Wish upon the Stars (Original Superhero cultivation sci fi litrpg)

[Malcolm Tent]

The Curse Canyon was…weird. It was a canyon, like I expected, and it WAS full of junk, kind of like a landfill, but it was also kind of strange. For one thing, the air and space around the canyon's edges were strange and irregular. Sometimes I could see a heat haze like a mirage, or a cloud of sparkles, or the image of a creeping shadow shaped like a man.

As we walked inside, we passed through several patches of unusual effects that tried to grab hold. Heat, cold, light, dark, it felt like someone had set the air around us to randomize. The strangest part was that the varied effects were often contradictory and pressed against each other, but instead of exploding or fizzling out or whatever, they were just coexisting like it was no big thing.

"This is astonishing," Callie said with an awed expression. We had just walked into a sort of entry nook of the canyon, where the walls of cursed items had risen around the gates. We were on a path that snaked its way through, going ever deeper, and the piles of random junk followed the sides of the path, descending like some kind of sea of trash.

I nodded, glancing around with interest. I had Mornax active, and Callie had covered herself with Adherent fire to block out the effects, but it was still kind of overwhelming. I considered activating Dantalion's data collection ability, but I was pretty sure there was way too much going on here for me to process without using the staff to bump him to the next rank. "How exactly is this place stable?" I asked curiously as we walked. As we entered, one of the guards had followed us inside. I supposed he was there as a guide, but I figured if he was going to get a free traveling companion I could at least learn something.

To my surprise, Callie answered. "Supression," she said immediately. The guard shot her a surprised look, and she nodded back smugly before continuing her explanation. "You ever been somewhere really cold? And sometimes in the winter, the water in the pipes freeze if you don't keep it running, causing the pipes to burst?"

I nodded, and she continued, gesturing to the rest of the canyon. "Well, that only happens if there's a small amount of water. If the pipes are full, they can't freeze. When water freezes, it expands. It HAS to expand. Full pipes don't have the room for expansion, so the inward pressure forces the water to remain in a liquid state long past the normal freezing point."

"So this place is containing so many curses that they're holding themselves inert through sheer force?" I asked with interest.

She nodded. "Looks like. It IS fascinating, though it's also really dangerous."

"Why is that?" I asked as we hopped over a small patch of ominous looking swords that had 'coincidentally' rolled onto the path.

"Pipes don't freeze when they're full…at first," she said ominously. "Eventually, once it gets cold enough, the energy trying to force the water into a solid state overcomes the resistance of the pipe containing it. Then the water freezes, no matter what's in its way. Which in the case of this place means…well…boom."

The guard cleared his throat. "Begging your pardon, miss, but that's not QUITE accurate in this case. The canyon itself is a magical construct created by the dean of several departments. While that might normally be a concern, that would only be true if there was no release valve for the building pressure."

"Ah, so there are pressure releases?" she asked excitedly. "Where might those be?"

"Those would be the crucibles," he said with a shrug. "There are a few devices or places that are catalyzed by the condensed curse energy. Like the Cauldron, or the Compactor."

Interesting names. "What is the Cauldron?" I asked, naturally more attracted to the magical sounding device than the one that sounded like it was made to crush trash. "And how do you know all this? If you don't mind me asking. Are you not just a guard?"

"Guard duty here is more complicated than you might think," he said wryly. "Lots of calculations and rebalancing of energies. Natural formations arise here VERY easily, and the guards are tasked with traveling around and breaking them up before they gather too much momentum. Unless one of the students finds one and purchases experiment rights for it. But that's not too common.

"As for the Cauldron, it's…complicated," he grimaced. "Basically, the Cauldron is where we put potions and liquid creations that go in here. We just dump them all in a big reinforced bowl that does the same thing as this place on a smaller scale. Over the millennia, there have been some truly ridiculous concoctions added, and over the years the Cauldron's contents have become…strange."

I blinked at him. "Im sorry, you're saying people dump random potions, most of which are, by definition, improperly made, into a giant bowl and let it pressure cook under waves of curse energy for millennia? What possible use could they have for that? Like there's no way it's drinkable."

"It's not," he laughed. "But it IS unique. Students can apply to have a vial of Cauldron Concoction withdrawn for credit points. Because of the constantly shifting nature of the Cauldron, every vial is completely new, and its effects can change from one moment to the next. Not all of the potions are failures, either. After so long concocting, the Cauldron has become something of a pet project for the alchemy faculty. They offer extra credits for students who dump any leftover mixtures they have in there at the end of the semester."

I could tell Callie wasn't too interested in that, even if I kind of wanted to snag a vial, so I moved on to something a little more relevant. "Where do you keep the most harmful stuff?" I asked as I looked around. "Stuff that will kill you if you look at it."

He sighed. "The lethal curses are the Chamber. Dean Harper captured a fragment of a Void Child of Overgod level quite some time ago, and he's been conducting experiments on it for a number of centuries. It isn't particularly self aware," he said as I saw my reaction. "It's been lobotomized. He's just using it to test attribute combinations that have a pronounced effect on Void spawned creatures."

Dean Wallace Harper, the Dean of the Department of Atypical Physicality. Also known as the Monstrosity, he was the Overgod in charge of Bethy's department. I hadn't heard much about him, but I got the impression he was the kind of guy you wouldn't want made at you.

"Are we allowed to visit the Chamber?" I asked carefully. "Like to take stuff?"

Callie's vault was fairly unique in terms of utility, and its nature made it so that the more dangerous the item she inverted, the more beneficial the effect. I wasn't sure how something like direct damage would translate (maybe it would make a knife that healed you when you got stabbed), but in terms of utility, we wanted the worst stuff we could find here, and it sounded like the Chamber was where we would find it.

Understandably, the guard wasn't prepared for someone to ask to go to the most dangerous and useless place in the canyon, but I imagined that even if this wasn't a common request it wasn't TOO rare, because he adjusted to the question quickly enough.

"Anything involved in an active project would need to be exchanged," he hedged. "Credit points would work, but alternatively you could submit findings to the project you think might be relevant. If you find something unique, you'll be counted as having contributed to the result that comes from it, and you can redeem your contribution points directly."

I raised an eyebrow. "Contribution points?"

"All large scale research projects award contribution points," he clarified. "These are the currency that postgraduates and even teachers use to redeem benefits. They can be put towards increased research focus, additional manpower, materials, expert consultation from the deans, they can even be used to fund new and original research projects directly.

"Honestly," he admitted. "I don't think it would be possible for you to contribute to a research project the Dean has been operating for hundreds of years, but if students DO earn contribution points, they have the option to cash them out directly. It's kind of like selling them to the project staff because you can't use them. That's basically the only way I could see you getting permission to take anything useful from the Chamber."

I had been wondering why he would mention contribution points if students couldn't get them, but it made sense if there was no other way. Besides, when it came to damaging the Void, Callie and I knew a little something we might be able to contribute. I doubted there was anything we could come up with that an Overgod wouldn't be able to parse at a glance, but it was highly possible that Heretic Fire represented an attribute they might not have seen here before in that exact form, not to mention Adherent Fire or any of our other Void resistance tricks like Leviathan or Zagan.

One of the big benefits of my current path was exactly how muddled some of my demons had become. I was pretty sure I'd accidentally created more than a couple completely original attributes without meaning to. I'd have to study those to learn more about them, of course, because they were the embryonic form of what I would need to do when I constructed my Worldforce. But for now, because of exactly how much variety existed in Mythcrafting (literally anything you could imagine could be an ingredient), there was a decent chance we had something interesting to show them.

Despite my face being covered, I could tell from the guard's expression he knew roughly what I was thinking, and that he wasn't surprised at all. "Do you want me to escort you to the Chamber?" he asked tiredly.

"I think that would be helpful," I said immediately, my competitive drive ignited by this new challenge. Learning new ways to hurt the Void wouldn't be a bad thing either, given the ongoing war back home. Through the bond, Callie's fighting spirit burned as bright as mine, planning to submit both her original attribute and her father's special anti-Void flame for consideration (after a clarification on source, obviously, plagiarism was for scumbags) and see exactly how far our unique advantages could take us here in a place ruled by beings beyond our comprehension.

Apparently, the guard was used to cocky freshmen who thought they knew everything, because he just chuckled. "Yeah, you seem like the type. That was why I followed you in. Come on then."

We both grinned as he turned around a particularly towering heap of what appeared to be axe head, leaping over a ditch to land on what I swear was a refrigerator, and then began to hop from one large object to the next, heading off in a seemingly random direction. I grinned at Callie, incarnating Sammael, and unfurled my wings, igniting my Cosmic Phoenix bloodline as I swept forward focusing the spatial attribute on closing the distance with the guard.

I heard Callie's should of outrage and heard her own wings flap as she blurred after me, her Adherent fire warping the air as she sped to catch up. I didn't even need to look over my shoulder because of the bond, but I did anyway, just to see the look on her face.

Being back in the sky again, flying through this place without a care in the world, was a wonderful experience. For a few minutes, we didn't worry about curses or Domains or Overgods. Just playing around. And racing to keep up with our guide. A race that I won, obviously.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We approached the Chamber relatively quickly. We touched down in a small clearing on top of a literal mountain of junk, and I glanced around to try to spot the details or the nearby landscape of the canyon.

First thing I noticed was where we appeared to be. The canyon extended in all directions, so I couldn't say for sure, but I THOUGHT we might be in the center of it all. It certainly felt like the center. Of the canyon. Of the universe. It was…heavy. I could feel the power weighing on me, beating on the air like the heartbeat of a colossal giant whose very blood had a gravity to match a thousand suns.

There was a hole not far away. A single dark square surrounded by a rim of innocuous grey stone. Carvings covered the rock, almost invisible from wear and time, if not for the subtle blue glow emanating from within the lines.

"This is the Chamber?" I said, trying not to let my voice shake. "It's certainly…impressive."

The guard just smiled. "It's funny. So many people have come here to see this. They come for the unique opportunities, or the items, or the project. Ultimately, they come for the power. But so many of them miss the obvious truth. Power isn't an abstract. It's a truth. A destination as well as a journey. I've seen many places in this academy, but this is the only place where I've seen this particular phenomena. Do you understand what I mean?"

I swallowed as I stared into the hole. "Power is an attribute," I said slowly. "This place has so much energy it embodies the CONCEPT of energy. That's part of what the Dean is making here, isn't it?"

He let out a laugh. "A byproduct," he admitted.

