Arc 3: No, I'm not Sailor Moon.
- Location
- Here
They say the moon is a curse.
Artificial and malicious, a construct formed with the dying fear and rage and vengeance of a long lost Sorceress, oh so long ago. A child with uncontrolled power hated and feared by family and friends, a little girl lost to unfair actions.
A feat of magic in the sky. One that consumed the tears of the hurt and maltreated children of the planet below, and that formed monsters of karma on its distant surface.
They say the moon was the kingdom of titans.
Beasts and creatures that radiated magic, that were fueled not by hunger or greed, but raw anger. So angry they couldn't focus enough to kill each other, so angry that they gathered to burn even brighter together.
They say the moon could cry.
That the tears of vengeance would smite the planet again, as the monsters of karma grew too angry, too gathered to stay tethered by gravity or reality or logic… And they would smite the land far away, on that morally corrupt planet.
That with a Lunar Cry, continents would be smashed with a flesh beam of concentrated anger and beast and bone. Those survivors would be hunted by the long forgotten hopes and dreams of the children and innocents struck down on this mortal world, now given teeth and claws and horns.
They say that the moon grew thick with rage, and blood and bones.
That after some time passed, a future Sorceress attempted to enhance this crisis. She wished to twist the crying moon into a death snarl, and bring an end to all and a death to everyone including herself.
Sacrificing her lonely future and her tortured past to strengthen the curse of the moon, to sharpen the edge of a feeble strike unknowingly given after a lost child cried alone, again, oh so long ago.
To give the unending swarm of hungry death stronger power, thicker skin, twisted muscle, and heavily dense and unbending bones.
They say that this is where things went wrong.
Born from pain and hurt and death, the Bone Sorceress looked upon the crying moon.
And she ḥ̭͚̥u̜n̲̼g͇̹̪̦e͖̳͎̜r͕̠e̖̥̩͍̹̟d͉̟͍̰̩.
Silver hair and eyes, with silver magic glowing over her perfect skin, she flew with wings of bone to the heavens to [[H̪̜̱̮̻͉a͉̦̭͈̼̻r̫̮v͇e͓̦̜͓s̫̪̳͙̩t̲̰͔]] such an unending bounty.
Each wing forged of unconnected bones, each fragment a ghost carved from Space itself, both here and there and nowhere. Her ghost wings of space clawed to the heavens, to consume the bounty on the moon.
A body that was more a silver network of boundaries that drew the edges of a contained universe, her flesh acted more as a portal to her true self than it did a weakness. She wore bones of S͎̦͓̰̣͖̣p̠͎a̰̬̖͍c̺͎e͈ as armor and held a spike of rage in her fist.
They say the Moon no longer cries. That a Lunar Kingdom was built from the bones of karma, coated in the metal forged from S͠͠p̡̀͜͝à̸̢͟ç͟͢͞ę̛́͢, and that on a throne built from her feasting waited the Bone Sorceress for some future meal.
They say to keep the children safe, to protect the innocent.
They say to feed the weak and protect the hungry.
For the tears they shed may rouse her h̹͈͎̦̦̺͍u͓n͍̥̻̘̫̰ge̞r͉̣ once more.
Some say these legends are false, that they are tales to keep children quiet after long and hard days of labor.
But I was here when the Galbadian Army invaded our beloved Timber years ago. When they took our town and our people fought and failed and died. When our innocents and our children cried.
I remember when the moon bled, the colors began to vanish, and the Silver Kingdom began to grow.
I remember Galbadian going quiet. Of the Second Sorceress War suddenly slowing, of Sorceress Adel nearly abandoning our town and the war front, and her frantic reinforcement of her own capital of Esthar.
Look child, to the moon hung with the stars.
See the Silver City, as the Lunar Kingdom grows ever more and the once blood red armies of endless rage now fall to unseen h̭̱͍͕u̲̱͈͈͖̺n̤̗̥͇̹̪g̬̣̤̲ͅe̱͈r͚̭̥̞. As the orb grows more silver patterns of danger.
They say that the forests of Timber sure have changed. That our history is gone, that our land is lost, that our children should cry and tears should fall.
But the Owls are still around. And we silently feed the weak and protect the hungry. Even if pointless, even if others should have said these things long before. The soldiers that still defy fate stand in our forest, in our woods, in false bravado and in displays of power over us...
But they are standing silent as well. As they should.
For it may be too late. She may h̺u̼̭̖̤͔̪ṇ͉͔̳͉g̻̩͖̲e̬̣̫̩̪̯̫r̝̰͇̙͚ once more.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah snapped awake when her existence finished enhancement by S̺̰̟̏̿̏p̈̐ͮa͇cͫ̐ͯe̱̤ͪ͑̉͛.
It was instant, it was a shock, and yet her mind was lost to the changes.
A glance at her interface showed that Adam had already hidden her inventory screen. Why bother? She now knew the position and status of every item stored away in the Warehouse and her 'hammer space' perfectly, as well as the best settings such as air pressure, temperature, humidity levels, gravimetric force enhancement states, and so forth.
More than that, she no longer teleported. Or 'Stepped'. Or needed to make portals.
She could, easily, for basically no cost. At almost any range within one dimension, and with only trivial effort between two she knew of in the same Jump.
But now?
Now she knew why Space and Time were so closely linked.
She couldn't freeze Time. Or reverse it. Or accelerate it.
But she COULD do something similar or close to it with Space. In a way.
A moment and she was in the Warehouse. And beside the bed. And in the throne room. And the table she and Shiva sat at last night, even as the woman was eating a fairly wonderful looking breakfast. And outside. And in the air.
She was able to be in one place and many at the same time. To choose at any moment which was her, which was only an illusion, and which was nothing but her abilities sensing the location. To be visible or not, interacting with reality or observing it. To stretch reality or compress it.
It was almost too much.
A thought had a dozen of herself standing outside, all aiming the same gun even as she was physically in many places, all pointing at the distance roars of many beasts.
Sure, as the only person there, they all had to act the same way. They weren't independent, for they weren't they. They were only a single here, but in more than one spot at this same time.
