Stepping through the portal was an experience like nothing before, I could compare it to absolutely nothing. Teleporting with the Lair setup was only momentarily disconcerting the first few times as my more peripheral senses felt the change in spatial position and the space displacement. Going into the Ghost Zone had a strange clammy and still sensation that spread through me.
Stepping through the portal was impossible to describe because what my brain could sense had literally nothing to be compared to. Because saying purple, during, table and sour pork was just wrong, but it was the closest way my brain activated while going through.
"Whoa... that was trippy." Dani groaned by my side, Asos and the Adjutants remained silent outwardly, but I could see my assistant already making notes on the data picked up by the 0D computer's scans.
"Definitely a new one, hopefully it'll be much easier once a proper portal's built on this side." I commented as I looked around more carefully.
We're definitely in my room, my phone was still on the nightstand, a quick check showed it had been a bit less than two hours before the alarm would have rang.
"Is everything okay?" She asked, a bit of worry in her voice.
"Yes, just… it feels strangely real and at the same time
not." I let out a sigh and quickly shook it off. "But yes, it's okay. It looks like we are back to the moment after whatever took me did so back at the start." I had Asos quickly take over my phone. "Uh… just noticed, it's the same day of the week in both worlds."
Both Earths were currently in Wednesday, and didn't that sound weird. The only difference was that this one's currently a difference of thre…
"That's interesting." Dani talked in between my thoughts. "But it's not the same time, it's definitely earlier here."
"Yes, but that's because we aren't in the same time zone." I explained quickly before dropping back onto the bed, my girlfriend quickly flopping onto it with me.
"So now what?" She asked.
"Well, I've to decide if I should call in sick to work and start to see if I should quit my job, or keep a low profile for a while." I shrugged. "There's no rush now, yeah I want to set up a portal back to the house in Amity Park, but I'll need a good place and proper facilities for that. So I think I'll go to work today and start the process to quit soon."
"And what am I supposed to do?" Her tone was definitely teasing.
"Well," I reached with a hand, running my fingers through her hair. "You can do anything you want, go out and explore, try the food, just fly around. Honestly I've no idea how the other Chosen are spread over the globe, or even how many of them are. So I kind of doubt you will cross paths with any."
"What if I want to go to work with you?" Her tone grows lower as she leans closer.
"I've no problem with that, but it'll be boring. I'm practically the only person working at the shop during the morning." I replied softly as our lips were practically touching.
Sadly the moment was broken by the screen of the Celestial Forge appearing between us. With a soft sigh I pulled back, Asos giving Dani a view of the information currently in front of me.
Congratulations on finding your way back to your original World. Not only have you returned safely, but have managed to bridge both Worlds in just less than two months' time.
As Achievement for completing the quest of returning home, you have unlocked your Personal Domain and all related Domains and Perks.
To determine your Personal Domain, a perk will be rolled from the combined pool of Technological Facilities Domain and Magical Facilities Domain and acquired for free.
Keep in mind that now both Worlds are synchronized and travel between both is possible, albeit difficult.
Rolling… Perk Acquired
Temple of Solomon (Magical Facilities Domain) (4 Charges)
An Age of Gods (Extra)
Sphinx Awlad (Extra)
Little Shadow (Extra)
I could already tell that the Temple of Solomon was an impressive construction, not only stored in the space between realities by the way of an application of Imaginary Numbers, and didn't that trigger one of the only few bits of lore I remembered from the Fate series, but also was technically anchored to me. Meaning that no matter what reality I was in, I would be able to access it through opening a portal on the air practically anywhere. I could even close the portal once inside and be able to reopen it later, but only in the same place.
It wasn't clear if this was the original, lost in the streams of time and fished out the Celestial Forge, or a perfect replica of it, down to the magical circuits created by the King of Magic that provided the pocket dimension with an absurd amount of magical power for me to tap into. The other impressive detail about the Temple was that since it's outside of reality, any person that perished inside wouldn't
pass on, and if I had a proper vessel, I could guide their souls into them to revive them.
Finally there was a detail that had more to do with the Forge rather than the perk, the Temple was now the base of my Personal Reality, that meant that any new facility or similar perk would mold itself to the Temple's aesthetics and mechanics.
The extra perks weren't too far behind, An Age of Gods was not only a qualitative improvement on my body, as the physical side of this boost had already been covered by Greek Body back during the second week of the start of my trip. But my body also now ran on magical energy, and I had
a lot of that, meaning I could easily survive on nothing, not that I would, I liked to eat and sleep.