I turned to look at him directly. "I never asked your name," I said accusingly. "And you didn't offer it."

"Both of those statements are very true," he said with a wide grin. Too wide, actually. In fact, a lot of things about him were slightly off. He was too tall, his shoulders too wide, his eyes had no whites, just endless seas of green. How had I not noticed that. It was so obvious in retrospect, but I just…hadn't seen it.

Which made me pretty sure who I was talking to. "Dean Harper, I presume," I said with a sigh. "The Monstrosity?"

He let out a barking laugh. Literally, it sounded like a barking dog. "Well, I kind of gave it to you, but I suppose being willing to admit it so easily is its own kind of impressive. You're not upset about my little joke, are you?"

Callie was frozen, staring at him as she realized what I had not ten seconds before. "You're an Overgod," she said slowly. "You…why are you here? What is someone like you doing guarding the canyon? Don't you have better things to do?" Her voice was shaky, and I could feel a bit of panic through the bond, though I returned it with my own reassurance to try to help her through it.

"He's not a guard," I said immediately, sure of that fact. "I bet there's only ever one guard here, and it was the other guy. I'm more curious how you knew we were coming, and why you'd bother meeting with us. We're not in your department."

He shrugged. "You're interesting. I sensed something unique about you two. Something deadly. Not to me, obviously, but we hunters of the Void can smell our own. I suspected you might have something to contribute to my little case study here, and I wanted to see what it might be."

"But how did you know we'd even be here?" I asked cautiously. "Are you watching this place at all times or something?"

"In a certain sense," he said casually. "It's more…primal than that. I am, at my core, a beast. What kind I shan't say, but a beast I was, and that comes with certain instincts. Once you reach the heights I've attained, those instincts cease to be bound by things like time or causality. You could consider it a form of precognition, or you could consider it the exact opposite. It depends heavily on perspective. I knew you would be here because you came here, and you probably came here because I knew you would. Cause and effect tend to warp around creatures like myself."

I grimaced. "I bet the Dean loves that."

"Why do you think he created this academy?" he said dryly. "The chance to study Overgods in our natural environment is hardly commonplace, and the intersection of so much fate is a contradictory soup of temporal inconsistency. We each have our own peculiarities in that regard, and we study each other as often as the students who arrive."

I glanced back at the entrance. "So you wanted us to come here. To see what we could do to the Void Child. You think we have something you've never seen before?"

"Possibly," he said with a shrug. "I am very old, but my lifespan is not infinite. There are indeed things in creation I haven't seen. Admittedly, their number grows fewer every year, but I don't suppose the supply has dwindled completely just yet."

Callie stared at him suspiciously. "You're in charge of Bethy's department," she said slowly. "Did she tell you about us?"

That did sound like her, but I didn't think so in this case. This wasn't about Bethy, this was about us, and our relationship with the Void. Sure enough, Dean Harper chuckled. "The Hybrid? No, she and I haven't had time to speak one on one. Her kind is rare, admittedly. Especially spawned from such a potent vampiric bloodline. But I've seen Maenad Vampire hybrids before. If she seeks me out I may see fit to gift her an opportunity, but she isn't interesting enough to warrant a personal visit. You, however…your power is fascinating."

"The Heretic Flame came from my father," she corrected. "He was-"

"A Void Vessel who rebelled," he said impatiently. "Obviously. I'm not an idiot, girl. But I'm not talking about that. Your other aspect is more interesting. An Anti-Void perhaps? It's difficult to describe. Not simply an attribute, but the foundation of a state of being. An inversion, maybe, or perhaps a divergent reflection. A twisted mirror of the emptiness between realms. And the opposite of emptiness should be fullness, but that's not what you possess."

She frowned. "It's not…it's not a reflection. Not really. It's a shadow. My vault is reflective, and based on the same principles, but it's not the same. The Adherent Fire is something else. It's the result of the opposite of me, not of the Void. The opposite of a Heretic. The opposite of Void destruction, but not the true Void."

He nodded with interest. "Doppleganger," he said, like he was chewing the word. "Shadow self. You've had quite a few strange encounters. But then, you'd have had to. Unique things only come from the collision of coincidence."

"Why do you WANT her Adherent Fire?" I asked. "It doesn't really destroy the Void. Not like the Heretic Flame does."

"Children," he sniffed. "So impatient. "It's a foundation, boy. A seed. A possibility of something new. A Void that is not a Void. A space that is not a space. Tell me, boy, with such a parent, what children might emerge from such an abyss? What creatures might come forth?"

I knew what he meant, kind of. Callie had done something like that one, in The Quiet Room during my trial. Created a sort of false Void that ran beside a space so isolated that even gods couldn't get inside. It had been an impossible, ridiculous thing, but at the time it had seemed less important than everything else going on.

As for his second question…I hadn't considered that. But thinking about it, I wondered if he might be right. Because the Adherent Fire was the opposite of the Heretic Fire, but like Callie said, it wasn't a real reflection. There was a seed of the original deep inside, a spot of black in all that cobalt blue. If her not Void germinated Not-Void Children, would they inherit that Heretic nature. Would they be a natural counter to the Void Children?

"So, what do you want, exactly?" Callie asked suspiciously. "Just a sample of the flame?"

He snorted. "Nothing so crude." He snapped his fingers and a strange object appeared. It was almost perfectly round, but looking close I could see that it wasn't smooth. It was some sort of multi sided prism with so many sides it both was and wasn't spherical. "I want a spark. A seed to germinate. The start of the downfall of the creatures I so despise. In all Chaos there is Cosmos, after all. What is the beginning but the precursor to an end?"

I glanced at Callie, wondering what she would say. "What will you give us for it?" she said slowly. "Aside from contribution points. Will you tell us more about the Void? About what it is and how to fight it?"

He raised an eyebrow. "I suppose that wouldn't be out of the question," he said slowly. "Though it will diminish the contribution points I might grant for accomplishing my task. Not to mention I don't know exactly what might come of this experiment. It's a fascinating potential path, but potential is inherently unrealized until it ceases to be."

We shared a look, but it wasn't needed. The Void was our biggest problem back home. If we could learn new weapons to use against them, it would help Atlas defeat Morwenna, which would tip the god war entirely back in our favor.

"Fine," she said slowly. "But rather than contribution points, I want you to help me pick a few useful items that will work well with my Vault. Let's say three of them. No price paid, I get them free and clear." She was gambling a bit there, but not much. Dean Harper was an Overgod, and this was his project, if anyone knew the items inside it would be him, especially given what he's just told us about his potential precognitive abilities.

He shrugged. "Very well, my aid picking three treasures from my collection. I can even help you suppress any of the ones that might be too dangerous. Do we have a deal?"

I got the impression we were getting the short end of the stick here, and I knew Callie felt it too. But it didn't matter at this point. Even if the flames were worth an immeasurable amount, they would only have value like this to Dean Harper. Callie had been around the Dean of the spatial department multiple times, and he'd never expressed an interest in her Adherent Fire. The Monstrosity had some kind of issue with the Void, and it was the only reason we'd been approached.

Callie nodded, and he grinned that too wide grin. "Lovely," he said, tossing her the sphere. "I trust I don't need to instruct you on the process?"

"I've done it before," she said simply, focusing her eyes on the orb.

A flame kindled inside it, and she focused on the point of light to the exclusion of all else. Dean Harper nodded in satisfaction, then turned to me. "So, how about you," he said casually. "I got the impression you might have something interesting to share."

I considered my options, knowing he'd have seen most of them, probably. I considered Mephistopheles, but the candle had been bought here at the exchange, so I doubted it was that. I went with my first instinct, and incarnated Leviathan. He watched with interest as the demon descended into my body.

"Nothing ground breaking," he said after a moment. "But a reasonable defensive attribute. I'll give you a hundred contribution points for it."

I hesitated for a second, then nodded. "Fine," I said. "Now tell me what I can get with those." If possible his grin got even wider, and I couldn't help but think I'd just made a mistake. It was too late to back out now, I supposed. All I could do was stay the course.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We descended into the Chamber without me deciding what to use my contribution points on. There were just too many possibilities, and I couldn't decide what I should commit to. I was considering spending them to get my hands on another keystone artifact I could use to alter one of my demons, but I didn't have a demon in mind, and given what department Harper was in charge of I also had to consider the possibility of getting my hands on another phoenix flame, so I put it on the backburner for now.

Fortunately, my deliberation at least wasted enough time for Callie to finish condensing her anti Void inside the sphere. After that was done, it was time for us to make the trip down to learn more about the Void from our host, hopefully this had all provided some intel that was worth the cost, otherwise we'd wasted potential gear Callie might have gotten on nothing.

We approached the hole in the ground slowly. "So do we just jump in, or…?" I trailed off, waiting for some idea of how to proceed.

Dean Harper clicked his fingers lightly, and there was a ripple in the space around us. Not the air, mind, the SPACE. Whatever he did had shifted the underpinnings of reality on a layer beyond the physical. In fact, looking closer it didn't feel like spatial manipulation either. More like he was interacting with reality itself.

There was a low groan and the stone around the hole warped and shifted. It wasn't smooth or fluid, either. The rock jerked and twisted, screaming in an almost inaudible subhuman warp as it was forced to become something it wasn't meant to be to suit the unnatural will of the monster accompanying us. Finally, after about a minute of the unsettling reformation, it stopped, and we were standing at the top of a shaft of darkness ringed by a steep set of stairs that only extended about a foot from the wall.

"What the fuck was THAT?" I asked in an appalled voice.

Harper shrugged casually. "You wanted a method of descent. Now there's one there. You'll find the underpinnings of creation are more malleable at my level."

Which was an understatement. Because that wasn't Mythcrafting. It wasn't even Worldforce as far as I could tell. That had been…thought. He'd just smashed his merciless will into the universe like a club until it did what it was told. The rock had been in PAIN. I was starting to understand why they called him The Monstrosity.

Of course, I didn't say any of that, because I wasn't an idiot. I mounted the stairs and descended, though I went first just in case. Callie was still at C-rank, and I wasn't risking her safety. Especially since I had the Seal protecting me, and an A-rank suit of armor outstripped any defenses she had on hand. We hurried in, both of us eager to be as far away from Harper as possible right now. Which both did and didn't work, because he vanished as we headed down, but appeared at the bottom when we reached it. Joy.

"Welcome to the Chamber," Harper said proudly as he gestured around us at the walls…which I immediately realized were made of fucking BONES.