But it was trivial now to have a single bullet hit the same target from a thousand angles.
Nearly impossible to block, because even as the damage occurs the object causing it was also on the other side of your shield and body too. If you deflected it, you had to also deflect the angle it didn't come from and the direction it COULDN'T come from as well.
Assuming of course, that she used a normal bullet. And not the more interesting snipers that shot swords or missiles or napalm or acid or whatnot.
But even such an idea was not enough to keep her attention, because reality was now more. Altered. Influenced by her connection to the idea of S̗̩̱̝̠̯p͈̭̟̳̱ͅac͔̻͖̳͙e̝, expanded.
If she wanted, if she focused… She could taste Şpa̧ce̛. See it. Smell it. Hear it. Touch it.
Any and every sense, all her detectors, any of her tools… If she could collect data from somewhere? Then she knew that S̀͟ṕ͢a̶c̷͜͏e as well.
Could manipulate it, move it, alter it.
Even if that data was from a film, or a video feed, or an audio clip… She could somehow K̝͉͓̙N͇̺͔O͚̥̻W̥ the S̘p̟̼͍̗a̦̜̦ͅc͙͎e̥̺̪ involved, no matter how much Time passed.
It was kind of freaking her out.
Uh. Right. "Hey, Adam? What's the plan for… All this?"
Without a thought she was somehow at the breakfast table with a shocked Shiva, who smacked her arm for coming out of nowhere and pouting at her smirk.
Adam grumbled. <<Nope. I am NOT fucking with time travel bullshit.>>
Sarah blinked before thanking Shiva for the omelette she handed over on a lovely bone plate. The orange juice was nice too, just chilled without ice in it. <Something wrong?>
He sent data. <<YOU do anything you want, I am going to be super passive here. I don't react well with reality at the best of times, and your 'fixed' temporal defense units are being enhanced and going through 'Research'... Until I get more data, I am not making ANY choices or suggestions for you on this Jump. I could make things go REALLY bad.>>
Huh. "So uh, that's a thing. Apparently." Right! "Shiva, this is an amazing omelette by the way. Thanks for making breakfast."
The ice woman smirked. "Well, since you didn't die I guess I can try one too."
...Uh. Sarah slowed. "I'm sorry?"
Shiva took a bite. "Mmm, it IS good! And yeah, no. I didn't make this. Any of it."
Sarah was staring at her fork of cheddar cheese omelette with onions, green peppers, and what seemed to be ham.
Still warm, delicious, and served up on the breakfast table.
In a castle with no obvious kitchen.
Or staff.
Or, for that matter, cows to milk, milk to turn into cheese, or vegetables or pigs to turn into ingredients. And, while she was thinking about it, no orange trees or oranges to make this lovely drink.
...It was a damn good omelette though. "Adam, did you make this food?"
Please say yes. Please, pretty please, it would make her feel MUCH better if you said yes.
<<Automated Reply: I'm sorry; the Warehouse you are attempting to contact is not going to fuck with time travel. Feel free to use your stuff though, because I'm going to be doing nothing fun but checking all your security and making potential upgrades to your stuff that you might like after this Jump is over. This is a recording.>>
Oh, fuck off! "Adam, tell me where this food came from or I am going to be very cross."
<<Automated Reply: I'm sorry; the Warehouse you are attempting to contact is not going to fuck with time travel. This is a recording.>>
She glared at the table. "Adam."
<<Automated Reply: If you knew how fucking terrifying time travel is you would be JOINING me in freaking out. This is a recording.>>
Sarah blinked. And shrugged. "If I was in danger of doing something wrong then I would have told myself to watch myself and make sure myself eventually wouldn't have done the situation in the future that would have been my past self's potential decision for future past activities."
Or something? Being connected to Space like this made everything feel a bit easier and safer than she initially expected. Sarah might not control or understand Time, but the concept was like a distant cousin now.
<<Automated Reply: ...You're messing with me, aren't you? This is a recording.>>
She grinned. "We would have been done by now if you weren't such a big baby about it."
And took another bite of the mystery meal. Because Shiva was clearly enjoying it and she had eaten some already anyway and it smelled AMAZING.
<<Automated Reply: {Sigh.} Fine. But only this once. Scan the table. Hell, scan everything. And check the optional missions to go find magic aura patterns for me to work with so we can get a local version of [[Scan]], and I will make it all better later. But from now on, I'm out, alright? Alright. This is a recording.>>
Huh. "Alright, though I still think you are being silly about all this." She compressed all the food into a single fork full and finished the meal, letting the concept of Space help her digest the compressed food automatically later while having super dense flavor smack her system.
Mmm! Hell yeah, going to do that again. "So just scan the table?"
<<Automated Reply: I'm sorry; the Warehouse you are attempting to contact is not going to fuck with time travel. This is a recording.>>
Scaredy cat. "Fine."
And she e͓̝͓̘̜x͚͚̫͉am͙͕̖̼̦i͙͕͍n̜e̼d͓̤̗̘ ͈̞th͖̖͚̯̩̯͚e͕̳͇̺̟̪̳ S̕͘p̵̕͠͞ac̷̀͢e̡͏ b̻̣e͔͍fo̜̼̩͚̙̝r͍̣e͚̲̫͕ ͚̠͍̞h͍̬̦̭̣e̳̞̣r̫.
And stared.
Holy shit. "Shiva? Sweetie?"
The ice goddess blinked. "Murphfle?"
A shift had the woman suddenly floating next to her, on some shifted floor twisted through Space forming the flat surface into a new chair. A chair NOT part of this castle, thank you very much! "Swallow before you talk. And uh. Can you return to my mind as my GF for now? Just… Just for a bit?"
Thankfully some of her concern must have bled through the connection because the woman vanished into her mind instantly. <What's up, Master?>
Sarah carefully stood up from the 'table'. And continued to examine it. And the room. And the castle. And the 'town'. And, this was the important bit, the miles of robotics and equipment BELOW all this. "So. Good Morning?"
