Any Means Necessary (Selfish OC SI, Multiverse) [In Tower of God]
- Thread starter Eiri Fllyn
- Start date
- Crossover
...Unless Tiffania has somehow managed to deceive everyone in this timeline.
The People: "God save the Queen!"
Tiffania: "Thank you all! Heh... Hehehe... Muahahaha!"
The People: "...?"
Tiffania: "You cheer me, after making my life a living hell? Well, guess what! Now it's my turn."
The People: "Oh, nooo! God save us from the Queen!"
MC: "She grew so fast... *sniff* So proud!"
Regarding the vote: let's start with the basics, then.
[x] Physical Water Manipulation (macroscopic)
[x] Physical Water Manipulation (microscopic)
- Location
- Deep inside the sand
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
If water manipulation needs to be learned first then it shall be.
[X] Physical Water Manipulation (macroscopic)
[X] Physical Water Manipulation (microscopic)
[X] Physical Water Manipulation (macroscopic)
[X] Physical Water Manipulation (microscopic)
SS 1.4 - Tiffania Lightsworn
SS 1.4 - Tiffania Lightsworn
At the ruins of Westwood village…
Tiffania let go of Muurleth's avatar, which was a mass of black flames that did not hurt her hands when she touched it, and had a thin smooth shaft inside to grip at the centre of the flames.
She landed gently on the ground, but the sight of her former home came as a great shock.
The huts were blown apart as if a great battle had taken place. Small broken dolls were scattered between them.
She walked almost numbly to what was left of her own hut, and saw the huge amount of dried blood inside.
The scene left her queasy, and she soon turned away.
"Where are the children…?" She asked in a pleading tone.
"They are most likely dead. Every person in this village was nothing more than a doll."
She whispered the names of the orphans she once took care of as she checked every hut.
"Why…?"
"Come."
She followed the avatar to a spot a little away from the village, deeper in the forest. There, a wooden plaque was stabbed into the ground, and letters were engraved on it, while flowers were planted at the root.
Here lies Matilda.
A loyal friend.
R.I.P.
Tiffania collapsed and began to cry.
After a long time, the tears stopped flow, and she simply sat on her knees there in a daze. Muurleth's avatar simply floated in the air before her silently.
"Can you…tell me what happened here?" She finally asked.
"An…old friend of mine, by the name of Axion, came here with the one you call sister Matilda. It seems that Reconquista had been blackmailing your friend with your safety, and she enlisted Axion's help to rescue you. However, Reconquista had already found out, and laid a trap instead. A doll with your face mercilessly killed the girl. This is the real reason they took you away. Axion survived the ambush and defeated the dolls, and he was the one who made this grave."
"You said…it was…Myojnitnirin…that did this? And that Myoznee…umm…that void familiar was the one supporting Lord Cromwell?"
"I do not know. Axion seemed to believe that."
"Where is he now? Can I talk to him?"
"He snuck on board the Lexington, I assume in an attempt to track down Myozunitonirun. I gave him a welcoming gift at Newcastle, which you saw."
Her face turned shocked again. "But…you…why would you kill him?"
"He is not dead. He is far too powerful and resilient to die from an attack of only that level."
Tiffania's face was one of incomprehension. Not only at Muurleth's belief that someone could have survived that spell, but also that Muurleth would attack an old friend like that.
"Even so, wasn't he your friend?"
A dark rumbling chuckle followed. "We have a number of…outstanding disagreements. We have fought many times in the past, and no doubt we will fight again. In truth, he is an aspect of me. Unfortunately, he refuses to accept his own divinity, and so our divine essence was split into two incarnations, and he insists on interfering with my plans. But I cannot kill him, as we are immortal and he will simply reform so long as I exist. A most irritating friend. My spell was to ensure that he could not stop me from claiming Albion."
Tiffania found it difficult to understand Muurleth's logic, but she did not argue. Friends should help each other, she thought, not kill each other. Any disagreements they had could surely be talked out. It made even less sense to her if they were supposed to be two parts of the same being. But maybe gods weren't meant to be understood by mortals like her.
She fell silent again, unsure of what to do. Cromwell had lied to her about taking care of the children, but he was already dead. She thought about taking revenge for Matilda and the children, like the characters in fairy tales and stories, but she didn't see the appeal in it.
Her mother had died long ago, now her father was also dead, and she regretted her role in it. Although she hadn't done anything against him or for Reconquista, she saw how painful it was for him to see her on the opposite side.
No friends, no family, in a country that hated her.
Even the new princess title that Muurleth bestowed on her hadn't made much difference. Instead of only fearing her as a person, they just also feared the consequences of offending her and Muurleth's wrath.
What was there left for her to do? Go and find the elves? If they were as kind as her mother…or would they hate her too for being half-human?
"Do you want revenge?"
She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I don't know."
"Good. Vengeance is meaningless. It is a chain of hatred that never ends. They kill your loved ones, you kill theirs, and many generations go by and the hate remains long after everyone has forgotten why they fought in the first place."
Tiffania raised her head and looked at the black flames in surprise. She did not expect Muurleth to tell her that. He seemed rather…vengeful and quick to kill at Newcastle.
"Do not be surprised. I am not a god of vengeance. I am both Lightbearer and Darkbringer, the Prince of Duality, Lord of the Infinite. One cannot hate without knowing love, and one cannot understand the meaning of happiness without having experienced sadness. What I desire is progress and evolution, purpose and ambition, a limitless growth to infinity. These 6,000 years of hate between the humans and elves…what purpose does it serve? Perhaps once upon a time, war did catalyze progress, but over the millennia, the humans and elves have shunned contact, unable to share knowledge, even losing knowledge. They have stagnated and destroyed more than they gained, the reason for their conflict long forgotten. Why did Brimir seek the Holy Land? Why did the elves refuse to help Brimir's quest? Memories of an eon of senseless bloodshed are all that remain."
She listened to Muurleth's avatar and found his words almost similar to what her mother had told her. The reason she came to Albion and allowed herself to love a human…to find a way to make peace.
Her own father's last words were not so different either. Whereas Lord Cromwell told her that her birth was a sin and she needed to devote herself to Brimir to be accepted by the people, King Henry said that the crusade was meaningless.
She knew that not all elves hated humans, and not all humans hated elves. Her mother and father, and their closest supporters, including sister Matilda and captain Coventry, were proof that the hatred could be overcome.
Was Muurleth right, and the conflict really meaningless? For what did Cromwell so fanatically seek the Holy Land? She had seen with how own eyes how many people had rallied to his cause. She couldn't understand it.
"So…what was the reason for the fighting, in the beginning?"
"I do not know. As I told you before, gods are neither omniscient nor omnipotent, and I was not present on this world until recently."
"Then, why are you telling me all this? Is there something you want me to do?"
"The era of pointless conflict has come to an end with my arrival. You carry within you both human and elven blood, and you are also a wielder of the Void. You have a unique opportunity to bridge the divide, and the necessary temperament to do so. I offer you the chance to become my mortal champion and assist me in ending this 6,000 year conflict. If you accept, then you shall carry out my will, and I will give you the means to succeed. You shall become my voice to the people and my sword to defend the faithful. As my champion, you will still be free to pursue your own objectives that do not contradict my directives."
After wishing she could make friends and not be feared for so long, the offer was undoubtedly tempting.
She could imagine a world where humans and elves lived together, full of kind people like her mother.
But was it really possible?
And equally important…was she being lied to again? If Cromwell had only been using her, then how did she know she wasn't being used again?
"Your Divine Greatness, I mean no offense…but how can I know that you are telling me the truth? That peace between humans and elves is what you really want, or that it's possible? I'm sorry, I just feel so lost. Lord Cromwell was very convincing too…I don't know anything anymore…"
"You are permitted to doubt. I do not need someone who blindly follows commands without thinking for themselves. Faith is what you turn to when reason is not enough, but reason must always come first. It is with reason that you can determine truth from lie, or distinguish between real and false gods. Unlike the so-called gods of Valhalla or Brimir, what I offer are not merely empty promises that you can never verify for yourself. Neither do I ask for devotion without cause. I merely give you the means to obtain your own salvation."
"The means to obtain my own salvation? What does that mean?"
"Listen carefully, Tiffania! I am Voidstarter and Dreambreaker! I am He Who Sees Beyond! When there exists only the void of nothing, I shall not create a perfect world—instead, I shall create a spark so that you may light with your own hands the fires of life and progress! When you dream and pray to me, I shall not make your dreams into reality—instead, I shall wake you from your slumber so that you may walk with your own feet on the path of ambition! In this world as in every world, the only immutable truth is that there is always uncertainty! Therefore, you shall seek the truth always, even as it evolves, and I shall teach you the principles of reason! As such, I do not promise you there shall be peace. Instead, should you accept, your first and greatest task as my champion shall be to discover the reason for the conflict that began 6,000 years ago. Armed with the answer, you shall then be able to decide for yourself how to arbitrate its solution. I will merely guide you on this quest and give you the authority and power necessary to achieve it. If you dislike my advice, you are free to pursue the answer on your own."
"You won't force me to do anything? I can just…look for the answer myself?" She asked. Then, before waiting for the answer, she spoke again while fidgeting with her fingers. "Will I have to…fight? I don't want to fight anyone…I didn't want to join Lord Cromwell's crusade, but he said I had to…"
"You cannot achieve peace without some obstacles along the way. If it were so easy, this conflict would have ended long ago. You will realize that in time. Whether you choose to fight or not when the time comes, that is your own decision. I will not order you to fight."
After a few moments of consideration, she felt that her doubts had been cleared.
"Um, I accept then, Your Divine Greatness."
"Then I bestow upon you the name of Lightsworn, Henceforth, you shall be a shining beacon that lights the paths in the dark. Now kneel and repeat after me."
She nodded, getting into position.
"I, Tiffania Tudor of Westwood, by the Grace of Muurleth the Enlightened, Prince of Duality, Lord of the Infinite..."
She repeated the words with careful enunciation.
"…discard my earthly name and former life to accept the mantle of Lightsworn, reborn Champion of my Lord. While I hold this name and title, I swear to love all that He loves, to seek knowledge and truth, and shun ignorance and fallacy. I shall hold steadfast in Faith through Reason, accepting just reward and punishment. If I should ever forswear these oaths, then my Lord may take away all that He shall have given me while holding this title."
Tiffania was wary, as she knew magical oaths could be binding. There were stories of oaths sworn before entities like the Great Water Spirit of Ragdorian Lake having real consequences. If Muurleth was a god, then an oath was not something she could take lightly.
But she listened carefully, and did not find anything objectionable in the oath. It was actually a rather open-ended oath, and she felt it allowed her much freedom. There did not seem to be any actual obligation to Muurleth, and the consequences of breaking it were minimal. It seemed only fair that Muurleth could take away whatever he gave her.
So she swore the oath.
"Now make an offering with your blood. Use the dagger you brought."
Before leaving the palace, Muurleth had instructed her to bring a dagger, which she had tied to her waist, and now unsheathed used to make a small cut on her finger.
When the ceremony was complete, the blood was drawing up into the mass of flames and disappeared.
"Henceforth, you shall be known as Tiffania Lightsworn of Albion, first of her line, Champion of Muurleth. Furthermore, as my Champion, you need not address me as Your Divine Greatness in the future. It is sufficient to address me as my Lord or Lord Muurleth."
"Yes, my Lord Muurleth."
Then she flew back to the palace with Muurleth's avatar, and found a strange orb floating on her windowsill.
It was silver in color, made of perfectly smooth metal, and just large enough to be possible to hold in one hand, but comfortably in both. At the center was a section which emitted a faint red light.
Also lying on the windowsill was a tiara-like object, similarly silver in color. But one side was a transparent material almost like glass but much lighter and thinner.
"This is an Oracle and Control Visor. If you wish to speak with me, you may do so through the Oracle, and I will answer in due time. Be aware that I will not always be able to manifest on this world if I am busy elsewhere. The Oracle can also defend you if necessary. Put the Visor over your eyes and observe."
She picked up the visor and wrapped it around her head, after which it tightened but still felt comfortable. The transparent panel covered her eyes almost completely, then a faint light shone into her eyes. When it was done, suddenly letters and symbols appeared in her vision, as if magically floating in front of her.
"Oooh…" She made sounds of awe and curiosity.
She tried to touch them but her hands merely went through them.
Bioscan Complete.
Tiffania Lightsworn Acknowledged. Champion Visor System Activated.
Connection to assigned Oracle established.
A large flashing circle shrunk and centred in on the corner of her vision and her eyes followed it to a box of text which was like a log of messages.
Another flashing circle centred on the Oracle, and a green square highlighted it along with a label, before turning into a cursor icon on top of it.
The orb transformed, extending what seemed to be four legs with additional petal-like extensions that rapidly spun until they were hardly visible.
A blue window appeared in front of her.
Oracle vision stream available. Engage vision projection mode?
Yes / No
Press a button above or focus your sight on it momentarily.
Her hand went to the Yes button and pressed it. This time, there was a reaction, the button lit up before the text box disappeared, then her vision was suddenly replaced by a new one.
A line of text displayed at the top
Currently in Observer Mode.
She saw herself from the perspective of the Oracle, and gasped. The transparent panel on the visor had turned pitch black and opaque, and she saw her hand going to her open mouth in an expression of shock.
The view flew around her in a display of acrobatic prowess before exiting the window. It kept going for some distance before turning around.
A reticle appeared, then the view zoomed in rapidly on a teacup sitting on her tea table.
A flashing circle centred in on it.
Target Locked
Firing laser…
A red dot appeared on the teacup, then it exploded.
She yelped and cowered down in a squat, shutting her eyes in fright with her hands over her head until the Oracle returned and floated in front of her back in its orb form, and she opened her eyes to find she was seeing out of her own perspective again.
"There is no need to be afraid. The Oracle will not harm you, nor will it attack unless you request it. You should not rely on it, however. It cannot fight for long, and needs to recharge its power with sunlight, as does the visor. Your royal guard is your first line of defense, and then your own magic. The Oracle is a secret weapon to be used only in an emergency."
"This unit's primary purpose is communication, not combat," the Oracle said in a voice that sounded strangely filtered and distorted. It felt artificial, and had no distinguishable gender.