"Is this an Ossuary?" I asked slowly, stepping away from the walls as best I could. The bones were more than just calcium and marrow. They were steeped in the same kind of power that was brewing topside. Namely, they were all cursed. Every single one of them.

Along the walls, stretching off into the darkness, I saw small alcoves, within which pedestals of bone held up weapons and artifacts. It was a formation, all of it intricately slotted together. The bones were sucking up the cursed energy that the crucible was focusing into this place and then transmitting it like wires transmitted electricity into the weapons, which were giving it shape and function.

The energy from the alcoves rose like heat, collecting on the ceiling above us and being swept up in a torrent of dark power that flowed off into the distance like some horrible river. Even looking at it hurt my eyes. Harper chuckled. "It's wonderful, isn't it?" He said happily. "Certain materials have attunements to certain attributes, as I'm sure you know. Even mundane materials have inclinations. Bone, for instance, has a deep connection with the attribute people often refer to as 'resentment'. Resentment is, of course, the component medium of curses, and as such, bone soaks up curse energy like a sponge. It's an excellent conversion matrix for the crucible."

I looked around at the walls of interlocked bones with a slightly sick feeling. "Where did you GET all these?"

"Oh here and there," he shrugged. "Curse bones need to come from the unwilling, but you'd be surprised how many students wander in with corpses in their spatial storages. And of course, the bones don't need to be human. Plenty came from monsters and beasts hunted for credits. We buy at a premium if you have any to spare."

He headed off down the tunnel, and we followed, mostly because the idea of standing around alone in this place made my back sweat. This was not a safe place to be. "So…why curse energy? Does it have some sort of special effect on the Void?"

"In a sense," he said hesitantly. "First, we should start with the obvious question. What do you think the Void IS?"

Callie answered. "The Void is the soul of the universe. The spiritual emptiness that stands opposite the flesh of realspace. People like to pretend it separates worlds, but that's not it. It lays across reality, not between it."

He nodded. "Well put," he complimented. "That's absolutely correct…and also completely wrong."

"What do you mean?" I asked as Callie flinched back a bit. "How can it be both?"

"Because of the nature of the Void," he said patiently. "The most direct manifestation of what I mean is something you're familiar with. Recursion. Recursion is the power of belief, the trend of faith as a force that moves creation. It is, in some ways, the collective belief of reality, altering the universe in the same way that more individualized recursion alters us on a singular level."

We headed deeper into…something. Some kind of labyrinth of bone. "The Void IS the spiritual component of reality, where realspace is the physical. However, the reason this is important to note is that recursion has a much deeper impact on spiritual matter than physical."

Callie froze, her eyes going wide in horror as she figured something out. "You're saying the Void is…nothing? Potential? That the manifestations it produces are subconscious alterations based on what we believe as a collective?" Her voice was horrified, and I didn't blame her. If that was true…

Harper shook his head. "Not exclusively, though partially. What you're missing is that while universes don't have WILLS exactly, they do have…echoes. A universe is a realm, and is created by a creator god. This is a distinct position outside the cultivation hierarchy, mind, and shouldn't be confused with gods or Overgods. Regardless, because of this process, it is important to remember that universes develop certain tendencies."

"So the Void is a reflection of the subconscious of the creator god who created it?" I said uncertainly. "But wouldn't the Void be huge, spanning multiple planes? How does it pick which tendency to express."

"Calling the Void 'The Void' in the singular is inexact," he clarified. "There are many Void, just as there are many realms. The Void is usually a sort of amalgam, a composite of multiple factors. Culture and belief do have some effect, as does the natural tendency of the universe. However, the latter manifests itself more directly than one might expect."

My eyes went wide. "Void Children!" I said excitedly. "They're the manifestations of the tendency?"

"Well reasoned," he beamed, seeming genuinely impressed. "They are indeed. Void Children are the direct manifestation of the originator tendency. They act as a sort of guiding force for the Void and its denizens. If recursion is the wind that blows across the fabric of the Void, Void Children are natural windfarms. Or perhaps antibodies would be more accurate. You could consider them the subconscious manifestation of the suppressed portions of the creator god's psyche. Literal inner demons."

I frowned. "So…we need to beat them," I clarified.

"Well, not necessarily," he hedged. "Void Children can vary based on the nature of the creator god that spawned them. Some can be reasoned with. Some are quite mad. Depending on your situation, you may be able to make peace. But barring that potential outcome, you WOULD need to remove the Void Children, or at least disperse their centralized leadership, in order to take control of the general trend of the Void. Without the Children to guide the spiritual aspect of creation, recursion will become the dominant force in the spiritual space, and the Void will change to better reflect the denizens of realspace. Though whether that's an outcome you would desire can vary wildly."

We walked as he talked, heading deeper and deeper into the maze of tunnels. "Ok, this is all fascinating," I said slowly. "But what does it have to do with this place? With the resentment?"

"Ah, of course," he said with a chuckle. "I got a bit distracted. Hazard of age, I'm afraid. I so rarely get to discuss my hobbies, and I tend to wax philosophical when given the opportunity. The answer to that is simple. What IS resentment?"

I shrugged. "It's…bad feelings?" I said vaguely. "A manifestation of animus."

"It is, and it isn't," he said, with the tone of someone frustratedly trying to describe a flavor they've never tasted over the phone. "But the answer I was looking for is that it is a subconscious force that interfaces directly with inner demons. More than that, it is often used as a shield against them. How many times have you heard of someone using hatred to divert animus from one target or even from themselves?"

"That does happen," I said slowly. "But I'm not sure I understand your point. You're…what? Altering the Void Children with the resentment to repurpose them into helpful entities?"

He stopped walking. "No…" he said slowly. "But that is a FASCINATING research direction. I may use that. No, we aren't applying the resentment to the Children at all. Rather, we're using the resentment to trigger the universe's natural defensive instincts against the Children themselves. Essentially tricking the body into killing its own immune system."

We finally came to a stop outside a huge pair of bone doors, and he turned to face us. "Should our research bear fruit, we would be capable of weaponizing the conscious remnants of the tendency, for whatever values of consciousness you might believe exist, against the Void Children. These natural defenses are very real. In fact, prior to the advent of our current method of cultivation, they were triggered fairly frequently. Ancient Ascendants used to call them 'heavenly tribulations'."

He turned to the door, bracing his hand against it. "As it stands, we haven't managed to rouse that particular reaction yet, though we've taken steps to explore the reasons why. Namely descending to lower planes where the creator gods were weaker and the tendency is more easily influenced. But the star of this little project is, of course, the most powerful of my research subjects. The being I described to you in the canyon."

Pushing on the door, he swung it open, letting it fall ajar to reveal a colossal chamber inside, presumably the one that gave this place its very name. "This is an Overgod level Void Child. The purest manifestation of a realm's inner demon I have ever found…and I believe, the key to extinguishing the Void Children from all planes and handing control of the Void back to the denizens of the realspace that it echoes." And with that, he turned and walked into the Chamber, and we followed closely behind.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The Chamber was huge. Legitimately one of the biggest things I'd ever seen underground. In fact, it was so big I couldn't see the edges. Past a certain distance, clouds of mist obscured the edges of the room, and even directly on the other side of the door we weren't up against a wall, so I couldn't even use that to estimate room size.

But that wasn't what held my attention. No, that particular honor went to the THING in the center of the room.

The Void Child Overgod looked…wrong. It was almost humanoid. Kind of. It floated in the air, made of shadows too dense to make out individual details, but also lustrous enough to highlight certain features.

Subtle things about it were off, in ways that hurt to look at. Its shape was a mockery of humanity more than a similarity. Like someone had tried to design the most horrible, offensive caricature of a person they could imagine, and then dipped it in some kind of conceptually despicable acid and let it start to melt.

It was suspended over the room high enough up that I suspected it was bigger than I had guessed, perspective warping my perception of it to make it seem more of a size with the humanoids it mocked.

The actual suspension was being done by, oddly enough, chains of energy. One of them formed above us, channeled through the door from the river of resentment that had been flowing over our heads during the walk. There were innumerable chains, all linking together and braiding into bigger chains in midair to create sturdier ropes of links that would actually fit around the abomination.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Harper asked proudly. "I defeated it in single combat in a higher realm I visited. The fight lasted a hundred and twenty thousand years. I almost died over a thousand times. I did die at least seven. It remains one of my most cherished memories."

I noted the oddly long arms, the broad shoulders, and then I glanced back at Harper. "Did you base your body off that thing?"

"Of course," he said immediately. "It was one of my mightiest foes. I incorporate the power of all my defeated enemies into my form. Admittedly, this diminutive human appearance is not my TRUE visage. Should you lay eyes on my primal self your mind would tear itself apart in a desperate attempt to protect your soul from destruction. Even this fragment is far beyond what a mortal brain can accommodate."

I sighed. "Alright, fine," I said as we took in the monster. "You're scary, the Void Child is scary, this whole place is scary. So…what does that do for us? Why do you need Callie's Adherent Fire? How does it relate to your plans?"

"Excellent question," he all but shouted. "I had an idea once I saw your wonderful flame. The anti Void can nurture anti Void Children. If the Void Children themselves are antibodies of a sort based on the subconscious, could we not attune the anti Void Children to the conscious, or rather, to the more overt tendencies?"

Callie's face lit up. "You want to slip them into the system and use it to trigger the tribulation force," she said excitedly. "I understand! The Void Children are a natural expression of the creator god consciousness. If you can trick the more active portion of the tendency into accepting the anti Void Children, they might influence it. The anti Void hates the Void. Its core is the Heretic Flame. If the tendency weaponizes the anti Void Children you're hoping that hatred will be absorbed and give the resentment something to latch onto."

"Precisely," the Dean said proudly. "Of course, this is hardly a short term solution. Even for one such as myself the timescale of such a project is momentous. This possibility may only become viable far, far in the future. But still, it IS a research direction, and that in itself is worthy of celebration. After all, what purpose is there in research if not to innovate?"

"Understandable," I said after a moment. "But is there anything more…direct you can tell us? I mean, we've got a lot to unpack here, admittedly, and this is going to do us a lot of good long term I suspect. But do you have like…a few other attributes we might be able to weaponize?"

He raised an eyebrow at me. "I suppose I might be able to part with something that could help as one of the girl's promised reward items. But the question then becomes, what exactly are you hoping to accomplish? Do you want to destroy the Void Children? Subvert them? I don't know your situation, so it's difficult to make suggestions for that purpose."

