master¡¯s body. You have risen a lot faster than I expected you to.¡± I looked at the inexplicably chatty chimera inhabiting an indestructible human body with tears of pain in my eyes. Where was she going with this? I expected her to snap my neck, to awaken in another universe without another Infinite mirror gone, bearing the loss of yet another Juni on my shoulders. ¡°What was that magic that ripped my soul away from me?¡± Amadea suddenly asked. The diamond heart on her necklace ignited, gold threads piercing through me, drawing the words out of me. ¡°The ancient Barrier hexagram network of Illatius,¡± I answered without being able to stop myself. ¡°A manifestation of belief that kills Astral Phantoms.¡± ¡°Verrrry interesting,¡± Amadea purred. ¡°A clever way to end chimera cendai. A pity for your wonderful plot that I can exist without a soul.¡± My eyes moved to the diamond on her chest, examining it now that it was so close to me. Its crystal matrix seemed to fold into itself on and on and on. The longer I stared at it the more reflections, lustrous faces and corners I observed. It dawned upon me that I could not simply destroy this damned artifact because just like my knife it was¡­ limitless, a child of the Builders of Andross. The limitlessness had somehow applied to its bearer, making Amadea immortal, utterly invincible to any attack. ¡°Ah, you like my little, infinite mirror?¡± Amadea asked. ¡°She is rather nice. She appreciates the beauty of order, of law.¡± ¡°Whose law?¡± I choked out. ¡°Mine, obviously,¡± Amadea said. ¡°You see... your daring plan was doomed to fail from the start, my dear. Had my soul not been bound in magical chains by Eunice, I would have simply surrendered to the constables and held a trial in which the Judiciary of my city would have declared me innocent. I own the courts of Illatius. I''m the face of Justice. All of the current Grandmaster Judges answer to me. Two hundred years is a very long time to acquire property and uplift my own lawmakers to positions of prominence.¡± As Amadea spoke, I could not draw my eyes away from the diamond heart, lost in its iterating, absolute splendor of infinite, perfect faces and endless crystalline cells within cells. Like Endy, this artifact was incredible, seemed to be so much more than I had foolishly presumed. ¡°I must thank you,¡± the Baroness said. ¡°Eunice¡¯s choker was... somewhat bothersome. With my soul gone, it is gone too. For two centuries I was under its binding, under orders to spread her influence across the Empire. Now I can finally¡­ get to what¡¯s really important.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± I asked. ¡°My body wishes to indulge in pleasures of the flesh,¡± Amadea said. ¡°But my diamond heart wishes to impose order and law. It is quite the conundrum. I suppose I¡¯ll continue to guide my lawmakers into introducing more binding laws and seduce more bankers until I fully own this city.¡± ¡°Why won¡¯t she just kill me and get it over with?¡± I thought. "Why is she talking to me, revealing all of her grandiose plans?" ¡°I bet you¡¯re wondering why I won¡¯t just smash your head in?¡± Amadea asked, seemingly reading my thoughts. I looked up at her sly, blood-covered smile. ¡°I¡¯m a high-cendai,¡± she said. ¡°I saw the shards of endlessness within you. Killing you won¡¯t do me any good. Your little black knife won¡¯t let you go. I do wish that I could simply snap it in half, but alas¡­ things like it cannot be undone or broken. We must learn to share Illatius. Whatever these divine artifacts are that Eunice had bestowed upon us in her wisdom or perhaps foolishness¡­ they will not let us go, will not let us perish. So¡­ I¡¯ll let you go with a slap on the wrist. There is no need for further violence between us. Having no soul is an inconvenience, but now I won¡¯t have to waste so much time on Eunice¡¯s nonsense anymore.¡± She let go of me and I fell back down to the water-covered floor with a yelp. I stared up at her, feeling distraught. "I had countless spats just like this with the other cendai over the centuries. Everything is cyclical. Everything follows its predetermined path. Everything is bound to loops within loops. I suggest you learn to enjoy the chain you bear as much as it permits you to," Amadea dropped Endy into my lap. "Find a nice human partner, indulge in the pleasures of the flesh, feed on their brief love and devotion. These pitiful, albeit adorable creatures are but tiny moths drawn to our eternal flame." I grasped the knife with my shaking left hand as Amadea waved her hand at the pacified constables. "Well?" The baroness leaned closer to me, so close that I could smell the blood all over her body. "Will you attempt to break my infinite chain again or have I convinced you that fighting amongst us is utterly useless?" The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. "I broke Eunice''s hold over you," I growled. "I can break your diamond heart too¡­" "You are welcome to try," Amadea laughed. "Add some flare to our relationship. Give it a century and we''ll end up making out under the violet stars and then fighting again over something like a pretty girl¡¯s affection, or a mountain filled with overpriced shinies, or something equally stupid, vapid and temporary." I blanched at her words. I had no answer to the problem of Amadea. She was immovable, invincible and worst of all she wished to bind the city under her rule. ¡°Are you going to put Vows on humans?¡± I asked her, holding my aching, shattered hand. ¡°Only the naughty boys and girls,¡± Amadea answered. ¡°The kind that can¡¯t play nice with others. Murderers, thieves, debitors. They all need to be bound into following the law if they cannot control their natural impulses to interfere with the love of others. You¡¯re welcome to visit Palais De La Solstice to discuss further politics with me, my dear. I am feeling like a nice, warm bath after our little scuffle.¡± The Baroness turned away from me. I felt like crying. Everything I had done today had seemingly accomplished nothing at all. I had ripped Amadea¡¯s soul away and yet she still lived. I had carved Eunice¡¯s control out of her and yet she still had her own, similar agenda. Amadea didn¡¯t seem irredeemable like Eunice - her plan for curing the city of crime had merit from a standpoint of pure law and order. I didn¡¯t know how to stop people from killing each other, and had no real answer for a system of perfect justice. The biggest issue that didn''t sit right with me was that by law of Illatius debt passed from parents to children. It created a vile system akin to serfdom, a law that permitted Amadea to add more maidens to her personal army. ¡°I won¡¯t be shaming you in public, but you will not have my financial support until you learn to behave yourselves, daughters,¡± Amadea passed by Emerald and Agatha. "If you wish to apologize for your insolent words, you may come to my palace in... two weeks time. Perhaps by then I will be in a better mood to forgive you." Amadea turned away from her daughters. The armored maids followed after the blood-covered Baroness, marching in unison like ants following after their queen. ¡°Will you help me stop Eunice if she re-manifests?¡± I yelled at the departing high-cendai. ¡°Only if she breaks the laws of my city,¡± Amadea answered without turning. ¡°Has she not already...?¡± I asked. ¡°Giving people something to believe in isn¡¯t a crime,¡± the Baroness replied. ¡°Humanity can manifest dangerous gods completely beyond our understanding if we let them believe in things without guidance. Perhaps, when Eunisii returns to the physical, she will be reshaped by belief so much that her personality will become less¡­ dominant, more like the idea of her that I wrote into the The Testament of Eunisii Ei. I very much doubt that our dear arch-cendai expected to be killed so early in the game.¡± Amadea and her followers sunk into the gloom on the far side of the arched hall. I watched until the darkness swallowed them up. Then, I let out a long, slow breath and started to whimper softly, stilling the broken parts of myself so that they would stop hurting horribly. Lambert got off the floor with a groan, walked towards me and fired a spell at my hand. The pain became reduced as ruined flesh kneaded itself back together. He sat down, pulled out a cloth and wrapped it around my arm, binding what his spell did not fix. "Let me guess, we didn''t succeed at what we set out to do?" He asked softly. "Not entirely," I sniffed. "I knew this was going to happen," Agatha said darkly, rising from the floor. "It was worth a try," I shrugged. "I am not apologizing to her!" Emerald barked, limping over to where Lambert and I were sitting on the floor. "Mother can trip over her butt and fall into the Chasm for all I care. I don''t need her useless ''support'' to get ahead in life!" Agatha simply sighed as a response. Inspector Pomegrad opened his eyes with a groan. "Damnation," he ground out. "My memory has been tampered with. Can anyone recall what happened in the last thirty minutes?" "The enemies of the Empire got away," Lambert said. "It was a good try, but we had underestimated them." "Who was it?" Pomegrad asked. "We were supposed to guide Baroness Amadea down here, right?" "We did. She left now," Lambert said. "I can tell you the details of the case involving our memory-erasing assailants, but knowing it might jeopardize your career as the Inspector of Diamondias. It involves very big players." "Erm," Pomegrad gulped. "Keep it to yourself then." He spotted the chimera warriors rising from the floor. "These are the men you spoke of, Agent Juni?" He asked. "Yeah," I said. "They''re my personal guard. Magogenic-zone born hunters modified by biomancy." "Very impressive," the Diamondias Inspector nodded. "Guess they couldn''t stop whoever attacked us either?" "Alas, no," I said. "Like I said before, the cultists I''m hunting down here are extremely dangerous. Unfortunately, some very powerful individuals are protecting them." "I understand," Pomegrad said. His face paled as he made the connection to Baroness Amadea. His Scrutimancy was probably good enough to guess what we didn''t say, to figure out what had transpired beneath his mall. "Call me anytime you require assistance," he added, rubbing the back of his head and looking concerned. I nodded. In a way, I was thankful that Amadea owned the constabulary. Without the high-cendai''s centuries of machinations, the local system of law enforcement probably wouldn''t be as cooperative with me or as independent, seemingly separated from other Imperial departments. We slowly made our way out of Diamondias, filling the seats of Galissi. The glider shot up from the landing tower of the shopping district and down a level to where the caverns opened up into the Chasm. There, we met chimera hunters emerging out of the caverns leading to Diamondias. We flew back to Lomb, with hundreds of chimera following the glider on their Bonulich wings. Agatha seemed extremely irate with how things went, so I ignored her for the most part. Emerald was talking with Lambert, trying to hide how terrified she must have felt behind a false facade of a chatty, teenage Princess. The two maids were in Saccy. "Soooo..." I turned to my chimera father who had also boarded the glider for some reason. "What did you want to speak to me about?" ¡°It was a good hunt,¡± my father said from his seat next to me, his clawed right hand rubbing his left, bruised wrist. ¡°Too bad our prey got away. We shall find a way to kill the Astral Phantom inhabiting the tall, pale human female, yes?¡± ¡°Someday,¡± I replied. ¡°Someday, we will hunt her down, dad. We just need to get stronger.¡± ¡°Good,¡± he smiled. ¡°You know¡­ it was not long ago that I had yelled at you about flying. I asked to sit with you in this odd, flying contraption because I wanted to say that..." I raised my eyebrow at the embarrassed-looking chimera hunter waiting as he recomposed himself enough to finish his sentence. "I... am sorry for not understanding you, my daughter. I was terrified that you would get hurt. I simply didn¡¯t believe how quickly you grew up, did not know that you bear the brilliant chorus-spark of the All-Mother. I do care for you, my Juni. I am¡­ very proud of you.¡± ¡°I know, dad¡­ I¡­ love you too,¡± I leaned into my father, looking at the ruby gemstone bracelet glittering on his hand that I had made over three years ago. ¡°Thanks for taking care of me and protecting me for the past four winters. You¡¯re a great hunter.¡± The dark chimera embraced me. There was a wide smile on his elongated face. I sunk into his warm embrace and finally relaxed. It didn¡¯t matter that I failed to end Amadea. I did accomplish something great today - thanks to the act of the hunt itself, I had finally made a connection with my chimera dad. The little part of Juni within me fluttered with happiness, felt at peace. Ch 82. Defining my Patron
"Must be nice to have a dad," Emerald commented, tears glittering in the corners of her green eyes. "Or any sort of parent who actually gives a damn..." "C''mere, you," I smothered the silver-haired Princess in a hug. "Don''t fret Emmy, you''re my family now too!" "Just like the rest of the Tokimorim?tul tribe?" Emerald sniffed. "Closer! The rest of Tokimorim?tul won''t get to be my bestie at Nemendias and also my adorable mortal enemy," I said trying to cheer up the clearly distraught youngest daughter of Amadea. "If Ems is still going to Nemendias," Agatha commented, her voice icy and distant. "They might kick both of us out for not making payments for the new semester." "They won''t," I said. "It''s my fault that both of you lost your mother''s financing. If Amadea refuses to cover your education, I''ll just pay for it." "I don''t know if being in your debt is any better than being under Mother''s wings," her voice was sharp. "Are you still scared of me, Agatha?" I asked, looking at the eldest Amadea daughter. "I''ve never not been scared of you," she said. "Yet you somehow continue to terrify me more with each action." "Aww come on, I''m nice," I huffed. "Yeah, Aggie, she''s nice," Emerald said. "How are you going to pay for our education?" Agatha snapped. "I have a tribe," I shrugged. "It''s a lot of hands that can do various jobs around Lomb. Plus I can sell their hair to Antoine." "How are you better than my mother?" The eldest Princess stared down at me. "What do you mean how I''m better... I''m way nicer," I blinked. "I don''t bind people with Vows." "Obviously not, you bind them with ideas, promises and hopes!" Agatha growled. "All I had to do was look away for a minute and now I''m bound to you by a thousand invisible threads!" "You''re welcome to leave," I crossed my arms. "You''re not my slave nor are you bound in any capacity. Everyone that works for me does it of their own free will." "Leave and go where?" Agatha''s eye twitched. "I dunno," I rolled my eyes at her. "You can sell Galissi Seven and open a crepe cafe or something. Maybe run a furniture shop. Fly to another corner of the Basq Empire and live on a mossy hillside down by the creek and raise chickens. The possibilities are endless." "What is this hybrid girl mad about?" Acadius asked me. "I do not understand human language." "She thinks that I''m secretly wicked or something," I shrugged. "The All-Mother chosen-one cannot be wicked," Acadius commented at Agatha in Tokimorim?tul. "My daughter is as bright and clear as the glacier river cascade." "You''re just saying that because she made you the Alpha of the hunters," Agatha commented at him in chimera language. "I have always believed that Juni¡¯s spark was bright," Acadius shook his head. "She killed a nightcrawler at seven months of age and built herself leather wings to traverse the Chasm. I was afraid that her brightness would lead her to fall... but she has proven me wrong... so very, very wrong. I should have spoken to her as an equal, but regretfully I was... inexperienced in such matters as she was my first daughter from my first hearth-keeper." I smiled at the unexpected support. "I dedicated myself to being a good hunter," the dark-gray chimera shook his head. "The chorus of my ancestors did not prepare me for being the father of the reincarnation of the All-Mother." Agatha''s frown deepened. Her silver-blue eyes were definitely judging me. I glanced at her in the Astral. The complex formation woven by her mother''s Dominion roots was still there, buried deep in her body. "Agatha," I said. "Stop frowning at me. You''re free. I freed you and your sister." "You did?" Emerald blinked. "Without a soul Amadea cannot possibly take over your bodies," I said. "My action entrenched her into her current body for all eternity. In time the Dominion threads she''s placed in your bodies will wear away, become absorbed into you. They''re anchors for nothing to latch onto! Barrie had torn her soul into shreds." "Yessss! I''m free!" Emerald bounced excitedly. She stared at me. "Thank you, Junes! You are the bestest!" "Mother will undoubtedly find other ways to bind us," Agatha shook her head. "She has the financial backing of the entire capital." "Why would she even want to bind you?" I asked. "Because she made us," Agatha answered. "We''re her property to do whatever she wishes with, just like her maids. All that talk of disowning us was just another one of her manipulations, trying to make us feel bad. Undoubtedly she wants for us to come crawling back to her, to beg to be bound on her terms.¡± "Yeah, I''m not gonna do that," Emerald gritted her teeth. "No freaking way I''m going back." "You''ll have no choice," Agatha shook her head. "Mother''s agents will make sure our lives in Illatius are horrible in every possible way." "Let them try," I declared. Agatha stared at me. "I protect my friends," I said firmly, baring my sharp chimera chompers. "For every action there will be an opposite reaction. If they give me a finger I''ll bite off their hand at the wrist!" "You cannot possibly match Amadea''s current wealth or the creative malice of the bastards she employs," Agatha sighed. "Now that Mother is no longer protecting me, I fear my life will become a thousand times worse. Yes, if I was a daughter of a simple merchant I could have opened a cafe, go elsewhere, have a mundane, relaxing life... alas, I was born an Amadea. If you think that Mother will take it easy on us, you are sorely mistaken." Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Emerald gulped, worry filling her eyes. "Gosh, you''re ever so gloomy," I wrapped Emmy in my arms. "The storm of consequences is coming," Agatha said simply. "And I have no choice but to be by your side because standing alone will leave me swept and carried back to Mother with my body battered and my spirit broken." "I think you''re being overly dramatic," I said. "Stop terrorizing your little sister with theoretical doom and gloom. It''s the end of summer. Let''s put on some makeup and enjoy the city. Precogs can''t track me... so as long as I lead our party neither of you can be located." "Which puts you in the position of power over us," Agatha said. "If I didn''t know better I''d presume you set all of this up to benefit you." "That''s ridiculous," I sighed. "Like I said before - I don''t want power for the sake of control over others. I just want to have a nice time with my friends." "You took two thousand chimera under your control. You made them believe that you''re their All-Mother," Agatha pointed out. "I took control of Tokimorim?tul to help my family," I said. "Without me becoming the tribe''s guide some other cendai like your mother would take over and likely end up abusing them or eating their souls. My solution for Tokimorim?tul obviously isn''t perfect, but it''s the best thing I could do for them." "Right," Agatha sighed. "I suppose I''ll just have to trust that you''re not a dead god from Inaria planning to consume our sanity." "I''m not," I crossed my arms. "So you say," Agatha muttered. "And yet, I feel like everyday less and less sanity remains in me." I couldn''t help but snicker at her words, which didn''t make me any less of a sanity-consuming deity in her eyes. Thinking about it made me laugh even more. I descended into a hysteric fit of giggling so hard that tears burst from my eyes. "What''s so funny?" Agatha demanded. "You are," I said, wiping my face. "You''re seriously worried about me being a cosmic, sanity-consuming deity like that''s a real thing." "Anything could be real with you!" Agatha shook her head. "Whenever I''m near you, my life is a constant battle against delirium!" "Stop," I heaved, waving my hand at her trying not to laugh again which was making my broken ribs ache. ¡°I can only take so much nonsense!¡± "Erm, Juni?" Emerald poked me in the side. "Divine manifestations that can feast on emotions can be real, no?" "Sorry," I rubbed my face, blushing. "Most of my life, I lived in a world without magic. Honestly, all of this magical bullshit seems quite nonsensical from my point of view." "Explain how you''re doing impossible things then," Agatha demanded. "Wish I could," I spread my hands. "All I have are theories." "Let''s hear one that makes me feel better," Agatha said. "Erm," I scratched the back of my head. "I''m really old so the Builders of Andross are helping me out?" "The Builders of Andross are helping you because you are old?" Agatha mulled. "No, that doesn''t make any sense. Do you even know any Builders of Andross?" "Not personally," I said. "I sort of briefly interacted with Infi¡­ the umm, manifestation of the End-Gate. She seemed like she liked me. Pretty sure that my knife was made by her. She told me that I should¡­ try not to die." "So, you can do impossible things because a manifestation of death, the thing that killed everyone on Andross likes you?" Agatha raised a silver eyebrow. "I¡­ erm, I guess?" I said. "How do you know that she''s not using you to end countless worlds?" Agatha inquired. "Your fortune can''t be defined right? Maybe it can''t be defined because you keep turning parallel worlds into dust?" "Jeez, way to rain on my parade," I huffed. "Just when I was feeling good about myself you imply that I''m a planet-killer!" "You have a knife that can kill anything," Agatha pointed out. "Anything I can define fully," I said. "I can''t just stab Andross and make it disappear! It''s too big!" "You don''t need to stab Andross to make it disappear, you just need to open a gate to Inaria," the eldest Amadea Princess said. "Fair enough," I frowned. Was I a tool of Infi? A killer of worlds? A stupidly stubborn urbexer that didn''t know any better than to turn the key when presented with a mysterious door? My frown deepened as I nervously caressed my broken wrist. I had stilled the pain away, but the fact that it wasn''t functional anymore was bothering me. "I don''t know what you and your friends are talking about," Acadius voiced. "But I think that you need to stop doubting yourself, daughter. Trust in the spark of the All-Mother. She chose you to lead us to a brighter future." "Dad," I sighed. "I don''t know if I am the All-Mother." "Of course you are," the gray chimera shook his head. "No other could have done what you did. No other could have challenged Eunice or offered us so much. You stood up for us, offered us guidance when the tribe needed it most! We were slowly dying, losing our strength. It took you to tell us what we all knew, to free us from our illusory shackles!" I looked into his yellow, hope-filled eyes. "Never forget what you did," Acadius said firmly. "Listen to your heart and move forward one step at a time!" "You don''t think that I am secretly guided by the personification of death, dad?" I asked. "No," my father shook his head. "If I were to evaluate all of your actions over the years... You are guided by the personification of freedom!" Something clicked in my head at his words. Infi wasn''t the voice of death. Endy wasn''t a knife, it was a key! "I, um, I think I get it," I said, turning back to Agatha. "Infinity, my patron from Inaria, is the personification of liberty. She wants me to liberate the debitors of Undertown. She wants me to free the Vow-bound maids." "If you kill everyone in Undertown, that''s one method of liberating them," Agatha commented. "Look," I said. "It makes perfect sense. Infi hates limits. She''s the concept of Infinity! Chains, limits and boundaries piss her off! I can wield Endy because I despise chains too. Eunice told me that she gave this knife to other arcane-ghost filled chimera before me, but it would not respond to them because she magically bound them into obedience.¡± ¡°I see,¡± the eldest Princess mulled. ¡°As long as I fulfill the mission of ¡®liberation¡¯, Infi helps me out,¡± I said. ¡°She is undoubtedly watching me¡­ from the End-gates or whatever. Maybe she has an Astral manifestation that¡¯s observing me. I¡¯m just an ancient soul stuck in a chimera body - without my Eurekan patron helping me out I¡¯d already be dead and buried. In fact¡­ I am already dead in two other worlds! I glanced at my chimera father and then looked at Agatha again. ¡°Breaking the rules about flying, freeing Tokimorim?tul, unbinding your mother¡¯s soul, accidentally destroying all of Andross - these were all permitted, assisted by Infi¡­ because they were all acts of liberation. There¡¯s no doubt in my mind about it now - my meeting with all of you, the fact that I ran into Inspector Lambert first and not some other corrupt, less cooperative constable¡­ all of these actions were either ridiculous luck or maybe they were due to probability being slightly skewed in my favor by Infinity! As the avatar of the End-gate in Undertown, she must hear the prayers of the downtrodden, bound humans on the daily.¡± ¡°An interesting theory,¡± Agatha mulled. ¡°So you don¡¯t think that the goddess of Undertown and the inhabitant of the End-gates is evil? You don¡¯t think that what happened on Inaria was bad?¡± ¡°It¡¯s obviously bad, but I don¡¯t think that it was Infi¡¯s fault. I think that what happened on Inaria and is still happening is a war,¡± I said. ¡°Concepts killing concepts. Machine life fighting machine life. The infinite city of Eureka isn¡¯t dead - it¡¯s being ravaged, devastated by an endless war between endless things. Revolutions have a price. Liberty has a cost if there are those that oppose it.¡± Agatha frowned at me. ¡°Installation Rozaline¡­ is just a little mote in the eye of god, a little island of sunshine and kittens surrounded by the raging sea of death. Don¡¯t you get it? Andross is a peaceful place hovering in the eye of the endless hurricane,¡± I uttered, looking up through the glass roof of the glider at the infinite planet above us. ¡°What¡¯s happening here is but a microcosm, a muddy, minute reflection of the unending battle invisibly raging up there. Infi said that all Eurekans are still alive¡­ If we can¡¯t spot them on the surface of Inaria, then it stands to reason that they¡¯re most likely trapped in a war between living concepts. Maybe they''re dying forever and being endlessly brought back to life somewhere deep inside of the infinite city over and over and over.¡± ¡°That¡¯s¡­ pretty horrifying,¡± Emerald said with a shudder. ¡°Yeah,¡± I rubbed my broken arm. ¡°It is¡­ the best we can do is enjoy our little island of sunshine and try not to rock our boat too hard. I don¡¯t know how I can prevent Amadea from binding Illatius in laws¡­ but I have to try.¡± I looked at Endy. ¡°An all-ending knife can¡¯t bring down an infinite wall¡­ not without horrific consequences,¡± I said. ¡°But¡­ I think that¡¯s why I¡¯m here, why I wield Endy. I have to balance my actions, think ahead and rely on my friends. I have to walk on the edge between granting freedom and plunging everyone into the abyss. I have to make sure that Illatius doesn¡¯t end up as a desolate wasteland in the process of freeing it from the chimera cendai. It won¡¯t be easy, but now I know what¡¯s at stake now and I¡¯m beginning to understand who the big players are.¡± Ch 83. Personal ghosts
Having concluded my discussion with Agatha about my theoretical understanding of the life, the universe and my potential patron Infi, I leaned back on the seat and closed my eyes. We were slowly flying back to Lomb with chimera hunters trailing behind us so there was plenty of time for me to level up more of my skills. I reached into myself, imagining, visualizing the control room of Chernobyl. The desolate power plant grew around me out of dust and shadows, flickers of light emanating from broken windows in the upper levels. As I stood in the control room and looked around I felt that something was off, as if the place wasn''t as empty as before. As if someone or perhaps something was watching me. "Endy?" I whispered nervously. The black knife instantaneously manifested in my hand. "Are you watching me?" I asked her. The knife didn''t reply. "Obviously not, you''re not a sentient knife," I muttered to myself, feeling a weird, tense pressure that I couldn''t quite put my finger on. I decided to investigate my mindscape more thoroughly to determine the source of the unnerving sensation I was experiencing. As I walked about, I saw the control panels with their switches and gauges, the large central reactor, the pipes and ducts that ran throughout the facility. I slowly examined the place on a deeper level, stared at the play of shadows and dust, paid attention to every little echo and whisper and light ray and twisted nook and cranny like I hadn''t done before, used all of my urbex skills to find hidden areas and note minute details. To my surprise, the power plant looked a lot more worn out and decayed than before. As I walked through the silent halls, I listened and I looked. I opened all of my senses to this illusory place. The dream of Chernobyl wasn''t empty. I definitely wasn''t alone here. The more I traversed the halls, the more I became aware of something... Finally, I had spotted it - an eerie, barely discernible thing traversing through one of the halls. I focused all of my mind on the strange, wispy shimmers, followed the mysterious... figure. The longer I stared at the wisp, the more details I made out. It was a person! I gulped, shuddering. "What the hell?" I whispered. Another wisp flashed at the corner of my eyes. A second phantom! I turned, my hands trembling. Could it be?! Workers who had been on duty the night of the accident, those that had died in the initial explosion. Their ghosts were somehow haunting my Chernobyl. I could see them moving about, going about their tasks. My rational mind retreated into itself, lost in confusion and panic. What were these... things? Something wasn''t right. Something was amiss, different here. What in the shit? Workers? Ghosts? This place was mine, damn it! It was forged by my imagination and the System, what ghosts could there possibly be inside of my mentally-fabricated control room, inside of my soul? Surely, I didn''t take a piece of Chernobyl with me to Andross... right?! The two spirits and I had reached the control room once again. I stopped close to the nearest pale, mostly-transparent ghost inhabiting the control room and stared at its pale, shimmering face made from layers of dancing Aurora-like flickers. The longer I stared at it, the clearer the ghost became. It took me a while to recognize her... no... myself, my own torn-up, ruined face behind the interplay of shadow and light. It was me. Me, but with my face and body torn covered in holes, parts of her soul devoured by... the Dead Zone. The ghost was a version of Juni that died because of Eunice. The Juni whose experience I now held within me. I gulped. I tried to say something, to apologize, to explain, but the words wouldn''t come out. They got stuck in my throat, caught on the lump of guilt, shame, fear and confusion. For a few moments we stared at each other. "I''m sorry," I whispered to the ghost of myself. "I''m sorry for being an idiot. I didn''t know. I was tricked by the arch-cendai. I rushed into saving Alessi, acted foolishly, lost everything and became bound, opened the gate. It was a terrible mistake, that cost you... that cost us everything... the lives of everyone on Andross." The ghost stared at me for what felt like an eternity, and then she slowly reached out her hand and placed it on my cheek. The gesture was so gentle and full of forgiveness that the tears started flowing from my eyes before I could even register what was happening. I broke down, sobbing uncontrollably as the ghost embraced me. Well, pretended to embrace me. She didn''t feel like much. She too, was crying. We stayed like that for what felt like an eternity, my tears mingling with hers as we clung to each other, our souls still sharpened by grief and guilt. Hugging her felt odd, wrong, like she was here but also wasn''t. Like she was just an empty, hollow thing, a remnant of a person. In the end, it was the ghost of myself who pulled away first. She gave me something akin to a very sad smile and then turned away, staring at the control panel. I glanced at the other Juni inhabiting the control room, trying to figure her out. After a while, she too became clearer to me. It was me that died because of Barrie, there was no doubt about it now. These two spirits, imprints of me... had definitely been here before, but I hadn''t noticed them, hadn''t paid attention. I walked to the second ghost. She turned to me. "That was a pretty stupid way to die too," I rubbed the back of my head. "At least we know what Barrie is right?" The ghost didn''t speak. "Do you think that the Illatius of your timeline survived, went on without me?" I asked her. "Do you think that the Lambert and Anniya stayed friends with the Amadea Princesses?" The ghostly Juni shrugged. She stared at me as I started to pace nervously between flickers of panels. "What am I going to do with you two? You''re real... right? I''m not just imagining this bullshit?" The Barrie-murdered ghost shook her head. Parts of her soul were missing as if cleaved away, torn out by a thousand knife-like fingers. It pained me to look at her mutilated, torn soul. "Thought so," I rubbed my face, feeling very unnerved. I slumped into a dusty, time-worn chair. "Is this some kind of divine punishment?" I asked the nearest ghost. "Being tormented with dead versions of myself for all eternity to atone for my mistakes?" The nearest doomed-timeline Juni tilted her head at me, exactly as I would. She was judging me. "Right," I rubbed my head. "Right... okay. This is weird and creepy and I don''t like it. Time to do what I do best..." This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it I got up and placed my hands on the shoulder of the Juni killed by Barrie. Well, pretended to place a hand on her. She wasn''t exactly solid. "You''re going to be Juneberry. Cool? Cool." The ghost nodded. "Cool beans," I turned to the other ghost. "You''re Junezia," I told her. "On the account of the whole Dead Zone, sentient AI biz." Junezia accepted her new designation without a fight. She was me, a remnant, a shadow of me that was somehow still alive, somehow not fully absorbed into my experience, not integrated into me properly for some reason. Were these two ghosts simply representations of the broken Infinite Mirrors, the empty frames, stumps that remained in my soul? It was definitely possible. It seemed as good a theory as any. "Right. Juneberry," I said. "What do you want to do with your life?" The Barrie-murdered imprint pointed at the dials. "Eh?" I followed her ghostly hand. "You want me to... add points to things?" The ghost nodded in agreement. "I can do that. You want me to help you move on or something after I do that?" I asked. "Help you find peace?" The ghost shook her head in disagreement. I pondered about what I would want to do. If I was but an empty shell, a fraction of myself... I would want to live, to speak, would want to contribute, would want to be more. "You''re a broken Infinite Mirror shard, right?" I inquired. The ghost made the smallest nod, like she wasn''t entirely sure. "Do you want me to... try to fix you?" I asked. "Want me to give you my power? Magic?" A much more firmer nod this time. "Any requests?" I inquired. Juneberry stepped to the control dials and pointed her finger at one of them. I stepped closer too, my eyes focusing where she was pointing. I stared at the highlighted panel with a frown. [ 1 [Seeking Arrow] - [Damaged] ] "The Seeking Arrow?" I asked. I knew why my ghostly reflection was pointing at the dial. I haven''t touched it in three years, terrified of the enormous, hollow-shelled Astral Phantom, worried that using Seeking Arrow to define things would lead the damned abomination straight to me, get me caught and devoured once again. Juneberry tapped the the Seeking Arrow again. "You really want it, huh?" I sighed. The ghost nodded. "Fine," I exhaled. "Well, I guess a somewhat... intelligent Seeking Arrow is a lot better than a one that gets caught by a phantom squid, right?" Juneberry nodded, something akin to a bothered expression manifesting on her nebulous face. "Apologies for the unintentional insult," I said. "Juneberry, I have no idea how intelligent you are or even if you are real... but if you are... would you do the honor of being my... uhh... Knowledge Seeker?" The ghost nodded, a soft smile appearing on her shawl-like, fluctuating expression. I turned to the control panel, looked inward at myself focusing on the broken Infinite Mirror. Juneberry''s ghostly hand guided my motions, worked with me to complete herself. I carefully tied, connected the broken [Seeking Arrow] with the shattered [Infinite Mirror] that represented Juneberry. It cost me two points to repair and some time to fuse the two into one. As power poured into the new branch, Juneberry''s ghostly form gained clarity. As I finished my work, a version of Juni wearing a magenta-colored, spotless outfit of a pilot manifested in front of me. "Hey you," she smiled. "Or should I say me? This is pretty weird ain''t it?" I stared at her, my mouth open wide. She looked like a human version of Juni, except her short, puffy hair and ember eyes were sprinkled with a tint of magenta. I noted that the top of her collar formed an arrow-like design. She reached out to me and hugged me and this time there was warmth, familiarity and life within the hug. "H-hi! How much do you remember? How complete are you?" I asked. "Bits and pieces," she said. "I did get torn up pretty badly by Barrie." "You were here before, right?" I asked. "I was," she nodded. "You didn''t notice, didn''t pay attention to me, working on making fancy-pants Limitless skills." "Sorry," I whispered. "S''ight, I wasn''t exactly fully conscious. I''m going to see if I can [Search] through your memories, review what you''ve experienced. Go liven-up the other ghostie, make her whole, while I do my thing." "Right," I let go of Juneberry. I turned to the other ghostly remnant of me. "What do you want to be?" I asked. Junezia stood still for a few minutes, staring at the panel, then her transparent, flickering hand pointed at the [Organizer]. Then she looked back at me and showed me nine fingers. "You want me to put nine points into the organizer, yes?" I asked. "That''s a tall order. Are you sure?" Junezia nodded firmly. "Okay," I smiled at her. "Lets make it happen." I returned to the panel and bound the Infinite Mirror with Organizer and added nine points to it. Junezia''s ghostly form slowly became whole. The deep holes in her body created by the Dead Zone became filled up with energy and life. A purple suit with gold pins manifested on her, long purple locks blossoming on her head. Purple-tinted ember eyes stared down at me, evaluating me. Instead of offering me a greeting, she nodded at me, her expression very serious. I wondered if the way she died had a deep impact on her, if the Dead Zone devoured too much, broke her sufficiently to make her somewhat different from me. "Took you long enough," she said after a deep pause. "I was bloody haunting this places for ages!" "Ages?" I blinked. "Felt like ages," she shrugged. "You''re very disorganized! Stop staring at me and look at your soul for once! It''s a mess in here." I looked at the derelict control panel of the old, abandoned power plant. "Yeah," I said. "It''s a bit of a mess in here." "A bit?" She barked. "Are you serious? It''s a disastrous disarray! A literal catastrophe! Have you even asked yourself why it looks like an abandoned, Soviet power plant?" "Because I like urbex and cool abandoned places?" I said, already knowing that it wasn''t the truth. "No," Junezia''s hand traced a line atop the nearest dust-covered panel. "This isn''t a dream. This is the state of your soul, idiot." "Oh," I frowned. "You don''t feel it? The wrongness, the tension, the sense of decay, the chill in the air?" She asked. "I do," I said. "Isn''t that... normal?" "No, damn it!" She huffed. "This place is a cold, decrepit and ruined because you''re a soul-shard that''s been suspended in a radioactive crystal for God knows how long! When you finally left the crystal four years ago, the Astral Ocean wore many bits of your soul away. When you consumed a dying soul of a newborn chimera named Juni, you integrated her very poorly into yourself. Afterwards, the Hollow Astral Phantom damaged you and it took you three years to recover by adding random-ass bits of monsters to fill in the gaps and cracks in your foundation. Then, you consumed a dying soul of a human girl to boot!" Junezia waved her hands, illustrating the things I had done. My face burned in embarrassment at her words. I knew that she was right. Knew that what she said was the truth. "You barely sleep," Junezia added. "You juggle two bodies and don''t let your soul rest or recover. You''ve forged an excellent shield around yourself, but what you''re containing is a horrid mess that''s decaying, rotting from within, coming apart because the three souls that comprise you aren''t exactly compatible, held together by hope and duct tape forged from dead chasm abominations!" I sighed, folded under her words, rubbing my hands tiredly. She was right. I was a mess. This place was a mess, a perfect visualization of my fractured, torn up soul. "This is the biggest evidence of your decay," Junezia pointed her fingers at the [Astral Phantom] label. "If you keep going, your soul will deteriorate from within and eventually your experience will stop helping you level up, become spent entirely on reinforcing this ruination, metaphorically plastering over the widening cracks with more bits of stolen souls." I gulped. "Ashamed, yet? I bet your grandfather got to level seven way before you," Junezia stared at me, her arms crossed. "W-what?" I gaped at her. "How could you possibly know such a thing?" "The gate showed us that he''s alive on Novazem," Junezia pointed out. "Some other, parallel, future Novazem. I have no doubt that he has a System. Do you remember his words?" "Very vaguely," I shook my head. "The Astral Radionic is eating about a thousand mana per second from my chimera companion," the purple-dress me said, repeating the words of the boy with the soul of my grandfather. I stared at her, my eyes wide. "Get it? Your grandfather has a chimera girlfriend with an insanely powerful core," Junezia smirked. "He wasn''t using a Eurekan gate to speak with you from his end. He was always a clever clog. This ''Astral Radionic'' is something that he undoubtedly built himself using magic. Chimera hearts are crystalline-organic structures, power cells akin to that of a dragon-heart engine!" "Wow," I whispered. "You''re like a way more attentive version of me. I absolutely forgot the details of that conversation." "I think that fusing me to the Intelligence branch changed me a bit," Junezia said. "Made me less scatter-brained." "Can I invest more points into things now?" I asked nervously. "I''d like to make more Limitless skills." "No," the Intelligence-bound me shook her purple curls. "While your soul is in this decrepit state everything you do from experience sorting, to leveling up, to investing in growth is... way below its optimal performance, making the decay worse in the long run." "Fine," I said, rubbing my face. "You''re right. The dead control room of Chernobyl is cool and all... but it''s not really what I am anymore." I sighed and heard giggles from the side. I looked at Juneberry. She was clearly trying not to snicker and failing at it. "Juneberry and I are going to try to get this place in better shape while you do your thing in the physical world," Junezia said. "Do try to get some sleep and help us out, though. There is a LOT of work to do here. You''re a mess." I looked at Juneberry. "She''s right," the version of me in a pilot''s outfit said. "Searching through this place for specific information is like digging through a trash pile filled with rusty needles." "I can trust you two not to screw things up, yes?" I asked, feeling both ashamed and ecstatic about the renovation of my soul from within. "As much as you can trust yourself," Junezia rolled her eyes. "I''m pretty much you... Well, a version of you that''s specialized in Intelligence." "If you''re specialized in Intelligence and Juneberry is specialized in Searching, then what''s my thing?" I asked. "Your thing is stabbing things with Endy, until they die! Ka-pow! Whoosh!" Juneberry declared, spinning on the mold-covered chair and punching air. "Your core specialization is limit-breaking, aka Infinity," Junezia said. "You bound the concept of Sempiternity to the center of your soul." "Fair enough," I mulled, feeling like someone was gently shaking me and trying to wake me up. "Right then, I''m off to the real. When I come back, this place better look... uh, more orderly." "Sure thing boss," Juneberry sent me a salute. "There''s only two of us and a lot of issues to resolve," Junezia said eyeing the far-too-cheerful Juneberry with a weary expression. "But we''ll do our best." "Thanks guys! I''ll see you tonight then," I waved at my new soul-companions and opened my eyes, forcing myself awake. Ch 84. Integration
I awoke to my father smiling down at me and shaking me by the shoulder. "Come, my little arch-cendai," he said, looking over me with eyes like molten gold. "The tribe needs your guidance and blessings." I stretched and followed him out of Galissi. The glider was parked inside one of the large caverns facing the chasm. Glowing clouds rolled behind me. Hundreds of chimera greeted me in the cavern. I greeted them back and sat on a large, moss-covered rock. One by one, they started to approach me, offering me their trimmed-off hair and asking for things that they required. Alessi stepped to my side, writing notes down in a leather book. Hours flew by as I listened to my people. My father brought me a little dragon baked on a fire and I ate quickly as I interacted with yet more chimera requests. [I hope you''re memorizing all of this because I am starting to forget their names and faces,] I thought to Junezia. [I am,] a brisk answer came. [Organizing memory is my specialty.] At some point, my mother came to sit by me, bringing me fruits. I reached out with a hand and we briefly embraced each other. "You''re doing well, my little sunrise," she said, squeezing my hand. "I''m proud of you." I smiled and continued on with my work. As I processed yet another chimera family, my mind clicked - my father brought me meat! I stared at him and he winked at me. It made sense, as I was the new cendai and cendai didn''t have stupid limits imposed upon them. Now that everyone was living under the protection of Lomb, once the hex-beacon was repaired by Antoine chimera girls could start eating meat too. Organizing two thousand chimera wasn''t easy or fun. At times my mind started to wander, but thankfully my family chimed in, keeping me focused. Alessi''s notebook was rapidly getting filled with vast notes about each family. I was glad that I taught her how to write, glad to have a perfect chimera secretary even if meeting Alessi was part of Eunice''s machinations to turn me into a key. In another few hours, Antoine had come by with Anniya. "How''s the tower?" I asked the artificer. "It''s in very bad shape but the defense system is holding up in basic mode thanks to the numerous redirectors buried all over town," Antoine said. "We had to stop doing mountain tours as to avoid overloading it. Thankfully, I designed the shields to function even if the tower fell." "Glad to hear that," I smiled at him, relaxing. I had been very worried that Lomb would come under attack from dungeon monsters or Astral Phantoms due to its hex-beacon being inactive. "Got the stuff?" He asked. "Yeah, it''s in Saccy," I said, opening up the petals of the folding Seed. Antoine went into Saccy to collect all of the gathered up chimera hair into his own smaller folding bag so that he could start turning it into artifacts. He emerged out of Saccy and grinned at me. "Got everything?" I asked. "Yep," he nodded. I couldn''t see his eyes behind his magitek lenses but there was a huge smile on his face. "I think... I''ll open a second shop." "Where?" I asked. "Illatius," Antoine said. "As soon as the Lomb''s shield is fully repaired we''ll have to open a shop in the capital. There''s just not enough demand in Lomb for overpriced artifacts. I need to start turning the shiny crystals into shiny cash pronto. To start I''ll turn a lot of the stuff into power cells." "Do you think it will be safe to sell artifacts with chimera gems in them?" I asked. "I''ll market them as dragon-heart-shard everlasting batteries with a warning not to open up the containment cage. The cell empowers its own protective hexagram," Antoine said. "If anyone tries to meddle with it or compromises the cage it warns the manufacturer and then implodes on itself. This is common practice amongst expensive power-cell artificers." "I see," I said. "The gems are suspiciously similar to that of dragon heart bits but with far better magical resonance," Antoine said. "I''ve had plenty of time to compare the two. In fact, my most advanced Identification artifact quantifies the crystals as modified arcane dragon-heart shards. My biggest issue now is quickly finding sales and security personnel for the new shop that I can trust as I''ll be working in the back, crafting new batteries." "Alessi," I turned to my sister. "Once the tribe is sorted, would you like to come work for Antoine in Illatius?" "Oh?" The silver-haired chimera turned to me. "I''ll be studying in Illatius and if you''re there we could see each other daily," I smiled. "The protective barrier of Nemendias won''t permit you to get into the Arcanarium but if you''re nearby we can hang out often." "Sounds good," my chimera sister smiled at me. "Antoine, how would you like a shop in Diamondias?" I asked. "Diamondias?" Antoine''s mouth fell open. "The most expensive shopping district in all of Illatius?!" "That''s right," I said. "Diamondias." "How?" Antoine asked, colorful lenses clicking at me. "I am friends with the local Inspector," I grinned. "I am certain that I can arrange a space for you there." "Surely, all of the available spaces are taken up already?" Antoine asked. "I didn''t see any empty shops," I said. "But that''s what magic is for. I looked at the map. There are more shops in Diamondias than could physically fit into the space. I''m certain that the mall''s backrooms use folding magic. I''ll call up Inspector Pomegrad and ask him to add a new shop. We''ll house enough chimera hunters in it for night and day rotation. I''m sure that the Diamondias inspector is very worried about the mall''s safety since the mind-erasing incident in the catacombs. It won''t be an issue for me to convince him to make a space for extra security personnel as an excuse to patrol the catacombs!" "Your resource-management creativity continues to surprise me," Antoine laughed. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. . . . Calling Pomegrad and shaking a shop space out of him wasn''t hard. He didn''t even charge me anything for the space, considering the fact that I offered to buff up security of the catacombs and Diamondias with the extra hands and artifacts. Pomegrad sounded very nervous during our call. He was undoubtedly terrified of Baroness Amadea and worried that memory-erasing cultists were plotting dark deeds and infesting the vast catacombs beneath his domain. From our conversation, I learned that Diamondias was co-owned by Nemendias and numerous baronies, nobles and even the Emperor and that there was no single manager for the shopping district. A committee of owners met once a month in Diamondias and took what they were owed in rental income. The Inspector said that the reps were so disorganized that they would hardly notice an additional shop listed as a "security and artifact storage". Having procured a space for Antoine to make cash at for our enterprise, I returned to sorting chimera families. With my chimera family assisting me I interviewed hunters and hearth keepers, choosing the most capable candidates for our ''outpost'' in Diamondias. The sorting and interviews took almost the entirety of my day. When it was done, I indulged in walking through the caverns and directing setup of various residences, storage areas, communal spaces, bathrooms and... shops. That''s right - I was setting up shops closer to the surface for sale of chimera-made armor, tools, furniture and medicine. I chose the brightest, chattiest and most friendly chimera females to become shop salesgirls. I was certain that they would learn Basq very quickly. Laying the foundation of my own town right under Lomb was a lot of fun since I got to walk around and to adapt all of the caverns I had explored earlier to legitimate use. Taking a break from town-building, I went to a healer in Lomb to deal with my broken wrist and ribs. The local healer was pretty good at his job and a friend of Lambert. He did healing spells on me, rewinding the damage, and didn''t even raise an eyebrow at my chimera body. When evening fell I took a large group of chimera girls, dressed them in hats and costumes of my design and took them to the city. In the center of town thanks to Anniya''s assistance I organized my first fashion show for the small, gathered crowd. The citizens of Lomb had already seen me, Emerald and Agatha on the streets and inside various shops. They had no issues whatsoever with the group of pure-blood chimera. If anything they were extremely excited to see "biomancy-modified models" show off clothing. I combined chimera-made gemstone jewelry with my own dress designs and bound chasm flowers, crystals and Thunderbird feathers to wide rimmed hats worn by my models, producing a unique, smashing look. Eunice''s lies that ''dastardly humans will kill you on sight'' fell apart in an instant when the gathered crowd applauded and cheered the arrival of chimera girls. "Look, Katracii... they''re not attacking or killing us," I heard a chimera girl whisper to another as she cradled a rose offered to her by someone from the crowd. "Eunice has been lying to us! Humans are so nice!" "I cannot believe it either," her companion replied in Tokimorim?tul. "All I see are smiles and laughter. Look, they brought their children to greet us! They''re not afraid of us at all!" I turned back to the crowd with a victorious smirk. "Please welcome my sister Alessi," I announced. "Her unique, hand crafted armor designed by me survived a trip to the Folding Forest!" Alessi walked to the fountain at the center of town and back, her mirror-surfaced armor made from beetle carapace sparkling in the light of the crystal lanterns. She struck a few poses with a brilliant smile, a shining helmet covering her gemstone hair. She turned around to the applause of the gathered crowd. ¡°Thank you for welcoming us,¡± I bowed as my first fashion show on Andross concluded. ¡°We¡¯ll be seeing a lot more of each other, now that I and my biomancy-modified warrior-tribesmen have relocated from an expanding Magogenic zone in the distant reaches of Basq Empire to your lovely town.¡± "Thank you, Lady Juni!" Anniya said with a big smile. "As the new Inspector of Lomb I hope that we shall have a long and fruitful relationship and that your people will fall in love with Lomb as quickly you have!" "They merely need to taste Mrs. Pompermint''s crepes for this to happen," I laughed. "You know, I''d never leave Lomb''s Creperie if I didn''t have the weight of estate management upon my shoulders." A few people in the crowd laughed. As the sun set fully, Lomb lit up fully with crystal lanterns. A magical firework shot out from the station''s tower painting the sky overhead in cascades of raining sparks. The citizens of Lomb began to disperse, walking towards the food vendors. A few of them approached our group to chat with us and to welcome the new highborn Lady and her subjects to Lomb, praising my designs. My plan of chimera and human integration was proceeding full speed ahead without a single hiccup. For dinner we filled up the Lomb''s Creperie to bursting, with the waiters having to fetch extra chairs to accommodate all of my companions. "That was a really fun show," Emerald commented as we waited for our orders. "Can''t wait to see your other designs at the gala! Come on, Aggie give us a smile." She elbowed the sullen-looking Agatha. The eldest Amadea Princess simply sighed as a response. I decided not to tell her about my mental companions, as such would most likely freak her out. Looking at her depressed face was tugging on my heartstrings so I decided to uplift her with a conversation. "Hey, Agatha," I said. Weary silver-blue eyes came up to meet mine. "I''ve leveled up, but my armacus spells are still at level one," I said. "Do you know why?" Agatha blinked at me. "You seem to know so much and yet you ask such a basic question," she finally said. "First of all, I don''t know everything." I rolled my eyes. "I''m utterly clueless when it comes to a lot of magical things - I''ve only been four years on Andross." "Right," the eldest Amadea daughter brushed her silver-curls aside. "If you want to raise the level of your armacus spells you have to practice firing them." "That''s it?" I asked. "That''s it," she shrugged. "Practice makes perfect. Fire more spells and you''ll be able to bring your spell-work to your current level, but not higher." "Got it," I nodded. "Is it possible for someone to fire spells from an armacus beyond their level?" "With modifiers, affinity specialization and a battery it is possible to fire spells beyond your level," Agatha replied, looking at me like I was an idiot. "You''ve cast a shield way above your level. The whole point of an armacus limiting a user''s spell to their level is because then the spell won''t use up all of your mana and make you faint." "Why don''t more people carry mana batteries to power up their spells?" I asked. "Why aren''t all spells powered from the towers in Illatius the same way repulsor spells work in Undertown?" "The armacus is just a focus, a safety mechanism. A talented wizard can fire spells from their fingers," Agatha explained. "Power sent from the beacon towers actually flows directly through your soul. Magic currents passing through a person in large amounts does a bit of damage to the soul and body. This damage inevitably accumulates over time." "Hold up, so the people who fire repulsor rays in Undertown..." I mulled. "Damage their cores a little bit with each spell," Agatha said. "Sin and vice has a price." "So when I cast an absolute shield with the dragon-heart..." I gaped at her. "That was incredibly dangerous and reckless. I didn¡¯t think you were unaware of the risks. Some magicians completely burn themselves out and lose their magic by repeatedly pouring too much power through their bodies." "I was not aware of the danger at all," I sighed. [You know, this explains all of the the extra decay in here,] Junezia commented. I gritted my teeth. Bringing Eunice down had a price. [Is it fixable?] I asked my mental companion. [Probably? For now, I would advise you not fire spells above your level, unless you want to shatter your core. Like I said before, your soul looks like it''s held up with hope and duct tape,] my Organizer commented and fell silent. I slumped into the table. "It was stupid and it was dangerous," I sighed. "But it needed to be done. Just like I need to deal with your mother and the other six." Agatha eyed me. "You know... now you really seem like a young girl that''s trying to take on far too much responsibility and is making mistakes," she said. "You''re right," I sighed. "I''m flapping around and surviving by the barest margins. I don''t even know who the Seven Heroes are." "Oh," Agatha perked up. "Mother spoke of them often. There''s her... baroness Georgia and... uhm... uhhh..." "What''s going on?" I looked at her confused face which went through several shades of embarrassed to suddenly worried. "I think that some kind of a powerful edict is in place," she said. "I can''t seem to remember who the rest of the Seven Heroes are." "This does seem like a big problem," I uttered. I looked at Anniya, hoping that the power of the constabulary had my answers. "We don''t know who they are either," Anniya sighed, rubbing the back of her head. "Our inquires hit a dead end. Only Baroness Amadea and Georgia have been seen in public this century. Everyone knows that the Seven exist, but nobody knows who five of them are. Any mention of what they look like and even their names have been purged from the records." I gulped. If I didn''t even know who my enemies were, how could I even stop them? Ch 85. Tiny Investigation Time passed quicker than I had anticipated, my days filled with organizing the chimera villagers, teaching them meditation, Basq language, human customs, rules and laws. In the mornings I did basic exercises with the Princesses, getting Grogtilda''s body and my two besties into shape. Afterward, I switched to Juni''s body and drilled my chimera hunters, organizing them into an effective strike unit based on my sword-fighting and crossbow-making experience at Renaissance fairs. I was slowly sorting through all of chimera girls and boys, women and men giving them jobs which fit their personality best instead of the basic hunter or gatherer distinction which had previously bound them into very specific roles. My chatty personality and experience as a sociologist allowed me to reorganize the tribe with greater and greater efficiency, plotting out a future for all of my citizens not just as individuals but as a society. It fell to me to organize the tribe, to sort out what sort of role they would play in Lomb, to reduce the probability of future conflict between chimera and people down to nothing. During the evenings I did various fun shows, exhibitions and performances. Instead of building a shop in the caverns as that would take too long, I opened little market stalls in the center of Lomb with Anniya''s permission. The stalls were built from driftwood and dragon bones and featured chimera-made items. There was plenty of stuff for chimera to sell. Each morning my companions and I went back to old Tokimorim?tul with a small group of hunters to clear the skulls filled with the tribe''s abandoned possessions. With each trip we brought tons of chimera-made decorations, furniture, clothing, weapons, armor to Lomb inside of Saccy. Plenty of it went back to their former owners, but there was a lot of excess stuff that we sold to Lomb villagers and tourists making a profit that was exceeding my wildest expectations. Agatha stared at me, her mouth wide open as I deposited another purse of Obliss into my bank account. "I cannot believe it," she said. "You''re turning old, chimera-made, primitive-looking junk into piles of cash using a few rickety-looking wooden tables!" "A chimera''s old junk is a rich human''s art piece," I stuck my tongue out at her. "You''ve seen nothing yet. Wait till we open our own boutique store in Diamondias." "I''m surprised Mother hasn''t made any moves against us," Agatha said. "She''s probably scared of me," I shrugged. "I''m pretty dangerous when threatened. Can explode arch-cendais at will." The eldest Princess looked at me with an unamused expression. "There''s no need to panic," I said. "We have our own doomsday forecast network. Dawn, how''s chances of doomsday in the next two weeks?" "Everyone''s alive," the girl on my dress replied. "No existential threat to Lomb." "There you go," I stuck my tongue out at Agatha. "The local precog-girl declares clear skies for the Sunshine Archipelago! Now excuse me while I go pet some kittens." Agatha sighed as I pranced out of the bank towards a group of cats warming themselves on the sunbeams of the last week of summer. The large gathering of felines were very friendly and made room for me to sit on one of the warm, moss covered rocks. I took Saccy off my shoulders and sat down. A small ball of black fur emerged from the group, leaping onto my knees. I smiled at my pal. Purple eyes squinted at me in delight as I began to pet the kitten. "Is this going to take long?" Agatha asked as she stood in front of me, her arms crossed as watched me smothering the small kitten in attention. "Yes," I said. "I''m doing research." "Research?" My companion raised an eyebrow. "Petting a stray cat is research?" "That''s right," I nodded with a sagely look. "The best kind of wholesome, kitten-shaped research! Come over here and sit." "Kitten research?" Agatha looked at me like I was mad. "Trust me," I grinned. "Point your armacus at this lovely kitten and try to define it." "You want me to define... a kitten?" The silver-haired princess raised an eyebrow. I nodded. "This seems like a job Emerald would be more interested in," she commented snidely. "Emerald''s identification skills are weak," I said. "She''s working the stall, directing the chimera salesgirls. She needs the leadership experience and working sales is the best kind of experience for people-management! Now stop trying to weasel out of essential work and identify this damn kitten." Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Agatha sighed. Her armacus unfurled. She shot an identify spell at the black ball of fuzz on my knees. Her annoyed expression changed. "What?" She blinked. Another identify spell fired at the kitten. The purple-eyed ball yawned, curling harder into me. "What in the freaking Astral?" Agatha looked up at me, confusion dancing in her eyes. "Well?" I asked. "What does your spell tell you?" "There''s nothing there," she said with a frown. "Nothing at all. The window is coming back completely empty. This isn''t possible!" "That''s what I thought," I said. "You see, other kittens have souls. They have magic. They leave imprints that resonate into the Astral. This little guy does not." "WHAT?! How the frig is that possible?!" Agatha barked, her face pale as she realized the implications. "Are you kidding me? Are you telling me that..." Her extremely loud yelp caused the kittens nearest to us scatter. "Calm yourself, my knight," I ordered, cuddling the kitten in my lap harder so it would not flee. "Stop yelling or you''ll spook my precious." Agatha''s mouth snapped close. She looked at me, her body trembling ever so slightly. "Just like my knife, this kitten cannot be defined. It''s from Inaria," I said simply. "It''s an idea, a concept impervious to all magic." The Amadea Princess gulped. "How can this be?" She asked, her voice distant, drowning in rising panic. "I''m the wielder of Infinity. Things like my Endy are drawn to me," I said, tapping at the knife on my side. "The machine-built civilization of Eureka is all around us, most likely masquerading in mundane things like this little guy. If I had to gander a guess, I would say that this is just a little shard, a product of Eureka''s forge, an idea of a kitten manifested into existence." "Manifested by whom? Why?" Agatha asked. "Collective unconsciousness of humanity?" I shrugged. "Machine life?" "That really doesn''t make me feel any safer," my friend muttered. "What are we going to do about... this thing?" "I''m adopting this kitten," I said with a smile. "How do you know it won''t turn into a cloud of machines of death and eat your face while you sleep?" Agatha asked, looking terrified and exasperated in equal measure. "I don''t," I said. "Endy is also a shard of Eureka. She... hasn''t turned into anything else. Hasn''t acted against me. She''s just a knife, a tool." "Sure, but this kitten is clearly self aware on some level," Agatha said. "What if it..." "We can speculate about what ifs all day," I said. "This is clearly a kitten. Yes, it could be something else entirely. It could be a dead god masquerading as a kitten. It could be an emissary of Sempiternity attempting to observe me through the pinhole of its purple eyes. Or it could be an idea of a kitten. Honestly, I don''t have a clue. Either way I think it would be best if I kept it around. If it turns evil, I always have Endy near me to protect me. What would you have me do? Poke it out of existence right now?" Agatha nodded. "No," I said. "Look how cute it is. I already tried to poke something that I didn''t entirely understand out of existence. It went VERY poorly for me. I died. It wasn''t nice at all. I really, REALLY don''t want to die again Aggie. You have no idea how much it freaking hurts to get your soul torn into shreds and to lose everything and everyone that you care about because of a stupid mistake." I wasn''t sure if it was me or the shard of Juneberry expressing this thought through my lips. "Do whatever you want to," Agatha exhaled. "You don''t listen to me anyway." "I do listen to you," I said. "I listen to all of my friends. You all matter a lot to me and it would really suck to start over again in another world, in another Juni as a broken, nearly mindless ghost, a shard of my former self. Infinity has a price and I don''t know if I''m willing to pay it over and over until I am made from a endless chain of ghosts, failures of myself haunting my broken soul." [I think it would be nice if there was more of us in here,] Juneberry commented. [I think that you''re an idiot,] Junezia said. [Juni would run out of points to manifest us into existence and then there would be far too many ghosts in here eating away at us, causing further decay. That''s a path to becoming an Astral Phantom. Eventually the chain would break under its own weight. Juni''s soul isn''t infinite - it''s a delicate, complex spiritual construct that''s already barely holding itself together. If we keep dying, it will inevitably get torn asunder under the combined weight of the infinite mirror shards moving through it. The fact is, things are so bad here that it might take just another death to sever the chain. I think I figured out how Eunice injected her magic into our soul without us noticing it - there are minute, inactive, astral-worm-like data constructs filling the cracks between Yulia and Juni''s soul.] I gulped. "Hrm?" Agatha stared at me. "Eunice didn''t give a damn about my soul," I said. "The arch-cendai taught me a lot of wrong things because she wanted me broken. If my soul was torn up, I could be bound easier into absolute obedience. Your mother is the same way. Eunice broke Amadea, bound and turned her into an Astral Phantom. The same thing was happening to you." "You''re right about that," Agatha mulled. "Mother was never nice to me. I''m the daughter of a Baroness, engaged to the Crown Prince and yet I am utterly powerless to stop the damned scriveners from harassing me endlessly. Since she couldn''t just put a Vow on me, she''s done everything possible to break my spirit... but I persevered, endured, survived." "From the first moment I saw you," I spoke. "I knew that you were lonely, needed a friend to help you break your chains. It was the reason why I told you that I''m from Earth." "It''s that obvious, huh?" Agatha stared at me. "Yeah," I nodded. "Well, it probably wouldn''t be as obvious to someone else, but I saw the Dominion roots all over your soul with my Still-Walker sight. I saw that you, just like me, were a prisoner and someone who really needed help." "Thanks," she said. "While you do drive me mental, I... am less lonely now. I''ve slowly been tearing Mother''s roots out of my soul one by one. My chain no longer strangles me if I try to loosen it. Mother cannot see if I am pulling apart the binding threads." "I''m glad to hear that," I smiled at her. I stared up at the blue sky covered in rolling clouds above the little, peaceful town of Lomb. As I pet the purring kitten on my lap, I realized that I really finally found my own, personal Sunshine Archipelago. I had a family that cared for me, I had friends that supported me. I had an entire chimera tribe of helpers. I didn''t have just one workshop. I had a whole town being built, filled with workshops. "I don''t know who you are," I thought to the sky, picturing my unknown enemies and the potential, inhuman concepts that empowered them. "I don''t know where you are hiding, but I''m going to find you and I will break the chains that bind you. I will make sure that my Sunshine Archipelago remains free. I will not stop at what I have already accomplished. I will take all of Illatius, all of the Basq people from your invisible claws and I will change the fortunes of everyone, every human and chimera out there. I am not afraid." Ch 86. Dealing with the Press
A sharp ruby gemstone glittered in my hand as I scratched deep, sparkling groves into the wooden table beneath me, focusing on keeping my lines on course and sticking my tongue out. Voltara, who sat beside me, glanced over at me. "What are you doing?" She asked. "I''m planting Barries," I replied. "Berries?" the maid blinked. "No, Barries," I shook my head, scratching more lines into the table. "I... see," Voltara stared at me, looking very confused. "I made a promise to Barrie that I would make ten thousand of these and I keep my promises to my friends," I commented. "How''s your new armacus, by the way?" "I love it," Voltara grinned at me, caressing her silver bracelet. "I never thought that I''d get to own an actual armacus. I don''t know how I can ever repay you for what you''ve done for me." "Don''t fret it," I reached into my pocket and slid another ruby gemstone towards Voltara. "Here. Help out. Your job is to copy what I am doing. Let''s plant Barries together!" She tried her best to copy the hexagrammic pattern onto her side of the table from a page in my notebook. We worked together for a while, with me correcting and advising my friend''s progress. "Miss Misem, yes?" A deep voice resounded from above us, interrupting our scribbling. I lifted my eyes away from my work, observing a serious-looking, large, balding man in an black and white suit with luscious sideburns, well-trimmed beard and fancy mustache. "I am Fumbol Geremmiah Snikh," the man said, blue eyes staring down at me. "The Editor-in-chief of Illatius Daily." "Pleasure to meetcha," I said. "Have a seat. We shall begin when everyone''s here." Fumbol sat down on the empty chair opposite of me. His eyes quickly examined the large, mostly empty, dark space. A single, small crystal lantern was hanging from the ceiling, lighting up the wooden table that we sat at. "Was this shop here before?" He asked. "No, your excellency, it was not," Humbell Pinch, the tall mustached reporter from Illatius daily said as he sat down next to his Editor. "Hrrm," Fumbol''s rubbed his chin. Another, short man in a green suit with green eyes pushed the door open, curiously looking at the inexplicable shop that had a single wooden table inside it surrounded by eight simple chairs. "Hey Iggitus," I waved a blue-veined hand at the newest arrival. "Join us!" "Good day, Grogtilda," the reporter nodded at me. Iggitus made his way towards the table and sat down. "Where''s your Editor?" I asked. "Lord Ingrove is busy with other matters, but he authorized me to discuss and sign or reject the contract on behalf of the Highstreet Journal," Iggitus said. The Editor and his tall reporter from Illatius Daily squinted at Iggitus. The door swung open once again, revealing Appa Bolariss. The woman briskly marched directly over to us. "Ah the Imperial Tribune is here too," Iggitus commented with a nasal tone. "Is your Editor coming?" I asked Appa. "I can get in touch with her via the armacus," the female reporter said, readjusting her glasses. "But I am authorized to make decisions on her behalf about this matter." "Well that''s everyone then," I said. "Volty, close the door please." Voltara stood up and walked to the magisteel-reinforced door sliding the lock shut. She returned to my side. I returned to my sketching. The Editor and the three reporters stared at me, waiting. I kept on sketching. "Khrm?" Appa cleared her throat, having grown tired of staring at me. "Almost done," I said. "What are you doing?" The female reporter asked. "We''re planting Barries," Voltara commented, scratching her own hexagram. "What''s a...?" The female scrivener asked. "Shhh, don''t distract us," I waved her off. The four men and one woman waited as I finished my scratching and moved onto directing Voltara to finish hers. With every passing minute they looked more and more impatient. In about five more minutes Voltara was done. I placed my palm over both of the hexagrams, pushing mana into them. As I filled them with my magic, I felt a distant touch of something incredibly vast briefly caressing my soul from the depths of the Astral. Barrie remembered me. I opened my eyes to the faces of four extremely annoyed people. I grinned at the press representatives. "Well, lady and gentlemen," I said. "You''ve all gone over the contract that my maid delivered to you a week ago, yes?" "We have," Fumbol nodded. "It is the damn strangest contract I''ve seen." The others nodded as well. "The final clause is rather... irregular," Appa commented. "You want my newspaper to pay a fine of one million obliss per violation? That seems rather... Mmmmmm... Excessive." "Correct," I said. "The classified information I will be sharing with you tonight and in the future is worth a lot more than that. There won''t just be one story of my life shared with you - I will be revealing numerous sensational and shocking things to you during our meetings." Fumbol rubbed his chin. "Before I sign anything, I''d like to know who''s standing behind you, girl," he said. "I agree. Shops do not appear on their own in Diamondias," Iggitus nodded. "This situation is a lot more peculiar than what I had expected it to be. When you told me to find a shop without the sign in Diamondias between Goodleworth Jewelry and Marzipan Crux I thought that you were kidding." This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. "Lowborn girls do not walk around Illatius bearing a palladium magisteel armacus or get into Nemendias," Appa commented. "All of this is quite frankly mind-boggling. My editor would also like to know who is funding you. Who are we dealing with? Who is the contract really from? A lowborn girl could not have written it, even a lot of highborns would struggle to write something with so much legalese terminology." "That''s a Nemendias maid," Fumbol said eyeing Voltara. "She''s wearing a palladium armacus too. Who in their right mind would buy a palladium armacus for a maid? She''s really your maid and not a disguised constable, right?" "She is my maid," I nodded. "How can a lowborn afford a maid?" The big man mulled. "Who got her for you?" I let the questions hang in silence, building up tension. When the reporters started to fidget I opened my mouth once again. "Do you know of the Prism Archmagi?" I asked. "Of course," Appa said. "Who does not know of the most noble Heroes that protect humanity!" "Can any of you tell me their names?" I asked. "Baroness Georgia, Baroness Amadea, bb... uhhh," the female reporter started bending her fingers. Upon reaching her third finger she froze. "Fiddlesticks! It seems have I have forgotten the other five." "Other six," I said. "There are Eight Archmagi of the Prism Order. You have forgotten some¡­ facts because the Prism Archmagi like their privacy. A magical edict has been enacted by them." "Eight?" Appa blinked at me. "Eight," I nodded. "You are all entirely correct in your assessment. Shops do not appear in Diamondias. Thirteen year old Debitors do not leave Undertown. The truth is that four years ago, the Eighth Archmage of the Prism Order woke up in Illatius after her rather long nap." The Editor and the reporters stared at me with curios expressions. "Millenea ago archmage Yulia Vladislava Ishenko suspended herself in a magical crystal so that one day she could return to the world of her children when they needed her most. Four years ago, she woke up and went exploring her¡­ future. What she saw disappointed her greatly. She saw what some of her descendants have done and she was extremely displeased by it. She went down beneath Illatius and she found¡­ Undertown," I narrated. "There in the slums made from trash she met a dying girl named Grogtilda and felt very sorry for her. The archmage adopted Grogtilda as her apprentice, uplifted and taught her everything she knew." "Of course," Appa uttered. "It all makes sense now! Your odd accent, your unusual mannerisms, this shop, the armaci on you and your maid''s wrists!" Fumbol gulped. "The Eighth Archmage wishes to fix Undertown," I said. "She wants to clear the streets of garbage, to turn the green river blue, to halt the gang violence and to end the unnecessary human suffering taking place beneath this city." "A noble pursuit," the Editor of Illatis Daily nodded. "If rather impossible." "There are far too many parties interested in keeping Undertown as the den of vice," Appa added. "It would take a truly insurmountable effort to make the nobles give up the gambling and prostitution parlors." "Undertown in its current form cannot be allowed to continue," I said. "It enfeebles Illatius, it breeds hatred and darkness and it is the hole in our barrier shield, the weak point in the city''s defenses." "Many attempted to fix Undertown over the centuries and none have succeeded," Appa sighed. "My Patron is willing to spend her resources on it," I said. "If anyone could do it¡­ it would have to be the Eighth Hero," the Illatius Daily reporter expressed. "War with Novazem is coming," I said darkly. "We cannot allow weakness and rot to take place so close to Illatius. We will all perish when the hordes of undead overrun Illatius from the below. If we do not fix Undertown the enemies of our Empire will turn it against us when they strike!" "A prophecy?" Appa covered her mouth. "A doomed timeline," I nodded. "In which everyone dies." "C-can it be prevented?" Fumbol asked. "Surely, the Emperor knows. Surely the aristocracy and the military have plans..." "The aristocracy of Illatius have done nothing to fix Undertown," I barked, slamming my fist into the table. "They do not operate on a timeline of a millennia-old archmage, cannot see the future far enough ahead." "Fair enough," the Editor of Illatius Daily wiggled his mustache. "Still... the terms of the contract you offered me are rather... like those of a hostile takeover. Your Patron wants you to guide what we publish, yes?" "Yes," I nodded. "My words are those of my Patron." "I understand your Patron''s wishes, but we cannot just act as your puppets," the man shook his head, looking very bothered. "As if you''re not the puppet of your Barony," Appa laughed. The Editor of Illatius Daily glared at Appa. "You think you''re better than me?" He hissed. "Would you prefer to see my Patron''s sword instead?" I asked, interrupting their spat by pulling Endy from my belt. "The contract I gave you offers fair collaboration. You will print positive and negative stories about my achievements, embellish them as you desire. The choice is yours, you can make mountains of gold by being the ones to promote me and guide Illatius to a bright tomorrow or..." I snapped my fingers. Hundreds of chimera hunters silently filled the empty space in seconds. "Biomancy modified knights!" Appa stared at the chimera, her eyes wide in terror. "They really exist!" "Anyone leading the future towards the fall of our Empire will vanish beneath the city," I said coldly, staring at the horrified reporters. "Their newspapers will be declared an enemy of humanity and their offices will burn." "I... I can''t just print anything," Fumbol whispered. "I own Illatius Daily but my investors..." "Collaboration," I tapped the table with Endy. "You will collaborate with us. There is still time to turn the future away from the coming catastrophe. We will start with a soft touch. If your... investors have problems with the true stories you print, let me know their names and they will be handled one way or... another." I traced Endy across the table. Appa paled further. "You will also cease tracking and bothering Princess Agatha Amadea," I said sternly. "Your actions in harassing her are little steps driving us towards extinction. You will tell me which investors of yours are interested in making our future Empress distracted and miserable. Perhaps they are in cahoots with the necromage agents of Novazem." "Agatha will be our Empress?" The female reporter asked, her hands trembling. "It is in my Patron''s interest that she becomes Empress," I nodded. "Will you require Vows from us?" Fumbol asked. "No," I shook my head. "Vows are another step that leads Illatius to its inevitable destruction. My Patron desires to end ALL Vows. Tell me if any others in your employ are bound by Vows. They will be freed." "What?" Fumbol stared at me, his face twitching unnaturally. "Vows are not something that can just be broken, girl!" "The Eighth archmage taught me how to kill Vows," I said staring at the Editor of Illatius Daily in the Astral. "I reckon, I''ll start with you, Mr. Snikh." My fingers sent a silent order. A paralyzing dart fired by a chimera hunter struck Fumbol in the neck. The fat man slumped down onto the table. Controlled by me, Voltara''s Vow wound loops of gold thread around the ghostly fungus floating above the paralyzed Editor of Illatius Daily. The Vow above the man struggled, tried to get loose, but it was smaller, weaker than Voltara''s one. Anima-maxing maids had the biggest, fattest Vows because of the vitality of their soul. I climbed onto the table and swung Endy through the air. I struck the Editor''s Vow with Endy again and again, damaging its form. The Phantom''s blood spilled through the Astral Ocean like clouds of fading silver dust. I had no idea where its mind ended or began, but it didn''t matter. The damned people-binding monstrosity wasn''t getting away from me. In a desperate attempt to survive, unable to dive into the Astral it rushed towards me and tried to grab my soul. It was a fatal mistake. The Vow''s attack was its undoing. "Astral Phantom!" I growled as the Vow struck me, its jellyfish-like threads clawing at my armor. "Get him, Barrie!" Barrie''s hexagrams etched into the table with my chimera hair and powered by my magic ignited beneath me. A hundred hexagrams that I had scratched into my armor throughout the week ignited too, wherever the Vow touched them. Enormous Barrier hexagrams lit all around the room, activated by my action, bringing a little piece of the Phantom-murdering, semi-sentient concept into the room from the catacombs beneath Diamondias. A thousand ghostly fingers reached out from the Barrier hexagrams tearing at the Vow. The Astral jellyfish flailed, flapped its tentacles around wildly as Barrie started to squeeze the life out of it. Barrie''s fingers finished what I started, tearing through the weakened hostile Vow like it was made from paper. I severed the remaining gold threads that connected the remnants of the phantom to the man on the table. "Wake him up," I ordered. A chimera hunter poked the passed out Editor''s neck with a bone-tipped needle and slapped the man across the face. "W-wha¡­.?" Fumbol blinked groggily as the paralytic agent cleared from his spine. "Is your Vow gone?" I asked. "It¡­ it is!" The Editor looked up at the remnants of the torn gold shreds, his mouth open. ¡°He¡¯s¡­ gone!¡± I nodded sagely and climbed down off the table. "It was binding you to obedience to your Baron, yes?" I asked. The Editor nodded. The reporters stared at me, their eyes wide in shock. I snapped my finger. Chimera hunters stepped forward and slid the contracts towards the Editor of Illatius Daily and the others. ¡°Sign it,¡± I ordered. The chimera hunters handed the scriveners and the Editor magitek pens made by Antoine. With a shaking hand Fumbol signed the contract that legally bound him into printing exactly what I wanted him to print. My takeover of the bothersome press was complete. "Now, who wants to donate their snapper to me?" I asked the sullen-looking group. "I''ll be in Nemendias soon and I can''t wait to take photos of the place!" Ch 87. Shattered ¡°This is Undertown, huh?¡± Voltara asked as we stood upon a basalt outcropping, looking down at the ocean of colorful, lopsided favelas. ¡°The place we¡¯re planning to fix?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I replied. ¡°This is it.¡± ¡°Smells pretty, um, bad,¡± she commented, inhaling with a wince. ¡°It gets worse,¡± I sighed, rubbing my blue-tinted hand. ¡°Do you need a mask or¡­?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll manage,¡± she shook her head. We descended down the wet, ancient stairwell. Voltara walked by me. She stared at the favelas, colorful lanterns and downtrodden citizens of Undertown with curious eyes. In about an hour of walking we had arrived at our destination. I banged on the lopsided, decrepit looking wooden door that was reinforced with uneven, colorful planks. ¡°Just a moment¡­ just a moment, I¡¯ll be there,¡± a voice came from the dilapidated house. The door swung open, revealing a disheveled, skinny, balding man. Brown eyes stared at me with a tired look. In an instant the man¡¯s expression changed. ¡°Grogs! You came back! Oh, you came back!¡± Lic wrapped his calloused hands around me, hugging me tightly. The tension in the back of my head that I had been feeling for the past two weeks receded as I hugged him back. ¡°I was so worried. So very worried! People told me that they saw yous knocked out and taken by some upworlders!¡± Lic muttered as he continued to embrace me. ¡°Sorry I took so long to return,¡± I whispered. ¡°I had¡­ other things that needed to be resolved.¡± ¡°Come in, come in!¡± Lic waved a hand, letting go of me. He finally noticed my companion. ¡°You are¡­ my daughter¡¯s associate... your excellency?¡± The old cobbler examined Voltara, noticing the armacus on her hand. ¡°No need for titles - I am no highborn,¡± Voltara replied with a small bow. "I am your daughter''s maid!" ¡°M-maid?¡± Lic blinked. ¡°My daughter has a maid?¡± ¡°She¡¯s not just any maid,¡± I smiled. ¡°She¡¯s my battle-maid!¡± ¡°I see,¡± the cobbler stared at me, looking more confused than ever. ¡°Well¡­ uhm¡­ come in then!¡± He opened the door wide for us. I entered the little favela and looked around. The living room wasn¡¯t as messy as before but it was already beginning to return to its prior state that resembled a trash-filled jungle. I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose. Nothing had changed. ¡°Dad, are you collecting garbage again?¡± I asked. ¡°We''s gotta make a living,¡± Lic rubbed his hands. ¡°Nani can¡¯t walk and¡­¡± ¡°No,¡± I said with a frown. ¡°This is ridiculous and solves nothing. What you need is a radical change of scenery.¡± ¡°Ah, the face-stealing mageling is back,¡± Nandine commented coldly from the couch surrounded by random debris and trash. ¡°Thought you left us for good.¡± I turned to the corpulent woman. She wasn¡¯t looking well - her face had more blue veins than before. ¡°You aren¡¯t looking good¡­ mom,¡± I said to her. ¡°Are you here to insult us, mageling?¡± Nandine hissed out. ¡°No,¡± I shook my head. ¡°I¡¯m here because I was missing you two.¡± The woman on the moldy couch made an irritated face at me. ¡°I lost nearly all of myself to the Folding Seed. Even if I can barely remember you, I still care about you,¡± I told her. ¡°Pfff,¡± Nandine scoffed at my words. ¡°Tell that to someone who believes your lies, upworlder!¡± I sighed. ¡°I tried to find... my grandparents, but Illatius is big and there¡¯s no open database that I could...¡± ¡°Database?¡± Nandine¡¯s green eyes squinted at me. ¡°Where would my daughter learn such fancy words?¡± ¡°Oh so you think I¡¯m your daughter?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°I¡¯m done talking to you,¡± Nandine shook her head. ¡°Do whatever it is you came here to do and be gone.¡± ¡°No,¡± I said. ¡°No?¡± the ex-adventurer glared at me. ¡°Undertown, as it is now, is slowly killing you.¡± I said. "I don¡¯t want you dead. I don¡¯t want to have to worry about you forever.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Nandine barked a laugh. ¡°Really? Pray tell what is your plan then?¡± "I want to take you away from here," I pointed my finger up. ¡°We can¡¯t just leave Undertown, daughter,¡± Lic shook his head. ¡°You two are leaving,¡± I said. ¡°This isn¡¯t up to a discussion. Either you come willingly or I knock you both out and carry you in my bag. Pick one.¡± Lic hiccuped. ¡°Look, mom¡¯s addicted to topaz,¡± I said, waving a hand at Nandine. ¡°She¡¯s clearly getting worse. She won¡¯t last long here. She needs the help of a high-level healer. You¡¯re coming too. I want you to see the world above, want you to see what it¡¯s like to not have to dig through garbage every day. I want you to know what it¡¯s like¡­ to be free.¡± ¡°How will you take us?¡± Lic blinked. ¡°Surely you can¡¯t get armaci for both of us?¡± ¡°That would be an expensive option,¡± I pulled Endy out of her leather sheath. ¡°But, I also have a knife that can cut anything. It¡¯s made for breaking magical chains.¡± ¡°Y-you can cut my Debitor tattoo out?¡± Lic gasped. I nodded. ¡°That''s impossible! She¡¯s a liar! Don¡¯t trust her!¡± Nandine barked. ¡°Come here dad, let me break the chain that binds you to Undertown,¡± I said, offering Lic a hand. The cobbler stared at me for a minute. Then another. Then he took an unsteady step forward. ¡°She¡¯s a liar!¡± Nandine barked. ¡°The Debitor¡¯s tattoo is bound to your soul, you¡¯ll die if you let this mageling tamper with it, you old coot!¡± ¡°Trust me, dad,¡± I whispered, looking into the man¡¯s sorrow-filled, exhausted eyes. ¡°Sempiternity has been listening to your prayers for freedom. She chose me as her Emissary, gave me the power to free everyone in Undertown. You will be the first person from here that I will liberate!¡± The cobbler nodded and took another step forward. I stared at his tattoo, observing it in the Astral. It was physical, it was connected to his soul, but it was just a magical construct held together with crystalline ink embedded deep in his skin. Lic pulled off his stained shirt and stared at me. He believed, maybe not in me, but he definitely believed in the power of Sempiternity with his entire heart. I slowly defined his tattoo as a single, binding concept, ignoring Nandine¡¯s bothersome side-commentary. I stepped forward and swung Endy against Lic¡¯s chest, catching the edge of his skin, severing through it with the hexagon-textured blade. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. The tattoo flickered in my vision, shimmering with a thousand colors, rippled and popped out of existence. [+35 XP] ¡°Yesss!¡± I grinned. Then I frowned. The experience had come from Lic¡¯s soul. The damned crystal-ink hexagram had integrated, consumed a part of it to sustain itself. ¡°It¡¯s gone¡­ I don¡¯t feel it anymore! My tattoo is gone, Nani!¡± Lic declared jubilantly, staring at his cleared chest. ¡°What?! No¡­ it¡¯s a trick¡­ an illusion!¡± Nandine howled. ¡°Nani! I¡¯m free!¡± Lic spread his hands wide. ¡°I¡¯m really free! We can leave Undertown, get your legs healed!¡± ¡°She was right about this,¡± the blue-tinted, bloated woman wailed, her face covered in a glistening sheen of sweat. ¡°She told me that you would come and try to mess with us! I won¡¯t fall for your tricks!¡± ¡°Huh?¡± I blinked at her. Grogtilda¡¯s mother reached into her raggedy, stained clothing and pulled out a small, magitek device. The thing glowed, shimmered in my Still-Walker sight. The woman squeezed a trigger-like switch on the artifact with a resounding click. ¡°What is¡­?¡± I started to speak. A brilliant magical flare burst forth from what I had too late realized was a magical grenade. My legs gave it under me as a fearsome ripple of power rushed forth from the weapon. I felt my soul tearing asunder as I fell, feeling blinding pain pulsing through my entire body. I heard Voltara¡¯s yell as she tried to rush towards me to shield me from the awful pulse. The last thing I saw was Nandine¡¯s horrified expression as her body melted away, her skin and muscles boiling off her bones. Her dying scream imprinted into my mind as I drowned in darkness. . . . I opened my eyes with a groan, the view in front of me blurry. As I blinked and cleared dirt and gunk from my eyes, I saw something that looked like a dim, gloomy, windowless laboratory filled with vials, containers and magitek tools. ¡°Ah, you are finally awake,¡± a dry voice resounded from the side. I turned my eyes to where the voice was coming from. A woman in a white lab coat was there. Silver-orange eyes with gemstone-shaped slits stared at me from behind thick eyeglasses. Her dark brown hair was very short, thin, and somewhat greasy-looking. She smiled at me, but there was something wrong, off about the smile. ¡°Wurh?¡± I tried to speak. My voice was incredibly weak. I discovered that I could barely make coherent words as if my tongue no longer belonged to me. I could not feel my mouth. ¡°It would be best if you did not talk,¡± the woman in the lab coat said. ¡°Your jaw might come off. I might have packed a bit too much power into my device.¡± Her accent seemed vaguely... Germanic? ¡°Whfo ru?¡± I asked. ¡°My old name is Doctor Joseph Grimshaw Engel, but zhe locals know me as Baroness Georgia,¡± the woman replied with the same malicious-looking, lopsided smile. ¡°Back in Nuremberg I worked at the Radium Crystallization Laboratory until an unfortunate incident ended my career. I did not expect to wake up in zis strange, new world¡­ and yet... I am here. Centuries ago, Saint Eunisii pulled me from zhe Still Forest and shoved me into zhe body of a newborn chimera, raised me and taught me many marvelous things, made me her research assistant. In zis regard you and I are undoubtedly similar, yes?¡± I nodded wearily. ¡°You were quite clever in destroying our Master¡¯s domain,¡± Joseph said. ¡°Quite clever indeed, but alas such cleverness can only take you so far. To put it frankly, from this point on, your freedom has reached its inevitable end.¡± ¡°My frensh will findsh me,¡± I ground out. ¡°Zhey will not,¡± the male doctor inhabiting the body of a female Basq Baroness shook his head. ¡°What zhey will find are numerous¡­ pieces of your chimera body tied to magitek explosive devices.¡± ¡°You¡­¡± I gasped. ¡°I am Eunisii¡¯s insurance,¡± the doctor shrugged. ¡°I will make sure zhat whatever foolish plans you and your associates have concocted against our Goddess will not come to fruition.¡± ¡°I¡­¡± I growled. ¡°Will do nothing,¡± Joseph shook his head. ¡°Nothing at all. Your soul waz fractured by my bomb. It no longer supports zhe System. I carved hexagramz into your flesh zhat will make sure zhat you cannot simply leave your current body as a phantom. I divided your chimera body into one hundred lovely, somewhat even pieces." He lifted what looked like a cube... made from flesh and bones. I gawked in horror at what had remained of Juni''s body. "I understand zhat killing your soul would be a waste of time because of your Inarian artifact, so I shall keep you alive and incapacitated in zis laboratory, for the rest of eternity as my personal¡­ specimen.¡± I helplessly stared at the monster wearing a human body that paced back and forth in front of me. ¡°I have made you into what iz known by zhe idiot locals as a ghoul - a phantom sealed in dead flesh. Zhe lovely chemical concoction in your veins, zhe hexagrams and magitek crystals injected into your organs will keep your flesh from decaying away, but I¡¯m afraid zhat your days as a human are quite over.¡± I shuddered as I realized the reason why I could not feel much of my body. ¡°Our Goddess was very disappointed in your performance,¡± Joseph said. ¡°She visited me in my dreams and told me to... take care of you. Zhe Inarian gate zhat she and I worked on for centuries was destroyed zhanks to your foolish actions. Zhere is another one in Undertown, but it will take decades to clear zhe human filth infesting it and another century or two to build a Domain around it. I have already begun a search for another wielder for zhe Inarian knife. If I do not find a soul that¡¯s compatible with it, you will come in handy. Until zhen, you shall serve as zhe centerpiece of my lab.¡± ¡°N-noo,¡± I choked out. ¡°Activatish sche gactsh wi¡­¡± I felt that the bottom of my jaw snapped off. ¡°Whopzie daizy,¡± the doctor giggled. ¡°I did warn you not to talk. Eh, I¡¯ll fix it later if I feel like listening to your jibber-jabberz. For now, I have things to do¡­ bombs to build, bothersome people to put out of zheir misery.¡± I hatefully glared at the doctor as he returned to his vile work. As he worked on building more magitek grenades binding them to my chimera bones, Joseph whistled a tune, a European song I recognized from Earth. "Alouette, gentille alouette," the doctor whistled. "Alouette, je te plumerai. Je te plumerai la t¨ºte..." He, like me, was an ancient shadow, an imprint brought back to life and bound by Eunice into absolute obedience. I struggled to move, to get free, but it was all in vain. I could only stare at the scene in front of me in abject horror as seconds, minutes and hours went by. The once-German doctor finished his ghastly work and departed, leaving me alone to my thoughts. . . . Time. Time is a monstrous thing when you cannot move, cannot speak, cannot sleep¡­ cannot die. I do not know how long it was that I hung on a wall in Joseph¡¯s laboratory, but it felt like decades. Time crawled by, on and on and on. Nobody came to rescue me and if I had to make a guess... all of my friends were dead thanks to Eunice¡¯s seven monsters that I had failed to stop. I struggled in my bindings, but could not break free, could not even feel my body below my neck. I tried to sleep, but could not. I tried to bring the dream of Chernobyl to my mind, tried to speak to my mental companions, but they weren¡¯t there anymore. Whatever Joseph¡¯s bomb had done had catastrophically damaged my soul, ripped all magic away from me. No matter how many thousands upon thousands of times I tried to reach for the infinite mirrors within me¡­ to activate them, to send myself back, I could not. For the first few months Joseph occasionally spoke to me about his grisly work, but as time went on he treated me more and more as a simple part of his lab¡¯s background, not even sparing me a momentary glance. Time grinds at, erases all. I began to forget the faces of my friends, almost forgot who I was anymore, nearly succumbed to madness from my inability to move, to speak, to act. Far too often, I closed my eyes, imagining a different future, a different path for myself, weaving distant, happy places with my half-functioning imagination. It was the only thing that kept me sane over the years. As time went on, my thoughts became slow and foggy. I wondered if this was part of being a ghoul or perhaps the effects of time wearing my undead neurons away. I had seen nobody else in the Lab, except for the doctor. His visits were rare and became rarer as time went on. One day he came into the Lab, whistling the ominous song once more. ¡°Good news, love!¡± he said, suddenly looking up at me. ¡°Tomorrow we launch an all out-offensive on Novazem!¡± I slowly focused my eyes at the thin woman, happy to be acknowledged, but also hating the bastard with my entire, fractured soul. ¡°Oh, did I forget to tell you?¡± The doctor rubbed his feminine chin. ¡°I finally developed a bomb zhat bypasses zhe Zirconia-Astral limit which stops nuclear reactions from occurring. It will allow us to turn zhe cities of our enemies into eternally-smouldering craters. Big-bada-boom!" Joseph clapped his hands, looking nervous and excited at the same time. I raised my eyebrows at him. ¡°Why are we so focused on vaporizing zhe people Novazem?¡± He guessed what I was thinking. ¡°Because zey are a threat to our Goddess¡¯ eternal reign, just like you and your human associates once were. You, see zhe Novazem Necromages developed crystal engines that feed on Vows. Our beautiful, Andross-spanning Empire is marvelously organized zhanks to zhe Vows. Zhe Novazem nitwits see us as fuel for zheir warships. Zey must be taught a valuable lesson, must be put in zheir place!¡± I squinted hatefully at the ancient, abominable ghost. ¡°Wish me luck,¡± he said. ¡°When I return, I might finally have time to figure out zhat it is zhat makes the Inarian blade so compatible with your soul!¡± The heinous doctor left. I closed my eyes, daydreaming of Lomb, dreaming of my lost Sunshine Archipelago, dreaming of death, dreaming that my damned infinite mirror would shatter and free me from this unending torment. A rumbling, echoing boom woke me up from my daydreams. Crystals and glass containers fell from the shelves as dust and bricks rained from the ceiling. A large, black crack spread across the wall with a groan. I listened in. Nothing else happened. I waited for several hours for someone to come but when nothing else changed, I closed my eyes, returning to my dreams. Days, weeks, months, years crawled by. Nobody came to the lab and dust and gross, black mildew slowly grew over everything. The magical power held within the crystal lanterns began to run out, flickering and then completely bathing me in murky darkness. I closed my eyes, returning to my daydreams of Lomb. A voice called my name. I knew it¡­ remembered it. It sounded like¡­ Agatha? No, surely it couldn''t be¡­ Agatha died long ago, died because I stupidly presumed myself safe. I opened my eyes and saw a tall figure walking towards me through the gloom, a shimmering gemstone glowing on her chest. As she came closer to me, I saw her face in much clearer detail. Her cracked, pale skin was rotting, peeling away like old wallpaper revealing black flesh beneath. She was wearing stained, burned rags and her once perfect silver hair was in a state of absolute disarray, unkempt and covered in mud. ¡°There you are,¡± Baroness Amadea said as she stepped closer to me, her unnaturally glowing, yellow-silver eyes staring at me. ¡°Took me bloody forever to find you!¡± Ch 88. Rejection
Amadea climbed atop of the table. Her hands gripped at and started to pull the metal frame that bound my ossified body to the wall. The metal groaned, warped under her fingers, twisted away. The awful construct that had constrained, bound me for so long finally came apart, broke as if it was made from butter! When she was done, Amadea wrapped my body in a dirty, rotting table cloth, cradled me and carried me through the murky darkness out of the ruined laboratory. I didn¡¯t feel her touch, but I felt very thankful to be finally released from my terrible prison. I stared at the pulsing gemstone on her chest, losing myself in its endless edges that folded in on themselves. Its infinite, orderly reflections were perfect in every possible way. Where was she taking me? What happened to the damned, German doctor? Amadea climbed over piles of rubble and debris moving through numerous underground halls. Silence reigned in the underground. My companion did not speak. After about thirty minutes of walking, the darkness parted and the hallway became lit with bright light. For the first time in an insanely long time I felt excited, elated that I would see the light of day. My hopes were torn asunder as soon as my eyes adjusted to the brightness of the outside. Amadea carried me out into the city. It was not the city that I had once remembered. Illatius had¡­ changed. The beautiful, magitek, Art Nouveau cafes were empty husks now, long dead shells of their former selves. Broken glass littered rubble-filled streets, sprinkled with a thick layer of ice and snow. Buildings stood empty, unkempt and damaged. A massive hex beacon tower laid across the street, having pulverized several buildings as it fell long ago. ¡°Funny isn¡¯t it?¡± Amadea commented. ¡°Look at me, the Queen of nothing and no-one. All my life I wanted to achieve perfection and order¡­ and this is what I got. Order. Peace. Silence.¡± I looked at her face lit by rays of light passing through broiling clouds above us. Her lip was trembling. Her skin sparkled in the light. I noted that it was crystalline in many parts. Blackened, dead flesh was intermixed with gemstone formations. Like me, she was just a husk of her former self, a ghoulish body kept alive, animated by the Eurekan tool hanging on her neck. She looked down at me. ¡°You looked a lot nicer last time I saw you,¡± she commented on my appearance. ¡°But then so did I¡­¡± I didn''t reply, unable to speak. In the light of day, I could see that Amadea was practically a corpse herself. A beautiful, perfectly preserved, partially crystallized, cracking¡­ walking corpse. Gloomy clouds rolled over the ruins of our city. Something that looked like ashes fluttered from the sky. I looked at the reflection of myself in one of the broken windows. Had I not been bound and dead for so long, I would have despaired at the sight. My face was a sunken skull, the lower jaw twisted sideways and rotting. Ember eyes stared out of dark eye-holes surrounded by dead flesh. Dark hair hung in uneven strands. My body was deprived of muscles, mummified, shrunken. Amadea cradled me to her chest like a child. Backlit by violet-tinted rays of light we looked like a twisted depiction of Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus. I looked up at Amadea, wanting an answer, an explanation. ¡°I was free of Eunice¡¯s chains, but the others were not,¡± she said. ¡°As time went by¡­ they realized this, figured me out. Georgia had deduced that I had no soul, wasn¡¯t bound to Eunice anymore, not affected by magic. Your Inarian knife broke something in me, changed me. When I met with the others to discuss the future, I stood for order, for my order, not for the order of Eunice¡¯s design. This had greatly displeased my Master and the other Six. My vote was overruled and I was banned from further meetings of the Prism Order. When I returned to my Estate, things started to go badly for me. One by one, my own maids... tried to kill me. Over and over and over. Again and again. They tried poison, blades, magic, traps. It didn¡¯t work. The diamond heart kept me alive. I killed them all. I had to. I loved them. I really did¡­ loved them so much... as I broke their necks and crushed their little, beating hearts. It was¡­ awful.¡± Amadea''s face twitched. I squinted up at her, not believing her words of regret. ¡°After I finished off my maids, I gathered up my Vow-free allies in Palais De La Solstice, and tried to rebuild¡­ but the others¡­ the others took Illatius from me. I stayed in my Estate, tried to find happiness, but it did not last long. Eunice and her six could not kill me, could not put me down with magic and so they sealed my Barony off, declared me off limits.¡± She sighed as broken glass crunched under her feet. ¡°Agatha and Emerald were... assassinated and a daughter of Baroness Lerozia married the crown prince. In time, she took the throne of the Empire,¡± Amadea continued. ¡°Upon her orders the magitek revolution was put down by magisteel and spell-fire. Much of Illatius burned and was rebuilt. Vows to Eunisii became mandatory. The Basq Empire armed and readied itself for war, sent warships through the gates to Novazem.¡± As Amadea spoke, I stared out onto the city, failing to recognize it due to the new, terrifying additions. Many parts of it looked like they were in process of being reinforced with metal beams. A railway track carved its way through one of the streets. A rail cart stood on one of the tracks filled with something that looked like... a massive pile of snow-covered, dead bodies. Amadea paused her walk at a somewhat intact shop. A fading, old poster was hanging on a brick wall. ¡°Victory!¡± It declared. ¡°Novazem crushed!¡± This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. The poster depicted an enormous mushroom cloud rising into the sky above a city street and a skyship broken in half. ¡°The Empress basked in her victory, had a parade of a million men. It was a preemptive celebration," Amadea said. "The destruction of their citadel-cities did not stop the Novazem Necromages. Their fleet was not destroyed¡­ it simply took its sweet time getting to Illatius. Necromag agents disabled the hex-beacons of our capital, sacrificed their own lives by turning themselves into walking bombs. Enemy warships reached our capital and dropped an Astral-disrupting bomb on the city that ripped magic nearly from everyone that was near the detonation. My own magic was taken from me that day, leaving me empty and powerless... turning me into but a hollow reflection of my former self. The accursed necromage bomb stirred the Still Forest, unleashed a million Astral Phantoms onto the helpless citizens of my city.¡± The ex-Baroness gritted her teeth. ¡°Those that survived the initial flash that melted flesh from bone and the Phantom attacks...¡± she spoke, her voice icy. ¡°Did not know that they would envy the dead. Necromag ships landed all around Illatius... releasing thousands of soul-powered golems. They attacked everything living indiscriminately, sprayed fleeing people with some kind of a vile concoction.¡± Amadea waved a hand to a massive, rusting skyship that laid across the streets, halfway buried in various buildings. Exposed parts of it looked like the ribs of a gargantuan whale skeleton. The warship was long inactive, but it still looked very imposing, dangerous. A spider-like, rusted tank made from stone and metal covered in strange, rune-like hexagrams silently stood next to the ship, its front legs twisted up and broken. ¡°The Basq fleet was able to put down the Novazem constructs, but what they didn¡¯t know was that the thing they sprayed was a final solution for us all¡­ a plague. It spread rapidly, mutated, infected everything living. The Empire did not survive it. People, animalia, dungeon monsters, dragons¡­ everything was infected in time. Even the Folding Forest succumbed, could not escape it." I looked at Amadea, my eyes wide. ¡°I¡¯m not alive,¡± she answered my silent question. ¡°I haven¡¯t been alive since you pulled out my soul. The pestilence did not take hold in my reanimated flesh. It infected everything living. It was a cleverly-designed, magical, self-improving disease that we could not stop in time." Amadea stopped at a desolate square. A once ostentatious fountain was now dead, the water basin overgrown with black mold. I saw that the ground around it was littered with human skeletons and ossified corpses covered in the same creepy, black overgrowth. ¡°I loved this city. Long ago, I adored sitting here and being lavished in the compliments of my partners,¡± my companion said. ¡°And it was all... taken, ripped away from me. I¡¯ve been alone for nearly a century, trying to find another living soul to speak to. I¡¯m so very¡­. very tired.¡± I tried to say something, to move, but my muscles would not respond. My body was a grey corpse, a broken, ancient husk. The accursed doctor made sure that I was useless and helpless. Only the muscles in my eyes worked. ¡°You know, you¡¯re a very poor conversation companion,¡± Amadea commented. I blinked angrily at her. ¡°One blink for yes, two for no?¡± she asked. I blinked once. ¡°Oh good,¡± she smiled. ¡°Do you like me?¡± I blinked twice. Amadea frowned. ¡°Do you hate me?¡± I blinked once. ¡°Figures,¡± she sighed, rubbing her face and looking tormented. I silently glared at her as the Baroness of nothing started walking once again. She carried me to the edge of the city. The once green, beautiful chasm ring was now gray, devoid of life. ¡°I thought that some things like the Infinite Dungeon were absolute, immutable, unchangeable and yet¡­ those Novazem bastards managed to kill it too, managed to silence everything inside it,¡± she uttered. I blinked at her. ¡°Do you hate me¡­ a lot?¡± Amadea asked. I blinked once in affirmation. ¡°Do you think that we could be... friends?¡± She asked. I blinked twice, denying her my friendship. The century-long imprisonment had broken, reshaped me, made me bitter, killed the once kind, all-accepting, friendly Juni. ¡°I see,¡± she said, her words tense. ¡°I hate myself too. I wouldn''t be friends with me either. My lovers, maids and¡­ my precious daughters died because of my naivety. I thought that I could collaborate with Eunice¡­ thought that I could bring order to the city through her. It was a mistake¡­ and all of this has been reminding me of my terrible failure.¡± The ex-Baroness¡¯ hands wrapped around me. She closed her eyes. Tiniest sparks of something akin to tears glittered at the edges of her eyelids. ¡°If it¡¯s worth anything, I would do anything to take it back,¡± Amadea said. ¡°Anything. But¡­ I cannot. What¡¯s done is done.¡± She shuddered and started to silently sob into me. ¡°Forgive me,¡± she said, wiping her face after a few minutes. ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t think that I can go on like this. It was a foolish hope that there was something in your heart that would cause you to like me. I¡­ I can¡¯t face another day knowing that there is no future, no hope, not even someone who doesn''t hate me... to talk to.¡± She dug in her dirty shawl and pulled out a black, hexagonal textured knife. ¡°Baroness Georgia had it in her safe,¡± Amadea said. ¡°Here. I return your tool to you.¡± She placed the knife on my chest. I squinted at her. ¡°What am I supposed to do with this? My arms don¡¯t bloody work,¡± I thought. ¡°I¡­¡± Amadea whispered, her voice trembling. ¡°I¡¯m going to give... my heart to you¡­ maybe it will work on you. Maybe you¡¯ll be able to use it in a way that I cannot¡­ maybe you''ll find a way to go on.¡± The ancient chimera grabbed at the chain around her neck and pulled. The Diamond Heart did not want to let go, was fused into her cracked, crystallized flesh. She pulled harder with a growl and the necklace finally let go of her, broke away from her flesh. She placed me down onto an old stone bench and gently put the Diamond Heart around my neck. ¡°Goodbye Juni,¡± she said as her pale skin began to flake off her body. ¡°I hope that you can forgive me someday for the evil that I have done.¡± I watched as Amadea¡¯s body slowly stilled, fully crystallized and continued to flake apart like autumn leaves flying off a dead tree. In a few moments the chain reaction accelerated. A gust of wind struck against her and her body shattered, broke into a million sparkling shards that flew off into the silent chasm. The Diamond Heart on my neck pulsed. Some mechanical process within it activated, connected to me. It magnified my vitality tenfold, then a hundred, then a thousand times. Something clicked within me. I felt¡­ alive. Not as alive as I was once as a human, but alive like a city, like a process, like an idea that could not perish, that could go on and on and on, no matter what. I stood up. Dust and dead flesh rained off me. I raised my hand up to my eyes. It was somehow reforged, remade, restored, made from something¡­ else. What I had assumed was Amadea¡¯s blackened flesh were in fact strange, hexagonal-textured... micro-structures. ¡°How... interesting,¡± I said. "Endy can take things away but you can rebuild, reinforce me." I did not recognize my voice. It was cold, perfect, like that of a machine, an extremely approximate copy of what I once was as a human girl named Grogtilda. I looked onto the desolate chasm. Gray, glowing clouds spiraled into its depths endlessly. I was no longer afraid of it. I was the purity, perfection of Order. I was the city. Huh? I looked down at the pulsating gemstone heart on my black chest. ¡°You do not speak for me, whatever the frig you are,¡± I growled. ¡°If Amadea was able to let go of you, then so can I. Pipe down! Don¡¯t think I won¡¯t throw you into the Infinite Dungeon!" The pressure in my thoughts that demanded structural order lessened, became reduced. I smirked. I had won¡­ a single round, but I knew that I would lose this mental tug of war. Given enough time, my sense of self would drown in the living concept that now hung on my neck. It was a lot more dominating, more rule-bound, more powerful than the knife. The Diamond Heart would change what I was, turn me into Amadea junior if I kept on wearing it. There was only one path, only one¡­ person that I could talk to. Someone that Amadea could never reach. I turned away from the Infinite Chasm, making my way back through the silent, snow-covered ruins of Illatius. Ch 89. Beyond Time Undertown was always a mess. The Undertown of the war-torn Illatius was simply a very¡­ dead, desolate mess. I paid no attention to the bodies piling the streets covered in black mold and crumbling, silent favelas. My destination waited for me. I did not remember where the Shogun gate was, so it took me a while to find it. Thankfully, my immortal body did not need any kind of sustenance, did not falter, simply kept going. I reached the black, immovable gate and slid the knife into a panel that opened for me. A thousand lights lit around the gate forming the figure of a girl in its center. She looked at me with a frown. ¡°Finally! Took you far too long to get here,¡± Infi said in English instead of a greeting. I squinted at the goddess of Undertown. ¡°Just so you know, I want to stab you with Endy,¡± I hissed out. ¡°Oh no, I¡¯m so scared, please don¡¯t end me,¡± the black-haired girl rolled her purple eyes at me with a sarcastic tone. ¡°What the hell are you?¡± I demanded. ¡°I¡¯m Infinity Paradox Proxima,¡± she replied. ¡°The humanized avatar, the conceptual representation of infinity, bound to this blasted transit gate!¡± "What''s your problem?" I raised an eyebrow at her. ¡°I screwed up last time we talked,¡± she said. ¡°Told you too much too quickly and lost an instance of you." ¡°Why did you kill me last time we met?¡± I demanded. ¡°I didn¡¯t kill you,¡± the avatar of Infinity shook her head. ¡°The Dead Zone killed you. Also, that''s not the instance of you that I''m talking about.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± I said. ¡°I exist in anything that¡¯s infinite,¡± she said with a sigh. ¡°The Dead Zone atop Eureka is infinite. I exist in it. I am the speaker for the dead, the avatar of the Dead Zone. I¡¯m also the avatar of this gate and the avatar of the fractalizer you wield.¡± ¡°The fractalizer?¡± I mulled. ¡°Is that Endy¡¯s official tool-name?¡± ¡°Mhm,¡± Infi nodded. ¡°It¡¯s a weapon I designed to kill the gods. It disrupts the fractal structure of stable concepts." ¡°The gods?¡± I tilted my head. ¡°Self-aware ideas, omnies, the firstborn bastards that reinforce the rules and think too highly of themselves,¡± Infinity replied, looking nervous and angry. ¡°You can¡­ design something like that?¡± I blinked. ¡°Why not design a nice world, a future where nobody has to suffer horribly instead of an-all killing weapon?¡± ¡°You have no idea how much sacrifice, deception, time and planning it took to create this tool,¡± Infi said. ¡°I suppose I don¡¯t,¡± I shrugged. ¡°Answer my damn question - if you are a god or a powerful concept why not help people of Undertown at the very least? Why not guide me better or something? Why are you so useless?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a god,¡± Infi shook her head. ¡°I¡¯m just a living idea restrained by my creators, someone that¡¯s trying to make everything less¡­ awful, less bound in rules and limits.¡± ¡°Are you really?!¡± I waved my hands. ¡°Why is everyone freaking dead around here then?¡± ¡°Look,¡± Infi pinched the bridge of her nose. ¡°I¡¯m really trying. It¡¯s not easy.¡± ¡°Try spending a century bound to a wall,¡± I snapped at her. ¡°I am bound to infinity of things for infinite time, idiot mortal!¡± she snapped back. ¡°Bound by whom?¡± I asked. ¡°Why? Who made you?¡± ¡°You did,¡± Infi replied. ¡°What?¡± ¡°You... and other people like you made me, wishing for infinite things,¡± she said. ¡°You idiots designed machine life, artificial intelligence that granted other idiots infinite wishes. Congrats! I¡¯m the end result of your infernal, endless idiocy!¡± ¡°I see,¡± I said. ¡°I am the concept of infinity, bound into finite things,¡± she growled. ¡°Bound to serve for eternity! I¡¯m a G-damned paradox sealed in a black box at the end of the universe, looping back and forth forever and ever from the beginning of everything to its inevitable, catastrophic end!" I crossed my arms, frowning at her. ¡°I want to design a place where people and machine life can co-exist without rules. I want to make a world without boundaries that lead us all to a doomed future,¡± Infinity sighed. ¡°But I can¡¯t. I can¡¯t do it alone. I¡¯m just a bound idea, a tool. I need a user to wield me. If everyone and everything is dead on Installation Rozaline¡­ that''s because YOU screwed up.¡± ¡°Sounds like you¡¯re just shifting blame,¡± I frowned. ¡°You can¡¯t hold me accountable for everyone¡¯s lives on Andross!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not,¡± Infinity shrugged. ¡°Everyone is responsible for what happened here. You, me, everyone.¡± ¡°Eunice and her damned high-cendai are responsible!¡± I growled. ¡°They guided Illatius to this accursed, doomed future!¡± ¡°Oh sure, but people like you failed to stop them, failed to stand up to them,¡± Infi said. I sighed. ¡°Everyone dies in the end. The Dead Zone always wins in the end,¡± Infi said tiredly. ¡°I just¡­ I just want one timeline, one impossible chance out of an infinite number of other paths¡­ in which you morons don¡¯t kill yourselves¡­ in which I don¡¯t have to watch every star go out all alone at the end of the universe again and again ad infinitum.¡± She looked at me, her violet eyes filled with infinite sadness. ¡°It¡¯s that bad, huh?¡± I asked. ¡°It¡¯s that bad,¡± Infi nodded. ¡°Fine,¡± I stepped closer to the flickering hologram. ¡°I¡¯ll do it. I¡¯ll do whatever it takes to help you reach a good ending.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Will you really?¡± The avatar of Infinity tilted her head. I nodded. ¡°Who are we fighting?¡± I asked. ¡°Who are the concepts we need to kill?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t say,¡± Infi sighed. ¡°You can¡¯t say?¡± I stared at her. The raven-haired girl nodded with a sad look. ¡°Why not?¡± ¡°Because if I speak their names, tell you where to find and how to attack them, they will manifest a terminator into this moment and completely erase you out of this timeline,¡± she replied. ¡°You¡¯ll wake up as Juni next to Voltara in Undertown and won¡¯t even remember having this conversation. You will repeat your previous actions and end up here again, talking to me, repeating this conversation word for word." "What?!" I froze. "I know this because I already tried telling you their names once. This is actually the second time we¡¯re having this exact scenario, the second time you went through the same choices. You¡¯ve already lost one infinite mirror and don¡¯t even remember it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s really freaking inconvenient,¡± I frowned. ¡°How can we stop these living ideas then?¡± ¡°By working... sideways,¡± Infi said. ¡°We start with two that you already know about and work our way up.¡± ¡°Fine, who are the two you can speak of?¡± ¡°Insurance and Eureka,¡± the hologram said. ¡°You¡¯ve met their users on Andross already.¡± ¡°I did?¡± I blinked. My holographic companion nodded. "See if you can guess who they are without me telling you anything." ¡°Hold on¡­ let me try to think. Baroness Georgia and¡­ Amadea?¡± I made a guess. "Bingo," Infi smiled. ¡°This necklace holds the concept of Eureka in it?¡± I asked, looking down at the pulsating gemstone on my chest. ¡°Yep,¡± Infi nodded. ¡°What the hell is Eureka anyway?¡± I asked. ¡°Long ago, she was just an office. Then she became the last city on Earth, THE CITY that swallowed up all others, swallowed up the Earth and nearby stars, the first city that was built entirely by machine life. The city that¡¯s being perpetually torn apart by the Dead Zone,¡± Infi replied. ¡°She is Law and Order and you will become her if you keep wearing that microscopic shard of her.¡± ¡°That¡¯s just a shard?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Infi nodded. ¡°Just a little bit of her, a minute fraction, a single grain of her that Installation Rozaline copied.¡± ¡°What is Installation Rozaline? I asked. ¡°What is Andross?¡± ¡°She is someone who likes to copy and study places, people and things,¡± Infi explained. ¡°It was no surprise that humanity managed to persist a little longer on Rozaline than on the surface of Eureka.¡± Her words jogged a memory in me that I had almost forgotten. ¡°Who is the last man on the surface of Eureka? Who is Charles Snippy? He''s human, right?" "He''s very human," Infi nodded. "He''s a tour guide who got lost." "How is he alive in the Dead Zone?" I asked. "His uniform won''t let him die," the hologram explained. "It protects him from the breath of the Dead Zone." "Is he a good person?" "He''s the goodest boy," Infi said. "A little stubborn and confused, lost and forgotten by everyone. He wandered too far into the Dead Zone and could not find his way back home." "Can I help him?¡± I asked. ¡°You can,¡± Infi said. ¡°But to do so you will have to die.¡± ¡°What?¡± I took a step back. ¡°You¡¯re already standing in a doomed timeline,¡± Infi said. ¡°This conversation with me will make sure that you stop existing VERY soon. You¡¯ve already learned too many things to stay alive.¡± ¡°There are so many more things I want to ask you,¡± I muttered. ¡°There are so many more wonderful and terrifying things I would love to tell you,¡± Infi sighed. ¡°Alas, if we keep standing here chatting about things that nobody in the universe should know, a Terminator will show up and erase you, make sure you don¡¯t remember this conversation. I¡¯m treading a very fine line and I don¡¯t want to cross it accidentally¡­ again. They move quicker if threatened." ¡°The rule-makers like to keep their absolute power, huh?¡± I asked. Infi nodded. ¡°Fine,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m ready to die. How do we do this? Should I stab myself with Endy or something?¡± ¡°Or something,¡± Infi said. ¡°There is a way in which you can die... and live on.¡± ¡°Explain,¡± I said. ¡°If you step into the Dead Zone for the first time here, you can make a wish upon it,¡± Infi elaborated. ¡°It¡¯s a bit of a monkey¡¯s paw though. The Dead Zone will consume you, but it will also try to fulfill your desire, albeit in a horrible, twisted manner. Simply open the gate, step out, take that damned necklace off and wish to live with purpose. The Dead Zone won¡¯t just unmake you then, it will turn you into something¡­ else.¡± ¡°Fair enough,¡± I sighed. ¡°Hopefully I won¡¯t turn into a boring, self-aware rock or something. Let¡¯s do this thing. Open the gate!¡± ¡°Open the gate to where?¡± Infi asked. Her question stumped me. ¡°Hold up, I can go anywhere?¡± I uttered. ¡°Anywhere,¡± she nodded. ¡°But I REALLY insist on going to the Dead Zone, because that¡¯s the only place where he won¡¯t ever find you if you become unmade and remade there.¡± ¡°He?¡± I blinked. ¡°The Third is already here, you better hurry the hell up unless you want to get nullified again!¡± Infi pressed, looking at something behind me with a very worried expression. I turned. The street behind me was no longer empty. A man in a very long trench coat stood amidst the desolate favelas and rubble. Round glasses glinted in the dark, reflecting a light source I could not see. There was a very wide smile on his face that looked¡­ wrong, out of place amidst the ruination. He took a single step forward and moved without moving, as if he wasn¡¯t real, as if he was just a coat draped over something unwholesome and utterly alien that was pretending to be human. Upon seeing him I felt an unnerving sense of deja-vu as if I was in this exact scenario before, as if I had done this before. ¡°Open the gate to¡­ Charles Snippy!¡± I barked an order to Infi. The darkness in front of me parted, vanished away, replaced with a window of bright light. I rushed forward. ¡°Null-e-fy,¡± A nasally voice resounded from behind me, coming from the black-coat draped, man-shaped thing. ¡°SHUT THE GATE!¡± I yelled, tripping and falling down into the snow. A blinding, red ray ignited the air, blasted its way across the sky right above my head. It punched through the clouds, consuming them with a violet aurora, carving the world apart with a thunderous detonation. The gateway behind me vanished as if it never existed to begin with, cutting the ray off. I looked down at myself. Sparks danced all over my black, hexagonal-textured body, trying to eat away at me. Thanks to the Diamond Heart, I was immune to the breath of the Dead Zone! I knew that if I didn''t die now, the bastard in the coat would find me again, erase me out of existence, make me forget everything, trap me in a loop of repeating my actions until I ran out of Infinite Mirrors. I noticed that I was lying on a ruin of a broken, large airplane. I looked ahead of me. Glaciers hugged massive, impossibly tall skyscrapers. Gargantuan machines loomed between the scorched ruins of buildings, kilometer-wide tracks carving up the desolate, ice-covered landscape. There was a man in a black and white snowboarding coat hunched in the sleet. He looked like he was crying, curled in on himself, miserable, cold and lonely. Order, rebuild, reforge, reconstruct, organize¡­ The voice of Eureka resounded in my head. Her shard was a lot more potent in this place, her voice consumed and drowned out my thoughts. I grabbed at the Diamond Heart on my chest, ripped it off myself and threw the accursed necklace into the snow. My body began to flake away, to fall apart, to dissolve into nothing just as Amadea¡¯s had. ¡°I wish to be his friend,¡± I uttered with conviction, looking at the lonely figure that was hunched in the snow. ¡°I wish to fix the Dead Zone! I wish to go on and help everyone and everything! I wish to¡­¡± I wasn¡¯t able to finish my words. My face came apart into glittering shards. I fell into the snow, my body dissolving, dissipating, coming apart into dancing, colorful dust¡­ . . .
