《Disciple.》


 1. The day his reality broke.

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    <li> The day when his reality broke.</li>


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    The day when Santiago Alonso Caballero learned the truth had been special even before he was contacted by that being. Or rather, because the day was special he was contacted by me. See, that day Santiago was at the Spanish Real Academia de Artes Marciales, an entity created in 1763 in order to preserve and improve Spanish martial arts, to take his provost exam.


    The reason why this was important was because this world was unlike your own. This world had the Fayd, and with it came magic and daemons, which made the ability to fight crucial. By the 18th century the army had stopped relying in classic weapons, and put emphasis on fire weapons. But the 1758 Great Daemonic wars showed that while guns could be enhanced by magic, weapons that relied on the power of the mage were, on average, more effective than self powered weapons like guns. Not to say that magical guns were weak or ineffective quite the opposite, but they were very expensive to make, requiring exotic materials and extensive experimentation.


    So between a very costly gun that could shoot through a building or a relatively cheap sword that a mage could use to cut through the same building, most nations could only afford the swords that were normally just as effective as guns in the right hands. The 1758 Great Daemonic Wars showed that martial training had degraded, with one particularly embarrassing event in which a mage cut his own arm, his sword arm. How did he manage to do that I still don¡¯t even want to know, else my faith in humanity will be highly diminished. Alright, I do know how that happened but I don¡¯t talk about it, it¡¯s ridiculous. Thus the academy was built to train mages in the weapon of their choosing, including guns for those who could afford them. They even had a cannon division!


    The RAAM holds two main divisions. The Martial Path and the Scholar¡¯s Path, the Martial Path is for those who wish to wield weapons, the Scholar Path is for those that catalog and write down martial knowledge from around the globe. The Martial Path is the only one that holds ranks and is divided thusly:


    The apprentice ranks, for those who are still learning:


    -First Circle:


    Novice. The absolute beginner. Doesn¡¯t even know the basic forms.


    Savant. The one trusted not to stab himself, nor his sparring partner. The first rank where sparring is allowed.


    -Second Circle:


    Old player. He would make decent fighter. The first rank where you can¡¯t be defeated by an untrained enemy, barring extreme physical differences or dumb mistakes.


    Skilled bachelor. The worst medieval knight would be at this rank.


    The officer ranks, for those that have learned well but still aren¡¯t masters.


    -Third Circle:


    Skilled graduate. Congratulations, you may call yourself a swordsman. Your master can¡¯t teach you anymore so go get real experience.


    Skilled warrior. You would be renowned in armies beneath a thousand men, a warrior not found even between a hundred.


    -Fourth Circle:


    Veteran. A warrior capable of winning a thousand battles, you have reached the realm of the famed.


    Instructor. You know your style from head to toes, and can be trusted to correctly train others in it, identifying and solving whatever problems they may have.


    And finally the ranks of the masters.


    -Fifth Circle:


    Provost. The one who has modified their style to suit their needs, creating a variant perfect for them. These men and women are the ones spoken of in taberns, the ones that legends are written about.


    Master. Capoferro, Agrippa, Musashi, the ones that wrote the books on swordsmanship, or spearmanship, or archery, etc. Men that pass down in history as the creators of martial arts.


    So yes, a provost exam was a big deal, even if Santiago was no mage. In fact, it was even more of a big deal taking into account that Santiago was seventeen, when most provosts were in their thirties or above. So there was Santiago, in the RAAM¡¯s examination chamber, a marvel of magical engineering, taking his combat exam. The provost exam was comprehensive, including fighting in terrains between swamps to forests, against multiple opponents, against weaker and stronger foes, and many such exams. The exam took place over a week to test how well the applicant dealt with stress and exhaustion, with the final day being Prize Playing, concretely fifty continuous fights in random terrains.


    By 13:26 Santiago was in his final bout. The terrain was thankfully a barren plain and his opponent an instructor. Santiago primarily fought with a longsword, but also knew how to use the arming sword, rapier, backsword, spear, poleaxe and bow. This fight he had chosen to use a longsword and coincidentally his opponent also used a longsword. Santiago was at a heavy disadvantage due to how tired he was, when he held his sword he had the feeling that if he dropped it, he wouldn¡¯t be able to pick it back.


    So there he was, standing two meters from his opponent. Santiago was of medium height, about 178 cm, furthermore, he was built like a wardrobe, wide of shoulders with decent musculature as well as well proportioned. His opponent was of roughly equal height, but with a more slender physique. Santiago evaluated his target, from how he was moving he could tell that his opponent was nervous, he was sweating more than he should at current temperature and humidity conditions. He also was slightly too tense, but still relaxed. It was most likely that he had heard of Santiago¡¯s reputation, which made him double guess himself. He was most likely debating whether to attack or wait to defend, seeking an opening.


    Santiago had positioned himself with his back to the Sun, the artificial sun anyway, and moved in a way that his opponent was forced to remain in this position. Santiago¡¯s aim was to make his foe attack first, since he doubted he had left the stamina needed to push an assault, while maintaining his advantage. They had just been gauging each other for a few seconds when Santiago faked making a mistake, he moved to assault in a way that allowed his opponent to dodge to the right. With the Sun no longer directly in his eyes the instructor slashed at Santiago, but Santiago predicted this and parried his attack, using the momentum given by his foe¡¯s sword to slash him in the face.


    And that was the match. Had the match not been on the simulation chamber the instructor would be dead. Even discounting the bleeding from the gash it would have cracked his face and skull, a lethal injury without treatment. But as it was in the simulation chamber the instructor simply disappeared. The simulation chamber allowed a fully realistic battle without actually being in contact with the enemy, the magic of the chamber transmitting the force and position of the fighters when they were in identical, but different rooms. The creation of this chamber had made injuries and deaths plunge when sparring, which everyone sane was thankful for.


    Having finished the exam Santiago allowed himself to fall to the ground and groan in exhaustion. The provost exam had been very taxing, demanding much from him. He never wanted to fight in the middle of a swamp again, nor did he want to fight a bear. And how did they get a realistic bear simulation he didn¡¯t know, but it was tough, very unlike fighting a human. He forced himself to stand up as the terrain changed into a featureless black room, and headed to the locker room, where he showered and changed to more formal clothing.


    Once decent he walked to the administrative part of the academy, to present himself before the tribunal and hear their verdict. The provost exam tribunal was formed of five provost and one master, and to pass the exam you needed the approval of at least four of them.


    Once Santiago arrived at the Provost Examination Room 5, he breathed deep, steeled himself, and entered. The room was quite simple, with two desks, one small one big, and seven chairs. One chair and desk was for the examinee, the other desk and six chairs where for the examiners, and they were slightly taller, probably for intimidation. Santiago had grown pretty accustomed to this room, since every day he had to report here to have his fighting dissected and reviewed.


    ¡°Good evening.¡±


    ¡°Good evening, mister Santiago. Please seat down.¡± The master, a woman named Dolores Arima, smiled at Santiago.


    Normally only the master spoke, except when the provosts had a different view of the events to be graded. So it was no surprise when Dolores kept speaking.


    ¡°Now, before you arrived the examination tribunal have reached an unanimous decision for once. We believe that your skill with a sword isn¡¯t quite at provost level, however,¡± Santiago gulped, having feared this, before he heard the however, ¡°taking into account your age that isn¡¯t a surprise.¡±


    She paused to smile again at him.


    ¡°What is a surprise is your fighting skill, situational awareness, feints, trickery, manipulation of your opponent, efficiency when going for the kill, and conservation of your stamina, as well as how calm you are. Not once have you made a mistake or lost your cool, which is a rare and valued ability in battle.


    So while your sword skills need improvement you more than make up for it in actual battle ability. Which is what counts at the end of the day, defeating your opponent. I recommend that you use more thrusts when fighting, and increase your aggresivity a little, as your initiative is slightly weak. Any of you have something else?¡±


    She looked at her fellow examiners, one woman and four men, for confirmation.


    ¡°I do.¡± Said a well dressed man. ¡°You rely a bit too much in predicting your opponent¡¯s moves. And while your predictive abilities are good-¡°


    ¡°Good, he says.¡± The sole female provost snorted. ¡°Did I not know better I¡¯d say they are supernatural, he has never misinterpreted his opponent.¡±


    ¡°While your predictive abilities are good.¡± The well dressed provost stressed the good with annoyance. ¡°There will come the day when someone fools you, so don¡¯t put so much strength in your blows, reserve some to be able to change faster between attacks.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s a problem. Sure, he overextended a little, but nothing grave. It¡¯d take a master or a really experienced provost to take advantage of it as it is.¡± Corrected the older of the provosts, who was around seventy years old.


    ¡°I know, but I believe he can become a master, so I will push him to excellence.¡±


    Dolores nodded at that, sharing the feeling, before announcing the result.


    ¡°As such, we have concluded that you reach the standards that the RAAM ask of its provosts. Congratulations mister Santiago, you pass.¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡± Santiago exclaimed before coughing on his fist, embarrassed. ¡°Sorry.¡±


    ¡°Seventeen years old and a provost, you deserve more than a yes.¡± The current Arima head said wryly. ¡°May I ask how have you trained to become such a fighting monster at your age?¡±


    ¡°It just comes to me? I guess I¡¯m talented. Although I have sparred quite a bit.¡±


    ¡°A bit.¡± Dolores raised an eyebrow. She then took a file from under the desk, and read it. ¡°Joined the RAAM at ten years of age in summer 2013. When he was twelve he was allowed to spar for the first time in summer 2015. Since then he has fought an average of ten times a day, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, for a total of 18,260 battles in five years, not counting examinations. Of them several were fights against multiple opponents or battle royales. He won all but twelve of them. This Santiago Alonso Caballero sure has sparred a bit, in ancient times he would have only killed about 20,000 people before becoming an adult.¡±


    ¡°So I have fought a lot, but even then that doesn¡¯t explain how good I am at this, right?¡±


    ¡°Indeed it doesn¡¯t. Oh well, I will just have to accept that some people are great at fighting.¡±


    ***


    Due to having achieved an impressive accomplishment Santiago was in a good mood when he arrived home by 16:57, having eaten in the RAAM¡¯s cafeteria. He lived in a flat along with his parents and siblings. His father was Gonzalo Alonso Ruiz, a daemonsmith, and his mother Sara Caballero Lopez, who worked with his father. Daemonsmiths are those who take material daemons and make stuff out of them, whether that be refrigerators, weapons or armour. They specialised in making armour and guns, but could also make household appliances.


    His siblings were three. His older sister Mar¨ªa, who was twenty one, his younger sister Elena, who was fifteen, and his youngest brother Mario, who was nine. Santiago had a good relationship with all of them, teasing and ribbing notwithstanding, but for certain reasons he was highly protective of Mario even if he never showed it. Of course, due to his special circumstances Santiago knew that, despite his fighting skills, he would always be the weakest in the family.


    As such when Santiago entered his home he wasn¡¯t surprised at what he heard when he passed the living room.


    ¡°I¡¯m home.¡±


    ¡°Welcome. How did it go? Are you finally an expert at waving sticks around?¡± Asked Elena.


    ¡°Ha ha. Yes, I am an expert at waving sticks around, shortstuff.¡± A barb for a barb, as some may say.


    Elena glared at his brother, in her opinion she wasn¡¯t that short, being 145 cm was being short but she was only fifteen, surely she would grow. Spoiler alert, yes she would, massively to that.


    Santiago, with the practiced ease of an experienced brother, ignored her and headed to his room to change to more casual clothing. As he headed there, it was the second furthest room from the room in the flat, he heard his mother shout at him.


    ¡°Congratulations Santiago! You have a package, did you buy something?¡±


    ¡°Not that I remember! Are we the only ones home?¡±


    ¡°Yes! Your father is finishing a riot gun, Mario is still at a birthday party and Mar¨ªa is watching over him!¡±


    Santiago froze for a second, before answering.


    ¡°Got it!¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t you two speak face to face like normal people?! I¡¯m trying to read here!¡±


    ¡°Now you are shouting too!¡± Said Santiago.


    ¡°Because you are shouting!¡±


    ¡°No, you!¡±


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t even make sense in this context!¡±


    ¡°Will you stop shouting children?! The neighbours are going to complain!¡±


    ¡°¡°You started mom!¡±¡±


    Santiago chuckled beneath his breath and finished changing. Now comfortable he went to the living room and sat in the sofa with the grace of an overgrown walrus. Looking around he saw that Elena was lounging on the other sofa, and his mom was sitting by her side, having finished dinner.


    ¡°I say, you children don¡¯t appreciate me. I cook, clean and take care of you all and yet you blame me for everything.¡±


    ¡°I also cook mom.¡± Santiago rolled his eyes.


    ¡°Don¡¯t sass me boy.¡±


    ¡°That can¡¯t be called sass, mom.¡± Elena smiled at her brother where their mom couldn¡¯t see her. Santiago smirked at her, and Elena saluted.


    ¡°And now you tag team me. Where did I go wrong, I wonder?¡±


    ¡°You know we love you mom. But arguing runs in our blood, as does nerdiness and weirdness.¡± Explained Santiago.


    ¡°Our family isn¡¯t that weird.¡±


    ¡°Uncle Paco divided a fifty euros bill by breaking it in four.¡±


    ¡°Paco is the weirdest in the family Santiago.¡±


    ¡°Aunt Helena makes video games, her daughter cosplays.¡±


    ¡°And she¡¯s your favourite aunt, Elena.¡±


    ¡°And grandma and aunt Rosa always argue when they are together.¡±


    ¡°Why are you two using only my family as examples? Your father¡¯s weird too.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but they are weird in the ancient daemonsmith clan way. The we take the body parts of dead daemons and forge them into weapons of great might way.¡±


    ¡°Whatever.¡± Sara faked ignoring her children and reading her book, but her smile said she felt otherwise.


    Elena and Santiago shared a smug smile, before going to their mother and hugging her.


    ¡°Too late for this to work.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± The pouty eyes that Elena sent her mother were greatly effective, Santiago¡¯s not so much. After all his features were more angular and sharp, and while that made him very pleasant to look at if not handsome, it wasn¡¯t conductive to cuteness.


    ¡°Get off me. It¡¯s already hot enough without you two being so close.¡± Sara grumbled.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    Santiago laughed softly and went to the small table, where a packet lied.


    ¡°Hm. I don¡¯t remember buying anything through mail.¡±


    He opened it and took a small token from it. It was a small hyperrectangle about one centimetre tall, fifteen centimetres deep and eight centimetres wide. It was made of a black stone that was cool to the touch. As he was examining it one of its bigger facets lit up, showing a symbol of a stylised tower surrounded by fog, and Santiago felt his consciousness being pulled into it


    ***


    Suddenly Santiago found himself in a spacious, hexagonal room. The walls were made of thick stone, covered by tapestries depicting ancient humans fighting daemons in some parts, and by paintings in others. The floor was made of wood and warm, as if there was heating beneath it. There were no windows but in the middle of the floor there was a basin filled with something resembling liquid light, that shifted into many images. It was well lit, despite lacking any obvious light sources. The ceiling painted, and it showed a nomadic tribe travelling through some plains under the watch of a warm eye in the sky. The room felt warm, at the most comfortable temperature, and the fresh like the wind in the morning. There was no furniture, for it was not needed.


    Santiago had appeared in the middle of the basin, and marvelled at the light like water flowing around him. It felt like a warm bath, but better. Every second he was submerged made him feel more energised, his soreness vanishing and his mind resting. He was so relaxed he fell asleep, feeling safe and relaxed. At the back of his mind he heard a voice complaining, begging for him to remain awake, but another told him it was alright to be protected. And everything faded to black.


    When Santiago awoke he didn¡¯t want to stand, for he felt safe as if in the embrace of a mother. The darkness was protecting him, holding him close and whispering for him to let his worries melt away. And thus did Santiago snuggle under the water, as if it were bed sheets, awake but too comfortable to stand up. But then the voice of the darkness whispered in his head.


    ¡°The time of resting has ended. Stand up, don¡¯t you want to have a productive day?¡±


    The voice was comfortable, neither male nor female, warm and compassionate. It was synesthetic, making Santiago feel as if his body was being caressed by silk. He begrudgingly opened his eyes, and sit in the basin. Looking around he couldn¡¯t find the source of the voice, and he frowned. He wondered if he had imagined it, when he heard a soft chuckle.


    ¡°You can already see me.¡±


    Santiago felt confused, before he understood and looked at the water he was in, and now that he focused on it, it didn¡¯t wet him. Peculiar.


    ¡°Correct.¡±


    The water-light began to move, flowing to a point and forming a humanoid figure rising from the waters. It began to condense, before taking the form of a naked, genderless human. It had no sexual attributes, looking like a doll. A muscular, well proportioned doll with androgynous features. It sat down on the water and smiled at Santiago. It was tall and imposing, majestic but warm, ancient and caring, these were the impressions it gave to Santiago. It was me. For the record, I¡¯m not touting my own horn those were literally his thoughts.


    ¡°Good morning, and welcome to my office in the Steel Bulwark.¡± I said to the poor boy. And before you ask the theatrics were needed for him to take me seriously.


    That woke him up fast. Nothing like being told you are in the greatest fortress and school of humanity to kick your head into gear.


    ¡°The Steel Bulwark? Then are you an allied Daemon God?¡±


    Sharp, I like that about him. I like many things about him, which is why I invited him to join me.


    ¡°Near, but no.¡±


    ¡°Not human. Not Daemon God and I seriously doubt you are an ordinary daemon.¡± Seeing the realisation in his face was seriously funny. Particularly his stare changing from awed to flat, from flat to disbelieving, disbelieving to awed, and awed to flat again. ¡°I will need a second opinion about that.¡±


    ¡°About what?¡± Even if I was able to guess his thoughts, and indeed even knew them, I wanted to hear him say it.


    ¡°The Steel Bulwark is the greatest fortress of humanity in the Fayd. Only humans and our allies can enter it. Right now we don¡¯t have ambassadors from alien worlds or  universes, so only three kinds of beings can be here. Humans, allied daemons, and the Founder.¡±


    I smiled knowingly, and he swore in his mind. It was quite the unfair insult, I don¡¯t fuck mothers, or fuck at all. But I understood, I am a legend among humans of this Earth, in more ways than one, so I didn¡¯t say anything.


    ¡°I seriously need a second source.¡± He was sceptical, a good thing when dealing with the Fayd. There are many nasties among daemons, and even mages.


    ¡°Very well.¡±


    With a wave of my hand, for his sake, I made the floor transparent. Beneath us the Steel Bulwark appeared in all its glory. The Bulwark was a magical marvel, most resembling a tower. But as it was made before the concept of buildings existed among humans it was different from the usual towers. At its centre lied a cylindrical pillar twenty metres of radius that stretched for the full height of the Bulwark, from floor to ceiling.


    Around the pillar was an empty space, only connected to the floors surrounding it by stone bridges, with fences of course. The rooms and chambers of the Bulwark were found within the outer wall, more or less. The structure of the Bulwark was of four concentric circles, the centremost one was the pillar, the second one was the hallways with the space in between being empty. The third was the first wall, with the rooms being nestled between this one and the fourth, and the fourth being the outer wall.


    The Bulwark had a thousand floors, each three metres of height, for a total height of three kilometres. However not all rooms were this low, space was wonky there. A room that from the outside was classroom sized held within a football field. Even the hallways could bend to accommodate bigger folks, allowing for some truly screwy perspectives. Stairs and elevators allowed transit between floors, with every twenty floors having a teleporter for faster travels.


    The central pillar was the core of the Bulwark, being control centre, library, observatory and computer simultaneously, it was the most important part of the Bulwark. By touching it one could connect with it. The pillar itself was not sapient, but held a sort of intelligence, allowing it to function like, as I said, a computer. It could store information, sort it and respond to the wishes of the user to present the adequate information.


    But you shouldn¡¯t underestimate the rooms, which held libraries older than civilisation in the form of paintings and memory stones, as well as other just as impressive facilities. It could also scan its surroundings for information, and had a crucial ability. All humans from this Earth in the Fayd could sense its location relative to them, it was akin to a lighthouse. This had allowed for humanity to explore further than they should be capable of with their current means without getting lost.


    It was the first time Santiago had been in the Bulwark, his first time in the Fayd even. He looked down the massive structure in awe, looking at the millions of humans and daemons walking in it, at that moment there were 2.26 million mages in it. As there were about ten million mages on Earth, that was a fair number, but due to the sheer bulk of the Bulwark they were sparse.


    As Santiago took in the sights I could hear his heart accelerate, and see his eyes widen. It is a testament to Santiago¡¯s control over his face that he didn¡¯t go slack jawed, as even I have to admit the Bulwark is an impressive sight. Even from outside it is something to be seen, with the closest parallel I can find being Barad-D?r from the Peter Jackson films. It was a gigantic fortress made of steel, shaped in an ominous form. It struck terror in the hearts of everyone wishing to harm this Earth, and awe in those under its aegis. It was a beacon of stability in the ever changing Fayd. For 14,000 years it had stood, and never had it been breached.


    I waited for a while as he examined the tower and felt reassured in my choice when he used his one ability to overlook it.


    ¡°It¡¯s not an illusion.¡±


    ¡°No, it isn¡¯t.¡±


    He turned to me and for the first time examined me through his perception.


    ¡°And you are not a daemon or a material being. You have no mass or SINQUM, and¡­¡±


    ¡°And?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t see what you are, whether with my eyes or through the hole. You are a different existence. You really are the Founder.¡±


    ¡°Oh? Couldn¡¯t your eyes be fooled?¡±


    ¡°No, I¡­ you know why, don¡¯t you?¡± His eyes narrowed and suspicion filled his heart.


    Indeed I did. I had been observing him for years, it¡¯s why I knew he was the one.


    ¡°Please, humour me.¡±


    He sighed, but complied.


    ¡°Every human has an entity called the Guardian in their minds, if one becomes aware of it they can use it to acquire powers and magic. It is supposed to be very difficult to know it¡¯s there, but by bonding with a daemon¡­ sorry, I didn¡¯t explain it well. Guardians are similar to True Daemons, but without a will. By bonding with one and becoming familiar with it discovering your Guardian becomes easier.


    I had it easier, after all it is easier to notice a hole in reality than air.¡±


    ¡°Good simil.¡± A really great one to that, the Guardian has been part of human minds since very early in their evolution. It is always there, and as they say you don¡¯t know what you have until you lose it.


    ¡°Thanks. It turns out my Guardian was stolen at some point in time, before I turned thirteen, which is when I noticed the hole in my mind. It is a weird feeling, to have¡­ no, to lack a part of my mind. Because of that I can¡¯t use magic, but by examining the hole left behind I became able to feel my mind and whether it is being tampered through magic. I also can see unmaterialised daemons and SINQUM.


    It also turns out that most illusory and mental abilities target the Guardian, so I am mostly immune to those. Furthermore most daemons are uninterested in me, and I can¡¯t be possessed.¡±


    ¡°Hmm. That isn¡¯t quite right. Or rather, nothing you have said is wrong but what you believe you know is false.¡±


    ¡°Pardon me?¡±


    ¡°See, the Guardian is inextricably tied to its host¡¯s mind. It is incapable of function if separated from them. So if you wish to use a stolen Guardian you must let a connection remain between host and Guardian. This connection allows the Guardian to work, while being sufficiently separated that the human is unable to feel or call upon the Guardian.¡±


    Santiago drew a sharp breath unable, or rather, unwilling to believe me. He had long given up on using magic, which was devastating for someone who craved power as much as him. With trembling eyes he looked into my own, having understood why he was here. Well, partly.


    ¡°What do you wish from me?¡±


    ¡°Direct, I like that. Trying to fish information from someone like me would be folly. But first, background, what do you know about the Sea of Chaos from whence I come?¡±


    ¡°It is a place of possibility. From it universes spring, as did the Fayd, similarly to many creation myths. It is a realm beneath time and space, beneath even the quantum realm. There our rules hold no meaning, our reason fails.¡±


    ¡°Good enough. What do you know about its inhabitants?¡±


    ¡°Uhh¡­¡±


    ¡°Nothing then. The Sea of Chaos has many forms of life, or things you could call alive. Universes are also creatures from the Sea, and some are even alive. However I will simplify it and tell you there are two big classes. In reality there are five.


    The two you must know about are the Rulers and the Primordials. Primordials are basically the animals and humans of the Sea, feeding and living on it according to its rules. Rulers are different in that they can bend the Sea of Chaos and universes to their will, in other words, their will shapes reality. From this class most of the beings from mythology you call gods come. I could be considered one of them, but really I am from the fourth class.¡±


    If he heard me say this he would complain, but he looked so cute in that moment. His eyes were filled with earnestness, his mind soaking in my words. Truly such an eager and innocent desire for knowledge is adorable. The simple desire to understand the world you live in is something I can empathise with. I too held such a longing once, but now I know everything about the world. Even cuter were his little nods, and his disappointment when he heard I wouldn¡¯t teach him everything. He actually pouted!


    ¡°Cough.¡±


    ¡°Hmm?¡± He tilted his head like a dog!


    ¡°Nothing, nothing.¡±


    ¡°What are you then?¡±


    ¡°Not yet. Depending on how this goes I will tell you or not. I must have my secrets, I hope you understand.¡±


    ¡°Haah. I¡­ do.¡± He said begrudgingly. And then he whispered to himself. ¡°But I don¡¯t like it.¡±


    ¡°Well then. Rulers are immensely powerful and old, the myths you know of are actually downplayed to become credible. A mountain wouldn¡¯t have stopped Typhon, even a planet wouldn¡¯t have done it. As such we, the reasonable ones, created a series of laws and rules to regulate us. One of the most important regulations is a strict series of laws regarding the treatment of mortals.¡±


    ¡°Does mortal include humans and daemons?¡±


    ¡°Yes, even Primordials.¡±


    ¡°You want me to take care of your mortal enemies, don¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°I have no mortal enemies.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°Mortals are far too frail and weak to threaten me in any way. No, there are only mortals who have disappointed me. Such as seven Daemon Gods that spend their time devouring universes. Or a certain mage that rules over a galactic empire with fear and blood. I won¡¯t be affected if they keep their ways, but I can¡¯t overlook it.¡±


    ¡°Let me get this straight. You, a being of immeasurable power and age, want to get rid of evil people?¡±


    Lovecraft you¡¯ve ruined the good name of us who are far older and powerful than humanity. I know of humans who care for mayflies, why wouldn¡¯t we care about something as interesting as sapience?


    ¡°The doubt hurts. Just because I am older than Death itself doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t care.¡±


    Santiago was doubting it, he didn¡¯t understand why I would, before I made a remark.


    ¡°Think of me less as of Lovecraft and more as of the angels. There are surely those who are indifferent to humans, and those who hate them. But surely there are those who care about them. After all, are we not also living beings with emotions?¡±


    For a broad definition of living, though most of us do have something resembling emotions, in our own way. My own kind is remarkably similar to mortals in way of thought, though I can only show you one of my levels of awareness without things getting confusing.


    ¡°Okay.¡± He thought for a moment. ¡°My apologies.¡±


    ¡°No matter. Anyway, my wish is to train you until you can deal with these disappointments. Preferably seal or re-educate them, but death is on the table, even if it is a waste.¡±


    ¡°And I get power in exchange? How do I do that without a Guardian?¡± He sounded, and was, dubious. My offfer sounded too good.


    ¡°Not only that. First, I can give you an artificial Guardian that won¡¯t interfere with the normal one, once you recover it. Second¡­ first tell me what you think.¡±


    ¡°What is this artificial Guardian? Where is mine? Why me?¡± He was keeping his nerves down, no sane man could hear what he did and be unaffected. But still he tried to avoid being overwhelmed by it, and remain rational.


    ¡°The artificial Guardian is just that. Unlike you I know full well what a Guardian is, and I can create them. The trick is actually in making sure that it doesn¡¯t interfere with the birth one. Yours was taken by a Daemon God for an experiment. Because you are perfect for this.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m perfect?¡± He frowned.


    ¡°For this. You are a good fighter, great for the fighting parts. You are mentally and emotionally stable, good for dealing with the sheer awfulness of the job. You know how to deal with pain, both physical and emotional, without collapsing, a product from your past. You also lack a Guardian, which long term will make you more powerful. And finally, I like you as a person. Even if you aren¡¯t perfect you are my best choice, in over five thousand years.¡±


    His eyes had become like saucers, and his cheeks reddened. To say he was unaccustomed to compliments would be an understatement. Or maybe it was that the compliments were from me. I haven¡¯t put much emphasis into it, but I am without a doubt a legend. Humans wouldn¡¯t be where they are were it not for my help. After all I was the one that taught their ancestors how to build the Steel Bulwark, without me their world would be nearly defenceless against the hordes of daemons that desire their world. As for why this Earth is so attractive to them, that is my secret. It¡¯d be like a scientist being praised by Newton, or a general by Alexander the Great.


    ¡°I, uh¡­ yeah I¡­ uh, never mind. Ehem.¡± He breathed deep. ¡°Are you sure about that?¡±


    ¡°I have studied humanity since before it actually existed. I was there when the first human in the Sea of Chaos was born. I was there before life ever existed. I was there when Death as a concept was born. I was there when there were no universes. I was there before the gods. I was there before the light, before the darkness. I was there at the dawn of time, and I will be at its twilight. The lifespan of an universe is but a blink to me. My sight encompasses an uncountable number of universe. My mind can hold all knowledge in creation. Never has there been anyone in the Fayd with more knowledge of humanity than me, so if I say you are my best option, it is because you are my best option.¡±


    I think I broke him, okay fine, I did it on purpose. It is very amusing when people are treating me like they would another person and I break out the whole older than Death thing. It is true though.


    ¡°Fine, I can¡¯t yet assimilate it, but fine. You want me, good.¡± He tried to stop thinking about it, but I know well that he had an existential crisis three nights later. ¡°Anything else?¡±


    ¡°Your twin sister is alive.¡± I remarked casually.


    ¡°I se-¡° He froze, there is no better way to describe it. He just looked at me like I had grown another head, and began to hyperventilate. He tried to control himself for a few seconds, but failed. Finally he managed to push some words out.


    ¡°What. Do. You. Mean?¡± His voice trembled, trying to contain his anger. But he wasn¡¯t angry at me, but at those who had ritually sacrificed his sister when she was nine. That event broke him. It had taken him years of therapy to rebuild himself to this point, and he had emerged stronger, happier and saner. But he had never forgotten, nor forgiven.


    ¡°The ritual wasn¡¯t human sacrifice. Its purpose was to transmit her mind to her Guardian, and send it to another universe. There she has been made to serve Koluath Veld, a powerful mage. A poor excuse of a person, but powerful nonetheless.¡±


    ¡°Where is she?¡± He had finally managed to restrain himself, not allowing his emotions to dominate him.


    ¡°You are too weak to rescue her.¡±


    He recoiled when I said that. He even began to snarl at me, before he recomposed himself.


    ¡°You! No, you¡­ are not at fault. Why not send another?¡±


    ¡°You know that universes can have different physical laws. What you haven¡¯t considered is how does a universe react to matter with a different set of laws when it enters it.¡±


    ¡°Wha- what happens?¡±


    ¡°At best you go boom, at worst¡­¡±


    ¡°At worst?¡± Why are humans so fascinated by the many horrible ways they can die? Well, I know why but it is still weird. But I guess that since I can¡¯t die, I can¡¯t really know the feeling.