I turned to Callie. "Well, you're the Void expert, love. So, do you have any ideas what might help you? We could just go for some directly applicable abilities like buffs or enhancements. The opposite of curses."

She bit her lip, clearly thinking. "The opposite of curses," she said slowly. Her eyes flicked to Harper. "Do you have any curse based phoenix items? Do such things exist?"

"They do," he acknowledged. "And yes. Are you planning to attempt to weaponize your husband's bloodline abilities against the Void Children? I suppose a curse with a consciousness might be more likely to interface with the tribulation force. I haven't tried that tactic. Another possible avenue to pursue."

She shook her head. "Not like that," she corrected. "Resentment is…it's not what we need. That's like trying to cure poison with poison. Void Children are the inner demons of the tendency. You don't fix resentment with more resentment. You fix it with forgiveness."

My eyes went wide. "You want to invert a resentment themed phoenix artifact with the Vault and then merge it with one of my demons," I said in shock. "Create a phoenix whose sole purpose is to alleviate the subconscious darkness that manifests from the Void?" It was brilliant, honestly, in a very crazy sort of way. I wasn't sure I could even use one of her manifested items as a base for a demon…but I also wasn't sure I couldn't.

In fact, it would make a lot of sense. Several of my demons' original forms had been based on attacks I had stored from Callie, so there was precedent for it. I'd need a demon who would resonate, but I was pretty sure I actually had one. Genesis Burst was made to heal souls, and this would essentially be healing the soul of the universe, on a very small scale.

Honestly, it was something deeply theoretical I wouldn't have even considered if I hadn't been training Mythcrafting with Professor Hawkins recently. I was blown away by the whole idea. I hadn't even considered combining Callie's vault and its inversion with my ability to integrate objects via Brad's mysterious attribute. I glanced at Harper. "Would that work?" I asked slowly. "What would an inverted resentment attribute do to a Void Child?"

"Haven't the foggiest," he said with a cheerful shrug. "Do you think manifesting this much energy is simple? This project is the accumulation of generations of research and funding. It's the collected resentment of an entire academy's worth of students' failures and mistakes collected in the most streamlined way possible. The amount of resentment collected and shaped in this place is beyond the scale of what you could possibly conceive from your limited perspective. Manifesting an antithetical force on this scale would be impossible. And anything less…"

"Wouldn't work," I sighed as I glanced up at the captured Overgod. "So do you think it's worth trying?"

He laughed at that, though not unkindly. "Of COURSE I do. It'll be a fascinating study. I'm curious how it would even function. Would you need to purify them alive? Would destroying them purify the negative trend? Will anything happen at all? So many interesting questions."

"And you have a phoenix artifact that'll work?" Callie asked again. "What is it exactly? It has to be at the right level for us. I can manage a B-rank artifact, but nothing beyond that."

"Phoenixes are fascinating creatures," he said with a nod. "They have almost no natural affinity as a species. Or rather, they have an affinity for affinities. Phoenixes are the ultimate evolvers. They can adapt to almost any environment, change to suit any type of energy. There is almost nothing in creation that a phoenix can't embody. I suspect it has to do with the mechanics of their rebirth. Regardless, yes, I possess an item created from such a phoenix."

Snapping his fingers, he did…something. There was a shudder and a device appeared in his hands. It was, quite frankly, the most horrible thing I'd ever seen. A black metal gauntlet with spikes coming off of it. It had what could generously be described as a shield welded onto the forearm, but was, in reality, something more like a sawblade, except it was sort of domed (or maybe coned, since even that had a point) with small slits in it.

"This is a lantern shield," he said with amusement as he saw our reaction. "The flame inside of it is a substance I affectionately refer to as 'Hatefire'. Most people assume it's some kind of ghostflame, but in fact, it originated from a resentment attributed phoenix whose soul was bound into the shield by a relatively mad witch hunter I once had the misfortune of meeting. This item is exceptionally old, and has degraded over time. It is currently approximately low B-rank in terms of Impact. The Hatefire has been eroding the structure for quite some time."

Considering the guy who made that claim had casually mentioned have a hundred and fifty thousand year FIGHT, not long ago like it was an evening at the theater, I didn't want to know what he considered exceptionally old.

Callie, meanwhile, was staring at the object, looking wary but determined. She reached out and touched it, and it vanished. "That's one," said Harper with amusement. "You have two more."

"What do you think I should try?" she asked the Overgod. "You said you'd give advice."

He nodded thoughtfully. "I believe you should take advantage of ambiguity in the nature of your power. There's a spear in here that absorbs blood to enhance its durability. An inversion of that would potentially be the ability to ERODE the durability of other objects the more blood it SHEDS. Which might be useful."

"That would work," Callie said with a nod. "How about something purely beneficial?"

"An inverted curse," he nodded. "There's a cursed set of manacles that prevents wounds from healing. Deeply unpleasant items. I suppose an inversion would create healing shackles, which might be useful. Their ability to shut down regeneration is one of the most effective I've ever seen, so I suppose the inverted set would be able to heal injuries regardless of the cause."

Callie lit up at that. I couldn't blame her. That sounded incredibly overpowered. "Those would work," she said excitedly. "When can I pick them up?"

He rolled his eyes. "You can't. The Lantern shield was never an integral part of this formation. The other two are. I'll need to extricate them manually and send them to your residence. For now, I believe I have upheld my end of our bargain. I have research to resume." He tossed the sphere of Adherent Fire into the air with excitement. "You two know the way out. You can go."

And then, suddenly, he was just…gone. We turned and saw the door rushing toward us, warping the very space until it swallowed us up, slamming shit behind us, I looked around at the walls and the bones glinted menacingly in the low light. I called for Zagan, coating us both in purification, and I triggered my rank boost just in case. "We should go," I told Callie quietly. And then I took her hand and we ran. Worst. Host. Ever.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

We ended up back in Common City before too long. We didn't run all the way there, obviously, but we did hurry back because we had some research to do. As soon as we were somewhere private (we ended up having the meeting in my Domain, in the meeting chamber behind my throne room), I called Dantalion out, along with Wisdom of Solomon, and even Nine Phoenix himself, and consulted them about the feasibility of Callie's idea.

I was pretty sure it would work, to be honest, but then, I didn't have the theoretical foundation that Dan did. Even during our incarnations, I was only absorbing relevant memories when they came up. Dan was constantly intaking so much information that a full download every time I incarnated him would have gridlocked my brain every time I'd tried. He knew everything I knew, and plenty more, and he was the first person to ask about a project like this.

Of course, I DID have some ideas, especially given my research, but I wanted a second opinion, and sure enough, he gave it to me directly. "It might work," he agreed after a moment's conferral with the other two. "In fact, I believe it can. But there's a problem, and I think you know what it is."

I sighed. "Structure," I said grimly. "Brad's technique isn't designed to function as a full support. This would be a comprehensive upgrade for Genesis Burst. I take it you came up with the same solution as I did?"

"You need to use Mythcrafting build a support structure," he confirmed. "Something that has an opening where you can slot the device. Brad can open pits in anything, and if you leave a space for it to occupy, it should allow the timepiece to act as a foundation. Personally, I would advise putting it off until a later date, once you have more practice."

"No," I said immediately, voice firm. "No waiting. It needs to happen now. I can just…feel it. It's important."

Callie perked up. "Important as in 'I'm paranoid my wife will lose her ugly new shield' important or 'tomorrow afternoon we're all going to be on fire' important. Because one of those is going to pull a thread." Her tone was joking, but I could tell through the bond she wasn't happy with what she was feeling from me.

I just shrugged. "No idea. Just…important."

"Why did you have to be a Fatewalker," she moaned. "Why couldn't you have been a 'detailed hand written manual-walker' or a 'good news about cake-walker'?"

"Aesthetics, probably," I grinned. "But I'll pass the suggestions along to the DS developers if I ever end up meeting them. Anyway, I can come up with something for a timepiece, I have the experience. I'll need to study the lantern shield after you invert it. Are you sure it won't like…hurt you to have it permanently removed?"

She waved me off. "It's fine. I've been working on my Domain a ton. I can remove things permanently under certain conditions. The only real drawback is that the lantern shield itself won't be able to leave the vault. In order for the inversion to remain permanently active I need to sacrifice the original. It's called Enshrinement, and it's a new trick I've been working on. I was going to surprise you with the ability to make powerful permanent items we could sell."

"That's amazing," I told her, my voice filled with awe. "Your vault has so much potential already, but permanently making inversions is…that's a game changer."

No wonder she'd been putting so much work finding new artifacts to test out. Crafting wasn't so easy that just anyone could do it, and the canyon made it clear that it was apparently a lot easier to make things that cause harm than things that help. With access to the local supply of cursed items and the ability to make permanent stuff, Callie could potentially supply our whole faction with high quality, powerful gear.

Honestly, I had kind of taken for granted how overpowered my Domain was, and that was still true, but this kind of proved that I shouldn't underestimate the Domains of other powerful people my age. Not just Callie, the midterms had shown that Domains could have strange and complicated effects that surpassed my expectations.

"Alright," she said excitedly. "So, we're really doing this. Creating a new phoenix template. I love this kind of stuff. Speaking of love, what should we call this stuff? The opposite of Hatefire is…what, Lovefire?"

"We're NOT calling it that," I said firmly. "I'm not telling people that I'm a love phoenix. Besides, Hatefire is just a catchy name Harper used. It's more resentment than hate, remember. We're supposed to be pacifying them. That's why I picked Genesis Burst. It's a healing flame for souls. I'm imagining us helping the Void Children pass on, releasing them from their suffering. So how about something like…Peaceflame."

She reached out and took my hand, smiling at me softly. "I like that," she said in a warm voice. "I like that a lot. And I like that you think of it that way even more. This is a special template. I'm glad we're not making it with animus in mind. That feels right."

I squeezed back. "This is like Life Nova," I assured her. "Its purpose is healing. It's just a different kind of patient."

"Actually," she said slowly. "Maybe we can fine tune it with a bit of tweaking. How do you feel about some test subjects? Remember we wanted to try to help Bethy's siblings? Their behavior certainly sounds a lot like the resentment Harper told us about. In fact, some people consider Vampirism a curse. I bet your Peaceflame could purify their bloodlines."