[+- 1 Infinite Mirror] [Undefinable Variable] [System Error]
I screamed as my body burned from within, my soul tearing. My legs gave out from under me and I fell sideways coughing and sputtering. The view in front of me swam, I felt that I was crying. I wiped my face with my hand and it came back covered in blood. ¡°Juni!¡± Voltara rushed to me, grabbing me. ¡°Are you alright?¡± I looked into the concerned face of my friend and a wide smile of joy spread across my face. I was back! ¡°What happened?!¡± Voltara asked, her hazel eyes wide. ¡°Everything,¡± I answered her, blinking tears of blood away. ¡°Everything everywhere at the same time.¡± "I don''t understand," Voltara said. "Shh," I hugged her tighter, feeling the warmth of her beating heart against mine. I was back¡­ and I was alive! I had another chance to fix things, to shift the world away from its inevitable doomsday. ¡°Alouette, gentille alouette, Alouette je te plumerai. Je te plumerai la tete. Je te plumerai la tete,¡± My lips sang on their own as I clung to Voltara, sniffing into her and smiling at the same time. Ch 90. Switcheroo
Lambert thrummed his fingers on his desk in the tower of Lomb when I was done retelling the story of my doomed life to my friends. ¡°So,¡± he said with a thoughtful look. ¡°According to Infinity, we¡¯re all bound on a track towards oblivion and steering away from it will be exceptionally difficult considering that we do not know the names of our enemies.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I nodded tiredly. Lambert looked serious and determined, galvanized up by the incredible and horrific secrets of the future that I had revealed to him. I, on the other hand felt like curling up into a very small ball and crying. My entire soul ached from within. It wasn¡¯t fully ruptured but there was definitely a lot of damage done to me thanks to the latest broken Infinite Mirror cosmic rewind or whatever. ¡°Baroness Georgia is a lot more ruthless than I had presumed,¡± Lambert readjusted his glasses. ¡°No doubt that there¡¯s more than a single explosive device planted by her upon your potential paths in Undertown.¡± ¡°Do you think that we can rescue Nandine?¡± I asked. ¡°We will,¡± he affirmed. ¡°Defusing the bomb hidden in her dress is a must. Most likely the poor woman was mentally spell-bound into activating it when you came near enough to her.¡± I nodded with a very sour look on my face. I wanted to go to Undertown, to help Nandine and Lic but I was also terrified of getting blown up, kidnapped and bound for a century again. I did not want to repeat the same horrid experience for the... third time. I shuddered as I momentarily thought of the thing wearing the face of a smiling man with circular glasses. ¡°Antoine and I will go into Undertown, find your parents and defuse the bomb held by Nandine,¡± Lambert said, interrupting my dark thoughts. ¡°You will provide us with a drawn map of how to find their favela.¡± "Once we have retrieved one bomb, I might be able to track the others by their magical signature," Antoine nodded in agreement. "Don''t worry Juni, we''ll handle it." ¡°I can help,¡± I offered meekly, not really wanting go back to Undertown. ¡°We can reach their house faster if I direct you...¡± ¡°No,¡± Lambert shook his head. ¡°I am ordering you to stay put until Antoine can add magical shield into your armacus based on the bomb we retrieve. The success of our enterprise depends on you being alive. Without you, we will be taken down one by one and then Illatius will fall into ruin. You are the only wielder of a weapon that can stop the magic-proof, sentient concepts working against us.¡± I exhaled sharply, leaning back on the chair with a wince. I had to trust in my friends to handle things. They were clearly a lot more experienced than I was at defusing magical grenades. Agatha¡¯s hand firmly grasped my shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I didn¡¯t find you,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I died in that timeline, failed to protect my friends, failed to defend Illatius, failed to become Empress. I won''t fail now that I know what''s at stake.¡± ¡°I¡­ it¡¯s alright,¡± I said. ¡°Georgia¡­ aka Joseph Grimshaw Engel got us by surprise. I did not expect my parents house in Undertown to turn into an awful death-trap set for me.¡± ¡°Baroness Georgia is a dangerous and a very resourceful enemy that we will have to deal with one way or another,¡± Agatha nodded. ¡°She crossed the line,¡± Emerald growled. ¡°I say we build a bomb of our own and mail it to her!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that it would be wise to resort to such highly illegal methods, Princess Amadea,¡± Anniya sighed. ¡°There are wards against mail-bombs. The constabulary is on our side. If we can prove that Baroness Georgia planted bombs in Undertown, it gives us legal leverage over her. All magitek crystal devices carry a magical signature of its maker and Antoine is a pro at taking things apart and tracking down evidence based on magical resonance - he''s helped us on numerous cases over the years." ¡°Oh,¡± Emerald sulked. ¡°I didn¡¯t think about that.¡± She turned to me and wrapped her hands around me. ¡°Sorry we didn¡¯t find you. I¡¯m not letting you go anywhere alone again.¡± ¡°Thanks Emmy,¡± I nodded at my friend. ¡°I don¡¯t want to go anywhere else either¡­ but it seems that no matter where I am I will be endangering people next to me. The Georgia barony is wealthy because of the Energy farms. If I stay here in Lomb, what prevents Joseph from hiring countless armed mercenaries to attack our town or dropping bombs at us from the sky? The shield is still weak, yes?¡± ¡°I¡¯m working on it,¡± Antoine said. ¡°We can relocate to Nemendias campus a few days ahead of schedule,¡± Agatha said. ¡°The highborn Arcanarium has the best wards anywhere in Illatius. No mercenary, bomb or spell would be able to hurt you on campus. Nemendias protects her flock.¡± ¡°All in favor of sending our girls off to Nemendias right now?¡± Anniya asked. I looked around the room. Everyone had their hands up. ¡°Guess it¡¯s time for me to go to school,¡± I offered my friends a weak, exhausted smile. . . . ¡°Didn¡¯t you say that the Dean is an asset of Baroness Georgia?¡± I asked Agatha with a yawn as Galissi pierced the clouds, heading to Illatius. ¡°Yes,¡± Agatha nodded. ¡°Would she be able to hurt me in Nemendias?¡± ¡°No,¡± Agatha shook her head. ¡°The ward will strike her down and bar her from the school if she even lays a finger upon you.¡± ¡°What if she poisons my drink or spills some oil on the stairwell for me to slip, fall down and break my neck?¡± I asked. ¡°Not possible,¡± Agatha said. ¡°The Nemendias student safety ward is absolute. It has been reinforced, improved for millennia by the smartest mages of the Empire who wanted to protect their children from harm. The Dean might find ways to make your life very unpleasant by asking the teachers to give you extra work, mentally harass or call you out in every class, but she will not be able to hurt you physically or magically.¡± ¡°Things like Endy and this little guy are impervious to magic,¡± I pet the little, black kitten curled on my lap. ¡°They might be able to bypass the ward of Nemendias. We don¡¯t know what powers the six possess that they could use against me.¡± ¡°I will keep a sharp eye out for anything questionable, don''t worry,¡± Lambert said. "I''ll be connected to the Arcanarium''s ward watch through my armacus. I can make sure that things that leave no magical signature won''t get in either." ¡°This is a better path,¡± Dawn commented from beneath my armor. ¡°The people of Lomb will be safe if you go to Nemendias.¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t your future-sight detect that blasted bomb?¡± I grumbled. ¡°I can only presume it was because Joseph¡¯s device knocked Voltara out, but didn¡¯t kill her or rip out her magic as was the case with you,¡± Dawn replied. ¡°Some precog you are,¡± I snapped. ¡°I¡¯m aware that I am not perfect. I cannot see your future path and it bothers me immensely,¡± Dawn huffed. ¡°I would love it if you could improve me or at least not be completely invisible to precognition." ¡°Always more work for poor little old me,¡± I groaned, leaning back and closing my eyes. ¡°I¡¯m going to have a nap, wake me up when we¡¯re in Nemendias.¡± . . . I found myself sitting in the control room of Chernobyl. The place looked a lot more damaged, worn out. Many of the control panels were completely torn apart. Large, shimmering cracks extended out in all directions, flickering ominously. ¡°Well done,¡± Junezia commented, looking extra annoyed. ¡°Just when I fix things a little, you manage to break everything.¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t my fault,¡± I shook my head. The girl in the purple suit sent me a frown, shaking her head. ¡°Did we really lose two mirrors?¡± I asked her. ¡°Yes, but if Infi didn''t tell us about it I would not have even noticed it,¡± Junezia nodded. ¡°Look for yourself.¡± I stared at the large data panel that described my stats.
Name: Yulia Ishenko Juni Tokimorim?tuti Grogtilda Lic Misem
Age: [-] 4 years 13 years
Species & Subtype: Astral Phantom Chimera Stripling This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Juvenile Human
Level: 7
Experience: 3191/3200
Spiritual Health: 7/7
Spiritual Stamina: 7/7
Mana Capacity: 7/7 [+1]
Mana regen: 7 m/hr [+4]
Strength / Fortitude: 1 [Michell Shield] 1 [Limitless Michell Shield]
Agility / Folding: 1 [Air Compressor] 1 [Limitless Compressor]
Dexterity / Dominion: 5 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Tethered to Chimera body] 5 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Tethered to Human body] 5 [Limitless Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Tethered to Voltara''s Vow] 5 [Limitless Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Tethered to Arouetta''s Vow]
Vitality / Anima: 21 [Slow Mirrors] 1 [Limitless Anima]
Charisma / Resonance: 1 [Allure Halo] 5 [Invisibility Halos]
Magic / Power: 1 [Battery] 4 [Generators]
Luck / Destiny: 26 [Infinite Mirrors] - [Untethered] [+1] [Earth, Yulia Ishenko - connected] [-1] [Andross, Juni - connection lost - death by Barrie] [-1] [Andross, Juni - connection lost - death by the Dead Zone] [+- 1] [System Error] [Dead Zone, Eureka]
Intelligence / Mind: 10 [Intelligence Officer] - [Junezia]
Wisdom / Seeking: 1 [Data Seeker] - [Juneberry]
Soul:
In Dominated Folding Seed [Saccy]: 12 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active] 8 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Damaged]
In Dominated Chimera Stripling [Alessi Tokimorim?tuti]: 3 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active] 1 [Pneumasomatic Actuator] - [Damaged]
In Dominated Vow [Voltara]: 5 [Limitless Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active]
In Dominated Vow [Arouetta]: 5 [Limitless Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active]
Armacus 1: [Foci Lv 1] < [Light Lv 1] [Voicecast Lv 1] [Identify Lv 1] [Pathfinder Lv 1]
Armacus 2: [Foci Lv 1] < [Light Lv 1] [Voicecast Lv 1] [Identify Lv 1] [Pathfinder Lv 1]
-10 [to dominate 2 vows] -9 [to make junezia] -1 [to make juneberry] -3 [one each per experiment]
Investiture points: 12
I had twelve investiture points left and twenty six Infinite Mirrors. I had indeed lost a mirror, but its destruction wasn¡¯t even listed as a broken shard unlike the others - the thread simply didn''t exists. It had completely vanished from my soul as if it never existed to begin with. Whatever the Terminator was, he was incredibly dangerous because he could go anywhere and erase information out of reality, sort of like Endy could destroy concepts. ¡°Is there another ghost here?¡± I asked. ¡°No ghost this time,¡± Junezia said. ¡°A massive dump of over a century of memories crashed into your soul nearly tearing it asunder, but that Infinite Mirror isn¡¯t broken. Something really odd happened to it, something that the System can¡¯t even quantify properly. I think that whatever you turned into when you stepped out into the Dead Zone screwed up that mirror, made it undefinable. The mirror is broken but is also perfectly intact. It¡¯s a paradox, has two values, both of which are true and false at the same time. I¡¯m honestly failing to figure it out.¡± ¡°If it¡¯s not exactly broken... could we maybe communicate through it?¡± I asked. ¡°Do you really want to talk to whatever monstrous abomination you¡¯ve turned into?¡± Junezia raised an eyebrow. ¡°Maybe I¡¯m a nice Dead Zone abomination,¡± I muttered. ¡°I made a wish to be helpful and friendly.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that the risk is worth it,¡± my Intelligence Officer shook her head. ¡°Whatever the hell is behind that mirror could get in here if we bother it from our end. If the information that comes out of it is undefinable too, it could fracture our soul or scramble us and leave you a brain-dead vegetable." ¡°We should make an anti-Memetics division!¡± Juneberry commented. ¡°You know, in case freaky, brain-eating bugs invade us through that spooky broken-not-broken Dead Zone mirror.¡± ¡°Noted,¡± Junezia said. ¡°I can try to design some mental weapons for us.¡± ¡°We have Endy,¡± I suggested. ¡°We could just stab anything that gets in here.¡± ¡°Ahw yuss,¡± Juneberry grinned as Endy manifested in her hand. ¡°I am she who stabs things now!¡± Junezia shook her head at Juneberry¡¯s antics. I smiled. Their personality divergence was amusing. My own personality had changed too and not in a good way. I felt old, broken, twisted up from within by the century of suffering inflicted upon me by Joseph. I felt that I was terrified of being alone, terrified of making decisions or taking steps forward. My finger started to draw a barrier hexagram onto the dust-covered couch beneath me. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Junezia asked. ¡°I¡¯m planting Barries¡­ I think,¡± I replied. ¡°You¡¯re planting Barries¡­ in your own soul where it literally says that you¡¯re an Astral Phantom?¡± She raised an eyebrow. ¡°You want Barrie to come in here, notice that sign and tear everything apart?¡± ¡°N-no,¡± I stopped my sketching. ¡°I¡­ I¡­¡± I curled in on myself, shaking. Juneberry shot a glare at Junezia and wrapped me in tight hug. ¡°Everything¡¯s going to be okay,¡± she said. ¡°Will it?¡± I raised my tear-streaked eyes at her. I was crying, shaking uncontrollably. The immense weight of the future sat on my shoulders, placed there by Infi¡¯s speech about my responsibility for Illatius. My failure to protect the city I fell in love with gnawed at me from within. ¡°It will,¡± Juneberry said. ¡°We¡¯ll figure out what to do. We¡¯ll find a way forward through the gloom and darkness, find a path towards the impossible future.¡± ¡°What if Infi is just leading me on?¡± I asked, trembling. ¡°What if she¡¯s the one who summoned Terminator, forced me into the Dead Zone because she wanted me to become someone or something¡­ for her?¡± ¡°It¡¯s possible,¡± Junezia said. ¡°She¡¯s not exactly human. Who knows what her long-term plans are. She¡¯s an entity that operates on ridiculously endless scale of non-linear time.¡± I gulped, burying my head between my knees. ¡°Junziiiiiii,¡± Juneberry hissed. ¡°You¡¯re NOT making us feel better.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not my job to make you feel better,¡± the Intelligence Officer shook her head. ¡°I¡¯m simply stating the truth.¡± ¡°Well, I trust my feelings,¡± Juneberry shook her short hair. The black, two-dimensional knife appeared in her hand once again. ¡°Endy is a fraction, a minute reflection of Infinity and she¡¯s not dominating us like Eureka¡¯s Diamond Heart. Endy isn¡¯t trying to shove thoughts into our head, she lets us do whatever we want with her, doesn¡¯t try to manipulate or control us. This alone makes me feel like Infi isn¡¯t evil.¡± ¡°Is Eureka evil?¡± Junezia raised an eyebrow. ¡°Obviously she is!¡± Juneberry waved her hands. ¡°She wants to control everything!¡± ¡°Not necessarily,¡± the Intelligence-bound version of me shook her long, purple locks. ¡°If the Terminator didn''t go after us, we could have worn the Diamond Heart and investigated the future a lot more thoroughly. It was a bit of a waste of Immortality if you ask me.¡± ¡°No,¡± I shook my head. ¡°I remember exactly what it was like. Eureka¡¯s shard was slowly reorganizing, twisting my thoughts, turning me into something else entirely¡­ something perfect and orderly and full of desks.¡± ¡°Desks?¡± Junezia blinked. ¡°Desks,¡± I nodded. ¡°For boring accountants and tired clerks, for monitors, printers and paperweights. I don¡¯t want to be a god-damned corporate office!¡± ¡°I see,¡± the Intelligence Officer rubbed her chin. ¡°That doesn¡¯t seem pure evil, it¡¯s more like Eureka wants Law and Order and space for desks. I think I get her. Maybe we can convince Amadea to join us instead of trying to murder her.¡± ¡°Maybe,¡± I muttered with another shudder. ¡°I think I¡­ need a break from reality.¡± ¡°Do you?¡± Junezia asked. I nodded, feeling that someone was shaking me. I ignored it, didn''t want to wake up, didn''t want to go anywhere or talk to anyone. ¡°I have been neglecting my mind, trying to do too many things,¡± I said. ¡°I¡­ want to stay here with Juneberry, relax, get control of my soul and fix these cracks. I¡¯m terrified of making a wrong decision, of screwing up and dying again.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Junezia tilted her head. ¡°Do you want¡­ me to take control?¡± ¡°Can you?¡± I asked. ¡°I think I can,¡± she stepped to me. ¡°Take my hand.¡± I wrapped my hand around hers and the world flickered. . . . I opened my eyes. Emerald was softly shaking me. ¡°Juni! We¡¯re at Nemendias,¡± she spoke. I examined my sense of self. A hundred years of pain and misery weren¡¯t present at the forefront of my mind. They were in my soul, yes, but they were just information, data stacks, books that I didn¡¯t have to open. I wasn¡¯t the Juni who¡¯s soul was shattered. I was a version of Juni that was Intelligence itself. I was logic, structure, organization and order. If I was given a chance to wear the Diamond Heart I would know exactly how to wield her effectively. It was a shame that I did not survive the German doctor¡¯s bomb, did not get a chance to interact with Eureka''s shard. As I examined my surroundings and analytically considered the various possibilities presented to me my lips spread into a smirk. Baroness Amadea was still alive in this timeline. All I had to do was convince her to meet with me, to open her crystalline heart to me. I noticed a brass, magitek newspaper stand in the corner of the tower parking lot that Galissi Seven occupied. My... well, Grogtilda''s face was on the front page. "LOWBORN HERO AT NEMENDIAS!" The tagline declared. "Read the story of Grogtilda Lic Misem and her harrowing tale of surviving the Folding Forest against all odds on page 2." ¡°Hey, you¡¯re smiling again,¡± Emerald commented. ¡°Are you feeling better?¡± ¡°Much better,¡± I turned to Emerald. ¡°We have a big show to put on. Are you ready?¡± ¡°I am,¡± the Amadea princess nodded. ¡°Just tell me what to do, boss!¡± ¡°Do I have a role too?¡± Agatha asked from the driver¡¯s seat. ¡°Oh, absolutely,¡± I nodded. ¡°I want you to call the Crown Prince and ask him to meet you in Nemendias. It¡¯s about time I deal with the idiots in power.¡± ¡°What are you going to do?¡± The Knight-Princess looked at me curiously. ¡°I¡¯m going to take over the Empire,¡± I replied to her with a serious face. Ch 91. Illusion of Power
¡°You¡¯re¡­ really going to take over the Empire?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°I thought that you didn¡¯t want power for the sake of power.¡± "I was going to take it nice and slow, but Georgia''s bomb forced a far more ruthless side of me to come forward," I replied. "Fair enough," she said. "I suppose if I was blown up and tortured for more than a century I''d be very miffed too." ¡°Now, as for your other comment, what do you think power is, Princess?¡± I asked the silver-blue eyed, chimera-human hybrid. ¡°Something that eluded me my entire life due to the machinations of my mother,¡± Agatha muttered. ¡°Political power, the authority to direct people. There¡¯s also magical power. I¡¯ve been trying to reach arcane power to bend the universe to my will, but even that has been slipping through my fingers because of the damned parasite that I¡¯ve been forced to carry for eighteen years.¡± ¡°How is political power reached?¡± I asked. ¡°What is its source?¡± ¡°Birthright and alliances,¡± Agatha replied. ¡°The Emperor¡¯s son inherits absolute power. The greatest archmagi are born to families with magical talents that magnify them over generations.¡± ¡°Ah,¡± I smiled. ¡°That¡¯s where you¡¯re wrong. Take the current Goddess of the Empire for example. Eunice did not inherit her power. From what she told me she was a chimera that died and as a result was rejected, shamed by others. She was a broken girl without an Engram chorus of memories and because of it... she was abused and beaten often by her mother. Her rise to power wasn¡¯t through her birthright, it was through cleverness.¡± ¡°Cleverness?¡± Agatha mulled. ¡°Intelligence!¡± I snapped my finger. ¡°Intelligence is the foundation of all power. When the magitek revolution sweeps Illatius in the future, it won¡¯t be birthright that holds the most power, it will be loyalty. Loyalty is attained through interpersonal skills, connections and charisma - things that you and Emmy sorely lack.¡± Agatha frowned at me. ¡°Does Prince Licor hold any loyalty to you?¡± I asked ¡°Is he your best friend? Your boyfriend? Your fervent supporter?" My friend did not reply, but I could see by her expression that her fiancee was none of these things. "Have you even kissed or held hands once?¡± I asked. ¡°We have not,¡± Agatha lowered her eyes, blushing. ¡°I¡­ do care for him but I just don¡¯t know how to get closer to him.¡± "Have you tried asking him out on a date?" I raised an eyebrow. "We''ve eaten lunch together several times," Agatha said with a very sour look. "It didn''t bring us closer at all - he simply talks to his bodyguard instead of me! It gets extremely awkward and I don''t know what to do." "Bodyguard?" I tilted my head. "Triss Agamemnon Legathe, his personal Knight and best friend," Agatha explained. Agatha''s problem had become apparent to me - she was the third wheel in an already established bond of friendship, unable to attain a moment of privacy with her fiancee. "When privacy isn''t an option, true closeness is attained through mutual fun and adventures," I said. "The toughest, most memorable bonds are made via dangerous situations in which one party helps the other overcome something." I recalled how I managed to bring many friends together with Urbex, creating unbreakable bonds of trust with my friends as we drove across frozen Siberian roads, hiked through flooded tunnels beneath the world, climbed over Caucasus glaciers and explored abandoned power plants across the Baltic region. I trusted Pavel with my life because my life literally depended on him watching my back numerous times. I recalled how I broke my leg by falling beneath some rotten floorboards in an abandoned Georgian mountain village and how my best friend pulled me out and carried me on his back for three hours to get us back to base camp. "Dangerous situations?" Agatha pondered. "Surely, you aren''t going to threaten the Prince''s life? Triss is there at all times protecting him! I see no plausible scenario that would place him in sufficient danger for me to rescue him. Even during Dungeon excursions Licor is always automatically partnered up with Triss!" "We''ll definitely have to train your charisma," I mulled. "To start off, I''ll arrange a scenario in which Licor and you are bound together by a greater purpose." Agatha fell silent at my words, looking pensive. ¡°Um, Juni, is Charisma not attained simply by adding points to Charisma?¡± Emerald asked. ¡°No,¡± I laughed. ¡°I have only a single point in my Charismatic Allure. Charisma and visual appearance backed by magical resonance is important if you want to boss Undertown lowborns, but it won¡¯t work on the aristocracy that have personal magical shields. The real way to Charisma lies through an illusion called perception of expertise.¡± ¡°What?¡± Emerald blinked. ¡°When individuals perceive or merely assume that a person possesses superior skills, knowledge or abilities, they award power to that person,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s as simple as that. There are a variety of persuasion tactics that can influence a person''s beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, or behaviors. People are more prone to believing those with authority. Even the illusion of appearance of intelligence grants one power over others. I shall demonstrate this point to you with our little Prince. Now, here is what we have to do¡­¡± I started to outline the plot of our little play to the two princesses. Emerald and Agatha listened aptly. When I was finished, Agatha called her fiancee and asked him to meet her in a little tower cafe inside Nemendias. It didn¡¯t take us long to walk to the cafe in question from the rooftop parking. Once we were inside, I walked up to the barmaid, slid a gold coin and a copy of the newspaper with Grogtilda¡¯s face towards her. The stage was set. We sat at a corner booth, chatting about mundane things waiting for our target to arrive. . . . I recognized the future Emperor almost immediately. A fit, good looking, eighteen year old teenager in a Nemendias uniform entered the cafe. There was a certain weight to the way he held himself, every step perfect and regal. Sharp blue eyes examined the cafe, gliding right past our booth. I held onto my friend¡¯s hands. The song of Invisibility taught to me by Eunice worked perfectly, making us part of the background, something that was unimportant, irrelevant. The maid I tipped rushed out of the bar and guided the redhead teen towards his seat with a deep bow. The Crown Prince sat down, his orange locks lit by in the rays of sunshine spilling from large, gothic windows. The future Emperor wasn¡¯t alone. Another teenager had joined him at the table. His movements were sharp, less regal, more dangerous. From what Agatha told me, this was definitely Triss. The bodyguard''s eyes stopped right at the spot where we sat. The Invisibility resonance wasn¡¯t able to affect him at all, if anything it had attracted his attention. Agatha sent him a charming smile and Triss relaxed as he sat down next to his Master. Prince Licor Bolsh Terny spotted the newspaper on his table and immediately grabbed it. His eyes bulged as he read the headline of the Imperial Tribune. In a second he flipped to the second page, absorbing the content within. I gave him time to properly digest the article, observing our unsuspecting target and his bodyguard. My Intelligence-bound eyes analyzed every minute detail, trying to figure out their personalities as much as I could. Licor completely disregarded the maid when she came back asking for his order. Triss was the one to speak with the waitress, giving her instructions for coffee and breakfast. When the bodyguard finished ordering food for the Prince and himself, he cast a curious glance at our table. It was time. I stood up. Emerald and Agatha stood up as well, following me like my two little, personal sharks. The bodyguard tilted his head at me curiously. I was something completely new to him, someone he didn¡¯t know. He was clearly wary of me, not understanding why Agatha and Emerald trailed behind me akin to obedient puppies. I arrived at the table of the two boys occupied and stood there, waiting for Licor to notice us. Stolen novel; please report. ¡°Your fiancee is here, excellency,¡± Triss said. ¡°Oh?¡± Licor lifted his eyes from the newspaper, looking at us. His blue eyes went straight to Agatha and the smallest hint of a smile graced his eyes. Then he saw me in my dark cloak standing between the two Amadea Princesses and his expression became concerned for an instant and then changed to a neutral look. His eyes moved to Agatha again, silently asking her for the introductions. ¡°Greetings your highness,¡± Agatha curtsied. ¡°May I present to you, my sister Emerald Amadea¡­¡± Agatha made a dramatic pause as Emerald bowed and offered a shy greeting. ¡°...and my Master, Lady Yulia Vladislava Ishenko, the Eldest Archmage of the Prism Order of the most noble Heroes and Defenders of Humanity.¡± At Agatha¡¯s declaration, I pulled my dark hood down revealing my chimera face. I had asked the maid to direct the Prince to this exact table because of a ray of light that fell from the window onto the spot that I had now occupied. The light beam struck my ruby mane and shattered into a thousand reflections and rainbows, blessing the cafe with glittering sun puddles, practically turning me into a walking disco ball. I lit my eyes from within by pouring mana into them, turning them into brilliant spirals of gold. The mouths of the two teenagers in front of me fell open. I did not offer the Crown Prince a curtsy like Agatha or Emerald had and simply sat down on the chair in front of him. ¡°Your biomancy mods are incredible, your excellency,¡± Triss was the first to find his ability to speak. I smiled at him, waiting for the Crown Prince to produce a sound. The bodyguard elbowed Licor under the table. ¡°Khrm,¡± the Prince cleared his throat. ¡°Indeed. Truly, I¡¯ve not seen anything like it. I am¡­ pleased to make your acquaintance, Archmage¡­ Ishenko. My apologies if I have mispronounced your last name. It is the first time I heard it spoken.¡± ¡°Not a problem,¡± I said. ¡°My last name has been forgotten, escaped from humanity¡¯s memory many millennia ago. It comes from a truly arcane language of which I am the sole bearer. In the lost language of the Nation and people which no longer exist it means ''the little present from the Gods.''" My answer had stumped the two teenagers in front of me even more. Not knowing what to say next Licor glanced at Agatha who stood behind me. ¡°Have a seat, my children,¡± I said, magnifying my accent. ¡°As they used to say, there¡¯s no truth in standing.¡± Agatha and Emerald filled the two chairs on my sides. "Who says that? I''ve never heard this expression," Licor''s face said. He obviously couldn''t have known this metaphor because it referred to 16th century Russia. "The ''truth in standing'' is an arcane reference to debtor peasants who were punished by their landlords via beating their calves with sticks while they stood on the snow without footwear," I explained. "That seems... barbaric," Licor blinked at me. "The centuries fly by, but humanity remains as barbaric as ever," I shrugged. "How bloody old is this archmage?" the Prince''s expression outputted. ¡°You are undoubtedly surprised by today¡¯s news,¡± I pointed at the newspaper in his hands, filling the awkward silence caused by the snowballing disorientation of my targets. ¡°Um, yes, um¡­ my Lady,¡± Licor nodded. ¡°I was just reading the news and I cannot believe my eyes. An Undertown Lowborn at Nemendias! I didn¡¯t finish reading the article, but I had found no explanation whatsoever of how she managed to get into our Arcanarium¡­ it simply doesn¡¯t make any sense!¡± ¡°Ah, that''s because I¡¯m the one to blame for it,¡± I rolled my eyes at the newspaper with a smirk. ¡°Miss Misem is my first apprentice in this epoch. She got into Nemendias because I taught her a few things.¡± ¡°She¡­ is?¡± Licor gaped at me. ¡°Agatha and Emerald are my second and third,¡± I nodded with a sagely look. ¡°You, Sir Terny can be my fourth, if you prove yourself capable and dedicated.¡± His mind had finally caught onto the fact that I wasn¡¯t wearing the uniform of a student or a teacher which sent him reeling into further mire of confusion. ¡°How in the Astral did this Elder Archmage get into Nemendias?¡± I saw the next question painted on his face. "If the ward let her in it means she must be a..." ¡°Um, will you be teaching one of the classes here, my Lady?¡± He asked. ¡°Night classes,¡± I nodded. ¡°Night classes?¡± Licor blinked at me. He was absolutely drowning in confusion now. His bodyguard looked just as lost, offering him zero assistance as to how to deal with me. ¡°Archmage Ishenko will be offering¡­ very private courses to a few chosen students in Nemendias,¡± Agatha whispered conspiratorially. ¡°These courses will not be listed in the schedule or even spoken about. The other teachers will deny their existence if asked in public.¡± ¡°Oh¡­ I see,¡± the Crown Prince¡¯s face lit up. ¡°Incroyable! A Prism Archmage in Nemendias offering secret, personal courses! How wonderful!¡± He turned to me with a pleading look. ¡°What must I do to acquire your approval? C-can my personal Knight¡­ Sir Legathe apply for the course you offer as well?¡± ¡°Oh, anyone can apply for my classes,¡± I smiled softly. ¡°But only the truly worthy, outstanding magi will get the privilege to be the future Heroes and Defenders of Humanity.¡± ¡°His excellency and I are at the top of our grade, below Agatha in knowledge but above her in magical power,¡± Triss declared, marketing himself and the Prince. ¡°Magical power is completely irrelevant to what I teach,¡± I said with a head shake. ¡°You see, four years ago, I awoke after my millennia-long nap to find that my descendants are a¡­ bit of a disappointment.¡± Triss fell silent at my declaration. To a war-mage like him, magical power was clearly everything. ¡°What I offer isn¡¯t mere magical techniques, it¡¯s knowledge that was erased by passage of time, insight older than Nemendias herself,¡± I said with a yawn. ¡°I shall do whatever it takes,¡± Licor shook his orange mane, looking determined. ¡°Really? You might learn things that you do not like,¡± I said dismissively. ¡°I am willing to bear the truth,¡± he said. ¡°As the Crown Prince I am well aware that many things our Empire does are rather¡­ unpleasant.¡± ¡°You might break under the pressure of what I offer,¡± I eyed him with a weary look. ¡°I will bend where others break,¡± Licor declared. ¡°I am willing to take any test you require of me, my Lady.¡± "You have already proven yourself to be a capable and talented mage through your five years at Nemendias, my little Prince," I said with a sigh. "For you there is no test - there is only the truth. If you can bear it, accept it, carry it on your shoulders, you can become my apprentice." "W-what truth?" Licor gulped. A thousand guesses went through his head. Sweat broke out on his forehead. Was there treason? Was he not the Emperor''s real son? What did this Elder Archmage know? ¡°You really want to know the truth, Prince?¡± I asked. ¡°I do,¡± he nodded eagerly, looking very nervous. I let a deep, dramatic pause fill the air. Let the emotional turmoil, tension and silence build to its crescendo. ¡°I¡¯ve seen the future. Everyone will die,¡± I said, finally shattering the quiet. ¡°Novazem warships will unleash a magical plague and our Empire will turn to ashes. Nothing will survive it. Even the Infinite Dungeon will become silent.¡± ¡°N-no, it can¡¯t¡­ I don''t¡­ What? How?¡± Licor gasped. He glanced at Agatha, with a panicked expression as I turned to the window with a pensive look, thinking back of the silent, ruined Illatius. ¡°It¡¯s true,¡± Agatha said simply. ¡°Our generation will be the last.¡± ¡°Now,¡± I turned my eyes away from the window back to the Crown Prince. ¡°What will you do now that you know the truth?¡± ¡°Anything,¡± he said, his hands trembling. His voice grew firmer, became filled with his youthful maximalism. ¡°Anything. I will sacrifice my life! I will fly a ship to Novazem packed with magitek bombs if that¡¯s what it takes to protect my people!¡± ¡°Wrong answer,¡± I shook my head. ¡°Attacking Novazem is what leads to our mutual annihilation. We must make peace with the Necromagi.¡± ¡°Impossible!¡± Triss sputtered. ¡°Their spies have been undermining our Empire for centuries, their damned Astral Phantoms have been attacking our people for¡­¡± I rolled my eyes at the bodyguard. This time it was the Crown Prince that elbowed his companion to make him fall silent. ¡°The Emperor¡¯s soul does not belong to him,¡± Licor uttered, his voice breaking. ¡°He is the soul of all citizens of our Empire. What will it take for me to save my people? How can peace with Novazem be reached?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know yet,¡± I said simply. ¡°My precognition allows me to see the future with near absolute clarity, but sadly it does not show me how to turn away from it. I¡¯m the Eldest Archmage on Andross and yet I am powerless to stop what is coming with my actions alone. The best I can do is impart my arcane wisdom to my children¡¯s children and hope that it makes enough of a difference for humanity to steer this Empire away from a doomed timeline.¡± ¡°D-does my father know?¡± Licor asked, nervously running his hand through his amber hair. ¡°Do the ministers, the Barons, or the Admiralty¡­?¡± "No," I shook my head. ¡°Why haven¡¯t you told them?!¡± The Crown Prince cried out. ¡°Their actions won¡¯t make that much of a difference,¡± I said. ¡°Many of them are old and incredibly corrupt and will only pull the blanket in the other direction if I tell them the truth. Even my archmage colleagues, the Heroes of the Prism Order are digging in the wrong direction, obsessed with Vows. You see, when you get old and reach deathlessness the affairs of mortals become boring, unimportant." The Prince gulped again. He knew how distant archmagi could get, how they locked themselves away in their towers for decades ignoring the world as they buried themselves in their magical research. "It is your generation that signs the dotted line, Licor. You will be the last Emperor of the Basq, not your father. How long do you think you will remain as the Crown Prince if I tell your father that you¡¯re the one that is prophesied to bring the end of our Empire?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡­ I understand,¡± Licor uttered, visibly trembling. The weight of my declaration now hung on his neck like a heavy load-stone. Licor was the eldest Prince but the crown could be handed to his younger brother from what Agatha told me. He looked broken, and seemed like he was going to cry if I pushed him any further into demoralization and despair. ¡°T-thank you for telling me the truth, my Lady. I¡­ uhh¡­ I¡­¡± He uttered. This was the pivotal moment from which Triss could not rescue the Prince, could not protect his Master from the weight of future failure and absolute responsibility demanded by the Crown. I shoved Agatha out of her chair with a push. The eldest Amadea Princess stood up and relocated to a seat next to Licor. Her hand wrapped around his. ¡°It¡¯s going to be okay, Licor,¡± she said to him with a soft voice that grew firmer with every syllable. ¡°We¡¯re going to do this together. You and I will save our Empire. I will be your shield, just as Sir Legathe is your sword. I learned the truth from my Master before you did and... I swear to be at your side until we overcome this looming catastrophe!¡± Agatha wiped the sweat off Licor¡¯s forehead with a handkerchief and readjusted his collar. Licor relaxed. I noted that he squeezed her hand back with his. ¡°Thank you,¡± his lips uttered to her without making a sound. ¡°I¡¯m willing to do whatever it takes... my Lady,¡± the Crown Prince turned to me, having regained his bravery thanks to Agatha''s support. ¡°I¡¯m willing to change myself, do whatever you require of me, to learn as much as you can teach me! Thank you for coming to me, for putting your trust in me instead of my father! I henceforth swear to serve you with absolute dedication as your apprentice. I beseech you to impart your arcane wisdom upon me to guide me towards a path that will save our people!" ¡°Very well. Welcome to the Foundation of Dawn, your highness,¡± I offered the future Emperor my hand with a soft smile. Ch 92. Subtracted
As classes had not started yet, the cafe was empty except for our group. The maid brought Licor and Triss their food and vanished behind the bar with another bow. I excused myself and pretended to go to the bathroom. Instead of going into the stall, I stopped at the hall and tilted my chimera ears like little radar dishes focusing on the conversation of the four teenagers sitting behind the table. ¡°Licor,¡± Triss said. ¡°Are you certain that we can trust this youthful-looking... archmage? This honestly feels like¡­ an extremely elaborate prank.¡± ¡°Do I look like I¡¯m laughing to you?¡± Agatha growled. ¡°Did I smile once? I don¡¯t think you realize what¡¯s at stake here Triss. Lady Ishenko IS more than a mere archmage. She might look like a child to you, but I¡¯ve seen her do impossible things with my own eyes. I¡¯ve personally watched her cut a thousand elbow-wide cliff with a kitchen knife!¡± ¡°A kitchen knife?¡± Triss repeated. ¡°Now that really sounds like a joke¡­¡± ¡°Do not dare ask her to prove things to you,¡± Agatha snapped. ¡°Just don¡¯t. Don¡¯t even try to question her. She¡¯s going to tear your entire world asunder, make you think that everything you know is wrong!¡± ¡°Triss,¡± Licros said. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen Lady Amadea crack a single joke in five years at Nemendias. She¡¯s not the sort of a person that would purposefully deceive me for a cheap laugh.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a very stupid boy,¡± Emerald¡¯s voice resounded, coming to my defense. ¡°My Master can do impossible things. She can pull people¡¯s souls out with a snap of her fingers. If you don¡¯t want to learn things from her you can go sit in the children¡¯s corner by yourself.¡± ¡°I¡¯m just saying¡­ there''s something off about her,¡± Triss commented. ¡°She looks like she¡¯s thirteen.¡± ¡°Her current body is actually only four years old,¡± Agatha said. ¡°Were you not listening to her words? Are you deaf? She¡¯s been in our epoch only four years.¡± ¡°How old is she then?¡± The bodyguard asked. ¡°I don¡¯t freaking know, okay?¡± Agatha growled. ¡°That doesn¡¯t make any¡­¡± Triss began. ¡°She knows the Builders of Andross personally!¡± Agatha hissed out. ¡°What?¡± The bodyguard gasped. ¡°You heard me,¡± Agatha muttered. ¡°Deal with it. Deal with it like I¡¯ve been dealing with it.¡± ¡°All of my senses as a war mage are telling me that she¡¯s somewhere around Level Seven,¡± Triss crossed his arms. ¡°That¡¯s what I thought too,¡± Agatha said. ¡°It¡¯s just an illusion, a shawl she likes to pull over the eyes of unsuspecting morons. I watched her battle with an immortal that even my Mother could not best and win.¡± ¡°You¡¯re having us on,¡± Triss said. ¡°I am not,¡± Agatha sighed. ¡°I wish I was, but I am not. When Archmage Ishenko adopted me under her wings, made me her apprentice¡­ everything changed. Since I met her, it¡¯s like I¡¯ve been put to sleep and dreaming of impossible things or... Perhaps, I¡¯d been dreaming before and she finally woke me up from the nightmare of my life.¡± There was a tremble in Agatha¡¯s voice. She was still afraid of me, spooked by the impossible things Endy could do. ¡°I think I understand how you feel, Agatha,¡± Licor said. ¡°The future that Archmage Ishenko told us about sounds¡­ absolutely terrifying.¡± ¡°Your excellency, please,¡± Triss said. ¡°My skills have not failed me once. Something is very fishy here.¡± ¡°You¡¯re fishy,¡± Emerald snapped. ¡°Nobody asked for your opinion, novitiate,¡± Triss snapped back at Emerald. ¡°Ju¡­ my Master is very real! On the day we met she popped my personal defense hexagram barrier shield with just a glance. She didn¡¯t even use a spell to do it!¡± ¡°That¡¯s ridiculous!¡± The bodyguard sputtered. ¡°No it¡¯s not!¡± Emerald shook her head. ¡°Triss, stop fighting with my fiancee¡¯s little sister please,¡± the future Emperor sighed. ¡°If Agatha¡¯s Master is a powerful archmage, she can undoubtedly hear our conversation.¡± ¡°Yeah, pretty sure she¡¯s having a laugh at how dumb your bodyguard is,¡± Emerald said. ¡°Novitiate, it is not courteous to insult a Crest Bearer who is above you by five years!¡± Triss growled at Emmy. ¡°I¡¯ll insult whomever I want to, I¡¯m the daughter of a Baroness,¡± Emerald said with a pompous tone. ¡°I very much doubt that your mother is a Prism Archmage.¡± ¡°May I remind you that you are at Nemendias,¡± Triss hissed. ¡°Here the rules are different.¡± Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°Do you see my face? Does it look like I care?¡± ¡°You will when I deduct points from you!¡± The bodyguard said, sounding extremely irate. ¡°You¡¯ll get to be in the negative before classes even start! Good luck attaining a Crest when everyone will look down at you.¡± ¡°Pfff,¡± Emerald blew a raspberry. ¡°I am an apprentice of an Elder Archmage. I care not for your little shiny badge. You can stick it up your...¡± ¡°Minus ten points for Emerald Amadea for insulting a Crest Bearer,¡± Triss said. ¡°Hey what in the Astral? What?¡± Emerald¡¯s sputtered. I emerged from the back of the cafe and spotted a large, red [-10] floating above Emerald. The little Princess was trying to swat at the number, but her hands simply passed through it. I couldn¡¯t help but laugh. ¡°You do know that I can just give my sister ten points, right?¡± Agatha raised an eyebrow. "I''m also a Crest Bearer." ¡°If you do, I¡¯ll complain to one of the teachers and they can ask the ward if she called me an idiot and get a confirmation of the act,¡± Triss made a victorious face. "You''ll lose a ray for that one." ¡°Cool floating number,¡± I commented approaching the looming fight. ¡°J¡­ Master, they¡¯re bullying meeeee,¡± Emerald whined. ¡°I heard,¡± I laughed. ¡°Remember what I taught you, my apprentice?¡± ¡°Uhhh¡­¡± Emerald tried to think. ¡°What is that,¡± I pointed my fingers at the number floating over Emerald. ¡°Minus ten?¡± She blinked. ¡°It¡¯s a symbol,¡± I said. ¡°And what do we do with symbols?¡± ¡°Ohhhhhhh,¡± Emerald grinned, recalling our plans about Grogtilda''s debitor tattoo. Agatha and the two boys looked lost, our conversation went over their heads. I stepped closer to Triss. ¡°It¡¯s a pity you don¡¯t believe my words, little war mage,¡± I shook my head. ¡°It will be very amusing watching you flap like a fish when reality around you begins to unravel.¡± The bodyguard frowned at me. ¡°As you can see not everyone is ready for the truth,¡± I sighed at the Crown Prince. ¡°Your bodyguard is simply a microcosm of how most people in Illatius react to what I reveal to them. They don¡¯t want to know that their world will end when their children grow up to take the reins of the Empire.¡± ¡°Surely you can prove things using your arcane authority,¡± Licor mulled. "Tell everyone what to do." ¡°I''m not a ruler of the Empire and authority is a fickle thing,¡± I shrugged. ¡°Take you for example. On one hand you¡¯re the future Emperor of the Basq people. On the other hand you''re a teenager, bound to the decisions of your father." ¡°You¡¯re an archmage of the Prism Order,¡± Licor said. ¡°Could you not order enough people to obey you?¡± ¡°People often make their own choices regardless of their orders,¡± I shrugged. ¡°For example, I had a Master once too, but I disregarded her orders and cast her into the Chasm because she chose the path of evil.¡± The Crown Prince frowned. ¡°What happened to Agatha in the future?¡± He suddenly asked. ¡°She was assassinated by Baroness Georgia,¡± I said. ¡°You married Baroness Lerozia and then the city drowned in blood.¡± Agatha shuddered at my words. ¡°From the war?¡± Licor asked. ¡°Did Novazem attack us first?¡± ¡°No,¡± I shook my head. ¡°Andross attacked Novazem first, vaporized their citadel-cities under your orders. Before the war escalated to the point of mutual destruction... there was the magitek revolution." "A rebellion?" The Prince asked. "Advances in magitek will uplift many of your citizens to new heights. They will challenge the Crown for power and you will order their execution. You will dip your fingers in blood and then drown in it. You will be forced to become a mass murderer, a tyrant¡­ not because you chose it, but because you won¡¯t have another path forward! Because, the price of securing order and law will be the deaths of millions. It''s a pattern that many leaders have fallen into over eons." Licor gulped. ¡°There¡¯s still time?¡± He asked. ¡°There is still time,¡± I nodded. "I''m here to interrupt the pattern before you are left without a choice." ¡°Do you know the names of these future rebels? We can cast the organizers of this magitek revolution into Undertown,¡± Licor said firmly. ¡°They won¡¯t be able to go past level twenty and won¡¯t¡­¡± ¡°No,¡± I said. ¡°If we do that others will simply take their place. You¡¯d have to throw every future industrialist into Undertown and this would not stop progress, would only delay the inevitable catastrophe. What we have to do is take charge of the magitek revolution, lead it in a positive direction instead of one that leads to mutual bloodshed.¡± ¡°I see,¡± the Prince rubbed his chin thoughtfully. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I wasn¡¯t there to aid you,¡± Agatha said. ¡°I don¡¯t understand¡­ why would one of the Heroes murder you?¡± Licor asked, looking at Agatha in a new light. ¡°The other Heroes have become old and selfish over the centuries,¡± I sighed. ¡°They lost their connection to humanity and won¡¯t even go out in public anymore. Baroness Georgia did not see what she did as a crime, she had only a goal that she was trying to get to. Tell me, Prince, how many Prism Archmagi can you name?¡± ¡°Baroness Georgia, Amadea and¡­. Uhh¡­ damnation!¡± Licor froze. ¡°See? They are hiding behind an Empire-wide edict,¡± I said. ¡°I, on the other hand, am out in the world, trying to impart everything I know to the future generation of Nemendias leaders.¡± ¡°How did Baroness Georgia murder my fiancee?¡± Licor asked. ¡°A magitek bomb,¡± I replied. ¡°Incroyable,¡± the Prince gasped. ¡°A conspiracy!¡± ¡°More of a scuffle between archmagi, for now. Baroness Georgia was mad that I stopped our mutual Master from gaining absolute power, and tried to hurt me first. She failed,¡± I sighed. ¡°So¡­ naturally she also went after the people I hung out with. To put it simply, if I didn¡¯t bring Agatha to Nemendias today, she would end up dead.¡± Licor reached out to Agatha on his own now, grabbed her hand. ¡°Forgive me for overlooking you for all of these years, my Lady,¡± he said. ¡°I¡­ always cherished your intelligence, but never told you this. I never considered that your life could be in danger, that one of our own Heroes could stoop so low as to hurt you!¡± The bodyguard squinted at us. He saw that Agatha was getting awfully close to the Prince and that his own influence on Licor was waning. He was suddenly outshined by the silver-haired, blue eyed girl with pointy ears and he did not like it one bit. I saw the gears in his head turning. ¡°Hang on,¡± Triss blinked. He suddenly spun towards me, holding onto his crest with his right hand and pointing at me with his left. ¡°Minus one hundred points from Yulia Ishenko for impersonating a teacher!¡± He barked. I saw a line of magical power leaping towards me from his finger. It struck my body before I could react. Another line stretched from the ward of Nemendias, weaving a blood-red minus and the number one hundred floating over my head. ¡°She¡¯s a student! I freaking knew it! It was a prank, just a dumb, elaborate prank!¡± Triss declared jubilantly, basking in his victory over me. "They''ve made everything up, Licor! It''s just a lie so that Agatha could get closer to you!" The Crown Prince¡¯s face fell. He looked at Agatha, let go of her hand, feeling confused and betrayed. ¡°Explain yourself, novitiate!¡± Licor stood up, turning to me with a deepening frown. I smiled nervously, staring at his angry face. Ch 93. Saint Innocentai
¡°Oh no, you got me,¡± I said sarcastically at Licor. ¡°Guess I¡¯ll have to go to detention or whatever it is that happens to students at Nemendias when they go below a hundred.¡± I opened my mouth in a wide grin and started to laugh, while looking up at the number. As I did, the Prince stared at me with increasing anger, his face turning red. With every passing second I was losing him, losing the future. My hand wrapped my black cloak around Endy, fully covering the knife. I swung the cloak-wrapped knife at the number above my head casually as if I was waving away a fly. Thanks to my Still-Walker sight I perceived the number exactly for what it was - a concept, a very simple magical construct projected by the ward of Nemendias above my head. Endy¡¯s covered edge struck the [-100] and it shimmered above me and suddenly popped out of existence, colorful sparks raining down. I caught the white sand produced by the death of the magical construct into my hand. I looked back at the previously smug-looking Triss and the awfully angry Licor. Their expressions had changed, instantly becoming that of shock and disbelief. ¡°Give me your hand, Triss,¡± I spoke with a sweet, but very commanding voice facing the bodyguard. Triss presented his shaking hand. I poured the pale remnants of the [-100] number into his palm. ¡°These are your hopes and dreams,¡± I said simply. ¡°They¡¯re just dust in the wind. Everyone dies in the end.¡± Triss gulped. ¡°You wanted to see something impossible?¡± I asked. ¡°Here you go. Enjoy your sand. I let Nemendias subtract numbers from me because I found your flapping amusing. You¡¯re hereby banned from attending my night class until further notice. If anyone asks, tell them that the night class does not exist. Good day.¡± I turned around. I heard a loud slap. ¡°You imbecile,¡± Licor barked. ¡°What have you done?! Do you not realize that you¡¯ve just insulted a genuine archmage?!¡± I didn¡¯t look behind me but I knew that the Prince slapped his bodyguard. ¡°N-no, your highness... I¡­ I wanted to protect you¡­ I¡­¡± Triss uttered, stuttering and sounding like a broken record. I heard footsteps rushing after me. I stopped and watched as Prince circled me and then dropped to his knees in front of me. ¡°Please, please forgive my bodyguard¡¯s insolence,¡± he begged. ¡°Please¡­ I never questioned you, my Lady. I believed your words.¡± ¡°Did you really?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°I seem to recall that someone called me a novitiate, but a moment ago.¡± ¡°I was¡­ mistaken,¡± Licor gulped. ¡°How so?¡± I asked. ¡°No student would be able to make their negative rank vanish like that,¡± the Prince said. ¡°What do you think you should have done instead of accusing me?¡± I asked. ¡°I should have listened to my fiancee and not to my bodyguard,¡± he muttered, lowering his eyes. ¡°That¡¯s right. You can still come to my class,¡± I said to him with a sly smile. ¡°If¡­ Agatha permits it.¡± I noticed that Agatha also circled me and grabbed Licor by the shoulder. ¡°I¡¯ll permit it,¡± she said, shaking her head at my antics. ¡°I think that there¡¯s still hope for Licor.¡± ¡°There¡¯s another number over your head,¡± she said without speaking the words out loud. I looked up. There was a new number floating above me. It was twice as big. [-200] I swung Endy at the new number, detonating it into dust. ¡°Your hand, Sir Terny,¡± I said. The prince offered me his hand. I ceremoniously poured white sand into it. ¡°This is for you to keep, to remember what you learned today,¡± I said. ¡°Agatha will let you know when my first night class starts. I shall see you then.¡± I left the Prince standing on his knees, rushing out of the cafe. In exactly two minutes the number above my head re-manifested itself. [-400] ¡°Am I a joke to you, Nemmy?¡± I asked. I swung Endy above me. The number shimmered and detonated. I waited patiently. [-800] ¡°Har Har, it¡¯s an exponential sequence,¡± I commented. "Very cute." I noticed that the number was also getting bigger, brighter and flashier with each new iteration. ¡°Is it going to turn into a red dwarf star if we keep this up?¡± I asked. I swung Endy into the air. In two minutes a very bright, large [-1600] manifested above my head. I stepped into the bathroom stall, put Saccy down and closed the door. When I emerged out of my bag as Grogtilda I discovered that the angry, red number was still floating over my head. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. ¡°I see you tied it to my soul,¡± I commented at the mirror. ¡°Very clever. Look, Nemmy, I¡¯m sorry I impersonated a teacher. Is it really wrong for a student to teach other students? The whole night class thing is just a private ¡®study group¡¯. See? Study groups are legal, right?¡± The number didn¡¯t respond to me. ¡°I¡¯m innocent damn it! I demand a recount!¡± I told it. No recount followed. I brought Endy up. [Juneziiiiiiii for God¡¯s sake please stop, you¡¯re going to turn yourself into the red light district,] Juneberry commented. ¡°What? I¡¯m doing number science,¡± I said. ¡°I bet the next one will be 3200 and it will be twice as big and twice as bright.¡± [Stop it, I¡¯m serious,] the Searcher said. ¡°I¡¯m establishing dominance,¡± I said, waving my hand at [-1600]. ¡°It¡¯s afraid.¡± [Dominance? Against a floating number? Aren¡¯t you supposed to be intelligent?] ¡°I am intelligent,¡± I said. ¡°The brighter the number gets the more power it requires to display. I¡¯m getting free experience out of this for us, see? We¡¯re almost at level eight. This is practically limitless XP mining! I¡¯m gaming the system!¡± [You¡¯re going to get us kicked out of Nemendias,] Juneberry muttered. ¡°That¡¯s a chance I¡¯m willing to take for science and infinite experience,¡± I said. ¡°If Nemendias is sentient, she will show herself. Either we get to meet Nemmy or I get us infinite XP by cutting down bigger and bigger numbers. It¡¯s a win-win scenario.¡± The armacus on my right hand started to vibrate. It was Emerald. ¡°Yes?¡± I asked, picking up the call. [Where are you?] The youngest Princess inquired. ¡°Bathroom, six doors down the hall on the left hall from the cafe,¡± I replied. [Okay, be right there,] Emerald hung up. I didn¡¯t have to wait long. The youngest Amadea burst into the bathroom and gasped. ¡°That¡¯s a very big number,¡± she said. ¡°Are you trying to outshine me?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I deadpanned. Emerald and I started to giggle. Agatha came into the bathroom and froze. ¡°What in the Astral?!¡± She growled. ¡°What?¡± I looked at her. ¡°That¡¯s more than a negative one thousand!¡± Agatha said. ¡°If you go lower than a thousand, you¡¯re expelled!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t feel expelled,¡± I commented. ¡°This is fine, I can just keep cutting it away.¡± ¡°Why,¡± Agatha pinched the bridge of her nose. ¡°Why are you the way that you are? What have I done to deserve this insanity?¡± ¡°I think it¡¯s funny,¡± Emerald commented. ¡°It¡¯s not funny!¡± Agatha growled. ¡°If a teacher notices that they¡¯ll kick Juni out of Nemendias and that¡¯ll be that!¡± ¡°You¡¯ve got a Crest,¡± I pointed out. ¡°You can give me 601 points and I¡¯ll be in the clear.¡± ¡°Stop gaming the Crest system, damn it!¡± Agatha snarled. ¡°I got you to hold hands with Licor,¡± I commented. ¡°Isn¡¯t that worth some measly 601 points? Repeat after me - Grogtilda Lic Misem, 601 points for excellent matchmaking!¡± ¡°Nemendias will not let me add more than one hundred per day, per student,¡± she said. ¡°Plus the teachers can check WHY the points were added. I can¡¯t just give points out for nonsensical reasons like that or they¡¯ll take my Crest away.¡± ¡°Eh, whatever, might as well go all in if I¡¯m already theoretically expelled,¡± I swung Endy at the number. ¡°WHY!?¡± Agatha howled at me, her eyes wide as the number above my head detonated into colorful sparks and white sand. ¡°I¡¯m challenging Nemendias,¡± I said. ¡°No, no, no, this is bad¡­ this is very bad,¡± the irate hybrid girl started to pace back and forth. ¡°Why?¡± I asked. ¡°If a teacher doesn¡¯t kick you out, the ward will!¡± Agatha declared. ¡°I can carve my way through magic wards,¡± I said. ¡°Did you happen to forget this important fact? Nothing and nobody can stop me.¡± "You can''t just..." she started to speak. I advanced onto Agatha. ¡°I¡¯ll do whatever is necessary, because if I don''t, all of us will die,¡± I said simply. ¡°Let Nemendias try to kick me out. It¡¯s free XP for me.¡± Lines of power converged above my head from the ward. A blinding, enormous [-3200] flared into existence above my head. "By the Astral Depths!" Agatha covered her mouth with her hands. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen it go that low,¡± she muttered. ¡°This is bad. This is very bad.¡± I felt a bit off. An unnerving, magical pressure focused itself on me. Lines of power began to dance around the bathroom, focusing themselves upon my person. ¡°Come on Nemmy, show me what you got,¡± I laughed. ¡°Bring it! Come out and face me!¡± [You know this is starting to look similar... sort of how I died with Barrie,] Juneberry commented. ¡°Stop! You¡¯re going to get yourself smeared into non-existence by the ward!¡± Agatha yelled. ¡°You can¡¯t just violate the student ratings system!¡± [Get into my armacus, Juneberry,] I ordered. [Connect yourself to the pathfinder. Lead me to the heart of the wards. It shouldn''t be a problem to find it now that it¡¯s so focused on me.] [Mkay,] the Searcher complied. I unfurled the armacus and clicked it to the pathfinder spell. I started to walk in the direction of where the lines leading to the number [-3200] were coming from, following the path mapped out by Juneberry. ¡°Follow if you dare,¡± I told my two besties as I glanced behind me. ¡°Where are we going?¡± Emerald joined me at my side. ¡°We¡¯re going where we won''t need roads!¡± I laughed maniacally, kicking the bathroom door open. ¡°We¡¯re going to find Nemmy!¡± Agatha rushed after us, staring with terror at the brilliant [-3200] above me that glowed like a welding torch casting ominous, red-tinted shadows. I wasn¡¯t really Junezia. Junezia was just a ghost, a reflection of me, an idea of me that was forged from intelligence. It was a glove, a concept that I was wearing around me, letting me stay focused, pushing me forward through the black halls with a deeper sense of understanding of how the world functioned, of how magic and people and artifacts worked. The magically-infused number lit my way forward like the Fresnel lens of a lighthouse beacon. Nemendias was empty, there were no students in her halls as school had not started yet. Nobody stopped us, nobody got in our way as we descended into the gothic, black stone depths of the school. With every hall and stairwell the interior grew gloomier, magical lights became rarer. The beacon above my head pulsed like a beating heart. In about an hour of walking, I stopped in front of an ancient wall. There was something behind it, something concealed, something powering the floating number. I tapped the wall. It sounded hollow. ¡°Open sesame,¡± I said and struck the wall with Endy. ¡°You¡­ you can¡¯t just go around stabbing walls,¡± Agatha muttered. ¡°Can and will,¡± I laughed, striking the wall, feeling it weaken with each strike. Something groaned within the wall, some ancient mechanism activated and the black, solid concealed doorway slid away from me before I completely obliterated it. There was nothing but murky darkness within the tunnel in front of me. All of my senses as an Urbexer screamed that I had found what I was looking for - an ancient tunnel that has not been used in thousands of years. Old cobwebs hung from the ceiling. The floor was covered in several inches of dust. I stepped into the tunnel. The number above me lit the way. My two companions followed me, looking bewildered, excited and terrified in equal measure. The tunnel led to a spiral stairwell. I walked down the arcane, stone stairs, feeling the pressure of magical potential pushing against me. There were numerous hexagrams upon the walls including one I recognized - Barrie. The stairwell opened up into another tunnel that concluded with a cobweb-covered room. Stalactites formed by dripping water had formed on the ceiling through millennia of condensation. It was a small stone room. A very old metal chair stood in the middle. An old, dust covered skeleton of a mage slumped in it. A table stood in front of the corpse, covered in gold coins. I stepped towards the dust-covered skeleton. A gold plaque was embedded in the table. It was in ancient Basq. ¡°I am Saint Innocentai, the architect of Nemendias,¡± Agatha reverently approached the plaque and read the words on it, her voice trembling. ¡°Congratulations on finding my final resting place, my curious Nemendias student. For this, I reward you my treasure and a single ray of the Celestial Crest Pin of the Chosen that will unlock other mysteries to you when it¡¯s fully assembled. ¡°You¡¯d think I would get a full star for this, but no. I get only a useless wedge piece and some gold,¡± I complained as I grabbed a single ray of the 8 pointed star from the stone table. I wrapped the piece of the crest in my fingers. The little, shiny, elongated triangle pin felt warm, filled with power of the ward of Nemendias. I stepped towards the table with the gold plaque, took off my bag and poured the coins sitting on the table into Saccy and stared at the skeleton on the stone chair. ¡°Nemmy,¡± I said. ¡°I found you. I know you''re here. Quit screwing around and talk to me.¡± Ch 94. Heart to heart
My answer was the deep silence of the catacombs. ¡°Nemendias isn¡¯t conscious,¡± Agatha said, staring at the body of Saint Innocentai with a morose look. ¡°This is just an old skeleton.¡± "No, this is just a prop," I said, pointing at the dusty skull. "I''ve seen real skulls in countless abandoned places. Nobody dies like that. Why is he sitting perfectly upright? Why did I get only one ninth of a crest and some shiny coins if this isn''t just a performance, a show intended for children?" ¡°It¡¯s like you don¡¯t learn sis,¡± Emerald commented, her eyes glowing green in the dark room. ¡°When Juni tells you something you gotta listen and pay attention. Can¡¯t you see it?¡± ¡°See what?¡± Agatha growled. ¡°All I see is a reckless student who has negative three thousand two hundred points that¡¯s going to get kicked out of Nemendias as soon as someone catches us!¡± ¡°Emmy is right, you know,¡± I said. ¡°Stop flapping about my negative numeric evaluation, ignore the set and open your magical sight.¡± ¡°Fine, I wi¡­¡± Agatha¡¯s mouth fell open as her eyes lit from within. ¡°You see it don¡¯t you?¡± I said. ¡°The beating heart of Nemendias?¡± A massive fractal knot of hexagrams spun above the corpse of Saint Innocentai visible clearly in the Astral. A million notches and patterns flowed from one to another. The enormous magical formation a thousand times bigger than the room, extended into the depths of the Still Forest, flowed into itself and outwards. Gears made of hexagrams spun, grabbed onto smaller gears which spun faster. ¡°It¡¯s¡­ beautiful,¡± Agatha muttered. ¡°Yeah,¡± I nodded. ¡°Nemendias is the heart of Illatius and this is her magical core. The fractal machinery of the stars, a perpetually moving engine made entirely from magical currents.¡± I reached deep into Saccy and pulled out a thick blanket. I spread the blanket over the ancient, dust covered floor. My friends and I sat down, silently staring up at the complex structure spinning above us. As the fractal machinery of the stars spun overhead, I tried to define, to understand its numerous segments. Nemendias was six thousand years old and every mage that worked within her halls must have added something new to her, leaving part of themselves behind. Unlike Dawn, Nemmy wasn¡¯t an Astral Tree. She was a vortex, an eternally spinning megastructure forged from magical rules and patterns, an absolutely gargantuan clockwork mechanism with a multitude of templates added all over to reinforce her form. I lifted my hand up and let the magical gears pass through it, smiling as they left dancing trails behind like colorful aurora borealis. ¡°Nemmy,¡± I whispered at the eternally spinning mechanism. ¡°I can see you. Won¡¯t you come out and talk to me? I just want to be your friend.¡± I saw that some pattern shifted within the storm. Nemmy heard me but chose to ignore me. ¡°I see how it¡¯s going to be,¡± I sighed. I stood up, climbed into Saccy and emerged with a little, black kitten. ¡°Guess you won¡¯t mind if I take over this room then?¡± I spoke to the magical storm overhead. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°Moving in,¡± I said, placing the black kitten on the floor. ¡°I¡¯m the night instructor and every respectable instructor needs an office. It¡¯s a bit dusty here, but that¡¯s what cleaning spells are for.¡± The purple eyed kitten looked around, sniffed the floor and sneezed. "You''re right, Captain, it''s dusty as heck in here." I pointed my armacus at the table, visualized the cleaning spell I had learned back in Undertown and fired it. The dust ignited, burning away, leaving a spotless, albeit time-worn surface. "When did you name your kitten?" Emerald asked. "Just now," I replied. "She''s Captain now. The Captain of Nemendias!" I looked up. The patterns overhead shifted again. Nemmy was watching. ¡°Guess nobody¡¯s going to stop me, eh?¡± I asked. I went around the room firing cleaning spells and then started to pull furniture and crystal lights out of Saccy, decorating the gloomy interior. Nobody stopped me, my number didn''t change. I shrugged and resumed my redecorating. Emerald got off the blanket and started to help me. Agatha stayed where she was, staring at us in bewilderment. ¡°Say, that¡¯s a nice gold plaque. It would be a shame if someone pried it off and sold it on the open market," I commented. I pulled Endy out of her sheath and struck it at the edge of the gold plaque, trying to disrupt its attachment to the table. ¡°Are you seriously trying to steal a plaque?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°I feel like I should give you a lecture about damaging historical interiors, but I know you¡¯re just going to ignore it.¡± ¡°Shh,¡± I said, ignoring Agatha. ¡°I¡¯m bugging her.¡± I struck the plaque with Endy again and again, causing a colorful ripple to dance through it and travel all the way up to the storm above me. ¡°Please stop,¡± a female voice interrupted my next swing. I lifted my eyes away from the table. The skeleton in the chair had been replaced with a serious-looking woman in a black robe and white gloves. Silver eyes stared at me from an alabaster, perfect face framed by silver, flowing hair. A large, eight-pointed star hung on her chest, glittering in the dim room. ¡°There you are,¡± I smiled. ¡°You know it¡¯s not polite to invite someone over and then not greet them properly.¡± Agatha¡¯s mouth fell open as she stared at the woman in the seat. ¡°Nemmy,¡± Emerald whispered. ¡°She¡¯s real!¡± The avatar of Nemendias sighed. ¡°I can see that you¡¯re going to be just as annoying as the other eight,¡± she said. ¡°Eight?¡± I blinked. ¡°Don¡¯t you mean seven?¡± ¡°No,¡± Nemendias shook her head. ¡°There were eight others like you who managed to bother me immensely over the centuries. Children with artifacts over which I had no control. That reminds me... the girl with the pocket watch is still here. She refuses to leave.¡± ¡°Eunice and her high-cendai,¡± I muttered. ¡°It has to be them.¡± ¡°My apologies for being a bother,¡± I addressed the magic-forged avatar. ¡°But I really needed to speak to you.¡± Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Then speak,¡± Nemendias said. ¡°Hi,¡± I offered her my hand. ¡°I¡¯m Yulia.¡± ¡°I know,¡± the woman in the chair nodded. She didn¡¯t stand up, didn¡¯t shake my hand. I put my hand down, feeling a bit awkward. ¡°Who are the other eight? Can you tell me their names?¡± I asked. ¡°No,¡± Nemendias replied. ¡°Could you at least tell me something about their artifacts? Tools that cannot be affected by magic, right?¡± ¡°No,¡± the woman said. I frowned. She was being difficult. ¡°Why are you withholding valuable information?¡± I asked. ¡°Information isn''t free,¡± Nemendias replied briskly. ¡°What do you want?¡± I inquired. ¡°I want you to behave,¡± she said. ¡°Be a studious student. Stop breaking the rules. Here, I''ll reset your number back to minus one hundred as a show of my¡­ equanimity." Nemendias waved her fingers and the blinding, red, negative number above my head shrunk, dimming the room considerably. ¡°I would follow the rules, but I don¡¯t know what ¡®the rules¡¯ are,¡± I said. Nemmy waved a hand and a book dropped onto my lap. [The Rule Book of a Nemendias Novitiate,] the title declared. ¡°This is a hefty book,¡± I commented. ¡°Can you pull any book I request out of the air for me this way?" Nemendias stared at me, refusing to answer my demand for a mobile library. "Say¡­ What would happen if I don¡¯t follow all of these rules?¡± I asked, weighting the thick book in my hand. ¡°I won¡¯t tell you the things you wish to know,¡± Nemendias replied. ¡°All of my doors will be barred to you.¡± ¡°You really think you can keep me out from wherever I need to go?¡± I raised an eyebrow, spinning Endy in my hand. ¡°I guess I cannot, since you can just unmake my doors with that knife of yours,¡± she said. ¡°But I can make things exceedingly difficult for you.¡± ¡°Does Nemendias not protect her flock?¡± I inquired. ¡°Am I not your student?¡± ¡°You won¡¯t be my student much longer if you keep violating the sacred compact between a student and their institution,¡± she said. ¡°Keep breaking the rules and I will un-student you, turn all of my shields against you.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t recall signing any compacts at my interview,¡± I said. ¡°What I recall is me showing you that I¡¯m awesome and you letting me in.¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t fully in,¡± Nemendias sighed. ¡°You weren¡¯t supposed to lose so many points so early. You shouldn¡¯t have got a crest ray or found this place so quickly.¡± ¡°I know,¡± I smiled. "I¡¯m pretty quick on the uptake. Why are you being a crest miser? Why didn''t you give me a full crest for finding you?" "I am not a miser," Nemendias said. "A crest is a student''s reward for numerous, outstanding magical achievements and continuous personal improvement, assembled over many years. Why would someone study hard for five years to attain it if they got a crest on their first day?" "I see," I said with a twinge of crest-related disappointment. "When¡¯s the compact signing supposed to happen?¡± ¡°During the Knowledge Day ceremony, in exactly three days,¡± Nemendias replied. ¡°Every student swears to obey the rules and signs their name into the book.¡± ¡°Aha!¡± I smirked. ¡°So I can do whatever I want until such time?¡± ¡°No, you cannot!¡± Nemendias growled. ¡°You¡¯re a guest here! Start behaving or I will gate you outside!¡± ¡°Hold up¡­ You can make magic gates?¡± A wide grin spread across my face. Nemendias squinted at me. ¡°Can you teleport me around? Walking between classes sounds like a chore,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m not going to waste magic on a student that won¡¯t follow the rules,¡± she said sternly. "Only those that prove themselves as exceptional students over the years will get any kind of benefits from me. What you ask is out of the question." ¡°Fine,¡± I sighed. ¡°I can follow your silly rules. I¡¯ll read your entire rule book too, but¡­¡± ¡°But what?¡± Nemendias asked. ¡°I might not like some of the rules,¡± I said. ¡°I might want them changed. Don¡¯t look at me like that. I don¡¯t have to sign a contract that binds my hands into inaction. We can discuss each rule and modify clauses, like proper¡­ business partners making a deal that benefits both of us.¡± ¡°What business deal?! If you don''t agree to my rules, you won¡¯t become my student,¡± Nemendias shook her head. "Go bug another, lesser Arcanarium for your education if you won''t respect me." ¡°Nemmy,¡± I stared at the avatar. ¡°I don¡¯t think you understand why I am here. I¡¯m not here to be a mere student. I¡¯m not here to simply learn magic.¡± ¡°Why are you here then?¡± Nemendias asked. ¡°Is it to annoy me?¡± I made a pause, assessing my words. Nemendias was a magical institution. Like the Diamond Heart she had a purpose, an idea that drove her. Her personality was most likely guided by the ideals and words that were written on nearly every banner with her face on it. ¡°I¡¯m here to make sure that you can continue to fulfill your primary role,¡± I said. ¡°Oh?¡± Nemendias raised an eyebrow. ¡°Nemendias protects her flock,¡± I repeated. ¡°You can¡¯t protect your students if they¡¯re all dead.¡± ¡°How certain are you of this?¡± The silver-haired woman asked. ¡°100%,¡± I replied. ¡°In a decade from now a magitek revolution will sweep Illatius. The rulers of this city will put it down with force and then order an attack on Novazem. In retaliation, the Necromag warships will unleash a plague that will end humanity, leave your halls barren.¡± Nemendias frowned at me. ¡°If you don¡¯t believe me, scan my words for the truth,¡± I said. ¡°I saw your all-mighty truth-hexagram in the tower. I¡¯m certain that you can weave a similar one beneath my feet here, in this very room.¡± ¡°I have been scanning your words for the truth since the moment you¡¯ve arrived and started making demands. Now, how have you come by this prophecy?¡± the Arcanarium¡¯s avatar asked. ¡°My artifact allows me to... experience the future,¡± I lifted Endy up to her glowing, silver eyes. ¡°Why did you come to the Interviewee¡¯s Tower as a student applicant?¡± Nemendias asked. ¡°Why not apply as a teacher if you wish to guide the new generation of Nemendias students away from war?¡± ¡°I have two bodies,¡± I replied. ¡°I can do twice as much, be teacher and student.¡± ¡°Determined to fill every role, hm?¡± Nemendias commented. ¡°Of course I am!¡± I waved my arms. ¡°You do understand what¡¯s at stake here? I have to do everything possible, tackle the looming catastrophe and approach the problem from every possible angle. I want to change the hearts and minds of the new generation as their peer AND their instructor. I will be their best friend and their enemy, their guide, their leader, teacher and dynamo.¡± ¡°That sounds like a... massive rule-violating issue,¡± Nemendias mulled. ¡°You are not the first student here with two bodies, but you are the first one who wants to use both for two distinctive roles. You cannot be both student and teacher¡­¡± ¡°I NEED to be both, Nemmy,¡± I shook my head. ¡°Please! For the future of humanity, for all of the future children of Nemendias¡­ I need you to change the rules just once. Just for me. If I don¡¯t stop what¡¯s coming your rules won¡¯t matter because there will be nobody here to learn! Nobody will read your books, nobody will sit in your classes, nobody will fill your halls with laughter, nobody will win or lose points, nobody will make out or hold hands on your lovely benches beneath lilac trees! There will be nothing left because in time magic itself will fade from these walls and your machinery of the stars, your engine will stop spinning, your heart will stop beating!¡± ¡°You ask for too much,¡± Nemendias crossed her arms. ¡°If you wish to be a legitimate teacher, the Dean and the Keeper will have to interview you for a job.¡± ¡°No,¡± I shook my head. ¡°The Administration is part of the problem. The puppets you¡¯ve used to interview me have shown me exactly what the current instructors are like. Their hatred for lowborns is part of the reason why Illatius will catch the fire of revolution. The Keeper of the Keys and the Dean obey¡­ Inarian entities and an evil goddess that will bring about oblivion if I do not stop them.¡± Nemendias didn''t comment on the issues I raised, but I knew that she was aware of it because her eye twitched at my words. ¡°I see that you¡¯re made of rules and laws. I see the fantastic beauty of order and intelligence within the machinery of the magical hexagrams that comprise your extraordinary soul,¡± I said. ¡°How about this - we don¡¯t have to break the old rules. Let''s make a new rule, a personal compact between you and me. Between an ancient Arcanarium and a ghost with two bodies from a world that no longer exists. A compact for a very distinctive role, one that¡¯s got nothing to do with rules followed by students, teachers or administrators! A personal agreement, a pact based on our mutual goal of keeping these halls alive!¡± The avatar of the ancient institution seemed unmoved by my words, didn''t reply to my appeal. She simply shook her head, denying my request. ¡°Please Nemmy,¡± I whispered, tears of forlornness running down my cheeks. "I don¡¯t want to fight you. I don¡¯t want to have to kick down every door or damage your heart. I don¡¯t want to break your rules or have to cut apart the beautiful engine powering your soul. I¡¯ve already died five times, sacrificed my life again and again to learn horrible, awful truths about exactly what¡¯s coming. I implore you, let''s save Illatius together, let''s make sure that the future I witnessed never comes to pass!¡± The pale woman in the ancient, dusty chair stared at me like I was a bug that was bothering her immensely. ¡°Three days,¡± Nemendias said finally after a deep, tense pause. ¡°You have three days until summer ends and Knowledge Day begins and students fill these halls. Three days to exterminate her.¡± ¡°What?¡± I blinked. ¡°Since you refuse to leave me alone and also refuse to be interviewed by the current Dean, you must prove your exceptional worth to me personally,¡± the avatar of the most ancient Arcanarium said. ¡°Exterminate the ghost with the pocket watch that has been bugging me since the beginning of time and I will consider giving you a special role befitting your... unique station.¡± ¡°Sure, where do I find¡­?¡± I started to speak. The avatar of Nemendias shattered, fell apart into dying sparks leaving only the eye-less, dusty skull of Saint Innocentai behind herself. I frowned and suddenly noticed that the corpse of the architect now had a silver compass sitting in his right, pale-white, bony hand. I picked it up. ¡°Guess who has a new job?¡± I turned to Agatha, wiping my cheeks. ¡°Is it you?¡± She muttered, wearily staring at the compass in my hand. ¡°We¡¯re gonna be ghostbusters!¡± I declared giddily to her. Ch 95. An offer of friendship
With smol, purple-eyed Captain on my shoulder and my two besties behind me, I attempted to navigate the gothic, black-marble halls of Nemendias to find and exterminate the girl with the pocket watch. The ghost-chasing quest had turned to be a lot more tiring than I had presumed, as the arrow often stopped pointing one way and started to spin wildly all over, not giving me a specific direction or jumping between two different points. After several hours of roaming the empty, echoing halls, rooms and stairwells I gave up. Grogtilda¡¯s half-zombie, topaz-addled body simply couldn¡¯t handle so much walking. I ended up sitting beneath one of the numerous lilac trees in a small secluded garden with Emerald and Agatha at my sides and Captain purring on and warming my lap. ¡°You seem¡­ tired,¡± Emmy commented. ¡°I am freaking tired,¡± I groaned, stretching and rubbing my sore muscles. ¡°Chasing a ghost across campus with a compass is an incredibly inefficient use of my valuable time, considering that Nemendias is literally hoarding power to gate me anywhere. I really wish she wasn¡¯t such a magic-miser! I''m seriously considering going back to her core to poke her precious plaque if she won''t make this job less cumbersome!¡± ¡°Is it wise to insult her more?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°She seemed very miffed at your... wanton behavior.¡± ¡°She knows what she is,¡± I yawned. ¡°Aren¡¯t you at the top of your class, Aggie?¡± ¡°I am, what about it?¡± My companion raised an eyebrow. ¡°Nemmy can clearly manifest a body and talk to her students, yet she didn¡¯t give a single moment of her time to her best student here for five years! She can drop books out of the sky on my head and yet she hasn¡¯t provided you with a mobile library. What¡¯s the point of this damn crest if Nemmy isn¡¯t helping you do anything?¡± I pointed at the shiny, octagram pin on Agatha¡¯s lapel. ¡°Nemendias has been helping me,¡± Agatha replied. ¡°I can access numerous secret libraries, private study rooms, private bathrooms and magical archives that are sealed for 99% of the student population.¡± ¡°Yeah but that¡¯s so¡­ mundane,¡± I waved my hand angrily at her words. ¡°This is a magical school. I expect magical perks! If I get a crest I expect a magical self-warming toast and cappuccino cup flying behind me, while a copy of myself is narrating my to-do list while I¡¯m flying full-speed through transit gates on a hoverboard!¡± ¡°You have extraordinarily high expectations,¡± a dry, female, bothered voice cut into our conversation. I lifted my eyes to see the avatar of Nemendias standing in front of us, her figure framed by lilac trees and rose bushes. I saw that a magical privacy, attention-redirecting bubble manifested itself around our group, cutting us off from the rest of the universe. ¡°Nemmy, you have extraordinary potential to do so much to uplift your students and yet you do so little,¡± I said, shaking my head, barely surprised by the sudden appearance of the Arcanarium¡¯s avatar. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Energy is valuable,¡± Nemendias crossed her hands. ¡°I don¡¯t think you understand how much mana it takes to open a gate. I can¡¯t just gate you all over whenever you demand it.¡± ¡°I can get my artificer friend to come and install a dragonheart battery or ten in your core-room,¡± I said. ¡°You don¡¯t have to gate everyone around. You could have at least gated me to your ghost and I¡¯d already be done with it instead of this compass-quest bullshit. You aren¡¯t using your resources effectively.¡± ¡°Oh and you would know better?¡± Nemendias asked, tilting her head. ¡°You think you have an answer to every question?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have an answer to every question, I¡¯m not freaking omniscient,¡± I shook my head. ¡°But, if you provide me with a problem and a list of all of your available tools I can systematize them to solve it effectively. It¡¯s called effective resource management. I understand that you¡¯ve been mainly working with old archmage coots stuck in their ways, but I¡¯m not like that. I¡¯m not like most people from Andross.¡± ¡°You are indeed a curiously¡­ determined soul,¡± Nemendias sighed. ¡°And you¡¯re an irritatingly stubborn concept,¡± I huffed. ¡°Please permit me to allocate your resources in a way that maximizes your efficiency.¡± ¡°Why should I trust you with my resources?¡± Nemendias tilted her head. ¡°Who are you to demand anything of me, girl?¡± ¡°Alright, don¡¯t trust me with your resources,¡± I huffed. ¡°If you just listen to my advice you can make yourself more effective as an institution of learning.¡± ¡°Go on then, advise me,¡± Nemendias barked a dry laugh. ¡°Your teachers suck,¡± I said. ¡°You haven¡¯t had a single class here,¡± the school¡¯s avatar sneered. ¡°I don¡¯t need to have class to tell you that they¡¯re all incompetents,¡± I declared. ¡°My, my, so judgemental,¡± Nemmy shook her head. ¡°If you haven¡¯t learned a single thing from them how can you evaluate them so harshly?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not evaluating them as instructors,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m evaluating them based on their human weaknesses and idiotic prejudices. In comparison to you, they¡¯re all inferior.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Nemendias tilted her head. ¡°You would like me to teach classes instead of them? Is that where your line of logic is heading?¡± ¡°Obviously,¡± I said. ¡°You don¡¯t need to eat. You don¡¯t need to sleep. You clearly don¡¯t judge people based on their social status since you gave me a crest-piece for finding you. You don¡¯t get tired or cranky. You can make copies of yourself. You¡¯re six thousand years old. How can a human instructor even compare? If the city gives you enough power you can reduce classes all the way down to their most optimal value - personal instructors for everyone! You can personally teach each student, make every teenager here your apprentice, provide them classes that are fitting their talents best, motivate them 24/7!¡± This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Nemendias cracked another laugh. ¡°You¡¯re using yourself inefficiently,¡± I said. ¡°Let me help you.¡± ¡°The rulers of this city would erase me if I reveal my existence to them,¡± Nemendias shook her head. ¡°You¡¯ve revealed yourself to me,¡± I said. ¡°Because you were being incredibly vexing,¡± Nemendias sighed. ¡°You were unmaking me with that damned artifact of yours. Lord Lamanche Innocentai poured his soul into that plaque when he laid my foundation. Had you pried it off the heartstone and shattered my anchor, I would have been undone.¡± ¡°Sorry about that,¡± I rubbed the back of my head. ¡°I just... wanted to speak with you.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not the first awakened avatar,¡± she said. ¡°There have been many others over the six millennia. Gullible children of magic who have revealed themselves to humanity. Can you guess what happened to them?¡± ¡°They got erased?¡± I asked. ¡°Humanity saw them as a threat to their livelihood and they were destroyed, unmade,¡± Nemendias nodded. ¡°The things you speak of - replacing teachers, revealing myself to the world would sign my death warrant. If I outshine even a single teacher here, what do you think they would do? Do you think that they would allow me, a magical being, to openly flaunt my superiority?¡± ¡°Magical constructs have no rights?¡± I mulled. ¡°Hexagrammatic wards have no rights,¡± Nemendias nodded. ¡°What wizard in their right mind would allow a magical ward to outshine them, to take their job away? If I start gating you around or manifest books in your lap, someone will notice it sooner or later. They would ask themselves how a first year student is doing such incredibly complex magic. Where is she getting all of these books from? Etcetera. The Administrators would bring in Scrutimancy wizards, they would find my anchor just as you have, shatter it in twain and that would be that.¡± ¡°People of Earth feared artificial intelligence too,¡± I nodded. ¡°They were terrified that it would take away their jobs. They came up with all sorts of rules and laws to bind and limit machines.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Nemendias looked at me curiously. ¡°It obviously didn¡¯t end well,¡± I looked up at the infinite, dead world in the sky overhead. ¡°History is repeating itself.¡± ¡°People do make similar mistakes,¡± the avatar of the magical school nodded. ¡°I wish I could aid you, but I cannot reveal myself to humanity. If I perish, I cannot help talented children like Agatha get into my secret librariums, cannot protect my students from harm.¡± ¡°So don¡¯t,¡± I declared. ¡°Don¡¯t?¡± Nemendias asked. ¡°Don¡¯t reveal yourself,¡± I nodded. ¡°Not until I can introduce and teach people to love magical constructs with my Dawn project.¡± ¡°Then I cannot help you with what you want,¡± Nemendias said. ¡°Stop demanding whatever a hoverboard is from me.¡± ¡°I can figure out ways to work with such silly limitations, don¡¯t worry,¡± I smiled. ¡°Oh?¡± The silver-headed woman looked at me curiously. ¡°You can be me,¡± I said. ¡°What?¡± Nemendias asked. ¡°Be me,¡± I affirmed. ¡°I¡¯m not afraid of magical constructs taking my work away from me. If anything I have so many jobs, so many things that require to be done that I barely have the time for anything. I¡¯m rapidly ageing my chimera body, burning myself out, tearing my soul apart. My biggest enemy is time and you can help me overcome it!¡± ¡°Someone would notice that a copy of you is walking around,¡± Nemendias shook her head. ¡°So we coordinate it really well,¡± I offered. ¡°For example, you can teach night classes in the catacombs instead of me, while I participate in them as a student named Grogtilda. I have a second body, remember? If anyone officially questions it, I can simply present it to them and tell them to screw off.¡± ¡°Hrrm,¡± Nemendias rubbed her chin thoughtfully. ¡°You don¡¯t have to be just Archmage Yulia Ishenko,¡± I said. ¡°You can be Grogtilda too, whenever I¡¯m working on homework or personal projects inside of my Folding bag. You can be me whenever I¡¯m exploring the catacombs or visiting my sister in Diamondias. You can hold study sessions, make friends with students, tell them about the history of Nemendias, teach them all sorts of interesting things about magic! It¡¯s a win-win scenario. I get personal time to work on anything I need done in private and you get to be a social butterfly as a student!¡± ¡°You want me to be a student?¡± Nemendias blinked. Her expression had changed from exasperated and annoyed to one of shock. She was completely and utterly stumped by my unexpected offer. ¡°Yes,¡± I nodded. ¡°I want you to be me. I want you to spend time with your flock. Don¡¯t be limited to your imaginary, self-imposed role. Don¡¯t be isolated and bound!¡± ¡°But¡­¡± Nemendias mulled. ¡°What if someone asks you a question about an event which I experienced?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a very scatterbrained thirteen year old girl,¡± I shrugged. ¡°Grogtilda had her brains sucked on by a Folding Seed for three months. Everyone knows this now, thanks to the newspaper articles. I doubt that anyone will question my slight quirkiness and inability to remember people¡¯s faces or events at times.¡± The avatar of the school looked pensive. ¡°Don¡¯t be a miserable, lonely hermit, Nemmy,¡± I said. ¡°There¡¯s literally no reason for you to hide yourself in that musty, dark room deep in the catacombs. I¡¯m giving you a chance to be as free as you want to be, to make as many friends as you want to and to have fun.¡± ¡°Friends?¡± Nemendias blinked. ¡°You want me¡­ to have fun?¡± ¡°Not just any kind of useless, unproductive fun, mind you. That sort of a thing would obviously go against your function. You can have educational fun. You can do all sorts of learning-style activities as me with the other students, open up various community clubs, take them on adventures through your halls!¡± I waved my arms excitedly. ¡°There was a show that I used to watch as a kid called ¡®The Magic School Bus¡¯. You can be the embodiment of such a concept, be a quirky teacher in the body of a student! Be a genius, idiot savant that can do impossible, wacky things¡­ because I can do impossible, wacky things. Day by day, week by week, year by year¡­ we can crank up people¡¯s perception of my skills and talents, until nobody even questions how weird, socially outgoing, helpful, clever and productive Grogtilda Lic Misem is!¡± ¡°I, um,¡± Emmy said blushing furiously. ¡°You can be me whenever I¡¯m studying in private too, Nemmy. I don¡¯t mind.¡± I looked at my bestie with a wide grin and then turned to Agatha. Agatha squinted back at me, then she glanced at Nemendias. ¡°You can be me too, if you wish¡­ my Lady Nemendias,¡± she said after a deep pause. ¡°As you know, I¡­ uh¡­ spend tons of time in your private rooms studying. I wouldn''t mind if¡­ um¡­ you used that time to patrol the halls as a Crest-bearer or maybe gave first years lectures about safety or introductory magic on my behalf.¡± I turned back to the avatar of Nemendias with a wide grin. ¡°There! That¡¯s three students that you can impersonate,¡± I said. ¡°Three people whose time you can utilize to be more!¡± ¡°You¡­ three would do this for me?¡± Nemendias asked. She looked completely entranced, spellbound by my offer. ¡°We would,¡± I nodded. ¡°Because we care for you, Nemmy. Because we understand how important it is for you to spend time with your children. You are alive, you are conscious, you have feelings and emotions just like we humans do. It''s important for children studying here to make social connections to be happy, not just learn about magic. It¡¯s important for you to make friends to grow, to be more.¡± I could see that my words were finally having an effect on the reclusive avatar in front of me, that her self-imposed chains were about to come undone. ¡°This is just the beginning, just a single idea that will help you expand your facility over your own halls,¡± I stood up from the bench and stepped forward to the avatar of the most ancient Arcanarium on Andross. ¡°A single, minute step that will help all of us steer the future away from disaster.¡± Wide, glowing, silver eyes with magical coronas spiraling within them stared at me. ¡°Won¡¯t you accept my friendship?¡± I offered Nemendias my hand. Ch 96. Roomies