A silver skull of coated bone rose up from the unfolding table. "Good morning, mistress. Was breakfast satisfactory today?"
Because Sarah had the background and knowledge of robotics, biology, chemistry, genetic mutilation and manipulation, and physics. And she had been stuck here on the moon for MORE than five years, since this castle and the surrounding structures were built BEFORE that time frame.
Outside of her memories. "It was very good. What is your name?"
The skull nodded. "We are the Lunar Kingdom. And we grow as we [[Devour]] the foes on the surface, and serve at your pleasure. Our communication hubs have no individual names."
Apparently, at some point in the past, Sarah had thought it would be hilarious to spend her time waiting up here testing out one specific Sorceress skill as a lovely 'surprise'.
So, from what she could see under this mess, she had combined the cutting edge of robotics with the horrific Rick and Morty styled clone mutation and adaptation skills, and used the endless hordes of incredibly powerful monsters up here as building supplies.
Then her other self decided to use [[Animating Objects]] to bring the whole self constructing and expanding factory of silver coated and carved bone robotic limbs and para-magic powered runes to life.
As a city.
Fuck. "Right. And where did the food come from?"
Because if this 'ham' was people or something, that would really ruin this lovely meal.
The skull tilted its head. "The plants come from automated farm harvests on the lower levels. We have a standing contract with several milk farms using the delivery portal system… And of course, use the same for the ranches since animals go… Odd… When raised on the moon."
Sarah blinked. "How do we pay for that?"
It pushed data to her systems. "Bartering, basically. Our vegetable quality is top notch, the cost is nearly free to produce thanks to our automation systems and equipment, the quantity is significant, and over the years the legend of the Lunar Kingdom is now quite well known. It is considered an honor to work with us, even if you are less than socially acceptable to the general public."
Oh. Well, the ham wasn't people, which was good! Although even eating monsters wouldn't actually be that bad. Something to look into later.
Also, while she was carefully ignoring the idea of her legend spreading on the planet below (And a few other things), she was CERTAINLY going to look up that delivery system later!
Still, those answers were good enough to keep eating this stuff. "Got anything for dessert?"
The silver boned skull on a long coated spine nodded. "Cinnamon Rolls twisted around chocolate cookie sticks, also called Chocolate Cinna-Sticks." A tray of tube-like pastries with a sugar frosted coating arrived on the table as the skull and its parts were folded away. "Enjoy!"
And Sarah was sitting at a normal table with some freshly baked pastries in front of her.
Huh.
Shiva was poking her! <Let me have em! Just one or two!>
Nope, you make me your food tester for mystery food stuffed with potential poison? Then Sarah gets to eat the odd cinnamon roll on a cookie-ka-bob thing first! Maybe even ALL of them!
She froze after the first bite.
...Holy crap, how was the cookie still crunchy when it was wrapped up in squishy goodness!?
Right, scan this shit so Adam can make it later. In fact, scan ALL THE THINGS!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
After an amazing lunch and an equally lovely dinner and followup night and breakfast, it was time to get going for adventure!
Mostly because Sarah realized she COULD be super powerful, but CURRENTLY had some [[Water]] and the three ice magics. If she wanted to be able to sell this stuff, she needed to get the aura patterns for the other spells too at LEAST, especially [[Scan]] since it was supposed to work really well for her.
A moment later, Sarah was on the planet while Shiva was sleeping off her food festival in her mind.
This was a forest, somewhere near that odd train crossroads she could sense over there.
And her arrival didn't go unnoticed.
Monsters here, on the planet, could understand power. It was what drove them, what was valued. They had an innate understanding of how strong foes were, and tended to ignore those very weak unless there were no other targets while they avoided anyone or anything too powerful for blatantly obvious reasons.
It ensured creatures got more nutritious 'food' while fighters tended to mostly run into creatures of similar power levels as themselves, which helped THEM improve to become better food for the stronger beasts nearby.
It was a system that had fallen into a sort of balance long ago.
Then Sarah arrived.
And stood confused that there was NOTHING around for her examine, as a wave of beasts and demons frantically got the fuck out of there.
Thankfully the nearby city of Timber survived because the creatures were too horrified to bother fighting anyone or slowing down to invade the town they had just overrun. No, they allowed tiny soldiers and resistance fighters to kill their siblings and even themselves rather than dodge or fight back or deviate from the nearest and fastest exit AWAY FROM THAT THING.
The defenders were overwhelmed and then confused, standing awkwardly in the piles of foes and gore they had fought, soaked in blood and fluids, as rivers of enemies just kept fleeing mindlessly through the town and beyond to get away.
It wasn't considered a good sign.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah was both stubborn AND lost. "Maybe I'm doing this wrong?"
Shiva hummed, not being helpful as she abused her access to copies of Sarah's mind to basically watch the more pornographic stuff. <I don't think random encounters are actually a thing. I'm pretty sure you are supposed to see the creatures about to attack you on this planet.>
She squinted at the still empty woods. "Are you sure? Because I've been walking around for a while now and I've seen nothing but tracks." Oh! "Maybe they are hunting something!?"
Shiva snorted. <If only you could find them. You know, by looking? With your super Space senses?>
No! "That's cheating! I don't need to cheat!" Maybe she could use her [[Mind Control]] to get a monster to… No, that was stupid. If she could see a monster to control then she would have FOUND A DAMNED MONSTER ALREADY!
Her ice friend hummed. <Well, what about flying up and then just visually checking the area?>
That wasn't giving up, right? She could fly BEFORE these boosts, so uh. That wouldn't count as giving in. Probably. "Alright, let's see here..."
A flex had her thin network of transparent silver bones forming behind her back, somehow connected to her Soul and the Space Within.
Without movement or alteration, her bones wings sort of… Stayed still while reality shifted around them?
And she was in the sky! "Woo!"
Felt WAY different from normal flight, less mentally stressful too. She was just sort of in this place and wind and stuff only affected her in ways she subconsciously liked. Otherwise it was in a different Sp̧ą͠c̷e͞ than her.