"Huh," I said as I thought it through. "Maybe some of us will be on fire tomorrow afternoon. Though probably not that soon. But yeah, if that works…we could help Bethy. Fully help her. Purify all the malice from both bloodlines maybe. Or at the very least purify the bloodlust from the vampire." The more I hashed it out in my head, the more excited I got. Bethy had been asking for help for so long, and I'd been working in stages, but it was easy to get wrapped up in my own stuff, and she was always so good at keeping things bottled up."

Callie brought my hand up to her lips and kissed it with an adoring smile. "I'm sure she'll be thrilled. But are you sure you can do it?"

"Bethy is still peak C-rank," I informed her excitedly. "With the Pillar, I can bump myself up to A-rank. Her bloodline is strong, but direct exposure to a specialized purification phoenix that's two ranks higher? If it's feasible on her siblings, I can make it work. In fact, I can alter my timepiece design to MAKE it more feasible. I'll need to talk to Professor Hawkins about this. Lucky we got those contribution points. Harper said you can use those to commission research projects."

Professor Hawkins had been planning to continue my education, but not the same way he had when he'd been working with me on our project. That was actual interference, and I got the impression he hadn't really been SUPPOSED to do it, and had used my interesting concept as an excuse to help.

Now though, he had no excuse. The contribution points would provide a way for me to pay him, and for him to help more directly with my development like he had before. I was hoping with his help, we'd be able to create something that could help not only the Void Children, but my friend and her siblings too. I knew Lark was worried enough about them to pawn them off on us, which said some fairly alarming things about their states of mind given the kind of things he did casually.

She nodded excitedly. "I might approach one of the crafting professors if I can find and in. I bet they would have some amazing ideas for how to apply my Domain, and I can't imagine it's a common mechanism. I bet a crafter would be fascinated to study how it works. Or deeply offended that I'm essentially phoning in their whole profession…maybe I shouldn't talk to a professor."

I waved her off. "I get the impression most people kind of count Domain stuff as part of your bag of tricks. You're a crafter now, they'll consider you one. Also, realistically, no matter how cheap your ability is, it has limits. I doubt you're a threat to literal crafting gods, much less a whole faculty of them. Like there's only so much one person can damage the market, especially if you can only do one for one swaps with permanent items." I could see her point, but it didn't seem likely that her power was going to seriously disturb the crafting ecosystem here of all places.

She coughed in embarrassment. "Oh. Right. Guess I got a bit carried away thinking about how cool my new power is."

"Nah, I get that," I assured her energetically. "My new Arch-Demon form is fantastic. There's something so fun about iterating and working on new applications for your abilities. Honestly, I've been feeling a bit aimless since I completed my Domain. The thrill of discovery is something I always loved. Hence the whole…seventy two demons thing."

She snorted. "I've been deceived. You're supposed to be a big reckless meathead. Turns out I married a huge nerd. Oh the humanity."

"Hey, watch it," I said dramatically. "You're going to ruin my reputation." Pulling my mask up, I leaned down to give her a peck on the lips. "And I love you too. Fellow nerd. Don't worry. It'll be our secret. Just between you and me. And me. And me. And a fourth version of me." I shot a glance at my demons. "Keep this one in the box, boys."

"Wasn't listening, don't care," Dan called as he looked over his shoulder briefly and returned to his powwow.

I shook my head despairingly. "No respect," I whined. "I remember when he used to call me 'my lord' all the time. I've clearly been spending far too much time with him working on my research. The shine is off the apple."

Of course, Dan was ALWAYS respectful. He was teasing, something he DID only get comfortable enough to do once we'd worked together for a while.

Callie just nodded. "I too have trouble maintaining respect for you after prolonged exposure. You're best enjoyed in short bursts. Like a puppy." She winked, blowing me a kiss as she hopped out of her chair. "Whoops gotta go love you, bye!" She vanished in a burst of blue black flames.

I rolled my eyes fondly. She could travel to her Domain from mine through the Angelic bond, though she only used like that it when she was being playful.

Chuckling, I turned to Dan. "So, any notes?" I asked my information demon. "I know you WERE listening. I was always planning to ask for your feedback. I think the Professor should be able to help, even if this isn't his exact field of study."

"Outside his bailiwick as this may be," Dan said wryly. "The man is a god, and an experienced Mythcrafter. He should be more than up to the task of aiding us, even in such an obscure endeavor. Though the involvement of the lantern shield does worry me a bit. Even if it has degraded, are we really sure putting such a thing into a timepiece is wise?"

"I considered that," I admitted. "But since Callie is making the copy, it won't be the original. No chance of a freak recovery because the inversion won't be a degraded ancient artifact, just a normal one she made."

He hummed in acknowledgement. "Well then, I suppose I have no further concerns. I take it you plan to approach him soon?"

I nodded solemnly. "Yup. Tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll try to start this research project. Like I said, I have the feeling this needs to happen soon." I had no idea why, but my instincts were screaming at me that getting this done was important. I was happy to work on the project, I just really wished I could do it without the knot in my stomach. I had a feeling my instinctive drive to hurry meant nothing good.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

"I can't help you with that," my teacher told me bluntly after I explained my problem to him. I froze. I hadn't expected that. I'd figured he would be excited by the challenge, especially with the contribution points to smooth things over.

"If this is about payment," I started, scrounging for an alternative. Did I have anything else the professor wanted? I was a decent Mythcrafter by this point, and getting better by the day, but I didn't have the theoretical foundation to manage something this complicated. The interaction between the two Domains, the ancient drained artifact, and the Nine Phoenix Template needed to be machined to a nearly infinitesimal precision. I had zero hope of doing it alone.

He sighed, shaking his head. "I don't mean I WON'T help you, kid. I mean I CAN'T. Your proposal is fascinating, don't get me wrong. But it's got no theoretical grounding. I wouldn't even know where to start. Your demon's unique attribute, the inverted object, the anchoring mechanism, not to mention the unique nature of the totem you're attempting to make. It's like trying to stitch together a masterwork painting from scraps of other canvases. It's MUCH harder than painting it yourself."

"So…it's not possible," I said, slumping back onto the couch. "If you can't do it…"

"I didn't say that," he snapped. "There's just too many variables. Hell, I could probably manage if I had a bit of experience with even half those factors. Though I'm guessing you don't have and drained remnants of ancient deities perfectly attuned to phoenixes lying around for me to experiment with."

I froze. Because…I did have one of those. In fact, I hadn't really found a USE for it since I had finished using it to craft my Cosmic Phoenix bloodline. "Would something like a sword made from a phoenix feather formerly imbued with hostile worldforce that I cleansed work?"

He turned to stare at me. "Explain," he said slowly.

So I did. I told him about Drexel, about cleansing the feather with Atlas's ritual, about using the Cosmic Phoenix flame to create a template and then refine my bloodline, and how I still had it just kind of…lying around.

Because of the suppression in the chasm for who knew how long, mixed with the purification, the Cosmic Phoenix feather sword was about peak C-rank or low B-rank at this point. It used to be much more powerful, but a large portion of that power had been worldforce I'd wiped out, and it hadn't been able to recover more than a bit of its former strength.

"What is your life?" he complained. "I'm a literal god and I don't run into so many good things. A Cosmic Phoenix feather? One that perfectly complements your body tempering technique? Do you know how RARE those are? People LITERALLY compare rare things to phoenix feathers as a godsdamned idiom!"

I shrugged. "I mean, there are a lot of universes out there, I'm sure they're not that rare."

"And you think ALL universes have spatial phoenixes as their creation event?" he asked dryly. "Kid, you literally have a Domain. You know that gods evolve them into realms, which can evolve into planes. How many gods do you know whose Domain is founded on something like phoenix fire? And how many of those do you think make it to Overgod or Worldgod? Beyond that, phoenixes are adaptive. A space attribute phoenix needs to be exposed to an extremely overbearing spatial terrain, and those aren't common in almost ANY universe."

I thought about the chasm, but I realized by now that my universe wasn't exactly standard. It wasn't some super special unique snowflake world, but there were quite a few rarities tucked under the hood of my little corner of the sky.

Deciding it would be faster, I just withdrew the feather, setting it down on the table with a clank. The item was still in the shape of a sword, having been forged into that form by Drexel presumably. I didn't really use those, and I'd been considering giving it to Callie to see what the Vault might do to it, but this seemed like a more urgent use, sadly.

He reached down, picking it up gingerly. "And you said you already have a matching template and bloodline?"

"Yeah, I deduced it myself," I said proudly. "You think that'll help?"

"I do," he said with a thoughtful nod. "I can use it to map the interaction between the artifact, your bloodline, and the timepiece. It should allow me to model a projected design outcome for the new template. You'll need to curate it carefully to make sure it fits the mechanism. We need to ensure that object, timepiece, and template are all perfectly aligned. Especially if you plant to build in an anchor point for other mechanisms like last time."

Grinning sheepishly, I shrugged. "I mean…I kind of was. I'd have three of them now. Or at least, Life Nova basically counts. I might need to anchor the template there when I design my timepiece for that one. But that leaves me with a need for a matching demon to use as a baseline. Mephistopheles fit the ruin phoenix well enough for us to brute force it, but this seems like it'll be more delicate."

"Your Waltz should do," he said with a shrug. "It has flame and space attributes. That should be plenty to work from." He nodded as if he was solidifying his idea. "Yes. With a stable template to reverse engineer, a similar object to map the trajectories, and a trial run with all the necessary attributes, I believe I can come up with something."

"Will the one hundred contribution points be enough?" I asked worriedly. "Wouldn't this be two research projects?"

He waved his hand dismissively. "Prototyping is a part of development. Upgrading your Waltz should be within bounds, considering we won't need to apply for too many materials for the work. Not NONE, mind you, but the ones I need will be reusable. I suspect a quantum state multiplier would be helpful here. Temporal resonance stabilizers for the chronoflow inducers…" he trailed off, clearly noting my blank look even through my mask.

"There are tools that can aid in Mythcrafting," he said dryly. "Shortcuts and analysis devices that can streamline the creation process. I didn't apply for any of them last time, because quite frankly your other projects didn't warrant the expense. Contribution points don't go on trees. But with an actual project budget, we can afford to be a bit extravagant, and especially if we're planning to complete two such fascinating constructions before the finals, we will most likely need it. You DO want them done by the finals, I assume?"

I consulted my instincts, knowing they wouldn't steer me wrong. "Yes," I said after a brief consideration. "By the finals is important."

