- Location
- United states
I'm pretty sure I remember Alchemist telling raven about demons/devils rising if angels can fall. Might be miss remembering though.
Enjoyable read as always, just recently reread the whole thing. Took me about a week.
Project: Gamer Ver. 2 (Young Justice/Gamer/Multicross OC)
- Thread starter Mister Ficser
- Start date
Enjoyable read as always, just recently reread the whole thing. Took me about a week.
- Location
- U.S.
starts tossing oceans of holy water through raven at her father.
There's a reason it was in Pandora's Box/Pithos after all, and considered by the Greeks to be the best and worst thing that the silly girl released.
I've really liked this arc. The world seems supremely unpleasant but the plots that are happening are excellent. Last chapter it seemed like something was messing with Alchemist's mind a bit. It felt like corruption/amnesia since he isn't lost in the grind and him having the awareness to reach out to his family to get their perspective was great. Coupling the discussion with a BBQ was like a breath of fresh air (vs the atmosphere that the world was bringing) that might clean out the cobwebs. Raven + Death open a bunch of interesting conversational options with or without Alchemist being involved. Keep on cooking OP.
Could I get a source on that quote please?
- Location
- UK
Alchemist's problem (I think) is that he could give the Teen Titans all sorts of tools or power boosts, but he can't do anything to help them forge themselves into who they'll need to be later on in the story.
He (or Yuffie) could give Robin combat training, but he can't give Robin the trust in his friends which he'll need to face down Deathstroke. He can teach Beast Boy new forms, but he can't give Beast Boy the clarity he'll need to understand why Terra does what she does, and he can give Cyborg better tech, but he can't give Cyborg the self-focus to fight back Brother Blood. Only they can develop it for themselves from succeeding (and failing) in things they do. And he could give Raven spell scrolls, or stat boosts, or magical items, but none of it will provide the knowledge of her friends' love for her which will help her fight back Trigon. Only actually living their lives and gaining experience - not xp, but actual lived experience and understanding - will do that.
He can give them all sorts of power - but that's not the same thing as the maturity, control and character development which they'll need. (The problems with interacting with a story where "character development" is significant, as opposed to a computer game where "stat-up and weapon-up" will help you beat the final boss.)
Alchemist's life must be very frustrating sometimes.
He (or Yuffie) could give Robin combat training, but he can't give Robin the trust in his friends which he'll need to face down Deathstroke. He can teach Beast Boy new forms, but he can't give Beast Boy the clarity he'll need to understand why Terra does what she does, and he can give Cyborg better tech, but he can't give Cyborg the self-focus to fight back Brother Blood. Only they can develop it for themselves from succeeding (and failing) in things they do. And he could give Raven spell scrolls, or stat boosts, or magical items, but none of it will provide the knowledge of her friends' love for her which will help her fight back Trigon. Only actually living their lives and gaining experience - not xp, but actual lived experience and understanding - will do that.
He can give them all sorts of power - but that's not the same thing as the maturity, control and character development which they'll need. (The problems with interacting with a story where "character development" is significant, as opposed to a computer game where "stat-up and weapon-up" will help you beat the final boss.)
Alchemist's life must be very frustrating sometimes.
Real life is more complex than a computer game which is based on math?! Say it ain't so, people!...
- Location
- Whadjuk Noongar boodja
I never said anything about critique being either unacceptable nor even undesirable, and I'm glad that you are enjoying this story as well, although it seems we enjoy it in different ways, or possibly merely for different reasons. Regardless, I hope you continue enjoying it.
My main issue was that I felt that your critiques were too frequently stated and at too great a length, both derailing and delaying the reason we all come here: To read the story. That clearly is not an issue any longer, if it ever really was in the first place.
Presumably she must do so, else she would find dealing with doors and locks a rather difficult and frustrating experience.
A reminder that this particular fact could also apply to how she handles interactions with her... progenitor? I can't see how it could hurt. We all can all stand to be reminded from time to time that if we can't push the door open, maybe that's because we haven't read the sign right in front of us that says 'Pull'. That's why the Greek said that HOPE is the biggest EVIL of them all.
Kept only for HUMAN to use.
Not sure what would happen if PANDORA just release them all to the world at large.
Would the world be better, or worse if HOPE is available to anyone and anything?
Wonder what's going on in hell while Alec is in this world. been in this arc awhile and wondering if stuff is still progressing at all while he's in this world
time is stopped back in the main universe
Didn't Alec mess up Hell not just in that Universe but across the local Multiverse as well? thought that might mean stuff was still progressing since different universes could be moving at different speeds and stuff. I thought him jumping ship for a while was just to avoid being tracked down for a bit due to Constantine running his mouth or other clues pointing at him for a bit
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nah, multiple Hells in multiple Multiverses. He only messed up DC's. that would be like this story messing up a story about Hell that YOU write, or I write. Not happening.
They traveled back in time. His 'little mistake' with Constantine hasn't actually happened yet. They have like seven-ish years until it does, assuming that they don't decide to do any more time travel before heading home.
Chapter 310, Legaia 8
Project: Gamer Ver. 2 Alpha Build 3.1.0
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
_________________________________________________________________________
??/??/???? (Legend of Legaia)
Underneath of Ratayu, Alchemist watched as the Juggernaut made of his own life force continued to grow. Long, pitch-black coils speckled with white spots and dusted with toxic green clouds were wrapped around a large, yellow orb.
The machine that created the titanic entity was... actually something Alchemist understood, surprisingly enough. It was all, when observed the right way, alchemy. And, though his Juggernaut started off as nothing more than a chunk of bloodstained ivory leftover from the last Juggernaut, it was a homonculus.
The previous Juggernaut, the original model, had been made from the lives of countless young women.
Why? What was special about young women?
The answer, Alchemist had found as he'd dug through the documentation left behind by the scientists of Ratayu-
Who were still alive, albeit locked up in a secure wing of the palace overhead. Alchemist intended on paying them a visit before he finished up.