Sphinx Awlad was apparently a pet, or a pair of pets, a pair of young Sphinx cubs, just old enough to not need their mother, but it would be centuries till they matured to adulthood. Right now they may as well be smart cats. They were in the same category as Drake, who had remained in Amity Park where he fit better than in Buenos Aires. Interestingly, Asos also kind of fit the pet role, though a step above them.
Not like the last extra perk, the Little Shadow was a full-on Companion. That meant they were connected to me and the Forge in a way that the 'pets' weren't.
"Rick, you look deep in thought. What's the problem with the new perks?" Dani asked, her voice breaking my train of thought.
"It's… Come on, I'll show you and present you two new companions… or well, a pair of pets and a Companion." I tried to inject some levity as I opened the portal into the Personal Reality, a hole on the fabric of reality opened, interestingly it was completely solid in color, a murky purple.
We all stepped through, appearing at the bottom of, honestly, a massive staircase crowned by the throne at the very top. And this was just one of the many islands floating in the apparently infinite purple sea of Imaginary Numbers around us. Not that it was actually infinite, the perk let me know the area was around several blocks from edge to edge.
There was more than enough space for me to take care of some larger projects, plus the magical workshop currently residing on one of the many floating islands.
GAO
A noise made us turn our attention, trotting in a very playful manner were the two sphinx cubs. With fur like the firmament with nemes and wings of gold, the two faceless cubs sprinted to our feet, smart enough to recognize us and practically beg for attention. Dani didn't miss a second before picking one of the two unnamed cubs, the sphinx acting like an oversized kitten in her arms.
"Master." Hearing her voice was a strange experience, because I remembered it much younger and at the same time it was the first time I heard it.
I turned to look at her, I knew she was the Little Shadow, but there was also the memory of our first meeting. It made my memories feel conflicting as I could very well remember meeting her during one of the field lessons with the Gurus. Feeding a scared orphan had led to my teacher deciding I could use a bodyguard and sponsoring her training. How he had managed to enroll her to a Hunter's Academy escaped me.
I remember the many,
many letters we wrote to each other during my ten years of training. It was curious how I could now remember not knowing who I was writing to and at the same time know I was writing to her the whole time.
She was nothing like I remembered, back during our first meeting she was closer to an emaciated corpse, her olive closer to gray from malnutrition, dry and dirty hair. And now she was… well, stunning to just start describing her. As they say, Aura's a hell of a drug, especially paired with enough food and training to help her shape up into an imposing fighter, I could tell she had way more experience than just that taught by the Academy she had been enlisted into.
"Oh, and who is this?" Dani asked, I turned to see her trying to balance both cubs.
"Greetings." The Little Shadow spoke. "I'm Sabbah Hassan, expert huntress, bodyguard, assassin and rogue." Internally I chuckled a bit, her name was practically the inverted order of the assassin order Hassan-i Sabbah; it was kinda cute.
Dani turned to look at me. "Oh, am I not enough to keep you safe?" She teased, making me chuckle.
"You can't ever be too safe." I replied with a grin. "And it's nice to see you
again Sabbah. You look much better now than you did before." I felt my ego rise a bit at the slight blush on her cheeks, I turned to Dani, explaining about Sabbah and I's first meeting and how things had occurred.
"Wait, she gets lots of power like you?" She asked, almost sounding offended.
By now we had moved back to my apartment. The Temple was grandiose, but a bit
too grandiose for a talk like this, also there was no good place to sit.
The girls were on the couch, the two cubs had long since curled on their laps and passed out while purring. I, on the other hand, was sitting on the computer's chair after having prepared a magically enhanced pot of coffee.
"That's what you focus on?" I smiled. "And yes, apparently some of the perks I acquired had what the Forge calls free companion perks. I got three assigned for me for both returning and getting my first Companion, Sabbah getting the first slot."
"Does that mean I could get one of those?" That question made me stop and quickly start to check.
"Yes, I've to warn you it'll change you now and forever, you won't get to choose if new perks come in the future with similar companion enhancements and memories. Let me make this clear, it's permanent not only in how it'll change you, but you'll also be connected to me and Sabbah on a pretty fundamental level."
Hopefully this makes her think, it was a big choice. If I was being honest, I would have preferred if she didn't take it yet. We had only known each other for a bit more than a month, it was not enough to ma-
"I'll do it!" I groaned internally as everything in Dani pointed to her being completely sure about it.
"No second thoughts? Maybe call Jazz or Danny and talk about it?"
"Nope." She popped her lips to mark the p. Her tone quickly went from playful to serious. "I know I could wait, but I also know you could also roll a couple of new companions with the next two perks and I'll end without the option. You say it will change me, but in a way I've more choice in this than in most of what has happened in my life till now.
