The Wondrous Weaving of Wizardry

Witherbrine26 · Oct 3, 2022

This was a complete and utter disaster. Zouken writhed in the sewers as he commanded his families to seek out the nearest grate.

He had lost the vast majority of his worms, including the ones in Sakura and Kariya, which left him with only the ones he had with him, not even enough to form a human body.

Zouken could rectify that with a few victims, but that still didn't solve the other problems. Since he had kidnapped Sakura, Kariya was most likely on the strange magi's side.

It was clear that he was a magus; as one of the founders of the Holy Grail War, he was quite knowledgable in its functions, and that included knowing if somebody was a servant.

While an Assassin could hide their presence, Assassin was already accounted for along with the other classes. Saber was with the Einzberns; Lancer was dead along with his Master.

Rider was with a young clocktower magus. Kariya had summoned Berserker, Assassin might be dead, but it was also likely that he had faked his death.

Archer had, of course, been summoned by Toshaka. Zouken's lips would have curled if he had any. Trust the Toshaka to summon a loud and arrogant Servant.

Pushing the thought out of his mind, he directed his worms to crawl out of the sewer grate. Looking around, he spotted a target: a woman in her late 20's. She was alone and distracted talking on a phone.

Creeping nearby, he waited until she turned the corner and was hidden in the darkness. Very few people were around, and any noise would be attributed to her tripping.

The worms sprung and climbed up her legs as she took another step. As she shrieked and stumbled back, worms dropped from the nearby walls and landed on her face.

She stumbled as they swiftly slithered down her throat. Lodging themself in her airway, her face soon turned purple as she collapsed, clawing at her throat.

Zouken took a moment to peer around and saw, to his relief, that very few had even noticed what had happened. The few that did notice frowned at what they believed was a simple case of drunken stumbling and continued on their path.

Soon enough, the woman's body had been devoured and rendered into more worms. Shifting them around, Zouken relaxed as he walked out of the darkness in his human form.

He didn't have a backup workshop which he was kicking himself for now. He did know various locations that would work; walking, he started to travel towards the sewers. They were nasty, but they also offered unparallel access to the town.

As he walked, he cast his mind back to the strange magus. While he knew he wasn't a Servant, that did not discount the fact that he was powerful and dared to face him in his house.

It was unfortunate that whatever fire he used seemed to disrupt his focus. Zouken didn't know what exactly it was, but he would have to avoid it in the future.

The fire had incapacitated him long enough for the magus to burn the house down and flee. As he approached the center of the vast sewer system underneath Fuyuki, his body broke apart and was rebuilt once they had passed through the grate.

The last remaining question was whether or not Caster had been summoned. While it was possible, Zouken erred that he had not been summoned yet.

The main reason was that he could sense with his familiar network where the Servants roughly were. Such beacons of energy and his worms fed off that energy, so they were easy to see.

This included other sources such as powerful bounded fields, and Caster's territory was simply an extraordinarily powerful bounded field.

The lack of such a powerful source and no other Master candidates led Zouken to believe that the magus entered the war sans Servant, most likely hoping to steal Command Seals.

Unfortunately for them, Zouken was the creator of the seals and had a few tricks up his sleeve. Summoning a Caster would allow him back on the field where his pitiful son failed.

He didn't have a catalyst which was an issue. While he could summon and hope for a good Servant, that was a fool's errand with all of the powerful Servants in the war.

However, he didn't have a better choice. His house was burnt to the ground; he didn't have time to collect a proper catalyst. In addition, Casters required time to work, and Lancer was already dead.

Drawing out a circle, he stepped in front of it and slowly, with precision, chanted the aria he and his compatriots had made so long ago.

As the summoning finished, he took a step back and placed his hands behind his back, regretting the lack of his cane for a moment.

As the light faded, he beheld Caster's young and seemingly gentle form. Raising an eyebrow, he saw dozens of bloody hands claw their way up from the ground. Dismissing them, he spoke, his voice underlayed with dozens of incest wings.

"I am Zouken Matou and have summoned you, Caster. Cease with these jokes; we have work to do."

Pouting, Caster waved a hand, causing the appendages to vanish. "Sure, fine, fine, ruin my fun; why won't you."

Scowling at his irreverent tone, Zouken barked out. "What is your true name, Caster?"

"Francois Prelati, Caster Servant and grand illusionist!" He boasted while throwing his arms to the side with a grin on his face

Sighing, Zouken started to walk back towards the entrance to the sewers. He could already tell this would be an annoying Servant to manage, but he had work to do if he was to retrieve his daughter, and their no better help than Servants.

Witherbrine26 · Oct 5, 2022

As I sat sipping tea, I hummed and let my thoughts wander to the upcoming fights. I had Lancelot, which meant I had the advantage because he could go toe to toe with most of the other Servants.

I needed to take out Gilgamesh as he was the most significant threat; following that was Artoria, as no matter how much she got her ass beat in Fate, she was still one of the most powerful Servants.

Iskander was easy compared to the others, he had a low Magic Resistance, and so long as I prevented him from getting his Reality Marble up, I could kill him.

Assistance was easy as long as I was on guard, their strength was in numbers, but I could teleport, which removed their most significant threat of mobbing me.

Caster wasn't a factor as I had taken out Ryuunosuke and stolen his command seals. As I was thinking, a thought crossed my mind.

Kirei's father had at least a dozen of them and was a relatively normal human. I could go in and steal them, netting me enough command seals to command Lancelot freely.

I would wait until Sola-Ui finished the operation to head over to the church. As I waited, I finished out my adventuring card and saw I had leveled up. It seemed like Tokoimi was good for something, after all.

Instead of immediately putting it towards Health, I decided to see what other stuff Wizard could get. The vast majority of it was various medium-level spells, things like fireball and lightning bolt, as I had not specialized yet.

Looking away from the spells, I started looking at the other sections. However, Adentruing Card was from a medium power world where a fireball was decently powerful, so not much was helpful at my level.

Pressing on the Health section, I leveled it up again, suppressing the rush of joy and optimism as I grew more sturdy. It was a side effect of being a Monster and having my mental state and HoPe directly connected.

Leaning back, I closed my eyes and took in the aroma of the tea while slowly sipping from the glass. As I was relaxing, I heard the sound of a door slamming open and small feet running.

Opening my eyes, I whirled around to see Shinji standing over the sink as the sound of throw-up splattering into the drain hit me.

Walking over slowly, I waited until he had finished before laying a hand on his shoulder. He turned around with tears in his eyes before looking up at me.

"W-Why would he do that?" He asked, his voice trembling as I rubbed circles into his back. I wasn't the best with children, but I would do my best.

"He wants to win and will do anything to reach that goal, even if it's evil and horrible. Most Magi have a mindset where human rights and common decency come second to accomplishing their goals."

As the tears trailed off, he gave me a quick hug while speaking under his breath. "Thank you for being so nice."

I froze for a moment as my brain stuttered; I wasn't nice. I had used this kid to get Lancelot on my side, not even mentioning what I had done on Earth Bet.

I wasn't a good person no matter what he thought, and I couldn't be a good person either, not when I had to save this world. Perhaps once I left the Nasuverse and helped Earth Bet, I could relax for a bit.

As Shinji started to calm down, the surgery room opened, and Kayria limped out. He was clearly still hurt, but he winced less, and his face was not contorted into a rictus of pain as he struggled to support Lancelot.

Limping over, he waited for Shinji to release me before wrapping him in a hug. It was clear from how he was moving that the worms had been removed. As he let go of Shinji, he looked over at me and politely bowed.

"Thak you, sincerely." He rasped out, and while he wouldn't suffer further damage, his body was already fucked over in many ways.

Reaching into the book, I pulled out a Health Potion and offered it to him. "Here, take this; it should help you."

Looking the small vial over, he thought for a moment before downing it and shuddering. I saw him twice as his body was healed.

A full heal was beyond even the potions aid, but he looked much better now. His eye had cleared up, and his limp was gone. I suspected that the only remaining injuries would be aches and pains.

Coughing slightly, he moved around while testing his full range of motion. Looking at me, he bowed once again while thanking me profusely.

Rubbing the back of my neck, I decided to approach our next steps now. "What's your plan now, I can drop you off somewhere nearby, but I recommend that you either get out of town or stay here."

Still moving, he brought a hand to his chin and started rubbing it while thinking. A few minutes later, he nodded and turned to me.

"I would like to leave town, I can contact Aoi after the war, but I need Sakura and Shinji to be safe." He said with a firm tone.

Nodding, I shifted the Path towards the outskirts of Fuyuki while I spoke. "I'm shifting the Path, so all you have to do is leave; I wish you luck and hope we can see each other again."

Nodding, he took Shinji and Sakura's hands and started to walk out. As Sakura passed me, her eyes flickered up to me, whispering. "Thank you." before counting on with Kariya.

Sticking my hands in the pockets of my hoodie, I let a small smile flicker across my face. The Nasuverse was dangerous, but I hoped they could get a good ending.

As I walked back inside, the Grimoire grew, and I stumbled as knowledge hit me like a brick—all this information related to the moon and strange devices I could build.

Sitting down, I started to parse through what I had gotten. In addition, I pulled out my Grimoire to help me understand.

The newest power was Understand Lunarian Science, and seemed to be how to build reality-defying machines that were related to the moon and assumed that one was building on the moon.

I didn't know what Lunarians were, but from what I could understand, they had built a post-scarcity society on the moon, and I now had the knowledge of how to emulate them.

A vast majority of their machinery would be almost worthless on Earth as they required moonlight and Purity to work. Moonlight was reasonably straightforward to get as I would build the devices outdoors.

It would, however, hamper the machines by causing them to work only at night, and it would need to be a full moon to work at full capacity. The bigger issue was that I didn't know what Purity was, as the knowledge assumed that it was everywhere.

Rubbing my head, I pushed my new power to the back of my mind. I would deal with it later; now, I needed to head to the church to nick the command seals.

Standing up, I stretched my back and strolled back out. I didn't know precisely where the church was, so I shifted the Path to the outside portion of the city and started exploring.

I knew it was on the outskirts of town and reasonably far away from other buildings, but I had no clue about the specifics. Luckily it was a relatively large church, and I found it after only an hour of searching.

As I looked around, I could sense fairly strong defenses; however, unlike the methodically brick-layered defenses of the Toshaka's or the imperial majesty of Gilgamesh's, this was much more reactive and seemed to ebb and flow in accordance to some song I couldn't hear.

I didn't want to walk up to the church and kick down the door, the defenses were built to defend against spirits, and I was not one. It would still be a slog that I would rather avoid.

Knocking politely on the door, I ensured that my illusion was up as I waited for the door to be answered. The door was opened, and I saw the old visage of Risei Kotomine, and behind him was Kirei.

We both froze as I looked at Kirei; I had command seals now, which meant he knew I was a Master, and while theoretically, I could be claiming sanctuary, they were on Tokomi's side, which meant they were not neutral.

A blade dug into my ribs as I twisted myself away from the attack; the ribs on that side vanished as I winced. Pulling on the fire from Arcana of Renewal, the ribs regrew as the fire forged new ones.

I was forced to clench my teeth as it felt like somebody was burning me alive to grow the bones. Raising a hand, I sent out a flurry of white magic towards the Hassan fragment.

Darting back,k more Hassan's stepped out of concealment and charged me. Casting my gaze past them, I saw that both Kieri and Risei had gotten into fighting positions.

Conjuring half a dozen swords, I sent the spiraling towards the Hassan's as I teleported next to Risei and brushed a hand on his head. Pulling on the several dozen sparks, they felt as impossible to move as a mountain. Changing my strategy, I wished a german chant in his ear.

"Sleep, go to sleep, dear elder."

He swayed but did not collapse as the invisible song blazed inside of him, and he took a swing toward me. Taking a step back, I teleported moments again before a Hassan could stab me.

This was rapidly going south; more Hassans were joining the fight, and I couldn't steal Risei's command seals for some reason. I also couldn't leave because I would have a hunt called down on me.

He was also resistant to hypnotism and knew how to fight. He wasn't on Kieri's level, but I didn't know how skillful he was. I would just have to hit him harder.