    ¡°You will be unable to interact with anything and die a slow death by asphyxiation in total sensory deprivation.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re very casual about that!¡±


    ¡°Not my problem. Anyway, in order to get a person from a compatible universe to get in there, kill Koluath, and that¡¯s the only option, and get your sister back I¡¯d have to pull more strings than I can. And it''d take way too long.¡±


    I let my words sink and simmer for a moment, and Santiago didn¡¯t disappoint me.


    ¡°I am your solution.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    He resolved himself.


    ¡°How long until I can get there?¡±


    Even if I had been a demon he may have accepted my deal. Or maybe not since he is very paranoid when dealing with the Fayd, but this may have been too much. Thankfully for him I am quite the opposite.


    ¡°If everything goes according to plan? Three minutes.¡±


    ¡°Eh?¡±


    ¡°How long until you are powerful enough to rescue your sister? Again, according to plan three years.¡±


    At that moment I nearly pitied Koluath. In Santiago¡¯s face an incredibly sadistic smile rose, a smile that promised death. I hoped that he could get rid of that bloodlust by then, or he may have been rendered useless for my purposes. I have no use for weaklings of that kind.


    ¡°How do I start?¡± He asked, brimming with impatience.


    ¡°In a three days, it will be the best time. Until then prepare yourself. Keep a clear mind and relax.¡± I had chosen today for three reasons after all.


    ¡°Alright.¡± He breathed deep and exhaled slowly, calming himself down. There was no place for restlessness when learning how to hurt others in Santiago¡¯s opinion. As such he listened to me and obeyed. Thankfully he knew self hypnosis, so hopefully he would be at his best by then.


    ¡°But first,¡± I took out a small flask from within me, technically from a pocket universe, but details, ¡°drink this.¡±


    He accepted and swallowed it in one gulp. This was going to be good, or very bad.


    ¡°What was that?¡±


    ¡°Best way to explain it? Yog-Sothoth.¡±


    ¡°What?!¡±


    The effects kicked in at that moment, just as planned for maximum theatrics. The flask is best, but still inaccurately, described as a potion made from a Primordial. Said Primordial excelled at spatial manipulation and infiltration as well as information gathering. Not exactly Yog-Sothoth, but close. However the potion had a pretty nasty side effect, it would make the consumer experience about a trillion years in the existence of the Primordial, whose actual name would be something like Watcher from the Dark. Cheery fellow, no, really. By Primordial standards he was Pollyanna.


    As Santiago began to experience the side effects of the potion I got to work. Mainly protecting his mind from breaking and erasing unneeded memories. Since it would be difficult for me to describe what Santiago experienced that day I will allow you a glimpse at his mind.


    ¡®Born and dead, born and dead. The Great Astral is a blink, the circles become squares and squares triangles without changing shape. Shut, shut, shut shut shustshuts shustop. Gone in an instant, dust to dust but still brilliant. Why not care why care let everything be gone I don¡¯t want anymore I want it never more. Eyes on eyes on mouths on tendrils. Ignorant ignorant ignorant forbidden wisdom don¡¯t touch it scary Eternals. A circle within a line, a line within a dot. Folds fold on more folds forming folded folds. Go between open the Gate the Gate is open let me in. Don¡¯t go why run I¡¯m scary why why why if I love you. I watch and learn watch and learn watch and learn learn to be loved. The other fools don¡¯t understand the love of them let them be ignorant they may be bad otherwise. They can¡¯t see me they can¡¯t see me they can feel me. Dead dead dead dead dead dead dead all dead. Ephemeral I want I love where did they go. Swimming swimming finding more. Found more watching again approaching one. Insanity insanity through their eyes I see the monstrosity scary scary scary impossible form impossible angles broken must become like them. Mind broken broken broken why frail can¡¯t control mind frail frail frail don¡¯t want to hurt. Despair despair despair despair despair¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ fear fear fear fear don¡¯t hurt help me you help me hope hope hope I give my body body monstrous body my mind still scary he change me change me change me change me. I thank you for your kindness.¡¯


    And that is the filtered stuff, imagine being exposed to the raw memories. Incidentally this is why I wanted an emotionally stable person, someone frailer may have gone insane even with my help. They wouldn¡¯t have remained insane, but they would have remained scarred for life. As the tide of memories abated Santiago stopped convulsing and spasming, he would have broken something if I wasn¡¯t there. His eyes, which had dilated, began to refocus and he started to think coherently again. As he recovered he found it difficult to retain the contents of his stomach and puked.


    I couldn¡¯t do more than awkwardly pat his back and wait for him to stop retching.


    ¡°Tha¡¯ was one hell of a drug.¡± He said while looking at nothing, his facial muscles twitching. ¡°Did ya say somethin ¡®bout Yog-Sothoth?¡±


    ¡°That isn¡¯t even your accent. How lazy are you? It was a potion made from the body parts of a Primordial, you remember his story right?¡±


    ¡°Barely. So many limbs¡­¡± Oh dear, I would be mistaken for a dealer at this rate.


    ¡°Yep. Anyway, after he donated his body I developed a way to transmit his control over space-time and sensory abilities but... you already know the side effects. I diluted it in order to make it bearable.¡±


    ¡°Diluted he says. Hihihihihi. Not a man.¡±


    ¡°But I did make him into a man. Anyway being a diluted dose you didn¡¯t get the majority of his power, only the ability to open portals in space-time and enter incompatible universes without issue. And the standard video game ability of Third Eye, you know which one. With training you may develop the others.¡±


    ¡°Cooool. Primordial doesn¡¯t rely on Chaos?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Unlike Rulers, or me, or Those Above Me,  Primordials can only use their powers when connected to the Sea of Chaos.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not Primordial?¡±


    ¡°But you are. Now you can be best described as an embryonic Primordial with a budding connection to the Sea of Chaos. Whether you become a full one is your choice.¡±


    ¡°Cooool.¡±


    Why Watcher from the Dark liked hippies so much I¡¯ll never know. Oh, who am I kidding, they were the ones that resisted his touch the most. The Cult of the Holy Cannabis was¡­ something. Something else. Teleporting hippies else.


    I waited until Santiago got off from his fake high. And then I showed him a recording of it. His face was priceless. However all good things must come to an end and his parents were getting worried so I decided to send him back.


    ¡°So how do I get back, magic?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Reality bending powers?¡±


    ¡°Nope.¡± I popped that p hard.


    ¡°How then?¡±


    ¡°Space portals.¡±


    He gave me the most tired of expressions. I think he was done with my shit. I¡¯d be too, but when you get old enough getting a rise out of people becomes very tempting. And enjoyable, I may have a slight sadist streak.


    ¡°How do I do that?¡±


    ¡°Should be instinctive. But first you must see where you must go.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡±


    Santiago focused on his eyes, and they began to shine a warm orange, like embers in a dying bonfire except orange. I knew I chose wisely and not poorly, he got it in one.


    ¡°Huh. There are actually seven folds between here and the Bulwark, seven between the Bulwark and the Fayd, and six between the Fayd and the universe.¡±


    ¡°I like universal barriers, they stall even most Primordials. Even Watcher from the Dark took several Spans to figure it out. The layering of independent space-times makes entering without Chaos abilities impossible. A pity the Bulwark¡¯s are not fully independent, making it possible for daemons to breach it.¡±


    There is only so much I can ask of paleolithic humans. I think they did an admirable job.


    ¡°I see. I don¡¯t want to know what a Span is, right?¡±


    ¡°You literally can¡¯t comprehend the number of years that a Span is.¡±


    ¡°Cool.¡± Oops, it stuck. I decided to watch him for abnormal behaviour. ¡°Now to open the portal.¡±


    What a human would have seen was Santiago holding his hand forward and twisting it 108 degrees. What I saw was a marvellous display of spatial lockpicking, like fitting a key in a keyhole. Ah, so that is why I compared Watcher to Yoggy, Gate and Key and all that jazz. Though being mere space-time Yoggy wouldn¡¯t measure up to most Primordials, much less Rulers. The Sea of Chaos is a scary place. But being an Eternal I don¡¯t care, I¡¯ll just go play with humans.


    Anyway, Santiago was successful on opening the gate to his living room.


    ¡°Santi? Is that you?¡±


    ¡°Yes dad. How long have I been gone?¡±


    ¡°Ten minutes.¡±


    Santiago looked at me, and I mouthed time dilation at him. He nodded and moved to enter the portal.


    ¡°Who is that man Santi?¡± Asked Sara.


    ¡°Hello, Sara and Gonzalo. You son can explain everything, bye.¡±


    ¡°I can? Aaaaah!¡±


    Since I didn¡¯t want to deal with irate parents I pushed Santi through the portal and closed it. What? Of course I can shut other people¡¯s portals, duh.


    ***


    Back at the Alonso-Caballero flat Santiago had landed on the floor. He looked up and saw his entire family around him, minus Mar¨ªa and Mario, staring at him in wonder. Thinking back on the day Santi knew he only had one choice.


    ¡°Explanations are in order. Marta is alive, the Founder made me into a Primordial, and most importantly I¡¯m hungry.¡± Attaboy!


    Santiago knew he was going to pay for that, but the dumbfounded faces in his family more than made up for it.


    ¡®What a day.¡¯

 2. Ein Sof.

    It was 23 of June of 2020, or the day after I made poor Santi¡¯s head spin from the sheer amount of information I had dropped on him. It had taken him the whole afternoon to convince his family of the truth, namely that he wasn¡¯t drugged and I wasn¡¯t an impostor. It helped that he opened a portal to Leon and bought some Leon blood sausages, though he preferred Burgos¡¯s. He then opened another portal to New Zealand, showing them the mountains shown in the Lord of the Rings movies. And for good measure Santiago opened a portal to a certain place in Aragon and bought some goat cheese.


    Needless to say his family was pretty convinced that I wasn¡¯t the devil, or that they had quite a few delicious dishes that night in celebration of all that had happened that day. I would go into loving detail about it, but since I normally can¡¯t eat due to my precepts, you too don¡¯t get to enjoy it. Or maybe I should describe it, and give you all hunger. Hm. Ok, I¡¯ll be good.


    Leaving my desire for something I don¡¯t need aside, Santi had plans that day so he woke even earlier than usual. By eight in the morning he had finished his daily practice, eaten breakfast, showered and was free since he wouldn¡¯t leave until 13:20. As for why he had woken so early in the morning? He wanted to make sure he didn¡¯t suffer from any kind of power incontinence. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised about his control over his new powers, I was at ready to avoid any disaster like opening a portal to the surface of the Sun, but it never happened. Good for him.


    So at 13:17 Santiago left his house and got on the bus. Exactly where he lived I can¡¯t relate, since that Madrid was different from your own, but it was a decent borough for middle class families. One thing that is the same in this universe, is that Madrid¡¯s public transportation is quite good, strikes notwithstanding. In fact you wouldn¡¯t be wrong to think of Madrid as the same place as your universe¡¯s due to their remarkable similarity, just not with the same names. Actually, due to my brilliant laws regarding the use of the Steel Bulwark, this Earth is very similar to your own despite all the Fayd stuff. The probably biggest deviation is that World War 2 was bloodier due to the involvement of the S?hne des Lichts and the Abfangj?ger. Oh, and everything prior to 14,000 b.c.


    Santiago¡¯s destination was a mall in his area. While on route there a certain teenager got on his bus. This young man was of East Asian ancestry, having both Korean, Japanese ancestors. He was in Spain for a mundane reason, his parent¡¯s job, in addition he had come last year and would leave by March to return to Japan. This had made him impressively open with relationships, since he knew that if he screwed up he wouldn¡¯t deal with it for long. The reason why this is important is simple and showed itself when he saw Santiago.


    ¡°Hey.¡± He greeted Santiago.


    ¡°Hm.¡± Santiago nodded at him, before the teenager sat by his side.


    ¡°What good luck to get a seat at this hour. I should have expected you would come early though.¡±


    ¡°Hm.¡± This hm was affirmative, although you would need to know him to recognise that.


    ¡°You aren¡¯t very talkative today huh? You still sleepy?¡±


    At this Santiago turned to him and raised an eyebrow, the teenager decided to shrug in exchange.


    ¡°One, midday.¡±


    ¡°I know, but you normally speak much more.¡±


    ¡°Thinking, overwhelmed.¡±


    ¡°You did tell me you had passed, congrats. Here you are provost, here I am second dan. I knew you were better than me but still. What is a provost equivalent to, seventh dan?¡±


    ¡°Thanks. Not a direct correlation. Roughly yes. But there isn¡¯t a waiting time of years between exams like in kendo.¡±


    ¡°I know, I still have a few months until I can get to third dan.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll pass, good enough.¡±


    At this the teenager stared at Santiago, who hadn¡¯t been looking at him while speaking.


    ¡°You remind me of a year ago, Coconut. Why have you returned to the ways of the Coconut, instead of remaining as the sweet apple you truly are?¡±


    Santiago sighed in annoyance, before deciding to just give up. He knew very well that Miyamoto Akihito never surrendered when it came to knowing people. He had demonstrated that when he had silently been by his side for four months, from October to January, despite him ignoring Aki all that time. Santiago guessed he had earned the Coconut nickname, even if it was embarrassing.


    ¡°Yesterday I learned my sister is still alive, I can do magic, and there are terrifying beings out there.¡±


    One thing that Santi appreciated about Aki was that he was just as silent as he was, probably Japanese politeness, even if he had been infected by Spain. As such Aki didn¡¯t do any noise, he just widened his eyes and hung his mouth. Santiago took some morbid pleasure in that he had managed to wipe both Aki¡¯s stoicism and smile, which seemed to be the sole expressions he was capable of.


    ¡°That... is unusual.¡± Aki took a moment. ¡°Do you need help to get her back? I¡­¡±


    ¡°Aki, I may sell you weapons, since I trust you, but I want plausible deniability in case you are doing something illegal. Don¡¯t tell me what you do.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not doing anything illegal.¡± Aki paused to think. ¡°Unless exploring a new area in the Fayd is illegal.¡±


    ¡°It isn¡¯t. Though you are encouraged to report it.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ can¡¯t do that, sorry.¡±


    ¡°Hm.¡±


    ¡°Hm?¡± Aki looked at Santiago with curiosity. ¡°What has your brain come up with?¡±


    ¡°I think I know why you don¡¯t go through official routes. Anyway I sort of expected that, I buy a lot of materials from you. You must kill a few dozen daemons daily, with how many you get for me.¡±


    ¡°I still can¡¯t believe you saw me injured one day and just decided to sell me weapons.¡± Aki shook his head at that and turned to the front. ¡°Wait.¡± He turned back to Santi. ¡°Don¡¯t change the subject, sister, magic, existential horror.¡±


    Santi smiled at him, before recounting what he had experience the previous day. While he was telling him, they got down from the bus after arriving at their destination. By the time he had finished they were already in the mall, heading to a certain restaurant.


    For a moment the conversation had entered a lull while Aki glared at Santi. Santiago just walked peacefully, knowing he would talk soon.


    ¡°I call bull.¡±


    ¡°At what?¡±


    ¡°You having mastery over space-time on the level of Yog-Sothoth. He is space-time itself, all of space-time.¡±


    ¡°You like Lovecraft?¡±


    ¡°Lovecraft¡¯s big in Japan. You know, since the concept of humans being unable to deal with great beings is so rare, things on the level of the Outer Gods are the only horror there is. Even if they are similar to Daemon Gods. The existence of the Fayd cripples horror I swear. When your neighbor can level a building with a thought¡­¡±


    Unspoken was the fact that taking into account the quality of materials that Aki sold to Santiago, Akihito could also level buildings with a thought.


    ¡°You¡¯ll like to know that Primordials are just as terrifying as Outer Gods, even with the Fayd. As for your question, the answer is universal barriers.¡±


    ¡°Universal barriers?¡±


    ¡°The dividing line of space-time.¡± Knowing that Aki wouldn¡¯t understand with just that, Santi continued. ¡°Imagine that the universe is a sphere floating in a liquid contained by another sphere. Between the first sphere and the liquid there is a separation, that allows the universe¡¯s space-time to be distinct from the liquid, the Fayd¡¯s space-time. Each universe is an independent entity, and the Fayd too is independent from the Sea of Chaos. This separation is a universal barrier, or a stretch of enforced void.¡±


    ¡°Enforced¡­ void.¡± Santiago smiled wryly, even he wouldn¡¯t get it without the Primordial potion.


    ¡°Enforced void is¡­ weird. It is a sort of negative space, but that is a horrible description. Think of it as a region of the Sea of Chaos where nothing is allowed to exist. Not even space-time. If something attempts to cross it he will find it like a wall, it will push back against him. That said, there are ways to circumvent them, however they are mostly unavailable to anyone that isn¡¯t a Ruler or above.¡±


    ¡°So each universe has an independent space-time surrounded by a barrier made of enforced void? Got it.¡±


    ¡°Not quite.¡±


    The horror in Aki¡¯s face made Santiago chuckle. At that moment they arrived at the restaurant.


    There they were greeted by a waiter. They told him they had reservations, and he guided them to their seats, which were secluded from the rest of the restaurant.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, it¡¯s just a detail. I¡¯ve been told there are five classes of beings in the Sea of Chaos. One of them is ¡­ there are no words about it in any language spoken by humans, so I¡¯ll call it Verse after poetry. A Verse is a self-sustained stable limited portion of the Sea of Chaos. A ¡°Verse¡± to the ¡°Song¡± of the Sea.¡±


    The look on Aki¡¯s face didn¡¯t change at all. The expression on the waiter¡¯s face did change however, but she was a professional and she simply twitched.


    ¡°In the Sea of Chaos everything is possible, everything. Even things you can¡¯t think of. On the other hand a Verse has a limited set of rules, like our laws of physics.


    A Verse is stable. Or, there are no paradoxes. While in the Sea of Chaos mass having both normal gravity and reverse gravity is possible, I think that in a Verse that is impossible, because such an existence would collapse faster than a quantum leap can happen. As such a Verse can have no paradoxes, its laws of physics are complete and they work perfectly. Any paradox detected is due to not knowing how the Verse really works. On the other hand in the Sea of Chaos all paradoxes are right and wrong, meaning that 1=2=6=5=7=209=23=0 is both right and wrong in the Sea of Chaos.¡±


    ¡°Stop. I don¡¯t need to know more, I don¡¯t-¡°


    The waiter had chosen to ignore the talk behind her, willfully believing that they were talking about a book.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, the next part is easier. A Verse is self-sustaining, this means that a Verse with no outside intervention can last for extended periods of time in the Sea of Chaos. This is important since most things that arise in the Sea are immediately destroyed. Partly because they aren¡¯t stable, partly because they lack a universal barrier to protect them from the Sea.


    The crux of the issue is that a Verse can be a lone universe, like ours, or a universe where the Many Worlds Theory is true, or a multiverse of ten universes.¡±


    Aki sighed as they reached their reservations, which where empty. As they seated at one end of the eight seat table, he chastised Santiago.


    ¡°All of that just to tell me that it¡¯s multiverses that possess universal barriers, and not just universes.¡± Seeing that Santiago opened his mouth he rushed to say, ¡°I get it, Verses. You truly love explaining things, don¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I do. Anyway, do you know that Primordials could be considered living Verses? Though they are more complex than that.¡±


    Aki facepalmed and groaned.


    ¡°So you are on the level of Yog-Sothoth since he is a living part of the universe, Verse, and you are a living Verse, I take it?¡±


    ¡°An embryonic Verse, and the ability to cross universal barriers is rare among Primordials. It took Watcher from the Dark a friggin long time to learn how to do that. But other than that, yes, you got it.¡±


    ¡°Good. Now let¡¯s speak about something else, alright? Something lighter.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t see why it¡¯s so difficult, you are brilliant.¡±


    ¡°I think metaphysics are way above Bachillerato level curriculum, just saying.¡±


    Santi, in his mind, understood that he may have gone a bit overboard with the explanation. However he mused he should be excused since he had to share what he knew. It was difficult to just wake up one day with secret knowledge about the workings of the universe, or rather, Sea of Chaos. Was it so bad that he wanted to speak about it to organise his mind? He thought not. But knowing it was a very bizarre subject, he dropped it.


    ¡°Alright. I think it is time you told me what do you want my family to do with those Windcutter Cloths you brought me last week.¡±


    ¡°Who names those things?¡±


    ¡°My dad. Don¡¯t dodge the question, Aki.¡±


    ***


    ¡°If that is what you want it¡¯ll take 36,672.23 euros.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s highway robbery!¡±


    ¡°You may be my friend, but prices aren¡¯t negotiable Aki. And I know you have the money, since I paid you 230,000 for those materials.¡±


    ¡°But you are asking a seventh of that for a simple long coat! A long coat that is barely a hundredth of the total material I sold you.¡±


    ¡°Price of quality work Aki. My family is expensive, we¡¯ve been doing this since before the Phoenicians arrived at Tartessos. And a third of the cloth was unusable, too singed to do anything.¡±


    While the two friends were discussing the price of Akihito¡¯s equipment the other commensals arrived. They were thirteen including Santiago and Aki. Of them five were students of the San Ignacio de Loyola school, located in the borough Santiago lived in, though one of them had finished Bachillerato and wouldenter college after summer. Two others were students, while the last six were adults.


    Santiago could identify all of them save two. His classmates were Aki, his former upperclassman Isabel Reyes Garc¨ªa, the daughter of the navigator family Almudena Herrero Guerrero, and a friend of Aki¡¯s named Ignacio Fernandez Ruiz. He knew Almudena pretty well due to both of their families dealing with the Fayd, though her family made maps and Fayd navigation implements. Of the other two he knew little.


    While he didn¡¯t know the other two students he could pinpoint the adults, since all of them dealt with the Fayd. The scruffy looking man sold and maintained Fayd exploration vehicles, he was known as Felipe Gonz¨¢lez Redondo. His automobiles were sturdy, efficient, reliable and fairly priced. The only reason why he was not hideously rich was that all of his machines were hand made, so he sold only a few.


    The shady looking man owned a medicinal shop which was authorised to both make daemonic medicine and heal Fayd related injuries. Despite his looks he was nice, he just liked black way too much. While his medical ability was medium, his medicine was some of the best.


    The well dressed woman was slightly different, in that she didn¡¯t own a shop. She was actually a researcher, owner of the famed private Fayd research firm Kosmos. Santiago wondered for a moment how someone as famous as Ana Mar¨ªa Su¨¢rez Cort¨¦s wasn¡¯t swarmed, before he noticed that while her firm was renowned, Ana was not.


    The gentle looking old woman was actually Nuria Medina G¨®mez, also known as the Asura. She was Akihito¡¯s kendo sensei, as well as a retired mage. She was infamous due to her combat prowess, as well as how many areas of the Fayd she had explored.


    And finally, the stern woman was an agent of the Agencia Espa?ola de Control sobre Materias de la Distorsi¨®n, or Fayd in English. She was probably Aki¡¯s legal counsel. Her name was Silvia Serrano Molina.


    Once they had all arrived Aki, Isabel, Ignacio and the other two students rose.


    ¡°Good evening everyone.¡± Said Aki. ¡°We have invited you all for two reasons. First, all of you managed to learn that I was exploring the Fayd and decided to help me. As we recently managed to achieve a great victory, we wished to thank all of you for it.¡±


    He raised his glass in a toast and the others followed.


    ¡°Second, we think you deserve to know why we haven¡¯t gone through the usual channels, as well as who we are. It is because of this that we invited you here, except Santiago. He deduced half of us on his own.¡±


    Santiago waved when the others turned to him, and shrugged.


    ¡°I¡¯m an expert at reading body language, and Santiago¡¯s weapon provider. First I sold him weapons for two humans and a daemon, and Ignacio started to show signs of battle experience. Last month I began to sell weapons for six, and Isabel too demonstrated experience. Recently I saw the three of them alongside a daemon and the other two. While I don¡¯t know you two you did show familiarity with conflict.¡±


    ¡°Impressive.¡± Commented Silvia. ¡°Are you interested in a part time job at the AECMD? We could use someone like you.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, I don¡¯t think I will have the time. I¡¯m learning magic soon.¡±


    ¡°You?¡± Asked Almudena, that knew of Santiago¡¯s issue.


    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you later, let Aki finish.¡±


    ¡°Thank you Santi. First, presentations are in order. As Santi pointed, we are six but our daemon isn¡¯t here.¡±


    Then the other four presented themselves, it turned out that the other two were called Francisca Hidalgo Santana and Rub¨¦n Gallego Cruz. After that Felipe insisted on everyone saying what they did for the group, and it turned out that they did exactly what Santiago had expected. Except Silvia, that also made sure that their operations were above board while unnoticed.


    ¡°Presentations done, though I¡¯m sure most of you knew each other, particularly Santi.¡±


    ¡°The Kyrioi apo Metallon are a very famous daemonsmith family.¡± Said Nuria. ¡°I always buy from them, best quality in Europe, in my opinion. Since Santiago¡¯s family stocks their products they are quite prominent in our community.¡±Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Thank you for your patronage. But let us allow him to speak without interruptions.¡±


    Santi smiled at Nuria, he had seen her sometimes at the family shop so he was somewhat familiar with her.


    ¡°Bah! He made us come here instead of telling us one by one. Let us reward his laziness with interruptions.¡±


    Aki¡¯s smile strained a little when he heard that his motivation had been so easily seen through. But in his opinion by doing this he could get everyone to know each other, and tell them of his activities. A more efficient solution even if he saved time and effort as a result.


    ¡°Ahem! So, ignoring the blatant attack I¡¯ve suffered-¡°


    ¡°You aren¡¯t denying it?¡± Asked Rub¨¦n.


    ¡°Anyway. The reason we have been so secretive is meaningless. We just don¡¯t want to share the place we are exploring with others.¡±


    Nobody in the table believed that for a second, Akihito just wasn¡¯t that reckless. Exploring an entirely new area of the Fayd with six people was folly, normally expeditions were made of several dozens of people. From a young age everyone was made conscious of the dangers of the Fayd, and while some may be willing to take the risk, most wouldn¡¯t explore without at least some supervision.


    As such everyone there, all of whom had experience with the Fayd, understood what was implied by what they had heard.


    ¡°Nod if yes. Am I right to suppose that you didn¡¯t just say that you didn¡¯t tell us you did it because you didn¡¯t want to share?¡±


    ¡°Why are you doubting me? Do I merit such trust?¡±


    ¡°That is a yes then. What do you think, Ana?¡±


    The discussion continued, with the experts taking silence on the part of the squad of five as a confirmation of their guesses. They couldn¡¯t intervene in the conversation anyway.


    ¡°A curse. A powerful curse that impedes anyone from communicating the truth about whatever that place they are exploring is.¡±


    Everyone turned to look at Akihito¡¯s reaction, but he did nothing.


    ¡°A curse that only impedes direct communication then. How is such a thing possible?¡±


    Ram¨®n¡¯s doubt was understandable. A curse capable of affecting so many people was nearly impossible to imagine.


    ¡°Maybe it is some sort of curse that affects those that know the truth? Like, it spreads when someone gains knowledge of that place, making it so that they can¡¯t speak of it?¡±


    Almudena¡¯s proposal had merit, but thankfully Santiago had knowledge of one such curse.


    ¡°No, I have seen a curse of that type.¡± He then thought for a second. ¡°No, the truth is that I am under such a curse.¡±


    Curiosity filled the air at Santiago¡¯s words. It is worth saying that everyone in the table was experienced in the Fayd, and yet none of them had ever heard of such a curse.


    ¡°I am unable to spread the identity of our Kyrioi patrons.¡± Explained Santiago. ¡°No, I think I actually know what is going on, but¡­¡±


    ¡°But?¡± Asked Silvia.


    ¡°But is unbelievable and terrifying. I said before that I am an expert at reading body language, to the point I can predict another human¡¯s actions. And yet I found no incongruity on his micro expressions. I know that a curse like the one used by the Kyrioi actually disables body language in order to avoid any communication.


    Taking into account that the Kyrioi are Spain¡¯s greatest and oldest magical clan¡­ I doubt anyone could do better with such a curse than them. But they may do something better.¡±


    ¡°What are you waiting for then?¡± Asked Nuria.


    ¡°Sigh. I simply am preparing myself. I believe the curse impedes the acquisition of knowledge of that place in Madrid, maybe even further. It is a curse upon our very land.¡±


    ¡°What?! Why do you think that?!¡± The fear in Silvia¡¯s voice was blatant, aware of the power that needed.


    ¡°I have recently¡­ No, let me start again. Whenever I asked Akihito about that place I saw a certain thing. A flow of SINQUM and Ether rising from the ground. I believe it holds a mental compulsion to ignore it. I can¡¯t be affected by such things, so I could see it. Unfortunately I can¡¯t actually see the flow when inactive, so I can¡¯t tell how big the effect is.¡±


    ¡°So knowledge of the curse isn¡¯t a taboo? That was the name of a curse of this kind, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Confirmed Ana Mar¨ªa.


    After that a discussion broke over how to deal with such a thing if true, with everyone making plans in their own way. Santiago kept quiet, since the methods of the Kyrioi had failed to detect anything, but maybe others would have better luck. As they run out of ideas the discussion halted, but soon afterwards Silvia tried to excuse herself.


    ¡°Are you mad? We paid for this meal, and we¡¯re here to celebrate the kids detaining that criminal.¡± Scolded Nuria. ¡°Who, now that I think about it, is probably related to all of this. Meaning there are ways of circumventing the curse.¡±


    ¡°Prisoner?¡± Asked Santiago.


    ¡°A man from an organisation that has emerged recently. They are pretty good, but these guys,¡± Silvia pointed at Akihito, ¡°managed to get one of them.¡±


    While Silvia wasn¡¯t the only one who wished to leave, no one wished to offend the Asura, and the meal resumed. Santiago later reflected that the meal was a pleasant affair, with him finding the members of Akihito¡¯s squad quite pleasant. All in all, a relaxing time, since aside from there being a prisoner he already knew practically everything.


    ***


    After two days had passed I summoned Santiago, around 8:30 in the morning.


    ¡°It is time. Return to me.¡±


    Before opening a portal Santiago finished a self-hypnosis exercise he had learned in therapy, and then crossed over.


    I should mention the limitation of his portals. First, he needed direct line of vision, in order to see the space between the two points. Second, it is a little known fact that electrical and gravity fields are actually distortions in space-time. The density of air is low enough that the distortion can be ignored, so he can only open portals in materials of density between air and void. This limitation does apply to the Fayd, but only for daemonic SINQUM. Finally, it requires little concentration, so he can open many portals at the same time.


    Once he crossed over Santiago received a surprise, I had redecorated. The floor was now covered in a soft carpet, and I had a bed, one chair, and a single desk. The basin was still there, he¡¯d need its healing properties.


    When he saw me I waved at him, and signaled at the chair. Once he was seated I began to speak.


    ¡°Good morning. I am glad you followed my advice. Have you thought of any questions about what I told you three days ago?¡±


    ¡°Yes, why was I and my sister targeted?¡±


    ¡°You already know that. You two are part of the Kyrioi apo Metallon.¡±


    Kyrioi apo Metallon, roughly meaning Lords of Metal in Ancient Greek, were a somewhat reclusive family of daemonsmiths. They offered some of the best equipment in the world, and definitely the best in Spain. They were so good and so ancient in fact, that there were Greek, Phoenician and Roman myths about them. Even within the family itself there was debate about whether the Immortal Blacksmith had ever existed. But the Alonso family didn¡¯t just sell their products, they were part of it.