"Not when I was born, not when the problems of the cloning process came to haunt me, not when I had to hit the road because nowhere
felt like home. So hit me up!"
And just like that I knew there was no denying her choice, if anything it would hurt our relationship much more than whatever the new perks did. I pulled the screen up, going through the confirmations.
"Okay, here it goes." I confirmed the last step, assigning Dani to my second Companion slot.
Dani went stiff, a curious, glitch-like effect running over her body as both Sabbah and I felt a strange pang in our memories as we both suddenly knew Dani
more. Sabbah now remembered having attended the same classes, while I now remembered her writing about Dani in her letters.
Once the moment passed I looked into the perks she had acquired, both girls were getting perks from two sources, one was RWBY, the other Chrono Trigger. On the first they were actually quite similar, trained into expert huntresses, ready to fight
literal hordes of monsters and win even at the worst odds. Sabbah's skill set lent itself more to the subterfuge, Dani, in socializing. On the other source it was also similar, Sabbah was a trained Soldier, ready for any kind of weapon or physical conflict, with an elemental affinity to Shadow, this affinity not only covered curses and debuffs, but it also covered gravity and void spells. Dani was a Traveler, a globetrotter ready to meet new people, her elemental affinity was Water, providing some of the strongest magical healing if she trained it, always ready to go with the flow on new situations.
"Woah… That was a trip." Dani shivered as an ectoplasmic-green aura of light lit her body for a moment. "This feels really weird." She mumbled as she easily got off the couch, placing the still asleep sphinx down as she moved with a newfound grace.
I tangentially noticed Sabbah nodding in appreciation as Dani proceeded to pull Banshee and easily move through a set of very clearly trained sets of movements. It was quite impressive that for a deadly set of cuts it also looked like a dance.
"Lovely." I commented, trying to tease her, but she appeared to not notice or not show it. "How are the new memories doing?"
"It feels strangely normal, and I'm honestly happy about it. I feel more… solid? Hmm, maybe not the best word."
"Maybe grounded?" Sabbah offered.
"Definitely better, it's strange to say, being half-ghost means I can go intangible, always a thought away from going through the floor. But right now I feel grounded, solid, stable like I had never felt before."
"Well, that's good. I'm happy for you, Dani." I spoke as I got up and reached to kiss her, only noticing Sabbah blushing because Asos was still manipulating my vision range.
"Thank you." She whispered as we parted.
I smiled and sat down again. "We've to decide what we'll do now. I do still have to go to work pretty soon, but it's only six hours before I'm free again. You two are free to do anything you want. Thankfully your IDs are fiat backed, Asos has already confirmed they pass all tests and they have been seeing about setting up bank accounts and finding the easy targets to steal some money and set up some funds."
"She will need a DIA system." My girlfriend noted and I nodded.
"You're right." I retrieved one of the four remaining systems, making a note to start producing more. "Here you have, Sabbah. This should allow you to keep in contact with us safely. Dani and Asos can answer any question about it. Also, Dani, you should call home and tell them that everything went okay." She nodded at my suggestion, meanwhile Sabbah was looking at the small cube of magitech.
I also proceeded to make a number of copies of my keys, not that the two girls would ever have much difficulty entering into any mundane space. But it was better to keep appearances. I would also need to reinforce my apartment's security. It was actually more like setting an actual security system since there was none right now.
I also needed to find a place to build a proper base, while the Temple of Solomon was definitely going to be the location of my main workshop, I would definitely need a place in the real world to construct the portal back to the other Earth.
As the girls talked about the use of the DIA system, I started getting ready to go out for work. And by that I didn't mean changing clothes, but weaving an illusion good enough to hide just how much my physique had changed in these two months. I had a few pictures of myself from before the trip, mixed with a small suggestion that would keep people from paying too much attention to me after recognizing me as
me.
"Asos, how much of the city's systems have you gained access to?" I asked while I showered. I don't think I truly needed to shower, but it was a bit of old
normality I needed, though it was pretty hard to not see about reworking the whole building's water system.
"I assume about fifty five to sixty seven percent of the email accounts and messaging systems. I've already started a stealth copy of their databases and I'm mapping the backups to copy next time they come online. I've to admit I never thought there could be this level of corruption in a government body without things crashing."
I snorted. "Once you have some free time, look into what happened during the start of the century. On the more present subject, have Athena help you collate the data and organize it, we'll have to see what and how release the necessary info to get the corrupted parties out." I honestly didn't know much about politics besides it being a dirty field, my knowledge only extended to the military subjects when outside of the crafting stuff. But I knew that the future was bleak for my country if someone didn't act sooner.