He wrinkled his nose. "Must you rely on base instinctive divination in my presence? You could at least pretend to think critically. Allegra is a terrible influence. But no matter. You've stated the projected timeline, and we shall simply soldier on." He picked up the feather sword. "I assume you won't mind me holding onto this? I need to take some readings. I'll also need to examine YOU to establish baseline parameters related to your cosmic bloodline."

I nodded dazedly, but in my head, I was already all but blazing with excitement. Mephisto's Waltz was one of my earlier creations, but its use had somewhat waned over time. It was based on one of my mother's techniques, actually, and had been the first one I'd created when she explained technique creation to me years ago.

Sadly, over time, I had sort of left it in the dust. Teleportation through flame became more difficult as I arrived in more weighty places with higher Impact. The Waltz used Mephistopheles's destructive flames to essentially destroy the space between the start and end of my movement. It was powerful, but also inelegant, and it got harder the further I went.

But this…this could be a game changer. The Cosmic Phoenix bloodline was one of my most powerful and mysterious. It had strange interactions with space that even the Dean considered interesting. Imagining what a….a Cosmic Waltz would be capable of left me almost shivering with anticipation. Not to mention possible combinations with my other phoenix template demons, because this would mark several of them.

Professor Hawkins was looking at me with an amused smirk, but he didn't make any comments about my obvious enthusiasm. I supposed he was used to seeing this from students. "Sure," I told him as I passed the blade over. "I'll leave it with you tonight and head back over tomorrow for the testing. How do I transfer you the contribution points?"

"You don't," he said bluntly. "You're not a postgraduate student or a faculty member. You can't HAVE contribution points. Dean Harper will be holding them in trust, and I'll contact him to retrieve them. It's functionally the same process as you transferring them yourself, but there's no real mechanism for students to accrue contribution points. The instances of it happening are rare enough we've never seen the need to formalize it, and when it does the student in question mostly redeems them on the project in question."

I shrugged. "Fair enough, I trust you to make it happen."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "I suspect you don't realize the value of what you've offered, or you wouldn't be quite so cavalier. But in this case your trust is not misplaced. In fact, allowing me to fund the project will have benefits. My faculty access is far greater than most. If you had to put a title on it, you would probably call me an advanced professor. I get preferential deals on certain project assets and have access to locations and devices other faculty do not. Ones you would be unable to avail yourself of had you a way to directly fund this project."

"Well, I appreciate it," I told him respectfully. "I appreciate all the help you've given me."

"It is in my own best interest," he shrugged dismissively. "You present several unique research opportunities. Assisting you is simply the most efficient way to gain further access to those potential benefits in a timely manner."

"Timely manner," I said with a chuckle. "Was that a joke?"

He glowered at me. "It was not. I do not make puns. They're the lowest form of humor. Regardless, you may leave. I have an artifact to study and preliminary plans to make. My designs will no doubt require revision once we've completed the tests, but having a baseline will help me prioritize the most necessary tests and minimize waste. We only have so many contribution points to spend, and two iterations to complete with them. Best to maximize resources."

He's already seen my process up close, so he had more than enough knowledge of how my designs worked to begin the process on his own. I nodded gratefully and turned to leave, ready to head off and tell Callie the project was go.

"Oh, and make sure to bring your wife with you for the testing," he said lazily without looking up. "I'll sign off on an entrance pass. If she's going to be constructing the anchor material for the second iteration, I'll need to analyze her ability and how it works on similar objects. It would behoove us to start the process early."

Huh, apparently I was going to get to see the inversion of the feather after all. I couldn't wait to see what that ended up being. Maybe Callie could use it for her research while she still had access. It should be an interesting application of space, and might help her draw the attention of some of her department's professors. I couldn't wait to tell her all about this. My next few months were going to be both busy and exciting.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

The next day, Callie arrived early in the morning. I was beaming as I met her at the platform with a cup of coffee. After stocking up on my scrolls, we headed for the address Professor Hawkins had given me, both excited about the experiments to come.

"I can't believe I didn't even THINK of inverting the feather!" Callie gushed as we hurried down the street. "It's PERFECT. I can't wait to see what we end up with. I could learn so MUCH. The cosmic phoenix flame was instrumental in creating my Domain, and I just know that learning its inverse will help me take a step forward in my application of the Adherent Fire!"

I had to stifle a laugh at her enthusiasm. She'd been in mid search for an advisor to work with her on the Vault when I'd contacted her, and she was more than happy to put that search on hold to come do some research with my mentor. The two of them had never met, but she'd heard a ton about Professor Hawkins from me, and she was excited to see the real thing. Not to mention she was, despite her namecalling, as much of a nerd as I was about these things.

We arrived at the spot in question pretty early on, but I was more than a little surprised to see a familiar face waiting for us. "Elonwy?" I asked in surprise.

My friend turned to arch an eyebrow at me. "What? You thought I was growing out of the back of that counter or something? I CAN leave the exchange. And no way in hell was I going to miss a new research project. Your little independent study with Prof Hawkins was one thing, but this is a real funded project. The amount I can learn from this is immeasurable. Plus I might be able to sneak a few turns on the equipment when the Prof is busy with your tests."

"And the truth comes out," I said dramatically, raising the back of my wrist to my forehead. "Our friendship was a lie. You were just using me to farm benefits."

"Obviously," she said haughtily. "Dance for my contribution points, monkey."

I snorted at her. "Are we talking animals now?" I asked her snarkily, putting a hand over mine like I was pulling away a cloth and revealing my middle finger. "Look, a bird."

"Shane, do not openly mock S-rankers," my wife said tiredly. Elonwyn grinned smugly at me…until Callie continued. "You should be more subtle about it. They can't do anything to you if they don't have proof. And sometimes they don't even notice."

Elonwy let out a snort of laughter. "Oh I LIKE her. Now come along, children. We have a lot of ground to cover, and not much time. We'll be taking my car. It's parked right over here."

I blinked. I hadn't really SEEN any cars around here, and had just kind of assumed that parallel development had led them to take their transportation in a different way. Instead, she led us around the corner to…well…a car. It was an old looking beast too. Big heavy wheels in the back and a pair of fins coming off the body. The paint was a sort of shifting hue of winter colors, starting at the hood in matte black and then flowing through that to blue, then green, then purple at the tips.

"Get in," Elonwy said as she popped open the drivers side. I grimaced as a small tidal wave of papers flowed out from the seat, and she quickly shoveled them back inside with an embarrassed cough. "Watch my research," she said apologetically.

We did our best, but the whole car was buried in almost an avalanche of what appeared to be scrap paper with ideas written all over it. I picked up a few of them, and some of the ideas weren't even related to time. "Orange parka fashion statement?" I read aloud. "Blue snakes are sneakier. Invest in wombats."

"Shit, I forgot about that," Elonwy said with a wince. "Car, remind me to call my broker," she announced loudly.

Callie reached down to pick up another torn scrap with a message written across it. "Remember to install voice activation system in car," she read aloud, before flipping it over. "Remember to buy voice activation system, and pay extra for installation at purchase."

Elonwy's eyes widened. "Is that where that went? I thought I put that one in the visor. Wait, what DID I put in the visor then?" She reached up and opened it, drawing out yet another scrap of paper. This one was covered in huge bright red letters that red "DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR IN THE BASEMENT!" She paused, reading over it worriedly. "I…do not remember writing this. I DO remember leaving that door open when I left home this morning. That's concerning." She stared for a second then shrugged. "Oh well, I'll deal with that later."

"That seems like it might be important," I said weakly, trying not to flinch at the feeling of utter doom wafting off that note.

She waved me off. "It might not be from now. I leave myself notes from other timelines sometimes, I might be talking about opening it later on. I'll just close it when I get home. I can take care of anything in my house…probably. Nothing in those notes is almost ever serious. I mean, there was the plague of Second eating Scarabs that got out of the box I found in the Heartbeat Temple, but I don't have any mysterious containers lying around right now. I'm almost positive."

"How are you this disorganized?" I asked worriedly. "You run the exchange, we should all be dead."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm living at least eleven different timelines right now, Shane. Some of them are moving at different speeds. One of them is yesterday. Two others are happening next year. It gets hectic, ok?"

"Wait, is that your ability?" I prodded with interest. "Some kind of temporal omnipresence?"

"No, temporal folding is a technique," she said dismissively. "It's an advanced discipline."

I remembered that teacher who taught it, and how I'd thought it might be relevant to Limbo. Sadly, I didn't think I'd be able to take it. I still hadn't had my first class with the Dean yet, actually, I needed to make sure to go to that. Professor Hawkins would probably try to get me out of it, but Dean Gibbons was one of the most knowledgeable temporal engineers in existence. Even a minute of his time was priceless. Or rather, pricey, because I'd already paid and it wasn't cheap.

Elonwy put the car in gear as we fumbled around for seatbelts. Wearing them seemed pointless given our strength and gear, but she insisted, so we buckled up. Within seconds, we were peeling out, and I had to slam my eyes shut as the world outside the car…bent. It was a strange and deeply unsettling thing to witness, as the images splintered into a million stop motion captures of overlapping time, and it was burned into my brain.

I groaned and gripped my head, and Elonwy hissed in sympathy. "Ah, sorry. I forgot to warn you. Four dimensional travel can be a bit rough on the uninitiated."

"Wait, this car travels in time?" I asked in confusion.

"Well, it travels in time as a dimension in space," she corrected. "The fourth dimension is still a spatial construct, there's just temporal overlap. There are spatial ramifications to its access that I can't really explain without getting extremely theoretical, but yes, this car is my thesis project. It's ALSO the only way we're going to get to the lab in any reasonable amount of time. It's not close." I kept my eyes closed, and covered Callie's face despite knowing she REALLY wanted to look. Finally, after what seemed like a few moments, the car jerked. "Alright, we're here," she said casually. "You can look now."

I uncovered my eyes with a light wince, but nothing happened. We were no longer moving. Now we were parked…in a neighborhood.

Specifically, along a street lined with nearly identical houses, each one of which had a nearly identical mailbox out front of it. Nearly because they each had a slightly different number on them, and the one we were currently parked at was listed as number ten thousand four hundred and seventy six.

"Where are we?" I asked cautiously as we climbed out.

"The Nested Continuum," she said grimly. "This is technically one house. It's been put through an infinite potential loop by the Dean. It's one of his experimental labs. He abandoned it a few centuries ago once he finished gathering data, but he ran so many different experiments here that the houses ended up as storage for most of the high end equipment in the department."