    The reason why Santiago¡¯s twin had been kidnapped by that Lich, and Santiago¡¯s Guardian stolen, was because the family was so mythical, that their Guardians had mutated to become more powerful than that of an ordinary human. This mutation only happened in members acknowledged by the clan. The acknowledgement ritual made it so that the children of every active member of the clan received the mutation. After all the Kyrioi were said to be over ten thousand years old, and they surely were at least three thousand years old. Their descendants populated the world.


    While the Kyrioi weren¡¯t the only such clan in the world, they were the least defended one when their secrecy was breached. Of course since they were so secretive no one outside the family should know they held such a mutation. Because of this the disasters that fell upon the Alonso family had caused great unrest upon the family.


    There were nine branches, all of them with ordinary names due to their secrecy, only identified by their favored products. They were Blade, Bow, Blunt, Pole, Axe, Gun, Hand, Cloth Armour and Metal Armour. However every branch could produce all kinds of weapons, it¡¯s just that everyone had a different specialty. Each branch was allowed twelve smiths at a time, all within three generations of the oldest smith. Gonzalo, Santiago¡¯s father, was the sixth smith of the Gun branch. Furthermore only the smiths were allowed to tell outsiders of their affiliation, with having knowledge by itself imposing a curse on the one in the know, a curse that impeded them from telling others of it.


    Suffice to say that only Santiago and his family knew of his affiliation, which made him uncomfortable whenever the Kyrioi surfaced in a conversation. Fortunately the curse was so effective that it affected even his body language, making it so that no one ever realised it.


    I had been watching Santiago closely, to see how he would react. I was pleased to see that he didn¡¯t. With all that I had told him that he didn¡¯t know he already suspected I knew that. A satisfying conclusion. Oh, I try to avoid reading people¡¯s minds, so I don¡¯t always know what they are thinking. It helps keep life fresh.


    ¡°How did they know?¡±


    ¡°I must say that due to the laws I work under what I can tell you is limited. This is because I am heavily encouraged to respect free will, and the decisions of mortals. Telling you how they did things would be skirting too close to the line.


    That said, if you do things for me I have more freedom in what I can tell you.¡±


    Santiago gnashed his teeth and clenched his fists.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t there any way?¡±


    ¡°Taking into account I am one of those who enforce the rules? None.¡±


    That took the wind from his sails. He visibly slackened, his muscles relaxing. Knowing that I had the answers and wouldn¡¯t tell him was taxing on him. It was akin to being in the desert and having an oasis just out of reach. What I wouldn¡¯t tell him is that the knowledge would do more wrong than right, because even that could derail my plans. And he wouldn¡¯t like for my plans to fail, since his success was the main goal of them. I did take pity on him, when I saw his disappointment.


    ¡°I can tell you that if you successfully gain the Guardian I want you to have, I will be able to tell you more about the Daemon God that took your Guardian.¡±


    ¡°But won¡¯t you be the one that gives me a new Guardian?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    What? I¡¯m not completely heartless. I just look at the greater picture, but not in human terms. My plans always try to save and aid the highest amount of people, without having severe side effects. Honestly the only reason my plans aren¡¯t always the best option are because of the human factor. Every mortal that manage to fulfill the objectives I gave them has been satisfied.


    My answer renewed Santiago¡¯s spirits, and he straightened.


    ¡°How do I get this Guardian then?¡±


    ¡°As I said previously I can make a new Guardian easily. The issue here is making a Guardian compatible with your original. This is so that when you two fuse together they will complement each other and enhance your power to greater heights. And not rip you apart.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t there any effects to fusing with my Guardian?¡±


    It is understandable that he¡¯d worry about that.


    ¡°Good question. The answer is no. While a Guardian is basically a True Daemon, it is one inexorably tied to your psyche. Even when separated the conexi¨®n you share is deep, so deep in fact that you are the same person.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t think of your Guardian as something other than you. Think of it more as a split personality, except even less distinct. You and your Guardian are the same person, just with a slightly different filter. A filter born from your differing experiences. If you fuse you will gain your Guardian¡¯s memories, or maybe your Guardian will gain your memories.


    Your Guardian is you, you are your Guardian. The worst that can happen to you both after you fuse is becoming more talkative.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡± And he did actually get it, based on how he smiled at the prospect. ¡°I guess this is why you said that being separated from my Guardian made me more powerful.¡±


    ¡°Yes it is. I won¡¯t bore you with the details, but two Guardians or daemons working as closely as I plan for yours to be are more powerful than a single one with twice the power of one of the two components. It¡¯s due to laws about how SINQUM actually works that your civilisation is yet to discover. But you can think of it as a tornado. A hot current and cold one by themselves aren¡¯t destructive, but when they collide in certain circumstances they create the destructive force of nature that tornadoes are.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s cool. How do I actually get my second Guardian?¡±


    ¡°The base process is an imitation of the one that happens during conception. At that moment the Guardians of the parents emit a small part of themselves. Once the zygote is formed an embryonic Guardian begins to develop. A Guardian has several life stages, and in all of them it is fully functional. An awakened Guardian is different in that the awakening process causes it to become a True Daemon that fuses with the host physically, whereas previously it was a purely mental entity.


    In order to awaken a Guardian one must reach a certain level of mental ability. Concretely abstraction. This is because for a base Guardian to develop the mind it is part of must also develop. So you could say that only once you have the abstraction abilities needed to become aware of your Guardian, it is developed enough to become a True Daemon. The easier process of forming a bond with a daemon actually causes for the maturation of the Guardian to speed up by feeding on the daemon.¡±


    ¡°You do know that you have just shattered my civilisation¡¯s understanding on Guardians?¡±


    ¡°Yes. You are free to inform others of this if you want. Allow me to continue my explanation. You must know that your researchers aren¡¯t wrong to say that Guardians are the same besides elemental affinities and powers, but they don¡¯t know why. The answer is tied to two main factors, the physical laws of the universe, and the genetics of the species. These two together make it so that Guardians of different species in the same universe are similar, and those of the same species nearly identical.


    What is different is due to a myriad factors, but is mainly tied to the mind of the person. It is a very complex affair, but boiled down it means that the powers and elemental affinities of the Guardian are determined by the psychological makeup of the person, while they are developing the Guardian.


    Next I will say what is similar between Guardians. And that is how it develops, how it works, and how it uses magic. The first one is easy, within a the same species in the same universe Guardians grow the same way. The second one is more complex. It means that Guardians are like a species of daemons, they share functionality, but this is irrelevant for your purposes.


    Magic is where things get interesting. You have been taught that Free Magic requires only faith or belief, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Well, that is false. Requiring only faith is what the formation of daemons does, and as you know the results of that are unpredictable. If you want to create an specific effect with SINQUM you must guide the process. Here is where different species and universes vary. Some use geometric figures, others rituals, chants, reagents, etc. What is used depends in what the Guardian has evolved to interpret.


    In your case that is visualisation. You must hold a strong mental image so that your Guardian guides the process of making a flame. Or else you may just lit yourself on fire. This is why for the Guardian to mature the person needs a certain level of imagination, because only then can the Guardian function. Since the Guardian is part of the mind the maduration from daemon bonding causes the person to develop said abstraction capabilities.¡±


    ¡°What is Standard Magic then?¡±


    ¡°A prerecorded mental image that automatically guides the Guardian. It is why Hybrid Magic is what humans use. Since it is modifying the prerecorded image it allows to change the process while still being as fast and nearly as easy as Standard Magic.¡±


    I paused to let him assimilate the knowledge. In all honesty I didn¡¯t need to explain all of this, but I wanted him to understand what I was going to do and why.


    ¡°I explained all of this to make clear why I can¡¯t just give you any Guardian. To do that I¡¯d simply have to introduce an artificial embryonic Guardian in you, and since your original is already mature thus giving you the mental abilities needed to mature a Guardian, it¡¯d simply mature on its own.


    The issue is that your original was taken six years ago. Your mind is not the same as it was, and most of the makeup of your original was induced by the Daemon God that stole it. So to make sure that both your Guardians are compatible while the second one matures I will strengthen the connection between your original and you.¡±


    ¡°So, will my second Guardian be like the first?¡±


    ¡°Good question. The answer is no. In fact due to what the Daemon God did, you will get the opposite powers.¡±


    Santiago¡¯s eyes narrowed as he thought.


    ¡°Like hot and cold currents.¡±


    His voice was filled with suspicion, understanding that I was giving him information with every word. I did this so that he¡¯d realise that I plan every single one of the words I speak, and so he may learn to discern more information that I¡¯m allowed to from my not so innocuous wording. What? Just because I uphold the rules doesn¡¯t mean I can¡¯t see the loopholes. They are there on purpose.


    ¡°Correct. The reason why I approached you three days ago, and the reason I wanted you at your best are because of this. Being at your best will ensure the process goes smoothly. Doing it today will help because again, the Guardian is connected to you by a two way street. Your first Guardian will also change, but thankfully today is the day he increases his stage, and any changes to its powers will be attributed to that. This way we won¡¯t alert that Daemon God to your growth.¡±


    Santiago took a sharp breath, understanding what I implied. That the Daemon God still had designs for him in storage.


    ¡°Motherfuc-¡° He stopped himself when he remembered I was there. ¡°Mother, that guy isn¡¯t satisfied yet?¡±


    ¡°Kid, I¡¯ve heard way worse swears than that. Anyway, now you know, so let¡¯s start the process.¡±


    He nodded forcefully and looked at me expectantly.


    ¡°First, lie down in the bed, otherwise you¡¯ll have an appointment with the ground.¡±


    When he had finished moving to the bed I continued.


    ¡°Now, just relax and try to avoid thinking. You won¡¯t even notice anything, except you may hear your original¡¯s thoughts and you don¡¯t want for him to hear yours. Not yet anyway. I will try to hypnotise you.¡±


    He closed his eyes and began breathing slowly but deeply from the nose, and exhale even slower from his mouth. Hypnosis is very different from how pop culture presents it, at least therapeutic hypnosis. It isn¡¯t mind control in any way, you just enter such a profound state of relaxation that you grow susceptible to orders. Thus the name coming from Hypnos, Greek for sleep or the Greek god of sleep. However it is perfectly possible to break from it, it is just that normally the person doesn¡¯t want to. But if they don¡¯t trust the hypnotist or his orders, they will be likely to disobey.


    To be successfully hypnotised the person must fulfill certain requirements. First, they must be able to concentrate and avoid thinking. Second, they must have good imagination. This second one is because hypnosis relies on presenting certain suggestions to function. The first image the hypnotist must present is pleasant sensations, like the breeze on a warm day, impressive sights, maybe the smell of grass in the morrow. The second is that the person must descend, like an elevator going down, or going down a mountain. The third is imagining all worries melting away with the exhalation.


    I will spare you the actual process, since it is very long. It can take several minutes of constant talking, in a relaxing tone, to make someone enter it.


    ¡°You are now walking down a gentle slope, your hands sliding through the young wheat stalks.¡±


    While I spoke I created the embryonic Guardian and fused it to Santiago¡¯s mind. This part of the process I hadn¡¯t talked about because knowing I would do mental surgery isn¡¯t relaxing in the least. At that point he nearly stopped relaxing, spamming a little, but he managed to maintain his state of relaxation.


    ¡°The Sun in shining gently on your back, the Spring Sun, warm, pleasant, comfortable. From the front flows a gentle breeze, it is fresh, crisp and carries the scent of morning dew¡­¡±


    Once the new Guardian was properly lodged in his mind, I started to strengthen the bond. As I expected Santiago didn¡¯t notice anything, since rather than an invasion it was more like becoming complete once more. Describing the state of hypnosis to someone that hasn¡¯t experienced it is difficult, so just take my word that Santiago didn¡¯t even care when he heard a voice in his head. A voice very similar to his own, but still slightly different.


    ¡®What is happening?¡±


    ¡®I¡¯ve never felt this good.¡¯


    ¡®Why is it so pleasant?¡¯


    ¡®I feel warm. Complete.¡¯


    ¡®Will I feel like this whenever I increase my stage?¡¯


    These kinds of thoughts were what was going on in the original Guardian¡¯s head, proving me correct. Indeed they were one, and being separated made them uncomfortable, like they had an arm cut off.


    I witnessed the new Guardian¡¯s growth process, and had to contain myself from laughing out loud. This was even better than I expected. Indeed, being part of the Kyrioi was wonderful for mages. Even with the circumstances as they were this kind of power was unprecedented. I then decided to alter my plans, with this there was a much better possibility.


    Once the process had finished I slowly woke Santiago. When I was finished he just looked at me, smiled and closed his eyes. I raised an eyebrow at him and sent a wry smile at him, bemused. So I grabbed the bedding and flipped it over.


    ¡°Eaugah!¡±


    I snorted.


    ¡°Eaugah? What kind of sound is that?¡±


    He glared at me from the floor, and for a few seconds floundered while trying to get rid of the beddings.


    ¡°Not funny. You don¡¯t do that to a relaxed man!¡±


    ¡°Sure I do. Laughing at humans is one of my pass times, alongside real life romance and drama. It is always enjoyable when people do the right thing.¡±


    I then shook my head with a faux sigh.


    ¡°Though sometimes I marvel at the stupidity of humans. How does a species so similar to my own manage to still be so dumb at times, I¡¯ll never know.¡±


    Fine, I do know. But I refuse to acknowledge it.


    ¡°What is your speci-woah!¡±


    Trying to refrain from chuckling when he tripped on the bedsheets was a herculean task.


    ¡°I am an Eternal, a being born before Death. Before change. Before the Sea of Chaos.¡±


    A bull could have crawled into his mouth in that moment.


    ¡°Unfortunately I can¡¯t describe that, since it was very weird. I don¡¯t think beings of the current reality can understand it. Think of it as an unfinished creation, before the last building block, Death, was added.¡±


    ¡°And are all Eternals so human?¡± He asked from the floor.


    ¡°Nope. Only my kind, and unfortunately I am unable to tell you what I am.¡±


    He grumbled as he untangled his feet from the covers. I pretended to not hear flattering remarks such as me being stingy, a tease, a sadist, or a¡­ wow, I hadn¡¯t heard that one in billions of years.


    Once my mirth abated I decided to get serious again.


    ¡°Can you tell me what powers you got?¡±


    Santiago closed his eyes to try and feel his Guardian and soon he was scowling.


    ¡°What the heck?¡± He looked at me in the eyes. ¡°Sorry, I can''t understand what my power is.¡±


    ¡°Guessed so. Come on, let me bring you somewhere.¡±


    The transition was jarring. At one point we were in my office, the next we were in from of the Bulwark¡¯s central pillar, first floor.


    ¡°Wow. And I thought I was good at moving through space.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m so much older than you that I doubt there is anything as old as that difference besides Eternals. Go on, touch the ICP.¡±


    ¡°The ICP?¡±


    ¡°Information Centre Pillar. It contains all accumulated magical heritage of your kind.¡±


    He nodded and, by his standards, skipped to the ICP. He truly was glad to finally have a Guardian, to not be disabled anymore.


    For the sake of speeding this telling, let me just show you what he saw and heard.


    <Greetings. I am the Central Command Unit, as well as Information Centre, Request Processor, Mission Emitter and Reward Distributor of the The Tower Of Wisdom That Reaches Down From The Heavens At The End Of The World To Provide Humanity With The Seeds Of Salvation.>


    <Scan complete. Subject: Human male of 17 years of age. Healthy, athletic, trained in combat. Shows symptoms of->


    At that moment I intervened, recording the information of Santiago''s case.


    <Is a Case-G-1. Universe of origin: Gates of Death. Functions granted: A6. Name: Santiago Alonso Caballero. Affiliation: Kyrioi apo Metallon.>


    <Do you wish to have your Guardian inspected?>


    Santiago looked at me, unsure of whether this was what I wanted. I nodded. For the record all interactions with the ICP are private except to administrator ¦Á-3, me. Or in a Case-C-1, to an administrator ¦Â-1 or above. The authority in the towers goes from D to A for users, ranked from 1 to 7, and from beta to alpha for administrators. Of course we only adopted this lettering system a few dozen years ago.


    Santiago agreed to the request and he immediately felt a warmth spread through his body.


    <Scan complete. Results:>


    <Guardian name: Satan.>


    <Guardian elemental affinities: Absorb Bless, Nullify Curse, Absorb Light, Nullify Darkness. Absorb 10% of all other elements.>


    <SINQUM pool: 29.>


    <False Tree of Qliphoth: A power derived from several kabbalistic traditions, as well as the subjects own views and mental composition. Some traditions dictate that the Qliphoth arose from the shattered vessel of Gevurah that devours the Ohr Ein Sof to grow. Others claim that they are shells that cover the Sefiroth and impede the Infinite Light, Ohr Ein Sof, from filling the TzimTzum, maintaining the existence of the World but simultaneously giving rise to evil.


    It is said that the Qliphoth has ten parts, contrasting the Sefiroth.


    They are Nehemoth (Whisperer) opposing Malkuth (Kingship), ruled by Naamah.


    Gamaliel (Pollution) opposing Yesod (Foundation), ruled by Lilith.


    Samael (Desolation) opposing Hod (Glory), ruled by Adrammelech.


    Harab Serapel (Burning of God) opposing Netzach (Eternity), ruled by Baal.


    Thagirion (Grief) opposing Tiphereth (Beauty), ruled by Belphegor.


    Golachab (Burning One) opposing Gevurah (Discipline), ruled by Asmodeus.


    Gamchicoth (Devourer) opposing Chesed (Kindness), ruled by Astaroth.


    Sathariel (Concealment) opposing Binah (Understanding), ruled by Lucifuge Rofocale.


    Chaigidel (Confusion) opposing Chokmah (Wisdom), ruled by Beelzebub and Adam Belial.


    Thamiel (Duality) opposing Keter (Crown), ruled by Satan and Moloch.


    And Da¡¯at (Knowledge) has no opposite, for the Qliphoth isn¡¯t united.


    This, of course, is from digging in the writings of Jews, Christians and Mystics, for everyone claims their Tradition to be true. For the purposes of this Guardian however, all of the above is relevant.>


    As he read through the notification Santiago¡¯s eyebrows progressively rose. Some part of his mind noted that he should become familiar with at least some kabbalistic traditions, even if only to understand why he got a power called Satan.


    <1) False Tree of Qliphoth, Stage 1:


    -Allows the creation of space-time distortion False Tree of Qliphoth.


    -The False Tree of Qliphoth is composed of a weak universal barrier, representing the void of the TzimTzum. It possesses strength that scales with stage, at stage 1 it has strength like concrete.


    -Where the False Tree of Qliphoth touches outside matter it produces ¡°Tainted Miasma¡± at a speed depending on stage, at stage 1 it creates 1 m^3 per hour. When ¡°Tainted Miasma¡± comes in contact with non-void it imposes the Trascendental Curse, ¡°Weak¡±, lowering all attributes, including mental ones.


    -The False Tree of Qliphoth has ¡°Qliphoth Rhizome¡±. Root-like appendages emerge from the Tree to acquire energy for its growth. The Rhizomes drain SINQUM from the Fayd, daemons or Guardians depending on stage. Rhizomes can deal ¡°Blunt¡± and ¡°Pierce¡± elemental damage depending on the area of impact depending on stage. Rhizomes can move at speeds depending on stage. At stage 1 they drain 1 unit of SINQUM per second or impact, deal weak damage, and move at 50 km/h maximum.


    -False Tree of Qliphoth produces Ohr depending on SINQUM absorbed, fixed. The conversion is 200/1 SINQUM per Ohr.


    -Ohr can be used to enhance SINQUM effects, whether they be powers or magic. This enhancement is fixed. Enhancement is of 8,000 J, or a force of 8,000 N applied over 1 m, per Ohr.


    -False Tree of Qliphoth possesses ten vessels. When all vessels are filled stage will increase and Fruit of Divinity will ripen. At stage 1, 1000 Ohr needed to get to next stage. At stage 1, Fruit of Divinity will enhance all body attributes by 1 Ohr.


    -False Tree of Qliphoth is fixed. It must root like a tree to sustain itself. At stage 1 it can last 1 hour unrooted before dissolution.>


    The only reason Santiago¡¯s eyebrows halted their ascension was because of physical limitations, and this was before he saw the next part.


    <2) Kyrioi apo Metallon Fame bonus: Your family is so famed that daemons based on them should appear. They however found a way to funnel that faith to enhance their abilities. Enhanced powers. Enhanced resistances. Enhanced SIMQUM pool. This effect can not increase.>


    Santiago felt himself calm down as he saw something familiar, and when he recalled his SINQUM pool he felt normalcy return. Indeed, even with the Kyrioi enhancement a power of that magnitude would leave him with highly diminished reserves. Normally the reserves varied, depending on quality and quantity of powers, between 20 and 50.


    <In summary:


    Satan stage 1. Path: NA.


    SP: 29


    Affinities: BLS Absorb, CRS Null, LGT Absorb, DRK Null, 10% Absorb All Elements.


    Powers:


    False Tree of Qliphoth stage 1. 0/1000.


    Kyrioi apo Metallon Fame bonus.>


    Santiago then turned to me, saying nothing.


    ¡°We¡¯ll have to find a place for you to plant that tree of yours.¡±


    I smirked when I saw that he had no reaction. Poor guy, he didn¡¯t know what to make of his power. Though I will admit that it is the weirdest power I¡¯ve ever seen.


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll just say two things. The Daemon God that took your Guardian calls himself Ein Sof. And he used your Guardian as the vessel for the Keter of his Sephiroth, transforming it into Adam Kadmon.¡±


    Understanding dawned on him, and he said the first thing that crossed his mind.


    ¡°Fucking blasphemer.¡±

 Glossary by chapter 2.

    Important People:


    Santiago Alonso Caballero. MC.


    Dolores Arima. Head of the Arima clan, as well as its greatest swordmaster.


    The Founder. Benefactor of Santiago and designer of the Steel Bulwark. Actually ???.


    ???:


    Miyamoto Akihito. Close friend of Santiago, as well as leader of the ???. Magical DPS, debuffer.


    Isabel Reyes Garc¨ªa. Newest member of ???. Physical DPS, healer. Classmate of MC.


    Ignacio Fernandez Ruiz. Founding member of ???. Physical DPS, buffer. Classmate of MC.


    Francisca Hidalgo Santana. Third member of ???. Magical DPS, barriers.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Rub¨¦n Gallego Cruz. Fourth member of ???. Magical DPS and Physical DPS.


    ???. Extra member of SEDS. Daemon.


    ??? allies:


    Almudena Herrero Guerrero. Map and navigation tools provider. Classmate of MC.


    Felipe Gonz¨¢lez Redondo. Vehicle provider and maintainer. Scruffy, prefers to make everything by hand.


    Ram¨®n Hern¨¢ndez Mu?oz. Likes black way too much. Decent doctor, impressive pharmaceutic.


    Ana Mar¨ªa Su¨¢rez. Owner of the renowned Kosmos, provides knowledge of the Fayd. Not very well known.


    Nuria Medina G¨®mez, also known as the Asura. Akihito¡¯s kendo sensei, as well as a retired mage. Old woman. Gives combat training and exploration tips.


    Silvia Serrano Molina. Agent of the Agencia Espa?ola de Control sobre Materias de la Distorsi¨®n. Makes sure ??? doesn¡¯t get in trouble with the law and covers their activities.


    MC Family:


    Sara Caballero Lopez. The mother of the MC.


    Gonzalo Alonso Ruiz. The father of the MC. Smith of the Gun branch of the Kyrioi apo Metallon.


    Elena Alonso Caballero. Little sister of the MC.


    Mar¨ªa Alonso Caballero. Big sister of the MC.


    Mario Alonso Caballero. Little brother of the MC.


    ??? Alonso Caballero. MC¡¯s Twin. Currently an unwilling servant of Koluath Veld.


    Foes:


    Ein Sof. Daemon God that created Sephiroth in order to ???. Stole Santiago¡¯s Guardian and made it ruler of Keter. Also gave Santiago ???, granting him the role of Satan. Real name ???.


    Adam Kadmon. MC¡¯s original Guardian.


    Koluath Veld. Lich from another universe that holds Santiago¡¯s twin.


    ???. Criminal from ??? captured by Akihito¡¯s team.

 3. Experimentation.

    Santiago Alonso Caballero was under a bit of a conflict. First, he had a Guardian called Satan. Second, he had a nearly indecipherable power. Third, the Daemon God that screwed him called itself Ein Sof, or God in the Kabbalah. Third, his first Guardian was serving the role Adam Kadmon, or the infinite potential. And finally, any being capable of impersonating God to the degree that Santiago got the role of Satan engraved in his Guardian was bad news.


    On second thought the fact that he had the role of Satan made him both angry and worried about Ein Sof¡¯s plans.


    On the other hand, what he could tell about his Guardian and power was impressive. First, Bless and Curse were highly dangerous elements. Bless was the element of benediction, of those who wish to bring good to the world. Some called it Smite, but since it had actual blessings it was more than that. Most benevolent Daemon Gods hold the Bless element.


    Curse was the element of malediction, of those who desire harm unto others without good intentions. Most daemons modelled after demons had this element.


    The reason why they were so dangerous is because they hold incredibly damaging offensive interactions, and, ironically, both could inflict terrible curses on others. So being immune to them was a great boon. Santiago was surprised that Satan had immunity to Bless, but he guessed it had to do with the Qliphoth protecting reality fact that the ICP told him about.


    Second, Light and Dark were very broad elements and part of the Fifty Two Common Elements, so it was nice to not worry about them. No fearing laser beams and energy dispersal bombs, he guessed. And if he remembered his Basic Fayd Studies lessons correctly he actually had dark vision in the Fayd. He did remember correctly by the way.


    Third, the small absorption of all elements could have many causes, but Santiago conjectured that it was due to the False Tree of Qliphoth¡¯s SINQUM absorption capabilities.


    As for his power¡­ well, while he didn¡¯t understand it all he could make a decent guess. And he already had ideas on how to use it.


    So Santiago was conflicted between outrage, worry, dismay, elation, satisfaction and excitement. And while Santiago was sparse with words among strangers he had a very expressive face. He was far more in control of his body due to his martial training. So it was a peculiar sight, his face contorting, changing, depending on his mood while his body language showed that he was completely relaxed.


    It was so peculiar that some passing mages, those adept at reading others, stopped to look at him. Since I didn¡¯t want Santiago to be well known, for know at least, I tapped him in the shoulder to break him out of his reverie. He unconsciously moved out of the way and took an unarmed stance, before discerning the situation and blushing. A few whispers of appreciation sounded.


    ¡°What¡¯s next?¡± He asked me, trying to change the topic and pass himself as collected. Didn¡¯t fool me for a second.


    ¡°Well, first we find a place to plant that Tree of yours, and see what it does. Now, where do we put it?¡± I actually had a place in mind, but I had to get access to it without revealing my identity. How troubling, had I predicted this I would have arranged something.


    ¡°Why is my power so weird?¡±


    ¡°I actually only expected for you to be able to produce Tainted Miasma and Ohr in all honesty. I did predict that Watcher¡¯s potion would affect your power and so would Adam but¡­ oh.¡± How embarrassing, I forgot that. Whoops. Particularly when it¡¯s the reason I came to this world to begin with. I will not tell G- ehem, my sibling about it.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°About Watcher? Your mind would be unable to handle seeing space-time directly, if it was still as resilient as a human¡¯s. The process that transformed you into an embryonic Primordial enhanced your mental resilience to, well, Primordial levels. That would affect a Guardian without a doubt.¡±


    ¡°What would happen if I didn¡¯t become so resilient?¡±


    As I predicted he didn¡¯t care about his mind changing, he may have noticed on his own at some point. I actually have been easing him into the answer to his question for some time.


    ¡°What have I been comparing your powers to?¡±


    ¡°Lovecraft. So I would have gone insane then?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but mostly because humans don¡¯t have senses that allow them to perceive space-time. So if you are seeing that without some sort of modification your brain can¡¯t interpret it and malfunction. Like a virus in a computer so to speak. The knowledge itself is bizarre, and could lead someone to insanity, but I chose you because you are made of sterner stuff. You¡¯d probably be very confused for years but would assimilate it in time.¡±


    ¡°I see. I have a question, I can¡¯t open portals into liquids and solids due to their gravitational and electromagnetic fields distorting space. But why can I see through them?¡±


    ¡°Your space powers and information gathering abilities are separate. Watcher, as his name implies, originally was an observer and from his observations derived his space mastery.¡± I smiled at him. ¡°It is because of this that you don¡¯t even notice how you are gathering information, while you have problems mastering the space stuff.¡±


    ¡°I think I¡¯m doing well?¡±


    ¡°Relatively speaking. But if we compare you to Watcher, who could bend space-time as he wished, you are lacking.¡±


    He nodded and mulled over the information.


    ¡°Is that why the potion showed me parts of Watcher¡¯s life?¡±


    To enhance his mind? No.


    ¡°No. That was an unfortunate side effect of speeding the process.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t need the potion to transform humans into Primordials. I¡¯d be able to make everyone in your Earth a Primordial simultaneously, but it¡¯d take two hundred years.¡±


    I think that was the first time that the heights of my power sunk in him. I could make his entire species into an army of space bending abominations from beyond time and space with little issue. It is just that it¡¯d be difficult to do without breaking the rules, but it¡¯s doable. Humans are lucky that me, my kind, and my allies do not think that our power makes us better than mortals, otherwise¡­


    I waited while he processed the information. When I saw that it¡¯d take a while I started to put into effect my plan to get us access to the Graveyard. It was honestly simple, Santiago had told his family about our deal so the Kyrioi knew about it. And the head of the Kyrioi is a ¦Â-3 administrator, so I didn¡¯t need to do anything. Just manifest in his office back in Toledo and¡­ done.


    Soon afterwards something peculiar happened. By our side a black space expanded, pushing all SINQUM aside, before it vanished leaving an elderly man where it was. Santiago watched with interest.


    ¡°So that is how ordinary travel between our universe and the Fayd is done. Fascinating.¡±


    It is. Think of the universal barrier like a soap bubble and SINQUM like dust. When the dust touches the bubble it turns into soap, allowing it to unite with the barrier, and then it turns into dirt again falling into the bubble. To go to the Fayd the opposite process is done. Santiago¡¯s portals or my¡­ you won¡¯t understand what I do, aren''t common. My way is basically ordering the bubble to take me in.


    But more to the point, the elderly man was Santiago¡¯s many greats grandfather, and the head of the Kyrioi apo Metallon. One Aesop of Tartessos, so you can guess his age. Normally I don¡¯t allow humans to live past a thousand years, but he was crucial for my purpose here. Of course, if he wanted to die I would allow it but he was as committed as me to our goal. All eighty one of the Ancient Clans of the Covenant were descended from my old allies, and most of them were still headed by the same person. Aesop wasn¡¯t one of them.


    Aesop looked at his descendant curiously. Santiago had been a headache to the clan, not because of any fault of his but due to what had happened to him. They had actually met before, long ago.


    ¡°Gramps?¡± Santiago couldn¡¯t guess why his ancestor was there.


    ¡°Hey there kid.¡± Aesop turned to me. ¡°What did you do to my descendant, Lykofos?¡±


    Heh. I love that pseudonym, it¡¯s just so obvious when you know my identity.


    ¡°He already told you. Just access his ID, as a member of your clan you have that authority.¡±


    ¡°I do?¡± He touched the ICP and whistled. ¡°Look at that, I actually do. You never told me that in three thousand years?¡±


    ¡°It was never necessary.¡±


    He scoffed at that and turned to his grandchild. He broke into a goofy smile and began to pet his head. The suffering look that Santiago sent me proved that Aesop was ridiculously doting on his descendants, particularly since they had met once, though he only had time for those that war members of the Kyrioi. He was a busy man after all.