-was that of dominance. Young women in a magically feudal society were not 'Strong, independent women!' They were meek and docile, raised with the intention of being married off to raise a family, and the prototype Juggernaut was intended for Cort, who was supposedly a strong and domineering force.
Alchemist's thoughts on the man were far less complimentary.
There were also some notes on how it would make the beast a better receptacle for foreign life forces, better able to be controlled by people it was less than perfectly attuned to.
Because attunement was apparently a thing, now. The mage thought it might have had something to do with elemental affinity but the few books he'd managed to find on the matter had been disgustingly vague.
Alchemist quietly sighed and turned away from the growing homonculus. It was fascinating, nearing completion at a rate that boggled the mind, but he still had work to do.
His steps echoed loudly in the empty facility whilst all around him the various tubes and sphincters of organic machinery worked; gurgling and burbling and squelching in ways that were disquieting and disgusting. The man... did not care for the organic aspects of alchemy. He would never be able to comfortably walk the same paths as Lezard Valeth from Valkyrie Profile or Yuna from Breath of Fire Four.
Coming upon his enlarged clones, the man cast Full-Cure on them before opening his inventory. He had an idea, several actually, on improving the process of the Juggernaut's creation.
He set out a Bronze, Iron, Titanium, Carbon and Platinum Bangle (HP +10/20/30/40/50%), a Power Suit (HP +100%, etc...), and a Dark Agent (HP +50%, etc...). The Power Suit looked rather like a skin-tight rubber suit with circuitry engraved upon it whilst the Dark Agent was actually a slim bracer coated in some kind of pitch black material.
Finally was a black ring, made from the orange eye of the cycloptic dragon, Calamitas (Damage taken +100%).
If the man had an audience, Alchemist would have snapped his fingers. Instead, the items simply fused together with the 'recipient' being the Titanium Bangle. It was the largest simple item with the lowest weight.
~~ Bangle of Abuse x 13 ~~
~~ HP +300%, MP -100%, Stength +200, Vitality +200, Intelligence -150, Wisdom -150, Skill Experience +50%, Damage taken +100% ~~
~~ What on my green Earth possessed you to make such a thing?! ~~
The mage hefted the light chunk of metal up and looked it over before simply shrugging and snapping his fingers, casting Serren's Swift Girding. The bangle disappeared from his hand to wrap around the base of one of his clone's wings.
Instantly, the clone's hit point maximum skyrocketed, although the base value remained as low as it had been a moment earlier. Minus the now two-hundred HP drain per second.
Alchemist cast Full-Cure on it again and set aside one of the bracers for disassembly later. At the moment, he still had some more fusion work to take care of. To that end, Alchemist pulled out a canteen of holy water and the small vial he'd been given by one of the prototype Juggernaut's victims, a man named Val. The Holy Water of Miracles, or Miracle Water for short, increased all attributes by four points. Alchemist fused the holy water into the Miracle Water-
~~ Miracle Water of Evil's Bane x 13 ~~
~~ All Attributes + 4 (Permanent: HP 9999 cap, else 999 cap), will purify evil entities or else cause 4 damage to evil entities ~~
Useless to Alchemist, his attributes already exceeded the cap offered by the Miracle Water...
But it wasn't actually meant for him.
The mage cast Prestidigitation, 'staining' the ground underfoot with chalk in the form of an alchemic circle with five, smaller circles within. With the use of twenty doses of Alkahest, a sort of universal solvent from Bloodstained, Alchemist reverted one of the combined bottles of water into its original components.
Then he fused his twelve remaining vials of Miracle Water of Evil's Bane and the holy water into the original bottle of Miracle Water-
~~ Miracle Water of Evil's Bane + x 13 ~~
~~ All Attributes + 52 (Permanent: HP 9999 cap, else 999 cap), will purify evil entities or else cause 52 damage to evil entities ~~
Within a few cycles, Alchemist had reached the maximum value possible for most of the attributes. With one more cycle after that?
~~ Divine Water of Absolution x 13 ~~
~~ All Attributes + 9999 (Permanent: HP 9999 cap, else 999 cap), will purify evil entities or else cause 90,484 damage to evil entities ~~
The mage lifted up one of the bottles to the light and let a wicked grin spread across his lips. The cost to make the handful of bottles in his inventory was massive, each tier actually demanding an increasing exponent of Alkahest to disassemble. He literally couldn't hold enough Alkahest in his inventory if he wanted to disassemble the batch he currently had.
The mage uncapped the bottle in his hand and it disappeared, the whole bottle teleported... into the same artificial stomach where his clones were currently held.
The facility began to shake and Alchemist's Juggernaut groaned as he walked back to the place where it was growing. The entity was smoking, slightly, as the green corruption along its scales began to flake and burn off.
As the last vestiges of the Rogue's corruption, a leftover from the prototype Juggernaut, met a hostile force that could, and would, literally erase it from existence.
The man kept a critical eye on the status of the homonculus, watching as its vitality wavered while the enhancements fought against the corruption. The coils slid around the yellow orb it was growing around and a quartet of massive, yellow eyes opened at the end of a great face...
Before the Juggernaut settled back down, slumbering peacefully.
Alchemist exhaled quietly in relief before the grin returned to his face.
All according to plan...
-----
Jinx had slept peacefully after the cookout, her usual struggle with near-nightmares oddly distant for a change. She'd gotten up, fed Ash, Cinder and Reis, then she took a shower and brushed her teeth.
All in all it was a pleasant and surprisingly normal morning.
On the way out the door Jinx raised one claw to stifle a yawn and nearly tripped as her eyes caught sight of the tattoos on her arm. The markings were inked over her scales but they'd also shown up on her human form.
They did not, however, push through to show on her illusory disguises. Which was good since she didn't want to start wearing anything that hugged her wrists.
She'd had too many experiences involving handcuffs to appreciate things like sweaters or formal shirts with sleeves that buttoned a little too tight.
'Shall we test the liminal boundaries betwixt life and death?' Jedo whispered into Jinx's mind, a connection that even Mind Blank hadn't been able to silence. 'Restore life to those which Alchemist has freed from their living torment?'