Conjuring dozens of blades, I sent them flying at the Hassan's and teleported again. As I reappeared, I called up a Gaster Blaster and sent the blast flying towards Kieri. As he threw himself out of the way, I pushed out blue, freezing time within fifteen feet of me.

I couldn't hold it for long, so I looked into Risei's eyes and hit him with another stronger pulse of hypnotism; a moment after, I hit him again and again.

When the time stop faded, he collapsed, and I grabbed him. Twirling out of the way of another hit by Kieri, I teleported back. Only a few of the Hassans had been hurt, and even fewer had been killed.

I had my goal so it was time to leave. Teleporting away, I chained teleports back towards the beach, where I opened the Path and walked inside.

I had Riesi. I now needed to figure out a way to steal the command seals. The best way would be to use Brainwashing on him. I could then either keep him as a battery or dump him back at the church.

Dropping him on the ground, I shouted over to 5.0. "I need another circle ASAP, and no slacking!" Grumbling, he got to work.

As the Grimoire grew and faded back, I leaned over Riesi and started the ritual. It would be fairly simple; I only needed for him to give me the command seals, nothing complex.

Powers Gained
Understand Lunarian Science
You have a comprehensive knowledge of Lunarian science, the same scientific technology that built a post-scarcity immortal utopia on the moon. You can integrate this technology into things you build, such as making something that can run without any need for a power source, somehow drawing power from the moon itself.

deadlyham · Oct 5, 2022

I just realized that your protagonist probably doomed Earth Bet. Immortal Undead Queen Khepri rules several worlds from her throne built from Zion and Eden's corpse. Just a funny thought that 2 shots to the head won't stop her with her not-die-amulet.

Apocryphon · Oct 6, 2022

deadlyham said:
I just realized that your protagonist probably doomed Earth Bet. Immortal Undead Queen Khepri rules several worlds from her throne built from Zion and Eden's corpse. Just a funny thought that 2 shots to the head won't stop her with her not-die-amulet.

The shots weren't to kill her, which Contessa could do with a single bullet, they were to sever her connection to her power which I don't think the amulet can prevent, so at the end of the day even if she goes Khepri Contessa could still neutralize her.

Witherbrine26 · Oct 10, 2022

As 5.0 got the circle up and running, I started the ritual on Risei. While Sola-Ui had been relatively simple to brainwash, he was more difficult.

It was not enough to stop me from brainwashing him, but it did cause me to take more time. Soon enough, he was standing in front of me, glassy-eyed and awaiting orders.

I went with a simple robotic personality; I didn't need anything fancy. Grasping his hand, I spoke to him. "How do I transfer the command seals?"

"You must say God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth, John 4:24."

Nodding, I repeated what he said, and as I finished, the seals dissipated from his body and appeared one by one of my bones crawling up and around my arm.

As each one appeared, there was a dull throb similar to that feeling when you poke a bruise; I used that to count how many seals I had.

By the time the last seal had transferred over, I had counted thirty-one, which meant I now had thirty-six command seals. That was insane; a single seal allowed a person to fight servants for a bit in addition to the ultimate commands they could give.

Looking down at them, I hummed; I knew that three could incarnate a Servant, which could be helpful. Their effectiveness also went down the broader a command was, and I knew that not even one hundred seals would allow me to give absolute commands.

I now needed to find Gilgamesh and kill him. Despite his power, he was not yet incarnated, which meant he had a little less than a week before he faded.

In addition, he would likely be running with less than a full tank of gas even if he ate a few souls. That, however, required me to find him first, which would be a hell of a task.

My best bet would be to hang around the Toshaka manor and wait to see if he popped up. That had other points of failure, but it was my best idea as of right now.

Gesturing for Risei to follow 5.0, I walked back inside and sat down in the kitchen. I settled back and was ready to counter my planning, but I started when I saw Komainu approaching.

I waited for her to speak as she clambered up next to me. "What are you planning on doing now?" She asked while resting her head on my shoulder.

Letting out a hum, I responded. "I plan on going after Gilgamesh. I need him out of the way; otherwise, he could fuck everything up. In addition, his soul is worth three times as much as the other Servants, so that would speed up the Holy Grail War."

That was another issue; by not summoning Caster, I had removed a soul from the running, which meant that I would have to face Iskander or Artoria at the end. They were not quite as powerful as Gilgamesh, but I couldn't fight an army alone, and Exclauber was on par with Ea.

I could theoretically tell Waver how to incarnate Iskander but left other issues, mainly because despite his charisma and personality, he was still a warlord and openly stated that he wanted to reconquer the world.

I was started out of my thoughts by Komainu giving me a tight hug. Coughing slightly, I endured the hug while giving her one back. Hopping out of the chair, she waved goodbye and ran off.

I needed to find something that could keep her occupied, she was fine with guarding my house, but she shouldn't be forced inside this pocket dimension all the time.

Standing up, I walked over to my minions and, one by one placed them in Castle Brunestud. I left out the pre-Grimoire me's as they would only be a discretion.

The plan so far was to find Gilgamesh and then distract him with my minions while I hit him from the back; if I put him down fast enough, he wouldn't pull out Ea.

If he used Ea, the plan was to run as fast as possible and hope he didn't have the anti-teleportation barrier up. That meant I needed to have him off-balanced and focused on fighting instead of thinking.

Strolling out of my home, I walked towards the Toshaka manor. I was not teleporting because I needed to conserve mana. Lancelot was floating behind me in spirit form as we traveled.

I frowned as I checked the moon's phase. It was easy to do, given my connection to Castle Brunestud, and it was not good. The phase was a waning crescent, which meant I would be at my weakest in a few days.

As of now, I was around threefold stronger than my base, which, while powerful, was a far cry from my most potent; during a full moon, I would be twelve times stronger, but that was weeks away and would be after the Grail War no matter how I tried to drag it out.

As I approached the manor, I saw a figure standing outside it looking inside. The figure was a bit hard to determine who it was at this distance, so I crept closer. I frowned as I saw that it was Kirei and he was walking inside.

Even if Gilgamesh was not here, I could still get the Hassans out of the war by killing him. Standing up, I walked up to the doorway and took a moment to conjure the melee Caldablog for Lancelot before stepping inside.

As I stepped over the shattered frame, I felt the Grimoire grow before it fell back with only the bubbling energy in my marrow.

As I approached, I was cautious not to alert Kirei. I peeked around the corner and spotted two figures conversing in the living room.

The first was Gilgamesh clad in his resplendent gold armor; he was lounging on the couch and sipping from a glass. The other figure was Kirei, whose back turned to me and seemed twitching.

"Why have you approached me?" Gilgamesh asked, his tone bored as he swirled around the wine in his glass before taking a sip.

"I wished to form a contract with you, your majesty," Kieri said in a submissive voice with his head slightly bowed, awaiting an answer.

Gilgamesh looked at Kieri as he spoke and frowned; he was clearly mulling the idea over. He placed the glass down and spoke. "Very well, I will permit you to contact me."

Nodding, Kieri reached out a hand, and at that moment, I knew I had to interview. I couldn't attempt to wear down Gilgamesh if the contract was formed.

Reaching my hand out, I simultaneously sent white magic flying toward the duo and focused on one of the burning sparks that crawled up my body.

"Berserker, by the power of my command seal, kill Kieri!" As I spoke, Lancelot blurred past me and towards Kieri as I stepped out of the doorframe.

Snarling, Gilgamesh forced himself to his feet, all talk of a contract forgotten as the Gate of Babolyn opened and weapons started pouring out.

Empowered by a command seal, Lancelot reached Kieri before he could do more than take a step back, or the Gate could hit him. A single thrust through the chest, followed by Caldabolg cutting his head off, killed him.

Noble Phantasms promptly slammed Lancelot into the wall as he had left himself open. Screaming, he emerged from the wall, the altered Caldabolg in one hand and a plank of wood in his other.

Scowling, Gilgamesh was forced back as Lancelot started swinging and would not stop. It was fairly even until Gilgamesh opened the Gate wider, throwing out more weapons.

While Knight of Owner allowed Lancelot to grab the Noble Phantasms that were being fired out and use them for batting the others away, he still only had two hands, and the new deluge of attacks forced him back.

As I stepped forward, that changed. I opened the Gate on my end and threw out weapons of my own. It was much less effective as the Gate did not grant knowledge of its contents, so I was forced to pick randomly.

That meant I could throw Gram or a dagger that would shatter from hitting the air. I was able to mix in weapons from Unlimted Blade Works to force Gilgamesh on the defensive, but I was still at a massive disadvantage.

As he opened more portals, I teleported out of the way of another attack as I raised a hand. "Berserker, by the power of my command seal, unseal Arondight!!" I cried, which was followed up with another shout. "By the power of three command seals kill Gilgamesh!"

The mist and blackening corruption that infected Caldabolg faded as he dropped the wood plank. A sword was unsheathed from his waist; at one point, it could have been a wonderful holy weapon, but now it was a tainted blade.

Moving so fast even I couldn't see him, Lancelot hit Gilgamesh over a dozen times in a second. As more weapons flew out, I could see that his armor was dented, and he was bleeding from a few cuts.

His armor could stand up to Excaluiber, so it was not surprising that a lesser weapon was not as potent. However, the command seals helped to even the playing field.

Charging again, Lancelot slammed into Gilgamesh again and again in a self-destructive charge in an attempt to kill him. At the end of each clash, Gilgamesh worsened; that was not helped by the fact that he was forced to fend off my assaults.

However, Lancelot was harmed as well; in his maddened state, he followed the command seal's orders, which meant trying to kill Gilgamesh no matter what, which meant he was heavily wounded.

Abruptly Lancelot slowed down and was promptly hit by half a dozen blades forcing him to the ground bleeding from several dozen wounds. As this happened, Gilgamesh flicked a wrist, and a spiked golden chain slithered out of the Gate and swirled around Lancelot, binding him in place.

That was Enkidu, and I knew Lancelot was not getting out in his wounded state. Raising my staff, I sent a salvo of Eldritch Blasts towards Gilgamesh, forcing him to look towards me and pull a shield out of the Gate. As he opened his mouth to speak, I sent another Eldritch Blast his way.

As the shield blocked the magic, his eye twitched as he opened his mouth and started to shout at me. "You dare! You have not only stolen from the King but dare to attack me with stolen implements, mongrel!"

"I dare!" I shouted as my mind raced; he was wounded and angry, but Lancelot was out of the fight, and I couldn't face him alone. As he threw more weapons at me, I teleported inside his guard, slammed my staff across his face, and pulled us into Castle Brunestud.

As he stumbled back and his eyes flicked around, I sent my minions forward. They would only stall them, but I needed the time to keep him off balance; if he used Ea, it was all over.

As he fought off the minions, I started to chant as I pulled out the Mini-Hakkero. All I needed was to get off a blast, and with the massive boost from being under a full moon, I could kill Gilgamesh.

"The Ray of Destruction, a Master Spark. Stolen Spells, impervious lies. Ancient Machinery empowered, Magitek anew. Magical might grows as mountains fall under Love. This is a Ray of Destruction: Master Spark!"

As I finished the rushed chant, I held out the small device and expelled a large beam of magic. I saw Gilgamesh's eyes widen as he held up his right arm, pulled out a flowering shield, and braced himself. It was incredibly bright, so I shielded my eyes; if this didn't work, I had a few more backup ideas, but even in the seat of my power, I was still burning through mana at a prodigious rate.

As the glow faded away, I swore Gilgamesh was heavily wounded; he was missing his right arm, most of his armor was burned off, and burns covered his body.

"So you have forced me to use this mongrel. Know that you are lucky that your death will be swift." Gilgamesh snarled out as his remaining hand slammed into the air, causing a crack in reality to appear.

From this crack, he pulled out something that caused my eyes to twitch and my brain to hurt. It was a long 'sword' covered in twisting red sigils with a golden hand guard.

I knew this was Ea, meaning he was winding up for his most powerful attack. The Grimoire grew as I raised my hand to send out another salvo. I was distracted for a brief moment as the power faded away, but it was enough to disrupt my concentration.