    ¡°I see you have managed to get a Guardian. Good for you.¡±


    ¡°Thanks.¡±


    ¡°That said I want to be updated regularly on your friend''s, Akihito was it, activities.¡±


    Santiago was surprised. He had believed that once he had given the Kyrioi the information he had deduced, they¡¯d be able to unravel the mystery. Seeing the question in his face Aesop sighed.


    ¡°It seems that the curse is of different nature than you thought. It doesn¡¯t prevent only communication, it prevents acquisition of knowledge.¡± He sighed again, and likewise it was at Santiago¡¯s expression. ¡°We don¡¯t know why you and the other merchants are an exception. I can only know what you tell me.¡±


    Santiago frowned, this situation was the worst case scenario.


    ¡°Understood.¡±


    ¡°We will be prepared for any eventuality. Just¡­ we can¡¯t be alert for years, find out the truth within seven months, if possible.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll do so, gramps.¡±


    ¡°Good. Now, I¡¯ll lead you to the Graveyard.¡±


    He started walking outside the Bulwark, and we followed.


    ¡°Graveyard?¡±


    I answered.


    ¡°Where we bury the corpses of daemons that die around the Bulwark.¡±


    ¡°I thought daemons don¡¯t leave bodies behind?¡±


    ¡°Most don¡¯t.¡± Aesop smiled like he was holding a great secret. ¡°But Daemon Gods do.¡±


    Santiago straightened, nervous at going somewhere near Daemon Gods. While I hate that designation I understand the reasons why it¡¯s given. They possess truly immense might. The correlation between Priority and amount of SINQUM at a daemon''s disposal isn''t direct, but it exists. As such most daemons with Priority above 8,000 tend to be at least daemon princes. Walking nukes are respected by all who know of their might, and no amount of fighting prowess will aid you against that. Only those with power, can resist power.


    I understand the necessity of what I did, but allowing such power divides to exist¡­ I created this Earth¡¯s, let¡¯s call it Earth ¦·, culture for a reason. They protect thousands of universes from the horrors of the Fayd, and for that I¡¯m grateful.


    ***


    We left the Bulwark by foot. I¡¯d liked to go there directly, but Santiago needed to see the true face of the Fayd for himself. His breath was taken.


    To the eyes of one without the Information element the Fayd would be incomprehensible. At best they¡¯d see weird things without rhyme nor reason. At worst they¡¯d see nothing. To one with it however¡­


    The Bulwark, which I prefer to call Tower but whatever, is found in the middle of the World Basin. It is a vast expanse of land difficult to measure, due to how weird space-time is in the Fayd, but at least is a 60,000 metres wide at its thinnest. It is covered in ¡°water¡±, in reality Ether that flows between the universe and the Fayd, and full of islands. Some of them are continent sized, others far smaller. At least 90% of all mages patrol the World Basin, something needed due to its sheer size. This is helped by the Bulwark¡¯s and other fortresses¡¯ detectors automatically scanning the vast majority of the World Basin, leaving only an Asia sized area to patrol in total.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Only through the Ether Sea located in the World Basin can daemons enter Earth ¦·, or other areas within the Gates of Death. Not only humans but the Twelve Elders, the greatest force of the Gates of Death, and the Krelik, the last known sapient species of the Gates, police this area. The Bulwark is of the humans, and the Elders are ancient and powerful, so the Krelik¡¯s standing is low in the Gates. They have managed to find something only they can do, but they are still struggling.


    In the Fayd humans mainly see through the Light element. This, due to what elements are in the Fayd, means that they actually sense disturbances in SINQUM and translate them to vision. This is why humans can see a bit further in the Fayd than in the Gates of Death. As such the sight from the Bulwark is impressive.


    Think of standing beneath a tower the size of a mountain and around you a sea that extends beyond the horizon glows with power. Above the sea a mist of variable density flows serenely, this is SINQUM. I¡¯ve been told that the most common color people assign to Ether is bright green, and to SINQUM white. The Bulwark stands atop a 4,000 metre tall mountain, which at the same time stands above an island 1,000 squared metres of surface. In the Sea bizarre and impossible shapes appear such as the Spine, a mountain range that expands vertically. Or the Inverse Pyramid. In the island several facilities are built to serve as a place where daemons can reside within the World Basin. There are also markets and the such.


    A good rule of thumb is that the World Basin of any given universe works as that universe, due to the faith of the residents shaping it, but there are exceptions as previously mentioned. And the further you get from the World Basin, the weirder things get.


    The 10% that don''t patrol the Basin explore the Fayd beyond it, and they used what is best described as spaceships to do so. They vary in size, depending on crew and objective, but at that moment one of the biggest ones was taking off. The Argo was headed to a newly detected universe and had all facilities needed to support its crew. That by the way, includes farms, so you can get an idea of its size.


    Once Santiago managed to collect his jaw from the ground we moved to the back of the Bulwark. At the bottom of the mountainside washed the Ether Sea, the bulk of the island found in front of the Bulwark. A few kilometres into the Sea a forest stretched.


    The Black Forest was made of massive, twisted trees. Their roots and branches spread through the landmass it laid upon, daring anyone to step on it. The trees were vampiric, draining SINQUM of all who dare enter it. Within its deepest reaches the Graveyard was found.


    ¡°How will we get there?¡± Asked Santiago after I told him that.


    Aesop and I smiled mysteriously, and waited. Santiago shrugged and sit down to enjoy the sights.


    ¡°Does everyone walk down the mountain to get to the Sea?¡±


    ¡°No. We have docks here in the Tower, and a net of teleporters in our fortresses. Also, depending on where and how you enter the Fayd you will spring in a different part of the Basin. We use passes to enter the Fayd in one of our fortresses, like this one.¡±


    Aesop took a pendant from a pocket in his suit. It looked like a copper equilateral triangle.


    ¡°This one leads to our family workshop. None lead directly to the Graveyard, so we will take a¡­ here it is.¡± He said looking above.


    Santiago looked upwards and saw a science fiction looking plane, hovering above them. In the Fayd there are six directions based on the Steel Bulwark, North, South, East, West, Above, Bellow.


    ¡°Couldn¡¯t I just have opened a portal?¡± Asked Santiago.


    Aesop frowned, he had hoped for more amazement. He then sighed and grumbled, he was sometimes a child at heart, wishing to show off his toys.


    ¡°My Agatha is better than any portal. It can travel at speeds beyond light.¡±


    ¡°I can open a portal that would take a second to cross.¡±


    ¡°My ship can resist impacts at FTL speeds.¡±


    ¡°My portals can be made from the safety of the Bulwark.¡±


    ¡°My ship has class 6 weapons on board.¡±


    ¡°My portals¡­ yeah, you win.¡±


    ¡°Hah! Up you go.¡±


    We got on the ship and it flew at a moderate speed. The interior looked like a living room, with comfortable couches, refreshments and acceleration resistors. Those last ones apply acceleration equally to all atoms within the ship so the passengers will experience no pressure.


    ¡°Don¡¯t get too comfortable, we¡¯ll be there in a few minutes.¡± Warned Aesop.


    ¡°Got it.¡±


    We stayed in comfortable silence, and soon enough the ship halted.


    ¡°Get down now. Plant your tree and don¡¯t bother the Gravekeeper.¡±


    We nodded and I jumped from the ship, with Santiago on my shoulder. I landed perfectly and called out.


    The Graveyard was eerie. A wasteland of rock covered by thousands of corpses, the corpses of Daemon Gods. Some were human sized, others mountainous, but all of them leaked SINQUM like crazy. That is why we put them within the Black Forest, otherwise many daemons would be lured to them.


    ¡°Skol! Skol!¡±


    I called out to the Gravekeeper. Santiago was looking around, slightly spooked. His orange eyes showed that he was looking through, and at, the corpses. I too would be curious at the bodies of beings so far beyond in power to me. There are many Primordials that are actually weaker than Daemon Gods.


    A chittering sound began to spread through the Graveyard. Santiago turned to the source of the sound and fell to the ground, astonished. The reason why soon appeared above an elephantine Daemon God.


    Skol was actually a scolopendra daemon, except massive. It was the size of a train, literally. It had thousands of segments and legs, and was wide like a truck as well as six metres tall.


    ¡°Master Lykofos. Scared boy.¡± It¡¯s voice was surprisingly smooth and deep. It was so pleasant that Santiago managed to snap out of it quickly, and bowed in apology. ¡°Polite boy rather. A pleasure to meet you. Why are you here master?¡±


    ¡°This kid is Santiago Alonso Caballero, my new prot¨¦g¨¦e. He is going to plant his main power here.¡±


    ¡°I understand. Again, it is a pleasure Santiago. Anything I should know apart from knowing it is dangerous?¡±


    I then described the power to Skol, and he did his version of nodding. Which was nodding, due to how long he had spent around humans.


    ¡°Needs to drain SINQUM to live. Produces miasma.¡± Skol chuckled. ¡°A fit to this place.¡±


    ¡°Really? You sound quite pleasant and are here.¡± Commented Santiago.


    ¡°Your immunity to curses is the reason you can even survive in my presence. I was born of Gu, the ancient curse making process. My mere presence is anathema to life.¡±


    Santi didn¡¯t say it, but I could tell that he was quite impressed with Skol. He wasn¡¯t one to be scared easily, so he could appreciate a genuinely creepy being.


    ¡°But even I haven¡¯t heard of the Weak curse.¡± It approached Santi, having noticed he wasn¡¯t scared of it. ¡°May I watch this?¡±


    ¡°Sure. As long as you tell me your professional opinion.¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡±


    Santiago turned to me, and I nodded. He breathed deep and concentrated in activating his power. A crack was heard, and space twisted and bent inwards. Then a bright light shone for a second.


    Once the light was gone I narrowed my eyes. When I had understood how Santiago¡¯s power worked I knew it would be impressive. What I didn¡¯t expect was how well it simulated being the source of evil.


    The False Tree of Qliphoth looked like a tree, fairly enough. What wasn¡¯t fair was how wrong it looked. It was dark, so dark it was black. It absorbed all light, only vantablack can show you how dark that is. But worse was that it could be recognised as living. Its branches moved without wind, its leaves shrieked in the wind. A soft, quiet shriek that most wouldn¡¯t realise is there but would unnerve them anyway. Its trunk moved and twisted silently. It had ten roots that floated in the air, stretching, seeking its prey like snakes. It floated above the ground. It was not a very big tree, but I knew it was young and could grow much.


    But the worst part was that everything that touched the tree was twisted, cursed and damned. When the mist touched the tree it turned dark and slowed its movements. The rock near the roots looked slightly frailer, and the corpses more rotten. They were less than they once were. I knew what the Weak curse would do, but I¡¯d underestimated how wrong it would look. Distasteful.


    Santiago held the same opinion, having stepped back. Ready to run, before he felt a familiarity with the tree, and discovered he could control it. He moved the miasma around, he directed the movement of the roots, and he perceived its interior.


    Skol was more interested in the curse the miasma held, and touched it with one of its feet. It began to look more wizened, paler.


    ¡°Fascinating.¡±


    ¡°What is?¡± Asked Santiago.


    ¡°This curse is weak and not. From what you told me it decreases all attributes by the same as a unit of Ohr would enhance them.¡±


    ¡°Wait.¡± Santiago narrowed his eyes. ¡°All of them? By one Ohr?¡±


    ¡°Yes. All of them. Just that makes it extremely precious, particularly for those of us who deal with curses. This is because it decreases resistance to curses, not only making them easier to stick but more powerful. It also increases elemental damage, all damage then. Decreases power, speed, recovery¡­ not very powerful, but versatile.¡±


    ¡°Relatively not powerful. A single Ohr decrease would cripple a human. 8,000 Newtons is enough for a weightlifter to lift 400 kg two metres above their heads.¡±


    ¡°Indeed it is. But in the Fayd such a paltry amount is weak. Oh?¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°It can stack. Four times, as far as I can tell. And¡­ that changes things.¡±


    ¡°What does?¡±


    ¡°This Weak curse can increase the number of curses that can be applied to an individual. Normally there is a limit at how many curses of the same type can be put on someone, but with one stack they can be increased by one. With four you can put four more curses than usual on someone.¡±


    ¡°Does that change with power, since it is only a single Ohr decrease¡­¡±


    ¡°No. This limit is inborn, it doesn¡¯t grow,¡±


    Santiago smiled.


    ¡°Then I know what kind of magic I should learn.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. Fang Breaker is a curse that decreases a daemon¡¯s attack power by 10%, as long as they have a Priority bellow 3,000. Normally it can be applied twice, but you could do it six. I don¡¯t need to say how useful that is.¡±


    ¡°Indeed you don¡¯t. How much miasma is needed to inflict a stack? And how long it lasts?¡±


    Skol focused on his leg.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know the hard number, but the amount produced in a second gives a single stack.¡±


    ¡°So with a cubic metre I can inflict 3,600 stacks.¡± Santiago frowned. ¡°That sounds too good.¡±


    ¡°Not if you are fighting many opponents. And it only lasts a minute. Fights against strong daemons can last hours. And these curse will never improve, it will always remain the same. It is, on the big leagues, only useful to stack more curses.¡±


    ¡°A curse that makes it easier to curse others. Sounds like Satan.¡± I interjected.


    Santiago looked at me for a moment, and nodded. Indeed that was the purpose of the Weak curse, that and¡­


    ¡°Do not underestimate the effect in resistances. Each stack will decrease elemental resistance by 5%.¡±


    ¡°Yes, Breaker curses! Normally useless because of the Priority requirements, if it is a Transcendental curse¡­¡± Santiago had never heard something as creepy as a giant centipede giggling. ¡°I need to replicate this curse somehow.¡±


    ¡°The issue is, how do I get the miasma to my enemies? I can only move it at a few centimetres per second and the tree is immobile.¡±


    The centipede went completely still.


    ¡°You have been screwed, boy. Such an incredible curse and its useless because of the distances required.¡± Skol sounded heartbroken at those news, its professional pride didn¡¯t allow him to suffer such a massive weakness.


    ¡°Portals.¡±


    ¡°Portals?¡± Skol examined Santiago. ¡°So you are his chosen then. I wish I could make portals, it¡¯d make my life easier. That helps, butt¡­ what is your weapon?¡±


    ¡°Sword mainly. Are you suggesting for me to coat my sword in miasma, cut my enemies to apply the curse and when I run out dip it in a portal to refill the miasma again?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Skol looked at Santiago to appraise him. ¡°That is my suggestion.¡±


    ¡°The sword would become too brittle. In total its structural strength would be reduced by 32,000 N, never mind edge retention. I¡¯m not sure how much that is, but air would probably break it.¡±


    ¡°A normal sword would indeed become brittle.¡± I hinted, wink wink.


    Santiago facepalmed and groaned. Skol turned to me and hummed like a question.


    ¡°He is of the Kyrioi apo Metallon.¡±


    ¡°And you were worrying about the strength of the sword?¡± Skol was incredulous. ¡°I saw one of your shields resist a pile driver powered by a high yield nuclear bomb.¡±


    Santiago¡¯s expression was pained. ¡°But they cost an arm and a leg. And that is our best shield ever.¡±


    ¡°Stop whining and take a loan.¡±


    Nobody gets anything for free from the Kyrioi, nobody. Not even me.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Santiago was downcast. ¡°Haaah.¡±


    The silence stretched for a moment.


    ¡°On the other hand, I don¡¯t think you should use Ohr as an enhancement at all. Unlike miasma that is free, each Ohr costs 200 cubic nanometres to produce and are required in great quantities to improve the tree. Miasma production will increase with the tree¡¯s stage, making it difficult for you to run out. And you can use the roots as combat tentacles through portals, and that will also be increased by stage. Finally getting the Fruit of Divinity is imperative, it will greatly increase your combat abilities.¡± Skol broke the awkward moment.


    ¡°With ten roots I get ten SINQUM a second. I need 200,000, so that is 20,000 thousand seconds, or 5-6 hours, for stage one. Doesn¡¯t seem too difficult to increase.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve seen powers with growing, permanent effects. They grow exponentially, but it takes exponential amounts of SINQUM to grow them. I doubt yours is different.¡±


    Santiago groaned, and I decided that I could give more direct guidance.


    ¡°Let us see how much Ohr it requires to reach stage 2 in six hours. In the meantime, work to add the roots to your fighting style.¡±


    Santiago nodded, before remembering something.


    ¡°I have no sword.¡±


    I created a temporary sword and threw it at him. Then I smiled at him signaled him to get going.


    ***


    Six hours later Santiago was showing why he had managed to reach provost at his age. He had managed to incorporate the roots to his fighting style very quickly, and now was working out its kinks with Skol.


    A thing had become apparent quickly, and that was that maintaining ten portals open, moving ten roots and fighting simultaneously was ridiculously taxing on the mind. It required an incredible amount of concentration, far more than even Santiago¡¯s enhanced mind had. So he had quickly chosen to reduce the number of tentacles he could have active to three. Then he had understood that his portals were mostly static, and changing their position was difficult. Due to this he was better served if he opened the portals for only a few seconds so his enemy wouldn¡¯t have time to move from them.


    This meant that he mostly used the roots as surprise spear or mace strikes, or for parrying, and when in a single position for a time he would use them more extensively. He also practiced leaving a portal and root out while fighting with others in case he ever needed to restrain his enemy. The problem after that was coordinating with the roots during combat, and that was what he was doing right now. Thankfully his spatial perception had improved with the potion. I believed he would master it in a few weeks.


    The practice was interrupted when the False Tree of Qliphoth began shuddering. It was time.


    Both Skol and Santi came running, and watched as the tree grew. It didn¡¯t change much, a few centimetres at most.


    ¡°How do I tell how much it¡¯s grown? Do I meditate?¡±


    ¡°As long as you are in the World Basin, or rather, near the Ether Sea, you will be able to connect with the ICP and have it scan you. Just ask it nicely.¡± I said.


    ¡°Yes. I thank you for hooking me up with it, master Lykofos.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡±


    While Skol and I bantered Santiago looked over the changes in his power.


    <False Tree of Qliphoth stage 1-2. 1000/1000-0/100,000.


    -The False Tree of Qliphoth integrity: Stage 1-2. Concrete-Slightly stronger concrete.


    -Tainted Miasma production: Stage 1-2: 1-1.5 m^3/h.


    -Qliphoth Rhizome: Stage 1-2: Drain 1-2 u/s. DMG Weak. Max speed. 50-51 km/h.


    -Fruit of divinity enhancement: Stage 1-2: 1-1.1 Ohr.


    -Lasts unrooted: Stage 1-2: 1-2 h.>


    When he told us what had changed we collectively groaned.


    ¡°Nearly a twelve day increment for a slight increase in power. At least Weak is overpowered to begin with.¡± Santiago tried to comfort himself once we did the math. Didn¡¯t really work.


    ¡°At least you can fight as if you had three more weapons. And maybe the next enhancement will be stronger."


    ¡°That is nice.¡± My attempt was better.


    ¡°So, what Path do you think you should take?¡± Asked Skol.


    ¡°I need to learn curses and attack magic in general to take advantage of Weak. I also need self-enhancement magic to improve my direct combat abilities, right now I am fragile.¡±


    Skol turned to me.


    ¡°He doesn¡¯t know what a Path is.¡±


    ¡°Not yet. But I know which one he should take.¡±


    ¡°Ghost?¡±


    ¡°Ghost.¡±


    ¡°Uh, what?¡±


    ¡°Later, once we have returned to the Bulwark. Right now, just take the fruit whose name I hate.¡±


    That fruit can¡¯t grant divinity in any way or shape! I hate when this happens.


    That said the fruit was beautiful. To get it Santiago had to open the trunk of the tree, showing us its interior. It was bigger on the inside, understandable since it was an independent piece of space-time. The fruit was small, grape sized, and golden in color, like an ingot of pure gold. There wasn¡¯t any need for rituals of any kind, so Santiago just ate it.


    What happened after was amazing. Golden veins of light could be seen within Santiago¡¯s body, spreading from his stomach and being assimilated into his entire body. The process lasted only a few seconds. When it was finished Santiago started trying his new abilities. Due to the complexity of movement in living beings the enhancement wasn¡¯t always apparent. For example his acceleration hadn¡¯t improved by 102 metres per squared second, despite weighing 78 kilograms. It had improved by 43 however, and he could sustain it for a second, which put him over five times the unenhanced world record.


    ¡°So this is what it feels like being superhuman.¡± Santiago was smiling, quite happily at that. He was feeling great, for this was the first time he felt like he was making progress in the process of rescuing his sister.


    ¡°It truly is. Congratulations Santiago, you are one step closer to your goal.¡± I grabbed him by the shoulders and looked into his eyes as I said this.


    He smiled at me. But this time it was heartfelt, previously he still had doubts, about me and about him. But now? Now he trusted me. It was then that he accepted me as his master.


    ***


    We had parted with Skol and returned to the Bulwark soon afterwards. When we were back at the ICP I finished the first day¡¯s lesson.


    ¡°A Path is the way Guardians grow. Normally you¡¯d have to actively absorb SINQUM and add it to your Guardian. When that reaches a certain threshold it increases in stage. That increases SINQUM pool, makes certain powers stronger and may give new powers.


    Without a Path what powers you get would be nearly random, in the sense you can¡¯t try and get a specific power, what you¡¯d get is determined by your mind. The Bulwark can direct this growth within certain parameters, this is a Path. For example the Path of the Ghost grants self enhancement powers and cursing powers.¡±


    I abridged the lecture since Santiago was tired, but he understood it pretty well anyway.


    ¡°That is the Path I should take?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Some Paths are based on daemons, others in mages. Ghosts are renowned for being tough in battle and their curses.¡±


    ¡°Understood. How many stages are there?¡±


    ¡°You can theoretically absorb all SINQUM in the Fayd.¡±


    ¡°Functionally infinite then.¡±


    ¡°Pretty much.¡±


    ¡°So I just try and absorb SINQUM?¡±


    ¡°Yes. It is a slow process however, most of the growth amends Earth ¦· humans is from Bulwark missions. If you fulfill missions issued by the ICP it will inject you with SINQUM. You can learn to increase your SINQUM absorption speed from this process.¡±


    ¡°So, how do I get a Path?¡±


    ¡°Not now. You are too tired, rest. Tomorrow we¡¯ll finish this, and for the next few weeks I¡¯ll train you in magic.¡±


    ¡°K.¡±


    He opened a portal and nearly stumbled through it. It had been quite an exciting day, even if it was still six p.m.

 Intermission. A family鈥檚 love.

    Intermission: A family¡¯s love.


    When Santiago went through the portal he found himself by his bed, collapsed on it, and promptly fell asleep. His father heard him arrive, from his footsteps mainly. See, I haven¡¯t really spoken much about Santiago¡¯s family, aside from the Kyrioi thing, but they have been there. It¡¯s just that until now I wanted to go through the beginning stages of this tale so in the next part the adventure may begin.


    But family is important, particularly for Santiago, so allow me a little aside. Santiago¡¯s family was a mostly normal middle class family, normal for Spain that is. For the Americans out there I recommend not making preconceptions based on their culture, Europe is vastly different from the U. S. There is one main difference though, ignoring the Kyrioi, and that is that mages tend to move a lot of money. Not to be rich, but to earn much and spend even more. Allow me to explain.


    While magic, daemons and the Fayd haven¡¯t interfered much with history, due to the laws that mages must withhold to use the Bulwark, there are a few differences. They can be divided in a few areas. Crime, criminal mages aren¡¯t much of a problem since Bulwark mages are at least an order of magnitude above them, but there have been a few exceptions. The Daemonic Wars, there have been a few, six or so, times where daemons attacked the World Basin en masse, causing several wars to happen. Third, less strict social classes, since mages have arisen from many backgrounds. Fourth, less racism among mages due to the globalism of the Bulwark. Unfortunately this didn¡¯t avert many tragedies, due to the distance between mages and citizens.


    The two big differences though are in healthcare and technology. From the 19th Century onwards the development of medicine sped up, and while previously magic couldn¡¯t heal illness easily due to lack of knowledge, afterwards most Great plagues could be averted. So AIDS, Ebola, cholera, etc, weren¡¯t much of an issue. Previously magical healing was extremely difficult since mages didn¡¯t know how to heal illnesses, making their visualisation weak and the SINQUM cost ridiculously high. Only emergency cases were healed through magic, and when plagues happened¡­ it wasn¡¯t pretty. There were Objects of Power that heal but they were likewise rare, but far more common in Europe as Saint¡¯s Relics. Yes, that is an actual designation, there are that many of those.


    The second big change is in technology since Earth ¦· had ready access to an infinite source of energy, Ether. Ether is made when SINQUM encounters the Gates of Death¡¯s universal barrier. It is a sort of particle that can freely change between matter and energy. Thus it can be easily stored and used to acquire electricity. Furthermore Ether tends to travel between the Gates and the Fayd, so energy created from it slowly vanishes, impeding pesky issues such as messing with Earth¡¯s energy balance.


    There are a few caveats. The first caveat, normally such Ether exploitation would attract daemons to Earth, but that is a moot point for three reasons. First, the Gates have only four planets in which life can develop and only three have sapient life, they were always going to be a target. Two, the Gates of Death are called that for a reason, billions of daemons die there daily already. Finally, humans have the best planetary defence ever, the Steel Bulwark. Without any of those humanity¡­ well, many of you are familiar with such situations. The second issue is that Ether can¡¯t be contained by universal materials, it requires daemons to do so. Due to this mages that bring materials to make containers, or make them, are essential for modern technology and suitably paid. The trouble is that a mage requires a lot of equipment and that is even more expensive than the materials, obviously. The final problem would be if Earth ¦· ever lost its access to the Fayd, but that is impossible.


    All of this actually makes it so Earth ¦· lacks most of the environmental issues that most Earths have, though not all.


    All of this was to say that while the Alonso family earned a lot of money they also spent it, leaving a balance where they had a very decent net income. Santiago¡¯s parents were both daemonsmiths, as I recounted earlier. His father was a Smith of the Kyrioi but his mother was just as good. She just had too thin Kyrioi blood to be allowed to be a Smith. Their specialty was guns, but they made a bit of everything.


    As such when Gonzalo entered his sleeping son¡¯s room and saw he actually did have a Guardian, he knew what to do. First he used his finely honed instincts (read: analytic power), to determine what powers and abilities his son had.


    ¡°What the?¡±


    Was his reaction to the absolute bizarreness he saw. But soon he shrugged, and called an emergency family meeting. All of Santiago¡¯s near family was there, except for Mario who was too young to understand the discussion and was left playing with his toys.


    ¡°Santiago has a Guardian now, which finally confirms that he did meet the Founder. He is the only one capable of doing such a thing.¡± Gonzalo opened the conversation.


    ¡°Geez, because suddenly being able to open portals isn¡¯t enough proof.¡± Elena was a teenager, which meant she had a bit of an attitude. Thankfully for her family it wasn¡¯t much.


    ¡°Don¡¯t sass your father Elena. You know full well it could have been a Daemon God faking it.¡± Said Sara.


    ¡°So that confirms that Marta is alive, huh?¡±


    After Mar¨ªa¡¯s comment a silence fell upon the room. Even Elena, who was six at the time, missed Marta. She had been the joy of the family, the one that asked to play with everyone in the family and was cute while doing so. But worse was that she was the extrovert to her twin¡¯s introvert and a great part of his life. They were always together, the stereotypical twins even if they were not identical. And like the stereotype her supposed death had hit Santiago hard. He had withdrawn, became distrustful and angry. They soon sent him to therapy, but even then it took him a long time to recover. Only over the last year had he managed to regain a semblance of a normal life, ignoring his being a sword genius, and for that Akihito would always be welcomed in the Alonso-Caballero household.


    For Santiago¡¯s parents the hit had been double, lost a child and saw the other one have his life destroyed. Santiago is the person for whom they¡¯d cried the most in their lives. For Mar¨ªa she had always felt as if she had failed her duties as the elder sister, aside from the inherent tragedy of the situation. Elena had nearly forgotten Marta, but she¡¯d never forget the desolation when she heard she would never see Marta again. And Mario¡­ he was too young to remember anything, but he hurt whenever he saw his brother cry.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    As such hearing that she was alive caused conflicting feelings in them. Relief, worry about her situation, fear about the same, incertitude, happiness, worry about how Santiago was taking it all¡­ no words can properly convey the cocktail of emotions they were under. But primarily they felt one thing.


    ¡°How are we getting her back?¡± Asked Elena.


    ¡°The Founder told Santiago that he was training him to get her back, among other things.¡± Said Sara. ¡°He is an old friend of the clan, I wonder if not being able to rescue her ate at him? Or maybe he always knew what to do and was just waiting for the right time?¡±


    ¡°Knowing him? Probably the second.¡± Gonzalo snorted. ¡°I met him once. Though he showed itself to me as a woman then.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Yes Elena, really. I told this to Mar¨ªa before, but I have reason to suspect that he is a renowned mythological figure. Being who I think he is would explain much about him.¡±


    ¡°Who is he?¡±


    Mar¨ªa was the one to answer. And I will censor her answer, since they were right. I¡¯m not exactly subtle, wink wink.


    ¡°Are you fucking with me?!¡±


    ¡°Language.¡± Sara remarked offhandedly. ¡°And no, that is our best guess. But I think it won¡¯t do us a disservice to trust his design.¡±


    ¡°Indeed.¡± Gonzalo sighed and reclined forward, joining his hands under his nose, elbows on his legs. ¡°Which means that we must support Santiago as best as we can if we wish to get her back.¡±


    ¡°How?¡± Asked Mar¨ªa, eager to make reparations for her tragic error.


    ¡°From what I''ve seen about Santiago¡¯s Guardians and powers we can offer him two things. Proper equipment and training.¡±


    ¡°What are his powers? Is my boy good?¡±


    Gonzalo chuckled, before telling them. The laugher was uniform and loud.


    ¡°Satan?! Our little zealot, with a power called Satan?!¡± Elena managed to get this phrase out between breaths.


    ¡°You brother, hng, isn¡¯t a zealot Elena.¡±


    ¡°Indeed mom. He just is, heheh, enthusiastic in his faith.¡±


    ¡°He calls Protestantism heresy Mar¨ªa.¡±


    ¡°By the strict definition of the Catholic Church it actually is heresy. Even if no one says it out loud. Except Santi, of course.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s less that he is a zealot, and more that he disagrees with all other religions.¡± Commented Gonzalo.


    ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°He doesn¡¯t tell you, because he thinks you¡¯re too bratty right now-¡°


    ¡°Hey!¡± Elena interrupted Sara.


    ¡°He doesn¡¯t tell everything, but he has told us in no uncertain terms that he rejects Buddhism since he believes in an objective, supreme, unchanging Truth. As this is in opposition to Buddhism¡¯s an¨¡tman he doesn¡¯t believe in it. On principle he hates doctrines that preach that the material world is evil and humans must separate from it, since he thinks that is an insult towards God that created it. As such things like Gnosticism are foolish in his eyes.¡±


    ¡°And there is the zealotry.¡±


    ¡°Silence dear. And by reading catholic dogma and writings he has felt a deep resonance in values, so he has chosen the Catholic Church as his faith.


    But at the same time he has told me that every single religion, philosophy or way of thinking has its merits, and hold wisdom that comes from God. As such one should not discriminate nor hate others for their beliefs, even further, he believes that such hatred is a sin and foolish, for much can be learnt about them. Imagine his joy when he found a letter about Christian meditation saying much the same, in the context of using eastern meditation techniques.