"Y-yes, I understand, thank you," she said, getting back up with a gulp.
"In truly dire circumstances, you may also request to call down the Destruction Light on a particular target. My Guardian Monitor above this world will determine whether your request is reasonable, and cast the Destruction Light if appropriate."
"The…Destruction Light? You mean…that…" Her eyes widened as she looked at the Oracle in fear.
"The same spell that destroyed the Lexington, yes. I have limited the power you are permitted to only a maximum of one-hundred KT, or twenty times that of the one that was used at Newcastle."
Her mouth dropped open. 'Twenty times?! That would be enough to completely destroy a whole city, maybe even more than that!'
"If you desire to use a Destruction Light any stronger than that, you will need direct permission from me, as there will be risk that the Destruction Light will destabilize and shatter Albion into pieces, or if used on the continent, may cause earthquakes and unintended damage to neighbouring countries. I trust you will not request to use this power carelessly."
'Shatter Albion into pieces…why would I ever want such a terrifying thing?'
"I-I won't, my Lord! Please, I don't want to be able to call down the Destruction Light, and I beg you to spare the people from any more! Once was enough," she said, and bowed with her hands clasped as if in prayer.
"You may change your mind when a powerful enough threat appears. Would you rather invaders slaughter the innocent people of Albion, or destroy the evil enemy? Rest assured that I have no intention of using it again without good cause, and the Guardian Monitor will not approve of your requests without good cause either."
"I understand, thank you, my Lord. I will be careful."
After the explanation, the avatar disappeared, leaving her to stare at the Oracle.
'Without good cause…that's all I can ask for then. Oh, please don't let me fall into temptation, I must never use this power, it's too horrible! Maybe I should just make myself forget about it…' she thought.
The Oracle's red light blinked rapidly, then it flew into her chest. Instinctively, she caught it, then it stopped floating and simply rested on her hands.
"To conserve energy, this unit will not fly unless necessary. Please carry me with you at all times and ask for my help when you need it, Champion. You may treat this unit as a familiar," its metallic voice said. "But do not allow others to touch or examine me. I am a holy artifact."
A familiar? She always did want one, but never learned how to do the ritual for it.
"Umm, do I just call you Oracle?"
"This unit's full designation is Intelligent Personal Escort Terminal, Device ID iPET-CTIFF001."
"That's so long and strange! Why are there numbers in your name?"
"I am a companion-type Oracle, so you may name me if you wish."
"I should think of a better name then. Hmm, what should it be? Do you have any preferences?"
"It should be something suitable for a holy artifact. Like Oracle."
"…"
She sweatdropped at the suggestion. Why did it tell her she could name it if it didn't want a different name?
But then, Lord Muurleth had said it was 'an' Oracle, meaning that there were others. She'd rather have a unique name for her own Oracle.
"Oh, I know! My mother told me a story once, of the hero saint that saved the elves from the devil. Saint Anubis was its name. So I will name you Anu, after Saint Anubis!"
"That is also acceptable."
Afterwards, she smiled again, thinking of the fun she could have with a familiar, and held Anu up to her face.
Then she blinked as if remembering something. "Oh um! Is it okay if I summon a familiar too? Or should I only have you?"
"Your question cannot be processed. Elevating query, please hold…."
"Eh?" Tiffania had a confused expression as she watched the red light on Anu blink from red to blue.
There was a short delay before the response came.
"Hello Champion Tiffania. I am the Guardian Monitor Offensive Bias," said Anu with blue light. Tiffania now understood that the light was to indicate that something else was speaking through the Oracle. The label her visor provided changed correspondingly.
The Guardian Monitor whom she could request the Destruction Light from...she shuddered at the thought.
"Answering your question, you may summon another familiar. However, Lord Muurleth advises that you wait a little. As a user of Void, your familiar summoning ritual may result in summoning a human. The contract familiar spell imposes a mental compulsion which forces the familiar to love you, effectively turning them into your slave without them realizing it, much like animal familiars are absolutely loyal to their masters. Lord Muurleth wishes for you to fully understand the consequences before you attempt it,"
Tiffania gasped. "That's horrible! I don't want to enslave anyone. I won't summon a familiar then. Anu will be enough for me!"
"A summoned familiar can do things for you that a PET class Oracle unit cannot, especially a Void familiar with powers of its own. It will be useful to you to have one."
"But I can't enslave anyone just to have a familiar. That's cruel. Won't they have friends or family that I would be taking them away from?"
"The summoning spell should target only someone who is willing. But if not, Lord Muurleth will also help you find a way to remove the mental compulsion or redirect the targeting to someone or something that is. However, there are other Void mages who have summoned familiars, and they are not as kind as you. Lord Muurleth hopes that you can help him save the familiars who are being treated as slaves, using the power of Void spells. But that will require experimenting with the summoning."
"Save other familiars? Oh, maybe I could do that…" she put a finger to her chin thoughtfully, holding the Oracle in one hand.
"It is not urgent. If you would like to summon a familiar, please contact me through the Oracle, and I will inform Lord Muurleth. But in the short-term the Oracle should be sufficient for your needs." Then the blue light turned back into red.
"Okay then. Anu, can I show you to Captain Coventry?"
"Yes." Anu then floated back up and transformed, flying onto her shoulder before retracting its petals. Its central ball sat on top and four legs remained extended to clamp on her shoulder.
She opened the door and peeked out to find the two guards still standing outside as usual, and her handmaiden who had been asked to stay outside while she secretly left her room with Lord Muurleth's avatar earlier.
Soon they accompanied her to find Captain Coventry, who was in the courtyard overseeing a training exercise for the reformed royal guards.
"Your Royal Highness," the Captain bowed upon seeing her, as did the other royal guards.
"Look, Captain Coventry, Lord Muurleth gave me Oracle Anu to be my familiar! I wonder if you could teach me what mages normally do with their familiars?" She asked while pointing to Anu.
Coventry furrowed his eyebrow and looked closely at the visor she now wore around her head, and then at the metallic thing on her shoulder emitting a faint red light. "His Divine Greatness gave your royal highness Oracle Anu? You didn't summon it with the Springtime Summoning Ritual?"
"Yes, that's right. He asked me to become his Champion and I agreed, and then he gave me Anu."
"Greetings," Anu said.
Coventry's eyes widened. "It speaks!"
Anu jumped up then flew in front of Coventry, before retracting its legs and very slowly floated in the air as just a ball, until it hovered in front of the captain.
"I am a holy Oracle. My purpose is to deliver Lord Muurleth's divine words to the faithful, and to assist his mortal Champion, Tiffania Lightsworn, in carrying out his will."
"I understand, your Holiness. May I ask if His Divine Greatness has any particular instructions for us?"
"Not at this time."
Anu floated back to Tiffania. She held her hands out to gently bring it back to her shoulder.
In her vision, a translucent text box appeared again, this time with a cartoonish icon showing the Oracle to its left. Letters appeared from left to right rapidly.
Do not reveal my combat capabilities. I am a secret weapon.
You may inform him about being able to see through me.
She blinked, then faced the captain again.
"So um...Captain Coventry, can you tell me about what normal familiars are like?"
"Of course, your royal highness."
O O O
At the ruins of Westwood village…
Tiffania let go of Muurleth's avatar, which was a mass of black flames that did not hurt her hands when she touched it, and had a thin smooth shaft inside to grip at the centre of the flames.
She landed gently on the ground, but the sight of her former home came as a great shock.
The huts were blown apart as if a great battle had taken place. Small broken dolls were scattered between them.
She walked almost numbly to what was left of her own hut, and saw the huge amount of dried blood inside.
The scene left her queasy, and she soon turned away.
"Where are the children…?" She asked in a pleading tone.
"They are most likely dead. Every person in this village was nothing more than a doll."
She whispered the names of the orphans she once took care of as she checked every hut.
"Why…?"
"Come."
She followed the avatar to a spot a little away from the village, deeper in the forest. There, a wooden plaque was stabbed into the ground, and letters were engraved on it, while flowers were planted at the root.
Here lies Matilda.
A loyal friend.
R.I.P.
Tiffania collapsed and began to cry.
After a long time, the tears stopped flow, and she simply sat on her knees there in a daze. Muurleth's avatar simply floated in the air before her silently.
"Can you…tell me what happened here?" She finally asked.
"An…old friend of mine, by the name of Axion, came here with the one you call sister Matilda. It seems that Reconquista had been blackmailing your friend with your safety, and she enlisted Axion's help to rescue you. However, Reconquista had already found out, and laid a trap instead. A doll with your face mercilessly killed the girl. This is the real reason they took you away. Axion survived the ambush and defeated the dolls, and he was the one who made this grave."
"You said…it was…Myojnitnirin…that did this? And that Myoznee…umm…that void familiar was the one supporting Lord Cromwell?"
"I do not know. Axion seemed to believe that."
"Where is he now? Can I talk to him?"
"He snuck on board the Lexington, I assume in an attempt to track down Myozunitonirun. I gave him a welcoming gift at Newcastle, which you saw."
Her face turned shocked again. "But…you…why would you kill him?"
"He is not dead. He is far too powerful and resilient to die from an attack of only that level."
Tiffania's face was one of incomprehension. Not only at Muurleth's belief that someone could have survived that spell, but also that Muurleth would attack an old friend like that.
"Even so, wasn't he your friend?"
A dark rumbling chuckle followed. "We have a number of…outstanding disagreements. We have fought many times in the past, and no doubt we will fight again. In truth, he is an aspect of me. Unfortunately, he refuses to accept his own divinity, and so our divine essence was split into two incarnations, and he insists on interfering with my plans. But I cannot kill him, as we are immortal and he will simply reform so long as I exist. A most irritating friend. My spell was to ensure that he could not stop me from claiming Albion."
Tiffania found it difficult to understand Muurleth's logic, but she did not argue. Friends should help each other, she thought, not kill each other. Any disagreements they had could surely be talked out. It made even less sense to her if they were supposed to be two parts of the same being. But maybe gods weren't meant to be understood by mortals like her.
She fell silent again, unsure of what to do. Cromwell had lied to her about taking care of the children, but he was already dead. She thought about taking revenge for Matilda and the children, like the characters in fairy tales and stories, but she didn't see the appeal in it.
Her mother had died long ago, now her father was also dead, and she regretted her role in it. Although she hadn't done anything against him or for Reconquista, she saw how painful it was for him to see her on the opposite side.
No friends, no family, in a country that hated her.
Even the new princess title that Muurleth bestowed on her hadn't made much difference. Instead of only fearing her as a person, they just also feared the consequences of offending her and Muurleth's wrath.
What was there left for her to do? Go and find the elves? If they were as kind as her mother…or would they hate her too for being half-human?
"Do you want revenge?"
She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I don't know."
"Good. Vengeance is meaningless. It is a chain of hatred that never ends. They kill your loved ones, you kill theirs, and many generations go by and the hate remains long after everyone has forgotten why they fought in the first place."
Tiffania raised her head and looked at the black flames in surprise. She did not expect Muurleth to tell her that. He seemed rather…vengeful and quick to kill at Newcastle.
"Do not be surprised. I am not a god of vengeance. I am both Lightbearer and Darkbringer, the Prince of Duality, Lord of the Infinite. One cannot hate without knowing love, and one cannot understand the meaning of happiness without having experienced sadness. What I desire is progress and evolution, purpose and ambition, a limitless growth to infinity. These 6,000 years of hate between the humans and elves…what purpose does it serve? Perhaps once upon a time, war did catalyze progress, but over the millennia, the humans and elves have shunned contact, unable to share knowledge, even losing knowledge. They have stagnated and destroyed more than they gained, the reason for their conflict long forgotten. Why did Brimir seek the Holy Land? Why did the elves refuse to help Brimir's quest? Memories of an eon of senseless bloodshed are all that remain."
She listened to Muurleth's avatar and found his words almost similar to what her mother had told her. The reason she came to Albion and allowed herself to love a human…to find a way to make peace.
Her own father's last words were not so different either. Whereas Lord Cromwell told her that her birth was a sin and she needed to devote herself to Brimir to be accepted by the people, King Henry said that the crusade was meaningless.
She knew that not all elves hated humans, and not all humans hated elves. Her mother and father, and their closest supporters, including sister Matilda and captain Coventry, were proof that the hatred could be overcome.
Was Muurleth right, and the conflict really meaningless? For what did Cromwell so fanatically seek the Holy Land? She had seen with how own eyes how many people had rallied to his cause. She couldn't understand it.
"So…what was the reason for the fighting, in the beginning?"
"I do not know. As I told you before, gods are neither omniscient nor omnipotent, and I was not present on this world until recently."
"Then, why are you telling me all this? Is there something you want me to do?"
"The era of pointless conflict has come to an end with my arrival. You carry within you both human and elven blood, and you are also a wielder of the Void. You have a unique opportunity to bridge the divide, and the necessary temperament to do so. I offer you the chance to become my mortal champion and assist me in ending this 6,000 year conflict. If you accept, then you shall carry out my will, and I will give you the means to succeed. You shall become my voice to the people and my sword to defend the faithful. As my champion, you will still be free to pursue your own objectives that do not contradict my directives."
After wishing she could make friends and not be feared for so long, the offer was undoubtedly tempting.
She could imagine a world where humans and elves lived together, full of kind people like her mother.
But was it really possible?
And equally important…was she being lied to again? If Cromwell had only been using her, then how did she know she wasn't being used again?
"Your Divine Greatness, I mean no offense…but how can I know that you are telling me the truth? That peace between humans and elves is what you really want, or that it's possible? I'm sorry, I just feel so lost. Lord Cromwell was very convincing too…I don't know anything anymore…"
"You are permitted to doubt. I do not need someone who blindly follows commands without thinking for themselves. Faith is what you turn to when reason is not enough, but reason must always come first. It is with reason that you can determine truth from lie, or distinguish between real and false gods. Unlike the so-called gods of Valhalla or Brimir, what I offer are not merely empty promises that you can never verify for yourself. Neither do I ask for devotion without cause. I merely give you the means to obtain your own salvation."
"The means to obtain my own salvation? What does that mean?"