"...Sure," Jinx offered after taking a second to decide how to deal with that.
Jedo, she'd found, was largely silent and observant. It had an awareness of things around Jinx but it didn't function by sight. It was more akin to some kind of energy detection, mostly attuned towards the living. She didn't know how the... reassigned godling would handle the undead but it would probably be worth testing, some time.
But when Jedo got to talking? They sounded like they went and picked out the ten point words in scrabble.
Checking on the outpost, she didn't see the wizard anywhere. Which meant one of two things. Either he was already inside of the Juggernaut that had eaten Rim Elm...
Or he'd dropped Bilocation and was off doing whatever it was that he was actually focused on and couldn't come back to the demi-plane while he was working on it.
Jinx wasn't sure on what it was, not exactly, but they didn't know -that- many spells that had any reason to be sustained for over a week.
The dragon sighed and looked at the small shack that Alchemist had put together. It wasn't much, really, just four walls and a sloped roof with one of those screen doors that had a metal mesh window.
Pulling the door open, Jinx... actually found Alchemist. He was asleep on a cot against the wall to the left of the door while he had a small, practically tiny, table pulled up to the side of the cot with a clean plate, fork and knife on it. In the far corner on the right of the shack, actually taking up the most space, was an Arcane Enchanter. There was, maybe, a whole two feet of distance between the foot of the cot and the magical workstation.
Or maybe it was the head? Alchemist was actually turned so that his head was on a pillow against the back wall. He'd have pretty much every opportunity to see and react... within something like a second and a half.
Tiny shacks were not especially defensible locations.
Jinx considered the man for a moment as he slept before interrupting his slumber. Black sweatpants and a green tee-shirt weren't exactly special. He had his right hand crossed over his belly while his left hung off the side of the cot. He'd apparently been reading a scroll when he fell asleep, though Jinx wasn't sure which one given that it had landed on its face.
"Hey!" Jinx called. Alchemist stirred enough to open his eyes, then start to slowly blink a few times. "He~ey! Alchemist!"
"Ye-" the man started to say before he broke off with a yawn. Alchemist stretched, his arms and hands popping loudly before he focused on her. "Yeah?"
"You said we were going to work on the people trapped inside of the Juggernaut today, right?"
"Yeah," Alchemist agreed. She could tell that he wasn't running at peak, but the man actually woke up pretty fast. "Give me... Give me just a minute."
Jinx waited at the door as Alchemist sat up, then turned on the cot to place his feet on the ground. The man leaned down and picked up his scroll, then inventoried it before yawning widely.
She didn't say anything about him scratching himself, though she did wince in discomfort when he fully stood up and leaned back, stretching the muscles in his back. She didn't know if she heard something crack or pop.
"Alright," Alchemist said before he began to snap his fingers. One time, and the man's skin turned pink like it'd just been freshly scrubbed. A second time and he started working his jaw from side to side. A third time, nothing seemed to happen but Jinx felt the magic and she was sure she caught an impression of a second Alchemist before it immediately disappeared. "Let me just put on my Incorruptus and I'll get started."
"Not worried about the Seru inside?" Jinx asked as she stepped out of his way so he could get outside.
"Shipped 'em all off somewhere safe. Up at... Zeto? Zedo? What's-his-name, the boss of the first Mist generator. I sent 'em all up there."
That... would work, wouldn't it? At least, if the reality they were in wasn't just spawning monsters endlessly.
Some had, sure. Bitterblack Island and Gebel's Castle had been like that. But the 'Gaia' of Final Fantasy Seven had treated monsters like they were animals in an ecosystem. Dangerous, sure, but they could be scared off or exterminated and the actions would have lasting effects.
Alchemist crouched down, his sweats staining with the morning dew before a hulking suit of armor took his place. At seven meters tall, Alchemist was now almost as tall as the trees. At least until he snapped his fingers with a loud, metallic clang and shrank down to human size.
"Give me about five minutes and I'll have a goblin de-souled for you," Alchemist told her, sounding far more awake.
Jinx had to wonder if possessing an object was refreshing or if it just didn't have all those pesky biological issues. Like, golems didn't get tired but could they feel fatigue?
"Alright," Jinx readily agreed, stifling a yawn of her own with her tattooed claw. "Anywhere special you want me to do the whole rebuild and resoul?"
"Just keep the little asshole away from anything fragile," Alchemist told her with a shrug. "Seriously, I've been in the middle of regenerating and healing the ugly bastards and they still tried to club my skull in as soon as they could."
"...Did you put them to sleep before you did the whole, uh, cutting them up thing?"
"Yes, actually." Alchemist opened an inventory window and began to scroll through it before stopping at something and staring for a moment. "Fully asleep before extraction. Fully asleep during recovery. They didn't accuse me of any horrible evils or have anything to say about pain. They just lose their shit because I prefer to keep up a human shape when I'm working on something so small."
"Well..." Jinx... didn't know what to say about that. "At least you can tell their personalities didn't change?"
"...Fair enough," Alchemist grumbled as he raised one hand up. "Alright, I'll drop the extracted souls into the inventor-"
With a snap, the man disappeared and left Jinx alone in the clearing around the man's outpost.
"...Hah," Jinx dramatically sighed as she considered what she needed to do next. Eventually, she settled on just heading back to the demi-plane. The inventory, unlike most magic, did work just fine across a planar boundary.
And, if it gave her an opportunity to tease Raven?
Well, that was just the sugar on top!
-----
Princess Koriand'r rose with the sun. It was an old insinct of her people, a leftover from their days when they were a less civilized species. Since the wretched, agonizing experiments that had been performed on her? The same cruelties that unlocked powers within her that were long thought to be nothing but myth?
Starfire's need to rise at morning's first light had become more and more pressing.
On Earth, she would often find herself properly waking up atop the roof of their tower. Vague memories in her mind of silently floating through the halls and stairwells that she couldn't fully recall.
So, as long as the skies were clear?
Koriand'r was there to greet the sun.