"I'll have to start getting contacts too."
"Hmm, try a lighter touch, there's more likely no
real gentleman's agreement here compared to Dani's world. At least not yet I think. So you can try setting up a few secure chat rooms to keep an eye on, I don't doubt some people will find them, just don't expect them to play by the rules as easily as back there. But a gentle touch and keeping your manners may be the necessary foundation for said unwritten rules."
"I'll keep it in mind." The AI spoke as I saw them quickly move to coordinate with Athena as I finished drying up with a quick spell and dressed before leaving the bathroom.
"Okay girls, have you decided what you two will do this morning?"
"I convinced Sabbah that you'll be safe at work," Dani spoke, and I hoped this world didn't run on tropes like hers. "So we'll go out for a walk, half to get to know the city, and half to reconnect. It's weird, we remember taking classes together, but… ugh. Well, I'm sure you understand." I nodded.
"That's good, so here." I handed them their copies of the keys, explaining where each one was used. "We can still coordinate what to do later. I may need to talk with my family, honestly we'll need to talk about it and how much to tell them. They live close so I see them frequently, which will make it harder to hide things like the physical changes and actions."
Dani floated to my side and hugged me as I had quickly started to get nervous while talking, her reassurance calming me down. "We will do it together, don't worry."
I smiled. "Thanks, anyways, I should get going. Also, Asos, can you see about registering the car, or better yet, look for cheap used ones that are legal. It shouldn't take me more than a few minutes to fix practically anything outside of total annihilation of the vehicle, and reinstate my driving license since it expired a while ago."
"No problem, Rick."
As we stepped out of the apartment, I was glad that it was a small building with just two apartments per floor. And since I had moved only a few months ago, I hadn't truly interacted with the neighbors much. Luckily we didn't cross ways with any of them.
"Okay girls, this is where we part ways for the morning." I had Asos move some money into their inventory.
"See you later Rick." Dani quickly pecked my cheek, while Sabbah stayed in place with a smile and a small blush on her cheeks.
"Take care, Dani, and you too Sabbah. Try not to start any problems, yet." The assassin nodded, my girlfriend did too, but looked almost insulted that I implied they wouldn't be able to finish anything they started.
There was nothing else to say as we headed in different directions, I took the bus for the short ride, mostly so I could think about what to do next. I felt the Forge activate, one charge awarded for making Dani a Companion and a stipend charge.
The first roll awarded a perk named
N-Ways Fusion Plant, it was the knowledge to build a single piece of technology, and what piece of technology it was! Endless power generation, easily adaptable and scalable, only limited by the amount of resources, rarity and production facilities for the larger sizes.
And the best part was that I could easily see how to adapt it to
many uses, for example it already solved a lot of the problem of the power for the 0D pockets. I could easily design and build things that would last for thousands of years, meaning that an endless power source inside a pocket dimension would keep it going for an honestly ridiculously long time without any problems. I also had an inkling on how to adapt the production of endless energy into a spell. It exchanged a lot of the materials, facilities and production time for an initial power investment, but I saw a few ways to make it work.
The other perk was much simpler,
Bling of War was all about making things look good. I synergized with the other appearance perks to make it ever easier, and it was becoming slightly innate, to design things that looked good and followed a theme. Clothing, weapons, vehicles, buildings and anything in-between, I could design it all under the same style and theme that would be not only easily recognizable, but would also be functional.
I stepped out of the bus and walked a couple of blocks to the store, an easy smile on my face as I proceeded to open the place and turn on the radio before sitting behind the counter to wait.
It was so easy to fall back into the routine, simply doing nothing, checking my phone and waiting for the next client. Even after two months of having my life so inherently upended I was back into it. Not that it lasted, it wasn't more than a few minutes before I was easily typing away on the 0D computer's holographic keyboard, swiftly working on Athena and Rose's code.
The pair of adjutants were progressing quite nicely so far. Athena was more than happy to stay in the apartment, or as happy as their still underdeveloped self could be. Rose on the other hand had a new-found love for sneaking around, apparently their humanoid chassis being based on a Ghost had actually much more of an effect on their development than I thought.
Just in the time we had spent in the apartment talking the Adjutant had spent sneaking around the building, it was actually adorable seeing Asos' records of the small toy-sized robot imitating sequences out of action movies.
I needed to make Rose and Asos full-sized bodies soon, Master Builder had a few designed for infiltration units that should provide what I needed. And talking about bodies, I should see about the whole clone synchronizing and multi-mental threading, especially since now that I thought about it, clones expired, but what if I made an
actual body to control.
That had some potential.
, though I don't recommend it).