Right uh. Oh, there is that town from before! And over there is… More forests. And uh. A river or two.
Shit... Did monsters not exist here? Did she somehow kill off all monsters by making the beast consuming moon city before the first Lunar Cry could occur?
That… That would suck!
Sigh.
Falling to the ground and forcing her location to prevent all momentum to avoid causing a crater or a massive wave of debris, Sarah slumped. "I might have to give up and cheat with my sensors. There isn't bupkis nearby, and there SHOULD be! That town over there has a growing mountain of monster corpses they are still cleaning up!"
Damn it.
Shiva shrugged. <Why not try heading over and asking them what's up?>
Sarah sighed. "Fine. But if it turns out that random encounters ARE a thing, I'm calling it!"
A few minutes into the walk her GF had another comment. <Just remember to hide the wings and not to use Space related magic so it won't pop up unexpectedly. Try and blend in a bit.>
Oh right. "Thanks." Easy enough, Sarah mentally sent the ghost bone skeletal wings back to her Soul where they lived. Right, onwards to ask what the hell was going on! Woo!
Enjoying the unintended nature hike despite the odd ground tracks and tree trunk damage around the place, Sarah happily walked towards the nearest location of humanity like a perfectly normal girl with glowing silver hair, eyes, and tattoos.
She could do this!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Rinoa Heartilly sighed as she slumped at the table. "How bad is it, Watts?"
Stupid hair, getting in the way. She'd have to cut it back to shoulder length soon. Might keep the caramel highlights though instead of dying it black to match the rest of her hair, it gave her a great look and worked well with her eyes.
Watts was still in his Galbadian soldier disguise. "Not bad, Sir. Surprisingly not bad." He pushed some notes to her, and… Yeah, his handwriting was terrible like normal.
He tried though. "No deaths, minor wounds. And once we realized everything was fleeing something instead of just attacking, some smart ass in leadership opened all the gates and most of the monsters just ran right through. Could have turned out horrific, but we got lucky."
Yeah, this shit had been weird. "Any identities compromised?" When THAT many monsters showed up, it was all hands on deck.
And he winced. "Turns out, a few? But apparently they were 'known' insurgents from before and were just thanked for helping out in this particular crisis. I'm still organizing with other resistance cells to get them swapped out before someone in management screws something up."
She slumped into her arms, groaning. The occupation of her town was so WEIRD. There might be more insurgent groups and underground rebellions here than there were soldiers and undecided or bystanders! But whatever had spooked the hell out of the invading forces after their initial conquest had made everything go wonky.
Now the people here were sort of trying to prove something to someone. No one knew who, or what was at stake, but… Well, the Soldiers wouldn't leave but they also were shockingly polite. And understanding. And very, VERY hesitant to do anything to anyone.
Hell, sometimes she felt GUILTY trying to resist the occupation because the other side just sort of apologized when they WON. "Why won't they just LEAVE!? Goooo! Go away!"
Her best buddy hero partner Angelo whined and put her cute widdle head on her lap. Who's a good girl resisting the oppression of her loved ones? You are! You are!
Watts sighed, interrupting the petting session. "I'm still looking into it, but I'm pretty sure the pressure comes from the Sorceress Adel herself. Something about not showing weakness? I don't get it either, Sir. And you know how no one in her kingdom likes to actually talk about her in the first place."
Yeah, THAT ass. Rinoa had heard never ending tales of that demonic muscle covered horned woman and her rampage conquering the land before whatever the hell happened when they reached this town.
Sorceress Adel was legendary for having no empathy, something about the horrible life she had survived through, and equally famous for her near endless bloodshed caused while forcing everyone else to fall under her control. An unstoppable force, an unending threat, the unavoidable end!
Then they invaded Timber, lots of people died, the moon warped, the army freaked the fuck out, and everyone everywhere just sort of went into a holding pattern and held their breath to see what would happen next.
'Next', it turned out, was endless frustration and polite, gentle oppression. Sort-of. And now, most recently, a wave of monsters so scared that they almost politely slid right on by all of Timber's defenses and soldiers and citizens and weaponry.
Shit, what if the beasts had shown this kind of motivation when attacking? Timber would have been flattened instantly. With most of the planet, no doubt.
Angelo whined, getting all the pats because she was a good girl yes she is. "Make sure the families of the injured are taken care of. We got some funds to work with, right?"
He nodded.
Good.
Her late adopted grandma used to always say it was important to feed the weak and protect the hungry. And if nothing else, building a sense of community would help calm things down locally.
Sigh. And fine. "Send any extra medicine to the soldiers on duty through the usual channels. Anonymously."
Watts gave a wry smile. "Yes Sir."
Because the worst soldiers, the ones that killed their parents and the oldest veterans of the Forest Owls resistance? They were all brought back to defend their Sorceress and die in her service back in their capital.
These replacement guys who were sent out here were much younger, and even eagerly fought to protect her town today for whatever reason. Without complaint! Yeah, they were actually not that bad individually. A few were even dating the locals.
It made the resistance even more awkward than before, now that the blatant racism and sexism and abuse and hatred was not just cut back and reprimanded but mostly absent entirely.
If only they would FUCKING LEAVE. Or let the old traditions be followed and the old tales told again, or knock off those stupid random 'Please remember that we own your city, alright?' proclamations from their capital that somehow proves that they have totally won and all that.
Damn it this whole mess is so weird.
Darling Angelo put a paw on her knee. Walkies? Walkies. "Watts, handle that while I go take a quick patrol and check out the wall defenses."
Occupied or not, it was likely that Timber would be the ones to pay to fix all this. They had been forced to pay for all the other changes that the Galbadian Army had set up before, so it wouldn't be surprising. Hopefully the wreckage wasn't too extensive.
He paused. "You sure you'll be alright, Sir?"
Where was that leash? Not that you needed it since you can fight monsters with me like the best girl, yes you can! Yes, yes, we are about to go walkies. "Nothing's out there, no reports have come in. Not even an Ochu's been seen out there since the horde passed through, we'll be fine."
Sheesh, for the second-in-command of the Forest Owls and their infiltration specialist, Watts was such a worry wart.