    So no, your brother isn¡¯t a zealot. He is a very devout man and one of the most tolerant people I¡¯ve met. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever heard him say that he hated anyone.¡±


    ¡°Really? I thought¡­¡±


    ¡°Not even Marta¡¯s murderers. In his words, ¡®I believe that people change, and once they change it is difficult to become the person they once were. An evil person may become good as when he was a child, but they¡¯ll never been the same. That said I don¡¯t think there are many purely evil people. However the fate I wish on Marta¡¯s murdered is complete obliteration, for their very memory and legacy to vanish. And the only way I can see for this to happen is if they change so much, they are no longer the same person. Preferably for good. This would make it so that Marta¡¯s murderer would no longer exist, instead a repentant murderer and productive member of society would be born. So no, I don¡¯t hate them fully, I just hate who they were when they killed her.¡¯¡±


    Elena¡¯s eyes had become akin to saucers, and her mouth fell like lead.


    ¡°Why does he never tell me these things?!¡±


    Her three elders looked at her, amused.


    ¡°Last time he tried you told him that he spoke like an old man.¡± Said Gonzalo.


    ¡°And he does.¡± Elena then looked away with guilt and mumbled. ¡°Not that what he says isn¡¯t interesting, but still.¡±


    Elena blushed under her family¡¯s warm looks. She then blushed more when she understood that they were still doing it. Finally Mar¨ªa took pity on her.


    ¡°I think we¡¯ve diverged too much from the purpose of this gathering. I think that Dad is right, he needs good equipment.


    A good sword because he is a swordsman, obviously a good gun. I don¡¯t know the specifics of the curse and miasma, but something with which to apply them is needed.¡±


    ¡°But it can¡¯t be too good.¡± Objected Sara. ¡°Enough to keep him safe, but not so good he would rely on it too much. That would stunt his growth.¡±


    ¡°I doubt that would happen Sara. He is seventeen years old and a provost, I have no doubt that if he lives a long and famous life he will pass down in the annals of history as one of the greatest.¡±


    ¡°Maybe. But while he knows how to fight, does he know how to take a hit? Need I remind you that blocking homing grenades is not on the RAAM¡¯s curriculum?¡±


    ¡°Fair enough.¡± Gonzalo relented. ¡°So once we know what he¡¯s going against we get him a decent armour for that level. A good sword, but not enough to make him ignore his other abilities in favour of his swordsmanship. A likewise decent gun.


    Anything else?¡±


    Mar¨ªa thought for a moment,


    ¡°The clan seriously needs a Vehicle branch. We are lagging behind in matters of transportation.¡±


    ¡°Felipe is good enough for that. And the Herrero-Guerrero¡¯s have navigation covered. What about healing?¡± Asked Elena.


    ¡°Ramon¡¯s good.¡± Mar¨ªa thought for a moment. ¡°Unless Santiago needs a new organ or limb, but in that case he is failing hard and we have better resources.¡±


    ¡°And training?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d suggest Nuria, but she¡¯s kendo.¡± Gonzalo considered his resources. ¡°We may be able to get Dolores Arima, she was apparently impressed with Santiago. And we are Madrid¡¯s sole Kyrioi apo Metallon providers, so we¡¯ve got clout. Do they need good swords?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Answered Sara. ¡°The heir doesn¡¯t have a good sword.¡±


    ¡°Really? All of the Executioner, Muramasa and Carrera series are in use?¡± Elena whistled. ¡°The last few generations have been good for the Arima¡¯s.¡±


    ¡°Two Heaven¡¯s Executioner, Tokugawa Executioner, Yamato Executioner, the Seven Muramasa blades, and the three Carrera swords.¡± Gonzalo reminisced about his ancestor¡¯s glory for a second. ¡°Thirteen swords, all in use. Truly a good century for the Arima.¡±


    ¡°Not a lot of love for Japan there, huh?¡±


    ¡°After the Shimabara Rebellion? Little.¡± The two sisters smiled at each other.


    ¡°More like for Tokugawa Shogunate Japan. They remember fondly the times before Nobunaga and have decent relations with the current Japan.¡±


    They continued discussing the specifics for a while longer, and eventually decided to wait until they knew what Santiago would be doing before trying to get him a trainer. They did begin to forge his equipment, having decided they would foot the bill.

 4. The end of the beginning.

    The day after, the 24th of June (by the way in Earth ¦·¡¯s Spain school ends and begins earlier) was the day I finally finished Santiago¡¯s introduction and started his training, something I was looking forward to.


    But before that I must say a little thing, I, by my nature, am more bound by the laws than most. This means that gods such as Zeus are more free to act than me. But even then if you recall his myths he doesn¡¯t act as much as a human that has lived as long as he has done. A weird tangent, but I wanted to explain this possible discordance in my tale.


    That aside Santiago slept through the evening and night until 10:06. It should come to no surprise that the first thing he did was eat a hearty breakfast, since he had skipped dinner and had fought against Skol for hours. Since I had not given him an hour when we¡¯d meet he entertained himself by reading until I called for him. As for why I didn¡¯t get him when he woke up? I wanted to let him rest, the last few days had been taxing. Learning his sister was alive, getting a Guardian, becoming a Primordial¡­


    So I only came for him at 17:00, when he was mostly relaxed.


    ¡°Let us continue our lessons.¡± I said before shifting him to my office.


    It disappointed me a little that he just nodded and stood ready.


    ¡°I hope you placed the book I was reading somewhere safe.¡±


    Aw, he had grown accustomed to me, is what I thought. Well, even if I couldn¡¯t surprise him anymore at least I¡¯d be able to have decent conversations with him. Oh right, you couldn¡¯t know, Santiago deals with surprises, nervousness, and suspicion by becoming stoic. Normally he isn¡¯t as inexpressive as I¡¯ve shown you. Even in the meal he was uncomfortable, too many acquaintances that he didn¡¯t know that well to be relaxed.


    So yeah, if he is standing there silently he is either nervous, suspicious, annoyed, surprised, thinking, overwhelmed¡­ he does react to many things with stoicism.


    ¡°Of course I did. I was there when the first book was written, I know the value of books.¡± Then I corrected myself. ¡°Of many books. There are things that¡­¡±


    I shivered, a life as long as mine has its disadvantages. If you thought some human books were bad I don¡¯t want to show you Ares¡¯ ¡°literature¡±. Or worse, Aphrodite¡¯s. I need brain bleach, but unfortunately I never forget. I may not think of something but I always have memories of it.


    ¡°I know.¡± You didn¡¯t Santiago, you didn¡¯t. ¡°So I uh, don¡¯t remember much of what happened after we returned from the Graveyard. Oh, is that where the Dawn is buried?¡±


    ¡°No, the Dawn was quartered and processed, nothing remained to be buried. As for what we spoke about, I will abridge it. Please sit.


    A Guardian grows by absorbing SINQUM, a process that can be made faster by completing missions for the Bulwark. This is because the Bulwark will directly inject SINQUM to improve your Guardian. A Guardian¡¯s growth is nearly unpredictable but being given a Path by the Bulwark will limit it to certain parameters.¡±


    ¡°How do they do that?¡±


    ¡°Guardians and True Daemons are more or less the same. As such it is possible to sort of impose the growth patterns of a True Daemon on a Guardian.¡±


    ¡°Sort of?¡±


    ¡°Reversing a certain saying, it¡¯s rocket science. It¡¯d take years for me to explain exactly how it works to you. Even with your enhanced mind.¡±


    ¡°I understand. What should I study to understand it?¡±


    ¡°Fayd studies, third year course Daemon patterns. Normally.¡±


    ¡°You said something about the Path of the Ghost?¡± He asked after mulling over the information I gave him.


    ¡°We determined last day that your powers make curses far more effective than they usually are. We also determined that the best way to apply them is through direct contact. With those two factors, plus the fact you need to finish your foes off, I believe it is best to give you curses and self-enhancement powers so you can apply your swordsmanship.¡±


    ¡°Couldn¡¯t magic give me that?¡± I waited for a few seconds. ¡°Never mind, magic relies on finite resources, powers don¡¯t. Not a good idea to make your main fighting style rely on such a thing.¡±


    ¡°Particularly since your SINQUM pool is of average size.¡± I pointed out. ¡°That said I will teach you magical curses and self-enhancement spell, but I think you will be better served by more standard magic.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Remember that part of my plans include your reunification with Adam?¡±


    ¡°And he has the role of Adam Kadmon¡­¡± he reflected a second, ¡°Does he have my powers but with producing Ohr freely?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t guarantee anything, but his powers as the vessel of Keter should be opposite to yours as the ruler of Thaumiel. So when you get it back it should have Ohr and Sephiroth related powers.¡±


    ¡°And I¡¯m guessing that Ohr can increase the number of blessings one can have? And magic?¡±


    ¡°Yours can, I can¡¯t yet tell what Adam will become when he returns.¡±


    ¡°So once Ohr isn¡¯t a valuable resource I will need something to enhance and blessings for the same reason I need curses now.¡± He frowned and whined. ¡°Because learning two fields of magic isn¡¯t enough, I need to learn at least three.¡±


    ¡°Correct. Now, let¡¯s get you a Path and then we start teaching you magic.¡±


    I again shifted us to the ICP.


    I just realised that I haven¡¯t been exactly descriptive of Santiago surroundings. My apologies, but I do not exactly pay attention to such things, for me they are simply unimportant. I will try to make an effort and describe things a little. My office is just like it was, and Santiago had sit in the same chair that was there last day. But this isn¡¯t very important and can be deduced.


    No, what I haven¡¯t described is people¡¯s appearances, meaningless as they are, so I will start with me. I actually have been showing myself to Santiago in different shapes. The first one I described already. Over the second day I alternatively took seven forms, each one being a transparent humanoid silhouette filled with something. These somethings were fire, storms, stars, jungles, light, ocean depths and shifting darkness. Today I was showing something slightly, being a white humanoid made of twisting shapes filled with holes that went through my body.


    Funnily enough I am not a shapeshifter at all. What I was doing was emphasise aspects of my being, making it so mortals, who are unable to fully comprehend my existence, perceive me in different ways. The best way I have to describe it is that I am a sculpted jewel with carvings within that look different depending on which facet you are looking from. The reason why that happens is that I am weird, physically speaking. Humans see through light, and unless I want I do not interact with the electromagnetic spectrum. Or anything at all, I am normally a spiritual being. Thus, depending on what part of myself I allow to interact with the universe I will look different.


    Basically every form I take is a piece of the jigsaw puzzle that I am. As for what would happen if a human saw the totality of my being¡­ it is bad. I am a being that exists beyond human logic, which means that a human would never be able to explain me since their brains can¡¯t handle the information. Let me put it this way, a human would have to at least understand the sum of human knowledge in order for me to consider them toddlers in mental faculties. Bluntly put? Humans are too dumb to comprehend me. Rulers and Primordials, much less Eternals, can be said to have brains the size of universes in which information travels faster than light.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.


    And yes, this whole tangent was so I could deflect a possible misunderstanding. I may think like a human, but I am not one. That doesn¡¯t make me superior to you guys though, I do not judge worth based on what people can do.


    ***


    Anyway, leaving my weirdness aside the process of getting a Path is simple, so I will just note what Santiago did.


    Santiago touched the ICP and thought that he wanted a Path. The response he received was something like this:


    Option 1: Path of the Type-A-a-a-a-a-1.


    ...


    Option 20 Path of the Type-A-a-a-a-a-20>


    The number of registered daemons in the Bulwark should be apparent. Keep in mind that most daemons while fitting an archetype tend to be unique and they have been recorded for over 12,000 years. We run out of good names millennia ago. And from now on I will show Santiago¡¯s thoughts.


    ¡®Show me the Paths that hold curse type and self enhancement type powers¡¯


    <Selected Paths, page 1 out of 1,892,568,190,826,956.>


    Why did you think I recommended a Path? It would take an immense amount of time to go through all the choices.


    ¡®The Paths must hold many types of curses, primarily weakening ones, as well as self enhancing powers fit for swordsmanship.¡¯


    <Selected Paths, page 1 out of 189,751,026,160.>


    Of course by increasing the amount of restrictions you can greatly decrease the amount of information to shift through. You can also¡­


    ¡®Eliminate archetypally similar daemons that fulfill previous requirements¡¯


    <Selected Paths, page 1 out of 3,918,251.>


    Why yes my current feeling is schadenfreude. Little guy thinks he can know better than me? Okay, fine, I know he is just curious but still. Eventually he reached the correct method of finding what he wanted. Let me just say that the Ancient Clans of the Covenant weren¡¯t the best at making AIs.


    ¡®Find Path suggestions based on my Guardian, adjusted for better efficiency in combat¡¯


    Except when it comes to making combat assessments and strategies. The combat AI of the ICP is by far the most advanced AI in the Fayd, much better than the Framework.


    <Selected Paths, page 1 out of 107.>


    At that point Santiago decided that over two thousands Paths could be read in brought easily. I will admit that some of the Paths in the list sounded more impressive than Ghost, such as Balor, Mot, Nergal, Plague, Famine, Gu, Skol, Reaper and many others. Key word sounded, Ghost-Archetype daemons are some of the most dangerous in the Fayd.


    Think of it, many people are scared of ghosts, even among mages, since the fear comes from the fact that they¡¯re dead that have remained on this world normally due to grudges. How do you fight something that is dead? I am the closest you will find to that in the Fayd and let me tell you, it¡¯d take skill. No amount of power can help a human defeat me, even if I lowered my power to ordinary human standards.


    This primal fear reflects on ghost daemons, making them a nightmare to fight. They have some of the most esoteric, ridiculous powers. Reaper, Famine and the various death gods would be good substitutes, but Ghost fits Santiago¡¯s Satan more for many reasons.


    Oh, by the way, I actually don¡¯t change shape when I come to the public parts of the Bulwark since most people would think I¡¯m a Daemon anyway. While Santiago was looking through his options a man approached me.


    ¡°He didn¡¯t trust your choice huh?¡±


    He wasn¡¯t actually English, but Finnish. I simply translated.


    ¡°I think he does, he is just curious.¡±


    He snorted. ¡°I wish my apprentice had such drive. How many fits did he get?¡±


    ¡°2,140.¡±


    ¡°Phew, not bad. My kid only got about six hundred and he took forever choosing. Are you going to enroll him in classes or teach you yourself?¡±


    ¡°You are promoting your own lessons.¡± That wasn¡¯t a question.


    ¡°Can you blame me? I know you aren¡¯t a teacher and I need the prestige. Anyone that gets over a thousand fits has a good Guardian. If I get someone that can go over stage 800 in my lessons it will be good.¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately he has a mythical Guardian, Kabbalah related. I already have plans for him.¡±


    ¡°Mythical huh? Lucky kid, I was stuck with my Candle Flame Guardian.¡± He looked at me by the side of his eyes. ¡°Actually do you know why some get Guardians related to myths and some others just random ones? I¡¯ve always wondered and nobody answered me.¡±


    ¡°If your Guardian resembles an Archetype it will get called that. But that is not the answer you want. The reason is actually that Santiago over there is a Mystic, they are the ones that get powers related to myths for some reason.¡±


    ¡°He doesn¡¯t have a bonded daemon?!¡± The man, Ukkonen Anterovipunen (yeah, some mage families don¡¯t have a great naming sense), was impressed. ¡°That is cool, but won¡¯t he get a handicap?¡±


    ¡°No. Do you not know of them.¡±


    ¡°True, them! Those that only people without bonded daemons can use.¡±


    Meanwhile Santiago had finished looking over his choices and selected Ghost. It truly was his best choice.


    ¡°Why are you saying them? And while I trust your decision the Path of the Reaper looked better.¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t want to spoil the surprise.¡± Said Ukkonen.


    ¡°And trust me, Satan gets better powers from ghosts than from reapers.¡±


    ¡°Satan?! You are a chest of surprises kid. A pity I don¡¯t teach anything related to Kabbalah.¡±


    Santiago frowned, confusion clear on his face.


    ¡°I don¡¯t remember magic working that way? I mean didn¡¯t it work by visualising the outcome and believing hard enough?¡±


    Ukkonen, who by the way has little more role in Santiago¡¯s tale, entered teacher role.


    ¡°At its base that is true. It is also true that magic can be enhanced by belief, and not only your own. Most powerful standard spells were created by following ancient mystic practices or concepts that are powerful in humanity¡¯s collective belief.


    For example, spells related to the Sun, Moon, stars, divinity, lightning and, more recently, nuclear power, will be enhanced by human awe.¡±


    Santiago had understood by then but Ukkonen continued, not being able to read him.


    ¡°As such there are many spells based on systems of belief. Christian spells, Russian curses, Finnish mythical magic, Taoism, Buddhism¡­¡±


    ¡°Since Kabbalah is¡­ Does it need to be currently believed in?¡±


    Kabbalah has lost a lot of adherents in the past century, true.


    ¡°No, belief always influences the Fayd, even if it is no longer held. It takes a long time for one belief to supplant another, so the boost remains for a long time. Finally, since your Guardian is built of Kabbalah faith you will have synergy with Kabbalistic magic, making it even stronger. Since you chose the ghost that means you are good with curses and self-enhancement. All Kabbalistic traditions is ridiculously good at self-enhancement, but for curses you will have to go to occultist Kabbalah since black magic was forbidden in Jewish Kabbalah.¡±


    ¡°And master didn¡¯t tell me all of this because?


    The accusing stare hurts.


    ¡°I would have told you later, and anyway even for you the boost will be minimal. About 12% stronger mutable effect spells and 7% cheaper fixed effect spells.¡±


    It was a good coincidence that a teacher had approached us of his own will. I would have to watch my every word in order to avoid breaking the rules, and would probably be unable to say some things. Yes, a nice ¡°coincidence¡±. I couldn¡¯t have predicted and schemed this, no. And that is my answer to everyone.


    Santiago took the opportunity to ask some questions, and since you guys can¡¯t use this knowledge I will summarise it. Standard Magic effects can be divided in mutable and fixed. Mutable are less rigid, allowing for more customisation and effect strength variation. Fixed effects are more rigid, for safety issues, but for the same tend to be far more dangerous. The power output of fixed effects tends to be uniform, and if it varies a lot it normally is considered a new spell.


    Ukkonen was obviously glad that he had an attentive student, and Santiago that he had his questions answered. Unfortunately Ukkonen was here to fish new students, and eventually he departed to try and meet more.


    ¡°So after this convenient coincidence-¡°


    ¡°Coincidence, sure. Are you allowed to tell me what you can¡¯t tell me?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Though I was glad he discerned that. ¡°But for today we only have one thing left.¡±


    ¡°The thing.¡±


    ¡°Yes, the thing. But since adapting to the thing will take some time, I will tell you your schedule. This summer you will come all days to my office to get magic lessons and combat classes from 17:00 to 20:00. The rest of your day is for you to do as you please.¡±


    ¡°When do I get to get some action?¡±


    ¡°Once I have judged you worthy. Anyway, let¡¯s get you to the Armoury.¡±


    ¡°So my clan is responsible for the thing. What is it? Daemonic power armour? It has to be an artificial Object of Power if only Mystics can get them.¡±


    As we headed to the Armoury, first floor room 1.0009, Santiago kept trying to guess what the thing was. I gave him a hint on the way, it was what had caused Aesop to become the head of the Kyrioi.


    ¡°A mecha?¡±


    We arrived at the Armoury as Santiago was recalling what Aesop was famous for. Once there we went to a certain room with several vats. The kind that you see in science fiction, those tubes filled with liquid. To get into it I had to input a special password.


    ¡°This is looking mightily suspicious.¡±


    Nonchalance masking nervousness, that was Santiago¡¯s response to the thing.


    ¡°So, uh. Super soldier serum? No, that is the domain of the Alaktu clan.¡± He thought hard for a few seconds. ¡°I surrender, what is it?¡±


    ¡°Nanomachines.¡±


    Santiago was stunned. He looked at me in disbelief, before he began to crack up.


    ¡°Pffff. Ancient, haha, Iberian-Greek nanomachines! Hahahahahaha! The conspiracy theorists were right! Hahahahahahahahaha!¡±


    It took a while until he calmed down.


    ¡°What, pfff, what do they do?¡±


    ¡°Primarily they enhance regeneration and defence. But they are also modular and you can include many functions. Do not worry, they are Objects of Power, they won¡¯t take your SINQUM.¡±


    The process of injecting the nanomachines is simple. The vats are actually there to conserve and reproduce the nanomachines. I simply needed to take one of the containers and syringes and inject the vat serum into Santiago¡¯s veins. From then on the nanomachines would bond with Santiago¡¯s cells and reproduce.


    Since this process is highly discomforting I sent Santiago home.


    (Nanomachines rule.)


    ***


    I will not bore you with the details of Santiago¡¯s training, so imagine a training montage if you will. Santiago listening to me, Santiago reading books, Santiago getting blown up, Santiago cursing his legs together, Santiago smashing into the ceiling, Santiago smashing into the ceiling with his legs cursed together, me pulling Santiago¡¯s pants down¡­


    Wacky montage gone by it was the 9th of August when I decided to take the training to the next level.


    ¡°It is time.¡±


    ¡°Finally!¡± Santiago threw up his arms and whooped, more than ready to see some action.


    ¡°For the next phase of your training you will have to find a group and begin exploring some area of the Fayd.¡±


    ¡°Do I have to decide that?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    But you will find out soon enough that there is only one option.

 5. Role models.

    <ol start="5">


    <li> Role models.</li>


    </ol>


    Oh Reality, why art thou so disappointing. My butchery of Old English aside, though in all honestly I can speak it perfectly, Santiago didn¡¯t find his only option soon enough. In fact it had been a week, and for goodness¡¯ sake he was way more indecisive than I expected. Like, I knew he had trust issues, though bless Akihito for getting through that thick shell of his, but this was ridiculous!


    Do you seriously need a dossier in every single Ether Sea patrolling group to decide which one to choose? Do you seriously need to discard each of them one by one? Do you seriously not notice there is a group that would accept you readily?


    My annoyance peaking for the first time in millennia, mostly due to my high expectations, I decided he needed an intervention. As such I called one of my Wise Six.


    The Wise Six are a group of my subordinates whom I consider some of the wisest beings alive. And coincidentally all of them were born mortal before becoming Rulers, which makes it easy for them to speak to mortals. And since they are Rulers and not Eternals the rules bind them more loosely. Of my Wise Six I can''t say much, since it would give my identity away and I enjoy speculation too much to just give it away. What I can say is that four of them share an Earth nationality, and all are from it. They are the main reason that amidst all possible worlds I have a soft spot for Earth.


    I call them Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Dseta. Alpha and Beta respectively are the most patient and the most tolerant, and are married, as are Delta and Epsilon, who are the greatest king and the most insightful. Gamma is a monster and Dseta is bizarre. I called Alpha, since he is the best orator among the six.


    ¡°Lord ***, why did you call me?¡± I censored the name to avoid spoilers.


    Once Alpha had arrived to the Fayd I met him at the very ends of it. Alpha is not handsome, but more of what would be called a hunk. His face is ordinary but I have been told on good faith that he has a great body. He is a brunette, with round features that make him look inoffensive. Big mistake, he once bit the head of an alien off. He is tall, about 187 cm, and athletically built. The kind of man that some parts of the internet would say that cheese could be ground on his abs. Though that description also applied to Beta, though she was a woman, Gamma and Dseta.


    His most striking feature however are his golden eyes, like solid gold. But what catches attention is not their physical appearance, but their pressure. Anybody who looks at him in the eyes would feel a sense of majesty, as if the being in front of them was supreme. Alpha had a lot of trouble stopping people from worshipping him.


    ¡°Alpha, good to see you!¡±


    ¡°A new project then. Must you always conceal your nature, my master? It gets tiresome to dance around our identities.¡±


    Party pooper. I¡¯m reaaaally old, let this grumpy old man get his fun. Get off my lawn kid!


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°No what?¡±


    ¡°I know you well, my master. I¡¯m not getting off your lawn, I live there. And anyway it¡¯s our ***¡¯s lawn not yours.¡±


    ¡°I know full well you are teasing me, brat. Anyway, I will update you on our way.¡±


    As we made our way to Earth ¦·, took about a yoctosecond since we were taking it easy, I told him the entire situation. Even the bits I¡¯m reserving to make a better story, and as such he knew everything.


    ¡°Color me impressed.¡±


    ¡°About what?¡±


    ¡°You would trust someone with that kind of power, is he like Gamma?¡±


    ¡°No. They both would never fall into temptation, but while Gamma is simply unshakable Santiago just dislikes evil.¡±


    ¡°I see. So you just need me to give him a pep talk?¡±


    ¡°And once the first phase ends you could give him some instruction. He will need your expertise with dealing with foreign powers.¡±


    ¡°Understood.¡±


    We finally arrived at Earth ¦·. The sight made Alpha whistle.


    ¡°You weren¡¯t joking about there being low interference. It is nearly like my Earth, and we first got anything supernatural back in 2015.¡± He smiled in remembrance, before noticing something. ¡°Are those mecha? They look impressive.¡±


    ¡°Yes, they are part of the Planetary Defense System.¡±


    ¡°Cool, R***o would enjoy this place. Where is he?¡±


    For the record at that moment we were hanging around while on Earth ¦· orbit, granting us vision of much of the globe.


    ¡°There, in that subway.¡± I pointed him out.


    ¡°Line 6. I never liked that one, it¡¯s always full since it¡¯s circular.¡±


    ¡°Technically it¡¯s line 3 here.¡±


    ¡°Meh, butterflies of this level are expected. Anyway, I¡¯m going.¡±


    ***


    Santiago was returning from therapy when a stranger sat by his side. Santiago hadn¡¯t paid him any attention, so he was surprised when he spoke to him.


    ¡°Phew, how lucky to get a seat on this line, right?¡±


    ¡°Um, yeah.¡± Santiago twitched, feeling uncomfortable, but the stranger paid that no mind.


    ¡°So, you are Lykofos¡¯ new prot¨¦g¨¦e.¡±


    That made Santiago put his guard up, ready to deal with the stranger.


    ¡°How do you-¡°


    ¡°You may call me Alpha, Berserker, King, Destroyer or my favourite, the Deathless. I am one of Lykofos¡¯ subordinates.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡±


    The man let out a laugh at Santiago¡¯s guarded expression and doubtful tone. Santiago then noted that nobody seemed to have noticed the exchange, as if the two of them had faded from their field of perception.


    ¡°Take a look at me with those eyes of yours, and you¡¯ll see why I have no need for subterfuge.¡±


    While wary, Santiago chose to follow his advice if only because that should have been the first thing to do. Unfortunately he had not yet grown accustomed to his new powers, never mind that he felt uneasy about them. The impact was tremendous.


    He lurched forwards as he vomited gastric juices. Alpha immediately cleaned the mess and silently berated himself.


    ¡°Sorry. Lykofos didn¡¯t tell me that you had yet to see a Ruler.¡±


    ¡°That is a Ruler?! You are like a living, shifting, roiling, universe. I have no words to describe how ridiculous it looks! It¡¯s as if you are living, shapeshifting space-time. And your surroundings, oh God, it¡¯s like you are painting reality in your colours!¡±


    Alpha chuckled at that, to say that Rulers painted reality in their colours wasn¡¯t really that far off.


    ¡°I guess you don¡¯t see much when you look at Lykofos?¡±


    ¡°I see some sort of distortion in reality wherever he is, but it isn¡¯t as overpowering as you are.¡±


    ¡°That is because you can¡¯t actually see him, only the effects he has on the universe.¡±


    ¡°Eh?¡±


    Silence fell among the two of them. Santiago didn¡¯t know how to process everything he had just experience, and Alpha was waiting for him to recover his composure.


    ¡°Why are you here?¡± Finally asked Santiago after a long pause.


    ¡°Lykofos is disappointed. And you know why.¡±


    Santiago turned his eyes to the floor and sighed.


    ¡°Because I have yet to choose a group to explore the Fayd with, right? I could see over this week that he was growing dissatisfied.¡±


    ¡°Not quite.¡±


    ¡°What? Why then?¡±


    ¡°Why? Why else than the fact that you actually have chosen a group but are too insecure to ask, and bury yourself in pointless searches and dossiers.¡±


    Santiago clenched his fists.


    ¡°I don''t even know if I can actually go with them.¡±


    ¡°That is the issue. Whether you can accompany your friend or not doesn¡¯t matter. What matters is that you haven¡¯t even dared to ask.¡±


    Santiago frowned, twisting his face in conflict. He partly knew Alpha was right, but simultaneously he felt it wasn¡¯t fully right.


    ¡°But-¡°


    ¡°Why do you think Lykofos chose you?¡±


    ¡°Due to my situation. I was in the perfect place, had the training, and could be motivated easily.¡± Santiago said that with certainty, relaxing when he began to tread familiar grounds. Unfortunately-


    ¡°Wrong.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°All those reasons are good and all, but they are just conveniences. Lykofos could have just as easily chosen some random person and he would be able to do the same as you.¡±


    ¡°Impossible. I am incredibly talented when it comes to combat.¡±


    Santiago was insecure about many things, but he had never doubted his own combat prowess. He was then surprised when Alpha snorted.


    ¡°I used to think the same. Then I saw Lykofos create a universe and use it as a temporary barrier to stop his enemy.¡±


    ¡°He what?!¡±


    ¡°For beings like Lykofos and me combat skill is meaningless. What matters is your abilities and how you make use of them. See, I am part of something Lykofos calls the Wise Six. All six of us possess immense power of similar levels, and I am the most skilled at combat of them.


    I am also only the fourth strongest, or third weakest.¡±


    Santiago frowned, that went against everything that he knew of. Even with the inclusion of the Fayd and magic, skill was still crucially important in fights of the same level.


    ¡°Delta is the weakest in combat, for he is a king and not a warrior. Dseta is the fifth, then me, Beta, Epsilon, and Gamma is the strongest. Why are these rankings like this? Because Gamma possesses the most terrifying abilities. Abilities that make me shiver at night. Epsilon has focused on doing one thing, and become incredibly good at it. Beta has focused on combat, while I focused on nothing. In raw power I am only behind Gamma, but I have many miscellaneous abilities and fewer combat ones. I can still win about five times out of ten against Beta though. Dseta is¡­ weird. He is not a warrior, but I fear him the most. He is one that I do not want to face, ever. Only Gamma can arouse as much fear in me as Dseta does.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    By the way, do you know what is the weakest ability I ever saw Delta use?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    Santiago was curious. He had studied under me for about a month, but he did not know what I could do. He knew I was from beyond the Fayd, and that I held incredible power. But for a mortal what is the difference between one who can destroy a planet, and one that can destroy the universe? Until I told him what I could do, he wouldn¡¯t be able to understand my power.


    ¡°He destroyed magic.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°Once, Delta and I came across a particular universe. In that universe magic existed, but it was catastrophic. It devoured the minds of practitioners, driving them to madness. So Delta rewrote the laws of the universe, forever. He permanently changed that which allowed magic to exist, without changing anything else. He altered the laws of physics, and the only thing mortals felt was that they could not use magic anymore.¡±


    ¡°That. I don¡¯t really get what that means in terms of power.¡±


    ¡°Let me put it this way. It would be easier for Delta to erase gravity in this universe without you realising it ever happened than doing that.¡±


    ¡°What? How would that work?¡±


    ¡°That is my point. For the might that I possess, that Lykofos wishes to grant you, skill, or rather talent, means little. Because even one that knows nothing of combat can toy with the lives of others.


