What Was Once

[Vorlonos]

What Was Once a God: Chapter 32

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"No power usage in my courtroom." He demands

I freeze as he looks at me, and I begin, "I can't control that. It just… happens sometimes."

He scans me, like he's confused, and nods, "True." before waving his hand, and I feel the stars of the forge I've grown so used to be surrounded with fade. Not destroyed like when Aqua tried it, but like I've been… locked where I am, that there are no more stars. It feels amazing, the way the complete nebula is empowered and descended, but it also feels almost caustic on my skin, like it's a lie cutting into my powers.

He smiles at me, "You will have what you may not control back later, for now, I have a court to run."

I sit quietly, and he turns to Aqua, "Bringing this court to [ORDER], I demand an explanation from the Lesser Reality God known as Aqua to explain her illegal actions regarding the destruction of the mono-temporal reality stream of playerless World of Warcraft."

Aqua turns to me, "I did it because he…"

She turns back to him as force emanates from him, and he demands, colder, "An explanation, not a justification. What did you do?"

She blinks, and words come from her robotically, "I was going to manipulate him in his last world, but hadn't figured out how to disrupt him until I saw a local Solar Being merge with the pocket of Celestial Energy that he created from defeating a local threat as a part of his Creation Attunement system. So when he went to the next world, I left a bomb in the space of the Celestial Energy Pocket, to kill him with the benefits of his own power, but he didn't die somehow." Aqua stops speaking, and gasps, looking around, "What do… how did you… what was that?"

I blink, wondering if she doesn't know what she meant. Order responds, "You resisted the question, so the information was delivered automatically in my terminology."

I nod slowly, I think I can understand, the Solar Being was Amon, and the Celestial Energy is the charges that I get for my Forge, which was the… Creation Attunement System. I don't know how the Celestial Energy Pocket works, but it's where the extra points Amon stole, and Aqua detonated are.

Would that have killed me if I was nearby? I assume so, I haven't been damaged by the Celestial Forge directly before.

"You are correct Traveler." Order says, "Now, more directly, Lesser Reality God known as Aqua, why are you trying to kill this Traveler known as Damion Peramos?"

She turns, glaring, "He threatened me in my own realm!"

I am about to concede that, while petty, that wasn't a terrible motivation when she snapped to Order again, and robotically continued, "He disrespected me, more than once, and was not willing to apologize for his offenses."

"To clarify, you destroyed 1 entire Realm, 11 Sub-Realities in a second Realm, and defied the orders of the council of Greater Gods, only because he was rude to you?"

She nods. Ok… no sympathy from me anymore. That… could I really have solved this by apologizing to her? That's… wow.

Order snaps, and I am suddenly on the witness stand, "Traveler known as Damion Peramos, did you threaten the Lesser Reality God known as Aqua with death?"

I hesitate and decide to bite the bullet, "I did."

Order waits, and smiles, "True. Did you intend to follow through at any point?"

I hesitate, and think, "I did, if I may explain?"

Order looked at me, and frowned, "You may."

I begin, "I initially threatened her when she tried blackmailing me for the treatment of one of my companions, and while I didn't intend to do anything at the time when she attacked me, send assassins after me, and assisted evil in conquering realms just to spite me, I had considered it and even had some early sketches of a plan for it, but I never went out of my way to implement a plan."

I nod and then felt his frown, I felt my face turn artificially, "While I do not retain the intent to kill her in the moments long after I deal with the threats she assigns me when I encounter forces outside the limitations of the universe I am in, I assume it is her, and my mind will wander subconsciously to my plans for her death, refining them."

I feel that it comes from my throat, and I have a long moment of confusion. That's actually cool, I didn't know that this truth effect could access my subconscious and things I myself don't know.

Order looks at me, "I will not punish you for that you cannot retain, nor know outright. So you only ever intended to kill her after she made aggressive attempts on the lives of you and your companions."

I nod, "To the best of my knowledge."

I feel the jerk more strongly this time, "Subconsciously, I have ignored the potential direct effect on myself, feeling my powers can handle the messes that I have been deposited into, but have taken the attacks on my companions far less elegantly."

Order smiles. "I do expect that. I have seen your soul. Now, Lesser Reality God known as Aqua, knowing that your reasoning has been refuted by my powers, what have you to say for yourself?"

Aqua looked defeated, "I… I have nothing to say. I…" She's crying. I probably shouldn't feel as… not protective, but there is a definite sense of not kicking a small animal.

Then it stops, and Order commands, "I believe that I made the usage of powers quite clear."

She stops looking pathetic, but not her tears, and I'm… that's how he looks so pathetic to shift my opinion? Powers? Appearing super pathetic? That's… unspeakably terrible of her.

I can see the glare coming off of Wis, who interacted with her more than I did after my threats for peace, who might have forgiven her under exactly this magic. That would sting.

Order frowns, and nods before turning fully to Aqua, and speaking, his voice resonating like never before, "I declare before this court that I find the Lesser Reality God known as Aqua guilty of mass endangerment of the Divine System, I find her guilty of Realty Destruction without Cause and Realm Destruction without Cause. I find her guilty of directly creating, and failing to contain a threat to Divinity. For these crimes, I can only demand one punishment. Suffering Eternal."

Aqua looks… beyond distraught, and might actually be crying this time, as the woman next to her comforts her before the clone walks up to the judge's stand. "I have no choice but to accept the decision of the court." Before matching over to Aqua, and also hugging her. It was strange, but she almost sounded defiant…

Aqua and the two glowed, and then Aqua was gone.

Order turns, "Now, for you."

I appear in Aqua's chair, and look around confused, "What did I do?"

"You have been realm traveling without permission, you have been altering timelines without permission, you have been picking up intra-cosmic hitchhikers."

"No." The woman next to me demanded, "This is not within our dominion."

Order looked at her, and for a long moment, loathing was visible, "The rules are clear."

She turns to me, "What do you know of Divine Law?"

I frown, thinking for a bit, "...Don't destroy Realities?"

I feel myself twisting as I had for Order, "Gods can't destroy realities or realms without some kind of permission. Gods can't allow people with the capacity to harm existence to run around unchecked."

I blink, annoyed that was all it forced me to say. "Can I ask what you meant by I'm not within your dominion?"

She sighs, and Order states, "Any being with enough power is a Divinity, you have a… ugg."

He pauses, groaning, and growling like he is trying to speak but can't.

"Order can't lie." the Woman explained, "And I'm Chaos."

I nod, "So… he can't lie and can force others to speak fully truthfully? Why doesn't he like me?"

Chaos frowns, "You, all those like you, cause him to weaken and me to strengthen. You violate his laws, unknowingly seeding well… chaos. He wants to stop you, and through bringing you here over Aqua's… mistakes, he is going to try making you submit to his laws."

I nod slowly, "That… sounds…" Well… petty, but… "Does he know that I don't actually control where and how I move from place to place? And I can't just sit around and let terrible things happen!"

She smiles, "I know. Believe me, I know. But willingness for breaching Realm Borders wasn't even considered."

I nod, "What does denying control over me do?"

She frowns, "The only thing this court has power over is Gods. Rejecting the control of this court will prevent you from becoming a God, but… you might become an Aspect regardless."

I let that sink in, and ask, "Will I keep the powers of my forge?"

She nods, "We can't stop that forever, just suspend it for a few minutes. You'll have that back when you leave."

Order says, "He is still guilty of mass Soul Harvest!"

I frown, "When?" I haven't done that. 1 guy and he was… the Forge target. Do those count? Aren't they bad people? Not all of them… but enough right?

"He has an entire field of condensed, illegally violated, human souls…"

"From the Forge." Chaos says, interrupting, "You can feel that as well as I do."

"Creation is illegal, and he…"

"Didn't know that such a perk was possible. As long as he doesn't make more of them, it's not a crime."

"They are self-replicating!"

"Then it isn't an issue, is it?"

Order and Chaos are looking at each other, growing more and more hateful, and I quietly ask, "What field of souls?"

They both turn, and Chaos responds, "Your most recent perk."

I nod, "I saw that I had one, but I didn't see what it did, I was in the middle of something."

She nods, "I've allowed your powers. See what it is, while I make him see sense."

I nod and look at it.

Let there be Light (The Games We Play): And so there is. This is a replenishing supply of neutral Sephirot components of all ten kinds, for all your soul crafting needs without the horribly unethical gathering process and terrible guilt.
You get 1000 people's worth of pure, high quality Sephirot a day, the stuff souls are made of. It's so high quality that each is worth a hundred of your average souls, if not more. Don't worry about losing any unused stuff either, because it builds up as time goes on. Sephirot is some of the most valuable stuff in the world here, and that's for a reason.
In this world, the ratio of Sephirot within your soul determines its structure, the power of your Semblance and other such things. In future worlds, it could be entirely different, luckily enough you get the local stuff no matter where you go, allowing you to keep up your tinkering. And again, don't worry about losing access to any of the past stuff. Each setting's soul stuff will continue to produce itself separately from a separate setting.
But what use does it have in the future? Depends on where you go and how it all works there, but you'll have to figure that yourself for the most part. Maybe you can eat it.

I… why do I know that name? I… wait…

Is Intelligence or Wisdom more important?

The story with Jaune. And Malkuth, the Grimm God. That… ascending the tree of life towards Divinity… Creation itself channeled into physical form. That's… incredible. Feeling out for it, I see 10 magical fields of crystals, currently, they had one massive crystal

I shouldn't be surprised, it was 1000 souls equal to 100% purity of each type. Keter the Crown, the Purity of Creation in physical form. Chokmah of Wisdom, the physical manifestation of Learning, is linked to psychic effects. Binah of Understanding, crystalized sense, the Collection of Data. Geburah of Strength is a representation of Physical Empowerment and more general Resilience. Chesed of Mercy, physical representation of Agreements, of Peacefulness, of Safety. Tiferet of Adornment, somehow both Attractiveness and somehow resonating with my Hivemind entirely. Hod of Glory, crystalized representatives of Will, Awe, and Purification. Netzach of Eternity, hardened Happiness, Bonds, also representing Eternity. Yesod of Foundation, the embodiment of Change, and Modification, with a noticeable focus on Communication. Finally, Malkuth, the Kingdom, the reality impressed with Restoration, Elemental Control, and aspects of the Physical Form.

It was… breathtaking to see all of these concepts so pure. Ideas made into material and given to me.

I… I can both see why this is illegal, my mind running through the microscopic Necromancy and Soul magics that I do know, and seeing how many people this would destroy, and how much damage any of this could do unchecked.

And… well I read The Games We Play and I've seen what beings empowered with this can become. It's not something I would like to tangle with unprepared.

After… I couldn't even say how long just observing the crystals, and imagining what I could use them for, I'm brought out of my stupor by the feeling of being watched.

I awaken to both of them staring at me, mild confusion in Chaos's eyes, and not-so-mild annoyance in Order's eyes. I frown, and say quietly, "Sorry. Those Crystals… that's kinda a lot to take in."

Order and Chaos are both… mildly amused by that. Chaos begins, "The Mortal Concepts of Life are interesting, yes."

Order scoffs at her, "I think we both know they are more than interesting. This alone makes him a threat beyond nearly…"

"Divine Harvesting Cultivators." Chaos begins, "Your last pet project, which nearly killed you, and a few Realms, entirely."

He pauses, and frowns, "Fine."

Chaos turns to me, as Order and the courtroom disappear. She smiles at me, "I'm taking you under my wing, I'm curious what you might be able to do in the future."

I nod, "I'm grateful."

She waves and my companions join her in my entrance room, and she begins, "I have re-anchored you to the Forge, fixing issues that the Lesser Realm Goddess couldn't be bothered with. You will have some small changes, and some new restrictions, but nothing you haven't had to contend with before. However, I've restricted you in 1 major way, that I'm glad you never tried formally before, Realm Travel. You may not travel to new Realms. Realms you have visited before are fine. While I can't allow you to return to worlds you have been to already, from now on, you will visit a world until you have gathered and spent 1000 points, and then you will have a new world in which you can gather 1000 points and spend them."

I blink, "That sounds like I have choices."

She smiles, "You don't. And you know that."

I chuckle, "Yes, I did figure that."

She nods, and continues, "I mean that the system will not limit you to gathering 1000 points in a realm, even after you can leave, but you can't leave until 1000 points are spent. If you buy three 400-point powers that qualify, so does one more than 1000-point ability. You must acquire one ability in a realm before you can leave it for the first time."

I nod, "Sounds reasonable. I assume you are removing the realm… let's call them achievement points?"

She nods, "I will return those stolen from you all three times they have been, but I cannot permit you to have them again. It is far too much against the bonus I've given you."

I frown, "Three times?"

"Your points were stolen by Amon when you slew his Overmind, and by Aqua when you slew her Demon Lord, and Arthas and his Scourge."

I smile, "That's… not an insignificant number of points."

She nods, "It isn't. Now, I'm returning you to the world that you were set to go to before Amon's damage to the Realm walls allowed that spell to summon you from the cracks in reality."

I nod, "Thank you, Chaos. I don't know if seeing you again would be painful, but I hope it is a pleasant encounter."

She smiles, "I doubt it will be soon. Now go, you have Chaos to spread."

*Points Remaining: 4500 points. Rolling. Keeper: Forger of Giants: Enchanted (Azeroth) (1500), Skills Adjacent: Keeper: Shaper of Worlds: Enchanted (Azeroth) (1500), and Keeper: Weaver of Dreams: Enchanted (Azeroth) (1500) Remaining: 0 points. Purchased.*

Keeper: Forger of Giants: Enchanted (Azeroth): Your talents of craft extend to the direct creation and modification of living beings. You have the ability to craft life itself. While you cannot make life from nothing, you can harness any source of life or spirit to create a soul for a living being. Without a source you may still make complicated facsimiles of life similar to A.I. and or elementals. You may forge, re-forge, temper, purify, and heal any kind of mind, spirit, body, or soul cleaning it of corruption, deterioration, disease, tarnish, blemish or error, strengthening it against harm or others interference. While you do have the ability to do the same to even yourself, it will take a great deal of time or power, as you were crafted by the titans themselves and already tempered to such an extent to be able to wage war against the corrupting and chaotic forces of the old gods and elementals. Your ability to craft and uplift bodies and souls allows you to create races up to a similar power and form as the Mogu, Tol'vir, Iron Vrykul, Earthen, and Giants. You have the ability to resurrect any being weaker than yourself into its original body or into a new body up to a form you could create, as long as a beings, mind, spirit, soul hasn't been captured or restrained you can resurrect it freely, even if its essence is being restrained. You have the ability to transition between the realms of the living and the dead, attack incorporeal beings with physical matter and even if a soul is destroyed as long as you can find even a fragment of it or the being that destroyed it you can use the fragment or shatter the destroyers soul to re-forge the original soul, you may need a source of life or spirit to rebuild it as if creating a new soul from scratch.
Keeper: Shaper of Worlds: Enchanted (Azeroth): Your skills in the crafting of objects, buildings, and landscapes grants you the ability to forge artifacts and legendary equipment with ease, your crafting capabilities being an order of magnitude greater than they would have been without this focus. You have the ability to craft landscapes, you can easily shape mountains, valleys, rivers and seas to your liking in minutes enriching the earth and sky with magic to amplify and encourage or discourage the flourishing of life or specific species. Everything you build is a masterful work of art, both beautiful and functional beyond compare. The things you create being sturdier and nearly indestructible fighting off the weathering of time and the environment even without the use of magic, a painting you made could be lost in an acid swamp for millennia and barely need a light dusting and drying to make it presentable. You also have an intuitive sense of any crafts you come across instinctively knowing what it once was no matter how rundown it is, even a small shred of a few strands of a quilt would do, having visions of and knowing its full purpose, intent, and how it was used; you have the ability to understand the original creators design and how to improve it both functionally and artistically. Anything you restore qualifies as being crafted by you for the purposes of any effects you have, including your preservation skills and quality skills. Anything you are actively crafting, have crafted, or in charge of can be preserved by your will and an occasional thought, this being an active force protected against harm, decay and entropy. Only beings who directly intend to harm you or the things you have crafted or preserved can hope to damage them and even still such damage is lessened, and you will be able to restore such things later. You may repair and restore things to exactly as they were or an improved state up to your level of crafting; your powers of preservation and restoration can apply to non-crafted things that you watch over such as the environment, climate, weather, and enchantments.
Keeper: Weaver of Dreams: Enchanted (Azeroth): You have the ability to design new spells from scratch if need be, but you have an intrinsic understanding of all forms of magic or spells you come across. While you might not have enough power to actually wield those forces you will absolutely understand them. But what good is knowledge if you can't do anything with it? You laugh at such notions as you can always find a way to improve any magic, making any given spell, enchantment, or ritual more versatility, faster to cast, faster to recover, require less mana or resources, stronger, and increasing the duration; basically, any means by which a spell or enchantment could be improved is improved by double or half as appropriate. But you do not simply cast spells, you craft magic itself, from arcane sources, wielding forces beyond compare, making new spells, enchantments, and rituals as needed. Even on the fly, with comparative capabilities of other magics within that area, your improvisational magic is inspired and artistic in the extreme allowing you to incorporate any kinds of themes for your magics or supernatural abilities. As you are wielding the raw craft of the arcane itself, your spells cannot be countered unless the counter would negate magic itself (a counter fireball or counter any fire magic spell would not work against your fireball, they would have to have a counter for any magic spell, anti-magic effect.) Your magic is more resilient and more easily bypasses defenses, your enchantments take on a life of their own as you are able to weave enchantments into intrinsic natures to create wonders of spell craft such as true alchemy creating new substances, pocket dimensions, magical terrains and sacred places on the order of mythals, legendary spells, and magical items akin to artifacts, and mythical charms. Your magical strength and reserves are increased by an order of magnitude , and this specialty applies to any kinds of magic or similar supernatural abilities you have such as divinity or psionics.

With that massive ability increase, I arrived on a grassy hill. Alone.