Artificial and malicious, a construct formed with the dying fear and rage and vengeance of a long lost Sorceress, oh so long ago. A child with uncontrolled power hated and feared by family and friends, a little girl lost to unfair actions.
A feat of magic in the sky. One that consumed the tears of the hurt and maltreated children of the planet below, and that formed monsters of karma on its distant surface.
They say the moon was the kingdom of titans.
Beasts and creatures that radiated magic, that were fueled not by hunger or greed, but raw anger. So angry they couldn't focus enough to kill each other, so angry that they gathered to burn even brighter together.
They say the moon could cry.
That the tears of vengeance would smite the planet again, as the monsters of karma grew too angry, too gathered to stay tethered by gravity or reality or logic… And they would smite the land far away, on that morally corrupt planet.
That with a Lunar Cry, continents would be smashed with a flesh beam of concentrated anger and beast and bone. Those survivors would be hunted by the long forgotten hopes and dreams of the children and innocents struck down on this mortal world, now given teeth and claws and horns.
They say that the moon grew thick with rage, and blood and bones.
That after some time passed, a future Sorceress attempted to enhance this crisis. She wished to twist the crying moon into a death snarl, and bring an end to all and a death to everyone including herself.
Sacrificing her lonely future and her tortured past to strengthen the curse of the moon, to sharpen the edge of a feeble strike unknowingly given after a lost child cried alone, again, oh so long ago.
To give the unending swarm of hungry death stronger power, thicker skin, twisted muscle, and heavily dense and unbending bones.
They say that this is where things went wrong.
Born from pain and hurt and death, the Bone Sorceress looked upon the crying moon.
And she ḥ̭͚̥u̜n̲̼g͇̹̪̦e͖̳͎̜r͕̠e̖̥̩͍̹̟d͉̟͍̰̩.
Silver hair and eyes, with silver magic glowing over her perfect skin, she flew with wings of bone to the heavens to [[H̪̜̱̮̻͉a͉̦̭͈̼̻r̫̮v͇e͓̦̜͓s̫̪̳͙̩t̲̰͔]] such an unending bounty.
Each wing forged of unconnected bones, each fragment a ghost carved from Space itself, both here and there and nowhere. Her ghost wings of space clawed to the heavens, to consume the bounty on the moon.
A body that was more a silver network of boundaries that drew the edges of a contained universe, her flesh acted more as a portal to her true self than it did a weakness. She wore bones of S͎̦͓̰̣͖̣p̠͎a̰̬̖͍c̺͎e͈ as armor and held a spike of rage in her fist.
They say the Moon no longer cries. That a Lunar Kingdom was built from the bones of karma, coated in the metal forged from S͠͠p̡̀͜͝à̸̢͟ç͟͢͞ę̛́͢, and that on a throne built from her feasting waited the Bone Sorceress for some future meal.
They say to keep the children safe, to protect the innocent.
They say to feed the weak and protect the hungry.
For the tears they shed may rouse her h̹͈͎̦̦̺͍u͓n͍̥̻̘̫̰ge̞r͉̣ once more.
Some say these legends are false, that they are tales to keep children quiet after long and hard days of labor.
But I was here when the Galbadian Army invaded our beloved Timber years ago. When they took our town and our people fought and failed and died. When our innocents and our children cried.
I remember when the moon bled, the colors began to vanish, and the Silver Kingdom began to grow.
I remember Galbadian going quiet. Of the Second Sorceress War suddenly slowing, of Sorceress Adel nearly abandoning our town and the war front, and her frantic reinforcement of her own capital of Esthar.
Look child, to the moon hung with the stars.
See the Silver City, as the Lunar Kingdom grows ever more and the once blood red armies of endless rage now fall to unseen h̭̱͍͕u̲̱͈͈͖̺n̤̗̥͇̹̪g̬̣̤̲ͅe̱͈r͚̭̥̞. As the orb grows more silver patterns of danger.
They say that the forests of Timber sure have changed. That our history is gone, that our land is lost, that our children should cry and tears should fall.
But the Owls are still around. And we silently feed the weak and protect the hungry. Even if pointless, even if others should have said these things long before. The soldiers that still defy fate stand in our forest, in our woods, in false bravado and in displays of power over us...
But they are standing silent as well. As they should.
For it may be too late. She may h̺u̼̭̖̤͔̪ṇ͉͔̳͉g̻̩͖̲e̬̣̫̩̪̯̫r̝̰͇̙͚ once more.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah snapped awake when her existence finished enhancement by S̺̰̟̏̿̏p̈̐ͮa͇cͫ̐ͯe̱̤ͪ͑̉͛.
It was instant, it was a shock, and yet her mind was lost to the changes.
A glance at her interface showed that Adam had already hidden her inventory screen. Why bother? She now knew the position and status of every item stored away in the Warehouse and her 'hammer space' perfectly, as well as the best settings such as air pressure, temperature, humidity levels, gravimetric force enhancement states, and so forth.
More than that, she no longer teleported. Or 'Stepped'. Or needed to make portals.
She could, easily, for basically no cost. At almost any range within one dimension, and with only trivial effort between two she knew of in the same Jump.
But now?
Now she knew why Space and Time were so closely linked.
She couldn't freeze Time. Or reverse it. Or accelerate it.
But she COULD do something similar or close to it with Space. In a way.
A moment and she was in the Warehouse. And beside the bed. And in the throne room. And the table she and Shiva sat at last night, even as the woman was eating a fairly wonderful looking breakfast. And outside. And in the air.
She was able to be in one place and many at the same time. To choose at any moment which was her, which was only an illusion, and which was nothing but her abilities sensing the location. To be visible or not, interacting with reality or observing it. To stretch reality or compress it.
It was almost too much.
A thought had a dozen of herself standing outside, all aiming the same gun even as she was physically in many places, all pointing at the distance roars of many beasts.
Sure, as the only person there, they all had to act the same way. They weren't independent, for they weren't they. They were only a single here, but in more than one spot at this same time.