    As for your situation, think of it like this. Does it matter whether the foot that stomps and ant is enveloped by a luxurious boot or naked?¡±


    Santiago finally got what Alpha was implying.


    ¡°You mean to say that my circumstances just make things easier. That had he chosen another he could have trained that person to be as strong as I will be.¡±


    ¡°Yes. Your talent can be overcome by his training. Your connection to Ein Sof and your daemon are useful, but that too could be arranged. Your connection to the Kyrioi? Meaningless.¡±


    ¡°The why? Why me? That is all that separates me from others- ouch.¡±


    Just as Santiago¡¯s voice was starting to rise he was interrupted by a not so soft rap in his head.


    ¡°Do you take me or Lykofos for fools? If anyone would do why would any rational being choose a particular person?¡±


    ¡°Because they are the most suited for it.¡±


    ¡°And in your case that means?¡±


    Santiago fell into silence, unable to muster an answer. In his opinion there was nothing better about him than others.


    ¡°Fool. You are a fool, and yet it¡¯s nostalgic.¡±


    ¡°Nostalgic.¡±


    ¡°I used to be a human. My universe was one that allowed for humans to become Rulers, or as I knew it back then, gods. I became a god to end an endless war. Gamma became a god to save his universe from a dystopia. Dseta became a god to teach as many beings as he could how to achieve happiness. I remember seeing people like you, one of my daughters was like you.¡±


    ¡°Like me?¡±


    ¡°Young, and too foolish to properly understand themselves. Very well, I will aid in your growth by telling you one thing. The reason Lykofos chose you was¡­¡±


    Santiago looked at Alpha expectantly.


    ¡°He deemed you unable to misuse the power. He granted you power since he knew you wouldn¡¯t abuse it, that is all.¡±


    Santiago fell into silence, his struggle clear in his face.


    ¡°He was wrong, then. I am a weakling, one that would abandon his own sister to her death.¡±


    Alpha smiled to himself, having reached the point he wanted for Santiago to reach.


    ¡°Yeah, sure. A being so old that your civilisation has no numbers capable of describing his age, who was born holding all knowledge and wisdom in reality, who was granted authority over one of the greatest armies ever by sole virtue of his virtue. A traumatised teenager. Gee, I wonder whose judgement I should trust.¡±


    ¡°What do you know!¡± Santiago shouted between his teeth. ¡°You didn¡¯t see me abandon my-¡°


    ¡°Oh, but I have. A quadrillion times a quadrillion times a quadrillion times. And I¡¯m using Spanish numbering, which means that for English folks those are septillions. My favourite pastime, our favourite pastime really, is to observe humans. We laugh when they are good, we cry when they are bad, we cheer when they turn their lives around. I have seen brothers abandon sisters so many times that I nearly became numb to it. Do you truly think you are the only one who fears? That you are unique?


    False, false, false. You are but one in a crowd, a faceless individual in a faceless mass. Everything you have done has been done before. Even the greatest evils you have seen are nothing compared to what I have witnessed. Things so depraved that humans can¡¯t even imagine them. Why then do you think you, who abandoned his sister to a such a fate, are one who can¡¯t abuse his power?¡±


    Santiago, who had been greatly impacted by Alpha¡¯s words, sunk deep in thought. And then he remembered, something his therapist always said but that he had never been able to believe true. Something he didn¡¯t want to accept.


    ¡°Because I abandoned my sister.¡± He whispered, face pained at facing an uncomfortable truth. ¡°Because I know how it feels to be trampled and I chose¡­¡±


    ¡°You chose to never trample another. Many have suffered injustice and fell into believing that others should suffer like them. Many have suffered and chosen to avoid harming others. And most have chosen unconsciously. You can¡¯t tell, but I can.


    You would never use your power wrongly, because the mere thought of subjecting another to the pain you went through sickens you. Lykofos chose you, because you would never harm an innocent.¡±


    ¡°But I failed once already.¡±


    ¡°And? I nearly destroyed the world seven times the same year I first acquired my powers. Gamma let someone die in front of his eyes despite having the power to stop it. Delta could have become the worst tyrant ever had Gamma not foreseen his most likely future, and steered him away from it. And even then it took Epsilon for him to get his head straight.¡±


    ¡°Uh.¡±


    ¡°Beta nearly killed a hundred milliard people. Epsilon nearly caused the apocalypse. Dseta allowed over a billion sapient species to die out, even if he had the power to stop all of that, just so he could see if the last ones of those species would be glad to have been born!¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    ¡°And yet here we are, all six of us. Lauded by gods and men alike as paragons of good and wisdom! Our sins are much greater than yours, and yet here we are, still doing good where we can. Do you know why?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Because as Dseta would say, there is no greater teacher than pain. We learned from our pain, our mistakes, and made the most out of it. We rose before life and rode over it. Like you have done.¡±


    Santiago remained silent, too conflicted to speak. Too used to hating himself to accept anything good about himself.


    ¡°So stop holding yourself back based on the actions of a child. Childhood has ended Santiago, stop letting the past and your fears hold you back. It is time for a new chapter in your life.¡±


    ¡°I¡­¡±


    ¡°And it wasn¡¯t Lykofos nor I who started you on this new journey. You know who it was, and you know who it is you wish to travel with. Not because he is suitable, but because you wish to help him! So why, oh why, are you hesitating. Why are you not going to him and asking if you can help now that you have the power. Wasn¡¯t keeping him safe, aiding him, one of the reasons you desired power? Isn¡¯t keeping your first friend in eight years, the one who showed you that life could move on, safe important?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Santiago was trembling, not of anger, fear, sadness or anything like that, but sheer anticipation. Alpha is a great orator, someone capable of rousing anyone. Every movement, every expression, every word, even the tone of his words helped him sell his message. It is indeed a pity this retelling is written, for you can¡¯t imagine how incredible Alpha is at speaking.


    ¡°Then why are you not going to Akihito and asking to join him in his journey?! Since the first time he got someone arrested last week you have known he wasn¡¯t just fighting against daemons. Since January you have known he wa fighting. And now, you have the chance to keep an eye on him, to keep him alive. And you have great power with which to do so! Why aren¡¯t you doing it?!¡±


    ¡°But what if he says no? And even then, can I even help him who has been fighting for over half a year?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure the first part is the most important.¡± Alpha said dryly. ¡°We must learn to face rejection, Santiago. I never would have gotten married had I not faced my fear of rejection, and trust me, my wife is one of the best things in my incredibly long life.¡±


    Santiago clenched his fists, still struggling with his fear.


    ¡°Those old friends of yours sure made a job on you.¡±


    Santiago flinched, not expecting that fact to arise. I think that despite me telling him I knew everything about him he had never truly believed it, from the bottom of his heart. Now though? Now he could face the truth.


    ¡°As for the second, did you know Akihito and his friends have never been on the Bulwark?¡±


    That made everything that was going on in Santiago¡¯s head to halt to a stop, a single emotion overwhelming him.


    ¡°What the actual fuck?! I¡¯m going to have to smack some sense in his dumb head!¡±


    He immediately opened a portal, but paused before going through it.


    ¡°What about Lykofos? Has he ever¡­¡±


    ¡°The reason I follow Lykofos is because he has never chosen the wrong path.¡±


    Santiago heard that and nearly stopped to ask more questions, before thinking it through and deciding that scolding his friend for being a dumb piece of suicidal shit, his mental words not mine, took priority.


    After he had left I appeared by Alpha¡¯s side.


    ¡°Thanks, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to get through him.¡±


    ¡°I know. You may be like a human, but only like. In emotions, will, and mentality you are like us, but you don¡¯t have our instincts. You understand us, but you can¡¯t truly get through our weakness as long as you haven¡¯t been as weak.¡±


    ¡°Oh, but I was, once. I couldn¡¯t stop him.¡±


    ¡°I never met him, but was it truly your responsibility?¡±


    ¡°I can¡¯t help but feel that had I realised it sooner, so much unnecessary suffering could have been spared from Reality.¡±


    ¡°So your failure was not stopping another from failing. Heh, no wonder you didn¡¯t know how to get through him.¡±


    I turned to him and gave him my best glare. He just smirked at me, the asshole.


    ¡°Do you really fear Dseta that much?¡±


    ¡°Gamma may have a calamity that consumes even gods. Epsilon may have a flame that burns Chaos itself. Beta may be able to destroy a lesser god by looking at it. I may be capable of fighting a million gods by myself. But Dseta? Dseta is the one defied Death itself, and won. I won¡¯t chance killing him only for him to return even stronger.


    Do we still not know how he did it?¡±


    ¡°You know my theory.¡±


    ¡°But why would our Master do that?¡±


    ¡°I think that¡­ without Dseta I would have never been able to appreciate humans as much as I did. Maybe he was necessary so I may not fall.¡±


    ***


    Akihito, Isabel, Ignacio, Francisca and Rub¨¦n were sitting around Akihito¡¯s living room and discussing their plans. Akihito lived with his parents, but they were still working at this hour, a bit after midday, so he had brought his SEDS to his house. It was their unofficial base.


    As such all of them didn¡¯t expect an insistent ringing to resound through the house.


    ¡°Who is that?¡± Asked Isabel, annoyed. ¡°Do they really need to be that rude?¡±


    Akihito shrugged and went to the door, before halting for a moment when he heard Rub¨¦n.


    ¡°Be careful, it may be one of the Kings.¡±


    Akihito nodded, went to the entrance and looked through the peephole. What he saw made him relax.


    ¡°No problem, it¡¯s Santiago.¡±


    ¡°Our weapon supplier?¡± Asked Rub¨¦n.


    ¡°Yeah, he goes to our school.¡± Answered Ignacio. ¡°He¡¯s a good guy, pretty peaceful and gentle too. A bit quiet though.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡±


    Whatever Rub¨¦n was going to say stopped when they heard the door open, followed by a slam.


    ¡°A. Ki. Hi. To!¡±


    ¡°Hello Santiago, I see you aren¡¯t on a good mood.¡±


    ¡°A little bird told me something, see.¡±


    ¡°What is it? Nothing bad I hope?¡±


    ¡°Oh, nothing much. Just that you have never been to the Bulwark.¡±


    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s true.¡±


    A beat of silence followed, before Francisca¡¯s eardrums nearly ruptured.


    ¡°WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK AKIHITO?!!!¡±


    ¡°Eeep! What is it?¡±


    ¡°What is it? What is it he ask. What is it? Well, let me tell you what it is. Remember that when I began supplying you with weapons I made you promise that you wouldn¡¯t be reckless when exploring the Fayd?¡±


    ¡°Yeah?¡± Akihito¡¯s voice was cautious, unwilling to enrage Santiago more.


    ¡°Then pray tell why the actual fuck did you not go to the Bulwark!¡±


    ¡°Is it dangerous not going to the Bulwark?¡±


    Silence hung over the house. A silence only interrupted by the gradually softer pants of Santiago.


    ¡°Akihito.¡± Santiago¡¯s voice was unreadable, neutral, as if the one speaking was a machine and not a man. ¡°We are going to your living room, you are going to tell me what you have been doing, and I¡¯m going to tell you what a fucking moron you are. That or I blacklist you from all Fayd related businesses.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t do that! Right?¡±


    ¡°Never underestimate the influence of my patrons.¡±


    ¡°Ah, the Kyrioi. Go on to the living room.¡±


    The remaining member of SEDS just sat there awkwardly as a pale Akihito came in, followed by a livid Santiago. When Santiago saw them he paused for a moment.


    ¡°And here we see a pack of imbeciles in their natural habitat. The living room of the alpha imbecile.¡±


    Francisca managed to break from the daze caused by Santiago¡¯s violence. Still she was unable to conceal the tremble in her voice.


    ¡°What gives you the right-¡°


    ¡°I am the descendant of a family that has dealt with the Fayd for the past two millennia. I knew what to do and what not to do in the Fayd before I could talk. I was taught to recognise who was likely to kill themselves if we sold them weapons since before I remember. I was apparently taught poorly since I thought a pack such as yours were responsible.¡±


    Francisca withered under Santiago¡¯s glare, which held the weight of a thousand suns. Having shut her up Santiago took a chair from the nearby eating table and sat. The SEDS were unnerved by his empty glare, it was as if it was a corpse that was looking at them.


    ¡°So,¡± they all flinched, ¡°what have you been doing.¡±


    ¡°We can¡¯t-¡°


    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me any details, just the general outline.¡±


    ¡°Sure. It all began when one day before school I saw Ignacio being sucked by a portal and grabbed him. We arrived at a¡­ place.¡±


    ¡°The Fayd?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but not the Ether Sea.¡±


    ¡°An independent space created by a Daemon God which behaves under its own rules?¡±


    From how they were looking at him Santiago could tell that he was right. He then answered the unspoken question


    ¡°It was obvious, I knew that from the beginning.¡±


    ¡°Oh. So, we wander around for a bit and find this daemon. It tells us the situation there and how they are being invaded and killed by, well, some unknown daemons.¡±


    ¡°So you decided to help.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Over the next half year we fought and investigated, the others also were sucked within, but this daemon managed to find them before they were killed. Two months back we managed to repel the invaders but we found out that they were just the vanguard to a greater force lead by the Twelve Kings. A month after one of the Kings came to this dimension and we defeated and captured him.¡±


    ¡°The criminal you apprehended?¡±


    ¡°Yes, turns out the Twelve Kings are also a criminal organisation on Earth. For the past month we have explored the Fayd to find their base of operations.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡±


    Santiago paused to think and SEDS waited for his judgement.


    ¡°So you finished disk one and now are trying to find the bosses. Is the Daemon God of this, what to call it, A Dimension trustworthy?¡±


    ¡°We think so?¡±


    ¡°Fine. You may not have been as reckless as I thought.¡± As the mood was beginning to lighten Santiago¡¯s voice cut through their relief. ¡°However for the past month it is a miracle you fools survived!¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Asked Rub¨¦n, genuinely curious. ¡°Is the Fayd not explored by thousands daily?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but those thousands have access to the greatest training facility in the Fayd, which also doubles as a lighthouse, to avoid just encountering a Daemon God and dying!¡±


    ¡°There can¡¯t be that many, right?¡± Asked Isabel.


    Santiago sighed and muttered under his breath.


    ¡°They should teach this on Primaria. Do you know what our universe is called by foreigners?¡±


    ¡°The Gate of Death.¡± Said Ignacio.


    ¡°Do you know why we are called that?¡±


    The members of SEDS shook their heads, causing Santiago to despair.


    ¡°Because our Ether Sea is the most dangerous place in the entirety of the Fayd! We are Mordor, we are the Blight! Other universes are unlucky if they have a single Daemon God in their Ether Sea, we have thousands of them! The sole reason humans aren¡¯t conquered by daemons is because we have the Bulwark!¡±


    ¡°Thousands?!¡±


    The incredulity of Akihito was made patent in his voice.


    ¡°Yes! Beings capable of destroying planets roam our Ether Sea, and they ain¡¯t even the big fish. We may be a bigger fish normally, but we are one of the Blue Whales of the Fayd. Do you know how weaker mages survive?¡±


    ¡°No?¡± Asked Akihito tentatively.


    ¡°Because they receive fucking warnings and updates on the movements and power levels of daemons in the area from the fucking Bulwark! You guys are incredibly lucky you didn¡¯t just come across a powerful daemon and die. Nevermind the fact that you would be several times stronger if you had trained in it! Why are you hampering yourselves by not going to the Bulwark!¡±


    ¡°Because we didn¡¯t know what would happen if we revealed the existence of the, uh, A Dimension to the Bulwark. We don¡¯t want to risk¡­ uh, Santiago?¡± Akihito had begun to explain seriously, but became uneasy when Santiago began to tremble harshly.


    ¡°Ku.¡±


    ¡°Ku?¡±


    ¡°Kuhahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Amusing! Very amusing! So the reason you imbeciles recklessly endangers yourselves is because you have watched too much fucking fiction!¡±


    Those words slammed on SEDS.


    ¡°Wait, what do you mean?¡± Asked Rub¨¦n.


    ¡°The Bulwark doesn¡¯t require you to report where you explore, just that you don¡¯t break its laws. And even if you had to report this place it wouldn¡¯t matter because the Bulwark, nay humanity, is willing to forge accords and treaties with daemons. We have thousands of daemonic allies! If this A Dimension is truly benign absolutely no harm would befall them. So you have been putting yourselves in deadly danger for jack shit! Did you think us evil? That we would dissect ET? This isn¡¯t a movie or a book! We like entering alliances when we can!¡±


    ¡°Wait we?¡± Asked Akihito.


    Santiago stopped talking when he heard about his slip, and silently cursed himself. Literally, a eyeball phantom pain curse, as punishment.


    ¡°Um. I didn¡¯t tell you, but my family may or may not be involved in ruling the Bulwark.¡±


    ¡°Is that why the Kyrioi give you their products?¡± Asked Rub¨¦n.


    ¡°Pretty much.¡±


    ¡°So what? You are magic royalty?¡±


    ¡°Pretty much.¡±


    ¡°Is your family fourteen thousand years old?¡±


    ¡°Pretty smart. Not an imbecile, just too hoodwinked by fiction then.¡±


    Rub¨¦n reclined backwards, facepalmed and sighed.


    ¡°No wonder you were mad at us. From your perspective we¡­¡±


    ¡°So, what now?¡± Asked Akihito.


    ¡°Now, I am leading you into the Bulwark, registering you, and then I will join you in your search since you have demonstrated a complete lack of common sense.¡±


    ¡°Weren¡¯t you training?¡± Asked Akihito.


    ¡°I finished already, I¡¯ve been ordered to get practical experience.¡±


    ¡°How convenient.¡± Said Ignacio.


    Yeah, ¡°convenient¡±. Innocent whistling issues.


    ¡°Um¡­¡±


    ¡°This isn¡¯t negotiable Akihito, I am not letting you out of my sight. Not after learning of this stunt.¡±


    ¡°I was just going to say, welcome aboard.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Santiago was genuinely surprised.


    ¡°Yeah, I can¡¯t think of someone more dependable than you.¡±


    ¡°Ah. Thanks.¡± Santiago looked to the side, blushing.


    ¡°A tsundere!¡± Said Ignacio.


    ¡°Nah. He¡¯s a kuudere. Just that he was mad.¡±


    The glare that Santiago sent Akihito could have withered Yggdrasil itself from its dryness.


    But I do agree that he would fall on the kuudere archetype.

 6. Surprises.

    It was later that very same day that Santiago was sitting within a room in the Bulwark. The room was a pretty standard issue meeting room. Meeting rooms in the Bulwark could be reserved with little waiting time, doubtlessly because there were so many.


    Around him sat the five members of SEDS, which Santiago couldn¡¯t help but wonder what it stood for. They were studying the reports that the ICP had given them, examining their abilities in more that they knew about them.


    ¡°You know,¡± commented Rub¨¦n, ¡°I didn¡¯t even know my Shock Bullet had a maximum range. Thankfully I didn¡¯t try to snipe anyone with it.¡±


    Santiago nodded, concentrating in the changes that his own report had compared with the past month.


    <In summary:


    Satan stage 1-9. Path: NA.


    SP: 29-65


    Affinities: BLS Absorb, CRS Null, 10% Absorb All Elements.


    Powers:


    False Tree of Qliphoth stage 2-3. 100,000/100,000-1,000,000/1,000,000-5,279/10,000,000.


    -The False Tree of Qliphoth integrity: Stage 2-3-4. Concrete wall-city wall.


    -Tainted Miasma production: Stage 2-3-4: 1.5-5-12 m^3/h.


    -Qliphoth Rhizome: Stage 2-3-4: Drain 2-6-14 u/s. DMG Weak. Max speed. 51-63-79 km/h.


    -Fruit of divinity enhancement: Stage 2-3-4: 1.1-2.3-5.6 Ohr.


    -Lasts unrooted: Stage 2-3-4: 2-10-25 h.


    Kyrioi apo Metallon Fame bonus.


    Devil Speed: Increases movement speed by 40%.


    Lesser Cocytus Chill: Causes slight frostbite on enemies, dealing very weak damage over time and reducing speed by 5% (stacks 4 times, 8 with 4 Weak stacks). Priority 50.>


    He had gotten Devil Speed when Satan reached stage 4, and Lesser Cocytus Chill when it reached stage 9. They were pretty good in all honesty, and Santiago could see how they would aid him in battle quite easily. What had surprised him after twelve days had passed was how massive the boost to his Qliphoth Tree was when it reached stage 3, but that made sense considering the Ohr requirement had jumped a hundredfold. As for the stage 4 enhancement, little needed to be said as the boost was greatly appreciated.


    Unfortunately with the 10,000,000 Ohr requirement the Qliphoth Tree¡¯s progress had slowed to a halt. Santiago had done the math and the amount of time needed to advance was no less than 165 days. This meant being the 16th of August he had had  his last boost before, presumably, the last days of January.


    The final increase to his power, that wasn¡¯t magic, was the fruit of divinity¡¯s enhance physical attributes. Right now he was at a permanent 4.4 Ohr enhancement. Adding the nanomachines, that increased his physical abilities by roughly half an Ohr and gave him regeneration, he was far stronger than a normal stage 9 mage. That was only if he didn¡¯t count their bound daemons, since that could change things.


    Speaking of others he needed to know his new companion¡¯s abilities if he wished to work with them.


    ¡°So, what can you guys do?¡±


    Rub¨¦n, who Santiago suspected was the brains of this group, was the first to speak.


    ¡°I will begin. But first I will once again introduce myself. I am Rub¨¦n Gallego Cruz, I dream of becoming a game developer.¡±


    He smiled at Santiago trying to not make him mad. The sight of Santiago fuming for hours as they went through the registration process wasn¡¯t a pleasant one. For the record I took care of Santiago¡¯s registration on my own, and the fact he was a part of the Kyrioi made it so there was no issue.


    ¡°My Guardian is called Blue Sniper and, as the name suggests, I specialise in piercing projectiles. My report says I¡¯m stage 43 and I have thirteen powers. First are my self enhancing powers, Eagle Eye, better sight and accuracy; Presence Detection, gives me a sixth sense and does what it says; Presence Concealment, makes me difficult to notice; Vanishment, when activated makes me disappear from the perception of the target, and Soldier¡¯s Body which increases my physical abilities by, uh¡­¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡± Asked Akihito.


    ¡°The units it gives me are weird. Too much data.¡±


    ¡°Ask the ICP to measure the enhancement in my units.¡± Said Santiago.


    Rub¨¦n nodded and placed his hand in a terminal, that was in the center of the desk around which they were sitting.


    ¡°It enhances my physical abilities by 3.16 to 3.87 depending on area enhanced. I am better at running than fighting hand to hand for example.¡±


    ¡°The guns I sell go to you.¡±


    ¡°Yes. My other powers are Shock Bullet, a paralysing physical attack, Piercing Bullet, which is basically an anti-armour attack; Multi-Shot, that shoots between ten and twenty bullets randomly; Guided Bullet, a homing projectile, and Double Impact that doubles the power of physical powers. My three elemental attacks are Tempest Grenade, which is what it sounds like, Elemental Bullet, again it¡¯s just like it sounds, and Poison Rondo, which is a gas grenade but with gaseous poison.¡±


    Santiago was impressed, such a coherent power set was rare outside of the Bulwark. This made him suspect that this A Dimension has its own means of powering up people. Worrying.


    ¡°My magic is mostly meant to enhance my powers so that doesn¡¯t change how I fight. As for bonded daemon¡­ all of our bonded daemons are similar, so we could leave that for last?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t mind. Nice to meet you, Rub¨¦n. Next.¡±


    Santiago¡¯s words were polite, but they were said practically in monotone. It was like he just said them reflexively from practice. Except it wasn¡¯t like.


    ¡°Then me! I am Ignacio Fernandez Ruiz, and my dream is to become a respected magician!


    My Guardian is the Silver Aquarius Stage 46 and I specialise in kicking ass and buffing my allies. My self enhancing powers are Fluidity, increases my movement speed; Carrier, enhances my strength; Water Shield, enhances my defense, particularly against fire; Earth Connecting Legs, this one is weird, it makes me difficult to move while dissipating 60% of the impacts I receive to the ground; Steelhead, prevents concussions and the like; Aegis of the Mind, protects me against mental effects; Healing Water, gradually heals me over time; Sharing the Water, that extends the effects of my powers to my allies, and An¡¯s Favour, that elevates my water resistance to absorb.¡±


    Ignacio stopped to see Santiago¡¯s reaction, however he was nearly dizzy from the speed and relentlessness of his speech and spent a few seconds recovering.


    ¡°You are a meat shield.¡± He eventually said. He then thought a bit more. ¡°You are the blunt weapon user.¡±


    ¡°Yes! My three active powers are Urn Smash, Star Weight and Star Travel. They are a physical attack, a increase in the gravity of a single target and a short range teleportation. My magic is all about physical enhancements, for me and the others.¡±Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    ¡°Good, next.¡±


    His suspicion about the A Dimension having a way of growing Guardians was nearly confirmed. Two people and not a single redundant power? Highly unlikely.


    Isabel nodded and spoke next.


    ¡°My name is Isabel Reyes Garc¨ªa, and I am a science major. My Guardian is the Bronze Aurochs stage 40. I have ten powers.


    I have four self enhancing ones, and they are:


    Aurochs¡¯ Body, enhances my physical abilities by 7.6.


    Thick Skin, enhances my defense by 8 and gives me 20% resistance against ice and fire.


    Aurochs¡¯ Rage, enhances by physical abilities by 10 for three minutes.


    Charge, enhances my straight line speed by three times.


    My six active powers are


    Aurochs¡¯ Roar. Dispels mental effects from me.


    Crushing Blow, a single physical strike.


    Shattering Stomp, causes a localised seismic event.


    Two Horns, doubles the power of my physical attacks.


    Giant Size, this one is different, it doubles the mass of my attack so to speak. That is to say, my mass doubles for a single strike.


    Multi-Strike. Triples the number of impacts received from my attacks for thirty seconds.¡±


    Brute force. Absolute brute force. These words were the only thing that passed through Santiago¡¯s mind. Her entire power set was focused to dealing massive amounts of damage, even the defense ability helped by allowing her to be more reckless. And knowing the relationship between Guardians and mental makeups Santiago decided not to piss Isabel off.


    ¡°My magic focuses on healing.¡±


    ¡°A front line healer?¡±


    ¡°These guys didn¡¯t have one when I joined. And Ignacio hadn¡¯t yet gotten Healing Water, so I chose that someone had to be able to heal.¡± She gave Santiago a thin smile. ¡°And I agree that they are reckless, I am ashamed that I too failed in cautiousness.¡±


    Santiago was inwardly received, he sensed a compatriot. He gave her a small smile and nodded.


    ¡°Glad to know. Next.¡±


    Everyone, minus Santiago, turned to Francisca, having reached a silent consensus that Akihito would be the last one to speak. She sighed a reluctant sigh, still bothered by Santiago¡¯s forceful intrusion.


    ¡°I am Francisca Hidalgo Santana, I don¡¯t have a dream. My Guardian is the Iron Sentinel Stage 44. I have sixteen powers but nine of those work as a set.


    The seven that work together allow me to create barriers of any shape anywhere within a 352 meter radius of my. I can tailor make them to resist particular elements.


    The other seven are all self enhancing minus two, Cleansing Light, that dispels lasting powers or magic on a target of my choosing and Ritual Dances, which created dancing elementals that deal damage to my enemies for as long as they dance.


    The six others are Sentinel¡¯s Watch, that increases my defense by 14; Paracelsus¡¯ Doctrine, increases the power of magic of the four classic elements; Target Lock, which is basically disabled friendly fire; Sentinel¡¯s Eyes, increases the range of all my abilities; and Rightful Duty, that negates my need to sleep for three days before I have to sleep normally, it recharges when I sleep.


    My magic is all offensive and defensive from the four classic elements.¡±


    She clenched her fists when she saw that Santiago just nodded.


    ¡°Understood. Akihito.¡±


    Santiago watched Akihito as many facial expressions appeared in his face, before he made up his resolve and spoke.


    ¡°You know me. My Guardian is Tamamo no Mae-¡°


    ¡°Kuhahahahahaha! Hihiehehihihihi, pftkukuku, iiiiiiiii.¡±


    ***


    It took a few seconds for Santiago¡¯s laugh to subside and for him to recover his breath, yet they had had a tremendous impact. Rub¨¦n couldn¡¯t believe that the raging and composed man before him laughed like that. Ignacio was sharing Santiago¡¯s merriment. Isabel was shaking her head in disbelief. Francisca had decided to search what kuudere meant and how well it described what was happening.


    Akihito was completely embarrassed, having wanted to never reveal his Guardian to Santiago. He knew he would never live it down.


    ¡°How are you doing your imperial courtesan? How was yesterday¡¯s evening whispering with his imperial majesty? Are you as beautiful as they say you are?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.¡±


    ¡°May I know if I have the grace of receiver your wonderful words? What are the abilities under your disposal? I have heard there is no matter under heaven that your wisdom isn¡¯t capable of answering, so what is the answer of life, the universe and everything else?¡±


    ¡°42.¡±


    While Santiago bantered with Akihito, who was tolerating him with wry smile on his face, Francisca turned to Ignacio and asked.


    ¡°What is a kuudere?¡±


    ¡°Someone that is cold in the outside but warm to those he cares about.¡±


    Francisca nodded solemnly to Ignacio, who returned the gesture.


    ¡°It fits.¡±


    ¡°Right?!¡±


    The intervention brought some needed amenity to the room, allowing Santiago to fit in better. He had changed from that weird, imposing guy to the guy that teased Akihito. Like everyone else.


    Eventually the chatter subsided and Santiago returned to the conversation.


    ¡°Awesome teasing material aside, what does the most famous courtesan of Japan do?¡±


    ¡°Hah, you will keep doing this your whole life, won¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°With a probability of 50% and a margin of error of 40%.¡±


    ¡°Great. Tamamo no Mae Stage 51 has two specialties, curses and magic.¡±


    ¡°Curses?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    ¡°Huh, we fit.¡±


    ¡°You too?¡±


    Santiago recognised the twinkle in Akihito¡¯s eyes and resolved to avoid telling him the name of his power for as long as he could. The teasing would be eternal.


    ¡°Yes. What are the actual powers?¡±


    ¡°Self enhancing powers I have three. Fox Constitution, enhances my speed and agility by 11. Nine Tails, increases my sense of balance massively and the power of my curses by 9%. Power of the Nine Tails, enhances my magic by 50%.


    I have twelve active powers. First Tail through Sixth Tail debuff respectively, strength, speed, defense, elemental resistance, magic strength and a debuff that increases damage by magic all by 20%. The Seventh Tail triples the power of my next magic attack, the Eighth Tail charms an enemy,¡± Akihito looked resigned as Santiago contained his laugher, ¡°and the Ninth Tail doubles every power I have related to tails for three seconds with a nine minute cool down.


    Hoji allows me to possess an object. Sessho-Seki poisons my enemy. Finally Foxfire is a fire element attack. My magic is offensive in nature.¡±


    Santiago reclined backwards, thinking deeply. Akihito waited his judgement as Santiago looked pained.


    ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll tell you.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°My Guardian is Satan stage 9.¡±


    For the following minutes Santiago explained in detail the nature of his powers. For some reason he failed to notice that as he explained them the members of SEDS turned deathly pale, and exchanged worried glances. Once he was done explaining the False Tree of Qliphoth Akihito was trembling, and when they heard about his Guardian¡¯s elemental resistance he was gnashing his teeth.