"Listen carefully, Tiffania! I am Voidstarter and Dreambreaker! I am He Who Sees Beyond! When there exists only the void of nothing, I shall not create a perfect world—instead, I shall create a spark so that you may light with your own hands the fires of life and progress! When you dream and pray to me, I shall not make your dreams into reality—instead, I shall wake you from your slumber so that you may walk with your own feet on the path of ambition! In this world as in every world, the only immutable truth is that there is always uncertainty! Therefore, you shall seek the truth always, even as it evolves, and I shall teach you the principles of reason! As such, I do not promise you there shall be peace. Instead, should you accept, your first and greatest task as my champion shall be to discover the reason for the conflict that began 6,000 years ago. Armed with the answer, you shall then be able to decide for yourself how to arbitrate its solution. I will merely guide you on this quest and give you the authority and power necessary to achieve it. If you dislike my advice, you are free to pursue the answer on your own."
"You won't force me to do anything? I can just…look for the answer myself?" She asked. Then, before waiting for the answer, she spoke again while fidgeting with her fingers. "Will I have to…fight? I don't want to fight anyone…I didn't want to join Lord Cromwell's crusade, but he said I had to…"
"You cannot achieve peace without some obstacles along the way. If it were so easy, this conflict would have ended long ago. You will realize that in time. Whether you choose to fight or not when the time comes, that is your own decision. I will not order you to fight."
After a few moments of consideration, she felt that her doubts had been cleared.
"Um, I accept then, Your Divine Greatness."
"Then I bestow upon you the name of Lightsworn, Henceforth, you shall be a shining beacon that lights the paths in the dark. Now kneel and repeat after me."
She nodded, getting into position.
"I, Tiffania Tudor of Westwood, by the Grace of Muurleth the Enlightened, Prince of Duality, Lord of the Infinite..."
She repeated the words with careful enunciation.
"…discard my earthly name and former life to accept the mantle of Lightsworn, reborn Champion of my Lord. While I hold this name and title, I swear to love all that He loves, to seek knowledge and truth, and shun ignorance and fallacy. I shall hold steadfast in Faith through Reason, accepting just reward and punishment. If I should ever forswear these oaths, then my Lord may take away all that He shall have given me while holding this title."
Tiffania was wary, as she knew magical oaths could be binding. There were stories of oaths sworn before entities like the Great Water Spirit of Ragdorian Lake having real consequences. If Muurleth was a god, then an oath was not something she could take lightly.
But she listened carefully, and did not find anything objectionable in the oath. It was actually a rather open-ended oath, and she felt it allowed her much freedom. There did not seem to be any actual obligation to Muurleth, and the consequences of breaking it were minimal. It seemed only fair that Muurleth could take away whatever he gave her.
So she swore the oath.
"Now make an offering with your blood. Use the dagger you brought."
Before leaving the palace, Muurleth had instructed her to bring a dagger, which she had tied to her waist, and now unsheathed used to make a small cut on her finger.
When the ceremony was complete, the blood was drawing up into the mass of flames and disappeared.
"Henceforth, you shall be known as Tiffania Lightsworn of Albion, first of her line, Champion of Muurleth. Furthermore, as my Champion, you need not address me as Your Divine Greatness in the future. It is sufficient to address me as my Lord or Lord Muurleth."
"Yes, my Lord Muurleth."
Then she flew back to the palace with Muurleth's avatar, and found a strange orb floating on her windowsill.
It was silver in color, made of perfectly smooth metal, and just large enough to be possible to hold in one hand, but comfortably in both. At the center was a section which emitted a faint red light.
Also lying on the windowsill was a tiara-like object, similarly silver in color. But one side was a transparent material almost like glass but much lighter and thinner.
"This is an Oracle and Control Visor. If you wish to speak with me, you may do so through the Oracle, and I will answer in due time. Be aware that I will not always be able to manifest on this world if I am busy elsewhere. The Oracle can also defend you if necessary. Put the Visor over your eyes and observe."
She picked up the visor and wrapped it around her head, after which it tightened but still felt comfortable. The transparent panel covered her eyes almost completely, then a faint light shone into her eyes. When it was done, suddenly letters and symbols appeared in her vision, as if magically floating in front of her.
"Oooh…" She made sounds of awe and curiosity.
She tried to touch them but her hands merely went through them.
Bioscan Complete.
Tiffania Lightsworn Acknowledged. Champion Visor System Activated.
Connection to assigned Oracle established.
A large flashing circle shrunk and centred in on the corner of her vision and her eyes followed it to a box of text which was like a log of messages.
Another flashing circle centred on the Oracle, and a green square highlighted it along with a label, before turning into a cursor icon on top of it.
The orb transformed, extending what seemed to be four legs with additional petal-like extensions that rapidly spun until they were hardly visible.
A blue window appeared in front of her.
Oracle vision stream available. Engage vision projection mode?
Yes / No
Press a button above or focus your sight on it momentarily.
Her hand went to the Yes button and pressed it. This time, there was a reaction, the button lit up before the text box disappeared, then her vision was suddenly replaced by a new one.
A line of text displayed at the top
Currently in Observer Mode.
She saw herself from the perspective of the Oracle, and gasped. The transparent panel on the visor had turned pitch black and opaque, and she saw her hand going to her open mouth in an expression of shock.
The view flew around her in a display of acrobatic prowess before exiting the window. It kept going for some distance before turning around.
A reticle appeared, then the view zoomed in rapidly on a teacup sitting on her tea table.
A flashing circle centred in on it.
Target Locked
Firing laser…
A red dot appeared on the teacup, then it exploded.
She yelped and cowered down in a squat, shutting her eyes in fright with her hands over her head until the Oracle returned and floated in front of her back in its orb form, and she opened her eyes to find she was seeing out of her own perspective again.
"There is no need to be afraid. The Oracle will not harm you, nor will it attack unless you request it. You should not rely on it, however. It cannot fight for long, and needs to recharge its power with sunlight, as does the visor. Your royal guard is your first line of defense, and then your own magic. The Oracle is a secret weapon to be used only in an emergency."
"This unit's primary purpose is communication, not combat," the Oracle said in a voice that sounded strangely filtered and distorted. It felt artificial, and had no distinguishable gender.
"Y-yes, I understand, thank you," she said, getting back up with a gulp.
"In truly dire circumstances, you may also request to call down the Destruction Light on a particular target. My Guardian Monitor above this world will determine whether your request is reasonable, and cast the Destruction Light if appropriate."
"The…Destruction Light? You mean…that…" Her eyes widened as she looked at the Oracle in fear.
"The same spell that destroyed the Lexington, yes. I have limited the power you are permitted to only a maximum of one-hundred KT, or twenty times that of the one that was used at Newcastle."
Her mouth dropped open. 'Twenty times?! That would be enough to completely destroy a whole city, maybe even more than that!'
"If you desire to use a Destruction Light any stronger than that, you will need direct permission from me, as there will be risk that the Destruction Light will destabilize and shatter Albion into pieces, or if used on the continent, may cause earthquakes and unintended damage to neighbouring countries. I trust you will not request to use this power carelessly."
'Shatter Albion into pieces…why would I ever want such a terrifying thing?'
"I-I won't, my Lord! Please, I don't want to be able to call down the Destruction Light, and I beg you to spare the people from any more! Once was enough," she said, and bowed with her hands clasped as if in prayer.
"You may change your mind when a powerful enough threat appears. Would you rather invaders slaughter the innocent people of Albion, or destroy the evil enemy? Rest assured that I have no intention of using it again without good cause, and the Guardian Monitor will not approve of your requests without good cause either."
"I understand, thank you, my Lord. I will be careful."
After the explanation, the avatar disappeared, leaving her to stare at the Oracle.
'Without good cause…that's all I can ask for then. Oh, please don't let me fall into temptation, I must never use this power, it's too horrible! Maybe I should just make myself forget about it…' she thought.
The Oracle's red light blinked rapidly, then it flew into her chest. Instinctively, she caught it, then it stopped floating and simply rested on her hands.
"To conserve energy, this unit will not fly unless necessary. Please carry me with you at all times and ask for my help when you need it, Champion. You may treat this unit as a familiar," its metallic voice said. "But do not allow others to touch or examine me. I am a holy artifact."
A familiar? She always did want one, but never learned how to do the ritual for it.
"Umm, do I just call you Oracle?"
"This unit's full designation is Intelligent Personal Escort Terminal, Device ID iPET-CTIFF001."
"That's so long and strange! Why are there numbers in your name?"
"I am a companion-type Oracle, so you may name me if you wish."
"I should think of a better name then. Hmm, what should it be? Do you have any preferences?"
"It should be something suitable for a holy artifact. Like Oracle."
"…"
She sweatdropped at the suggestion. Why did it tell her she could name it if it didn't want a different name?
But then, Lord Muurleth had said it was 'an' Oracle, meaning that there were others. She'd rather have a unique name for her own Oracle.
"Oh, I know! My mother told me a story once, of the hero saint that saved the elves from the devil. Saint Anubis was its name. So I will name you Anu, after Saint Anubis!"
"That is also acceptable."
Afterwards, she smiled again, thinking of the fun she could have with a familiar, and held Anu up to her face.
Then she blinked as if remembering something. "Oh um! Is it okay if I summon a familiar too? Or should I only have you?"
"Your question cannot be processed. Elevating query, please hold…."
"Eh?" Tiffania had a confused expression as she watched the red light on Anu blink from red to blue.
There was a short delay before the response came.
"Hello Champion Tiffania. I am the Guardian Monitor Offensive Bias," said Anu with blue light. Tiffania now understood that the light was to indicate that something else was speaking through the Oracle. The label her visor provided changed correspondingly.
The Guardian Monitor whom she could request the Destruction Light from...she shuddered at the thought.
"Answering your question, you may summon another familiar. However, Lord Muurleth advises that you wait a little. As a user of Void, your familiar summoning ritual may result in summoning a human. The contract familiar spell imposes a mental compulsion which forces the familiar to love you, effectively turning them into your slave without them realizing it, much like animal familiars are absolutely loyal to their masters. Lord Muurleth wishes for you to fully understand the consequences before you attempt it,"
Tiffania gasped. "That's horrible! I don't want to enslave anyone. I won't summon a familiar then. Anu will be enough for me!"
"A summoned familiar can do things for you that a PET class Oracle unit cannot, especially a Void familiar with powers of its own. It will be useful to you to have one."
"But I can't enslave anyone just to have a familiar. That's cruel. Won't they have friends or family that I would be taking them away from?"
"The summoning spell should target only someone who is willing. But if not, Lord Muurleth will also help you find a way to remove the mental compulsion or redirect the targeting to someone or something that is. However, there are other Void mages who have summoned familiars, and they are not as kind as you. Lord Muurleth hopes that you can help him save the familiars who are being treated as slaves, using the power of Void spells. But that will require experimenting with the summoning."
"Save other familiars? Oh, maybe I could do that…" she put a finger to her chin thoughtfully, holding the Oracle in one hand.
"It is not urgent. If you would like to summon a familiar, please contact me through the Oracle, and I will inform Lord Muurleth. But in the short-term the Oracle should be sufficient for your needs." Then the blue light turned back into red.
"Okay then. Anu, can I show you to Captain Coventry?"
"Yes." Anu then floated back up and transformed, flying onto her shoulder before retracting its petals. Its central ball sat on top and four legs remained extended to clamp on her shoulder.
She opened the door and peeked out to find the two guards still standing outside as usual, and her handmaiden who had been asked to stay outside while she secretly left her room with Lord Muurleth's avatar earlier.
Soon they accompanied her to find Captain Coventry, who was in the courtyard overseeing a training exercise for the reformed royal guards.
"Your Royal Highness," the Captain bowed upon seeing her, as did the other royal guards.
"Look, Captain Coventry, Lord Muurleth gave me Oracle Anu to be my familiar! I wonder if you could teach me what mages normally do with their familiars?" She asked while pointing to Anu.
Coventry furrowed his eyebrow and looked closely at the visor she now wore around her head, and then at the metallic thing on her shoulder emitting a faint red light. "His Divine Greatness gave your royal highness Oracle Anu? You didn't summon it with the Springtime Summoning Ritual?"
"Yes, that's right. He asked me to become his Champion and I agreed, and then he gave me Anu."
"Greetings," Anu said.
Coventry's eyes widened. "It speaks!"
Anu jumped up then flew in front of Coventry, before retracting its legs and very slowly floated in the air as just a ball, until it hovered in front of the captain.
"I am a holy Oracle. My purpose is to deliver Lord Muurleth's divine words to the faithful, and to assist his mortal Champion, Tiffania Lightsworn, in carrying out his will."
"I understand, your Holiness. May I ask if His Divine Greatness has any particular instructions for us?"
"Not at this time."
Anu floated back to Tiffania. She held her hands out to gently bring it back to her shoulder.
In her vision, a translucent text box appeared again, this time with a cartoonish icon showing the Oracle to its left. Letters appeared from left to right rapidly.
Do not reveal my combat capabilities. I am a secret weapon.
You may inform him about being able to see through me.
She blinked, then faced the captain again.
"So um...Captain Coventry, can you tell me about what normal familiars are like?"
"Of course, your royal highness."
O O O
- Location
- canada
Pfft! Henceforth one 'Newcastle' shall be known as the new standard of measurement for destruction!
These are the kinds of questions that needs to be answered. Yes, one wonders exactly what sort of developments will force the poor nice half-elf to tearfully order more Destruction Light to be called down upon the world, basking it in His glorious Light! Ahahahaha!
Oh yes, rephrase something enough and people will believe anything when told in the right way. 'Save' the familiars from their enslaving masters! 'Liberate' the oppressed masses from the corrupt nobles! and 'Reclaim' what was rightfully ours!
It's very entertaining to see a character like Tiffania given that kind of power and mission. I eagerly await to see what fate, or rather Axion's machinations, has in store for her.
Quixotic_being
Fulfilling every contract to the letter
[x] Physical Water Manipulation (macroscopic)
[x] Physical Water Manipulation (microscopic)
Maybe a better connection to water in general would make a better connection to the water stone?
[x] Physical Water Manipulation (microscopic)
Maybe a better connection to water in general would make a better connection to the water stone?
SS 1.5 - Tristain’s Ambassador Returns
SS 1.5 - Tristain's Ambassador Returns
At the court of Tristain, where the young crown princess sat on the throne in royal regalia and her regent the Cardinal Mazarin sat on a gilded chair beside her, there was an atmosphere of gloom and depression.