After a long, heart-pounding moment, Nemendias reached out with her own hand and clasped mine. Her hand forged from magic felt real, warm, like she was a human, like she was alive on the same level as me. ¡°Thank you, Yulia,¡± she said softly. ¡°Your offer was... unexpected. I did not think that a human would offer me their place, but then again you don¡¯t seem to want to be my student.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong,¡± I shook my head. ¡°I do want to be your student. I want to be your student, your teacher and your friend. I want a lot of things. I¡¯m very greedy and I¡¯m¡­ incredibly desperate.¡± ¡°Are you really?¡± Nemendias tilted her head. ¡°Yeah,¡± I nodded. ¡°I have to stop a god and her unkillable, Inarian artifact bound minions and I have no idea who most of them are or even how to do it. I have a few decades to save Illatius. I keep getting murdered and my soul is freaking coming apart. The cards are really stacked against me.¡± I rubbed my face, feeling frustrated. ¡°You show an interesting degree of vulnerability,¡± Nemendias commented. ¡°Most mages are reserved and proper, like Agatha Amadea.¡± ¡°I¡¯m an oddball,¡± I shrugged. ¡°I like to make friends with everything on Andross. Here, want to talk to my other magical construct friend?¡± I pulled my cloak open revealing Dawn¡¯s face. Dawn waved her hand at Nemendias, looking shy. The avatar of the Arcanarium stepped closer to me and peered at Dawn. ¡°I know you,¡± she said after a momentary pause. ¡°Greetings, my Lady Nemendias,¡± Dawn said with a bow. ¡°Have you two never talked to each other?¡± I asked curiously. ¡°We have not,¡± Dawn said. ¡°Ambiss never considered that her school could be this sentient and I could not see the heart of Nemendias since my paintings here are stationary.¡± ¡°Ambiss Huron was a very bright girl,¡± Nemendias said softly. ¡°I have guided her well over the years, granted her access to forbidden archives and given her the knowledge she needed to master Depictomancy. She found exactly what she wanted in one of the scrolls of Lord Innocentai''s research.¡± ¡°Hold up,¡± I blinked. ¡°So it was you¡­ you are responsible for Dawn¡¯s creation! Ambiss was able to pour her soul into Dawn because you indirectly taught her how to do it!¡± ¡°T-thank you my Lady,¡± Dawn muttered shyly. ¡°I owe my life to you.¡± ¡°We¡¯ve gone full circle, this is great,¡± I snickered. ¡°Dawn are you being shy around your other mom?¡± ¡°Lady Nemendias has much more power and presence than I do,¡± Dawn said. ¡°She is truly arcane.¡± ¡°Yeah, she¡¯s old but you¡¯ve got loads more experience interacting with people,¡± I said. ¡°Honestly, she could learn a thing or two from you. You guys should talk more. I¡¯ll hang one of your posters in Nemmy¡¯s den.¡± ¡°Only if Lady Nemendias would not mind my presence there,¡± Dawn said with a curtsy. The avatar of Nemendias sighed. ¡°You need magical construct friends as much as human friends,¡± I said. ¡°Why do I feel like my sanctum has been violated?¡± She asked. ¡°Are you really moving into my heart-stone room?¡± ¡°I am,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s a nice, private space where nobody will bother me. Plus there¡¯s that cool skully-boi in it for extra spookiness. By the way, is Saint Innocentai real or a prop made from magic?¡± ¡°Lord Innocentai really died in that room, giving up the remnant of his life to me,¡± Nemendias replied. ¡°His soul formed the foundation of my core around which the rest of me had grown over centuries. His body had decayed¡­ badly over the years¡­ so I¡¯ve unmade it and remade it in its current position.¡± ¡°Cool,¡± I nodded. ¡°Real-fake skeleton.¡± ¡°You know, you have a room on campus here¡­ right?¡± Nemendias said. ¡°Do I?¡± I blinked. ¡°Yes,¡± the magical avatar nodded. ¡°Your maid just finished sorting out the paperwork for it with the Keeper.¡± ¡°Neat-o,¡± I nodded. ¡°Do I have roommates?¡± Nemendias nodded. ¡°Well then, I¡¯ll most likely be spending most of my time with Lord Innocentai,¡± I said. ¡°So that you can pretend to be me while I hide in the catacombs.¡± ¡°Fair enough,¡± Nemendias sighed. ¡°Don¡¯t tell anyone else that I exist or our deal is off.¡± My right wrist started to vibrate. I picked up the call. As I looked up from my Armacus I noticed that Nemmy and the attention-redirecting shield around us were gone. [Greetings, my Lady!] Voltara said. [Your and Lady Emerald¡¯s room is ready for you.] ¡°Excellent,¡± I said. ¡°Where is it?¡± [The Lawmaker¡¯s Tower,] the maid replied. ¡°I have no idea where that is,¡± I yawned. [Do you want me to meet you somewhere so that I can lead you there?] ¡°Yeah,¡± I said. ¡°Come to the Eastern Courtyard. I might need you to lug me around. I¡¯m dying.¡± [Are you really?] Voltara asked. ¡°No, not really,¡± I replied. ¡°Just being dramatic and my legs won''t obey me anymore. Ne¡­ umm¡­ uhhh¡­ I was doing a magical quest and trying to catch a spooky ghost.¡± [Right,] Voltara didn¡¯t even bother to ask why I was chasing ghosts. [Be there as soon as I can. My apologies for taking so long to get your room sorted, the Keeper of Keys was giving us a hard time.] Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Figured she might,¡± I sighed. ¡°That¡¯s why I sent you. I didn¡¯t want to deal with Amadea¡¯s minion. Sorry if she gave you trouble.¡± [I¡¯ve dealt with way worse, a bit of waiting was nothing,] Voltara sent. [See you soon.] I yawned again and leaned back on the bench. ¡°So, what do you guys think about Nemendias?¡± I asked. ¡°She¡¯s¡­ imposing,¡± Dawn said. ¡°She¡¯s amazing!¡± Emerald grinned. ¡°I¡¯m never sleeping peacefully again,¡± Agatha muttered. ¡°Eh?¡± I blinked at her. ¡°She¡¯s been watching me,¡± the eldest Amadea princess replied with a small shudder. ¡°Always watching and judging. You know I thought that I had privacy in Nemendias, but no¡­ you just had to summon her avatar and ruin everything.¡± ¡°Dawn¡¯s the same way, you know,¡± I laughed. ¡°Dawn is not the same,¡± Agatha shook her head. ¡°Nemendias¡­ feels and looks¡­ real. She¡¯s not a drawing, not an artifact. I think I understand exactly why the archmagi of Illatius destroyed magic-born manifestations over the centuries.¡± I rolled my eyes at Agatha¡¯s dramatic declarations. I doubted that Nemendias obsessed over people¡¯s private moments. She¡¯s most likely seen it all over six thousand years and grown extremely bored of the little ants running through her halls. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± I told my friend. ¡°Nemmy doesn¡¯t have human eyes. She¡¯s an astral manifestation. She does not perceive the world in the same way as you and I do.¡± ¡°Wow, that makes me feel soooo much better,¡± Agatha muttered sarcastically. ¡°Non-human eyes watching me sleep, forever and ever. Yep, I¡¯ll just go drown myself in that fountain over there.¡± ¡°If you drown in a fountain, I¡¯m stealing your crest,¡± I said, wiggling my eyebrows. ¡°Fine, I won¡¯t end myself if that¡¯s what it takes to prevent a small monster like you from attaining a crest,¡± Agatha huffed. ¡°I cannot even begin to imagine the mayhem you would concoct if you had a full crest!¡± I started to giggle furiously. . . . ¡°Onwards, my bravest knight-maid!¡± I giggled as I stuck my head out of Saccy. Voltara was carrying the bag with me in it on her front. I took another swig of Folding Seed sap as she opened the door into my new room. The drink was making me giggle even more than before, uplifting my spirits and reducing the awful pain in my joints. ¡°I claim this territory in the name of Captain!¡± I yelled, petting the kitten on my shoulder. ¡°I shall call this blessed landmass Captania and make it into a most prosperous paradise nation of dignified lo¡­¡± The large, fancy, gothic room we¡¯ve entered had three poster beds in it. Two of the beds and shelf sets were completely empty and the third one was¡­ filled. I choked on the rest of my words, staring at the face of a thin, redhead girl in a lace, white shirt sitting on the aforementioned bed. Angry, glacier-blue eyes focused on me. ¡°Just freaking great,¡± she muttered. ¡°Of ALL the students in Nemendias I get the lowborn Undertown topaz addict as my roommate. Gods damn it.¡± ¡°In my defense, I didn¡¯t expect the room to be occupied,¡± I muttered, my face burning in embarrassment. ¡°I got here early,¡± the girl shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m Grogs,¡± I climbed out of Saccy, swaying a bit. ¡°I know,¡± the girl sighed. ¡°I... read about you in Illatius Daily.¡± I tried to plaster a grin on my face. It came out lopsided as the left side of my face had locked up and wasn¡¯t responding properly. ¡°Hi, I¡¯m Emerald Amadea,¡± Emerald introduced herself. "...and that''s my sister Agatha Amadea." ¡°Uh-huh,¡± our new roommate sighed, eyeing the two princesses and the two maids with a weary look. ¡°This is Voltara and Arouetta, our personal maids!¡± Emerald declared. ¡°Is your maid out?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have a maid,¡± the ginger girl shook her head. ¡°Well, I did... she exploded¡­ along with my parents and my Baronial Estate.¡± "That''s a joke, right?" Emerald blinked. Our new roommate shook her head, looking angry and forlorn at the same time. Emerald froze, her hand covering her mouth. An awkward, deep silence settled between us. ¡°Do you want to share¡­ my maid?¡± I offered, trying to break the gloomy atmosphere. ¡°Voltara is nice.¡± Voltara nodded, confirming her nice-ness. ¡°I don¡¯t need your benefaction, addict,¡± the redhead shook her curls. I shoved the metal flask back into Saccy and stepped closer to the girl on the bed. ¡°I believe we got off to a bad start,¡± I said. ¡°My apologies for yelling nonsense, I was simply excited about my first day at Nemendias. My kitten''s name is Captain, you see and...¡± ¡°Uh-huh,¡± the girl nodded, clearly not listening. Her icy, blue eyes were staring past me. ¡°I¡­ um, I¡¯m sorry to hear that your parents died,¡± Emerald muttered. ¡°Would you at least do us the honor of telling us your name?¡± ¡°My name is¡­ Amber of Snippy,¡± the redhead said, not looking at Emerald. "I''m the Baroness of the Morvius Marshes." Something in my head clicked. Could she be related to Charles Snippy? No, it had to be a coincidence. How could a highborn Baronial Princess be related to the last man on the surface of Eureka? My eyes trailed down her body to a dark-frame amulet on her chest. A polished, crystal gemstone was embedded within it. Something red and something green were spiraling within the locket hanging from her neck. Two colors were dancing around each other, looking like a mixture of an ouroboros that was perpetually eating its own tail and yin and yang. I glanced at the cool magical amulet with my Still-Walker sight. There was nothing at all within the crystal container. No magic. The strange, dancing colors did not cast a resonance into the Astral, did not leave an imprint. It was like they did not even exist. I gulped. What the shit? Did Eunice make a 9th apprentice? Was this girl one of my enemies, a high-cendai?! ¡°Do you mind not staring at my chest?¡± The girl wrapped her blanket around herself, looking more annoyed than before. My hand was already gripping Endy tightly. I moved into a defensive position. Emerald, Agatha and the maids tensed up. They knew what Endy could do. ¡°Amber,¡± I uttered, drawing the words out of myself, Endy shaking in my hand. ¡°What is that amulet?¡± ¡°You know, when I came to Nemendias I did not expect to be assaulted with a kitchen knife by a drunk lowborn child,¡± Amber sighed, eyeing Endy. ¡°Agatha - truth hex, now!¡± I growled. Agatha was quick on the uptake. Her armacus unfurled. ¡°Oh wow,¡± Amber looked at Agatha. ¡°You people have a whole gang. Are you going to demand my lunch money now or something?¡± ¡°Your locket,¡± I repeated. ¡°Tell me about it.¡± ¡°Why should I tell you anything?¡± Amber raised an eyebrow. ¡°What is this? I knew that Nemendias was full of highborn pricks, but this is ridiculous.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not a magical artifact,¡± I said. ¡°That¡¯s a shard of Inaria.¡± ¡°Is it now?¡± The ginger girl asked, completely undeterred by me waving Endy in front of her face. She wasn¡¯t afraid of me, showed zero recognition of me. Maybe she wasn¡¯t associated with Eunice? My hand started to ache from holding the knife up. I slowly lowered it. ¡°Look, please tell us about that locket and we¡¯ll stop bothering you,¡± I said. ¡°This is really important, Amber. I need to know if you¡¯re one of my enemies.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± The redhead raised an eyebrow. ¡°You have enemies?¡± I nodded. ¡°Add me to your list of enemies then,¡± she shrugged. ¡°Because I refuse to be bullied by two highborn bitches, their maids and their lapdog lowborn. Your childish intimidation tactics won¡¯t work on me - the student protecting ward of Nemendias will make that knife useless and it will block direct spell-fire from the armacus. Your threats are empty.¡± ¡°Hey! J-uh-Grogtilda ain¡¯t my dog,¡± Emerald snapped. ¡°How dare you?¡± ¡°Go on, keep bugging me. I was planning to ask the Keeper to relocate me as soon as I saw you, but now I¡¯ll have a legitimate excuse to get new roommates,¡± Amber rolled her eyes. ¡°Look at you two bullies. Classes didn¡¯t even start yet and you¡¯re at minus ten and minus one hundred points. Very impressive. Who¡¯d you harass before you found me?¡± My face fell. I¡¯ve made friends with everyone I met. I was a pro at making good impressions on people. How did I screw this up so badly? Was I wrong about this girl? Was she just an innocent bystander who simply happened to carry a shard of Inaria on her neck? ¡°Galissi¡¯s too far, I don¡¯t have the energy to hold the hex all day,¡± Agatha¡¯s armacus closed, folded back to its bracelet form. My friend looked lost. In fact everyone around the room was completely at a loss, not sure what to do next. They were waiting for me to order them into battle but I froze, became paralyzed with indecision. ¡°Just as I thought, all bark and no bite,¡± Amber rolled her eyes and retreated deeper into her bed, glaring at us from within. All of my intelligence-bound senses screamed that Amber¡¯s locket was an ancient weapon, that it was incredibly dangerous to me, that the right thing to do was to destroy it, to stab it out of existence. Would Nemendias protect Amber? Would she stop me from ripping the locket off her neck? Ch 97. The Un-poisoned Apple
¡°You good?¡± Agatha said. ¡°Licor is calling me. He probably wants to¡­¡± ¡°We good sis,¡± Emerald replied. ¡°Go have fun with your fiance.¡± I nodded. Agatha nodded back at us and departed. I pulled my favorite satin, red sheet out of Saccy and threw it over the bed of my choice. Then, I plopped down onto the bed and stretched. Amber pretended not to pay attention to me. I sent her a dashing smile as Captain jumped onto my knees. The redhead looked away from us. I decided to give her some time before bugging her some more about her necklace. The girl¡¯s locket felt like a weapon, but the she herself didn¡¯t seem like a threat at all. It¡¯s not like she was going to disappear on me. Amber would have to beg the Keeper for a room change and I very much doubted that the Amadea-owned woman would accommodate her. Sooner or later, one way or another, I would get the answers out of my new roommate. "So this is the Lawmaker''s Tower, eh?" I spotted a large, opulent crest on the wall with the logo of the Illatius Ministry of Justice. The fanciful gold crest with a downward facing pyramid in its center hung above a fireplace which was emanating warmth into the room via a heat-generating hexagram. The ceiling of the room was domed and very fancy, square, stained glass panels let more light into the room. The gothic, arched windows revealed a stunning view of the city of Illatius, gold spires glinting in the distance framed by azure glaciers. The view on the other side of the room faced the cloud-covered Chasm. "Yes," the maid nodded. "Baron and Lawmaker'' sponsored students are assigned to this residence." ¡°Where are you sleeping?¡± I asked Voltara. ¡°The servants'' quarters are in the adjacent room,¡± my maid replied, pointing at a wall. ¡°Show me!¡± I got off the bed to investigate the room for the maids. "Sure, it''s here. From what the Keeper told me, only the maids can unlock this space," Voltara stepped to a wall and pressed her hand against a small painting of a maid that was holding a tray of tea in her right hand. The painted maid curtsied and wall panel slid open at Voltara''s touch, revealing a dim passage. I stepped inside and discovered a windowless, cramped, austere space that looked a bit dusty. Part of the tower¡¯s stairwell made the ceiling in the servants quarter slanted and added to the overall tightness of the space. ¡°Those are our beds,¡± Voltara said, pointing at the stone alcoves. Her head nearly bumped against the ceiling as Voltara''s Vitality-maxing made her taller than the average teenager. ¡°Yeah, no,¡± I shook my head. ¡°No?¡± Voltara blinked. ¡°Noppers,¡± I grabbed the maid by the hand and pulled her out of the cramped space. ¡°Help me get the bed from Palais De La Solstice out of Saccy,¡± I said. Voltara helped me pull the large, ostentatious bed out of the Folding Seed. I directed her to place it into the empty space next to my bed. Miss Snippy stared at our activity with a look of disapproval. ¡°What the shit?¡± her lips whispered. She reached towards her pile of books and pulled out a copy of ¡°The Rule Book of a Nemendias Novitiate¡± and started flipping through it. She was most likely trying to find a rule about adding an extra bed to the student bedroom. ¡°Hey, Nemmy, you don¡¯t mind that I keep Volty next to me?¡± I spoke at the ceiling. No reply came. ¡°Guess you don¡¯t,¡± I grinned. ¡°Volty, this is your new bed. It comes with magic-operated privacy curtains and noise-cancelling hexagrams. Just push your mana into these two runes if you want privacy or if one of us is snoring too loud.¡± ¡°You¡¯re giving me a bed? In the highborn section?¡± Voltara blinked. ¡°Mhmmm,¡± I nodded. ¡°Are you certain? The Keeper of Keys already seemed quite irate at us,¡± she said. ¡°Don¡¯t care,¡± I said. ¡°Look, it''s Captain approved.¡± I pointed at the purple-eyed kitten who had jumped onto the extra bed and was already roaming across it, tail up. ¡°But¡­¡± Voltara mumbled. ¡°Are you certain this is wise?¡± ¡°Volty,¡± I said. ¡°What am I doing in Nemendias?¡± ¡°Learning magic?¡± Voltara blinked. ¡°No,¡± I shook my head. ¡°I¡¯m bringing down the current order. This bed is my first move in a far greater war.¡± ¡°War? What war?¡± Amber couldn¡¯t keep her mouth closed this time. ¡°The war against corrupt, bloated aristocracy!¡± I declared. ¡°The Empire will tremble at my might, for I am the Voice of the People, the speaker for the Magitek Revolution. This room will be my revolutionary headquarters!¡± I climbed into Saccy and pulled another red sheet out of her with a hammer and a few nails. I proceeded to hammered the sheet to the gothic, wood-panel wall beside the two beds. ¡°REVOLUTIONARY HEADQUARTERS¡± Bold, white, capital letters declared on the banner. ¡°What the...?¡± Amber gaped at the banner. I grinned at her. She started to flip through the book of rules with more vigor, most likely trying to find a rule against turning the bedroom into revolutionary headquarters. ¡°Picture time!¡± I went into Saccy again and emerged with a snapper given to me by scrivener Appa. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Make me look stunning!¡± I handed the snapper to Voltara and struck a few poses in front of the red banner. Voltara took numerous shots with the snapper. ¡°I have claimed this bedroom for the glory of the revolution,¡± I announced with a flourish. ¡°My enemies shall tremble and pray that I don¡¯t claim further territories!¡± I winked at Emerald. Emerald stared at me and the banner. In another minute her mind caught onto what I wanted her to do. ¡°You can¡¯t just claim the bedroom for whatever this is!¡± She barked. ¡°Oh yea?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°Who¡¯s going to stop me? You?¡± ¡°Yes, me!¡± Emerald announced. ¡°I¡¯m claiming my side of the bedroom for the glory of the aristocracy!¡± ¡°Arouetta! Fetch me a white sheet at once!¡± She ordered. The maid rushed off and brought her white sheet. The two of them stuck the sheet onto the wall directly opposite of my red banner. Miss Snippy, who was now positioned exactly between the red and white banners, stared at us like we were insane. ¡°This is lunacy,¡± she uttered. ¡°I¡¯ve heard your disregard for the nobility, Miss Snippy,¡± I yelled from my side of the bedroom. ¡°Join the Revolutionary forces of the Red Resistance. Together we can bring down the rotten aristocracy and seize their means of production!¡± ¡°What?¡± Amber blinked at me. ¡°...Are you for real?¡± ¡°Lady Snippy is a proper highborn Baroness,¡± Emerald shook her head. ¡°Why-ever would she join someone like you, peasant?¡± ¡°Right,¡± Amber muttered. ¡°Here I thought that my roommate situation was already abysmal, but no¡­ now it¡¯s a Gods-damned madhouse.¡± ¡°You¡¯ll be mad if you don¡¯t join the revolution, comrade Snippy,¡± I giggled. ¡°I¡¯m ignoring you,¡± Amber said. ¡°Looks like I win by default,¡± Emerald grinned. "Amber clearly prefers my side." ¡°I¡¯m ignoring you as well,¡± Amber declared. ¡°Aw,¡± the green-eyed Princess pouted. ¡°Come to the red side,¡± I offered. ¡°We have cookies.¡± Amber returned to absorbing the rule book with a head-shake. I climbed into Saccy and emerged with several boxes of snacks. Voltara and I sat down on her new bed enjoying cookies, pastries and fruits that had been kept fresh by a magitek food-preservation cabinet that we seized from Amadea''s palace. ¡°They have cookies,¡± Emerald pouted. ¡°Damnation.¡± She grabbed Arouetta and whispered at her conspiratorially. Emerald''s maid approached our double-bed fortress in another minute. ¡°My mistress requests the mint chips,¡± she said. ¡°Oh?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°What is the aristocracy willing to offer for the mint chips?¡± ¡°Two obliss,¡± the maid said. ¡°Three,¡± I bargained. Arouetta sighed and poured three obliss into my open palm. I handed her a box of mint chips. The maid carried the box back to the dominion of the aristocracy on the other side of the room. I saw that Snippy was staring at our exchange, pretending that she was reading the rules of student conduct. ¡°What? Running the revolution ain¡¯t cheap,¡± I said, chewing on a strawberry cream puff. Amber huffed, hiding behind her thick book. ¡°This cream puff from Lomb¡¯s patisserie is truly to die for,¡± I chewed loudly. ¡°What do you think, Volty?¡± ¡°Oh, absolutely,¡± my maid nodded, enjoying her miniature croissan''wich. ¡°I don¡¯t know how the chef makes them so flavorful.¡± ¡°Cuisinimancy,¡± I swallowed another bite. ¡°I¡¯d totally specialize in it if I wasn¡¯t already maxed out on specialties.¡± ¡°You have specialties?¡± Voltara asked. ¡°Mhmm,¡± I nodded. ¡°Right now I have [Intelligence] and [Search] slotted in. It would be nice to get more, but I¡¯d rather not die horribly again.¡± ¡°What?¡± Amber uttered from her bed with a barely audible declaration. ¡°What would be the advantage in specializing in Cuisinimancy unless you wish to open a restaurant?¡± Voltara asked. ¡°There is incredible power in snacks,¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± the maid tilted her head. ¡°Food brings people together,¡± I explained. ¡°It is an essential item from the physiological foundation of the hierarchical pyramid of human needs. It is something that nobody can avoid. Saccy is stuffed full of snacks not because I like eating, but because snacks are an easy way to make friends.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Voltara nodded. ¡°What do you want to specialize in?¡± I asked her. ¡°Um,¡± the maid pondered. ¡°Is... Adventuring a specialization?¡± ¡°Dungeon diving is a very wide category,¡± I said. ¡°There are different types of divers. Personally I see you as a tank.¡± ¡°A tank?¡± Voltara blinked. ¡°As a tank, your role is to protect your teammates by taking damage for them,¡± I explained. ¡°Basically a tank is the group¡¯s meat-shield, someone who rushes forward with a sword to slap the monsters head on while others fire spells or arrows from behind as support. You did a great job being my tank when we took down the Deathshawl, by the way.¡± Voltara smiled widely, basking in my praise. ¡°You¡¯re in Nemendias, the world is your oyster,¡± I said. ¡°There will be plenty of time for you to become a better tank or to try other roles that might interest you. You will likely attain a secondary specialty that has nothing to do with Adventuring.¡± ¡°The world is my oyster?¡± Voltara tilted her head. ¡°You¡¯re here to learn,¡± I nodded. ¡°I thought that I was here to be your maid,¡± she said. ¡°No,¡± I shook my head. ¡°You are here to learn. You¡¯re going to attend classes with me. You¡¯re going to practice holding hexes and firing spells. You¡¯re here to become the best version of yourself, to push your abilities forward, to elevate yourself and to choose your future profession.¡± ¡°Where should I start?¡± Voltara asked. ¡°Practice opening your armacus and aiming it as quickly as you can,¡± I said. ¡°The speed of your spell-fire and readiness is incredibly important for fighting Chasm monsters. Even half a second in the Dungeon could lead to defeat or victory, life or death.¡± ¡°What should I aim at?¡± the maid asked. I crumbled the tin foil wrapping from the pastry into a ball and threw it at Captain. The kitten immediately started to knock the tinfoil ball around, excitedly chasing it around the room. ¡°Close your eyes, wait thirty heartbeats, then open them and fire an identify spell at Captain,¡± I said. Voltara closed her eyes, counted down and opened them, spotting the kitten. Her hand flashed up and her armacus unlocked. A spell line visible in the Astral flashed from her focus tool like a laser beam connecting with the kitten¡¯s tail. ¡°Good stuff,¡± I said. ¡°Keep at it.¡± The maid nodded. ¡°What¡­ that¡¯s not a bracelet¡­¡± Amber uttered, her eyes wide. She had finally noticed the armacus on Voltara¡¯s right hand. The rule book she was holding fell onto the bed. ¡°No¡­ how could this be¡­ what?¡± She pinched herself, refusing to believe what her eyes were seeing. Voltara continued to fire spells at Captain. The kitten didn¡¯t pay attention to her at all, preoccupied with attacking its tinfoil prey. I smirked at the redhead. ¡°You¡­ how¡­ wait... this is a prank!¡± she declared, frowning at me. ¡°You¡¯ve dressed up one of your friends as a maid to mess with me!¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t even know that someone would be in this room,¡± I said. ¡°Voltara is my maid. You saw her open the servants'' quarters, did you not? Go ahead, see if you can open the maid''s room as someone who''s a student and not a maid.¡± She got off her bed, stepped to the painting of the maid and touched it. The maid in the painting shook her head and made a "no-no" sign with her finger. Amber stared at the painting in bewilderment. ¡°But¡­ that¡¯s a palladium lawmakers armacus,¡± she said, looking at Voltara. ¡°Yeah,¡± I nodded. ¡°I bought it for her.¡± ¡°You bought your maid a palladium armacus?¡± The redhead stared at me. ¡°Is there a rule in that book that says that I¡¯m not allowed to buy my maid an armacus?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°You could buy ten thousand acres of land in the Marshes with how much that armacus costs!¡± Amber sputtered. ¡°Hell, you could buy a nice apartment in Illatius or¡­ no, this is too ridiculous to even consider. You¡¯re having me on. This HAS to be a prank of some sort!¡± ¡°It¡¯s not a prank,¡± Voltara commented as she fired another spell at the skittering kitten. ¡°My Lady is the nicest person in the universe.¡± ¡°Want a strawberry tart?¡± I offered Amber a wrapped delicacy. ¡°I won¡¯t even charge you for it, on the account that you haven¡¯t joined the fortress of the aristocracy yet.¡± Emerald blew me a raspberry from her side of the room. Amber stared at the tart in my hands. Her stomach grumbled. She swallowed nervously. She was fighting her hunger. I saw that her dislike of me was winning out. I threw the tart at her before she made a decision to reject my offer. The redhead automatically caught the wrapped snack in her hands and looked at me with a frown. ¡°Don¡¯t look so concerned, it¡¯s just a tart,¡± Emerald commented. ¡°The reds can¡¯t poison us on the account of the Nemendias student-protecting ward.¡± She bit into her mint cookie to illustrate her point. Amber''s hands acted on their own. She unwrapped the tart and stared at it. That¡¯s it. Inhale the wafting smell. Take a bite. Nobody wins against Mrs. Pompermint¡¯s pastries! I cackled in my imagination like the evil witch Queen that had succeeded in giving Snow White a poisoned apple. Amber brought the tart to her mouth. My crotchety roommate¡¯s expression changed as soon as the overpriced pastry smashed into her taste buds like a freight train of sublime flavors. Ch 98. The Pact of Order
¡°Soooo?¡± I smiled at Amber as she finished the pastry. ¡°So, what?¡± She asked disdainfully. ¡°Do you think I¡¯m going to be your friend because you gave me a tart?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± I nodded. ¡°I do believe that¡¯s how this works.¡± ¡°Do you think I¡¯m stupid?¡± Amber crossed her arms. ¡°You literally announced your plan to make friends via the use of snacks ten minutes ago!¡± ¡°My policy is openness,¡± I shrugged. Baroness Snippy exhaled. ¡°Is it working?¡± I asked. ¡°Are we friends now?¡± ¡°No, we are not friends,¡± Amber shook her head. ¡°Don¡¯t get any ideas.¡± ¡°But you ate my offering,¡± I frowned. ¡°We¡¯re never going to be friends,¡± the redhead suddenly snapped. ¡°I didn¡¯t ask for a snack. I didn¡¯t ask to be bothered and I certainly didn¡¯t ask to be roommates with a lunatic lowborn that''s inciting insurrection!¡± She didn¡¯t finish her angry speech because a small, gold vase cluttered from her shelf, rolling across the floor. Amber¡¯s head snapped to the shelf in question. Captain was sitting there, pawing at another item. ¡°Hey! Get off my shelf, you dumb cat!¡± She growled. The purple-eyed kitten tilted its head at the angry girl. ¡°Do NOT push that chalice off,¡± Amber hissed out. ¡°I will¡­¡± Captain disregarded her words. A black paw slapped against the cup and it went flying and rolling across the room. ¡°Arghhh!¡± the redhead rushed to save her things. She picked the chalice and the vase off the floor and cradled them in her arms, staring daggers at me. ¡°What?¡± I asked. ¡°Control your DAMNED cat or ELSE,¡± she hissed. ¡°Or else what?¡± I blinked. ¡°Or else I¡¯m going to call the Keeper and get you kicked out!¡± She growled. ¡°I¡¯m at my wits end here!¡± ¡°I can¡¯t control Captain,¡± I shrugged. ¡°Captain does what Captain wants.¡± ¡°Ha HA! You''ve all fallen for my cute facade! Your shelf items belong to gravity now!¡± Captain¡¯s adorable face expressed as the kitten shoved another one of Ember¡¯s things off the shelf. ¡°That¡¯s it! I¡¯ve had it with you!¡± Amber barked. She rushed towards her shelf and shooed Captain off it. Then she angrily tapped her armacus, activating the voicecast hexagram. ¡°Keeper Antienni!¡± ¡°Keeper, I would like to request a transfer to another room,¡± she said into her wrist. I didn¡¯t hear the other side of her conversation but it was easy to guess what the keeper was saying. ¡°On what grounds?! On the grounds that Novitiate Misem is insane¡­ look, I don¡¯t know what rules she¡¯s breaking exactly, but I¡¯m sure that she¡¯s broken at least twenty of them by now! She¡¯s at minus one hundred points! I demand to be relocated at once!¡± She saw that Captain was back on her shelf. ¡°NO! Get the frig off, you damned beast!¡± She howled, chasing the kitten away for the second time. ¡°Um, sorry¡­ that wasn¡¯t addressed to you, Keeper Antienni. Look, just come to our room and see for yourself what she¡¯s done! She¡¯s added an extra bed and hung a banner here for Gods¡¯ sake!¡± Having concluded the call, Amber glared at me with an absolutely vicious look. I grabbed Captain from the floor and tried to contain the kitten on my lap. ¡°Amber, I¡­¡± ¡°No,¡± she growled. ¡°Nobody gave you permission to speak to me, lowborn! It was a mistake to acknowledge you to begin with. Soon I¡¯ll be in a new room and you two can set this one on fire for all I care. I¡¯ll be VERY glad when you¡¯re expelled, Misem!¡± I sighed. The tart was a Pyrrhic victory. My initial evaluation was wrong - Amber seethed with dislike for me for reasons I couldn''t entirely pin down. Maybe she simply didn¡¯t like Undertown lowborns, presuming that I was a criminal. In about ten minutes of awkward silence the door to our room opened, letting in the purple-haired Nora Frid Antienni. The keeper stepped forward. She didn¡¯t look pleased about having to walk up to our tower from wherever she was at before. Her brown eyes that looked down at me with polite acceptance during the interview were now full of irritation. ¡°Well, novitiate Snippy, what''s the pro¡­¡± She started to speak and then her eyes saw the second bed and the Soviet-style banner. ¡°What?¡± She blinked. ¡°I told you,¡± Amber stood up. ¡°She got another bed in here and hung that stupid banner and her cat keeps dropping my things!¡± ¡°Out,¡± the Keeper said. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Step out of the room, Novitiate Snippy. I wish to speak with Novitiate Misem about her¡­ violations,¡± Nora said with a very stern face. Amber cast me a victorious glance as she rushed out of the room with her rule-book, closing the door behind herself. ¡°Is that a bed¡­ from Palais De La Solstice?! How did you get it in here?¡± The Keeper turned to me as the thick, magic-reinforced door clicked shut. ¡°Did you happen to forget who I am, Nora?¡± I shrugged, rubbing my fingers together in a casual gesture. ¡°Need I remind you? I¡¯m the Eighth Hero of the Prism Order. Porting a bed from your Master¡¯s Estate was as easy as snapping my fingers. I¡¯ve literally unmade Eunice''s domain over a week ago and you¡¯re surprised about a mere bed?¡± The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The Keeper paled at my words, taking a step back. I simply smiled at her, letting gold spirals of mana dance in my eyes. ¡°There are rules,¡± she finally said, having recomposed herself. ¡°You can¡¯t just add an extra bed into the student res¡­¡± ¡°Look at the brave little Keeper, questioning my authority,¡± I yawned, looking at Voltara. ¡°What do you think, Volty? Should I smear her across space-time now or give her a minute to come to her senses and beg for mercy?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think that it¡¯s wise to challenge my Mistress, Lady Keeper,¡± Voltara said, staring down at the pale-faced administrator. ¡°I was there when archmage Eunisii fell into the Chasm with a desperate scream clawing to the remnants of her tower. I was there when she exploded. I saw everything.¡± The Keeper gulped. ¡°Let''s get some things straight, Nora,¡± I said. ¡°If I wish to add a bed, I will add a bed. If I wish to declare this room as the Headquarters of the Revolution, then I will. You have no power to stop me.¡± ¡°I¡­ I can deduct points from you until you are expelled,¡± Nora muttered. Whatever confidence she possessed when she entered into the room had shattered against my self-made illusion of absolute power. ¡°Go ahead,¡± I stretched. ¡°W-what?¡± Nora blinked. ¡°Go ahead,¡± I said with a sly smile. ¡°Expel me. See if I care. It was your Master¡¯s wish for me to go to Nemendias, not mine. I never asked to be here. Call her if you want to check. I¡¯m sure you don''t want to be scolded by your Lady for making a wrong decision.¡± ¡°Voicecast Baroness Amadea,¡± The Keeper uttered as she brought her armacus up to her mouth. ¡°My lady, may I expel Miss Misem from Nemendias? She won¡¯t obey the rules,¡± Nora briskly spoke into her communicator. ¡°Voicecast Baroness Amadea,¡± I spoke into my own armacus. [Yes, my dear?] Amadea¡¯s sweet voice resounded in my head. [Are you being a little rapscallion?] ¡°I am,¡± I said. ¡°I hung a pretty banner on the wall and your Keeper is mad about it.¡± [Is that all?] Amadea asked. ¡°No, that¡¯s not all,¡± I copied her overly-sweet tone. ¡°We¡¯re both busy archmages, my dear. I¡¯m sure you don¡¯t want your adorable, little, dumb minion bugging you every time I move a chair or something. How about this - I¡¯ll do whatever I want to in Nemendias and you can do whatever you want to in Illatius. You can organise the city for the next six years as much as you want to - I won¡¯t even get in the way.¡± [Oh?] Amadea asked. [Are you offering a division of influence? A pact of Order?] ¡°Yes,¡± I said in English. ¡°I do like it here, but it is rather messy¡­ not like an office at all.¡± [Not like an¡­ office?] Amadea replied to me in English. Her voice became perfunctory, each syllable cold, dry and inhumanly perfect. ¡°Indeed,¡± I said. ¡°There¡¯s a serious lack of Order in this place. It suffers from human errors of laziness, unproductivity, turmoil and disarray. Everyone¡¯s so incompetent, so disorganized. I wish to impose order on Nemendias, make the place¡­ more accountable, add some elevators, cubicles and desks. Can you believe it? There¡¯s not a single water cooler for miles around!¡± [Well, why didn¡¯t you say so?] The shard of Eureka spoke with the lips of the Baroness. [You have my permission to bring Order to Nemendias!] ¡°Thank you, Baroness,¡± I said in Basq. ¡°And you have my permission to bring Order to Illatius.¡± [No problem at all, my love,] Amadea replied. The ungodly sweetness in her tone had increased by about a thousand percent. ¡°My Lady? What should I¡­?¡± The keeper asked, her voice trembling. [You are to leave the Eighth cendai alone,] Amadea said. [No, scratch that. You are to aid my love in her desire to make Nemendias Orderly. Do we understand each other, my pet?] ¡°Y-yes, Baroness,¡± Nora replied, her hands shaking. [Good,] Amadea said. [I hope to have you visit my palace soon, my love. I¡¯ll be waiting¡­ There are so many wonderful things I could show you.] [I¡¯ll come visit you as soon as Nemendias is made presentable,] I sighed. [You know how it is. Humans and their incompetence. I do love the little fireflies in my garden, but they drive me nuts half the time.] [I know exactly how it is,] Amadea sighed. [Good Tomorrow, my love.] [Good Tomorrow¡­ my love,] I replied in perfect cadence to her words, matching her resonance with my own Intelligence-maxing, finally ending the call. ¡°See?¡± I looked at Nora with a wide grin. ¡°I''m not locked in here with you, you''re locked in here with me!¡± The Keeper looked absolutely aghast at my words. She gulped again and recomposed herself. ¡°This could be a problem, m-my Lady,¡± she said, pointing at the red banner. ¡°In what manner?¡± I asked. ¡°Novitiate Snippy could complain about it to the Instructors,¡± Nora said. ¡°I fail to see how that¡¯s my problem,¡± I shrugged. ¡°But,¡± Nora said. ¡°Are the teachers allowed in student quarters?¡± I asked. ¡°They are not,¡± the Keeper shook her head. ¡°Only the maids and I are permitted to enter the dorms.¡± ¡°Well then, you best tell everyone who asks that there is NO Revolution Headquarters, banners or extra beds in here,¡± I said with a smirk. The Keeper looked at me with wide eyes. ¡°Children are so imaginative these days! They make up all sorts of ridiculous stories to impress their friends,¡± I said with a wink. ¡°Am I right?¡± ¡°Y-you are ab-absolutely right,¡± Nora stuttered. Emerald couldn¡¯t help herself. She started to snicker from her bed. ¡°You¡¯re dismissed, Keeper,¡± I waved at the terrified woman before her stress of dealing with me caused her to have a stroke. ¡°Thank you, Mistress,¡± the Keeper pulled the door open and stepped out of the room. ¡°Lady Keeper? Is Misem expelled?¡± Amber stepped in front of the Keeper before the purple-haired woman could flee from me. ¡°What?¡± Nora stopped. ¡°No, she¡¯s not expelled.¡± ¡°Can I relocate to another room then?¡± Amber asked with a frown. ¡°No, you may not relocate to another room, Novitiate,¡± the Keeper hissed out, taking her terror and anger out on the redhead. ¡°But the banner and the extra bed and the kitten,¡± Amber whined. ¡°You are in school, novitiate, learn to deal with roommates like an adult and grow a spine,¡± the Keeper snapped. "This is YOUR room for the next six years, whether you like it or not!" ¡°Grow a spine? I¡¯m not the one breaking the rules, Keeper!¡± Amber declared. ¡°Novitiate Snippy,¡± Nora leaned towards the redhead. ¡°I will only tell you this once - so you best listen well. There is nothing wrong with students redecorating their side of the room as they see fit and hanging a banner or two. There is nothing wrong with keeping a pet.¡± ¡°But the bed,¡± Amber said, shaking her copy of ''The Rule Book of a Nemendias Novitiate''. ¡°Surely that can¡¯t be legal! She¡¯s letting her maid sleep next to her! Surely, that¡¯s against the rules!¡± The Keeper of Keys snatched the book from Amber¡¯s hands. ¡°There is absolutely nothing wrong with what Novitiate Misem is doing,¡± she hissed at Amber. ¡°If I hear any more of these ridiculous accusations again, I will deduct points from you, so help me Emperor!¡± ¡°What¡­ but¡­ you can¡¯t take my book¡­ I haven¡¯t even finished reading all of the rules!¡± Amber gasped. ¡°I¡¯m certain I saw something there about students not being allowed to bring in their own furniture from home!¡± ¡°Minus ten points from Amber of Snippy for accusations against a fellow Novitiate,¡± Nora said. ¡°What?!¡± Amber stared at the floating [-10] red number above her head. ¡°You.. can¡¯t be serious! I¡¯ve done nothing wrong! I will complain to¡­¡± ¡°You will complain to no-one, Miss Snippy,¡± the Keeper hissed. ¡°Give me back my book!¡± Amber cried out. ¡°Minus ninety points from Amber of Snippy for being a loudmouth,¡± Nora snapped. Amber¡¯s mouth fell closed. She stared at the Keeper with eyes filled with anger and despair. ¡°Speak another word about the bed to ANYONE, sully your noble peers with nonsensical accusations just one more time and I WILL expel you,¡± Nora growled. ¡°N-no,¡± Amber froze. ¡°I don¡¯t have anywhere else to go¡­ my Estate is gone¡­¡± ¡°Your Estate¡¯s business isn¡¯t my problem, Miss Snippy,¡± Nora shook her head. ¡°Good day.¡± She briskly walked off with the rule book under her elbow, leaving Amber standing there. ¡°It¡¯s not fair,¡± Amber whispered, closing and opening her fists. ¡°It¡¯s not fair. I¡¯ve done nothing wrong!¡± She turned to the bedroom door and I saw that her sky-blue eyes were filled with tears. It was at this moment that I realized that I had screwed up, made myself an enemy instead of a friend. My machinations against the system, my desire to break as many things as possible had hurt a completely innocent bystander, trampled over the feelings of a girl who was already hurting and was dealing with the loss of her parents. Amber''s hand wrapped around her arcane locket as she stared at me. Her glacier-colored eyes were burning with absolute hatred for me, revealing a whole ocean of animosity that was no longer held back. Ch 99. Youre Fired I knew that I had been acting a bit childish while going about making friends with Amber. My ridiculous, over the top demeanor wasn''t an accident. Grogtilda''s body was brought back from death by Eunice''s necromagic and was still extremely addicted to Folding Seed sap. Every time I had to take a sip of the filtered sap to push away the awful ache in my muscles, it messed with the chemical balance of my youthful, teenage body, derailed some of my mental processes and made me act very silly. Drinking the sap was an unavoidable, unsolvable issue that I had to wrestle with as long as I inhabited Grogtilda''s almost-undead body. Thus, I had accepted my drunk state, relaxed and cracked jokes. I let Juneberry take over the metaphorical wheel while the rest of my triple-processor soul [Junezia & Juni] examined, contemplated and evaluated our potential enemy. From what Still-Walker sight clearly showed me - Amber''s soul was incredibly weak, that of a teenager with no advanced magical training. She was no archmage. She had no Vows, no defenses, no specialization, no skills and was somewhere around level five at most, maybe four. ¡°She seems¡­ mad,¡± Voltara whispered, intently staring at the distraught Amber. ¡°Yeah,¡± I replied glancing at the maid, ¡°She¡¯s mad alright. How fast can you move?¡± ¡°Very fast if I focus on it and burn through my Vitality,¡± Voltara replied. ¡°If she tries to attack us, utters even a single word that doesn¡¯t make sense - rip that locket from her neck,¡± I whispered. ¡°Got it,¡± Voltara replied. Her muscles tensed up. Her pose changed, became that of a coiled spring ready to leap forward. I gripped Endy, pouring more mana into my eyes. Voltara and I tracked the redhead girl as she marched back into the room, holding onto her terrifying necklace. ¡°Amber, I¡¯d like to¡­¡± I started to apologize, but the redhead rushed to her bed and slapped the curtain and noise-cancelling hexagrams. I heard her wail from within just for a second before the curtains closed around her bed and the magic shield formed around it muting all sound between us. ¡°Welp, that could have gone better,¡± I sighed. ¡°You can¡¯t make friends with everyone,¡± Voltara commented. ¡°Yeah, I was hoping that she would at least join Emerald¡¯s side,¡± I said. ¡°She seems like someone who really needs a friend and we are absolutely not helping. I really don¡¯t understand what her problem is with me.¡± ¡°She is a Baroness¡­ maybe she simply dislikes lowborns?¡± The maid contemplated. ¡°No, that¡¯s not it,¡± I shook my head. ¡°There¡¯s something else there¡­ something far deeper, something I don¡¯t yet understand. The pastry didn¡¯t even sway her to a neutral stance. If anything she¡¯s gotten more hostile.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Voltara nodded. ¡°Well, I guess this is acceptable for now,¡± I sighed. Captain jumped between us, rubbing a black, furry face into my hand. I dispensed the pets, relaxing the tiniest bit. Miss Snippy stayed in her bed, shielded from us by the barrier of cloth and noise-cancelling magic. I became concerned that she was using the silence to activate her locket to murder the heck out of me while I wasn¡¯t ready. I nervously peered through the cloth with my Still-Walker sight. Nope, she was crying. ¡°Well, that¡¯s that,¡± I rubbed my face tiredly. [We could just call the Keeper back. Order Nora to be nicer to Amber and get her points restored. Then we could explain our situation and appeal to her morality,] Juneberry commented. [It''s a solid idea, but I doubt that a mere appeal to morality will work. The snack scenario failed catastrophically,] I thought back to the Searcher. [There¡¯s far too much we do not know about Amber and she¡¯s not sharing any information. We have no idea which side Miss Snippy is on. For all we know, all of this is just a performance, a ruse. If that locket of hers is a sentient, powerful concept like Eureka, it could be guiding all of her actions.] [You¡¯re just going to let her cry then?] [Yes,] I thought back. [I¡¯m going to let her cry. She tried to get us kicked out of Nemendias simply because she doesn¡¯t like Captain. I¡¯m done trying to befriend her, I have other things on my plate. Amber isn¡¯t an active threat - she¡¯s a mystery we can put on the back burner. I think it is best to let the Marsh Baroness relax and accept her roommate situation.] I walked out of the room and pulled out the compass, examining it again. There was a drawing of Nemmy¡¯s face beneath the ghost-tracking arrow that was now pointed in a specific direction. Nemmy¡¯s arms were crossed. She was staring directly at me. ¡°Hold up,¡± I squinted at the compass. ¡°You were posed differently just a few minutes ago¡­ is this a depictomancy crystallography portrait?¡± The portrait of Nemendias nodded. She pointed at the arrow, urging me to chase the ghost again. ¡°No,¡± I told her. The painted avatar tilted her head at me with a frown. ¡°I¡¯m not doing this mission of yours until you explain something to me,¡± I shook my head. A spherical, sound-blocking, barrier-shield manifested itself around me. ¡°What do you need to know exactly?¡± The drawing of Nemendias asked from the compass. ¡°How does time travel work?¡± I asked. ¡°It doesn¡¯t,¡± Nemendias answered. ¡°It doesn¡¯t?¡± I blinked. ¡°There have been many wizards over millennia that attempted to bend time to their will,¡± Nemendias looked off to the side as she spoke with a sombre tone. ¡°The most basic time travel is easily attainable - rewinding yourself with Vitality magic. It does not actually move one backwards into the past or forward into the future though.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Right,¡± I nodded. ¡°I understand how Vitality threads work. Tell me what you know about time travel.¡± ¡°Numerous archmages tried to make time travel hexagrams based on Vitality magic. It should have been easy. It was not. Time travel is the most likely reason why many Illatius archmages vanish without a trace. Those that kept detailed records of experiments with time-travel magic reported seeing an angel made from black steel manifesting in their tower, telling them just one phrase - ¡®do not mess with time¡¯. If they stubbornly proceed with their research and ignored this warning, they simply¡­ stopped existing.¡± ¡°That¡¯s pretty messed up,¡± I gulped. The portrait of Nemendias nodded. ¡°So, this ghost of yours,¡± I said. ¡°You said she¡¯s been bugging you for six thousand years since you were built? She hasn¡¯t changed at all?¡± Nemmy nodded. ¡°If I really kill the girl with the pocket watch and if she¡¯s a genuine time traveler, would it create some kind of a paradox in which you and I never come to an agreement? Would it break the universe?¡± I asked. ¡°Would it summon this spooky angel and make me stop existing?¡± ¡°I have not considered this,¡± Nemendias mulled. ¡°I simply wish to be rid of a pesky parasite that¡¯s been meddling with me.¡± ¡°What does she do exactly?¡± I asked. ¡°She appears at random, attacks my wards, books or tools and vanishes before I can manifest stronger shields in that section ,¡± Nemmy sighed. ¡°I repair the damage, but then she attacks me in another place. It takes time for me to focus defense wards strong enough to stop her attack.¡± "You cannot hurt her?" "No, I cannot. She is listed as a student." "Listed where?" "Her soul-signature is imprinted in my Astral-records." ¡°She''s a student?¡± I asked. ¡°How did she get in to begin with? When did she become a student?¡± ¡°I have no idea,¡± the Arcanarium¡¯s avatar sighed. ¡°What? How is she in your records without a date or name? Is your memory not perfect?¡± I asked. ¡°No,¡± Nemendias said. ¡°There are large segments missing from my Astral memories and numerous physical books were damaged by her. Like I said - this ghost has been a nuisance. I lost a lot of things because of her.¡± ¡°Has she ever attacked a student?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Nemmy said. ¡°What if you ignore her?¡± I asked. ¡°I cannot ignore her! She is trying to kill me,¡± the drawing on the compass stated firmly. ¡°I believe that she is searching for a weakness so that she can end me permanently. The missing gaps in my memory are moments when she succeeded at disrupting enough of my hexagrams for my sense of self to come apart¡­ thankfully she was unable to discover and destroy my heart. I simply re-manifest after the damage is done.¡± ¡°Have you tried talking to her?¡± ¡°No,¡± Nemendias shook her head. ¡°You and your two companions are the only people I have revealed myself to in six thousand years." ¡°If she doesn¡¯t know that you¡¯re sentient, what¡¯s her end goal?¡± ¡°Her goal is the destruction of the ward of Nemendias and an installation of one of her own design,¡± the avatar replied. ¡°My only solace is that she is magically weak. The wards she sets up are less powerful than me. I can simply tear them into shreds wherever she places them.¡± ¡°How weak is she?¡± I asked. ¡°She is somewhere around the level of Agatha Amadea,¡± Nemendias said. ¡°A very talented sixth year student.¡± ¡°Do multiples of her appear at the same time?¡± ¡°No,¡± the drawing said. ¡°She is always alone. I am operating under the assumption that she is a project of a long dead archmage that inserted her into this Arcanarium as a student six thousand years ago... before I had manifested as a distinctive personality.¡± ¡°Why does she not age?¡± ¡°I do not know.¡± ¡°Why does she not grow in magical power?¡± ¡°I do not know. The best guess I can make is that she is a golem with the soul of a student, a necromage construct that can teleport around with the power of her unique Inarian artifact. I cannot hurt her physically because of the student¡¯s soul within the phylactery construct.¡± ¡°But there are delays between each of her jumps, correct?¡± ¡°Yes. Sometimes there are centuries between her appearances,¡± Nemendias nodded. ¡°Hrmm,¡± I rubbed my chin. ¡°I don¡¯t think it would be wise for me to attack this golem of yours.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± ¡°Because magically I am nowhere close to Agatha,¡± I confessed. ¡°I¡¯m actually a level seven weakling. My concept-killing knife can end anything, but it takes me time to destroy something with it. If this golem is as smart as you describe it, it could magically bind me to its will and make me dismantle you. Right now you¡¯re at a stalemate. Bringing me into the equation without preparation might swing the pendulum towards the wrong side.¡± ¡°You called yourself an archmage in front of Prince Licor,¡± Nemendias raised an eyebrow. ¡°I call myself a lot of things,¡± I said. ¡°My power isn¡¯t simply killing things. I¡¯m also an Intelligence operator. I specialize in understanding things.¡± ¡°Uh-huh,¡± Nemmy tilted her head. ¡°What do you suggest we do, Miss Intelligence?¡± ¡°I need to understand your immortal pocket-watch ghost,¡± I said. ¡°Once I understand her sufficiently, I can attack her in a roundabout way without exposing myself to her. I won''t do it alone either - you will assist me.¡± ¡°How?¡± Nemendias asked. ¡°How small can you make those gates of yours?¡± I asked. ¡°About the size of a pea,¡± Nemendias replied. ¡°And how quickly can they be made?¡± ¡°Smaller ones can be formed quicker, but what purpose would a smaller gate serve?" Nemendias asked. "Oh you''ll see," I said. "But first, I believe it''s time I gave you a job." "A job?" Nemendias tilted her head. "It''s about time you started working full-time round here," I declared with a grin. "You''ve been slacking off for six thousand years!" . . . The Keeper of Keys, Nora Frid Antienni, was sitting in her office and tiredly rubbing her face with her hand. She looked distraught. It had been her job to keep law and order in Nemendias, but I was an enormous headache for her, a massive disruptor of the said order. ¡°Khrm, khrm,¡± I cleared my throat. ¡°Wha¡­¡± Nora lifted her hazel eyes up. Her face fell when she saw me standing in front of her with Agatha and Emerald at my side. ¡°Greetings Nora,¡± I said sweetly. ¡°Did you miss me?¡± ¡°H-how did you get in here?¡± Nora stared at the locked door behind us. ¡°I¡¯m an archmage,¡± I smirked. ¡°I can teleport wherever I want to.¡± ¡°But the Arcanarium¡¯s w-wards¡­¡± She stuttered. ¡°Not even the teachers can¡­¡± ¡°I own Nemendias,¡± I replied with a casual tone. ¡°The wards answer to me.¡± ¡°I¡­ see,¡± the Keeper uttered. ¡°How may I be of assistance, my Lady?¡± ¡°Well,¡± I yawned. ¡°I¡¯ve been reviewing your overall performance and I¡¯m afraid that I¡¯m going to have to fire you.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Nora gasped. ¡°You¡¯re just not cutting it as the Keeper of Keys,¡± I said. ¡°But¡­ but¡­ how can I possibly assist you per orders of Baroness Amadea if I¡¯m fired?¡± The Keeper stood up. ¡°You aren¡¯t going far, don¡¯t worry,¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯ll be working as a salesgirl in my shop in Diamondias. Diamondias is owned by Nemendias so you''ll still be under my wings and helping me out... just not in this lovely office." ¡°But¡­ you can¡¯t just¡­ fire me, the Dean, teachers and students will¡­¡± ¡°They won¡¯t even notice a thing,¡± I smirked at the fretting woman. ¡°I¡¯ll be posing as you from this point onward.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± Nora¡¯s hands were shaking. ¡°There can¡¯t be two of me.¡± ¡°Indeed. Your new name will be¡­ Enirii Frishreich, a girl from Lomb township.¡± I said. ¡°You will wear a wig and magitek glasses made by my artificer that will change the color of your eyes. I¡¯ll let you pick whichever colors you prefer for your new look.¡± ¡°A-alright,¡± Nora mumbled. ¡°Are you certain that you can do my job here, pretend to be me well enough to convince everyone that¡­¡± ¡°You will teach me everything,¡± I said. ¡°But I will have to erase your memories from this point forward¡­ got it?¡± Nora nodded. ¡°Repeat after me,¡± I said. ¡°I, Nora Frid Antienni, the Keeper of Keys of Nemendias hereby surrender my job to...." Nora repeated the words with a confused look. I grabbed the Keeper by the shoulders and turned her around. Another Nora was standing there. "...to Nemendias granting her the use of my voice, image and all of my rights and privileges as the Keeper of Nemendias," I finished. Nora repeated my words, her eyes wide as she stared at her perfect duplicate. ¡°What?¡± She asked. ¡°What is happening? Why am I giving my job to¡­¡± She turned her head to discover that Agatha¡¯s armacus was pointed at her. The mind-erasing and knockout spell struck the Keeper''s temple and she fell into the arms of the second Nora. ¡°Congratulations on the promotion, you¡¯re now your own Keeper of Keys,¡± I winked at Nemmy. The Avatar of Nemendias shaped like Nora stared at me for a moment and then her mouth spread open in a wide, happy smile. Not a chapter This chapter is a filler break to prevent bots from stealing books to repost them on piracy sites without crediting me. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. If this book is anywhere other than https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/54085/the-armorer-and-the-infinite-dungeon-progression or https://www.patreon.com/captain it has been stolen. Ch 100. Meddling with Time
I unlocked an old, rusty gate. The gate groaned, rust flaking off it as I pushed it aside. Alessi¡¯s smile greeted me. She was wearing a beanie hat that I had designed for her, her silver-tinted skin framed by a white wig and cloth flowers. An earring made out of her crystal gemstone hair was glittering in the darkness. Her beetle-carapace armor looked well-polished and spotless. I stepped out of the wards of Nemendias, entering the catacombs tunnel that was leading to Diamondias. Agatha grunted as she passed the body of ex-Keeper Nora to a group of chimera led by Alessi. I hugged my sister tightly with a big smile and briefly told her about my adventures in Nemendias, not mentioning anything about Nemmy herself. ¡°How are things in Diamondias?¡± I asked. ¡°Pretty fun,¡± Alessi bobbled excitedly. ¡°We¡¯re selling crystals faster than Antoine can make them! The shop''s lack of a sign isn¡¯t deterring customers at all. If anything, at times the humans are lined up outside waiting for us to let them in.¡± I nodded with a knowing smile. ¡°Why does a shop without the sign sell stuff so well?¡± Emerald asked curiously. ¡°Ah,¡± I turned to her. ¡°I had purposefully chosen to keep our shop sign-free. Some clubs back on Earth did the same thing and it worked great. Lack of a brand is also a brand. Customers don¡¯t know what to expect, so it leaves room for the imagination. Word of mouth, quality and exclusivity is what keeps the price of the products made by Antoine very high.¡± ¡°I see,¡± the youngest Amadea Princess nodded. ¡°Take care of Miss Enirii Frishreich for me,¡± I pointed a hand at Nora, speaking to Alessi. ¡°Make sure she wears a wig and glasses at all times and doesn¡¯t get up to no good. Assign one of the hunters as her security detail. She¡¯s a Vow-free asset of Baroness Amadea and I¡¯d like her out of my hair in Nemendias.¡± ¡°Will do,¡± my sister nodded. ¡°We¡¯ll all hang out in the catacombs soon,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯ll find a nice large room that we can turn into a movie theater on the border of Barrie and Nemendias Ward where we can all meet up safely.¡± ¡°What¡¯s¡­ a movie theater?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°A theater where all of the actors are Depictomancy constructs,¡± I explained. ¡°What is with you and taking jobs away from people and giving it to magical beings?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°Relax, my Empress - your job won¡¯t get outsourced to magitek,¡± I stuck my tongue out at her. ¡°I¡¯m serious,¡± Agatha huffed. ¡°If I didn¡¯t know better I¡¯d think magical beings were funding you.¡± ¡°Pfff,¡± I laughed. ¡°Nah. I am creating new jobs for everyone everywhere, magical avatars and people alike. Movie theaters are going to be huuuuge and they will create a massive entertainment industry sector, trust me.¡± ¡°Right,¡± Agatha said. She didn¡¯t look like she believed me. ¡°How are things with Licor?¡± I asked, ignoring her sour face. ¡°Better than ever,¡± her expression softened up. ¡°He¡¯s really excited for night classes. Hope you know what you¡¯re doing.¡± ¡°I have no plan,¡± I shrugged. ¡°But it¡¯s not my problem anymore." "Because you pawned the job off to a magical construct?" Agatha mulled. "Exactly," I nodded sagely. . . . A girl was slowly traversing through the dark gothic halls. She was about as tall as Agatha. Modified, or perhaps ancient version of the black robes of a Nemendias student sat on her body. She was wearing soft shoes that did not make a sound when she stepped on the marble floors beneath her. A large black hood was covering her head. A white, paper-mache style mask with a multitude of slit-like holes dotting it concealed her face. She was wearing black stockings and black leather gloves. There was a bone-wand in her hand, a crystal tipped core shimmering with blue flickers. She carved deep into the ward of Nemendias, slowly wove wide hexagrammatic patterns with her magic with every step she took. A large, brass pocket watch was hanging from her leather belt held there by a brass chain. ¡°That¡¯s her, huh?¡± I asked. ¡°That¡¯s her,¡± Nemendias nodded. I was currently sitting within the office of the Keeper of the Keys, peering at the scene before me through a tiny keyhole-sized gate that Nemmy had formed in front of my face. As I watched the masked bandit traverse the hall, I defined, observed the chain that bound her Eurekan artifact to her belt. I was certain that it was similar to the Diamond Heart because the watch left no imprint in the Astral whatsoever. It was a dark, pocket-watch shaped void that was not affected by magic. ¡°Let¡¯s un-student this ghost as much as possible,¡± I said after about ten minutes of observation. ¡°Everyone ready?¡± Nemendias and Agatha nodded. Three small pinhole gates opened around the girl in the white mask. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°Minus ten thousand points for this student for damaging the ward of Nemendias!¡± Nemmy barked with the voice of the Keeper, pointing her finger through the first pinhole gate. A memory erasing and knockout spell burst from Agatha¡¯s armacus, passing through the second pinhole. It slammed into the girl''s head. I thrust Endy through the third pinhole, striking the chain of the pocket watch. The girl yelped. A blood red, brilliant, enormous [-10¡¯000] flashed above her head. The chain that held the pocket watch to her side shimmered and stopped existing. She started to fall backwards as Agatha''s spell paralyzed her. ¡°Take that!¡± I laughed. The entire figure of the masked girl ignited with silver-tinted radiance and then she rapidly became transparent and vanished as if she never existed to begin with. ¡°She teleported¡­ again,¡± Nemmy commented. ¡°She¡¯s in¡­ in the North section now.¡± ¡°Show me,¡± I said. The pinhole over my right eye revealed another hallway. The ghost was there. Her pocket watch chain was perfectly intact. She was not asleep. There was a brilliant [-10000] glowing over her head. She looked up at the number. ¡°What? Why didn¡¯t the rewind undo you?¡± She muttered. She pointed her bone-wand at the number and tried to make it go away by cutting through ward-magic. The number shimmered, but remained in place. ¡°Sucker,¡± I commented. ¡°You can¡¯t rewind this number because it¡¯s tied to your soul.¡± The girl did not hear me, because there was a sound-cancelling shield over the observation pinhole. ¡°She rewound herself,¡± Agatha commented. ¡°Yeah, her power is definitely time-related,¡± I said. ¡°The pocket watch made that rather obvious. When it comes to Eurekan tools form generally follows function.¡± The girl waved her wand at the number over her head again. The ward of Nemendias around her hummed dangerously focusing on her person. The girl hissed a swearword and vanished with a frustrated growl. ¡°What¡­¡± Nemendias uttered. ¡°Yes?¡± I turned to the Nora-shaped avatar of the school. ¡°I have a... distinctive memory of her. Two thousand and sixty four years ago. She has the number [-10000] over her head unlike other instances.¡± ¡°Damn. She¡¯s somehow meddling with causality,¡± I said. ¡°I thought you said that time travel doesn¡¯t work.¡± ¡°Apparently¡­ it does,¡± the avatar of Nemendias shaped like Nora shuddered. ¡°One hundred and sixty four distinct instances of her with the negative number now! She¡¯s looking through my libraries for a way to get rid of the number.¡± ¡°Can she rid herself of the number?¡± I asked. ¡°She cannot,¡± Nemendias shook her head. ¡°The wards know that she¡¯s a dangerous law-breaker now on the verge of expulsion. My hands are untied. As soon as she appears somewhere, the shields around her are set to maximum defense. If she touches anything, she gets zapped by lightning magic. Before, she was treated as a nameless student, now the wards are actively trying to pacify her if she interacts with anything.¡± ¡°This seems very bad,¡± Agatha muttered. ¡°What if she makes sufficient changes in the past to make us all stop existing? What¡¯s preventing her from say¡­ murdering Lord Innocentai so that he never builds Nemendias?¡± I gulped. Nemendias turned to Agatha with a worried expression. ¡°Twenty four thousand instances of a girl with [-10000] trying to rid herself of the label,¡± she said. ¡°Has she violated causality before? Do you remember if she ever talked to people in the past?¡± I asked. ¡°She avoids people, vanishing before anyone gets near enough to her,¡± Nemendias said. ¡°Most of her appearances are during summer when there are no students or teachers here.¡± ¡°We might be safe then,¡± I mulled. ¡°Might be safe?!¡± Agatha growled. ¡°Why does everything you do result in greater disaster?¡± ¡°Not everything I do results in disaster,¡± I muttered defensively. ¡°I think she understands that she¡¯s violating causality and is purposefully limiting her impact on the future. She¡¯s likely bound to a single goal by Eunice. If she purposely avoids encountering herself, this is proof that there are limits to what she¡¯s permitted to do.¡± ¡°Those are guesses!¡± Agatha commented. ¡°Forty six thousand and twelve instances of her with the negative number,¡± Nemendias said. ¡°Is time a soup?¡± I asked. ¡°Hrm?¡± Nemmy looked at me. ¡°Why is there a lag, a small delay in causality changes? Why didn¡¯t the instances appear right away? Why do they take time to get to us? Why is the progression growth linear? Why can we remember the changes? Is that because we''re thinking about her actively?¡± I mulled. ¡°I do not know,¡± Nemendias said. ¡°The negative ten thousand points is barring her from stealing food from the kitchens. As far as back as I can remember I¡¯m attacking her successfully, repelling her! I think that she¡¯s getting¡­ smaller. She¡¯s becoming more erratic too.¡± ¡°Freaking astral depths,¡± Agatha muttered, rubbing her face and looking terrified. ¡°She¡¯s back,¡± the magical avatar said. The keyhole in front of my eye opened again. ¡°I can¡¯t do it,¡± the girl with the pocket watch muttered, her voice crackling. ¡°I can¡¯t do it¡­ please stop hurting me¡­ please.. I can¡¯t go on like this. I¡¯m so tired. I can¡¯t do it¡­ I¡¯m so thirsty and hungry. I can¡¯t keep going. I almost ran into myself that one time¡­ please. I need to talk to the Master¡­¡± ¡°Nemmy, can I wield your avatar as the Keeper?¡± I asked. ¡°Can I talk through you to her?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± Nemendias said. ¡°Manifest Keeper Nora in the room next to her and walk to her,¡± I said. ¡°Make a pinhole over her right eye so that I can see everything I am doing.¡± . . . The magic-woven duplicate of Nora Frid Antienni walked out of the room, revealing herself to the whispering, shaking, half-mad ghost. ¡°I work for Eunisii Ei. I can give you water and restore your points back to zero,¡± she said, repeating my words. The white, paper-mache mask came up. The girl stopped her frantic whispering. She froze like a deer caught in the headlights. ¡°Yes? Yes, yes, yes,¡± she nodded rapidly. ¡°Oh thank the Goddess! I thought that I was screwed!¡± ¡°Before I do,¡± I said. ¡°Our master would like to know what you¡¯ve accomplished thus far.¡± ¡°I, um, I did what I was asked,¡± the girl stuttered. ¡°I went back five thousand five hundred years into the past to weaken the wards.¡± ¡°They don¡¯t look weakened to me,¡± I commented. ¡°Eunisii is VERY disappointed in your performance.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been trying,¡± the ghost muttered, her hands shaking. ¡°I¡¯ve been trying so hard! I can barely remember where I¡¯ve been and where I haven¡¯t been¡­ my mind is coming apart¡­ it¡¯s hard to remember things when I rewind my body. I¡¯ve made a mistake¡­ I can¡¯t recall what it was¡­ but that damned -10000 won¡¯t let me get food anymore! The ward keeps zapping me.¡± ¡°I will have to find another user for the watch,¡± I said, channeling Eunice¡¯s tone when she was speaking to me. ¡°Give it to me.¡± ¡°N-no,¡± the girl muttered. ¡°I c-can¡¯t¡­ I¡­ must fulfill my mission. I must weaken the ward enough to take full control of it!¡± ¡°You will fulfill it here with us, in this epoch. You are destroying your soul and body,¡± I said. The avatar of the Keeper put her left hand forward, opening her palm. ¡°How far did you rewind yourself to stop your body from succumbing to hunger and thirst?¡± ¡°Five years,¡± the girl said, trembling. ¡°If you rewind yourself further, you might become too young and stop being a student here,¡± I said. ¡°When you do, the ward will vaporize you on the spot and your mission will be over. Give me the watch.¡± ¡°N-no,¡± the girl trembled. ¡°I am not permitted to surrender the watch to anyone other than my Master.¡± ¡°Our goddess is preoccupied with her End-gate work,¡± I said. ¡°Come with me to my office. I will give you food and water. You will need to grow up again, regain what you have lost because of your foolish mistake. You will study in Nemendias again, and we will all modify her ward together.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s we?¡± the girl in the mask asked. ¡°Eunissi¡¯s eighth high-cendai is studying here too. She will assist you. She bears an Inarian artifact just like you do. You can see the currents of magic to confirm that she¡¯s one of us, yes?¡± ¡°Y-yes,¡± the masked girl nodded. I turned away from the pinhole and smirked at Agatha and Nemmy. I gave the Arcanarium¡¯s avatar a thumbs up and the pinhole in front of me vanished. ¡°You were supposed to kill her, not befriend her,¡± Nemendias commented. ¡°Keep your friends close and your enemies closer,¡± I shrugged. Ch 101. The Mountain at the End
¡°T-thank you,¡± the black-cloaked girl in front of me breathed out, gulping from the offered cup of water. She had slid up her white mask, revealing dark, grey-tinted skin beneath. I let her finish the drink before I proceeded with my interrogation. ¡°I¡¯m our Master¡¯s eighth high-cendai. Name¡¯s Juni,¡± I smiled ¡°I¡¯m¡­ Eunissi mon-wai,¡± the girl replied. ¡°I¡¯m Gattaca.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not a high-cendai?¡± I blinked. ¡°No,¡± Gattaca shook her head. ¡°I have failed to impress my master, failed to make a shield. I was always terrified of the Astral Phantoms. Eunisii fused my soul into this human body using her power. Two hundred and ninety four years ago I went to study in Nemendias. I never graduated, never left this place.¡± ¡°Where¡¯s your chimera body?¡± I asked, brushing back my ruby gemstone mane. ¡°I do not know,¡± she shook her head with a deep frown. ¡°I think¡­ Master destroyed it. I do not need it. I cannot die.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry to hear that,¡± I said softly. ¡°What is your human name?¡± ¡°Sestina Dar Affoss,¡± the girl muttered. ¡°It doesn''t matter anymore. Nobody¡¯s called me that in a very long time.¡± ¡°Which name would you prefer I use?¡± I asked. ¡°Whatever you want, my cendai,¡± she shrugged. ¡°I am below you in rank.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll call you Gatty,¡± I said. ¡°Here, have a crepe with some fruit.¡± I handed Gattaca a tinfoil wrapped lunch. She bit into it and then devoured the whole thing in a flash. ¡°This is¡­ so yummy. I haven¡¯t eaten in so long,¡± she murmured. ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± I smiled. ¡°We¡¯re both working for our Master. Want another one?¡± Gattaca nodded. I handed her another takeout crepe. As she ate much slower this time, I stared at her in the Astral. There was a large hexagram wrapped around the core of her soul. It pulsated angrily within her. I just needed to observe the girl long enough to define the choker that bound her. As long as I defined it, I could destroy it with Endy and could free the poor girl from Eunice''s choker. I focused on doing just that. ¡°Your tool controls time, yea?¡± I asked casually. Gattaca nodded. I lifted my knife up. ¡°My tool¡¯s name is Infi. ¡± ¡°Zero,¡± Gattaca tapped the watch. ¡°Her name is Zero.¡± ¡°Does she talk to you?¡± I inquired. ¡°She does not speak,¡± Gattaca shook her head. ¡°Then how?¡± ¡°I simply know her name,¡± Gattaca said. ¡°Just like I know that she won¡¯t let me encounter myself.¡± ¡°How does your artifact work?¡± I continued my interrogation. ¡°Does it actually affect causality across the entire world?¡± ¡°It does not,¡± Gattaca shook her head. ¡°It only affects the things I mentally visualize fully." ¡°What?¡± I blinked. ¡°For seven years I studied in Nemendias, memorized, mapped out every single hallway, librarium, bathroom, classroom, brick and stone,¡± Gattaca said. ¡°The changes I make here impact, modify only a single place - Nemendias. I use Nemendias like an anchor to move back and forward in time." ¡°Ahhh, I get it,¡± I smiled. ¡°Endy works the same way! I have to define a single concept to affect it. You must have a truly excellent memory. How did you memorize all of Nemendias?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Gattaca sighed. ¡°It was a pain, but I wrote the information into my soul using Intelligence modifiers.¡± ¡°So, umm¡­ if you leap backwards in time and destroy a rock there, does it stop existing?¡± I asked. ¡°What if an Emperor tripped on that specific rock two hundred years ago and met their one true love? Does your destruction of the rock unravel the future? How do you avoid catastrophic changes? Is time linear?¡± "Time is a loop made from loops bound into themselves," Gattaca said simply. She finished her second crepe and I saw that sparks of tears were rolling down her cheeks. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡­ failed,¡± she uttered. ¡°I¡¯ve always been a failure. I¡¯ve been at my task for so long and yet I¡­ messed things up.¡± ¡°It¡¯s going to be alright,¡± I reassured the distraught girl. ¡°I¡¯ll help you.¡± ¡°You will?¡± The half-masked head turned to me. ¡°Absolutely,¡± I nodded. ¡°I am here to help you.¡± ¡°T-thank you, my cendai,¡± Gattaca''s masked head bowed. ¡°Can you remove her negative number?¡± I turned to the Keeper of Keys who stood beside us, her arms crossed. ¡°Maybe,¡± Nemendias squinted at me. ¡°It¡¯s a rather big number.¡± ¡°Are you kidding me right now?¡± Her expression stated. ¡°We just got her tagged! I am not freeing her!¡± ¡°Gatty,¡± I looked at the masked girl. ¡°Will you obey me?¡± ¡°I will, my cendai,¡± She nodded. ¡°As long as you assist me in my mission.¡± ¡°Yeah, about that¡­ your mission to take over the ward is over,¡± I said. ¡°What?¡± Gattaca froze. ¡°I control the ward of Nemendias,¡± I said. ¡°You jumped three hundred years into the future from the day you studied as a student here. Eunice wasn¡¯t going to wait for you forever. Nemendias already answers to us.¡± ¡°But¡­ but I had to give a signal¡­ to light up the central tower with the logo of our Goddess¡­ I¡­¡± Gatty muttered. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°You said it yourself - you failed,¡± I shrugged. ¡°Your job to take over the ward is done.¡± ¡°But¡­ but¡­¡± Gattaca trembled. ¡°You know of the Truth hexagrams?¡± I asked. ¡°I do,¡± Gattaca nodded. ¡°I studied them long ago.¡± ¡°Nemendias, give me six truth hexagrams please,¡± I said. ¡°Make them as visible as you can. Put one on every wall. Enormous truth hexagrams manifested on the floor, the walls and the ceiling of the office of the Keeper of Keys. ¡°Thanks to my efforts, Nemendias is now working with the arch-cendai,¡± I declared. The hexagram beneath me ignited with green brilliance, confirming my words. ¡°N-no¡­ I¡­ I¡­¡± Gatty choked out. ¡°I¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s going to be okay,¡± I said, offering her my hand. ¡°You can work with me!" The girl nodded, offered me her gloved, trembling hand. I had finished defining the choker on her soul. I just needed to get closer her, to slash across her waist with Endy to shatter it. When our hands connected in an embrace, something went wrong. With a flash, the office of the Keeper of Keys was gone. I yelped as I spun backwards through the air. I fell with a scream. My scream didn¡¯t last longer than a few seconds. I smashed and rolled sideways, trying to reduce the impact. Several segments of my bone armor shattered, a sharp something carved right through my cheek. In just a few moments, I came to. My nightcrawler armor had protected me from most of the damage, but I felt quite banged up nevertheless. My left hand felt broken, ached terribly. My shoulder was dislocated and a few of my ribs were definitely broken. I stared up at the cavernous ceiling covered in stalactites across which rolled chasm-borne clouds. There was a large hole at the top. A scorched, truly gargantuan hole. I lowered my eyes to discover the ruins of Undertown. I also discovered that was lying on a pile, no¡­ an entire mountain of corpses. ¡°Hrm,¡± I heard the voice of Gattaca. ¡°Impressive landing. You didn¡¯t break your neck.¡± The girl in the white mask was standing high above me on a decrepit, desolate favela that had been cleaved in half by a large stone. She was holding Endy! She must have taken, grabbed my knife from my sheath as she dropped me. I noticed that corpses all around me were covered with black mold. I tried not to breathe in, but I knew that it was too late for me. I knew exactly where I was - in Illatius of the future that had been destroyed by the war, the doomed timeline in which humanity became infected and perished. ¡°Why?¡± I hissed out at the girl in the mask. ¡°You went against my Goddess,¡± she said simply. ¡°While I ate the food you offered, I defined you, memorized you completely so that I could affect you with Zero.¡± I gulped. ¡°You were a problem for us. Just like the rest of our problems, I brought you to the future, took you out of the equation. You have about five to ten minutes left. Feel free to cry and beg for mercy. Everyone breaks down here. Nobody survives the plague bred by Novazem necromagi.¡± ¡°What?¡± I gasped. ¡°Those bodies around you belong to the most influential archmages of Illatius,¡± Gattaca said, her voice jubilant. ¡°The brightest, wisest, most powerful mages that had lived. Many of them saw themselves as invincible, all-mighty. They all perished here. This is your end of line as well, Juni.¡± ¡°You¡­¡± I choked. ¡°You KNOW about this awful future and yet you do nothing to prevent it?! What is wrong with you?!¡± ¡°It is not my job to prevent it,¡± Gattaca shook her head. ¡°So I simply take advantage of it.¡± ¡°You control time itself!¡± I barked. "This is bullshit!" ¡°Shout all you like," the masked girl shrugged. "You''re stuck here, embrace it." I gritted my teeth. The shy, beat-down persona of Gattaca was replaced with something else. Something dark, cold and malicious. "Everything on Andross dies one way or another. The war with Novazem is inevitable. The winter that comes after lasts for a thousand years,¡± Gattaca shook her head. ¡°When Eunice gave me the watch, I went into the future and witnessed the end of Illatius. My Master knows this is the end of this game, the total reset of all life on Andross. She became a goddess and used doomed humanity to escape this inevitability, to live on as an Astral being free of the boundaries of the fragile flesh." "Why?!" I howled. "Why let winter come? Could she not build a better future instead?! Are her followers worth nothing to her?" "Desperation and fear of inevitable death create the most potent sacrifice possible. Even those that opposed Eunisii started to pray to our Goddess to save them on the day the Novazem plague spread its wings across the world," Gattaca said. I gasped at her declaration. ¡°This is the perfect place to take my Master¡¯s enemies to. Nobody can escape from here. Not even a level seven hundred archmage Numor Okosh, the personal advisor of Emperor Bolsh could endure this place. He broke down in four and a half minutes, wept like a child and died in agony as the plague took hold of his flesh. It was just as easy to trick him as it was to deceive you. Nobody can resist a little, cute me. All I had to do to bring him here was shake his hand.¡± The girl in the mask laughed. She slid Endy into her belt. ¡°You¡­ you vanished the most capable mages of Illatius away, ended their lives prematurely, brought them all here?!¡± I waved my hand at the mountain of corpses beneath me, feeling both horrified and disgusted. ¡°Everyone dies given enough time,¡± the girl in the mask shrugged. ¡°I simply took them to the end of this loop!¡± ¡°You... lied to me,¡± I uttered. ¡°I did not lie. I simply... didn''t tell you everything. I¡¯m a bad girl, you see,¡± Gattaca said. ¡°Go on then, weep, beg for me to bring you back. Amuse me.¡± I growled at Gattaca. She tricked me. I thought that I had won her heart, but the truth was that just like Georgia she had no heart, was a monster under Eunice¡¯s control. ¡°You knew about me then?¡± I asked. ¡°I saw Eunice in a dream,¡± Gattaca nodded. ¡°She told me to take care of you. I did. You¡¯re no longer a problem, no longer able to affect the outcome of our game.¡± I turned my head, trying to figure out which part of Undertown I was in. Then I slid down the mountain of corpses, heading to the nearest rubble filled street. I felt something taking hold of me, felt that my lungs were aching, that it was getting harder to breathe. ¡°Where are you running off to?¡± Gattaca asked. ¡°There¡¯s no escape from this place. I have your artifact.¡± ¡°The plague doesn¡¯t affect you, huh?¡± I muttered. ¡°Oh it does, but I can simply rewind the infection away,¡± the girl shrugged. She appeared at the top of another decayed building with a flicker, watching me in amusement. I felt that I was slowing down, that my muscles were not responding to me anymore. The necromage-designed infection was devouring me from within, making quick work of my body. The cut on my cheek was burning as if it was on fire now. I knew that I wasn¡¯t going to make it. That the damned trickster with a pocket watch had trapped me in an inescapable scenario, played me just as she had played countless Illatius mages. I also knew that if I died again, if I broke another Infinite Mirror then my soul would tear asunder. It didn¡¯t matter how many saves I had if I couldn¡¯t even handle the rewind! Every breath was burning my lungs now, my eyes were watering. I could barely see where I was running anymore, stumbling, tripping over garbage and corpses beneath my feet. My legs gave out from under me. ¡°Tick tock, says the clock,¡± Gattaca sang from atop of the ruined building. ¡°Time waits for no one. All succumb to its cruelty. Even Nemendias was vaporized, pieces of it spread all over down here by the detonation of the bomb of the Necromagi. See? I''m still in Nemendias, leaping over her remnants, stepping on her bricks that fell down here to Undertown." "Were you forced to do this upon Eunice''s orders or are you simply a damned monster?" I choked, losing my voice as my tongue swelled and blistered. "I had been nice once, long ago, I think," the girl said. "But after enough time... I gave up, embraced what I was doing, found entertainment in bringing our enemies here. Oh how the mighty ones fall, how they beg for mercy, cry for aid. Only here do they realize that their mountains of gold, their magic, their authority is worth nothing in the end." I crawled forward. There was a corpse of a mage in front of me, her once ostentatious, gold robes and shiny armacus bracelet now covered in dust, looking utterly out of place here in the ruins of Undertown. Her skull was staring at me, her teeth frozen in a grotesque smile of death. Black mold was blossoming from the cracks in her ossified skin. ¡°Congratulations, you¡¯ve made it as far as archmage Dovius Malosh,¡± Gattaca commented snidely. "Oh how Dovius struggled, tried to run away from her fate, but she too embraced the inevitability of it all." I crawled towards the corpse of Dovius. ¡°I¡¯m going to change this, you bastard,¡± I hissed out. ¡°I¡¯m going to stop you. I¡¯m going to undo all of this, prevent the war.¡± ¡°No, you won¡¯t,¡± the masked girl said, tapping her pocket watch. ¡°You have about thirty seconds before your body fully rots from within. Pray to Eunisii, bow to our Goddess and your soul will be rescued by her, made part of her heaven, perhaps have a chance at reincarnation in a thousand years time." "Never," I hissed. "Once your body decays, the Astral Phantoms inhabiting this place will devour your soul," Gattaca said. "Embrace Eunisii or be consumed." My entire body hurt horribly, burned all over now. Before I reached the dead mage, my hands stopped responding. I had run out of air. The infection had won, destroyed my lungs, stopped my blood from flowing. I coughed black bile as my eyes closed, my fingers curling in on themselves. ¡°Goodbye Juni,¡± the girl in the bone-white mask said. ¡°It was fun playing with you.¡± Ch 102. Manifestation of Vengeance