"It is time for judgment. My Sword of Rupture tears apart the world. Emma Elish!" Gilgamesh cried as the blade spun, he was spinning it up quickly, so it was less powerful, but I didn't have anything that could defend against it.

As I stared down the oncoming store, my mind flitted back to something I had heard about long ago. Excalibur was equal to Ea and could be produced by Unlimted Blade Works. I didn't know if it was true, but there was no harm in trying.

I held a hand and focused on the swirling winds I had seen that masked Excaliber and the rod of light I had seen through a screen. In only the most deluded fantasies could I replicate something never seen, but that is what I could do, Fantasy.

As I focused on the impossibility I was trying to forge; I felt my magic circuits rupture as the unstable energy poured through them and demanded more.

The ruby in my skull fractured and exploded as it poured more energy into my floundering circuits. Collapsing on one knee, I saw the sword form in my grip; swinging the immaculate blade, a beam of light exploded towards the howling Genisis.

However, I knew it wouldn't be enough as Excaluber shattered into a million pieces. Castle Brunestud was cracking as Ea tore it to shreds. As the energy poured over me, I charged forward in a desperate attempt to at least take Gilgamesh out.

Feeling it rip me to shreds, I attempted to call upon my magic only for it to spasm as my remaining circuits quivered, and the vast pool that flowed from my ruby was gone; blackness overtook me as Emma Elish washed over me.

When reality returned to focus, I felt the full moon peering down on me. Around me, I could see the sky overcome with red pulsing cracks as the real Castle Brunestud that could only exist here kept itself intact.

Raising my staff, I could feel the toll reforming my body had taken on my soul gem. It was almost overflowing, and I had only the barest cantrips left in me. I was unable to use my other magic as the best mechanism to filter the energy; magic circuits were writhing about and dying.

As four Eldritch Blasts flew out, Gilgamesh looked up, surprised. He was wounded and almost on death's door, but he still dodged the first two.

The third skimmed his leg and caused it to buckle, allowing the fourth to take him in the chest, blowing a hole in it. Stumbling, he grit his teeth, and the Gate reopened for a moment, only for it to flicker and vanish as gold trailed off him and his mana ran dry.

"You dare?" He rasped as he collapsed, his body fading. "I.. am... the... King," Hitting the ground, his body exploding into golden particles. Seeing this I stumbled back, Castle Brunestud fading around me as I arrived back in the destroyed Toshaka manor; as I hit the ground, blackness surrounded me as my soul gem failed to reach across the distance to support my soulless form.

Powers Gained
None

Tiz Goldeneye · Oct 10, 2022

The ending confused me. Either 1 Ea hit the soul gem, which would end up with the protagonist dead due to their soul shattering like glass, but this also clearly didn't happen due to the soul gem being intact during the last scene. Or 2 the protagonist called on too much magic to fight off Gilgamesh which meant that the soul gem ran out of magic and didn't have enough power to support it's primary function, meaning the protagonist's mind and body died, while their soul turned into a Witch. This seems to be the note we ended on, but since the story isn't likely to end here I'm assuming I either missed something or there is a very powerful deus ex machina about to occur. As a result I'm left somewhat listless and vaugely confused about how we are supposed to take these events.

Witherbrine26 · Oct 14, 2022

Waking up was a slow, arduous struggle and reminded me faintly of school days that seemed so long ago. I looked around as I slowly sat up, and the covers fell off me.

My bedroom was in shambles, the ceiling and a vast majority of the right side were gone, and the rest was heavily damaged. The bed and dresser had escaped mostly undamaged, as they were the farthest away from the ring.

Swinging my legs over the side, I realized that I was not wearing anything except a pair of shorts. Walking out, I saw that the rest of the house, while slightly damaged, had escaped far better than my room.

However, as I stepped into the kitchen where Komainu and Sola-Ui were eating, blackness overtook my vision as I dropped to the floor as my soulless form escaped the range of my soul gem.

Waking up for the second time, I felt a heavy weight lying on top of me. Blinking, I saw Komainu lying on top of me and scowling at my face.

"Be careful, you idiot!" She shouted, worry marring her face. "Do you know how terrifying it is to find you collapsed, surrounded by destruction, and you can't do anything about it?"

Raising my hands under the assault, I encircled them around her and gave her a firm, if awkward, hug. "I'm sorry; I didn't want you to get hurt."

Sniffling, she tightened the hug. We sat there for a long while before I started to squirm in an attempt to get out of her grip. While I liked(loved) her, I was not a very touchy-feely person.

She ignored that and simply tightened her grip, causing me to sigh and lean back, allowing the hug to continue. Eventually, she released me and sat up before speaking.

"I can't force you to stay inside because you would be miserable, but you need to be more careful." Nodding, I also sat up and allowed her to embrace me in another hug. This one lasted much shorter, thankfully but was no less sweet.

Hopping off the bed, she left but not before giving me a look that promised pain if I did anything stupid. Signing, I got up and shuffled over to the sock drawer where I stored my soul gem.

Rifling through it, I pulled out the small pen and peered at the green gem on the end of it. The gem was halfway corrupted; reaching back in the drawer, I grabbed the Shard and tucked both pen and Shard in my pocket as I walked back into the kitchen.

Sola-Ui was at the sink washing off the dishes while Komainu was helping to bring the cutlery to the sink. Sitting down, I rubbed my hands over the top of my skull like somebody would run their hands through their hands.

I needed to reforge the rings as I didn't want my soul to be on me, which was a massive weakness. I also needed to remake the ruby, which wasn't even about my magic circuits.

Poking them, I winced, projecting that Excaluber had done a number on them, causing most of them to tear themselves apart.

They weren't destroyed, merely heavily damaged, but that meant that even with my ruby, I would be down a ton of mana which meant my tactic of throwing weapons at people via Unlimted Balde Works or the Gate of Babylon.

Speaking of the Gate, I opened it, which caused me to wince as that took a considerable amount compared to the drop in the bucket earlier. Reaching my hand in, I went for the bottle that could revert time on the user.

I wanted to have it on hand just in case, as it was better to be weakened than dead. However, I felt nothing inside the Gate, not even as I searched for things I had used earlier. It was as if the Gate was empty.

Swearing under my breath, I realized what had happened. It seemed that the Gate was a unique deal and linked to Gilgamesh. I could piggyback off his with Blood of Kings, but when he was gone, all of his treasures vanished with him removing the main power of the Gate.

Without the vast array of treasures, it was just a hammerspace that could fire items. It would take forever to restock it, and until then, it would be mostly useless.

Pulling myself from my thoughts, I headed outside and frowned, seeing the lack of 5.0 or any of the other simulacrum. The only sign they had been here was a small bag of Dust accumulated over the past few days.

Picking it up, I sifted it through my fingers and strode over to my small forge. It had been damaged by Ea leaking into my home. It was terrifying how a sliver of a weak blast from the weapon had blown a hole in my room and damaged the rest of the pocket dimension.

Getting to work, I started to fix up the forge. The vast majority of it was sealing cracks and rearranging the tools and other items. However, a few of the tools, as well as the main forge, had been broken.

The tools were easy to replace, and the forge was a bigger pain. I was forced to break it down and rebuild it, which, while not very difficult, was time-consuming given my inexperience with this type of work.

I had plenty of information stuffed in my head, but it was similar to having a book next to you as you built a table. It would take time to flip through the 'pages' and figure out how to fix the forge.

As I finished, I took a step back and felt the Grimoire grow, and I felt a slight tug in my gut that quickly faded away. I didn't know what new power I had been granted, but I had other work to do before I figured out that new power.

Dusting off my hands, I decided I could take time to fix the house. It would, unfortunately, take a decent bit of Dust, but it was better than having a home sans the roof.

Pulling Dust out of the pouch, I got to work. The task was simple if time-consuming; I would toss the Dust towards the holes and mentally change it to what was needed to fix that missing part.

I knew that I was only papering over the issues, but seeing as I didn't know how to build a house and I couldn't bring a construction team in to fix it up.

Humming, I finished up. It had taken a few hours to patch over the holes. The makeshift repairs would be an issue with any ordinary house, but inside this pocket dimension that was always calm, I only had to worry about a stray breeze.

Only Artoria and Iskander were left, Caster had not been summoned, and Assassin would have faded without his Master. I only needed to kill one of them then I could command Lancelot to kill himself.

Following that, I would have to destroy the Grail. I could attempt to rules-lawyer a wish that would destroy it, but that was a firm last resort.

Tapping my fingers on the table, I stood up. I knew that Sola-Ui was quite good with spiritual surgery, so she might be able to help fix my magic circuits; she was no Kieri but better to try than not try.

Knocking on the door leading to her room, I leaned against the wall and waited. Soon the door was opened, and she curtseyed before waiting expectantly.

"As you can tell, I got into a bit of a scuffle and may have blown out quite a few of my magic circuits. Can you help?" I asked, rubbing the back of my neck somewhat sheepishly.

As I finished, Sola-Ui's eyes widened in a manner that may have been comical in any other context. She promptly grabbed my wrist and pulled me inside her room. I allowed her to pull me along.

"Lay down." She directed while pulling out tools and muttering under her breath as I followed her orders. As I was lying down, she slowly muttered mystical words as she examined me.

Hissing through her teeth, she returned to the table and grabbed more tools and reagents before speaking to me. "This is going to hurt. I can fix the less damaged ones, but quite a few are beyond my skill to repair."

Nodding, I placed my head back on the table and clenched my teeth. Soon excruciating pain surged through my entire being, and my hands spasmed. The sides of the table where I had been gripping exploded as my hands slammed shut.

I shuddered as the pain counted and attempted to take my mind off the pain by breathing through my nonexistent nose. It was strange to take calming breaths when you didn't need to, but soon it was over.

Staggering off the table, I saw Sola-Ui calmly placing the tools back. I saw a few marks from where the wood shards had hit her. However, none of them were bleeding.

Gently poking the circuits, I winced as the damaged ones pulsed with a dull throb. She had managed to repair six, which left me with nine. That was better but a far cry from the twenty top tier I had gotten from the power.

"Thank you, Sola-Ui," I said as I went to leave. As I opened the door, I stopped as she spoke behind me. "I would recommend being more careful next time, the circuits connect to the soul, and if the prana doesn't have an outlet, it may detonate inside your soul."

Gulping, I gave her a nod and walked back into the main room. I needed to be careful from now on. I had survived due to luck and Gilgamesh being arrogant as hell; if he had been serious, I would have been dusted immediately.

I needed a method to fight Artoria, she was easier than Gilgamesh but not by much, and if she got off Excaluiber, I would be in deep shit.

The best plan would be to kill the Master; I should be able to find him near or around Einzbern Castle. If he wasn't there, I could kidnap Irivesal and force him to reveal himself that way.

The issue was that Kiritsugu was an intelligent man and was already willing to let his wife die for his nebules goal of world peace. I didn't know if he would be willing to sacrifice her earlier.

That wasn't even getting into his accomplice, whose name I couldn't remember, or the fact that if I died before the Grail reached completion, that could spell disaster.

I decided to push the planning back. I needed to reforge the rings and get a new ruby; this time, the ruby should have better throughput.

Rummaging through the Dust bag, I frowned; fixing up the house and forge had used a decent chunk of the Dust, which meant that I would only have a pinch or two after my work was done, less if I tried to get fancy.

Striding towards the forge, I soon had it started up and working. The job was straightforward and didn't take much time with Master Craftsman. The enchanting process took longer and took the remaining day as I lacked the sheer volume of mana I could throw at it before.

The next step was the ruby. However, I decided to start from the basics as I had the time, and it would be enhanced by Master Craftsman if I did.

Humming, I started to work. The ruby itself I conjured from Dust but the surrounding mix of metals that I would use to allow more throughput I made from the ground up.

The task itself was simple, two rubies and small electrum wiring to allow better mystical conductivity. I would then wrap the red-hot wiring around the rubies and quench them.

I then placed the first ruby in the connection point for the batteries' containment circles. The other went inside my skull, and I soon had both up and running.

I was still down a fair chunk of mana from when I had all my circuits up and running, but it was better than nothing. As I stretched with a grin from a job well done, the Grimoire grew, and new physical information filled my mind as I decided to check out my two new powers.