They had already heard reports from their agents since the day Muurleth appeared, and had several sleepless nights since each time the events were confirmed and added to with even more dire descriptions of the chaos in Albion.
"Oh Wales…where are you? Do you yet live?" She whispered to herself, hugging her sceptre close to her chest.
Cardinal Mazarin looked like he had aged considerably in just a few days.
The various nobles who lined the hall all muttered amongst themselves. They had gathered here today to receive the Tristainian ambassador to Albion, who had been ordered to stay in Londinium to ascertain the intentions of the new administration and their foreign policy.
Their ambassador entered with little pomp, wearing a black caped suit, and quickly bowed before he was beckoned by the Cardinal to rise.
"Your highness, your excellency. I bring grave news from Albion. The royal faction has been defeated, and King Henry is dead. However, Reconquista and their leader Cromwell is also dead, only to be replaced by an even more terrifying force," he said.
"Yes, Ambassador, we are already aware of what happened at Newcastle. It is deeply troubling, and though difficult to believe, numerous independent reports have confirmed it," said Mazarin. "Have you had a chance to meet this…emperor Muurleth?"
"No, your excellency. When a full court was convened at Londinium, his claim to the title of emperor was retracted, and the kingdom was declared to be in a state of Interregnum. Muurleth was instead proclaimed His Divine Greatness," the ambassador visibly made a disgusted face at the ridiculous styling, "Prince of Duality, Lord of the Infinite, Patron God of Albion by General Fairfax and the military forces under his command. Muurleth did not make any public appearances outside of punitive expeditions against remaining resistance forces, nor did he receive any audiences. The acting Chancellor informed me that there would be a public ceremony in two days time at Londinium to swear in a new Council Regency during the Interregnum, and that Muurleth does not intend to rule in person now or ever. He will instead establish a new form of representative governance."
"Representative governance? Does he intend to do the same as Cromwell intended, forming an assembly of nobles? A parliament?"
"Based on the chancellor's description, that is not quite the case. Muurleth's new government will abolish nobility."
"What? Abolish the nobility?!" Mazarin squawked and shifted forward in his seat, which was mirrored by rancorous cries from other nobles in the hall. If Muurleth abolished the nobility, what would become of them if Tristain was conquered? Were they to live as commoners?
"Yes, your excellency. However, it is only the taxation and levy rights of nobility that are being abolished. As I understand it, the nobility as a whole will retain positions of power and titles of nobility, but it will be through appointed and elected positions in the new government, with titles being largely honorary rather than assigning any actual hereditary rights and privileges. Nobles will no longer be permitted to collect taxes or raise levy armies independent of the Crown or decree by-laws for the commoners on their territory, but they will keep most of their property and may continue to collect rents on them. It is simply that anybody with enough money will be able to purchase property to do the same, including commoners, and they will also be eligible for positions in government with sufficient education."
"That is not much better! These reforms would destroy our way of life!" One prominent noble called out. "How can commoners possibly administrate the kingdom?!"
"What of religion? Muurleth claims to be a god now?" Mazarin waved down the noble and asked the ambassador again.
"He claims that Muurleth is a god, and that he is its avatar."
"And the people of Albion have accepted the words of this heathen?"
"Many did not, but those who refuse to recant their righteous faith in Brimir are being burned at the stake. I witnessed with my own eyes the burning of the Archbishop of Canterbury in front of the London Cathedral. The worship of Brimir and the true Gods of Valhalla have been outlawed. The laws banning marriage with firstborn races have also been repealed. The half elven bastard daughter of the late King Henry was declared the legitimate heir to all of the Tudor dynasty's personal demesnes, and granted the style of Her Royal Highness, the Princess Royal of Albion, although there has not been an official line of succession announced yet."
"Oh my…" The Cardinal quickly made gestures to ward off evil and spoke a few prayers. Many other nobles followed his lead.
"Eh? So it's really true? I have a half-elven cousin?" Henrietta suddenly sat up with attention.
"It would appear so. I have met the princess and several members of the late King Henry's royal guard. They confirmed that the King did keep an elven mistress and ordered the princess Tiffania to be hidden away. The former royal guard members also claim that shortly before his death, King Henry made a deal with Muurleth, in which Muurleth promised the King that he would keep the throne. They seem to be under the impression that with the king's death, the princess has inherited the right to the throne under the agreement with Muurleth. Judging by how they've been reassigned to her personal guard and how she was legitimized with a royal title, there may be some credence to these claims."
"But what about Prince Wales? Is he not senior in the line of succession, if Muurleth does intend to honor the agreement?" Henrietta asked with a frown.
"There was a royal order issued for the Prince Wales' return, but he has yet to be found. According to credible sources within the military, he was never captured by Reconquista. His failure to return implies that he is either opposed to the new administration, which carries a death penalty, or he is unable to return because he is already dead. Either way, the order for his return was accompanied by the ultimatum that failure to appear within two days—before the planned swearing in ceremony, would result in all his noble and royal titles being stripped."
Henrietta slumped back down as soon as she heard the words "already dead". She had held little hope of his survival when she first heard the news of the royalist faction's defeat, and now in her mind, it was practically a certainty that he was dead. The Wales she knew was prideful and stubborn. He would have stayed to fight until the bitter end out of honor if he could.
She had been contemplating sending an agent to retrieve the love letters he had and also offer asylum to him in Tristain, even though she expected him to refuse, but in the end she didn't even have a chance to do it before it was all over.
At least now it was very unlikely that those letters could be found.
"Perhaps Muurleth can be reasoned with after all, if such an agreement existed," Cardinal Mazarin said with a hopeful expression. Then it morphed back into worry. "Ah, but the Church cannot possibly stay quiet on this! For the whole of Albion to fall into heathen hands, this is worse than any simple heresy! All the innocents who are being martyred!"
"We should ask Romalia for help! Surely they won't let Tristain fall to Muurleth as well? Cromwell at least pretended to act on behalf of Brimir and the true Gods!" A noble suggested.
"Yes! We must petition the Papacy!"
"They should declare a crusade to liberate Albion!"
"No, a crusade would be too late, we should quickly ally with Germania!"
"You think the barbarians in Germania can protect us from Muurleth? He would destroy them as easily as he did Reconquista!"
"Then we should ally with Gallia, their cannons are second only to Albion's!"
"And their king is an incompetent fool!"
"All the better for us to use!"
Numerous cries of agreement and disagreement could be heard among the nobles present. The hall descended into a mess of bickering and shouting.
"Silence!" Henrietta yelled, tapping her sceptre on the floor.
The nobles did not listen and continued to shout, ignoring the princess. The Cardinal stood up and demanded order but he too was ignored.
Then the princess's face turned furious and she too stood up. With a wave of her sceptre, a torrent of water was unleashed in the hall, showering all the nobles on either side of the carpet, but leaving the ambassador alone.
The nobles immediately quieted down and began casting drying spells on themselves.
"Ambassador, I would like to know more about Albion's foreign policy. Did you get information on what their intentions are towards Tristain?" Henrietta said after sitting back down.
The ambassador bowed his head. The princess had become much more aggressive than he remembered, and he opted to show a little more deference.
"Your highness, the acting chancellor assured me that their intentions are entirely peaceful. They desire no conflict with either the kingdoms of Halkegenia or the elves," he said.
"Or the elves? Was it necessary to make that addition? What did he mean by it?" Henrietta asked.
"Your highness, I believe the chancellor's statement was meant to indicate that they will not be pursuing a crusade to the Holy Land, which the former Reconquista had publicly announced as their goal."
Henrietta twirled her sceptre as if in thought. "I see. Do you believe it is as the chancellor said? That their intentions are peaceful?"
"It is difficult to say, your highness. I sought audiences with leaders in their military, but only Admiral Bowood agreed to speak with me. He said only that the Divine Prince Muurleth is not interested in mundane affairs, and that their foreign policy will likely be determined by the new appointed Regency Council."
"Not interested in mundane affairs? Then what is he interested in?" The princess had a perplexed expression on her face.
"I have only heard rumors, your highness. There is talk of significant increases to planned funding for windstone mining and refining, as well as magical research."
The Cardinal spoke in a hurried voice to the princess. "That does not sound like peaceful intentions at all! Windstones are used for building ships!"
"I know, Regent. They are most likely building up their forces before invading," the princess said. "Ambassador, is there anything else you can tell us that would be useful in understanding what is happening in Albion?"
"Ah…there is something, but it is very strange and I can not make sense of it myself. It is being treated very seriously by many academics in Londinium however, so I feel I must bring it to your highness' attention."
"Yes? What is it?"
"They say that Muurleth has given divine revelation to mages he has deemed worthy, secrets of magic never before known to man, including something called the 'periodic table' and an additional 118 elements different from the pentagram five."
"A-a hundred and eighteen elements?" The Cardinal shouted with wide eyes.
"Yes, your excellency. According to the researchers I've spoken to, there are already experiments which have proven the existence of some of these new elements, and some materials previously known to us, such as sulfur and lead, have been classified as chemical elements. They call them 'chemical elements' to distinguish them from the 'classical magic elements', because the chemical elements can all be manipulated through alchemy. Even more strangely, they say that alchemy is not solely an earth magic, but can be a method of performing the magic of a different element without stacking or having affinity for that element."
"Preposterous! Ambassador, how can you bring such blasphemous ideas to this court? These are obvious lies and lunacy! We have studied the five elements of the pentagram and alchemy as an earth magic for thousands of years!" A noble shouted in outrage. "Have you also fallen to heresy?"
"Ambassador, that you take such heresy seriously is indeed disturbing. Perhaps you are shaken by the persecution you witnessed in Albion and require rest. You are dismissed," said the Cardinal.
"Hold on! Please stay Ambassador. I would like to hear more about this," said Henrietta.
"But princess, this is clear heresy! If you entertain him any longer, the church may not look kindly upon us!" The Cardinal protested with a desperate expression.
The princess hesitated and bit her lip. The steward of the palace saw the princess' hesitation and a hand signal from the regent.
"We cannot allow the princess to be infected with such heretical ideas! Guards, take him away and throw him in the dungeon!" The steward shouted and gestured towards the guards.
The guards moved to grab the ambassador.
"No! Your highness, I speak the truth! I saw with my own eyes a line mage create fire by casting a water spell on a piece of alchemically prepared metallic rock!" He struggled as he was dragged away.
The princess made her decision and stood up.
"Stop! Guards, let him go!"
The Cardinal shrunk back in dismay, "Oh dear…" He whispered to himself. "We'll be excommunicated!"
The guards released the ambassador.
He quickly kneeled and thanked the princess.
"Ambassador, you are sure there was no trick involved? You really saw fire created from earth and water spells?"
"Yes, I also suspected deceit, but I was allowed to try casting a water spell of my own on the alchemically prepared rock! I am a double water line mage, your highness, and I could not put it out! The more water I used, the more fiercely it burned! I was nearly blinded by the sheer brightness of the white-hot fire!"
"The flames were white? But only quadruple fire Square-class mages can produce that fire that hot…" Henrietta observed.
"Exactly! There is no way that I, a double water Line mage, could possibly have cast a Square-class fire spell, even with trickery by the researcher, who was an Earth-Earth-Water Triangle mage!"
The hall was silent for a moment.
"Ambassador, why did the researcher show you such a powerful magic? A technique that can allow a line water mage to cast a Square class fire spell would be priceless. I cannot imagine any mage would carelessly reveal it to even friends, let alone a foreign mage," the princess said at last.
"Your highness, I swear on my honor as a noble that I have not lied. The reason they were willing to show it to me is because I cannot do anything with it after seeing it. The secret lies not in the spells cast while I was watching, but in the alchemically prepared rock, which was not made with simple Earth Transmutation, but the Muurlethian Alchemy that uses all four of the main magic elements! The full procedure is so arcane, complex, and incomprehensible that they believe it is simply impossible to replicate without being given the secret in exacting detail."
"In other words, you have no proof of what you claim to have seen," the same noble who shouted before said with a sneer.
Henrietta ignored the comment and addressed the ambassador. "Thank you Ambassador. You have given us much to think about. You may take your leave now."
When the ambassador left, the hall was left with a short silence before the nobles began to whisper and talk amongst themselves again.
Henrietta sat thinking for a time, until it seemed that she made a decision.
"Regent, I am tired. Please adjourn the court."
The Cardinal did as she asked and ordered the court to adjourn. The nobles filed out quickly, leaving the hall empty for but the princess and her regent.
"Cardinal Mazarin, I believe I will visit the Academy tomorrow. Are there any other plans already? If so, we will need to cancel them."
"But princess, are you really taking his words seriously? Even if it is true, it is too dangerous!" Cardinal Mazarin protested again, thinking that the princess wanted to discuss the new alchemy with the professors at the academy.
"No, I do wish to speak to Osmond about that, but I have a different purpose in mind. I should not have waited so long to do this…in the end, that man was right. By the way Cardinal, please inform the Germanian ambassador that we are withdrawing from the marriage negotiations."
"What? But if we do that, they will not be willing to provide any military assistance! If you offend the Church at the same time, we'll have to fight the war alone!"
The princess gave him a sad smile. "No, Regent, Tristain has always had to stand alone. Or have you forgotten that Germania is a heathen country too? The Germanian emperor has already made it clear that he is unwilling to change his faith for me. Were I to wed one of their princes, it would merely tie the fate of Tristain to a heathen land, and how is that any different from simply surrendering to Muurleth?"
"B-but we could at least get the support of Romalia! I was even elected as Pope before, although I turned it down, I still have many connections there! I'm sure I can convince them to quickly declare a crusade," Mazarin said. "Pope Vittorio is young but his faith is impeccable, and the fires of youth would only push him to act. He would not simply stand by and allow Tristain to fall. In all likelihood, he is already preparing to call a crusade, even if I do not ask."
"Perhaps, but to get to Tristain, Romalia would have to send their armies through Gallia. And would Gallia so readily agree to help, without any benefit, without concessions from Tristain? Shall I allow this kingdom to be taken piecemeal, only to protect the interests of a few powerful nobles?"