I turned and wanted a door to my Warehouse, and before I could even process that request, my Warehouse appeared in this realm. Looking at it I realized that… no. Not really, it wasn't here per se, but it was… here? It was both. I felt it twist, permeating into the ground as I opened the door to my central floor, where my party was. The windows show both the environment as if the tower hadn't rotated to touch the ground, in another demonstration of my will, and the other a Leviathan in my pocket realm space.

That's… interesting. I don't think I like it, but it's interesting. Heading back outside, and forming a door on the hill, I pause and ask. 'Where am I?'

I don't get the response from the system that I would have before, and forget that I don't think I have it anymore regardless.

Entering the normal way, I see my companions and Sylvanas. Walking over to her first, I ask quietly, "I… can I do anything?"

She blinks, "You… no. My world… everything about it is gone."

I nod slowly, and ask, "We could set up something here? I could look into future realms, and we could remake as much of your culture as we can remember. People, landmarks…"

She scowls, "No. I don't want a cheap copy."

I nod, "Then how can I help you? Can I help you?"

She frowns, tears finally forming, "She destroyed my world because she didn't like your attitude."

I wince, "I… yes."

She looks at me, "I want you to let me off here. I… I can't deal with you right now."

I nod, and hand her a small wooden box, "I know you don't want me around, but if you need anything. I… I owe you. A lot."

She laughs, "I was planning on traveling with you, seeing the other places you might go, I never imagined that you would really take me somewhere truly new, but here I am."

She leaves, and I sigh. Turning back to the others, "So, I need to be here for a while… do… does…" I pause, looking at them, compounding fear of thousands of me driving me to madness, "Does anyone else want off? It seems quite… well… nice here?"

Wis hugs me. So does Violette. "No, you idiot."

I hug them back, smiling slightly as I tier up, "I… She killed a realm. A planet of people and history because she hated me." It hurt. The realms of DC comics, I know she decimates them coming for me, I know that many people died in Worm and DC on both sides of my conflicts. I know that I caused some of that suffering, but this is a whole other level. I don't know if I should feel this responsibility, nor do I know if I should be angry at Aqua even if she's dead because so many people died.

I… holding my companions, and remembering my Shield, I decided that I needed to be more mature than that. I needed to not provoke every powerful thing that decided to look at me because it would only end in heartbreak for both me and my companions otherwise. Looking at them, I decided, "Let's go out there. Let's just… help some people. I don't know how, but we should." I needed something to work towards.

Wis and Violette nodded, Ankh chimed in, "Should I return to Weapon's testing?"

I frown, "Actually, no." He looks surprised, "I think we should all go. I certainly won't make you, but I don't want to force you to remain here when we have a world to explore."

Ankh responds, "Ankh will go with you. Ankh will collect data directly."

Tiamat lands a suit, and a person steps out of it. Her glowing blue eyes and pale skin suggest it was a Birthing Chamber modification for a synthetic. I blink, "When did you finish that?" When did she start that? System dialogues say about a year and a half ago when I arrived in World of Warcraft.

She begins, "I… Well, Colin and I played some locally run copies from Earth-Alph. I wanted to see it for myself, so I sped up production. It failed a few times… but I got it running just now. We've apparently been away from the Warehouse for about a week, and I don't know how long it will last."

I frown, "Why…" I could have helped...

"Because I can do it on my own." She interrupts, "I don't always need you to fix my problems. And… I still couldn't ask for it."

I frown, "Can you ask now?"

She nods, "I can."

"Given that I just got a creation of nearly perfect life forms… Do you want me to make sure you won't melt on us in sunlight?" She is very, very pale, like… accidentally used albino vampire DNA pale.

She nods, "I… yes."

I walked forward and ran magic and some monocellular Zerg feelers into her body, genetically, spiritually, and magically making sure she is… well perfect. Not like…the Zerg's definition was perfect, but the absolute best interfacing with her bionics, and her wireless was properly formatted inter-reality QI running through the protective coating of my Wavestrength and hivemind in general. Separated to preserve individuality, but hidden beneath my security. Her body was not taking the implants well, so I modified that, and the implants themselves to better respond to healing potions and spells.

And improved some of the less required space, minimizing targets, and protecting crucial organs better. Reinforcing bone, and a thin weave of nano-organelles of carbon fiber wiring weaving them like a shatterproof window, making a full endo-skeleton for force distribution and…

I went all the way out, perk after perk applying, right up until I felt Master Craftsman's handmade and Keeper: Forger of Giants: Enchanted begin to mix, and she glowed under my touch, as I stepped back. Afraid.

*Medicine (GUNNM) (100) Bought Remaining: 0 points.*

Stepping back, she stopped glowing, but the damage was done, feeling for what I accomplished, and realized that I had quantum-position Wavestrength linked her mind and her core in such a fashion that I literally subverted the chunk of the supercomputer that she was running on into her entire nervous system. The Black Supercomputer was both in my warehouse, receiving Tiamat's code, and… well I guess a copy was present replacing her brain and nervous system.

Along with her soul.

I… I had long known Tiamat was alive, just as much as anyone else, but she wasn't capable of magic because her… non traditionally prevented that. Well… it seems that forging a life from stone and metal wasn't hyperbole in the slightest. She had all the benefits of being a machine, with her organic body intact.

I turn to Violette, who is staring at her with eyes wide, and mouth agape. I remember that this… what I've just done to Tiamat is her wildest dreams come true. Human and Machine in perfect, beautiful harmony. She looks at me, and I nod. She smiles, and I begin again. Knowing more about the process, I feel Efficiency kink in hard, and while it took Tiamat minutes, she's glowing in seconds, and squealing in seconds more. She's as perfect as I can make a person and as powerful as I can make a machine. She has the hardware of the Celestial Forge literally running in her veins from the magic reinforcement and targeted nano-particle filters genetically encoded into her red and white blood cells.

It's majestic to see her, and I turn to Wiz last. This wasn't her goal but it was only right that I offer. She frowns, and asks, "Will it affect my magic?"

I hesitate and nod, "I'm nearly certain that it will boost it."

She chuckles, "Fine."

I step forward and apply it to her as well, and Efficiency goes off the rails again and activates Keeper: Weaver of Dreams: Enchanted before I can think about what it might be doing. I can see her magical… veins? Metaphorical pathways where magic can transfer, nearly the size of normal primary veins if those ran from the brain down into the palms, before realizing that wispy magical clouds were running through them. I felt the power take hold, and as she glowed, the streams widened and were full of something that more closely resembled potato soup, thick near-solid energy thrumming. I look at myself and see solid veins of crystal, sparkling and dripping as I push magic through them.

I don't know exactly what those comparisons mean, but my veins are in solid spiraling growths covering my entire body evenly, nearly inseparable from one another through sheer density and woven pattern. I don't know what that means, and I don't want to know.

I head quickly into my Equivalent Exchange room and get 3 rings. I forge a new recipe for my companions, quickly and Efficiently with 4 Arcane Rings, 4 Red Matter Pedistles, and 1 of the highest level of EMC stars, making an EMC cost of nearly 1e25 EMC, but… I can afford a few of those at this point. That… that's a number that rather horrifies me actually, but I return and give them all one.

Wiz, the caster, recognizes what I've just done. I've created rings that suppress magic, and all other aura's at the wearer's will. Allow a massively increased control over the elements, and act as a magical battery for backup magic.

Filled to the brim and over by yours truly, and regenerates a percentage of the magic due to the pedestal configuration. It's… a magical battery that is functionally unlimited in any realistic level of combat.

If we are in Warhammer 40K these even approach acceptable levels of escalation and firepower.

So does bring a hoard of Leviathans and my entire planetoid, but I think I'd detect the corruption from the Warp in 40K. It… isn't subtle, nor is it willing to just… let people help.

I open the door, and we bring the car around to find out. Stepping out intentionally I felt Stavros Mueller Beta activate and be vague again.

Endure

We head out and eventually find a road, about an hour after we left. We chose to go right, and eventually, we do encounter people, just… not civilized folks. They appeared to be fully medieval bandits. I could see some bows and swords. Covered in simple leather armor. The man at the back, seemingly in charge, wasn't visibly armed outside of a set of knives, but I could feel his magical potential from where we were stopped. Not that he was strong, but with my new near-absolute control over magical power and all of its facets with Keeper: Weaver of Dreams: Enchanted magic was functionally an open book. He smirked and began to speak as they emerged from the trees. "Well hello there. You all seem to have a really nice carriage there? Looks nice and magical."

I leave the car and frown at them. This was almost disappointing for my first encounter in this realm. I ask directly, "Can you not detect magic?"

He frowns, and there is a small step back, "Is that a joke? Only the most skilled of casters, or prodigies, can see magic."

"Really? It's not hard."

He blinks, eyes wide, "You… Did you make this magical object?"

I nod, "A while ago. It's not my best work, I could probably make one a little faster today. Maybe a tank." That idea resonates well with me, and I consider it, before discarding the idea for now. I turned from my thoughts, back to him "Why?"

He pales and slowly backs away until one of his men makes a mistake. He tried opening the door to my car. I toss a small earthen hill to knock him over, and it goes… poorly.

I feel my magic shift as Keeper: Shaper of Worlds: Enchanted activates, and flips the script. An earthquake rips through the road.

*Apollo's Odyssey (Horizon Zero Dawn V0.9a) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

The earthquake ended with a small mountain sticking out of the path, with the bandit having been tossed a truly stupid distance into the sky. I take several seconds to just stare at the mountain that I've just formed with a wave of my hand, and feel… almost disappointed. I remove the mountain, and leave the bandits behind, reentering my car, and driving around them.

That mountain was… a work of art. Honestly, it was. I can appreciate that, and everyone except the man disintegrated by the speed of the mountain being created below him.

But it was a gorgeous mountain. Its color caught light just right to have that polished stone look, without looking worked. It caught light at every time of day, and would shed water and snow better than any artist could ever hope to capture with a brush, but… it wasn't a challenge.

I had created a work of literal art, with a desire for a hill and a wave of my hand.

It was almost… boring. I remember feeling insanely rewarded when I learned I was making S-class potions. I remember being floored by the power of Project E's rings and bubbles. I remember being awed by the sheer power I needed to channel to resurrect a man.

I was quiet as we approved a town, I was considering several things.

Would Toggle be safe? Could I really lower my power to meet the challenge? Would that even be… acceptable? After the dangers that exist, the gods and others that might be here if I slow down… could I really allow such a drop in my capacity for the creation of things?

Or should I accept that it's… so easy… so so easy to overdo my power in even the simplest things.

I turn to my companions, and I ask, "What do you all think of… well holding back?"

They look confused, and one by one, respond.

Tiamat is first, "In combat, it's necessary a lot of the time. Especially if you intend to be a hero again."

I understand what they are saying, but it's strange. I still remember quite viscerally that there are more than a few beings that I simply can't best. Siberian being one of the worst, and intentionally disabling powers because they aren't currently useful isn't… it doesn't sit right. It feels like I'm rejecting the Celestial Forge and the power it was giving me.

I nod slowly and feel into my powers for Toggle. It's a simple thing, and I flick off lots of the mental powers, not my multitasking, because far too much of my combat style depends on my ability to take in stupidly large quantities of data for planning, aiming etcetera, but I some of the powers that interfered with working with my companions as equals. I also disabled my three Keepers because unless I wanted them on, that was too much power tied to my general magical talents.

With that settled, we continued down the road. We traveled for days before encountering a town. It wasn't much, in fact, it was rather small, wooden near-medieval-style buildings that led me to believe that this world was more like Konosuba than Worm or anywhere else I've been. We approached, and there were more than a few cowering villagers meaning that magic and similar probably weren't exactly super welcome. We were calm and careful as we began to approach, and we approached the center of town on foot. We were met with an older man, who approached alone, walking stick in hand, "Hello. I am the elder of this village, Wimnaith Wynroris. What are humans doing in the land of the Warrior Bunnies?"

I blink and look around. I realize that these people are all Faunis, or whatever the local equivalent is. I… I hadn't really thought about it. "I… we aren't from around here. We just followed the road." I mentally ask my companions, "Were the Bandits also… Warrior Bunnies?"

Violette and Wiz both don't remember, but Tiamat says, "About two-thirds of them."

Huh. The elder looks at me confused, and begins, "Well, we welcome you to Wynroris."

I frown, "Your town?"

He blinks, and chuckles, "No. Humans have family names correct? We do not. We have community names, barring our queen."

I nod slowly, "We… We are seeing the world. Could you tell us anything about the area?"

He gives us a general geology lesson and points out the direction of the capital city, it's a large trade hub and fortress city apparently. These people don't seem… aggressive. "If it's not rude… why are you called Warrior Bunnies?"

He smiles, "It's an old story, from before the rise of men. We have a tradition, combat once decided the leaders of our people, the strongest man and woman of every generation was crowned king. This led to aggressive kings and queens and led us to start many wars, many just for sport. The Elves called us Barbarians, but our king at the time refused a dishonorable title, and called us warriors."

I nod, "Thank you. I… before we leave, does your community need anything? We can offer much."

He smiles, "Our well is running dry this year. It would be nice if it was more prosperous."

I nod slowly and modify an Evertide Amulet. His eyes nearly bug out when I explain what it does. As we leave, he calls out, "When you arrive in the city, show this." He hands me a scroll. It has a wax seal on it, and it's pressed in the shape of a rabbit. "This is a note of honor. You may have saved us many lives."

I smile and take the scroll. It can't hurt. We leave the town, our car getting an amicable send-off, and Wix comments, "That was kind of you."

I accept with a small shrug, "I had the resources, and I could help. No reason not to." That's… honestly, that is all it was.

*Delilah the Dark Elf (MCU) (400) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

I knew that there were mental effects from some of my mental perks, but I know that a few hours ago that wouldn't have been logical or efficient, so I wouldn't have done it. I didn't even know what the local structures were or if this scroll made me an enemy to other nations. He even mentioned that the elves called them barbarians and…

No. I helped someone, an entire community. That is enough. If the scroll helps, it helps. No further than that. We drove onward, toward the described trade hub and capital. It was a week by horse, which didn't tell me much until I saw the city over a hill early on the second day. Ok. So like 15 hours by car.

We arrive, and there are some looks but nothing major from those around here. Either magic or humans are more acceptable here, and given the people, I'm assuming people.

We enter the market and start looking around. It's… well I haven't been to cities in the medieval setting much, but Wis recognizes most of the products from her old world. Lower magic as far as I can tell, but with something floating around that seems to be higher magic than I was expecting from that description. Like a… sticky magic hiding just out of plain sight.

We asked around for various openings in the market, and there were a few. Then the guards walked up, and we were asked to come with them. They brought us back to our car, which had several unconscious people, some humans, and some bunnies laying around it. I sigh, "I apologize, the security system has a sleeping curse. I didn't feel it go off."

They accept that, with some hastening, and I wake them up simply. They are hauled off, but one of the guards remains, "We will need to ask you 4 some questions."

I nod, and shrug. Paperwork and bureaucracy are constants even in another world. We went to the castle and were met by people that looked far above the responsibility required for a minor theft. I would guess that one or more of them were nobles, and that could make this ugly. I take a breath and mentally prevent myself from limping them in with Wiz's nobility, and we approach.

The three women looked like fighters, armor, and weapons were on them even now. The one on the of the triad began, "Firstly, we would like to apologize to you Sorcerer, your magical carriage was attended to correctly, and it was almost violated by several local and visiting nobility."

I blink, I… ok. Sorcerers have serious clout here, or they are scarier than I expected. I begin, "I don't hold you responsible for the actions of a misguided few."

She looks relieved, and continues, "We… the royal family under Queen Tyuule Picchil would like to ask what business a Sorcerer may have here in Picchill."

I activated a few of my perks to see if I'm reading this right because they looked terrified. Well… two of them did. I couldn't read the last member of this little council. I begin, "We… Well to be totally frank with you we were exploring, and after a small magical accident, we found ourselves in the wilderness. We followed a road to a small town of Wynroris, and the elder directed us here."

They look far less scared by that little addendum, and the woman in the center asks, "How is Elder Wimnaith?"

I blink, "He was happy and healthy when we left." I reach into my bag and draw out the scroll, and hand it to the guard near us. He blinks, seeing it, and brings it over to the council, who all look surprised. Ok, did I just give them a scroll from like… retired royalty or something?

The woman in the center holds it, and after a long moment, smiles. "I thank you, Sorcerer, for assisting my grandfather. I'm pleased that there are those that might assist us in times of need."

I nod slowly, and something clicks in my head, "I thank you, Queen Tyuule Picchil."

Wiz and Violette nod quietly, and Tiamat is surprised this time. The presumptive queen laughs, "I wasn't sure you knew."

"I didn't until you thanked me. That was a… Well, I've been fishing before."

Her eyes narrow, "Then let me skimp on the pleasantries. We are… much of the continent is encountering a minor drought. Not enough to destroy our people, but enough to be unpleasant for our growth, and with your powers… We know the Elves and Humans are fine, one due to their magic, and the other to their coastline. We have neither. We would pay handsomely for your power, but we will not be extorted."

I consider, "I would need to speak with my companions before I commit to anything."

I give them all looks, and Tiamat mentally begins, "What do we have to lose? We don't really have nor need anonymity here, and this can only help our case. If we saw correctly, humans and elves both trade here, meaning that we likely wouldn't face any consequences for the act."

Violette nods along, "We could help, and unlike with the Forsaken, it wouldn't take long nor would it be difficult."

Wiz just smiles at the other two, and I shrug, "I don't have a reason to say no." I turn back to her, less than a second having passed in all, "We have conferred. We will assist you, for a lower price than you might expect. I want a plot of land, I… well It wouldn't need to be tremendously large, but large enough for me to move my home there."

She blinks, "You… would move here? Rebuilt your home?"

I smile, "Why would I rebuild? It's not like I lose anything by simply moving here."

She looked a little stunned and smiled at me. "Well… I can't argue with your price. I will contact you tomorrow to brainstorm ideas."

*Science Officer (Generic Space Opera) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 300 points.*

We are put up in a room in the castle for the night, and the next morning, we are taken to a large field outside the city, it looks like dying wheat crops. She begins, "This land here is the area we can give you, the plot is yours to do with as you wish."