Powers Gained
ANOMNOMNOMALIES
Covering Auriga are strange places full of strange things. These can be mushrooms that sing to you and make a delicious bread, giant spines of stone that erupt through the earth and are held in place by a base small enough for a child to wrap their hand around it, red barked trees that are covered in flames yet never burn to down, to a fabled "tree" a hundred feet tall, made purely out of wind blown Dust. You have a wonderful habit of finding each and everyone one of them. No matter where you are, there will always be some strange, Endless made wonder for you to explore, examine, and gain from. I happen to LOVE Mosspearl jam myself. You might be more keen on a Escaped Specimen X104 steak, served with ruby cacti fruit wine on a bed of sauteed redsang?

For ANOMNOMNOMALIES and Landscapist, an Anomaly is any thing, place, area, lifeform, that clearly breaks the laws of reality, or are so distinctly unusual they can not be considered natural. The Zone in STALKER is a good example of a nonEndless anomaly. The weirder and more unnatural a place is, the stronger its anomaly nature. One helps you find weird places, things, and items, the other helps you draw power from them.

Physical Enhancement
Magical girls have to be fit. But when a monster is bearing down on you on your first night, that's a bit late to hit the gym. Fortunately, your power includes some basic enhancements.

Muscles a dozen times as powerful, capable of letting you lift cars without hurting yourself, tossing people through walls, and running across rooftops.

A full-body reinforcement by the same factor, protecting you from your new strength, as well as making most enemy attacks into lighter punches. Not completely ignorable, but you'll take a good beating without going down.
Enhancements to balance and reflexes, as well as some acrobatics training settled into your mind so you can use your new abilities to roofhop and stand on telephone poles without issue.

Tiz Goldeneye · Oct 15, 2022

It is unfortunate, but this is where I will need to bow out. Unfortunately, due to the low community involvement, this sort of just makes it appear like I'm ping-ponging my opinion between chapters. Still, I'll see if I can't end on a pseudo high note with a constructive review.

While I've had many complaints over this story's run, the thing that has finally caused me to call it quits is an issue with suspension of disbelief. In chapter 34, the protagonist's soul gem was "almost overflowing", yet during chapter 35, it has been reduced to "halfway corrupted" due to the gem being moved off screen to be next to the shard to prevent the story from ending. This ignores that the main character can't be awake to notice this because the gem hasn't made contact with his body so his consciousness shouldn't exist in his body by the rules established in PMMM. It's clear the protagonist will always live and always win even when it breaks internal logic to do so, and if internal logic is not being broken, the story is not being told in a way that I'm able to understand it. Because the story will always continue there are no stakes because the main character doesn't need to follow the rules of the magic system they have if it will let them continue the story. As such I have no desire to continue reading.

Yet, for all my grumbling, let it not be said there were not parts of this story I didn't like. In my review after chapter 30 I listed several aspects of the story that I enjoyed reading about. Even more than that, after that review was posted, Wither took the time to address those of my concerns they were reasonably able to, which speaks very highly to both their character and willingness to work with their audience. In that respect I offer commendation. Finally, and above all, while certainly an imperfect story (for what story could be?), this was an excellent showing of someone writing using the Celestial Grimoire prompt. This was something I really appreciated, as the Forge is the most famous of the various Jumpchain writing exercises, and so there aren't as many stories using the Grimoire. Therefore, it must be said, that if this story inspires even a single other story, then it was a story worth writing, because it gave someone else an idea to write. Finally, it must also be said, that if even a single person has enjoyed this work (and from the like button counter they have) then this was a worthwhile story worth telling because it gave someone else a story that they enjoyed and felt was worthwhile to read.

For that reason alone if nothing else, I wish all who continue on with this story great fufillment in what you read. While to @Witherbrine26 I wish you both success in the future of what you write and an ever growing skill as a writer.

Witherbrine26 · Oct 21, 2022

The power grew as new physical information filled my mind. As I walked to flip through the Grimoire, I could feel a few changes in my walking for it to be more optimal.

Flipping to the second most recent page, I started to read through it. What it was saying was strange, and it took me a few minutes to decipher what it was saying.

It allowed me to find 'strange' locations, things, or even people much easier, and the more it is unusual or breaks reality, the easier I could discover it.

It seemed that the faint tugging feeling I felt in my head was pulling all around me. It appeared that it based unusual off-the-base laws from my home and not from any of the new places, given that Komainu was pinging in my senses.

The following page was an all-around physical enhancement, whether improving my already massive strength to something that would allow me to throw trucks or balance on a tightrope.

While nothing flashy, the second power was still beneficial if somebody tried to close the distance assuming a would be helpless.

Snapping the Grimoire closed, I strode back inside. I needed to find Artoria today and kill her. The combination of Lancelot and my prowess should make short work of her.

The current plan was to goad her out in the open with Lancelot using Ardnoight, which would allow himself to be identified; I could then use her discretion to attack her from behind.

If that failed, I could also attempt to find Kiritsugu but knowing him; he would be holed up someplace I can't see. In addition, Artoria could beat Lancelot once she used Excaliber, which meant my plan of leaving them alone was dangerous, but so long as I pulled him out, it should be fine.

Walking out, I started back towards the Einzbern Castle Lancelot by my side, still astralized. The walk through the town was peaceful, but I was on edge; something felt off.

I didn't know if it was my new sense from ANOMNOMNOMALIES, but something about Fuyuki seemed off. I knew that I could sense things that were not natural, but if that extended to things like mana, my life would be hell.

Holding out a hand, I focused and conjured a single word from white magic. I could feel a slight tug from it, yet as I focused on pushing it out of my mind, I stopped feeling the pull.

Releasing the magic, I focused on the tugs surrounding me and pushed them away over the next few seconds. Smiling, I counted to walk my mind free of the constant interference by magical anomalies.

Soon I arrived at the forest that held the Einzbern Castle. Running through the plan one more time, I lifted off the ground and started to fly through the woods.

It wasn't all that much faster than walking if I wanted to conserve energy, but it allowed me to avoid ground-based traps like claymores.

Gliding up to the castle, I was forced to pull apart a few traps of magical origin. They were very basic, and all that was required was tugging at the power source until it snapped. Then I could pass through.

Arriving at the castle's front gates, I could see they were still broken from Iskander's assault. Pulling my staff out, I raised my command seal covered left hand, and spoke.

"By my command, seal unseal Ardnoight." With a wailing groan, he complied and materialized by my side. Flying through the entrance, I arrived in the courtyard where the banquet of kings had taken place.

"Come out, King Arthur; Lancelot wishes to face you!" I shouted. As we waited, I could hear hushed whispers with my enhanced sense.

Artoria emerged from the entrance to the castle proper and strode out, head held high, two hands on the hilt of the invisible Excaliber.

I could, however, see the faint hitch in her steps as she saw Lancelot without his corrupting mist. Floating away, I spoke to her."I'll leave you two at it then, shall I'll?"

Receiving a sharp nod in reply, I settled down far enough away that I could watch the fight as well as keep an eye on the castle windows.

They both hesitated for a brief moment before charging. With another command seal, Lancelot sped up with a roar or primal rage, Ardnoight blurring even to my excellent vision.

With that, the relatively even fight tilted overwhelmingly in Lancalot's favor as Artoria scrambled to keep up with the overpowering assault by the most martial knight of the round table.

Casting my senses out, I looked in the castle windows trying to catch a glimpse of Kiritsugu before he could shoot me. As a precaution, I pushed my personal timeline closer together, so my time sped up.

It would allow me to hopefully teleport out of the way if he shot at me. While a Wall of Force would be a better choice, I didn't have the gas in my soul gem to throw around powerful spells.

Darting my eyes over to the fight, I saw that Artoria had been hit several times and was on the back foot while Lancelot screamed and swung even faster.

With my time sped up, I could hear the crack of a rifle and teleport blindly. Even with my time sped up, I was almost hit, which could have been my end.

My eyes flicked over to where the bullet had hit, and I then looked toward where it could have come. Teleporting into one of the rooms, I saw a figure sprinting through the doors, rifle in their hands.

Raising my staff, I sent a flurry of white magic at their back that splashed harmlessly against the wall as they turned the corner out of the room.

Snarling, I took to the air and flew after them. Despite my relatively fast flying speed, the figure, which I determined as Kiritsugu by the clothing and the way he had folded his timeline fourfold, was able to dart through the castle at high speed preventing me from getting a solid shot off.

Reaching out a hand, I grasped his timeline and started to smooth it out. It was difficult as anytime I smoothed a section, he would scrunch it back up, allowing him to stay ahead of me.

I teleported next to him to rectify this issue, causing Kiritsugu to dart back and drop his rifle. Whipping out another gun, he raised it to fire, only to be stopped as I lunged forward. My own timeline shorted and grabbed his wrist.

I didn't know any fancy moves, so I wrenched his arm to the side, ignoring the loud tearing noise as his tendons snapped and his arm was dislocated.

I then used his lack of focus to slow him down. This time he could not speed himself back up as his thoughts and casting were slow enough for me to counter.

Reaching out a hand, I grasped his right hand and focused on the three bright sparks. I then pulled on them, relieving Kiritsugu of his command seals. The downside of this method was that the servant contract did not come with it, but Artoria would fade in a few minutes.

As I raised my hand to finish him off, the castle wall distorted, and a pillar of stone slammed into my chest, knocking me back away from Kiritsugu and leaving me barely hurt. I faintly registered a few of my mental barriers going down.

Casting my senses around, I didn't see anything and was forced to duck as another pillar sprung out of the stone and missed me. Stumbling to his feet, I noticed Kiritsugu lunging for the gun on the ground.

Darting towards it, I was much faster than him in his slowed state and picked it up, having to avoid another pillar after I grabbed the gun and tucked it in my robe.

As I was distracted by getting the gun, I looked up to see Kiritsugu running strength at a wall. He was now moving at his accelerated speed, and as I raised a hand to alter his timeline, another pillar swung at my head, forcing me to abort the change and duck.

Looking back at him, the wall he was charging toward split open and enveloped him leaving behind the same castle wall he had been charging at. I felt a few more mental barriers drop as I spun on my heel and flew back towards a window.

I didn't know who was attacking me, but it was not good. They were proficient in mental attacks and some method to warp stone fast enough to use as a weapon.

Peering out the window, I saw that the fight had turned in Artoria's favor. A small figure had joined in on her side, and it seemed he was helping despite her not wanting to collaborate.

On the other hand, Lancelot was staggering around like a graceful drunk. While able to block a few of Austria's swings, he was still alive mainly because Arotria was more engaged in arguing with the other figure than in fighting him.

Teleporting down, I slammed my staff on the pathway and cleared my throat as Austria and the other figure, now revealed to be a young boy, turned to face me.

"I thought this was a one-on-one fight?" I asked, tilting my head while looking at Artoria. "Unless King Arthur can't win her own fights and has to rely on others to win duels." As this happened, I burnt a command seal to get Lancelot to stand down.

Gritting her teeth, Artoria's hands tightened around the invisible hilt of Excalibur. Ignoring the obvious signs, the other person stepped in front of her and politely bowed.

"It is truly a pleasure to meet you, Caster." He said with a mocking tilt at the word Caster. "I must say you have done a fine job of messing this war up, and my Master is not pleased one bit."

My hand tightened around my staff as I looked at the child, I didn't know who he was, but given what he had said, I could assume he was Caster and had been summoned by an outsider in the war.

"I do apologize for almost single-handedly winning the war." I drawled out, leaning forward and allowing the green flame that made up my eyes to flicker merrily before standing back up.

"I do suppose that is a big deal for Casters." He said while grinning. "Anyway, just came by to check up on these fellas and see if they want to join us." Turning to Artoria, he asked. "Do you want to join us?"

Her eye's wavered back and forth between me, Lancelot, and the child before said child intervened. "I have your Master safe and sound; give us a bit, and we will have a new contract up and running."

With that assurance, Artoria nodded and turned back to face us. This was going south fast; we had King Arthur and a real Caster against Lancelot and me.

While Artoria will fade away in a bit, the contract was still connected to Kiritsugu, which meant all they needed was a command seal or something of the sort to pin Arotria's existence in place.