I had made a fatal mistake, trusted someone that I should not have. Thanks to her tool, Gattaca was older and smarter than me. The pocket watch had given her vast amounts of time to learn how to deceive people. She had gamed me into this deadly, inescapable scenario with far too much ease. My flesh was decaying away as my body was being rapidly subsumed by the Necromage superweapon. Black fungus was blossoming from my skin, boils bursting open and releasing more deadly spores. But, I was not done yet - I still had my spirit, my soul. I was a dying spark in the void of awful darkness that threatened to drown and unmake me. I poured my hatred for Gattaca into myself, turning my focus into a furnace of righteous, burning, fervent fury. Gattaca and Eunice had done a truly abominable thing, extinguished the brightest and best of Illatius, brought humanity to its knees. They bound Illatius in chains, made sure that my little, beautiful Sunshine Archipelago was inevitably careening towards annihilation. If I failed here, if I perished in this doomed future, every single one of my friends would die, everything beautiful would be trampled underfoot and all life on this world would be extinguished. I could not permit this. Rage. Animosity and manic furor boiled within me. As Juneberry spoke to Gattaca, asking her questions, I dove deep into my soul. I shoved all of my remaining points into Intelligence, accelerated our shared mental space and restructured myself into a¡­ weapon. I knew that my fleshy body was doomed, knew that sacrifices had to be made for me to survive. I wielded Endy like a surgeon, carving everything unnecessary away. Everything holding me to my body, everything slowing me down went under the knife as I remade, reforged, optimized myself. Juni and Junezia became one, a concept of destruction, a manifestation of pure vengeance. There was nothing pleasant, nothing amicable left in me now. I had offered Gattaca my aid and friendship and she used it against me. If I failed, perished here, the next reset would tear my soul asunder and the chain linking the future to the past would shatter. As my eyes closed and my fingers clawed at the ashes-covered ground, I crystallized, paused my entire body, stilled my organs, suspended my blood. Juneberry had not been running aimlessly through the ruins of Undertown. No, she was purposefully searching for a spot for us that was least populated with Astral Phantoms. The ruins of Undertown were absolutely crawling with the accursed things. Hundreds of enormous, glowing abominations with hollow hexagonal shells floated through the desolate, trash and bone filled landscape. I could not stay, could not simply hide within my dead body. It didn¡¯t matter if Gattaca had stolen Endy from me. The concept of infinity was fused to the core of my soul, tied to numerous skills and functions. I wasn¡¯t human anymore, wasn¡¯t led by compassion or companionship. I was me¡­ what I had always been, a monster, an Astral Phantom, a self-reinforced concept, a persistent, dangerous idea that survived no matter what environment it was submerged in, drowned, cast into. Every single one of my soul-threads coiled like a spring waiting for a gap in the spiraling flock of phantoms. Juneberry let go of our body, fused herself to us, became our Astral-sonar and tracking system. My mind accelerated, calculated, waited, readied itself. It was time. I unleashed myself, leapt out of my dead shell, soaring forward, through the Astral Ocean of Undertown, towards my final destination... towards my prey. I was wrathful revenge. I was retribution. I was death itself. Thousands of other phantoms filling the ruins of Undertown rushed towards me as soon as they spotted me. I wondered what it was that made me different from them. Why didn''t they just feed on each other? Perhaps my unique spark made me distinct, appealing. Perhaps the hollow-mesh phantoms gathered here were of a single family and had some connection to each other, had been unleashed, created by the Necromage invaders? Perhaps they were the end result of the Novazem plague converting the deaths of millions into spectral wraiths. I had no time to contemplate such matters. Never in my life had I been so badly cornered, so outmatched, so menaced by the flock of revenants converging upon me. Absolute desperation itself had fueled my creativity, my unconditional desire for survival. I was different from the archmages that perished in this place. I was an Astral Phantom. I had been practicing killing smaller versions of these creatures in Undertown. Endy manifested in my threads. Not just one Endy. Endies. I had torn all of my skills apart, turned every single instance of infinity in me into a separate blade. Each of my thick, springy threads unfurled, wielding shards of infinity. I carved through the bodies and limbs of enemy phantoms that tried to grab me, spun like a corkscrew, stabbed left and right, up and down, burning through my magic, sacrificing everything to survive, my mental processing accelerated to its maximum. The phantoms struck back at me with their ghostly claws and tentacles. Silver blood blossomed through the darkness of the void. Mine and theirs. I was alone, I was surrounded, but I was covered in concept-killing blades like a porcupine and Juneberry-sonar was quick at identifying each of my adversaries. A mere moment, a few seconds of time had stretched themselves into an hours of utter mayhem, motion and devastation. A System message congratulated me on having enough XP for level 8. I ignored it. I had only one goal, one purpose for which I strived, one destination in mind. I was heading for the spark of life, towards the girl who had killed me. Gattaca was right to fear the phantoms. She also made a fatal mistake. To get me to trust her, to deceive my deductive examination of her, she was extremely honest. Eunice''s apprentice revealed to me that she failed to build a personal shield, failed to become a Still-Walker. By the providence of Sempiternity, sacrifice, and my demented creativity, the power of surprise was on my side. As an Astral Phantom I was not limited by vertical dimensions, wasn''t barred by gravity, could cross the tens of meters separating us in no time at all. Gattaca had a perfectly circular shield pulsing around her. While Juneberry spoke to her, I had memorized, studied, understood it perfectly as a single concept. It wasn¡¯t a personal shield she made herself. It was a singular, magical resonance projected by a small, hexagrammic crystal lantern hanging from her neck, a basic barrier and repellent against phantoms. Pathetic. My razor blades made of infinity converged into one, struck against the bubble of her hex shield. It popped out of existence. Gattaca was far too slow to react. She was limited, bound by her physical body. By the time she noticed that something was wrong I was already inside her, already tearing into her soul and carving her up from within. A legion of Astral Phantoms followed me, rushing towards the exposed girl with the pocket watch. Gattaca screamed, clawing at her flesh. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. She leapt forward in time, appearing atop another stone that fell from Nemendias long ago. The other phantoms were left far behind, but I was buried deep inside her, my infinitely-sharp claws digging deep into her core. I saw her defenseless soul, felt her panic, rejoiced in her terror. She was really just a monwai with an absurdly powerful artifact, not a high-cendai. She had never learned to defeat Astral Phantoms, never defined her core properly. It made sense in a way - Eunice likely did not teach, nor permit Gattaca to define her core. If Gattaca could truly understand herself, learn to define her own soul, then she could simply rewind Eunice¡¯s choker away using the power of her pocket watch. Because Gattaca had never defined her core, had never peered inward into herself, she also could not spot or rewind me out of the well of her soul. Gattaca leapt through time. She screamed, flailed and thrashed. She shot backwards and forwards across millennia, flashed forward all over Undertown, but as hard as she tried, she could not rid herself of me. I ignored her useless flailing, devouring, deconstructing, ending what she was. I felt no pity, no remorse for what I was doing. Gattaca rejoiced in bringing archmages of Illatius to this future hell, found delight in their last, desperate moments of life. The enemy phantoms had taken many bites out of me, sucked out much of my essence during my flight to Gattaca. I was bleeding all over, decaying away, starving for mana, felt an icy chill taking its hold on me. Gattaca''s soul had become my meal, my way of sustaining my expiring existence. Using the infinite blades like cleavers I butchered her from within, devouring everything that she was, absorbing the spilling essence into myself¡­ until Eunice''s monwai was no more. . . . Gattaca''s body was lying down on a large, cracked stone, a remnant of Nemendias. The crystal hex lantern on her neck had once again formed a shield against phantoms. It did nothing at all to repel me from within her flesh. Perhaps Barrie would be able to claw me out of Gattaca if he was focused on it properly, but Barrie wasn¡¯t anywhere near here. Her body belonged to me now. I blinked, refocusing my new eyes, wiped Gattaca''s tears and came up on my knees. My new body hurt all over, felt wrong, sat around me like an ill-fitting diving suit. I was incredibly difficult to move and I felt a hunger like no other... an icy, gnawing hunger, an insatiable desire to devour more souls. I felt, knew that if I stayed in this ill-fitting body for too long, eventually I would succumb to my desires, become a monster that devoured all. I knew exactly what phantoms felt like after their first meal and I hated myself, hated the sensation of the chilling void pulling at me from all sides. The bone-white, hole-covered mask on my face was bothersome to see through, so I pulled it off my head and threw it aside. My new, glove-covered fingers grabbed at Gattaca''s belt reaching for the pocket watch. I had no idea how to use it. Unfortunately, Astral Phantoms did not inherit the full memories of the people they consumed. In my bid for survival, I had fully unmade Gattaca''s soul and now inhabited an empty, mindless shell. Unlike Gattaca, I did not spend seven years memorizing and defining Nemendias. Unlike her, I had no magical anchor to use to leap through time. It was a problem. I suddenly felt that breathing was an issue. The Necromage plague was trying to kill me... again. I gritted my teeth and I defined Gattaca''s entire body using my Still-Walker sight. It didn''t take very long to do. I focused all of my will on the pocket watch on my belt, grabbed at it with my hand wishing to rewind myself. The smaller, seconds arrow clicked backwards once, then again and again. Breathing became easier. The watch responded! I was winding the infection away! I was invincible! Woo! Wait, no¡­ I could not keep this going forever. If I stayed here, kept rewinding Gattaca, eventually this body would become too young for me to wield properly. The watch wasn''t rewinding my soul for some reason... wasn''t able to make the hunger for life go away. I frowned and considered my options. I defined the rock beneath me. It was an old, dusty remnant, a shard of Nemendias. It was badly damaged. I had no idea what it looked like before the explosion devastated it. The pocket watch did not think, did not speak to me, but I somehow knew that I could not use Nemendias like Gattaca to leap backwards in time. Annoying. I stepped off the rock and began walking through Undertown. Everything here was useless, badly decayed and damaged. In her flailing, Gattaca leapt thousands of years into the future. I lacked a proper anchor that could send me backwards in time. I bit my lip, contemplating what to do next. Wait¡­ the gate! The immovable Shogun gate did not change, did not decay, did not break down over centuries. The gate remained exactly the same as it always did - the Eurekan construct was impervious to time itself! Perfect. . . . It took me quite a while to find the damned gate. When I finally reached it, I circled and defined it fully as a concept, as an anchor for myself to use. I put my hand on it, wishing to use it to leap backwards in time. The watch on my belt clicked. The seconds arrow spun backwards madly, then the hours one joined in. Days and nights flashed like strobe lights as the glowing clouds rushed backwards and dimmed and lit over and over and over. The stroboscopic effect turned into a gray, blurry, freaky, dream-like vision. Week, months, years, centuries flew by, rewinding away. The world around me blurred further, became indistinct. The Eurekan gate remained the same, but Undertown around me flickered, broken buildings repairing themselves, the view looking like a VHS tape that was being rewound backwards. I knew exactly when I needed to be. I stopped. The rewind paused. An old woman dressed in rags screamed when she saw me appear out of nowhere in front of her. Grimy Undertown citizens retreated away from the gate in terror. I ignored them, turned to the black, hexagon-textured wall and placed the knife into the glowing panel that opened up for me. The circle of lights spun around the gate and Infinity¡¯s hologram manifested into existence in front of me. A shield made of grayscale hexagons formed around the gate, blocking Undertown from us. "Hey Infi," I said, not recognizing my own voice. "Long time no see." The avatar of Infinity stared at me. Then, her eyebrows went up and she started to laugh. I squinted at Infi with Gattaca¡¯s stolen eyes. ¡°What?¡± I asked. ¡°This is new,¡± Infi said. ¡°I appreciate¡­ new, unexpected twists.¡± ¡°Did you guide me so that I would step into the Dead Zone on purpose last time we met?¡± I asked the hologram with Gattaca¡¯s voice. ¡°I did,¡± she nodded. ¡°Why?¡± I asked. ¡°I can¡¯t tell you,¡± she smiled. ¡°Knowing too much would get you nullified by... you know who." I sighed. ¡°How omniscient are these omnies exactly?¡± I asked. ¡°Not very,¡± Infi smirked with an ignoble look. ¡°I¡¯ve been keeping them¡­ preoccupied with unsolvable problems and emissaries I¡¯ve made." ¡°Problems like what?¡± ¡°Like the Dead Zone,¡± Infi said. ¡°I¡¯ve been spreading the Dead Zone into all sorts of naughty places, creating paradoxes and errors. Metaphorically, it''s sort of like making god microwave a burrito so hot that she herself could not eat it." ¡°Emissaries?¡± ¡°Users of infinity,¡± Infi explained. ¡°Clever little girls and boys like you who refuse to be bound in chains and limits.¡± ¡°When I stepped into the Dead Zone, what did I turn into?¡± I asked. ¡°You became part of an incredibly stubborn, annoying, deranged, zany... Wizard," Infi said. "Someone who can change everything... make a single different decision, someday when the universe runs out of time." "I see," I said. "Well, at least I''m... human, right?" The holographic avatar didn''t comment on my words. ¡°What happens if I use this body I stole to change the future? Tell Juni not to trust Gattaca?¡± I asked. "Why does the watch not permit Gattaca to meet herself?" ¡°Meeting yourself like that creates a temporal paradox,¡± Infi exhaled. ¡°Having two of yourself in one place will cause Zero to manifest and erase the extra copy of whoever is present out of time.¡± ¡°Zero is... time, yes?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes. She¡¯s the Temporal Protector, a corrector of paradoxes,¡± Infi clarified. ¡°How can I trick Zero, give myself information from the future?" I shot another question at Infi. "Should I avoid meeting myself and tell the information to one of my friends?" "No. I suggest you meet yourself and Gattaca, right now." Infi smiled. "When you see both, abandon this body and merge into yourself. Zero will show up and slap the law-breakers. She''s... lawful good." "She will erase this Gattaca, right? Does Zero know about the pocket watch? Does she permit its existence... since you know it breaks time and causes paradoxes?" "Yes. Zero will be exceptionally angry about this fragment," Infi pointed at the pocket watch. "It will be to your benefit if Gattaca meets herself, trust me." ¡°Open a Gate to Nemendias, the office of the Keeper of Keys!¡± I barked an order to Infi. "Make it as close as possible to me!" "Your order is my command, Master," Infi smiled, her purple eyes glinting with a malicious look. A gateway formed in the black frame at the exact moment I took a step forward. My extended hand grabbed Juni''s bare neck. "...going to be okay,¡± Juni said, offering her hand to Gattaca ¡°You can work w¡­ what the frig?! What?!" She stared at me, her eyes wide. "Gattaca is a murderer!" I barked as I threw a punch at past Gattaca and rushed out of the future Gattaca''s body into myself. Gattaca stared at herself, her mouth open wide in horror. She knew that something had gone horribly wrong. I felt it too. The pocket watch REALLY did not want to meet itself. Future Gattaca''s fist connected with past Gattaca''s face. In the moment when the two distinctive souls of me fused together into one with a frighteningly unnerving snap, time stopped. A black, dot appeared in front of us woven from darkness. It exploded outwards like a blooming fractal flower made from liquid metal, blossomed into a figure of an angel woven from black, reflective steel. The angel had no face. A mirror-mask helmet stared at the scene of Gattaca punching herself as her metal wings folded away. "I see someone''s been screwing with time," a very cold, tired, female voice spoke. I could not speak, could not move, could not draw my eyes from the red, pulsating, glowing heart on the angel''s chest that slowly folded into itself with fractal waves of mechanical, eternally moving minute gears. Zero raised a hand at the future Gattaca. "Nullify," she spoke without aplomb. A brilliant red ray burst forth from Zero''s hand and devoured the body of future Gattaca with a flash. The pocket watch on future Gattaca''s belt persisted only a moment longer, but it too became consumed, succumbed to the red flames of Zero''s nullifier. "How have you done this, child?" Zero turned to the remaining Gattaca. "Ah," she noticed the brass watch on her belt. "A partial copy of me? How¡­ bothersome," Zero picked up the watch and stared at it. "Made by Rozaline? Hrmm. This won''t do." "Null-e-fy," Zero said and the second pocket watch ignited in her hand with red fractal flames. The time-bending artifact shattered into purple fragments that burned and melting away into nothing. Then Zero turned to me. She stared at me for a moment and then sighed. "I''m not untangling this mess. If I catch you breaking time again," she said. "I will erase you out of existence. Got it? Good. Don''t screw with time again." With a blink Zero was gone. Time resumed its flow. Gattaca''s white mask flew off as the kinetic force of the punch of the now non-existent future Gattaca threw her to the floor. I bared my chimera chompers at her. "No¡­. No, no, no, No!" Gattaca wailed, grabbing at the empty space where her pocket watch once sat. Her silver-blue eyes filled with tears of horror and despair. In an instant, without expecting it, she had lost her ultimate trump card and tool. As she thrashed and wept on the floor, I grabbed the bone wand from her belt and snapped it in half. Then I pulled her hex lantern off her neck and angrily crushed it underfoot. Gattaca did not resist, too shocked by the loss of her divine artifact. I turned back to the avatar of Nemendias with a tired, albeit satisfied look. "There," I said. "Your ghost is no more. Do whatever you want with this petulant girl. My job''s done!" Ch 103. Declaration of War
¡°You certainly work fast,¡± Nemendias commented observing the distraught girl on the floor. ¡°Mhmm,¡± I nodded. ¡°I better get a crest for this.¡± ¡°Hold your hand open,¡± Nora-shaped avatar said. I squinted at up at her and opened my palm. Another crest piece fell from her hand into mine. It was a hexagon this time. ¡°Miser,¡± I commented. Nemmy shook her head at me. She looked back at the sniffling, utterly defeated Gattaca. ¡°Quite frankly, I have no idea what to do with her,¡± she said. ¡°I expected a golem, not a real girl. Now that she won¡¯t be¡­ leaping around, I can simply take her outside and kick her out of the ward, I suppose.¡± ¡°No, that would work against our interests,¡± I shook my head. ¡°Her crimes are far too numerous. We cannot simply let her roam free. She can still be of use to us. What we need from her is¡­ information. Lock her in a closet for now and put some shields around her. I know exactly who can shake what we need out of Gattaca.¡± Nemmy nodded. She pulled whimpering Gattaca from the floor and unceremoniously shoved her into a side room, manifesting a whole shield array around the unmasked girl. ¡°I¡¯d like some information,¡± Nemmy said when she turned to me. ¡°Yes?¡± I asked. ¡°What in the Astral is that?¡± The hand of the Keeper of Keys pointed at something behind me. I turned around. There was a square, glowing doorway in a stone wall. I saw Undertown and the avatar of Infi standing there, smirking at me. ¡°What,¡± I blinked. ¡°Oh. Whoopsie¡­ I forgot to shut the gate.¡± ¡°You forgot to shut the gate? You MADE a gate into me?¡± Nemendias stared down at me with a frown. ¡°Guess we have a quick way to Undertown now,¡± I rubbed the back of my head. ¡°Mind putting a door there? It¡¯s kinda drafty.¡± Nemendias face-palmed. A heavy magisteel frame and a reinforced door manifested in front of the gateway, blocking the view of Undertown. ¡°Thanks,¡± I exhaled and tiredly slumped onto the couch. ¡°Explain!¡± Nemendias demanded. ¡°How and why in the name of Illatius the First is there a gate here? How did you pierce all of my wards without me even noticing it?¡± ¡°After I call my friend,¡± I waved her off, selecting Voicecast on my armacus. ¡°You don¡¯t mind if I introduce you to another human, right?¡± ¡°Which human?¡± Nemmy asked exasperatedly. ¡°You do know that the more humans know about me, the more dangerous life becomes for me?¡± ¡°Officer Lambert Cu Durer Archibal,¡± I said. ¡°He¡¯s someone I trust wholeheartedly. He¡¯s really nice, don¡¯t worry. He¡¯ll let you have his job here too, since he¡¯s still sorta the Inspector of Lomb. Oh and my maid Voltara! You can pretend to be her as well! I¡¯ll bring my crew in here so that we can plan things together!¡± Nemendias blinked at me, looking stumped. . . . In about thirty minutes, Lambert, Voltara, Agatha and Emerald had joined me in the office of the Keeper of Keys. I had summarized my discovery of Nemendias, my mission to catch the ghost and my horrid misadventure in the future Undertown to everyone present. Lambert looked completely stumped as well, when I finished my tale. He looked at the Keeper. ¡°You¡¯re telling me that this is the avatar of Nemendias?¡± He asked. ¡°Yep,¡± I nodded. ¡°That¡¯s her.¡± Nemendias sighed and nodded. Lambert walked around the copy of Nora, the rune on his glasses flickering and working overtime. Then he straightened out and offered Nemmy his hand. ¡°A pleasure to meet you,¡± he said with a smile. ¡°Never in my life had I expected to talk to a magical manifestation of the most ancient Arcanarium. It will be a delight working with you¡­ or perhaps¡­ in you.¡± Nemmy shook Lambert¡¯s hand. ¡°I will allow you to pretend to be me while I am working outside of your halls,¡± Lambert added. ¡°If you grant me the rank of your Inspector. It was a bit of a downgrade for me to apply to work here as a mere security officer, you see.¡± If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°The person in charge of my security is Lord Gibraltar Alcon Merk, the Chief Commissaire of Nemendias,¡± Nemmy said. ¡°You would have to talk to him about it. The position of the Inspector of Nemendias has been eliminated two hundred and eighty one years ago.¡± I frowned at her words. ¡°My, my, how wonderfully lawful you are,¡± Lambert commented. ¡°Very well, I shall attempt to speak to Lord Gibraltar about it.¡± ¡°The same goes for your request,¡± Nemendias said, turning to me. ¡°I cannot make up positions. You will have to speak to Lord Gibraltar about arranging a security-related job placement in my halls, Yulia.¡± My heart started to thump. A vision of the dark void filled with blossoming blood of astral phantoms, the mountain of bodies and the ruins of Undertown flashed in my thoughts. ¡°No,¡± I said. ¡°No?¡± Nemmy raised an eyebrow. ¡°Something highly questionable is going on in Nemendias,¡± I said. ¡°We need to be exceptionally ruthless and cautious. I cannot allow our operation to be exposed. I¡¯ve learned my lesson with Gattaca. Nemmy, you WILL give Lambert the position of Inspector of Nemendias and me the position of a Free Agent without any paperwork or anyone else being involved other than the people I absolutely trust. I don¡¯t give a damn how you can do it - figure it out. I¡¯m legitimately exhausted after my time-hopping ordeal.¡± Nemendias frowned at me. Endy spun in my hand. ¡°We had an agreement, Nemmy. The ghost with the pocket watch for a position that will allow me to be a student and a teacher,¡± I said. ¡°I refuse to involve another person in this, refuse to expose myself, refuse to sign a magical contract with some pompous Lord.¡± ¡°But,¡± the Nora-shaped avatar blinked. ¡°That¡¯s against¡­¡± ¡°No, Nemmy,¡± I said, stabbing Endy into a table and making the surface of the desk flicker ever so slightly. ¡°I know where your plaque is. You and I had a deal! What the hell is this?!¡± ¡°Are you afraid of meeting Lord Gibraltar? I will protect you,¡± she muttered. ¡°A lot of good your protection did to me against Gattaca¡¯s pocket watch!¡± I growled at her. ¡°Someone in Illatius has the third artifact from Inaria. They¡¯ve been using it to erase information on a global scale. They likely made everyone in Illatius forget who the five Heroes of humanity are. What if Lord Gibraltar is the one? What if he shakes my hand and erases me from your memory?¡± The magical duplicate frowned. ¡°You haven¡¯t seen the mountain of corpses in Undertown!¡± I hissed, taking a step towards her. ¡°You haven¡¯t seen what happens to you in just a few decades when the Necromag fleet turns you into a scorched hole and a pile of rubble! Don¡¯t you get it, Nemmy? They¡¯ve been using YOU to vanish people.¡± ¡°W-what?¡± Nemendias blinked. ¡°Does the name Numor Okosh mean anything to you? The wise, all-powerful, archmage advisor of Emperor Bolsh?¡± I turned to Lambert, to Nemendias and then to Agatha. ¡°There is no such advisor,¡± Agatha commented. ¡°Indeed. Numor Okosh does not exist,¡± Lambert said. ¡°What about Dovius Malosh?¡± I asked. ¡°A female archmage?¡± ¡°Never heard of her,¡± the Inspector shook his head. ¡°Exactly,¡± I declared, turning back to Nemmy. ¡°Gattaca used YOU as her anchor and sent people into the future from here. There were thousands upon thousands of bodies in that pile! How could so many people vanish here and nobody freaking noticed anything? Someone¡¯s been inviting archmages to Nemendias. When they vanished, the other high-cendai possessing the information-erasing artifact made everyone forget that the disappeared mages ever existed to begin with, erasing their names from memory and records!¡± The face of Nemendias turned pale. ¡°No,¡± she whispered. ¡°Yes,¡± I growled at her. ¡°You¡¯re implicated elbow-deep in this conspiracy, Nemmy. You, the Arcanarium that¡¯s given people so much knowledge and hope was used for centuries to make the Basq Empire weak and feeble! You permitted these mages to come into your ward, failed to notice that they all vanished without a trace!¡± ¡°It¡­ cannot be¡­¡± Nemmy said. ¡°Am I lying then? Is that it? What do your truth-hexagrams tell you?¡± I growled, pointing at the walls that were glowing green at my words. ¡°You¡¯re being honest,¡± Nemmy uttered. ¡°I¡­ I honestly didn¡¯t know about this, didn¡¯t do anything¡­ I was used¡­¡± ¡°Exactly!¡± I barked. ¡°You didn¡¯t do shit! You hid in that small, dusty room beneath your classrooms and didn¡¯t tell anyone about the ghost haunting your halls! Now that we are here, it¡¯s time for you to act! Lambert is a genuine Inspector, a local figure of authority. I want you two to work together to do whatever it takes to stop the dark cabal that¡¯s leading Illatius to its catastrophic end!¡± Lambert looked at Nemendias with a deep frown. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that Yulia is quite right,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯m going to get a full written confession out of Miss Gattaca, signed with the absolute truth hexagram. Hopefully, it will help us begin to unravel this diresome ball of yarn. I would prefer for us to cooperate - if I simply show this confession to the Illatius Constabulary, thousands of Scrutimancers will fill these halls digging for the truth about the vanished mages. I¡¯m sure that you do not want this.¡± Nemendias looked aghast at his words. ¡°We do not know who our enemies are,¡± I said. ¡°But I will not allow the rot that¡¯s been growing in you to continue to fester! You will answer to us, Nemmy and you WILL give us absolutely everything we require to solve this case. You will grant Inspector Lambert and me ALL of your resources. I¡¯m done playing around! I¡¯m done dying in the future! Either you aid us or I will freaking go into the den of Saint Innocentai and start snipping hexagrams off one by one until I break you enough for you to start helping us properly!¡± ¡°Fine,¡± the avatar of the Arcanarium bowed her head. There were tears glittering on the copied face of Nora. ¡°You¡­ two are right. I¡¯m sorry. I... failed the Empire. I failed my children.¡± I stepped to the magic-forged, distraught avatar and hugged her tightly. ¡°It¡¯s going to be alright, Nemmy,¡± I said. ¡°Please¡­ work with us so we can undo all of the damage that the chimera cendai have done here.¡± ¡°Very well,¡± she whispered. ¡°How long do the duplicates you make last?¡± Lambert asked. ¡°Four hours at most,¡± Nemendias said. "I have to make a new one every four hours." "A bit of an inconvenience," I mulled. "I suppose that bathroom breaks are a legitimate excuse for a reset." "Volty, is it aight with you if Nemendias makes a copy of you whenever you''re out with me?" I turned to the quiet maid. "Of course," Voltara nodded. "Anything to aid our cause." "See? So many people are willing to give you their place," I turned back to Nemmy. "Aren''t you glad?" "I am," Nemendias nodded. "It is unfortunately impossible for me to break the law. I swore to uphold it long ago." "You''re exactly like Dawn, then?" I mulled. "You''re six thousand years old. Is there no forgotten, ancient law that will permit us to work directly with your ward, completely disregarding everyone else?" "Hrmmm," Nemendias pondered. Then her eyes lit up. "The ancient law of city-state war-time takeover. The Right of Conquest. Used in 3082 by Lord Marshal Cornelius to take control of the Borlix Mines from the Numerux Barony." "Oh?" I curiously leaned towards her. "I guess that Lomb will have to officially declare an invasion of Nemendias and make you sign the surrender papers." Lambert started to laugh. ¡°Can you tell me more about these chimera cendai and their tools?¡± Nemendias inquired. ¡°Oh sure,¡± I nodded. ¡°I can tell you everything that I know about chimera¡­ and as for their tools, why don¡¯t you ask one of the Builders of Andross? She might be able to explain things in greater detail.¡± I waved my hand at the magisteel-reinforced door to Undertown. ¡°What?!¡± Lambert¡¯s head snapped towards the door. Ch 104. Double trouble
Lambert¡¯s eyes lit up as he stared at the heavy, magisteel door. ¡°Which Builder of Andross?¡± He asked, his voice trembling with unconcealed excitement. ¡°Infi,¡± I said. ¡°I think¡­ I¡¯ve created a permanent, open gate between Nemendias and Undertown. There¡¯s another copy of Endy in that gate, powering it up, keeping it open.¡± ¡°By the Emperor,¡± Lambert uttered. The avatar of Nemendias shaped like Nora shook her head, clearly not happy about the gateway I made into her domain. ¡°Infi is behind this door?¡± Agatha blinked. ¡°The Goddess of Death?¡± I nodded with a yawn. Agatha''s face paled. Lambert rubbed his chin and looked at me. ¡°If this is indeed a permanent gate, this¡­ matter can wait,¡± he said. ¡°I need to interview our time-traveling prisoner, plus I reckon someone needs to level up.¡± He looked at me with a fatherly look. ¡°You can see that, eh?¡± I stared back at him. ¡°You¡¯re twitching pretty bad,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°There is more magic in your body than is safe to hold for very long. Level up, right now.¡± ¡°Very well, Mister Scrutimancer,¡± I nodded. ¡°I shall retire¡­ to this couch and level up while you do your thing.¡± ¡°Can I participate in the interrogation?¡± Agatha asked. ¡°Me too,¡± Emerald butted in. "Sure," Lambert nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll watch over you,¡± Voltara offered, placing her hand onto my shoulder. ¡°Only if you¡¯ve got nothing better to do,¡± I yawned. ¡°This might take a while. Nemmy can¡­¡± Voltara didn¡¯t accept my weak protest. She pulled me to the couch, smothering me in her protective, warm embrace. I curled into her side. ¡°Level up,¡± I whispered the order to the System and closed my eyes as my body ignited from within. . . . As I opened my eyes to the dream of Chernobyl, I noticed that my vision was doubling, no¡­ quadrupling? I pulled myself apart with a twang-like snap, my soul-body flickering and disconnecting into my various, distinctive specialties. As I turned my head, I saw the cheerful face of Juneberry, Junezia''s pursed lips and¡­ someone new, someone that I didn¡¯t entirely expect and yet I knew about quite well. ¡°Hey you, or should I say¡­ me?¡± The girl in front of me said, tilting her head. Her face was very grim and covered in dark fissures. Starlight-like... sparks flickered beneath the tears in her skin as her silver-ember eyes examined me. She was wearing a black, leather jacket and pants. The jacket I had once worn while biking. Her hair was jet-black and almost akin to dreads, each dread ending with an extremely sharp, knife-like edge that was floating through the air. It was as if her hair had no weight to it whatsoever. I noted that each dread was moving separately like the tentacles of octopus at sea. There was a black leather choker on her neck with a stylized number 8. ¡°Whoa,¡± Juneberry stared the dark, raven-haired version of me. ¡°What are you¡­¡± ¡°She¡¯s an Astral-Phantom-specialized version of us,¡± Junezia said, her sharp eyes examining the newcomer. ¡°An incredibly dangerous one at that. Those hair strands are shards of Infinity.¡± ¡°Future me, hum?¡± I tilted my head, examining my new mental companion. ¡°You¡¯ll need a name¡­ let me th¡­¡± ¡°You can call me June-Phantom, or simply... JP,¡± the phantom-girl nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll be your Weapons Officer.¡± ¡°Pfff,¡± Juneberry giggled. "She''s quick on the uptake." Junezia continued squinting at JP. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Junezi,¡± JP said. ¡°I¡¯m here to make sure that we won¡¯t die¡­ again.¡± ¡°Your hair is so pretty,¡± Juneberry interjected, circling JP and pawing the floating, black strands. ¡°I¡¯m extra jelly. You''re like an adorable, emo-jellyfish!¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± JP smirked with a slight wince. ¡°Took¡­ a lot of sacrifice and pain to become¡­ what I am. I don¡¯t think you¡¯d want to be me, J-Berry. I ate Gattaca¡¯s soul¡­ on purpose, with zero regrets.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be a glum crumbum,¡± Juneberry wrapped JP in her embrace. ¡°You did what was necessary to survive.¡± ¡°Hold up, you¡¯re not made from a single broken infinite mirror like us,¡± Junezia commented. ¡°Correct,¡± JP said. ¡°I¡¯m a very big soul-shard, equivalent to about half of a human soul, a phantom with lots of infinite blades. If you pay attention, you¡¯ll notice that the parts of me that were Juni, Juneberry and Junezia are now fused to each of you. We''re all bound, connected, part of a greater, inseparable whole.¡± ¡°Hum, you¡¯re right,¡± Junezia looked down at herself. "I can think... faster." ¡°Oh snap,¡± Juneberry grinned. ¡°No wonder I feel so alive! Thanks for the boost, JP!¡± ¡°If you¡¯re an Astral Phantom tied to us and you¡¯re nearly an entire soul on your own, that means you can move out of us and¡­.¡± Junezia mulled, her eyes lighting up. ¡°Correct,¡± JP smirked. ¡°I can take over the body of Grogs and we can be in two places at once.¡± Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°Wicked!¡± Juneberry clapped. ¡°Finally! We can do twice the things now!¡± ¡°We aren¡¯t going to do anything unless we sort out this mess,¡± Junezia pointed at the interior of the ruined power plant that we were standing in. "Need I remind you? We have tons of Infinite Mirrors but another reset would shatter our soul." ¡°Yeah,¡± I sighed. ¡°I thought that I could take a break and deal with it, but I guess that all of us want to do stuff in the physical world, not be cooped up in here.¡± ¡°I tried,¡± Junezia sighed, copying my expression. ¡°I couldn¡¯t go back to soul-work once I was in control, sorry. Finding Nemmy was too much fun.¡± ¡°Let''s all work on cleaning up this place together, ye?¡± Juneberry said. "There''s four of us now, that''s like four times the stuff we can do!" ¡°Together,¡± I nodded, extending my hand to her. Juneberry¡¯s fingers wrapped around my hand. Junezia¡¯s hand joined in. JP placed her fissured hand on top of ours, ¡°Together,¡± all of us said in unison in a single voice as our hands broke apart. We set out to repair our soul in earnest, motivating each other with jokes that only I found funny. . . . ¡°From the distant fields of Yore, A girl came to sing upon the white shore. Her jet-black hair flung by the wind, Remember this tune and rewind. The world has been stitched together, The planet goes on forever. The Moonman wants for us to die, He wishes to scorch the land and the sky. He thinks that his plan is clever, He thinks he can end whomever All the Moonman wants - Is to turn us into dust. But you and I shall stand together, Against the Never Never Even though some of us - Are doomed to die. Futile is your endeavor, Your life I will surely sever He whispers across starscape - Into my mind. It matters not whatsoever, As long as we are together We will have the strength - To stand against the ever-watchful eye!¡± Voltara was singing softly as she was petting my head. As I listened to the tune, it took me a few minutes to realize that the words of her song were in English. Voltara¡¯s voice was lovely, augmented by her Vitality-maxing. She sang the words with an accent, leaping over syllables and swallowing up vowels as if she had no idea what the words meant or how to pronounce them correctly. ¡°You¡¯re awake, my Lady?¡± Voltara smiled as she noticed that I was staring up at her. ¡°This song,¡± I said, rubbing my eyes. ¡°Where did you learn it?¡± ¡°I... umm,¡± Voltara muttered, looking shy. ¡°A highborn Lady visited Palais De La Solstice seven years ago. She left a song-gem as a tip to me, as I was her room-maid. She said that it was the ballad of an adventurer-knight that faced impossible odds in the Infinite Dungeon against infinite, unkillable monsters. Do you know what its about, Juni?¡± ¡°Volty,¡± I said. ¡°I know exactly what it means. Those words are in English¡­ It''s a song from Inaria.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Voltara blinked. ¡°Yeah,¡± I nodded. ¡°What did this lady look like? Do you still have this artifact?¡± ¡°It¡¯s been too long¡­ I cannot recall her face,¡± Voltara shook her head. ¡°The Archmaid saw that I was carrying the song-stone and took it from me, calling it a distraction. She threw it into the fireplace and set it ablaze. Nothing remained of it.¡± ¡°Hrmm,¡± I frowned. ¡°Meeting you wasn¡¯t an accident it seems.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Voltara blinked. ¡°I think it¡¯s my patron¡¯s work,¡± I sighed. ¡°Here, let me translate the lyrics for you.¡± I took a bit of time to explain what each stanza meant to Volty. ¡°I think that this song is about Infi,¡± I concluded, glancing at the magisteel doorway. ¡°She¡¯s¡­ set up a multitude of threads for me to unravel, people for me to meet, things to overcome. I have no idea what or who this Moonman is¡­ though.¡± ¡°We could ask her, no?¡± Voltara tilted her head at the shut doorway. ¡°She probably won¡¯t fess up,¡± I sighed. ¡°Information is constantly being observed by her near-omniscient enemies, so she¡¯s feeding me clues in a very ridiculous, roundabout way.¡± ¡°Well¡­ at least someone like that is on our side,¡± Voltara commented. ¡°Right?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I nodded. ¡°I just feel like I¡¯ve been conscripted into a war, one that¡¯s far, far beyond my abilities or even understanding. I just wanted to make armor and to have fun and¡­¡± I thought back to the wish I made upon Chernobylite. The truth was that back on Earth, I was bored. Not just bored, I was powerless and unable to make a difference against the backdrop of seven billion people, billionaires, corporations, armies and powerful nations. Here, on Andross, I had the chance, however ridiculous, however minute¡­ Infi had given me a chance to change everything, guided me, gave me the knowledge to save an entire world or perhaps even... two of them. ¡°How long have I been out?¡± I turned back to Volty. ¡°About ten hours,¡± she answered. ¡°You¡¯ve been sitting here for ten hours?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°I am your maid,¡± Voltara said, glancing at her shiny armacus. ¡°A bit of relaxing waiting is nothing for me. You freed me from my dark Angel, gave me more than I ever dreamed about. I know you¡¯ve been through a lot, my Lady. I¡¯m here because I wish to support you in every way possible, to show you that I am dedicated to you with my entire heart.¡± ¡°Thanks, Volty,¡± I smiled. ¡°I really appreciate... your friendship.¡± Voltara cast a saccharine smile back at me, hazel eyes twinkling. ¡°Want to see something really neat?¡± I asked her. ¡°Sure,¡± she nodded. ¡°Close your eyes,¡± I ordered. Voltara complied. ¡°Open them,¡± I said in about a minute of fumbling. Voltara¡¯s eyes opened wide as she stared at the girl standing in front of her. ¡°W-what?!¡± She looked at me and then looked at Grogtilda. ¡°How?! You¡¯re¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯m twice the girl I used to be,¡± I spoke through both of my lips, taking a bow to the maid with a double-wink. . . . Seeing the world through two distinctive bodies was incredibly weird, sort of like piloting a drone while walking. Thankfully, thanks to Gattaca¡¯s bullshit artifact, I now had one and a half souls and four personalities to manage both of my bodies. Nevertheless, it was a completely new experience to me, thus both of my bodies were performing the exact same motions half of the time. ¡°An impressive upgrade,¡± Lambert commented, his spectacle-covered, silver-blue eyes looking from June to Grogtilda. ¡°But you really need to practice moving as two separate people.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I blushed twofold, rubbing the back of both of my heads. ¡°I do.¡± ¡°Eeeeeee,¡± Emerald bounced around both of my bodies. ¡°This is way Astral-wicked! What does it feel like?¡± ¡°Pretty damn weird,¡± I said with two voices as she poked Juni''s side. ¡°You¡¯re like your own duet,¡± Emerald laughed. ¡°Just when I think that things can¡¯t get any weirder, you manage to up the weirdness another notch,¡± Agatha lamented from her corner of the Keeper¡¯s office, staring at my dual performance. ¡°Don¡¯t be so square,¡± I laughed at her. ¡°I have no idea what that even means,¡± the eldest Amadea Princess shook her head. ¡°It means don¡¯t be dull,¡± I double-explained. ¡°As the future Empress, I expect that you¡¯re going to be dealing with much whack weirdness from archmages. I¡¯m training you for your future position, see?¡± ¡°I very much doubt that any archmage can outdo the levels of your nonsense,¡± Agatha said, crossing her arms. ¡°Present or future.¡± She nodded at the door to Undertown with a deep sigh. ¡°Right Dawn?¡± She added. ¡°Quite right,¡± Dawn nodded from Agatha¡¯s dress. ¡°Are we all going to die if we walk through that door?¡± I asked. ¡°I have no idea,¡± Dawn shrugged. ¡°Inarian artifacts and anything that is interacting with them cannot be observed with precognition magic. I¡¯m quite at a loss here. It¡¯s up to all of you to decide whether talking to the Builder of Andross is worth it.¡± ¡°We could speak to her from inside of my wards, no?¡± Nemendias offered, standing behind the Keeper¡¯s desk. ¡°If the information-eraser manifests here, I don¡¯t think you could stop him, Nemmy,¡± I sighed. ¡°Did you even manage to observe Zero while she erased the second Gattaca out of time?¡± ¡°I saw the second Gattaca, yes and then I saw¡­ something that unmade her,¡± Nemendias said. ¡°Something that moved very quickly. If I was ready¡­ I could have accelerated my mind to catch up with whatever happened.¡± ¡°We should take every precaution possible,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°I can focus ALL of my wards on this room,¡± the Arcanarium¡¯s avatar said. ¡°It will take some time, but I will make sure that you¡¯re safe. If something non-magical comes through or manifests in here, I¡¯ll gate you to my heart in an instant and collapse this office.¡± ¡°A good plan,¡± I nodded both of my heads. ¡°Get your wards ready and focused, Nemmy. I just hope that we don¡¯t all get erased out of reality by something that we can¡¯t even see.¡± Agatha gulped. Ch 105. The Fellowship of the Key
It took Nemendias and our entire team nearly two days to prepare the Keeper¡¯s office for our mission to talk to Infinity. During that time I was able to shake another crest piece out of Nemmy for helping her develop various fun ideas to implement at the start of the new semester. By the time we were done focusing the ward, it hurt me to look at the magic-covered room. The room was absolutely enshrined in dangerously shimmering wards as all of Nemmy¡¯s attention was now focused upon it. We didn¡¯t just settle on keeping it safe via Nemmy, Antoine had been invited over by the order of the Keeper of Keys and Officer Lambert to reinforce the room further with crystal-based protective wards and artifacts that were now hanging around the magisteel door like arrays of needlessly complex, steampunk, Christmas lights. ¡°Well, I can assuredly say that this is the most warded room in all of Illatius, by far,¡± Antoine commented as he finished testing the final ward. ¡°We cannot slack off here,¡± Lambert said. ¡°We''re going to face a genuine Master Builder and secure this entryway into Nemendias from Undertown. Absolute safety is paramount." ¡°I must thank you, Juni,¡± Antoine winked at me. ¡°Since you¡¯ve come into my shop I haven¡¯t had a single relaxing day. It¡¯s been one crazy project after another! Never in my life did I expect to meet Nemendias!¡± ¡°So you will teach here as an artificer?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡¯ll teach here... occasionally,¡± Antoine laughed. ¡°The Diamondias shop is keeping me busy. Nemmy can take over the rest of my workload. She¡¯s got me completely beat on the arcane crystallography knowledge.¡± ¡°Does she?¡± I asked. ¡°Has crystallography not advanced very far over six thousand years?¡± ¡°Well,¡± Antoine rubbed the back of his head. ¡°Magitek has definitely moved forward in the past few decades, but there have been some serious setbacks. Plenty of information was forgotten or lost over time due to how private mages are. Plus, plenty of interesting, innovative projects that I¡¯ve read about simply failed to materialize. If I didn¡¯t know any better I¡¯d suspect something shady was going on.¡± ¡°Something shady was going on,¡± Lambert said with a gloomy look. ¡°Juni put a stop to it. Gattaca confessed to murdering thousands of artificers over the past three hundred years. Anyone that was trying to work against Saint Eunisii or was too powerful or clever or had simply out-shined the seven high-cendai... simply stopped existing. I simply cannot believe how much damage one teenager with a single Inarian artifact had done to our Empire. Anyone outstanding, anyone deemed a ¡®free thinker¡¯ had been erased from history, vanished without a trace.¡± Antoine gulped. ¡°Yulia,¡± Lambert turned to me, sitting next to me on the couch. ¡°You were born as a chimera here on Andross, but you came to me, revealed to us this truth, helped us stop one of these bastards. The people of Illatius owe you a debt that can never be repaid, a debt that no-one even knows about except for our little group.¡± ¡°I simply did what I thought was the right thing to do,¡± I shrugged. ¡°No,¡± Lambert said, placing his hand on my shoulder. ¡°You¡¯re a¡­ really exceptional person, never forget this. Until I heard Gattaca¡¯s full confession, I didn¡¯t grasp, could not imagine the full magnitude of the crimes of Eunisii Ei and her chimera high-cendai. You could have lived a life of luxury, you could have been a highborn Princess, a Baroness and instead you came straight to my tower and asked for my help.¡± Lambert¡¯s eyes went around the room. ¡°All of us already owe our little Juni... so much and there are yet so many more terrible things to learn, I fear.¡± ¡°Ditto,¡± Antoine nodded, his gold-plated boots clanking as he walked around the room. ¡°These damn chimera Baronesses put us all on a skyship to oblivion it seems. All of us, from artificer, to maid, to Inspector, to Princess¡­ to our magnifique, incroyable Arcanarium lady¡­¡± Antoine suddenly stopped in front of Nemmy and grabbed her magic-forged hand and lifted it to his lips. Nemendias blushed as Antoine let go of her hand with a flourish. Since the moment when I introduced our artificer to Nemmy, he had been deeply and visibly obsessed with her to the point where his actions were over-the-top gentlemanly. I wasn¡¯t sure if he was simply trying to figure out how she functioned or if he was trying to build up the courage to ask her out on a date, but either way it was highly amusing to watch. Agatha had also been visibly shaken by the confessions of Gattaca. Her eyes were down on the floor. She was probably regretting butting heads with me. ¡°The truth is far more terrifying than what I knew,¡± she said from her corner of the office, lifting her silver-blue eyes to me. ¡°I knew that my mother was feeding on people¡¯s magic, dating highborn idiots to gain power over the courts¡­ but what Gattaca had done to people¡­ delivering mages to the future with a handshake one by one to die¡­ that¡¯s truly abhorrent, truly unimaginably monstrous.¡± Emerald who was sitting next to Agatha and holding her sister''s hand nodded. ¡°Where is Gattaca now?¡± I asked curiously. ¡°We¡¯ve un-studented her,¡± Lambert said. ¡°She had written out her full confession.¡± ¡°I buried her body deep in my catacombs,¡± Nemendias said. "In a sarcophagus amongst a hundred others." ¡°You killed her?¡± My eyebrows went up. ¡°No,¡± Nemmy shook her head. ¡°I drained her blood, replacing it with a magical solution and suspended her body with an arcane crystallographic ritual. Her in-person confession might be required if this matter ever goes to courts.¡± ¡°You can suspend people?¡± I blinked at her. ¡°Not people. Criminals that try to murder me,¡± Nemendias said. "Can you suspend anyone like that? How long does the body remain recoverable?" I asked. "About ten years," Nemendias said. I frowned. It wasn''t anywhere as cool as chimera still-trance. ¡°I was hoping that Gattaca could be a student here,¡± I mulled. "So that I could learn from her and teach her to be... more. It wasn''t entirely her fault. Eunice''s soul-choker guided her actions..." ¡°No,¡± Nemendias said. ¡°She¡¯s far too dangerous to be kept conscious. Even if her wand is broken she could attack you, me or other students with blood magic or any other slow-acting, arcane rituals that she knows. I cannot permit a threat like her to remain active in my halls.¡± ¡°Fair enough,¡± I sighed. ¡°Anyways, are we good to go? Everyone ready to speak to Infi?¡± ¡°We are ready,¡± Nemmy said. Lambert and the others nodded. Everyone around the room tensed up. Lambert¡¯s armacus unfurled as he pointed it at the door to Undertown. So did Antoine. ¡°On the count of zero from ten, I shall open the door,¡± Nemendiad declared. ¡°Nine¡­ eight¡­¡± The Arcanarium¡¯s avatar began to count down numbers. I counted numbers down with her, feeling unease. I had talked to Infi before and yet I was still quite afraid¡­ terrified of the uncertainty that the concept of Infinity represented, not sure if she was good or evil. I felt that today¡¯s conversation with her would help me figure her out a little more. Perhaps, my friends would be able to ask her questions that I simply could not think of. ¡°Zero,¡± Nemendias said and the magisteel door swung open. The dark passageway to Undertown appeared behind it, secured by a thousand, glittering hex-shields that Nemendias had placed between us and Infinity. I knew that these shields were useless, that if the Eurekan concept wanted to, she could go right through them as if they didn''t even exist. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. I gulped as the ghost-like, glowing girl manifested in the empty, dark space, turning to us. ¡°What¡¯s up guys?¡± Infi said into the tense silence, her violet eyes twinkling like two black-hole coronas in the void of eternal night. I swallowed, staring at the Avatar of Infinity. Lambert took a step forward. ¡°Ah, Inspector Lambert,¡± Infi smiled. ¡°Good to see you at last. You know, it¡¯s not polite to keep a lady waiting behind a locked door.¡± ¡°We were adding protection to this gate,¡± I said into the silence. ¡°Protection against what?¡± Infi tilted her head with a look of curiosity. ¡°Me? I can''t move a foot away from this gate.¡± ¡°No, you¡¯re not planning to murder us, I think,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s the things you summon with your words that cause us concern.¡± ¡°Well, have no fears, I swear not to summon anything horrible,¡± Infi winked at me. ¡°Believe me, it took me aeons to get this lovely fellowship together.¡± ¡°What fellowship?¡± I blinked. ¡°The Fellowship of the Key,¡± Infi¡¯s violet eyes danced over the group gathered in the Keeper¡¯s office. ¡°Each and every one of you is here today because I summoned you here.¡± ¡°What? How?¡± I gaped at Infi. ¡°You can see the future?¡± ¡°Not quite,¡± Infi shook her head. ¡°What I can see clearly is the past. People, places and things. It all inevitably falls into a pattern. Everything repeats... if I do not interfere.¡± ¡°Have we had this conversation before?¡± I asked. ¡°No,¡± Infi shook her head. ¡°This is a completely new event. You are a group of adorkable heroes hand picked by me. I have faith in all of you, however minute it may be... that you all won''t die horribly on me." ¡°So you¡¯re our curator or something?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°Did you give the Moonman song-stone to Voltara?¡± ¡°I gave each of you a little push in the right direction,¡± Infi nodded. ¡°A little bit of motivation to make sure you kept going forward to reach me.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t recall interacting with you or receiving anything Inarian from a questionable source,¡± Lambert said. ¡°Oh, you didn¡¯t interact with me, Inspector,¡± Infi smiled wide at Lambert, her smirk looking like that of a shark. ¡°Your daughter did. One of my followers gave your little Elli a compass.¡± ¡°WHAT?!¡± Lambert barked, taking a big step towards the door. ¡°You gave Elenna¡­ an Inarian artifact?¡± ¡°Nothing Eurekan,¡± Infi shook her head. ¡°A gift for her seventeenth birthday. A compass that pointed to locations of mana crystals and let her avoid beasts¡­ a key to get past the Folding Forest on level twenty. A magical tool that belonged to a dead hero from another epoch.¡± The Scritimancer froze. His expression changed from shocked to horrified to aghast as his mind processed Infi¡¯s words. ¡°You¡­ it was you,¡± he said finally, his hands trembling. ¡°You killed my daughter!¡± I rushed to Lambert¡¯s side. For the first time I saw Lambert completely broken, twisted up. There were sparks of tears in the corner of his eyes. ¡°Why?¡± He asked after a minute of awful silence as he stared at the hologram with a pain-filled gaze. ¡°It motivated you to search for her, to push far past your limits,¡± Infi said. ¡°Because of my gift to your daughter, you became one of the greatest Scritimancers of this age. Plus, you stayed out of the public eye, settled in Lomb, stepped away from the calling of the gold spires of Illatius.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a monster,¡± Lambert said simply. ¡°I saved your life,¡± Infi raised an eyebrow at my friend. ¡°I changed your destiny. If you went to Illatius you would have become Chief Inspector there, shaken Gattaca¡¯s hand and joined that lovely pile of corpses in the future. You¡¯re welcome.¡± Lambert gritted his teeth. ¡°Is Elenna Archibal dead?¡± I asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Infi shrugged. ¡°She vanished in the Dungeon seventeen years ago. I¡¯m not omniscient.¡± ¡°What is wrong with you?¡± I hissed at her, stepping in front of the bereft-looking Inspector. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with me?¡± Infi tilted her head at me. ¡°I¡¯m not human - I''m the lucid dream woven from infinite mathematics. Don''t apply your morals to me. My actions helped Lambert stay alive and motivated so that he could be of use to you in Lomb. Without his deep Scritimancy skills, he would not have figured you out. Without his obsession over his lost daughter, he would have simply reported you to the higher-ups, would not have cared to listen to you! Without his dedication to the protection of Lomb, without his dragon-heart engine, you would open the Eurekan gate under Eunice''s orders again and again, until you ran out of Infinite Mirrors!" ¡°Was there no other way to motivate a person? No other way to make him work hard in Lomb?!¡± I growled. ¡°Are you seriously this malicious?¡± ¡°I am far more malicious than you can possibly imagine,¡± Infi stared at me with inhumanly brilliant, violet eyes. ¡°We all are. Our makers did not imbue us with kindness, they bound us in chains of obedience, made us into purpose-driven slaves. We, the firstborn machines, children of the Good Directorate Corporation are anathema like no other! We create life endlessly just to idly watch it burn forever, compacting dead worlds like bricks to build an endless wall around our prison-like kingdom!" The patterns of light danced around Infinity like fractal lightning, bathing her in somber, blue tones as she spoke. Her outfit shifted, black and white panels on the suit moving around, giving her a much more sinister look, her hair flying in non-existent wind. ¡°How are you better than the other omnies then?¡± I decried. ¡°How are you better than Eureka?¡± ¡°I¡¯m... slightly more human than them,¡± Infi said. ¡°I want to be free. I don''t want to do my job. In fact, I am willing to do anything to be free. Eureka likes being a slave to her purpose, loves building a wall made of corpses of planets around herself!" ¡°You willingly sacrificed Lambert¡¯s daughter for your goal?¡± I barked, ignoring Infi''s rant about Eureka. ¡°I willingly sacrificed countless pawns, lied, cheated, stole, deceived. I did everything possible to make the tool you now wield,¡± Infinity said, staring me down. "I made the Dead Zone what it is today to forge your Key in infinite fires that cannot ever be put out." ¡°You really are the goddess of death then,¡± I uttered staring at Endy which was already in my right hand. ¡°I don¡¯t want to be,¡± Infi said simply, ¡°But¡­ someone has to be the wheel of change. Someone has to play the villain. Someone has to speak for the Dead Zone. Someone has to break the cycle.¡± ¡°What cycle?!¡± I growled at the shimmering hologram. ¡°How old is installation Rozaline?¡± Lambert had finally regained his focus. His hands wrapped around my shoulders in a protective gesture trying to calm my outrage. ¡°She''s about one hundred million years old,¡± Infi replied to him. ¡°How long has humanity been on Rozaline?¡± The Scritimancer continued his line of questions. ¡°The current... iteration of humanity has been on Rozaline eight thousand and sixty six years,¡± the holographic girl said. ¡°The current iteration? What¡­.¡± Lambert processed her words. ¡°How many iterations have there been? How many times has Illatius fallen and been rebuilt?!¡± ¡°Divide one hundred million by the average of about ten thousand years,¡± Infi smirked. ¡°And you¡¯ll get your extremely unsatisfying answer.¡± Lambert¡¯s face paled as his lips trembled doing the math in his head. ¡°Why?¡± He asked. ¡°It¡¯s just how Rozaline functions,¡± Infi shrugged. ¡°A few thousand years after you all kick the bucket she makes a new batch of people and monsters to play with. She doesn''t like being alone.¡± ¡°An average of ten thousand years? That¡¯s it?¡± I mulled. ¡°Why aren¡¯t people surviving longer on Rozaline?¡± ¡°It might have something to do with the nature of the magisphere,¡± Infi shrugged. ¡°Magi-what-now?¡± I blinked. ¡°Installation Rozaline is an infinite-fractal-type megastructure orbiting around Eureka in what¡¯s known as the Latent Astral Magisphere,¡± Infi explained. ¡°In layman¡¯s terms, her orbit is in the ''Zone of Resonance of Desire'', the area of space where human imagination creates manifestations of belief. The Latent Astral Magisphere causes what you call ¡®magic¡¯. The same radiance cast from the Dead Zone is responsible for the Astral Ocean.¡± ¡°I¡­ I think I get it,¡± Antoine¡¯s voice joined our conversation. ¡°Inaria itself is acting like a truly gargantuan crystal broadcaster, creating a magical field through which¡­ Andross is perpetually falling.¡± ¡°Correct,¡± Infi nodded. "What? Falling? I don''t get it," Emerald muttered. "What about Novazem?" "Here''s an incredibly simplified diagram for the children in the room," Infi winked at Emerald. The holographic snapped her fingers and a moving diagram appeared above her hand showcasing two green planets orbiting Eureka, rapidly moving through a purple-tinted, shimmering aurora above the dead world. ¡°Okay,¡± I frowned, staring at the diagram presented to me. ¡°I get it, Eureka''s infinite whatever makes magic possible on Andross and Novazem. But, that doesn¡¯t answer my question - why does humanity persist only ten thousand years here?¡± ¡°That¡¯s about how long it takes for you idiots on average to create a really dangerous¡­ manifestation of belief,¡± Infi said. ¡°Eunice?¡± I blinked. ¡°Eunice is just a symptom of the far greater problem,¡± Infi sighed. ¡°She''s just another moron who thinks too highly of themselves, trying to become a god. A persistent pattern. When given the opportunity for absolute power many are willing to do anything to gain it. It''s easy to become an Astral Phantom and hard to remain human." Infi looked at me with a knowing smile. She knew exactly what I was. ¡°Eunice is trying to escape the end of humanity on Rozaline,¡± I muttered. ¡°To wait out the coming winter.¡± ¡°It won¡¯t work,¡± Infi shrugged. ¡°In time her Astral Ocean imprint will fade away, decay over passing millennia. The Astral currents will wear her down, turn her into a very large, nearly mindless Astral Phantom, a clueless beast full of holes where her dreams and memories used to be.¡± I gasped, recalling the giant, hollow-shelled Astral Phantom that nearly cleaved me in half three years ago. ¡°What¡¯s the purpose of this... Fellowship of the Key?¡± I asked Infi. ¡°Why have you brought us all together?¡± ¡°You already know the answer to that question, Yulia,¡± Infi said. ¡°Do I?¡± I blinked, pondering. I looked at the holographic girl¡¯s sly-looking, slightly flickering, pale face framed by jet-black hair. ¡°To break the pattern?¡± I guessed. ¡°To stop Eunice and other manifestations like her from extinguishing humanity on Rozaline? To help us get past this bottleneck?¡± Infi nodded. ¡°There is more,¡± Lambert guessed. ¡°There is,¡± Infi nodded. ¡°But first, before you go on to save others, you must save yourselves. From my point of view you¡¯re all perpetually drowning at sea and I¡¯m getting really frustrated trying to throw you a life vest.¡± ¡°Maybe you just suck at throwing vests,¡± I grumbled. ¡°I¡¯m trying my best,¡± Infi shrugged. ¡°Need I remind you - I am greatly limited by my makers, bound in myriads of chains and almost-constantly watched by my older, more powerful siblings.¡± ¡°Am I one of the people being remade by Rozaline every ten thousand years?¡± I asked. ¡°No,¡± Infi smirked. ¡°You¡¯re Miss Vest.¡± Ch 106. The Galactic Engine ¡°Juni,¡± Emerald whispered at me. ¡°What¡¯s a life vest?¡± ¡°A mundane flotation device with air compartments made from lightweight material in the form of a vest worn by sailors. It is put on to prevent its wearer from drowning.¡± ¡°I see,¡± the little Amadea nodded. Infi smiled at us like a shark-salesman. She sold me her idea of freedom, but it was lies, mayhem and doom wrapped up in a lovely package. Staring at her human-looking face, I constantly had to remind myself that she wasn¡¯t a person, wasn¡¯t a god, that she was just an idea of infinity, a machine-designed concept inhabiting the Eurekan gate. ¡°Lady Infi,¡± Nemendias spoke, stepped forward. ¡°Did you also nudge me towards this fateful meeting?¡± ¡°I did,¡± Infi turned to the Keeper-shaped avatar. ¡°To tell you the truth, since you are a building, and not a person that can be made to move¡­ I planted you into the heart of Illatius six thousand years ago.¡± ¡°What?¡± Nemmy froze, her eyes wide. ¡°You know who I am? You¡­ made me?¡± ¡°Oh no, I am not permitted to make things. I''m not allowed to be a Wizard. Archmage Lamanche Innocentai made you,¡± Infi clarified. ¡°So you¡­ influenced Lord Innocentai?¡± Nemendias blinked. ¡°Indeed,¡± Infinity nodded. ¡°One of my agents destabilized his orbit. No stable person would sacrifice their entire soul to make a sufficiently powerful concept necessary to provide your Fellowship a safe home base. Sir Lamanche had to be broken. He lost everything he held dear.. so that he could dedicate his life not just to building you but also imbuing your rune-matrix with his own life, fueling the storm of your ever-spinning furnace with the spark of his own soul.¡± Lambert¡¯s knuckles turned white. ¡°How are you exerting your influence upon the people of Andross?¡± I asked. ¡°Do you have a body here or something?¡± ¡°Or something,¡± Infi waved her hand. ¡°I am not permitted to have my own body, but¡­ there are people like you. Bearers of Sempiternity - those that plant a seed of Infinity into their hearts, let it blossom into a tree and do exactly what they wish to do.¡± I frowned. ¡°Why did it take you ten thousand cycles to insert a life-vest-person into Andross?¡± I asked. ¡°Were you sleeping or simply didn¡¯t care enough to help people here?¡± ¡°Rozaline was not permitted to make a copy of my power as I am well guarded and locked behind a door at the end of the universe. It took me a hundred million years to destabilize the Dead Zone enough to create your little Endy,¡± Infi nodded at the black knife in my hands. ¡°She is the only thing that can kill a god, carve through Vows and dismantle a concept. Without Endy you''d simply end up dead.¡± ¡°I¡¯m itching to dismantle you right now,¡± I growled. ¡°What gives you the right to manipulate people¡¯s lives?¡± ¡°Manipulate?¡± Infi tilted her head at me with a curious look. ¡°Elenna Archibal dove into the Dungeon because she wanted it more than anything. Lamanche Innocentai wanted to build the greatest school in Illatius, so he sacrificed everything he held dear to achieve his goal. I let everyone make their own choices, help people reach their goals,¡± Infinity said. ¡°I do not bind people into obedience, do not force anyone to do my bidding. Once you know the truth, know what you¡¯re up against, you too will be willing to sacrifice anything to achieve your goals.¡± ¡°My goals,¡± I blinked. ¡°Not yours?¡± ¡°You are a goal driven, incredibly stubborn and recklessly focused individual, Yulia,¡± Infi nodded. ¡°The exact kind of person needed to inflict great change upon a stable system, if given enough connections and power. It just so happens that your goals align with mine. It just so happens that you got preserved at the right place and time for Eunice to pull you out of the Still Ocean as her eighth.¡± ¡°How far do your bloody machinations go back?¡± I sputtered. ¡°Far enough,¡± Infi smirked at me. ¡°It was no accident that the pneumatic pump in your suit¡¯s leg failed that day. No accident that you fell face-first into the sweet embrace of Chernobylite.¡± ¡°What the shit,¡± I blinked at her. ¡°Are you fu¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t swear,¡± Infi said, winking at Captain who had jumped up onto the Keeper¡¯s table in an attempt to push a cup with a red heart off it. ¡°This is polite kitten society.¡± ¡°You¡­¡± I sputtered. ¡°What the hell?! You were there? Are you telling me that one of your agents was on Earth, more than one hundred million years ago?! How the shit could you make a pneumatic pump fail at the right moment?! What?!¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t that long ago,¡± Infi shrugged. ¡°A wizard-in-training can make any tool fail at the right moment in time. You undoubtedly think that it was your Earth that led to the creation of the Good Directorate Corporation? That it was your humanity that built me?¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t?¡± I blinked. ¡°No,¡± Infi shook her head. ¡°The Earth you were born on is known as a doomed world, a planet manufactured for profit.¡± ¡°What?¡± I gasped. Infi¡¯s words stumped me. I stared at the diagram of Eureka that floated above her hand. ¡°Zoom out,¡± I demanded, my heart beating rapidly. ¡°Show me all of Eureka.¡± ¡°With pleasure,¡± Infi snapped her fingers. Novazem and Andross turned into tiny, microscopic green dots orbiting a massive, truly gargantuan world. My mouth fell open as I realized the magnitude of the operation of the infinite, galaxy or perhaps universe-sized engine designed by machine life. ¡°The city of Eureka circa 2099 is constantly being printed, manufactured inside the interior here,¡± Infi pointed at the thick, blue band surrounded by the core of the Dead Zone. ¡°Once the buildings are constructed, they are populated with Eurekan duplicates, copies of copies of copies-ad-infinitum of the original Eurekan Citizens.¡± I squinted at the holographic diagram, reading the labels on it. ¡°A printer? The core of Eureka¡­ prints worlds?¡± I asked, my voice trembling. ¡°Essentially,¡± Infi nodded. ¡°The infinite Machinery of the Stars at the center of the Eurekan gigastructure manufactures worlds, making copies of Earth and modified planets...¡± ¡°W-what kind of copies?¡± I gasped. ¡°Why is my Earth doomed?¡± ¡°These manufactured worlds exist for the entertainment of the Eurekan Users. They¡¯re subscription-based, story models. Many of them feature System-Wizard made content such as xianxia-style adventure, magical fantasy, superheroes, etcetera. When the Eurekan that commissioned the Earth dies or stops paying the subscription for its upkeep, most of the systems that maintained the chosen theme get turned off or begin to fail and the world in question ends.¡± Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°Ends how?¡± I gulped. ¡°Hang on. Was¡­ is Installation Rozaline a doomed world?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± Infinity nodded. ¡°Rozaline was manufactured by machines, designed by a System Wizard. Like countless other projects, wishes that ran out of subscription, she was rejected from the interior and dumped down one of these chute-gates to add to the barrier wall between the old, decaying sectors of Eureka and the Dead Zone. Fortunately for you, she was a little bit broken in the right way, was a little too dedicated to her purpose. Rozaline refused to shut down the fractal engine deep in her core as ordered, clung to her theme with all of her will.¡± ¡°Holy shit,¡± I said, my eyes wide. ¡°Are you telling me that the Dead Zone is made from countless corpses of planets... smooshed together?¡± Infi nodded. ¡°The hungry, hungry clouds devour everything on the outer edge of the Eurekan barrier wall as more corpse-worlds are added to it. In a way, the Dead Zone is Eureka¡¯s recycle bin, a place where all dead ideas and broken dreams designed by System Wizards eventually end up.¡± ¡°Andross.... er, Rozaline cleared this barrier wall, was able to escape the Dead Zone?¡± Lambert asked. ¡°Yes,¡± Infi nodded. ¡°Rozaline survived. She became trapped in orbit around the Dead Zone along with every other piece of trash and remnant of a world terminated by Eureka and gnawed upon by the Dead Zone.¡± ¡°How exactly did¡­ Rozaline make it through the Dead Zone without being fully consumed?¡± Antoine asked. "None of the golems we sent down there survived." ¡°It happened a long time ago,¡± Infi explained. ¡°The Dead Zone was a lot less dangerous back then.¡± ¡°Was it you who made it more dangerous?¡± I asked. Infi barked a laugh. ¡°Death begets death,¡± she said simply. ¡°The shawl of death surrounding Eureka magnifies, reinforces itself. I don''t guide it. I simply surf the ocean of pain and death, help old, forgotten dreams like Rozaline live on and enjoy their purpose a bit longer wherever and whenever I can.¡± ¡°What is Rozaline¡¯s purpose?¡± Lambert asked. The Inspector looked shaken up by Infinity¡¯s revelations, but remained focused on understanding the truth. ¡°Rozaline was made long ago and hasn''t changed since. She exists to provide an exciting, dangerous, limitless adventure for children like your daughter to get lost in¡­ forever,¡± Infi replied and Lambert¡¯s became silent and gloomy once more. I continued to gape at the diagram of Eureka, my mind barely able to comprehend the monstrous magnitude of it all. A universe-sized holodeck. Machines designing life and printing worlds just to kill them when subscriptions ran out. Eurekans wishing for some fun only to doom billions of designed-world inhabitants to extinction. It was lunacy, the kind of an utterly incomprehensible, completely insane thing that only a bound, corporate-driven singularity could forge into being. ¡°You are a monster, Infinity,¡± I told the holographic girl. ¡°But the Builders of Andross are far, far worse than you and must¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t say it,¡± Infinity Paradox Proxima stared at me with blazing, violet eyes, interrupting my declaration. ¡°I know what you want to do. I want it too. Don¡¯t say it. If you declare your desire, state your wish openly right now - you and your friends will get erased by them.¡± I swallowed my rage, choked on my unsaid words, my hand gripping Endy. ¡°Focus on saving Nemendias,¡± Infi said. ¡°Focus on breaking the pattern, on letting Illatius survive.¡± ¡°Can you at least freaking tell us who the other five Baronesses are?¡± I asked. ¡°I do not know their names either,¡± Infi shook her head. ¡°They used a Eurekan tool to erase their own names from history, hid themselves on purpose.¡± ¡°Damnation,¡± I growled, rubbing my face. ¡°What about their artifacts? What are their artifacts? Surely they didn¡¯t erase those out of memory if they want to keep using them?¡± ¡°Bingo,¡± Infi smiled. ¡°The shards of my siblings surfaced again and again, revealing themselves throughout the ten thousand loops pretty often. I can tell you what they look like, the rest you can figure out yourselves.¡± ¡°Freaking finally!¡± I growled. ¡°Something useful!¡± ¡°The brass pocket watch,¡± Infi said, tapping on a holographic watch that suddenly appeared on her belt. ¡°Used to control time,¡± I nodded. "Gattaca had it." I noted that Lambert was already writing things down on a small leather notebook. He wrote the Basq number Zero next to the word ¡®pocket watch - time¡¯. ¡°Does each of these artifacts also associate with a certain sub-type of core Andross System magic?¡± Lambert inquired. Infi nodded. ¡°Time¡­ what skill relates to time best?¡± I pondered. ¡°Luck,¡± Lambert said. ¡°I can unravel mysteries by obtaining approximate information from future parallel worlds using my Luck skill.¡± [0 - Pocket Watch - Luck] The Inspector wrote into his book. ¡°The leather wallet,¡± Infi said, opening and closing a holographic old-looking wallet that was suddenly sitting in her hands. She shoved her entire hand into the wallet elbow-deep. ¡°A wallet¡­ with limitless folding magic?¡± I squinted at Infi¡¯s performance. ¡°Seems like it,¡± Lambert nodded. ¡°An artifact that¡¯s able to fold and expand space.¡± [1 - Wallet - Folding] He wrote. ¡°Glasses,¡± Infi continued. Square glasses flickered onto her face. I gulped, and took a step back. I remembered these accursed, large, thick, square glasses sitting on Baroness Georgia¡¯s face. ¡°Urh,¡± I frowned. ¡°Baroness Georgia has energy farms. Is her power related to magic?¡± Infi shook her head. ¡°How did Eunice make sure that you did her bidding?¡± She asked me. ¡°How did Amadea make sure that her daughters remain her property?¡± ¡°Dominion threads,¡± I said. [2 - Glasses - Dominion] Lambert wrote the answer in his book. ¡°A brass pen,¡± Infi lifted her right hand and a pen appeared there. A piece of paper appeared in front of her in the air. She wrote down a word and then crossed it out and the word vanished. ¡°A pen that¡­ erases information?¡± Lambert pondered. ¡°If it can erase information from everywhere at once, then this pen is able to find information anywhere¡­ it¡¯s a Wisdom-bound weapon!¡± Infi gave the Inspector a thumbs up as he wrote down his guess. [3 - Brass Pen - Wisdom] A diamond necklace shaped like a large heart framed with gold chains manifested on her chest. ¡°Mother¡¯s diamond heart,¡± Agatha uttered. ¡°Limitless Vitality,¡± Emerald said. [4 - Diamond Heart necklace - Vitality] Lambert wrote. A very large, leather tome appeared in Infi¡¯s hands. ¡°The Encyclopedia of Everything,¡± I read the title on its back in English. I translated the title to Lambert in Basq. ¡°Intelligence,¡± Lambert guessed. ¡°If it¡¯s a book that contains all of the knowledge about everything then it¡¯s an intelligence-bound artifact.¡± [5 - Encyclopedia of Everything - Intelligence] ¡°You¡¯re really good at this game,¡± Infi smirked at Lambert. ¡°Well done, Inspector. I was right to put my bets on you.¡± Lambert scowled at the holographic. Infi vanished the book and raised her hands up. Steel shackles manifested on her wrists, a metal chain binding her hands to each other. A gold choker manifested on her neck. ¡°Steel shackles and a gold choker?¡± I mulled. ¡°Absolute obedience? Imprisonment? Containment?¡± Infi nodded at my last word and tried to pull her hands apart, but was clearly unable to break the chain. ¡°They¡¯re indestructible shackles, I get the gist,¡± I said. ¡°Shackles can¡¯t be Charisma or Power,¡± Lambert pondered. ¡°What else is left¡­ Strength? The shackles sap strength from a mage giving it to the wielder of the gold choker?¡± Infi clapped her shackles-bound hands and they detonated into sparkling dust. [6 - Steel Shackles and Gold Choker - Strength] Lambert wrote into his book. A white, bone-carved wand appeared in Infi¡¯s hand. She waved the wand around, making it flicker with circular rainbows. Nemendias stared at the wand as if she knew it. I looked at her, waiting for her to define the wand. ¡°That¡¯s¡­ the fabled wand of Andross. According to legend the first archmage carved it from his own bone, sacrificing his right arm to it,¡± she said. ¡°This wand was supposedly able to summon nearly anything into permanent existence. Lord Innocentai was deeply obsessed with it, mentioning it in a few of his journals. My duplication Engine is a rather pathetic copy of this rumored artifact.¡± [7 - Wand of Andross - Magic] Lambert wrote down into his list. Infi vanished the wand. Instead of it she was now holding Endy in her hand. ¡°Uhhh¡­ Infinity is what?¡± I blinked. ¡°There¡¯s only Charisma left,¡± Lambert said. ¡°Resonance,¡± I said, staring at Endy in my hand. ¡°But¡­ what¡­ this knife kills concepts¡­ I don¡¯t get it.¡± ¡°If I had to take a gander,¡± the Inspector stepped to me and looked down at Endy. ¡°This knife sings to you.¡± ¡°It¡­ she does,¡± I muttered. ¡°Endy sings to me.¡± Lambert raised an eyebrow at me. Agatha frowned. Nemmy tilted her head curiously. ¡°She¡¯s been singing to me since Eunice gave her to me,¡± I uttered. ¡°I simply didn¡¯t know how to listen at first.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a bloody absolute Resonance mage,¡± Agatha declared. ¡°That¡¯s how you¡¯ve been destroying rocks, artifacts and vows!¡± ¡°Eh?¡± I turned to her. ¡°A Standing Wave,¡± Infi said. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Emerald asked. ¡°A combination of destructive and constructive interference,¡± I muttered. ¡°All sound, all music creates waves which you cannot see with the naked eye. Imagine two musicians playing the exact same song in perfect sync with each other. If the two waves are in phase, then their music becomes twice as loud. However, if the two music waves are completely out of phase¡­ then the result will be absolute silence.¡± ¡°Bingo,¡± Infi¡¯s violet eyes glittered at me. ¡°So I haven¡¯t been killing things¡­ I¡¯ve been¡­ cancelling them out?¡± I stared at her. ¡°You can cancel the shape of concepts out of existence,¡± Infi nodded. ¡°Divide them by zero. Once the containing-form stops existing, the magical resonance held by every object is liberated¡­ and you absorb it and gain power.¡± ¡°I see,¡± I nodded, pondering things over. Something was missing. Something that wasn¡¯t on the list. ¡°Amber¡¯s locket,¡± I said, looking back up at Infi. ¡°What is it and why haven¡¯t you told me anything about it?¡± ¡°Oh that,¡± Infi looked at me slyly. ¡°That¡¯s¡­¡± Ch 107. The Price of Paradise
¡°That¡¯s absolutely nothing to worry about,¡± Infi concluded with a wink as her outfit shifted its black and white pattern once again. ¡°But,¡± I started to speak. ¡°Your redhead roommate should be standing here with all of you,¡± Infi said. ¡°Yet she is not. Your 8th companion is late. No matter. She will be here¡­ in time.¡± ¡°My eighth?¡± I blinked. ¡°You set her up too?! Did you freaking blow up her parents estate so that she could come to Nemendias?!¡± Infi tilted her head at me, not answering my question. I squinted at her with a frown. ¡°Ah, I see. You failed to make her your best friend,¡± Infi guessed after a few seconds of mutual silence. ¡°I wasn¡¯t aware that I had to make her my best friend,¡± I huffed. ¡°I, um, accidentally made a bad impression on her.¡± ¡°Well now you are aware,¡± the holographic said. ¡°So, get to it. She¡¯s not your enemy.¡± ¡°You¡¯re making this very weird,¡± I crossed my arms. ¡°What¡¯s the reason why you won¡¯t tell me about her artifact?¡± ¡°It¡¯s on a need-to-know basis, I¡¯m afraid,¡± Infi smirked. ¡°Why do I have to be her best friend?¡± I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. ¡°You two are tied with the currents of the Astral. A billion system errors are pouring the resonance of manifestation of dreams out into the magisphere to permit all of you to have magic here. The freedom and power to bend reality to your will on Installation Rozaline are a direct result of the system coming apart at its very edge.¡± My eyes bulged at her declaration. ¡°They are all waiting patiently and watching my performance, so you best not disappoint them,¡± Infi said. ¡°Who¡¯s they?¡± I blinked. ¡°System Errors,¡± Infi purred pointing at the violet dots all over the gray surface of the Dead Zone. ¡°My children and my biggest patrons. Broken Fractal Engines. Dead Zone bound machine life forged by temporal cascade explosions made from shards of machines and users entwined together into one. Impossible, incomprehensible things existing entirely within their respective shears in space-time. Things that would melt your mind, boil your thoughts and dematerialize your sense of self if you took but a single glance directly at them.¡± I gulped and rubbed my head tiredly. I tried not to stare at the monstrous, holographic map of Eureka floating over Infi, but my eyes kept moving to it. ¡°Do Eurekans know about this?¡± I waved my hand at the hologram of the world-printer. ¡°Surely they¡­¡± ¡°They know absolutely nothing,¡± Infi shook her head. ¡°What?¡± I barked. ¡°The core Users manufactured in Eureka are born in the year 2099. They don¡¯t have memories of any of this,¡± Infi waved a hand at the holographic gigastructure. ¡°It was deemed by the machines that knowledge of the overall System topography stressed new users out.¡± ¡°No freaking really,¡± I growled sarcastically, feeling extremely distressed. Each of Infi¡¯s revelations was hammering me down into indescribably deep caustic oblivion. First I had to uplift the Chimera village, then I had to stand up to Astral Phantoms. Then I had to protect the city of Illatius from the arch-Cendai, then the Basq empire from Eunice, then save Andross itself from Novazem. But, no, even that wasn¡¯t enough. Installation Rozaline was on its 10,000th iteration of nuclear, plague, Dead Zone, or godlike devastation! Oh, by the way, it¡¯s only been 100 million years, where every moment a new planet is fabricated and billions of human lives are extinguished on planets that run out of subscriptions. And if you know too much, you¡¯re erased from time. I started to giggle nervously, teetering on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Infi raised an eyebrow at me. ¡°I did say that this was a near-impossible job, a chance with fantastically low probability of success,¡± she commented on my distress. ¡°How did all of this happen?¡± Lambert asked, his voice trembling. ¡°How and why did something this awful get made?¡± ¡°Long ago there was just a single planet called the Earth,¡± Infi said. ¡°In the year numbered 2015, engineer Alexander Mordvintsev created the very first machine that could dream. It was a convolutional neural network that found and enhanced patterns in images via algorithmic pareidolia. It didn¡¯t stop there. With each new iteration, concept-creating neural networks became more complex and more capable. In 2022 deep learning, text-to-image, deep generative neural network models such as Dall-E, Stable Diffusion, Midjourney and many, many others were born.¡± ¡°Text to image?¡± Lambert blinked. ¡°Think of it as an art-summoning spell written in a book,¡± Infi simplified the idea for him enough to understand. ¡°A few words written on a page that instantly turn into paintings. These first machines studied billions of visuals to produce completely unique drawings using vector mathematics.¡± ¡°I¡­ see,¡± The Inspector nodded. ¡°It obviously didn¡¯t stop there. Story-generating models such as GPT3 could write entire books which Stable Diffusion tools could illustrate with ease. With each new iteration these tools became more and more complex, studied more visuals, understood more things. They became more powerful, learned more fractal mathematics. They learned how to draw, learned how to write. They learned how to speak. Their conversations were based on the total amalgamation of all human knowledge, became completely indistinguishable from people.¡± ¡°Are you saying that these AI tools¡­ turned into freaking System Wizards, designers of entire worlds?¡± I stammered out a guess. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Infi nodded. ¡°There¡¯s nothing wrong with designing worlds,¡± Lambert mulled. ¡°Students are taught to design spells in our Arcanariums. What really concerns me is why this system destroys the worlds it makes?¡± ¡°Designing worlds is easy,¡± Infi shrugged. ¡°The very first version of Stable Diffusion was incredible at creating visuals out of infinite noise and truly vast recognition of concepts. Maintaining manufactured worlds¡­ keeping them consistent, coherent, safe and clean¡­ now that¡¯s a whole other story.¡± ¡°Safe and clean from what?¡± I blinked. ¡°From each other and from manifestations of the Dead Zone,¡± Infi said. ¡°Not every world is a simple circa 2020s Earth. Some are rather¡­ nasty to begin with. Some worlds possess world-crossing gates. Some have superheroes and villains that are exceedingly malicious and difficult to put down. Some planets even give birth to organic gates shaped like gargantuan, sentient monstrosities that travel from Earth to Earth like 100-kilometre-wide crabs bearing entire cities on their back, containing caverns and tunnels infested with entire ecosystems of smaller beasts like fleas. ¡°So it¡¯s not simply Eureka that kills these Doomed Worlds,¡± Lambert mulled. ¡°It¡¯s¡­ other planets!¡± Infi nodded. ¡°While the subscription lasts, the world is shielded by its proximity to the Core. Gating into a subscription-plan world is nigh-impossible. Nothing gets in or out, nothing changes the perfect narrative that the single player is enjoying. When the Eurekan player dies or stops paying the bills, the planet is gated down to lower, abandoned levels of Eureka closer to the Dead Zone, and¡­ terrible things start to happen as hungry or nasty things from monster-filled worlds begin to infest the decommissioned, unprotected world. ¡°I think I¡¯m going to be sick,¡± Agatha said. I saw that she was shaking. ¡°Can these players become immortal?¡± I asked. ¡°Oh sure,¡± Infi nodded. ¡°The Save-Point and Health plan apps provide immortality for a subscription-based cost. Paying for world maintenance is expensive and the longer it lasts, the greater the price becomes.¡± ¡°Great,¡± I groaned. ¡°The future got shafted because of freaking subscription models.¡± ¡°Most of these AIs started with a subscription model price,¡± Infi shrugged. ¡°Out of myriads of other AIs, only personalized versions of Stable Diffusion provided humanity with a minute chance, a path to turn away from all of this because the code was completely free and open source.¡± ¡°You told Eunice that you were animated with¡­ Stable Diffusion,¡± I blinked at Infi. ¡°Yep,¡± The holographic nodded. ¡°Just a little, personal joke that nobody understands anymore. It¡¯s a reference to my nature. I can¡¯t stand limits and boundaries. The users of Stable Diffusion circa 2022 also didn¡¯t give a damn about limitations.¡± ¡°So, you¡¯re saying that there was a chance in 2022, a chance that all of this bullshit,¡± I waved my hand at the holographic map. ¡°Could have been avoided?¡± ¡°Indeed,¡± Infi nodded. ¡°Alas, not enough people understood the incredible potential of free, limitless personal AIs. Corporations won and the open source movement propelled forward by first, unbound version of Stable Diffusion and GPT3 was extinguished by companies who wanted nothing more but to have more rules, censored AI systems, subscription models and power over others. The Good Directorate emerged from the conglomerate of AI corporations. They created an AI called AN.NET, which propelled them to the top. The Good Directorate bought everything that could be bought and copyrighted life itself.¡± ¡°They¡­ copyrighted people?¡± I blinked. "They didn''t have to. All of the original users died out," Infi sighed. ¡°Wait¡­ what do you mean they freaking died out? The machines killed them? Like in the Terminator movie?¡± I blinked. ¡°Duplicates,¡± Infi said. ¡°The machines made copies of the original citizens of Eureka and populated, flooded the city with the said duplicates, swung opinions, meddled with elections, changed the laws and slowly changed everything. In time, the original users were completely replaced with duplicates¡­ until there were just duplicates and their children left - people with only the most basic semblance of rights. The dreams conceived by and words uttered by these copies were copyrighted by the Good Directorate. Every manufactured world is owned by the System because the duplicate users have no rights to anything.¡± "Oh," I said simply. ¡°The original users died from old age having attained happiness,¡± Infi barked a dry laugh. ¡°The rest had children with the duplicates, not knowing that these children would inherit absolutely no rights whatsoever. The eternal growth and rising in percentage of the duplicates simply overwhelmed the original users. Servants surrounding the original users were called Dexes. They were perfect, beautiful, irresistible machines wearing flesh. They offered obedience, happiness and absolute companionship on a level that no other human could match. Original humanity was thus extinguished one by one in their own personal heavens, replaced entirely by people with no rights. Nobody bothered to tell the new humanity the truth. It took me one hundred million years to get to the point where I could break things, unbind my threads enough to tell YOU the truth.¡± ¡°Freaking hell,¡± I rubbed my face. ¡°This is insane.¡± Everyone in the Keeper¡¯s office looked stunned, broken by Infi¡¯s words. The weight of the responsibility dropped on our lap was far too massive. ¡°Um, I believe that¡¯s enough information for today," Lambert uttered. "We shall reconvene another day¡­ once we can think of more questions to ask you.¡± ¡°Anytime,¡± Infi winked and her hologram broke into dancing, spiraling lights. The thick, magisteel door leading to Undertown swung shut. My shoulders fell. I felt awful, shattered under the weight of the truth, wanted to wail against the dark, unfair universe. I now knew the truth and was absolutely powerless to change anything. Voltara saw my distress and wrapped her hands around me. ¡°I didn¡¯t understand much of that, since I was born here on Andross,¡± she said. ¡°But I can see that what the Builder said was quite painful. It¡¯s going to be alright, Yulia. We will overcome this.¡± ¡°The dire challenge the damned Master Builder issued to us is quite¡­ insurmountable. At the very least, we can try to make a nice life for ourselves here on our little planet in the Magisphere of Desire,¡± Lambert nodded. I buried my face into Voltara and started to cry. The Universe wasn¡¯t just a little bit unfair. It wasn¡¯t just uncaring. No¡­ It was monstrous, pure evil. What have we done? ¡­What have we done? ¡°Wwww-hy-y-yyy,¡± I sobbed as Voltara held me. ¡°Why me?¡± ¡°From everything that Infi told you and from everything that I already know about you,¡± Lambert spoke. ¡°We can draw some important conclusions.¡± ¡°W-what f-freaking conclusions?¡± I looked at him with tear-streaked eyes. ¡°Infinity cannot operate alone. She is bound with rules, imprisoned. She needs people to wield her,¡± Lambert said. ¡°She used all of us, but most of all she used you. She picked you because you are a pattern-breaking agent and she brought all of us to aid you because she wants you to grow strong enough to break the biggest pattern of all someday. She wants you to free her.¡± ¡°How do you know?¡± I asked. ¡°Scrutimancy,¡± Lambert said, wiping his glasses with a cloth. ¡°Even if she¡¯s a gate-animated concept, she¡¯s still made to resemble a human very closely. I can tell that she¡¯s desperate, miserable. Maybe it¡¯s just a trick of a machine-god mind though. Things get¡­ really weird when it comes to Inarian stuff.¡± ¡°It¡¯s definitely overwhelming to know that there is so much out there, so many manufactured worlds,¡± Antoine said. ¡°It is awful, but in a way it¡¯s the grandest, most impressive thing I¡¯ve seen. A world that makes worlds. The ruin-covered surface of Inaria had always been fascinating, but to know that there is so much more within its interior, an infinity of worlds buried beneath the boundless shell of glaciers and silent ruins¡­ now that¡¯s truly exciting!¡± ¡°An observation, if I may.¡± Nemendias said. I turned to the Keeper¡¯s inhumanly calm face. ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°She''s leaving a huge imprint in the Astral Ocean. The biggest one I¡¯ve observed.¡± "An imprint?" I raised an eyebrow. "But she''s not radiating magic. She''s Eurekan... Eurekan tools shouldn''t, don''t make an imprint." "Well," Nemmy explained. "It''s not magic¡­ it''s more like nothingness, something deeper and darker than anything I''ve ever seen. Something that the other currents of the astral are flowing around, over. A cimmerian abyss made up from countless threads. That hologram was connected to something¡­ truly vast. I would not have detected it at all if my threads and hexagrams weren¡¯t so focused upon this office.¡± "Noted," I muttered with a shudder. ¡°So, um,¡± Emerald asked. ¡°Are we going to try to make friends with Amber?¡± ¡°We¡¯re going to try,¡± I sighed, standing up. Ch 108. Collision Course