I smile and will put my tower into existence here. It appears the floor in the center that I use most frequently at ground level. She gasps, and several of her guards drop their weapons and jaws looking at the tower. I smile, and turn, "Now… that farming issue?"

They bring me to several fields, and I take some light measurements and nod. It will take me… honestly I only need to decide how much to do, and what technology to use. That is a deeper conversation with my companions.

Violette begins, "I believe that we should limit our interactions this time to irrigation. That's all we've been asked for, and all we bargained for. To do more is to invite them to pay us less to do more work."

Wiz opens, "I don't see why we should let the idea that they might become greedy in the future prevent us from helping them as best we can now. It's not like they have any way of making us do tasks we don't like."

Tiamat argues, "It sets a bad precedent to do more than we said we would, especially in what seems to be a heavily agrarian society, there were nearly 800 people working the fields we measured, and that's far more than were working all the stalls we could see. Displacing them completely from their jobs with a harvester of some kind would be detrimental to their society, and it would taint our interactions with them?"

We went back and forth, and eventually, we decided on a water and fertilizer mix, with the framework for future upgrades. A minor greenhouse effect from a shield emitter would keep the crops safer from storms, but wouldn't be outright climate controls.

We set them up the next day and returned to the queen with the story of our success. The royal advisors were shocked, and several of them were obviously afraid of my abilities. The farmers were all but overjoyed at the recovery of their crops. It was a remarkably simple invention, but it was a welcome one. I experimented with my companions, and without my mental enhancement, it was fun to experiment again, not just bonding.

Months passed and we fielded several smaller quests, but nothing major or even difficult. Then the Queen arrived, alone and in a panic. She used the doorbell with some urgency, and I responded quickly. "Please Lord Sorcerer, we need help!"

I frown, "Calm down. What happened?"

"The Empire! They destroyed Wynroris. Their army is coming, and they are taking no prisoners. Our army is in shambles from the drought and hasn't seen conflict in decades. We… we will die!"

"We will investigate, but I will not tolerate people coming to my new home to conquer peaceful people." I sigh, and turn to Tiamat, "Prepare the suits. I'll see what's happening myself."

I teleported out and brought out my armor. It's… well it's taken more than a little upgrades since I've had time over the last 2 worlds. It was the best I could make, and that said a lot with mildly organic, wooden nanotechnology.

I looked over the purple and red army advancing and landed near the front of their march. A man strode up to me, and with my reawakened intellect perks, I nearly called off this negotiation right there and then. "I am crown prince Zorzal El Caesar. These stupid beasts have resources that Saderan Empire demands. Stand aside Sorcerer or we will slay you alongside their pathetic resistance."

"Could you sound any more pompous and bigoted?" I mutter aloud, and his face grows red instantly.

"Then die." He draws his sword, and several mages come up through the front line with staves out and glowing.

I sign as his sword disintegrates as it comes into contact with my armor, and their magic is just… pathetic. Honestly, it's bad.

I step forward, "Prince… Caesar, I will give you and your men one chance to surrender, because honestly, this is massively pathetic."

He scowls, "You think you can keep that rabbit bitch for yourself then? Kill him!"

I… I have no words. I really don't. What the hell is up with this idiot?

I float up, and announce via speakers, "I am Damion Peramos. I have spoken with your prince, and his motives and attitude have decided the fate of this military campaign. You will lay down your weapons, or you will die."

There is muttering, and fear spreads quickly, but the officers start yelling, and they form ranks. I sigh, and the offices demanding charge die. Their horses are fine, but the men are gone in an instant. "I say again, throw down your weapons or die!"

This time it's nearly a mass rout, but a thousand or so remain. Some of them are in the back, cutting down deserters, and those people die quickly. The troops' reforming on the prince, who's yelling something, is annoying but well within my powers to remove from the world should we require it. I land again, and I ask, "Do you want to continue pushing this conflict? Because I don't think you can win this little war any longer. You are still welcome to fight… but I wouldn't recommend it."

The prince screams, "Charge!" and I just need to sigh. How stupid do you need to be to try this?

I fire again and leave about 1200 horses running around riderless. I sigh and teleport back home. Queen Tyuule is crying into Wiz's chest, and Tiamat asks, "What happened?"

I display a recording for them, "The war is over. About an eighth of their army is dead, and the rest are routed."

*Garage Spaceship (Ben 10 0.1) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 400 points.*

The Queen is still crying, and looks around, "I… how?"

I smile, "I said I would help you. I did." I play off the whole… disintegration via my magical weapons aspect of the mess, and I nod internally. "You do suddenly have a surplus of horses. Their riders are… gone."

She blinks, "I… I can't thank you enough. My people would have been destroyed. I… what can we even do to repay this kindness…"

I shrug, "I live here too. I will accept a reward, but I do not expect one." And I was in the middle of stabilizing an EMC to energy conversion reaction and would like to get back to that now. She looks confused and nods.

"I… I will… I will speak to my advisors."

I nod, and I turn to Wiz, "Can you walk her back?"

Wiz nods, and they walk away slowly. I turn back to Violette, "Should we get back to it?"

We returned to our work, and a few hours later we solved it. I smile like a loon at the massive machine that stabilized a direct extraction of pure power from the quantum foam of the EMC's source. Not as a weapon, but as the perfect clean energy. More efficient than solar, wind, water, universal kinetic extractors, everything. It was a byproduct of universal stability and would exist everywhere provided existence was there too. I smiled down at my new generator, and with a working prototype, my control began to expand. It's not often that I make new things, beyond the powers I am given.

But this felt so right. So intrinsic to my future, but now it was affected by my skills, and now it was going to be perfect. We began a reconstruction instantly, first, it was wooden pieces. Circuits and parts replaced grown components, piece by piece until I understood why I couldn't build it out of wood. Then I found it. The core of the device couldn't be grown, with no organic diamond, and no grown carbon chain, it needed to have something that inorganic diamond had. So I went back to the drawing board.

Diamond. I knew that magic existed, and I used it often, but now, I needed to understand the diamond's inherent magical energy, what separated it from an organically grown diamond, and if an inorganic diamond could have this property as well.

Before I could begin down that path of research, Wiz returned with a scroll. She began quickly, "I don't know what she gave you, but they seemed to think it was a proper reward."

I shrug and take the scroll. I crack the wax and begin to read. I… hell.

I reread the scroll, and then I leave. I need to speak to the Queen. Arriving in the castle, the guards are polite, and everyone running around looks quite disturbed but many are rejoicing that they are saved from war and death.

I arrive in the throne room, and I begin quickly, "Queen Tyuule Picchil I have concerns."

She looks confused, "I… I believe, and my advisors believe, that it is the most suitable reward. The laws date back to the founding of Picchil. Rewards for outstanding military prowess, and demonstrated dedication to the city. That there is a royal available is… it is not common, but it is acceptable."

I frown, "I have spoken to you less than a dozen times, and you propose I have a child with you?"

She frowns, "I… the council proposed a marriage, to make you King. Your Lady Wiz believed that such a deal would be less acceptable to you than this."

I frown, "I… I have the technology to create a child from my technology. I… To use your terms, I do not know you well enough to lie with you."

She frowns, "I… this. I understand. I will convene my council, and we will seek another gift. I… I apologize. It was presumptuous of me to believe that you would accept such a deal with the women you accompany."

I frown, "We aren't… we don't have such a relationship."

She frowns, "I… regardless, we will renegotiate. I understand your issues."

I nod, "Thank you, and believe me, I am honored you would offer such a thing, but I cannot accept at this time."

She blinks, and nods, "I… I can understand that."

I nod, and she calls for her counselors. We begin, "I… I would wish that my romantic ties remained alone. I will accept if this rejection spurns my gift."

They are… less understanding, but the Queen and I make that clear. I was rewarded with nobility, but one that I doubt that anyone would question.

With that sealed, I began my study of natural and inorganic diamonds, and how the magic differed from organic diamonds, and it consumed me for months. Months until the Saderan Empire returned, an army, larger than the last, and far more vicious. One led by its king.

I was amused by the last army. I was less amused by this one.

I arrived, Violette and Tiamat at my side, armor and flight more than ready for combat. The king was another posturing man and one that I was equally disrespectful of.

He opened his mouth, and I was instantly tempted to show this pathetic man how far above his I was.

"So these whores killed my son. This is the force that you fear so much?" He called out, and I saw many men that my recordings of retreating men recognized. I could only feel annoyed.

"I will assume that you are king then?"

He smirks, "So you see the folly of defiance then?"

I speak to the crowd, "I have offered you all a chance to retreat before. I do not intend to give you a third. Leave. Now. Or I will turn this army to glass, and move towards your kingdom."

The king laughed, "I have more than 20 thousand men! I cannot be beaten by any Sorcerer!"

*Khorne's Anvil (Warhammer Fantasy: Warriors of Chaos) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 500 points.*
ERROR: Į̵̛͓̞͂̈N̵͔̙̭̎͢͞T̸͙͗͜͡Ȇ̸̡̘͖̑̓͡R҈̭̆̈́̕͢Ȅ̸̛̗̣͜S̴̨̛̲̋T̶̢̯̟͋͗͞I҉̛̟͐̾͒͢N҉̢̳̗̈̕G҈̧̦̯̘҇̾͑
Discount: 100 Bought Remaining: 0 points.*

Well. That's horrifying in ways that I can't even begin to imagine. "Khorn is aware of us." I speak into my bond with my companions, and Violette turns to me, plane horror on her face.

Khorne's Anvil (Warhammer Fantasy: Warriors of Chaos): This massive anvil is a one of a kind gift from the Master of Murder, completely engraved with the markings of Khorne. It will seem like it is otherwise unassuming until you begin creating weapons on it. Weapons that are hammered into shape in this anvil will be of masterwork quality regardless of the metals used, and they are eternally sharp and will never wear and tear. But this is not the greatest gift of the anvil. Khorne is willing to use the souls of magic users who are sacrificed on the anvil to grant a weapon a magic effect that reflects the magical strength of the mage that was sacrificed on it...with no limits. This may seem hypocritical for Khorne, but Khorne believes that magic weapons made from a subjugated mage is perhaps the greatest example of might over magic, and the weapon's existence confirms his ideals.

"I… how? What happened?"

"I don't know." I speak. I move the anvil to the bottom of my tower, farthest from sight and interaction. "But he gave me a discount on his Anvil."

Violette looks… horrified. Rightfully so honestly. I would need to insulate that room from the warp as much as possible, but… would it harm me? Has anything of the forge really truly harmed me? And then, can it bypass everything that protects me?

I turn and see the King's weapon drawn while I was distracted, and I smile. "I have better things to do than play at war underneath the aspect of blood and skulls. See this now king of men. Let there be death."

Keeper: Shaper of Worlds activated as I intended, and it was a massive, volcanic caldera formed around the army I was facing. I had seen what mercy was doing, and I refused the consequences for my people now. The world opened up, and fire escaped into the caldera, but was unsullied by my control. It all faded into nothing but ash and flatlands.

I warped back to the kingdom, and there was peace in my name again. I frowned and I walked to the throne room, and I asked bluntly, "Will the Empire be done after all this battle? The next?"

She looked… unsettled, the council deliberated, "What is your question?"

I frown, and I begin again, "Do we attack? Do we end this battle now? Will this be enough or will I need to continue? Can anyone tell me?"

There was silence, and I frowned. Khorn, you make me second-guess my instincts to let them come to me. To kill those that arrive to dome harm, because that is still blood, and still war.

But this isn't what would assist my new Anvil, to make more war? What do I want, what would Khorn demand I do, and how can I avoid the second while doing the first? And how would I even know? The Chaos beings are tricky bastards, and I don't have a method for predicting them, especially as I don't know which one of them this is. Is this the older, wiser, and far deadlier 40k versions? Am I walking into a trap and courting damnation every time I make war with anyone, and can my perks prevent my fall to the Warp?

The council looked confused at the question, and they deliberated for a while until the queen spoke, "We… We believe that it would be best if we were to advance. To show the human kingdoms that we will not be trampled upon by their armies."

I sigh and am not unwilling to sign up, but I am worried about what a war will mean if Khorn actually decided to get involved. The Warrior Bunnies saddle up the horses they can catch, and begin a march towards the human kingdoms, the queen and I at the front. In my car because I'm not learning to ride a horse when I can fly faster with no effort. It is a week, and I supply a lot of food that's needed because they aren't prepared for war. The queen gives me a brief rundown of the people we will be speaking to, the Imperial Senate, most likely ruled over by the Diabo El Caesar, or his daughter Piña Co Lada.

I need a long moment after that name gets dropped because just… wow. That's really bad.

Both remaining monarch candidates are considered weak because he is isolationist and she is near pacifistic. I can see the latter being the wrong stance if she won't fight back, but the intelligence suggests that she isn't incapable, just prefers peaceful solutions. I can get behind that. Wiz and Violette both comment that Diabo and I might get along great if his bio was true. He had a rebellion in his province, and he rode in, put it down with extreme efficiency, and then left after literally carving 'Don't make me come back here' into their independence flag. I can respect that, that's a lot of how I manage myself with hostile powers.

We arrive, and it's a very medieval place, a lower city full of diseases and a racially divided city at that, given the humans only in the actual walled castle. The bunnies had walls for everyone even before I arrived.

The local guard was… not happy that I was here because when their mages decided that they were going to drive the 'beast folk' out, I showed them that I was not taking prisoners. Especially mages. I know myself, and if I started taking magical prisoners, I was going to find someone that deserved death. Then Khorne's Anvil's siren song will tempt me to see what I can make with my growing list of perks operating on it, and I do not want to piss off Violette like that, attract any more attention/favor from Khorn like that, and finally and most importantly, potentially corrupt a chunk of my warehouse with the Warp. No thanks.

Meeting with the king is remarkably easy when you park an army outside and a rather young man with orange, full anime orange, hair hanging in a longish style over his ears, and an aristocratic face, but nothing that I would call… notable. He frowned openly, and began, "Why are the Warrior Bunnies amassed at my walls?"

She begins formally, "We will report formally that the army that you have sent to conquer our country is dead. Your king and first prince died leading them after being given all chances to surrender. We are here to negotiate the human kingdom's surrender under the loss of nearly eleven thousand men, horses, and full sets of equipment." for the first time, I saw malice in her eyes.

*Build Something to Do It For You (Warhammer 40k - T'au Empire) (100) Bought Remaining: 0 points.*

 

[Vorlonos]

What Was Once a Disordered Faction: Chapter 33

---

The Queen of the Warrior Bunnies' decree was met with rage, screams, and general chaos from the Imperial Senate. Specifically, calls for war. Many called that we needed to be handled, called for our heads, called for vengeance, and I cut all of that off with a very loud controlled explosion into the center of the room, and I began diplomatically.

"Are you all really that stupid?" Ok, I lied. "From the numbers, I saw on my way into this city, you have lost more soldiers than you have civilians in this city. You don't have the numbers to effectively police your own people, how precisely do you think you can win a conflict with the Warrior Bunnies?"

There is grumbling, and a pompous man begins, "They must have exhausted their forces too, don't…"

"I slew your armies. Your idiot prince insulted me, and mine. He was given the option to apologize for the insult he paid me, and then he was given an opportunity to surrender peacefully. I have no doubts you know how that went for him. Your king was even less intelligent, and cost his army the chance to retreat. You have no leg to stand on. I believe that you have a duty to the people to surrender."

"What duty?"

"Transitioning to a new set of senators during a war is a messy, messy procedure, and one that you simply don't need to inflict on the citizenry." That statement filtered into their minds and eventually, they understood what I just said and they were silent.

The king apparently steps forward, "Your threats are unseemly."

"Your prince was a crass monster, and your king was worse. I am treating you with more grace and subtlety than I was treated negotiating with your royalty." That's an embarrassing comparison, but a true one. I needed to investigate how Khorne knew about me, and the effects of the Warp on the local environment, and this was getting in my way. I joined this army's advance because I was aware that they needed me quite desperately, but I don't have time for the normal political grandstanding of an old-school senate like this one.

The king actually seems to understand that, as he begins, "Then we will have to rectify your understanding of human negotiations while you are here Sorcerer Lord."

I…great. More titles. I nod slowly, "We must. I believe that a civil negotiation with a clear understanding of the power imbalance between our factions, and one where no one tries drawing a weapon, senator, will be quite a good demonstration. No?" My gaze pins on a senator that was trying to ambush one of the Warrior Bunny guards with a dagger.

He chooses not to understand that I can see him and leaps toward the Warrior Bunny Queen. Then he disintegrates on a disk of my annihilator effect, and I just sigh. "I'm not amused, your majesty."

He looks… well he looks stunned, and begins, "I… we should perhaps negotiate in private then? To increase your security?"

I smile, "Security here is absolute. No one here can move without my say-so, and if anyone gets too out of control in the city itself, I can target them from here with similar precision." Invisible dreadnought overhead, with a downgraded version of most of my guns for anti-personnel effects. They don't need planet killers right now, because that would be overkill in the extreme.

They all flinch at the comment, and the king begins, "Well… let's begin."
I turn to the queen and nod. She looks… Well, I'd seen more than a little viciousness in how she reacted to those that hurt her people, and they had killed an entire village. She was taking her pound of flesh from them, while I floated over to a window, sending more than a few senators scrambling to not be in my path. It was a beautiful Roman city, with a slightly lower-tech base, but an understanding of magic, if a major misunderstanding of how powerful it is. Scanning over the landscape, mostly through my ship I pause hard when I see someone waving at me.

My cloaked, orbital scanners were about 60% of the distance to the moon from the surface so I only needed to deploy 2 of them, but someone was waving at me.

I would speak to her later, with backup because even from that distance she had power coming off of her in waves. I kept a watch on her, and she was definitely heading toward my Tower, which was actually kind of horrifying given the protections I have in place.

Whatever she is, I want to know how they spotted me, and how to not be visible to that anymore.