The bigger problem was that a real Caster could hand me my ass. I was powerful, but that was only because I was an out-of-context problem able to win fights if a vast array of impossible or strange magics.

A proper Caster could see through all of that in an instant and counter me. As the four of us stared off, the Grimoire swelled again. I could feel a strange connection with the land surrounding us, somewhat like the understanding of where Anomalies are from ANOMNOMNOMALIES.

Pushing that to the side, we started off ready for a fight as I went through my plans. I would try to fight, but if worst came to worst, I would flee and come back another day.
Powers Gained
Landscapist
There are many anomalies that cover this world, their magic gleaned but not understood. You, you understand it. You have listened to the voices of the Rumbling Stones. You have won a staring contest with a Wizard's Eye. You have eaten the fruit of the Life Tree, and you understand. Whenever you are within an anomaly, your magic is more powerful, growing with the strength of anomaly. Inside a chroma land, your spells would be rainbow hued and blinding. While standing within the whispering confines of the Ice Sculptures your spells would deafen your foes and sound as music to your allies. If you stood upon the Dust Tree, maybe, just maybe, you'd be on par with an Endless. You also have a better understanding of all anomalies, and how to best benefit from them.

Trainerzygarde · Oct 22, 2022

That Landscapist is going to be soooo useful! If it doesn't matter whether or not the anomalous object or place is okay with him, then imagine what would happen if he fought while near the Holy Grail in the endgame? What does this mean about Bounded Fields and Reality Marbles? Does this mean that if he's caught up in Unlimited Bladeworks he's also going to be tossing around weapons?

As you can see, many possibilities.

Witherbrine26 · Oct 31, 2022

I started the fight by raising my hand and sending a stream of white magic. The words flew towards the two; Artoria simply sidestepped the projectiles while Caster ducked beneath them.

The issue with Bullet Patterns was that it only taught me how to use simple patterns that could easily be avoided. Burning another command seal, Lancelot charged Artoria. I would take on Caster as I had seen he could mess with Lancelot.

While I was not very good in a melee fight, a proper Caster would be even worse from what I knew of Fate. His childlike form and size would only amplify that.

Charging towards him, I was forced to sidestep and dodge various attacks that grew from the soil around me. They were decently fast but not enough to harm me now that I was expecting it.

My staff twirled around me as more of my mental barriers fell. Whatever he tried to do failed as he barely managed to throw himself under the edge of my staff as it swung just over his head.

Surrounding himself with dirt-made barriers, I slammed my staff through it, only for more dirt to replace what I scattered with my blow.

I had burnt a decent chunk of mana chasing after Kiritsugu, but I could use my soul gem a bit; I didn't have a method to check, but last time I checked, it was around half full should give me some low-level spells.

Shooting a glance over to the fight between Artoria and Lancelot, it was clear that she would be dead if Arotria didn't do something soon. In addition, I could see the faint glimmers of gold flaking off her form.

This would generate a decent chunk of grief but knocking Caster out of the fight would be worth it. Tapping my staff on the ground, I cast Wall of Force around him; it was a wall that was impossible to bypass without teleportation and could only be destroyed by disintegrating it.

It would prevent him from getting out and allow me to help Lancelot kill Artoria. Turning to face Artoria, I flung white magic at her. They couldn't damage her, but her slight flinch when they struck threw her off and allowed Lancelot to land more blows.

Making sure to keep Caster in the corner of my eye, I allowed Lancelot to take the lead and only sent out a smattering of white magic bullets when needed.

My main goal of the fight was to kill Artoria, but I also needed to recover some mana I had spent, so using only my most cost-efficient magics was prudent.

In addition, Artoria was fading fast; her form was becoming increasingly indistinct with each passing moment. I could also see Caster getting irritated and muttering under his breath; however, Wall of Force blocked sound.

Turning my attention back to the fight between Artoria and Lancelot, I saw it was finishing. Artoria had failed to block a swing with Excaluiber, and her wounded arm had taken the blow and severed her arm, causing her to drop Excaluiber.

I doubted it would work, but I had to try; teleporting forward, I mentally directed Lancelot to push Artoria away. As I arrived next to the dropped blade, Lancelot swung Arondight, forcing Artoria to duck underneath it.

The swing was followed up with a devastating punch that slammed into her face and knocked her to the ground. Covered in blood and fading, Artoria still attempted to rise but fell as she put weight on her severed arm.

Grabbing Excaluiber, the swirling wind faded as I grasped the Holy Word. The word beautiful failed to describe it, and I was almost brought to tears by the blade that represented all of mankind's hopes and dreams.

Opening the Gate of Babylon, I dropped it in there. I suspected that the Gate was atemporal because when fully powered up, Gilgamesh managed to use things from the future. That should hopefully allow me to store Excaluber until I can anchor it and prevent it from fading.

As I stood up, I caught the end of Artoria's life. Lancelot had swung Arondight down on her neck, severing her head and causing it to roll across the ground before fading away into glimmering gold.

Ignoring his mournful keen, I strode back to the Wall of Force and peered inside at Caster. I didn't have any spells that could reach him inside it, so I would have to open the Wall to kill him.

"Lancelot over here, you're going to kill this Caster once I drop the wall." I barked at him. I looked over after he didn't respond and snarled. He was bent over where Artoria had died and was unmoving.

I didn't want to burn a command seal as that could build resentment, and having a pissed-off Lancelot after was a one-way trip to being murdered. What would be even worse would be letting this Caster get away.

Dropping the Wall of Force Caster started to run, and I raised my hand, ready to use a command seal. I was cut off by a shell from a massive gun slamming into the ground next to me and exploding.

The blast caused the majority of the left side of my body to dust and flung me dozens of feet away. I was lucky a direct shot would have killed me; ranged weapons were also worse at harming Monsters due to the emotional distance a gun gave.

Stumbling to my feet, I looked up and saw what had attacked me. It was a massive airship similar in looks to a blimp; teleporting to the side, I managed to avoid another of the ship's shots. Dismissing Lancelot to astralize, I ducked inside the castle.

Swearing, I looked around amid cannon shots for Caster and couldn't see him. He must have used the airship as a distraction to flee. Speaking of the airship, I peeked around the corner to see where it had gone.

Strangely enough, the airship was gone, and as I looked around further, I felt another pulse as another mental shield fell. I didn't know what they were trying to do, but it was ineffective, as my shields were powerful.

It used Skidmark's power and its exponential principle to make the shields further down more powerful, preventing a vast majority of attacks and working best against many small ones.

As I downed a healing potion causing my arm to grow back, I felt the Grimoire expand with no new powers. Casting my senses out, I carefully stepped out into the ruined courtyard, careful and ready to teleport at the slightest sign of danger.

However, I saw no danger; it appeared that Caster had fled with the help of what was either a very progressive Magus or a mercenary.

I doubted that a person who summoned a Caster servant would use modern weapons, even ones that were suped up on magecraft. Shaking my head, I directed Lancelot to follow me.

It didn't matter; I now had a new goal; kill Caster and his Master. While I could have Lancelot kill himself and bring the effective soul count in the Grail to six, that would not prevent Caster from swooping in and attempting to grab a wish.

I also needed to make sure that Iskander or Waver didn't die. That could be a problem, given that Waver was a pathetic magus right now.

He would be good in a decade, but as of now, he was a cowardly child who could barely stand beside Iskander without cowering.

He would be easy prey to any competent Magus, especially one who had access to what was effectively a cannon. It didn't matter how powerful Iskander was if Waver was hit with a shell from miles away.

Opening a Path, I walked back to my house thinking. Iskander would be an excellent person to ally with. With the Gordius Wheel, he could attack the airship easily, and very few magi could harm servants, let alone fight them.

That, however, could be shelved for later. I needed to find where the Master was holed up and attack him. While that could be foolhardy, it was better than letting a Caster get set up.

Opening the door to my house, I nodded to Sola-Ui and Komainu before sitting down. If I could figure out the Caster's name, that would benefit me greatly.

I, however, had very little to go on. He was some form of reality bender and had a mental attack. That did not bring anybody to mind, given that people like Alita and Artoria were gender-swapped and nothing like their stories that muddled the waters even further.

I rubbed my forehead before standing up and walking outside. I would wait until 6.0 and 7.0 arrived in the morning with their Dust and have them search the city. I would have to 'update' their powers, but it should speed up the job with them searching.

Until then, I resolved to take a small nap; the weather was mild, and the sun was high in the sky. I remembered enjoying laying in the grass and sleeping under the noon sun. I could also use the break from planning and fighting to relax.

As I sat down, Komainu darted over before sitting next to me. Laying back, I patted the spot next to me, inviting her to lie down.

"I'm going to be taking a nap; feel free to join me," I said. Grinning, she nodded and curled up next to me, her head resting where my arm met my body.

Closing my eye socket, I slowly breathed in and out while clearing my mind. It took a while, but I soon fell asleep.

Waking up came slowly, and I could feel the nap's benefits. I may not need sleep physically, but the mental benefits were many.

As I got to my feet as I, Komainu, clawed sleepily at where I was before curling up into a ball. Looking up at the sky, I saw that the sun was setting and the air was cooling.

Smiling softly, I scooped her up before walking back inside and setting her down on my bed. I tucked her under the covers before leaving and softly closing the door.

I still had around ten to twelve hours before 5.0 and 6.0 came back, which gave me plenty of time to work. I didn't have any Dust, which limited what I could build, but I did have a few scraps.

I wanted to improve the sturdiness of the rings. As seen by Emma Elish, they could be destroyed, and if I weren't in my soul, then I would have collapsed and died.

I would need proper supplies to truly make them perfect, but materials like mithril were hard to come by, and I couldn't make them out of Dust as I had no clue what their composition was.

However, I did have a few scraps that I could use to reinforce them. Striding over to my workstation, I pulled out the leftovers of my projects, there wasn't much due to me conjuring the vast majority of what I needed with Dust, but there was some.

I couldn't directly mess with the rings as that could break the portal between the two of them, and it wasn't worth reforging them if I didn't have a significant upgrade in mind, so I would be plating them.

Humming, I started to get to work. The task was simple, and Master Craftsman provided the bulk of the technical know-how.
As I was working, the Grimoire started to grow.

Blinking, I noticed my posture and adjusted subtly, and I could tell there was room to optimize my spells, mainly in allowing me to throw out more damage for less mana.

Finishing up, I replaced both rings in their respective places before flipping open the Grimoire. The new power was called Battle Forged and gave me an average person's skill in martial combat and some magic skills.

The material side was leaning towards using a staff which unsurprisingly combined well with my magical girl staff. The magic, on the other hand, strictly provided the knowledge to improve the direct combat applications of my magic.

Closing the book, I looked up at the night sky and sighed. I had hours until the simulacrum arrived. I decided to reread the Grimoire to pass the time, so I sat down after making a cup of tea and got to work reviewing the book that was the source of my powers.

Powers Gained
Battle Forged
Everyone who's anyone here is a hardened warrior, so now you are too. With this comes an average human's talent in melee (including everything from general swordplay to hand-to-hand), ranged combat, or battle sorcery, which focuses on your typical heal/buff/elemental projectile trifecta. Skill in both magic and weaponry can be obtained for a loss in some effectiveness in both due to the split focus. Valkyrie essentially receives skill in all three, though they still must make a choice as to which melee weapon and ranged weapon they use and which combat type they're most proficient in.

Witherbrine26 · Nov 7, 2022

While the book was only forty-four pages, it was dense. Each page had a basic description for each power, but it also contained every single detail possible.

The issue was that every detail mainly consisted of how a power worked in the specific instance that I could use it. Class Card Heart, for example, detailed what precisely a class card could do when implated but not what a class card was or any other uses.

This was less prevalent with the more powerful ones like Master Craftsman or Castle Brunestud. However, it was still irritating and meant most of the night was spent attempting to pull new scraps of knowledge from the Grimoire.

While I didn't get new skills or any other improvements, it was time well spent as I now understood my powers better. If I went against somebody with the same power, I would still lose, as seen with Gilgamesh, but I felt like I was slowly working to bridge that gap.