Her time in the demi-plane, in a strange, new world did not change that. She had found, however, that Friend Alchemist's demi-plane operated on a twelve and twelve schedule so 'morning' in his realm came at the same time every day. It had made her schedule much easier to predict and plan for.
It was rather nice, the warrior princess thought.
And there was more to the 'sun' than first appeared, she'd discovered. In a moment of idle curiosity, she'd flown up to look at the artificial star herself. She hadn't really been able to look into the heart of it for it was incredibly bright but she'd gleaned quite a bit by observing the shell around it. The star in Friend Alchemist's realm was surrounded by a machine of some kind. It seemed rather simple, all told, driven by an electric motor and powered by a solar panel. She knew not by what means it defied the pull of gravity, no, but aside from the obvious magic it was actually a rather basic machine.
Koriand'r enjoyed the strange realm. It was filled with mysteries, magics that offered it a semblance of 'normalcy' that she had most certainly learned to appreciate. Most especially she'd enjoyed the small pond filled with magical water.
And, Starfire thought as a sly grin spread across the girl's face, Robin had most definitely enjoyed watching her swim in the pond.
But morning was nearing its end, at least Starfire assumed so. Her shadow grew smaller and smaller beneath her as the realm neared noon. Not far from her, underneath of a tree full of delicious apples, Friend Raven was reading a book from Friend Alchemist's collection. Not a spellbook, Starfire didn't think. It was called 'Sithis' and there was no name to indicate who had written it.
Friend Robin was partaking in his favorite passtime, well, his second favorite passtime, and was sparring with Friend Beastboy in his man-wolf form. And, watching all of them from a window in Friend Alchemist's workshop was Friend Cyborg.
Starfire exhaled, her feet on the ground for a change, and leaned forward until her palms were pressed flat against the ground. She held the pose as various muscles were stretched in her legs and back, and tried very hard not to snicker ungraciously when she heard Friend Beastboy land a solid blow against Friend Robin.
She didn't need to turn to see that the boy had gotten distracted.
Once her back and calves felt adequately stretched, Starfire raised one leg up into the air, followed by the other after she'd corrected her balance. She wobbled, slightly, as she held her handstand without using her most wonderful gift of flight, then she began to bend her elbows.
Down, then back up. Down, then back up.
Starfire kept her pace slow and controlled as she performed her full body push-ups.
She did not need to, not technically. Blackfire most certainly did not bother with her exercises. But the power that they'd both been imbued with would multiply their capabilities. Improving her base strength was but one of many things that Starfire made sure to work on to maximize the power she could bring to bear.
"Hey!" a voice near the doorway that separated the realm they were in from the 'Earth' they were visiting called out. Turned her head as she kept up her exercises, Starfire saw that it was the Not Jinx that traveled with Friend Alchemist. "Raven! You wanted to watch how this works, right?"
Starfire watched as the dour girl closed the book she'd been reading and stood up. She stowed the book in her cloak, somehow-
Starfire had yet to figure out how Friend Raven did such a thing.
-and approached the small dragon even as she was heading towards a clear spot near the pond.
Starfire's elbows bent one final time before she snapped them straight, launching her into the air just a bit before she caught herself with her flight and began to hover over.
"...How's this supposed to work?" Friend Raven asked as she got close to Not Jinx. "Is Alchemist going to bring every... thing? Everyone? How is he going to move all of the souls of the people here?"
"On my end, it's a spell. Incredibly powerful, it can do almost anything. Emphasis on almost," Not Jinx explained as she began to poke and prod at seemingly nothing in front of her. "Kill someone, curse someone, make them permanently stronger, cure any affliction, it can do it all. Provided you're willing to pay the cost. Which is an extremely expensive diamond and a whole metric buttload of magical power. The easiest application is to use it to replicate 'lesser' spells, but it can do so instantly instead of needing to take the time to do a full ritual and it covers a pretty solid amount of materials, whatever that replicated spell would need. At least, up to a point. So, for me to make a 'new' body for someone's soul to inhabit?"
Koriand'r found herself enthralled by the explanation as Not Jinx extracted two crystals from seemingly nothing.
One was a small chunk of quartz with a dim light glowing within. The other was a diamond, perhaps the size of Koriand'r's own fist and looked to have been cut and faceted by an artisan.
"So, one of the two spells that I'll be replicating is Clone," Not Jinx continued to explain. She lifted up the claw that the diamond was held in and squeezed, the stone turning black before it crumbled to dust in her palm. Meanwhile, right before the small dragon, a hideous little creature took form.
It was an ugly little thing, mostly covered in crimson skin. Its peeling, chapped lips were drawn back in a perpetual snarl, revealing rotted black and yellow teeth. Atop its head sprouted small, root-like growths and its angry, yellow eyes were empty.
Unable to stop herself, Starfire's eyes wandered down the ugly creature's form and found that... it had nothing on its groin. There were no genitalia, nothing to determine what gender the creature could be.
"I... felt something," Friend Raven mumbled, one hand on her chin as she stared at the goblin. "But it... That much magic, it should've lingered?"
"A part of it is this realm. It absorbs cast off magic and uses it to grow. Initially? Alchemist's demi-plane was the size of a utility closet." Not Jinx reached into the invisible non-space and came back with another beautifully cut diamond. "The other?" she asked, her scaly lips turning up in a smirk as both the diamond and the quarts broke apart in her hands. "I'm just that good!"
"...Huh?" the goblin said as it jerked in place, its chest expanding as the inert body came to life. Starfire could see the moment it regained itself, its eyes widening as it took in what stood before it. "Humans?! Ya-hah!"
...And the idiotic little beast leapt at Friend Raven, its hands joining together over its head and ready to slam down on the girl.
Friend Raven, well used to such antics from her (few) spars with Friend Robin, simply slid to the side and allowed the creature to slam harmlessly into the ground.
"...Huh?" the goblin asked. It opened its hands to look at them, as though expecting to somehow find Friend Raven underneath of them. "What- where g- *Bang!*"
Starfire... stared in momentary shock as the goblin's head exploded in a burst of black light. The creature, poorly balanced as it was crouched in place, fell forward as black blood spurted from the gaping hole where its head used to be.