Giving half an ear, and maybe half a dozen brains of attention to the diplomacy going on below me was informative. The humans had more food, water, resources, and land, and the Warriors had debts from lost conflicts and grudges going back decades about the loss of all of those benefits.

Not using me was a massive card, she was deploying very sparingly as they pushed each other. Peace was required, and debts owed to the Warrior Bunnies needed to be satisfied, but the humans also needed enough remaining to not fall apart themselves. They also needed to stop rolling over on a discussion point every time I twitched or they would fail in their goal of not giving away the kingdom. Or maybe they would surrender wholesale, and enjoy my protection as a citizen of my new quasi-friend Queen Tyuule's country.

Then we were interrupted by several knights led by a redheaded woman who hasn't been here for the entire conversation. "Prince Caesar, you are negotiating with foreigners without…"

"Piña, father and Zorzal are dead. They took an army to the lands of the Warrior Bunnies and were slain in combat. We are negotiating with…"

She demands, "We have no proof of that!"

I sigh, I thought she was smart.

*Over-Science (How A Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 100 points.*

I turn and begin, "I will assume that you are the princess Piña Co Lada?" Internally I wish I could make an intelligent robot to automate diplomacy, but that wouldn't work. I know that, but it doesn't stop me from dreaming. "You will understand that I find your disrespect of this situation, and your decision to storm in here quite disrespectful."

She seems shocked as I just float in the sky, and begin to back off. The doors magically swing shut, and I can feel Wiz laughing at the pomp in my voice now, "Really Princess?"

She looks terrified, and her brother makes the biggest mistake of the day, "The Saderan Empire will acknowledge any punishment the Warrior Bunnies demand for the princess's rudeness in this hearing."

I sigh because that's polite and all, but it's also annoying. I turn to Tyuule and sigh as she silently gives me the advice with a small shake of her head and a twitch toward her brother. That's a good idea, "Actually King Apparent Diabo El Caesar, I will leave her punishment in your hands."

I believe that is political speak for 'amuse me'.

He looks put out to be put on the spot and turns to her. She looks to me, and then to him, and gives him a nod that he seems shaken at, and I learn that silent conversations between diplomats can be incredibly loud, and hope that mine was subtler. He nods a small, sad nod when she nods more formally, and begins, "I would offer the princess as a consort to the Sorcerer Lord."

I blink and see from her expression that wasn't what she meant at all. I can also see from her knights beginning to protest that they were unprepared for that as well.

This ridiculous world. "King Apparent, that's most unusual as a punishment. Would you be implying something about me?" Take the really obvious dismount, do something else.

He looks quite confused, and I wonder if he even knows how to punish a noble. I was assuming stripped of her direct status, maybe a fine but being engaged to a foreign wizard who killed half her family isn't a great plan. Tiamat is fuming in the background over the idea, and I can understand her hatred of being changed down to anything. Wiz and Violatte are both laughing hysterically, but that might be the open shock on my face, the face that isn't floating with a custom-engineered perfect poker face. And honestly, after a moment to consider, it is kinda funny. "I… I would never begin to insult you like that Sorcerer Lord."

"My name is Damion Peramos, and if you require a title for me it is Forgemaster." While I made that up on the fly because Sorcerer Lord was annoying, and I kind of liked it. It fits and feels like a good title given where my power comes from, and what I am planning on doing. I will finish the Celestial Forge someday, somehow, and then I will have earned my title.

He blinks, and it's the Queen who mutters "Forgemaster." It's a strange title without context, and I understand that. "It's a personal achievement and a goal. The most magically studied amongst you might even recognize the idea with enough study." No, they won't, but it will give them something to do that doesn't involve bugging me for information.

The King decides to double down, "The Order of the Rose under Princess Piña will report to you alone." I… great. That's better?

I land, and breath is held across the room, "I believe I should ask again. She is being punished, by being assigned to my service?" I turn to the Queen, who is not looking directly at me, or the king. I think that's the result of some residual embarrassment from her own offer.

The king is slowly beginning to understand that he is insulting me, and begins to backtrack, "I… no. That wasn't my intention at all."

I nod slowly, his pailing face beginning to show that he is panicking. Several advisors around the room go over and whisper things, and he calms down slightly, when the girl in question begins, "To explain, Forgemaster, in our culture, when horrific mistakes are made by a family of middling status, it is customary to transfer wealth, creed or servants to demonstrate our apologies. Traditionally, within the royal family secondary heirs are given to foreign dignitaries as… political hostages." I smile at the very blunt delivery, and the outrage that it sparks, and she turns to them and viciously demands, "Would you prefer he destroy us because he interprets our offerings as insults?"

My body with my girls smiles and I ask them, "What should I ask for? Honestly, I don't need much, but the sooner I ask for something, the sooner I can look into the Chaos gods in the local space."

"Peace?" Wiz begins, "If this is how they negotiate peace, then maybe accept? Let her work around the city, and be the hostage that she has said she is. Worst case, you build her and her knights a small barracks on the route to the human empire as a roadblock."

I nod slowly, "Accept them as the protectors of the Picchil and the Warrior Bunnies in general. That could work."

I turn back to the King, "Actually, I have an excellent idea. You will deploy the… Order of the Rose? Correct? They will be deployed as a guard force for the realm under Queen Tyuule from potential military invasion. Political hostages, protection for my allies, and assigning them to work that a knightly order is actually trained for. Is that an acceptable compromise?"

The princess looked… shocked actually, and the king looked slightly nauseous. One of the senators asked, in what I assume was supposed to be a helpful comment, "What stops them from letting us walk around them unimpeded?"

"The fact that I can and will remove the human species from this planet if I need to come back here." I say with a smirk.

*Evolutionary Incentive (Ben 10 0.1) (400) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

There is silence, and I continue, "Men of the senate, princess, and her knights, I have one simple rule that I want you to understand. If I need to come back here, ever, I won't negotiate, I won't bother to even ask why you violated our agreement to a degree that attracted my attention, I will create a volcano and render your capital a permanent molten graveyard."

The silence continues, and I wait for them to speak, and Queen Tyuule begins, "Perhaps it would be best if you were excused from the negotiations, Forgemaster. After all, we have already had two nearly unfortunate events of insults applied to your person, perhaps we should avoid any further."

"That's more than acceptable." I nod, hiding a smirk, "I will see you when you return to the capital, Queen Tyuule." And that body disappears. I sigh as I sit down in my warehouse, "That was awful, and it's only the beginning. Two issues, we have someone approaching the Tower, and I don't know who they are, but the course over the last day has been following routes towards my tower without fail and can wave to my satellites. Secondly, we need to know how involved Khorn is in this dimension if we need to intervene, and then how hard we need to defend ourselves from Chaos corruption. Suggestions?"

Tiamat begins, "I would let the person come to us, if she doesn't harm anyone then it will be fine. We will need to investigate how she is doing it because your Blank should render any kind of tracking impossible."

I nod, "I know. And that sounds good. I'll send a set of ships with long-range scanners to find out if there are Imperial signals around space. Hopefully without drawing attention. I doubt that they could harm us, but the rest of this planet is all but defenseless to even a small spaceship."

We learned almost instantly after leaving the ionosphere that we were in Warhammer 40k. I hadn't even hit the atmosphere when the manned clone felt the Warp bleeding through whatever natural shields existed on this planet. I had prepared several magical isolation fields, and while those poor approximations of Geller Fields existed, I have had more than a few issues with real Warp exposure. The magical forces of the universe weren't pushing in on me, but it was certainly like a resistance, like moving through the molasses while being used to open air. It was… mildly distressing to feel the occasional ebbs and flows that carried powerful emotions and energies. More specifically, feel Corruption Resistance, Mental Resistance III, Immunity, and even Stress Evolution activating, nearly to the limits of their combined capacity. Limits? activating told me that I was at the limit of my abilities, the limit of my fiat protections against corruption, and soul influences. I… I needed something to protect my soul, especially if I needed to deal with a Chaos God having a connection directly into my warehouse.

I activated Strategic Trance manually so that I can parse through my technology, everything that I know because I know that I need to solve this now. I can feel something… unpleasant worming around me with this corruption, and I want a solution. I turn to my information and I push Efficiency to guide the capstone-broken Engineering Savant, through the 5 massive intelligence setups… actually 6. I haven't tapped into my 3 Aperture PHDs before, and… they were potent sets of information. The 'Applied physics of quantum tunneling' was the basis for my understanding of my teleportation subconsciously or not back in Starcraft's world, but the other two weren't anything I've ever tapped into before, because the physics beyond them were… well they were hell. The technology required for an absolute dismissal of force and the technology for the energetic deployment of programmable universal constants. They were powerful technology, but with my new powers, and information… I could do something insane. Controlled Energy Formation gave me the ability to project energy into shapes freely, and enforce universal constants across flat layers of the world.

Combining that with the understanding I've gained over magic and energy in general, I return to my Warehouse and begin designing. I need a Warp Inhibitor, and from the scans I have… it's a colossal mess. The energy is a mess of contradictions, but Gellar Fields was an energetic separation with exemptions, and that was uniquely suited to… well not making them because they were hideously complex and a mess of Machine Spirits and Psyker-driven techno sorcery. I needed a solution that wasn't based on powers I can't command.

With what I have, I begin to design a replacement. Everything in the energy spectra of the Warp, and within a few frequency moderation levels. I'm sure that it would block the Emperor's light and all similar psionic energies, but given that I didn't use them for transportation or combat, I didn't need the light to be exempt. All I needed was a hard barrier from the Chaos energies, all of them, before they corrupted me, my tech, or most importantly my companions.

The nearly glowing neon blue energy field of the Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill was a fantastic starting point for a shield generator, with programmable energy and matter entrance built into its quantum de-tessellation field, I could exclude… what?

I could allow my energy through it, and disallow other weapons, even if they are the same weapon. I… How is the basic, unenriched energy capable of using software, and no sensor units, to inform which energy is mine and which energy isn't?

I smiled as I began coding it, and regretted not having the foresight to take Aperture Coding. I needed what I have but damn if the whitelist having an owner section command for the sensorless ME field wasn't a demonstration of what could be done. The first thing I made, knowing that Chaos was here, was armor. High-grade power armor with my new force fields. The armor was built directly into it, and with the new Kinetic Dispersion, it was immense.

*Secrets of the Ancients (Subnautica) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 300 points.*

Actually learning how the Long Fall Boots work, it was wild to learn that they don't actually remove the kinetic energy, they absorb it and use it with… a set of gyroscopic kinetic dynamo rotational invariances.

They were feeding kinetic energy at a 1:1.22 ratio into the angular momentum of a micro black hole. Like the energy extraction for the portal gun itself, but in reverse. I… wow. What were those lunatics doing?

The armor and the forcefield both anchored onto the same power core, disentangling energy into the core, and absorbing force to charge it up further, and then… Well, then I pulled out my kind of insanity, a full EMC energy star. My upgraded and small versions made a power brick about the size of a soda can, capable of taking in the power of the shields and the entire armor's kinetic absorber, feeding into the weapon systems. I had several perks making bullets and explosives more effective, as well as making bullets and explosives that aren't possible in reality. Hollow points of antimatter were my current go too because they had very little spread. I programmed them to cover what I was aiming at, making a cone about half a meter in length for most shots, but as it got slower it would become more and more of a disk. It was stupidly lethal, even by Warhammer 40k levels for man-portable weapons.

A backup weapon for everyone was a wand. It connected directly to me, and it was appropriately lethal due to that. But it was worse due to what it was made from.

Keter Crystals doped with my essence.

It took some time to do so cleanly, and it was a massive pain to do, not because I was cleaving parts off of my soul but because I wasn't actually doing that. I was infusing it with my essence magically, and until I learned that my first choice, Malkuth, is all but allergic to magic, it wasn't exactly helpful. I slowly moved up the Sephirot for efficiency and sighed as I used Keter, the most dangerous of them all for us matter-dependent organisms. But for my companions, having a massive stick if we get separated was more important than not annihilating the planet they are on. The suits can fabricate air and nutrients at the speed it's used and converted into EMC.

For our ships, I could build something new, but instead, I used the wooden armor of my Leviathans, upgraded it for my shields and armor, and then I needed better guns.

I remade my Wave Motion Gun. When I killed the God Realm back in DC comics, I killed the universe the solar system represented. I understood this far better, and if I wanted an erasure wave I had it. But if I wanted to erase a city on a planet without coring or terraforming the planet, I had that too, and I could have stopped there, but I declined. With the massive computing and power generation that my wooden swarm Leviathan can make, I made shield emitters. Cones, light seconds out and across, that were EM grills. They could remove small moons in a swipe of the tendrils armed with them.

I smiled as my upgrades filtered down, armor for all my troops, and shields from stationary and ranged units. The Aerglings needed to be cheap, and this decidedly wasn't, and while I considered upgrading their weapons with the fields, I didn't want to transform the matter of my enemies into EMC so inefficiently.

The only one that got this upgrade was the Ultralisk, if optional and one-off as needed. It let me have the upgrade for cheap enough to be worth it, and with the collectors, the Ultralisk could fit, it was actually nearly energy efficient to absorb matter.

With that settled I ascended to orbit again, this time I simply teleported a Levithan to the far side of the local moon and smiled as the Warp was consumed by my Leviathan's shields. I had created a Darkness in the Warp. With that done, I did start moving my fleet out into the galaxy, and almost instantly found… well what I assume is the quasi-inevitable result of the Warhammer 40k mythos. The Tyranids and Chaos were the only 2 factions still fighting openly. Necron Tomb Worlds were holding strong, given the basically limitless soldiers, they could deploy. That wasn't strange, but I was confused by how the Tyranids were holding strong without biomass, but seeing them fight… they did have mass.

Chaos was being eaten. Literally, the demons were being eaten, sometimes alive, by the Tyranids, but the immunity to the corruption of the Warp that they exuded prevented corruption, leaving one force literally incapable of dying, and 1 faction that only gained momentum from the cleaner deaths on the battlefield, deaths on both sides.

Exploring via Keter waves allowed me to detect beings capable of creativity and growth, AKA not Tyranids, from basically every corner of existence. Power was only a linear cost as size increased, but it was annoying to attempt to cross the vastness of inter-universal space that I didn't bother.

I got some scans of the Aldari, the last bastions of the Terrans, seemingly contained in the Holy Sol system somehow, given their religious doctrines explicitly forbid most of the process of learning for moderately good reasons, the Tau and the Orcs were seemingly gone, while several smaller, pre-space species were thriving around the galaxy, and mostly left alone. I assume from how close the Tyranids are to some of them that these species weren't densely populated enough to attract the swarm.

There were Necron warships at the edge of my system, running extermination attacks on planets of Tyranids, and doing… not terribly, but not well. I decided that I would help before they; Chaos, Tyranids, or Necrons, decided to try eating my planet too. We were galactic neighbors with a Tyranid system, and that was… not comforting. I picked a few spots and attacked. While my Leviathans and Tiamat ran that offensive, I started looking for a Chaos inoculation for systems. Violette and Wiz were very excited to work on that. Ankh was deployed to speak to the remains of the Necron fortress worlds.

*Nano-Technician | Nanoforge (Red Faction) (1200) Not Bought Remaining: 400 points.*

It wasn't long after we began that research that the wanderer arrived. She was only slightly shorter than Wiz, about 1 and a third meters tall, with 2 and a third meter decoratively forged ax, one that radiated magical power. It actually felt a lot like Netzach from the Sephirot, something that I had tried for a short while to make into a significant empowering core for a wand for my associations because of its spiritual connections with bonds and eternity.

She knocked on my door. It was quite odd, given that I was protected by a powerful set of wards.

I answered the door and was still a little shocked at the dress. I'd seen her in photos, but only in person did the literal gothic maid dress vibe slap me upside the face. It was odd. She smiled wide when she saw me, and spoke simply, "I am Rory Mercury, Envoy of the Dark God Emroy. I've come to speak with you."

I blink at that introduction, and frown, "I… am confused. Why?"

She nods, "Hardy is terrified of you, so I wanted to meet you."

I… "Who?"

"The Goddess Hardy, the goddess of the underground, desires me and fears you. If I am with you, her minions will not approach you because they fear you as she fears you. Hardy fears you for the reason Emroy trusts you because you are marked by Chaos."

I blink as that statement penetrates my mind, and I sigh, "You want to remain here because you are running from a goddess?" She nods, and I open the door enough for her to enter. "You may enter."

She smiles, and I get a comment from Violette, "That… was strange."

I shrug, "I need you to ask, how did you find me? You waved to my satellite, and that… that is rather out of the ordinary?"

She looks at me and her grin is nearly feral, "You bleed off death in a cloud I can't possibly ignore."

I frown, "I… huh?" I don't know what that means exactly, but it sounds bad, but I am not sure how to even test for that. I set up a guest room above the used floors and waved her off to her new quarters. "Wiz? Do you think we can remove that somehow?"

Rory turned quickly "Why would you want to?"

I frown, "Simply put, stealth. I don't like knowing that people with the right senses can see me, even when I'm attempting to hide."

She frowns, "I… there are rituals to cleanse yourself of the traces of death, but they are… not approved by the God Emroy. Death should be understood, not feared."

I nod, "I have no problems with death, only that others can observe me."

She nods slowly, "Then a ritual of acceptance would limit the exposure to maybe a hundred paces. I could arbitrate."

I nod slowly, "That's acceptable. How much time would you need to set up a ritual?"

She frowns, "It's a simple ritual. It will need 2 of the 3 moons full. The Warrior Bunnies will have lunar charts so we can schedule a date."

I nod, "Ok. You can enter the tower as you need, but the actual workshops will require permission. Anyone can give you permission, but it isn't permanent. The research here can be quite dangerous unless properly contained. Attention lapses can result in quite dangerous events sometimes. There is an internal pager if you need us, and the exit is open to anyone." I explained in detail.

She nodded, "What kind of research? New spells or…?"

I frown, "Not always, but it is still quite dangerous."

She nods stoically, and then smiles, "I accept this honor."