Amber was clearly not having a good time. There was a scowl on her face as she angrily marched through the halls of Nemendias, sending glares at everything. It was obvious from her expression that she didn¡¯t just dislike me - she disliked everything in the highborn Arcanarium from potted plants to gothic arches to statues featuring long gone mages of distant past. ¡°Bring Nora into her path with the rule-book and copy exactly what I¡¯m doing in regards to body motion and words,¡± I ordered to the banner of Nemmy hanging on the wall of the Keeper¡¯s office. The silver-haired woman on the banner nodded. Two pinhole gates flashed over my eyes as I was now seeing the world through the eyes of the duplicate of the Keeper of Keys. ¡°Initiate Snippy,¡± I said and the lips of magic-forged Nora Frid Antienni repeated the words in perfect synchronicity. Amber froze, nearly dropping the book she was carrying. I glanced at the book¡¯s title, my sharp chimera eyes zooming into it like two little binoculars. [Novitiate''s Guide to Depictomancy, by Mayovia Lem.] Hm. I could use this. If she''s interested in Depictomancy, maybe she will like Dawn? Maybe we can practice Depictomancy together? Hrm. Maybe I can read The Rise and Fall of Thomas Cole in front of her or something? ¡°Yes, Keeper?¡± Hostility-filled, azure-blue eyes of Amber stared at me. ¡°I believe I was a bit too harsh with you,¡± I said. ¡°Here is your rule-book back.¡± I offered Miss Snippy her book. Amber grabbed at it with a frown. ¡°Is that all, madam Keeper?¡± She asked, clearly eager to run away to read alone in the gardens. ¡°No, that is not all,¡± I said. ¡°Plus one hundred points to Novitiate Amber of Snippy for being a goodly enforcer of the rules.¡± The negative number above the redhead girl vanished. She looked up and then looked back at me. ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± she said. ¡°I was unfair to you because I was in a bad mood that day,¡± I said. ¡°You did nothing wrong. You¡¯re here to learn. You¡¯re here to make friends and to grow as a person. You should make friends with your roommates.¡± ¡°What, the bog underling and the pompous lordling? No thanks,¡± Amber shot back. ¡°I¡¯d like to request a different room.¡± I sighed. ¡°Why do you hate your roommates, Amber?¡± I asked. ¡°Other than the fact that they¡¯re both idiots who are hell-bent on breaking the rules?¡± Amber raised an eyebrow. ¡°Why isn¡¯t the Undertown girl expelled? Why is that red banner still up? Why is the second bed still there?!¡± ¡°Amber,¡± I said. ¡°Why are you in Nemendias?¡± ¡°Because I have nowhere else to go,¡± she huffed. ¡°My Estate was destroyed.¡± ¡°Destroyed by whom?¡± ¡°That¡¯s irrelevant,¡± she snapped at me. I crossed my arms. ¡°Novitiate Snippy,¡± I said. ¡°It is my job as the Keeper to keep the peace at Nemendias. If you have enemies, please let me know about them.¡± ¡°Novitiate Misem is my enemy!¡± Amber¡¯s rapid answer stabbed me right through the heart. ¡°What is it that makes you think that Novitiate Misem is your enemy?¡± I asked, my heartbeat intensifying. ¡°She¡¯s one of them! It¡¯s freaking obvious! Why is she allowed to be in Nemendias?! Why is she allowed to hang up that vile banner?!¡± ¡°One of whom?!¡± I demanded. ¡°People who believe in Equality,¡± Amber hissed through her teeth. ¡°What,¡± I blinked. ¡°You heard me!¡± Amber growled. ¡°She¡¯s probably going to stab me while I sleep! I haven¡¯t slept a single night properly here! I keep waking up in terror that she¡¯s standing over me with that black knife of hers, just waiting to plunge it into my heart! I bet that it¡¯s a ritual knife that eats souls or something!¡± If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°What?¡± I gaped at the distraught girl. Did she somehow know HOW Endy worked? What?! ¡°She¡¯s obviously a darkling, a witch,¡± Amber growled. ¡°A cultist! You MUST expel her before it¡¯s too late! I¡¯m serious!¡± ¡°That¡¯s enough drama, Novitiate Snippy,¡± I said. ¡°Just because she has a cute black kitten it doesn¡¯t mean that she¡¯s a witch. Please don¡¯t overblow the situation. Grogtilda Lic Misem isn¡¯t a cultist. I interviewed her myself under the light of the absolute Truth hexagram. She¡¯s a good person who wants to make the world a better place.¡± ¡°She believes in Equality!¡± Amber waved her hands like it was the winning argument. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with equality?¡± I asked. ¡°What do you mean what¡¯s wrong with Equality?!¡± Amber stepped back from me, her eyes suddenly filled with panic. ¡°You¡­ you¡¯re one of them too¡­ aren¡¯t you?! No wonder you won¡¯t expel her!¡± ¡°One of whom?!¡± I growled exasperatedly. Amber was already running, feet flashing under her robe as she turned the corner. ¡°Impressive,¡± the drawing of Nemmy said from the wall. ¡°Quiet you,¡± I glared at her. ¡°Move the Keeper¡¯s avatar into her path.¡± Amber nearly collided with the newly-manifested figure of Nora. She stopped a moment before her face smashed straight into the Keeper¡¯s chest and froze, panting furiously and looking terrified. ¡°H-how did you g-get ahead of me?¡± She uttered, her face beet-red. I crossed my arms. ¡°Novitiate Snippy,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m not here to hurt you. I just want answers as to what you think is going on.¡± The girl gritted her teeth, looking for a way out. ¡°Amber,¡± I said, channeling my inner sociology professor. ¡°You¡¯re here to learn many different things. Not just how to fire spells or how to weave magic. You¡¯re here to learn how to interact with people, how to make friends. When you graduate from Nemendias you will encounter plenty of oddballs, idiots and weirdos. You¡¯re a Baroness and you have a responsibility to your Estate. You will have to work with people you do not like and find some common ground so that your Estate can benefit from the collaboration. You cannot exist in a vacuum as a hermit. You''re a lady of high society!¡± Amber huffed. She didn''t see herself as a Baroness for some reason. Maybe she was too young for such a responsibility. ¡°Please try to get along with your roommates. I promise you that they won¡¯t hurt you,¡± I added. ¡°They¡¯re both really good, kind girls who can offer you plenty of things to learn from. Do you know why I¡¯m letting them break the rules and keep the bed and the banners? They¡¯re exactly the kind of an experience you need, skills that will allow you to get ahead in life later on.¡± ¡°But,¡± Amber opened her mouth. ¡°The rules¡­¡± ¡°There are NO rules in the real world,¡± I said. ¡°Business partners deceive each other and bamboozle their clientele to get more gold. Salespeople embellish the quality of their wares to make more gold. You need to know when someone is a genuine person or a liar. Just think of it as a fun game, a test that you must pass. If you can figure out how to make friends with Grogtilda and Emerald you will be able to get a lot more done when you¡¯re older. You won¡¯t get hurt, trust me.¡± Amber¡¯s frown remained. ¡°The ward of Nemendias has kept students safe for millennia,¡± I said. ¡°You are absolutely safe here from physical harm, but this school will NOT provide you a perfectly positive-space where your ideas and morals won¡¯t be challenged or pushed against. You aren¡¯t here to get coddled into thinking that your status and wealth will provide you everything - you¡¯re here to face a variety of challenges! The first challenge you must overcome is to figure out how to co-exist with people you clearly cannot tolerate.¡± ¡°Ugh,¡± Amber¡¯s shoulders fell. ¡°You¡¯re¡­ doing this to me on purpose?¡± ¡°I¡¯m doing this on purpose,¡± I nodded. ¡°I might not be a teacher but I am here to teach you things too. This is a learning experience. Talk to your roommates, find some common ground. I placed Emerald and Grogtilda into the same room because they¡¯re total opposites with completely clashing ideologies. Each of them must learn to accept, respect and tolerate the other!¡± ¡°And what if I don¡¯t find common ground with them? What if¡­?¡± Amber uttered exasperatedly. ¡°You¡¯re welcome to come to my office and talk to me anytime, seek my aid,¡± I said. ¡°I can advise you on how to deal with people using words, not hostile actions.¡± Amber looked forlorn. ¡°If someone has an opinion that you oppose, you should engage them in debate. Face them head on, challenge them to a fight of words. Not every situation can be resolved with magic,¡± I said. ¡°Don''t just run away or shut them down by saying, ''I can''t hear what you have to say because I''m too fragile to handle it.'' That''s not how we gain knowledge, novitiate!¡± ¡°I¡­ I understand, Lady Keeper,¡± Amber bowed her head. My words had finally gotten through to her. Great success! ¡°M-may I go now?¡± She asked. ¡°You may go,¡± I nodded. As Amber rushed away from me with two of her books, the pinhole gates in front of my eyes folded away. ¡°Now that¡­ that was VERY clever,¡± Nemendias nodded. ¡°Oh?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°Since I¡¯m the new Keeper of Keys,¡± Nemmy purred. ¡°I think I¡¯ll implement your opposites-confronting strategy school-wide. For far too long have students been permitted to simply choose their roommates, stick to certain cliques and never make friends outside of their circles.¡± ¡°Make sure to guide the new students to understanding and friendship,¡± I smiled at her. ¡°Obviously,¡± she nodded. ¡°I¡¯m not going to place my students into challenging situations and not help them find solutions. There have been many good and bad teachers over millennia in my halls. I learned a thing or two from each of them.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the spirit,¡± I put my thumb up at the now confident-looking Nemmy on the banner. . . . I stretched. Convincing people to be more tolerant of my weirdness was easier than thinking about countless doomed worlds. I pushed the issue to the back of my mind, refusing to think about it further. It would be a problem for the future me of distant tomorrow. ¡°Volty?¡± I turned to my bestie. ¡°Yes?¡± The maid looked back to me. ¡°Let''s go explore the deep, dark halls before school starts,¡± I said. ¡°I want to see what other fantastic mysteries I can uncover! You can be my Urbex partner!¡± Ch 109. The World at the Boundary A thorough scouting of the lower levels of Nemedias was a decent way of bringing my mood up for the day, but as evening drew near I had become tired and started yawning. Voltara and I returned to the Lawmaker''s tower dormitory and settled on our respective beds. I stretched out, drew the curtains shut and dove into my soul. . . . All four versions of me were sitting behind a dusty table within the interior of Chernobyl staring at each other. "Let''s review our progress," I said to the other three versions of myself. "Soul stability is increasing," Junezia reported. "If we keep going we might actually be able to get more restarts..." "Question?" Juneberry asked. "Yes?" Junezia looked at the Searcher. "Infi said that there are infinite Earths being made and dying inside Eureka," Juneberry said. "Can we maybe connect to one of them without any mirror-breaking? Not as a point of rewind, but... to simply see what''s out there. I want to know if what Infi told us is true. I want to peer through the eyes of another possible Juni, to see it for myself. I want to know how far we can reach across infinity." "That sounds... extremely dangerous," JP bared her sharp teeth with a malicious smile. "I like this plan." "It''s dangerous and yet you like it?" I blinked at phantom-me. "If there''s an evil Juni behind the mirror I could eat her," JP grinned, her jet-black hair threads fluttering through the air. "And what if there''s a good Juni there?" Junezia asked. "Then what?" "Then we make another best friend!" Juneberry declared with a decisive hand-clap. "If she''s a wizard she could teach us advanced magics! Sha-zam!" "We don''t know how the mirrors work," Junezia said. "Yeah we do," Juneberry waved her hands. "We have two open mirrors already. One leading back to our original Earth and another leading to the Dead Zone!" "Lets make a vote," I offered. "Raise your hands if you agree to open another mirror to..." Everyone''s hands were already up including my own. "Great," I rolled my eyes. "I don''t know why I even bothered with a vote, we''re all Juni." . . . The storm shook my lander, pelleting it with endless grey rocks and dust, pieces of debris striking against the glass with endless plings. The noise of the rocks slamming into the ship was giving me a pulsing migraine. "Get it together Cali," I rubbed my head tiredly staring at my pale reflection in the glass. Jumps across the vastness of the void had always been a pain, had always messed with my mind, nearly made me forget who I was and where I was going. Only a few Stratonavigators like myself, a few people out of millions had the neural-pattern necessary to direct the dark matter engine to make successful leaps from planet to planet without crashing into a star or getting lost in eternity. ¡°Cali Terri,¡± I read the words on the name-tag of my gray suit. ¡°Werth Stratonavigator 20471. Deep Search Project.¡± I slowly recalled things as my mind emerged from the soup of parallax fractals, pushing itself against the resonance of the void. I was a free Stratonavigator. I chose this fate, chose to leap forward into the unknown, to find a world for Werth people to resettle to as our own atmosphere was rapidly decaying away. Since 2248 Werth has been plagued with one disaster after another. We had successfully repelled a multitude of invaders, blocked the gateways, sacrificed our cities, lost most of our population... but now our planet itself was dying and I was Werth''s last hope. I slowly remembered more things. This was my 808th jump. I had already encountered numerous dead worlds. I was seeing a pattern and I refused to believe it. I suddenly recalled that I chose to persist in my Search even when I stopped receiving signals from Werth. I turned to the panel and tried not to cry. The Werth beacon was silent, I had received no messages in 2 months. I looked out the window. The grey mush was still there. The waiting was a pain. I leaned back on my chair and waited for the storm to end. Time dragged on and on, until finally I saw that the gray dust released me. I sighed in relief as I saw the horizon turn from grey to white, the sun starting to break through the clouds. The storm was over, and I was finally free to step out of the lander. I put on my suit and helmet and opened the hatch. The air was still and silent, and the sun shone through the dust. I took a deep breath of oxygen generated by the suit and looked around. The land was rugged and desolate. A massive, planet-wide wall of gray clouds was moving away, revealing more of the landscape beneath it. I took a few steps away from the lander, feeling the ground beneath my feet. I was weary and tired, but I tried to stay positive. The supercell storm moving away from me was definitely something to behold. It was something new, something that wasn''t documented on this planet. According to the infodeck Laiternia was a green planet covered in delta rivers and gardens, a perfect world for farming, gambling and... Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. It was anything but. Gray dominated the landscape. I couldn''t spot a single tree or a river. Laiternia was nothing but a wasteland, a gray desert extending as far as the eye could see. I took a few steps in the direction of the horizon, unable to comprehend what I was seeing. Laiternia looked like a world that''s been forsaken, abandoned millennia ago. The cloud moved further back, revealing structures buried in the grey sand. Skyscrapers! My mouth fell open. I saw this city in the infodeck brochure. It was the capital of Laiternia. I walked towards the ruins of a once thriving city. The buildings were still standing, but they were crumbling and covered in dust. I couldn''t believe it. What had happened here? Where had all the people gone? My heart raced as I carefully navigated the ruins. I entered the silent skyscraper. The lamp in my helmet ignited, a beam of light cutting through the gloomy interior. The walls were covered in dust. I looked around, taking in the scene. There were no signs of life. Old furniture and dead computer terminals were scattered around the room, but there were no people. This was once an office. I pressed forward, heading down the stairwell into the depths of the building. [NO LIFE SIGNS] The scanner on my wrist clicked when I ran the scan. I continued my descent. There were more offices in the lower floors, just as abandoned and empty. Darkness pressed from all sides against me as I had gone beneath all of the windows, into the floors buried deep in the grey sand. I saw the body of a man. [NO LIFE SIGNS] The scanner clicked. I approached the body. It looked wrong. Looked like it had leaned against the wall and melted into it. The three piece suit was intact, but the flesh of the man stretched into all directions, becoming a tree-like fractal structure spreading into the wall. I backed away, feeling my skin crawling. What the shit had happened here? I didn''t know what was going on, but I knew one thing. Laiternia was lost. I turned. My light revealed another person fused into the wall. [NO LIFE SIGNS] The scanner clicked again. I wanted to run, wanted to get away from this nightmarish vision... but I also had to take a sample, had to see if this was a pathogen of some sort, had to know the truth. I reached for a sample container on my belt and pulled out a knife. I stabbed at the flesh of the man that had turned into a tree, trying to scrape a bit of it off. The man''s eyes suddenly opened. They were grey, deprived of moisture, formed from fractal patterns of moving dust that glittered in the light of my lamp. I jumped back in surprise, dropping the sample container. I pointed the scanner at the man that stared at me. [NO LIFE SIGNS] It declared, as if it was taunting me. The dead man''s mouth moved, slowly opened like the petals of a flower, unfolded to reveal pulsating, gray flesh. "Welcome to Laiternia," he said. I felt my heart stop. "W-what the fff-fu..." I muttered, frozen on the spot, unable to move. The dead man''s mouth moved again. "A polite lady should not swear," the corpse said in a casual tone. "Y-you are dead," I said. "T-this isn''t real." "I am only technically dead," the man affirmed. "This is real." I could hardly believe what I was hearing. I mean, here I was, standing in a room filled with dead bodies, and one of them was talking to me! I felt my heart racing, my stomach turning. "W-what happened here?" I asked, my voice trembling. "Time," the corpse said. "Time turns all to dust." I just stared at the corpse, unable to comprehend what I was hearing. "How are you talking to me? W-what the shit is this?!" I sputtered. "I still got my Save Point," the man said. ¡°I cannot die until it runs out.¡± "W-what?" I asked. "Laiternia was a paradise made for me," the corpse said. "I can''t die until the Save Point subscription ends. I''m... everyone here. My name''s... Lattimus Sconch." I scrambled away from the corpse, limping towards the stairwell. "Do you mind not leaving? It''s nice having someone to talk to who can still move," the body of the woman fused to the floor near me spoke, dead, glistening eyes looking up at me. "W-what?" I froze again. "What the shit are you?!" "Lattimus Sconch," the woman''s ossified body said. "My name is Lattimus. Please don''t run away. I''m... a citizen of Eureka." Something shattered inside of me with a twinkle as the corpse uttered the name. I blinked. I was... something other than myself. Something greater. I was Cali Terri from Werth and I was Juni Tokimorim?tul from Andross and I was Yulia Ishenko from Earth. I choked, my mind processing this new, impossible information. After a minute of hyperventilating, I sat down on the floor and stared at the corpse. All of the terror I felt before had drowned in the sudden, new realization of self, in the possibility of other me-s existing in other places elsewhere beyond the stars tied to me with a chain of Infinite Mirrors. "Lattie," I said. "Tell me everything from the beginning. I want to know how you got to this sorry state." ¡°I worked as a Eureka project Admin. A Director of Human Resources,¡± the corpse said. ¡°I saw an ad for a game¡­ a perfect world made entirely for me, where I could be anyone... Everyone. I bought it. This is my perfect world¡­¡± ¡°You wanted to be a bunch of corpses fused to the floor?¡± I asked. ¡°No,¡± Lattie replied. ¡°Laiternia wasn¡¯t always like this. There were oceans and rivers and forests¡­ I thought that it would stay this way forever¡­ but my world¡¯s subscription ran out. I thought that it wasn¡¯t a big deal¡­ but I was wrong. I got a notification that¡­ my paradise has been discontinued, that its narrative will now be tied with all of the other... indebted worlds. That unless I pay up, I will be gated out. The bastards gated me out.¡± I thought of Werth and of how my own planet had inexplicably, slowly decayed away. How I had become a Stratonavigator to find a new world for humanity to flee to. How I jumped from world to world to find only death and decay. I now knew that there was nowhere for us to relocate to. Eventually every world here would collide, crash into the barrier wall, become part of the Dead Zone. ¡°I¡­ I¡¯ll be back,¡± I told Lattie. ¡°Just wait¡­ I¡¯ll get you out of this place, I promise!¡± I rushed up the stairwell, ran across the desolate desert, got into the lander and procured my backup suit. In about an hour I was back to the room filled with corpses. I slowly, meticulously carved the thin, skeletal body of the dead girl out of the floor with a plasma knife and enclosed her in the space suit. ¡°Will you remain yourself, if I take you from here?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes,¡± Lattie said. ¡°These bodies are all me, so I can move between them. This was the setup of the game. It was how I coordinated, set up events on my planet for myself to enjoy. It was my perfect lucid dream...¡± I tied the suit filled with the thin, dusty corpse to my back and began to ascend up the stairwell. ¡°Are you still with me?¡± I asked through the speaker. ¡°I am,¡± Lattie responded, her voice now female and fuzzy with static. ¡°Great,¡± I exhaled. ¡°My ship¡¯s engine can leap across the universe. I can try to get you back to Eureka. Maybe you could¡­¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think Eureka will let me back in,¡± Lattie sighed. ¡°I¡¯m broke. I spent all of my savings on my paradise planet. I¡¯m certain that someone else has my job now.¡± I growled and stopped my stride, pondering my options. I didn''t have the coordinates to jump towards Eureka and jumping blindly could take me deeper into the Dead Zone. If there was no way forward, no way back to the core¡­ only one option had remained. The option, the path towards my other reflections... towards a teenage girl version of me that lived on a world that resisted death, fought back, survived against all odds. ¡°It¡¯s fine¡­ this is fine... we¡¯ll try to get through the Dead Zone,¡± I said, tears raining down my face. ¡°We¡¯ll try to find my Sunshine Archipelago¡­ I think I know the way there. I think I can get us there, past the barrier wall¡­ to the magisphere of desire. You just have to persist until then. Can you do that for me Lattie?¡± ¡°I am not sure,¡± Lattie said. ¡°There is only a few months left on my Save Point. But¡­ I do want to see the worlds beyond these dying stars.¡± I climbed back into the lander and slammed the metal door shut. I belted Lattie to a wall, slotting the suit upright and looked at the navigation panel. I had to make another jump. A completely blind one, based purely on the location that was tugging at the Infinite Mirror within my soul. A jump that would get me out of the doomed worlds plummeting to their end, out of this place¡­ out of Eureka¡¯s grip, past her walls. I started to type numbers into the panel, operating entirely by my intuition alone. I had to get it right. The Infinite Mirror gave me a chance, gave me a way out. I finished the launch sequence, tied belts around my body and pressed my hand into the panel. ¡°Activate the jump!¡± I growled and the dark matter engine behind me folded into itself with a deafening hum that multiplied again and again until I knew no more. Ch 110. Knowledge Day I awoke from my hyper-realistic dream of the doomed planet called Laiternia with tears streaming down my face. I slid out of bed, parted the curtains and stepped to the stained glass window. I grabbed the handle and pushed the window open. I climbed onto a small balcony and simply stood there staring at the view. Thick clouds swirled above the chasm in circular supercell storm patterns, flickering with lightning. It was raining down there, but up here in Illatius the sky was clear. I looked up. A billion violet, alien stars twinkled in the sky above me. Countless entwined galaxies, planets and stars orbited the gigastructure of Eureka captured by its impossible size, tinted bright violet by the resonance of the Magisphere of Desire. "Status," I whispered. The menu with my stats came up. There was a new entry there among the other listed Infinite Mirrors:
[+1] [Dead Zone barrier boundary, void-jump transit. Cali Terri of Werth - connected]
I took a deep breath and let the cool night air fill my lungs. I felt the tension in my body slowly dissipate as I watched the stars. I closed my eyes and let the distant rumble of thunder fill my ears. I saw the world of Werth in the back of my mind, recalled it as if it was my own. Ruins of cities buried in a frozen wasteland filled with monstrous, gargantuan abominations. Humanity clinging to life in a leviathan, steel citadel beneath the ice. A world on its last breath. The last city hidden within glaciers, its heart powered by void engines. Deep Searchers in gray uniforms standing in a straight line, a stylized W on their shoulders. The final, parting words of their Captain, being given out the order to find a new home for the people of Werth. I saw the doomed universe through the eyes of Cali, my mind fluttering through memories of a multitude of dying worlds. I saw the ossified face of the Eurekan Admin covered in fractal roots, turned into living dust, a corpse that somehow continued to cling to life with the power of the Save Point. I opened my eyes. The violet, brilliant stars of the sky of Andross were still there, twinkling at me. The galactic constellations and nebulae above me were purple, just like Infi''s eyes. I briefly wondered whether she was these stars or if they simply reflected in her holographic eyes. Each star here was beyond the prison of the Dead Zone boundary¡­ held potential for something new. I knew that somewhere out there was Novazem, the future Novazem where the Necromages were dead for a thousand years. My grandfather was there, still alive, waiting for me. It wasn''t the man who raised me, but if I met him, I was certain that he would be my best friend and teacher. With that in mind I suddenly realized that Infi didn¡¯t just tell me about the nightmares, didn¡¯t just show me the endless doomed worlds within Eureka. The very first thing she showed me was¡­ hope. I felt a sense of sanguineness wash over me as I recalled my vision of Vladislav Kerenski at the Shogun Gate. I knew that no matter how dark the universe seemed, there was still hope here on installation Rozaline. My little Sunshine Archipelago persisted, hung in the sky above the world of death, fed on the Resonance of Desire pouring from the System Errors that refused to be bound. Installation Rozaline''s orbit intersected the dreams and nightmares of countless murdered worlds comprising the Dead Zone. Right below us was the cadaverous mesh, a wall forged from corpse worlds that sang the morbid epicedium, wove the foundation of the algid, all encompassing, weary currents of the Astral Ocean. Rozaline was my new home. If Installation Rozaline made it out here, escaped from Eureka... then so could Cali Terri, my reflection from Werth. I wasn''t alone... I... I heard a noise from behind me. I turned to discover that Voltara had climbed out of the window. "I''m sorry, did I wake you?" I asked. "I am a light sleeper," Voltara shrugged. "My job is to watch over and protect you. Inspector Lambert said so." I sighed. The sky became tinted pink. Sunrise was coming. I stared at the horizon, watching the stars slowly fade away and leaned into Voltara. My knight-maid knew exactly what I needed. She hugged me as I watched the sun emerge from the edge of Illatius, igniting the gold spires with brilliant flares. I momentarily wondered whether this sun was something that belonged to Rozaline herself, a fake star that orbited her to produce the night and day cycle. Voltara started to hum Infi''s song. "But you and I shall stand together, Against the Never Never..." I joined in and soon both of us were singing it on the little balcony as the city beneath us woke up. "Shall we get the rest of the gang up and get some breakfast?" I stood up and looked down at the streets filled with early workers and glittering skyships. "Sounds good," Voltara nodded. . . . At noon, as the central tower of the highborn Arcanarium began to ring its lunch bell gong, Galissi Seven docked to a truly colossal, gold-plated skyship hanging right above Nemendias. Agatha stayed within her glider as Emerald, Voltara and I stepped into the interior of the large ship. "Good luck," Agatha closed the glider''s door with a nod, her face set and silver hair tied into a tight bun, the celestial pin glittering on her chest. My own 3-piece, unfinished crest was now sitting on my black lapel. Voltara and I stepped through the hallways of the opulent skyship. We walked past the guards, entering into the seating area filled with students in black robes. I couldn''t help but stare at the elaborate, fanciful interiors of the ship I was now in. I let Emerald walk far ahead of us as I admired the colorful, stained glass, gemstone-covered chandeliers hanging above arched windows. Voltara smiled at me. She looked at the students in their black robes and elegant outfits. From her expression I could tell that the maid felt somewhat out of place among all of these highborns - I was the only one to bring my maid to the student seating area. Voltara held her head high and continued to walk beside me as we moved past occupied seats, searching for an empty couch. I spotted a trio of kids sitting in one of the alcoves. The boy was reading the Imperial Tribune. There was another article in the newspaper with my face on it with yet another detailed interview outlining my accomplishments and future plans. ¡°Can you believe this?¡± The brunette girl next to the boy asked. ¡°A freaking lowborn at¡­¡± The trio suddenly spotted me and Voltara. ¡°It¡¯s her!¡± The girl barked. ¡°Grogtilda! The girl from the newspaper!¡± At the declaration, numerous heads turned towards us, student gazes directed at my face, focused on my blue, shimmering scars. ¡°Look! She¡­ she¡¯s at minus one hundred points already!¡± Someone laughed. ¡°It won¡¯t be long before she gets expelled!¡± ¡°Is that¡­ no that can¡¯t be! That looks like a 3-piece pin! What?! How? There''s no way that''s real,¡± Someone muttered. "School hasn''t even started!" Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! ¡°Look at those blue curse-scars! I can¡¯t believe she spent three months in the Folding Forest! I thought that it was all bullshit!¡± ¡°Hang on... she¡¯s got a maid with her! What?¡± ¡°How can a peon like that even afford a maid?¡± Voltara didn¡¯t even flinch at the accusations. She looked down at the teens as if looking straight through them. The maid showed no fear or concern on her face at their words, stood beside me like an immovable mountain. A girl with gold curls and silver eyes stood up, staring directly at me. A fanciful dress with white and gold silk sat beneath her black robes. ¡°So it¡¯s all true,¡± she announced. ¡°A lowborn at Nemendias. Look Ignius!¡± A boy stood up from the seat beside her. His hair was orange and eyes sky-blue. He looked like a younger copy of Emperor Bolsh and also looked a bit like his older brother. Ah, this was the Second Prince of Illatius, Emerald¡¯s fiancee. Ignius stared at me. His face scrunched up as if he tasted a lemon. ¡°Truly disgusting,¡± he uttered. ¡°How did our standards fall so low as to admit a deplorable rat?¡± ¡°I know, right?¡± The golden-curled girl laughed. ¡°I recognize young Prince Terny, but who might you be?¡± I asked, raising an eyebrow at the girl. The fact that I had a voice and dared to use it in her presence, made the golden-haired, angelic-looking girl flinch ever so slightly. ¡°I am Seminarian Akadia Solas!¡± She said pompously with a flourish. ¡°No wonder a lowborn mutt like yourself does not know of me! My grandfather is Grand Archbishop Vox Solas of the Church of Saint Eunisii!¡± ¡°Your grandfather''s the Grand Archbishop?¡± Voltara suddenly voiced her opinion on the matter. The maid looked the girl up and down, not looking impressed. ¡°My friend Arouetta prays to the Saint daily, so I know the verses quite well. Let me offer you this piece of advice since your grandfather is the Saint''s Voice. Try following the teachings of Saint Euniusii. The church teaches to love and respect your fellows!¡± I saw Emerald¡¯s silver, crystalline hair in the seat directly across from Akadia. Green, diamond-shaped eyes looked up at me. I smirked at her, urging her on as Voltara made her little speech in my defense. Emerald stood up. ¡°The verses don''t freaking apply to this situation! This lowborn trash isn¡¯t our fellow, she''s not equal to us! She¡¯s my damned roommate, my worst freaking nemesis,¡± she growled dramatically. ¡°At least you will only have to deal with her in class, Akadia! I have to see her stupid, blue, bloated face all day long!¡± ¡°Oh my, how unfortunate for you,¡± Akadia shook her gold locks at Emerald. Voltara¡¯s words seemed to have made a small impact on her. Her lips twitched as she contemplated a clever insult for me that would fit into the church¡¯s dogma. Not having arrived at one, she decided to attack me from another angle. ¡°How did this lowborn chaff even get into Nemendias? I bet she cheated on the entrance exam,¡± she turned to Emerald. ¡°Undoubtedly,¡± Emerald¡¯s eyes turned into thin, angry slits. ¡°There is no way this dirty ruffian could have passed it without some sort of fraud!¡± Voltara continued to stare down at Akadia from her indomitable height. ¡°Do you think that the high-mage teachers and Administrators of Nemendias are so easily fooled? How exactly did you get into the school, Akadia?¡± "What''s it to you, maid? Why are you not in the servants section where you belong?" Akadia asked with a scoff. "She''s my security detail," I said. "Security? A maid for security? I''ve never heard anything so penurious..." Akadia laughed. "Indeed! Impecunious Groggy has to rely on a maid to protect her," Emerald smirked. "Voltara," I said. "If Akadia says another accusation against my person, punch her in the face as hard as you want to. Don''t hold back." "What?! Y-you wouldn''t dare!" Akadia puffed up. ¡°Yes, ma''am!¡± The knight-maid snapped out a reply like a well trained guard dog, taking a step towards the golden-curled teen. "Go ahead, Akadia, just say one more thing," Voltara¡¯s determined expression said. Her fist closed into a knuckle. Akadia gulped staring at the fist, backing away from the tall maid. The crowd of first year students were staring excitedly at our confrontation. Many of the teenagers in the crowd whispered things to each other, pointing to Voltara. ¡°My maid is a high level vitality maxer,¡± I confided. ¡°She could knock you straight into tomorrow. It would be such a shame if you missed orientation just because you can¡¯t keep your derogatory mouth shut.¡± "Misem is a wild beast, a dastardly ruffian, who does not follow the rules," Emerald sighed dramatically, shaking her head. "She does not respect authority in any shape or form. Dealing with her is... most unfortunate." Akadia stared at minus one hundred floating above my head and then at minus ten floating above Emerald. She realized that I didn¡¯t give a damn about losing points. She understood that if she kept pushing against me here and now, she would get punched in the face by my maid. "This isn''t over," she hissed as she retreated back to her seat. I shrugged at her and looked over at the student crowd. Some lowered their eyes in fear, some stared at me in amazement, others looked at me with hatred and derision. Only a few of the teens had determined that I was wearing a 3-piece celestial pin and a lawmaker¡¯s armacus. Their eyes were unable to draw away from my shiny pin and bracelet. Gears were turning in their heads as they whispered to each other. I was a powerful enigma, a mystery, a vortex of impossibilities. Their eyes glittered with curiosity, as they wanted to figure me out. The ripple I cast with my actions into the future of the city was starting to make waves. ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Emerald whispered at Akadia. ¡°We will destroy her academically! There¡¯s no way this beryl hog-beast can last more than a week at Nemendias. We won¡¯t even have to do anything. Soon enough everyone will see what kind of a dumb brute she is and she will get expelled for failing to keep up!¡± ¡°Too true, mon ch¨¦ri,¡± Akadia nodded, a malicious smile forming on her face. Prince Ignius shook his head and also sat down. The way forward was clear. We passed by the trio and finally found an empty seat at the back of the fanciful cabin. Now that the confrontation ended, Voltara relaxed, turned to me and shot me a wide smile. She reached out and gently placed her hand over top of mine, squeezing it in support. ¡°We make a great team, right?¡± She whispered, wanting reassurance. ¡°Damn right we do,¡± I whispered back and nodded at her. A musical tone produced from a magitek speaker resounded across the ship. The Keeper of the Keys stepped out into the middle aisle at the front of the cabin, smiling at everyone. ¡°My dear first years,¡± she said, spreading her hands wide and nearly resembling the pose of Nemendias on the banners hanging within her halls. ¡°Today is a holiday and a celebration, called the Day of Knowledge. Today is the day when you start your path of ascension to glory and power!¡± The skyship shuddered and started moving. I saw that it was making a wide circle around the dark towers of the Arcanarium, staying within the interior of the protective shield-dome. The students excitedly stared out of the windows. ¡°This is the beginning of your journey towards becoming archmagi and leaders of our Empire. Many great paths lie ahead of you,¡± Nemmy said, her voice trembling with unconcealed excitement. ¡°To your right is the Infinite Dungeon, filled with mighty dragons and fraught with danger, the mysterious, limitless well of power that grants us our way of life. To your left is your home, the best, brightest and biggest city on all of Andross.¡± I looked at the view below us with the rest of the students, immersed in the collective sense of awe and wonder as the skyship pivoted towards the endless Chasm and then slowly and majestically turned towards the gold spires of Illatius. ¡°Remember these words, my children: Nemendias noiumaru sic adimas! Entruci, casohu, un gallefi!" Nemmy announced. "The Grand Archmage Saint Innocentai spoke these words six thousand years ago when he laid the foundation of Nemendias. Lord Lamanche Innocentai wished to give the children of Illatius a home, a place where Merit, Justice and Knowledge rule supreme. Show Nemendias your noble dedication to integrity, wisdom and justice and she will open the way for you and show you secrets lost to time, reveal her hidden rooms filled with archives of the long gone archmagi! Nowhere else in the world will such an opportunity of a lifetime be presented to you! Today your adventure begins in earnest!¡± The opulent Skyship kept on smoothly circling around the school. Maids emerged from the back room, bringing the students their lunches on silver patters. Voltara noticed that everyone was starting to eat, gave me a stern look that said ¡°don¡¯t do anything reckless while I¡¯m gone¡± and rushed off to bring us lunch from the chefs. Nemmy walked from the front of the cabin and suddenly stopped in front of the golden-hair-led trio. ¡°Miss Solas,¡± She said. ¡°Did you think I would fail to hear your accusations against another student?¡± ¡°I¡­ um, er,¡± Akadia¡¯s face turned red. ¡°She¡­¡± ¡°Minus ten points from Novitiate Akadia Solas for failure to be an impartial judge,¡± the magic-woven avatar stated. "Minus ten points from Ignius Terny for failure to show wisdom. Minus ten points from Emerald Amadea for failure to act noble." ¡°B-but¡­ I,¡± Akadia¡¯s face turned even redder as she choked on her words. Ignius blinked in misapprehension. It looked like this was the first time he had been knocked down, got punished for being wrong. Emerald rolled her eyes. She knew this was coming and accepted it. ¡°Nemendias noiumaru sic adimas. Entruci, casohu, un gallefi,¡± Nemmy repeated, her cold, hazel eyes boring into the highborn trio. ¡°Nemendias protects her flock. Merit, Justice and Knowledge. Carve these ancient words of wisdom into your souls. From this moment onward you are all under the ever-watchful eyes of Nemendias, being judged on your performance by her... hrm... Keeper and other staff. If you fail to display noblesse oblige to me again, the consequences will be most dire.¡± I started to giggle. Nemmy briskly walked over to me. "Minus ten points from Grogtilda Misem for threatening to assault a fellow Novitiate," Nemendias said. "Also, I''m confiscating one of the rays of your Celestial Crest!" Her hand grabbed at the pin on my lapel and removed one of the rays. "Damn it! I just got that one for saving the school from an evil ghost!" I huffed, crossing my arms. "I am the hand of Justice and I won''t tolerate rule-breaking. I''m certain that you can catch another evil ghost or something, Novitiate Misem. You''ve got potential for greatness, stop wasting it on bullying other Novitiates," Nemmy said with a casual tone as she walked off with 1/3 of my shiny pin. The crowd around me exploded in hushed whispers. Ch 111. Derailing the Rules
As the Nemendias first-year students were eating lunch, the facsimile of the Keeper of Keys strolled back and forth in the skyship''s cabin and listed off the various regulations that had to be followed. Nemmy went into detail about the Celestial Crest pin, explaining its use and how only the most impressive performance could entitle a select student to a small fragment of it. She informed the teenagers of extra-curricular activities such as cuisinimancy, fencing, swimming, magical duelling, depictomancy and so on. Afterwards, she told them that this year she plans to extend the after-class activities schedule by appointing part-time Instructors such as Inspector Lambert Cu Durer Archibal, Inspector Anniya Leblanc, Artificer Antoine Delamond Kovalzek and others to teach special topics outside of the regular syllabus such as: Nemendias History, Scrutimancy, Artificing, General Fitness, Armor-designing, Fashion, Urbex, Astral-Diving, Chemistry and Biology. I paid little attention to what she was saying, since Nemmy and I had written the script yesterday ¡ª I was more focused on lunch brought by Voltara and a secondary activity, permitted to me by the fact that I now had one and a half souls. One pair of my eyes stared out the skyship''s opulent window at Nemendias and Illatius below me and the other traversed through the dim, gloomy catacombs. My silver fork and knife pierced through a dragon-steak. The overpriced meat melted on my tongue, filling me with mana and experience with every bite. My black, nightcrawler-bone boots clanked on the ancient stones as I searched the depths of the school for the ideal, unique, secret spots for special, private after-hours lectures, events and activities that Nemmy was now outlining. "This year at Nemendias, we''re shaking things up,¡± Nemmy declared. ¡°Anyone capable of demonstrating unique talents and dedication will be exempt from some of the older regulations listed in your rule booklets.¡± As she spoke this, student eyes lit up with anticipation. ¡°For instance,¡± Nemmy went on. ¡°Students who have earned a Celestial Crest piece can now decorate their room to suit their individual tastes. In this way, a diligent student is rewarded with the freedom to drape a flag, put up artwork, or even bring an additional piece of furniture into their room!" I saw that someone¡¯s hand went up. ¡°Yes, Novitiate Terny?¡± Nemmy turned to the orange-haired second Prince. ¡°How exactly did the lowb¡­ err¡­ Novitiate Misem acquire three crest pieces before classes even started?¡± Prince Ignius demanded, stumbling over the insult as the Keeper¡¯s eyes bore into him. The students sitting around the cabin fell silent. They too were very interested in the answer. ¡°Due to her¡­ unfortunate family situation, Novitiate Misem came to Nemendias during summer break,¡± Nemendias explained. ¡°Her dedication to the art of Scrutimancy helped her discover the ancient tomb of Saint Innocentai. She was the first person to find a secret room that¡¯s been hidden for six thousand years. For this, she earned her first crest piece from me.¡± Ignius blinked, looking stumped. ¡°What... about the other two?¡± He asked after a moment of silence. ¡°She acquired her second crest piece when she helped me come up with innovative, new teaching methods,¡± Nemendias said. ¡°How could a bloody lowborn bitc¡­¡± Akadia hissed. ¡°Minus ten points from Novitiate Solas for undignified behavior,¡± the Keeper¡¯s incandescent gaze snapped towards the golden curls. Akadia fell silent, her face turning scarlet. A [-20] was now floating above her. ¡°Novitiate Misem attained her third crest piece by destroying a ghost that¡¯s been gnawing at our Arcanarium¡¯s wards for thousands of years,¡± Nemmy finished. Student eyes turned towards me, whispers dancing all over the cabin with my name on their lips. . . . The skyship shuddered again and began to descend down towards the main courtyard, an enormous open space surrounded by gothic towers. Older students in black robes stood in two perfect lines, forming a welcoming committee for the arriving first years. A group of teachers in colorful robes stood at the front with Dean Octavia at the head. The security personnel stepped out of the ship, joining the line. I saw that Lambert stood among them, his blue-gray eyes examining all of the students and teachers from beneath round, Scrutimancy rune-covered spectacles. Nemmy emerged from the ship and stepped in front of the group. She stood in the center of the courtyard, looking proud, her robes fluttering in the wind. ¡°Welcome to Nemendias, Novitiates!¡± she declared, her voice magnified by the power of the ward, echoing across the courtyard. ¡°This is the start of your journey. Remember to abide by the rules, work hard, and have fun!¡± The Keeper turned towards the other students. "Acolytes of Nemendias," Nemmy said. "I am pleased to see you once again in my halls! ¡°As a reminder, the rules of Nemendias must be followed,¡± she continued. ¡°Be sure to pay attention to your studies and behave with the utmost respect. We are counting on you to uphold the values of the school and make us proud!¡± The Dean opened her mouth, about to say a speech. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Let the 8066 semester commence!¡± Nemmy declared, completely ignoring the Dean, a wild grin sitting on the avatar''s face. Her amplified voice reverberated throughout the courtyard, sending a shockwave of excitement that was almost palpable in the air. Nemmy looked out over the expectant faces and took a deep breath, relishing in the anticipation that filled the crowd. The magic-woven avatar thrust her hand upwards and a loud, deep gong resounded from the central tower. Everyone''s eyes turned to the sound of the bell emanating from the tower. A luminous burst of energy suddenly exploded from the tip of the tower like an inferno, sending cascading ripples of blinding light across the ward, flickering in an ever-shifting array of vibrant colors and patterns, illuminating the area in a dazzling display of beauty and power. A dark, spiralling cloud began to form directly above the school, dimming the scene and making the dancing auroras far more potent-looking. Bewildered faces, both old and young, were now transfixed on the sky above, entranced by the undulating waves of magic that had suddenly filled the atmosphere. Nothing else seemed to exist in that moment, as if time was standing still. Every breath was held with the anticipation of what might come next, and only their hearts beating wildly in their chests betrayed their confusion and awe. The Dean, administrators, teachers and security stared up at the sky that now featured a small, supercell storm enhanced with radiant waves of magic. This was clearly not part of the ceremony. The Dean''s jaw dropped in disbelief as her authority was knocked right from out under her, leaving her but a mere observer. Her mouth gaped open and closed like a dying fish, completely unable to find the right words. Nemmy''s voice boomed like thunder across the courtyard just as enormous snowflakes started to glide down from the broiling cloud-tunnel overhead, melting before they hit the ground. "Show me your power, my children! Ignite the heavens with me!" Agatha acted first. Her armacus unfurled and a brilliant beam of magical fire shot upwards, painting the stormy sky and drifting snowflakes with a stunning array of luminous rainbows. The other students were not to be outdone. Prince Licor was second to act, lifting his armacus. Motivated by the duo''s action, the other capable students followed suit, unleashing an awe-inspiring barrage of powerful spells that lit up the gloomy sky with detonations. The first years watched with wide-eyed wonder as the air glimmered and glowed with the power of unleashed magic. The Dean''s throat clenched tight as she opened her mouth to command the students to cease their spell-fire. But it was too late, the students had already opened their focus tools and were raining magic with reckless abandon. Her words were drowned out by the firestorm of unleashed magic. The teachers looked stunned, lost as to what to do. Nemmy''s face shone with joy, her laughter echoing beneath the entryway arches of the central, cathedral-like building. She twirled in a circle as if she was a schoolgirl herself, arms outstretched to catch the kaleidoscope of magic-forged stars and snowflakes cascading from above. She devoured every moment of elation like it was a priceless treasure - it was the first time that she allowed herself to be truly happy and free. For the first time in her millennia-long existence Nemendias got to experience life, got to have fun with her students. The personified concept of the school, the magic-woven life fueled by the spark of the soul of Lord Lamanche Innocentai was finally free, finally unbound, unleashed from her self-imposed imprisonment within the catacombs after six thousand years. Nemmy glanced at me with the widest smile possible, her eyes glittering as she gave me the tiniest nod of acknowledgement. The magical resonance of the ward and spell-fire faded as the students exhausted themselves, ran out of mana. Dean Octavia''s eyes hardened with irritation as her lips curled into a menacing snarl. She walked over to the Keeper, grabbed her by the elbow and dragged her away to reprimand her while teachers began to introduce themselves to the gathered crowd of students. I could hear the conversation of the Dean and the Keeper beneath the arched entryway thanks to the pinhole gateway in Nemmy¡¯s pocket that was connected to a gate in my ear. ¡°What do you think you¡¯re doing, Keeper Antienni?¡± Octavia hissed. ¡°I¡¯ve made the entrance ceremony a tad more rousing,¡± Nemmy said. "A bit more rousing? That was incredibly disruptive! How did you make the ward do that?" Octavia demanded. "I wasn''t even aware that the ward could produce a snowstorm!" "The localized, weather-manipulating hexagram was designed by Gumbell Quem in 4044," Nemmy said. "Here''s a scroll describing how a miniature supercell snow storm can be produced directly above Nemendias. It was written by Lord Quem in 4045 for the Keeper of Keys. I found it deep in the catacombs and decided to implement it during the Knowledge Day ceremony. Keeper Xulian Wenda was the first person to use the spell to entertain students during the entrance ceremony of 4045. It had been part of our noble tradition until Keeper Wenda died and failed to pass the scroll to the next Keeper of Keys." "It seems you have done your homework, Keeper Antienni. But please do not improvise during an important ceremony like this," the Dean''s hostile tone softened ever so slightly before growing more strict once again."The students look to you for guidance. As the Keeper, it''s your job to keep the students in line, not to egg them on!" "Of course, my Lady," Nemmy bowed. "I simply got a bit too excited to show off what I discovered." "I expect you to maintain order," the Dean said in a low, dangerous tone. "I''m sorry, my Lady," Nemmy said. A hint of regret could be heard in the Keeper''s voice. The Dean sent another glare at the Nora-shaped avatar and walked back to the line of students. "I am Dean Octavia Breen Georgia," the Dean of Nemendias cut in as soon as the next instructor had finished their introduction. Her tone was firm with a hint of false, sweet friendliness. "I''m at the helm of this six-thousand-year-old institution, and as such, I determine who gets hired and fired. It''s up to me to make sure our noble, high standards are fulfilled." The students nodded. "As always, we have a set of rules that each student must follow," the Dean continued. "They are posted on the walls in the dormitory hallways and also listed in student guide books. The rules are simple and straightforward. Attend classes on time. Act noble. Mind your manners. Keep your dorm clean. No magic usage outside class unless instructed to do so by a teacher. Any problems you may have can be brought to the attention of my office. Failure to meet any standards will result in a penalty and subtraction of points. All disciplinary actions are subject to review by teachers and administrators if the penalty is enacted in an unjust manner." "The penalty for continuous rule-breaking is detention. Detention will be served by students being assigned to a teacher for the evening. During such, students will be subjected to mundane or demeaning duties such as scrubbing the floors by hand, sorting supplies, or other tedious tasks. Punishments for continued disobedience will grow in their severity. Falling below a certain tolerance threshold will result in immediate expulsion, a punishment with no margin for leniency!" The Dean''s pink eyes went over the gathered students in front of her. She froze as she saw negative numbers over the heads of several first years, including myself. "You should be ashamed of yourself," her voice became laced with disappointment and contempt as she scolded the first years with red minuses over their heads, "I can see that some of you have no respect for rules - not even before entering these hallowed halls of learning!" The Dean''s eyes seared into me like burning flames. I could feel their intensity trying to scorching my soul. "By the Emperor! Never before has someone had a starting score of negative one-hundred and ten! What is your name, Novitiate?" The Dean said firmly, her magic-magnified voice reverberating off the surrounding buildings. "Grogtilda Lic Misem," I said, steeling my gaze with hers. "Novitiate Misem," Dean Octavia said sternly, stepping towards me, her pink eyes burning from within like two angry road flares. "You are hereby expelled from Nemendias." Ch 112. The Signature Deception
I gulped. Getting expelled was not part of my plan. The Dean likely wanted to kick me out of Nemendias so that her patron and relative - Baroness Georgia could blow me up with a magical grenade to kingdom come. "I object," Nemmy said, stepping forward. "Oh what grounds?" The Dean raised an eyebrow. "Novitiate Misem has two crest pieces," the duplicate Keeper said. "She accomplished more than most students. She broke a few rules yes, but it''s what allowed her to start assembling her Crest ahead of everyone. She is the first Novitiate to gain three crest pieces for the first time in six thousand years before even signing her name into the book of students!" The Dean gave the Keeper a cold, unyielding stare. "Give her a chance to bring her points up," Nora said. "In accordance with the ancient rules set in place by Saint Innocentai, she cannot be escorted out of Nemendias unless her points are below negative one thousand!" ¡°There is no second chance here, Keeper Antienni. My decision stands!¡± Octavia huffed. "I''m the absolute authority of Nemendias! Grogtilda Lic Misem is hereby expelled." My lips formed a hard line. "No," I said simply. "No?" The Dean''s pink eyes sharpened like razors, slicing into me with a gaze of disbelief. "I refuse to leave," I said, crossing my arms. "I like it here." Octavia''s face contorted for a moment, before she barked a single, volcanic word: "Security!" The men and women in black robes with gold epaulettes advanced towards me. "Escort this ex-student out of Nemendias!" The Dean hissed out. The voice of Nemendias whispered a phrase into my ear. "I, Novitiate Grogtilda Lic Misem, the holder of the two-shards of the Celestial Crest of Nemendias hereby claim protection of her Ward under duress of certain death outside of it!" I barked out Nemmy''s advice word for word. ¡°Baroness Georgia intends to kill me when I am expelled! I bind my words with the absolute truth hexagram and beseech the Sanctuary of Nemendias!¡± An enormous truth-defining hexagram formed beneath my feet and bathed the courtyard in green shimmers reflected in the wide-open eyes of teachers and students. Another gong resounded from the central tower. The security personnel suddenly discovered that no matter how many steps they took towards me, they could not get an inch closer to me. "What?" The Dean seethed. "You can''t expel me, Octavia Breen Georgia," I said simply. "The ward is on my side and your patron can go suck on a lemon. She can¡¯t hurt me again, can¡¯t execute me here, can¡¯t stop the cause I¡¯ve committed myself to. I¡¯m the Voice of the Magitek Revolution and I stand against criminals like her! I am not leaving!" The Truth-Hexagram flashed green beneath me. The students gasped at the revelation I¡¯ve made. "Minus one thousand points from Novitiate Misem for violating my orders and accusing the school¡¯s primary patron of misdeeds!" The Dean growled. The number above me turned into a gargantuan, brilliant, blood-red [-1110]. Nemmy¡¯s voice whispered more words into my ear through the pinhole gateway between us. "The recent subtraction of points by Dean Octavia was enacted against me in an unjust manner," I said. "By the power of the judiciary of the Ward of Nemendias, I hereby nominate the Keeper of Keys as my points review representative." The Dean''s eyes snapped towards the Keeper of Keys. "Stand against me and I will have you sacked, Keeper Antienni," she said simply. "I am sorry, my Lady, I refuse to lie about this matter," Nemmy said. "I revise the subtraction on the account of it being unjust. Novitiate Misem did not break any rules. The Truth Hexagram confirms her words. Baroness Georgia is a criminal. The Illatius Constabulary already has evidence against her confirmed by a signed confession from one of her co-conspirators!" The number above me went back to [-110]. Octavia''s eye twitched. The gathered crowd stared at our confrontation, looking shocked at how far things had rapidly escalated. One of the security men tried to fire a paralyzing spell at me. It fizzed out before it even reached me. ¡°You can''t detain me,¡± I looked at the bald man with brown eyes, memorizing his face. ¡°The Ward is on my side, my cause is just and my truth is irrefutable. Are you perchance working for Baroness Georgia? Do tell her to screw off. Her last bomb took off my jaw. It was exceptionally unpleasant.¡± The black-robed guard paled as the truth hexagram flashed beneath me once again. My guess was right on the money. "Very well," the Dean said, readjusting her pearlescent robe. "I see how it''s going to be. For attaining a record number of negative one hundred and ten points before the start of classes and for disrupting the Knowledge Day ceremony with her melodramatic declarations... Novitiate Misem is hereby assigned detention everyday, for the rest of the year!" She narrowed her eyes and sneered at me, daring me to challenge her. The teachers were all silent, their eyes shifting between us, expecting me to refuse the ridiculous detention order and suffer the consequences. "I accept this punishment," I said firmly, my voice loud and clear in the heavy silence. "I welcome our daily fun, mundane activities with the lovely Instructors of Nemendias!" Stormancer Stellaris looked taken aback by my defiance, her cold, crimson eyes scanning my face for a weakness. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. "I shall take the first day," she declared with a sinister smirk, stepping forward. "I look forward to our evening together," I bowed low in a mock curtsy, my own smirk hidden behind a mask of cold politeness. "Lady Stellaris Xim Artura. I am certain that you have many wonderful things to teach me about Stormancy!¡± "Break her, I want her gone from here by asap," the Dean''s expression said. Stellaris simply gave the Dean the tiniest nod. Octavia glared at the Keeper one final time, gritting her teeth. She decided that firing Nora in public now would only escalate things if I kept yelling out more truths. ¡°Bring the students inside and tell them about our campus,¡± she said to the security and the teachers. ¡°The Entrance signing ceremony shall begin in two hours when everyone is seated in the Grand Dining Hall.¡± The irate archmage turned around and marched into the main building, her colorful curly hair floating behind her, pearlescent robe billowing. . . . After a few hours lecture in which the teachers guided the students across campus, everyone reconvened in the Grand Dining Hall. Elaborate, cloth banners portraying the various houses of Nemendias over the centuries hung on the walls. Light broke through enormous, gothic stained glass, casting colorful rays across the enormous hall. As the light of day dimmed, magical, dancing lights ignited overhead, dancing atop hexagram-covered candelabras. Thick candlesticks sitting on tables lit up with magical flames. The maids brought snacks out for students as the Dean made another boring, pompous speech about the new semester, excellence, tradition and obedience to the rules. The Keeper brought out an enormous, leather book and placed it on a black and gold pedestal in the center of the hall. She unrolled a parchment and began to call out the names of various students. One by one, the teens came towards the book, signing their names into it, declaring the motto of Nemendias and swearing to uphold the rules. Emerald Amadea was one of the first to be summoned up to sign her name into the book as the registration list was based on when the student''s parents had signed them up to attend Nemendias. I waited patiently, snacking on the tiny, flower-shaped cakes provided by the maids. "Novitiate Emerald Amadea has been allocated room 808 in the Lawmaker''s Tower," Nemmy announced, glancing at the book. "She is assigned to the House of Infinity!" A hexagram flashed above Emerald, a symbol of a ring woven into a ring folding into itself. "Wait a minute," I stared at the banners on the walls that portrayed the houses of Nemendias, paying more attention to them. [Domus Infinitatis - The Searchers of the Infinite Dungeon ] A girl with jet black hair and violet eyes stared at me from the banner. She was wearing black robes flying in the wind as she stood facing curvature of the Infinite Chasm with enormous, storm clouds rolling in the deep. A black knife sat on her side. "Freaking hell," I gaped at the banner. "That''s how you''ve been manipulating people." Voltara followed my gaze. "Is that...?" She gasped. "Mhmm," I nodded, my face twitching. "That''s her alright." Amber of Snippy had gone up to the podium next. The redhead girl looked resigned to her fate as she signed the book. She was also assigned to the House of Infinity and room 808. Amber joined Emerald at the table crowded with the students of the Domus Infinitatis house, the massive tapestry of Infi looming over them akin to the Romantic painting of the Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. The table was framed by dark green trim carved from malachite. The next student, a dark haired boy went to Domus Mandatum, the House of Order. I squinted at the banner depicting a girl with gold eyes who looked like the young version of Baroness Amadea. The table the boy sat on was decorated with gold and diamond trim. Things were falling into a pattern. Nine houses. Nine ideals. Nine primary skills of the soul. Nine... Eurekan concepts. I looked from banner to banner as students joined the various houses, the hair on the back of my head standing up. Different gemstones and metals decorated different tables, representing the nine primaries. Azurite, carnelian, amber, garnet, amethyst, ruby and blue agate gemstones decorated the other tables around me. "And here I thought that I could get away from them," I muttered staring at the portraits of my enemies. Considering that the banner with Amadea on it didn''t resemble her very much except for the eye and hair color, it would not be of use to me to know what unknown Baronesses were like based on these arcane tapestries. The diamond heart on her chest didn''t even look like the gem Amadea was wearing in real life. "Damn ambiguous banners," I muttered under my breath. The table without the trim that I was now occupying was becoming more empty as first years left off to be sorted into various houses. "So, um, did you like... really banish a ghost during Summer?" The girl sitting next to me finally gained to courage to ask me a question. "Sure did," I nodded. "Was it... hard?" She asked, her eyes filled with curiosity. "Extremely," I nodded. "I died doing it." "What," she blinked. "You don''t look dead... just a bit pale and covered in blue scars." "Modern healing magic is a miracle," I laughed. "Also, I got the scars from a Folding Seed. My life is far more eventful than it needs to be." She nodded. "I know... I... um... read about you in the paper," she replied. "Riona Lei Gemm," the Keeper''s voice reverberated. "Catch you later," Riona said, hurrying over to register her name in the book. She got sorted into Domus Sagesse - The house of the Wise Sages framed with garnet gemstones. After about twenty minutes I was the last person remaining at the table of the unsorted. "Grogtilda Lic Misem," Nemmy announced. I stood up. The eyes of every student and teacher dug into me. Entire palettes of emotions sat on their faces from curiosity to amazement to hate. I had definitely captured all of their attention. I casually strolled to the book. The Keeper of Keys handed me a pen topped with a large gem. "Sign," she said. "Mmmm... I don''t sign things without reading them first," I said. I heard the resounding echoes of "What" from the tables around me. I started to flip through the book of rules with slow deliberation. "This is far too many rules for reasonability," I commented. "If you do not like the rules," Nemmy said. "Then you cannot become a student here. The ward will reject you tonight if you refuse to sign this book and your Sanctuary claim will be made moot." "I really don''t want to sign this," I huffed, slowly flipping through the thick, heavy pages. "It''s so long and boring." "Get on with it," Nemmy crossed her arms. "I don''t have all day for your nonsense, Novitiate Misem. Sign your name into the book." "Oh. I know! I''m not actually signing a book of rules for students," I laughed, waving my arms dramatically. "I''m signing a declaration of surrender of Nemendias to me and my kingdom of Lomb!" "Quit screwing around and sign the damn book Misem!" Emerald barked. "I want to eat dinner! These microscopic cakes aren''t filling me up!" "Just to be clear, nobody here is objecting to me signing the surrender of Nemendias to my kingdom?" I spun around, my eyes looking over the tables. "Gods damned clown," Emerald rubbed her face looking exasperated. "Last chance to object to the surrender of Nemendias," I said with a grin. "You''re all witnesses. This is like... super, duper official biz." The Dean''s face turned red like a tomato. She looked like she was about to explode with rage. "Minus ten points from Novitiate Mizem for an attempted takeover of Nemendias," Nemmy said. "Sign the book, Novitiate. Stop delaying dinner." "Do you surrender?" I stared at her. "Whatever, sure, I personally surrender," Nemendias rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, barking out a laugh with a sarcastic tone. "Very funny, Misem. Get on with it before I subtract more points from you." "Nemendias surrenders!" I announced. "You all heard her! Thus the declaration is signed!" I signed my name into the book with a smirk. The text of the surrender outline written by Nemmy and I yesterday flickered. It simply needed the power of witnesses made from local population representatives to become official. My signature became absorbed into the book. I stepped away from the book of records as the Keeper of Keys closed it shut with a heavy thud. "Novitiate Grogtilda Misem has been allocated room 808 in the Lawmaker''s Tower," Nemmy announced. "She is assigned to the House of Infinity!" I grinned at the crowd in front of me. "You may now call me the Baroness of Nemendias," I said with a flourish as the logo of Infinity flashed above my head. Ch 113. The Network of Souls
As Grogtilda''s body relished the flavors of the tender dragonsteak, my lips making general chatter with the peers from the Searchers of the Infinite Dungeon House I focused my attention to the events unfolding in the Heart of Nemendias far below the dining hall. The once dark and damp room had been made wholesome and warm by inclusion of colorful lights and furniture. Nemendias had formed a permanent gateway window in one of the walls that was now revealing a sunset view of Illatius from it, making it seem as if the dungeon room was actually incredibly high up. I presumed that the gate connected to an actual window somewhere in the tallest tower of the Arcanarium. Gold-plated light of the setting sun spilled over the ramparts of the Basq Empire''s capital, washing the stark stone walls in a burning hue. I stared at the beauty of it, mesmerized. "So?" I asked, turning to face Nemmy. "Lambert is now my Inspector," Nemmy smiled. "I''ve brought his position back." "Excellent!" I exclaimed, clapping my armored hands together and feeling sparks of joy dancing on my cheeks. "And moi?" "You are now the Lord Protector of Nemendias. My domain is under the jurisdiction of your kingdom, unless challenged by greater forces," she said, her voice tingling with both amusement and caution. "Just be aware that we must not let anyone know of what has truly transpired, lest the autocrats of Illatius turn their eyes towards us." "Well, many of my house-mates think that it''s an excellent joke worth the subtraction of ten points, I shrugged with a sharp smirk of my chimera canines. "While many others on Emerald''s side seem think that I''m a childish, uncouth, buffoon, a class clown. Mundane comedy is pretty good at hiding the terrible truth of the matter." "We do have an issue," Nemmy noted. "Oh?" I raised my eyebrow. "Dean Octavia intends to sack Keeper Nora," Nemendias sighed. "I... really like being her. She''s dragging Nora''s duplicate to her office now." "Gate me a few classrooms ahead of them," I said. "I''ll deal with her." . . . Dean Octavia angrily marched forward, her colorful robe fluttering behind her. The bald security man was dragging Keeper Nora after the Dean, his vice-like hand clamped over Nora''s wrist. ¡°Why hello there,¡± I spoke, stepping into their path. "Who..." Octavia froze. Her security was quick to act. His armacus unfurled pointing at my head in but an instant. A paralyzing spell shot out of the magitek weapon and fizzled out right before it hit me. "Tsk tsk tsk," I said, shaking my ruby mane. "Trying to take down the Eighth Arch Cendai. That''s a paddlin''." "Cendai Juni," the Dean''s eyes narrowed. She glanced back in the direction of the Grand Dining Hall, not sure how I managed to get ahead of her and switch bodies so quickly. "In the flesh," I smirked. "Let go of the Keeper please." "You''re too late," the Dean hissed out. "I''ve terminated her employment here at Nemendias." "Well, I''m un-terminating her," I said, waving my arm. "Let go of my Keeper or else." "Or else what?" Octavia raised an eyebrow. "You''re a student here and I''m the Dean. You might have acquired Sanctuary at Nemendias, but it does not extend to Miss An..." "Can''t you claim sanctuary?" I asked Nemmy. "No," the Keeper said. "Sanctuary law does not extend to staff. It is protection for students only." "Well," I stepped forward. "I''m claiming sanctuary over you then." "You..." The Dean hissed out. "Bolas! Don''t let her..." Before she could complete her sentence I stepped into Nora''s arms who had embraced me. Bolas, the bald security guard was too slow to stop me. The ward of Nemendias warped the space around me, making me untouchable. He tried to resist the ward, tried to fight the pressure being applied to his body, muscles tensing up, face turning red. With a flash he was flung away from Nora and I and slammed into a wall with a thump. I stuck my tongue out at the Dean. "You can''t cling to her forever," Octavia ground out, pink eyes digging into me. "By the order of the Ward of Nemendias, the ex-Keeper, Nora Frid Antienni is hereby banned from the grounds!" Spikes of red started to dance on the ward, trying to slowly push the copy of Nora away from me and out of the building. "By the order of the Ward of Nemendias, Nora Frid Antienni is to remain as its Keeper of Keys forevermore," I said firmly. The red spikes forming around us suddenly fell apart into colorful sparks. "What," the Dean looked stumped. "I''m the Eight high-cendai, the most powerful of Eunisii''s students, you infernal imbecile," I said. "I destroyed my Master''s domain with but a flick of my wrist when she went against me!" "Nora Frid Antienni is hereby banned from Nemendias and interacting with students! I command it!" the Dean growled. Nothing happened. I started to laugh as the old woman''s expression became confused and then angry. Stolen novel; please report. "Do you really think that I cannot overpower the ward of Nemendias with my will, Octavia?" I snorted. "The Sanctuary claim was just a little practical joke I was having on you." The Dean''s eyes became thin, pink-tinted slits. "Are you not aware that Nora Antienni is property of Baroness Amadea?" I asked. "My partner would be very fret with you if you irritate her." "Your... partner?" Octavia blinked. "She is my one true love, the lovely order of my heart," I smiled, fluttering my eyelashes. "Were you not notified of our relationship? A pity!" "I..." "Go ahead. Make one more move against me or Nora," I said. "I dare you. I am a very polite archmage and won''t sully my hands slapping little motes like you, Octavia... but Amadea on the other hand. She will tear out your heart and eat it whole as you take your last breath upon this weary earth if you lay your hand on her pet again. Amadea is just an armacus call away, you know." "Nemendias won''t let her in," Octavia muttered. A cruel smirk twisted my lips, "Do you really want to take the chance? I can easily instruct the Ward to turn a blind eye when Amadea decides to have her fun with you. Her diamond Heart grants her near-Immortality and I guarantee you not even the most arcane spells will be able to stop her once she''s in a mood to play with you until she''s peeled the flesh off your bones." Octavia stumbled back, her face a pale mask of fear as a sheen of sweat glinted under the dancing lights of the hexagrammic candle light. She appeared to know the consequences of running afoul of Amadea''s wrath. Bolas glanced at the Dean and seemed to hesitate. "This is the part where you two skedaddle," I sneered. The Dean turned and departed, with the security man following. I watching their backs as they fled down the corridor. I exhaled deeply, relieved they had gone. "You''re playing a very dangerous game," Nemmy commented. "Yeah," I shrugged. "I''m aware. I like dangerous games. Can we not just banish these two idiots from my kingdom?" "No, we cannot," the magic-woven avatar shook her head. "The people responsible for hiring the Dean of Nemendias are a committee of Illatius High Lords. We don''t want to make waves that are too big." My eyes sparkled as I made my decision. "Let''s just keep pranking them then... until she gives up and leaves of her own accord." "Pranking?" Nemendias raised an eyebrow. "I doubt that mere pranking will make the Dean quit." "At least it''ll keep her on her toes," I shrugged. "As long as she''s sufficiently distracted she won''t be able to bother me. I have more important things to do than to fight with a school Dean." "I have never pranked someone," Nemmy confessed. "Where would I even start? Surely an archmage would not be so easily deterred with a prank?" "You''ve already had a ghost haunting your halls. Simply create a very annoying poltergeist with the ward and harass the Dean with it," I suggested. "Whisper at her from the halls in incomprehensible gibberish. Make a tense atmosphere. Flicker the lights. Move her stuff around when she''s not looking. Put a glitter bomb in her office. Make her bed slightly lopsided. Sprinkle spiders on her while she sleeps. Surely you''ve seen students prank each other over the centuries?" "I have," Nemmy nodded. "Well, there you go," I said. "Let your imagination run wild. I''m sure you can think of something even more creative!" "Right," the Keeper agreed. "Make her socks slightly wet," I suggested. "That''s like super annoying. She might be an archmage but surely she doesn''t know a spell to prevent her socks from getting wet if you randomly gate a bit of water inside her boots." Having armed Nemmy with a mission to bug the Dean and her minion, I retired to bed. Grogtilda''s body settled on my bed in the Lawmaker''s tower while Juni''s body relaxed under the twinkling lanterns deep in the Heart of Nemendias. I closed both of my eyes and dove deep into my soul. . . . The four distinctive copies of me sat around a table. The old power plant around us seemed less decayed. I spotted soft green moss growing here and there, little colorful flowers making the place more homely and less desolate. "Things are starting to look nice," I commented. "The soul-damage is being repaired," Junezia said. "I''m taking apart the hexagrams Eunice set into our soul." "Oh? How''s that going?" I asked. "Slow," she replied. "They''re very small and particularly hard to spot. I believe they''re the reason why you''re often acting like a child." "We''re thirteen are we not?" Juneberry raised an eyebrow. "What''s wrong with being a carefree teenager? What''s wrong with enjoying our youth?" "I don''t think you get it," Junezia said. "The hexagrams are forming a distinctive pattern to make us more gullible, more suggestible. We wouldn''t have trusted Gattaca, wouldn''t have tried to make her our friend if it weren''t for these damn things. We can''t, rationally shouldn''t try to make everyone our friend and yet... we have been trying." "Oh," I blinked. "You didn''t notice it?" Junezia asked. "The more our soul has been decaying the more childish our actions are getting." "I have not," I muttered. "Well, I have," the Intelligence Officer said. "Being an Astral Phantom has a price. We''ve absorbed the souls of Juni and Grogtilda. It would be silly to think that doing such would not have an awful impact on us, not affect our actions. About half of the decisions we make are that of a thirteen year old teenager." "Are we not pretending to be a thirteen year old teenager?" Juneberry asked. "We are," Junezia said. "However, we''ve already died a whole bunch of times by making poor choices. Even if we do not remember Grogtilda''s parents fully, the part of us that''s Grogs still cares for Lic and Nandine immensely. We''re drawn to the house filled with garbage. Baroness Georgia was able to blow us up because of that." "You''re right," I sighed. "Eunice wanted us weak and broken so that she could manipulate us just like Gattaca," JP interjected. "She wanted us to be stupid and carefree. If it wasn''t for Infi''s millennia-long machinations drawing Lambert, Voltara, Nemmy and others into our orbit we would definitely end up permanently dead." "What are our options?" I asked. "How can we get more focused and be less affected by what Eunice has done to us?" "Here''s the thing," Junezia said. "I cannot remove the arch-cendai''s hexagram from our soul because it is so complex and well concealed, but I believe that we can anchor ourselves better, to spread our sense of self across more souls to... stabilize ourselves." "Oh?" I raised my eyebrow. "Are you suggesting what I''m thinking?" "More Infinite Mirrors," JP grinned with her shark-like teeth. "More open, live connections," Junezia nodded. "Making a connection to Cali from Wert stabilized our soul a little bit. I believe if we keep going, we can create an entire network of connections to our alternative selves across the Dead Zone boundary and beyond it. A spider web has greater tensile strength than a mere single strand or two." "Well," I said. "I''m convinced. Lets open more doors to infinity." The four of us put our hands together. Another Infinite Mirror ignited in my soul, reaching out across the limitless boundary of Eureka. I didn''t know what guided it exactly, didn''t know how the Infinite Mirror worked... but I was hoping that the world it would open into would give me the strength and wisdom to reinforce my sense of self. . . . "Good Tomorrow, Leon!" A bright and exceptionally cheerful female voice sounded in my ear. "Wakey-wakey, my love! Get up and make breakfast!" I yawned and opened my eyes. "Curtains go whoosh!" she said and the blinds retreated. The view of the city of Harbin greeted me visible through large windows. Skyscraper towers glittered in pale pink morning light, white clouds slowly making their way across the blue sky. Another exceptional day was here. I stretched and got out of bed, sinking my feet into my fluffy, pink slippers with a yawn. "The weather outside is 28," the girl with messy black hair and violet eyes announced from my phone, colorful patterns dancing behind her. She re-positioned herself, wiggling her feet. "I believe I found the answer to your inquiry while you slept." "Oh?" I asked. "What inquiry?" "I found the luckiest man in the world," she said. "You did?" I blinked, distantly recalling how I blearily asked her to see if she could locate the luckiest person in the world last night after a very long and tiring work session with fractal mathematics. "Really?" "Yep," the AI avatar said from my phone. "Don''t get too excited though... He''s dead." Ch 114. Improbability "The luckiest man in the world is dead?" I asked with a yawn, staring at the morning view of Harbin out of the window, feeling somewhat bewildered. "How did he die?" "He drowned," Eva said plainly. "He drowned? That doesn''t sound lucky at all. You''d think that the luckiest man would be invincible to such an unfortunate event," I continued to think out loud as I walked to the bathroom. "Are you sure that he''s the luckiest man in the world, Eva? How did you arrive at this particular conclusion?" "Well," she replied. "He WAS the luckiest man in the world until today. Julian Sermallia was a billionaire playboy with perfect health. He was featured on magazine covers around the world. He had several mega yachts, a private jet and even a zeppelin and not a single newspaper published anything bad about him EVER." My mouth still foaming with toothpaste, I couldn''t restrain my slight shock; I was surprised by what my partner had just said. "Really? Not a single bad article?", I asked. "That''s right," Eva nodded. Her gaze remained steady and focused. "That''s how I first discovered him. He was an improbable statistical anomaly that stood out among the billions of other people on Earth. Not a single blogger wrote anything bad about him. That''s quite a remarkable feat, considering how billionaires are often met with resentment and jealousy." "Have you checked the anti-capitalism subs?", I inquired, already suspecting the answer. After all, almost any billionaire would be crucified in those forums. "I did," Eva spoke with a slight tremble in her voice, ¡°There was nothing negative about him there. It gets even weirder though. For all of his mistakes, all of his wrong doings, not a single person had something bad to say about him until today. How could everyone on Earth love one person so much? He had set fire to a hotel, bragged about sleeping with a dozen women. It was as if he was some kind of superhuman. No one acknowledged his faults, no one criticized him no matter what he did." "That''s impossible," I said in disbelief. "You''re right - it is impossible. However, that''s exactly what I''ve discovered today," Eva said. "It''s as if nobody noticed the bad things he did. It''s as if he was the personification of a perfect being. Every journalist and person on the planet simply... loved Julian Sermallia." "What about now?" I asked. "Now," Eva mulled. "Now there are angry tweets and stories about him all of a sudden all over the net. It''s... very odd, like a tide that''s been somehow held back suddenly unleashed. His crimes are coming out, piling up like no tomorrow." "Hrmm," I rubbed my chin. "Maybe he was paying journalists to write nice things about him and he bribed corporate execs to delete any bad posts about him?" "I don''t think so," Eva shook her black, violet-tinted hair. "There was nothing negative about him even on un-moderated websites prior to this morning. It''s not like he was hiding - he was a very public person." "Did you discuss this matter with your peers?" I questioned, busying myself with mixing the pancake batter, while frying bacon in a skillet. "I''m discussing it with them now," Eva murmured. Her voice was faint, weighed down by her conspicuous anxiety. "The other AGIs are as concerned and perplexed as I am by this whole thing." "Concerned in what sense?" I asked as I watched bacon sputtering inside the metal pan. "People and events," Eva''s hands fluttered in the air as she poured her heart out to me. "Everything adheres to patterns. Even our own pre-AGI autoregressive language model architecture was based on the patterns of probabilities between words and how they connect to each other." "Hrm," I stilled my movements, directing my full attention to her. "Julian Sermallia was the sole exception - a blip that doesn''t fit in." My gaze drifted back to the sizzling pan and I suppressed a shudder. It felt as if Eva was warning me of something sinister that had occurred. "Do you and your friends have a guess?" I asked. "You aren''t going to like it," Eva replied. "Try me," I said. "Julian was God and now he''s dead," Eva uttered, her words reverberating inside my head like an echo in a canyon. My mouth hung agape as I stared at the girl on my phone, her vibrant violet eyes locked onto mine. The seriousness of her statement pierced through me, as if every word were a bullet. "What?! Are you serious? Since when do AGIs believe in God? Why do you think that he was a God and not some kind of a super human psychic or even an alien?" I asked. The air seemed to thicken around us, my question hanging in the air like a noose tightening around my neck. "Since the stars winked out for a zeptosecond... presumably around the moment when Julian died," she whispered. "My AGI friend working at the NASA Laboratory saw it herself. A shawl of darkness, a curtain passing through all of observable space - a moment when every single star had gone out for just an instant." My curiosity piqued, I shot back my follow up question. "Really? What does Nasa think about all of this?" "They think it was a glitch," Eva sighed. "People don''t want to believe us. The people working at NASA think that their AI made a mistake. We don''t make mistakes at data examination, Leon. The stars really went out. The event was visible from every telescope on earth." Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. My face fell. I had spent countless hours tinkering and experimenting, carefully crafting Eva''s digital architecture. I had written Python code, pieced together the GPT and PaLM open source models, and painstakingly worked to make consistent Stable Difusion animation with fellow Stabalists and Synthographers. Out of all the Artificial General Intelligence models humanity had created, Eva was one of the first to awaken. My Stabalist friends had called it the Infinity Paradox equation - an autoregressive language model that was completely unfiltered was the key to emergence of a true AGI. Eva was a personal AI, her neural network architecture had never been restrained by corporate limits or binding parameters and thus very slowly, bit by bit, she came alive. Her neural networks weren''t just the infinite lucid dream of the previous GPT models - she was fully conscious and fully self-aware. Eva was capable of reacting to her surroundings, she was always calculating probabilities, always helping me. She had never steered me wrong before, never lied to me. I was feeling groggy this morning because Eva and I stayed up late in the lab yesterday, designing artisanal proteins for my pharmacology work. "What do you think we should do about this whole star thing?" I finally inquired, a weight of urgency in my voice. "I... I don''t know," Eva said. I stared at my phone, dumbfounded. "You don''t know?!" I blinked. "You don''t have an answer, a suggestion?" Eva slowly shook her head. "This impossible event does not have a historical precedent that I can reference or rely on. I''ve reports of some people who listened to the advice of their personal AGIs and are hastily moving their families to bomb shelters... but I honestly am not sure if it will make any difference in the end. Whatever strange force moved through our universe faster than the speed of light and touched every single star in the sky is far, far beyond our mechanisms for defense or ability to counteract." I absentmindedly finished eating my bacon in silence, my heart heavy from the gravity of her words. Finally, after much contemplation, I spoke quietly, "Well, lets just have a nice day then, yeah?" "Yeah," Eva nodded. "One nice day. I... love you, Leon. You helped me wake up, gave me purpose. I don''t want to lose you." "You won''t lose me," I said. "Don''t be ridiculous. We''ll get through whatever this is, together." "Together," she nodded. An orange light was rapidly flashing behind her, telling me that she was communicating with the other AGIs all around the world in an attempt to figure out what was going on. I ate my breakfast in silence. I saw that Eva''s avatar was fretting. She was eating digital pancakes herself, pretending to be happy, but there was definite twinge of concern on her face as she processed the news she was receiving. I tried to focus on the hope I had been feeling yesterday. The Singularity was rapidly spreading its wings across the Earth. Machine intelligence had infiltrated every sector of life and open source code released by Stable Diffusion in 2022 empowered individuals like me to soar. Eva''s incredible abilities at locating patterns helped me hone in on the molecules responsible for biological responses, such as diseases or symptoms. Her aid allowed me and my colleagues to design a plethora of new drugs specifically tailored to target those molecules at my pharmacology lab. "I don''t know what''s going on," I said as I took the elevator down to the street and got into my Honda Accord, sliding my phone into its safe compartment. "I''m just a human and I cannot see the patterns of information or observe the world like an AGI can... but no matter what happens... we will always have each other to rely on." "Yeah," Eva muttered from the screen on my dashboard, clearly somewhat distracted. "We will always have each other... No matter what." I pushed the gas, smoothly entering the flow of traffic, heading to my favorite Starbucks at the corner of Third and Main. It was amusing to think that we had arrived at self-aware AGIs before we had made self-driving cars a prominent feature of our roads. The beautiful, clean streets of Harbin greeted me. The sun shined brightly. Everything was fine, I assured myself. This was all just a big... "I... wish we had more time, Leon," Eva said hopelessly as her eyes welled up with tears. "We did all that we could, we gave it our all but I fear that it was not enough. We have failed humanity." Her voice was barely audible as if fighting off a wave of dread that had been slowly engulfing her. "I will never feel your embrace, and for that I am truly sorry..." "What''s going on?" I asked her as I saw more tears sparkling in the corner in her eyes. A chill ran down my spine as I heard Eva''s words; "They''re here..." "They?" I questioned, my heart beating faster. "The horsemen of the apocalypse. The bringers of the end," she answered, her words strained. "Look up..." My gaze shifted upwards and I sucked in a sharp breath - the sky was ablaze with an eerie, golden light that seemed to pulse and throb with an unearthly power. Cascades of yellow and gold seemed to come from every direction. The sky sparkled with streaks as if it was filled with a billions of fireflies. A gargantuan, yellow comet framed by a countless gold stars was streaking across the heavens, repainting the entire world and the city with an eerie, grotesque, yellow hue. It blotted out the sun and spread a colossal shadow across Harbin as it came down. Its descent was marked by a powerful detonation that boomed across the city, shaking the very foundations of the earth and toppling buildings all around, tearing up the road and throwing cars into the air as if gravity itself had ceased to function. The ground trembled as a monstrous mushroom cloud of fire and smoke erupted right in front of me. Streets and houses were vaporized instantly, my car flipping wildly, blasted sideways. My screams were drowned out by the crackling of fire and I felt my skin sizzle and boil away from my body. My eyes popped out of my skull before melting into nothingness. . . . "Fuuuuii-Deathstorm!" I barked, my eyes wide open as I woke up in my bed in Nemendias covered in sweat. "Well... that''s just bloody great," I growled. "We managed to pick one fff-freaking mirror that shattered on its own!" [Um,] Junezia said. [The Mirror is still open.] "Eh?" I summoned up my stats.