"What-!" Friend Robin shouted, rushing forward from where he'd silently been observing. "You can't just- You murdered that-"
"Gob-lin" Not Jinx slowly enunciated, a bored look on her face. "It literally tried to attack Raven as the first conscious act in its new life. What did-"
"You can't just brush it off like that!" Friend Robin shouted, waving at the corpse, one of its legs still twitching. "You can't just murder people like-"
"Robin," Starfire cut in sternly, interrupting the boy. "These creatures are not the foes we would face in Jump City. And Friend Alchemist and his party are not heroes, not like us. They are warriors, and this beast was a monster. Mercy is wasted on these things."
"But... Starfire..." Robin sounded put out and terribly confused, enough so that Koriand'r's heart hurt. "It's not... right."
"...No, Friend Robin. It is not right," she agreed after a second of hesitation spent looking at the disinterested gaze of Not Jinx. "But you understand that they do not do this to torture the goblins. They do this to make sure that it is safe for them to do this to people."
As a princess, and a warrior at that, Starfire knew that some lives were simply worth more than others. It was an ugly thing to admit to but, at the end of the day, it was simply the truth.
The almost touching moment was interrupted when Not Jinx snapped her claws and the oozing goblin corpse turned to stone.
"Alright, if you guys are done interrupting me? I need to send a message to Alchemist that the method works. Then I need to toss this thing outside somewhere," Not Jinx told the group at large as she nudged the corpse statue with one claw. "So, if you don't mind...?"
Koriand'r closed her eyes and sighed before placing one hand on Friend Robin's shoulder, silently ignoring the trembling she could feel, and turned him away from the corpse.
He was not a soldier or warrior, despite how well-trained he was. She did not know what his history with death was but it was clear that he was not comfortable with it.
A small part of the warrior princess envied him for it.
Another, larger part of her wished that she could protect him from seeing even more of it.
But... she knew she couldn't. As she led Robin back to the cabin, she knew that he would need to come to grips with the fact that he couldn't save everyone.
That he shouldn't save everyone.
AN/ This is the last chapter I've got completed for the main story. Been dealing with some brainworms over in Anime Adjacent.
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
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??/??/???? (Legend of Legaia)
Underneath of Ratayu, Alchemist watched as the Juggernaut made of his own life force continued to grow. Long, pitch-black coils speckled with white spots and dusted with toxic green clouds were wrapped around a large, yellow orb.
The machine that created the titanic entity was... actually something Alchemist understood, surprisingly enough. It was all, when observed the right way, alchemy. And, though his Juggernaut started off as nothing more than a chunk of bloodstained ivory leftover from the last Juggernaut, it was a homonculus.
The previous Juggernaut, the original model, had been made from the lives of countless young women.
Why? What was special about young women?
The answer, Alchemist had found as he'd dug through the documentation left behind by the scientists of Ratayu-
Who were still alive, albeit locked up in a secure wing of the palace overhead. Alchemist intended on paying them a visit before he finished up.
-was that of dominance. Young women in a magically feudal society were not 'Strong, independent women!' They were meek and docile, raised with the intention of being married off to raise a family, and the prototype Juggernaut was intended for Cort, who was supposedly a strong and domineering force.
Alchemist's thoughts on the man were far less complimentary.
There were also some notes on how it would make the beast a better receptacle for foreign life forces, better able to be controlled by people it was less than perfectly attuned to.
Because attunement was apparently a thing, now. The mage thought it might have had something to do with elemental affinity but the few books he'd managed to find on the matter had been disgustingly vague.
Alchemist quietly sighed and turned away from the growing homonculus. It was fascinating, nearing completion at a rate that boggled the mind, but he still had work to do.
His steps echoed loudly in the empty facility whilst all around him the various tubes and sphincters of organic machinery worked; gurgling and burbling and squelching in ways that were disquieting and disgusting. The man... did not care for the organic aspects of alchemy. He would never be able to comfortably walk the same paths as Lezard Valeth from Valkyrie Profile or Yuna from Breath of Fire Four.
Coming upon his enlarged clones, the man cast Full-Cure on them before opening his inventory. He had an idea, several actually, on improving the process of the Juggernaut's creation.
He set out a Bronze, Iron, Titanium, Carbon and Platinum Bangle (HP +10/20/30/40/50%), a Power Suit (HP +100%, etc...), and a Dark Agent (HP +50%, etc...). The Power Suit looked rather like a skin-tight rubber suit with circuitry engraved upon it whilst the Dark Agent was actually a slim bracer coated in some kind of pitch black material.
Finally was a black ring, made from the orange eye of the cycloptic dragon, Calamitas (Damage taken +100%).
If the man had an audience, Alchemist would have snapped his fingers. Instead, the items simply fused together with the 'recipient' being the Titanium Bangle. It was the largest simple item with the lowest weight.
~~ Bangle of Abuse x 13 ~~
~~ HP +300%, MP -100%, Stength +200, Vitality +200, Intelligence -150, Wisdom -150, Skill Experience +50%, Damage taken +100% ~~
~~ What on my green Earth possessed you to make such a thing?! ~~
The mage hefted the light chunk of metal up and looked it over before simply shrugging and snapping his fingers, casting Serren's Swift Girding. The bangle disappeared from his hand to wrap around the base of one of his clone's wings.
Instantly, the clone's hit point maximum skyrocketed, although the base value remained as low as it had been a moment earlier. Minus the now two-hundred HP drain per second.
Alchemist cast Full-Cure on it again and set aside one of the bracers for disassembly later. At the moment, he still had some more fusion work to take care of. To that end, Alchemist pulled out a canteen of holy water and the small vial he'd been given by one of the prototype Juggernaut's victims, a man named Val. The Holy Water of Miracles, or Miracle Water for short, increased all attributes by four points. Alchemist fused the holy water into the Miracle Water-
~~ Miracle Water of Evil's Bane x 13 ~~
~~ All Attributes + 4 (Permanent: HP 9999 cap, else 999 cap), will purify evil entities or else cause 4 damage to evil entities ~~
Useless to Alchemist, his attributes already exceeded the cap offered by the Miracle Water...