She walks toward her room, and I head back to work. There is so much I need to do. It was nearly a day later when Ankh activated his assistance frequency. I scanned for him and found him deep in the leading Necron warship. I sighed and began spinning up a full gateway, just in case I needed it. One thing that my rather in-depth study of the Sephirot, EMC, and the bonuses I get from Transdimensional Theory allowed me to finally create a stable gateway between two points. It's closer to a Stargate than a Boomtube, but it was rather effective.

I wish that I didn't need to create a magical saw to cut open the universe to make it work, but it was a massive step forward for me so I would get over the overly dramatic entrance it created.

For that reason, I didn't use it for entering the Necron ship, because the sawblades that seem to be overlapping with one another in real space as they carve open a hole in reality are not a message of peace. As the assistance changed to alert, I decided that I needed to be a little less blunt, and did use my gate.

I emerged, as did a few Kryptonian-enhanced Hydralisks, and we found a Crypt Lord hovering over Ankh, staff charged to attack. I scowl, "You really shouldn't do that. You never know who might take offense."

He turns, and fires.

The plasma splashed over me and the Hydralisks, and I was only slightly more than amused. Checking briefly, confirmed that it didn't even scratch my outfit, before stepping forward. I used just enough arcane energy to vaporize the staff weapon as I did. "I assume this means that you will not be open to negotiation for your survival?"

He growled out, and if not for Way of the Void Dragon I wouldn't even understand him. "Human, you have corrupted this Conpotic Spyder, and it will be reclaimed."

I nod, and I reach into this ship, the general mind of the Necron, and feel more than a little repulsion from them as they feel a very human mind win against them as a whole. Then I performed something anathema to the Necron.

*Deep-Layer Protocols (Crysis) (400) Bought. Overflow. Smart Immunity (Limitless) (500) Not Bought. Remaining: 100 points.*

Deep-Layer Protocols (Crysis) (400): Technology in your possession is unique in the manner that it is incapable of deviation from your stated goals. Normally, nanomachines detached from the collective whole would run the risk of having their original goals corrupted or subverted without the greater collective to issue orders, but technology held by you can be proofed so such errors are self-correcting. The only way to remove your tech from play is to destroy or disable it. Hacking or other 'tricks' short of a full rewrite by someone who knows what they're doing will not work.

I left that alone for now. I killed their Tomb Lord. No regeneration, no reformation, cold death. Then I spoke to them, the entire fleet in my system as they cringed from the monstrous demonstration that I held power like their lost C'Tan. "Necron fleet located in my domain. Hello. You may call me the Forgemaster. A Canoptek Spyder I have named Ankh has been traveling with me loyally for some time now. Upon learning more of his kind, I allowed him to speak to you alone, trusting that you would respond well. You attempted to kill him. I will allow you one more chance to negotiate with me."

I wait for the network to slowly come around to another administrator. I observed the politics even in this state and was… well it was strange. None of the posturing I could expect, authority clearance, and little to no posturing that was normal elsewhere. The former admiral, the second in charge of this conflict zone, came forward. Ramothor, a slightly lesser Necron Lord, teleported into the room and spoke with some authority. "Surrender and Die, human!" He opens fire and the full weight of the local Necron network bears down on Ankh and me.

I sigh and bring the full might of Way of the Void Dragon onto their network. I hadn't actually been able to open up with this in a long time, but the Necron interplanetary armada was actually making me work for it. They fell in line quickly, and the damage that the Necron Lord before me was capable of wielding at me was less than some accidents in my lab.

Given that I was violating more universal laws than the C'Tan at this point in my career. I doubt the plasma weapons, or maybe ion weapons I honestly wasn't sure, would even affect me with my durability skills at this point. I strode forward and the Necron fleet disintegrated under the weight of the cascade of failures that total electronic warfare could inflict on their entirely mechanical armada. The firing lines from their ships were tightly coordinated with their shields and fighters on the ground. This disruption is… well it resulted in a lot of friendly fire. Mostly light losses, but several larger ships lost shields to misfires.

I sighed as the network fought back so hard, and I needed to start putting down the Necron minds who possessed stand-out resistance to my powers. Annoying was a more apt description. Their struggle was intense and only grew as I slew more and more of them. It wasn't long before there was only dead metal.

I collected it from the corpses already falling across the surface of several worlds. Fortunately, they weren't even close to my planet, or that might have been a mess. I found little technology that I didn't already have. Their teleporters were neat, but low volume. I would have been more interested in them a long time ago, but they were a moderately useful upgrade now. They had a far better targeting system than I could dream of at the moment. I could integrate that quickly, and then I would have… frankly ridiculous teleportation power. Precision across solar systems and my volume were measurable in entire moons would be a massive force multiplier.

With the Necron fleet managed, I looked to the Tyranids in this system. I checked with several small outposts of my defensive Zergling fortifications, and with enough meat to energy conversion, the Tyranids were losing ground faster than they could bring in other resources to support themselves. My Leviathans in orbit were handling their orbital warships. Armored mouths and flying breeding pits were built for local warfare. My combination of teleporting boarding parties and ultra-long-range bombardment meant that they never even had a chance.

I got more than a few useful DNA strands for my Zerglings, but my ability to build adaptive acid, poison, and my organic Adamantite armor means that their most massive tank bugs were equally armored to my general Zerglings, let alone my actually armored troops or my Kryptonian genes. They had some interesting forms of incendiary and bio-electrical weapons but my lasers were far more efficient of a delivery mechanism than the chemical slurry they used. Their flying titan was neat, but my Leviathan was the size of a moon and was far faster.

Then I captured a living Zoanthrope, the Tyranid equivalent to Psykers. That was… incredibly informative. Learning what they could do was a massive upgrade to my forces. The Queens had a massive upgrade to healing and damage on the field. It was far more regular than the Zoanthrope it was based on and was capable of doing massive damage from nearly anywhere on the battlefield. Striking with a line of sight let them literally snipe Titans. It also let me have a massive field of effect that was even more effective against the Warp than anything I had. Truly they were a Shadow of the Warp. I enhanced myself for explicitly that reason.

My artillery game was far less potent than their Bio-Vore or Pyro-Vore units, but I was deploying Kryptonian-reinforced Leviathans, with their massive anti-ship lasers capable of single-handedly removing entire armies from worlds. The Tyranids tried, but they couldn't deal with my firepower.

Removing them from space was slow, they kept running, but I deployed more Leviathans to end them. I expanded from Tyranid conquered system to Tyranid conquered system slowly. Months of progress toward their extermination went smoothly but slowly. The world I made my home was stable right up until someone did something stupid.

6 months after I arrived in this world and 4 months after I began my true cleansing of the galaxy, a change in the temporal continuum appeared. I was separated from my forces outside the sector. I could recall them, but not control them. I recalled them because, without my control, I couldn't prevent them from potentially removing worlds from existence with creep. Or far more potentially devastating, my wooden biological forms being incorporated into the Tyranids if this took any significant amount of time. I wasn't sure if they could adapt, but I wasn't going to risk it if I didn't need to.

*Smart Clothing (Eclipse Phase) (400) Not Bought Remaining: 200 points.*

My satellites found a magical reason quite quickly, a massive spike in ambient magic, and some colossal space magic on display. I approached, and set up some closer observation on the not-stone structure and immediately was beset by something.

I was dragged into a seemingly empty space, gray floor and… sky?

I look around and see a woman with blue hair and a toga. She frowns, "I think that you have trespassed too far, Forgemaster. First, you take Rory and then you mess with my portal!"

I frown, "I assume you are Hardy. Do you understand how much damage your portal has caused to the local temporal stability?"

She scoffs, "Yes. It keeps you isolated here. You can't go traipsing around the galaxy and bringing down…"

I begin ignoring her, activate Strategic Trance, and contemplate. Hardy is technically a god here or called one anyway. I don't know what she would be elsewhere, but from what I can detect here in her realm, she isn't even on Aqua's level. She can't access other realities, even with this portal.

I focus inward and bring up myself, and when I reach a critical mass of copies of myself I probe them for answers. Maybe it's damage from Khorn, maybe it is that this goddess thinks she can cage me and I hate that feeling, or maybe it's that I just want to test out my new creation.

I leave, to answer one question that needs to be answered before I do anything. I actually visit Khorn's Anvil, with my new Darkness in the Warp, and I experiment with it. Does it actually connect to the local Warp? The answer seems to be no. It works in a cage of my new Warp Immunity, via hammer and material of the same Tyranid Darkness. The armor I forged is… it's ok. Intentionally, I wanted to see the Anvil do its best, and the simple wooden helm is just that. It's a masterwork-level item that I would have been proud to use when I started out, but it is aggressively unremarkable now. The knife I made next was impossibly sharp, near-conceptually sharp, and actually cut me still, which… is almost ridiculous with how much my defensive perks have resolved and advanced over the years.

However, unlike in space, and growing as I leave this system, I don't feel the push of the Warp. The tools Violette has constructed that should be able to detect a fluctuation of the Warp so detailed that it can tell when someone speaks the name of one of the fallen Primarchs, not just the 4 gods, didn't pick up a single twitch.

It hadn't pinged a single time over the last 4 months, but I wanted one last test.

I spoke to my companions, one final check on my Wrath. Tiamat and Violette were watching my war in detail; Tiamat because the torment and evil that the Tyranids inflicted on populations made her incredibly angry, and Violette because this was a version of her home, one nearly fallen into ruin, and she wanted to save it. Wiz had little desire to be involved in a war, but she was a confidant. Tiamat and Violette were in agreement that I would remove Hardy, both for this and her endless attempts to take Rory for herself, something none of them approved of. Wiz remembered the damage and rage that Aqua inspired when she tried similarly and asked a simple question, "Is this to sate your rage?" I frowned at the chastisement and nodded.

I moved my attention back to Hardy, still angry at her presumption that she could contain me, that she could prevent me from advancing as I chose, and I smiled. "Hardy." I interrupted whatever she was saying, "You will retract your interference, or I will remove you. It is that simple."

She looks terrified, for a moment, then she smirks, "If you plan to threaten a goddess, you better be capable of following through. No. Never."

"Fine." I attack. She seems confused when the chains wrap around her, and she gloats.

"These can't harm me, mortal…"

I teleport her to the Anvil, the materials set aside for a weapon, a Shield. Reforging my Aura Weapon with the sacrifice of a god.

She stills when she sees the Anvil, and I begin, "Hardy. This was sent to me by a form of Khorn, and according to every astropathic device that I can build, is independent of him. If it isn't, tell him that I will be seeing him soon."

I swing once, tapping my arm twisted into a hammer to tap the shield on the altar, with Hardy chained above it. The instant the hammer strikes the shield the Anvil glows but my Warp detectors are still silent. I smile as my green/black chains are replaced by chains of red, draining Hardy into the Anvil, and then into the Shield. I altered it with a specific effect in mind, an alteration to its effect in line with who I plan to be.

The shield reforms, a perfect, wooden circle, a small orb in the center taking on the appearance of the Omega Klein Star I set aside for this.

I lift the shield and admire the new depiction, vowing to live up to it.

Standing in the center, the Star replacing the deposition of this shield, is me. Behind me are my companions. Behind them, under the protection of my umbrella are masses, innocent and unafraid. I lift the shield and slide my arm into the center, and see a view from my side, my shield is still emblazoned with a central star, but fire and death emerge from its event horizon, consuming symbolism for evil and corruption in wooden roots and magical death.

I would be a defender, someone that didn't just protect my companions, someone that would protect the innocent. I hadn't made a good showing when negotiating with the humans, but I would strive to actually be better. I needed to.

*Mithril Mines and Armory (Lord of the Rings - Twilight of the North) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 300 points.*

I felt the shield, and its conceptual connection to my soul change something, but I wasn't sure what that was. I did know that I needed to remove the other-planet gate before it broke time itself.

I moved back to Hardy's space, and I brought my power out. My new armor, my new shield, my magic having grown passive and consciously over the last months of real-time, and in outright 40K tier war.

The gate broke, and I realized instantly that Hardy had screwed up far, far more than I had originally thought. We were before our time. Centuries before our time.

The Tau glowed brightly to my Keter wave scanners, the Orcs were… confusing. They weren't actually attuned to Keter, but they had colors that could shift their attunement, but they were typically attuned to a sub-degree of Hod and with an origin in Yesod. Will and Change made manifest, and I… I could see it. A religion based on the sheer Will of the Orc hordes that could alter the fabric of the universe around them. They were tying colors to energy but not in their local Warp. Mostly through Malkuth, they were literally altering the World around them. It was why they could open windows on spaceships, and why they could ignore inertia, mass, the square-cube law, and how they loaded their weapons.

I see. Outright magical color theory.

I don't know the date, but I do know that I am… well I need to intervene.

Chaos is nearly unmitigated, and that needs to change.

I send out fleets and blink.

The hell?

I sent out 1 Leviathan per 10 Chaos Battleship, but they had more now than they did when I deployed. Emerging from the Warp like a swarm. Like… like they were balancing the scales of firepower.

I decided to test something. I sent more ships, and activate the Darkness in the Void before I do. My entire navy has the capacity to remove Warp influences from large sections of space, by massively reducing their firepower and speed, and it seems to work quite well. The Chaos fleets are in decline everywhere I deployed, everywhere I am. Violette contacts me, "Um… Damion?"

I smile, "You want to go too?"

She frowns, "Yes, but… my Vox communicator got a strange signal. My ship."

I blink and turn to her fully. "The ship that you…" She remembers the ship she was serving on being overcome and crashing as she prayed to the Omnissiah. She has told me enough about that time that I know it was hard for her. However, with the range limitation on my system removed, I can intercept a lot of signals. This was a… very unpleasant signal for her to receive, and I was willing to use this as an introduction to the Imperium.

We moved out, using enough magic to keep our presence concealed and to remove most of the damage that the ship would sustain from the Orc warship that rammed into it.

It was… well Orcs were quite easy to remove given that I could literally ignore the armor that was only reinforced with paint and not with more metal. Warp suppression was a powerful tool here. I pushed forward, seconds after the timestamp Violette had, the time when she knew she died in the fight, thereby cutting what little complications to the timeline we had, and stability was achieved at that moment when my Leviathan killed the orc craft as it was dragged away from the Mechanicus ship.

It was mostly safe, with infinitely fewer casualties than would normally be in a fight like this, as they were going to crash onto the planet before I began to decelerate the ship with the tendrils from my ships.

I descended with the ship, and with Violette at my side. I exited as a slime, I was going to demonstrate myself as a friendly Xeno to the incredibly xenophobic Imperium. Based on what I knew, pretending to be human would be far messier than outright being an alien, and I use my slime body to do a lot of work, and my monsters would be a dead giveaway.

The ship was massive, according to Violette it was an Ark Mechanicus class battleship. Even damaged, it was a glorious ship. I arrived at a hole that the crew was crawling out of, and I began, "Hello! May I speak to your leader?"

The Mechanicus bubbled and beeped mostly concerned about how they hadn't detected me. They didn't speak to me, but eventually, a larger man emerged from the ship. He was almost entirely metal, with glowing wires and pipes. He looks over at us, and I was… confused at the lack of recognition for Violette.

His speaker crackles a little more, and he began, "Question. Who. Are. You."

I approach, and I wave toward Violette, "I am Damion Peramos, as named by a former visitor. I ran into this woman, Violette McAnaw, who brought me here to save your ship. She was displaced to my side by an unknown spacial displacement. I would like to offer you my assistance."

He looks at me, "Xeno. Assistance. Declined."

I frown, which I doubt he can see, and I frown, "Fine. If you require assistance, simply call me. I will be available. When you are spacefaring again I would ask for assistance contacting Karl, for I have his commission finished."

He pauses. "Who. Is. Karl?"

I am in his systems, and my abilities made his systems less secure digitally than a screen door. I knew the seal of the Emperor of Mankind, and I was using the Warhammer Fantasy name for him because neither of us knew his real name. "I met a human long ago. He introduced himself as Karl. He worked with me and some Aldari to create true peace. I have completed my end, the Warp Eliminator."

He freezes. "Commission. Documents." He extends his hand, to have them.

I have him. I print a copy of a contract. Karl of Humanity to me, for a Warp Eliminator.

*Ritualist (Ravenwood) (600) Not Bought Remaining: 400 points.*

He begins to read it, and I can feel him checking the signature and the description of the sale. "Solar. Mounted. Warp. Field. Eliminator." his speaker crackled, disbelief was hard to hear in the electronic tones, but it was real. It is a design that I am not only proud of but willing to give to them.

"Yes," I say, like it should be obvious. "I will, of course, require my payment be levied after the first, as I do require a new place to inhabit with the Orc infestation."

He isn't paying attention, I can feel that in his data, he is staring blankly at the signet at the bottom of the page. The Emperial Singnet, personally signed by the Emperor of Man under the name 'Karl of Humanity'. "Come. We. Must. Speak."

I shrug, which is a weird habit when made of slime, and we follow him into the ship. It is just as massive as Warhammer depicted it, with massive everything on a scale that is nearly unbelievable. It is an adventure of engineering to walk through this behemoth, and I was actually a little impressed by the scale it represented. I have always struggled with the massive side of inorganic engineering, and here was something enormous. We arrived at his personal laboratory, and he sits in and connects to a full throne as speaks again, "Explain. Deal."

"Karl offered himself and the armies of humanity to help me install and protect these devices. He understood that Chaos is an immortal threat to the well-being of all of us and that we must repel it. Permanently. I required information on these…" I point out the crystals at the top, bottom, and center of each of the 4 90-degree separated arms of the sun orbiting Wraithbone ring set. "These crystals are based on the Aldari's protection from Slaanesh…"

"DO. NOT. SPEAK. THE. TRUE. NAME."

"Sir, if I can create a device that removes the Warp from an entire system, do you really believe that I cannot repel their eyes from my presence?" I can, I know I can, and while it is my perks, I let him believe that I have something protecting me personally.

"Technology?"

I nod, "I could share, but I'm told that you like having both organs and an unmodified soul, so I cannot protect you personally without a much larger investment of time and energy than would be worth it."

He pauses and looks at me appraisingly. "Humanity. Fights. Chaos. So. You. Can. Build. These?"