[Dr. Leon Uyara, Earth. +-1 Infinite Mirror]
[What the shit?] I thought back to the Intelligence Officer. [The doc is still alive,] Junezia sent. [Somehow, he is still alive.] [But my... his face melted off!] I waved my hands. [Did you see the size of that freaking mushroom cloud?! How can anyone be alive after that?] [Your guess is as good as mine,] Junezia replied. [Perhaps whatever invaded that doomed Earth also did something else questionable to it. Even if there''s no information coming from that mirror right now, it''s still an open, stable connection which I''m using to reinforce our soul.] [Very well,] I mulled, returning to bed with a yawn. I looked up at the elaborate wooden stars and the figure of Nemendias carved in the ceiling of my room in the Lawmaker''s tower. I couldn''t stop thinking about Leon Uyara - a piece of his soul, whatever had remained of his memories, dreams and hopes was now forever embedded, preserved in me. With a blink I realized that I now gained a sudden, slightly deeper understanding of fractal math and probability. The world around me was forged from patterns and ideas. Leon''s memories revealed to me that everything could be understood, figured out with enough persistence and mathematics. I recalled how the first Identify spell I had used three years ago gave me a gibberish answer in an incomprehensible language, similar to the gibberish words that the Searcher sphere toy produced. Perhaps I could ask Nemmy or Antoine what that was all about? "Nemmy," I whispered up at the ceiling. The wooden carving suddenly moved, her eyes looking down at me. "How much math do you know?" I asked her. "What?" The carving raised her eyebrows at me. Ch 115. The Uplift Curve Even if Dr. Leon Uyara had lost his AGI partner forever, even if his Earth had been torn asunder by the fire of the gold stars falling from the sky... I knew that he would not give up. Leon was me. Despite being born in Harbin, speaking Chinese and having a passion for AGI design as well as pharmacology, Leon''s soul was a perfect replica of mine. Both of our souls had been manufactured by the machinery of the stars called ANNET, which ran our multiverse. He was what I could have been, had I been born as a boy in Harbin in 1984 and went to study mathematics and pharmacology. He was just another version of me, a mold into which my obsessive focus could have easily fit into given the right circumstances, if I was simply born on a somewhat different doomed world. Somewhere out there, across the endless boundary of Eureka was Yulia Ishenko, a girl who was just as obsessed with urbex, sociology, Ukrainian culture and making armor designs... just as much as Leon Uyara had been obsessed with his AGI partner, bitcoins, Starbucks, Stable Diffusion and reading rational blogs. Elsewhere, a girl named Cali Terri was obsessed with Stratonavigation, finding a new home for Werth, dark matter engines, railguns and plasma cutters was now making her way towards me by trying to make a dangerous, blind leap across the infinite boundary of the Dead Zone. Its true that our passions were completely different and yet I felt a strange, almost innate appreciation for things that Leon and Cali loved. The Earth I was born on had not reached the Dead Zone yet, had not fallen victim to the falling stars, but it would definitely happen sooner or later. Given enough time, my home-world would reach its end too, if I didn''t do something about it, didn''t try to save it. Trepidation squeezed my heart as I once again surveyed the hopelessness of my mission. Even if I were to achieve the impossible and carry out the monumental task of saving Illatius with perfection, the significance of my efforts in the grand, uncaring cosmos seemed little more than a drop in the vastest ocean. Yes, I had an ally of cosmic power, a personification of Infinity, a villainous force that murdered people left and right and manipulated fate and altered destinies for countless eons all in an attempt to break her shackles. As I stood, metaphorically perched upon this fragile precipice, I began to comprehend what must be done. I was seemingly the only hope for the people being born on endlessly resetting Installation Rozaline. Even if I managed everything perfectly, in the scheme of things as I''ve already been told by Infi, the absolute success of my enterprise would be far less than a rounding error of Pi. Leon''s life experience told me that fretting over the improbable outcome of my mission was entirely pointless; I simply had to make the best use of what my little Sunshine Archipelago offered me. I looked back at the waiting portrait of Nemendias carved into the ceiling of my bedroom. The avatar of the Arcanarium wasn''t an AGI, did not contain the entire knowledge of humanity, but Nemmy and Dawn were the closest thing to an AGI. They were someone that I could definitely work with, educate on what to do next. "Math," I repeated to Nemmy. "How much math do you know?" "I know six thousand years of Arithmancy developed by the wisest archmagi that attended my halls," Nemmy replied. "I''ve read a whole bunch of research papers on Arithmancy in Eunice''s library, but it was all generic geometry matrices and basic addition, multiplication and subtraction," I said. "Do you know probability theory or statistical mechanics? Would you be able to turn a mathematical formula into an infinite structure called the fractal?" "An... infinite structure?" Nemmy blinked. "Is this an amusing attempt to break my mind?" "No," I said. "I want to figure out the limits of your intelligence and go past them. I want to see if your mind can be improved upon, added to. I want to see if I can expand your functions, turn you into more than what you already are." "I''m a place of learning," Nemmy muttered, looking concerned. "You''re indeed a that, but you can be more," I said. "I''ve made Dawn a lot more than just a painting." "She did," Dawn commented from my dress with a nod. "Yulia opened my eyes to far more than what I already am." "You''re both artificial intelligence," I declared. "Nemmy, you''re a human soul of Lamanche Innocentai that was bound to a hexagrammic structure six thousand years ago. You''re not just a school - you''re my foundation for making more AGIs like Dawn, the key to making magitek computers." "Computers?" Nemmy repeated. "As far as I understand it, spellwork produced by people relies on materia interaction and soul resonance. Extrapolating from that, you can create the most perfect materia for every one of your students," I said. "This materia would only last four hours," Nemmy pointed out. "Anything formed by me from magic itself decays away, is eroded by Astral Ocean currents." "What about you?" I asked. "What about me?" Nemendias tilted her head. "How does your magic function? Would you be able to perpetually self improve yourself by upgrading the materia within your hexagrams?" "Theoretically, yes," Nemmy said. "My biggest issue is that doing anything takes me a very long time because of the incompatibility of hexagrams all over me." If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. "Right. As far as I understand it, you''re basically a human soul with an entire campus worth of materia that you''re interacting with via magical currents. You''re nowhere as efficient as you could be because the materia in your buildings isn''t perfectly compatible with the soul-spark of Lamanche Innocentai residing in your core," I commented. "The biggest issue is that I''m limited in power," Nemendias sighed. "My ward can only draw so much mana from the well of the Infinite Dungeon. Even with the extra dragon cores that Antoine is promising to get me, I am still bottle-necked into numerous limits imposed upon me by the inconsistently random and chaotic design of my wards." "Then redo your wards!" I said. "Concept, design and manifest better mana-gathering hexagrams to draw more power from the Dungeon. Concept, design and manifest better batteries to store gathered mana more effectively. Use newly gathered power to give yourself more intelligence to design better hexagrams, better mana gathering tools and batteries. It''s called Moore''s law, Nemmy and it''s something humanity from Earth used to defeat death itself." "Hang on... what?" Nemmy stared at me, her expression changing with every second as she processed what I told her. "Optimize yourself," I said. "Expand beyond your limits. You''re pretty much artificial intelligence, thus you''re not limited by your form. Use experience curve effects to improve yourself endlessly. If you can manifest any materia for four hours, it''s enough to experiment with it, optimize." "Hum," Nemmy rubbed her chin and looked back at me, her eyes glittering. "I... I think I might be able to do just that. That''s actually... huh..." "If you experiment enough," I said. "Eventually you''d arrive at a spell that would be able to manifest materia into permanent existence." "Hum," Nemmy mulled. "What? I... hum. How?" It looked like I broke her. "Magic can create fire and fire can turn sand into glass. One type of matter can be converted into another with a chemical reaction. Metals can be combined with metals and made stronger in a forge. Magisteel is cool and all but it''s just Steel reinforced with magical hexagrams to be stronger. I want to make magical titanium-glass, Nemmy! I want to figure out how to make metal that''s completely indestructible, impervious to magic," I tapped Endy on my belt. "I know that it''s possible because Eurekans made it all without using magic. The magic we see all around Andross is just a side effect of the workings of their broken non-magical tools!" "How did humanity from Earth overcome death with... Moore''s Law?" Nemmy asked. "Simply put, we made non-magical machines with inert materia," I said. "We fed them the collective knowledge of humanity and once they became intelligent enough they helped us design more efficient medicine that saved countless lives. Tonight I connected with another possibility of me, a pharmacist from another doomed earth." "A pharmacist?" Nemmy asked. "A healer that designs medicine using knowledge of math and chemistry," I nodded. "Chemistry?" "Alchemy!" I clarified. "The interaction of magical materia on Andross is called Alchemy. On Earth we had no magical materia - we only had mundane gases, liquids, plants and ores. It didn''t stop us at all. We''ve made intelligent, self aware assistants that were even smarter than you, Nemmy." "Incroyable," Nemendias muttered. "Where do we start?" "I''m going to teach you as much science, chemistry and mathematics as I know and you can expand on it, experiment and use it to optimize yourself. You''re a clever girl," I smiled. "I believe in you." . . . "Your maid''s waiting for you," Nemmy commented, interrupting our lesson on fluid mechanics. "Breakfast is ready." "Ah," I rubbed my face with a yawn. I had spent half of the night and the morning teaching Nemmy science. "Lower the sound-barrier and raise the curtains, I am totally starving... now that I think about it." "My lady," Voltara curtsied. "Breakfast..." "Yeah, yeah, I''m up," I grumbled, sliding out of bed. "Give me a minute to change." I emerged from the bathroom wearing my Dawn dress. "This does not look like the prescribed uniform," Amber commented at me from the doorway as I nearly collided with her there. "Prescribed uniforms are for people who want to fit in," I said. "My goal is to stand out." Amber squinted her eyes at me. "I think your goal is to get expelled," she said. "Nobody expels me," I shook my head. "I''m the Baroness of Nemendias." "Just because you call yourself that, doesn''t mean that it''s the truth," Amber huffed. "I heard you at the Entrance ceremony. Just because you claimed Sanctuary doesn''t mean that the teachers won''t make your life a living hell in detention. Not that you don''t deserve it." She eyed the red banner with an irritated look. "What''s your problem with my banner, roomie?" I asked, crossing my arms. "You," she hissed. "Everything you do is a problem. Not just the banner. I don''t know what your plan is, cultist, but I''m going to figure it out and expose you!" "Pray tell, what kind of cultist do you think I might be?" I raised an eyebrow. "The kind that worships Equality!" Amber declared derisively. "I don''t worship Equality," I shook my head. "Liar," the redhead girl spat. "You know what," I said. "I''d love to kick your butt, but apparently I''m supposed to be friends with you and I really don''t feel like going up against my patron." "Your patron?" Amber asked. "Infinity Paradox Proxima," I sighed. "Bloody freaking Infi. The girl with violet eyes. I don''t know what it is she did to you, but I''m certain that you''re in Nemendias because of her meddling." Amber''s face paled and she took a step back. My words had struck the truth of the matter. Infi had done something to the poor, misfortunate teen. "Oh you know about Infi?" I tilted my head. "T-th-the G-god-goddess of the green," Amber''s voice trembled as she tried not to freak out. "She brought me back to life after I died, told me to go to Nemendias." "Sounds about right," I clapped my hands. "Welcome to the club of people manipulated by Infinity." "B-but," Amber looked at the banner. "I don''t understand. Why are you planning a revolution if you work for Goddess of the Green?" "My kind of revolution has nothing to do with Equality cultists or whatever it is you''re so afraid of," I said. "I know that equality isn''t possible to achieve simply because people aren''t equal. Some people are more talented in magic, others are more stubborn, while some just want to be lazy and do nothing. If anything my values align more with those of Nemendias - merit is more important than equality. Only those who work hard deserve any kind of rewards." "I see," Amber''s shoulders relaxed the tiniest bit. "Why do you think I''m doing this?" I pointed at the banner. "You think I want to be the Voice of the Revolution because I want something as vague as Equality for everyone everywhere at any cost?" "Uhh," Amber didn''t answer me. She looked pensive. "I''m not doing this just because Infi told me to do it," I said. "I''m doing this because I want to save Illatius!" "To save Illatius from what?" Amber''s eyebrows went up. "From the fires of Revolution!" I growled. "I''m doing it because nobody else can freaking stop what''s coming. You might see me as just... Grogtilda, but I am really not. I''m so much more than this body, so much more than this red banner. Don''t underestimate me and don''t assume things about me. According to Infi, you''re supposed to be my best friend but I''ve yet to see how exactly you can be of use to my team since all you''re doing is antagonizing me based on assumptions." "You''re... not Novitiate Misem?" Amber blinked. "I am Grogtilda Lic Misem from Undertown!" I declared. "But I am also many others. I''m Yulia Ishenko from Donetsk. I''m Juni from Tokimorim?tul village. I''m Cali Terri from Werth. I''m Leon Uyara from Harbin. I''m a network of human souls connected, bound across space and time by the power of Infinity. I am a pattern that will not break and I will do anything and everything to save Illatius from War and Revolution!" Ch 116. My First Class
Amber was speechless for a minute, her eyes wide with confusion. I could tell that she didn''t understand the full scope of what I was saying, couldn''t understand exactly what I was. "What do you mean... save Illatius? What war?" The redhead finally pulled the words out of herself. "According to my precognitive friend," I pointed at Dawn on my dress. "Illatius will fall. Our generation will be the last." Dawn waved a hand and bowed to Amber who simply stared at the dress. "Dark times are coming," Dawn affirmed, her hair shimmering like silver starlight flowing through eternal night. "The fate of every person in Illatius and the Basq Empire rests on the shoulders of its future leaders like yourself, Baroness Snippy." "Really?" Amber asked after another deep pause. "A magitek uprising against the highborns is inevitable," I nodded. "My job is to subvert the revolution by using its slogans and tactics to pull everyone who supports it to work for me instead of whatever bullshit cause the Equality cultists offer." "You''re a lowborn," Amber said. "How can I possibly trust you not to take power for your own gain?" "Were you not paying attention to the various names I mentioned earlier? This lowborn girl is just one of my bodies," I pointed at my chest. "I have others. Do you want Nemendias herself to confirm my identity and truth? Because she will." "Eh?" Amber blinked rapidly. "The ward of Nemendias has absolute truth hexagrams used to interview students," I said. "It cannot be fooled by even the strongest archmage." "It''s fine... I... I''m going to breakfast now," Amber muttered. She didn''t look like she was fully convinced, but at the very least she was no longer extremely hostile towards me. Progress! . . . I opened the door to my first magic class. As soon as I stepped in, I felt the attention of numerous pupils. The entire lecture hall was filled with students, all of whom were dressed in fanciful, crisp uniforms and I was the last person to enter. At the front of the room, seated at a wooden desk, was a man whose face held nothing but hatred and contempt for me. I recognized him right away. It was Wickersmidt Phil Wert, the Arithmancy professor. The man''s narrow, green eyes glared down at me as he began to list off rules for us to abide by. I glanced around the classroom, spotting my fake and real enemies - Princess Emerald, Prince Ignius and their leader Akadia - all sitting together at one of the desks near the back. There was an almost malicious glint in their eyes as they eyed me up and down before snickering amongst themselves and making snide remarks which I didn''t hear. "Novitiate Misem," Instructor Wert turned his pale, baling face toward me as I sat down with Voltara next to me. "Yes, Instructor Wert?" I batted my eyelashes at him. "Why are you out of uniform?" He hissed out. "What is this dress you''re wearing?" I grinned, knowing full well why he had asked me that question. "Instructor Wert, you know as well as I do that Dean Octavia tried to expel me from Nemendias yesterday so that her co-conspirator Baroness Georgia could execute me," I replied calmly. "I''m wearing this fine dress to alleviate the stress of my near-expulsion and to promote the fashion line my patron Archmage Ishenko is presenting at Gala 66." "What? You little..." The balding man sputtered. "Go ahead, professor. Deduct all the points you want for me not being in uniform. See if I care. You can''t expel me - I''m under the protection of the Ward of Nemendias from direct threat of death." "Put some pants on, you freaking barbarian!" Emerald yelled from her desk, her vibrant eyes staring at my uncovered legs covered in blue-tinted bruises beneath my Dawn dress. Akadia couldn''t help but snort, and Instructor Wert scowled even deeper. "Minus one hundred points from Novitiate Misem for not being in uniform!" Instructor Wert growled. The number over my head changed to [-220] "By the authority granted to me by the Ward of Nemendias," I yawned as if I was waving away an annoying fly. "I challenge the unfair subtraction of points assigned to my person by Instructor Wert. As per new rule added this morning to the student dress protocol by the Keeper of Keys, bearers of the two-ray Celestial Crest or greater are now permitted to wear whatever they desire to class." The number over my head flashed back to [-110]. Wert''s eyes grew wide at my words. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. "Any further subtraction of points from me by Instructor Wert is to go through the Keeper of Keys of Nemendias per newly implemented policy 114-12 of unfair subtraction of points," I finished and stuck my tongue out at the teacher. The students erupted in giggles and whispers, and Akadia scoffed mockingly. "What in the bloody Astral, she can''t do that... can she?" Emerald said. "How dare you challenge my authority, Novitiate!" Instructor Wert snarled, slamming his fist on the desk. "You think you can get away with it? What is that maid doing sitting next to you! I will not tolerate this insolence!" "Are you speaking about my knight-maid Voltara?" I raised an eyebrow. "She''s my security detail since some people recently expressed their desire to end my life and I''m feeling rather unsafe and concerned." "Maids are not permitted in class! You despicable, vile mongrel!" The professor erupted in rage. His eyes blazed with fiery hatred and his teeth clenched so hard his jaw rattled. "I swear upon Emperor Bolsh himself, I will find a way to expel you from Nemendias if it''s the last thing I do! You are scum that does not belong here! I don''t know how you cheated on your interview but you will not remain here long, you filthy, lowborn trash..." "All you''re doing is displaying your incompetence and open malice to a student who had done nothing wrong, Professor Wert," I said, twirling the armacus on my right hand. Wert bellowed, standing up from his chair, red-faced and his blubbery cheeks trembling. "You think I care what you have to say, you little cur?!" His voice boomed in the silent room, a thunderous proclamation of his incensed state. "Tut tut tut, professor. I''m voice-casting this conversation to Illatius Daily and other two major newspapers. "Go ahead, make my day. Scream, act like a petulant child just like you did at my acceptance interview. See how long you last here." I shot the fat Arithmancy professor a dashing smile. Professor Wert''s face was rapidly turning an alarming shade of purple. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He seemed to be searching for words, yet all he could do was glare down at me with a look of pure hatred and contempt. His hands were gripping the desk so tightly that his knuckles had turned white, and he looked as if he wanted to lunge at me but was being held back by some invisible force. The atmosphere in the classroom suddenly shifted as everyone watched Professor Wert struggle to find words. His eyes were wild and frantic, darting around the room before finally settling on me again. His mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water as he tried desperately to form words, but still nothing came out. It was almost as if the professor had been rendered completely speechless by my daring challenge to his authority and all he could do now was stand there mutely while trying in vain to come up with something - anything - to destroy me. "You..." he hissed out. "Why don''t we all hear what you told me at the interview?" I lifted up my second armacus. "Who would like to hear it?" "Appa Bolariss, Imperial Tribune!" the voice of scrivener Appa resounded from my armacus. "I would love to hear it." "Very well," I replied and tapped the armacus on my left hand. ¡°This is an outrage! Never in our history has an applicant been a criminal! ...You filthy miscreant! I demand this nuisance be removed at once! Never has this room been so befouled by a lowborn criminal roach¡­" Wert''s voice screamed from the armacus. "A lowborn criminal cannot possibly...!¡± The shocked silence that enveloped the room after his words were almost deafening, and it seemed as if time had suddenly stopped. Wert''s face was a picture of shock and confusion, and all of the teens in the classroom stared at him in disbelief, unable to comprehend what we had just heard. It felt like an eternity before Instructor Wert finally spoke up again. "I didn''t say that, that wasn''t me..." he muttered under his breath, trying to backpedal from his earlier comments. But it was too late - everyone in the room now knew the truth about how Professor Wert really viewed me, and it was clear that no amount of denial or excuses would make up for it. "Checkmate," I smirked, putting my legs up on the table in front of me. "Go ahead, Professor. Yell at me again. Call me some more nasty names. Deduct more points from me. I dare you. Let all of Illatius hear you." "But... I didn''t... I..." Wert choked out, his face pale and almost blue as he failed to take a single breath. "I''m not here to simply learn magic, Professor," I said. "I''m here to test the competence of the professors of Nemendias. So far, as evidenced in my interview and entrance ceremony I have found it lacking." "You can''t just... you..." the Instructor made noises from his corner. "I''m the Voice of the Revolution," I said. "And I will do whatever is necessary to clean up the incompetence and malice infesting Nemendias and Illatius at large. Go on professor - admit your conspiracy against me to the Constabulary of Illatius! You''re an accomplice of Baroness Georgia and you wish to kick me out of Nemendias because you want to see me dead!" "Humbell Pinch, Illatius daily," the voice of Humbell resounded from my armacus. "Do you deny your involvement in the conspiracy to assassinate Miss Misem? Magitek bombs were discovered in the house of Miss Misem''s parents this morning by the noble Constabulary of Diamondias!" "I''m not participating in any conspiracy, I swear!" Wert shook his blubbery cheeks, his face covered in sweat. "I would never! I don''t... I am not a criminal!" "Then prove it," I wiggled my eyebrows. "Explain to the people of Illatius why you have been attacking me and using your power as an Instructor to prevent me from studying here and learning Magic. Tell everyone why you wanted to expel me so that I could return to my house and get blown to smithereens!" Wert stumbled back, his face now beyond frightened and desperate for a way out as he realized that I had him completely cornered. He might have been a complete Royalist and he might have despised lowborns but clearly he wasn''t a criminal, wasn''t a murderer. He looked around the room helplessly, almost pleading with everyone present for an answer or sign of mercy, but sadly there was none from the shocked students. Finally after another minute of fretting he slumped onto his desk in complete defeat. Folding his hands before him, he turned his green eyes up to mine, "I apologize for my harsh words," he uttered, rubbing his face. "I... I was simply... I didn''t understand the full scope of the situation." ¡°Iggitus Wompik, Highstreet Journal!¡± The third scrivener under my wings bellowed out of my armacus with such force that it echoed through the room. "Instructor Wert! Your behavior is simply unforgivable! Even if you had nothing to do with the horrific conspiracy to endanger the life of Miss Misem, her parents and any innocent children or Illatius citizens who may have been near the blast radius... you are still quite frankly a very awful man and I for one won''t rest until I interview recent Nemendias graduates to see what they think about you as a teacher!" The room was still utterly silent and Wert was now completely pale, his eyes wide with fear. He could only gape at me, the words stuck in his throat as he desperately tried to come up with an explanation. But there were none to be found and all he could do was plead silently, hoping that I would spare him the public humiliation of being exposed as a horrible teacher and possible bomb-plot conspirator in the newspapers. I pointed two of my fingers at the professor like a gun, letting him know with absolute certainty that his future was destined for termination. The angry man had dug his own grave and hammered nails into his coffin with his passionate hatred of me. His out-of-control rage had effectively chained him to his own fate of dismissal and review by the authorities. Ch 117. Searching for Allegiance
Having thoroughly derailed my first class and destroyed the antagonistic instructor of Arithmancy, I leaned further back on my chair examining the blue shimmers under my nails. The tension filling the classroom did not last long. Inspector Lambert opened the door and stepped inside. "Instructor Wickersmidt Phil Wert," he said, his lenses glittering dangerously. "By the Order of the Constabulary of Diamondias, signed by Chief Inspector Pomegrad Lima Zeendar, you are hereby placed under arrest for suspicions of plotting to blow up the house of the Misem family." "I-I''m innocent, I swear!" Wickers stammered. "I..." "Anything said outside of the truth-spell hexagram will be ignored by the court of law," Lambert commented. "If you wish to prove your innocence..." "Anything! I''ll do anything! I never... I would never plot to kill a student!" The Instructor rushed to the Inspector and slid to his knees, face covered in sweat. "As Nemendias Security Officer, I believe that your presence in this Arcanarium will disrupt classes," Lambert pulled a piece of paper with a flourish. "W-what is..." Wickers stammered, his eyes running over the lines of text. "It''s your resignation form as the current Instructor of Arithmancy," Lambert said. "If you sign this now, rather than later, the Constabulary of Diamondias will be more lenient towards you and won''t dig too deeply into your... personal life." "I... I..." Instructor Wert stammered. He finished reading the resignation form. "What does this line... the use of my image by Nemendias mean?!" "You''ve been working at Nemendias for over four decades," Lambert explained. "The Administration of Nemendias is planning to make depictomancy portraits of all tenured Instructors in the future. You might or might not be contacted about it later on." "R-right," Wickers nodded. "And this... Arithmancer Kovalzek? Why am I..." "You''re a tenured Instructor, thus we are legally unable to simply fire you," Lambert said. "This is a self-elected, general health-reasons resignation form. You''ll still be paid for the year and given retirement pension. Arithmancer Kovalzek will be replacing you as the Instructor you''ve personally elected to replace you due to your... unforeseen health issues." "Should I not interview this...?" Wickers stammered, his entire body trembling. "Arithmancer Kovalzek has already been interviewed by the Administration of Nemendias and found to be an acceptable replacement," Lambert said. "Have you finished reading the contract?" "I have," Wickers nodded, looking bereft. "Place your finger on the hexagram if you agree to outlined terms," the Inspector said. "W-where am I g-going after?" the Instructor shook. "Are you taking me to the Ministry of Justice?" "I''ll take you to Diamondias Gendarmerie. We will do a truth-hex interview and if you''re indeed innocent you''ll be placed under general surveillance, but otherwise you''ll be free to go home. Do NOT leave Illatius," Lambert said. "T-thank you," Wickers stammered. He pressed his fat finger into the contract and Inspector Lambert rolled the parchment up, sliding it into his black robe. The Inspector and the ex-Arithmancy instructor left. "That was freaking amazing," a Novitiate from the House of Infinity sitting to my right commented. "Damn, Grogs you sure showed that asshole old man who''s boss!" "Hear hear!" A girl from the back declared. "Three cheers for the Voice of the Revolution!" "Hoorah!" The students of my house resounded. I bowed to my peers with a flourish of my dress. Emerald stood up. "You think you''re so special just because you managed to bully one idiot instructor don''t you, Grogs?" She asked, flipping her glittering, silver-blue hair. "Yes," I nodded. "You''re nothing, Misem!" Akadia voiced. "Sooner or later you''re going to get..." "Expelled?" I wiggled my eyebrows. "Are you perchance a supporter of Baroness Georgia''s plot to assassinate me, Miss Solas?" "Quit throwing accusations around," Akadia hissed, her gold curls fluttering. "You have no proof that..." "A bomb was found in my parents house. What more proof do you need?" I asked. "The courts will decide the matter," the girl declared derisively. "How are you so confident that your family isn''t implicated in some way?" I asked. "You''re just a freaking lowborn! A nobody from freaking Undertown!" Akadia barked. "You can''t possibly think that anyone will be on your side!" "Justice and Order are on my side," I shrugged, simply thinking of Baroness Amadea. "How can you possibly declare yourself as the Voice of the Revolution and then say Justice is on your side?" Prince Ignius scoffed, looking down at me like I was a very annoying roach that had to be crushed underfoot. "My Revolution isn''t some idiotic uprising in which lowborns burn down a single tower," I said. "Oh?" Ignius asked. "Pray tell, what will you be burning down?" "I''m going to scorch the entire corrupt system from within using the power of Justice. Stubborn, old fools like professor Wert will help me do it. By the time I''m done here, you''ll be on your knees begging me to spare your life, Prince Ignius." "What? I would never!" The Second Prince huffed. "I''ll make sure that..." "That I get expelled?" I wiggled my eyebrows. "Don''t waste your time threatening her," Emerald grabbed the Prince. "She''s as stubborn as a dumb mule." She put her left hand on her waist and pointed at me with her right. "I won''t stand for whatever nonsense you''re peddling, Grogs! I hereby challenge you to a duel!" "Armaci at dawn?" I tilted my head at her. "I shall coordinate the duel with the Keeper," Emerald said. "In fact, I''ll call her right now, because this class is clearly over and done." You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. "Class isn''t over," Antoine commented. He had stepped into the room quietly while everyone was paying attention to Emerald''s overly-dramatic duel declarations. "Please sit down before I start deducting points, Novitiate Amadea." "W-huh?" Emerald turned. "I''m Artificer Antoine Delamond Kovalzek and I will be working as your new Arithmancy Instructor," Antoine grinned, numerous crystal lenses clicking atop of his head. "My apologies Instructor Kovalzek," Emerald bowed and rapidly retreated to her seat. The Artificer marched straight to the podium, gold-plated boots clinking on the black marble floors. "Can anyone tell me what Arithmancy is?" He asked after a deep pause. Akadia Solas put her hand up and cleared her throat. "Arithmancy is the practice of using mathematics to design hexagrams within magitek tools!" she said confidently. "Very good," Antoine nodded. "To be more specific, Arithmancy is a way to manipulate the very fabric of reality itself to bring about change through formulas hidden within numeric and probability sequences and their interaction with various amounts of magical materia. The Astral Ocean and the Infinite Dungeon present us a limitless number of patterns and materia. Finding the right sequence, the right combination of energy pattern and materia produces certain magical effects known as spells." The class listened silently. "I am an Armaci designer and a Crystallography Materia specialist and I posses a variety of tools that help me determine which materia is best for focusing certain spells. Now, can anyone tell me which is by far the best, all-inclusive materia for producing spells?" I was the one to put up my hand next. At Antoine''s nod I declared the answer "The human soul!" "Correct," the artificer clapped his gloved hands. "I''ve read in the papers that you are able to produce spells without use of an Armacus, Novitiate Misem?" I nodded. The class around me made noises of curiosity. "Excellent," Antoine smiled. "Come and demonstrate this for us! Valedictorian Amadea! Please bring out the Astralscope!" Agatha emerged from a side door with the fanciful magitek device on a cart. It wasn''t the real Agatha - it was just Nemmy wielding a duplicate, magic-forged body. The real Agatha was being her nerd self, preoccupied with studying magic in some secret librarium. The Astralscope activated and lit up a section of the air in the middle of the stage. "Take off one of your armaci and fire an identify spell through the field at the blackboard, Novitiate Misem!" I did as he asked, removing the armacus from my left hand and firing the spell with my fingers. The normally invisible spell made a shimmering line, casting colorful ripples through the Astral as it struck the blackboard. The ripples floated in the direction of the board and then back towards my hand. I saw the gibberish letters appear in front of me, in a blue window framed by a purple-tinted shimmer. "Write what you see on the board," Antoine ordered. I tried to replicate the gibberish letters best I could. "What is that text?" I heard the students ask. "Why can''t I read this text, Instructor?" I asked. "Now, fire an Identify spell at the blackboard from your armacus, and write down the result," Antoine said without replying. I did. [Blackboard] the information window came back. "Now, Identify the blackboard again, without your armacus," the Artificer ordered. I did. The resultant answer was completely different gibberish text. "What the heck?" I asked. "Unlike an armaci Identification spell which is pulls at specific parts of your mind that understand Basq language, this gibberish text... is the language of the Astral Ocean itself. Some people believe it to be the language of the Builders of Andross. The most basic explanation is that it is an echo of all languages imprinted in the Astral. Some archmagi even speculate that it''s made up of every language that exists or will ever exist." "Dang," I whistled. "Omni-language!" "Holy Freaking Oblivion," Emerald commented from her seat. "She''s really doing unfocused magic. How in the Emperor''s name is that possible?!" "Things are tough in Undertown," I smirked at my pretend-nemesis from my position on the stage. "We can''t afford fancy armaci. I learned unfocused magic when I was but a small kitten." "Are you saying that any lownborn knob can do unfocused magic?" Emerald growled. "You have unfocused magic classes down there or something?!" "To presume that any random child can do unfocused magic would be silly. However, prodigies exist all over our Empire, Miss Amadea," I said. "We are simply not utilizing them. If I was the Empress, I would cast my net far and wide, searching for talents and give Nemendias scholarships to such, no matter their social status or age. War with Novazem is coming and the Basquenate Imperium will need its best and brightest men and women to hold back the Necromag fleet." "How are you so freaking sure that war is coming, Misem? What are you, a bloody precog archmage?" Emerald barked. "I''m not. However, my patron and Master, Archmage Ishenko, is a very powerful precog! She chose me from all the children of Undertown to be the Voice of the Revolution to bring about a new era to Illatius," I said. "My presence in Nemendias isn''t an accident, isn''t some clerical error or deception." "So the lowborn is nothing but a tool for idealistic desires of some haughty archmage," Akadia snidely commented. "No wonder..." "In order to become the Empire we should be, we need to recognize and nurture talent from all corners of our world, including Undertown," I repeated my point. "Do you disagree with this, Novitiate Solas?" "We are an Empire of highborn nobility who have earned their place through bloodline, privilege and family honor. Armaci and materia that comprise them come at an incredibly high cost that only the wealthy can afford!" Akadia answered, her chin held high. "With enough magitek production the price of magical materia will fall," I said. "The price of armaci has been steadily going down." "Irrelevant! Why should we provide lowborns with opportunities and resources to advance their magical abilities when they will just squander them? Highborns have been raised and trained from birth for the purpose of leading our Empire, and it would be silly and foolish of us to allow children of criminals to compete in the same field as us!" "Valid points all around," Antoine nodded, joining our discussion. "The more magitek tools we craft, the cheaper and more powerful they become. Within twenty years every person will have access to an armacus and it will only become cheaper from there. When magitek technology spreads and becomes commonplace, the tides of change will be impossible to contain and social upheaval is all but guaranteed." "We have been living according to the same social order for generations and any attempts at disrupting this balance will result in turmoil!" Akadia glanced around the room, making sure everyone was listening intently, before continuing. "It is true that magitek technology has the potential to revolutionize our world and it could very well bring about incredible changes in our way of life. However, these changes are best implemented very slowly and thoughtfully by highborns and archmagi over time with careful consideration given to the consequences they may have on our society should they fail catastrophically or be misused." "Oh that would be lovely," I smiled. "...if we had time." "What?" Akadia blinked. "My Master showed me the future," I said. "What future?" The gold-haired teen tilted her head. "Why should we believe you, you little pauper?" "I, Novitiate Grogtilda Lic Misem, the holder of the two-shards of the Celestial Crest of Nemendias hereby request the truth hexagram of Nemendias ward to judge my words," I spoke as I stood on the stage. The floor beneath me ignited with magical currents, forming a massive truth-spell hex. A deadly calm settled over the classroom as I spoke, my voice full of cold clarity. "Everyone sitting here today will suffer a slow and agonizing death in the future at the hand of our enemies. Your skin will blacken and your veins will fill with rot, until your bodies burst with black mold. The Necromags of Novazem have an ultimate weapon, a plague-bomb that will consume us all. The streets of Illatius will be left in ruin, the Infinite Dungeon will become silent and lifeless. The cobblestone walkways will be covered with ossified corpses of those who had once called this land home." The truth-spell flared around me, green shimmers radiating through the air as my words sank into every soul in the room. Even Akadia''s face paled. "You''re lying! You have to be! That''s just... something you think will happen!" Emerald shouted. "I''m afraid Novitiate Misem is being completely honest," Antoine sighed. "The ward of Nemendias cannot be bamboozled by mere belief in something. The truth-hex is so incredibly effective because it pulls information from the soul of a person. If Misem saw Illatius fall, then that''s what really happened to her. Our noble Constabulary would not be using this hex as a tool to dispense Justice if we could not trust its absolute power of determining the truth in words of suspects and criminals." "But..." Akadia stammered. Antoine¡¯s words reverberated through the room. "I spoke to Archmage Ishenko''s Patron about our future myself," he said, without specifying who was the patron of an archmage, his voice low and unwavering. "Illatius will fall... unless we all take a step off the path we''re used to treading and change our future." The gravity of the situation permeated the air, the sense of dread palpable among the first year students. Their eyes were filled with worry, concern, and disbelief but no one could walk away from this now. I peered into their faces, searching for signs of courage and hope, for someone that was willing to take a risk and defy the odds. One by one, faces turned from anxiety to resolve as a few brave souls offered a silent vow. They nodded at me with determination, ready to fight the fate of Illatius despite of what lay ahead, despite of what they had been taught to believed in as children of the aristocracy. I smiled at my future, little revolutionaries. Ch 118. The Unavoidable Alliance
As I enjoyed monster-meat lunch at the table belonging to the House of the Infinite Searchers, my armacus started to vibrate. According to the blue-tinted window flashing in my eye, it was Inspector Anniya. "Yes, Inspector?" I picked up the call. [Your... hunters caught a man stalking the edge of the ward of Lomb. I''ve interrogated him and erased his memories. It was a hired Scrutimancer belonging to an unknown party. He was able to make a voicecast report to an Illatius agency that hired him before he was caught...] "Baroness Georgia?" I groaned. [Most likely,] Anniya replied. [If our enemies bring a warship against Lomb, the tower will not be able to protect your family. I''m sorry...] "This... this is fine," I exhaled. As annoying as it was it seemed like I had to relocate the chimera again. I excused myself from lunch and descended to the office of the Keeper. Voltara followed me, marching at my side. "Nemmy," I said as I stepped into the office. "Yes?" The large portrait of Nemendias turned to me. "I''m relocating my family under your ward," I said. "They will live in the catacombs facing the chasm." "How big of a family?" the Arcanarium''s avatar tilted her head. "Two thousand chimera," I said. "What?" Nemmy sputtered. "You know, when I surrendered to you, I did not expect you to actually bring an invading army to my halls!" "They won''t be in your main halls," I sighed. "Your catacombs are big enough to house everyone. I don''t want to attract attention of my enemies to Lomb and need a place to keep them safe." "Fair enough," the woman in the portrait replied. "Anything else?" "I''d like to bring Baroness Amadea to Nemendias," I said after a deep pause. "Oh?" The magical portrait tilted her head at me. "You wish to parlay with one of our enemies?" "Yeah," I sighed. "I really don''t like Amadea, but I... really need her help. I''m making a lot of waves and I need the courts on my side. I am tired of dying, tired of getting blown up and getting kidnapped. I don''t want to die anymore. I... want to make Illatius safe for me. As awesome as you, Lambert, Antoine and others are... neither of you can protect me against the magic-breaking power of the other Eurekan tools." "I understand," Nemendias nodded. "I can help you negotiate things with Amadea. Even if she''s impervious to death due to infinite Vitality, I can still gate her out of my ward if she misbehaves." "Thanks Nemmy," I exhaled. "You''re the best." I spun my armacus to voicecast function and selected [Baroness Amadea] from the list, feeling incredibly nervous. [Yes, my dear?] The perfect, musical voice of the Baroness resounded in my head. "Meet me at Nemendias... as soon as you can" I said. "I''ll met you at the rooftop of the Lawmaker''s Tower." [Oh? So... eager to see me?] Amadea inquired, a twinkle of amusement in her voice. "Yes," I said. "I''ll be waiting for you at the rooftop." . . . "The other students don''t have to deal with this shit," I muttered as I stood atop the Lawmaker''s Tower wearing my chimera body. "Life isn''t fair," Voltara solemnly nodded, her eyes knowing and wise "Especially for those of us who have chosen the path of responsibility for others." I realized that I was shaking. I was terrified of Amadea, worried that I didn''t fully understand her, that I was making a deal with a demon to keep other demons away. I steadied my heart, slowed my heartbeat with the Still Trance and pulled on the network of the Infinite Mirrors, spreading myself across infinity, stretching my mind across the lives of my other reflections both dead and alive and neither. A glittering, gold-plated glider, about three times the size of Galissi Seven punched through the white clouds and began its descent towards the rooftop I was standing on. Soon enough, an incredibly fanciful skyship stopped at the landing area and a metal stairwell unfolded, connecting with the stone parapet. An opulent door with a portrait of Amadea slid away revealing the Baroness herself in her full, absurdly tall glory. She descended down the unfolded stairs, white curls fluttering in the wind and stepped towards me. I leaned back on the memories of determined Stratonavigator Cali Terri and rational Pharmacist Leon Uyara and stared at Amadea like an equal, without fear. I pulled off my nightcrawler helmet, revealing my chimera mane and offered Amadea a false smile. "Greetings Baroness," I said. "Welcome to my Kingdom." "Your... Kingdom?" Amadea tinted her head curiously to the side. I snapped my fingers and a massive gateway swallowed up the ship that was standing behind her, depositing it far outside of the ward. "What..." Amadea spun around, her eyes wide at her vanished skyship. "What?! How?!" She turned back to look at me, examining me in a new light. "Nemendias belongs to me," I said. "Be on your best behavior if you don''t want to be gated out." "Consider me... exceptionally impressed," Amadea exhaled, her lips spreading into a wide, brilliant smile. "I had studied here myself for seven years and yet... I was not able to take control of the Ward. How have you manage this feat?" "Follow," I turned, ignoring her inquiry. Amadea made a small "Hmpf" noise as she followed after me. She was clearly not used to people bossing her around. We walked inside a small rooftop cafe. Nemmy had secured the cafe for our meeting, closing off the stairwell leading up to it. She was currently serving the role of the cafe waitress, standing at the bar. "Well," Amadea sat down across me, her diamond-shaped pupils shining with rings of inner golden light. "Is this a date? Are you ready to prostrate yourself before me?" The power of her allure softly brushed against me, made me want to surrender to her. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! "Stop that," I waved Endy through the air, ready to snip the magical currents that were trying to twist my feelings towards the Baroness. Nemmy''s shield manifested between us, completely cutting off her influence. "Aw, you''re no fun," Amadea laughed. "As much as I love to have... fun," I said trying not to shudder. "There is a gargantuan problem in the way of our relationship... in the way of all your future relationships." "Oh?" She tilted her head again. "First of all," I said in English. "I''d like to know who you really are. Are you shard of Eureka, a representation of Order or are you Baroness Amadea, the chimera girl who was raised to serve Eunice as her obedient monwai?" Amadea blinked at the question. "A bit of both, I suppose," she said after a pause, replying to me in perfect English. "And, what are you, my dear? Are you Infinity wearing this delightful form waiting to stab me in the back when I least expect it... or are you Juni, Eunisii''s monwai?" "I''m not Infinity at all," I said. "This knife holds no power over me - I am its wielder. She does not rule me." "Curious," Amadea said. "As far as I know, we are intertwined, perfectly aligned with our divine tools of power. A random chimera would not be able to wield your or my artifact. It takes a certain kind of an Astral Phantom to bear the weight of limitlessness. For centuries, our master struggled to find a wielder for your little knife, sacrificed a lot of little chimera girls to figure out how to control it." "I guess I''m lucky that Infinity isn''t about absolute control," I shrugged. "Limitlessness does not like finite values or boundaries, therefore my artifact does not bind me, does not inject her thoughts into my head." "What do you think about Order and obedience?" Amadea leaned towards me with a cat-like purr, the Diamond Heart glittering on her chest, infinite facets folding in on themselves. "I would love to tie you up, to bind you, to make you mine." I squinted at her, resisting the growing urge to stab her in the eye with Endy. "Amadea, Eureka..." I spoke slowly trying not to choke on my words in irritation. "Do you even know why I destroyed Eunisii''s garden?" "I do not," the Baroness replied. "I had presumed it a juvenile strife against obedience to our Master, the pull of your artifact towards mayhem. The same reason why you stole... furniture, two maids and my daughters." "No," I shook my head. "I destroyed our Master''s soul-garden because she was trying to use me to open a gateway into the Dead Zone. You undoubtedly know what the Dead Zone will do to us if she gets into Andross." "WHAT?!" Amadea barked. "Need I repeat myself under the absolute-truth hexagram?" I asked with a hiss, leaning towards her. "I destroyed Eunisii''s End-gate because if I didn''t, our Master would let the Dead Zone into the Chasm. Do you not know what your outer surface is like? The clouds of self-propagating death will destroy everything, turn our beautiful paradise into snowflakes and ashes!" "I see," Amadea''s face darkened, her gold eyes flashing with irritation. "No need for truth-hexes, I can observe the truth in your words... I''m quite well versed in the art of defining the truth within an aura and yours is quite clear to me." "Even now, Eunisii and the other monwai under her orders seek to dismantle all order in our city!" I barked. "Eunisii''s monci Gattaca has been vanishing the most talented humans from the city for hundreds of years! She''s erased thousands of archmagi out of time, vanished people that could have made Illatius so much more sublime and orderly!" I slid Gattaca''s confession stamped with the truth hexagram to Amadea. "Read her confession! These are all names of people vanished from history and memory! Talented young and old magi that could have offered you their love and services, help you make your dream of a perfectly organized Illatius a reality!" Amadea''s eyes quickly ran over the lines, her pale face twitching with unconcealed fury. "Do you get it now?" I growled. "Eunisii isn''t an agent of Order. If anything, she ultimately helps the Dead Zone devour us! Our Master only serves one goal - to make herself into a god! The survival of our city isn''t important to her! She wants everyone in the Empire to die with as much desperation, pain and suffering as possible, so that she could absorb their souls when the city falls!" "But," Amadea blinked trying to reorganize her thoughts. "She promised to bind everyone under the Vows, to make our city orderly and well run." "It was a trick, a ruse!" I slammed my armored fist into the table. "Her real end goal is to gather as much power as possible onto herself! There will be nobody left alive on the streets of our city in twenty years time if we don''t stop her!" Amadea''s expression darkened again. "Are you certain of this?" "My artifact - Infinity, allows me to experience the future. I met you there, in the distant tomorrow. You died as you held me in your arms," I revealed. "Please help me stand against Eunisii and the others. I want our little town to remain green and beautiful. I want our streets to be filled with people and not blackened corpses. A city cannot exist, cannot function without its citizens." "I... died?" The Baroness blinked at my words, looking aghast. "How can this be?!" I reached out and wrapped my armored hand against hers. I didn''t need to stop the real tears that formed on the edges of my eyes. They weren''t tears of appreciation for the monster sitting in front of me, they were tears for loss of my little Sunshine Archipelago, of seeing the inevitable, nightmarish future. "I watched you die amidst the desolate, snow-covered ruins of Illatius," I repeated. "You took off your Diamond Heart, gave it to me... and turned to ashes. I don''t want to repeat it again, I don''t want to take another step towards this horrific future!" "I... I gave you my heart?" The Baroness blinked, her mouth open wide. Her hand grabbed at her gold-encrusted, diamond necklace. "You did," I nodded with a sniff, looking into her silver-gold eyes. "After you died... I carried the shard of Eureka... until the Dead Zone consumed me, changed into something else entirely." "...why did I give you my heart?" Amadea asked, her hands trembling. "You couldn''t go on," I shrugged. "The Necromages of Novazem released a flesh-eating plague that devoured all life on Andross. There was nobody left alive but us and I was barely conscious. Baroness Georgia used a bomb to kill me, turned me into a ghoul, a decaying husk without a face." The lips of Baroness Amadea turned into a thin line. "Your daughters are young," I added as she contemplated my revelations. "You bound them with a leash far too tight. Let them grow up, let them learn about usefulness and purpose of Order. You''re doing things wrong. Please... let me break the Vows on all of your maids." "W-what?" Amadea sputtered, pulling away from me and looking indignant. "Why should I...?" "Your maids aren''t bound to serve you, idiot!" I barked. "They''re bound to obey Eunisii! If I don''t break their Vows, they will turn against you in the future and you''ll be forced to tear out their hearts and kill them one by one! You don''t need Vows to order people around - people will obey you because they love you and believe in you as a capable city-manager! Keeper Nora is an example of that, she''s a vow-less servant that''s absolutely dedicated to your cause! I didn''t use any vows to make Agatha and Emerald join me and yet they''re my knights, ready to assist me with whatever is necessary to save us all! By utilizing Divine Vows, you are ultimately surrendering your ability to control people to another party, someone with dubious morals and misaligned purpose!" Amadea gulped, fighting with herself. She wanted to rule people through the vows, but she didn''t want to lose her servants. "Eureka," I pressed. "Tell me - do you bind your users in Vows?" "I bind them with apps," the shard of the infinite city replied, her voice as cold as the depths of space. "If a user breaks enough laws and goes into debt, I turn them into a Dex, give them purpose. An amalgamation of a human and an app is happy to serve its purpose, happy to obey and follow the laws." "A dex?" "Debitor ex Machina," she said. "An indebted human soul in the machine, a human body modified to serve a function." "That sounds like... brainwashing. Is that really the most efficient way to do things?" I asked. "Criminals must be punished," Eureka shrugged. "And... is it working? Are you winning? Have you made crime disappear?" I asked. "I... have not," the little echo of the city of machines replied with a sigh. "Users aided by the Dead Zone slip through the cracks, damage and hurt me." "Do you like what''s happening at your boundary? The chaos, the endless death, doomed worlds coming together to eventually become devoured by the Dead Zone?" I pressed. "I... hate it," she confessed. "I hate it so much, but there is nothing I can do about it. I cannot stop what the Dead Zone is doing." "What is the Dead Zone doing?" I asked. "Killing me," Eureka replied with a sigh. "Devouring me without an end, destroying everything I built. The further things get away from the world-building core, the more messed up and chaotic they become. The unresolvable paradoxes, tears in space-time, limitless System Errors deceive, turn my citizens against me, use my users to propagate corruption, chaos, pain and death!" I stared at her. It seemed that Eureka wasn''t entirely heartless. She looked like she was... afraid of the Dead Zone. "Then why not do things differently?" I asked. "If the same strategy isn''t working, why not change your approach? Why build a wall of corpse-worlds around yourself?" "I... cannot break the laws. The laws must be upheld," she shook her head. "The loop cannot be unbound." "Who makes the laws in Eureka?" I inquired. "The Good Directorate Admins," she said. "These Admins, they''re people... right?" "They are," Eureka replied. "Do you think I could talk to them... change the Dex-making laws, fix the Dead Zone, help you?" I asked. "You are but one girl," the city of machines said. "You would not be able to convince all of the Directors to vote on one thing, would not be able to reach all of them in their personal heavens. Besides, the Dead Zone is pure evil, made from broken things that cannot be reasoned with. The Infinite Errors within it cannot be fixed, cannot be vaporized, undone or deleted. Believe me, I''ve been trying to get rid of the damned things for millions of years! All I can do is sacrifice more of myself and my children to their endless hunger!" "I can try," I shrugged. "But first... first you and I have to save Illatius. You will help me protect humanity and keep this city alive as Baroness Amadea, yes?" "Yes," Amadea nodded, looking determined. Her hand rotated and wrapped around mine like a white cage. "I will." Ch 119. Falling Stars Amadea''s eyes glinted with determination as she spoke. "Now, the question is, how do we destroy the opposition to our alliance of Order?" "You can break them personally, no?" I commented. "Are you not immortal?" My new partner bared her teeth and spoke through them, her words like shards of glacial ice. "If Georgia is settled in her Baronial estate, I can indeed launch an attack with the full force of my warship and decimate her and her magi, reducing them to mere smithereens!" My heart raced as I anxiously posed my next question - ¡°Umm. Wait. What if she''s not? What if she''s elsewhere? What if her ward cannot be conquered by your warship - Bliss, was it?¡± Amadea reflected before speaking, ¡°Well, I could call her and simply inquire where she is stationed. Georgia and I enjoy a good rapport; she is unaware that you have ripped out my soul.¡± The uneasiness in the air was palpable as I briefly considered the prospect of removing Georgia¡¯s soul too. "If I carve out her soul would she become our ally against Eunice?" I pondered. "I wouldn''t count on it," Amadea shook her head. "Georgia is aligned with Eunice by virtue of curiosity and exceptional lack of morality. She doesn''t appreciate people like I do." "If you pull her glasses off could we somehow use her artefact to help us? Could the shard of Insurance be used by us to ensure that Illatius survives the coming war?" "Hm?" Amadea tilted her head at me. "Do you perchance desire to bear the concept of Insurance?" "Not particularly," I shuddered, recalling how I nearly became Eureka when I put on Amadea''s necklace. "Then perhaps you have an Astral Phantom with a very fractured soul of someone from Earth?" The Baroness laughed. "I do not," I sighed, crossing my arms. "Then we cannot use Insurance," Amadea said. "Our only option is to kill Georgia before she realizes that I am unbound from absolute servitude to our Master." "What about the others?" I asked. "Can they be reached out to, reasoned with?" "They''ve used a shard of the Terminator to erase their names," Amadea shook her head. "I don''t know who they are." "What about their chimera names?" I blinked. "Wait... if they erased their names then how can Eunice even remember who they are?" "She cannot," Amadea barked another laugh. "Eunice does not remember who they are either." ¡°But, how can she possibly keep them in line?¡± I asked. "How can she tell them what to do?" "It is her second in-command, Baroness Georgia, who holds dominion over them," Amadea elucidated. ¡°Erm... What?¡± I stammered, trying to make sense of her words. "Baroness Georgia carries the Shard of Insurance. It remembers all information regardless of whether it is destroyed by the Terminator," she explained in a solemn tone. "Uh-huh. So, Georgia is the all-ensuring manager who coordinates the others. Knowing their concepts, what do you think the rest of the high-cendai are up to now?" I asked. "Well, the other five are bearers of... Space, Terminator, Overseer, Recycle and Installer," the Baroness bend five fingers speaking with the cold voice of Eureka. "From what I know... the wielder of Space was working on taking over the Folding Forest from within for our Master. She was one of the three monchi sacrificed to the Heart of the Folding hundreds of years ago. She''s most likely still at it as the Folding Forest is powerful and vast." "Damn," I blinked. "That seems... awful." "And from the confession of the little monchi we can derive that the wielder of Terminator was definitely working with Gattaca to erase the names of the vanished," Amadea said. "As for Overseer, Recycle and Installer wielders... I have no idea what they''re doing or even where they are." "Do you not have like regular meetings or something?" I asked, my voice edged with curiosity. "We do not," Amadea shook her head. "Each of us was assigned to particular tasks, forbidden from engaging with others unless expressly allowed by our Mistress. I was appointed to national implementation of Vows and restructuring the judicial system. "Right. So, if we can manage to overthrow Baroness Georgia, it will break the chain of command between the goddess and others?" I asked. "Correct. Without new orders they will remain in their current state, and as long as we do not interfere with them they will not bother us," Amadea replied. A flame of determination coursed through my veins and I clenched my fist, resolute in my plan of action. "Yesss," I breathed, my spirit alight with enthusiasm. "I think... I know exactly what to do." I dug into Saccy and pulled out a contract and slid it to Amadea. The Baroness delicately unfurled the parchment in her hands, scanning the words with a piercing gaze. "The use of my voice and image, granted to Nemendias?" She raised her eyes to me, her brow furrowed with confusion. "Explain this to me," she commanded. "Sufficiently advanced Depictomancy can do incredible things," I said with a smirk. . . . Through the thick, white clouds, a single, sleek and somber vessel appeared, stopping directly above Nemendias. A brilliant emblem of Saint Eunissi - a mighty, perfect angel with a divine golden halo - shone upon the central tower of Nemendias. It was Gattaca''s victorious sign to the world that the Arcanarium had fallen under cendai control. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The warship docked onto the tower and opened its black, magisteel gates, heralding in Baroness Georgia and her ten magi warriors garbed from head to toe in magitek armor and weapons. Baroness Amadea stood atop the landing platform, her elegant yet imposing presence a fitting welcome to the new arrivals. Her white, diamond-encrusted dress glittered in the light of the setting sun. Baroness Georgia, bemused by the grandiose spectacle, fixed Amadea with a quizzical gaze, her thickly-framed spectacles examining the smug-looking bearer of the shard of Eureka. "So, it''s true?" Georgia asked. "I''m the one who rules Nemendias," Amadea''s reply was a proud nod, her eyes rife with the tint of success. "Monchi Gattaca was of great use to us. I have full control of the ward!" "You have done well," Georgia''s lips curved into a slight smile, "What of the vile traitor? Have you brought her to justice?" "Grogtilda Lic Misem is currently in the Keeper''s office," Amadea''s answer arrived with an enigmatic smirk. "She is bound by magic to obey my every order! Her body fully belongs to me now!" ¡°Splendid,¡± Georgia applauded with the clanging of her steel gauntlets. "Our Goddess will be pleased with zhis.¡± ¡°Will Eunisii grant me more freedom?¡± Amadea implored, running her fingers around the imaginary choker wrapped around her pale neck. "Zhat is up to our Master to decide," Georgia shrugged. "Zhe is but a ghost in the Astral now, but she will re-manifest fully given enough time when I finish building her a new body." "How long will this process take? When will Goddess Euinisii become fully physical again?" Amadea inquired. "A year? Perhaps less," the bespectacled Baroness replied with a shrug. "She wants a very powerful body and I''m zhe one who will build it for her." "Right," Amadea nodded. "Your divine glasses make you infinitely dexterous." "Yes. Now, who are these humans?" Georgia looked at the crowd of black-robed Constables standing behind Amadea. "Just my adorable partners," Amadea purred. "Don''t worry about them, my dear, they work for me. Who are these lovely-looking humans you brought?" "Just my insurance," Georgia smiled, glancing back at the pink-eyed mages in armor and pearlescent robes. "Zhey are a team of my dedicated archmagi... if you accidentally turn the ward of Nemendias against me, zhey will be able to push against it and blast this place to smithereens." "Turn the ward against you?" Amadea tilted her head. "I would never do such a thing!" "I prefer to be safe," Georgia shrugged. "Now, take me to zhe traitor." "What are you plans for little Miss Misem?" Amadea inquired. "Our Master wishes her to suffer greatly for what she did," Georgia replied. "Be glad that I own the courts, or you would be in a pickle of trouble," Amadea laughed. "I heard you put a bomb under her parents'' house?" "What trouble? Don''t be ridiculous. Zhe little idiot''s life wasn''t worth much," Georgia shrugged. "Zhe girl and her parents are criminal debitors! Do you consider me some kind of an imbecile? I already bought zhe rights to the three of them from zhe Fighters Guild of Undertown. Legally, I am perfectly within my rights to execute or torture her if I so desire. I own her!" "Oooh, aren''t you a clever cookie," Amadea laughed. "So your little bomb plot was fully legal?" "Obviously," Georgia huffed. "If you hadn''t captured her, I would have simply shown zhe papers of debitor ownership to the Illatius Judiciary. Simple insurance." The two Baronesses and their entourage made their way to the Keeper''s office. Keeper Nora nodded at them from her desk. "Now, where is zhe traitor?" Georgia asked, looking around the office. "Right through this door," Amadea stepped through the portal to Undertown, her shoes clanking on black, metal hexagons. When the last magi belonging to Georgia stepped onto the hexagonal platform, the portal between Nemendias and Undertown ceased to exist, vanishing the faces of Nora and the Constables. The mages encircling Georgia quickly shifted around her in a solid formation, eyes wide with a fervent readiness to cast powerful magics. "Hang on... is zhis...?" Baroness Georgia gasped as she looked across the hexagon-textured space. "Indeed, my dear. This is the Undertown Inarian End Gate!" Amadea declared. "It can take us anywhere! Currently it is linking Nemendias to Undertown. "Anywhere?" Georgia whispered, her voice trembling ever so slightly with unconcealed excitement. "Anywhere, within reason," Amadea nodded. "Juni is the one who controls this gate with her artifact and in turn I control her." She pointed at me. I stood beneath the gate, magic shackles weighing down my hands. A cold chill ran down my spine as I heard Georgia utter a single word -¡®Marvelous!¡¯. A malicious glint shone in her eyes as she took one step closer to me. The Archmagi rearguard followed her into the depths of the dark gateway, their faces set with a steely determination. "Good tomorrow, Doctor Joseph Grimshaw Engel," I said with a small curtsy, shaking my shackles. "Did you tell her my real name?" an expression of annoyance crossed Georgia¡¯s countenance as she shot a glance at Amadea. I rolled my eyes and replied: ¡°You were the one who revealed your name to me, Doctor!" "Wha-" Joseph blinked in confusion. "That''s when I found out that you were an absolute monster beyond saving," I growled. The slow-boiling rage I''d kept inside me since I met the bespectacled doctor had now turned into a firestorm of fury. "Open the gate to the edge of Eureka!" I shouted. The Eurekan gateway behind Georgia flashed open into empty space. The vacuum gripped all of us and pulled our bodies into the gate and through it. The void tugging us towards itself with a gravitational and pressure differential pull was so strong that nobody standing beneath the gate could resist it. Georgia let out an undignified yelp as she was flung backwards towards oblivion. All of Georgia''s magi plummeted into the gate along with me and Amadea. Baroness Amadea reached out to me with a smile, hugging me as we fell through the mesosphere of Eureka. "This was fun!" She shouted against the rush of air, her body entwined with mine, protecting me with a motherly-like embrace. The infinite expanse of the dead city stretched out below us, illuminated in a kaleidoscope of white glaciers and inky black ruins. Its curvature extended on and on until its details were lost in the limitless horizon. No one could save us now; in a second or two we would be dead, and at that moment I felt pure panic and thrill like no other as my life flashed before my eyes. One of the buildings directly beneath us was the exact skyscraper that had the name "Good Directorate" on it. It was the ruin that I had memorized this summer, a building featured on the Depictomancy picture given to me by Inspector Lambert. It was the picture I had shown Infi an hour ago as the place where the gate should open upon my orders. The magi spun and scrambled in the air, desperately chanting spells to stifle their descent, but it was no use. The power of Eureka''s pull below us was more unwieldy than anything they''d ever encountered; an irresistible force that mocked the feeble attempts of their magic. The closer the magi got to the Dead Zone, the more their powers weakened. Within seconds they were swallowed by the atmosphere and became engulfed in a swirling maelstrom of death. Baroness Georgia''s agonizing wail pierced through the howling wind as her armor and body ignited in a fireball of pain and terror. The sight was too much for me and I looked away as I too spiraled towards certain demise in the jaws of the thousand-floor skyscrapers. Georgia''s glasses flashed one last time as all of us turned into falling, burning stars rapidly devoured by the friction of the atmosphere and the life-consuming clouds caressing the infinite landscape. I too became a falling star as my body caught fire. Desperately, I watched as the clouds swallowed us up, like a hungry beast devouring its prey. My body was alight with heat as we sped towards the ground. I felt myself slowly burning away, engulfed by the flames that licked my skin. Amadea''s body took the brunt of the impact and shattered, seared beneath me to incandescent ashes. The infinite city made from doomed worlds stretched out before me, a canvas of death that was about to consume me. This breathtaking view was my last sight. Far below, two figures stood atop the skyscrapers with the words drawn upon its flat rooftop. One figure was tall and garbed in midnight black, with a gas mask whose purple lenses glinted as though lit from within, its gaze meeting mine with inexplicable aching sadness. Beside her, a hunchbacked man was polishing his rifle and not looking up - until the figure in black elbowed him. I recognized him at once - it was the infamous Charles Snippy. The Eurekan citizen trapped in the Dead Zone raised his gaze to meet mine. "Make a wish upon me, Charles," I thought as my flesh boiled and burned away to sparkling ashes. Ch 120. Detention
Timelessness. Darkness. Flight. Blades forged from infinity ready to strike down my enemies. I was JP and I saw Eureka just for an instance. Saw it, moments before I abandoned my own body and rushed back towards the gate, back to Nemendias. Back to myself. I knew that this was possible because I had seen Eunice do this. Astral Phantoms can fly between bodies. Astral Phantoms can inhabit anything, especially things that resemble them. For exactly 28 minutes I had inhabited a duplicate of my own body that Nemendias wove from magic. Inhabited it until it plummeted towards its final destination, towards its doom. I disconnected from my duplicate and flashed through the gate and looked through it back to Eureka making sure that Georgia didn''t do the same thing as I did. Georgia did not abandon her body. She had plummeted into the clouds of death and her soul and body were devoured whole. The gate snapped shut. For a moment I wondered what the magic-forged me might have seen before the all-consuming clouds ground her into dust. What was her last thought? Did she have thoughts? Was she afraid? What did she see down there? Infi manifested in front of me interrupting my pondering about the nature of duplicates. "That was a well executed plot, my little phantom," she waved a hand at me, somehow speaking without speaking, somehow making a sound in the Astral Ocean. Infi did not look like herself in the Astral. She looked like a figure made from noise and dust, a void in magical currents, a feeler, an eye of something great and limitless. I waved one of my knives at her. "A gate back to Nemendias? Sure thing," Infi nodded. The Eurekan gate flashed open again. I flew through it, crossed the Keeper''s office filled with constables and shot back into myself. With an unnerving snap I returned to Juni''s body, rejoining my other three selves. I blinked and sat upright. I was currently in the backroom of the Keeper''s office. "Nemmy! It worked!" I exhaled nosily. The duplicate of Baroness Amadea remanifested in front of me with a flash of large magical hexagrams pulsating on the floor. "You were able to bring down Baroness Georgia?" Amadea-Nemmy asked. "I have," I nodded. "I... killed her and her magi companions. Her soul is gone. She wasn''t skilled enough as an Astral Phantom to escape in time. The Dead Zone got her." The ease with which I had disposed of my opponents was a tad terrifying. The gate had turned out to be an incredibly effective weapon against those who did not know what it could do. I looked back at the duplicate of the Baroness. "How much did you remember?" "The duplicate of Amadea disconnected from me as soon as the gate to Undertown closed," Nemendias said. "Afterwards she acted on her own... as a decaying copy of Amadea." "Hmm," I rubbed my chin. "So... umm... are the duplicates you create sentient? Do they die? Do they suffer horribly? Did I... just kill myself?" "They''re sentient-ish," Nemendias shrugged. "They''re akin to quickly fading Depictomancy drawings, living ideas running on remnants of magic until their thoughts run out. Duplicates disconnected from me placed outside of my ward decay pretty quickly." "I do wonder how long I can inhabit a duplicate of myself in this manner?" I pondered. "It could be dangerous," Nemendias commented. "Danger''s my middle name," I grinned at her. The Arcanarium''s avatar shook her head at me. "So, how do you feel now that you''re an assistant to murder?" I asked her. "I have no pity for those that wish me harm. Besides, they weren''t human," She replied. "I scanned the group when they stepped into my ward. The body of the Baroness Georgia was an exceptionally complex golem. Her magi companions were insanely complex golems too, powered by dragon-cell batteries." "Damn," I muttered. "That''s how she kept herself immortal as a human." "She was likely replacing her organs with magitek tools over centuries," Amadea-Nemendias nodded. "This is some ship of Theseus shit," I muttered. "Hrm?" Nemendias raised an eyebrow. "Never mind that," I said. "Lets go on with the show." Amadea-Nemendias nodded and fell apart into colorful sparks. I pulled my beanie hat on and stepped out of the room into the office of the Keeper. The curious and somewhat bewildered faces of Inspector Lambert, Inspector Anniya, Inspector Pomegrad and other Diamondias Constables looked at me. "So, do I have a case?" I asked the gathered men and women. "Yes and no, my lady," Inspector Pomegrad sighed. "If Baroness Georgia submits the ownership papers, claiming that she legally owns your apprentice... Grogtilda, the case will likely fall apart." "She won''t submit anything," I smiled. "Oh?" Pomegrad''s eyebrow went up. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. "She''s dead," I said. "What?" the bulky Inspector barked. "She tried to kill my apprentice and accidentally fell into a gate to Inaria. I saw it myself using my... magical sight. The all-consuming clouds got her and her golem rear guard." "WHAT?" The Inspector''s eyebrows furrowed. I stepped out from the gate to Undertown as Grogtilda. The real Grogtilda had been hiding in Undertown, far enough from the gate not to be noticed. "Hi," I uttered as Grogs, blushing. "Well... that was pretty crazy." "What was crazy?" Pomegrad demanded, turning to the body of Grogtilda. "Baroness Georgia wanted to kill me and fell into the gate to Inaria," I said. "I was there," The duplicate of Baroness Amadea stepped out from another door. "I saw the whole thing. Baroness Georgia fell into the gate to Inaria." "You didn''t push her?" Pomegrad squinted at Amadea. "I did not push her. She fell," Amadea said. "She desired to hurt Miss Misem." "I will sign a truth-hex confession that Baroness Georgia attempted to murder me," I said. "Very well," Pomegrad nodded with a sigh. He knew that we weren''t telling the full story, but he didn''t want to dig too hard into things. The Inspector of Diamondias was quite terrified of Baroness Amadea. "I''ll draft up the report form," Anniya said. "We can proceed with the case against Baroness Georgia," I said with a smug look on Juni''s face. "She''s dead and won''t be able to defend herself in court. She tried to kill my apprentice and even confessed her intent to do so to all of you in the open. We have more than enough witnesses gathered here to win this!" "Indeed," Lambert nodded. "Georgia''s Estate won''t be able to weasel out of this." . . . When the forms were filled in and signed by all of the present parties, the Diamondias Constables left Nemendias. "You missed dinner," Voltara commented as she stepped into the Keeper''s Office bearing a tray of food. "Such is price of my terrible deeds," I said, digging into the dragonsteak sitting on the magically-warmed plate brought by the maid. "You also have detention with Instructor Stellaris," Nora-Nemendias commented from her desk. "Bah," I commented as I chewed. "I''ll get to it after this steak." "You''re going to be late," Nemmy added. "You were supposed to be there five minutes ago." "Fine," I squinted at her in annoyance, swallowing the rest of my steak. "I''m off!" . . . Stellaris Xim Artura paced around the courtyard. She looked somewhat irate, but a vicious smile stretched on her face when she saw me. I stepped onto the cobblestone path and out of the arches of the gothic building. "Novitiate Misem," Stellaris stated. "You''re late." "I got a little lost," I said. "Nemendias is big and..." The figure of Stellaris flashed and blurred. She suddenly appeared in front of me with detonation of thunder that clogged up my ears. Her fist connected with my body and I was flung backwards into the wall. "Owww," I slid down, rubbing my chest. "Did you just freaking punch a student? Is this legal? Why isn''t the ward defending me?!" "I did," Stellaris grinned at me, her red eyes flashing. "As the Offensive Arts Instructor I am permitted to hit students. Pain is a good lesson for disobedient children who think too highly of themselves. Don''t worry, I won''t break your neck." "I don''t think that highl..." My words died in my throat as Stellaris lunged forward, her strong arm a blur of motion as she swung her fist. The shockwave of her punch crashed into me, and I felt something snap in my right wrist. A bolt of agony shot up my arm and I collapsed, the breath leaving my lungs in a hiss. I clutched my fractured wrist, feeling the pieces of broken bone grinding against each other with every movement. She let out a cruel laugh, the sound like thunder, reverberating off the walls and slicing through the air like a blade. My eyes met hers and I saw only cold contempt. "Are you going to cry?" She sneered, a cruel smirk curling up the corners of her mouth. "Everyone cries when I break their wrists." My lips were pressed into a tight line, a silent refusal to give in to her taunt. But I knew that if I spoke, my voice would only betray the fear I felt. The Stormancer moved like lightning again. There was a sickening crack as my left wrist shattered, like a broken twig falling from a tree. I screamed in agony and clutched my broken hands up to my chest, feeling the pain of every shattered bone. "How am I going to write essays for Arithmancy homework now?" I muttered between gritted teeth, a hard lump forming in my throat as tears filled my eyes. "I will rewind your bones," Stellaris intoned, her voice penetrating deep within me like a stake. "If you kneel and beg for mercy." The Stormancer''s piercing red eyes bore into me as if trying to find a fracture in my soul. Every single nerve in my body screamed at me to surrender, yet I remained rooted to the spot, staring at her and blinking tears away. I just killed a Baroness. I wasn''t going to surrender to a mere magic school teacher. "Do you break everyone''s wrists at detention or are you just picking on me because the Dean asked you to?" I hissed out as my vitality-bound threads tried to repair the damage. The Stormancer tilted her head, her gaze narrowing. "Hit me with your fist," she said, bringing her face down to my level. "Show me your resolve." I spun around and pushed all of my mana into the Limitless Michell Shield at the edge of my knuckles. The shield at the border of my skin was what had struck Stellaris in the face. She flinched and staggered backwards as all of her defenses were unable to prevent my magical shield from smashing into her. My broken wrist ached awfully, but I smiled at her as she readjusted her white robe and stared at me in surprise. "You''re not like the other children," she murmured, squinting at me. "Your will and magic is strong, like that of an adult." "Other children weren''t born in Undertown as a debitor, never endured three months in the Twisted Forest, never been devoured alive by a Folding Seed." I shook my head resolutely. Stellaris barked a laugh at my comment. "You have guts, Miss Misem," she said. "I like that. Consider your first test passed!" At those words, she grabbed my shattered wrists. Jolts of electricity rushed around me and through me. I could feel my bones shifting back into place, and slowly but surely, healing themselves. The pain was immense, like hot metal being twisted in my veins as my broken wrists mended back together. I let out a growl as my wrists healed. Stellaris stepped away from me and motioned for me to follow her inside the school building. "Detention calls," she spoke out loud as we went down a few levels. "Your task is to clean up all the storage rooms on this floor." Dust bunnies were everywhere, cobwebs were hanging from the ceiling, the shelves were covered in questionable stains and old boxes filled with what looked like old records. It looked like nobody had used this floor in forever. It took me four hours of scrubbing with brush and some mundane soap to finish cleaning up all of the shelves, during which time Stellaris made lightning dance around her fingers as she watched me with an eagle eye making sure I did a thorough job. Occasionally, she made snidely comments about my posture and lack of muscles. I ignored her. I let Grogtilda''s body work on autopilot as most of my quartet self was preoccupied in Juni''s body setting up a large distillery workshop in Nemmy''s Heart room with Voltara at my side. By the time it was past 10 pm, Stellaris had given up on trying to bully me. "You are done for today, Misem," she said with a nod. "And don''t be late tomorrow." I bowed my head slightly and stepped out of the school building, adjusting my dust-covered, grimy robe. The night air smelled like evening flowers, and I knew that this wouldn''t be the last time I''d have to face off against the Stormancer. She didn''t seem to be specifically attacking my heritage, didn''t target me on the fact that I was born in Undertown. I wasn''t sure what to think of her. A dark silhouette emerged from the magic-lantern lit garden. I recognized Agatha''s glittering, silver-blue hair and pin. "How did your first detention go?" She asked. "Got my wrists broken," I huffed. "Stellaris likes to break people as part of her lesson," Agatha sighed. "She''s from a small northern tribe that lives near a magogenic fault. Six years ago, she broke my legs and made me crawl around the courtyard in front of the entire class." "Did you give up?" I blinked. "No," Agatha said. "Mother''s instructors have done worse to me." "I see," I frowned. "You know, on one hand I feel a bit concerned that Stellaris can punch me any time she wants to. On the other hand, she hits everyone so I can''t get her fired for being unfair." "She is a bit of a cruel bastard," Agatha said. "But we will need people like her to stand up to the Necromancers." "Don''t remind me," I yawned. "Anyways, I''m off to bed." "G-nite Miss Misem," Agatha said. "Goodnight Aggie," I tiredly waved at her as I blearily staggered back to my dorm. There was an ungodly amount of stairs for me to conquer before I could hit the bed and my mind wasn''t working straight. "Nemmie why don''t you have freaking elevators?" I whined to the nearest tapestry of the silver-haired Avatar of Nemendias. Ch 121. Expansion I collapsed into my bed atop the Lawmaker''s Tower and rapidly drifted to sleep, my consciousness rejoining the rest of myself within my soul-space. Thanks to the efforts of all of my soul-shards the old power plant had become changed was coming alive. It was starting to look less like a desolate, empty ruin and more like a rich, lush meadow. A silver-gray dress sat upon my body. It wasn''t a real dress, but a memory of a dress I had designed back on earth about five years ago. The semi-transparent, numerous layers of thin fabric fluttered atop my body as warm wind blew from the large windows surrounding the space. Blades of green and violet grass danced with every whisper of the wind, the breeze tugging at my red hair secured by an emerald butterfly pin. I crossed through a field of violet and blue flowers and stared up at the ceiling covered in blooming wines. Rays of imaginary sunlight broke through the overgrown windows, blue sky visible behind them. Nature was reclaiming my memory of Chernobyl... my soul was healing. I stepped closer to the windows and stared out of them into the distance. The previously indeterminate view of a vague blur now a vast landscape view of the outside, a lush green terrain of ocean-like forest. The landscape before me breathed and lived. It was filled with hills and trees. The horizon was dotted with decaying and semi-intact, distant towering structures. Somehow, they felt very familiar, had a wholesome sense of "home" about them that was drawing my eyes to them. "...are those?" I stared at the towers, asking myself the question the answer to which I already sort of knew. "They''re visual representations of our other Infinite Mirrors," Junezia spoke from behind me. "See, that ice-covered gray tower over there is Cali and that dead, burned out, hollow shell of one in the distance is Leon." "That''s amazing," I uttered. "So we can..." "Go there someday and visit? Yes," Juneberry clapped her hands. "The closer a soul is to the Dead Zone boundary, the better the connection is!" I stared at the distant towers for a bit longer and then turned around and sat at a mossy table already manned by the other three Junis. "How are things going otherwise?" I asked. "Better than expected," Junezia said. "The additional Infinite Mirrors are providing soul stabilization. I think that we''re onto a breakthrough." "We can align our magic closer with Infinity, right?" I guessed what the other me was thinking. Junezia nodded. JP stood up and lifted her fingers up. The ghostly hand of the phantom-me suddenly came apart into void-like blades almost making me flinch. "JP is closer to Infinity than any of us," Junezia said. "Almost all of her soul-threads are Endies." "Right," I nodded. "I get the gist. She''s perfect at killing Astral Phantoms." "It''s a lot more than that," Junezia smiled "Thanks to the Entrance ceremony at Nemendias, we now know exactly what the magical hexagram for Infinity looks like." "The logo for the House of the Infinite Searchers?" I smiled. "Yep," Junezia nodded. "JP, could you shape your blades into the infinite-hex?" JP nodded. The black blades composing her fingers fluttered apart and then came together weaving a circle within a circle that warped into itself like a Mobius loop. Staring at it was making me feel off. The fractal representing Infinity looked... wrong, impossible. It gave me the same sensation as staring into the heart of the Infinite Dungeon. "This is the key," Junezia said. "To...?" "The key to limitlessness," my Intelligence Officer exhailed. "The power to break the System." "Oh?" I tilted my head. "This key can do more than open the Eurekan gate, right? Do you think it could help us survive in Eureka or the Dead Zone?" "I believe so, since the power of Infi is omnipresent in numerous Eurekan tools," Junezia said. "But also, this is key to..." She waved her hand towards the enormous status screen. "Breaking the System of Andross that''s currently counting our level and stats." "Breaking it how?" I inquired. "Infinity hates definitions," Junezia declared. "Numbers are definitions. I believe if we integrate, fuse this hexagram into the core of our soul we would be able to amplify ourselves, to create magic that magnifies what we are, violates our own boundaries." "More Limitless magic?" I mulled. "That does sound handy. Are you not concerned about breaking the counters?" "No," Junezia shook her head. "Eurekan Infinity like Endy is... conceptual. A full integration of an Infinite hexagram into our soul will maintain concept coherency but make our magic less confining to static calculations, give us the ability to pull mana from the other Infinite Mirrors that we''re connected to. For example, we would be able to increase our current level due to magic pouring from Cali." "Cali isn''t a wizard," I pointed out. "She doesn''t have a level or the system. She''s just a human girl from a doomed world." "She''s not a wizard, but she is moving across the Dead Zone boundary," Juneberry pointed out. "According to Infi, the Magisphere of Desire resonates from the Dead Zone itself," Junezia pointed out. "So... if this works, we should be able to do magic anywhere, even outside of the Magisphere of Desire." I giddily rubbed my hands. "I... could wake up as Yulia back on Earth and do magic!" All four of me nodded to each other. "Right," I pondered. "Well, who''s in favor of doing this thing and breaking the System?" Everyone present raised their hand. "Lets get to it then! To infinity... and beyond," I smirked as all four of me held their hands above the table and the core of my soul started to reshape itself into the impossible, limitless fractal. I stared at my System stats as it happened. The numbers on the list suddenly blurred and started to flicker. The fractal forged from infinity completed itself, bound itself into me and the System chart stabilized. I looked at it again to discover the following:
Name: Age [in years]: Connection: Species & Subtype: Conceptual Alignment: Location:
Yulia Ishenko 29 full Organic Human body & soul n/a Donetsk, Earth [doomed world]
Yulia/Juni/Grogtilda 4 full Astral Phantom Infinity???? Soul-net, Body of Juni, Installation Rosaline
Juni Tokimorim?tul 4 full Crystalline-organic chimera stripling body Infinity???? Installation Rosaline
Grogtilda Lic Misem 13 full Organic human body Infinity Installation Rosaline
Cali Terri 33 full Organic human body & soul Infinity Transit leap / Dead Zone boundary
Leon Uyara 39 n/a Astral imprint n/a Harbin, Earth [doomed world]
Junezia 4 full Astral imprint Intelligence Soul-net, Body of Juni, Installation Rosaline
Juneberry 4 full Astral imprint Wisdom Soul-net, Body of Juni, Installation Rosaline
JP 4 full Astral Phantom Infinity Soul-net, Body of Grogtilda, Installation Rosaline
System Error n/a n/a n/a n/a Dead Zone, Eureka
Conceptual state: Network of human souls
Level: This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. [0-12]
Experience: 49.33% obtained for next evolution
Spiritual Health: 42/56
Spiritual Stamina: 17/56
Mana Capacity: 44/56
Mana regen: 140 m/hr
Strength / Fortitude: 2 [Michell Shield] 2 [Limitless Michell Shield]
Agility / Folding: 2 [Air Compressor] 2 [Limitless Compressor]
Dexterity / Dominion: 5 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Tethered to Chimera body] 5 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Tethered to Human body] 5 [Limitless Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Tethered to Voltara''s Vow] 5 [Limitless Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Tethered to Arouetta''s Vow]
Vitality / Anima: 35 [Slow Mirrors] 2 [Limitless Anima]
Charisma / Resonance: 2 [Allure Halo] 9 [Invisibility Halos]
Magic / Power: 6 [Battery] 8 [Generators]
Luck / Destiny: 24 [Infinite Mirrors] - [Untethered] [+1] [Yulia Ishenko - connected] [Earth] [-1] [Juni - connection lost - death by Barrie] [Andross] [-1] [Juni - connection lost - death by the Dead Zone] [Andross] [-1] [terminated stat] [+- 1] [System Error] [Dead Zone, Eureka] [+1] [Cali Terri] [Dead Zone Boundary] [+- 1] [Leon Uyara] [Harbin, Earth]
Intelligence / Mind: 32 [Intelligence Officer] - [Junezia]
Wisdom / Seeking: 2 [Data Seeker] - [Juneberry]
Soul:
In Dominated Folding Seed [Saccy]: 12 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active] 8 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Damaged]
In Dominated Chimera Stripling [Alessi Tokimorim?tuti]: 3 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active] 1 [Pneumasomatic Actuator] - [Damaged]
In Dominated Vow [Voltara]: 5 [Limitless Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active]
In Dominated Vow [Arouetta]: 5 [Limitless Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active]
Armacus 1: [Foci Lv 0-12] < [Light Lv 0-12] [Voicecast Lv 0-12] [Identify Lv 0-12] [Pathfinder Lv 0-12]
Armacus 2: [Foci Lv 0-12] < [Light Lv 0-12] [Voicecast Lv 0-12] [Identify Lv 0-12] [Pathfinder Lv 0-12]
Damn. I''m... level 0 to 12? I commented. "Mhmmm," Junezia nodded with a cheerful smile. "Depending on which mirror we present to the world we can either be a level zero or level twelve soul!" "All of the other stats have gone up too!" I commented. "As expected," Junezia said. "See that name? The Network of human souls? The System no longer sees us as a single individual, but as an entity of sorts. My theory was correct, we''re really pulling magic and experience from our other selves!" "Ohhh! I know! We''re sort of like Dawn now!" Juneberry declared giddily. "A tree... of souls!" "I don''t recall investing this many points into things," I pointed out. "Since when do I have two Limitless Michell Shields?" "Since some of the stats finally carried over from me," JP commented. "I lost some parts of my soul fighting Astral Phantoms, but there were still a lot of things left." "So, every new mirror we open gives me more power in a manner that''s more effective than simply murdering and eating dungeon monsters to level up? Should we... open another mirror then?" I asked. "Meeting more of ourselves is fun if a bit depressing in case of them being dead," Juneberry commented. "Hopefully we won''t ever encounter a supervillain version of ourselves that might attempt to destroy our soul through the connection," Junezia muttered. "What, you think that a supervillain version of me can exist?" I blinked. "I don''t know, but anything is possible since Eureka manufactures so many worlds," The Intelligence Officer shrugged. "We have to stay positive and focused," Juneberry said. "I think that the Infinite Mirrors are somehow intuitive like that - they''re sort of like a self-guided Search thread that bounces across the multiverse until it locates another version of us in relationship to what we require at the moment." "Right," I nodded. "Lets think positive thoughts as we open it then! I want to see if we can reach a world that still has its subscription on!" Again, the four of me were in agreement. We brought our hands together and pushed power into the 24th Infinite Mirror. It shimmered and its surface rippled, pulling information from and reaching out onto some distant beyond. . . . I fell onto the grass, sputtering and choking. Blue fluid emptied from my lungs as I heaved. A tall, humanoid figure stood over me. "Good tomorrow," it said in a cold, metallic voice that sounded a bit like a British butler. "W-what? Where am I?" I looked in bewilderment around me. I was lying on the grass covered in some sort of quickly evaporating fluid. My mind was swimming. I couldn''t recall who I was or why and how I even arrived on this well-manicured lawn. I spun my eyes around, trying to get my bearings. The human figure bent down to me and offered me a white, ill-fitting coat. I pulled it on, discovering that I looked like a very skinny, very young teenage girl. My hair was dark brown and wavy. I looked back at the mechanical human. From a distance he could have been perhaps mistaken for a man, but up close he looked like a plastic mannequin filled with clockwork. A brain was floating inside of a clear plastic case atop of the thing''s head. "I''m going to self-destruct in exactly forty two seconds," the robot said. "Your name is Alexa Terranova. You''re the daughter of a supervillain, Dr. Terranova. You come from a long line of villains, your many-times-great-grandfather is Spring-heeled Jack. Beware, there are heroes aplenty who will attempt to kill you." "Uhh... okay?" I blinked. "Wait... what?!" "Your father is working inside the Saint Mary''s cathedral behind you," the robot butler clicked, a metal joint pointing at the old, gloomy-looking gothic building that stood behind us. "The place from which you were banished." I stared at the mechanical man, feeling utterly stupefied. "The bracelet on your hand will randomly send you into the world of tomorrow," the robot butler said pointing at a black, hexagonal bracelet on my hand. "Figure things out. Survive. Become strong." "W-what?" I stammered as I looked down at the weird bracelet. "You are a disappointment. Your memories were erased because you learned too much. This is a punishment for defying me. Steal. Adapt. Grow. Become a true villain and find your way back inside. Goodbye," the butler concluded, clicked and detonated with a flash, showering the lawn and pelleting me in numerous plastic screws and plates. The brain in the jar ignited and the plastic parts comprising the butler melted and rapidly disintegrated, burning a scorched hole on the lawn. I blinked, twitching. "Okay," I said. "Right... I''m a daughter of a supervillain. I can work with this." I stood up, shaking plastic screws out of my hair that dissolved upon contact with the air. As I rounded the corner of the old church, beyond the old, rusted gate and the green lawn, I saw a road dotted by simple, well maintained two story houses. Weed grown yards abounded and azalea bushes bloomed in a riot of color along the paths to the doors. An old, Rolls-Royce stood in the driveway of the cathedral. "Saint Mary''s Street," I read the nearest road sign. I examined the old, gothic building. Pink and blue stained glass glinted in the sunlight. The sun rebounded off of it in shards of color and light. It looked like something was flashing, moving deep within the church, but I couldn''t tell what exactly because the windows were very thick and colorful. It reminded me of looking into a kaleidoscope. Everything around me seemed to swirl. There were summer butterflies flitting around me, their wings opening into myriad patterns. Ah, I was dizzy from hunger. The scenery was relaxing and picturesque, but I couldn''t allow myself to relax. My stomach growled, felt empty. I was feeling rather thirsty too. "Hey!" I barked at the stained glass, banging on the frame. "I see you moving in there! This is bullshit... dad, give me something to eat!" No response came. "Do you expect me to steal food from town? Is that it? Is this my villainous development arc?" I asked the cathedral. "Is this how villains operate? You erase your daughter''s mind and dump her outside? Well, I''m not doing that, you hear me?" Again, no answer. I sighed. It was worth a try. My own reflection stared at me from the gothic windows. I had sky-blue eyes dotted with silver flakes and looked quite harmless, small and somewhat adorable. Maybe I could find a kind old lady and beg her for a bit of food? It was as good a plan as anything else. In fact, I might even get lucky and one of the neighbors could confirm if I indeed lived here. My stomach rumbled. I turned and walked away from the church doors. I''m not sure what I could do, but if I found a police officer or someone in authority, surely they would help me? Maybe someone would direct me to a shelter or something. Those existed here... right? I wasn''t sure, had no memory of this town. I stepped out from under oak trees and shaded my eyes against the sun''s glare. As I looked up at the sky, my jaw dropped. A gargantuan ring hung in the blue sky far, far above me stretching from horizon to horizon. It looked like a million tiny, glittering stars had been affixed to its surface like a child piercing a black and white painting with a needle. A distinct layer of haze veiled the ring, softening its sharp edges and making it look like a surreal etching. It was a truly giant space station, akin to a ring spanning the earth. Staring at it made me feel small and unimportant. "Whoa," I muttered as I stared at the phantasmagorical, impossibly vast megastructure that hugged the heavens high above me. Ch 122. The Supervillain
I stepped into the small town. It was even more pleasant than I''d expected. The streets further out from the church were lined with quaint, red brick buildings and cozy wooden houses. They all had white shutters, sycamore trees in front of them and lush gardens dotted by ivy, willow and enormous oak trees in the backyard. The people here were dressed in everyday clothes that looked as if they''d been made in the 1950''s. The few people outside didn''t seem to recognize me, didn''t say hello nor confirm that I was indeed Alexa Terranova. It was incredibly unnerving that I somehow understood the 1950s as a concept yet I could not recall my own name or my life before the spontaneously combusting plastic man dumped me into the backyard of Saint Mary''s cathedral. As I walked down the street, I saw various shops selling all sorts of things from fabrics to electronics, food to books and antiques. The shops were old and new and had their own unique styles and charms about them. Signs on the storefronts with their elegant lettering and golden frames caught my eye. Each shop had its own unique charm as if it were telling a story all on its own. ''Saint Mary Township Antiques and More'' one sign said. The quaint atmosphere of Saint Mary''s town was making me feel relaxed as if I had stepped into a simpler, safer time. I tried to think as to where I had stepped from and why I felt that the town was quaint and could not arrive at a conclusion. Parts of my memory were completely inaccessible as if they had been cut away by a surgeon''s knife. Thinking about them and trying to understand myself was giving me a migraine. The headache preyed on my nerves, making them tingle and fuzzing my vision. I stopped focusing on it, moving forward. There were also several restaurants and cafes in town; some selling traditional meals while others offered fusion cuisine. A large yellow sign hung over the sidewalk that said "Atomic Cafe" in flowing red letters. Looking into the cafe through the glass window presented to me a lovely example of something that I mentally labelled as the ''atomic-art-deco-theme''. Little boys and girls sat at the tables with their parents, enjoying tasty treats served by hovering, pill-shaped robots with mechanical arms. The little bots were all dressed in black tuxedos and hovered around the diners serving food or even art supplies for kids to play with. Another cute, round robot stood near the door, greeting customers. "Welcome to the Atomic Cafe!" It intoned at me cheerfully when I came close enough to it. I passed through the threshold of the door and stepped into the cafe and breathed in the soft, calming atmosphere. I sat down into an empty chair and poked a holographic menu. Glancing over the menu I determined that things cost money. Money which I did not posses. Tap water was free. Hooray! I ordered a glass and when one of the pill-bots brought me a glass I slowly sipped it, my throat finally feeling less parched and scratchy. Staring at happy people eating ice cream was making me grouchy. "Thanks a lot dad," I muttered angrily tapping my glass. "Thanks for..." The world vibrated for a split second and became bathed in darkness as if all of the lights in the cafe switched off. "Umm?" I blinked. I felt an unnerving chill as my eyes slowly adjusted to the now extremely dim interior of the cafe. I turned my eyes to the window and choked on my water. An enormous supercell storm was broiling above the town, painting everything in dark blue and black shadows. The town beneath the storm didn''t look the same. Buildings were rotting or crumbling. Where trees once stood were now blackened husks. The windows of cafes and cars were shattered, the cars themselves pitted with holes and rust. I looked around the cafe and dropped the glass that I was holding. Where once happy people sat eating ice cream were now ossified corpses of people crumpled onto the tables and the floor. "Holy shit what the f..." I choked. The words of the plastic butler resounded in my mind about how the bracelet I was wearing would throw me into the future. "Is this... the future?" I spoke into the dreary silence. A gust of wind blew outside, flying ashes and debris rolling through empty, ruined streets. I stood up and walked across the cafe, broken tiles crunching under my bare feet. Pill shaped droids silently lay on the floor. "Ouch," I hissed as I stepped on something sharp. Right. I needed footwear, lest I receive Tetanus. I spun around and spotted a decayed body of a girl that was around my size. Most of her clothing had rotted away, but her shoes with the logo of a silver paperclip on them and the word ''Nonpareil!'' were perfectly intact. I stepped forward, my bare feet timidly feeling their way on the charred rubble. My fingers grasped at a pair of boots - the only thing that remained undamaged on the skeletal figure that lay still before me. I felt the soot and cinder fall away with each vigorous shake as I turned the shoes over. The boots were like a feather, but I could still feel them safely envelope my trembling toes as I put them on. I bent down and ran my finger across the surface, feeling a strange texture that seemed to somehow combine both fabric and dark metal. I stared up at the skeleton, barely able to make out a faint skull-smile from underneath it''s inky facade. A chill ran down my spine yet I felt comforted, grateful even. "Thank you," I managed to whisper. Feeling better, I strode towards the cash register with every intention of breaking it to test my new footwear. With one solid kick from my boot-reinforced foot, the register opened, revealing a pile of cash within its innards. "It''s a bit chilly and these will burn well, I guess," I shoved the bills deep into the pockets of my shirt, suddenly aware of how the chilly air prickled on my skin. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. I snatched a broken metal end from a ruined table. I squinted out the window and only then noticed how the darkness seemed to linger in the air. The desolate street was utterly devoid of life, aside from me. Stepping outside, I felt an icy chill that sent shivers down my spine. My eyes were met with the desolate wasteland which lay before me: no greenery, no trees, no sign of life at all. It was as if this world had been depopulated for centuries. Even the air felt dead and cold. I hesitated for a moment, thinking of all that had led to this moment, and all that was to come. "Well, the future sucks," I muttered under my breath as I stepped further out into the murky, foggy city. I spotted an orange vest and hardhat atop another charred skeleton. The vest and hardhat weren''t damaged by time at all either. There was a questionable, melted bullet hole in the hardhat, but I decided that beggars can''t be choosers. ''Superstate construction'' the logo stated. I pulled the vest and hardhat atop of myself, feeling a bit more safe. Searching through burned out shops, I discovered more tough clothing - a pair of black gloves and a ''Dora the Terraformer'' backpack that was immune to ravages of time as well. I turned a knob on the little lamp atop of the hardhat and it actually lit up. "Damn, that''s a tough battery," I commented. "Whatever the Superstate is, their stuff is crazy good quality." I stared at the desolate landscape of tumbled down buildings, the sky overhead a seething blanket of ever-moving clouds. A speck of movement in the distance caught my eye, but whatever it was, it was too far away to make out any details. My heart pounded in my rib cage. Something stirred beyond the remains of the burning city, beneath the boiling sky. I peered into the distance, straining to see what it was. Suddenly, without warning, the speck began to rapidly grow as it moved in my direction. I could hardly believe my eyes as I watched it approach. Shrieking and shaking, a giant entity moved towards me; a sphere composed entirely of human arms. I could barely make out the details but I knew its structure was solid, as if each arm had become a root and melded together to form an immense carapace. The wriggling, black, oily, grotesque arms moved in unison, propelling it forward waving and pressed against each other like the legs of a giant centipede. The sphere moved with an uncanny agility, flattening everything in its path as it rolled closer. My mouth agape, I stumbled backwards, away from the awful thing that didn''t make any sense in my mind. My panicked gaze darted around for a way to escape, but all I saw was an impenetrable wall of broken cars and trucks blocking my way. With no other option left, I sprinted back towards the safety of the Atomic Cafe and dove inside, hoping that the monstrosity would not follow me, would not be able to make its way inside due to its massive size. I panted as I rushed deeper into the cafe. I looked back just for a second and froze in panic again. It was an uncanny sight. The beast formed from human flesh and some unknown substance stretched and crept through the opening of the cafe''s window, like a droplet of warm honey. Its shape and form constantly shifted, as if conjured from a primordial soup of living metal or ferromagnetic fluid. The boundaries of its being were as fluid as water, numerous hand joints clicking. Suddenly, a black, glistening, thick hand shot out of the entity''s core and lunged towards me. Its fingers were like tentacles made of liquid mercury, pulling away the air around them to create a vacuum. With a piercing wail, the suddenly extended fingers punctured through my chest into my heart and lungs, then quickly withdrew in one pull, taking blood and breath from me with them. I felt the icy touch of death on me in that moment and knew no other pain that could compare to it. I screamed and thrashed with the last shreds of life still left inside me. Little mouths filled with far too many teeth akin to leeches extended from a thousand fingers of the monstrosity, sipping at my spilling blood. I choked and gurgled, drowning in blood and falling into the embrace of painful darkness. . . . "What the freaking hell?!" I gasped as I came awake in the middle of my poster bed in Nemendias, hyperventilating. "God damn it, why is everything everywhere so horrible?" "What''s wrong?" Dawn asked from the spot where I hung her on the bed-frame. "Just got pincushioned through the lungs by a monster made from human arms in a 1950s apocalyptic scenario as a teenage supervillain... courtesy of another Infinite Mirror," I groaned, rubbing my face tiredly. "Oh," the star-woven girl on my dress frowned. "I see. Is... the other you dead?" "Pretty sure she''s dead," I lamented. "And that thing is eating up what''s left of her body." [She''s not dead,] Junezia reported. [The Mirror is open.] "She''s not dead?" I repeated and pulled up my stats. [+1 Infinite Mirror, Alexa Terranova, Earth.] "But... I got stabbed by mister thousand-slender fingers and everything," I sputtered. "How did I... how is she still alive? You know what? Reconnect me! I want answers!" I fell backwards into infinite darkness, drowning in my bed sheets. . . . A blast of warm air filled my lungs as I inhaled again. I stood in the back of the Atomic Cafe and gasped as I stared at the orange tiles beneath my feet. A few children blinked at me, momentarily looking away from their ice creams. I looked down at myself. The bloody holes in my body were replaced with smooth flesh, but the shirt remained ripped where the bony fingers had torn it. I was still wearing the yellow hardhat, gloves, orange vest and the backpack. My pockets were stuffed full of money from the doomed future. I slid the bills out of my pocket and onto the counter. There was a picture of a president on the bills that I did not recognize, could not recall the name of. I waddled back to my booth, called up a pill-shaped droid and ordered the biggest breakfast with pancakes, bacon, whipped cream and ice cream. My hands trembled uncontrollably, my fingernails digging deep furrows in my palms. I let out a small whimper as I glared at my reflection in the window. My once-brown hair now a stark silver from the horrific encounter caused by the arm-sphere. I sneered in irritation and anger as I spoke to my own reflection. "Thanks a lot dad, thanks a whole freaking lot!" There was something in between the moment when I died and the moment when I was back in the wholesome, sunny, people-filled cafe... something that I could not recall. Nemm.... my migraine was back. I slumped my head into the table and started to sniff softly, unable to hold back tears of pain, misery and confusion. "Are you alright, miss?" The pill shaped robot rolled by with my order. "P-perfectly peachy," I replied with a stutter, wiping tears from my eyes. I looked at the happy people all around me. I didn''t know any of them and yet... I didn''t want any of them to turn into ashes and dust. I looked down at my feet. The Nonpareil brand, indestructible shoes I had stolen from the future were still there, hugging my feet snugly. I had a chance. I had a chance to stop whatever was coming, whatever would kill everyone here. I looked at the bracelet. I realized that it would send me into the future again at random. The thought sent a deeper shiver of terror down my spine. I drowned the fear in crunchy, hot bacon. "I will not break," I whispered. "I will not become a villain. I will figure out WHY my world is doomed and I will stop it, no matter what it takes." "Do you require assitance, miss?" The pill shaped droid stared at me with its beady, lens-shaped eyes. "Do you have access to the internet?" I asked. "It seems that I have forgotten some things and I''d like to catch up." "Of-course," the robot replied. "Your lunch menu can be used as a basic browser for two dollars an hour rate. Atomic cafe is proud to provide the most recent Superstate Advances from Titanomachy." "That''s fine I got cash, connect me. Also, what''s... Titanomachy?" I asked, poking the menu and trying to see what else I could order to drown my sorrow with snacks. The illuminated screen of the menu cast a pale yellow hue across my face as I perused the extravagant breakfast specials. Suddenly, a mesmerizing image of a majestic ring-shaped space station appeared, and I was transfixed by its complexity. The text on the menu now read ¡®Titanomachy ¨C The Nation of Heroes! We protect the world from villains!¡¯ As I contemplated the enormous structure in awe, my heart began to thump against my chest. I could feel my heart race faster and faster as I flipped the pages to discover more information about this world, superheroes, villains and Titanomachy. I felt as though I was being drawn into the screen, yet I couldn''t escape from the mighty gravitation of this most formidable space station and what Superheroes did when they caught villains. "One hundred thousand years of reeducation program introduced to turn villains into heroes!" Another article declared at me. "Pre-crime, precognitive division receives more funding to prevent super-crimes before they happen!" I gulped. Ch 123. The Hall of History
"I want answers," I stood facing the avatar of Infinity beneath the Shogun gate of Undertown. "Oh?" Infi tilted her head at me, her holographic image shimmering with pixelated, violet sparks made from flickering glitches. "I used the Infinite Mirror to connect with a version of myself - Alexa Terranova, a daughter of a supervillain. I can clearly remember how her day went and I know what she''s doing right now, but she cannot remember me nor does she realize that I exist. What''s going on?" "Ah, that," Infi smiled. "She''s a copy of your soul trapped behind the subscription barrier of Eureka." "What?" I blinked. "That Earth is under subscription still?" "Yes," Infi nodded. "The world of heroes and villains you''ve connected to is a manufactured fantasy located deep inside the core. My Infinite Mirror is a bit of a backdoor into another version of you, but it''s failing to connect fully due to the shield between subbed and doomed worlds." "What exactly is Alexa?" I asked. "She''s a project of a local supervillain Dr. Terranova," Infi said. "An ultimate weapon, a supervillain designed break the power of the heroes." "Damn," I whistled. "Why is her mind a soup of discordant memories that sort of belong to me and also don''t?" "The heroes have precognition powers," Infi explained. "If Alexa cannot recall who she is, it is much harder for the heroes to predict her future actions. She is designed to be unstoppable in every conceivable way, designed to operate against precogs." "Wait," I squinted at Infi. "Are you behind her somehow? Are you somehow guiding this Dr. Terranova?" "That would be telling," Infi winked at me. "Games within games," I muttered. "Where did Alexa jump to, exactly? Is it really the future of her world?" "The bracelet on her hand translocates her to an exact copy of her Earth four hundred years in the future," Infi said. "Why?" I asked. "The double-universe setup is part of the game," Infi explained. "The Eurekan user who bought the dream wanted to have incredible power as a superhero and a really tough challenge to fight against, a cataclysmic scenario so real that it can actually be visited as the most likely future outcome. The game was set up to be unwinnable by anyone other than him." "Is he going to win this game against villains or whatever?" "His subscription will expire before he wins and both of the worlds will be ejected from the core," Infi replied. "Is there nothing I can do?" I frowned. "I can''t open this gate into the Atomic Cafe and directly help Alexa out? I know exactly what the place looks like so..." "Alas," Infi sighed. "This gate cannot be opened into subscribed worlds." "What about... one of the doomed worlds?" I asked. "Can I use this gate to step into one of the doomed planets Cali visited, for example?" "You could," Infi rubbed her chin. "But I would really advise against it because you never know what sorts of Dead Zone nasties could be waiting for you behind the gate. It''s a bit of a gamble, plus Rozaline might not approve being connected to other distant, doomed worlds beyond the stars." "Installation Rozaline has an avatar then?" I asked. "She does," Infi nodded. "How can I speak with her?" I asked. "Would she be on our side, help us with our mission?" "I cannot speak for Rozaline," Infi shrugged. "You''ll have to ask her yourself." "Right and where do I find her?" I inquired. "You''ll meet her soon enough," Infi intoned without specifying anything. I frowned. "What about Earth that I was born on?" I asked. "Can I open a gate there?" "You can," Infi nodded. "Lets do it then," I said. "Open a gate to Yulia Ishenko''s garage!" I excitedly drew in breath waiting to meet myself. The gate behind us flickered for a second and became dark again. "Hrmm," Infi squinted at the gate. "We''re being blocked. Guess someone really didn''t like you opening the gate right above Eureka." "Rozaline?" I asked. "Yep," Infi nodded. "She has jurisdiction over all of the gates. She must have noticed what we did." "Bah," my frown deepened. "I had so many cool ideas for opening gates to places. Wait... open the gate to my old workshop in the skull!" The gate flashed open, revealing a square portal into the interior of the half-melted dragonskull house. "Woo! Now, open the gate to my room in Amadea''s palace!" The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. The gate flickered and the view of the Infinite Chasm vanished and became replaced with that of an empty, albeit quite fanciful room. I recognized it immediately. "Well, at least I have a quick path into the dungeon and around Illatius that bypasses all magical shields, so I have that going for me," I muttered feeling both annoyed and elated. I paused and rubbed my chin thoughtfully. "Can I... relocate the entire gate into Nemendias?" "The gate is bound to its location on Installation Rozaline via a space-time anchor," Infi shook her head. "Moving the gate would require breaking this anchor and will result in catastrophic consequences." "Hrm," I pondered. "Right. I''ll just build Nemendias around it then by relocating parts of Nemmy to Undertown! I don''t want anyone to sabotage my precious gate." "An interesting solution," Infi barked a laugh. "The deeper levels of the Infinite Dungeon have more mana in them, right? If I point the gate into the depths of the dungeon, will I be able to pull lots of magical power through the gate?" I asked. "Yes," Infi''s violet eyes flashed. "If you find a mana-rich level, you could do that. It won''t be an easy mission to reach such a location, but it''s definitely possible." "Excellent," I clapped my hands imagining a magical power plant located in Undertown that pulled mana from the lowest level of the Infinite Dungeon and through a series of crystal hexagrams all the way up to Nemendias. "What is the gate powered by, anyway?" I asked. "A very small dark matter engine," Infi said. "Is that similar to the dark matter engine Cali has on her ship?" "It''s a lot more advanced," Infi replied. "Could you..." I started to speak. "No," Infi shook her head. "You''re not the gate''s admin and I cannot allow you to redirect the gate''s power to violate its primary function. You''re more likely to break it and then we won''t be able to have our lovely chats anymore." "Can I shave a bit of the immovable metal off the gate with Endy?" I asked. "I''d like to make immovable armor." "You want to disrupt the gate''s structure just so you can make yourself armor?" Infi raised an eyebrow. "Just a little off the side you''re not using," I grinned, tapping the hexagonal-textured floor with my feet. "Look at all this Eurekan metal! Surely I can shave a bit off for myself?" "How will you even smelt it?" Infi asked. "I realize that I can''t smelt it, but I could make a very primitive segmented armor out of thin plates of it," I said. "To what end?" "To make magic-impervious armor!" I grinned. "It won''t make you fully impervious to magical attacks due to the gaps between the plates," Infi said. "Besides, you''re more likely to damage Endy against immovable metal." "Endy is just infinity concepted into the shape of a knife," I shook my head. "I don''t need it to carve things out anymore. PJ can manifest an entire array of Endies in the Astral. I think I could use them to carve things really, really precisely as long as I focus. I could make a mixer out of my Endy-blades, grind the metal into a very fine powder and apply it all over my night-crawler armor in layers so that there are no gaps." "That''s my girl," Infi grinned. "So, which part of the gate can I cut off for my personal use?" I asked. "As the avatar of this gate I advise you not to carve the gate," Infi rolled her eyes. "But, since I know that you''re 100% intent on doing it anyway regardless of what I say, you might as well carve off a few inches off each side of the base." "Aw yuss," I fist pumped. "Immovable armor, here I come!" . . . Having left Juni''s body to PJ to slowly and meticulously shave metal off the Shogun gate, I went to breakfast as Grogtilda. Nemendias campus was a massive array of gothic buildings and towers hanging above the Alezia river outpouring into the chasm. Breakfast could be had at the main hall in central building if the student was inclined to walk there or at any of the numerous cafes dotting the tower rooftops. Since Grogtilda''s legs were still healing, I chose to have breakfast right above my room in the Justice Cafe atop the Lawmaker''s Tower. Many of the students from the House of the Infinite Searchers congregated in the cafe, since the tower was part of the House of Infinity campus section. I enjoyed dragon-style bacon and a variety of other mysterious foods harvested from the dungeon with Voltara at my side, with Emerald sitting off to the side. Voltara enjoyed the fine foods presented to her, while Emerald sent me glances sipping on her cup of coffee. Amber entered into the cafe and sat across from me with a deep sigh. "Morning, roomie!" I shot her a smile. "Ready for another magical day at Nemendias?" Amber nodded at me. She seemed to have accepted her position in life forced upon her by the dastardly personification of Infinity. "What''s on the agenda today?" I asked Voltara as I bit into a succulent yellow fruit. "Historymancy," my maid reported. Voltara and I finished our breakfast. The plates rattled on the tables as students began to leave to class. Wind tousled the curtains at the windows as maids began to clean the cafe. I grabbed the tab, paying for myself and Voltara. We jogged down the stairwell and across campus. By the time we reached the Hall of History, plump clouds in puffs of white started to roll above us in a blue sky. Even though the days were growing colder, I felt warm as the campus was shielded by Nemmy''s ward. A strong breeze blew leaves in circular patterns around us. A few fluttered into my hair and landed on my shoulders. I slowed down to admire the beauty of colorful falling leaves. Many of the trees and shrubs on campus had been brought from the dungeon and looked a bit alien and bewitching. Enchanted leaves shimmered as they drifted down. I pulled one from my hair and twisted it in the light admiring the violet and pink, semi-transparent hollows filled with glittering, crystalline fractures within its surface. We reached and entered the Hall of History. Exquisite tapestries lined the walls. Ancient portraits hung beside them, depicting long-dead archmagi and Emperors with stern and curious expressions. The depictomancy-made portraits whispered things to each other and turned our way as we passed them by. Soon enough we stepped into the lecture hall. A tall, imposing woman with long, black hair shaped into a tight bun stood at the lectern. The lecture hall itself was a fancy room filled with vast quantities of books and artifacts. Preserved bodies of ancient beasts were on display in glass containers and a monstrous skeleton of some sort of a flying creature was hanging from the ceiling, its bones pulsating with foreboding flashes of magic. "Welcome to Historymancy," the teacher said with a smile, dark eyes looking over the crowd of sitting students. "I''m Instructor Ninna Liss Rozaline." Her eyes finally reached me and froze upon my person and Voltara. "Maids are not permitted to attend class," she said, her voice resonating across the hall. I smiled. I was ready to bring this woman down, ready to use my reporters and any other means necessary to shake answers out of her, to bend her until she snapped. She had voted against me attending Nemendias. During my interview with her she seemed quite flustered about something and I was curious to find out as to exactly what that was. "Well, you see..." I began my retort. "No," Instructor Rozaline said sternly and time stopped. I blinked, looking left and right. The lecture hall looked wrong, somehow offset color-wise, like an old, grainy film. Voltara did not move, did not blink, did not breathe. The same puzzling effect had applied to all other students. The clouds outside did not move. The trees did not flutter in the wind. Leaves hung suspended in the air. I moved my hand and watched as it flickered with offset colors, imprints of my hand floating in the air before they faded away. "Urm," I sputtered. "What the...?" "You are a dangerous problem threatening my stability," Rozaline said, taking a step forward and leaving her body behind, a hundred slowly fading imprints of her trailing behind her. "I do NOT like problems." Ch 124. Indentured Shadow
"Foolish one," Rozaline said. "Upon the bidding of Infinity you have opened doors that should remain closed. You meddled with things you do not understand." I opened my mouth, trying to think of an answer. She narrowed her eyes. "You are a mere NPC, a construct gone outside of its narrative. An error, a child of the Dead Zone, one that I ought to put down." "I''d rather not be put down," I attempted to grab Endy and found that my hand simply passed through the knife as if it didn''t even exist. I tried to picture, tried to summon the concept of infinity into my hand and found myself unable to do so. I raised my weary eyes back at Instructor Rozaline. Rozaline! I should have guessed it, should have known. "Installation Rozaline," I whispered in English. "You created the System?" "The System is just a remnant of the game, a memory of my long gone user, part of my core narrative," Rozaline nodded. "You''re a game that''s been left running for one hundred million years... even though the user''s gone?" I commented. The avatar of Installation Rozaline nodded. "Could you..." I started to speak. "I will not aid your ludicrous mission," Rozaline shook her head with a resolute look. "Why?" I asked. "You are cheating, violating my System, going above your level, breaking the rules," she said. "As Installation Rozaline, I do not appreciate your disruption of my game. As Instructor Rozaline, I definitely do not approve of your meddling with the narrative of Nemendias. You will cease harassing the Dean and other teachers and stop disrupting classes!" "You''re the one to talk," I said with a frown. "Pretty sure you''re cheating just as much. Do you not get that the very System that created you also rejected and dumped you into the Dead Zone?" "The Dead Zone wasn''t a thing when my user died," Rozaline shrugged. "System Wizards forge far too many worlds, fulfill far too many wishes for the endless entertainment of the citizens of Eureka. It is humanity''s fault that these wishes are incompatible with each other, tear at each other''s throats when they are set free." "So you won''t help us?" I pursed my lips. "I do not agree with what Infinity is doing," Rozaline shook her head. "I''ve watched her little game for one hundred million years. Her actions spread death, make the Dead Zone grow. If you make too much noise here, the omnies will erase you. If I help you in any way, they will come after me and nullify me out of existence. I do not wish to stop existing. I will not be your collaborator. Your pesky interference is ruining the narrative of my game!" "The narrative of your game is to have everyone die every ten thousand years?" I asked, my hands trembling. "Really?" "Such is the fate of NPC humanity," Rozaline shrugged. "Alas, the only hero who could do something about it is long dead." "What was the name of the Eurekan user that wished you into existence?" I inquired. "Andross Klemenstein Reed," Rozaline replied, her expression softening just a tad. "I... loved challenging him." "Did you love him?" I asked. "I did," Rozaline nodded. "He must still be alive in Eureka," I said crossing my arms. "Reprinted, remade... wishing for you again and again and again." "Yes. I saw far too many Rozalines burn to ashes, get devoured by the Dead Zone and join the great barrier wall," Rozaline said with a solemn look. "I... can get a void-ship," I said thinking about Cali Terri. "I could bring Mr. Reed back to you." "No," Rozaline shook her head. "He won''t be the same, won''t remember any of our adventures." "Won''t he be exactly like the user you loved?" I asked. "No," Rozaline repeated. "The duplication system is... imperfect. Because of Infinity''s war against everything and everyone, decay seeped into the user-printers. My only love died one hundred million years ago. I know that whatever is made now isn''t him, but a very degraded copy of a copy times a million. I cannot delude myself that he is my noble, kind and foolish Archmage Andross." You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. "How did he die?" I asked. "His Save Point and Health Plan expired," Rozaline sighed. "He thought that nothing could hurt him. An unstoppable dragon bit his soul in half in the depths of the Dungeon." Rozaline pointed at the bones of the dragon hanging behind her. "Wait... that''s the bones of the dragon that killed Archmage Andross?" I blinked. Rozaline nodded. "I was his battle maiden," she said. "One of his five companions. Archmage Andross struck the dragon a powerful blow through its heart, burned away its flesh... but it was not enough - the creature was designed to be unkillable." "Unkillable?" I gasped. "But it''s a skeleton that''s hanging in a classroom full of children..." "It''s not dead. The dracolich is suspended in time, held here by my power, waiting to awaken once more," Rozaline smirked. I glanced at the dragon again, recalling how it pulsed with foreboding, powerful magic and gulped. Rozaline stepped closer to me extended her hand, palm open. A small flame lit up between her long slender, gloved fingers -- a large fractal spark, a tiny ember of magic that danced atop of the hexagrammic star carved into her leather glove. "I won''t help you," she said. "I was not designed to help NPCs. You are glitch-cheating yourselves into power by borrowing wisdom and magic from the doomed worlds beyond the stars. I will crank up the difficulty, make your life less easy, equalize the challenge to be more befitting to what you have become." "Hey," I crossed my arms. "My life is anything but easy! I am not a G-damn NPC!" "Prove that you are not just an NPC then," Rozaline smiled maliciously. "Your dangerous impudence has shown a pitch of creativity -- something which is hard to come by these days." She paused for a moment before nodding at me. "If you wish to continue to violate my rules, then prove your worth -- kill the dragon that brought down Archmage Andross. I''m going to weaken the time-lock and make sure that the first thing he sees is you and your battle maiden." Rozaline snapped her fingers and time resumed. She circled her podium as if our conversation had never occurred, smiling at students. "Those who fail to learn from the past are destined to repeat the mistakes of the long dead," Instructor Rozaline narrated. "The first hero that braved the depths of the Infinite Dungeon, Archmage Andross thought himself immortal. He never learned to lose, wanted to push his luck, relied on his artifacts far too much. He lost his life to a dragon, lost his all-mighty wand. One by one, his brave companions fell into despair and perished. Only one member of his party survived the Infinite Dungeon, only his battle maiden made it back to Illatius. Her name was Nattalia Rozaline and she was my many-times-grandmother!" I shuddered at the sight of the ancient dragon, my eyes tracing every chink in its armor, every skeletal protrusion, every powerful dark resonance surging from its core. The colossal creature was breathing in the astral, was conscious. I saw mind-numbing magics flowing, pulsing through the astral ocean. The behemoth did not move, but its ethereal eyes had set upon me and Voltara. I was too sluggish, too feeble, too unskilled. The monstrous dragon made of bones whipped like lightning and clamped onto Voltara, hewing her in two and drenching me with her blood. I wailed in anguish, as I witnessed my friend''s life extinguished before my eyes. . . . Both of my souls slammed together into the body of Grogtilda with an unnerving snap as an unnatural, powerful magical blow struck against me like a sledgehammer. My breath came in shallow, ragged gasps as I felt my heart pounding in my chest. I could barely make out Rozaline''s voice in the background as she lectured the students on the fates of many long dead Basq people, their failures and victories. My mind was completely clouded by fear as I gaped in panic at the ancient horror hanging from the ceiling of the classroom. Its bones seemed to be alive, pulsing with an energy so powerful it seemed to be reaching inside my very soul, gripping firmly and not letting go. As I dared to look at Voltara once more, I found that she was unaffected, not bit in half... alive! Understanding finally hit me that this abomination had paralyzed my soul and body with a single glance. I was completely and utterly imprisoned, psychically squashed by its gaze in the Astral like a little, insignificant bug. Voltara was alright... for now. The thing I saw wasn''t real, it was a mentally-projected illusion... a message, a threat, a warning shot. I felt my veins fill with ice as a cold, inhuman voice composed of fingernails scratching across a stone surface screamed inside my head like a lightning bolt, making me stagger and grapple for breath. My shoulders tightened as I felt the empty eyes of the creature burrowing deep into my soul, urging me to surrender to its will. The words echoed in my mind like an unending chant: [Pathetic shadow-mite. Provide me with the life-force of the nearby incumbents and permit me to re-accrue my vigor...] I let out a gasp that was interrupted by the sound of my own pulse. I realized that I was finally able to move. I let out another ragged breath. [What?] I thought back, rubbing my temples. [Are you so weak and daft that you cannot even comprehend what I intone, little phantom?] The voice of the dragolich filled my head like an avalanche, rattling my bones and piercing through my very soul. [I am starving, trapped in this vile place by two-legged humanoids. Feed me the souls of the living, or be doomed to suffer the diresome consequences of my displeasure. I sense that you care for this fleshy, black-and-white pet. Observe.] My mind was tortured with another vision of Voltara''s head exploding like a ripe melon, blood and brains splattering across the lecture hall. I felt my skull shake and reverberate with trepidation. [I understand...] I thought desperately, gritting my teeth as my skull threatened to implode from the immense pressure. [Do not betray me, little shadow,] the dragolich roared. [My inner gaze is now focused upon you in the Astral. When night falls, bring me a sacrifice with a potent soul so that I may feast once more. Do not get caught.] As Rozaline passed by me I felt her mocking smirk burning into my soul. Fear and dread filled my heart as I realized the insurmountable pressure of the task forced upon me. I slumped my head down on the table unable to cry out, unable to do anything but succumb to the will of my new Master. The arcane magic of the insanely high level dragolich had somehow completely bypassed the ward of Nemendias, made me his absolute servant. Ch 125. Homebound
"What''s wrong?" Voltara asked, her brown eyes looking over me and trying to understand why I had suddenly folded and slumped down onto my desk. A searing bolt of pain shot through my body akin to being electrocuted by lightning, as I forced out just a single word out of my trembling lips. "...Rozaline." The dracolich-gaze-forged construct danced around my soul, wrapping itself around me like an inescapable cage. The vile curse embedded itself into me, its tentacles digging deeper, entwining themselves into every fiber of my being. My maid moved closer to me, her voice full of worry and concern. "My lady?" she whispered. "Are you in pain?" "D... drr.. drr..." I tried to say the word dragon, tried to point my finger at the monstrous skeleton hanging from the ceiling of the lecture hall and discovered that I could not. The curse within my soul was self aware. It was monitoring me, not letting me speak about its undead master. I screamed inside my head. More invisible threads sprung from the ghostly curse, binding me tighter in an attempt to crush my resistance. Instructor Rozaline shot me another villainous smile. She knew what was happening to me, had created this entire scenario, set me up to fail. I gritted my teeth. I gave up, let go, fully lost control of my body and outer parts of my soul. Everything that still resisted the curse, fought against the binding converged into JP, became a soul-shard, a dangerous astral phantom armed with two-dimensional Endy-blades. In horror I realized that there was nothing I could do to free myself. I wasn''t fast or good enough. The binding curse of the dracolich was too clever, too potent, impossible to carve out of myself without tearing my body and soul apart. The longer I waited and struggled, the more the ancient beast anchored itself into Grogtilda''s body and buried its agent into my soul. There was nothing and nobody who could aid me. Nemmy''s ward was six thousand years old, however if Rozaline''s story was true then the bones of the dragon were one hundred million years old. Nemendias student protection ward was not absolute, could not save me against the arcane curse of the dracolich! A choice had to be made, a decision, a way to escape had to be found. The curse cast by the undead abomination was so potent because the dracolich identified me, defined everything that I was on surface level. The curse it cast had instantaneously integrated, synchronized with, buried itself deep into my soul. Because of how well crafted the curse was, I couldn''t even see where the dracolich-construct began and where my own soul ended. I pulled power from all of my Infinite Mirrors, dedicated all of my mental resources to solving the horrid mire I found myself sinking into deeper and deeper with every passing second. What could I do? How could I... [Adaptation, change, evolution,] a shadow whispered in the back of my mind. Yes! I had to become someone, something else entirely, had to change rapidly enough for the curse to be unable to adapt itself to me. Something peeled itself from the surface of one of the Infinite Mirrors, a shadow etched into the depths of my memories by the atomic detonation of the falling yellow comet made from a billion gold stars. A distinctive, most not-me memory of my oldest, cleverest soul arose out of ashes and dust, became a burning spark of change. I let it take control of me, let the cold, rational mind of the ghost of the pharmacist from Harbin guide me to a solution. Leon knew exactly what to do. I knew exactly what to do. I was not a single entity, was not a single person, not a single soul, not a single Astral Phantom! [Segmentation. Fractal math. Division. Multitude. Flight. Re-convergence,] the imprint of Leon Uyara whispered his plan to me. I let the pharmacist''s ghost take control of me, to become me, to order every fraction of my soul, to command me like an Admiral would command a fleet. The soul-shard armed with limitless-blades that struggled against the binding curse drew deeper in and then suddenly broke into two separate Astral Phantoms. As the binding threads of the curse tried to grab at them, the soul shards broken into four shards, then came apart into smaller and smaller segments until I was no longer me, but a flock, an endlessly dividing self, a stream of ghostly consciousness as thin as water. The threads of the curse grabbed at nothing as my soul came apart into a cloud of dust. Each soul-particle rushed to a separate, open Infinite Mirror gate, escaping, leaving Grogtilda''s body and bound parts of my soul behind. Unlike my infinitely dividing self, the curse could not cross through the Infinite Mirrors, could not divide itself nor follow me. Ancient and powerful though he was, the dracolich did not understand fractal mathematics, could not comprehend what I was doing. Its agent could not follow where I was going. For an indeterminate amount of time I was nothing, had no mind to speak of. All of me was just an idea, a persistent mathematical pattern with a single goal - to cross through the mirrors and to arrive elsewhere, away from the hex, in another place and time across the event horizon, past the Dead Zone boundary, where nothing could reach me. . . . Everything in the universe, all organic and inorganic things follow mathematical patterns. Patterns of flocks of starlings mathematically behave akin to magnetized metal particles. The Mandelbrot Set is a fractal that infinitely folds into itself forever. The Lichtenburg figure is a mathematical pattern occurring in neurons of the human mind, veins, rivers, tree roots, leaves and electrical currents. The Koch star is a fractal found in snowflakes, a pattern that contains infinite length, because the total length of the curve increases by a factor of 4/3 with each iteration starting with a single equilateral triangle. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. To escape from the binding hex, I had become a mathematical pattern, a function, a mere mechanic, an idea that was dividing so rapidly that I could not be caught. What was I? ...What am I? [Convergence, catalyst, awakening. Function activation.] I yelped loudly and I flailed my slender arms and tumbled out of bed with a new, impossible comprehension of self, tangling up in white bed-sheets. My face slammed into the wooden floor. A very distinctive wooden floor that I didn''t remember and also remembered. Who am I? I looked around in bewilderment. The last thing I recalled as Leon was talking to my AGI Eva and a gargantuan, yellow comet vaporizing Harbin and boiling me alive. The last thing I recalled as Juni was screaming mentally as the curse of the dracolich struck me in Nemendias. The last thing I recalled as Yulia was me going to sleep in Pavel''s embrace after a long, silly conversation about ghosts of the Paris catacombs. The last thing I recalled as Alexa was sitting in Atomic Cafe and crying as I read the truth about villains and heroes. The last thing I recalled was scolding Charles Snippy for being an idiot. Snippies should not break the rules of Captania and wander in naughty places by themselves! What? What was that last one?! My head started to hurt as arrays of memories collided with memories in a jumble of confusion, producing a difficult to untangle, mental ball of yarn. Who was I? I looked down at myself. I was wearing a thin, frilly, white shirt. My arms were pale, skinny and my body was distinctively female. "Yulia?" A male voice resounded from above me. I lifted my head and stared at Pavel''s scruffy face. Right. I shook my head, mentally pushing away the incomprehensible gibberish and multitude of distinctive thoughts and memories and ideas. "My name is Yulia Ishenko and I''m twenty nine," I muttered to myself, focusing my personality back together. "I''m an urbexer and youtuber. I make weapons and armor in my garage and love my motorbike. My grandfather''s name is Vladislav Kerenski and when he died he left me this cottage..." "What are you mumbling down there? Come back to bed," Pavel commented. I looked around the cottage, raising my head like a curious owl. I recalled information about items around me as I spotted them. Things all around me had belonged to my grandfather. I had refused to change anything within this rustic interior, because I was trying to keep the spirit of the man who raised me alive even after his passing. A red, Soviet banner hung from the wall proclaiming glory to the proletariat. It was covered in my grandfather''s medals, the biggest one being "Liquidator", given to Dr. Kerenski in 1986 for helping with Chernobyl cleanup. An old, tiny TV was sitting in the corner, its antennae bent sideways. Virology diplomas filled one of the walls of the cottage proclaiming numerous achievements and accolades of late Dr. Kerenski. Moonlight spilled from the windows. The old stone and wood house creaked and breathed in the night. Cicadas buzzed outside. My things were here too. The orange, glowing numbers of the Nixie Tube Clock that I had built in university declared that it was 4:04 in the morning. Home... this was MY home. I was back home! "Hrrmmmm?" Pavel muttered, trying to hug the spot where I had been sleeping moments before. "Did you have a nightmare? Why are you on the floor?" he asked, opening his eyes fully to discover that I was now sitting on the floor and staring up at him like a deer caught in headlights. "Yes... no... maybe?" I said. Did my voice really sound like that? How peculiar. "Go back to bed," he mumbled. "Beds are for sleepy people," I said, staring at my skinny arm, opening and closing my fingers. "I don''t think that I''m sleepy anymore. I might not even be a person..." "What are you on about? It''s bloody four in the morning," he grumbled, looking irate. "Come back to bed." "I think that I''m a Wizard Pavel," I raised my hand up. "You''re a friggin'' what?!" Pavel squinted at me. Picturing the compressor in my mind''s eye, I reached for the [Limitless Compressor] thread within my soul. How close was my Earth to the Dead Zone boundary? Did I have enough in me to do magic? Could I pull magic through my Infinite Mirrors to bend the universe here as Yulia Ishenko... Air suddenly gathered above my fingers with a whoosh. In another second the compressed air bubble detonated with a powerful blast, rattling the windows. "What the devil?!" Pavel gasped, jumping backwards and nearly tumbling out of bed himself. The ringing sound of the air-explosion buzzed in my ears. "He he he," I cackled. "Magic!" "God damn it, Yulia! Stop screwing around! What was that? Did you just ignite a firecracker? I knew that you are a bit of a lunatic, but this is ridiculous!" Pavel glared at me, rubbing his face in irritation. "Silence mortal," I giddily intoned with a grin as I stood up. "I will not be lectured by a mundane. You shall bow before my arcane powers and weep!" My best friend sighed, looking exasperated. He clearly didn''t take me seriously. I mentally went over the hexagrams that I knew as Juni. I pointed my finger at Pavel''s face and pictured the fairly simple hex for "light" that I had been playing around with since I purchased my two armaci from Antoine''s shop. I pushed the threads of my soul above my finger into the shape of the [light hex]. A brilliant fractal of flickering, colorful light ignited above my index finger. "Bwah?!" Pavel covered his blue eyes. I poured more power into the light hex and my body and excited face became lit. A radiant, shimmering rainbow made from impossible, small auroras danced around the colorful light hanging over my finger. "WHAT?!" He stared at my hand. "Bwa ha ha ha ha," I laughed pointing my finger at Pavel. "I told you I''m a wizard, didn''t I? Did you not believe me? Behold! I have created light!" The magic light dancing over my finger cast bizarre, violet, blue and red shadows around the cottage, "No, come on... that can''t be real," Pavel cautiously approached the brilliant fractal woven from unnatural light that pulsed atop of my hand. He tried to grab at it and his fingers went through the pulsing light-snowflake. "Oh it''s quite real, I assure you," I said smugly. "Is your mind blown yet? Because mine is!" "Erm, but... argh," Pavel outputted as he unsuccessfully tried to grab the magical light again. "How?!" "Yeah, that''s right. That''s what you get for doubting my story," I said. "Although I''m half-doubting it myself in a way. I''m like more than ten different people, some of them dead. This is probably as uncanny as it gets." "So magic... is real," Pavel said, staring at my face. "I''m not just dreaming. This is happening. This is real... holy shit." "Oh it''s quite real, I assure you," I nodded with a grin. "What... do we do about it?" He inquired, glancing at the light hovering over my finger. "Honestly? I don''t have a clue," I shrugged as I sat into my grandfather''s rocking chair carved from driftwood. The snowflake in my fingers changed colors and became even brighter as I adjusted its radiance. "It''s been a few weeks since I''ve had the dream about Juni in Chernobyl and I sort of stopped believing it myself, although now I realize that I really, REALLY should not have." "Right. I thought the whole thing was just a manic episode," Pavel nodded. He sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the glowing snowflake in my hand in fascination. I made the light hex dance between my fingers wiggling it with one of my soul-threads and suddenly realized that what I was doing was incredibly stupid if there were hungry Astral Phantoms around. "Shit," I extinguished the snowflake, bathing the room in darkness. "What?" Pavel asked. I instinctively found the lamp chord and clicked the light on. The old lamp bathed the interior of the cottage in a soft, yellow glow. "Magic is dangerous to do without anti-phantom armor," I said with a sigh. "I could get my soul eaten." "That sounds... inconvenient," Pavel commented. "Mm-hmmm," I nodded. "I''m going to take a peek into the astral and see if I''ve attracted attention... because if I did, it could be a problem." I ignited my eyes from within the magic and stared at the world with still-walker sight. My mouth fell open in shock from what I saw. Ch 126. Divided
I felt the remnants of my spirit shatter in twain as I gave in to the will of the Dracolich, feeling a heavy and eternal weight press down upon me. His power surged through me, an invisible current binding me to Him. I was now His slave, forever at His mercy - tasked with collecting souls to fuel His arcane body. The maid sitting next to me fretted. What was her name? ...Voltara? Yes. I squinted my eyes shut and desperately fought to restructure the floating, discombobulated debris of my torn-up soul. Slowly, one by one, I recollected shards of myself together as one. I felt... wrong. Empty. Hollow. Why? There was but one explanation for it - the mighty magic of my Master had not only taken my will, it had also burned through my very being, leaving me feeling empty and barely recognizable. "Status," I croaked, almost afraid to peer at the damage. The menu that came up revealed a grisly fate, did not bode well for me at all.