The Cardinal looked pained, but he did not relent. "I understand how difficult it must be, princess, but I cannot see any other solution. Tristain simply does not have the means to defend itself from the Albion forces, let alone a mage as powerful as Muurleth. Princess, I fear it would be a difficult war even if all the kingdoms of Brimir allied together. Even in the most catastrophic losses we suffered against the elves in all of history, the strongest of elves could match only a hundred mages, and that is probably exaggerated for storytelling. Yet, by all the reports from Albion, at Newcastle Muurleth faced an army of over three hundred elite mages, including eight square class mages, forty thousand commoner soldiers, ten thousand demi-human soldiers, and over fifty ships of the line! And he won without a scratch!"
Henrietta suddenly thought of her friend Louise, and the words of Kaleidus her teacher. If Louise was truly a void mage that had summoned Gandalfr, then could it be that the Founder had foreseen this and sent aid already? But her friend was hardly a match for a line mage, let alone Muurleth, and what she'd observed of the Gandalfr was not encouraging either. Still, it was maybe their best hope…unless Kaleidus himself was willing to help. If anyone could stand up to Muurleth, it would be a great hero like Kaleidus. But last she heard, he'd gone to Albion in the midst of the chaos and she could only pray that he was safe.
"You are probably right, Cardinal Mazarin. But hoping for someone else to save us is pointless. You can ask Romalia for help, but I will be making my own preparations for war," said Henrietta.
"Huh? But why go to the Academy then? Are you planning to use the Staff of Destruction?"
"Hahaha…" Henrietta laughed bitterly. "If only that were an option. Nobody knows how to use it, Regent. No, I go to the Academy because in dark times like these, I must ask everyone to fight…even the students at the Academy."
And if that meant becoming a tyrant that used her own friend as a weapon, then so be it. Why else would the Founder have given a schoolgirl the power of Void? There could be no clearer sign of the Founder's will than that.
The Cardinal looked shocked. "T-the students?"
Henrietta stood up and the regent felt a dangerous air as the princess' face turned hard.
"Yes…the future of Tristain is at stake! There can be no exceptions! Whether noble or commoner, every able-bodied citizen shall be called to fight for their home! We will fight until the last man, woman, or child standing, until the streets run thick with rivers of blood that our enemies will drown in it even as they kill us!"
The Cardinal felt chills running down his spine as he watched the princess march away. "Oh dear…"
At the court of Tristain, where the young crown princess sat on the throne in royal regalia and her regent the Cardinal Mazarin sat on a gilded chair beside her, there was an atmosphere of gloom and depression.
They had already heard reports from their agents since the day Muurleth appeared, and had several sleepless nights since each time the events were confirmed and added to with even more dire descriptions of the chaos in Albion.
"Oh Wales…where are you? Do you yet live?" She whispered to herself, hugging her sceptre close to her chest.
Cardinal Mazarin looked like he had aged considerably in just a few days.
The various nobles who lined the hall all muttered amongst themselves. They had gathered here today to receive the Tristainian ambassador to Albion, who had been ordered to stay in Londinium to ascertain the intentions of the new administration and their foreign policy.
Their ambassador entered with little pomp, wearing a black caped suit, and quickly bowed before he was beckoned by the Cardinal to rise.
"Your highness, your excellency. I bring grave news from Albion. The royal faction has been defeated, and King Henry is dead. However, Reconquista and their leader Cromwell is also dead, only to be replaced by an even more terrifying force," he said.
"Yes, Ambassador, we are already aware of what happened at Newcastle. It is deeply troubling, and though difficult to believe, numerous independent reports have confirmed it," said Mazarin. "Have you had a chance to meet this…emperor Muurleth?"
"No, your excellency. When a full court was convened at Londinium, his claim to the title of emperor was retracted, and the kingdom was declared to be in a state of Interregnum. Muurleth was instead proclaimed His Divine Greatness," the ambassador visibly made a disgusted face at the ridiculous styling, "Prince of Duality, Lord of the Infinite, Patron God of Albion by General Fairfax and the military forces under his command. Muurleth did not make any public appearances outside of punitive expeditions against remaining resistance forces, nor did he receive any audiences. The acting Chancellor informed me that there would be a public ceremony in two days time at Londinium to swear in a new Council Regency during the Interregnum, and that Muurleth does not intend to rule in person now or ever. He will instead establish a new form of representative governance."
"Representative governance? Does he intend to do the same as Cromwell intended, forming an assembly of nobles? A parliament?"
"Based on the chancellor's description, that is not quite the case. Muurleth's new government will abolish nobility."
"What? Abolish the nobility?!" Mazarin squawked and shifted forward in his seat, which was mirrored by rancorous cries from other nobles in the hall. If Muurleth abolished the nobility, what would become of them if Tristain was conquered? Were they to live as commoners?
"Yes, your excellency. However, it is only the taxation and levy rights of nobility that are being abolished. As I understand it, the nobility as a whole will retain positions of power and titles of nobility, but it will be through appointed and elected positions in the new government, with titles being largely honorary rather than assigning any actual hereditary rights and privileges. Nobles will no longer be permitted to collect taxes or raise levy armies independent of the Crown or decree by-laws for the commoners on their territory, but they will keep most of their property and may continue to collect rents on them. It is simply that anybody with enough money will be able to purchase property to do the same, including commoners, and they will also be eligible for positions in government with sufficient education."
"That is not much better! These reforms would destroy our way of life!" One prominent noble called out. "How can commoners possibly administrate the kingdom?!"
"What of religion? Muurleth claims to be a god now?" Mazarin waved down the noble and asked the ambassador again.
"He claims that Muurleth is a god, and that he is its avatar."
"And the people of Albion have accepted the words of this heathen?"
"Many did not, but those who refuse to recant their righteous faith in Brimir are being burned at the stake. I witnessed with my own eyes the burning of the Archbishop of Canterbury in front of the London Cathedral. The worship of Brimir and the true Gods of Valhalla have been outlawed. The laws banning marriage with firstborn races have also been repealed. The half elven bastard daughter of the late King Henry was declared the legitimate heir to all of the Tudor dynasty's personal demesnes, and granted the style of Her Royal Highness, the Princess Royal of Albion, although there has not been an official line of succession announced yet."
"Oh my…" The Cardinal quickly made gestures to ward off evil and spoke a few prayers. Many other nobles followed his lead.
"Eh? So it's really true? I have a half-elven cousin?" Henrietta suddenly sat up with attention.
"It would appear so. I have met the princess and several members of the late King Henry's royal guard. They confirmed that the King did keep an elven mistress and ordered the princess Tiffania to be hidden away. The former royal guard members also claim that shortly before his death, King Henry made a deal with Muurleth, in which Muurleth promised the King that he would keep the throne. They seem to be under the impression that with the king's death, the princess has inherited the right to the throne under the agreement with Muurleth. Judging by how they've been reassigned to her personal guard and how she was legitimized with a royal title, there may be some credence to these claims."
"But what about Prince Wales? Is he not senior in the line of succession, if Muurleth does intend to honor the agreement?" Henrietta asked with a frown.
"There was a royal order issued for the Prince Wales' return, but he has yet to be found. According to credible sources within the military, he was never captured by Reconquista. His failure to return implies that he is either opposed to the new administration, which carries a death penalty, or he is unable to return because he is already dead. Either way, the order for his return was accompanied by the ultimatum that failure to appear within two days—before the planned swearing in ceremony, would result in all his noble and royal titles being stripped."
Henrietta slumped back down as soon as she heard the words "already dead". She had held little hope of his survival when she first heard the news of the royalist faction's defeat, and now in her mind, it was practically a certainty that he was dead. The Wales she knew was prideful and stubborn. He would have stayed to fight until the bitter end out of honor if he could.
She had been contemplating sending an agent to retrieve the love letters he had and also offer asylum to him in Tristain, even though she expected him to refuse, but in the end she didn't even have a chance to do it before it was all over.
At least now it was very unlikely that those letters could be found.
"Perhaps Muurleth can be reasoned with after all, if such an agreement existed," Cardinal Mazarin said with a hopeful expression. Then it morphed back into worry. "Ah, but the Church cannot possibly stay quiet on this! For the whole of Albion to fall into heathen hands, this is worse than any simple heresy! All the innocents who are being martyred!"
"We should ask Romalia for help! Surely they won't let Tristain fall to Muurleth as well? Cromwell at least pretended to act on behalf of Brimir and the true Gods!" A noble suggested.
"Yes! We must petition the Papacy!"
"They should declare a crusade to liberate Albion!"
"No, a crusade would be too late, we should quickly ally with Germania!"
"You think the barbarians in Germania can protect us from Muurleth? He would destroy them as easily as he did Reconquista!"
"Then we should ally with Gallia, their cannons are second only to Albion's!"
"And their king is an incompetent fool!"
"All the better for us to use!"
Numerous cries of agreement and disagreement could be heard among the nobles present. The hall descended into a mess of bickering and shouting.
"Silence!" Henrietta yelled, tapping her sceptre on the floor.
The nobles did not listen and continued to shout, ignoring the princess. The Cardinal stood up and demanded order but he too was ignored.
Then the princess's face turned furious and she too stood up. With a wave of her sceptre, a torrent of water was unleashed in the hall, showering all the nobles on either side of the carpet, but leaving the ambassador alone.
The nobles immediately quieted down and began casting drying spells on themselves.
"Ambassador, I would like to know more about Albion's foreign policy. Did you get information on what their intentions are towards Tristain?" Henrietta said after sitting back down.
The ambassador bowed his head. The princess had become much more aggressive than he remembered, and he opted to show a little more deference.
"Your highness, the acting chancellor assured me that their intentions are entirely peaceful. They desire no conflict with either the kingdoms of Halkegenia or the elves," he said.
"Or the elves? Was it necessary to make that addition? What did he mean by it?" Henrietta asked.
"Your highness, I believe the chancellor's statement was meant to indicate that they will not be pursuing a crusade to the Holy Land, which the former Reconquista had publicly announced as their goal."
Henrietta twirled her sceptre as if in thought. "I see. Do you believe it is as the chancellor said? That their intentions are peaceful?"
"It is difficult to say, your highness. I sought audiences with leaders in their military, but only Admiral Bowood agreed to speak with me. He said only that the Divine Prince Muurleth is not interested in mundane affairs, and that their foreign policy will likely be determined by the new appointed Regency Council."
"Not interested in mundane affairs? Then what is he interested in?" The princess had a perplexed expression on her face.
"I have only heard rumors, your highness. There is talk of significant increases to planned funding for windstone mining and refining, as well as magical research."
The Cardinal spoke in a hurried voice to the princess. "That does not sound like peaceful intentions at all! Windstones are used for building ships!"
"I know, Regent. They are most likely building up their forces before invading," the princess said. "Ambassador, is there anything else you can tell us that would be useful in understanding what is happening in Albion?"
"Ah…there is something, but it is very strange and I can not make sense of it myself. It is being treated very seriously by many academics in Londinium however, so I feel I must bring it to your highness' attention."
"Yes? What is it?"
"They say that Muurleth has given divine revelation to mages he has deemed worthy, secrets of magic never before known to man, including something called the 'periodic table' and an additional 118 elements different from the pentagram five."
"A-a hundred and eighteen elements?" The Cardinal shouted with wide eyes.
"Yes, your excellency. According to the researchers I've spoken to, there are already experiments which have proven the existence of some of these new elements, and some materials previously known to us, such as sulfur and lead, have been classified as chemical elements. They call them 'chemical elements' to distinguish them from the 'classical magic elements', because the chemical elements can all be manipulated through alchemy. Even more strangely, they say that alchemy is not solely an earth magic, but can be a method of performing the magic of a different element without stacking or having affinity for that element."
"Preposterous! Ambassador, how can you bring such blasphemous ideas to this court? These are obvious lies and lunacy! We have studied the five elements of the pentagram and alchemy as an earth magic for thousands of years!" A noble shouted in outrage. "Have you also fallen to heresy?"
"Ambassador, that you take such heresy seriously is indeed disturbing. Perhaps you are shaken by the persecution you witnessed in Albion and require rest. You are dismissed," said the Cardinal.
"Hold on! Please stay Ambassador. I would like to hear more about this," said Henrietta.
"But princess, this is clear heresy! If you entertain him any longer, the church may not look kindly upon us!" The Cardinal protested with a desperate expression.
The princess hesitated and bit her lip. The steward of the palace saw the princess' hesitation and a hand signal from the regent.
"We cannot allow the princess to be infected with such heretical ideas! Guards, take him away and throw him in the dungeon!" The steward shouted and gestured towards the guards.
The guards moved to grab the ambassador.
"No! Your highness, I speak the truth! I saw with my own eyes a line mage create fire by casting a water spell on a piece of alchemically prepared metallic rock!" He struggled as he was dragged away.
The princess made her decision and stood up.
"Stop! Guards, let him go!"
The Cardinal shrunk back in dismay, "Oh dear…" He whispered to himself. "We'll be excommunicated!"
The guards released the ambassador.
He quickly kneeled and thanked the princess.
"Ambassador, you are sure there was no trick involved? You really saw fire created from earth and water spells?"
"Yes, I also suspected deceit, but I was allowed to try casting a water spell of my own on the alchemically prepared rock! I am a double water line mage, your highness, and I could not put it out! The more water I used, the more fiercely it burned! I was nearly blinded by the sheer brightness of the white-hot fire!"
"The flames were white? But only quadruple fire Square-class mages can produce that fire that hot…" Henrietta observed.
"Exactly! There is no way that I, a double water Line mage, could possibly have cast a Square-class fire spell, even with trickery by the researcher, who was an Earth-Earth-Water Triangle mage!"
The hall was silent for a moment.
"Ambassador, why did the researcher show you such a powerful magic? A technique that can allow a line water mage to cast a Square class fire spell would be priceless. I cannot imagine any mage would carelessly reveal it to even friends, let alone a foreign mage," the princess said at last.
"Your highness, I swear on my honor as a noble that I have not lied. The reason they were willing to show it to me is because I cannot do anything with it after seeing it. The secret lies not in the spells cast while I was watching, but in the alchemically prepared rock, which was not made with simple Earth Transmutation, but the Muurlethian Alchemy that uses all four of the main magic elements! The full procedure is so arcane, complex, and incomprehensible that they believe it is simply impossible to replicate without being given the secret in exacting detail."
"In other words, you have no proof of what you claim to have seen," the same noble who shouted before said with a sneer.