Closing the Grimoire, I set it to the side and stood up. Walking outside, I could see the sun rising. I didn't quite know how it worked, but the pocket dimension seemed to work based on what time it was anchored in.

That meant that outside it would be sunrise. I was curious how it would work if anchored to the NeverNever, but I resolved to test it at some point.

Sitting down the small stairs leading into the house, I waited for my simulacrum to return. They would arrive at dawn to drop off the supplies and then leave to expand the Dust filters.

As I waited, I traced over the patterns for bigger Dust filters. I knew how to make filters that could cover entire oceans, but those required the resources of an empire to build. I would start smaller.

Looking up from my thoughts, I saw a skeletal figure walking up the Path with a sizeable bag held over his shoulder. Strangely enough, I did not see the other simulacrum, which made me frown as I waved him over.

"Where did the other one go?" I asked as he slowed down and dropped the sack at my feet.

"Zouken jumped us; it turns out that worms with his soul in them work quite well for murdering Monsters. We were heading back when a swarm leaped out of the bushes and ate 6.0."

My frown grew; that was a significant issue. I had managed to take Zouken by surprise, but now that he was prepared and knew some of what I could do, a brutal fight was ahead.

While he was at his lowest point, he was still a magus that had lived half a millennium and founded the Holy Grail War. That was leaving out his lich-like immortality; so long as one of his worms existed, he would live.

I also assumed he was the one who summoned Caster as he would have the knowledge on how to cheat the system, as seen by Cursed Arm Hassan.

That meant he had a powerful Caster and Kirisatgu on his side, both of which were powerful. Their only flaw was that they lacked a frontline fighter, which left them at a disadvantage against Lancelot.

I bemoaned the fact I had been unable to grab any Origin Bullets. That would have been incredibly helpful, as a single shot would kill both Zouken and Caster.

Picking up the sack, I peered inside and grinned. This was a bounty of Dust that most people would kill to have even without Arcana of Matter. I didn't have any use for it currently and had even less time to waste.

Hauling it towards the forge, I folded the top closed and rested the sack next to the forge. The weather was always lovely, so I didn't have to worry about rain or wind messing up my work.

Clearing my throat, I shouted out to 5.0. A few moments later, he shambled around the corner rubbing his eye-sockets. "I'm going to be updating your powers; then we are heading out," I said as I poked their heads and did just that.

As they were twitching and assimilating their new powers, I went inside and checked around to see if anybody was up. Sola-Ui and Komainu were fast asleep.

I wanted to have Sola-Ui let Komainu know that we were leaving, but she was asleep, which nixed that plan. As I scribbled out a note, I let my mind wander briefly. I needed to get Sola-Ui something else to do; sitting around all day was not a good use of her time, and even helping with basic household chores could help.

Pushing those thoughts to the side, I finished my note and walked back outside, seeing that 5.0 and 7.0 had finished with their assimilating; I also gestured for Lancelot to follow along.

"7.0, where were you jumped by the worms? Zouken will most likely be somewhere around them." I asked as we started walking towards the Path.

"Near where the docks meet the suburbs, they crawled out of what appeared to be a half-open sewer grate." He replied as I shifted the Path toward where he described.

The Path was short, and 7.0 led us to where Zouken ad attacked him. It was a fairly standard road except for two things, it was completely empty, which, while that would be normal this early in the morning, not even insects dared to approach.

The other was I could spot a few spots of strange fluid where the worms had died. The bodies had been recovered, but Zouken had missed a few fluid splatters.

As I approached the sewer grate, the Grimore swelled again; however, the energy bubbled before settling back down.

Shaking my head, I leaned down and lifted the sewer grate. It was easy, as something had already pushed it off the hole, which allowed me to get my fingers under it, and my enhanced strength did the rest.

"Follow me, keep your eyes peeled; we're going into close quarters, and I do not want to get jumped," I said as I hopped into the sewers with the others following close behind.

Landing in a crouch, I straightened as I peered out into the gloom of the rank sewers. I didn't know where Zouken was holed up, but sewer systems could stretch for miles, and I would have to take my time.

Summoning my staff, I strode into the depths, taking a moment to conjure Celestial Fire on the top of my staff. It would grant me greater sight and be a source of fire I could quickly expand.

The search was long and tedious; we did run across a few worms, but a blast of Celestial Fire quickly dispatched them; it did, however, mean that he likely knew we were coming.

That would, however, not save him, I thought as we explored the sewers. Soon we discovered the highest location of his worms which meant that he was nearby.

As we scoured them away with Celestial Fire, I saw a group of them merge together to form the decrepit form of Zouken and speak.

"There is no need to continue this way, I do not wish for conflict, but if you bring it, I will fight." I twitched at this; he had attacked us in the castle. He should have stayed out of the war if he didn't want to fight.

"You would have stayed out of the war then," I said as I raised my staff, unleashing another gout of brilliant celestial flame. Zouken's worms collapsed into a writhing swarm before the fire could reach them, allowing some to escape.

Scowling, I stormed further into the sewers with my staff prepared and my head on a swivel. What I was doing might be stupid, but I wasn't allowing a five-hundred-year-old magus and Caster to have any more prep time.

Soon enough, we arrived in the lair of the duo. It was fifty covered in squirming worms and corpses in various states of being eaten. As I walked forward, I saw a different figure, not Caster or Zouken.

He looked very similar to Caster, except he was more real. Servants were spiritual beings which to the average man didn't mean much, but I could tell with my Arcanum that this boy was not a Servant.

"Who are you?" I asked while my simulacrum and I raised our staves, ready to attack. The figure laughed as he unwrapped a small red and white candy and popped it into his mouth before speaking.

"Francis Prelati, the alive one, not the Servant. Side note the food nowadays is quite good, especially the candy." That was not good; the only thing I knew about Prelati was that he was the person who good Gilles de Rais to do all the terrible things he did; what that meant in the Nasuverse, I had no clue.

"I'll give you two options then," I said, speaking firmly. "First, you can surround and leave, or we can fight it out, and I don't place a three vs. one in your favor."

He chuckled in response to that before flicking his wrist, distorting the area around us to form spikes from the sewer walls. We were prepared for the attacks, so it was simple to dodge around them.

As I dodged, I raised my staff and sent out gouts of flame; the Celestial Fire burned and caused Prealti to dart back and raise a wall. The fire did not care and burnt through the wall and into his flesh.

Shrieking, he fled deeper into the tunnels sending a few spikes behind him. They were far off the mark and allowed us to get to work. This appeared to be a morbid larder of some sort, and it held dozens of bodies, all fueling Zouken's twisted Magecraft.

The Celestial Fire burned away what Zouken had made and caused me to grin; he would be pissed that I had destroyed his second workshop. After we cleaned up the larder, we continued on, wary of traps.

As we arrived in the next chamber, I saw Prelati talking to Zouken. Raising my hand, I sent a flurry of white magic to gain their attention. Quickly moving out of the way, they both turned to face me.

"I'll give you one more chance, you can leave and forfeit your place in the war, or we'll have to fight, and that will not go well for you, Zouken," I said with my staff outstretched scintillating colors of blue and purple played across it's top.

He smiled briefly before clicking his fingers and allowing the worms that make up his form to pull apart as Prelati ducked back and started raining spikes upon us.

Simultaneously a bullet tore through 5.0's form, causing him to collapse; he could only gasp before dusting. My eyes darted towards where the shot came from, and I saw the form of Kirisatgu duck around the corner. Snarling, I sent a salvo of Eldritch's Blasts at his disappearing form, causing the wall to be blown apart.

Behind me, I heard a voice chanting and whirled around as 7.0 went on the offensive against Prelati. Raising my staff to attack Caster, various worms got in the way, slowing me down.

"I make an offering. To this broken world, I offer blessings and thanks, and sacrifices! I offer thanks to mother Atë, born the embodiment of madness! I offer blessings to the holy spirits of the world, who taught me magecraft, the madness of men! "O' saint and knight who showed me a different madness, neither of you were mistaken! I make an offering! To all humanity, permitted by this broken world, I offer the sacrifice that is me!"

As he finished the chant, he gave me a nasty smile and uttered the last two words that would activate his Noble Phantasm, "Grand Illusion."

The Noble Phantasm blew past my mental defenses as I scrambled to fight back. I could faintly feel the Grimoire expanding before I opened my eyes to my surroundings.

My voice was stuck in my throat as I looked at my surroundings. My house was very similar to how it looked in Castle Brunestud, except for a few key differences.

The house was missing, the cars were still there, and the mailbox was at the end of the long driveway, but the entire building was gone. I could see clumps of ice and snow around the edges and rubble from where the edges of the house had failed to be transported. I didn't know how but I was home.

Powers Gained
None

Apocryphon · Nov 8, 2022

His Arcanum perk gives him ranks in Prime which can let him see through illusions, although since Prelatis Grand Illusion can apparently change the texture of the world it might not properly count as an illusion, but even if Prime doesnt work he still has Landscapist which should definitely count this as an unusual and unnatural place.

Witherbrine26 · Nov 14, 2022

I started slowly walking towards my ruined house. Something was off; a niggling sense in the back of my head was trying to shout at me. Pushing that aside I entered the ruins and sighed.

I had tried not to think about what had happened since I had left. My escape from the Nevernever was rushed, and I didn't remember most of it except for the fae who helped me escape; however, I did remember that my house was brought along.

Sitting on a piece of rubble, I held out my hand ad focused on the churning pool of energy I now had. I had found a strange Grimoire that granted me magical power and allowed me to see the wider world.

On the other hand, I also had gotten the attention of He Who Walks Behind and the Outsiders. He had also called me his Foe with a capital F. I didn't know what that meant, but I would have to face him someday.

Allowing my magic to bubble up, I sent out words of white magic. Blinking, I noticed that they seemed strangely ephemeral and morphed themself into spikes of rubble covered in ice.

Standing up, I looked around and allowed that strange feeling to resurface. Something was off about this place. Recalling back to how I got here, it made no sense.

Prelati had used what I presumed to be his Noble Phantasm, and I had arrived here. However, that wouldn't work; teleporting me back home would require the Second Magic, and only Zeltrich had that.

As I ran through the memories, they seemed to slip between my fingers until a mental barrier finally snapped up, followed by another, as my layered defense slowly established itself.

He had used his Noble Phantasm; I presumed it was called Grand Illusion, and it trapped me here. Flicking my hand up, I opened a Path and started to walk down it ignoring the pang of longing coming from the illusion.

Striding down the Path, I heard a rustle behind me and whirled around, spotting Caster Prelati. He was irritated and had a look of anger on his face. His mouth moved, but no words came out.

Raising a hand, I recalled my staff into my hands and chanted while I palmed the Mini-Hakkero. "I'm really pissed off; your gonna make me scoff. I understand you think this is a lark but piss off, or you'll have a taste of my Master Spark!"

As I finished the chant, I raised the Mini-Hakkero and sent out a Master Spark empowered by my slapdash chant as it was. Scowling at me, he stood still, allowing the blast to take him head-on.

As the mountain-destroying beam faded away, I saw no signs of him. Frowning, I reopened the path to Zouken's larder as I thought about why he might have sacrificed his Servant for no gain.

I then froze. To Zouken's knowledge, the only Servant left was Lancelot, which meant the grail was filled with six souls. That meant he could wish himself immortality.

Tearing opening a Path, I flew towards my house. Zouken did not know that Gilgamesh's soul was worth three, which meant the grail had seven souls. Seven souls could punch a hole in the Root and allow Angra Mainyu to be resurrected.

I redirected the path toward the temple when I arrived at the house. I had not been to it. However, I knew that was where the grail was most likely to manifest.

Flying out, I couldn't see anything, but I knew that the Greater Grail was in a cave, so that meant little. Breathing in, I cast out my Magesight and recoiled as it penetrated the mountain.

Inside the mountain was a source of overwhelming power and Evil. This was not the simple run-of-the-mill evil either. This felt black and seemed to twitch as I looked it over.

Flying over to the entrance, I floated down until I was bare inches above the ground and moved in. I held my staff up and allowed my boosted eyesight to scan the cave.