But it wasn't actually meant for him.
The mage cast Prestidigitation, 'staining' the ground underfoot with chalk in the form of an alchemic circle with five, smaller circles within. With the use of twenty doses of Alkahest, a sort of universal solvent from Bloodstained, Alchemist reverted one of the combined bottles of water into its original components.
Then he fused his twelve remaining vials of Miracle Water of Evil's Bane and the holy water into the original bottle of Miracle Water-
~~ Miracle Water of Evil's Bane + x 13 ~~
~~ All Attributes + 52 (Permanent: HP 9999 cap, else 999 cap), will purify evil entities or else cause 52 damage to evil entities ~~
Within a few cycles, Alchemist had reached the maximum value possible for most of the attributes. With one more cycle after that?
~~ Divine Water of Absolution x 13 ~~
~~ All Attributes + 9999 (Permanent: HP 9999 cap, else 999 cap), will purify evil entities or else cause 90,484 damage to evil entities ~~
The mage lifted up one of the bottles to the light and let a wicked grin spread across his lips. The cost to make the handful of bottles in his inventory was massive, each tier actually demanding an increasing exponent of Alkahest to disassemble. He literally couldn't hold enough Alkahest in his inventory if he wanted to disassemble the batch he currently had.
The mage uncapped the bottle in his hand and it disappeared, the whole bottle teleported... into the same artificial stomach where his clones were currently held.
The facility began to shake and Alchemist's Juggernaut groaned as he walked back to the place where it was growing. The entity was smoking, slightly, as the green corruption along its scales began to flake and burn off.
As the last vestiges of the Rogue's corruption, a leftover from the prototype Juggernaut, met a hostile force that could, and would, literally erase it from existence.
The man kept a critical eye on the status of the homonculus, watching as its vitality wavered while the enhancements fought against the corruption. The coils slid around the yellow orb it was growing around and a quartet of massive, yellow eyes opened at the end of a great face...
Before the Juggernaut settled back down, slumbering peacefully.
Alchemist exhaled quietly in relief before the grin returned to his face.
All according to plan...
-----
Jinx had slept peacefully after the cookout, her usual struggle with near-nightmares oddly distant for a change. She'd gotten up, fed Ash, Cinder and Reis, then she took a shower and brushed her teeth.
All in all it was a pleasant and surprisingly normal morning.
On the way out the door Jinx raised one claw to stifle a yawn and nearly tripped as her eyes caught sight of the tattoos on her arm. The markings were inked over her scales but they'd also shown up on her human form.
They did not, however, push through to show on her illusory disguises. Which was good since she didn't want to start wearing anything that hugged her wrists.
She'd had too many experiences involving handcuffs to appreciate things like sweaters or formal shirts with sleeves that buttoned a little too tight.
'Shall we test the liminal boundaries betwixt life and death?' Jedo whispered into Jinx's mind, a connection that even Mind Blank hadn't been able to silence. 'Restore life to those which Alchemist has freed from their living torment?'
"...Sure," Jinx offered after taking a second to decide how to deal with that.
Jedo, she'd found, was largely silent and observant. It had an awareness of things around Jinx but it didn't function by sight. It was more akin to some kind of energy detection, mostly attuned towards the living. She didn't know how the... reassigned godling would handle the undead but it would probably be worth testing, some time.
But when Jedo got to talking? They sounded like they went and picked out the ten point words in scrabble.
Checking on the outpost, she didn't see the wizard anywhere. Which meant one of two things. Either he was already inside of the Juggernaut that had eaten Rim Elm...
Or he'd dropped Bilocation and was off doing whatever it was that he was actually focused on and couldn't come back to the demi-plane while he was working on it.
Jinx wasn't sure on what it was, not exactly, but they didn't know -that- many spells that had any reason to be sustained for over a week.
The dragon sighed and looked at the small shack that Alchemist had put together. It wasn't much, really, just four walls and a sloped roof with one of those screen doors that had a metal mesh window.
Pulling the door open, Jinx... actually found Alchemist. He was asleep on a cot against the wall to the left of the door while he had a small, practically tiny, table pulled up to the side of the cot with a clean plate, fork and knife on it. In the far corner on the right of the shack, actually taking up the most space, was an Arcane Enchanter. There was, maybe, a whole two feet of distance between the foot of the cot and the magical workstation.
Or maybe it was the head? Alchemist was actually turned so that his head was on a pillow against the back wall. He'd have pretty much every opportunity to see and react... within something like a second and a half.
Tiny shacks were not especially defensible locations.
Jinx considered the man for a moment as he slept before interrupting his slumber. Black sweatpants and a green tee-shirt weren't exactly special. He had his right hand crossed over his belly while his left hung off the side of the cot. He'd apparently been reading a scroll when he fell asleep, though Jinx wasn't sure which one given that it had landed on its face.
"Hey!" Jinx called. Alchemist stirred enough to open his eyes, then start to slowly blink a few times. "He~ey! Alchemist!"
"Ye-" the man started to say before he broke off with a yawn. Alchemist stretched, his arms and hands popping loudly before he focused on her. "Yeah?"
"You said we were going to work on the people trapped inside of the Juggernaut today, right?"
"Yeah," Alchemist agreed. She could tell that he wasn't running at peak, but the man actually woke up pretty fast. "Give me... Give me just a minute."
Jinx waited at the door as Alchemist sat up, then turned on the cot to place his feet on the ground. The man leaned down and picked up his scroll, then inventoried it before yawning widely.
She didn't say anything about him scratching himself, though she did wince in discomfort when he fully stood up and leaned back, stretching the muscles in his back. She didn't know if she heard something crack or pop.
"Alright," Alchemist said before he began to snap his fingers. One time, and the man's skin turned pink like it'd just been freshly scrubbed. A second time and he started working his jaw from side to side. A third time, nothing seemed to happen but Jinx felt the magic and she was sure she caught an impression of a second Alchemist before it immediately disappeared. "Let me just put on my Incorruptus and I'll get started."