I nod, "That is the deal. When you return to… Dirt? I believe he called it some variation of that when he visited, I would like to speak to your government about his deal. He assured me that you would be interested in this, and would accept."

"I. Assure. Acceptance." He begins sending some data, "Require. Proof. Before. High. Terra. Pass. Approved."

I frown at the data, Proxima Centauri. I nod, "I will arrive as soon as I can. Would you like to accompany me and my companions? Or should I wait for your ship to be repaired?"

"Go. I. Will. Send. Message. Others. Will. Awate. Your. Arrival."

I don't exactly smile, can't, but I nod instead, "Understood. I appreciate your cooperation."

I begin to leave, and he begins calling. I ask Val, "Are you okay with heading out? This was your ship."

"They don't need me here, and you are my new Captain. My entire wing was annihilated, so I… don't really have anyone to speak to here."

I can accept that, and turn back to monitoring the Tech Priest leader as he explains the situation. Whoever is listening agrees to test my product, and if it works, they would have an answer to the Warp. Forever. They talk about scanning with Navigators and their ships, which makes me laugh.

"What's funny?"

I explain my laughter to Violette, "They are planning to use some Psykers and Navigators, and send some ships to me for testing. I don't think they realize that they can't send ships to me anymore."

"The Warp will be gone!"

I nod, "We can give them that. And the Alradi. The Tau and Necron don't need it, and the Orcs might instantly die. Chaos can't enter, they will die or suffer unimaginable pain as their mind and body shut down. The Tyranid are also not going to be bothered, only they are less… significant now. The 'Darkness' in the Warp when the Warp stops existing."

She nods, "And with real FTL, the Imperium can fight them for real, and without most of their tricks, the Aldari will need to actually fight."

I shake my 'hand' in a maybe motion, "The Aldari might fight or they might bow. It depends on how we present it. If it is presented at the Emperor's idea, then it will get rejected, but if it is me, offering the name of a long-dead icon, or maybe a messenger from one of their gods, then I can sell it as bargaining away Bonesinging for total protection from She-Who-Thirsts forever. They might just surrender outright."

She smiles, "We would need to contact them."

"Nah. I'll call them between deployments. Make Humans and Aldari work together to make them. I can only be in 'one' place after all."

She smiles, "And with the Warp eliminated as an act of cooperation, the Aldari may be willing to extend this alliance to fighting the Tyranids."

"And if I hold back my FTL drives, the Tau will probably buy their way in with their Warp-less FTL transportation systems."

We have a plan, and I set off for Proxima Centauri. It takes very little time, Tiamat is overjoyed that I have a plan that will bring about peace, and Wiz is happy that we won't be directly in the line of fire between empires numbering in the tens to hundreds of billions.

When we arrived, we were met by another Mechanicus Ship, this one was a true battleship

*Godling (Orion's Arm: Sephirotic Empires) (1000) Not Bought Remaining: 500 points.*

I contact it, "Hello. I am Damion Peramos, I spoke with a member of your Mechanicus fleet, and agreed to a test of my Warp Eliminator."

I can translate binary. I didn't know that I could until he tried to speak to me. "01010111 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110111 01100001 01101001 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100100 01100101 01101101 01101111 01101110 01110011 01110100 01110010 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110." "We await your demonstration."

I smirk, and even as someone tells the cyborg on the other side, I begin, "I will begin to orbit the star, and begin the procedure." I close the call, and continue, "Wiz prepare the crystals, Tiamatt, make sure that I'm in a stable orbit, and Violette, make sure that we aren't disturbed by anyone. I suspect this is going to get loud."

I head down to the bay and emerge into thousands of myself as I begin to sing. Bonesinger has always been a massive head trip, something that is both inspiring and consuming as I pour myself into it.

I sing, and it is days of singing, but the first ring forms, with the crystals positioned at the right time to harvest the Warp lit by this star in a dramatic effect. I can feel, observe, and assist as required through other bodies, as Chaos rebels, sending masses of creatures too numerous for even the adjacent system to fight off with so little preparation. The moment the first ring is done, the assault breaks like glass. Ships failing, screaming untold by everyone alleging to the Warp. Psykers and Navigators included.

We begin the other, and it takes less time, because with the base of the other ring, I can be more forceful with my song, and in a day, we deploy the other 2 crystals, and the system is at peace. Wiz feels it in a way the other 2 don't as a mage and breaks down crying for a little bit, but she assures us she is fine.

Violette is conflicted about the dark amusement I take in how all the ships here are effectively stranded. We receive a weak call for help, and I take some pity on them as I bring them all to planets to part their massive ships. I meet with the local leader and his Navigator.

"You've separated us from the Light of the Astronomicon!"

"No. I've separated you from the Warp entirely. That is what the Warp Eliminator was designed to do. All connections to the Warp, energy rebounding, astral visions. All Warp energies are sterilized in this system. A few thousand more systems and the Chaos Gods will die, forever, unable to be sustained. Their worshipers are unable to even begin to assault the bastions of protection. This is a permanent solution to Chaos. That was the agreement."

The Meechancus leader begins, "How will we report to Terra?" Apparently, he can speak… gothic, right?

"I will take you with me. Karl, as a representative of Humanity, desired this outcome. I assume that this is still acceptable?"

He looks to the Navigator, who is in denial and tears, "We will require you to bring an Inquisitor here. I will speak to the Holy Orders of the Emperor's Inquisition about this system, and you will bring what they require."

I nod, and he comes aboard. I need to keep him from taking apart several systems, but we arrive at Terra quickly, and he had me land somewhere specific with his badge and access codes. Those are again in binary like he forgot I can speak it. Maybe he thinks I have a translator.

We land and are quickly brought to a small room at the bottom of a colossal solid gold building.

The old men inside are… annoying looking because they look like nobles, not anyone important. The 3 people hidden behind false walls look like cybernetic monsters, and I assume they are who I'm really talking to.

I begin, "Hello. I am Damion Peramos, and I have a signed agreement with 'Karl of Humanity' for the creation of a Warp Eliminator." I place the contract on the table, and one of the older men with the metal feature scans it before it even hits the table.

"The Seal of the Emperor!"

The beings behind the glass twitch at that statement, and one of them calls several people. The old men discuss several things, before being interrupted by a giant in golden armor. The Tech-Priest is alarmed by his presence, and he whispers just loud enough for me to hear. "Valoris."

I feel like I should recognize that name, and reads the contract in less time than I would assume possible without a computer where his brain should be, and he speaks with a sound like a whale as it reverberates the room. "You have struck a deal with the Emperor himself, detailing the death of the Immeteriam itself."

I nod, "I did not know this at the time, as you can see, he did not introduce himself as such."

The Custodes, because I can recognize the golden armor, speaks, "The Immeterium is the platform for travel amongst the stars."

I pretend to be confused, "I have encountered 2 other races that do not use the Dread Warp for travel. Can you not offer them this protection for that technology?"

The golden man pauses, and seems to think, before asking, "Slime Creature, Damion, what do you know of 'Karl'?"

I repress a smile, "Karl? He was the strongest man I've ever known. When we met, I was under a siege from Chaos the likes of which I had never experienced before. I had come to find a clan of Aldari Bonesingers who could teach me their art, for no materials I have ever encountered have the capacity to sit so close to a star or singularity for the ages their wraith bone can. He was entreating them for something else, and we fought together in glorious combat. When he learned of my plans, to banish the Warp from the universe as a whole, he pledged his support, provided I would shield Humanity. He said, 'We would demand no payment in the war with the undying Chaos.' I agreed. United against extinction from the Warp, we would stand allied. That is the man I knew, and the man I agreed to work with."

The golden man stood tall, "The Adeptus Custodes will abide by this contract."

I extend my tendril, and he shakes my hand.

"Whatever happened to Karl's Webway beacon? If your ships are still using the Warp it must not have worked. I told him that his design was too cumbersome, but he was absolutely determined to do it on his own."

"Webway beacon?"

"Yeah, the thing he got from the Aldari when we met. It was designed to force 'safer' paths outside the Warp based on the Webway, which is in the Warp, so not a great starting point. I told him a dozen times that he should mount it on his star, and use the entropic resonance to link stars together, but he was sure that his big ol' beacon would be better. He'd never find a horde of people willing to power the thing all the time, but he was determined to figure it out himself."

The room looks horrified, and more than one of them starts babbling about the Astronomicon. I know. That's next.

"After I see the Warp Eliminator in action, I will speak to you about that." The Custodes says.

"Understood. Does anyone need to approve, or can we head out now?"

"No one would question me. Lead on."

*I Am The Architect (Solo Leveling) (600) Bought Remaining: 0 points.*
I Am The Architect (Solo Leveling): It would be an understatement to call you a genius, Jumper. Your mind is one that only has a single peer in the universe when it comes to your technological and magical knowledge. You have mastered the magics of the Monarchs and Rulers, allowing you to create pocket worlds of your own, opening portals to them, existing into another dimensional space and puppeteering powerful avatars, replicating abilities such as the Ruler's Authority with your own magic, as well the creation of such powerful puppets, capable of dealing evenly with S-Ranked dungeon bosses. Finally, your ability would allow you to replicate the feats of The Architect, creating a System for any ability of yours or others, either obtained willingly or forcibly, to train others into. As the Administrator of this System, however, you could also, at any point, seal or take the powers that you have granted access to at any point. You can combine your previous talents to create 'Quests' and 'items' that would help those 'Players' to level up and get better at using their abilities. You can only have a maximum of eight active 'Players' of this system, but you can permanently separate them from The System once they have matured enough with their powers without them losing their powers.

I mentally call to my companions, those not given to me via the Forge in Assistants who were somehow invalid. My anchors in this world, and it was… the power that I could now begin to flex. The power that I could now give them. I felt it pulse in step with my powers and I attached the Celestial Forge to my companions. The full weight of the grinding stars that were my powers became an endless deluge of power attached to several people into a kaleidoscope of power.

*Wiz Yui achieves 100 starting points*
*Tiamat achieves 100 starting points*
*Wiz Yui achieves purchased Protections, Skills, and Knowledge*
*Tiamat achieves purchased Protections, Skills, and Knowledge*
*Violette McAnaw achieves purchased Protections, Skills, and Knowledge*

I felt them shift, added further to my network, and I smiled. They emerged into my Workshop in such a wave that we were equal. We were once simply allies, but now? We are the Celestial Forge.

---

AN: With how this had been going, I actually really appreciate how this ended. That's right, ended. I've been planning 'I am the Architect' to end this series since chapter 2 or 3 when I rolled it for the first time and axed it from the story. When it organically came back up, at the end of this beast of a chapter, I felt it was a poetic way to end it. A dramatic capstone for my story. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. If you are interested in guiding some of my impeding stories (Of which there are a surprisingly large amount) then you can find me at 'www . patreon . com / Vorlonos' just without the spaces.

I look forward to posing more, and there are 3 chapters of the soft sequel to this story on my page already.

 

[oakgem217]

Will you post the link in this thread to the soft sequel thread if/when you post it?

Also, congrats on finishing the story, a rare achievement. You should be proud!

 

[Mastersgtjames]

So... Whatever happened to Sylvannas? Did she just get unmade? shifted to an alternate timeline? is she still on that planet?

 

[Vorlonos]

Will you post the link in this thread to the soft sequel thread if/when you post it?

Click to shrink...

Yes. In this thread. Shouldn't be too long.

 

[morkail]

Great stuff, you really should post one chapter a day when you get a bunch like this so you get more of a following. Still an enjoyable read thanks for the chapters.

 

[MarcusDeGabriel]

This made for an AWESOME reread, I was hoping to see him meet "Karl" about his order and just seeing how the Emperor (or his spirit) reacted.

 

[Kris-71854]

So... Whatever happened to Sylvannas? Did she just get unmade? shifted to an alternate timeline? is she still on that planet?

Click to shrink...

She couldn't stand looking at him and is on the Gate planet. I'm guessing she's in mourning for everything that was lost. Her entire universe went poof.

I'm more surprised that they didn't land back in 2020 or so.

I've loved watching this MC stomp around and build up. The parts of the fic that I didn't like? Aqua and everything with higher beings. I liked that you wrapped that up. I'm not fond of him being banned from world travel though. The way that I read it, he can only go to the settings that he has already visited. I'm not sure I like that.

If the Choas and Order wanted to meddle, they could have fiddled with his Realm targeting to send him where they need him.

I'm sort of surprised that he hasn't ended up building his own ringworld or Dyson swarm.

I hadn't realized that the MC wasn't in a relationship with anyone.

 

[Candyturtle]

Great story thank you for writing it but I'm really sad to see it go...

 

[ValHor]

I would love to see the emperor's reactions. XD

 

[Diver]

It was amazing to see a Forgemaster actually get to adventure with their abilities. Getting to the point that he can actively help in 40k in a meaningful way is a wonderful note to end on. Not that I want it to end, seeing him run roughshod over 40k sounds like an amazing adventure honestly. The only real tragedy was Sylvanas and the deletion of her Azaroth universe. With time, is that something he could fix? He just experienced time travel backwards and he can return to previously visited worlds, could he go back to the big fireball and roll back the clock?

 

[shypunk]

i love this fic thanks for writing it and for the chapters hope to read more of your fics

 

[Vorlonos]

What Was Once a mess of threads: Epilogue

---

The Celestial Forge is a wild and amazing power, one that I had many questions about the nature of, and was very ready to learn about with Wiz, Tiamat, and Violette. Eventually.

All three of them were clear that the secrets of the universe could wait until I was not responsible for the near elimination of an entire solar system of inhabited planets because I turned off their utility providers. Then I needed to deal with the immediate fallout of the end of the Chaos faction and their associated issues, and finally, I needed to clean up a few messes I left behind.

How hard could that be?

---

Which, in my defense, I didn't know would happen. I really didn't know how much these humans depended on the Warp that was actively trying to kill them and consume their souls.

We arrived back in the Warp Eliminator's field, and several pieces of the Custodes' armor fail all at once. I turn back at him as I hear them fail, "How much of your technology is dependent on the Warp's presence?"

"The Tech-Priests on Terra assured me that my Machine Spirits would protect me."

I pause, literally the entire train of thought that was guiding my ship towards the planet halts with that sentence, and the ship freezes unnaturally quickly as I turn slowly, a realization in my soul that I may have royally screwed up. "And everything runs on Machine Spirits?"

Violette begins, "Yes. I… Oh. Oh no."

"Machine Spirits are Warp entities. They exist in complex electronics, more complex the more of them exist within it, but they are dependent on the Warp to continue. Anything that isn't operating due to actual machinery working the way it would isn't going to work now."

They all look at me, and I back peddle, "How else would this work? I've built an altar to the Omnissiah by hand, and there isn't a single piece of that that should be causing it to work, but belief and Warp energy make it work. I thought that was common knowledge!" It should be.

Violette looks at me, annoyed, "Then why a Warp Eliminator?"

"Because a Pacifier can't work with the Chaos Gods running around, and I didn't think that requiring technology to work as designed for a while would be apocalyptic."

We land, no longer waiting for anything like a landing permit, and there is pandemonium. A small patch job of the armor of the Custodes' armor to let it really move again, and we are not stopped by anyone on our way to the local office of the Adeptus Administratum. They were responsible for keeping things running, and I hoped that they were competent enough to help.

They were not. About a third of them were dead actually, and the remaining set were incompetent or had given up. So I ignore them, "We need to find anyone here that has working lights. Tiamat, check computers, we are going to organize things from most to least casualties if not brought back online sooner than later. Wiz, take the ship and scan for electricity. If anyone has power that means that they know how to make the local generators and technology work without the Machine Spirits, which means that they are now the best engineers we can locally source. Find them, then, find every Adeptus Mechanicus member you can, and bring them all here. We'll teach them how to fix this stuff. I apologize, I never got your name."

"Trajann Valoris." He says with conviction, and Violette gasps, "Chief Custodian of the Emperor's Guard. I believe that you know him as Karl." I… Oookay. That's a lot.

"I… Okay then. Wow. I thought it would be one of his kids by now, but maybe it has been less time than I thought?"

"Karl was mortally injured and encased in his Astronomicon as a life support system nearly ten thousand years ago."

I take a long moment to think on that idea, because wow that's insanity, "I… will deal with that later. Planet to save."

He seems to agree, as he suggests, "I will give Tiamat my access codes, to allow her to bypass the limitations on the systems."

"Apologies, but I won't need them. Your firewalls were never designed for me." She smiles and I nod. Dragon, merged with a Machine Spirit, given [Way of the Void Dragon]. Nothing digital was stopping her.

"What do you mean? How can't they stop you?"

"I am… a fully sentient Machine Spirit accessing the full data processing potential of Damion's extra-dimensional computing hardware, some of which is C'Tan based. Your systems are designed not to inconvenience Machine Spirits, they aren't strong enough to keep out Damion's hacking abilities personally, and a C'Tan can all but ignore firewalls more sophisticated than computer hardware can really comprehend."

He frowns, and really looks at her, "Then I am thankful that you are on our side, Tiamat."

She responds, "I am on the side of peace."

That was more threatening than I've ever seen her, but she is growing more accustomed to my powers and probably knows as well as I do that the powers at be here aren't good people, nor are they kind.

*Tiamat selects Technological Upgrade (World Seed) (600) Bought: Tiamat's Remaining Points: 0*
*Wiz selects Bigger is Always Better (Warhammer Fantasy - Tomb Kings) (600) Bought: Wiz's Remaining Points: 0*
*Violette selects I Wasn't Born a God, I F*ckin Earned It (Rick and Morty SB) (600) Bought: Damian's Remaining Points: 0*

When the hell did I get 1800 points? … Oh. I didn't. I got 600 points from the 3 of them and my own generation, and they chose a perk each. They also left notes.

You and I already have a design for an Ecumenopolis somewhere, we can make new, better, cities than the current designs, and we can sustain people for a week. Technological Upgrade (World Seed): Spaceship captains, rulers of both kingdoms and planets alike, and people similarly reigning over the masses or in possession of a vast amount of land have access to a special kind of system in Neolife. A sort of management menu, it allows people to upgrade their territories in two kinds of ways: the first is a technology upgrade, which a ruler could use to add irrigation to a field or to increase the defense of a city. If there is a design provided, it will be instantly built once the upgrade finishes in around a week.