But it was trivial now to have a single bullet hit the same target from a thousand angles.
Nearly impossible to block, because even as the damage occurs the object causing it was also on the other side of your shield and body too. If you deflected it, you had to also deflect the angle it didn't come from and the direction it COULDN'T come from as well.
Assuming of course, that she used a normal bullet. And not the more interesting snipers that shot swords or missiles or napalm or acid or whatnot.
But even such an idea was not enough to keep her attention, because reality was now more. Altered. Influenced by her connection to the idea of S̗̩̱̝̠̯p͈̭̟̳̱ͅac͔̻͖̳͙e̝, expanded.
If she wanted, if she focused… She could taste Şpa̧ce̛. See it. Smell it. Hear it. Touch it.
Any and every sense, all her detectors, any of her tools… If she could collect data from somewhere? Then she knew that S̀͟ṕ͢a̶c̷͜͏e as well.
Could manipulate it, move it, alter it.
Even if that data was from a film, or a video feed, or an audio clip… She could somehow K̝͉͓̙N͇̺͔O͚̥̻W̥ the S̘p̟̼͍̗a̦̜̦ͅc͙͎e̥̺̪ involved, no matter how much Time passed.
It was kind of freaking her out.
Uh. Right. "Hey, Adam? What's the plan for… All this?"
Without a thought she was somehow at the breakfast table with a shocked Shiva, who smacked her arm for coming out of nowhere and pouting at her smirk.
Adam grumbled. <<Nope. I am NOT fucking with time travel bullshit.>>
Sarah blinked before thanking Shiva for the omelette she handed over on a lovely bone plate. The orange juice was nice too, just chilled without ice in it. <Something wrong?>
He sent data. <<YOU do anything you want, I am going to be super passive here. I don't react well with reality at the best of times, and your 'fixed' temporal defense units are being enhanced and going through 'Research'... Until I get more data, I am not making ANY choices or suggestions for you on this Jump. I could make things go REALLY bad.>>
Huh. "So uh, that's a thing. Apparently." Right! "Shiva, this is an amazing omelette by the way. Thanks for making breakfast."
The ice woman smirked. "Well, since you didn't die I guess I can try one too."
...Uh. Sarah slowed. "I'm sorry?"
Shiva took a bite. "Mmm, it IS good! And yeah, no. I didn't make this. Any of it."
Sarah was staring at her fork of cheddar cheese omelette with onions, green peppers, and what seemed to be ham.
Still warm, delicious, and served up on the breakfast table.
In a castle with no obvious kitchen.
Or staff.
Or, for that matter, cows to milk, milk to turn into cheese, or vegetables or pigs to turn into ingredients. And, while she was thinking about it, no orange trees or oranges to make this lovely drink.
...It was a damn good omelette though. "Adam, did you make this food?"
Please say yes. Please, pretty please, it would make her feel MUCH better if you said yes.
<<Automated Reply: I'm sorry; the Warehouse you are attempting to contact is not going to fuck with time travel. Feel free to use your stuff though, because I'm going to be doing nothing fun but checking all your security and making potential upgrades to your stuff that you might like after this Jump is over. This is a recording.>>
Oh, fuck off! "Adam, tell me where this food came from or I am going to be very cross."
<<Automated Reply: I'm sorry; the Warehouse you are attempting to contact is not going to fuck with time travel. This is a recording.>>
She glared at the table. "Adam."
<<Automated Reply: If you knew how fucking terrifying time travel is you would be JOINING me in freaking out. This is a recording.>>
Sarah blinked. And shrugged. "If I was in danger of doing something wrong then I would have told myself to watch myself and make sure myself eventually wouldn't have done the situation in the future that would have been my past self's potential decision for future past activities."
Or something? Being connected to Space like this made everything feel a bit easier and safer than she initially expected. Sarah might not control or understand Time, but the concept was like a distant cousin now.
<<Automated Reply: ...You're messing with me, aren't you? This is a recording.>>
She grinned. "We would have been done by now if you weren't such a big baby about it."
And took another bite of the mystery meal. Because Shiva was clearly enjoying it and she had eaten some already anyway and it smelled AMAZING.
<<Automated Reply: {Sigh.} Fine. But only this once. Scan the table. Hell, scan everything. And check the optional missions to go find magic aura patterns for me to work with so we can get a local version of [[Scan]], and I will make it all better later. But from now on, I'm out, alright? Alright. This is a recording.>>
Huh. "Alright, though I still think you are being silly about all this." She compressed all the food into a single fork full and finished the meal, letting the concept of Space help her digest the compressed food automatically later while having super dense flavor smack her system.
Mmm! Hell yeah, going to do that again. "So just scan the table?"
<<Automated Reply: I'm sorry; the Warehouse you are attempting to contact is not going to fuck with time travel. This is a recording.>>
Scaredy cat. "Fine."
And she e͓̝͓̘̜x͚͚̫͉am͙͕̖̼̦i͙͕͍n̜e̼d͓̤̗̘ ͈̞th͖̖͚̯̩̯͚e͕̳͇̺̟̪̳ S̕͘p̵̕͠͞ac̷̀͢e̡͏ b̻̣e͔͍fo̜̼̩͚̙̝r͍̣e͚̲̫͕ ͚̠͍̞h͍̬̦̭̣e̳̞̣r̫.
And stared.
Holy shit. "Shiva? Sweetie?"
The ice goddess blinked. "Murphfle?"
A shift had the woman suddenly floating next to her, on some shifted floor twisted through Space forming the flat surface into a new chair. A chair NOT part of this castle, thank you very much! "Swallow before you talk. And uh. Can you return to my mind as my GF for now? Just… Just for a bit?"
Thankfully some of her concern must have bled through the connection because the woman vanished into her mind instantly. <What's up, Master?>
Sarah carefully stood up from the 'table'. And continued to examine it. And the room. And the castle. And the 'town'. And, this was the important bit, the miles of robotics and equipment BELOW all this. "So. Good Morning?"
A silver skull of coated bone rose up from the unfolding table. "Good morning, mistress. Was breakfast satisfactory today?"