As I emerged, I could see the massive pillar that formed the Greater Grail spasm and start to ooze slightly. The more concerning issue was that Zouken was standing in front of the Grail, leaning on his cane.

Raising my staff, I focused and sent out a streak of white-hot lightning. Zouken was distracted by seeing his lifelong wish about to come true and was hit full in the back by the bolt. I could see the sparks arching throughout his form, made up of millions of tiny worms.

As his body fell apart, I counted the surrounding area in Celestial Fire to ensure he could not escape. Setting down on the ground, I frowned as I looked at the Greater Grail and the corruption spilling from it.

It had power equal to seven souls, so it would only be a matter of time until Angra Mainyu was born. I knew that while the servant version was somewhat chill, that was only after he found love.

While he was an innocent boy forced into the role of All The World's Evils, using the grail, he could become Angra Mainyu, the Zoroastrianism god of evil, which was somebody I was incapable of facing.

As I peered at the malevolent energy, I saw the point where he had stuck first in the grail. It appeared much darker and was where all the other power came from.

A wish would not work at this stage, and I lacked the pure power to destroy the grail; however, if I mixed those ideas and pulled Angra Mainyu out of the grail, that might work.

Raising my hands, I waved my staff and conjured white magic words to surround the grail and its slowly encroaching tide of mud. The next step was to summon a simulacrum. This one was braindead, as its job was to act as a vessel.

I made it look as similar as I could remember to Angra Mainyu's body. As I worked, I felt the Grimoire bubble up and felt my staff grow and change.

Whereas before, it was a simple wooden stick with a purple-blue gem on the tip. It was now ornate and inlaid with strange shimmering metal and had a groove like my hand had rested on it for eons.

In conjunction, I felt what basic magic I was able to pull from the staff warp. I had used the staff as a jailbroken Staff of the Magi, which allowed it to have a few new spells but not much else.

Now, however, I had access to almost the full breadth of Liam's powers. That meant I was the equivalent of a powerful warlock. I could make deals that exchanged anything so long as both sides agreed on it sans magical compulsions.

I also gained a lot of new spells, and while most of them were helpful, the one that I focused on the most was Dream of the Blue Veil. It allowed one to travel the multiverse so long as they had something from the universe so the spell could lock on.

Shaking my head, I got back to work. I would use my Arcanum to separate Angra Mainyu from pure magical energy then his soul would flow out according to his wish to be born.

He then should hopefully follow the path of least resistance into his body where I could kill him. However, if worst came to worst, I would have cast Disintegrate the grail.

Focusing, I twisted the pure magical energy away from that one black spot on the side of the grail. As the magical power shifted away from Angra Mainyu, the mud slowed and stopped without the fuel to expand.

Shaping the energy, I created a small tube for Angra Mainyu to follow into the simulacrum. I then hollowed out the inside of the simulacrum to make it a void of soul and magic.

At the same time, I felt the magic churning and rapidly depleting as a wish was made. However, as I had provided an easier job, the grail followed the path of least resistance and shoved Angra Mainyu down the tube and into the body I had made.

The body promptly collapsed as a controlling consciousness. I then raised a hand and summoned half a dozen swords. Peering up at me, Angra Mainyu only managed to open his mouth before he was impaled all over his body.

Pointing my staff at his body, I focused on the soul escaping it and cast Soul Cage. The soul was then pulled into my waiting hand, where it was stuck for the next six hours.

I would need to stick it in a circle before I did anything else. The last step was to make sure the grail was dormant. Opening my mage sight, I looked inside and saw an empty cup.

That meant the grail would recover in sixty years, and given the lack of Angra Mainyu, it would also grant wishes properly. Spinning on my heel, I wondered how this world would change based on what I did.

The Matou's would likely grow up as a somewhat normal family away from the Moonlit World. Rin would be a brilliant magus but would not complete the Jeweled Sword and, in all honesty, be folded back in the Edefelt line, given the lack of anybody to speak of for her.

Shirou would grow up with his birth family and live normally, given he would not gain the mindset or knowledge for Unlimted Blade Works. Waver would follow his original path, as I hadn't made any significant changes between him and Iskander.

Tearing open a Path, I strolled back towards my house. I needed to get a new simulacrum up, but until then, I needed to get Angra Mainyu into a containment circle.

I needed a way to ensure he stayed asleep, but until then, I could have a simulacrum keep an eye on him. Walking over to where I kept my batteries, I carved the standard circle into the ground.

I followed it up with an additional two circles to ensure that even if the first one broke, the simulacrum would have time to fix it. The only different part was forcing the soul out of Soul Cage and into the circle.

While Angra Mainyu was able to form, a whispy and indistinct body attaching the batteries to the circle caused it to destabilize and become a free-floating soul.

As the energy flowed into my system, I gasped. The weakest servant had tripled the amount of energy I had available. This was major as my biggest issue after my HoPe was magical energy.

The only thing I needed to improve was my soul gem's capacity which I had a few ideas about now that I had access to Liam's ability to trade HoPe to enhance aspects of myself. I would only get half of the HoPe I spent to improve that aspect, but I had plenty to spare due to my focus on my adventuring card.

It would reduce my survivability if I was hit but being a Monster made sure that taking multiple hits was not an option. My new power also made my magical girl form one of my most powerful tools as I gained access to his pact features and pact spells. I did not gain access to his personal spells or acquired powers.

Walking back inside, I flipped open the Grimoire and started to read over my new skills. Humming as I looked over my new powers, a slight grin circled on my face.

I counted as a level fifteen dealmaker warlock. I also gained Liam's invocations at that level; I didn't know how gaining proficiency in deception would work in real life. However, the other skills gained were quite noticeable.

I could make deals that could trade anything, even concepts. The person who failed to hold up their end of the deal would take one hundred and fifty points of nonlethal psychic damage.

Once again, I had no clue how this would manifest in real life, which was an issue with the more gamey side of this new power. The last power I got was a few new spells, mainly ones that revolved around forcing somebody to do something or strange illusion-type ones.

The two outliers were Polymorph and Revivify, I didn't know why I got them, but a method to bring people back to life would help a ton, even if it needed three hundred gold of diamonds which was another thing I didn't know how it translated.

As I closed the Grimoire and leaned back, I felt its energy expand. As the energy tapered off, I felt a strange new garment envelop my form. Looking down, I saw that I was wearing a brilliant red robe that went down to my ankles. However, it was much fancier than a normal rove and could look like a dress if one looked at it sideways.

I also appeared not to be wearing anything else. Opening the robes proved that I didn't have anything on—no underwear, socks, or shoes.

I didn't show much as I was a skeleton, but it was a bit strange. Dismissing my staff caused my everyday clothes to come back, which proved that it was linked to my magical girl powers.

Shaking my head, I decided to get started on returning to Earth Bet. Dream of the Blue Veil would allow me to get back fairly easily without the need for strange rituals.

Powers Gained
Absolute Configuration
I take back any comments I made about you lacking experience - that's clearly not the case here. Magical Girls have a limited, singular arsenal that's determined by the nature of their wish and their soul. No 'power ups' are really to be found here. You've found a way to compensate - do one thing and do it well. You are now an undeniable master of using a single weapon of your choosing (likely your magical weapon) - muskets? You're a sharpshooter that would put even experts to shame and never suffer from jamming. A sword? You may as well be a painter who only uses red when you're wielding that steel. This even applies to using said weapon unconventionally, like using a gun as a blunt weapon or throwing swords en masse.

But wait, there's more. You're an incredibly quick thinker and tactician, enough so that you could fight someone with time stop powers on even ground if you got the drop on them - figuring out the abilities and limitations of your opponent is something you can do in mere minutes, and you can plan ahead far enough in a combat situation to know how your opponent plans to take advantage of a weakness of yours without skipping a beat. Can they keep up with you?

Raiment
The raiment of a magical girl is usually frilly, will probably have ribbons or a bow, and almost always has a skirt. (I suggest you follow my lead and at least wear shorts or something underneath. See?)

While those might sound impractical to some Jumpers, especially those with more combat experience, don't worry: your raiment will never get caught in something, trip you up, or interfere with your movements. It'll even make sure your hair never does that either.

In addition, the raiment is technically a form of armor, so you can import existing armors into and import the transformation trinket into other armors later.

Witherbrine26 · Nov 21, 2022

Walking around the house, grabbing supplies for the ritual, I froze. I had my pajamas from my home world, and Dream of a Blue Veil required something from the home world, which meant that I could go home; I pushed aside the fear that it would be just like Prelati's illusion.

A broad smile broke out on my face as I gathered my clothing and went to find the other residents of the house. I gathered them in the kitchen to talk.

"Komainu and Sola-Ui, we are going to travel back to my home. The spell is a bit wonky as we will be dreaming of the world first, then after six hours, we will be teleported to the world. What I'm asking is would you like to be brought along in the dream or wait until I bring the house over?"

Komainu grinned as she spoke a mile a minute. "I want to come with you; I can't wait to meet your family!" Chuckling, I rubbed her head as I waited for Sola-Ui to make her choice.

"I will wait for you to finish the spell before coming along." Nodding, I agreed to her choice before I remembered my new power.

"Sola-Ui, I can increase your skill in Spiritual Surgery; however, you would become weaker physically. Would that be ok with you?" I asked as I reached out a hand.

Tilting her head slightly, she thought about it for a moment before nodding and reaching out to clasp my hand. As she squeezed my hand, they both erupted in blue fire, and the world seemed to twitch slightly.

When the light show ended, I got to work. She had accepted the deal, which meant I could improve her skill in Spiritual Surgery at the cost of her health.

Her eyes glazed over as I got to work before she shook her head and relaxed, allowing the new influx of information to settle in.

I stood up and spoke to her as she finished absorbing the new information. "Would you mind seeing if you could fix my Magic Circuits?"

Chuckling at the apparent reason I offered to help her improve, she nodded and walked into her room as I followed behind. I sat on the bed I had been on the last time she fixed up my Magic Circuits; she got to work.

It was just as strange and uncomfortable as the last time. My Magic circuits were unlike any others because they were much more open to the air as they were coiled around my open ribs. This meant it was much easier for Sola-Ui to fix them because she didn't have to worry about any flesh getting in the way.

Standing up, I stretched as I felt the mana flow through the circuits. I was now back to normal and ready to go. However, as I was walking out, Sola-Ui spoke up.

"I will warn you, while I did fix them, they are still wounded, and further abuse like you put them through before will cause them to explode, damaging them beyond repair."

I froze before nodding; that would be very bad as while my batteries provided the heavy lifting for my magic, the circuits would allow me to fight even if I lost my batteries.

Striding back outside, I grabbed the pajama pants that I had arrived wearing. Sitting down on the ground, I lay back and held the pants to my chest. Summoning my staff, I lay that across my chest as well.

Komainu bounded out, plopped down next to me, and grabbed hold of my free hand. Squeezing her hand, I started to mutter the incantation for Dream of the Blue Veil. It was strange I was speaking in English, describing how the spell worked in exacting detail and finishing it off by calling out the name of the spell.

We awakened on wet grass. I slowly stood up and closed my eyes for a moment feeling out this dream. The world felt strange to my senses, not all the way there; however, I presumed that was only an effect of being only partway here.

Looking up, I saw the half-full moon peering down on the land. Looking towards my house, I froze. It was very similar to how it appeared in Prelati's illusion.

The difference was that there was police tape everywhere, and after walking closer, I could see footprints that walked throughout the ruins of my house.

My hand tightened around Komainu's as I choked back a sob. I had suspected and even feared that I would return to this, but I had hoped I could go home and live a normal life.

"Komainu, do you mind waiting here," I asked hoarsely. "I need some alone time" She nodded and sat down, looking morosely at the ruined house.

I wanted to have my cake and eat it too. I wanted to explore the multiverse, then come home, talk to my family, and show them the fantastic things I could do.

As I stared, looking at the ruins of the house, a light rain started up. I sighed before turning back around; I was going to show off to my friends, but what would be the point?

I didn't want to put them in danger, but perhaps a little help wouldn't go amiss. Striding back towards the street, I pulled up my memories of the small town they lived in.

Arriving there as if in a dream, I was outside my first friend's house. It was a small townhouse, and I could see the upper light on and a figure tapping away on a computer.