We are rebuilding a solar system. I figured that we might be able to use this. Bigger is Always Better (Warhammer Fantasy - Tomb Kings): You're a true visionary, even amongst the most celebrated of your peers your creations would be known as truly awe-inspiring things. Grace, realism, and detail, you are almost unsurpassed in all areas. But you have a certain specialization, one more suited for a Necrotect than any other. The bigger it is, the more complex it is, the easier it is for you to make it. The larger the tomb and more intricate its design, the less time it takes for you to have fully working plans drawn up. Even the actual construction becomes easier in the same way, with larger and larger constructions seeming to be more and more fortunate. Extra supplies turn up out of nowhere, the slaves are in perpetual good moods, and shortcuts that cut time and resources needed without lowering quality are found aplenty.

Wait! No! I wanted [Guildmaster]! Well… This will work too. I Wasn't Born a God, I F*ckin Earned It (Rick and Morty SB): You are the smartest person in the universe. You have an intellect so far beyond comic book super intelligence that you make the likes of Reed Richards and Tony Stark look like toddlers who haven't even figured out how the Legos snap together. In addition to being a scientist and engineer of unmatched skill, you can apply your boundless intellect to any other skills or abilities you possess, boosting them into the stratosphere. You can pull off such things as making working portal guns that take you into alternate universes or inventing an invisible deterrent that instantly kills anyone who touches you with their bare hands, or inventing a cloning process that can save you from death by downloading your mental state from your dying body into a fresh clone body at intergalactic ranges and pretty much anything you can dream up. For you, the question of what you can do with science isn't "Is this possible" it's "Is it worth the effort" because there's nothing you can't do (save for anything that would require you to possess an Oldwalker Spark received from an Endjump Scenario) if you want to do it.

I pause, "Tiamat…"

"Yes, I feel that too."

Wiz calls, "Is this how you two always feel?"

I admit, "Sometimes. Tiamat, find the designs, Wiz, Violette, make sure that they are both human-livable and maintainable and then see about getting enough food and supplies to tide this system over for a week."

"What happens in a week?" Our golden friend isn't in the loop.

"In a week, one of my powers lets me instantly replace, upgrade, or otherwise alter anything I have plans for, and some technical level of ownership over. I need to design a better Hive City, one that we can standardize for every planet in the Imperium and one that is defended from Tyranids and Necron because when we are done, those are the only 2 forces in the universe that will matter."

"The Orcs cannot be negotiated with." He begins slowly, seemingly picking up what I am putting down.

"The Orcs are a species that has open windows on their spaceships so they can shout at you." I deadpan, "They will die faster than Chaos ships do when exposed to a Warp Eliminator."

He nods slowly, "I will begin paperwork assigning you regional control for however long this replacement requires."

"This one will be about 7 days, and just will one out for the entire next system, for me, Wiz, and Tiamat. Violette isn't tied into my powers directly, and I don't know if she can use them the same way."

*Violette selects Guildmaster (Warhammer 40k - Squats) (600) Purchased from joint account: Tiamat's Remaining Points: 0, Wiz's Remaining Points: 0, Damian's Remaining Points: 100*

I can totally use the system! Guildmaster (Warhammer 40k - Squats): You have risen through the ranks to become the senior most Engineer's Guild member in a Stronghold. There is nothing about Squat or Imperial technology you do not understand in detail, and you're brilliant at adapting the principles of one device to another. You'd stand a good chance of fixing the Golden Throne if they'd ever let a filthy abhuman into the Imperial Presence.

*Tiamat and Wiz pre-select Thinking with Portals | Pocket Portals (Endless Space) (600) Purchase impending*

"We could build normal people roads, or we could do better." Tiamat says as I read the new perks.

Wiz adds, "You mentioned linking stars together as a replacement for the Astronomicon. Well, we already have massive structures harnessing entropy from them, we just needed to add this."

I explain, "We are looking into using the Warp Eliminators to give everyone interstellar travel again. Once the ships are retrofitted." and [Guildmaster] is helping with that a lot.

We work through the night, and when the paperwork for 10 days of total ownership of the systems around Proxima Centauri, Ophiuchus A and B, and Luyten, which allowed us to create 3 major things. Using [Technological Upgrade], we can create a Warp Eliminator, instantly, without so much as a second of singing that the Chaos gods can detect. Wiz and Tiamat are hard at work with the Ecumenopolis designs, and while we could terraform the planets, we refrain and design the new and improved Hive cities.

It would take time to individually plan these out, but the templates that Tiamat was providing ever so quickly were revolutionizing the design of these vast systems. The most efficient transportation, power, water, sewage, and more just brimming to life as we began. Then, the most important part, Violette returned with a few hundred people, and I began to create booklet after booklet, an entire archive of data, both print and digital copies, totally incapable of being altered or sabotaged, and I began to teach them how to maintain the utopian city that Tiamat, Wiz, and a few dozen of me were working on. More of me divided off, pushing my nearly incomprehensible limits of multiprocessing was the newest perk that they generated.

Thinking with Portals | Pocket Portals (Endless Space)
Thinking with Portals: You know how to make interstellar portal arrays! They take a considerable amount of resources to build, have no defensive systems, and need to be linked together, but any system or planet you claim as your own is able to build them, allowing you to instantly travel between systems you have already claimed. Due to exotic (And very, very lethal) radiation produced during each transit, these are unsuited for placement on a colonized world. Atomic weaponry has nothing on these portals' ability to destroy a biosphere. If you take Pocket Portals, you are able to reduce the radiation to background levels, making it safe to install them planetside.
Pocket Portals: Normally, Vaulter portals are huge affairs, too large to build on planets. You know how to micronize them, and create portal systems that you could, in theory, build into a house, or even turn into communication devices. Instant interstellar communications? More powerful than you think. Without Thinking with Portals You can not build portals large enough to pass anything larger than a scout ship through, and even that will be very difficult to squeeze in.

Attaching those to my already-built Warp Eliminators was going to be a terrible time. Once I had a working module then…

That's a head trip. I had literally sat down to improve the Warp Eliminator and [I Wasn't Born a God, I F*ckin Earned It] swept in, and made it a trivial act of effort. I could feel it being trivialized as I sat down.

I smile, and with the Hive's for this, and the next 4 systems ready, I began [Technological Upgrade] to a massive whoosh of air and we were in a new office.

I didn't understand, but then it was really easy.

[Technological Upgrade] activated, and it should take a week. [High-Speed Creationist], [What's An Engineer?], [Bigger is Always Better] and some [Efficiency] brought the time down. Fast. Seconds from weeks.

I turn to our golden guard, and speak, "Okay, this system has been upgraded. Introduction booklets on how to use and repair the systems are being uploaded to every computer in every home in the system."

He looks at us, and for a long moment I think he is stunned, but in reality, he was thinking. "That… is amazing."

---

Planning the overhaul of the entirety of the Imperium was a cakewalk, but the real concern that was brought up was how my Warp Eliminators would affect Chaos, and with the misunderstanding of how they affected Machine Spirits, I needed to explain this. A recording was being made from it for the Aldari, the Tau, and even some friendly Necron who were willing to cooperate for the death of the Tyranids.

"So, what do you really know about the Warp?"

One of the Inquisitors who muscled their way into this meeting in a vane attempt to remain relevant in a world post-eradication of the Warp beings, "It is the font of all evils in the Galaxy!"

A Mechanicus representative said with less conviction, "The bane of ordered systems?"

Trajann says, as someone who is more experienced than anyone here with the warp after a month of following me around as I purged it from human space with a vengeance. "An alternative plane of existence."

I smile, "Two of you are right. The Tyrandis predicate the Warp from having a monopoly on evil, but the Warp is, at its core, a near sentient energy field that depends on and is depended on by, most individualism. The C'Tan are individuals, the Aldari, the Tau, the Humans, and even the Necrotir were all shaped here, in the Milky Way, but the existence of the Warp. It is, as far as I can detect, an isolated occurrence here in the Milky Way, because it is reliant on Life, as an Idea, not as actual living beings. It shapes and is shaped by the organisms living in it. It alters probability and even reality as it pleases, but it seems to be… not sentient, but it could be called sapient. Alive like a plant or like a fungus, not even a simple dog."

I draw up several charts, "It is the bane of complex parts because even small alterations to gears or friction, if it isn't prepared and reinforced for the Warp, then it is more than likely to explode than work correctly once the Warp has attached itself to the object. As we have discovered from my Eliminators, objects influenced by the Warp can work in spite of dozens of broken parts, even missing large portions of themselves. This Warp injection causes a more significant, maybe even bird-level or rodent-level sentience in machines that are referred to as a Machine Spirit by the Mechanicus and maybe the Soul of a Work by some of the Aldari texts I have seen." The lifetime of training that [Bonesinger] granted me has a lot of respect, even reverence for the shape a project takes beyond your control, the Soul of the Work, that embodies how the materials can be best used. Defensive or offensive vehicle usage was assigned in no small part by this, and it was interpreted by several of their seers to attempt to divine attacks and the like. "However, what the Warp primarily does, is collect energy. Primarily emotional or 'will' energy for lack of a better term in Gothic." I would both love and hate to see what a Lantern of any color would work like here.

"This collection has side effects. Psyker warping and Chaos beings are the primary two issues. I believe that we all know how Slaanesh was born, through the Aldaris' incredible Warp sensitivity and drive towards hedonistic overindulgence due to the psychic feedback from everyone around them, it became a Cult of Pleasure and Overindulgence. The Chaos Goddess of Excess was forged from this drive, and as such, is the youngest of the 4 current Chaos Gods. I believe that this creation is a strain on the Warp for various reasons. Firstly, which of the 4 Chaos Gods…"

"There are 5 Chaos Gods." The Inquisitor begins, "Malice was re-awoken from…"

"Malice is a joke in the Material world compared to the rest, and I have an explanation for that. Tell me, what are their 'Sacred Numbers' the number that has been associated with them?"

"Malice has 11, Slaanesh has 6, Nurgle has 7, Khorn has 8, and Tzeentch has 9." Trajann says confidently, then he continues, "You believe that they are counting on something?"

"I do. They also segment well. I'll begin with Malice. What bore Malice into the universe? Does anyone know? The Chaos Gods would need something momentous to be created, but nothing comes to mind, correct? I believe that he was re-awoken, not born."

They all look stunned, and I continue to showcase my theory, "Tzneetch is a schemer, a planner, and what destroyed plans? What ruins every good scheme? There is a saying about a plan."

"No plan survives encounter with the enemy."

"What is the plan for Khorn's armies?"

I watch a Custodes repress the urge to facepalm, "Shoot them. Khorn's blessing means that attempting to circumvent fighting them from the front into an almost guaranteed loss."

I nod, "And what are the odds that Tzeentch's plans don't need to work really hard to begin to counteract that issue?"

"High. When fighting Khorn and Tzeentch at the same time, it is more than likely that is the only time you see Tzeentch fighting without most of their tricks."

"Exactly. Step 2, what ruins even Khornish warriors, prevents them from fighting and dying in ways that guarantee their blessing carries them far further than their skill and weapons should?"

"Plague. By the Emperor's Light."

"Nurgle, the last of the 'conventional' of the three seems designed to beat Khorn, because they bog down a fight, prevent you from just killing things, and in doing so, weaken Khorn's blessing and reduce the energy Khorn gains. Now, let me ask a further question, can Tzeentch…"

"His plans need to work around Nurgle as well, but because Nurgle is slow and somewhat methodical himself, he isn't as much of a threat."

"Yes, you can plan to avoid Nurgle, you can plan to sterilize Nurgle, but once you are fighting him, it is guaranteed to go exceptionally poorly. Now, as to the creation of these three things, when a war happens, a war between say, C'Tan. There is an army of gods that has to fight a true war, a slave rebellion actually, they plan then they fight then the consequences of war rage; like plague, death, and the decay of an empire of gods. The expressions of Tzeentch, Khorn, and Nurgle act as the 3 major facets of the War as an idea, and seemingly count down to something as if they were born that way. The Necron are also, seemingly, devised to counter them all as if this was a major consideration. For example, name the 3 most advantageous things the Necron have in a fight. In order of usefulness."

The Inquisitor begins, "The Necron can be almost impossible to detect when they decide to hide, which is rarely, but it does happen. Tomb Worlds are overwhelmingly hidden from detection, and we have drilled into them to build Hive Cities without knowing they were there."

"They are monstrous in a pure combat engagement. And they are true machines, learning and growing as combatants potentially forever."

"The Necron have the ability to jam lots of large-scale Warp technology and hide from even the most sensitive of Warp detectors, they have the ability to overpower most beings in a sheer standup fight, and they are immune to decay almost as an ideal. I believe that these are in that order in your minds, and that order is not a coincidence. As you can probably tell. Now, you are all curious about Slannesh, but they aren't made by the same event and are a little different. They aren't as resistant as the other 3, but they are somewhat resistant, and even with tens to hundreds of millennia of catching up to do, they are feared like any of the other 3. That implies power, and they take it from the other 3, lots of it. Souls, troops, everything. They all weaken the others, but in that order, they are more resistant to the other domains. Slannesh isn't immune to the plagues of Nurgle, but Nurgle did steal and cage her single largest threat in the Universe, seemingly of his own accord. Khorn can lose the battle because she can take his troops and divide their loyalty, and the right temptation can cause even the most devious of plans to fail. I believe that the Warp is counting down to its true Chaos being, and I plan to kill it before it can embody itself like that."

"What does your Warp Eliminator do?"

"The Warp feeds off of Life, but it also isn't here. It is another plane of existence, so I plan to cut us off. These rings use entropy to attach a waveform to the light of these stars, and that waveform renders anything that touches them with sufficient intensity to cease connecting to the Warp. This means that within about 7-10 lightyears of that light, it annihilates anything that attempts to live in both places at once, like demons, and cuts off the power of anything drawing on the Warp, like Psykers." Don't ask about Machine Spirits, because I think they are more the former than the latter and I don't want to explain that here. "This means that I am also cutting off the Warp from its food source, and without any life, it will very quickly wither away. I tested this with several Psykers on a smaller scale, when I temporarily activated the prototype on my ship. About a square kilometer of the area was removed, and for days afterward, any Psyker entering that field felt like they were encountering an entire zone that acts like a Blank. They can't draw energy from the area, and they can't see into the Warp well, like it was killed, or at least heavily displaced. In a week it was fine, but that was on a planet with life. We are now in a solar system with this displacement. We deactivated the feature for almost a day while I tested the jump gates on the star in Proxima Centauri, and not a single piece of Warp equipment nor a single Psyker noticed. It was still totally Blank."

They all look stunned, "Now, the Chaos Gods draw power from the Warp, and the Warp draws power from life, so while I am separating the Warp from the life it needs…"

"You are killing, permanently, the Chaos Gods. All of them." The Inquisitor looks like I told him it was Christmas.

"Yes. Now, how it purifies space between Stars is the really interesting part." And something that wasn't an issue before I realized how much energy the Warp has even in the dead space between stars. The portals helped a lot with that measurement. "With the quantum connection between stars, I am capable of caring the waveform much further and much more potently between them in a line, making a rod shape. When a third comes online, however, we have a triangle. Then…" I show the triangle slowly filling in, "There is too much Warp energy for it to expand outward much, the waveform fades, but when they are encircled, as they have been here…" The white 'anti-Warp' bubble on the screen finished, "That encirclement has a stipulation that the Warp can't draw energy from within the area, but nothing lives there in deep space, and if it does, I can detect it, and we can figure out what it is."

They look at the diagram, "Is this 3 dimensional as well?"

"Yes. It is just easier to show you like this. It is also more efficient in 3D because it covers more avenues of approach for the Warp energy. I suspect that in the 4 systems we have converted, it will be about 11 to 14 months before the entire space between them is untouchable by the Warp. This is also an issue because Warp travel from Terra is going to be affected by this."

We cover shipping lanes for a while, but they understand my point, and the message to the other races is ready, that I have a permanent end of the Warp and a message about not screwing it up once the Eliminators were no longer needed.

---

It was nearly 300 years before we were totally done designing and implementing our overhaul of the entire galaxy. The Aldari agreed swiftly because the death of Slannesh was on the table, and the Tau agreed because they were being offered a seat at the table, and could provide a service that no one else could. Travel between stars that doesn't require the portals of a Warp Eliminator. It wasn't faster by any means, but it was less busy and significantly less energy intensive for shield generators.

You were flying into the coronal field of a star, it was really really hot.

Once the entire Dominion, the Aldari, and Tau systems were covered, I turned my attention to where the Warp had overcome the universe, because I can't 'own' that land in any way. I would need to conquer it from the hardest enemy present, Chaos. And its ability to throw seemingly infinite units at me, enough Chaos Marines empowered by enough magic that my Kryptonian units fell in combat.

Well, the solution that we came to eventually was for me not to fight. I only needed to sing the Eliminator into existence.

So the Space Marines mobilized in numbers never before seen. They would be led by someone that I never really thought I would meet.

I didn't know that they were turning off the Astronomicon until they called for help. The Emperor was little more than skin stretched over a skeleton, and I would need to fix that first. It wasn't hard, but Trajann noticed I was worried. "Damian, you are saving the Emperor."

"What if he doesn't remember our deal?" I made the damn thing up, I thought I would be done and gone long before he woke up to remember it.

"You have given us true immunity to the Warp. I believe he will uphold it even if he doesn't remember it."

I sigh and hope that is correct.

It wasn't more than a few hours before the Emperor of Man was done healing. He isn't… nearly as intimidating as I had assumed he would be, even without an entire semi-trucks worth of armor plating. He stands slowly, surrounded by his Custodes, and I take my leave. These are, to a certain extent, the only remaining children he has. I'll let him speak to them first.