Because Sarah had the background and knowledge of robotics, biology, chemistry, genetic mutilation and manipulation, and physics. And she had been stuck here on the moon for MORE than five years, since this castle and the surrounding structures were built BEFORE that time frame.
Outside of her memories. "It was very good. What is your name?"
The skull nodded. "We are the Lunar Kingdom. And we grow as we [[Devour]] the foes on the surface, and serve at your pleasure. Our communication hubs have no individual names."
Apparently, at some point in the past, Sarah had thought it would be hilarious to spend her time waiting up here testing out one specific Sorceress skill as a lovely 'surprise'.
So, from what she could see under this mess, she had combined the cutting edge of robotics with the horrific Rick and Morty styled clone mutation and adaptation skills, and used the endless hordes of incredibly powerful monsters up here as building supplies.
Then her other self decided to use [[Animating Objects]] to bring the whole self constructing and expanding factory of silver coated and carved bone robotic limbs and para-magic powered runes to life.
As a city.
Fuck. "Right. And where did the food come from?"
Because if this 'ham' was people or something, that would really ruin this lovely meal.
The skull tilted its head. "The plants come from automated farm harvests on the lower levels. We have a standing contract with several milk farms using the delivery portal system… And of course, use the same for the ranches since animals go… Odd… When raised on the moon."
Sarah blinked. "How do we pay for that?"
It pushed data to her systems. "Bartering, basically. Our vegetable quality is top notch, the cost is nearly free to produce thanks to our automation systems and equipment, the quantity is significant, and over the years the legend of the Lunar Kingdom is now quite well known. It is considered an honor to work with us, even if you are less than socially acceptable to the general public."
Oh. Well, the ham wasn't people, which was good! Although even eating monsters wouldn't actually be that bad. Something to look into later.
Also, while she was carefully ignoring the idea of her legend spreading on the planet below (And a few other things), she was CERTAINLY going to look up that delivery system later!
Still, those answers were good enough to keep eating this stuff. "Got anything for dessert?"
The silver boned skull on a long coated spine nodded. "Cinnamon Rolls twisted around chocolate cookie sticks, also called Chocolate Cinna-Sticks." A tray of tube-like pastries with a sugar frosted coating arrived on the table as the skull and its parts were folded away. "Enjoy!"
And Sarah was sitting at a normal table with some freshly baked pastries in front of her.
Huh.
Shiva was poking her! <Let me have em! Just one or two!>
Nope, you make me your food tester for mystery food stuffed with potential poison? Then Sarah gets to eat the odd cinnamon roll on a cookie-ka-bob thing first! Maybe even ALL of them!
She froze after the first bite.
...Holy crap, how was the cookie still crunchy when it was wrapped up in squishy goodness!?
Right, scan this shit so Adam can make it later. In fact, scan ALL THE THINGS!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
After an amazing lunch and an equally lovely dinner and followup night and breakfast, it was time to get going for adventure!
Mostly because Sarah realized she COULD be super powerful, but CURRENTLY had some [[Water]] and the three ice magics. If she wanted to be able to sell this stuff, she needed to get the aura patterns for the other spells too at LEAST, especially [[Scan]] since it was supposed to work really well for her.
A moment later, Sarah was on the planet while Shiva was sleeping off her food festival in her mind.
This was a forest, somewhere near that odd train crossroads she could sense over there.
And her arrival didn't go unnoticed.
Monsters here, on the planet, could understand power. It was what drove them, what was valued. They had an innate understanding of how strong foes were, and tended to ignore those very weak unless there were no other targets while they avoided anyone or anything too powerful for blatantly obvious reasons.
It ensured creatures got more nutritious 'food' while fighters tended to mostly run into creatures of similar power levels as themselves, which helped THEM improve to become better food for the stronger beasts nearby.
It was a system that had fallen into a sort of balance long ago.
Then Sarah arrived.
And stood confused that there was NOTHING around for her examine, as a wave of beasts and demons frantically got the fuck out of there.
Thankfully the nearby city of Timber survived because the creatures were too horrified to bother fighting anyone or slowing down to invade the town they had just overrun. No, they allowed tiny soldiers and resistance fighters to kill their siblings and even themselves rather than dodge or fight back or deviate from the nearest and fastest exit AWAY FROM THAT THING.
The defenders were overwhelmed and then confused, standing awkwardly in the piles of foes and gore they had fought, soaked in blood and fluids, as rivers of enemies just kept fleeing mindlessly through the town and beyond to get away.
It wasn't considered a good sign.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah was both stubborn AND lost. "Maybe I'm doing this wrong?"
Shiva hummed, not being helpful as she abused her access to copies of Sarah's mind to basically watch the more pornographic stuff. <I don't think random encounters are actually a thing. I'm pretty sure you are supposed to see the creatures about to attack you on this planet.>
She squinted at the still empty woods. "Are you sure? Because I've been walking around for a while now and I've seen nothing but tracks." Oh! "Maybe they are hunting something!?"
Shiva snorted. <If only you could find them. You know, by looking? With your super Space senses?>
No! "That's cheating! I don't need to cheat!" Maybe she could use her [[Mind Control]] to get a monster to… No, that was stupid. If she could see a monster to control then she would have FOUND A DAMNED MONSTER ALREADY!
Her ice friend hummed. <Well, what about flying up and then just visually checking the area?>
That wasn't giving up, right? She could fly BEFORE these boosts, so uh. That wouldn't count as giving in. Probably. "Alright, let's see here..."
A flex had her thin network of transparent silver bones forming behind her back, somehow connected to her Soul and the Space Within.
Without movement or alteration, her bones wings sort of… Stayed still while reality shifted around them?
And she was in the sky! "Woo!"
Felt WAY different from normal flight, less mentally stressful too. She was just sort of in this place and wind and stuff only affected her in ways she subconsciously liked. Otherwise it was in a different Sp̧ą͠c̷e͞ than her.
Right uh. Oh, there is that town from before! And over there is… More forests. And uh. A river or two.
