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

[logicmmr]

Why is it so hard for you people to add a fucking basic summary to these things? What is this about? What's happening and why? Have you ever read a real book in your life? All these and more... never!

 

[Quenster06]

Why is it so hard for you people to add a fucking basic summary to these things? What is this about? What's happening and why? Have you ever read a real book in your life? All these and more... never!

Click to shrink...

I mean, it's not like this is the full book. It's more like a public draft to stir up interest. You're really expecting a lot for something that's published for free.

 

[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.

 

[Vongrak]

"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."

Click to shrink...

As a true Disciple of the Goddess of Pain not feeling anything would likely be a much, much worse sign.

 

[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.