Henrietta ignored the comment and addressed the ambassador. "Thank you Ambassador. You have given us much to think about. You may take your leave now."
When the ambassador left, the hall was left with a short silence before the nobles began to whisper and talk amongst themselves again.
Henrietta sat thinking for a time, until it seemed that she made a decision.
"Regent, I am tired. Please adjourn the court."
The Cardinal did as she asked and ordered the court to adjourn. The nobles filed out quickly, leaving the hall empty for but the princess and her regent.
"Cardinal Mazarin, I believe I will visit the Academy tomorrow. Are there any other plans already? If so, we will need to cancel them."
"But princess, are you really taking his words seriously? Even if it is true, it is too dangerous!" Cardinal Mazarin protested again, thinking that the princess wanted to discuss the new alchemy with the professors at the academy.
"No, I do wish to speak to Osmond about that, but I have a different purpose in mind. I should not have waited so long to do this…in the end, that man was right. By the way Cardinal, please inform the Germanian ambassador that we are withdrawing from the marriage negotiations."
"What? But if we do that, they will not be willing to provide any military assistance! If you offend the Church at the same time, we'll have to fight the war alone!"
The princess gave him a sad smile. "No, Regent, Tristain has always had to stand alone. Or have you forgotten that Germania is a heathen country too? The Germanian emperor has already made it clear that he is unwilling to change his faith for me. Were I to wed one of their princes, it would merely tie the fate of Tristain to a heathen land, and how is that any different from simply surrendering to Muurleth?"
"B-but we could at least get the support of Romalia! I was even elected as Pope before, although I turned it down, I still have many connections there! I'm sure I can convince them to quickly declare a crusade," Mazarin said. "Pope Vittorio is young but his faith is impeccable, and the fires of youth would only push him to act. He would not simply stand by and allow Tristain to fall. In all likelihood, he is already preparing to call a crusade, even if I do not ask."
"Perhaps, but to get to Tristain, Romalia would have to send their armies through Gallia. And would Gallia so readily agree to help, without any benefit, without concessions from Tristain? Shall I allow this kingdom to be taken piecemeal, only to protect the interests of a few powerful nobles?"
The Cardinal looked pained, but he did not relent. "I understand how difficult it must be, princess, but I cannot see any other solution. Tristain simply does not have the means to defend itself from the Albion forces, let alone a mage as powerful as Muurleth. Princess, I fear it would be a difficult war even if all the kingdoms of Brimir allied together. Even in the most catastrophic losses we suffered against the elves in all of history, the strongest of elves could match only a hundred mages, and that is probably exaggerated for storytelling. Yet, by all the reports from Albion, at Newcastle Muurleth faced an army of over three hundred elite mages, including eight square class mages, forty thousand commoner soldiers, ten thousand demi-human soldiers, and over fifty ships of the line! And he won without a scratch!"
Henrietta suddenly thought of her friend Louise, and the words of Kaleidus her teacher. If Louise was truly a void mage that had summoned Gandalfr, then could it be that the Founder had foreseen this and sent aid already? But her friend was hardly a match for a line mage, let alone Muurleth, and what she'd observed of the Gandalfr was not encouraging either. Still, it was maybe their best hope…unless Kaleidus himself was willing to help. If anyone could stand up to Muurleth, it would be a great hero like Kaleidus. But last she heard, he'd gone to Albion in the midst of the chaos and she could only pray that he was safe.
"You are probably right, Cardinal Mazarin. But hoping for someone else to save us is pointless. You can ask Romalia for help, but I will be making my own preparations for war," said Henrietta.
"Huh? But why go to the Academy then? Are you planning to use the Staff of Destruction?"
"Hahaha…" Henrietta laughed bitterly. "If only that were an option. Nobody knows how to use it, Regent. No, I go to the Academy because in dark times like these, I must ask everyone to fight…even the students at the Academy."
And if that meant becoming a tyrant that used her own friend as a weapon, then so be it. Why else would the Founder have given a schoolgirl the power of Void? There could be no clearer sign of the Founder's will than that.
The Cardinal looked shocked. "T-the students?"
Henrietta stood up and the regent felt a dangerous air as the princess' face turned hard.
"Yes…the future of Tristain is at stake! There can be no exceptions! Whether noble or commoner, every able-bodied citizen shall be called to fight for their home! We will fight until the last man, woman, or child standing, until the streets run thick with rivers of blood that our enemies will drown in it even as they kill us!"
The Cardinal felt chills running down his spine as he watched the princess march away. "Oh dear…"
Well now I say when we conquer her kingdom we will kill all nobles there no survivors unless it's the princess as she watches helplessly on the crying of worthless nobles for her help
- Location
- New York
There's nothing to be gained from conquest. Remember, the mcs main goal is to build a research and resource center. Conquest for the sake of conquest does not benefit his goal whatsoever.
- Location
- The Temple of the Winds
I find it amusing how they are all persuaded that Muurleth wants to go to war with them. Talk about being selfcentered... Why not the other, more impressive, kingdoms? Heck, why noone even suggests that they already have a lot to handle internally without getting involved more wars?
If anything they should be trying to push for some trade relationship as to lower the probability Muurleth will go to war with them, or at least push it back until after he has gone to war with the two neighboring countries first...
If anything they should be trying to push for some trade relationship as to lower the probability Muurleth will go to war with them, or at least push it back until after he has gone to war with the two neighboring countries first...
- Location
- canada
Ah, the young Princess has finally started to mature into a proper Queen. Excellent... I'd bet Karin would fully approve!
The best part is how well I can see this play out with in-character reasoning, since even in canon Henrietta already chose to use her friend as a weapon, even if it was out of desperation from a lack of options.
Still, without Albion to fight against currently I wonder which country will start the next war? Germania to sooth their bruised ego and pride? Romalia to declare holy crusade on Albion and maybe Tristain too? or will Gallia's new factors come into play and stir things up for the lulz?
The best part is how well I can see this play out with in-character reasoning, since even in canon Henrietta already chose to use her friend as a weapon, even if it was out of desperation from a lack of options.
Still, without Albion to fight against currently I wonder which country will start the next war? Germania to sooth their bruised ego and pride? Romalia to declare holy crusade on Albion and maybe Tristain too? or will Gallia's new factors come into play and stir things up for the lulz?
TwistedJester
Tired Lurker King
- Location
- Hell
I have to admit having group of living people capable of matter transmutation is a pretty amazing.
- Location
- Deep inside the sand
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Henrietta suddenly took mc's advice and set herself up against the new God King. Even more so when this God King decleration of peace to her country, her nobles couldn't see any other reason than war. I understand that the nobles seek for themself stability and their interest, but wouldn't their pieces of power crumble if Germanian were given their piece?
Cybandeath
Lord Darkness, and Representative of Mad Science
- Location
- The United States of America
in all likelyhood they would just be nobles of Germania instead now, while the princess gets fucked over if your talking about land transfers.
- Location
- New York
I can see an easy out for the Princess here. Using her position as a 'frontline' nation, she could offer to negotiate terms with the new Albion government. Then, do the same thing with Germania and the Papal States. In doing so, she could use her perceived weakness as a tool to garner support from abroad. After all, she wouldn't have to submit to Albions rule with the Papal states were to give her free ducets and Germania were to as well. Then do a under the tables deal with Albion, where she provides some of the resources gathered as a under the table tribute. Everyone wins!
- Location
- Earth
The royal family is the only one truly invested in the kingdom's future, the nobles can switch masters like clothing.
21 - A Real Magus
7 [X] Physical Water Manipulation (macroscopic)
6 [X] Physical Water Manipulation (microscopic)
6 [X] Physical Water Manipulation (microscopic)
21 – A Real Magus
What was magecraft?
Most magi in Nasuverse would define it as the "converting magical energy into a phenomenon—a Mystery—that abnormally transforms the external world".
But if you tried to find a definition of "Mystery", there was no commonly accepted answer, perhaps because it was a...mystery.
What exactly gave magecraft power? How does it convert the magical energy into Mystery? In normal science, physical laws could be observed, tested, replicated, and comprehended as a set of consistent principles.
With magecraft, although magi did apply scientific and logical methods to it, it simply didn't work in a perfectly logical manner even if it was usually consistent, and the reason for that was because of Mystery.
After all, it could hardly be considered "abnormal" if it did comply perfectly with science and logic.
If it is believed that the subject of Mystery "exists", or "could exist", then the World permits its existence. Even if it was not a definite belief, but merely the suspicion or inability to refute its non-existence, then it was something that could be a Mystery, and so long as science could not unravel the Mystery, then it would have power.
This was the paradoxical idea behind hypnotic "faith" allowing magical energy to transform the external world into "what it could be", while scientific "comprehension" turned the mysterious abnormality back into "what it should be".
The magus's art was to temporarily deceive themselves and the World around them. But where it was relatively easy to deceive oneself, and activate the magic circuits, it was not so easy to deceive the World.
Except under very rare circumstances, magi could not simply force the World to accept their belief as true. They were limited by the collective faith of all humanity, of animals, other lifeforms or even inanimate objects.
Therefore, it was necessary to draw on elaborate rituals, formulas, and rules. To build their magecraft on a Thaumaturgical Foundation, a magic system, which allowed the magus to distill the power of the infinite Root into specific finite phenomena which the World would permit, at least temporarily while it was confused.
Or that was what the magi of the Clocktower theorized.
In reality, many of these ideas could not be effectively tested and verified, but conveniently many magi believed these theories on how belief gave magecraft power. And there were magi from other Foundations that rejected it outright, such as the Yin-Yang theory of the universe.
Nevertheless, we still used a lot of these basic ideas when developing our own magecraft spells. I thought it was strange that any of our spells worked when we were in alternate realities in which those Thaumaturgical Foundations presumably didn't exist (because if they did, there would be magi using them…), but they did work somehow and I had no explanation for why that was so.
However, it quickly grew evident that a different approach would be needed to unlock the powers of the water stone, as Agate failed to make any significant progress.
And that was why I was submerged in a lake with Armoriont-grown gills, meditating while attempting to commune with the spirits inside the water stone.
I did so on a hunch that spirit magic in general, which this probably fell under, was more about immersing oneself in nature than to impose anything on it.
For the first few hours, nothing particularly interesting happened, except for the feeling of contentment that came from the spirits.
But eventually, as I simply let the spirits do whatever they wanted and tried to follow their will instead, we started to float around.
As I let the spirits take the lead, I was opened up to a much deeper connection.
I observed without seeing, without analyzing. Just moving with the water.
There was peace and serenity within the calm waters, yet power hidden in its depths.
Life was abundant and light gave it strength, some absorbed, some reflected, some refracted.
Earth and metal dissolved and diluted. The greatest poison was nothing when spread through an ocean of water.
I was drawn in to an incredibly vast network, a cycle of movement and of uncountable numbers of lifeforms.
From the lake, the currents slowly drifted and took me into flowing streams.
Water was formless, but it was shaped by the world around it, moving along the path of least resistance.
Great monuments of stone eroded over the eons, the hardest of rock unable to stand against the endless patience of water.
The spirits whispered to me all along the way, though I couldn't really understand them in any linguistic sense, I got feelings and impressions about what they wanted me to understand.
Days passed faster than I would have believed possible, like I was caught in a dream or a trance, far deeper than any meditative trance I had achieved before.
But at the end of it, I had understood a great deal more about water, the spirits, and nature as a whole.
And I also understood that I was to them an aberration to the natural order.
If Derflinger, an artificial spirit, could sense that I did not belong in this world, then what about actual nature spirits?
Although I was hesitant to ascribe any form of emotions to these entities, as I did not think they were conscious in the way that humans were, they certainly did not like me. And they didn't particularly want to help me.
They didn't like Agate either, the chaos wand I made from Louise's Void-element blood, or even the remnants of the ring of Andvari's silver band.
Perhaps the only reason they tolerated me was that I offered so much lifeforce energy to them and also destroyed the Ring of Andvari which had controlled them. Both of which they were greatly pleased about.
Although by immersing myself in the water cycle they had become a little more cooperative and allowed me to perform minor, dot level water manipulation, I had begun to think that perhaps I would need to get rid of these spirits eventually. Just because they cooperated with me now didn't mean that they wouldn't suddenly rebel if a Greater Spirit or some other more intelligent nature spirit convinced them to do so.
And given that they were nature spirits, I assumed that they were attached to this reality and empowered by the World. What would happen once I left it?
All of a sudden, I felt rather eager to leave. Once they were forcefully disconnected from this World, perhaps they would be more conducive to submitting to my will…or die so I could freely use the ocean of mana within, I thought while chuckling darkly.
Better to have the stone as a mere elemental energy source than to be reliant on uncontrollable entities that only assisted me under nebulously defined contracts. Unlike the Geas spells that I cast, there were no clear contract terms and I had no idea really what my contract spell did besides forming a mana connection with these spirits.
For a while, I contemplated whether to remove the water stone from my body. But in the end, I left it be as there wasn't anything stopping the spirits from attacking me from a distance, as Cromwell had demonstrated, nor did I have any means of sealing their power. I wasn't about to stop carrying it completely, so it would make no practical difference in protecting myself whether it was outside my body or not, and I might as well reap as much benefit as I could from it.
O O O
Deep underneath Londinium Castle, my new secret workshop had been constructed with the assistance of mages whose memories were erased with Tiffania's Void magic.
I didn't plan to keep anything particularly valuable here, but nevertheless I also had the mages apply some defensive and anti-scrying enchantments, which were similar to the ones used at the Academy Vault.
The important part was to keep the nature of the experiments a secret, which is why I told Tiffania to erase these mages' memories after they constructed the workshop for me.
As I discovered when I made a wand using Louise' blood, the ritual that created the nobles' wands converted their blood and other reagents into what were essentially artificial external magic circuits.
After conquering Albion, I acquired the secrets to the nobles' wand creation process, so I didn't have to deal with the risk of using the Chaos energy from agatespace.
Compared to natural magic circuits or even the nerve circuit I made with Shirou Emiya's method, these wand-circuits were far more limited.
A true magic circuit was simultaneously an interface which allowed the soul to control and absorb magical energies, an pathway to the soul through which Od could be drawn, a reactor that processed the raw energies of Od or mana into the activated form of magic energy, an amplifier of the energy's mystic potential, and a reserve of energy inside the body.