I looked up at the house. "Interesting," I said as I fought the urge to trigger Kronos and look at the timescape here. Considering what had happened when I boosted that form, I was pretty sure I should NOT do that. Instead I followed Elonwy around the house to what appeared to be a large, flat grey pair of doors set diagonally into the ground at the base of the house. She knelt down, fishing out a key, and jammed it into the metal without having an actual lock present.

The doors swung open soundlessly, revealing a set of stone steps leading down into darkness. Without saying a word, Elonwy strode off into the hole in the ground.

"Come and meet us in this creepy dungeon," I muttered. "Where nobody can hear you scream."

Callie snorted, knowing I wasn't really worried, but she threaded her fingers through mine anyway. We descended the stairs together, and as soon as we entered the darkness, it sort of…consumed us. Like it was some kind of straw sucking us up and spitting us out the other side, but it all happened in a few steps.

We arrived in a large open room full of strange devices. The walls were lined with shelves, some containing glass jars or boxes with unusual things in them. Organs that acted like working parts, energy that shifted along a spectrum as if it was dying and being reborn, flames that weren't moving at all, frozen in time before our eyes. Professor Hawkins was standing at one of the machines checking some readings I couldn't parse.

When we entered, he looked up and caught our eyes. "Oh, you're here," he said absently. "Excellent. Here, take this," he flicked his hand and my cosmic phoenix blade shot out and thumped into the wall a few inches from my face. I swallowed and grabbed it, trying to pull it free and being forced to genuinely strain to do so.

I passed it to Callie, who deposited it immediately in her Domain before turning to take in the sight of my advisor doing what appeared to be mad science. "So…" she said lightly. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," he said without looking up. "The boy never shuts up about you. I'm certain you're a lovely person. Apologies for my current state of distraction."

"Not at all," she assured him. "I was expecting it. So, you want to see what my Domain does?"

He nodded. "I do, it certainly seems novel enough. If the functions are complete enough, we can attempt to use your method as a foundation for the form in question. Which means you'll need to present me with a copied artifact to analyze."

"Sure," she said excitedly. "I can do that. And I'm excited to get your analysis on this one in particular. I don't suppose you'd be willing to share your findings?"

"By all means," he shrugged. "I'm not certain the data will be legible without an understanding of the machine, but I assume Shane can parse it for you over a long enough time period." He tapped a few more things. "Now," he said as he turned around. "It is time to begin. Present the inversion, and we will commence the experiment." Somehow, that was WAY more ominous than the creepy dark hole in the ground. Go figure.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

Despite how ominous the Professor made the experiment sound, the first thing he wanted to do was, obviously, test the sword. He had us square up in a cleared area of the basement, and I triggered my staff and Mornax, making sure my defenses FAR outstripped the bounds of what even the cheapest artifact could do in the hands of a peak C-ranker.

The new sword was…weird. It looked very similar, except it was reddish purple. It burned with a weird kind of destabilizing light. Looking at it made me uncomfortable in a way I couldn't pin down.

Honestly, it kind of reminded me of the lantern shield in a way. Not in terms of attribute, but more the general malice of the thing. This might be a better comparison than I had expected, actually.

"You ready for this?" my wife asked gleefully as she whirled the absurdly powerful artifact. "I'm not going to go easy on you just because your mentor is here. Despite her words being for me, her eyes weren't leaving the blade, fixed on the flickering red of the glowing sword and its almost unnatural pulsing.

I just chuckled. "Professor? Elonwy? We good to start?"

The Professor held up a finger, then reached up to smack the side of the machine he'd been fiddling with. It whined and spat out a puff of smoke and he nodded. "Now we are. You may begin." Before we started work, I called Dantalion from Gehenna, sending him over to study the machine and the results that the Professor was working on as we tested. I even triggered my staff's boost a second time, making sure Dan was pushed up to tier nine for his study session, just in case.

Callie surged forward, wings fluttering, body flowing from one movement to the next. She looked…ghostly. Almost surreal. I could see that she'd been working on applying her spatial manipulation to her sword work. I hadn't seen this little trick before, so it must have been new. What was DEFINITELY new, however, was the strange sensation I felt as I moved to avoid the blow.

I felt like I was trying to dodge gravity. Not in the sense that it was heavy, but in the sense that her strike was EVERYWHERE. It closed in from all angles, seemingly taking up way more space than it was supposed to and I grimaced as the blade clashed against my rocky flesh with no possible means of avoidance.

"What the fuck was THAT?" I asked in disbelief. "That was…were you attacking me from a hundred angles at once?"

"Not exactly," said Elonwy as she approached to examine the blade where it pulsed eerily in my wife's hand. "If I don't miss my guess, that's some sort of spatial singularity effect." She glanced at Professor Hawkins. "Am I close?"

He looked up from his position studying the device. "Yes and no. It's not a singularity, but it is a sort of…collapse. The original form of that attribute expands space in a stable manner. This one seems to CONDENSE space in an unstable one. Imagine the space surrounding a person was crumpled up in a ball and hurled at them. Everything collapses inward, using the blade as a vector. All directions become the strike as it closes in around you."

Callie looked almost apoplectic with joy. "That's AMAZING! Shane, hold still and let me do it again!"

And so she did. Again. And again. And again. She moved like a ghost, slashing at me from blind spots and weak points in my perception, not that it mattered because as soon as she started to attack all I could perceive was the sword. After a few more tests, she started trying to infuse her Adherent Fire, which worked surprisingly well, but the more she tried to wean herself off depending on the inverted phoenix sword, the less it worked.

"Damn it," she snapped. "I don't need an attribute for this. I CAN recreate it with the one I have, just watch."

She flicked her fingers and the sword vanished, replaced by Oblique, the inverted form of her soul weapon. Without missing a beat, Elonwy appeared, holding out a hand, and Callie dropped the original phoenix blade into her hand. Elonwy nodded. "We've still got the monitoring equipment up and running, so I can give you the readings of your attempts as you work. Do you want to study the results we already have?'

"No need," I said with a grin. "I've already had someone on it." I glanced at Dan. "You get enough to distill some of that for her?"

My information demon nodded. "I did. At least some of it. I'm lucky I was operating at peak efficiency, or I might not have managed even this much." He glanced at Callie. "How should we do this?"

"I have an idea," I said excitedly. "Hold on." I reached into Gehenna again, withdrawing Owen and calling out Angelic Bond. "Alright, do you three think you could make something work here?" I asked them in an eager tone. "If Dan could download the info he's got into the Overlay and then Angelic Bond could transfer it directly to Callie? Like a training program."

"It IS information," Dan said slowly. "Owen himself contains an information attribute, as you're aware. My own capabilities are almost entirely based around that attribute, from what I can surmise. You've seen the things I can accomplish within that purview."

I had. Dan could do more than just analyze data. He could INTERFACE with information. Back during the succession war, he'd actually manipulated a computer using his abilities with data. I hadn't had much use for it since, because I didn't interact much with machines, but it was a clear demonstration of exactly how much potential he had with the information attribute, if nothing else.

"I just wish I had timepieces done for all of you," I groused. "I could create and Arch Demon for this exact purpose."

"Do NOT do that," Callie snapped from where she was standing. "That would be a huge waste of time and effort. If they can't help me as is, I'll just deal with it on my own. Don't waste one of what I imagine are limited slots on this. I assume they're limited?"

I frowned, thinking about it. "I don't know," I said slowly. "My powers usually work better with significant numbers. I don't think there's a limit on Arch Demons, but I do think I shouldn't make too many. Either nine or thirteen. Either way, you do have a point." I glanced at Dan. "See what you can do, and if it doesn't work you can just upload the info directly to Callie."

Dan nodded, and then got to work. It didn't actually end up being too hard, and he was able to connect to Owen's information attribute and use him and Angelic Bond as a medium to upload the processed information he'd gotten from the machine.

Then we were back to training. Callie raised Oblique in the same stance as earlier, and then flowed forward again in that same ghostly way. As she attacked, her blade swept up and I braced for the attack. My forearm snapped up out of reflex, and I deflected the strike with a clang.

Callie backed off, watching me carefully, eyes gliding over inputs I couldn't see. She tried again, and this time I felt the blade close in on my hand specifically as it got close. The next strike closed in on my whole arm, then my side. Finally, after about twenty minutes, she lashed out with Oblique and the space around me all collapsed, narrowing my field of vision to the blade in a way that made it inescapable.

The slash sparked off my armor without even striking my stone flesh, but it was still impressive. We turned to the Professor. "Did those readings help at all?"

"They did," he acknowledged. "You are the originator of the inversion process, so tracking how you adapt your attacks manually to the new application gives me insight into the necessary energy patterns you'll use when inverting the new artifact. I'm somewhat surprised you managed to recreate it so easily, I admit."

"Attributes make things easier, but they aren't necessary," Callie shrugged. "You can use a general destruction attribute to destroy a table just as easily as a specialized table destroying one, right? Shane managed teleportation with destruction when he made the Waltz. That proves you can reach the same conclusion via a different route, and there are a lot of similarities between the Adherent Fire and this new attribute. I just had to bridge the gap."

The professor nodded. "Exactly right. Mythcrafting is a specialized means of achieving goals, but not the only means. Shane's ancestor's Wish skill proves that extreme precision of application can accomplish as much as dedicated Mythcrafting under the right circumstances.

"Of course, that's not ultimately a useful route in the long term," he cautioned. "Remember that Mythcrafting is ultimately an expression of knowledge to prepare for the construction of your Worldforce. Skills or techniques, they're all just starter methods to learn to construct your eventual divinity. Taking another route to replicate a technique without having the attribute is a clever workaround when you need to use it in combat, but it ultimately fails to produce the same benefits."

Callie nodded solemnly. "Understood. I won't make it a habit. Still this technique is going to be damned useful combined with my swordplay. I'm going to call it Certitude."

"So," I asked my mentor as he picked up and examined the sword again. "Is that enough? You have the readings from the duplicate, the readings from the original, the readings from Callie adjusting her technique. Will you be able to help design the timepiece?"

"Not yet," he cautioned. "There's still one more factor that needs to be accounted for. The body tempering manual. Part of the process we need to recreate is the connection between the bloodline, the object, and the timepiece. It's vital that you be able to create a template and use the object as a focus. Luckily, you already have a template made for this one. If we can deduce the signature of the energy of your bloodline, we can reverse engineer the linking process, and we'll be able to create a timepiece that can use the object as an anchor while still maintaining the ability to create a viable template."