"Not worried about the Seru inside?" Jinx asked as she stepped out of his way so he could get outside.
"Shipped 'em all off somewhere safe. Up at... Zeto? Zedo? What's-his-name, the boss of the first Mist generator. I sent 'em all up there."
That... would work, wouldn't it? At least, if the reality they were in wasn't just spawning monsters endlessly.
Some had, sure. Bitterblack Island and Gebel's Castle had been like that. But the 'Gaia' of Final Fantasy Seven had treated monsters like they were animals in an ecosystem. Dangerous, sure, but they could be scared off or exterminated and the actions would have lasting effects.
Alchemist crouched down, his sweats staining with the morning dew before a hulking suit of armor took his place. At seven meters tall, Alchemist was now almost as tall as the trees. At least until he snapped his fingers with a loud, metallic clang and shrank down to human size.
"Give me about five minutes and I'll have a goblin de-souled for you," Alchemist told her, sounding far more awake.
Jinx had to wonder if possessing an object was refreshing or if it just didn't have all those pesky biological issues. Like, golems didn't get tired but could they feel fatigue?
"Alright," Jinx readily agreed, stifling a yawn of her own with her tattooed claw. "Anywhere special you want me to do the whole rebuild and resoul?"
"Just keep the little asshole away from anything fragile," Alchemist told her with a shrug. "Seriously, I've been in the middle of regenerating and healing the ugly bastards and they still tried to club my skull in as soon as they could."
"...Did you put them to sleep before you did the whole, uh, cutting them up thing?"
"Yes, actually." Alchemist opened an inventory window and began to scroll through it before stopping at something and staring for a moment. "Fully asleep before extraction. Fully asleep during recovery. They didn't accuse me of any horrible evils or have anything to say about pain. They just lose their shit because I prefer to keep up a human shape when I'm working on something so small."
"Well..." Jinx... didn't know what to say about that. "At least you can tell their personalities didn't change?"
"...Fair enough," Alchemist grumbled as he raised one hand up. "Alright, I'll drop the extracted souls into the inventor-"
With a snap, the man disappeared and left Jinx alone in the clearing around the man's outpost.
"...Hah," Jinx dramatically sighed as she considered what she needed to do next. Eventually, she settled on just heading back to the demi-plane. The inventory, unlike most magic, did work just fine across a planar boundary.
And, if it gave her an opportunity to tease Raven?
Well, that was just the sugar on top!
-----
Princess Koriand'r rose with the sun. It was an old insinct of her people, a leftover from their days when they were a less civilized species. Since the wretched, agonizing experiments that had been performed on her? The same cruelties that unlocked powers within her that were long thought to be nothing but myth?
Starfire's need to rise at morning's first light had become more and more pressing.
On Earth, she would often find herself properly waking up atop the roof of their tower. Vague memories in her mind of silently floating through the halls and stairwells that she couldn't fully recall.
So, as long as the skies were clear?
Koriand'r was there to greet the sun.
Her time in the demi-plane, in a strange, new world did not change that. She had found, however, that Friend Alchemist's demi-plane operated on a twelve and twelve schedule so 'morning' in his realm came at the same time every day. It had made her schedule much easier to predict and plan for.
It was rather nice, the warrior princess thought.
And there was more to the 'sun' than first appeared, she'd discovered. In a moment of idle curiosity, she'd flown up to look at the artificial star herself. She hadn't really been able to look into the heart of it for it was incredibly bright but she'd gleaned quite a bit by observing the shell around it. The star in Friend Alchemist's realm was surrounded by a machine of some kind. It seemed rather simple, all told, driven by an electric motor and powered by a solar panel. She knew not by what means it defied the pull of gravity, no, but aside from the obvious magic it was actually a rather basic machine.
Koriand'r enjoyed the strange realm. It was filled with mysteries, magics that offered it a semblance of 'normalcy' that she had most certainly learned to appreciate. Most especially she'd enjoyed the small pond filled with magical water.
And, Starfire thought as a sly grin spread across the girl's face, Robin had most definitely enjoyed watching her swim in the pond.
But morning was nearing its end, at least Starfire assumed so. Her shadow grew smaller and smaller beneath her as the realm neared noon. Not far from her, underneath of a tree full of delicious apples, Friend Raven was reading a book from Friend Alchemist's collection. Not a spellbook, Starfire didn't think. It was called 'Sithis' and there was no name to indicate who had written it.
Friend Robin was partaking in his favorite passtime, well, his second favorite passtime, and was sparring with Friend Beastboy in his man-wolf form. And, watching all of them from a window in Friend Alchemist's workshop was Friend Cyborg.
Starfire exhaled, her feet on the ground for a change, and leaned forward until her palms were pressed flat against the ground. She held the pose as various muscles were stretched in her legs and back, and tried very hard not to snicker ungraciously when she heard Friend Beastboy land a solid blow against Friend Robin.
She didn't need to turn to see that the boy had gotten distracted.
Once her back and calves felt adequately stretched, Starfire raised one leg up into the air, followed by the other after she'd corrected her balance. She wobbled, slightly, as she held her handstand without using her most wonderful gift of flight, then she began to bend her elbows.
Down, then back up. Down, then back up.
Starfire kept her pace slow and controlled as she performed her full body push-ups.
She did not need to, not technically. Blackfire most certainly did not bother with her exercises. But the power that they'd both been imbued with would multiply their capabilities. Improving her base strength was but one of many things that Starfire made sure to work on to maximize the power she could bring to bear.
"Hey!" a voice near the doorway that separated the realm they were in from the 'Earth' they were visiting called out. Turned her head as she kept up her exercises, Starfire saw that it was the Not Jinx that traveled with Friend Alchemist. "Raven! You wanted to watch how this works, right?"
Starfire watched as the dour girl closed the book she'd been reading and stood up. She stowed the book in her cloak, somehow-
Starfire had yet to figure out how Friend Raven did such a thing.