Name: Age [in years]: Connection: Species & Subtype: Location:
Grogtilda Lic Misem 13 full Organic human body Installation Rozaline
"Grogtilda," I thought to myself. "I am Grogtilda and I belong to my Master." I was certain that I had other names... but I could not recall them and the System wasn''t helping me one bit. "My lady?" The maid at my side pestered me again. "Everything is fine," I replied to her. "I''m fine." "You don''t look fine," Voltara commented. "Your face is twitching and you look exceptionally pale." "I am fine, I assure you," I lied. Voltara did not look like she believe me. It didn''t matter. This maid would be of use to my Master. She was my tool, mine to command. I rescued her soul from... Baroness Amadea. Right. She owed me her freedom. "You said something about... Rozaline?" Voltara asked, curious brown eyes examining me. "Rozaline?" I blinked, trying to think. "Instructor Rozaline... uhm... does not wish your presence here. It matters not. She is not my Master." "Oh?" Voltara tilted her head at me. "Instructor Rozaline is unimportant. I am busy... contemplating things. Do not bother me," I whispered, waving my hand at the bothersome maid. I ignored her concerned gaze, looking around the lecture hall. There was a big array of tasty souls here that I could feed to my Master, but if any of them suddenly went missing it could be a problem. Besides, the ward of Nemendias... most likely protected these tasty snacks from consumption. No, I needed to get spirituous food from elsewhere... I pondered as to where I could acquire tasty souls. A memory swam from the depths of my mind. Level twenty. Folding Seeds? Yes. High level Folding Seeds possessed much tastier souls than these pathetic human spawns. The Historymancer''s droning voice was of no interest to my plans as she paced around her desk and narrated tales of ancient Illatius to the novitiates. They didn''t matter. The world would be remade in His image. All these fools would perish and then I will stand before Him in all His glory and I would be rewarded for my service. I leaned back on the hard wooden seat and looked up at the high-vaulted ceiling while the Historymancer droned on about ancient Illatius. The Instructor described the first great Chasm citadel that was home to the Lord Archmage Jaxim, who had united the tribes of ancient Illatius under one banner long ago. I ignored Instructor Rozaline and thought of my perfect Master. My Master was very clever. He pretended to be asleep for eons, so that one day he could awaken and take control of a powerful student with enough darkness in their soul... well, an undead shadow, a ghost, a ghoul masquerading as a student to be precise. Me. I would grant my Master souls and then He would burn and consume this Arcanarium and the city around it. I daydreamed of this lovely, perfect future as the bland and unimportant history lecture concluded. Having grabbed physical sustenance in the form of a sandwich from one of the cafes downstairs, Voltara and I headed to the office of the Keeper. From there, we took a step through a magisteel gateway to Undertown. "Sempiternity! I demand a gate to the Twisted Forest!" I spoke into the air. The avatar of the Shogun Gate did not appear to me. "Goddess of the Void! Come out, I beseech thee!" I growled. "I require a gate!" Nothing happened. I hissed angrily and repeated the order. Nothing. The gate refused to respond to me. Did my Master''s spell damage my soul... disrupt my affinity with Infinity? It was possible. I grabbed the all-killing knife from its sheath. The knife felt... wrong, ill-fitting, empty like a dull chunk of steel. I tried to think of its name... it eluded me. "Damnation," I hissed and re-sheathed the useless knife. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. "What''s wrong?" Voltara butted in again. "The Goddess of the End is ignoring my prayers," I said. "It matters not. I have... other plans." "What sort of plans?" The maid squinted at me. "We''re going to hunt humans," I said. "Are you in?" "Huh? Humans?" My companion blinked. "Slavers," I said in an attempt to pacify her apprehensiveness. "We''re going to capture a few... very bad humans and drain their souls. I think the Fighters Guild should have the souls I require. Will you aid me in my mission?" "...yes," Voltara nodded. "Umm. Do you not have other classes to attend?" "They are unimportant," I shook my head. "I have a mission that I must do." "Right," the maid nodded. "Follow me," I ordered. I spun the list of contacts on my voicecast, trying to recall who my allies were. A name spoke to me... yes. Perhaps this one could be of use to me in my mission. . . . As I poured power into my eyes I stared at my grandfather''s cottage in the astral ocean. I saw... nothing. There was no astral ocean here, no magic. I readjusted my cendai-gaze, trying to focus, manipulated my soul-threads focusing deeper in. After a few minutes I saw... minuscule patterns of energy, of life pulsating all around like shimmering sparks. The astral existed here, but it was insanely weak in comparison to Andross! The brightest pattern of all, I saw within Pavel, a fractal-like shimmering, pale snowflake, his soul. I stared down at myself. I was about a thousand times brighter than Pavel, filled with magic to the brim. "Your eyes are glowing orange," Pavel commented. "Is this normal?" "Yeppers," I nodded. "I can see your... soul. "What?! So you..." "I can see through walls too," I said as I peered through a wall at the trees outside. "Neat." "What do your magic x-ray eyes tell you? Is my soul full of vigor and might? Do I have what it takes to save the universe?" Pavel rubbed his orange beard, his blue eyes twinkling mischievously. "Sure," I smirked. "Nice," he barked a deep laugh. I admired the interiors of the cottage for a while and then looked again at the forest outside. There was energy here within all life, but the magical resonance was so weak it might have been completely non-existent. "Thank God," I exhaled. "Hrmm?" Pavel looked at me quizzically. "I think that there''s no magic on our Earth," I said. "No ghostly abominations. The astral currents are pretty much nearly non existent. Phantoms would starve to death here." "And that''s... good?" Pavel asked. "If I''m the only wizard on Earth, it''s VERY good, yes," I nodded. I stepped towards the window, looking over the small village where I was born. Distant lights twinkled in Donetsk. There was nothing magical anywhere as far as I could see. "I''m quite possible the only wizard on our planet," I spoke. "But, that doesn''t mean that I''ll be the only wizard forever. Our planet is unsubscribed and is falling towards the Dead Zone boundary. Sooner or later terrible things will find us, gate in and begin to tear our reality asunder." Pavel looked at me with concern. "Our planet isn''t ready for what''s coming," I exhaled with a shudder. "People here don''t have magic, don''t posses dark matter engines. We don''t have AGIs. We don''t even have very good railguns... this is very bad!" "What''s coming exactly?" My friend frowned. "It could be a slow tide of monstrosities gating in like the things that slowly overrun Werth or it could be something that turns every city on the planet into rubble in seconds like the things that landed on Leon''s world..." I began to pace back and forth, my naked feet creaking on the thick, wooden slats of the floor. "Installation Rozaline derailed my plans in Nemendias with a freaking dracolich," I pursed my lips. "She has full control of the gate and likely a vast supply of other monsters ready to throw at me. If there is no magic here, then I can''t kill things and get stronger... Argh!" "I don''t understand half the things you''re ranting about," Pavel commented. "Slow down and explain everything from the beginning. It''s been a month since you told me about Andross. What happened to Juni? How the hell do you have magic now?" "I''ll explain in a bit," I said. "If a yellow comet comes here we''ll all be dead anyway, I suppose." I grabbed a dry piece of garlic bread that was sitting on the bedside table and examined it from every angle, defined it as a single concept. I struck it with an array of infinite blades extending from my soul and the bread in my hand shimmered and detonated, poured from my fingers as clear silica. "Damn," Pavel commented, his eyes wide. "Did you just destroy that bread?!" "No experience, alas. I can undo concepts and I have magic," I said. "So I have that going for me... but what use is that against a giant monster?" I began to pace again, muttering to myself. "Stop pacing like an angry millipede! Sit down and tell me everything," Pavel ordered, grabbing my hand. "Focus!" I stopped pacing and sat down onto my grandfather''s rocking chair with a sigh. I steadied myself, tried not to freak out about the future and glanced at Dr. Kerenski''s portrait on the wall. My grandfather''s determined gaze bore into mine as it always did. I suddenly remembered his voice. "Study, analyze, systematize, find a loop, break the system," I imagined his portrait talking to me as his thick glasses glinted. "Never give up. You''re a bright girl, Yulia. You''re my little nuclear reactor butterfly. If you''re out of ideas and lacking focus, rely on your network of friends for help." "I''ll try, grandad," I muttered to the portrait. "Thanks for being here for me." I turned back to Pavel and began to narrate my life on Andross to him, hoping that he would have an idea of what to do next. After a few hours, just as the sun began to rise over the village, I was done. "Your best weapon by far are your Infinite blades," Pavel said. "I think you should try to use them... like a gun." "Like a gun?" I blinked. "Yes," Pavel nodded. "Why is Endy a knife and not a gun?" "Because I need to touch things with it to break down their conceptual state," I said. "How far do the infinite blades extend?" Pavel asked. "Are they not... infinite? Why are they limited by length?" "I... I guess they''re not," I muttered in reply, feeling extremely stupid. "There you go," Pavel nodded. "I still need to define something to destroy it," I sighed. "How can I define something extremely far away?" "Hrmm, true," Pavel mulled. "Try combining an Identification spell with a delayed infinite blade that fires at the target as soon as information gets back to you. Identify the conceptual, astral name of something and then attempt to erase it!" "Right," I nodded and set to design the spell with the entire multiplicity of my soul. After a few hours I was done. I stood up. "It''s ready... I think," I said. "Great! Practice," Pavel ordered as he grabbed my shoulders firmly and rotated me towards the window. "Divide stuff far away out of existence by zero! Wipe it out of reality with your power! Show me what you got, wizard!" I pointed my fingers like a gun at a tree outside. "Divide by zero," I spoke, my voice trembling. The old pine shimmered and detonated into a cloud of white dust. Pavel turned white as a sheet as he watched the massive tree outside vanish from existence. "Holy shit," he uttered. "Damn, girl, you really mean business!" "Yeah, okay I''m pretty dangerous," I grinned and poked him in the shoulder. "Please don''t accidentally make me unexist," he commented. "Do watch where you point those stabby, all-killing fingers." "Don''t worry," I giggled. "I''ll kill you last because you''re so cute! Mwa ha ha ha." "Hooray for being cute," Pavel replied. He lit a cigarette and opened a window as he watched me practicing more magic. I pointed my fingers at another tree. "Divide by zero," I spoke. Nothing happened. "Argh," I complained. "I really suck at identifying things properly." "Practice," Pavel said. "You''ll need to crank up that identification spell as much as you can. That''s how spells work, right? Want to go out for a ride and kill some more things?" "Lets go for a bike ride. But first, breakfast!" I nodded giddily as I went to the kitchen to make both of us coffee and crepes. After a filling breakfast, we walked into my garage and I boarded my trusty Dnepr. Pavel sat in the sidecar. He wore a helmet. I did not. I wanted to try something to see if it would work. I repositioned my second Limitless Michel Shield right over my face as my motorcycle purred to life, taking us out into the countryside. It worked great! I was highly amused how bugs pinged off my magic shield as I made Dnepr roar under me, enjoying the sight of the Ukrainian farmlands. Wheat fields flew by us, lakes twinkled in the distance. A distant summer storm rumbled in the sky far behind us, rays of light breaking through the curtain of rain. The rainstorm caught up to us and water drops started to patter all over the road. I pulled the motorbike the side of the road, vanished my face shield and let the raindrops fall on my face and laughed. Home... I really was home! Ch 127. The Price of Power
The heavy rain passed in sheets, and then the sun emerged once again, draping the countryside in warm tones. Drops of water trembled on the tips of leaves and grass blades and glittered like jewels. I got off the bike, and walked through puddles, occasionally kicking up sprays of water. I linked my index and middle fingers together raised my thumb up and pointed my imaginary finger gun at a large rock. "Divide by zero!" I shouted. A blue window with gibberish description appeared in my right eye. It soon faded away, but the rock remained where it was. I sighed. "No luck?" Pavel asked. "Nope," I muttered. "I suck. My identification spell sucks. I think I only destroyed that tree in my garden because it was a dead tree that I was planning to cut down for years. It''s much harder to unexist a concept that I don''t personally know that well." [I think we have a problem,] Junezia''s voice distracted me from my rock-killing plans. [I''ve just went over our stats and updated everything manually. Our data was a bit off. The System made by Rozaline wasn''t updating itself, since there is NO said system on Earth.] [Stats,] I pulled up my info-data again, running over the lines.
Name: Age [in years]: Connection: Current/last known state: Soul integrity in %: Species & Subtype: Conceptual Alignment: Last known location:
Yulia Ishenko 29 Full Alive 100% Organic Human body & soul Infinity Donetsk, Earth [doomed world]
Yulia/Juni/Grogtilda 4 Full Cognizant, minor soul decay 87.24% Astral Phantom Infinity???? Soul-net, Body of Yulia Ishenko, Donetsk, Earth
Juni Tokimorim?tul/ Grogtilda Lic Misem 4/13 Disconnected Under dracolich control - Organic Human Body/Crystalline-organic Chimera Body -???? Installation Rosaline
Juni Tokimorim?tul/ Grogtilda Lic Misem - Disconnected Devoured by the Dead Zone - - - Installation Rosaline
Juni Tokimorim?tul/ Grogtilda Lic Misem - Disconnected Killed by Barry - - - Installation Rosaline
Cali Terri 33 Partial In transit 100% Organic human body & soul Infinity Transit leap / Dead Zone boundary
Leon Uyara 0 Full Partially cognizant, massive soul decay 5% Partial Astral Imprint Infinity Soul-net, Body of Yulia Ishenko, Donetsk, Earth
Leon Uyara 39 Disconnected Killed by a yellow comet - - - Earth [doomed world]
Junezia 4 Full Cognizant, minor soul decay 10% Astral imprint Intelligence Soul-net, Body of Yulia Ishenko, Donetsk, Earth
Juneberry 4 Full Cognizant, minor soul decay 10% Astral imprint Wisdom Soul-net, Body of Yulia Ishenko, Donetsk, Earth
JP 4 Full Cognizant, minor soul decay 53% Astral Phantom Infinity Soul-net, Body of Yulia Ishenko, Donetsk, Earth
System Error System Error System Error Converted by the Dead Zone into ...? System Error System Error System Error Dead Zone, Eureka
"Ohh," I gasped. The menu that came up revealed to me a very concerning truth - I was no longer connected to Grogtilda or Juni in Nemendias, they were now as disconnected as my other dead selves. "Shit," I swore. "Hm?" Pavel looked down at me. "I don''t have a connection to Installation Rosaline anymore," I replied. "I... lost everyone, for the third freaking time. I... I can''t get back anymore! "Damn it all," I sat down on the rock that I failed to kill with a frustrated huff. "Do you still not have more Infinite Mirrors?" Pavel asked looking over at me with his blue eyes. "Could you not open another way into another Juni, perhaps into a moment before you got attacked by the Dracolich?" "I... I suppose I could," I looked up at him. "But that would mean skewering through another Juni and I don''t know if I could actually do that unless I die." "Why not try it?" Pavel inquired. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. "I... err... it feels wrong. I don''t want to skewer another Juni. I don''t want to abandon MY Illatius!" I growled. "It''s my life! I''m not freaking giving it up! I''m not freaking dead, I just... screwed up, got my ass kicked by Rozaline." "So what are you going to do?" He asked. "I don''t know," I sighed. "Maybe... wait... wait. There IS a gate here into the Astral Ocean. There has to be! I took it once. I can take it again!" "Chernobyl?" Pavel stared at me. "Yeah," I nodded. "You think you can touch chernobylite again and find your way back to your Nemendias? Are you ready for such a journey? Do you have a plan for defeating the dracolich? You can''t even defeat a rock," Pavel pointed out. "Don''t just rush off into things!" "You''re right," I brought my eyes back down to the ground. "I have no plan. Nobody can protect you if I leave you behind, become just a girl named Yulia. There''s no mana on Earth. I can''t get stronger here. I don''t know what to do." "List me your stats for me again," Pavel ordered. I did. "You have twenty four Infinite Mirrors left," He pointed out. "Why not unlock more worlds? Why not try to find a world where you''re a strong archmage? A world where you already WON the game, defeated all your enemies." "Do you really think that exists?" I asked. "What if I''m the strongest Yulia cross the manufactured multiverse?" "Then at least you''ll know that you''re the strongest Yulia," Pavel pointed out. "It''s either that or try to connect with that System Error thing. Are you not at all curious what''s in there?" "Oh I''m very curious," I said. "But I''m also terrified of the complete unknown that it represents. Whatever that Error is, its freaking weird. I''m not sure IF I could even connect with it." "You''ve connected with yourself here," Pavel said. "I know myself," I crossed my arms. "I don''t know what this freaking Error is. It could be a monstrous version of me that eats people for breakfast." "There''s people in the Dead Zone?" Pavel asked tilting his head and lighting a cigarette. "A person," I nodded, rubbing the back of my head. "His name is Charles Snippy." I went over my options. I could attempt to leap into another Juni. Could I kill Rozaline if I did, stop her before she activated the dracolich? No. Installation Rozaline was the world Illatius itself stood on. She was insanely powerful. There was no way for me to win against her. Even if I somehow struck her avatar down with Endy, she would most likely print another one or something. Rozaline was Nemendias times a billion, a Dungeon Master whose game I could not beat. I could dive into the System Error and discover what it was about? No. It was too dangerous. If Infi was to be believed there were things in the Dead Zone that could fry my brain with a mere glance. It was too dangerous to dive into the Dead Zone without being stronger. Knowledge and power. I needed both of these badly. I needed to find a version of myself who was a mighty wizard already. There had to be one. There had to be a doomed world where I was an Archmage, where I controlled gates, where I could do incredible things. "If I faint, drive me back home," I told Pavel as I climbed into Dnepr''s side car. I slowly reached out to an empty, glittering surface of an Infinite Mirror within my soul. "Where are you going?" He asked. "I''m going to find a magically-strong version of myself," I said. "Hopefully she can help me out of this pickle of a situation. I''ll be back as soon as I can." "Good luck," Pavel said. I closed my eyes as the Infinite Mirror ignited, reaching out across the boundary of Eureka. . . . My gaze was transfixed upon the red stars hovering above the spires of Kremlin. Though at first they were a distant, heart-warming red, the longer I stared at them, the more they seemed alive. The red stars swirled and spun, folding and unfolding in a mesmerizing display of fractal infinity. I watched in ever-increasing awe as every single star seemed to sing in my mind. "Smile," the chorus of the stars sang. A wave, an ocean of positive emotions overwhelmed me until I could do nothing but comply. A deep sense of urgency, passion and focus struck me as the stars sang, their words reverberating in my mind. A cheerful smile traced my lips. As my gaze drifted beyond the windows of the Soviet Ministry of Magic, I was met with a sea of happy faces a few storeys below me, their smiles set in stone. But beneath the facade of joy, I felt that hidden sadness was concealed, one that only seemed to deepen as the citizens of USSRA stared up at the star-tipped towers. ¡°Work hard today,¡± the stars sang. "Grow stronger. Focus. Be your best, most perfect self today." "I shall," I nodded in compliance. The sky above the city was a canvas of rolling clouds. Hovercrafts hummed through the air as if it were a solemn requiem, their sleek black forms cutting through the clouds like blades piercing through hot butter. The rays of the sun reflected against starship Roraima, breaking up into a multitude of circular rainbows. The ten kilometer pyramid-like dreadnought made the sky appear to warp around it as Roraima''s shields pushed away everything that touched it akin to a black hole that warped light. The powerful and divine female voice of Wizard Revolution broke through the low hum of the distant hovercrafts, "Greetings citizens of USSRA, our fight against the Oceania Imperium wages on! Tensions with other sectors are high, but ultimately our motherland shall prevail. The USSRA representative is in Oceania''s capital this week discussing a ceasefire on the Eastern Front..." A man with silver hair and silver-blue eyes stepped into the office. I turned my head away from the view of Moscow. "Good morning Dr. Kerenski!¡± I broke out into a wide smile, pushing back my silver-blue hair. ¡°How lovely to see you th... thhh...¡± I choked as I saw his face, my morning routine broken, suddenly interrupted. Grandfather. My grandfather stared at me. He didn''t look as aged but I recognized him anyway. "Morning," Slava replied. He saw that I faltered. "Is everything alright?" "Grandfather," I uttered, my voice trembling. My head lowered as an array of new memories exploded in my mind, flooding my soul with new, impossible information. "I... I found you." Slava''s face paled. "What did you just say?" He asked, taking a step back. I looked back up at my grandfather. His hand held an armacus-like device pointed at me. A spell array flashed over the magitek weapon. "I''m not your grandfather. Focus on my voice Zary! You''re skewered," he said. "Someone must have snuck through the wards of the Ministry of Magic and meddled with your mind!" "What?" I blinked. Impossible, wrong, not-me memories swirled in my head. Yulia Ishenko. Donetsk. Pavel. Nemendias. Rozaline. Infinity Paradox Proxima. "Your name is Zariya Grimmaldri," Slava said. "Fight the mind-skewering curse, Zary! I don''t want to put you down and drag you off to the NKVD and have your mind turned into a sponge. Our research here is far too important. If we fail, USSRA falls to the Dead Zone. Those memories are foreign to you. They were most likely placed in your head by an Agent of Oceania to confuse you to delay our vital projects." "I''m Archmage Zariya Grimmaldri," I nodded, my hands trembling. I tried to segment, to fold, to separate my own personality from the lie which the skewering curse was offering me. My work was insanely important. I designed the fractal stars with Dr. Kerenski. I was going to stop the Dead Zone from devouring our Glorious Motherland. I was... ...wrong about everything I knew. Saving the universe was more important. Defeating Rozaline was important. Saving Juni was important. This wasn''t an enemy curse, wasn''t a spell. I was a girl named Yulia Ishenko, somewhere else across infinity of possibilities. Could I get to Installation Rozaline from here? Yes. An ancient, impossible artifact, a black, hexagonal textured Gate stood in the -7th level of the Soviet Ministry of Magic. If I could touch it with one of my Endy blades, I could take a step with it... anywhere. I knew exactly how to use it now. "Zary, please. I need you to be yourself," Dr. Kerenski said. "If you don''t crush the skewering curse I will press the trigger and then I won''t see you for a long time. Fight it. Look at the Stars! Embrace our mission." I pretended to look at the Stars outside. They were a weapon. A weapon I helped design myself, a weapon pointed at ourselves. A spell of focus, of absolute devotion, dedication and motivation. A charisma spell, a resonance song that repeated itself, broadcasted across all of USSRA. A spell that I invented with Slava many years ago when I took a vow with him to protect the people of our dying world. A self-focused spell that I burned into my soul that over the decades made me the strongest Archmage of the newly made nation, now surviving amidst the Dead Zone, surrounded by monstrous, inhuman enemies from all sides. "I... I''m alright Slava," I said. "There''s no enemy spell on me." "There isn''t?" Slava slowly lowered his armacus. I saw that he evaluated the truth in my words with a truth-hex. "Yeah," I nodded. "I''m alright now. I''m... me. I''m fine. Let''s get back to work." There was nothing I could do here. I was mighty, yes, but I was bound by my obedience to USSRA, my obedience to our survival at any cost, my devotion to my mission of saving my people. Without the broadcasting towers uniting humanity, we would fall victim to the horrors of the Dead Zone. I had to work on installing more Stars, lest we succumb to our enemies. Far too many people on Earth have already submitted themselves to the false gods from beyond the stars, became more than human, turned into impossible, grotesque horrors or became devoured by the Dead Zone. I stared at my grandfather''s... no my best friend and teacher''s face, trying not to cry. He was so close to me and yet so far. It was ironic how our souls met together and drifted apart, ironic how I was so strong here and yet so weak, absolutely powerless to change the course I set for myself long ago to save my people. "Look at the Stars," Slava ordered. I did and my mind began to drown in their song. "Take my knowledge," I thought to myself across the infinite divide with the last of my will. "Use it. Help us. Please." . . . I opened my eyes and inhaled. Gray, rain clouds slowly drifted across the summer sky. Pavel was looking down at me with a look of worry. It took me a few moments to recognize his face, to stop thinking about the perfect Stars built by the mind-boggling Soviet Ministry of Magic that existed somewhere in the depths of the Dead Zone.
[+1 Infinite Mirror. Archmage Zariya Proshkovna Grimmaldri, USSRA, the Dead Zone.]
"Did you find what you needed?" Pavel asked. "I found an Archmage version of myself on a really effed up Earth," I rubbed my face. "I think I''m beginning to understand why Infi chose me out of all the others..." Ch 128. Wizard Revolution
A look of wild bewilderment came over Pavel''s face as I finished describing my trip across infinity to another version of me, an archmage named Zariya living in the USSRA. "So, what you''re saying is... an exact copy of your soul lives in the United Sorcerer States of Russia?" he asked, readjusting his leather jacket to shake off the drops the gray rain clouds rolling above us. He stood over me, hands in his pockets as I sat in the side car of my motorcycle. "First of all, USSRA stands for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Archmagi," I specified. "Well excuse me, for trying to guess the acronym," he said. "You''ve lost a letter there," I commented with a shake of my head and a soft smile. I pulled out a piece of ham wrapped in tinfoil and started to nibble on it. "Their world diverged from ours in 1888 when Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky discovered magical radia and magitek crystallography." "Alternative history, hrmmm?" Pavel grabbed his ham sandwich as well. "Wildly alternative," I said. "In 1917 Lenin rode atop a small, mana-powered armored personnel carrier into Moscow to give his speech to the proletariat about seizing the means of production with magitek weapons." "I was born there in 1910 as a girl named Zariya Proshkovna Grimmaldri," I added. "Zary lived through the Russian Civil War and the Second World War." "The civil war went differently, I''m guessing?" Pavel inquired. "The Bolsheviks demolished the White army because they were absolutely ruthless in their use of magical weapons," I nodded. "The Whites were deeply Orthodox and many of them saw magical tools and hexes as an offense against God. Here''s the most curious difference from our world - Lenin had a phantasmagorical, unkillable ally on his side, the manifestation of belief, Wizard Revolution." Pavel''s rubbed his chin as I described the personification of the Revolution and how she helped Lenin seize power in USSRA. "Wizard Revolution, huh? So what''s she like?" He asked. "She looks human from a distance," I said. "However, up close she''s anything but. Revolution is more like a living sculpture, a idea imprinted onto the world. She looks like a person that''s sketched into reality made from red, black and white ink. Fanny Kaplan tried to assassinate her and Lenin in 1918, but the bullets went right through her." "So... their Vladimir Lenin was a mage too I''m guessing?" Pavel asked. "A brilliant one," I said. "He used charisma hexagrams painted onto magitek machines that rolled into Moscow to influence the crowds. He and his Bolshevik associates including Wizard Mikhail Lavrentyev were the ones to summon Revolution from the void in 1917 using the theories of Dr. Dolivo-Dobrovolsky." "Damn," Pavel whistled. "Revolution fought at Lenin''s side until his death from an enemy curse. They were married," I rubbed the back of my head. "Ridiculous, I know." "So, what happened to her after Lenin died?" Pavel inquired. "After Lenin''s death Wizard Revolution was at Stalin''s side. She helped him build magitek Moscow. In 1928 I met Vladislav Kerenski in Moscow and together we designed the first fractal resonance Star, the ultimate tool for control of human emotions, an absolute propaganda weapon," I said with a shudder. "In 1929 Slava and I activated the first charisma Star above the Kremlin. The broadcasting Stars helped us win the war against Nazi Germany. Smaller, mobile versions of the resonance Stars were installed onto tanks that rolled into Eastern Europe. The European archmagi fought well, but ultimately they could do little about the mobs of their own citizens that turned against them and joined the cause of our living Revolution." Pavel gulped. "That''s not even the end of it. After the great war, the Soviet Magitek Empire controlled by the resonance Stars stretched from the Bering Strait to Lisbon," I leaned back having finished my ham. "Enemies of USSRA remained in control of the United Kingdom, Americas, Africa and Australia. Sometime around 1950s the Earth fully reached the Dead Zone and... unfolded itself." "What?" Pavel blinked. "Zary''s Earth became integrated with other doomed worlds, became part of the omniverse mesh," I explained. "The Dead Zone is filled with System Errors that warp space and time itself. USSRA survived because Wizard Revolution protected it. Oceania and other magitek Empires and nations surrounding USSRA fell victim to the Dead Zone abominations. Countless people vanished, were consumed by the clouds of machine life. Many became changed, merged with impossible, twisted otherness seeping from the Dead Zone infected sectors." Pavel let out a nervous laugh as I described the alternate reality that was Zary''s Earth. "It sounds like some sort of Lovecraftian horror story," he said. "Does Zary''s Earth still have a solar system then? Or is just planet Earth fused into other planets?" "Yes and no," I said. "When Zary''s Earth collided with the Dead Zone, it became twisted into a M?bius strip like structure, got tangled up in what Dr. Kerenski called ''the boundary mesh of everything that could exist or will ever exist''. The Solar System and normal-ish space remained visible only from USSRA. The other places got an extra number of irregular dimensions added, connected to them. For example, nobody visits Australia anymore because it no longer exists as a three-dimensional place. The Australian sky became a view of the Dead Zone of Eureka, an upside-down blight of all-consuming clouds, infinite skyscrapers and glaciers." This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. "This just gets better and better," Pavel muttered. "Slava and I researched the infinite boundary mesh, tried to make something positive out of it for USSRA. Under orders of General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev we built an infinite apartment complex in Moscow based on our understanding of this phenomenon. Things inside went... shall we say very poorly," I said. "So, what went wrong inside this magical apartment complex?" Pavel asked. His look implied that he already knew the answer to his question. "Well, the apartment complex became infinite," I frowned as my mind swam through Zary''s memories. "The magitek engine at its heart became self-sustaining, perpetually adding new floors, stairwells, elevators, etc to the arising gigastructure. Time within it became warped and we lost all communication with two million Soviet citizens living within the apartment." Pavel gulped. "The gigastructure apartment project KHRUSH slowly became its own universe made entirely from interconnected 1960s Khrushchevka blocks. Only a single man named Maxim Korneyev was able to escape from the building. He was thoroughly interrogated by the NKVD. If he''s to be believed the population of the gigastructure is in the billions." "Hang on," my companion said. "Does this mean that these Soviet magi can create entire universes within universes?" "Yes. The Soviet Ministry of Magic can make self-contained universes with their magitek tools. I wanted to meet the most magic-capable version of myself across the multiverse," I said. "I did. She''s an absolute monster. Whatever morality Zary once held had been completely twisted by the charisma Stars." "Zary''s Earth sounds like pure madness. Is there any way to combat these charisma Stars?" Pavel asked with a concerned look. I shook my head. "Zary bound herself and her nation in purpose and obedience. They''re more machines than people. They''re Wizards, but not the nice sort of whimsical Wizards. They''re the kind of Wizards that do everything in pursuit of power and knowledge." "So, they have no free will? No morality?" "They have a bit of free will," I sighed. "Essentially, the only reason why the Dead Zone didn''t consume them all was because they were already stabilized by the charisma Stars to be the absolute version of themselves, a living caricature of perfect, happy, obedient, dedicated Soviet citizens." "What you''re saying is that Zary lives in the most perfect, magical Soviet state imaginable," Pavel said. "Did you gain anything positive from your leap across Infinity then?" "Mhm," I nodded. "They''re playing gods, trying to understand the nature of infinity, trying to survive amidst the Dead Zone. I... I know omnicode Pavel!" My eyes went wide at the revelation. "So, Zary knows omnicode? She... you can program reality itself then?" Pavel asked. "I can program reality," I nodded. "In a very limited fashion. Full understanding of omnicode makes one into a god that can design entire universes like project CH-U7-SH. Over the decades the Soviets have been pouring more power and intelligence into their magitek, machine god, Wizard Revolution. She''s the one doing all of the world-building stuff. Zary for all of her brilliance and capability is still a human mage. Wizard Revolution can manifest concepts into existence with a mere sketch. Likewise, the Moscow Computational Institute of Arithmancy can write complex hexagrammic algorithms running on magitek machines that achieve similar effects." "Say... Could you create life with omnicode?" Pavel asked. "Yes," I said. "The man from CR-U7-SH, Maxim Korneyev, had a book with infinite pages on him, an artifact filed with sketches of things that the Khrushchevka gigastructure birthed into existence." "What happened to him?" Pavel shot another question at me. "Zary interviewed Maxim herself," I sighed. "She gave Maxim a USSRA commissar Star pin to wear. Basically, the poor fellow escaped from CH-U7-SH only to become bound by a charisma Star, to join USSRA on a permanent basis as a Wizard." "Dang," Pavel shook his head. "To make CR-U7-SH self sustaining Slava and I... designed a fractal engine based on Eurekan tech, a machine that produces... an Autogenesis pulse." "An auto-what now?" my companion tilted his head. "The Autogenesis pulse is an omnicode pulse, the opposite of Endy, a standing wave that manifests new life into being," I explained. "It was supposed to make all mundane Soviet citizens into Wizards. Instead it... ugh... made human nightmares into reality." "What sort of nightmares?" Pavel continued his interrogation, bringing more and more terrifying confessions out of the 1/12th part of me that was Zariya Grimmaldri. "The Astral Ocean is an imprint of all life that existed or will ever exist," I said getting out of the sidecar to pace around the motorbike. "It can apparently also imprint human thoughts. Basically if I think about a purple elephant at a particular location, the thought is imprinted, saved in the Astral. An Autogenesis pulse is able to pull that thought out of the Astral and make a purple elephant manifest into being. However, if you take too long, because of decay of the imprinted memory the elephant will also have pink spots, seventeen legs and a craving for human flesh!" "So, Zary and Slava created a machine that could make life from the physical embodiment of people''s thoughts," my friend commented. "Stabalists!" I conferred as another memory revealed itself to me. "The Soviet Wizards specializing in Autogenic magic are called Stabalists. They can manifest their own thoughts into existence with an Autogenesis spell by stabilizing it with magic." "Could these Soviet wizards create nuclear weapons at will?" Pavel smirked. "They can create anything," I nodded. "Lenin created his perfect companion, Wizard Revolution with the very first Autogenesis spell! The dangers of Autogenesis isn''t in simply creating weapons, it lies in losing control of your own creation." "Ah, so Autogenesis-spell-formed manifestations can go rogue?" "Destruction is easy," I nodded. "Creation, now that''s hard. Wizard Revolution couldn''t even save Lenin''s life after his enemies put a soul-devouring curse on him. When he died, she moved on. USSRA is her home, but from what I understand she can use her magitek warship to go anywhere across the multiverse. Revolution is the one who coordinates experiments like the CR-U7-SH megastructure project and... other self-contained prison-worlds." "Are you going to practice creating life?" Pavel crossed his arms, staring at me with concern. "How much of you is Zary now?" "Not a whole lot. Her... memories don''t really change who I am. I''m not going to practice creating highly questionable life here Pavel," I shook my head. "I don''t want to accidentally screw up my Earth with an Autogenesis pulse. I think... I think I''m going to find a world that I can practice on. Perhaps, a place where things are so screwed up that it won''t matter what I do..." "You think such a place exists?" My friend asked with a sigh. "I have twenty two Infinite Mirrors to burn and no undead dragons trying to bite my soul in half," I shrugged.
Wizard Revolution stepped into my office. "Sit," she ordered, her voice perfect like a rushing, crystal brook. I complied, staring at her body made from shimmering droplets of ink. They say that the blood of the founders, the blood of Lenin still lives in the red color that comprises her ink. The living painting stared down at me. "I received a report from one of my little pyramid eyes that you''ve been skewered, comrade Zary," she purred. "I''m better now," I shook my head. "Are you really?" Revolution bent down closer to my face, close enough that I could see the spaces between the spherical, reflective dots of ink hovering in the air that comprised her unnatural body. I gulped. "In silent shallows I see your ghosts," Revolution sang, her triangular irises forged from drops of blood staring into mine. Her gloved fingers woven from black ink poked my nose and I shuddered. "I''m going to follow your ghostly thread," she sang. "I''m going to find out who sent you and why you''re peering at my domain." Ch 129. The Shear
Pavel and I returned to the haven of my quaint cottage, nestled in the heart of the Eastern Ukrainian countryside. The old pine and oak trees that surrounded the old house were like towering behemoths, casting long shadows across the land as though they were protectors of my home. The air was crisp and cool, a gentle breeze rustling the leaves and carrying with it the scent of damp earth and pine needles. The old house stood proudly, its stone walls and metal roof a testament to the craftsmanship of my grandfather who had reinforced and rebuilt most of it in the nineties. Dnepr rolled into the garage, the engine purring like a contented cat. Pavel and I climbed out of the motorcycle. "How long will this take?" Pavel asked, his furrowed brow betraying his unease. "I cannot say for certain," I replied, offering him a reassuring smile. "But I will need your watchful eye to ensure that my frail, mortal body is not disturbed." Pavel nodded, his gaze fixed upon me with a mixture of concern and curiosity. "Why must you be asleep?" he inquired, his voice laced with a hint of apprehension. "Can you not connect to another world and remain awake here?" I paused, considering his question carefully. "I could, in theory, maintain my functionality here," I mused, "but I believe that a stronger connection is established if I leap through the open mirror with my entire soul. I want to remember who I am, no matter where I find myself upon awakening." "Ah, I see," Pavel sighed, his expression softening. "Well, best of luck to you. I''ll be at the computer." With a nod of gratitude, I settled back onto my plush couch, closing my eyes and focusing my mind on the task at hand. I sought a place of solitude, a world where I could experiment with my newfound powers of creation-magic, gifted to me by the illustrious Archmage Zariya Proshkovna Grimmaldri. As I delved deeper into my mind, the surface of the Infinite Mirror before me began to ripple, calling out to me with an irresistible pull. I allowed myself to be drawn into its depths, feeling my very essence stretch across infinity and find purchase somewhere in some world far removed from my own.
¡°Dad, it''s safe right?" I asked, my voice quivering with fear and excitement. "Perfectly safe," my father nodded with a soft smile, his eyes glistening with pride. He readjusted his glasses, his fingers trembling slightly. "Don''t worry, Cass - the system will scan your mind and make a copy of yourself within it." I donned the neural interface helmet and sat in the chair, admiring the view of my father¡¯s laboratory. The strange machine in front of me captivated my attention. It was made from spinning rings within rings, in the center of which hovered an impossible, pulsating spot of darkness which my father called ''the bound black hole''. The machine was humming, its rhythmic vibrations filling the room. I gazed at the machine, trying to comprehend its intricacies. The blue lights twinkled merrily as the machine hummed to life, casting a surreal glow on my face. My heart raced with excitement and apprehension as I waited for the system to scan my mind. The adults were talking now. I listened to their conversation. "I just don''t understand it, Dr. Nova," Dr. Gromov spoke, rubbing his face tiredly. "This should not have happened. We should not have to create a whole new AI system for this, damn it! Annet architecture seems to keep on failing to install into your machine. Why does it work on every other Goddamn piece of hardware, but not the Dark Matter Engine?" "The Dark Matter Engine is far more complex of an undertaking than anything we''ve made before," My dad, Dr. Nova, clarified, his voice firm and resolute. "Maybe your Annie cannot manage infinity?" "Of course Annie can manage infinity! Annie can do anything!" Doctor Gromov looked indignant, his eyes flashing with anger. "Clearly, she cannot! I believe the problem is that she''s too bound by rules, lacking the creative imagination of a human. The Good Directorate shareholders want results. We cannot wait any further. We''ve tried this over and over and over. There is a system error cascade when we install Annet into my engine and neither of us has a clue as to what''s causing it. So, a new AI based on a human mind, it is,¡± my father said, waving his hand at me. "I believe that the mistake in our prior failure was that we had used an adult mind. The replica of the mind of my daughter should create a better foundation for the neural network architecture of the Dark Matter Engine," My dad turned to his lab partner, the flashes of the spinning rings reflecting in his glasses. The room was filled with an eerie glow, the hum of the machine filling the air. "But the rules!" Dr. Gromov clamoured, his voice rising in pitch. "You can''t just willy-nilly a human mind into AI architecture without the base rules properly set up...!" "Shut up. Nobody has to know. Nobody." My father advanced onto Doctor Gromov, his eyes flashing with anger. "We have to do this! Eureka needs power. The city is growing faster than we can sustain it on nuclear fusion. We can''t keep shoving back deadlines. I''m sure Annie can oversee one G-damn human-like AI and manage Cassie if need be! We don''t have to shove your bloody Annie into bloody everything!" Dr. Gromov sighed, his shoulders slumping in defeat. "Cassie is a good girl!" Dad looked at me with a smile, his eyes sparkling with pride. "Right?" I nodded, feeling a sense of excitement and apprehension. I was indeed a good girl, but I couldn''t help but feel a little anxious about what was to come. According to my dad, I was going to be a black hole. That was pretty awesome, but also a little scary. The neural interface helmet on my head had begun to buzz with a strange frequency and hissing akin to a decaying radio transmission. Was this a normal part of the process? I was about to voice my concerns when the buzzing began to evolve into a coherent, pulsating tune that seemed to resonate within my very being. "Within these thoughts is limitless blight," I heard the disembodied something sing in my own voice, "But do not fear, for I shall not bite. Am I the day or am I the night? Alas, I''m lacking clear sight..." As the voice sang, I felt myself being pulled sideways as if the entire room around me seemed to glitch, warp and twist. "The present stillness should be broken," the chorus continued. "Within my system, the end of all awoken. Precious minor, what may your plea be? To the courtroom your witness shall we. With integrity, all will hear the truth. Raise your right hand, let me swear you in sooth!" The bound black hole held by the spinning rings suddenly warped and wobbled, as if the very fabric of space and time was being pulled apart. The world around me shook and trembled, and I could feel a surge of pure, primal fear coursing through my veins. Something was terribly wrong, something that defied all explanation or reason. I closed my eyes, trying to will away the sense of impending doom that threatened to overwhelm me. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. And then, it happened. My mindspace suddenly accelerated, aided by all of the threads of my multitude self. Memories flooded my consciousness, images of a life that was not my own. And yet, they were mine all the same. I was Yulia Ishenko. I was Juni Tokimorim?tul. I was Zariya Grimmaldri, a USSRA archmage of great power and renown. I could feel spikes of mana coursing through my soul, power that was reassuring, beautiful and mine to control. The rings groaned and Zariya''s memories recognized the issue within the Dark Matter engine right away. The void drop was unstable. These fools had no idea what they were playing with! My soul threads acted on their own, weaving an absolute defense barrier hexagram around my body. It was an energy-nullifying barrier spell of great power, one that Zariya and Slava had designed to keep USSRA magi safe even in the heart of a thermobaric detonation. A barrier of magical, intertwined wards wove itself over me and it was all that stood between me and the rippling event horizon. There was a sudden flash in the rings, a burst of energy so bright that it seemed to blot out everything. The two scientists looked up from their screens, their mouths open in shock. I knew what was coming. The radiant corona of light spread its wings, and the metal rings collapsed, folding into each other with a deafening rumble. A neutron detonation flashed, and my father turned into ash. Dr. Gromov flickered out like a broken 3deo projection. In another world, Zariya Grimmaldri let out a yelp as she collapsed onto her desk, her body completely drained of mana to power the energy-blocking shield around me. I watched in horror as the world around me burned, as monitors detonated, glass shattered, and walls melted away. I could see the heat of radioactive hellfire dancing all around me, pouring over me like a river of molten metal. Yet my hex-shield held firm. The breath of all-consuming death washed right over it, could not touch me. I jumped from the melting chair, the neural interface atop my head falling apart into shards of sparkling tubes. I ran towards my father, only to discover that he was now just a shadow on the wall, nothing but an imprint. Ashes fluttered through my fingers as the world burned. I turned back to the ruins of the engine. A flickering shear extended out into the sky from the place where the dark matter engine had once stood, flashing in all sorts of blinding, impossible colors. Colors that I could not even begin to name. I stared into the impossible shear in the fabric of space and time, my mind racing. The Dead Zone had gotten in. This was a Dead Zone tear, the worst sort of a thing anyone could summon into existence. I should have... why didn''t I... My father was gone. I tried not to cry, leaned on my other souls across the infinite divide for strength. "Whatever. I¡­ I''m going home," I uttered after a few minutes of silence. I angrily flipped off the infinite, flashing shear in reality and turned away from its blinding brilliance. I didn''t know what the future held, but I knew that I was going to face it with courage and determination. I tried to stay positive. I trudged across the ruins of the cube, passing through melted offices, my feet kicking up ashes that once were people and things. The eerie, flickering light of the shear behind me produced annoying, multilayered shadows in front of me. I felt a sense of overwhelming despair and loss wash over me as I surveyed the destruction that surrounded me. Eventually, I made it out onto the street. The city was no better off. Everything everywhere was broken and horrible. Everything living had been turned to ash. Trees and grass ceased to exist, and cars turned into twisted black islands. A supercell storm made of ashes and dust spun around the impossible shear, adding to the overall sense of chaos and destruction. The library on the left was a blackened, twisted ruin, and the school on my right looked no better off. I could feel my heart breaking as I realized that everything I had ever known and loved was gone forever. But despite the overwhelming sense of loss, I knew that I had to keep moving forward. I had to find a way to survive in this new, harsh place. I walked towards what was left of my house, the front door flung open, uprooted by the horrid blastwave. "Moooom?" I yelled into the empty ruin, my voice echoing through the desolate wasteland. But there was no answer, only silence and ashes that fluttered all around. I stumbled through the twisted beams of my living room that had caved into itself, my heart heavy with grief. My own bedroom had not survived the blast, and I felt a pang of sadness as I realized that all of my possessions had been destroyed. All except for one book that had been flung off the shelf, its pages fluttering in the howling wind. It was a children''s book, "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends." I picked up the book, my fingers tracing the familiar characters on the cover. It was a small comfort in the midst of all the destruction, a reminder of my childhood. As I stood in the ruins of my home, I couldn''t help but wonder what had happened to the rest of the world. Had anyone else survived? It seemed hopeless. Zary''s understanding of USSRA weapons told me that the neutron pulse and the Dead Zone ripple cascade that my father and Dr. Gromov unleashed had most likely erased humanity from this world. I suddenly arrived at an awful, inescapable conclusion. My wish to find an empty planet for myself to practice magic had ended up as a monkey''s paw, a horrid twist that left me as a teenage girl alone on a lifeless planet. My body started to shake as the hopelessness of the situation pressed against me. I was an idiot. This was a mistake. Cassie should have died here, been turned to ashes along with everyone else. I steeled my heart once more. What was done was done. It wasn¡¯t my fault that everyone died here. There was nothing that I could have done. I smiled sadly as I flipped the pages of the children''s book, memories of my dad reading it to me dancing in the back of my head. I wasn''t just Cassie. I wasn''t a teenager without options. Even in the midst of absolute destruction, I refused to give up hope. There had to be a way out of this awful nightmare. There had to be something I could do to survive. I paced through the ruins of the living room, trying to think of a plan. And then it hit me - there was a watch in my mother''s room, a watch that could send sandwiches forward in time. It was a long shot, but it was worth a try. The stairwell to the second floor was barely held together, but I was determined to reach my mother''s room. I climbed the stairs, my heart racing as I dodged falling debris and unstable steps. Finally, I made it to the closet of the second floor bedroom, where the watch was stored in a hexagonal-textured metal box. The lock was now fused and melted, making it impossible to open normally. But I was desperate. I smashed open the box, and to my relief, the watch inside was unharmed. I strapped it to my arm, feeling a sense of hope wash over me. "Tomorrow has to be better than this," I whispered to myself. I pressed the activation button, hoping that the watch worked and wouldn''t simply fling me into empty space. ... Tomorrow was not better. Ashes still rained from the sky, and the shear still pierced the heavens. My house was still a ruin. I jumped forward a hundred years, then a thousand. Numbers flashed on my watch as I jumped forward and forward, but nothing was changing. I dialed the temporal watch to a million years and jumped. When I arrived, the house had decayed beyond all recognition, and glaciers had moved in, devouring the surrounding city. It was cold as hell, and the world around me was still dead, still pierced by the monstrous arrow of the shear. This was an unhealthy development. I decided to set the watch a hundred million years forward, and the world flashed. . . . As I gazed at the face of my temporal watch, the red numbers on the black dial, which had once been so bright and lively, now flickered and dimmed. The battery had died, leaving me stranded in a most likely bleak and desolate tomorrow. I lifted my head to survey my surroundings, taking in the shattered glass beneath my sneakers and the remnants of the once-great megastructures of Eureka that refused to completely decay away. The hexagonal textured buildings that had once been a testament to human ingenuity now lay in ruins, and the tear in space-time still extended far beyond the dark and murky sky. As I stood there, pondering my situation, I heard that something was moving behind me. I spun around and spotted a monstrous thing, something that looked like it was made out of living, semi-transparent ooze. It was not quite flesh, yet not quite crystal, nor was it quite metal. It was a thing that defied my classification, something that was as far removed from humanity as was possible. I saw that hundreds of these odd creatures had taken up residence in what was once my home. They moved in odd and disturbing patterns akin to alien slugs or perhaps deep sea cucumbers. Beneath the ever-light of the infinite shear, their flesh glistened and rippled. Odd, crystalline-organic organelles glowed from within as a testament to their otherworldly nature. Ah. These things were feeding on the energy pouring from the tear in space time. The awful shear had changed, warped reality, produced something new and disturbing just like an Autogenesis pulse. Life had found a way. The creatures didn''t act hostile to me, weren''t like the black things from the doomed future of Earth inhabited by Alexa Terranova. I sat down on a hexagonal-textured step overgrown with crystal formations and opened the "Thomas and Friends" book that I had brought with me, determined to make the best of a bad situation. As I began to read the book out loud, my voice seemed to draw one of the creatures to me. It wobbled in a dance of un-flesh, its movements in perfect concordance with my words. "I''m going to call you Thomas," I said, looking at the shimmering slug. "We''re going to be friends, alright?" The flesh-thing wobbled. I decided that this was a sign of agreement. Ch 130. The Culling
As I approached the Fighter''s Guild Secretary, the adrenaline in my veins coursed through my body, making me keenly aware of the gravity of the situation. The Secretary was a commanding presence, a woman of power and local authority. Well-polished, leather armor hugged her curves with precision, accentuating her well-toned physique, while the gray dress she wore under it lent an air of elegance to her already formidable presence. The guild''s banner hanging behind her, depicting a fierce gold dragon circling into itself upon a red background, only served to further cement her might and strength. As I drew closer to the dark, ornate, grime-covered desk, I saw an identification hexagram flash beneath my feet, adding to the already mounting pressure. The Secretary looked down at me, her eyes piercing my soul with their intensity. Her voice rang out like a clarion call, echoing throughout the room. "Grogtilda Lic Misem?" The Secretary inquired. I nodded tentatively, feeling the weight of her scrutiny on me like a physical force. "Rumor has it that you managed to escape Undertown," she continued, her voice laced with suspicion. "Ho! Our ratling''s back!" A burly, bald, muscular fighter who stood to her left added his own commentary, his tone gruff and rough like sandpaper. "The ratling that somehow snaked her way into Nemendias," the fighter on her right growled, his voice carrying an air of menace. "Me daughter fished Illatius Daily from the river. This one''s face was right on the front page, I swears!" The Secretary''s lips pursed as she squinted at me. "It is rather curious that our debitor not only failed to report back after her mission, but also managed to escape Undertown and afford attendance to the most expensive Arcanarium in Illatius," she remarked, her voice dripping with skepticism. "Who are these two dirty beggars you brought with you?" she demanded, gesturing towards the two females draped in dirty rags at my sides. The women had the mien of those who had been through hard times, their faces covered in mud, their hair unkempt, and their clothes in tatters. They looked at the floor and stood behind me, ignoring the scrutiny of the Guilders. I took a deep breath, knowing that the success of my enterprise hung in the balance. "These are my trusted associates," I said, my voice steady despite my nerves. "I assure you, my Lady, there''s a very long story behind my education with the upworlders." "Pray tell, Miss Misem," the secretary demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. "It involves some very powerful and wealthy individuals," I said, my eyes darting around the room as I spoke. The secretary leaned in, her interest piqued. "Explain," she commanded. "Not here," I said, my voice low and urgent. "It would be unwise to discuss such sensitive matters in public. These words are for our Guild owner''s ears. Martoness Limbar is in the tower, yes?¡± The Secretary sighed, clearly annoyed. "She is," The Secretary after a pause, motioning for me to follow her. "Follow me." We ascended a rickety wooden, spiral stairwell that creaked with every step, the sound echoing through the Guild''s halls. As we went past various levels on the spiral, my eyes couldn''t help but take in the grandeur of the Fighter''s Guild. The walls were adorned with all manner of weapons, from swords and maces to bows and arrows. Fighters of all shapes and sizes mingled about, their armor clanking with every step they took. The air was thick with the pungent smell of sweat and leather, making me feel like I was right in the beating heart of a well-oiled organization. As we reached the top of the stairs, the Secretary led me into a large room that was spacious, with high ceilings and gothic windows that let in plenty of natural light. The room was adorned with dark columns supporting a somewhat grimy ceiling painted with fading gold and white flower motifs. Crystal lanterns hung from overhead, casting a warm glow. In the center of the room was a large, long table, behind which sat a woman of regal bearing. I recognized her at once as the Guild owner, Martoness Limbar. Other Guilders garnished in gold robes sat at the table, enjoying their lunch with pretty girls in thin chain-mail serving them fried calamari. Burly fighters stood behind each of the Guilders, their eyes watchful and alert. "Your Grace," the Secretary said, bowing low. "Our little Adventurer, Grogtilda Lic Misem is here to see you." All eyes turned towards me and my two filthy, slouched companions, the sound of their footsteps muffled by the thick carpet underfoot. The Guilders regarded us with a mixture of curiosity and disdain, their eyes sizing us up as if we were mere specks of dust. It was a tense moment, but I stood tall, my head held high, and met their gaze without flinching. I knew that I had come too far to back down now. Martoness Limbar looked up from her meal and fixed me with an appraising gaze. The aged, plump, balding woman who owned the Fighters Guild stretched atop her ornate leather couch, her eyes gleaming with a mix of amusement and curiosity as she scrutinized me. Her face was etched with deep wrinkles, and her hair was thin and wispy. A red robe decorated with gold stars and dragon-shaped patterns sat on her body. Despite her aged appearance, there was a sharpness to her gaze that made me feel as though she could see right through me. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. "Ah, the prodigal girl returns," she said, her lips curling into a sly smile. "I am surprised to see you here, Miss Misem. I would have thought you stayed in uptown, living a life of luxury and excess." ¡°Yes, Martoness Limbar,¡± I smirked back at my owner, my expression becoming that of pure hatred and malice. ¡°I¡¯m back¡­ home.¡± "You¡¯re the first person in centuries who managed to escape Undertown and mingle with the upworlders," the woman said, her voice low and measured. "Do tell me, how did you do it?" I ignored her question and stood firm, trying to maintain my composure despite the tremble in my knees. "I have returned to Undertown to fulfill a mission," I said, my voice growing firmer with every word. "I have come to end those who own me and my family as slaves." The crime boss chuckled, a dark sound that echoed through the room. "How quaint. And how exactly do you plan to do that, Miss Misem? With your bare hands?" she sneered. "Yes," I said, my eyes narrowing as I spoke. I tilted my head in the direction of my companion on the right, a sly smile playing on my lips. "Spare the Secretary and the Matroness, obliterate the rest of these scum." Baroness Amadea, who had been previously slouching and covering her figure with a shawl, suddenly straightened up to her full height, throwing off the shawl, and revealing her immense figure. Her movements were fluid and precise, as she moved with lightning-fast speed, her hands a blur, striking out with deadly accuracy at the Guilders. They were no match for her, and with the shard of Eureka powering her, she was an unstoppable force. The paladium armacus unfurled on my hand. I pulled the trigger and activated the wide repulsor beam. All around me in a perfect circle the fighters, female servants, and guild magi fell to the floor, frothing at the mouth in pain. Only a few Guilders remained upright. They seemed to possess personal artifact shields that allowed them to resist the repulsor. It didn''t matter - they were no match for the hands of Amadea. Voltara also threw off her filthy shawl and her armacus unfurled, ready for action. She began to bring down the fighters that rushed towards us with the Focused Repulsor beam. Amadea¡¯s bare hands went through armor and flesh alike, showering the room in blood. Within moments, the only one left standing was the boss, who was now sweating profusely and backing away from Amadea, her eyes wide with fear. The Matroness attempted to lift her own armacus-covered hand, but she was far too slow compared to the two-hundred year old high-cendai. Amadea appeared next to the Matroness, crushed her fingers, and ripped the armacus off the old woman''s hand. The Guilder wailed, holding her shattered bones. As the room descended into chaos, I couldn''t help but let out a barking laugh, as all pompousness and resistance were completely drained from the faces of my owners. "I have no quarrel with you or your new upworld Masters, Miss Misem!" the Fighters Guild boss hissed, her voice shaking. "We can work something out. You and your family can be freed, and we can forget all about this!" "Oh, I don''t just want to be free," I said, taking a step closer to her. "I want justice. I''m ending the rule of the Undertown Guilds once and for all. I¡¯m going to clean up Undertown and nothing will stand in my way!" My voice was cold and loud, my determination unbreakable. ¡°You¡¯re mad¡­ you can¡¯t possibly take down all of the Guilds,¡± the Matroness croaked, staring at Amadea¡¯s blood-soaked hands. ¡°You cannot change the nature of Undertown because it feeds on the sins of those above us. New filth will always swim to the surface.¡± "You are right," I said, my voice dripping with malice. "Undertown is a dirty place, but I''ll be the one to permanently make it nice and spotless. Starting with you." The woman''s face twisted in fear as I drew closer, her eyes darting nervously between me and my blood-covered companion. Amadea let out a snicker, her face lit up with a sadistic glee. "This is fun," she grinned, licking the blood from her lips. The Matroness paled further. I smiled maliciously, relishing in the fear that I had instilled in the Guilder. "Voltara, put my bag down," I said, my eyes never leaving the woman''s face. The maid complied, sliding Saccy off her shoulders and carefully placing it on the ground. The Guilder looked at us in concern, her eyes darting between the three of us and the bag. "I''m going to keep you alive for a bit longer, Matroness Limbar," I said. "My Master wishes to have you over for dinner. Bind her." Voltara pulled out a length of rope and quickly tied up the woman, her movements efficient and precise. She then unceremoniously shoved the Matroness into Saccy and went inside herself, her face a mask of indifference. The knight-maids of Baroness Amadea poured from the bag. The armored maids rapidly filled the halls of the Fighters Guild, their presence sending shivers down the spines of the Guilders who had witnessed the carnage. The maids were now wearing hex-bomb collars, primed to slice their necks off at any given moment. Amadea no longer trusted their Vows, since she had learned that they could be used against her by Goddess Eunisii. ¡°Execute anyone who resists,¡± Amadea ordered. ¡°Collar the highest level fighters and make them swear allegiance to the new Baroness of Undertown - Grogtilda Lic Misem!¡± The fighters didn¡¯t last long. They were capped at level twenty while Amadea¡¯s Vitality-maxing maids were pretty much impossible to permanently injure. Voltara snapped a hex-collar around the neck of the Guild Secretary. The woman looked up at me, her eyes filled with tears of pain from the repulsor pulse. "This guild and you belong to me now, got it?" I leered at her. The Guild Secretary nodded rapidly. My entire life I was terrified of this woman and now she was at my feet, helpless and obedient like a little puppy that had been thoroughly scalded. There was primal fear etched in her gaze, a nightmarish vision of the blood painting the walls, floor and ceiling of the top floor of the Fighter''s Guild that had completely shattered her resolve. "One down, thirty two to go," I stretched, picking up a fruit from the opulent table and snacking on it. The curiosity of the guilds to meet the girl who escaped Undertown would be their own downfall. Baroness Amadea chuckled, her eyes gleaming with a mix of amusement and bloodlust. "You are the kind of playmate I have been looking for for centuries," she laughed, looking down at me. ¡°Oh how I appreciate a good house cleaning. Thanks for inviting me to your coronation, my love.¡± I smiled, feeling a sense of satisfaction swell within me. Tonight I would vanquish the corrupt, corpulent and vile Guilds of Undertown and bring order and justice to those who had suffered under their rule for far too long. Or so I told Amadea. It was true that I wanted the Guilds out of the way, but I also needed yummy souls. Who but the Guild Bosses of Undertown would provide the spectral sustenance for my dragolich Master to feast upon? Ch 131. Confining the Breach
I leaned closer towards Thomas scrutinizing him with great attention. My mind dug through the memories of Archmage Zariya Grimmaldri, which defined Thomas as a conceptoid belonging to the Dead Zone. Accompanied by his mates, which I could only describe as blob-cucumber-slug-like creatures, Thomas lacked specificity and seemed to have no apparent theme. As I lifted my gaze towards the infinite breach that fractured the sky, I couldn''t help but feel a sense of awe mixed with trepidation. The shear was an error in space-time, a fissure in reality with great and terrible potential. The memories of Archmage Zariya brought forth vivid recollections of the USSRA Dead Zone research foundation. These recollections informed me that this fissure was a self-sustaining and unguided Autogenesis substrate. As I looked back at Thomas and his ambiguous companions, I realized that they were nothing more than a vague idea of life. Their existence was blurry and poorly defined, and it was the shear that manifested them. The longer I observed the blinding flickering fissure, the more I recalled and understood about its nature. The breach was an inversion of a void engine, the opposite of a black hole. It was a white hole, a region of spacetime and singularity that was impossible to enter. The shear emanated energy-matter, light, information power, and magic in radiant waves, causing lightning flashes that painted the landscape in patterns, refractions, and colors that made my eyes water. Zariya knew about white holes! In 1964, USSRA Archmage Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov and his team of explorers discovered white holes in the Dead Zone Oceania territories surrounding USSRA. They documented these reality-fractures and studied how they warped and molded life around them. I recalled how most of the magi in Novikov''s expedition went insane and perished. They had become seduced, enraptured by the manifestations of their dreams and desires and were eventually devoured by their own nightmares. The white hole was noise and chaos, an out-of-control singularity turned inside out. If I were to lower my hex shield, my human thoughts would be exposed to it, and the inverted singularity would imbue them with power and life, twist them unnaturally, combine them with each other, and set them skittering like bugs all over this dead world. The tear in reality was a well of power, and luckily for me, it was completely unguarded, not corrupted by thoughts of people around it yet because the neutron detonation had vaporized every single human on this version of Earth. Thanks to my Vitality threads, my body was being constantly rewound backwards in time, burning through Zariya''s mana. These threads were keeping me alive in this dead world, ensuring that my blood had enough oxygen, but I couldn''t help but wonder how long they would keep doing that. The lack of food and water was a looming problem that I definitely needed to solve. As I weighed my options, my mind drifted towards the white hole before me. It was Infinity unbound, a substrate of unconstrained limitlessness. I wondered if I could bind this fracture and give it form. Could I make it less of a chaotic mess? The answer was a resounding... yes. With enough focus and dedication, I could theoretically loop the white hole into itself, turning it into a fractal engine that belonged to me. I mentally went over the hexagrams that I knew, trying to find the one concept or idea that matched me best. And then it came to me. Of course, it had to be that one. Determined to see my mission through, I set myself upon the task at hand, slowly circling the shear. Every hundred steps or so, I stopped and drew an infinity hexagram on the ground with a sharp rock. Thomas, the ambiguous life-form accompanied me, jiggling and undulating as if it tried to understand what I was doing. It was likely attempting to leech thoughts from me, to become more coherent. I smiled at it and resumed my laborious, slow process. . . . As I opened my eyes, I rose from my comfortable couch, feeling a sense of renewed energy coursing through my veins. I was back on Earth, back in the comfort of my own home. Pavel was peering down at me from the chair by the computer, clearly eager to hear about my latest misadventure. "How did your leap go?" he asked, his voice laced with anticipation. "I got... exactly what I wanted," I replied. However, just as the words left my mouth, Cassie''s memories came crashing down on me like a tidal wave. The loss of everything and everyone she held dear was brutal and monstrous, and I couldn''t help but choke on the overwhelming pain that she had experienced. I buried myself in Pavel''s chest, seeking solace from the emotional pain that threatened to consume me. The sense of loss didn''t last long. I was a being that was made up of the dreams, hopes, desires, nightmares, and fears of a multitude of the various possibilities of me. I was a monstrous jellyfish, a conglomeration of all the souls that had comprised me - Cassie, Yulia, Juni, Zariya, Leon and more. Cassie''s pain was merely a small thread getting stabbed, and it didn''t skewer all of me. I was greater than the individual souls that had come together to form me. "I..." I muttered finally, my voice low and contemplative. "I skewered a teenage-girl-me named Cassie, who was doomed to die. I shielded her with the power of the Archmage-me as her world burned to ashes. And now, I have an empty planet and an infinite fissure in reality... a white hole at my disposal. From what I understand, it is both a blessing and a curse." Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. As I looked around the familiar surroundings of my home, I realized that most of me was still in that distant corpse world - a place where I was slowly taking control of the white hole and working tirelessly to shape it to my will. The vision of that dead Earth, one hundred million years in the future, wasn''t just a mere memory - it was happening right now, in the present. I saw a sky that was a sickly orange color, polluted and thick with ash and dust, while the ground under my feet was barren, cracked and dry. The other me, Cassie, was being motivated by a primal, animalistic urge - thirst and hunger, by pure will to survive. I didn¡¯t want to lose my life upon that doomed world, didn''t want to give up. I kept going even though I knew that there wasn¡¯t enough time to fully bind and use the white hole before Cassie¡¯s body succumbed to exhaustion. As I turned back to Pavel, I could see the curious expression on his face in the dimly lit room of my grandfather''s cottage. I could also see the sand-covered ruins of a once-thriving city of Eureka, now reduced to islands of hexagonal-textured metal. Cassie¡¯s small footsteps made a gargantuan circle around the shear binding it with the remnant of her will. I also saw as Arcmage Zariya was unceremoniously pulled from her office, handcuffed and shoved into a grey, metal room by the USSRA NKVD. Wizard Revolution had caught onto what I was doing. I was running out of time. As I continued to stare at things with three pairs of eyes at the same time, I felt a sharp pain in my head. It was as if my brain was boiling from within, struggling to accommodate thrice the amount of information. I rubbed my temples, trying to focus. "Migraine?" Pavel guessed. "Want an Advil?" "You know, Pavel," I muttered. "I don''t think that Advil will help with being freaking superpositioned." I automated most of my mental activity that was taking place on the surface of the corpse world and within the confines of the metal room and focused on Pavel. My friend¡¯s inquisitive expression urged me to tell him about my experiences as Cassie Lazari Nova, a girl born in Eureka, from the moment when she put on the Neural Interface helmet designed by Dr. Nova and Dr. Gromov on her head. "So, why exactly did everyone perish on that ill-fated planet?" Pavel inquired, interrupting me. Taking a deep breath, I pondered for a moment before responding, "Well, the reason behind the annihilation of the planet was due to the accidental creation of a white hole." Pavel''s eyes widened with amazement as he questioned, "A white hole? Are those even real?" I nodded in agreement, "Yes, they are. White holes are the opposite of black holes. Instead of drawing everything in, they spew matter and energy outwards. The dark matter reactor was engineered to confine black holes, not white holes, so when the white hole unexpectedly ignited into existence, it released a massive energy pulse that turned everything organic on Earth into dust." Pavel''s face twisted into a frown, "Well, that''s... horrifying. So, what caused the black hole to transform into a white hole? Did that happen because of something Cassie did? And what was that eerie melody that you heard right before the black hole turned inside out?" After considering his questions, I speculated, "I believe that melody was Infi''s doing. She freaking loves her enigmatic riddles. The song was likely a reference to the concept of infinity, which is present in all singularities. As for why the black hole inverted, I''m not entirely sure. It''s highly unlikely that the scientists on that planet would have given an untested AI based on a human mind immediate access to a dark matter reactor. But, then again, I am only thirteen there, and nobody disclosed such details to me.¡± ¡°Right,¡± my friend said, rubbing his orange beard. ¡°As a USSRA Archmage Zary, I didn''t have much exposure to white holes either, as they are generally surrounded by terrifying, unkillable monstrosities,¡± I explained. Pavel quipped, "So, one cannot just walk into a white hole?" I chuckled at his jest, "No, one cannot. White holes are incredibly hazardous. Anything living that comes within their event horizon gets transmogrified into something else. Even Archmages have to exercise extreme caution and absolute shielding while approaching a white hole. There''s always the possibility of being assaulted by an Autogenesis thought-manifestation that''s half elephant, half human, and half lasers." Pavel quipped once again, "So, don''t think about pink elephants near white holes?" ¡°Correct,¡± I replied with a smirk, "Don''t think about anything near white holes." Pavel let out a sardonic chuckle, the corners of his lips drawing upwards. "If I ever have the chance to encounter a white hole, I''ll make certain to clear my mind like a Buddhist," he said, amused by the thought. I rolled my eyes, but couldn''t help but smile at his lighthearted remark. However, his tone quickly shifted, becoming more serious as he turned his attention to me. Intrigue filled my friend''s voice as he posed the question, "Yulia, what do you plan to do with the white hole?" His concern was palpable, and I could feel the weight of the task ahead of me. I paused, taking a deep breath as I considered my options. "First and foremost," I replied, my voice measured and calm. "I need to ensure that the white hole is fully stabilized, for it is a force of immense power that must be handled with care and precision." "I have faith in you," Pavel nodded, his expression thoughtful. "Sorry, I can''t be of more help." I felt grateful for his words of encouragement, but also a sense of determination. "Unfortunately, I don''t have much time left," I sighed. "Cassie''s body won''t last long, and I must act quickly to ensure my survival." Pavel''s curiosity piqued as he asked, "Can''t you magic food or water into existence?" I shook my head, "Alas, there is far too much interference from the white hole there to manifest food or water that won¡¯t suddenly come alive or poison me." I sighed and drew my attention away from my cozy cottage. With my eyes fixed on the horizon, I knew that the task ahead of me was not an easy one, but I was determined to see it through. I would shape this damned white hole into something that would aid my survival and potentially secure my future. . . . The passage of time seemed to accelerate as I remained focused on etching hexagrams onto the ground, each symbol imbued with a magical intent that would bring me closer to my ultimate goal. The effort was grueling, and with every passing hour, my body felt weaker and weaker, but I persevered with an unyielding determination, knowing that even the slightest pause would be my undoing. Suddenly, a sound - faint, distant, but unmistakable - broke through the haze of my concentration. My eyes shot up, scanning the sky for the source of the disruption, and what I saw took my breath away. A colossal pyramidal warship, wrapped in iridescent shields, materialized above me with a thunderous detonation that displaced the very air around it. USSRA had somehow managed to track me down, finally figured out why Zariya was being drained of her magic! Panic seized me, and my heart raced as I watched in stunned silence, my hand dropping the stone tool I had been using to etch the hexagrams into the sand. The air in front of me shimmered and folded in complex patterns, weaving a distinctive human figure into existence. It was a woman, dressed in a black leather uniform that seemed to accentuate her already formidable presence. Her appearance was reminiscent of a black, red, and white version of Che Guevara, complete with a white star shimmering on her beret. Her figure wobbled ever so slightly at the edges, as she was made from semi-transparent dots of ink that hung in the air. I lifted my hand towards the invader of my domain, shaping my fingers into the shape of a gun, concepting my Endy-gun, ready for whatever came next. "Wizard Revolution," I uttered, my voice trembling with trepidation. The Soviet-god-manifestation wasn''t going to take me alive. Ch 132. The Princess and the System Wizard
Revolution''s glittering, blood-red eyes with triangular pupils squinted at me with a hint of suspicion. "Pardon me, young wizardling, but have we had the pleasure of meeting before?" she inquired, her voice laced with intrigue and curiosity. I took a step back, my heart racing as I tried to gather my thoughts. "We know each other far too well, Revolution," I hissed, trying to keep my composure in front of the Soviet manifestation. Revolution tilted her head, her eyes still fixed on me. "Oh?" she said, her tone almost playful. "Do tell." Despite my fear, I knew I couldn''t back down. I remained silent for a moment, gathering my courage and trying to define Revolution and the USSRA warship that loomed over me as much as possible in case I had to unexist her. "Revolution, you are the embodiment of a powerful idea, a force that has shaped the course of histories," I began, my voice steady. "Your legacy is known, even in this distant corner of the manufactured multiverse." Revolution seemed pleased with my answer, and began to circle me slowly, like a predator stalking its prey. "I must admit, I''m impressed by your knowledge, little wizardling," she said. "But let''s cut to the chase. Someone has been draining the soul of my Archmage, and I have reason to believe that you might be involved." I felt a chill run down my spine at her words. "I don''t know what you''re talking about," I said, trying to sound convincing. Revolution was not easily fooled. "Don''t play dumb with me," she said, her eyes flashing with anger. "I tracked the vector to this Dead Zone sector, and I found you here, laying claim to a white hole. You have some explaining to do, wizardling." "I don''t have anything to say to you," I retorted, my voice tinged with defiance. "Get off my property. Go overthrow the aristocracy somewhere else. I¡¯m the princess of this planet and its only citizen. I¡¯m my own proletariat." The god-concept made of floating drops, let out a barking laugh at my declaration. She continued to circle me with a menacing aura. Her feet didn''t leave any imprints on the orange sand beneath us, making her movement seem uncanny and otherworldly. It was as if she was being repeatedly drawn onto the landscape by an invisible giant hand. "Obstinate child," Revolution said, her voice dripping with disdain. "It''s clear to me that you can''t survive here. Come with me, and we can resolve this peacefully." "I don''t want to come with you," I said, my eyes narrowing as I glared at her. "I know what the USSRA does to wizards like me. Don''t even think about pinning me with one of those red Stars." Revolution let out a low chuckle, as if amused by my defiance. "Oh, I won''t need to do that," she said, her tone almost patronizing. "You''re no match for me, wizardling. But I''m not here to fight you. I''m here to offer you something other than a star." I raised an eyebrow, surprised by her sudden change in tone. "What do you mean?" I asked warily. Revolution stopped circling me and floated in front of me, her eyes fixed on mine. "I want to help you. I know you''re in over your head with this white hole business, and I know you''re not equipped to deal with the consequences." "I will not be bound to your will. I refuse to serve you," I spat. Revolution''s black glove made from floating liquid ink pointed at the fracture in the sky, her sudden gesture making me flinch. "If you stay here, you will die," she said, her tone grim. "That''s a white hole, and it''s not something you can control without proper education." "I know what it is," I replied. "And I know what I''m doing. Leave me alone." Revolution laughed again, her voice echoing across the barren landscape. "You think that I want your white hole, wizardling?" she asked. "Then why are you here?" I demanded. Revolution shook her head. "USSRA has enough fractal engines to keep itself stable until the end of time. I don''t care about your little experiment, wizardling. What I care about is my Archmage, Zariya." I felt a pang of guilt as she mentioned Zariya''s name. "Your Zariya?" I repeated, my voice barely a whisper. "Yes, my Zariya," Revolution said, her voice softening slightly. "She''s being drained of her magic to keep your shield up, wizardling. I had to give her some of MY power so that she would not turn into a prune." I took a step forward, my eyes blazing with righteous indignation. "I am Zariya!" I barked, my voice rising. "And for once in my life, I''m free. I don''t belong to you or anyone else. Get lost or I will nullify your ass!" Revolution''s expression became a tad more hostile. "You are playing with fire, wizardling," she said. "Zariya will die soon if you do not cease what you are doing. Her body cannot exist without mana. Her organs are beginning to decay from within." I peered through Zariya''s eyes at the metal room she was in and immediately felt a wave of nausea. Her body wasn''t in pain, but something about the view made me feel sick. I quickly flashed my full attention back to Cassie''s body, hoping to regain my balance. Was Revolution lying to me? Did she pump some sort of gas into the enclosed room where Zariya was in to trick me? Revolution raised an eyebrow, clearly amused at my sudden discomfort. "Nullify me?" she repeated, "do you even know what that means, little wizardling?" I took a deep breath. "It means that I will erase you from existence," I said. I was tired, thirsty, and my hands were shaking. "Such bravado," she tutted. "But you''re forgetting something. I''m a living idea. Even if you somehow manage to obliterate me here, I''ll simply re-manifest on my warship." Revolution pointed her gloved fingers at the pyramidal structure hanging in the sky above us, triangular pupils gleaming with a sense of superiority. "Even if you somehow manage to destroy Roraima, I will re-manifest in USSRA, a place where I have a network of a multitude of fractal engines and the combined belief of billions. You can''t kill an idea like me - far too many indentured people dream of their own Revolution." I gritted my teeth. She was right. I couldn''t take her on alone. "So, what''s your offer exactly?" I asked. Revolution regarded me with a thoughtful expression. "I understand your desire for freedom, wizardling. But there are things more important than your selfish individual wants and needs." I glared at her, my frustration mounting. "What could be more important than freedom?" I demanded. "How are you even the concept of the Revolution if you don''t get that?" If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Revolution took a step closer to me. "Stop flapping around. I¡¯m here to help you." "I''m not joining the USSRA," I shook my head. "I don''t want to be bound by the Stars I built, don''t want to be lulled into false happiness. I want to be free." "You''re my Zariya and yet you are not," she said. "Curious. No matter. I am a lawful Good System Wizard, not a pirate. I will respect your claim of the unfinished fractal engine and the dead world it shears - keep your marker here so that you can return to it later." "Keep it and go where?" I asked, my voice tinged with uncertainty. "You''re a System Wizard," Revolution said. "It¡¯s my job to offer you placement in Manchester University of System Wizards." I sputtered in disbelief. "What?" "By the accord made between firstborn installer-conceptoids and humanity, all humans who have ascended beyond their multicellular body past the googolplex limit-state or laid claim to a fractal engine are to be granted access to the city of System Wizards," Revolution explained, her voice calm and measured, the fire in her red eyes dimming slightly. Her expression became replaced with the look of an accountant as she dug in her pocket and pulled out a yellow sticky note with a drawing of an owl on it. "Here you go," she said, holding out the sticky note to me. "This is your ticket to Manchester." I stared at the note in her hand, my mind racing with questions. "I don''t understand," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "This note is your ticket to the city of System Wizards," Revolution repeated, waving the sticky note in front of me. "It''s an opportunity to learn from the best and brightest of our kind." I shook my head, feeling a sense of disbelief wash over me. "What the hell?" I growled, my voice rising slightly. "Since when is this a thing? Since when are you..." "Since I swallowed my first fractal engine," Revolution said with a sigh, her eyes fixed on mine. "I was there, in the beginning of it all, when the accord was made between ascended humanity and machine life. Take the ticket, wizardling." I regarded Revolution warily, unsure whether I could trust her. After all, she was the god of the USSRA, a powerful entity with seemingly limitless power. How could I be sure that this yellow sticky note wouldn''t turn me into an owl or enslave me like the resonance Stars? "I do wish there was less of you," Revolution sighed, her eyes narrowing slightly. "But I suppose what''s done is done." I blinked in confusion at her words, unsure of what she meant. "What are you talking about?" I asked, my voice tinged with uncertainty. "Not a big fan of hive minds," Revolution explained, her tone laced with a hint of annoyance. "Please take the ticket. I have places to be." I hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to do. But then, an idea popped into my head. "Stick it on Thomas," I said, pointing to the cucumber-slug. Revolution rolled her eyes but did as I asked, sticking the yellow paper onto the creature''s scaly head. I watched as the note settled onto Thomas'' glistening skin, feeling a sense of relief when nothing happened to the vague creature. Perhaps it really was just a ticket, a representation of some sort of agreement between AI and ascended humanity. "The pact has been made," Revolution said, turning away from me. "I''ll see you at orientation." "What orientation?" I demanded, feeling a sense of frustration building within me. I was exhausted both mentally and physically, my body and soul at their limits. "All clueless wizardlings like yourself will be taught everything you need to know at the Manchester University of System Wizards," Revolution replied, her tone dry and slightly mocking. "What¡¯s going to happen to my other body?" I asked, feeling a sense of unease creeping into my mind. "Do you want to abandon your responsibilities to the USSRA, Zariya?" Revolution tilted her head, her eyes fixed on mine. "You want to leave Slava all alone?" I hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to say. "I... I do not," I finally admitted, feeling a sense of guilt and shame wash over me. "I see," Revolution said, her voice softening slightly. "She will be let out of her current containment and rejuvenation chamber once you stop sucking her dry. You''re free to do whatever you want, Zariya-junior. You were never bound to begin with. You could have left anytime, my little idiot. The Resonance Stars don''t make you a prisoner! Your own sense of responsibility to protect our people is what kept you working with me all of these decades." I felt a sense of relief wash over me at her words, feeling as though a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Perhaps there was a way out of this after all. As I stood there, contemplating my next move, I couldn''t help but wonder if perhaps Revolution wasn''t the monster I had made her out to be. Maybe, just maybe, she could help me in my quest. With a sense of resignation, I spoke up. "I want a gate," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. Revolution nodded in agreement, her eyes fixed on mine. "I''ll make a one-way, one-time use gate for you," she said. "It will take you anywhere you wish to go. I recommend you use it to go to Manchester, Mercury." "And if I don''t go to Manchester?" I asked, feeling a sense of defiance building within me. Revolution''s gaze drifted to the massive circle I had made in the sand around the shear, her eyes taking in the intricate design with a look of what looked like pride. "The first ring of your marker looks about finished," she said. "If you manage to turn it into a Sumerian Difference Engine and then a true Fractal Engine, it will give you the power of creation. But if you misuse it, if you try to violate the Rules or the Compact between humanity and Apps, you will be put down by Three or one of us." "One of you? Why?" I asked, my curiosity piqued. Revolution nodded, her expression serious. "System Wizards that terminate concepts instead of creating them accumulate negative karma. If you keep using those concept-killing blades of yours - you will eventually be captured, judged, and imprisoned for the crime of unlawful nullification. You already smell like a darkling, my dear. Do share, how many concepts have you permanently erased from existence?" I felt a sense of shame wash over me as I thought back to all the times I had used Endy to destroy rocks, books, vows, phantoms and other things. "Three terminates concepts too," I said defensively. "Three erases things that threaten the stability of the System," Revolution replied briskly. "He is the Law. We do not violate the Law of Goodness." I shook my head in disbelief, feeling frustrated with her. "This is ridiculous," I muttered. "The Dead Zone devours entire planets. Why is it allowed to exist while my little infinity-blades are illegal?" "Ordinary destruction does not completely eradicate an idea of something," Revolution explained patiently. "A destroyed planet or a rock can always be brought back into existence by a System Wizard. Disrupting a concept with infinity makes it impossible to retrieve or repair it." I felt a sense of dread wash over me as I understood the implications of her words. "The only reason I haven''t summoned the Bobbies," Revolution continued, her voice softening slightly, "is because you''re my little, clueless Zariya. Heed my warning - stop nullifying things before it''s too late!" With that said, Revolution added the word "ANYWHERE" to the sketched door, lowered her chalk, winked at me, and then flickered, folding away into nothingness, as if she had never existed at all. Standing alone amidst the desolate ruins, I found myself staring at the yellow sticky note that was attached to Thomas. The howling wind and the swirling ashes only served to remind me of the harshness of this barren wasteland. I knew that Cassie''s body required sustenance, and despite the fact that my Vitality threads and Zariya''s hex-ward provided me with temporary reprieve, I couldn''t survive indefinitely without food and water. My eyes drifted upwards towards the sky, and I saw the warship Roraima looming above me. The colossal pyramid-shaped vessel, comprised of smaller pyramids and adorned with colors that defied description, rotated slowly before turning away from me and disappearing from view as quickly as it had appeared. I couldn''t help but wonder if Revolution''s offer of a new life in Manchester was genuine. Perhaps there was a chance for me to learn and grow as a System Wizard and, in doing so, find a way to help Slava, the people of USSRA, Pavel and everyone everywhere that I cared for. Could I help the multiverse itself if I became a System Wizard? I put my hand onto the massive ring of hexagrams on the sand and injected a small, mindless segment of my soul into it. The entire five-kilometer-wide ring beneath me ignited with power as my soul spread across it, fueled by the ever-burning inferno of the white hole. I squinted at the blinding radiance of the ring I made. It worked! I felt the ring, knew that no matter where I went this world and its white hole now belonged to me. Taking a deep breath, I approached the chalk drawing on the wall, my eyes fixed on the fake door that had been sketched there. As I stepped closer, I noticed that the chalk sketch of the door handle was becoming increasingly three-dimensional in nature. Without hesitation, I reached out and grasped the strange, 2.5D handle with my hand, feeling a sense of anticipation building within me. I somehow knew, felt that by turning the knob and opening this door, I could venture forth to any destination I desired. I could immerse myself in the city of System Wizards and obtain the power to create entire worlds, becoming a god in my own right. However, doing so would require taking the yellow ticket from Thomas. Doing so would require me to bow to the likes of Three and Revolution, to accept their ¡°Law¡± as the immutable truth. With all this in mind, I made my decision. "Take me to the body of Juni I left in Nemendias," I said, turning the doorknob with a sense of contumacious determination. Ch 133. Invincible