I groaned. I'd forgotten about this part. "Right, the bloodline analysis," I said grimly. "I don't suppose that's going to involve a quick scan with a painless light scanner that will easily get all the information you need in moments?"

"We have one of those," he said with a shrug. "You can use it if you want. But it's not going to be as through as a proper bloodline sequencer. Those are a bit more…invasive. But they work. And it still won't take too long. Just a few minutes. Of course, those minutes will be excruciatingly painful, but that's the price you pay for progress."

Sighing, I glared at him. "Why did I know you were going to say something like that? Ok, where is this bloodline sequencer? I'd like to see whatever torture device you're about to subject me to."

"It is NOT a torture device," he said with dignity. "And it's over there." He pointed across the room and my jaw dropped as I followed his finger.

"Is that an IRON MAIDEN?" I ground out, pointing at the coffin like machine with long needles dotting the interior. "How exactly is that NOT a torture device. Iron maidens are LITERALLY designed for torture."

He shrugged. "It's not an iron maiden, though I admit there are similarities in the design philosophies. You'll be fine. It won't last too long, and you'll barely feel it." He walked over and pulled the coffinlike device open further, and I winced at the bloodcurdling screech it emitted as it slowly opened. He ignored my further intensified glare, turning to prepare the device. I was not looking forward to this.

 

[Malcolm Tent]

I had to strip off my armor before climbing into the bloodline sequencer, unfortunately. Surprisingly, the needles actually didn't hurt that badly going in. They were freakishly sharp and the actual piercing action was pretty quick. I was relieved it wasn't as bad as advertised…until the sequencer turned on.

After that, things got murky. There was a lot of screaming, some begging, I think somebody cried. It might have been me, but it was really high pitched, so I was secretly pretending in my head that someone had let their baby crawl into the cellar.

It really didn't last that long though, and when I was finished, Callie helped me out of the sequencer and back into my armor. By the time I was redressed, the pinpricks were all healed by my enhanced regeneration. I was still sore, and I grimaced as I dropped down on the bench at the edge of the room. "Well, that sucked," I groaned to my mentor. "That better have been worth it."

"It was," he assured me. "With the last parameters ready, I can enter all the data into the Quantum State Multiplier. It'll use The Nested Continuum as a brute force analytical tool, dispersing the calculations over a countably infinite number of potential variations of this reality to help us refine the design. I'll be doing the design work on the final iteration myself, but having the multiplier hash out all the boilerplate design elements will allow me to cross reference with my work to identify problem spots ahead of time."

Nodding vaguely, I tried to look like I was paying attention and not about to pass out. Luckily, I don't think the professor cared much. He snagged a chip from the side of the iron maiden-like sequencer, carrying it over to a new device that looked like nothing so much as a microwave.

Popping the chip in, he snagged a chord from the machine he'd been using to analyze the swords and plugged it into the back, then gestured me over to stand next to him. Popping the door of the microwave thing open, he stuck the sword inside, then slammed the door and hit a bunch of buttons.

There was a low thump and a groan as the lights around us began to flicker. Inside the microwave, a spark of blue light started to glimmer, then surge. As we watched, the power was sucked out of the whole place and into the Quantum State Multiplier. Right before our eyes, the sword lifted off the bed of the microwave, floating up into the air, and sort of…warped. A million shattered timelines overlapped the image, not just of the blade, but of the space around it.

While the sword shrank, the nearby space was filled with theoretical parts and mechanical devices, clashing into each other in a sea of light and sound as they warred for supremacy, like they were battling it out to see which part was best.

It only took about fifteen minutes for all the parts to combine themselves in the optimum fashion around the sword. The blade itself remained outside the watch, with just a hole in the center for it to be inserted with Brad's ability. "You, come over and examine this," the Professor said as he snapped his fingers toward Dan.

My information demon didn't need to be told twice, he hurried over to begin scanning the timepiece. Meanwhile, I just stared at it as he studied, trying my best to memorize it myself for the process of creation.

"So what do you think?" Callie asked from beside me. "Can you do it today? After that mess earlier I wouldn't blame you for waiting. We can try tomorrow."

That actually had been my plan up to now, but after some time thinking it over I'd decided against it. "This is the easy part," I said with a shake of my head. "Don't forget we have a limited amount of time in the Continuum. My contribution points can only do so much. He needs to study the process of me creating the timepiece here so he can reverse engineer it and compare as he adjusts the next iteration."

"It won't be as difficult as you might think," called Professor Hawkins as he approached. "I was already planning to suggest it. Not because of the hurry, mind, but because there are several devices here that can interface with your Domain to act as a guide for the creation process and enable me to not only take more detailed measurements, but aid you in production more completely. It should make the process much smoother, and I can step in to make alterations if necessary."

"I thought the Quantum State Multiplier would just make it perfect?" I asked with a raised brow.

He shook his head. "Mythcrafting is based on imagery and intention. Mythology is a matter of human perception, so it can't really be calculated to exactitude. No matter how high quality your equipment, there will always be a difference between a technologically designed blueprint and one that came from a real mind. Humans have instinct and creativity. That's why this design is aligned with your other timepieces at only thirteen movements. It gives you the chance to refine it yourself over time."

"And that's why you're doing the second iteration yourself," I realized. "Because the Quantum State Multiplier can't make the necessary adaptations."

"Of course," he snorted. "The QSM does the brute force calculations to get them out of the way. It gives me a starting point, but how to apply those data sets will be up to me. The only reason we can use it for this part is because you've already done all the groundwork. You have the template completed, have the bloodline, and you're using the original artifact as the foundation. All the variables have been removed."

That made sense, if they had a machine that could do this kind of thing easily there would be no reason to teach it at all. "Alright," I said as I stood and stretched. I was feeling better after a bit of rest. My absurd Vitality and my regeneration made it easy for me to shrug off most things that weren't a serious life threatening danger. "So where is this device?"

He led me across the lab to a small futuristic looking table. It was dark blue with strips of glowing white crystal inlaid into it in strange circuitous patterns. He slapped a palm on it. "You'll take this into your Domain to begin the process. I'll access it from out here and communicate through the device. It's designed to interface with Mythcrafting constructs, and is especially well suited to the style I've been teaching you."

"Got it," I said as I leaned down to pick the thing up. "I can just enter my Domain here, right?"

"Of course," he snorted. "There isn't anywhere in this academy that might be destabilized by accessing a Domain. Spatial irregularity of that level is usually reserved for things like traps or defenses meant to keep out high rankers."

I'd actually seen that done a few times back at the beginning of my journey, though it wasn't aimed at Domains. Still, it was interesting to see the similarities.

Stepping back, I entered my Domain. Stepping inside with the table rather than projecting it was easier, and I appeared inside the throne room, making my way into the conference room behind it where I was planning to do my work.

Nine Phoenix and Brad were waiting for me there, and Dan arrived not long after. "Alright, so everyone knows what we're doing here?"

After getting the nod, I set up the crafting table next to the larger conference table that was already there. "Ok Shane, now you'll need to synchronize with the harmonic crystal relays," said Professor Hawkins voice through the table. "Those shiny strips are made to absorb your attributes. Once you've completed that step, I want you to slip one of your mental parallels in there. Remote control skills like that are an excellent substitute for more dedicated Mythcrafting methods."

Nodding along, I followed his instructions. First was the attributes. The plans had identified the attribute compositions we would get the best use out of in this case, though only generally. Like he'd said, he'd fine tune it as we went. Still, it meant I knew what we needed for the most part. The cosmic phoenix attribute, a general spatial attribute, speed, motion, momentum, there were a lot of minor attributes that could be used to create strengthened alloys (so to speak) of attributes that would make for better parts.

For normal projects, we would try to keep the number of attributes small, but since we were using a real artifact as the core, we wanted to synergize the design as much as possible. Real objects were more complicated than most Mythcrafted constructs, which meant more attributes were necessary to create a proper facsimile.

Once I had loaded all the attributes in, I split off a parallel with Piece of Mind and slipped it inside as well. From there, it was time to begin. I focused on the Mythcrafting process, beginning to construct my elements, and…I was blown away.

Normally, I needed serious focus throughout my entire construction process to maintain the integrity of my parts, but with this thing, even a brief flicker of attention would create the foundation and then I could just add to it. My elements were held in perfect stasis, without any need for input once I'd established them, but were responsive when I needed them.

The Professor watched and weighed in, adding notes on what I was doing and micromanaging my designs at some points, while going silent and allowing me complete creative freedom at others. I could see what he'd meant earlier, about the machine not having instincts. Certain design choices just felt…wrong, and I changed them almost instinctively, with no pushback from Professor Hawkins.

We breezed through the design, and it felt so much smoother and more natural than my last attempts. Mephisto's Waltz had arrived during the process, and he also weighed in when asked. The Professor consulted him on several design choices as we went, making alterations to more accurately capture the essence of the demon in question.

Finally, we reached a critical point. "Brad," I called to the young demon. "Open the pit," he stepped forward, raising his hands, and a dark void formed in the air in front of the timepiece. With no hesitation, I snagged the cosmic phoenix feather blade and just shoved it into the hole in the air. After that, we went back to work, altering and adjusting the device to make sure it was holding up like we needed before the final step.

"Alright, Wally," I asked Mephisto's Waltz (because Wally was a better name, it just sounded fast). "You ready for this?"

He confirmed, and I nodded to Brad, who began the process again. Once more, a pit opened, but this one opened in the air in front of Wally himself rather than in front of the timepiece. Reaching out, I gently lifted the timepiece off the table and set it into the hole, then pulled back to let Brad close it.

As before, there was a sort of…shift. I could tell it was adjusting internally, and I watched worriedly as he twitched and shuddered, before it finally ended. Mephisto's Waltz…no, Cosmic Waltz, had officially completed his transformation. He'd even been boosted a tier to tier seven, putting him almost up to date with my other top performers.

Having finished, I felt a wave of weakness overtake me, and I dropped into a nearby chair. I heard a wild laugh through the table, and the Professor's voice erupted forth like a trumpet of salvation. "It WORKED!" he cackled madly. "It worked perfectly. I have all the data I need. It'll take me a month to complete the preliminary designs, and then we'll need to dial it in. Now, return that crafting table and you can go. I have work to do."

AN:// Early chapter happy friday lol.