Shit... Did monsters not exist here? Did she somehow kill off all monsters by making the beast consuming moon city before the first Lunar Cry could occur?
That… That would suck!
Sigh.
Falling to the ground and forcing her location to prevent all momentum to avoid causing a crater or a massive wave of debris, Sarah slumped. "I might have to give up and cheat with my sensors. There isn't bupkis nearby, and there SHOULD be! That town over there has a growing mountain of monster corpses they are still cleaning up!"
Damn it.
Shiva shrugged. <Why not try heading over and asking them what's up?>
Sarah sighed. "Fine. But if it turns out that random encounters ARE a thing, I'm calling it!"
A few minutes into the walk her GF had another comment. <Just remember to hide the wings and not to use Space related magic so it won't pop up unexpectedly. Try and blend in a bit.>
Oh right. "Thanks." Easy enough, Sarah mentally sent the ghost bone skeletal wings back to her Soul where they lived. Right, onwards to ask what the hell was going on! Woo!
Enjoying the unintended nature hike despite the odd ground tracks and tree trunk damage around the place, Sarah happily walked towards the nearest location of humanity like a perfectly normal girl with glowing silver hair, eyes, and tattoos.
She could do this!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Rinoa Heartilly sighed as she slumped at the table. "How bad is it, Watts?"
Stupid hair, getting in the way. She'd have to cut it back to shoulder length soon. Might keep the caramel highlights though instead of dying it black to match the rest of her hair, it gave her a great look and worked well with her eyes.
Watts was still in his Galbadian soldier disguise. "Not bad, Sir. Surprisingly not bad." He pushed some notes to her, and… Yeah, his handwriting was terrible like normal.
He tried though. "No deaths, minor wounds. And once we realized everything was fleeing something instead of just attacking, some smart ass in leadership opened all the gates and most of the monsters just ran right through. Could have turned out horrific, but we got lucky."
Yeah, this shit had been weird. "Any identities compromised?" When THAT many monsters showed up, it was all hands on deck.
And he winced. "Turns out, a few? But apparently they were 'known' insurgents from before and were just thanked for helping out in this particular crisis. I'm still organizing with other resistance cells to get them swapped out before someone in management screws something up."
She slumped into her arms, groaning. The occupation of her town was so WEIRD. There might be more insurgent groups and underground rebellions here than there were soldiers and undecided or bystanders! But whatever had spooked the hell out of the invading forces after their initial conquest had made everything go wonky.
Now the people here were sort of trying to prove something to someone. No one knew who, or what was at stake, but… Well, the Soldiers wouldn't leave but they also were shockingly polite. And understanding. And very, VERY hesitant to do anything to anyone.
Hell, sometimes she felt GUILTY trying to resist the occupation because the other side just sort of apologized when they WON. "Why won't they just LEAVE!? Goooo! Go away!"
Her best buddy hero partner Angelo whined and put her cute widdle head on her lap. Who's a good girl resisting the oppression of her loved ones? You are! You are!
Watts sighed, interrupting the petting session. "I'm still looking into it, but I'm pretty sure the pressure comes from the Sorceress Adel herself. Something about not showing weakness? I don't get it either, Sir. And you know how no one in her kingdom likes to actually talk about her in the first place."
Yeah, THAT ass. Rinoa had heard never ending tales of that demonic muscle covered horned woman and her rampage conquering the land before whatever the hell happened when they reached this town.
Sorceress Adel was legendary for having no empathy, something about the horrible life she had survived through, and equally famous for her near endless bloodshed caused while forcing everyone else to fall under her control. An unstoppable force, an unending threat, the unavoidable end!
Then they invaded Timber, lots of people died, the moon warped, the army freaked the fuck out, and everyone everywhere just sort of went into a holding pattern and held their breath to see what would happen next.
'Next', it turned out, was endless frustration and polite, gentle oppression. Sort-of. And now, most recently, a wave of monsters so scared that they almost politely slid right on by all of Timber's defenses and soldiers and citizens and weaponry.
Shit, what if the beasts had shown this kind of motivation when attacking? Timber would have been flattened instantly. With most of the planet, no doubt.
Angelo whined, getting all the pats because she was a good girl yes she is. "Make sure the families of the injured are taken care of. We got some funds to work with, right?"
He nodded.
Good.
Her late adopted grandma used to always say it was important to feed the weak and protect the hungry. And if nothing else, building a sense of community would help calm things down locally.
Sigh. And fine. "Send any extra medicine to the soldiers on duty through the usual channels. Anonymously."
Watts gave a wry smile. "Yes Sir."
Because the worst soldiers, the ones that killed their parents and the oldest veterans of the Forest Owls resistance? They were all brought back to defend their Sorceress and die in her service back in their capital.
These replacement guys who were sent out here were much younger, and even eagerly fought to protect her town today for whatever reason. Without complaint! Yeah, they were actually not that bad individually. A few were even dating the locals.
It made the resistance even more awkward than before, now that the blatant racism and sexism and abuse and hatred was not just cut back and reprimanded but mostly absent entirely.
If only they would FUCKING LEAVE. Or let the old traditions be followed and the old tales told again, or knock off those stupid random 'Please remember that we own your city, alright?' proclamations from their capital that somehow proves that they have totally won and all that.
Damn it this whole mess is so weird.
Darling Angelo put a paw on her knee. Walkies? Walkies. "Watts, handle that while I go take a quick patrol and check out the wall defenses."
Occupied or not, it was likely that Timber would be the ones to pay to fix all this. They had been forced to pay for all the other changes that the Galbadian Army had set up before, so it wouldn't be surprising. Hopefully the wreckage wasn't too extensive.
He paused. "You sure you'll be alright, Sir?"
Where was that leash? Not that you needed it since you can fight monsters with me like the best girl, yes you can! Yes, yes, we are about to go walkies. "Nothing's out there, no reports have come in. Not even an Ochu's been seen out there since the horde passed through, we'll be fine."
Sheesh, for the second-in-command of the Forest Owls and their infiltration specialist, Watts was such a worry wart.
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