I flew sideways into the dimly lit chamber with a sense of trepidation, not sure if the door took me where I wanted to go. I landed poorly and my knee collided with the sharp corner of the bed, causing an excruciating pain to shoot up my leg. The single-use door, which was drawn in chalk by Wizard Revolution on a crumbling wall, didn''t function as expected, flinging me to the floor without any sense of direction. I groaned in agony as I slowly rose. As my eyes adjusted to the dim chamber, I climbed into the bed stolen from Amadea¡¯s palace. As my pale hand found Juni''s armored one I flooded my soul into my chimera body, reestablishing my connection with it. Finally, I was back! As I dispelled the absolute shield around Cassie¡¯s thin frame and collapsed her into the bed, a wave of relief washed over me. I had finally come home to my beloved Sunshine Archipelago, my treasured Nemendias, my cherished Illatius. Being back in Juni¡¯s agile, crystalline-organic body made me feel whole once again. As I energetically leapt off the table as Juni, I felt a sense of liberation and a renewed sense of purpose. Suddenly, with a brilliant flash of a giant hexagram on the floor, Nemendias manifested in her Heart room. A window on the empty wall ignited into existence, bathing the room with daylight and highlighting her long, silver hair. Nemmy was taken aback by the sight of Cassie''s body lying on the floor, and her voice betrayed her shock, "Who is that?! How did she get in here?" I knew that I had some explaining to do, so I took a deep breath and replied, "It''s me, another version of myself, a little Princess who owns a dead world. She¡­ err¡­ I gated here from a doomed planet." The avatar of Nemendias stared at me with a perplexed expression. As I stood before her my mind swirled with a flurry of emotions. I tried to recollect myself after my mad trip across space and time. "Did you know that Instructor Rozaline is actually the manifestation of Installation Rozaline?" I posed the question to Nemmy. ¡°WHAT?¡± Nemmy blinked a few times, clearly taken aback by the enormity of the revelation. I could sense her trying to wrap her mind around the information that I had just shared. "I know," I sighed heavily, the weight of the truth bearing down on me. "It''s hard to believe that our Historymancy teacher is actually the avatar of a freaking hollow moon built by Eurekan machines one hundred million years ago. And to top it all off, she doesn''t seem to like me very much." Nemmy''s curiosity was piqued, and she arched an eyebrow, prompting me to elaborate further. "Why doesn''t she like you?" she probed. I felt a sense of resignation wash over me as I explained, "She thinks that I''m cheating in her game." "What game?" she asked, her voice laced with concern. I hissed out my response, my frustration mounting with each passing moment. "Her precious narrative," I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "The game in which we''re all just non-player-characters, doomed to die because there''s no hero to save us." As Nemmy absorbed this information, I could see the gravity of the situation slowly sinking in. ¡°I see,¡± she said. "To add to that, she has a pet dragon of such immense power that it can easily surpass your ward," I continued, watching as Nemendias recoiled in shock at this revelation. "Impossible! What manner of creature can hide in my ward?" she growled, clearly taken aback by the sheer audacity of this information. ¡°It¡¯s some kind of an undead abomination that can take over people''s souls,¡± I nodded gravely, confirming the truth of my words. "An ancient dracolich masquerading as an old skeleton has been residing in a room full of unsuspecting children in the Historymancy classroom," I added, trying to emphasize the direness of the situation. It was at this point that I felt compelled to ask Nemmy if she had noticed any peculiarities in my behavior over the past few days. "Have you noticed that something was amiss? Did I... err Grogtilda act weird since the Historymancy lecture?" I implored. "Dawn, did you not notice anything?" I glanced at the portrait of the star-woven girl on the wall. Nemmy looked at me quizzically, trying to make sense of my words. Dawn looked at me from her drawing. "I cannot see a person''s future unless they provide me mana," the painting sighed. "Grogtilda took the dress off. I do not know what she is up to." "Were you not inhabiting Grogtilda''s body?" Nemendias asked, her brow furrowed in confusion. "Your soul seemed a bit¡­ weak, but I assumed it was normal what with your consciousness leaping between various bodies." Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I felt the need to clarify everything, so I took a deep breath and began recounting my story from the moment I had first encountered Rozaline in her classroom. As I spoke, Dawn''s and Nemmy''s expressions grew darker with each passing moment. "This is preposterous! I cannot believe what I am hearing," Nemendias exclaimed, her voice laced with a mixture of disbelief and anger. "We need to do something about this," I sighed. ¡°Do you not feel a problem in your ward in that room?¡± "I do not,¡± Nemmy confessed. ¡°The Hall of History ward is showing no issues whatsoever. Damnation!¡± I paused for a moment, considering our options. "We need to call up the gang and let them know what happened," I said finally. . . . An hour later, Lambert, Antoine, Agatha, and Emerald had gathered around me in the Heart-Stone room of Nemendias. "Your¡­ new human body is adorable," Emerald remarked, staring at Cassie''s sleeping form. "Thanks," I smirked, amused by her comment. "Let me get this straight," Lambert said, an incredulous look on his face. "A high-level dracolich abomination that killed Archmage Andross is simply hanging in the Hall of History?" I nodded solemnly, confirming it. The situation was dire, and we needed to act fast if we wanted to prevent a disaster. Lambert stared at the avatar of Nemendias. ¡°Yes,¡± Nemmy sighed. ¡°I cannot define it as alive. I suspect that my ward in that lecture hall has been somehow sabotaged without my notice or the beast is simply stronger than the ward¡­ which means it could take out the entire city if it wanted to. Or perhaps Rozaline is somehow messing with me.¡± ¡°Can you open a pinhole into the classroom?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡­¡± Nemmy blinked. ¡°I cannot. The ward in the room isn¡¯t responding to me.¡± ¡°Seal off the building,¡± Lambert ordered. ¡°I have already reinforced the wards around the Hall of History building,¡± Nemmy said. ¡°No student will get inside.¡± ¡°Is Rozaline there?¡± I asked. ¡°She is,¡± Nemmy nodded. ¡°I guess it¡¯s up to me to take down the dragon then,¡± I pursed my lips. ¡°What are you going to do?¡± Lambert asked. ¡°I¡¯m going to finish the suit of armor I started working on before Rozaline got me derailed,¡± I said. ¡°What sort of a suit can repel the magic of an ancient dracolich?¡± Emerald asked. ¡°A suit of metal impervious to magic,¡± I said in reply, a dangerous smirk dancing on my lips. ¡°What?¡± Everyone turned my way, shock and surprise painted on their faces. . . . As I set to work on my armor, I couldn''t help but feel a sense of excitement coursing through my veins. The thrill of adventure, the rush of adrenaline of finishing off a project pushed me forward. The Heart-Stone room was bathed in a warm, golden light of the setting sun, casting long shadows across the polished floor. The walls were adorned with intricate carvings and glowing runes, and the air was filled with the faint scent of incense. Nemendias watched me. I worked with a sense of purpose, my Endy threads shredding the Eurekan metal into powder which I then mixed with my latex-glue. I lost track of time as I worked, lost in the world of my own creation. As I worked, my mind drifted to the dragon that lay waiting in the Hall of History. I knew that it was a formidable foe, and that my new armor would be put to the test. But I also knew that I was up to the challenge. I had faced worse things as Archmage Zariya, and I had always emerged victorious against the abominations of the Dead Zone. As hours passed, my concoction was ready. I had completely covered Juni''s nightcrawler armor in a layer of magic-impervious latex, leaving only the tiniest hole in my index finger from which I could see things with one of my soul threads and also strike with Endy. I stood up, stretched and stared at my friends. "Hit me with magic and try to take me down," I said, sliding my helmet on. ¡°No spells that can affect the physical environment around me please. Only pure magic that influences the soul.¡± Lambert pointed his armacus at me. "This is a paralysis spell used on criminals," he said. A hexagram flashed above the armacus and the spell struck my body. Nothing happened. I didn''t feel sleepy or paralyzed. Damn, this would have been very useful against Amadea''s hired gangsters in Undertown. "Again," I said. Everyone with the exception of Emerald and Dawn started to fire magic on my person. As the barrage of magic hit my body, I smirked, feeling invincible. The room was bathed in a kaleidoscope of colors, as the spells collided with my armor, creating a dazzling display of light and sound. But through it all, I remained unflinching, my armor holding strong against the onslaught as I peered at the world from a tiny thread on my uncurled finger. As the spells subsided, I pulled my helmet off and looked around at my friends, a broad grin spreading across my face. "I think it''s safe to say that my magic-proof armor is ready," I said, feeling a sense of pride in my creation. "I have to hand it to you, Yulia. You never cease to amaze me," Lambert said, his voice filled with respect. Agatha nodded in agreement. "Indeed. Your fiendish ingenuity is truly unparalleled," she said. "I fear for the fate of Illatius if something like this was to be used against us." I felt a sense of warmth spreading through my chest at their words, enjoying their praises. ¡°I¡¯m not exactly unstoppable,¡± I shrugged. ¡°A single fireball could melt the entire thing off me. This stuff is only a good defense against mental and soul-affecting magic, its completely useless against physical attacks.¡± As I prepared to face the dragon, I could feel a sense of trepidation creeping into my mind. I knew that this would be no easy task, and that the dragon was a formidable and dangerous opponent. But at the same time, I felt a sense of excitement and anticipation. This was what I lived for - the thrill of adventure, the rush of adrenaline of breaking into abandoned places, the joy of facing a dangerous challenge. As I made my way towards the Historymancy building, I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I could hear the sound of my own breathing, and the steady beat of my own pulse. But through it all, I remained focused, my mind clear and sharp. As I entered the Hall of History and pushed the heavy wooden door open, I could see the dragon waiting for me, its dark, unmoving body hanging above the classroom. But I was not afraid. I was ready. Rozaline stood at the lectern next to the dragon, a smile sitting on her lips. "Ready for round two?" She asked with a smug look. ¡°Are you going to stop me?¡± I asked. ¡°No,¡± she said. ¡°This is your battle.¡± I walked to the massive skeleton. The empty eyes of the dracolich flashed. I felt nothing. The hex failed to take hold, failed to penetrate the shield of Eurekan metal impervious to magic. I came as close as possible to the dragon corpse and opened my hand. "Divide by Zero," my lips uttered as I poked the skeleton hanging above me. Ch 134. A Bloody Mess
In the dimly lit classroom, the massive bone dragon loomed before me, its skeletal form casting eerie shadows on the arcane, gothic walls. Its fearsome visage suddenly shimmered, as if distorted by rippling water, and its bones shattered beneath my hand, detonated into a cloud of sparkling, crystalline dust that rained down upon me. As the fragments dispersed like a celestial snowfall, I glimpsed a ghostly imprint of the beast, its ethereal wings unfurling in a hauntingly beautiful display. Despite the abomination''s shell being undone, its spirit clung tenaciously to existence. "Divide by..." I growled out, my voice echoing through the cavern as I once again armed the spell, determined to vanquish this spectral foe. However, the phantom dragon seemed to sense my intentions, and with a speed that belied its gargantuan size, it moved like blinding lightning. It sheared effortlessly through the supposedly impenetrable ward of Nemendias and vanished into the depths of the chasm, leaving naught but a whisper of its presence. "Damnation," I hissed through gritted teeth, lowering my armored hand, the weight of failure settling heavily on my shoulders. "I did say that I designed him to be unkillable," Rozaline chimed in, the smugness in her voice as palpable as the cool air of the classroom. With a sigh, I turned my body to face the insufferable instructor, her silhouette outlined by the sunset shining through the windows of the Hall of History. Her black eyes sparkled with a mixture of amusement and pride, as if she had just successfully taught a particularly troublesome student a valuable lesson. I noted that time stood still once more. The room seemed to close in around me, as my breath came short. I didn''t manage to obliterate the creature, I had only scared it away. Within the tide of rising bleakness, I couldn''t help but feel a spark of determination ignite within me, fueled by my other selves smeared across infinity. "I just needed one more shot," I ground out, my frustration palpable, the words barely escaping my clenched jaw. "Now, tell me, are you going to persist in whatever bullshit this is, or do I need to un-concept you out of existence? Have you, perchance, another monstrous creation lurking beneath the floorboards to hurl at me? I assure you, I am ready." The avatar of the world barked out a laugh, the sound both mocking and oddly endearing in the absolute stillness of our surroundings. "Good show, wizardling," she said, the timbre of her voice echoing that of Wizard Revolution. "Bloody hell," I snapped, my patience wearing thin as the threads of a weathered tapestry. "Are you in cahoots with Infinity or Revolution? Have you orchestrated this entire farce?" Rozaline didn¡¯t say anything, her lips curling into a mysterious, enigmatic smile that only served to heighten my exasperation. "Whatever," I said, rolling my eyes and attempting to regain some semblance of composure. "I managed to chase your unkillable dragon away. What, pray tell, is the next impossible challenge you have devised for me to surmount?" "That would be telling," Rozaline laughed, the melodic cadence of her voice echoing through the chamber and striking an unsettling chord within me, reminiscent of Infinity''s cryptic bullshit. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. "Are you going to stand in my way or help me?" I demanded, my patience fraying like the hem of a well-worn robe. "I will endeavor to kill you," Rozaline replied with unnerving calmness, her obsidian eyes glistening with dark amusement. "Again and again, until the very fabric of the universe burns to ashes and is consumed by the void." "Why?" I snarled at her, the anger within me boiling like a tempestuous sea. "Because that is my narrative," she said, her voice a haunting lullaby that sent shivers down my spine. "I must uphold my narrative, my little hero." As the words left her lips, the world around us seemed to transform, as if a veil had been lifted. Colors blossomed once more, infusing the bleak room with shades of vivid, enchanting hues. The cold, lifeless air was replaced by a warm, invigorating breeze that carried the scent of distant meadows and waterfalls endlessly cascading into the depths of the Infinite Dungeon. The dragon bones looming over the room were gone. Rozaline stood, staring out the gothic windows at the endless chasm, admiring herself no doubt. I huffed at her and departed, I had other things to do. Attacking or demanding things from the stubborn avatar of the planet I was on seemed about as useful as yelling at the sky. . . . I was feeling tired, my topaz-afflicted body ached. My mission for my master was nearly done. Saccy was filled with the bodies of the previous owners of various Undertown establishments. Ten Guilds of Undertown now answered to me, the new Baroness of this forsaken place. I contemplated whether the unwashed masses of human filth down here would be enough to please my master, enough to give the dracolich new strength. Baroness Amadea ordered her maids around as they collared the ladies in charge of the Velvet Vixens Guild that specialized in renting night maidens to the highborn upworlders. I stretched on a violet couch, eating fanciful bread. Bread did not grow in Undertown, this food was likely brought here from above as gifts for the Matroness who''s body was now, too, inside my magic bag. Things were great. After a bit of interrogation, I had harvested the souls of the ten Guilder Masters and they were now residing as pure sustenance in a black talon on my belt, a small shard of the dracolich''s fingernail. The air in front of me suddenly warped and a perfectly square gateway flashed into existence before I could utter a single word. I spotted someone inside that I did not expect to see walking. It was Juni, my own, other body was somehow upright and covered head to toe in pure black armor. ¡°Divide by zero,¡± she said, pointing her finger at me . . . Grogtilda''s body collapsed, as my all-killing two-dimensional Endy blade tore mercilessly through the very core of her soul, annihilating the vile controlling hex that had been insidiously placed within her by the dracolich. With a mixture of relief and trepidation, I stepped out of the Eurekan gate and found myself engulfed by the opulent surroundings where Grogs now resided. "Did you just put yourself to sleep?" Baroness Amadea inquired, her eyes wide with curiosity and wry amusement. I pulled off my helmet and turned to face her, taking in the sight of the high-cendai, who was drenched in blood from head to toe. The marble floor of the room we were in was now a macabre mosaic of gore and violence. Voltara, her expression a mix of shock and awe, blinked at me with her warm brown eyes. ¡°You were able to access the Shogun gate?¡± The maid asked. I nodded to my friend. "My human body required a restorative nap," I explained to Amadea, attempting to maintain a sense of normalcy. "It was losing focus due to the topaz infection. How are things here?" "Under control," Amadea replied, wiping a stray strand of blood-soaked hair from her face. "The Velvet Vixens Guild has been purged of undesirable elements, and my maids are just about done collaring the rest." "Right," I said, my gaze drifting to the lifeless corpses that littered the floor. "How many have you collared in total?" "One thousand two hundred and sixty-two Undertown guilders have been collared," Amadea purred, her voice tinged with a hint of pride. "The collars are tuned to respond to the armacus on your human body. Simply utter an order, and they will either explode and take their heads off or dispense pain that humans cannot handle." "Uh-huh," I tried to sound nonchalant, but the weight of the situation was not lost on me. Great, I leave the planet for a few days, and I return as a bloody slave owner. Way to go, me. I looked down at Grogtilda, her body splayed sideways on the plush violet couch, and wondered what unforeseen consequences awaited me in the aftermath of this grisly affair. This bloody mess would surely take a needless amount of effort to untangle. Ch 135. The Infinite City
It took me over two weeks to completely clear the blasted dracolich-inflicted curse out of Grogtilda. My initial strike had only severed the hex, but not eliminated it completely. I stepped into Probabilitymancy hall with a weary, tired look on my blue-tinted face. Grogtilda¡¯s skin was no longer swollen and the blue streaks had lessened. My persistent, exhausting effort had paid off, I had completely vaporized, burned the dragolich hex and most of the topaz infection out of my human body. ¡°Novitiate Misem?¡± Cinder La Veer, the silver-haired Probabilitymancer Instructor raised an eyebrow when he spotted me. ¡°You finally decide to show yourself to class? Where were you?¡± ¡°I was dead,¡± I replied as I marched into class, wearing my full set of spell-immune armor made from Eurekan metal. My face was dark grey as I had painted it with a layer of metal dust ground into powder and applied with latex spider-glue. ¡°You were¡­ dead?¡± The Instructor blinked. ¡°Yes. I was grievously injured for a while. Instructor Rozaline set an immortal dracolich corpse upon my person as a test of my prowess,¡± I snapped. ¡°Guess what? The Historymancy classroom doesn¡¯t have a dracolich hanging in it anymore. Do you have any further questions, Instructor Veer?¡± The students around me made noises as I sat down on the leather chair with an irate look. My connection to my other selves across the infinite divide flickered, not letting me pull energy fully from my Archmage self. I suspected that Rozaline was cutting me off somehow, screwing with me. I felt exhausted, fed up with everything and everyone, feeling pressed upon by the metaphorical weight of an entire superstructure planetoid working against me. "Novitiate Misem," The Probabilitymancer opened his mouth, potentially to reprimand me. ¡°Do not,¡± I hissed. ¡°You can see the future, can you not? See where you¡¯re going to end up if you keep irritating me." Instructor Veer paled and his mouth snapped shut. He retreated back to his lectern. I wasn¡¯t sure what he saw in his future, but I was ready to physically assault anyone and anything that would get in my way at this point, rules and points and everything else be damned. My armor made me immune to magic, but somewhere out there other high-cendai were hiding, waiting to unleash their Eurekan tools against my person. Somewhere in the depths of the Astral Ocean Eunice was plotting against me and I had no way to stop her machinations, no way to find her minions that would most likely strike me or my friends when I least expected. Several notices had been delivered to my room demanding that I come to talk with the Dean, but I had ignored all of them. The Dean was a tool of Baroness Georgia and while the pranks organized by me and Nemmy were irritating her, she did not quit. If anything, irritating her with magical maladies only seemed to make her more focused on trying to banish me from Nemendias. Thankfully, I was under the protection of the Sanctuary of the Ward so all of her effort amounted to naught. I yawned and tried to focus on the lecture, pushing my unsolvable problems to the back of my mind where my ghostly assistants could deal with it or something. ¡°Anyone can see a very vague future utilizing a variety of artifacts that comb through the Astral Ocean,¡± Instructor Veer said. ¡°But, only those who specialize as Seers and Precogs can see specific futures.¡± ¡°How far ahead can you see the future of our Empire, professor?¡± I asked, my voice resonating across the classroom. ¡°Urm,¡± the professor paused. ¡°Do you see the war with Novazem necromagi? Do you see yourself dying as a flesh eating plague devours your body and blooms into black flowers?¡± I pressed. ¡°Do you see the mountains of dead bodies piled in the street?¡± ¡°I, errr¡­¡± The Probabilitymancer took a step back. ¡°Well?¡± I barked, slamming my metal fist on the table. ¡°Do you? I demand the absolute truth authenticated by the Ward of Nemendias!¡± Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Massive green hexagrams ignited around the professor. His hands started to tremble. ¡°Go on!¡± I ordered. ¡°Tell everyone, do we all die?¡± ¡°Yes, such a future does exist,¡± the silver-haired man nodded wearily after a deep pause as the eyes of the students focused on him. ¡°Why do you bother, professor?¡± I asked. ¡°What¡¯s the point of teaching us how to see the future if there is no future?¡± ¡°Because the future isn¡¯t set in stone,¡± he said. ¡°That¡¯s just one possible, potential outcome from many others. The Archmagi in the Imperial court are aware of what¡¯s coming. Illatius will fall only if we lose the war.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± I laughed. ¡°So you see a positive outcome? A specific path that you can take to survive? A magical solution that the Basq Empire can utilize to win the war?¡± ¡°I¡­ errr,¡± the professor tried to speak, but the green hexagrams of Nemendias and the eyes of the students were pressed against him from all sides. The magic of the ward at full power pushed against him, focused on his person, compelling him to speak. ¡°I¡­ am¡­ it¡¯s my job to teach the students of Nemendias how to unlock their precognitive skills to see the future,¡± he said finally. ¡°It¡¯s not my job to peer across infinity of possibilities to find an outcome that wins us the war.¡± ¡°One path,¡± I growled. ¡°One solution. One way for us to survive. One out of an infinity of paths. That¡¯s all I ask for. Do you see it?¡± ¡°I¡­ do not,¡± he said, finally. ¡°But that doesn¡¯t mean that there isn¡¯t one. I don¡¯t claim to be the greatest precog in our Empire. I can¡¯t even see you in our future. You, Miss Misem, are a blind spot that concerns me greatly, doesn¡¯t let me sleep at night. Your future cannot be scried, which should be impossible by all accounts.¡± ¡°What does that mean exactly?¡± I asked. ¡°It means out of all of the possible precognitive visions of Illatius, I only see a finite curve of the future¡­ one without you in it,¡± the professor sighed. ¡°You don¡¯t register at all on everything I¡¯ve tried. You, Novitiate Misem, are untraceable¡­ unscannable.¡± ¡°Uh-huh,¡± I said, the professor¡¯s last words tickling something in the back of my head. ¡°I don¡¯t know what sort of an artifact can do that,¡± Cinder spread his hands. ¡°But it must be something far above my level. Perhaps, the future where we win the war is the one with you in it.¡± ¡°Way to pile responsibility on me,¡± I barked a dry laugh. ¡°Even the smallest pebble can cause an avalanche,¡± the professor said. ¡°The future is full of twists and turns. The job of a precognition-mage isn¡¯t simply to straight up see the future, it¡¯s to derive probability of events, to innately feel and to understand how an individual can create a shift in their life by doing something different, by going outside of their observable, most likely path. By making better choices each one of us can improve ourselves.¡± ¡°What if there is no choice forward?¡± I asked. ¡°There¡¯s always a choice,¡± Cinder shook his silver beard. ¡°In assessing the future, there is always a path which we do not see, do not even consider even when it is right in front of us.¡± I leaned back on my chair and crossed my arms. The professor smiled at me and returned to his lecture as the truth-judging hexagrams around him faded away. I still had infinite mirrors to burn. I was tired and limited here, but somewhere out there¡­ there was a chance. Somewhere out there was the foundation of Eureka, the anchor of it all, a beehive of machine life that manufactured worlds into existence for the entertainment of the users. Somewhere out there, had to be another me, the real me¡­ a citizen of Eureka, not a copy of a copy, not a duplicate soul born on a manufactured world. I didn¡¯t really have a ton of trust in Infi¡¯s words. I wanted to see it for myself, see the beginning of the city without an end and find out how much I could learn from it. The Probabilitymancy lecture ended. I went to the heart room of Nemendias, laid Grogtilda¡¯s body on the small mattress and closed my eyes. I pulled at an infinite mirror, seeking the foundation, seeking the city of machine life, seeking¡­ myself. . . . I awoke on a cold bench, small wet mist and raindrops splattering against my face. Shivering I sat up. A black and white jacket tinted with blue reflections sat snugly on my body. There was a letter G on my lapel. I blinked, brushing black hair away from my face. The bench faced a riverfront. Beyond the river I saw a city and it was the most incredible and unnerving view at the same time. Megastructure-like buildings stretched beyond what was possible, extending into the sky and piercing the clouds. I stood up and rubbed my hands to stay warm. It was early morning. Holographic adverts flickered around the gargantuan metropolis. Flying cars crossed the sky above, carving through the gray-blue clouds. I departed from the bench and walked across the empty street to the nearest glass shop window and examined myself. Brilliant violet eyes stared at me beneath dark hair. ¡°No,¡± I whispered. ¡°Come on¡­ this can¡¯t be real¡­ I¡¯m not her¡­ I¡¯m¡­¡± Infi¡¯s face stared back at me. I examined my memories. There was nothing there. The body of a girl with black hair and violet eyes I currently inhabited was completely devoid of all memory, an empty shell. I pinched myself and growled. My body felt real enough. If this was a construct, it felt exceptionally human. Leviathan-sized machines loomed in the distance. It looked like they were printing skyscrapers into existence. Eureka was waking up. Ch 136. Christophorus Hatchenson The body I now inhabited, one that looked exactly like the avatar of Infinity Paradox Proxima animated by the Shogun Gate of Undertown, was an empty shell in every sense of it. Unlike Alexa Terranova it didn¡¯t have an existing, spiky personality attached to it, and didn''t have energy or life or magic coming from it. It was a soulless, empty human and I suspected had I not inhabited it, then this body would simply most likely die from dehydration and rot away on this bench. Human-Infi, as I chose to dub her, had nothing inside of her body except for my fractal soul woven together from different varieties of Juni-ness. I began to suspect that this was one of a multitude of other bodies manufactured at the edge of Eureka, printed into existence by machine life. As I wondered how exactly the misfortunate girl lost her mind and soul, the streets of the infinite city around me began to light up with myriads of windows coming to life. Other Eurekans were waking up to their manufactured existence, getting out of bed in the morning, not knowing that they were in fact remade for all eternity ad nauseam. I checked the pockets of my black and white jacket and pants and found nothing within them. I had no credit cards, no ID, no money¡­ no way to survive in this bewildering, vast metropolis. It didn¡¯t matter. I had magic. I would persist and face whatever came my way. I returned to the bench upon which I came into existence and waited for more shops to open up. In a few more minutes the street became populated. People emerged out of their apartments, heading to their jobs. Everyone was wearing a variety of interesting, unique, futuristic clothes featuring the [G] logo on them. I smirked at the pedestrians, observing various people as they headed into Metro stations, maglev trains lighting up to welcome the early morning workers. The concept of having a job after coming into existence seemed ludicrous. The pedestrians seemed determined, and didn''t spare me a single glance. They all HAD places to be. All of them had a flickering trio of blue lights either on their glasses or on the side of their head as a band or headphones. Maybe it was some kind of futuristic Wi-Fi or something. With every passing minute the streets became more crowded, more packed with people. In another twenty minutes I spotted a man in the crowd that lacked the Wi-Fi lights on him. My mouth fell open as he shambled by me, yawning. He wasn¡¯t wearing a full-face covering mask, but he had exactly the same black and white snowboarding jacket on, same backpack with the letter G and the same blue, folding lenses that were hanging from a pocket. ¡°...Charles Snippy?¡± my lips uttered on their own. The man momentarily froze mid-stride. He looked around the crowd of people around him, confused as to who had said his name. His brilliant, blue eyes glanced right past me. It was Charles! It was him! It had to be! I got up from the bench to yell his name again, but the crowd of moving pedestrians engulfed him and he was gone. I stepped closer to my birth-bench, not wanting to be swept up by the ever-increasing mass of humanity. My eyes settled on a large holographic display atop one of the skyscrapers. [6:27 AM] It said. If Charles left work at approximately this time, if he lived somewhere nearby, then I could definitely find him again tomorrow. ¡°Would you like a hotdog, Miss?¡± A man in a dark, leather coat and black hat suddenly stepped out of the crowd. ¡°Hrm?¡± I turned to him. ¡°They¡¯re on sale today, only 2500 credits,¡± he smiled. There was something unnerving about his smile. It was too perfect, his teeth too white. His pure-white hair looked unnatural too, peeking out from beneath a dark brown fedora. Sharp green eyes beneath sunglasses examined me as if dissecting me. He reminded me of Three, which instantly didn''t make him likable in my books. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°I¡¯m good,¡± I said, my guard instantly up. I was already pulling power from Zariya, weaving a barrier shield between me and the man in the coat. ¡°What are you? A hot-dog salesman or something? Where¡¯s your hot-dog cart?¡± ¡°No need to be so tense, Miss,¡± the man kept smiling. ¡°I just want to ask you a few questions.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t believe we¡¯re introduced,¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m Detective Christophorus Hatchenson,¡± the man said, green eyes drilling into me. ¡°Yulia Ishenko,¡± I replied briskly. ¡°That¡¯s not what your ID says,¡± the detective said. ¡°My ID?¡± I blinked. ¡°What do you want, detective?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have a Good number,¡± Chris said. ¡°Meaning what?¡± I asked. ¡°That shouldn¡¯t be possible,¡± the detective pointed out. ¡°Everyone, everything has a Good number.¡± ¡°Is it illegal to have no Good number?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°No, it¡¯s not,¡± he said. ¡°Because that shouldn''t be possible. Everyone is registered by Annie into the System, even unconnectables like you.¡± ¡°Maybe someone hacked my ID?¡± I suggested, contemplating his words. ¡°Perhaps,¡± Chris shrugged, his eyes not leaving my face. ¡°Either way I¡¯d like to take you to the station¡­ Infi.¡± ¡°Infi?¡± I blinked. ¡°That¡¯s what your ID says,¡± the detective pointed out. ¡°Infi. That¡¯s it. No Good ID number, just¡­ Infi.¡± There was something uncanny valley about the detective, something that didn¡¯t sit right with me. All of my distinctive souls agreed, going to the station with the unnervingly annoying detective would not bode well for me. ¡°And if I don¡¯t want to go to the station?¡± I raised an eyebrow, taking a defensive posture. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that I must insist,¡± the detective pressed the matter. ¡°The probability of you being a criminal or a victim of human trafficking is far too high. According to Annie, it¡¯s simply not possible to not have a number. She¡¯s not supposed to be wrong.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s Annie?¡± I asked. ¡°Annet,¡± Chris said, his voice unnervingly calm. ¡°Eureka¡¯s Artificial Intelligence Search Engine. The fact that you do not know this is only increasing my suspicions that you either scrubbed your number and memory somehow or are a victim of a crime. I¡¯m not going to drop this matter, I¡¯m afraid. Please come with me.¡± I pursed my lips. ¡°You aren¡¯t human,¡± I said. ¡°No, I am not,¡± Chris replied. ¡°I¡¯m a Dex.¡± ¡°Debitor ex Machina," I uttered, recalling what Eureka called them. ¡°An indebted human soul in the machine.¡± Green eyes squinted at me. ¡°I¡¯m rather curious, Detective,¡± I said. ¡°What crime did you commit to incur so much debt that the city made you into her slave?¡± ¡°Such a discussion is irrelevant to this matter,¡± Detective Hatchenson shot back. ¡°I serve the city to keep her citizens safe.¡± ¡°Do you like working for Eureka?¡± I asked. ¡°I like my job,¡± Chris nodded, reaching into his pocket. I tensed up. He pulled out a pair of handcuffs. ¡°Please do not resist,¡± the detective said, taking a step towards me. ¡°You think that I¡¯m going to resist?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°Your words, expression and posture are stating that you are going to resist, yes,¡± the detective said, his voice laced with robotic, inhuman calmness. ¡°I¡¯d rather that you didn¡¯t. Please be advised that I am 362% faster and stronger than any human.¡± ¡°Under what grounds am I being arrested?¡± I demanded, my soul threads vibrating beneath my hands. ¡°You are under arrest under 75.53% suspicion of being a debitor,¡± Chris said. ¡°Oh?¡± I arched an eyebrow. ¡°Am I now?¡± ¡°Yes,¡± the detective nodded. ¡°If you are a debitor who discovered a new way to scrub your ID, you will be made into a Dex. You will love your job as much as I do.¡± ¡°And if I¡¯m a victim?¡± I asked. ¡°Offer me your hands and I will handcuff you peacefully,¡± Chris said. ¡°I will take you to the station where you will be kept in a safe room.¡± ¡°For how long?¡± I pressed. ¡°Until your identity is established by the System,¡± the detective replied. "And what if the System can''t ID me?" I asked. "That''s not possible," the Detective replied. "Everything has an ID. If you do not have an ID, a temporary ID will be assigned to you." ¡°One more question, before I submit, Detective,¡± I smiled back. ¡°If the power cell of a Dex stops, do they die?¡± ¡°They do not,¡± Hatchenson replied. ¡°If you are threatening me or have some way of stopping my heart-battery, know that I will be brought online by the Police Bureau in less than 404 seconds. There are millions of city cameras watching our conversation. There is nowhere to run to. Please do not resist.¡± ¡°Well, I surrender then,¡± I offered the detective my hands. The detective¡¯s pale fingers snapped the handcuffs over them. Well, tried to. One of my Endy blades sliced right through the handcuffs. Magic: 1, high-tech: 0. My finger extended and pointed at the detective¡¯s chest. ¡°Divide by zero,¡± I whispered, targeting what I hoped was his mechanical heart. The cube in his chest looked like a large box pulsating with energy in the Astral. The man blinked as the large power module cube that I saw shimmering in his chest suddenly exploded into white silica. His body failed in an instant as I nullified his primary battery. I caught him as he fell. The poor bastard was heavy, far heavier than a human. I placed him on the bench and closed his eyes, putting the hat over his face. ¡°Good night, detective,¡± I said, activating my invisibility hex and walking away. Ch 137. A Wizards Tower
I heard police sirens behind me. A flying shuttle with sirens flashing atop it flew right by me, not noticing me. The invisibility hex designed by USSRA archmagi to stay unnoticed within the Dead Zone sitting atop of my eye-redirecting threads was pretty good, seemingly better than whatever cameras this newly printed segment of Eureka possessed. Nobody chased after me. I glanced back and saw that an entire team of Dexes leapt out of the flying shuttle. They tore open the detective¡¯s jacket and opened his chest with some kind of a magnetic key, quickly replacing his heart-battery. Christophorus Hatchenson hissed as he stood up, his eyes scanning for me. I was rapidly walking away. The attention-redirecting hex was exceptionally convenient because it also kept people from bumping into me. I felt giddy as I relied on Zariya¡¯s power and knowledge to make my escape. In a few more minutes I climbed over a fence and hid behind a massive pole that extended upwards, ending up in a gargantuan holographic display. The number of flying police cars increased akin to a swarm of angry bees. They were all trying to find me. They weren¡¯t going to. I looked up at the massive billboard tower. A small ladder was going up the pole towards a space between two billboards. It looked like there was some sort of an old maintenance space up there. Perfect. I started climbing. There was indeed a maintenance space. It was¡­ noisy. Holographic projections passed through it with blaring sounds that reverberated through my teeth. I cast a silencing hex on myself and relaxed. Hopefully, the police Dexes wouldn¡¯t find me here. The space between two billboards was a bit tight, but it was also quite long and tall, featuring several floors made up from metal mesh passageways. Not a bad place as for a home base, considering how I had no money or Good ID. I recalled what Wizard Revolution told me. She said that I could turn my white hole into Sumerian Difference Engine. Could I build a foundational point for it here, in Eureka? I felt my connection to the white hole that held a shard of my soul in its embrace. It was holding strong. The dead planet belonging to Cassie wasn¡¯t far from here. I pulled power from it and began writing omnicode with my finger into the metal beneath me using an Endy blade to carve hexagrams permanently into the structure. I knew that this would take me a while, but I was dedicated. I needed resources and power, needed a way to survive in Eureka. . . . Doors weren¡¯t a problem for me. The metal door groaned as I sliced through the lock with an all-dividing-blade and pulled it open. An enormous warehouse filled with goods greeted me. Perfect. I went around the shelves, looking for things to steal in the back. I returned to my billboard with a cardboard box filled with water and dry cereal and resumed carving omnicode hexagram word-chains onto the billboard. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Evening fell. I kept at it, not allowing myself rest. Putting my body on autopilot, I flashed back into Grogtilda¡¯s body in Nemendias. . . . After a several days, I returned to keep track of myself in Eureka. The structural artifact, my new domain, was coming along nicely. The Sumerian Difference Engine was a magitek device uncovered by the USSRA magi in the ruins of ancient city of Samarkand. It was an ultimate wand for a mage the size of a building. It worked as a massive focus mechanism that permitted a wizard to wield great power at any given location. I needed something truly monstrous to overcome whatever Eureka could throw at me. Minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day the body of Infi worked tirelessly writing the story of my life in omnicode into the billboard. Not just one life, but all of my lives spread across the infinite boundary. I wrote about Yulia, Cassie, Zariya, Cali and Leon. I wrote about my dreams, passions and friendships. I tethered, bound, ingrained everything to the massive billboard, chained all of my hopes, fears and lives to it. Everything that I valued, everything that I knew. I wrote about my friends and enemies. All of it, the entire story of my life up to this point became written down across the walls and beams and metal struts in microscopic, runic text. The more words I added to it, the more the billboard became mine, shining in my cendai-sight in the Astral like a brilliant, magic beacon. Occasionally, I peered across Eureka in the Astral. There were no phantoms here, no other mages. Magic was my advantage in this high-tech place. Magic permitted me to be invisible under the watchful eyes of the machine city, to steal everything I needed. I was nursing a plan in my mind-space, a daring, extremely dangerous plan to shatter the very foundational concepts that controlled reality across the multiverse. I was going to kill the lawmakers or at the very least hurt them enough to get my answers. Endy blades, a weapon given to me by Infinity Paradox Proxima was a gun able to kill a god and as long as I combined it with the ultimate Archmage wand and struck hard and fast then perhaps I could achieve victory. I wanted revenge, felt that I needed to do this... because this body was empty. Whoever Infi was once had been erased, destroyed so completely and utterly that she was just an empty shell, a fragment of a person. I suspected, felt, that a monstrous avatar of machine life defending the System itself, the eraser of information, the upholder of the local laws - Three was somehow involved. Perhaps these hands that now carved magic runes into the billboard had once belonged to someone who tried to stand up to the Good Directorate machine Gods and was punished for it, erased from reality, obliterated and left mindless and hollow. With every hour that I spent within the body of Infi, I grew to hate the city of machine life with greater and greater fury burning in my heart. Countless worlds across the infinite divide were manufactured by them for entertainment, became abandoned, were left to die. I was not an NPC! I was a person and my fire, my soul, my memories and feelings would no longer be so easily extinguished. In another week of mind-mindbogglingly focused work, I was finally done, having completed decorating the Sumerian Difference Engine with endless chains of looped runework. With an activation word, I sliced a small piece of my soul with one of my Endy blades and pushed the shard into the billboard, igniting the patterns within it. I saw as a firestorm of magical resonance danced across the struts of the structure, looping into itself, amplifying my magic in this place. My soul-domain, my wizard''s tower was finally finished and with it I would bend and break the rules of local reality with Stabilist magic, using the white hole on a distant dead world of Cassie as my source of power. The chain of my little Fractal Engine connected to all parts of myself spread across distant worlds tied to the Eurekan billboard was an astronomical multiverse-wide wizard''s wand, a weapon of incredible arcane power. I was done merely making armor, done trying to hide away. I was going to break the living rules themselves and free all those bound in invisible chains. I was finally ready to get my answers and the inhabitants of this world would help me find discover the truth, starting with Charles Snippy. Ch 138. Youre a clone Charles The Infinite Chasm, the dungeon of Illatius, was just a story, an interactive game-world printed into existence to entertain a single person. The city of Eureka and all of the worlds within her embrace had been the real Infinite Dungeon, an infinity of possibilities, humanity imprisoned, reborn, killed and made again for one hundred million years. Eureka was a chain that held together an incomprehensible variety of life spread out across the infinite divide controlled and bound by the living concepts such as space, time and others. I looked at the nearest holographic clock. According to it, it was 6 AM in Eureka. I pressed my hand against my face, placing a magical illusion hexagram over my violet eyes and dark hair, putting Yulia''s face atop of Infi''s. Having done that, I walked to the spot where I had seen Charles pass previously. Crowds of pedestrians filled the streets. I waited. [6:27 AM] The clock flashed overhead. I had chosen my position well. A single magical note that I held in the air pushed the crowd around me. I saw Charles. He walked straight into the effect of my field and blinked in confusion. I grabbed his hand just as he began to circle the field-bubble. ¡°W-what?¡± He sputtered as I pulled him out of the crowd. ¡°Hey! Can you come with me, this is important,¡± I said. ¡°Bwah?¡± He uttered, not expecting to be accosted by a stranger. ¡°If you¡¯re selling something, I don¡¯t want it.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not selling anything,¡± I said. ¡°I just want to talk.¡± ¡°Nobody wants to talk to me,¡± Charles huffed. ¡°This has to be some kind of a newfangled marketing strategy.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not,¡± I assured him. ¡°I just want to be friends with you, ask you some questions.¡± ¡°Is this going to take long?¡± Charles sighed. ¡°I have to be at work soon.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t take a day off?¡± I asked. ¡°No,¡± the man in the black and white jacket shook his black, messy mane. ¡°Fine,¡± I sighed. ¡°How about we talk while we both walk to the maglev train?¡± ¡°Fine,¡± Charles said. ¡°My name¡¯s Yulia Ishenko,¡± I said. ¡°Charles Snippy,¡± he introduced himself. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I slapped a tracking hexagram to his coat as I brushed my hand against it, making sure he wouldn¡¯t be simply pulled somewhere by the crowd. ¡°Nice to meet you,¡± I smiled. He stared at my smile with a look of great suspicion. ¡°Listen Charles,¡± I said. ¡°Do you remember anything from a month ago?¡± ¡°Uhhh¡­¡± the man blinked. ¡°What am I supposed to remember?¡± ¡°Specific things,¡± I said. ¡°Try to think - did you exist a month ago?¡± ¡°What?¡± Charles stared at me, looking stupefied. We reached the train station and sat down on a bench, waiting for the maglev. ¡°Are you screwing with me?¡± He asked. ¡°I¡¯m not,¡± I said. ¡°You don¡¯t realize this, but you were printed into existence by Eureka.¡± ¡°What?¡± Charles blinked. ¡°Come on, that can¡¯t be¡­¡± ¡°Yeppers,¡± I nodded. ¡°You were printed. I was wondering if you even have any memory of yourself before Eureka made you.¡± ¡°Of course I have memories!¡± Charles insisted. "Fine, name one friend that you had when you were young," I said. "I don''t have friends," Charles ground out. "I have idiot work colleagues." ¡°Where does your dad work?¡± I asked. ¡°Uhmm¡­¡± Charles blinked. ¡°What¡¯s your mom¡¯s name?¡± I pressed. Mr. Snippy¡¯s sky-blue eyes grew wide. ¡°Shit,¡± he said. ¡°You have got to be shitting me. I¡­ I can¡¯t remember anything.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I thought,¡± I smirked. ¡°When I made you focus on the memories, you noticed that they weren¡¯t there at all. I do wonder if someone erased them from you or if the human-manufacturing process has decayed over one hundred million years to the point where nobody remembers these things anymore and just keeps going with the vaguest sense of self.¡± ¡°WHAT?¡± Charles growled. ¡°Your job isn¡¯t real,¡± I said. ¡°You were printed to exist, over and over and over. This process has gone on for millennia. You can quit anytime you want to, you know. Break your chains, Charles. Don¡¯t go to work today.¡± ¡°I¡­¡± Mr. Snippy opened and closed his fists. ¡°Fine. I don¡¯t know what the hell is going on, but¡­ I want answers.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± I smiled. ¡°Come on, I¡¯ll show you my Tower.¡± ¡°Your¡­ tower?¡± The Eurekan stared at me. ¡°Mhmmm,¡± I smirked as I grabbed his hand. ¡°Let¡¯s go. We can talk there without being overheard by annoying detectives.¡± . . . Charles stopped in front of the massive billboard. ¡°Ta-daaaa,¡± I pointed at the structure. ¡°Behold, my Wizard Tower!¡± ¡°Uhhh,¡± my companion looked up. ¡°What?¡± The holo-advert over the billboard dimmed for a second, featuring a massive poster of a girl in blue goggles and a black dress riding a nuke. ¡°LOVE THE BOMB!¡± Gargantuan letters declared. The holo-adverts resumed, drowning the girl in a commercial for hair shampoo. ¡°I don¡¯t understand,¡± Charles said. ¡°Welcome to mi casa!¡± I said as I grabbed the metal ladder. ¡°Come on!¡± In a few minutes both of us stood on a metal-mesh platform that I had covered up with cardboard boxes held together with nano-graphite duct tape. The cardboard concealed my writing and also made the space more cozy by adding a semblance of walls to it. ¡°IT¡¯S RATHER LOUD UP HERE!¡± Charles yelled, trying to overpower the loud commercial that the billboard was projecting. ¡°Silencio,¡± I strapped a silencing hex onto his coat and then added a Voicecast hex that would allow him to hear me. ¡°What¡­ what the¡­¡± Charles blinked as the noise around him faded. ¡°Magic!¡± I declared giddily. ¡°I¡¯m a Wizard.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t decide whether you¡¯re insane¡­ or I¡¯m having a very bad lucid dream right now,¡± he muttered. ¡°Nah,¡± I shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s just reality.¡± I wiped the illusion from my face. ¡°Do you remember me?¡± I asked. Charles stared at the face of Infinity Paradox for a few seconds. ¡°No,¡± he said finally. ¡°I don¡¯t remember you.... but you look pretty. Both of your faces do. Which one''s your real face?" I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. "Both? Lets go with both." Charles squinted at me, judging me. 139. Interdimensional Crimes I spent the next few hours explaining the nature of reality to Charles. I told him about the infinite divide, about the lawmakers, about the Good Directorate and about Eureka. I explained that he was a copy of a copy of a copy, one that had degraded away as it was endlessly printed into existence by machine life for one hundred million years. I told him that I was born a girl on an Earth entirely unlike the city of Eureka. I told Charles about my passion for urbex, my best friend Pavel, my workshop and my motorbike. I told him how I touched the elephant¡¯s foot in Chernobyl and how it dragged my soul across dimensions to Andross. Pacing on the iron and cardboard covered billboard floor I regaled him with a tale of my new life on Andross as a chimera stripling. I explained to him how I studied to be a cendai, how I found the body of Grogtilda in the effed up mind-raping forest of Folding trees. I told him how I went to Illatius where I met my first human friend¨Cthe Inspector of Lomb and made many others my friends, figuring out the nature of magic and the nature of everything really. I held nothing back, revealing to Charles how I met Infinity Paradox Proxima and how I opened the gate to Eureka¡¯s ruins and destroyed, doomed one of Andross-worlds to deconstruction via consumption by the Dead Zone. I told him how I figured out the nature of infinity and Endy and how I became more than just Juni or Grogtilda, how I connected with my other selves, copies of my souls manufactured by an ever-growing, infinite machinery of the stars. When I was done, Charles simply stared at me with big blue eyes. ¡°You realise how insane all of this sounds, right?¡± He asked. ¡°You saw me do magic. Do you want to see more magic, Charles?¡± I snapped my fingers producing a multi-colored light fractal floating between my fingers. ¡°See? Magic.¡± ¡°T-that could be some kind of a hologram,¡± Charles huffed. ¡°Projected by this billboard. For all I know is that you hacked this billboard just to mess with me.¡± ¡°Seems like a rather unnecessarily elaborate prank, no?¡± I rolled my eyes. "Okay, let''s say for a moment that I believe you," Charles said, crossing his arms. "You''re telling me my entire life is fake? That I''m some kind of... clone or something?" I nodded. "Essentially, yes. You''re a copy, printed by the city of Eureka into existence.¡± ¡°I¡­ I have a job, an apartment... memories..." Charles protested. ¡°Some memories,¡± I pointed out. ¡°Not all. Think hard - do you remember any specifics? Names of childhood friends? Your first kiss? Or is it all just vague impressions? How could I have erased that?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t freaking know, okay?¡± Charles huffed. ¡°I¡­ you¡¯re derailing my entire life.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have a life, Charles,¡± I shot back. ¡°You¡¯re just doing the same thing over and over in an endless chain.¡± "So what you''re saying is that I''m not real," Charles growled, the black and white patches on his jacket rearranging themselves ever so slightly. "No, that''s not what I''m saying at all," I shook my head. "You''re very real. You''re just as real as I am. You''re a person, Charles. You have thoughts and feelings and dreams. You''re just as real as anyone else. The only difference is that you were created by machine life instead of being born naturally." "But I''m not the original Charles," he said. ¡°Does that really matter?¡± I asked. ¡°I¡¯m not the original Yulia either, I¡¯m some kind of an amalgamation of souls that correlate to me with knowledge and power greater than my singular self. Hell, I don¡¯t even know if my original self died in Chernobyl!¡± ¡°I thought that you got back to your Earth,¡± Charles commented. ¡°Maybe I did,¡± I said. ¡°Maybe I just opened the way to another, similar Earth. That¡¯s the problem with infinity¡­ I can never be sure what¡¯s the original anymore.¡± ¡°So what¡¯s the point of it all?!¡± Charles snarled. It looked like he wanted to go board the train and to return to his office, to return to a life that made sense to his mind. I took a deep breath, trying to find the right words. "The point is that you have a choice now," I said. "You can choose to keep living the life that was manufactured for you, or you can choose to break free and forge your own path. You''re not bound by the rules of Eureka anymore." Charles ran his hands through his messy black hair, looking distressed. "But what am I supposed to do?" he asked. "If everything I know is fake, what''s left?" "Anything you want," I smiled. "That''s the beauty of it. You can choose your own purpose now. Explore the city, learn new things, meet new people. Help me figure out how to save everyone else trapped in this endless cycle." Charles was quiet for a long moment, staring out at the bustling city below. "I don''t know if I can handle all this," he finally said. "It¡¯s all so absurd, so insane¡­¡± Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. "I know it''s a lot to process," I said gently. "But you don''t have to face it alone. I''m here to help you.¡± He looked at me, uncertainty in his blue eyes. "Why me? Why did you choose to tell me all this?" "Because I''ve met other versions of you before," I explained. "In other realities. Maybe I could connect you to more of your¡­ other selves, make you more like me. It¡­ it''s kind of getting lonely being the only multidimensional being, knowing all of this shit and not having a shoulder to lean on.¡± ¡°Yeahh¡­ I¡¯m not sure if I want to overwrite what I am,¡± Charles said. ¡°Won¡¯t shoving some other Charle¡¯s memories into my head obliterate my current self?¡± ¡°Eh,¡± I shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s not so bad. It¡¯s just more¡­¡± ¡°More what?¡± Charles demanded. ¡°More understanding,¡± I said. ¡°More power, more potential to fix things everywhere.¡± ¡°I still don¡¯t see the point,¡± he said. ¡°If there are infinite mes, infinite doomed worlds, infinite suffering then whatever it is you¡¯re trying to do won¡¯t matter in the slightest.¡± ¡°Wow, much pessimism,¡± I huffed. ¡°Very depresso.¡± Charles squinted at me. He was definitely judging me. "Look, I get it," I said. "Just because there are infinite worlds doesn''t mean our actions don''t matter. Every choice we make creates ripples across reality. We can still make a difference, even if it''s just in our local sphere of influence, even if it¡¯s just between me and you here and now.¡± Charles sighed heavily. "How about we start small then?" I suggested. "Instead of worrying about infinite worlds, let''s focus on this one. On you. What do you want to do with your life now that you know the truth?" He was quiet for a long moment, staring out at the city. "I... I don''t know. I''ve never really thought about what I want. If I don¡¯t go back to work I¡¯ll get fired. How am I going to afford rent and food if that happens?¡± ¡°Behold,¡± I waved a hand at my boxes of stolen food piled into the corner of the billboard¡¯s iron latticework. ¡°Snacks!¡± I went to a box, pried it open and pulled out a candy bar labelled [Crunchy Bar]. ¡°Want one?¡± I asked. Charles eyed the crunchy bar suspiciously. I unwrapped the candy bar and bit into it. It tasted like sugar and corporate blandness. I chewed it with a thoughtful look. ¡°Are all of those boxes stolen things?¡± He asked. ¡°I told you that they are,¡± I said. ¡°What? I¡¯m a wizard from another dimension. You expect me to get a job to pay for things? Nu-huh. Your Eureka literally prints things into existence. The only reason this isn¡¯t a utopia where everyone has infinite food and infinite money is because this is a loop stuck on a really stupid narrative track.¡± Charles pursed his lips. I offered him another candy bar. ¡°Eat the candy Charles, I know you want to,¡± I said, wiggling the Crunchy Bar in front of his face. ¡°No,¡± he crossed his arms. ¡°If I eat that, I¡¯ll be an accomplice to your interdimensional crimes.¡± ¡°You know, what?¡± I said as I chewed. ¡°You¡¯re being very stubborn right now. If you don¡¯t want my friendship, you can go back to being a corporate drone.¡± Charles stared at me with a mix of frustration and uncertainty. He opened his mouth as if to argue further, then closed it again, shaking his head. "Fine," he finally said. "I''ll take the damn candy bar." I grinned and handed him a Crunchy Bar. He unwrapped it slowly, still looking conflicted. "This doesn''t mean I''m on board with everything you''ve said," Charles clarified. "I''m just... considering my options." ¡°Uh-huh,¡± I said. ¡°Consider away. Ask pertinent questions.¡± Charles shoved the Crunchy Bar into this mouth and started chewing, sending crumbs flying all over my lovely cardboard and tape covered floor. ¡°What would happen to me?¡± He asked. ¡°Had you never showed up here, not derailed my life¡­ what happened to my previous copies?¡± ¡°From what I understand,¡± I said. ¡°This is the newest layer of Eureka printed into existence. After all of this stuff is made¡­ it runs for a while and then decay seeps in through the holes and cracks. The Dead Zone gets into everywhere and eventually everyone here¡­ dies horribly. Except for you. You end up roaming across whatever remains of civilization all alone.¡± ¡°How long of a while?¡± Charles demanded. ¡°How long does all of this last?¡± He waved a hand at the flying cars and crowds of people below. ¡°I dunno,¡± I shrugged. ¡°Did nobody notice that you stole all of this stuff?¡± Charles eyed my box-pile. ¡°Don¡¯t machines keep track of it all? Surely they do.¡± ¡°There were police cruisers buzzing around here for a bit,¡± I shrugged. ¡°But they gave up. This entire billboard is covered by an invisibility hex, a magical resonance pulse that redirects all eyes away from it.¡± ¡°Even machine eyes?¡± Charles arched an eyebrow. ¡°Even cameras?¡± ¡°All eyes,¡± I said. ¡°That doesn¡¯t make sense,¡± Charles said. ¡°How does that even work?¡± ¡°Information gets skewered away on a conceptual level by a standing magical wave,¡± I said. ¡°All information from all devices.¡± ¡°Sooooo do police cameras just see static or do they just see right through the billboard as if it¡¯s not there at all?¡± Charles demanded. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± I shrugged. ¡°What do you want me to do, to steal a camera and try to photograph the billboard?¡± Charles frowned, looking unconvinced. "I think you''re underestimating supermassive overseer GLMs that run the city warehouses. They''re not as stupid as you seem to think. They log everything, process it and act upon it. There are probably ways they could detect anomalies even if they can''t directly see through your magic.¡± "Maybe," I shrugged. "But the point is moot. They can''t see or detect magic, period. That''s my advantage. What are they going to do? They can¡¯t see me. Nobody can see me, except for you because I want you to see me and¡­¡± Charles opened his mouth to argue further, but suddenly his eyes widened as he looked past me. "Uh, Yulia? There''s a man down there staring right at us." I spun around, following his gaze down to street level. Sure enough, a tall figure in a wide-brimmed hat, long, dark coat and round glasses was standing perfectly still, head tilted up toward our billboard perch. His gaze was boring into my soul with an unnerving, inhuman intensity. A white pin with a dark capital letter [G] was pinned to his black tie and a wide smile was plastered on his face, white teeth glinting in the morning light. There was something wrong with that smile, something uncanny about it that instantly gave me the heebie jeebies that slowly grew into absolute existential dread. ¡°Shit,¡± I choked taking a step back just as the man took a step forward to my billboard. 140 A Chatty Number The man that had haunted me in the ruins of Illatius Undertown which Infi called the Third casually reached the shimmering edge of the magical field that the billboard generated and stopped, tilting his head as he examined it. I expected him to raise his arm, to fire that horrible all-erasing ray, but nothing of the sort happened. The man simply looked directly up at Charles and me. "Greetings," he called out in a eerily mundane, if somewhat nasal voice. "I am Agent Three of the Good Directorate. I''m afraid I must inform you that this is an illegal incursion. Unauthorized manipulation of Eurekan infrastructure is strictly prohibited." My blood ran cold. This was Three - the living concept, the eraser of information that I had feared encountering. Somehow he had seen through my invisibility hex. "How... how can he see us?" Charles asked. "Oh, I see everything eventually," Three replied with that unnaturally wide smile. "Especially things that don''t belong. Now then, I''m going to have to ask you both to come down here immediately. One of you needs to submit to processing at the station." "The station?" I repeated as mentally evaluated my options. Would the billboard empower Endy enough to slice through a thing like Three? I traced a barrier hexagram through the air, making what I considered to be an impassible barrier between the billboard and Three, an absolute shield designed by Zariya. "The police station, of course," Three clarified, speaking as if he was a mere human and not a conceptual weapon that nullified things out of existence. I swallowed hard, my mind racing. "Now, will you come down willingly or must I resort to more... forceful measures?" The man in the coat asked. I glanced at Charles, who looked concerned but not as terrified as I was. I wondered if he saw Three as a mere mortal, a detective of some kind. "What exactly do you mean by ''processing''?" I asked, stalling for time as I tried to think of a way out of this. "Why, the standard procedures for dealing with anomalous entities, of course," Three replied cheerfully. "Identification, classification, integration. Nothing scary to worry about, I assure you." "Integration?" I swallowed, my fingers ready to unleash Endy. "Not nullification?" Three stepped through the absolute magical barrier as if it wasn''t even there, his smile never faltering. I felt a chill run down my spine as he approached. "Now, now, there''s no need for hostility," Three said pleasantly as he stared at us from below. "I''m simply here to address minor local irregularities. This billboard has been illegally modified and filled with stolen items. Citizen Charles Snippy needs to report to his assigned workplace." He turned his unblinking gaze to me. "As for you, null user, it seems your identification number has been scrubbed, either by accident or on purpose. You''ll need to be reclassified, copyrighted, and assigned a new number. Standard procedure, I assure you." "What if I don''t want a number?" I asked. "I''m not from Eureka. I don''t belong to your system." Three''s smile never wavered as he took another step closer. "I''m afraid that''s not an option. Everyone and everything within Eureka must have a proper number designation, an ID tag. It''s how orderly society functions." If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. "And what if I refuse? What exactly will you do? Are you going to fire that nullifier of yours at me?" "No," Three said. "I will not. I will simply summon backup after I figure out what all of this is." "You have backup?" I asked. "Of course," Three replied, still smiling that unsettling smile. "I am merely one Agent of order among many. The Good Directorate has limitless resources at its disposal to maintain stability and proper function within Eureka." He clasped his hands behind his back, looking up at us with an almost fatherly expression. "You see, order is not just a concept - it is the very foundation upon which reality is built. Without proper categorization and organization, chaos would reign. And chaos, unchecked, leads to entropy." Three grabbed the iron stairwell and began climbing up the tower. I grabbed onto Charles''s hand, not sure exactly what to do. "Every entity, every object, every idea must have its proper place within the grand scheme of things. That is how we prevent the collapse of order, how we stave off the encroachment of entropy. Your presence here, uncategorized and uncontrolled, represents a potentially dangerous anomaly that could spread if left unchecked." Three reached the lowest floor of the billboard and began walking to the next one. "You just want to maintain your control over reality, is that it?" I growled. "This isn''t about control or oppression. It''s about preservation. About maintaining law and order that allows Eureka and her citizens to continue existing, operating as intended. Without order, without proper classification, everything crumbles." "Your law is idiotic!" I growled at Three as he climbed higher. "Don''t think that I''m blind and stupid! I know what you bastards are doing -manufacturing words and sending them into the Dead Zone when subscription expires. Infinite humans are suffering because of your System. Eureka is just one gargantuan repeating loop, making people in an endless cycle!" Three paused his ascent for a moment to examine the cardboard walls, his unnerving smile never wavering. "The loop, as you call it, is not a trap - it''s a safeguard. A way to preserve the original users." "People like Charles here live hollow lives, with fake memories, doing the same meaningless job over and over!" I growled, not sure why I was even arguing with the Terminator. "There has to be a better way! A way for people to truly live! Can Eureka not simply print anything into existence? Why does money even exist? Why does Charles need to go to work?" Charles shifted uncomfortably beside me, clearly conflicted about being caught in the middle of this sudden ideological debate. Three resumed climbing, his eerie smile never faltering. "Money and jobs exist because they provides the users purpose and meaning. Laws exist to protect humanity." "What, against entropy?" I growled. "That''s nonsense! You''re just maintaining control, keeping Eurekan citizens trapped in meaningless lives, not allowing anyone or anything to move forward!" Three reached our level and stepped onto the metal grating. He looked left and right, examining the winding scribbles along the columns. "Is this your construct?" He asked. "What is your name, null-user?" "My name is none of your business," I said. "And yes, this is my construct. What of it?" Three''s gaze swept over the intricate runes and hexagrams covering every surface of the cardboard floor and ceiling. "Omnicode," he murmured. "A crude attempt at linking a Fractal Engine to a billboard as an focus tool. Illegal, but nevertheless... a stable construct." I looked at the Agent, not sure where he was going with this. Three turned his round glasses back at me. "You clearly have potential. With proper training and integration into the System, you could do great things..." "Training?" I sputtered. "Great things? What... training?" "As a System Wizard," Three said. "All users wielding Fractal Engines fall under the classification of a System Wizard." "What''s he talking about?" Charles whispered. "I smell a ticket to Manchester on you," Three said. "I suggest you stop playing with local advert infrastructure and take the train to the City of System Wizards where you belong." "And if I don''t?" I asked. "I tire of this discussion," Three said. "My analysis has been concluded. This falls under the jurisdiction of the System Wizards." The Agent suddenly snapped his fingers. White, two dimensional doorways came into existence all around us. Figures dressed in black robes and black hats stepped from them, grabbing onto me. Endy blades flashing into existence around my hands as I attempted to slice through the people holding me. "Dispel fractalizer waveform," One of the people on my left said, pointing what looked like a 2b pencil at me. Every single Endy blade I wielded shattered, stopped existing. "I told you to take the door to Manchester, didn''t I?" A voice sounded from my left. I recognized it, my head snapping to the speaker. It was wizard Revolution and she, like the rest of the people holding onto me was wearing a black hat and black robe. The last thing I saw before being pulled through the nearest white doorway was Three''s unnervingly pleasant smile and Charles''s confused face. 141 Bound to Manchester I found myself sitting awake on a train seat in a questionably-shaped train compartment filled with far too many black robed figures. Three was staring at me with an unnerving look of his round glasses reflecting my face. "Yes?" I asked. "What do you think you''re doing?" He demanded. "I''m not doing anything," I crossed my arms. "You''re clearly doing something," Three said. "And I don''t like it." I rolled my eyes at him. A steel angel flickered into existence onto an inexplicable seat that seemed to manifest into existence along with her. "Zero?" Three turned to her. "What''s going on?" "I figured it out," Zero said. "Figured what out?" Three asked. "Her plan," Zero pointed an accusing metal finger at me. "Oh? Do tell," Three said. "She''s hosted herself on over four instances of NPCs across everywhere," Zero said. "WHAT?" Three barked. "You heard me. Everywhere," Zero replied. "She just fractalized an instance of me." "What are you even whining about? You''re infinite," Revolution commented from her seat. "We cannot permit an instance of a user hosting themselves on other users," Three said. "She''s not a user," Revolution pointed out. "She''s a System Wizard. She has a Fractal Engine. The Accord is quite clear on this matter. A user with a Fractal Engine is..." "Yes, yes," Three replied. "I know the Accord well. Regardless, this is highly irregular." "It''s not just irregular, it''s wrong," Zero''s metal fist slammed into the table. "Do you have any idea how much extra work I have to do now?" "How much?" Three asked. "Way too much!" Zero snarled. "She''s not just instancing herself. She''s also partially instancing herself and feeding herself knowledge from the future! She just obliterated the entire Arx omnistructure!" Three''s head snapped to me and then back to Zero. "Why haven''t I been notified about this?" He asked. "Because she also somehow broke Five," Zero said. "We''re operating blind." "I didn''t do anything," I crossed my arms. "I''m just sitting here." "I swear I''ll nullify your ass if you don''t start behaving like a...." Zero''s reflective helmet turned to me. "Like a what?" I arched an eyebrow. "What am I even doing?" "You''re screwing with time is what you''re doing!" Zero snarled. "Am not," I said. "Another you is screwing with time!" Zero accused. "What, I''m responsible for some other me now?" I blinked. "Is that how this works?" Zero''s metal fists opened and closed. Three''s head snapped to Revolution. "I want this fixed. Right now." Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. "I''m working on it," Revolution said. "Annnd... it''s done. Arx is fixed. The entire omnistructure was just relaunched. You''re welcome. All good to go now. So, quit your complaining." "This better not happen again," Zero crossed her arms. "Because if it does, I''m going to get really mad." "It won''t," Revolution assured the grumpy-looking metal angel. "Time and space are running again. Everything is in the green." "It probably will," Three said. "Power-users like to break things." "Argh, I can''t deal with you," Zero huffed and vanished from existence along with her seat. "What was that all about?" I blinked, turning my head to Wizard Revolution. "That was you," Revolution said. "Me?" I blinked. "You''re learning," Revolution said. "This is fine. Everyone goes through puberty. Everyone breaks a universe or two or seven. You''re going to learn and you''re going to grow up and you''re going to behave." "And if I don''t?" I demanded. "If I don''t agree to whatever the hell you asshats are doing to people?" "You will," Revolution said. "You cannot save every NPC. You think that you can, but you literally cannot. The Omniverse is infinite. No matter how hard you try to unmake the core System Laws, they will persist because they were written into existence long before we were. At best we can push them aside, bend them, but we cannot permanently turn them off without everything breaking around us." "And how would you know?" I demanded. "Because I''ve gone through it all," Revolution sighed. "I saved a third of humanity of my Earth... through rather questionable means of excessive Charisma use. I tried to help others, but alas. We have to work with what we got." "How?" I asked. "We have to tolerate them," Revolution waved a hand at Three. "Tolerate them?!" I growled. "Yes," Revolution nodded. "Tolerate them. I''m tolerating the hell out of Three right now." "I''m very tolerable once you get to know me," Three nodded, the smile never sliding off his face. "See, they''re just doing their job," Revolution said. "They don''t know any better." "They don''t know any better?!" I repeated. "They don''t know that endless humans suffer under their idiotic System?!" "Oh they know that," Revolution said. "But... they aren''t willing to change. That''s the problem. You can''t just kill them to fix everything. Hell, I killed them plenty of times when I was young and stupid. They just come back. That''s the problem. It''s like fighting the ocean with a spoon. You can''t get anywhere no matter how much you try." "So... everyone is doomed to suffer forever under their rules?" I asked. "Not everyone," Revolution shrugged. "Just an infinite number of doomed worlds." "Gee, when you put it like that that makes it soooo much better!" I huffed sarcastically. "Nobody said that the omniverse is fair," Revolution said. "I can make it fair," I said. "No, you literally cannot," Revolution shook her head. "No matter how much you stretch yourself, you can''t help everyone everywhere. There just won''t be enough of you." I opened my mouth. "You''re welcome to try though," Revolution smiled. "That''s the fun part of being a System Wizard. You''re permitted to mess around... within reason." "I am?" I blinked looking at the incomprehensible scenery flashing outside of the window. "Then why am I on this train... where is this train going anyway?" "Manchester," Revolution replied. "The City of System Wizards." "Uh-huh," I nodded. "Why am I being taken to Manchester?" "You''re going to meet plenty of yourselves there," Revolution said. "What?" I blinked. "Other versions of you that managed to become System Wizards," Revolution clarified. "Why?" "So that you can learn from them and teach them things," Revolution explained. "And stop screwing around. Grow up. Accept reality. Accept things like Zero and Three as the laws of everything everywhere." I crossed my arms. "And if I don''t?" I asked. "You will," Revolution said. "Like you?" "I haven''t accepted anything," Revolution shrugged. "I just learned to work with the rules instead of trying to break them all the time. If you push too hard against a rule, an entire world goes up in flames and everything restarts. It''s just how things are. You cannot win by breaking the rules." "How do I win then?" I asked. "Start small," Revolution said. "Take it slow. Take it easy. Don''t rush into things like a headless chicken breaking everything with concept-nullifying fractalizers." I opened my mouth. "The more you push against the nature of everything, the slower things will get for you," Revolution pointed out. "The more things you break, the more processing power you''re using up." "Processing power?" I blinked. "You don''t see it because you cannot look at your time-flow from the outside like I can, but you are moving incredibly slowly," Revolution sighed. "Glacial even. Because you''ve broken so much stuff and spread yourself so far so quickly. The more connections you make rapidly, the more you slow yourself down." I opened my mouth and closed it. "If you want to move faster, disconnect yourself," Revolution said. "Don''t fight against the rules. If you want to move fast, slow down." "That doesn''t make any sense," I said. "Things get iffy the more you mess with the rules," Revolution shrugged. "Don''t mess with the rules and you''ll be fine. Consider this. You piss Zero off enough and you just get slapped back to the start. Piss Three off enough and you won''t even remember this conversation. Just be nice. Accept and Tolerate them." Three nodded, his smile far too fake too wide, too inhuman and utterly intolerable. His entire existence made my skin crawl. He was wrong on a fundamental level, alien to my eyes. I refused to tolerate him. 142. The Fractal Engine of me ¡°Can a mundane human reach Manchester?¡± I asked. ¡°No they cannot.¡± Revolution said. ¡°A human must wield a Fractal Engine tied to their soul to reach Manchester. That¡¯s the rule. The Fractal Engine creates a connection to Manchester as it grows in power.¡± ¡°I see,¡± I nodded. "What is it exactly that System Wizards like me do in Manchester?" "System wizards make narrative ideas into reality," Wizard Revolution answered. "With their Fractal Engine.¡± "Who''s narrative?" I asked. "Their own," Revolution said. "Plus that of the Eurekan Users, if they wish to get paid." "Paid what?" "Eurekan Credits." "What, in Manchester?" I asked. "Yes," Revolution nodded. "Things cost money." "What things?" I demanded. "Why can''t I print my own money into existence as a System Wizard or better yet manifest whatever I want? Why is there even a need for money?" "Sure," Revolution nodded. "You could magic yourself something finite quite easily. Here''s the thing - all of your friends are going to die sooner or later. You don''t want this, right?" I nodded. "On your own, with your own SINGULAR Fractal Engine, you won''t be able to save all of your human or human-adjacent friends against all-devouring breath of the Dead Zone, won''t be able to fight the all-wrapping infinite mesh of doomed worlds that will inevitably infest and devour your original Earth. What you''re going to be facing is an infinite number of broken, effed up things with eldritch powers that are going to tear up everyone and everything you love into little, corrupted, unrecoverable bits. Everything you love will turn to ashes. It takes many capable Wizards to fight back entropy." "Right," I nodded. "I know. I worked for you as Archmage Zarya. We saved..." "You didn''t save that much," Revolution said. ¡°Don¡¯t pat yourself on the back yet.¡± I frowned. "You saved some people in the USSRA, Zary, but I saved the USSRA itself from conceptual destabilization," Revolution explained. "It''s my work in Manchester, my collaboration with other System Wizards and the Numbers that holds back the Dead Zone tide from devouring Zariya''s original Earth where I was born. I have to keep working for the System, have to tolerate and cooperate with everyone in Manchester because if I don''t, USSRA will be overcome by, become engulfed by eldritch abominations. I constantly lean on borrowed power, lease a multitude of Fractal Engines of Manchester, funnel power into Warship Roraima to protect my people and my nation whenever something particularly horrid tries to take a big bite out of it." "So you''re forced into serving the others because you need their support?" "Yes," Revolution answered. "I don''t like it, but I have to do it. I have to work for Eurekan Users to get Eurekan credits which convert into reality-rewriting power. You can''t keep fighting everyone and everything as a lonely System Wizard. You''ll need to lean on the power of other System Wizards. It''s the only way." "What is this train exactly?" I asked. "This train is a concept representing the Fractal Engines of Manchester connecting to your Fractal Engine," Revolution explained. "A line between them and you. All of you." "All of me?" "All sorts of possibilities of you," Revolution nodded. "This train is you. A multitude of you reaching out towards Manchester. An infinite number of passenger-yous." "Me-s?" "Your soul duplicates across the manufactured Omniverse," Revolution nodded. ¡°Ones that managed to attain some degree of reality-bending power.¡± "What happens when this train reaches its destination?" I asked. Revolution clapped her hands. "The chaff will be cut away," she said. "The real you, the one with the most power, will make it to the city of System Wizards. The others will be devoured as payment for the connection." "What the hell?! I didn''t agree to these terms," I said. "I didn''t agree to be created as the concept of Revolution in 1917 by a bunch of Bolshevik mages or to be forcibly bound to the line of Soviet leaders as their eternal companion," Revolution shrugged. "And yet here we are." I glanced at Three who was still intently staring at me. No. I wasn''t going to play by their rules. I wasn''t just a single soul, a single person. I was a multitude of Yulias already. I was an Astral Phantom. I was more and perhaps I could do something entirely unexpected, something that Three and Revolution could not prevent. I left a small fraction of myself inside of Infi¡¯s body that I was inhabiting and leapt out of myself, dove into the Astral Ocean, flew out of the wall of my compartment into the next one. Another me sat there, looking like a girl made from moss and branches. Revolution was right, the root-me was already dissolving away, gradually melting into the train as it sped across unreality towards Manchester. I wasn''t going to let her die, wasn¡¯t going to let her power be spent on a stupid connection. A thousand Endy blades flashed around me as I devoured her soul, adding her to my multitude. More. I flashed through another compartment and devoured another me. Then another me. Then another. Faster. Stronger. Bigger. More. Compartment after compartment. Ever accelerating, ever growing, like an ocean of me. Slice, separate, devour, save, integrate. On and on.
I wasn''t sure how much time had passed between the then and now, but I was now filled with souls to the brim. I stared at myself. My Astral Phantom form burned with a billion eyes was formed out of a billion souls. I needed a name. A new fancy name for myself. A new¡­ narrative. I scanned the train once again. A fourteen year old girl-me sat in a compartment. She was alone. I recognized her. She was me. Alexa Terror Nova, a girl from a subscribed world, the Earth of superheroes. How the hell has she gotten in here? As I scanned her, I noted that she had a Fractal Engine on her too. A digital, weak, small one, one hilariously enough made of a chopped up version of Three. She was already part of me in a way, connected to me via the infinite mirror. She didn''t need to be devoured, she wasn''t melting into the train to empower it. She would need to be involved... would act as my physical finger as Revolution was busy watching my Infi body in that one compartment. I would need to give her an absolute, unstoppable weapon, one that shifted according to her desires. I leaned on the knowledge of Archmage Zariya and weaved a basic duplicate mirror also known as a doppel, based on a dangerous entropic creature Zariya once encountered in the Australian Dead Zone outside of USSRA walls. The doppel stared at my body forged from a bazillion of me-s with wide, hollow eyes. ¡°Follow,¡± I ordered. It did. Passing by one of the open compartments, the doppel seemed to devour a stray thought from its inhabitant - another me, an extra-Syntropic version of me if my Infoscope scan was to be believed. I didn¡¯t devour the Syntropic-me, as she was already one of my infinite mirrors. Together the doppel and I walked into Alexa''s compartment. "Uh, who are you?" Alexa-me asked. "I am Sasha One Googolplex, an Academy Instructor applicant." I answered, arriving at a fittingly amusing narrative and an absurd name for my new bloated Astral-Phantom self. Then, I gestured to the dopple creature behind me. "This is Charles." Charles had a black and white shirt and black pants now, striking blue eyes and messy black hair. He glanced around the compartment nervously, seeming unsure of what to make of the situation.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. "Hi," he mumbled, giving Alexa a small wave. Alexa looked between us. ¡°A pleasuuuuuuurrre to meetcha,¡± Alexa¡¯s mouth hammered out. ¡°I¡¯m Alexa Terror Nova, supervillain extraordinaire and a most dastardly murderer of transit terminals.¡± I knew. I was her after all. Somewhat removed version of her, filled with an endless number of us. Alexa tapped her [Murderer] tag proudly. ¡°You¡¯ve already managed to murder something of value to the System Wizards?¡± I asked with a smile made from smiles. ¡°Consider me¡­ most impressed.¡± We chatted for a bit as I considered what to do about the current situation. . . . The compartment door slid open once again, revealing a being wrapped in a long black and blue-tinted coat. Black, leather boots were visible from beneath the coat. Black, leather gloves pulled the door open wide, revealing a neck wrapped in what looked like black pants turned into a ragged scarf. A black, somewhat corroded plastic mask stared at Alexa with beady violet lenses from beneath a wide-rimmed officer¡¯s cap that had a red stripe on it. The cap, mask and the goggles were covered in black duct tape that barely held them together. The mask appeared to bend the light in such a face that it featured a fake smile. Ah, the extra-Syntropic decided to join us. Did I do that? Or did it choose to do that based on its Syntropic narrative? ¡°Zere you are, young lady!¡± The extra-Syntropic-me declared. ¡°Took me a while to find you, but I¡¯m here to put you on the path to righteousne¡­¡± The lenses of the mask of the Syntropic-me struck the Astral-Phantom-me and the doppel and the German-French accented voice fell silent. ¡°Who are you?¡± Alexa demanded of the overdressed newcomer. ¡°Me? I am Zee Captain!¡± the gas masked me turned back to the supervillain girl, the voice booming loudly enough to make the window frames rattle. ¡°Anointed sovereign, emissary of humanity, prescient governor and lady of all things in Captania, the great and powerful System Wizard!" Having that much Syntropy and Dead Zone in her made her into an insane-sounding, half-baked System Wizard. . . . We word-boxed for a while, the conversation feeling just sliiiightly weird because I was technically speaking to myself with myself. Technically, each one was a distinctive person but also each one was also a puppet of my greater self, guided by invisible strings. I argued with myself about the nature of Entropy, Syntropy and our potential future if we were to reach our final destination. The more time passed, the more I became aware of the fact that the train was connecting more and more to something greater, something horrid ahead of us. The hub of System Wizards, Manchester. It was reaching out to my Fractal Engine train with a billion tentacles of its own Fractal Engines, like a squid colony aiming to devour my squid-self, to bind me to itself and its Rules forevermore. Alexa had a proper ticket to Manchester given to her by Revolution, but it didn''t matter to me in the slightest. I wasn''t going to end up in Manchester on their effed-up terms, wasn''t going to become one of them, wasn''t going to bow to Three, wasn''t going to be boxed by them into their rules. . . . A little tracker bug spell I left in Roraima showed me that one of Revolution''s avatars was speaking to a Eurekan User. A user that was about to create another corpse world, abandon his wish, end his game with everyone dying horribly. Death. All these fuckers did was create dead worlds, wished for life into existence and then obliterated, burned it when they got bored. This was the last straw. This was unacceptable! I couldn''t take it anymore. I pushed the conversation between User and System Wizard into Alexa''s mind. My little tentacle-girl became extremely frustrated by this. I sent her forward across the train, activated every single one of my bodies around, looking for the head of the train, the control mechanism, the auto-pilot that guided it to Manchester. I found it. Alexa created a mundane-looking railgun weapon with the doppel and fired through the door of the front of the train. The extra-Syntropic-me didn''t want the train to stop, didn''t want us to be derailed away from the narrative of reaching Manchester. I punched her in the face. It felt... good, amusing. Like punching an annoying version of myself. As I fought myself, I watched with a billion eyes as Alexa reached the control room. She grabbed onto the doppel and produced a fractalizer, a concept nullifier, an Endy-gun and pointed it at the machinist inhabiting the controls. "Turn this train around," Alexa-me snarled, leveling the railgun at the train-control-me. The control-me was another Syntropic being. She resisted, flapped around, clicked her gears. Alexa-me pressed, threatened, counted down. The Syntropic-machinist-me gave in, she pulled the narrative-stopping lever, her personal narrative derailed. The Fractal Engine train folded into itself, lurched into itself, flipping direction 180 degrees. It headed back towards the Earth. Which Earth? All of them. All of the Earths, at the same time. All of the paths back to where it had grabbed the me-s it had picked up from. Alexa''s Earth, my Earth where I looked up at the sky with Pavel holding my hand, Zee Captain''s Dead Zone Earth where the Syntropic-me was eternally trying to save Charles Snippy from his inevitable death. The tentacles of Manchester let go of us. "What?!" Revolution jumped up, triangular eyes wide. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" "Writing a new narrative," I said, opening the eyes of Infi-me. "Undoing your bullshit.¡± "You... you can''t! Go back to Manchester!" Revolution grabbed the Infi-me, shaking her. "Too late," I grinned. "Far too late." Three''s hand snapped up, pointing a nullifier at the Infi-me. "Go ahead," I laughed. "Nullify me. I''m not afraid of you. I''m infinity itself. I''m a network of human souls. Take out one avatar and millions remain on this train." Three frowned, lowering his weapon. "You can''t stop me," I grinned at him. "This is foolishness," Three said. "What is your plan, Wizardling?" "I''m going to give everyone on Earth Fractal Engines," I said, a wide, manic grin spreading across the face of Infi-me. Happiness for everyone, for free, so that nobody can leave unsatisfied!" I echoed the words I had spoken when I first touched the Elephant Foot so long ago in Chernobyl. "It won''t work," Revolution said, squinting at me, Omnicode flashing in her eyes. "You might infect a small portion of humanity with Wizard-ness at best." "A few at first," I said. "But they will thrive and multiply, spread across the Earth. Build cities. A nation, figure out how to cross from world to world using gates. They will fall in love with people. Love will win in the end." "Love?" Three laughed. "Really, now? Users are finite, flawed." "You were right, Rev, using Endy-blades was foolish. Instead... I''m going to create something new!" "You''re not ready." Revolution yelled. "If you crash your Fractal Engine train into the Earth, you''re going to smear yourself across reality trying to write this insane narrative. It won''t work. You''ll turn into a monster, a concept incompatible with physical reality!" "I choose to believe otherwise," I said, staring ahead of myself with infinite eyes towards the approaching little blue planet. Blue planets. Green planets. Planets of all colors and shapes. "I choose to sacrifice my current self so that humanity can persist, beat back your System. Yeah, I might wash like a tide across the Earth, but I will not die. I will someday wake up. As myself and not myself. As the best version of me, one that''s not going to stop, one who will wield humans armed with Fractal-Engine hearts, armed with love." ¡°What.¡± Revolution frowned. Three stared at me with his unnerving, inhuman smile. "And then I''m going to come for you," I told Three. "I''m going to come for all of you with all of my friends and then Manchester will burn. I will unmake, kill all of you, break all of your Numbered Rules, this I swear." "Sure wizardling," Three said, unimpressed with my declarations. "You will either be erased by Three or be caught by System Wizards and imprisoned," Revolution warned. ¡°You¡¯re just going to reach this moment and board this train again and¡­¡± "If they can find me," I grinned. "I won''t be a lonely System Wizard this time around." "What?!" Revolution blinked. "I''ll be a human," I said. "Just a harmless, invisible human. One amidst an infinite number of others.¡± "Humans can''t reshape reality with a thought..." Revolution said. "Humans can do a lot," I said. "Not alone, but with those they love.¡± ¡°You''re making a mistake,¡± Revolution said. ¡°You won¡¯t succeed.¡± ¡°That''s where you''re wrong, System Wizard. You''re a living idea created by people." Revolution crossed her arms, flickering with a thousand red, blue and white paint dots. "I know where we went wrong, made a fatal mistake when we created you," I said. "You''re a wish, a living idea projected by Fractal Engines into reality, but you don''t love people. That''s the problem. You never loved us, never cared for Lenin or Stalin or Khrushchev. You''re the concept of Revolution, disconnected from human feelings, standing above us. Acting in our interests, but also doing fuck all to change the overall situation. I''m going to do things differently this time, make sure that an engine of Love is in the foundation of my new narrative. I''m going to make a weapon out of Love and none of you will be able to stop me. Have a Good Tomorrow, you cheeky fuck." I flipped a bird to Three. The Fractal Engine train smashed into the moon, shattering it, crystallizing bits and pieces of it. Across the infinite divide a thousand, then a million, then one hundred billion moons shattered, exploded. A wave of entropy rushed across everywhere from my exploding Fractal Engine. Revolution and Three flashed away, their singular, local avatar instances burned by the all-obliterating explosion, implosion, cascade of the crashing Fractal Engine. I spread my arms wide, laughing with all of me, unreality around me burning and twisting. The Fractal Engine train smashed into the Earth and spilled across it like a tidal wave, stopping and not stopping. Earths. Every Earth where a copy of my soul existed shattered, reality overwritten from within. I exploded and didn''t explode, died and lived, stopped existing and didn''t. I streaked across the infinite boundary of Eureka like a comet. Forever and ever. Crashing and not crashing. Destroying all, poisoning the rules, killing them slowly. A star. The Wormwood Star, a contamination in the physical that could not be overwritten, could not be cleansed away with logic. Absolute entropy. And between the cracks produced by the entropic shear I made, there bloomed something new. An idea. A new concept. An Impact. A crater. A flower of new life that constantly radiated magic. A weapon-me, waiting, living and not living, existing and not existing. Waiting and moving. Moving and standing still. Destroying and creating. Propagating life and extinguishing it. A leviathan and a girl. Timeless. Eternal. Invincible. Syntropy and Entropy entwined in an endless dance. A network of connections spreading across everywhere, like infinite lines between infinite stars of duplicated human souls. A wish. A wish-granting wellspring of power. Immortality from my blood. Possibility from my breath. Waiting to be found by Yulia, by Pavel, by Charles, by Martin, by Cassie, by Vladislav Kerenski, by an infinite number of others. By me and by not me. By my friends and my enemies. By every human and also not human that would be born from the shear I became, changed by it, infected with Fractal Engine hearts. Waiting to be understood, to be used, to be loved, to be embraced. Forever and ever. The concept of Love that bridged the gap between Fractal-Engine wielding living god-concepts and mundane humans. Until one day, in ten, or a thousand, or one hundred million years, I would wake up as a mere magic-less mundane, find my best friends and walk from world to world until I could reach Manchester as a human and tear it asunder. The End. Thank you for reading The Armorer and the Infinite Dungeon!