It wasn't long before he asked to speak with me and I was… apprehensive about speaking with the incredibly powerful being. He dismissed the Custodes with a simple "Leave us.", which was a confusing move, but it was the first time I heard his voice and it was deep. Like… the man is nearly 3 meters tall, so that wasn't surprising, but it wasn't… 'I am the Emperor'.

He looks at me, "I know we never struck that deal. If I had been given the option to improve the Warp Cleanser, then I would have taken it."

I take that statement in, and there is a long realization in my body, "The… You never intended the Astronomicon to be a beacon in the Warp, you were planning on creating a protective field?"

"I was planning to alter the composition of the Warp as an energy field. To alter its very nature in such a manner that it would empower, but not corrupt, everything around it. I believe that the C'Tan damaged the Immeterium immeasurably in their wars."

I just stare at him, "Well, you can certainly try again after I've sterilized it."

He nods, "I can. Now, fill me in, Damion. I know not what has happened in the time since…" He trails off and looks incredibly sad.

"If you need time…"

"No! I… I would work. Not wallow."

"If it is any consolation, if they are in the material world in full, we could probably attempt to capture your fallen children."

"They betrayed their brothers, subjects, and myself. I… I cannot forgive them."

I can certainly accept that, "I believe that is a wise choice. Now, where shall we begin?"

We began with a war that would change the face of this galaxy. He is a prolific orator, and he could bring even the most disparate factions of the Imperium together. Then, he spoke to the Tau and the Aldari, it was a glorious thing to watch this massive man inspire them to a banner of unity. Of mutual protection from the true evils of the world. He was, at his core a protector, not a tyrant, and I was quite happy.

I sent an army of myself with them into the Eye of Terror, Tau FTL drives on ships with small Warp Eliminators letting us arrive and leave even in heavy Warp-infected space at will. Chaos didn't appreciate it, but we swept over the universe. We were careful, and it took centuries of fighting, but the Milky Way was purged of Chaos.

The battles grew easier and easier as demons that came to fight us personally were killed, permanently, and for the first time, Chaos forces truly shrank. Peace, for the Dominion, the Aldari, and the Tau, or the Unified Materium Species as they were called after nearly 800 years of fighting together, was a glorious time.

I knew that the Tyranids were coming, and set several thousand of me out to stop them, and the Necron decided that they would rule the galaxy, which didn't go well with the UMS having my backing and all the Necron tech in the Celestial Forge. I almost felt bad for them.

---

The final issue I had wrought in my explorations was the orphaning of Sylvanas Windrunner. I had, inadvertently, ended her world.

When she eventually grew tired of exploring the small world I arrived in this universe upon, she called out for me as I had told her she could.

She looked at me with cold eyes, "I would like to leave."

I look back at her with… Admittedly with confusion. "I can find you a…"

"No. I… I want a world where I can help people. People who need my help. I… want to belong somewhere."

I nod slowly and look for a power that can help. I have most of the forge, but facilitating true reincarnation isn't… well that will work.

*Purchasing Mantra Generation | Guide of Naraka | Demigod | Mantra Affinity | A Tangled Web Weaved | Mantra Training and Techniques | Cyborg Hindu Godbody (Asura's Wrath) (1100)*

Guide of Naraka: You gain a secondary form that of a golden spider. You gain the ability to visit Naraka, the space between the living world and the engine of reincarnation, dangling from a single spool of divine spider silk. When inside Naraka, you may manipulate souls who are attempting to climb the infinite towers and return to their lives, rendering them your catspaws. Finally, when in this state your voice takes on an eerie intonation that subliminally influences a subject's emotional state. The spiderform also helps you think up armor piercing questions and baffling Koans. You cannot spend more than 24 hours in Naraka. If you do, you must climb out as described in Tower of Naraka.

I become a glowing golden spider, and take her soul, perfectly intact, and push outward. I meet a wall almost instantly, and call out, "Chaos!"

She arrives, and I… am less intimidated now. Somehow.

"You can tap into the resonance field of your Warp Eliminators. You can bring gods low enough that your cultivation, your weapons, and your defenses can destroy even us. It is why Order dislikes you. I know that you intentionally installed a quantum-form singularity and a temporal isolinear drive into your very soul after you got [Fashion]."

Fashion (Highschool of the Dead): Your clothing and entire body acquire defensive properties equal to the most superior protective items you have currently equipped. Emphasis on protective item an iron or steel ring won't give you metal-tough skin the minimum is things like knee pads from extreme sports, helmets even an apron would count, though all that'd do is protect you from the dangers of a kitchen.

I nod, "True. So, I have a request."

"And it is to undo a wrong committed against the little elf. I approve. I know of a world that she can play in. I think she'll enjoy herself."

I nod slowly, "Can I give her a gift? An apology?"

She smiles and hands me one half of a strange necklace. "If she ever needs help, you can use this to send an aspect of yourself to her."

I smile, because this is a really interesting way to have a conversation. "Thank you."

"It's not a problem."

---

It was, subjectively, millennia before anything surprised me again.

Feeling an infinitesimal soul that was somehow both independent of me and part of me die as a mortal was… strange. I summon him from the void while working on one of my newer projects. "Hello."

He begins to ask the boring question, one that I hear a lot since I took over the local, and less local, afterlife "Are… are you some…"

I begin, "I'm not what you would normally call a God no."

Sarcasm explodes from his mouth, "Some kind of soul thief? I've heard that some monsters hunt human souls, but I thought those were rumors."

I pause in my swing, and being to actually pay attention to this conversation, and admit, "Huh. That's a new one." I reach out, and see what part of me he is, and am more than a little surprised to find it is one of the abilities that Aqua took from me the first time I Jumped. "Ah. That might make more sense. A small shard, one I didn't even know about."

"Shard of what?"

I joke, "Me."

He steps back, fear in his body and I can't help but laughs, "No, no. I've grown you back. [Technical Expertise] gives you a what? 5% increase in effectiveness alone without the fiat backing? I re-acquired that a long time ago. No, no. It would be far more interesting to send you back. You can't go back to your homeworld yet, there does need to be a balance… so little Jimmy, where to send you?"

He is upset, but that is understandable. "What are you talking about? Why can't I go back?"

"You died. Sending you back would defy the balance. I need to send you somewhere else first. What is a world you enjoyed?"

"I've never really left Earth." he protests, and I am amused at the total lack of humility in that from him.

I frown, attempting to explain, and go with the simple, "Right. Fictions. Stories."

"Why?"

"Because a little Meta-Knowledge will take you far. Now, where do you want to go?"

He is lost, and confused, but he wasn't expecting this conversation, so it isn't a big deal, "I don't know. Somewhere… somewhere that I can be happy, and can come back stronger."

"Little Erny has a fun world, maybe I can let you grow there… I think that a good time too." Have fun little me.

---

AN: Sequel!

 

[Mastersgtjames]

quite a few typos/mistakes in this chapter... not huge ones, but a number of small ones.

Like, you using Sentience in place of Sapience and Sapience in place of Sentience on accident.

Spoiler: Difference between Sentience and Sapience

The word sentience is derived from the Latin word sentientem, which means feeling. The adjective form is sentient. The word sentience is often misused to mean a creature that thinks. Sapience means the ability to think, the capacity for intelligence, the ability to acquire wisdom.

 

[shypunk]

thanks for the chapter and for writing can't wait to see what happens next

 

[Diver]

Sad that it wrapped up, but it was an awesome story. Very few Jumpchains or Forge Stories reach a good stopping point, so thank you for continuing on until you did.

 

[wizig]

Thank you for writing this. I just reread the whole story.

Spoiler: Spoiler

So the MC turned into ROB?

 

[Vorlonos]

Christmas Side Story: Santa Clause?
There was a smile on my face as I looked towards the edge of the galaxy. The final layer of monitoring devices told me that the Warp was fully stabilized. We had killed the Chaos Gods, finally. The Tyranids were long gone, and the Silent King of the Necron was forced into submission. I had conquered a version of Warhammer 40K, freed the Emperor of the Imperium, and bent the universe to my whims. It felt a little good.

Wiz and Tiamat were screaming about something, so I teleported over and see them. When I got there, I found that they were arguing over a calendar. Tapping into my technological post-cognitive powers to see what was happening.

[Accentuate the Positive] and [Limits?] had altered more than a dozen perks into a computer understanding power, ascending the limits of the power into something that just let me know things.

When I discovered what they were doing, I found that they were arguing over a date. A date in particular that I had long forgotten about. Tiamat was certain that it was 984-986 of the year based on chronology, while Wiz was looking at 716-718 due to something about seasons. Vocal recordings accessing…

"Damion! [Information]. Which of us is right?"

Oh. Christmas. That's neat.

"Oh no you don't. [Data]." Wiz retorts, and I cringe at the fact that we somehow adopted full-on Shard Speak when we wanted to be efficient. To be fair, it really is, but with the probability that another version of a Worm will show up being certain in a truly infinite multiverse, I don't much care for it. Neither of them really got into fanfiction of Tiamat's world, even if I had a few databases of it from nearby realms.

---

"Honestly, given that the alteration of the winter season was significantly more recent, Tiamat is probably correct. But you should ask Karl. He would know."

They both pause, but Tiamat was rather smug for almost an hour before Karl arrived. When he got here, Tiamat and Wiz explained themselves in Shard Speak, and he looks a little… haunted. I didn't know enough about to him know why, but maybe his worship as the Chosen of the Omnissiah might be causing some kind of issue with the data-speech. After calming his nerves, he responded in his usual stoicism, "I truly took power in what you would know as May. Christmas would take place on 614 if it was still practiced. We… there were significant issues with gifts and the Warp power of Nurgle and the all-knowing Tzeentch."

I nod, "Well, they're both dead."

Both Tiamat and Wiz started celebrating, and it dawned on me that we really were going to resurrect a holiday.

Karl gave his chin a slow rub as he nods his head, "I remember it fondly, perhaps I can help. My people, everyone, deserves a little happiness."

I nod, "So, what's the plan?"

There was no stopping them as both Wiz and Tiamat took off. All I could tell as they left hearing range was the sound of them planning the logistics of Santa Claus for the people of this increasingly less dystopian realm.


Violette didn't understand the project because [Christmas] didn't have a basis in her understanding, the limitation of Shard Speak is the fact that both parties need a general understanding of the topic, a background that lets them interpret the data. So even after a few hours of thinking it over, it didn't work. Wiz interrupted her introspection with horrific descriptions of [Knowledge], [Morality], and [Gifts], she… kind of understood the goal. Yet, for some reason, Violette still couldn't put her finger on the gist of things.

It didn't take long before Karl and I began the PR campaign. It would take some work, but I was certain that the galactic community would be willing to accept the upcoming celebration. It was understandable to the people that the death of the Chaos Gods and the rebirth of hope in the galaxy would be a celebration.

So, it wouldn't be exactly what they were aiming for, but it was going to be some fun too. We didn't have time to get this done before the end of the year, so the declaration was that 040-042. That was also a day known as the Day of Stability.

The Day of Stability was a day of gifts given to loved ones as a rejuvenation of stability, and to celebrate the creation of peace.

Karl was the only person who knew the meme that I invoked, but he couldn't stop me.

I came home from my PR campaigning to find both Tiamat and Wiz beginning to work on the Santa Device. It was a massive set of computers using divination, intent reading, and some level of psychometry on a galactic scale. Taking a moment to read the programming, I can see that it determines if someone gets a present from 'Santa', and then selects a present from a set list of acceptable gifts.

That list had a few caveats because Santa doesn't give out money or weapons for any reason. For all the toys, we had a list of options, mostly for nonlethal hobbies and to grant children access to constructive passions. They had even remembered to include a welfare setup for poorer families to have good food. It felt very Scrooge with the largest turkey donation but designed to be anonymous and on a colossal scale.

A massive plate of nutritiously doped stuffing, with caramelized prime-grade ham and a small bowl of rich bread pudding. It was about 200 EMC per person of food, I could afford to feed the entire galaxy every day with one of my collector worlds, remnants from fighting the Tyranids and Chaos.

Once I got [Workaholic] I was producing 5 EMC for every single EMC I would nominally get, and then make 5 meals when I printed the food.

That was before I realized that I could print a condensed block of gold, 27 ingots worth, for the price of a single ingot as a passive recycling cycle. That was a synergy beyond the pale.

Pushing the absolute [Limits?] of [Shipping the Product] to create a teleportation of EMC products across the galaxy. It had a strange interaction yet synergy with [Time to Cook] that let me do it without making something tremendously expensive and effort-intensive.

If the process involved the creation of edible products, I had infinite subjective time to do it, meaning that because it was to deliver a meal, I could walk. Through space, across the surface of stars, to every home in the galaxy, spending an eon, and as long as I was only doing the food delivery, then for everyone else I would be done by the morning of the Day of Stability.

It was a power that has such a thin usage that being the single most powerful time compression perk I have, by a significant margin. Even though it was so powerful, it wasn't a regularly used perk.

It took a bit to start up, but I smiled as the machine began to scan the worlds. The system started with one world, collated the data, then used that to make improvements as it went to the next and then the next. Before I knew it, a chain of planetary names scrolled by rapidly.

With my portals, I planted a Santa Device at roughly the North Pole, and they started tracking everyone. I had set up portals on basically every inhabited planet when I was building the Warp Eliminator network.

It took a long moment, but the Nice list on most worlds was short. Very short. Less than a single percent of the population, most of them children. It wasn't unexpected, but even amongst the Tau, it was less than 2 percent of the population.

Eventually, reinforcing the effect of good behavior would create a loop of Nice list people.

It was a fabulous surprise for so many people when the food and gifts arrived. We didn't do coal this year, because it wouldn't have been the right message on a large scale. I think that, given the pressure and heat required to create diamonds, coal would be useful with the technology of the day.

Or it would be a molotov cocktail on the situation and enflame things.

Everyone looked at those who got food and presents from Santa, and it was a massive shift in mentality. Especially as experimentation took place. People tried to do quite a bit, but most of them figured it out. Since I kept things simple, it wasn't that hard to figure out. It is a rather simple effect that being kinder, being more open, being a good person gets you presents. That being good got you incredible food and wonderful toys.

It was reductive, but Humans, Tau, and Aldari learned rather quickly that there was a benefit to being good around the time, and the name tags of Santa Claus were enough to build the legend. It was almost a century of stability, occasional issues cropping up, but nothing that the 4 of us couldn't handle. The number of presents exceeded 80% of the ever-expanding population, health improved across the galaxy, and people were effectively conditioned to be better than their ancestors.

Then, I got a present.

A second copy of a necklace that Chaos had given me long ago, in a box from Santa. I called Wiz, who had the other one to study how it might work, "You figured out Chaos's Necklace?"

Wiz pauses, looking at me, and frowns. "No."

I hold up my new one, "What do you mean?"

We're interrupted by Karl appearing through a portal, "Damion, did you expand the Christmas list? I'm pretty sure that we didn't qualify."

I frown, "Open it. I…" I pause to check, "We didn't send it."

He frowns and opens it to find a device. A device that caused the closest thing I'd ever seen to an actual panic attack in The Emperor of Man I'd ever seen. "This… Is this…"

I scan it, and I am more than a little surprised. "That… You want more kids?"

"I… refused to consider it. It would be too dangerous." I think about that because I didn't know what he wanted. I check my systems, and he is immune to my systems at his request, and I… wait.

"But you want more children."

He doesn't respond, and asks, "Did you get anything?"

"I got a Necklace back…"

"We got another one." Wiz says, pulling one from her inventory. [The Way of the Cube] gave us a Minecraft inventory and crafting grid for things, which I appreciated a lot when we were moving compressed bags of things that we couldn't turn into EMC for transportation. Mostly enchanted or heavily Warp interacting things, the EMC doesn't seem to carry magical information well, and Wiz has a lot of things like that. She has taken to the enchanting specialization, more than the rest of us.

But someone gave me a copy of the necklace made by Chaos. The being that governs a multiverse, and I have a copy?

"If you didn't want to be on my list, you shouldn't have invoked my name."

We all turn to see… Santa. Red suit, a short white beard, and a puffy red nose like it was cold in here. The suit looked pristine, from the mat black leather belt and boots to the soft white fur on his hat and trimmings.

He was smiling, and I realized what had happened. "Did we create Santa, the Chaos God?"

"Ho, ho, ho. No, no, no. You didn't create me little one, you summoned me. Did you really think that I am something so small as to be a Chaos God here?" He sounds like he is having a good time, but there is something about him that feels more than that.

I… don't… "Wait. Are you…"

"Order and Chaos are rather stuffy for multiversal beings."

"Are you Cheer, or something like it then?"

"No. I'm Santa Claus." He admonishes, "Order and Chaos may have lost their names to time, but I never did. Never will." He pauses, "Now, the necklace was to safeguard someone else on my Nice list. Now, the real gift for, you, and your Santa Council, is far simpler."

Celestial Forge Perk GIFTED
Santa Clause: Santa Claus: 10,000CP​

Santa Clause: You have invoked the name of Santa Claus into your works and deeds. You have done so in a style, and on a scale that Santa himself approves of. Congratulations! You've activated the Santa Clause. With this perk, you can mentally keep track of the Naughty and Nice lists wherever your authority as Santa Claus rests and can grant all the good boys and girls the gifts that they dream of. You can move in such a way that all may know of you, yet none can stop or impede you in your Christmas-ing efforts. Do not end up on the Naughty List.

I froze and looked back to see a fireplace in my Workshop where Santa once stood. I can feel the Naughty and Nice lists for the entire galaxy.

Wiz asks, "Have we been promoted?"

---

AN: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Yes, he accidently summoned Santa Claus and invoked the Santa Clause.[/Information]

 

[ValHor]

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you too ! Thanks for the chapter.

 

[Kris-71854]

I'd hate to think of the Naughty List in WH40K. Then again they are going to be able to reward those on the Nice List with customized gifts. That'll improve morale throughout the galaxy. Thus re-enforcing Christmas and Santa Claus.

 

[Cron]

Aaaa...

 

[dreawmac67]

where is the sequel?

 

[Alias Fakename]

where is the sequel?

Click to shrink...

AN: Sequel!

Click to shrink...

Literally the last line of the last chapter