-and approached the small dragon even as she was heading towards a clear spot near the pond.
Starfire's elbows bent one final time before she snapped them straight, launching her into the air just a bit before she caught herself with her flight and began to hover over.
"...How's this supposed to work?" Friend Raven asked as she got close to Not Jinx. "Is Alchemist going to bring every... thing? Everyone? How is he going to move all of the souls of the people here?"
"On my end, it's a spell. Incredibly powerful, it can do almost anything. Emphasis on almost," Not Jinx explained as she began to poke and prod at seemingly nothing in front of her. "Kill someone, curse someone, make them permanently stronger, cure any affliction, it can do it all. Provided you're willing to pay the cost. Which is an extremely expensive diamond and a whole metric buttload of magical power. The easiest application is to use it to replicate 'lesser' spells, but it can do so instantly instead of needing to take the time to do a full ritual and it covers a pretty solid amount of materials, whatever that replicated spell would need. At least, up to a point. So, for me to make a 'new' body for someone's soul to inhabit?"
Koriand'r found herself enthralled by the explanation as Not Jinx extracted two crystals from seemingly nothing.
One was a small chunk of quartz with a dim light glowing within. The other was a diamond, perhaps the size of Koriand'r's own fist and looked to have been cut and faceted by an artisan.
"So, one of the two spells that I'll be replicating is Clone," Not Jinx continued to explain. She lifted up the claw that the diamond was held in and squeezed, the stone turning black before it crumbled to dust in her palm. Meanwhile, right before the small dragon, a hideous little creature took form.
It was an ugly little thing, mostly covered in crimson skin. Its peeling, chapped lips were drawn back in a perpetual snarl, revealing rotted black and yellow teeth. Atop its head sprouted small, root-like growths and its angry, yellow eyes were empty.
Unable to stop herself, Starfire's eyes wandered down the ugly creature's form and found that... it had nothing on its groin. There were no genitalia, nothing to determine what gender the creature could be.
"I... felt something," Friend Raven mumbled, one hand on her chin as she stared at the goblin. "But it... That much magic, it should've lingered?"
"A part of it is this realm. It absorbs cast off magic and uses it to grow. Initially? Alchemist's demi-plane was the size of a utility closet." Not Jinx reached into the invisible non-space and came back with another beautifully cut diamond. "The other?" she asked, her scaly lips turning up in a smirk as both the diamond and the quarts broke apart in her hands. "I'm just that good!"
"...Huh?" the goblin said as it jerked in place, its chest expanding as the inert body came to life. Starfire could see the moment it regained itself, its eyes widening as it took in what stood before it. "Humans?! Ya-hah!"
...And the idiotic little beast leapt at Friend Raven, its hands joining together over its head and ready to slam down on the girl.
Friend Raven, well used to such antics from her (few) spars with Friend Robin, simply slid to the side and allowed the creature to slam harmlessly into the ground.
"...Huh?" the goblin asked. It opened its hands to look at them, as though expecting to somehow find Friend Raven underneath of them. "What- where g- *Bang!*"
Starfire... stared in momentary shock as the goblin's head exploded in a burst of black light. The creature, poorly balanced as it was crouched in place, fell forward as black blood spurted from the gaping hole where its head used to be.
"What-!" Friend Robin shouted, rushing forward from where he'd silently been observing. "You can't just- You murdered that-"
"Gob-lin" Not Jinx slowly enunciated, a bored look on her face. "It literally tried to attack Raven as the first conscious act in its new life. What did-"
"You can't just brush it off like that!" Friend Robin shouted, waving at the corpse, one of its legs still twitching. "You can't just murder people like-"
"Robin," Starfire cut in sternly, interrupting the boy. "These creatures are not the foes we would face in Jump City. And Friend Alchemist and his party are not heroes, not like us. They are warriors, and this beast was a monster. Mercy is wasted on these things."
"But... Starfire..." Robin sounded put out and terribly confused, enough so that Koriand'r's heart hurt. "It's not... right."
"...No, Friend Robin. It is not right," she agreed after a second of hesitation spent looking at the disinterested gaze of Not Jinx. "But you understand that they do not do this to torture the goblins. They do this to make sure that it is safe for them to do this to people."
As a princess, and a warrior at that, Starfire knew that some lives were simply worth more than others. It was an ugly thing to admit to but, at the end of the day, it was simply the truth.
The almost touching moment was interrupted when Not Jinx snapped her claws and the oozing goblin corpse turned to stone.
"Alright, if you guys are done interrupting me? I need to send a message to Alchemist that the method works. Then I need to toss this thing outside somewhere," Not Jinx told the group at large as she nudged the corpse statue with one claw. "So, if you don't mind...?"
Koriand'r closed her eyes and sighed before placing one hand on Friend Robin's shoulder, silently ignoring the trembling she could feel, and turned him away from the corpse.
He was not a soldier or warrior, despite how well-trained he was. She did not know what his history with death was but it was clear that he was not comfortable with it.
A small part of the warrior princess envied him for it.
Another, larger part of her wished that she could protect him from seeing even more of it.
But... she knew she couldn't. As she led Robin back to the cabin, she knew that he would need to come to grips with the fact that he couldn't save everyone.
That he shouldn't save everyone.
AN/ This is the last chapter I've got completed for the main story. Been dealing with some brainworms over in Anime Adjacent.
MaimakteriAnn
(Verified Sleepy)
- Location
- Enormous And Round Terran Homeworld
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Dr
on one hand, pleased for the implication more of this is coming, on the other, you really did seem to be enjoying yourself more with the anime adjacent chapters than you have with the main thread in a while.
Don't worry we love your brainworms
- Location
- Philippines
Speaking of the anime ajacent you think someone will try to get the video of the power testing if they found out about it and if its canon?
- Location
- Texas
Starfire absolutely knowing that she's a tease makes me giggle
Lordamnesia
What are we doing again?
Your Brainworms are delicious so I don't mind a break from the main story. It'll always be there to come back to, which is one of the great things about a hobby .
.