These external circuits were neither interfaces nor pathways to the soul. A circuitless person couldn't command any magic with a wand because they needed some other way to control magic energy and direct it into the wand.
But they were reactors, amplifiers and reserves. They could mix raw Od or mana into magic energy, and they were foci that helped mages amplify the mystic potential of magic energy. They were also made with blood, which can retain magical energy.
In the form of wands or staves, these external circuits were of limited practical use.
There was no need for it to act as a reactor because the spiritual magic circuits already processed all the collected raw Od or mana into magic energy, and the bottleneck was at the prior step, of absorbing the raw Od and mana. It didn't matter how fast you could process if you couldn't collect enough raw input.
It was slightly useful as an amplifier when the spiritual circuits were of low quality, which was the case for my artificial circuit—if I didn't have Agate.
As a reserve of energy, because it was dead and old blood outside the body, the energy still quickly evaporated, even faster than storing in vials of blood, as some early experiments showed.
But how would this change if instead of remaining external, I implanted them back into the body and connected them to spiritual circuits along with a living circulatory system?
Although magi counted the "number" of magic circuits a soul had, in reality they weren't discrete singular pipes. Just as a soul didn't have a definite physical shape, neither did spiritual magic circuits. Instead, they were spread all over the body and could interface with any part of it.
However, I knew that Shirou's method of creating circuits did involve cannibalizing the physical nerves so there was a specific physical manifestation of a part of the spiritual circuits when they were channeling—a part that the wand-circuits could be physically connected to.
In the most extreme case, it should be possible to substitute implanted wand blood circuits for the nerves in that method, but I didn't want to risk any soul damage so I wasn't going to connect them directly to my soul.
First I crafted wands using alternative biological materials and organs the Armoriont could produce to see what effects there were, whether the wood could be substituted for other things and reshaped into forms other than being rigid straight sticks. Thinner, smaller, and more flexible was the goal.
It didn't take long until I found a way to integrate it directly into the Armoriont. It took much longer to figure out how exactly to connect it to my own artificial magic circuit without me consciously directing magic energy into it—this was accomplished by lining the "wand" organ with newly grown special nerves connected to the nerves that I used for my artificial circuit.
Once the initial hypothesis was proven, many exciting possibilities opened up to me. Implanting multiple such circuits, accessing multiple affinities, enhancing their quality…
After two weeks and numerous quietly disappeared prisoners, I took a major step in my development as a magus.
I got top quality blood from Square class mages from both volunteers and prisoners under the guise of religious offerings and squeezed in 30 circuits with all four classical elemental affinities into my body.
They were all around B rank in mystic amplification quality and capacity, mostly branching along the spine where my artificial spiritual circuit was based.
I also implanted another 3 each using Louise's and Tiffania's blood with their affinity to Void. Whether or not that Void affinity was anything like "Ether" or useful for my magecraft system remained to be seen, but at the least their blood made A rank quality circuits.
That made for a total of 36 blood-based physical circuits, and one artificial nerve-based spiritual circuit.
What did that mean?
A magus' magic circuits' total output could be broken down into the following main properties:
Absorption rate: The rate at which the circuits can generate raw Od from the soul, from converting food/biological energy, or absorb raw mana from the environment to be stored as Od. The rate of absorption from the soul is generally stable, whereas the rate of raw mana absorption depends on the richness of mana in the environment.
Reaction efficiency (or Amplification): The ratio of magic energy produced from each unit of raw input
Reserve Capacity: How much Od can be stored at equilibrium, where the net natural diffusion rate is zero or negligible. Natural diffusion refers to the natural movement of mana from a higher concentration region to a lower one, and does not include the active absorption of mana from the environment by circuits in operation.
Retention: How well the circuits retained magic energy instead of allowing it to diffuse. A higher retention means the energy evaporates slower at all concentration levels.
Channeling Capacity: How much magic energy can be channeled at one time. The channeling capacity was generally much higher than reserve capacity—if a magus had access to alternative sources of magic energy, this was the limit on how much they could channel at any given time. For example, if a spell cost more than their channeling capacity just to activate, then they couldn't cast it even if they were being transferred energy from an energy bond. It was also possible to go over the limit at the cost of damage to the circuits.
There is no reaction rate because as far as magi knew, the reaction happened essentially instantaneously and simultaneously with the absorption of Od or mana.
The part where this system of measurement broke down was that energy could only be defined in relation to the work it could perform. But Od and mana did not perform any work, it was refined magic energy that was used to fuel spells.
Therefore, to calculate Od or mana levels, it was necessary to work backwards from a resulting spell effect, estimating the magic energy used, and figuring out the reaction efficiency.
The problem was that the quantity of magic energy used didn't directly correspond to spell potency. That was dependent on a large amount of unmeasurable factors such as skill, affinity, origin, traits, regression to the age of gods, mystery, time of day, the alignment of the stars, the complexity of the incantation/ritual, history of use, other magi knowing the same spell, collective beliefs and legends, degree of self-hypnotism, etc.
In the end, we could come up with numerical estimates, but they were more guesswork and bullshit than rigorous scientific findings, and why magi tended to assign broad Ranks to an entire person instead of precise numbers on each circuit.
So instead of trying to calculate the absorption rates or reserve capacities in terms of Od, it was easier to express them in terms of the resulting output magic energy, especially when comparing circuits. For example, instead of saying the capacity is 1 Od, converting at reaction efficiency of 1, to produce 1 magic energy, we can just say 1 magic energy worth of Od at whatever reaction efficiency.
Moreover, Od and mana themselves weren't fundamentally different either, it was just a convention to describe mana inside the body or outside.
Therefore, to simplify things, I will henceforth just use "mana" or "MP" to refer to any of Od, raw environmental mana, or magic energy, the way most non-Nasuverse works do, except when it's necessary to make the distinction.
Having said that, by Agate's estimates, an average magus had:
20 spiritual circuits
Absorption rate: 25 MP/day
Reserve capacity: 25 MP
Because MP would evaporate faster when gathered in higher concentrations, an absorption rate of 25 MP/day didn't necessarily mean the magus would fully recover in one day. How quickly they actually recovered also depended on the circuits' retention property, and the concentration of mana in the environment. But to simplify things, we can assume that for an average magus, it did take approximately one day to recover in a low-mana environment such as the modern Earth of Nasuverse.
With my new circuits, my own values had improved as follows:
1 spiritual circuit 🡪 1 spiritual circuit + 36 physical circuits
Absorption rate: 1 MP 🡪 no change
Reserve capacity: 1MP 🡪 320 MP
Based on this, it would take almost a year to refill my capacity on my own.
Fortunately, Agate could help me refill, and she had an absorption rate of 600/day, of which almost 400-500 went into maintaining core functions depending on how active she was, and reserve capacity of 1000. So she could refill her own reserves in around 10 days and mine in 3.
That put our combined maximum output without resting at 1,320 which was better than an elite magus from an old family, even though we recover a hell of lot slower.
Derflinger could also absorb mana too, but the way he did it was different and he couldn't give back the energy in a form that we could use for spells.
Nevertheless, I could now cast the omni-directional flight spell that Agate used to move, without her help so long as I had the reserves stored up, making wind stones and the Armoriont wings technically optional accessories for speed, energy efficiency, and lengthier flight time, rather than a strict necessity.
Moreover, even if Agate couldn't help me fill my reserves, my own recovery rate wasn't actually 1 MP/day.
It was possible for magi to consume their own lifeforce for more MP under dire circumstances. As long as they didn't overdo it, they could recover by eating food and resting well. The speed at which lifeforce could be converted to Od was extremely high, which made this a feasible technique to use in battle.
Due to the drawback of lifeforce itself recovering much slower than the typical absorption rate, and causing various physical vulnerabilities during the recovery phase, including potentially lethal side effects when overtaxed, most human magi considered this a last resort technique.
When comparing the energy from the soul to the lifeforce of the body, it was obvious that the former was superior. Magi with many high quality circuits possessed orders of magnitude more MP than magi who were merely physically superior, and magi families therefore emphasized breeding for circuits rather than physical genes or intensive athletic training.
To reach a level where the biological lifeforce was a significant and viable regular source of MP, the magus' body had to surpass the limits of human biology.
And that was something that I had achieved thanks to Panacea's enhancements from Worm and the Armoriont.
My digestive system could work extremely fast, allowing me to consume many times more food than a normal person if I wanted to, and the Armoriont could do it even faster, even using photosynthesis and eating normally indigestible materials.
Therefore, by feeding the Armoriont a large amount of biomass, assuming I didn't need any of it to heal wounds, I could refill some MP. At the maximum digestion rate, I could refill about 5 MP per hour. Still pretty slow, but much better than a normal human that would take several days to recover after draining their lifeforce for the same amount.
I could also just split a second Armoriont to feed on biomass when I was busy doing other things, and come back to drain energy from it.
Not bad for a month's work.
'Hurray! You're a real magus now!' Agate thought while sending mental fireworks, when I was done trying out my new capabilities.
Sadly, simply having these new affinities and higher MP levels did not mean that I had all sorts of new spells to use. Without being able to cast magic the Halkegenian noble way, and without magecraft spells to learn, it would take a very long time to independently recreate the relevant mysteries.
This was even harder than the spells we developed using the wind stone, or the expected uses of the water stone. For the wind stone, the Breeze and Flight spells only piggy-backed off of the natural float effect the stones provided—I couldn't cast them without the stones yet even if I had the wind affinity. For the water stone, it would be the spirits doing most of the work, not me.
But that was okay, the road to phenomenal cosmic power could only be taken one step at a time. Compared to the magi who bred circuits and researched for hundreds of years to advance their mysteries, I had to admit that my own progress seemed astonishing already.
So absorbed into my magical research, I would have been happy to stay holed up in my workshop for several more months, if not for an unpleasant surprise.
'I can't store any more Primordial Grain! I don't know what's wrong, it keeps disappearing whenever I get more.'
She first notified me of this problem a couple of weeks prior when we had 8 trips' worth, so the past two weeks had accumulated nothing. As I was in the middle of critical research, I ignored it, but once I was done with my implants, I had to contemplate the implications.
Agate had little understanding of Primordial Grain besides being able to use it to create the tunnel through Kaleidoscape, and she didn't know what materials, spells, or structures she herself was made of that allowed her to store it in the first place. This was essentially an unsolvable problem until we could find Zelretch, her creator.
Now, I actually wasn't particularly eager to meet Zelretch again—who knew if he would approve of what I'd been up to, what sorts of entertainment he would force on me, or if that Planeswalker was hanging around his trail—so I'd have be content with being unable to store more than 8 planar trips.
That in return meant that staying in this plane much longer without accumulating Primordial Grain felt like a bit of a waste, and I decided to make preparations for the next planeshift.
O O O
When I finally returned to the Londinium surface, I found the kingdom still running smoothly without any new major problems or revolts, and nobody had declared war on us yet.
That was a relief, but also a bit unsettling. A little over a month had passed since I'd taken over the kingdom, and while my rule was growing more secure, it felt almost too quiet.
As far as our ambassadors' reports went, it seemed that all of the other kingdoms declined to officially recognize the new government, but did not reject diplomats either.
There was an unfortunate lack of good intelligence agents abroad working for Albion, and I lacked the skills to build an efficient spy network, so there was little I could do to find out their true intentions, short of sending Agate out for what could be days or weeks at time, which I was unwilling to do.
Were they waiting on the sidelines, watching, or were there already plans against me underway that I simply couldn't see?
On the other hand, I had to admit that perhaps it was me that had a distorted sense of urgency, as a result of the almost non-stop action I experienced in Worm. But actually, didn't politics and wars normally develop over a much longer time scale?
I consulted the history records Offensive Bias had downloaded on Earth Bet, and found that historical crusades on Earth had taken many months to organize, and often did not begin until at least a year after the initial calls for crusade.
As far as I could remember, the alliance against Albion was organized much quicker than that in the canon, but admittedly that was during an active war after Albion invaded Tristain first. So long as I did not take any aggressive moves, though it might have been wishful thinking, it seemed plausible that it would take a lot longer for the Brimiric nations to deal with me.
After giving Tiffania some final instructions, I set forth for Tristain.
O O O
"Oh, Sir Axion! You have no idea how glad I am to see you, alive and well! After hearing of the events in Albion, I had feared the worst!" Old Osmond exclaimed upon my entrance to his office and ushered me into a seat.
"It is good to see you as well, Headmaster Osmond. Unfortunately, you were right to be fearful. I am alive yes, but most certainly not well," I said in response.
"Oh my, what ails you, Sir Axion? And do you know of Miss Longueville's whereabouts? She should have returned weeks ago, but I've heard nothing at all from her. I don't know how I ever managed without her skills, I am in desperate need of a good secretary again!" He said while gesturing to the massive piles of disorganized paperwork lying around his desk and even the shelves and floor.
"I'm afraid that Miss Longueville has passed away. It was my failure," I said gravely.
Osmond had a look of shock on him. "How did it happen?"
"It began on our way to Albion, where she confided in me the true reason for her visit and asked for my help in rescuing a friend from the chaos of the civil war. I could not in good conscience refuse her heartfelt plea, so I agreed to assist. We traveled to a secluded village in the woods, near the city of Saxe-Gotha. There, we met her friend, a kind young woman no older than the students here. She had been taking care of a number of orphaned children all by herself in that village. The most striking part was that she was a half-elf by the name of Tiffania."
"A half-elf?! Tiffania? It couldn't be…!" Osmond exclaimed in recognition.
"That's right. I didn't discover the significance of her identity until later, but it was indeed Tiffania Tudor, daughter of the late King Henry. Or so we thought…and Miss Longueville paid the price for our mistake."
"What do you mean?" Osmond leaned forward attentively.
"While her guard was down, believing that the girl was her dear friend, the girl struck her with a dagger. It was then that we discovered the terrible truth. It was not her friend at all, but an imposter, some sort of animated puppet that took her shape, to be specific. Then the children transformed into armed men and attacked as well, for they too were nothing more than animated puppets that reverted to their true form as dolls when defeated. I was able to dispatch them, but Miss Longueville succumbed to her wounds, as I had no healing magics capable of saving her."