    ¡°And that¡¯s pretty much it. My Weak curse complements your Nine Tails, how many times do they stack?¡±


    ¡°Once.¡± Akihito said this half heartedly, too worried about the implications of what he had heard.


    ¡°Which means we would be able to rob a daemon of his entire strength. Well, depends on Priority and ease of cursing but that is for strategizing. I will later need a more detailed breakdown of your abilities everyone, but for now I need to know the place where these Twelve Kings reside. You know, to properly prepare adequate supplies.¡±


    Santiago waited for an answer, but saw that it wasn¡¯t coming. For some reason he didn¡¯t think of the implications that the five of them were looking at him with worry in their eyes, so he just looked at them.


    Rub¨¦n eventually answered.


    ¡°The City Where There is no Day.¡±


    ¡°There, huh? Nasty place. I will now brief you in what you need to know about that horrible dumpster.¡±


    ***


    The meeting had lasted two hours, but the members SEDS were sure they would have to listen to the information again. Worry had been knowing at them, but they had failed to discuss it in front of Santiago. While their words would change and he wouldn¡¯t hear what they¡¯d say they still didn¡¯t like discussing the details about their mission in public.


    So once they separated for the day the five of them went back to Akihito¡¯s flat to discuss the information.


    ¡°So, Santiago is Satan.¡±


    Said Francisca, a complicated feeling in her heart. She may not like Santiago much, for now, but she didn¡¯t want for Satan to be anyone they knew.


    ¡°But why is he Satan? Adam told us that Satan was the worst person in Madrid, Santiago isn¡¯t that bad!¡±


    ¡°Maybe it is that years ago he was that nasty, but he mellowed with time?¡± Reasoned Rub¨¦n.


    ¡°No, Santiago was grumpy but not a bad guy.¡± Said Isabel.


    ¡°What? You knew Santiago?¡± Asked Francisca.


    ¡°He is Grumpy.¡±


    Those words froze the air in the room. Their impact was like that of an atomic bomb, a truth no one wished to hear. Francisca began to tear.


    ¡°He is?¡± She asked, desperate to not believe that was not the case.


    ¡°Yes. You didn¡¯t know his name but I did.¡±


    ¡°Then why didn¡¯t you approach him during your school years?!¡±


    Isabel looked down and grimaced.


    ¡°I was too ashamed of my actions that time to even look at him. Even when I saw he was alone I couldn¡¯t bring myself to try and accompany him.¡±


    ¡°But he is even worse than when we met all those years ago! How could you stand seeing him regress so much and do nothing about it?!¡±


    ¡°Let it go Francisca,¡± said Ignacio while looking at the ceiling, tears welling in his eyes, ¡°none of us have the right to take the moral high ground here. We are all at fault. Except Akihito.¡±


    Akihito looked around and coughed.


    ¡°What are you all talking about?¡±


    Rub¨¦n was the one to speak after a lengthy silence.


    ¡°We never told you why we stopped being friends all those years ago. We¡­¡±


    Akihito then got what was going on.


    ¡°Santiago is one of the twins you used to know?¡± He frowned. ¡°Then that event, and why you blame yourselves, is that Santiago¡¯s sister was murdered back then and you abandoned him?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°We were dumb kids, the situation was¡­ I can¡¯t speak of it even now. Just now that we blamed Santiago for Marta¡¯s death.¡±


    Akihito¡¯s eyes widened.


    ¡°That is an incredibly low blow.¡±


    His friends had nothing to say, remaining silent.


    ¡°Why did you not know his name?¡±


    ¡°Isabel and Marta presented him to us as Grumpy, because he was truly grumpy back then. He was not cold like now, he just complained a lot.¡± Said Francisca with a nostalgic expression on her face.


    ¡°I see. I think I know why we can enter that place.¡±


    ¡°I think so too Akihito. Adam said only those connected to that place to begin with can enter. If we were friends of the Satan¡­ we¡¯d be very connected.¡± Commented Rub¨¦n.


    ¡°If that is the case we must keep him away from Moloch. Who knows what that bastard would do if he knew.¡± Said Isabel.


    ¡°I think we should bring him with us. They¡¯d never guess that their precious Lord Satan would go against them after all.¡±


    Everyone was surprised at the unprecedented insight of Ignacio¡¯s idea. Looking at each other they nodded, agreeing to the plan.


    ¡°Ah.¡±


    ¡°What is it Akihito?¡± Said Rub¨¦n.


    ¡°We forgot to tell him about the Booster Daemons.¡±


    ¡°Ah.¡±


    ***


    ¡°How goes the search for Lord Satan, Belial?¡±


    ¡°We have few clues Lord Moloch, the search is difficult.¡±


    ¡°Be swift in it. Until we have awakened the origin of the Qliphoth we won¡¯t be able to resist Ein Sof.¡±

 Chapter 7. Technobabble.

    Chapter 7. Technobabble.


    The day after Santiago¡¯s little outburst was far calmer, the exploration members had agreed to meet at 10:00 a.m. in order to begin a rough exploration of The City. From what Santiago had learned the past day, two Kings had been taken down. One within A Dimension, the other in the Spine. From the data they had acquired in the Spine, which was a vertical mountain range, there were three kings in The City.


    The City was basically the archetype of a wretched city, a city of sin. Daemonic mafias, gangs, loose criminals, etc, all kinds of crimes happened in The City. Thankfully most daemons in it were false, which meant they could morally slaughter them as they had little difference from computer programs. But the true danger of the city laid in its True Daemons, since every being that could stand living there was most certainly up to no good.


    That was why they had agreed to meet in the Bulwark, and from then on they would plan the infiltration. Once they had all arrived Santiago opened with a sheepish smile.


    ¡°So I forgot to ask what your daemons were.¡±


    ¡°And we forgot to tell you.¡± Commented Francisca with a smile.


    That surprised Santiago, he may not have been the most perceptive or empathetic person, but even he could tell Francisca was uneasy around him. He looked at her for a few moments before deciding to let it go. Francisca was grateful for this, since she had been very conscious of him from the moment she heard who he was.


    ¡°What are they then?¡±


    Akihito smiled at Santiago¡¯s question, and signaled his companions to do the thing. I personally loved the thing, few had that dedication. Their reactions were varied, Ignacio did it enthusiastically, Isabel did it begrudgingly, Francisca turned red like a tomato, and Rub¨¦n did it with an impassive face. Though in reality he was just as mortified as Francisca.


    ¡°SEDS, transform!¡± Shouted Akihito, before they all were enveloped in a bright light.


    Once it had faded the scene Santiago saw was peculiar, they were all covered in some sort of power armour, and posing. Akihito looked at Santiago expectantly, wondering if his corruption had advanced enough, but what he saw startled him. Santiago was frowning.


    ¡°What is wrong?¡±


    ¡°Why do you guys have Twilight Basic Armour mark 12?¡±


    ¡°Uh, what?¡± Francisca¡¯s question was echoed by all of the original SEDS members.


    ¡°That is armour created by The Twilight, the organization from whom the Ancient Clans of the Covenant originated. Both the Kyrioi and my family are part of these ancient clans. So you can guess how old are those things.¡±


    Ignacio whistled.


    ¡°I guess these ancient clans are the ones that built the Bulwark? So that¡¯d mean¡­ we are wearing ten thousand year old armour?!¡±


    ¡°Fifteen. The Twilight was born about eighteen thousand years ago, but originally they had little to work with. By 13,000 b.c. they managed to develop the first power armour in Earth ¦·, and they reached mark 18 before discontinuing the series.¡±


    A silence stretched for several seconds, before Francisca spoke carefully. Or in other words, no one could believe what he was saying. And trust me, even I was surprised to see such a technological gap between The Twilight and normal civilisation of that era.


    ¡°Are you saying cavemen could build power armour?¡±


    Santiago was about to answer, but he decided to think it through. He shouldn''t have because he eventually chose to disclose as much as he could.


    ¡°Do you know anything about the pre-Bulwark era?¡±


    ¡°No one knows.¡± Said Ignacio, shrugging.


    ¡°Except you, I guess.¡± Commented Isabel.


    ¡°Hm. Then let me begin from the beginning, when history was irrevocably changed.


    In ancient times humans wrestled with daemons in their daily lives, but as they were by far less numerous than modern humans it wasn¡¯t unbearable. Most daemons attacked the Twelve Elders back then.


    Until it came. The Dawn-¡°


    ¡°Your family killed him?¡±


    ¡°No spoilers Isabel. Anyway, back in 21,000 b.c. The Dawn came. I can¡¯t discuss his goals, but he tricked humans into serving him by granting superior technology. Humans didn¡¯t understand Dawntech but they could use it without issue. They lived for hundreds of years, they could hunt the greatest of beasts with their bare hands, they kept daemons away from them. And yet, they were still unaware of cultivation and rearing, as the Dawn didn¡¯t want humans to grow too powerful. They lived in cities that couldn¡¯t function without The Dawn, so while the quality of life and power were great, ignorance was rampant.


    Under The Dawn humans regressed, becoming complacent slaves to his will. But in roughly 16,000 b.c. a man said that the current state of affairs was inexcusable. Suspicious of The Dawn he researched its activities, until he discerned the truth. Rising against his former master this man, wait¡­¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡± Asked Ignacio, spellbound by the story.


    ¡°I don¡¯t remember right now, but I think it was a woman. Oh yeah, it was.¡± He nodded to himself. ¡°How did I forget about that woman? Probably because I can¡¯t pronounce her name.¡±


    That is true. No modern language resembles her native tongue enough for proper writing or vocalisation of her name.


    ¡°Anyway, rising against her former master this woman began to clandestinely work against The Dawn. With time she gave rise to The Twilight, who had sworn to bring down The Dawn.¡±


    ¡°Question!¡±


    ¡°Yes, Akihito?¡±


    ¡°Why call it The Dawn?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s its actual name. Pretty sure it was a Daemon God born from belief in technology.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡±


    ¡°For the next three thousand years they broke the most sacred of taboos, they studied Dawntech and reproduced it. But they knew just that wouldn¡¯t be enough, so they surpassed it. The Twilight Basic Armour was one of the first attempts, followed by the Humanoid Armoured Vehicles-¡°


    ¡°Mechas?¡±


    ¡°Le sigh. Yes, mechas.¡±


    ¡°Are there are ancient clans in my country?¡±


    ¡°Yes, the mecha makers do reside in Japan. But anyway, next came the Twilight Advanced Armour, which we used until Aesop created the nanomachines. Next they built the Planetary Defense Grid, magical satellites to monitor and destroy anything on Earth. Their final attempt at surpassing The Dawn were the Machine Gods, but even they failed to do it.


    Even worse was the fact that they had declared war on The Dawn, and now they were losing.¡±


    ¡°Machine Gods?¡± Asked Ignacio.


    ¡°Yes. The Sea God, the Hunting God, the Destructor God, the Space God, the Sky God, the Sun God, the Healing God, the All-Seeing God, the Time God, the Forge of Destruction, the Charming God, the Earth God and the Biological Development God were the thirteen Daemon Gods created by The Twilight.¡±


    ¡°Wait!¡± Interrupted Isabel. ¡°Daemon Gods can be artificially made?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but that knowledge has been sealed. And anyway only the Forge of Destruction, the All-Seeing God and the Hunting God survived. Now the last two are in charge of the Planetary Defense Grid, that has been expanded over the millennia, and the former collaborates with the Ancient Clans of the Covenant¡¯s manufacturers for big projects.¡±


    ¡°So um, why don¡¯t we have that tech nowadays?¡± Asked Rub¨¦n.


    ¡°Let me finish!¡± Santiago never liked being interrupted. ¡°So they were losing, when the Founder came to them. He gave them great knowledge, and in a lot ditch effort they built the Bulwark.¡±


    So, I know I said that I obviously helped build the Bulwark because it was before the Iron Age. Some of you may call bullshit on me now, but they didn¡¯t use iron. Indeed, their technology was all made from recycled fragments of The Dawn, who was a metallic life form. So no, I was not lying. And did you seriously expect me to tell you everything? There would be no story if I did that!


    ¡°That helped turn the tides, but the Founder had made a covenant with them. They would never use their technology to conquer others. They wouldn¡¯t allow their technology to fall in irresponsible hands. Finally, they would not interfere with ordinary people. That is why you don¡¯t have that tech nowadays, Rub¨¦n.¡±


    ¡°Wait a moment.¡± Said Isabel. ¡°So there are some clans out there with the technology needed to build Daemon Gods, but to avoid abuse of it they don¡¯t share it?¡±


    ¡°We also have spaceships, warp portals, pocket dimensions, robot armies, nanomachines, etc. But we can¡¯t use them unless something threatens Earth, that was the deal we made.¡±


    The tale that Santiago had abbreviated for them made SEDS fall into silence. They couldn¡¯t believe something like that had happened, and was hidden from most people. They stayed in silence until Ignacio decided to ask something.


    ¡°Is there any issue with us using the armour?¡±


    ¡°No. Not only are they obsolete, but you found them yourselves. Unless it is very dangerous we don¡¯t regulate Dawntech, that comprises most of OOParts, or our old tech.¡±


    ¡°Out of curiosity,¡± asked Isabel, ¡°how good is your modern tech?¡±


    ¡°As long as it remains no force in the Fayd can touch Earth.¡±


    Those confident words came from the heart. No scion of the ancient clans doubted the might of their progress, for they had since young learned of its terrors. In their hearts Earth ¦· was invincible, with no equal in the known existence. Only the Bulwark was a greater achievement, and it was a utility tool not a weapon.


    ¡°You said something about nanomachines?¡± Asked Rub¨¦n, eyes shining with delight.


    In answer Santiago just smiled smugly and lifted his arm. While his companions were wondering what he was going to do they saw his hand darken.


    ¡°Santiago?¡±


    He paid no mind to Akihito¡¯s uneasy, confident in his family¡¯s masterpiece. From below his skin flowed a stream of black dust that covered his entire body, forming a exoskeletons of sorts.


    ¡°Daemon substitute nanomachines mark 186, one of the few allowed to be used outside of emergencies. They have an enhancement effect on the host¡¯s body, healing bots, a modern EPS, a scanning system and database, WiFi connection, and can have additional applications installed. Eat your heart out, Akihito.¡±


    He was ready to do so. Not only was the activation method much cooler, but it had many more abilities. In fact, it was so superior that¡­


    ¡°You make us obsolete.¡± Said Rub¨¦n with distaste. ¡°Dammit, and we were so proud of our Booster Daemons.¡±


    ¡°Not necessarily.¡± Santiago put on a thoughtful expression. ¡°I think they can be upgraded, but I¡¯ll need my parent¡¯s permission¡­ How did you even use my armour?¡±


    ¡°Huh? The Booster Daemons can assimilate armour and acquire its capabilities.¡±


    ¡°They can. From mark 32 onwards. Someone must have upgraded them before you got them, how odd. Maybe it was an old recycling facility that you got them from? No, they would have been smelted and not modified. Maybe some isolated outpost during the War on The Dawn? That would explain it, but wouldn¡¯t we have recovered it after the war?¡±


    Santiago continued mumbling to himself as his friends watched him awkwardly. They had no idea about practically anything he was saying, so he may as well have just been speaking a foreign language. Eventually he stopped, and they briefed each other on what their technology could do.


    ¡°Not bad, but I can upgrade it further.¡±


    ¡°You?¡±


    ¡°Yep. That said, nothing is free among the clans, so it¡¯ll take money.¡±


    ¡°And here I thought we would be relieved of equipment expenses once you joined us.¡± Commented Rub¨¦n.


    ¡°I am already giving you a large discount, so be satisfied. Shall we go?¡±


    ***


    The City Where There Is No Day was located far from the Bulwark, in Elder territory. Thankfully they could just enter it due to interspecies treatises but it¡¯d be unfamiliar territory, particularly since it was a wild zone.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    They had stopped in the outskirts, beneath the waves of the Ether Sea. Santiago was satisfied by the quality of their ship, even if it couldn¡¯t compare to Aesop¡¯s. It at least had enough space for all of them, and advance reconnaissance equipment.


    Santiago had been unanimously declared their new operator, as he was by far and beyond above this kind of primitive tech.


    ¡°So, radar and light scans tell me nothing has changed from recent reports. The city still has a killer doll infestation, and the wolves are rampaging everywhere. What am I supposed to look for?¡±


    ¡°I still can¡¯t believe you were hiding your ultra sci-fi background from me.¡±


    ¡°I am not even important in the family, this is basic stuff.¡±


    ¡°And I couldn¡¯t even make sense of half the instruments aboard.¡± Complained Isabel.


    ¡°At least that means you understood something.¡± Francisca sighed. ¡°I can¡¯t even use my phone correctly.¡±


    ¡°I am more impressed by how easy things are going. No need for leg work now!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure we still will have to walk a lot, Ignacio.¡±


    ¡°Spoilsport.¡±


    ¡°I am a game maker! I don¡¯t spoil things.¡±


    ¡°Sure. Spoilsport.¡±


    ¡°Can someone tell me what am I looking for?!¡±


    The situation was beautiful. The five original members of SEDS had long since grown comfortable with each other, and Santiago couldn¡¯t help but be pulled in. Meeting new people, for a value of new, would certainly do him good.


    ¡°Kings can only be humans, so search for humans with a lot of demonic daemons under him.¡± Akihito was about to continue speaking, when he thought of something. ¡°Ah. I forgot something, your sister was alive after all, was she not Santiago?¡±


    ¡°What?!¡± ¡°Are you kidding me?!¡± ¡°Impossible!¡± ¡°You say that now?!¡±


    Santiago was struck speechless. Understandable, since they shouldn¡¯t even know that he had a sister.


    ¡°Have you been talking about me with people?¡±


    ¡°Uh, yeah. That¡¯s the case.¡±


    Yeah, I am suuure that is the case. Why Santiago didn¡¯t see through him I¡¯ll never know. He doesn¡¯t even have the excuse of Ein Sof¡¯s curse of ignorance for this oversight.


    ¡°And anyway, why are you guys so surprised?¡±


    ¡°Well, um, you see, um¡­¡±


    Great job at hiding it, Ignacio. Your labia and eloquence shall resound through the world for their greatness.


    ¡°I mean, you are now one of our comrades now. It¡¯d make sense that¡¯d we¡¯d, um, worry about you.¡±


    Isabel, you are supposed to be the cool headed one.


    ¡°That was incorrect.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°Too many abbreviations in that sentence, it should have been it makes sense that we¡¯d care about you.¡±


    Obliviousness level exceeds maximum values. That was just shameful Santi, what is wrong with you?


    ¡°But still, thank you for your concern.¡±


    Face, meet palm.


    ¡°I learned recently that my sister was alive.¡±


    ¡°Really?!¡± So much enthusiasm Francisca, I thought you couldn¡¯t face Santiago?


    ¡°Yes! My master has told me I am still not ready to rescue her, but in a few years I should be able to do it.¡±


    Thousand faces, meet thousand palms.


    ¡°Rescue her from what?¡±


    Santiago went on an explanation of what he knew about his sister¡¯s situation, all the while never realising that his new friends were a bit too happy about it. I know you hadn¡¯t had any friends until Akihito came. I know you are happy to have more people to confide in. I know all of it, but still.


    ¡°I see. I am very glad for you.¡± Rub¨¦n said with tears on his eyes, he should be thankful that Santiago was looking at his screen.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Santiago smiled. ¡°Man, you all are pretty nice. Maybe I should speak more with others, I wouldn¡¯t have failed knowing you otherwise.¡±


    But what Santiago didn¡¯t know was how deep his words cut his new friends, as they all held a singular regret in their hearts. They were most definitely not nice. At least, in their own eyes.


    ¡°Ah, found it.¡±


    ¡°One of the three kings?!¡± Shouted Francisca, a bit too desperate to escape her thoughts.


    ¡°No, seven factions organised well enough to have a good head behind them. The instruments aren¡¯t that precise Akihito. I made do with what I had.¡±


    ¡°Who?¡±


    ¡°The eastern thugs, the black cultists, the elite, the wolves, the killing dolls, the fairy tales and the demonic raiders. There aren¡¯t really that many demonic daemons, but I¡¯d put my money on killing dolls and fairy tales. Who do we investigate first?¡±


    ¡°What do you think?¡± Asked Akihito to his two advisors.


    ¡°What can you tell us about the factions?¡± Asked Isabel.


    ¡°From the scans little. But in terms of raw power I¡¯d prefer to leave the wolves and fairy tales for later.¡±


    ¡°Those are the most powerful in the city?¡± Asked Rub¨¦n.


    ¡°I know what you mean, but I think the wolves represent fear of the unknown nature that isn¡¯t present in the countryside. The fairy tales will flourish anywhere where there are humans, so their being the two greatest factions is reasonable.¡±


    Isabel, Rub¨¦n and Akihito began to discuss the possibilities. Francisca and Ignacio weren¡¯t dumb by any means, but they weren¡¯t strategists either. As for Santiago, he didn¡¯t even know who these kings were. As such Francisca and Ignacio started a staring contest, and Santiago decided to judge.


    ¡°Santiago.¡± Spoke out Rub¨¦n. ¡°Would the killing dolls get in our way if we ignored them?¡±


    ¡°They are killing dolls, I¡¯m pretty sure they will try and kill us on sight.¡±


    ¡°Is there anyone we can ally with? To camouflage our presence if we take them out?¡± Asked Akihito.


    ¡°Good idea but¡­ no, there is one.¡± Santiago had to force those words out of his throat.


    ¡°Who?¡±


    ¡°The mastermind, a True Daemon that has attempted to take control of the city several times over the past centuries. He has managed to do it before, but he always loses control at some points. Now it¡¯s one of those.¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you want to deal with him?¡± Asked Isabel.


    ¡°My father may have scammed him before.¡±


    ¡°He what?¡± Asked Akihito, unable to believe that mild mannered man was capable of doing that.


    ¡°Scammed him.¡±


    ¡°Your father can scam.¡±


    ¡°Yep.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Bones of the Outer Lord, an old enemy of Plrt.¡±


    ¡°Plrt?¡± Asked Rub¨¦n.


    ¡°In Elder tongue that means rat, it¡¯s probably the name of the mastermind.¡± Answered Ignacio. Seeing that Santiago nodded he continued. ¡°Will that be a problem?¡±


    ¡°I doubt it Ignacio. It¡¯s just¡­¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s just?¡± Akihito had experience getting information out of Santiago.


    ¡°Elders have five genders. I say he because he is the equivalent of male in his species, and he is a daemon in the form of an Elder. But due to their many genders, Elders are known to be very loose on the targets of their affections.¡±


    Ignacio, who had seen an Elder before since his parents did interspecies diplomacy, made a disgusted face.


    ¡°An Elder has a crush on your father because he scammed him?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    ¡°Ugh. No wonder you don¡¯t want to see him.¡±


    To put it bluntly, by human aesthetics most of the Twelve Elders are hideous. Funnily enough, for Elder standards humans are considered the most beautiful beings in the universe. Most likely because they were quite similar to the Twelve Elder¡¯s Original forms, before they dabbled recklessly in genetic engineering.


    ¡°Tell me he is a Telmari Elder.¡±


    Except the Telmari and Exaur, who were considered acceptable and not vomit inducing. Among Elders they were considered the most beautiful of their kind.


    ¡°Araun.¡±


    ¡°Ew! A spider?!¡±


    ¡°Hey, that¡¯s a slur.¡±


    ¡°Sorry. They do look a lot like spiders though.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but they don¡¯t like being told that.¡±


    The other four watched their exchange in amusement, as Santiago and Ignacio were giving enough information to guess what they were speaking about.


    ¡°Will he cooperate then?¡± Asked Akihito, a smile in his face.


    ¡°Definitely. But he will be very creepy about me.¡±


    ¡°Lead us there then, our dear sacrifice.¡±


    ¡°Douche.¡±


    ***


    The city was an Elder city, quite clearly. Elders were on average bigger than humans, and so their buildings had to be taller. Due to this they had developed an architectural style employing many arcs, though they varied more since they discovered more resilient materials.


    Still, their cities had an style reminiscent of Gothic and Arabic buildings, except with a lot more paintings on the walls. Elders had a cultural love for frescoes. Some may wonder why Elders were so monolithic in their culture, and the answer was in the Genetic Wars.


    The Elder homeworld was without a doubt the place with the highest amount of monsters in the universe. And for a long time that had been even worse, because as I said before Elders are too trigger happy with genetic manipulation. Their entire world was overrun by creatures far more powerful than them, back when they were at the level of current humans. This made it so they lived in twelve neighboring cities for a long time. Fortunately the fact that the monsters didn¡¯t attract daemons protected them for a long time, until they grew strong enough to reclaim their world.


    As such Elder regions of the Ether Sea tended to be more dangerous than human regions. The Krelik, who were difficult to describe physically, had very few territories, they had arrived late at the party. They were a ten thousand year old species, much younger than humanity and the Elders.


    Santiago¡¯s group couldn¡¯t bring their vehicle into the city out of fear that it¡¯d be damaged. This meant that they¡¯d have to walk for hours in hostile territory, which meant.


    ¡°Die!¡± Santiago shouted as he sliced through the doll¡¯s neck, killing it.


    He marvelled at his new sword, a gift from his father, that was way beyond anything he had ever held. It cut through the doll daemons like they were butter when in reality they were harder than steel.


    He took a millisecond to look at his companions. Rub¨¦n was at the top of some rubble, calmly shooting at their assailants, while Francisca and Ignacio protected him. Isabel was tearing through the dolls like they were paper, her brute force put to good use. Akihito was fighting with his sword, but he was mixing magic into it. Santiago himself was simply using his physical abilities and swordsmanship to annihilate his foes.


    He ducked when a doll jumped at him, and sliced it in half from below. He then spun to his right and stabbed another through the eye, before retracting his arm and sliding to his left, killing yet another doll.


    ¡°These things never end!¡± Complained Ignacio, who was fighting against most of the dolls, befitting of the meat shield.


    ¡°Hang in there!¡± Shouted Rub¨¦n, focusing his fire on Ignacio¡¯s foes. ¡°Grenade!¡±


    ¡°Impervious!¡± Voice activated commands were normal for magic, as they were easy to perform.


    Rub¨¦n¡¯s tempest grenade tore through Ignacio¡¯s surroundings, but his defense spell had worked fine and was unharmed. The same couldn¡¯t be said of the dolls.


    Santiago run to a cluster of enemies and sliced his way through them, evading their attacks and leaving no survivors. It was like a dance of death, where the price for failing was death. A symphony of steel, accompanied by the death throes of his enemies. And he was smiling while doing it.


    His sword bent at seemingly impossible angles, his feet never left the ground. All attacks missed by a hair¡¯s breadth, even those with wide area of effect were dodged by the minimum distance. By the time three seconds had passed over twenty dolls had lost their lives.


    ¡°Woah.¡±


    ¡°Akihito! Less drooling, more smashing!¡±


    ¡°But Isabel!¡± He whined as he cut through three enemies simultaneously. ¡°Have you seen what he just did?¡±


    ¡°Less talk, more smash!¡±


    As she said that Isabel stomped on the ground, causing a shockwave to spread, shattering a dozen dolls.


    ¡°Scary.¡±


    ¡°Less talk, more shoot!¡±


    Her answer was a hail of twenty bullets fall into a group of clustered enemies, tearing through them.


    ¡°Tch. This is unending.¡± Complained Akihito as he saw even more dolls appear. ¡°Use your grenade launcher Francisca!¡±


    Francisca nodded, and took it out of her Booster Daemon. She shot towards the incoming group, blowing them to smithereens. With that the dolls finally decided they were too tough an enemy to swallow, and run away.


    ¡°Finally!¡± Complained Ignacio. ¡°I was getting tired of being hit.¡±


    ¡°Use your polehammer properly then.¡± Sniped Rub¨¦n.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see you using your sabre.¡±


    ¡°Because I am mainly long range.¡±


    ¡°I see my weapons are being put to good use.¡± Commented Santiago, approaching him. He made a ghastly sight, covered in doll blood. He was not someone to avoid the blood splashing into him from his overly forceful slashes. Particularly since due to the Fruit of Divinity his eyes would not be irritated easily, though having them covered in blood could be blinding.


    Rub¨¦n was a sniper and used a sabre. Ignacio had a rifle in addition to his melee weapon. Since Francisca was a backliner she had an assortment of ranged weapons, though she could only afford two firearms, a grenade launcher that shot elemental bombs and a submachine gun. Akihito used a katana and handguns, and Isabel gauntlets and handguns.


    Santiago himself used swords and an automatic rifle, a shotgun, and two pistols. He was by far the richest one in the group.


    ¡°How much further?¡± Asked Akihito.


    ¡°Just two blocks.¡± He cracked his neck. ¡°Still, knowing each doll is as deadly as a trained soldier made me overestimate them. I guess soldiers are no longer a threat to me huh?¡±


    ¡°Is there anything worse to keep in mind?¡±


    ¡°In this area? The wolves. Each of them is like a tank, so not that difficult, but they come in groups of thirty. Can each of you take on four?¡±


    ¡°Probably, but that makes twenty.¡± Answered Rub¨¦n.


    ¡°I can deal with ten. Still, I was right to fear my power.¡± He looked to his surroundings with a complicated look on his eyes.


    ¡°When did that happen?¡± Asked Akihito.


    ¡°During training with the Founder.¡±


    ¡°You train with who?! Can¡¯t you guys tell us everything at the same time?!¡± Complained Isabel, tired of the constant shocks.


    ¡°I see. How did you deal with the realisation? I mean, I freaked out a bit when I discovered I could blow up walls.¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ it happened yesterday night actually, when I reported to my master and confessed my doubts over the fact that I was as powerful as you, despite you having fought for longer. I asked him whether I was leaving my humanity behind, but¡­¡±


    ***


    ¡°I understand that you are scared, Santiago. It is one thing to know something, and another to experience it. So it is no wonder that when confronted by such power you would tremble, hesitate, and be nervous.¡±


    ¡°I just¡­ how am I supposed to deal with that?¡±


    ¡°Your problem is that the might that you witnessed surpasses your imagination, I have a way of dealing with this. Tell me, you remember the Wise Six?¡±


    ¡°Yes, they are a bit difficult to forget.¡±


    ¡°You know what Alpha said of their power, but you don¡¯t actually know what they can do. If you did what you saw that day would not scare you so.


    Let¡¯s start with Delta. Delta is not a warrior, so in combat he is very weak and has little achievements. But I can tell you one thing that he does constantly. He has nostalgia for Earth, since he was born in one.¡±


    ¡°What does that have to do with power?¡±


    ¡°I told you that there were many Earths due to the size of the Sea of Chaos and probability, but that answer wasn¡¯t complete. See, Delta has so much authority as a Ruler that his desire to see his homeworld, Earth, again influences reality so Earth-like worlds are born. The number of Earths would not even be a hundredth of what it is, were it not for Delta.¡±


    ¡°Why does he create so many Earths?¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t listen. He doesn¡¯t create Earths, he reminisces of his own and just that causes Earths to be born.¡±


    ¡°So wait, you are telling me that Delta can cause the creation of countless worlds by reminiscing? How is he the weakest?!¡±


    ¡°Because he is. Well then, let¡¯s speak of Dseta. Dseta is a warrior but if I had to say anything about him, it¡¯s that he is well rounded. He has no weak spots. That however, gives you nothing about what he can do.


    I¡¯d say that he one of the top ten beings at discriminate murder.¡±


    ¡°Discriminate murder?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Among my subordinates Dseta is best capable of ascertaining the morality, intentions and desires of someone and kill them in records time. If we are speaking of mortals, Dseta could produce a judgement in a million universes and kill those he judged to be better dead in seconds. Thus, the best at discriminate murder.¡±


    ¡°The more I hear of Dseta the more I wonder why he is your subordinate. Exactly why do you accept him?¡±


    ¡°Because Dseta is a hero. I can say that the last thing he does is killing, but when he needs to he will do so ruthlessly, but mercifully. Which is to say, just because he can do something doesn¡¯t mean he does it. Though he did once kill over eighty billion beings in a single day, back when he was still weak. I know that sounds bad, but in all honestly it would be difficult to say that those places visited by him haven¡¯t improved their standards of living, and their overall morality and happiness.¡±


    ¡°I see. Why is Alpha so scared of him?¡±


    ¡°Because of weird things that happened around Dseta. Normally beings that die remain dead, unless Death, who is one of the youngest Eternals mainly due to the fact that all beings before he was born were Eternals, allows it. And yet Dseta returned without Death allowing it. This means that someone that stands above even the Eternals resurrected him, and no one knows why. This is why Alpha doesn¡¯t want to fight Dseta. The unknown.¡±


    ¡°Beings above Eternals?¡±


    ¡°I won¡¯t yet speak of those. Speaking of Alpha he is weird. He is stronger than Dseta due to his raw power, but in terms of abilities he is nothing special. So I will tell you were his power comes from. Alpha has the ability to receive power from his offspring, and he and his wife have a very active sexual life. They have had an average of a child every twenty years, so Alpha has the power of a truly immense amount of Rulers, or gods if you prefer that name.¡±


    ¡°So what? He is a Zeus that grows stronger as he has more children?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Less horny though, Alpha has never cheated on his wife. Regardless since I speak of his raw power I will say that he¡¯d be able to destroy the entirety of the Fayd with not even a septillionth of his might. So that The Dawn guy who was so scary for you? He can destroy him by looking at him.¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    ¡°Then comes Beta. If I had to say something about Beta is that in one on one fights she is the best among Rulers. She¡¯d be a war goddess so to speak, akin to Ishtar or Athena, but focused on single combat. There are few beings she can¡¯t defeat one on one, including many Eternals. In reality my Wise Six are more powerful than most Eternals, it¡¯s just that unlike Eternals they can die.¡°


    ¡°Can you give me some examples of Eternals?¡±


    ¡°Sure. The Hindu Pantheon is fully made of Eternals. They are an special case in that they can die, but being part of Brahman (that is one that stands above Eternals), they  will endlessly reincarnate and even if they don¡¯t they will never be truly dead. They are of varying power, with Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma being the most powerful.


    If we were to compare the Wise Six to them I¡¯d say that the six of them together have a chance of winning against Shiva. But it is very low. Shiva is one of the top ten most powerful beings. That ranking doesn¡¯t include those that stand above Eternals since all power is meaningless in front of them.¡±


    ¡°Have they ever fought?¡±


    ¡°No. Beings of our calibre rarely go all out, the results can be catastrophic. My guess is just an estimate of what I know of my guys¡¯ might, and of Shiva¡¯s.


    But anyway, a being that Beta defeated one on one would be Typhon, who is way more powerful than mythology makes him out to be.¡±


    ¡°...¡±


    ¡°And now for Epsilon. Epsilon is the best at annihilating things. In fact she can kill them so thoroughly that only Death can bring them back to life. Or again, those that are above the Eternals. There is nothing she can destroy, except Eternals. And yet even Eternals need billions of years to recover from injuries inflicted by her, at the very least.¡±


    ¡°If your intention was to scare be even more, good job.¡±


    ¡°And finally Gamma. Gamma, Gamma, Gamma, terrifying old Gamma. In the entirety of the Sea of Chaos there is no being as good as killing as Gamma, not even Death.¡±


    ¡°Wait, how is that possible? Due to the calamity he has?¡±


    ¡°Gamma¡¯s calamity allows him to kill a fourth of everything in a split second. But Gamma¡¯s own abilities allow him to kill another fourth in the same time. Which means he could kill half of everything faster than you can think. Were Gamma to decide to rampage we could surely defeat him, but the Sea of Chaos would never recover. Or at least it would take longer than it has existed to do so.


    Gamma is the deadliest being. Even Eternals fear him, for while he can kill them he is able to damage them so much they would enter an eternal sleep.¡±


    ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t understand. But let me give you an example, when Gamma was mortal and still twenty one years old he appeared on television. The broadcast wasn¡¯t even live, but just seeing him caused sixty eight of his enemies to die. And Gamma had done nothing, in fact, he appeared only by the side. He didn¡¯t even know he had been in television.¡±


    ¡°So Gamma can kill people by being seen?! How do you fight against that?!¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t. Which is why Alpha told you that fighting skill was worthless. One of my standing bets with Shiva is over what would happen if Gamma and Death fought each other. And yet I¡¯d say all of them are still very much human.¡±


    ***


    ¡°I learned I was nothing.¡± Santiago shivered, not willing to think any further about those monsters.


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s just say the Founder opened my eyes, Akihito. And leave it at that.¡±


    Akihito was about to ask for clarification, but when he saw the sheer terror in his friend¡¯s eyes he let it drop.


    They walked through the city, and managed to avoid any more scuffles, arriving at Plrt¡¯s palace.


    It was a very impressive place, resembling a cathedral quite a bit. Santiago approached the door and spoke.


    ¡°I am Santiago Alonso Caballero, son of Gonzalo Alonso Ruiz. I seek audience with Elder Plrt.¡±


    At those words the door silently opened.

 Chapter 0. Cosmology.

    Explanation of the nature of the world.


    To explain the world I must explain two things. First are the layers of existence. Then the states of being. Then I shall explain the consequences, that is magic and power.


    Layers.


    There is a hierarchy to layers, with higher ones having power to modify lower ones. The hierarchy of layers is as it follows, and allow me to borrow from taoism for this example:


    The Limitless


    Sea of Chaos


    Wuji or Essential Universe


    Taiji or Differentiated Universe


    Variable Layers


    Quantum mechanics or Realm Under Human Perception


    Realm of Human Perception


    The Limitless.


    This is a theoretical layer that would exist above the Sea of Chaos. It would be where Those Above the Eternals live so it derives its properties from them


    This realm would be infinite, limitless, undefined. There are no rules, all is. It exists beyond definition. It is because it is.


    Sea of Chaos.


    The realm of definition. This layer is where all rules exist, all of them. If something can''t happen according to the Sea it won''t happen, barring intervention from a higher layer. If it says it happens it happens. If something isn''t in the Sea, it can''t even be thought of. All ideas and realities cohabit in the Sea.


    It is the realm of axioms, where all laws and rules are born. But since all of them exist here, even oxymoronic ones, none of them are in action.


    For example, say that a rule is that space exists, and another that space doesn''t exist. Since both are true, none and both of them come to action. As such there is and there isn''t space. Due to this contradiction the Sea has a sort of time where oxymoronic laws come into being at different occasions. This is the greatest law of them, Things Are Always Happening.


    In its purest state the Sea is in constant flux, all and nothing happening simultaneously. But, the Sea nowadays isn''t like this. Why? Imagine that at some moment are group of rules came together, among them one that allowed them to maintain themselves over a period of time, what would happen? This phenomenon can happen either by probability or by a Ruler.


    There are three things that can be born this way, Primordials, Rulers and Verses. And all of them have a group of laws at their core:


    The Wuji.


    The Wuji or Essential Universe is the purest form of something. The Sea, due to its nature, can''t be really said to exist as the word is conventionally thought of. However, were certain laws to come into being at the same time they would form a sort of core.


    The Wuji is not fully divorced from the Sea, in fact, it can only exist by modifying it. The Wuji is a stable, self-coherent shard of Chaos. For Chaos to be stable a certain law must exist within, a law that can alter the flux of Chaos. Otherwise the Wuji would vanish soon after its birth.


    Thus, all Wuji share a few characteristics. First, their laws allow for stability, even if one day it will crumble. Second, none of their laws are oxymoronic, incompatible. Third, all Wuji can influence the Sea of Chaos in some form.


    But the Wuji itself isn''t the universe, as it is a single undifferentiated thing. Think of it as a primordial soup of chaos, homogeneous and intangible. It allows for no life, no dissention. What most people think is the universe, that is, the heterogeneous universe, is birthed and maintained by the Wuji, the:


    Taiji.


    The Taiji or Differentiated Universe is the lower realm and expression of the Wuji. In this realm the laws of the Wuji, now freed from Chaos and allowed to express to their limits, separate and interact. It is in this realm that the laws of physics are born and exist. Laws, constants, variables, all develop here.


    But the Taiji still isn''t material, but more like the Platonic Ideal of the universe. For the Taiji to develop further it must have a certain law, and here it is where it is decided what will the Wuji become. If the laws allow for sapience of the Wuji, a Ruler or Primordial will be born. If not, a Verse will be born.


    If there is a law that allows for conscious manipulation of the Wuji, and thus the Sea of Chaos, a Ruler will be born. If the new being has no control over their Wuji, they shall be a Primordial.


    Primordials and particularly Rulers vary greatly in form, so from now on I will solely speak of Verses.


    In a Verse the next step is never the same, so I shall speak of:


    Variable Layers.


    These consist of all layers between the Taiji and the material universe. And 5he reason why I used Taoism as an example. In Taoist or Confucianist worlds these variable layers would be Ying-Yang, then Yixiang, to Bagua. And finally, the:


    Material Universe.


    All of you are familiar with this one, though it can take very unfamiliar shapes. This layer is artificially divided in two, thanks to the average abilities of humans.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    Realm under Human Perception.


    The part of the material universe that humans can''t interact with. Quantum particles, dark matter and energy are examples. If humans managed to somehow interact with any of these, they would be classified as:


    Realm of Human Perception.


    That which you can smell, touch, taste, see, hear. What humans think of when they hear the word world.


    States of Being.


    Normally, each layer has its own beings, but the two first ones are an exception. First are:


    Those Above Eternals.


    They can¡¯t be easily defined, but I¡¯ll try. They are omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. They hold no limitations, they are beyond definition.


    All limits that one of Those Above Eternals are most likely self imposed. First, two examples, the Abrahamic God, and Brahman of Hinduism.


    They are because they are, they are why they are, they are how they are, they are who they are.


    Eternals. The In-Between.


    Eternals are not beings of a single layer. Their essence comes from the Limitless, which means Those Above Eternals, but it is limited by the Sea of Chaos.


    They are bound infinitude. As such, while they are limited they can¡¯t die. They are beings that do what they do because they were born that way. There is no way to become an Eternal, as the Limitless is infinitely above the Sea, its essence beyond grasp except by Those Above Eternals. There is one possible way, but most wouldn¡¯t take it.


    Souls are Eternal, but the bindings of Death are harsh on the dead. To be an Eternal you must be one to begin with or die, and the dead have little power over the living, so most who would seek to become Eternals have no reason to do so.


    How they do things is incomprehensible, it has no explanation except that they do. But what they do is understandable within the bounds of the Sea.


    The Chaosborn.


    The Wuji. Rulers and Primordials. Verses are technically this, but they hold no intelligence. However, it is possible for a Primordial or Ruler to house a universe and living beings within. Sapient beings born of Chaos, they differ in one way.


    Rulers can alter Chaos, Primordials can¡¯t. This makes it so Rulers are above Primordials, as they can mess with their Wuji.


    Whether they have infinite lifespan, live as humans, or are as mayflies depends on the individual but they all can die. They do what they do by bending Chaos, the Rulers consciously, the Primordials by virtue of their Wuji.


    It is possible to become a Primordial or a Ruler. The easiest way is for a Ruler, Eternal or One Above Eternals to bend Chaos and grant the being their own Wuji. The difficulty is whether the lower layer being can function as one, if not they may self-destruct.


    Another way is if a Verse has a Law in their Wuji that allows beings born of it to change their essence, acquiring their own Wuji. This change tends to have strict conditions, but the being will almost always be able to handle their own Wuji. Incidentally, most gods not born in the Sea of Chaos are born in this kind of Verse, whether they were gods from the start or lower layered beings that ascended.


    What they do is perfectly understandable, born of the laws of their Wuji.


    Law Personifications.


    Some Verses have personifications of their laws, other don¡¯t. But if they do exist they are beings of Taiji. They can do what their law can do, including the laws that allowed them to think. Normally they live as long as their Verse but they can¡¯t live longer than it.


    Variable Spirits.


    Just as there are variable layers, there may be lifeforms within them. An example would be in a world where there is an elemental layer, not to be mistaken with a place in the material plane filled with a single element, there could be elemental spirits.


    They do what their layer allows them to. They tend to have life spans much shorter than the Verse¡¯s.


    Material Universe Inhabitants.


    The best example of these that you know are humans, or aliens and the such. You should be well aware of what you can do, so I¡¯ll skip that. They normally can¡¯t outlive stars.


    Magic.


    Magic can be defined as the power to alter a layer. Changes on a higher layer affect those in a lower one, but never the other way around. Magics are classified by layer.


    Magic of the material world. Material Magic.


    Science, typing on your keyboard, nuclear bombs are the simplest forms of this kind of magic. Normally this wouldn¡¯t be called magic, but it fits the definition.


    What most would consider magic would be something capable of changing reality through means unknown to ordinary humans. There are a few material magics that can exist, depending on whether the laws are. Psychic powers, anomalous energies that can be controlled by humans, sentient cosmic beings, background magic fields and many more. It is by far the most common of magics. Indeed, most universes only allow for this kind of magic.


    Magic of the variable layers. Spirit Magic.


    The power to alter a variable layer, it has consequences in the material world. This kind of magic follows the laws of physics, so most of the time it requires some sort of resource in exchange of changes. Normally this resource is something made in the variable layers. This is the first magic that can harm variable spirits, though sometimes it can¡¯t.


    Magic of Taiji. Magic of the Laws or Law Magic.


    The magic of laws. This magic obviously varies greatly between Verses, since it depends on the Wuji. Normally it takes two forms, one resembling spirit magic but with the resource coming from the Wuji and taking shape in the Taiji. Or rule magic, where following a set of actions causes the Taiji to produce an effect. This magic can break the laws of the material universe and variable layers.


    It may harm Law Personifications though if it is the Wuji that orders their existence it can¡¯t kill them.


    Magic of Wuji. Divine Authority.


    Due to the qualities of the Wuji, there are two kinds of Wuji magic.


    Wuji-affecting-Taiji. Law magic but better. The power to break all laws of Taiji, this is the magic that can kill Law Personifications with certainty. Under certain circumstances it can kill Rulers and Primordials, but it is rare. A few can alter the Taiji of other Primordials or Verses, these can kill Verses and Primordials, but they can¡¯t harm Rulers. Their control over Wuji is greater than the ability to harm their Taiji.


    Wuji-affecting-Chaos. The power of Rulers. This magic is the only one that can touch Rulers. It can even harm Eternals. This is the magic that can do everything except the impossible, though most specialise in something. There are very, very, very few Verses that grant this kind of magic, and most don¡¯t survive long. It can also only change the Verse itself, so it has very few uses.


    Magic of Infinity. Miracles.


    This isn¡¯t really a magic, but a classification for the power of Those Above Eternals. It can do anything, even things beyond thought.


    Eternals have this power by virtue of their connection to them, so they have a limited form of it. Eternals also have Wuji-affecting-Chaos magic most of the time, though as a form of miracle. This is one of the most common miracles.


    A few lower layered beings have been granted them by Those Above Eternals.


    Power.


    This is more fluid, so I will just tell you the rough order.


    Those Above Eternals>>>>>Eternals=Outstanding Rulers>Rulers>Primordials>Everyone else.


    Those Above Eternals are omnipotent and the distance between them and all else is infinite.


    Eternals are as a norm more powerful than Rulers but there are exceptions. A few Rulers can make use of the Chaos with immense skill, able to perform feats equal to those of Eternals. However, these outstanding Rulers are still mortal unlike Eternals so they still die. Eternals on the other hand can only be harmed, death isn¡¯t something they worry about. How long the Eternal takes to recover is another thing.


    Ordinary Rulers are impossible to injure by those lower than them, as the only way to hurt them is by destroying their Wuji. This can only be done by Rulers but there is one loophole, a very difficult to exploit loophole. Nevertheless at least one man managed to do it, though since he went on to destroy his own universe he was certainly exceptional. It can only be done in universes that allow for Wuji-affecting-Taiji magic.


    Due to all this even the weakest of Rulers can¡¯t be killed by mortals. Powerful magic wielding mortals can be more powerful than Rulers, if their ability to affect Chaos is very weak.


    Primordials can¡¯t be harmed by those incapable of touching Taiji. However, they are very limited in what they can do, though still stronger than Verse inhabitants on average. Some Primordials can¡¯t even move.


    Everyone else very heavily depends, and some outliers can be more powerful than Primordials as previously stated. Normally beings of higher layers are more powerful than those of lower ones, unless magic of their layer or higher is involved.

 8. Whispers.

    Chapter 8. Whispers.


    ¡°Welcome, brother.¡±


    That took the wind out of Santiago¡¯s sails. Plrt was just as he had been told, a three meter tall, eight armed, big headed Elder of the Araun tribe. Though he was a True Daemon in reality, only looking like an Elder.


    What wasn¡¯t as he was told was how Plrt looked at him, with affection like that held for a brother. He had expected hatred, or love of another kind, but not brotherly fondness.


    ¡°Surprised?¡± Elder body language was difficult for humans to gauge, but Santiago could feel mirth in Plrt¡¯s six eyes. ¡°I have not seen your father for decades, so I am not surprised he yet believes me to be crushing on him. But the love I feel for him is the love for a mentor, a father. What he taught me that day showed me the true reality of myself.¡±


    ¡°What was it?¡± Santiago paused for a moment and continued. ¡°And while I am willing to believe that you mistook your affection for one of another kind, what exactly did my father do to, well¡­¡±


    ¡°That I love this city, and wish to protect it. As for your second question, he knew what I just said and manipulated me according to those feelings. Once he left with his bounty he told me why he could play me like a fiddle, and for that I am grateful.¡±


    ¡°How grateful?¡±


    ¡°As you have guessed.¡± The mirth in Plrt¡¯s eyes intensified. ¡°I am glad you have grown like a bright man, I remember back when you were just a brat.¡±


    Santiago felt some goosebumps.


    ¡°That means you shall help us?¡±


    ¡°Ignoring my stalking? You have grown strong.¡±


    ¡°Not helping your case.¡±


    Indeed, Santiago was dealing with the knowledge that he had been observed for years without his knowledge by ignoring it. The more Plrt reminded him of it, the more he had the urge to run away.


    ¡°Hahaha.¡± His laugh was joyful, stripped of any deceit. He was truly happy to finally meet someone he considered a brother, or at least his saviour¡¯s son, face to face. ¡°Very well, I shall cease my ramblings.¡±


    They were meeting in a small room, Plrt was sitting in a couch in one extreme while Santiago and his group were in a sofa in front of him. When Plrt proclaimed he would grow serious he stopped slouching in his couch.


    ¡°What does the son of my saviour desire? I am here to serve, but know that I will allow no harm to befall my city.¡±


    His eyes grew serious, staring at his guests in utmost seriousness. His gaze was heavy, as if the one behind it was a far greater being than them. But that was what they were expecting of one that ruled over the great wild zones of the Ether Sea.


    As such Santiago braved the weighty glare, and explained their objective.


    ¡°I see.¡± Something crossed Plrt¡¯s eyes. ¡°I know of these kings, but you six aren¡¯t yet ready to face them.¡±


    ¡°We have already defeated two of them!¡± Shouted Ignacio.


    Despite the discourtesy Plrt just chuckled, for him it was obvious that the boy was just earnest.


    ¡°One of them within this dimension of yours, where he was undoubtedly weakened. The other may just have been the weakest of them, for as you are right now you can¡¯t defeat the three kings in this city.¡±


    ¡°Who are they?¡± Asked Rub¨¦n.


    ¡°I won¡¯t tell you. I don¡¯t want you all to die for nothing.¡± Foreseeing the complaints Plr waved one of his arms. ¡°I am not saying to abandon your goal, just to become stronger first.¡±


    ¡°How?¡± Asked Akihito. ¡°I am not sure we can do that much faster, and time may be running out.¡±


    ¡°Is it?¡± Plrt tilted his head. ¡°No matter, there are two ways for you to grow stronger.¡±


    Plrt did his species equivalent of grinning, that involved many teeth, and pointed to Rub¨¦n, Ignacio, Francisca and Isabel.


    ¡°You four are squandering your power.¡±


    He turned to Akihito.


    ¡°You have yet to realise who you really are.¡±


    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    And finally he fixed his eyesight of Santiago.


    ¡°And you don¡¯t understand that your power is not what you think. Tell me, what two factors determine the power of the Guardian?¡±


    ¡°The quantity of SINQUM composing it, and the maturity of its user¡¯s mind.¡± Santiago had no hesitation.


    ¡°Then, the ways to grow are two. Acquire more SINQUM, which is easy for you humans, or mature emotionally. Your power while stronger than that of the Elder¡¯s sure is more troublesome.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Rub¨¦n had a sinking feeling in his heart.


    ¡°It is as you think.¡± Ever since Santiago¡¯s father had opened his eyes Plrt¡¯s sight had enhanced, in more ways than one would think. Unless that one was me, but oh well. ¡°The four of you have something holding you back, and you know what it is.¡±


    Had they not heard of how Plrt had stalked Santiago¡¯s family they would have dismissed his words, but the four of them knew what it was immediately.


    ¡°Do you know why those that awaken their Guardians naturally have legendary beings representing them?¡±


    That stumped even Santiago, for it was a knowledge that had faded with time. But Plrt didn¡¯t expect an answer to begin with.


    ¡°Those that discover their Guardians by themselves have minds of steel. They are emotionally stable and mature, but even they can grow. A fully developed Guardian will take the shape of a being that its owner believes represents him.¡±


    ¡°Which means,¡± Francisca said with an unwilling air around her, ¡°that as long as we don¡¯t acknowledge that we won¡¯t have a mature Guardian? What is it even good for?¡±


    ¡°It is a change in quality, quantity can still triumph over mature Guardians but as Akihito and Santiago show, they are more powerful on the same level. That is your first way of growth, the other is to simply have the Bulwark reward you. I¡¯d say wiping out the killer dolls would be enough for you to get to around stage 60, enough to defeat your foes.¡±


    That made the four thoughtful, something that Santiago couldn¡¯t understand. Why were they so conflicted? If they couldn¡¯t face themselves, not yet at least, then he would just help them hunt all those dolls.


    ¡°Huh?¡± Isabel let out a sound, and Santiago realised he had said that out loud.


    ¡°Anyway,¡± he said fast to rid of his embarrassment, ¡°what did you mean about Akihito and me?¡±


    Plrt smiled, a surprisingly human gesture, and pointed at Akihito.


    ¡°Tamamo-no-Mae. Who was she?¡±


    ¡°A fox spirit that tried to kill the emperor by posing as a courtesan and slowly cursing him. When she was discovered she was killed, but turned into a stone that killed hundreds with its poison until it was purified.¡±


    ¡°What does that say about you?¡±


    ¡°I¡­¡± Akihito frowned and spoke hesitantly, ¡°am subtle? And prefer to keep myself to the shadows.¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Not at chance.¡±


    ¡°Are you an idiot?¡±


    ¡°Impossible.¡±


    ¡°Yeah right.¡±


    That deluge of denial caused Akihito to freeze, he just looked at his companions.


    ¡°You may have once been like that, but you aren¡¯t that right now.¡± Santiago had no doubt in his heart of that, a shady guy would have never been able to get through his armour.


    ¡°I agree. The foolishness of that statement fills me with awe. Awe at the blindness of humans that is.¡± Rub¨¦n wasn¡¯t about to let such a horrible misjudgement continue existing. ¡°You are definitely a man who stands proudly.¡±


    ¡°You guys¡­¡± Akihito was moved until tears began to form in his eyes.


    ¡°There you have it.¡± Plrt shifted his great body to a new posture, which was oddly intimidating. ¡°Tamamo-no-Mae once suited you, but not now. Discover who you are now, and your power will grow.¡±


    ¡°And me?¡± Asked Santiago.


    ¡°You¡­¡± Plrt frowned, ¡°your case is delicate. May you all leave me alone with him?¡±


    Akihito was about to protest but Santiago stopped him with a shake of his head. They reluctantly left, and once they were alone Plrt dropped an atomic bomb.


    ¡°I am one of the Twelve Kings, Naamah ruler of Nehemoth.¡±


    Sometimes I wonder if Santiago would get mad from how much I manipulate him. I may have his best interests at heart, but many people would still resent how much I do behind their backs. I am blessed that Santiago normally understands me.


    With just those words Santiago understood everything.


    ¡°So the A Dimension is the Sephiroth, and the Twelve Kings are the Qliphoth. Why?¡±


    ¡°The Twelve Kings aren¡¯t united, we all took this role because it was something we could use to achieve our objectives. In my case that was revenge for the death of my saviour¡¯s daughter, and his son¡¯s crippling.¡±


    Santiago was at a loss for words, the devotion that Plrt was showing to his family was beyond his understanding.


    ¡°It may seem excessive, but I would have committed a horrible mistake without your father¡¯s guidance.¡± His eyes clouded, brimming with regret. ¡°I will never be able to repay this debt, so allow me to do this much.¡±


    Santiago hesitated, but something told him that Plrt was sincere. Searching within he realised that it wasn¡¯t a hunch, nor instinct. It was the Watcher¡¯s eyes that told him Plrt was not lying.


    He could roughly see the hearts of others, and he hadn¡¯t noticed that earlier because he thought it to be impossible. No human could develop such powers, Guardians couldn¡¯t do such a thing. So Santiago comprehended that he had been thinking of things incorrectly, he was now a Primordial, not a human.


    That was a turning point in his life, he had finally accepted his inhumanity. And he would only grow stronger, for humans aren¡¯t meant to hold such authority. One had to become inhuman while remaining human to grow stronger. They had to throw common sense and the normal away.


    ¡°What can you tell me?¡±


    ¡°Good.¡± Plrt smiled, satisfied with Santiago¡¯s reaction. ¡°I know little, you must ask Moloch to have the full truth. But still, most of the Kings are monsters that must be taken down. I don¡¯t want Belphegor or Astaroth to remain in my city any longer.¡±


    ¡°So it comes down to growing stronger? How should I do that?¡±


    ¡°Unlike others your Satan is fixed. To grow stronger you must both understand your power and deviate from the role that Ein Sof gave you.¡±


    ¡°Because otherwise I won¡¯t escape his grasp.¡±


    ¡°Indeed. Tell me, what is Satan for you. No, why would you have the Weak curse?¡±


    Santiago pauses to think, having never questioned the nature of his powers. He shared the blind spot of most, taking for granted that which the Bulwark told him.


    ¡°Satan¡­ doesn¡¯t pull others down, rather he believes he is the highest there is. Why pull others down when you are already superior to them? No, he simply sees others as inferior, so my Weak curse is me imposing Satan¡¯s view on others. I deny their value.¡±


    ¡°Then what must Satan do in respect to Ein Sof?¡±


    ¡°Usurp him. Devour his light until he shines with his own light, until he dyes the world in his colours.¡±


    ¡°What is your role then?¡±


    ¡°I am the enemy that must be defeated, but, that means I am capable of being an enemy.¡±


    When he thought that Santiago felt a pulse from his heart, and then heard something shattering. It was then that everything he had overlooked about Akihito and his friends came to him like a wave.


    ¡°Holy shit! How did I not see that?!¡±


    He had awakened to his role, earlier than Ein Sof desired. It was all beginning to move according to my designs, thanks to Plrt and his insidiousness.


    ¡°That is right, that is the role imposed in you. But, why would Satan lose, even if we supposed his forces were equal to Ein Sof¡¯s?¡±


    ¡°Thamiel, the Qliphoth is divided.¡± Santiago¡¯s eyes narrowed.


    ¡°Yes. That I believe is Ein Sof¡¯s plan, to cripple his opposition by dividing it. To defeat Him you must first devour the other Kings, and become the sole ruler of Qliphoth. When your friends defeated Lilith and Adrammelech Moloch took their power, so even if they were to escape there is no point.¡±


    ¡°You mean that to grow stronger I must eat the Kings?¡±


    ¡°Defeat them, and you will know what to do. Each King you devour is something that will empower you, until you achieve unity of the Qliphoth, Pasha.¡±


    Santiago looked at Plrt in surprise, knowing the implications.


    ¡°Won¡¯t you lose your power?¡±


    ¡°As long as I can protect this city I will do so gladly. Not everyone that lives here is evil, and I am sworn to protect them. I fear Ein Sof is not an enemy I can defy, so I can only rely on you.¡±


    ¡°Your city will be protected. How do you propose we start?¡±

 Sorry for last week鈥檚 chapter.

    Sorry for missing the last release, but I am having a minor writer''s block. I would have written something by now, but this week is very busy for me. So yeah, just wanted to say that.


    Since I need enough words to be able to post this, let me rant a little. Do you know why I write? Money? No, obviously. I like writing and think I can do it, but I still need practice. The reason I upload here is to get feedback in order to improve. It should come to no surprise that right now I am doing it out of a sense of duty to finish, since you aren''t giving me any.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    I thank all of you who did take the time to comment, and then those who rated. And you all could do something similar, rating is a button click, but for reason I have a fifth of ratings compared to followers. I have no idea what I need to do in order to even know if I am doing something right, much less know what I''m doing wrong.

 Very important decision, please answer poll.

    When I first conceived this story I envisioned three arcs. Arc 1 Disciple is the one I am writing now, then would come Arc 2 Master, and finally Arc 3 Mastermind.


    Each arc has a different genre, and Arc 1 is much more complex technically than the others, reading it without knowing how the world works would leave many plot holes, as you wouldn''t have the knowledge needed to understand what is going on. Most of that knowledge I have already told, but as NoDragon said it feels like a textbook. This is due to the fact that Arc 1 is far too complex and epic in scale for my current skills, I think. Due to this I have difficulty getting chapters out, which shows in my erratic updates.


    Arc 2 on the other hand is much more like a typical fantasy story in setting, so it would need nearly no setup, allowing me to write a much more affordable story. Furthermore both arcs can be read without spoiling the other too much, and arc 1 would serve as a prequel. I can''t make promises, but I''d probably be able to write it with greater skill.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    So, I want you to decide:


    1. I continue writing arc 1. Pros: you can read the story as it was. Cons: more difficult for me and probably would end up as a worse story.


    2. I write arc 2. Pros: it will probably be better and easier to read. It will also allow me to hone my skills for writing arc 1. Cons: it will spoil a few minor things of arc 1, you will be left hanging on arc 1 for a while.


    Please vote on the poll, I will leave it up until the Sunday after the next, or earlier if the votes are heavily skewed towards one option.

 Final decision.

    So, with six votes total and taking into account one voted incorrectly, the decision was unanimous. I shall be writing arc 2 from now on, and put arc 1 in the back burner. I seriously hope I''ll be able to finish this one properly, because I do not like leaving not one but two books unfinished. Anyway, it was a good run, even if I overdid the exposition, and I hope I''ll see you all in the next instalment Master.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Please, rate in the next one, this fiction has been utterly deserted.