At that moment, I reached into the satchel on my utility belt to take out one of the dolls I had collected from the aftermath of the battle and put it on the desk between us.
Osmond examined it with a deep frown before putting it down. "This is most troubling. I will certainly research this further. Were you able to get any clues as to who controlled these alviss?"
"I have a suspicion, but I cannot be sure. There were no mages nearby that I could find within miles. However, the doll did say that it was with Reconquista, and that they had won the civil war. I had heard rumours of Cromwell possessing Void magic, so my first thought was Myozunitonirun. What do you think? Could this magic have been done by an ordinary noble?"
Osmond brushed his beard in contemplation. "Well, alviss are a common magic, and we use them plenty here in the Academy. There are also magics for taking on the appearance of somebody else. However, I don't know of any spell that could create such intelligent alviss that one would mistake it for a real person, and certainly nothing that could operate independently, and at what seems to be an extraordinary range too. But Myozunitonirun…that too is hard to believe…but perhaps…hmm…"
The headmaster seemed to get lost in thought. Did he already know about Saito being Gandalfr? He should have had at least some inkling of it, if Colbert had researched the runes already.
"In any case, I decided to fulfill Miss Longueville's final request on my own, and set off to investigate where the real Tiffania had been taken, or to at least confirm if she still lived," I said.
"Since you are only bringing this news now, I assume there must have been complications, given that the princess soon appeared in public? Did you make contact with her?"
"Complications indeed," I said with a bitter laugh. "I immediately flew to Newcastle where I had heard Cromwell was laying siege, and I came across an active battle. While both sides were distracted, I took the chance to investigate the Lexington. Unfortunately, I had not managed to discover anything of worth by the time that spell hit."
"The Lexington? But that was…" Osmond said with wide eyes that ran up and down my form. "You mean to say that you were caught in Muurleth's monstrous spell?"
"Yes. That is the reason I could not return sooner. You are aware of what they call the Curse of Doom, yes? I could not risk returning before I was sure that I had removed the curse from my body, lest it spread."
Osmond, still in shock, said, "I did not think anybody could survive that spell. That is simply incredible."
"Perhaps," I chuckled dryly. "However, I was forced to use desperate measures to survive, and severely weakened because of it. Even now, I have only physically recovered, but it will take much longer for my magic to return to what it was. As for the princess, I did not make contact with her. I did observe her situation for a short time, and it appears that she is not being held against her will at least. Seeing as she does not know me, and I have no particular proof of my association with Miss Longueville, I decided to leave her be. She is, after all, still a half-elf, and I know not where else she would be safe. As despicable as the new administration may be, she does appear to have been assigned adequate protection."
The old man nodded tiredly. "And perhaps that is best, Sir Axion. Even in Tristain, she would not find it welcoming with the features of an elf, I am sad to say. What do you plan to do now, Sir Axion? Will you be staying at the Academy again? A month has passed already, but I'm sure the Crown will allow an extension of your stay here."
"Your offer is appreciated, but I intend to go into seclusion again to recover, after visiting Louise and Saito."
"Very well. I wish you the best, Sir Axion."
O O O
"Sir Axion is so amazing!" Louise exclaimed with stars in her eyes as I gave her and Saito a similar recounting of events while gathered in her dorm room.
"It is nothing to be proud of, Louise. In the end, I couldn't protect Miss Longueville, and accomplished little to speak of."
"But you still defeated all those alviss! Anybody else would have surely fallen!" Louise insisted.
"Never mind that. How are your studies?"
At that, she deflated with a downcast expression. "I've gotten a little better with the new explosion spells, but I still can't cast any other spells. I couldn't figure anything out with the Prayer Book either. It's just blank!"
"Don't worry too much about it. Perhaps there is some sort of key we are missing to unlock its secret," I said. Although I had an idea that it may be related to the Founder's rings, I chose not to disclose it. There wasn't any good opportunity to persuade Henrietta to part with her own yet, and I figured she wouldn't be willing to hand over yet another artifact of the Founder unless Louise had some meaningful achievements she could reward. Plus, with Tiffania now under my influence and my possession of the Music Box, it might be preferable to set up Tiffania with a ring instead of Louise. But that was something to consider later.
"How about you, Saito? Getting used to life here?"
"I guess. There isn't much to do around here though," he said with a shrug. "But I can live with that."
"Better to have nothing to do than to have enemies at your doorstep," I said.
"Enemies huh? That reminds me, can I talk to you alone for a moment?" Saito asked with an uncharacteristically serious face. He had been quiet for most of the conversation too.
"Eh? Why?" Louise looked bewildered, and a little annoyed. "I'm your master, why don't you want me to hear?"
"Just some things that only people from other worlds can understand," Saito said.
"Sorry, Louise, if Saito wants to speak alone, I'll speak to him alone," I said.
"Grrr…fine! I'll go for a walk then!" She stepped out quickly, clearly unhappy.
"So, what is it?"
"That guy that took over Albion…Muurleth. Do you think he's like us too? From another world?" Saito asked.
"What makes you think that?"
"I heard some of the teachers talk about some kind of new heretical alchemy he created that has a hundred and eighteen elements."
"Ah…yes, so you noticed that."
"And that spell too, we went into town last week and saw a drawing of it in a newspaper. Of the mushroom cloud it made, I mean. That looked like a nuclear bomb."
"I can't deny that. The short answer is, yes, you're right. Muurleth is from another world. In fact, I know him."
"You do?!" Saito's eyes widened. "He's from the same world as you?"
"Well, not exactly. It's a little more complicated than that. Remember how I said I wanted to research the dimensional magic that could take you back home, but that I didn't care for using it myself to go anywhere?"
"Yeah."
"Have you stopped to think about why I'm not in a hurry to go back home like you are?"
"Huh? Now that you mention it…"
"It's quite simple really. As I told Louise already, I'm fully capable of traveling to other worlds on my own, albeit at a great cost."
"What?! Seriously? Then you can…! Why didn't you tell me before?!" Saito looked at once both hopeful, and also outraged.
"Hold your horses. I said that I'm capable of traveling to other worlds, not that I can bring anyone else. I can't take anyone with me. Besides, even if I could, I have no way to travel to your specific world, if I haven't gone there before."
"Oh…"
"I'm bringing this up now because like me, Muurleth can also travel to other worlds on his own power, though I don't know how he does it. We've fought several times in the past when we were in the same world. I didn't think it was possible for him to follow me though. I still don't know if he really did follow me here, if he got summoned just like us, or if it's just a big cosmic coincidence. But what I can tell you is that he definitely knows science as much as you or me, and it's entirely possible that he brought nukes. But I would advise that you keep this to yourself and pretend you don't know anything about Muurleth…for obvious reasons."
"Right, of course I don't want to be branded a heretic or spy. Damn, that's crazy. He actually has nukes, what the hell! Do you think he'll attack Tristain? Are we in danger here?"
"I can't say with any certainty that I can predict a madman like him, but from what I do know, Muurleth isn't interested in anything like world domination, wealth, or more territory. He genuinely believes himself to be a god already, and is satisfied to play at that role. It is rare that he ever acts in person or in the open. Now that he has followers in this world, I doubt he'll feel the need to demonstrate his power again anytime soon. He might even leave once he gets bored."
"That's a relief then. Say, would you be able to win against him in a fair fight?"
"There's no such thing as a fair fight, Saito. But to answer your question, I really don't know. None of our previous fights ever ended with a clear victor, though I have to admit he is probably stronger than me."
"He's really that strong then? Even without technology backing him up?" Saito asked with a deep frown.
"Does it matter whether he's using technology or magic? Either way, it's his power."
"But if it's just technology, then we could use it too if we got our hands on it, right? Especially with my Gandalfr power."
"You're not wrong, but the more advanced the technology, the more likely it is to have protection, such as passwords and biometrics. I don't think your power lets you bypass those."
"Oh, I didn't think of that."
"Anyway, you're better off staying far away from him, and thinking about more useful things."
"I guess you're right."
After that, we went back to Louise and I informed them that I'd be going into seclusion to recover for an indeterminate amount of time, just as I told Osmond.
I told Louise to keep working on her elementally modified explosion spells and to not waste too much time with the Prayer Book, and told Saito to keep himself in shape.
Finally, I flew up to rendezvous with the AAPV orbiting above Albion. As I was not personally capable of flying that high, the AAPV had to come down to the lower atmosphere to meet me.
I left the Music Box with the AAPV as it was not useful to carry around to other planes, but neither did I want to leave it around to be stolen if Tiffania couldn't make use of it yet.
The AAPV itself would be left here to support Tiffania in the event of war or other trouble, and the copy of Offensive Bias onboard would go into hibernation until it was contacted.
My affairs settled in this plane, I held Agate in my hand as we cast the spell to shift planes.
'ARMP engaged. User Travel initializing. Destination selected: Worm-M2 Dark Side Moon Base Periphery. 30 seconds required to construct pathway. Please hold.'
Time to see what was going on with the CRUCIBLE team, and if Amelia had any upgrades for me.
O O O
[Agate]
Reporting in on our training with the Water Stone!
Physical Water Manipulation (macroscopic) mastery has progressed greatly.
Physical Water Manipulation (microscopic) mastery has progressed significantly.
Finally! We can do some parlour tricks with water. We can dry clothes, extract water from vapour, or move water around into different shapes. And we've also gotten pretty good at detecting large bodies of water from a distance, but that's not really a skill, it's just the spirits tugging us to places they want to go.
O O O
A/N: I'm bored with ZnT so we're moving on. Short detour to Worm before the next world. The decision on that hasn't been made yet so I'm open to suggestions, though I am leaning towards a world that has relatively bigger fish than ZnT.
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- Location
- New York
My recommendations:
1. The Elder Scrolls: Nice and vanilla. Options to learning Skyrim magic, other forms of dimensional travel/summoning, and the capacity to harvest souls for energy. Big bads include Deadric Princes, being attacked by the Dark Brotherhood, and quite a few end of the world scenarios. Unfortunately, its kinda overdone at this point, so it might not be your cup of tea.
2. Fallout: Lots of Science, little to no magic. If the MC is interested in getting a science facility set up then this would be your go to place for engineering/reverse engineering technology. Useful technologies include biotics (wetware), laser/plasma technology, teleportation technology, Pip Boy (a full medical diagnosis right on your arm), forcefields, and other exotic technologies (alien mothership Zeta, and the crazy elderitch shit everywhere). Threats would involve the dangerous wildlife and locals (a fatman to the face would kill the mc no?) and stumbling onto dangerous terrain (fallout, mold men, elederitch horror shit). The problem would be that said threats aren't as "strong" as other universes, as they lack either the strength to do so or the will.
3. Castlevania: Lots of Magic bullshit, I'm talking a glass mirror that could act as a teleporter, forgemasters and their biomancy/necromancy, Shapers and their elemental magics, portals to different realities (fking Xmen in one of them) RESSURECTING PEOPLE FROM HELL. Oh and the threats of course are also quite high. Forgemasters can insta gib you, Dracula can instagib you, Death can insta gib you, and all the other native threats in that world.
4. Danmachi: Okay hear me out hear, this verse as one single loot that makes everything worthwhile; Divinity. Whatever that universes Gods ARE, if you could research it.... well, that would be it wouldn't it? Unfortunately, the gods there could one and all kill you if you overstep your bounds. Still kinda easy, provided you don't get spotted early on.
1. The Elder Scrolls: Nice and vanilla. Options to learning Skyrim magic, other forms of dimensional travel/summoning, and the capacity to harvest souls for energy. Big bads include Deadric Princes, being attacked by the Dark Brotherhood, and quite a few end of the world scenarios. Unfortunately, its kinda overdone at this point, so it might not be your cup of tea.
2. Fallout: Lots of Science, little to no magic. If the MC is interested in getting a science facility set up then this would be your go to place for engineering/reverse engineering technology. Useful technologies include biotics (wetware), laser/plasma technology, teleportation technology, Pip Boy (a full medical diagnosis right on your arm), forcefields, and other exotic technologies (alien mothership Zeta, and the crazy elderitch shit everywhere). Threats would involve the dangerous wildlife and locals (a fatman to the face would kill the mc no?) and stumbling onto dangerous terrain (fallout, mold men, elederitch horror shit). The problem would be that said threats aren't as "strong" as other universes, as they lack either the strength to do so or the will.
3. Castlevania: Lots of Magic bullshit, I'm talking a glass mirror that could act as a teleporter, forgemasters and their biomancy/necromancy, Shapers and their elemental magics, portals to different realities (fking Xmen in one of them) RESSURECTING PEOPLE FROM HELL. Oh and the threats of course are also quite high. Forgemasters can insta gib you, Dracula can instagib you, Death can insta gib you, and all the other native threats in that world.
4. Danmachi: Okay hear me out hear, this verse as one single loot that makes everything worthwhile; Divinity. Whatever that universes Gods ARE, if you could research it.... well, that would be it wouldn't it? Unfortunately, the gods there could one and all kill you if you overstep your bounds. Still kinda easy, provided you don't get spotted early on.
- Location
- canada
New worlds huh? depends on what type you're looking for I suppose. From more Magical to Sci-fi, or a mix of something in between, or somewhere with neither?
Given the kind of story this has been, I wouldn't put comedies like Konosuba on the table. Thus my recommendation would be plot-heavy stuff like Halo, Mass-Effect, Muv-Luv, FS/N, Danmachi and Skyrim in order from Sci-fi to Magic type of worlds.
In the end though it's probably best to simply write what settings you know the most about.
Given the kind of story this has been, I wouldn't put comedies like Konosuba on the table. Thus my recommendation would be plot-heavy stuff like Halo, Mass-Effect, Muv-Luv, FS/N, Danmachi and Skyrim in order from Sci-fi to Magic type of worlds.
In the end though it's probably best to simply write what settings you know the most about.
I'd probably stay away from overly advanced sci-fi or pure sci-fi worlds. Part of it is personal preference, and part of it is the sheer size/scale of the settings with interstellar civilizations which make individuals less relevant and MC has little reason to engage with the plotline as opposed to trying to set up businesses or something like that.
One of the things I kinda want to see at some point in the story (not necessarily next world) is a perversion of the comedy genre world or other light/fuzzy kind of setting where MC's presence suddenly makes everything a lot darker for the native characters.