I remembered her great dream of being an actress as I looked on. I had the knowledge of how to improve her Charisma with a Grimoire.

Opening a Path, I returned to my new home as I thought of what I could gift to my friends. I quickly stopped to pick up Komainu, who was uncharitably silent.

The Grimoire grew as I sketched out my plan. A grimoire to improve Charisma, another to improve Intelligence, and the last to improve Constitution.

The first for an aspiring actress, the second for a prospective history teacher who wanted to be there for people, and the last for a person born crippled and unable to breathe right.

The grimoires would be simple, as Master Craftsman told me how to make them. It would only take some time and Dust.

Rummaging around, I grabbed the Dust bag and focused on a book, and soon the Dust had gathered and transformed into a small book with the letters CHA on the cover. I then repeated the process making one with INT and CON.

Making a Grimoire was usually an arduous process as it required expensive materials that were packed with mana that would be imbued into the book.

Dust, however, was an incredibly magical rich material owing to its complex nature. This meant that I could start working on the grimoires now.

Picking up the CHA books, I grabbed a handful of Dust and spread it across its surface before placing my hands on its front and channeling mana into it.

A grimoire's strength was proportional to the quality of the materials used and the amount of mana used in its creation. I had created the book from Dust which meant it was perfect with none of the flaws a typical book would have.

Dust was a fantastic component and would act just as well as using dozens of other materials. Lastly, I had an absolute tone of mana that I could pour into crafting, so I took my time to empty my reserves.

Breathing heavily, I picked up the book and looked it over with mage sight. The book was glowing with magic, and I could tell it was powerful; it was still single use, but that would be enough to improve her charisma drastically.

Heading inside, I grabbed a pencil and some paper. I needed to rest before working again, so I would write a note for them. Taking it slow, I wrote a simple message that explained what I was giving them and that I was gone and traveling now.

I also apologized for not speaking directly to them; I then signed it with my full name. Looking around, I picked up the copies I had torn up and threw them out.

Heading back outside, I counited working. Now that I knew what to do, the remaining grimoires were easier and took slightly less time.

Sliding the notes between the pages of the grimoires, I opened a Path back to the small town in New Jersey.

It was the middle of the night, and I could teleport, which meant that traveling around the town was easy. Arriving at the houses one by one, I teleported into their rooms and gently placed the grimoires where they would see them.

The papers were inside the grimoires, so they would open the books, gain the benefits then they could read the note. It was slightly underhanded, but it was a surefire way for them to use the grimoires without thinking it was a hoax.

Returning to the ruins of my old house, I sat on the grass and looked over the ruins. I let thoughts tumble through my head as I remembered how I got here.

I had started as an average person who found a book that granted them extraordinary powers. I was terrible; in Worm, I kidnapped people and used them as batteries.

I blew up the Rig and killed everybody on board because I wanted to flee from the consequences of my actions. I was then summoned to the Nasuverse and was better.

I saved Sakura and Shinji; Shirou would have a normal life with his original parents. Rin would have her mother and hopefully grow up to be a talented magus.

I had also killed Zouken and prevented Angra Mainyu from possibly destroying the world. I needed to go back to Earth Bet and kill Scion. He was currently far beyond me, and I had only been gone around a week. I would grow more powerful in time.

I needed to go somewhere else that would allow me to grow in power. I had the whole multiverse at my fingertips; I only had to travel through the NeverNever once then I could return at will.

Standing up, I opened a Path back to my home and walked back, casting one last glance at the ruins of my old home cast in moonlight.

I was reminded of a quote "Innocence once lost can never be regained." Just a few months ago, I was your average joe who never had so much as killed an animal.

Now, I had slain Gilgamesh, King Arthur, Kayneth and kidnapped people for my own ends. I would try to do better; I had the power of mercy. I would not spare those who attacked me, but I could let Miss Militia free at the least.

I snapped back to my body as I ended Dream of the Blue Veil. Standing up, I ruffled Komainu's hair and walked back inside. I had a few plans that I would complete before traveling to a new world.

I would free Sola-Ui; while she was helpful, keeping her around was a bad idea when all it would take was a hit for her to break free. It was also immoral. I then would drop Miss Militia off on Earth Bet, allowing her to get her life back after some time.

I also remembered that I should grab Lancelot. He would still be very helpful even with the higher mana cost due to the grail being gone. Holding out my hand, I called him with a command seal.

That did remind me that I should see if there is a way for me to get more seals. I knew that FGO allowed you to regenerate one a day, but that was due to game convince, and I had no clue how to replicate that in reality.

As Lancelot appeared by my side, the Grimoire grew again. I twitched as I felt more magic circuits grow and envelop my ribs. Flipping open the Grimoire showed that I had gained an additional twenty magic circuits bringing me up to forty.

Sighing, I started preparations to free Sola-Ui and Miss Militia. I would drop Sola-Ui in Japan, remove all memories of our time together then release her. I would then head to Earth Bet and drop Miss Militia off in Brockton; I would not need to do anything as she had been asleep the entire time she was with me.

Magic Circuits
Magic Circuits are a pseudo-nervous system that spreads through the body and acts as an organ that converts lifeforce into magical energy. Magic Circuits reside within the soul and what is found in the body is a physical expression of them. The number of Magic circuits one possesses is determined at birth and cannot decrease or increase naturally. You gain twenty magical circuits of top quality and a further twenty each time you purchase this option.

AldariSiradla · Nov 22, 2022

Binged and watched.
Looks interesting...
Especially with the way the Grimoire has been doing to the mind...
And the effects soon after.

Witherbrine26 · Nov 28, 2022

Striding towards Sola-Ui's room, I gently rapped the door and then took a step back, waiting for her to answer.

When she opened the door, I looked into her eyes and hit her with a blast of hypnosis, knocking her out. I then quickly moved to catch her before she could hit the ground.

Walking outside, I opened a Path back to the Nasuverse. It was strange how I could open Paths to any place I had been before, even if they were in different universes.

I knew that the NeverNever connected the multiverse and that somebody could theoretically travel to other worlds by crossing it. I assumed that almost nobody did it as, from what I knew, the NeverNever was highly dangerous.

I had been lucky enough to run across a fae willing to make a deal, and I dreaded what she would want, but I doubted others would be so lucky. It would explain why multiversal travel was so difficult, as the only effective method was to use a shortcut.

Walking out of the Path into the docks where I had derailed canon for Fate/Zero, I set Sola-Ui up against the wall and snapped my fingers, waking her up.

As she blinked and looked around, I hit her with another blast of hypnotism to stun her. I then sat across from her and got to work removing the memories of our time together.

It would have been tricky and possibly beyond my skill; however, she was still brainwashed, which meant that her mind accepted all of my spells.

That meant that the hypnosis was incredibly easy, and soon enough, all that she remembered was that I had attacked Kayneth and Lancer. I had killed both of them and knocked her out, and she woke up here.

I then removed the brainwashing and stood up. While it sucked to lose an expert at spiritual surgery, I was trying to be better, and that did not come cheap.

I had also made her world-class at it, which should help her get back on her feet. Ensuring she would wake up in a few minutes, I opened another Path and flew back to my house.

Landing, I saw Komainu standing outside with a confused look on her face. Walking up to her, she tilted her head and asked a question. "Why did Sola-Ui leave?"

My shoulders slumped as I reached out and pulled her inside to the table. Sitting down, I looked her in the eyes and spoke to her.

"I did terrible things; Sola-Ui was not here willingly." Raising a hand to forestall any questions, I continued to speak. "I twisted her mind so that she would serve me. However, when I traveled back home, I realized that I was fairly far down the path of evil."

Sighing, I rubbed where my nose would be acutely aware that I no longer had a proper nose. "I decided to do my best to be at least somewhat better, so I'm going to be taking a break. I need to stop being in high-stress situations, or I will keep making awful choices."

Nodding, Komainu grinned before speaking happily. "That's great! Maybe we could head to Gensokyo. It's mostly peaceful as long as you keep her head down and aren't human."

As she finished, my heart tightened at the reminder that I was no longer human. I knew I was a Monster made up of magic and dust. My soul was inside a gem, and I would never grow old so long as I had HoPe.

Standing up, I gave her a wry smile as I reached over to give her a hug before replying. "That sounds wonderful." Realizing the hug to look into her eyes, I took on a teasing tone. "You sure you aren't just homesick?"

Looking offended, she spluttered for a few moments before catching on and pouting and speaking. "I mean, I met a few people after I was created. The scary lady said I should know how to interact with people, and I want to meet them again."

Chuckling, I rubbed her head before letting go. "That sounds great; I need to drop Miss Militia off, then we can head to Gensokyo."

Nodding rapidly, Komainu's smile grew larger before she bounded back to her room. Walking outside, I carefully disabled Miss Miltia's containment circle and opened a Path back to the Brockton Bay warehouse I had stayed in.

Setting her form down, I looked around. The place had been ransacked. However, I could still see the blood stains where I had fought Armsmaster. I hoped he survived, as while he was an ass, he could do great things.

Squatting above Miss Militia, I snapped my fingers, waking her up. Ignoring her sputters, I hit her with a blast of hypnosis and got to work. I had very little to change, but it would be better to smooth away any rough patches.

Standing back up, I let her head gently fall to the concrete floor. Looking around where I had arrived in this world, I stopped a sigh from exiting my body. It wouldn't do to be melancholic; I was heading to a new world and could meet whoever created Komainu.

No matter how terrifying they were, I doubted they could hold a candle to Gilgamesh as he unleashed Ea. I would also be approaching this peacefully, which would help.

Walking back on a Path I opened, I decided that a few precautions before I started my vacation wouldn't go amiss even if it were safe. The main one would be to make the empty Gate of Babylon useful.

I knew that Gilgamesh had a Noble Phantasm that would recall his spent weapons. I didn't have that, and creating a Noble Phantasm would take mystical materials I couldn't get right now.

I would have just had to dump as many weapons as possible inside the Gate. I had Unlimted Blade Works, which meant so long as I had mana, I could conjure blades and ape a half-decent spread of weapons.

I felt an item fall into my hand as I walked towards my house. Hefting the object, I saw that it was a parasol that looked like a flower. Flipping open the Grimoire, I read about the new thing I had gained and chuckled.

It appeared I had gained a new potent item. As I twirled the parasol around, I saw the pocket dimension I call home shudder. As it twisted, I saw the boundary of the forest expand and move back.

Spreading from my feet, I saw massive sunflowers coming up to my chest, and in a matter of moments, I was surrounded by flowers. Chuckling, I floated above the flowers and headed toward my house. I saw that the flowers had left a small circle around my home alone, allowing me to land on the grass.

Running a hand on the massive sunflower, I looked back over the Grimoire and grinned. I may not be a massive flower person, but I could appreciate the comedic timing of my new power.

I also liked the aesthetic of a small home surrounded by a forest and sunflowers only accessible by an ever-changing path. So I decided to leave it be and return to examine my new item.

The Grimoire said that it could deflect strong attacks with ease and allow one to manipulate flowers as if they were second nature. Twirling the parasol in my hand, I flicked it in the air and commanded the sunflowers to part.

The sunflowers twisted and bent as if springing to follow my commands, leaving me a path out of my pocket dimension. Grinning, I lowered the parasol and allowed the flowers to return to their natural form.

Turning back to the Grimoire, I saw that the last power allowed one to travel to a pocket dimension and that it defaulted to a field of sunflowers. Looking around, I surmised that it had combined with my other pocket dimension.

Nevertheless, it was still incredibly useful; the ability to travel instantaneously to my home was fabulous but being able to block most attacks was even better. The only issue was that carrying it could be awkward. Frowning for a moment, I decided to test something out.

I knew that I could combine armor into my robes, and they would provide all the benefits of the armor while appearing like the robes. Would that prove true for my staff?

Summoning my staff, I held them next to each other and attempted to push them together while focusing on their combining. With a grin, the parasol vanished inside the staff. The remaining issue was that while the staff retained the parasol's properties, blocking an attack would be much more difficult with a thin stick.

Holding the staff, I thought about bringing the parasol back up, and the staff did just that. Strolling inside, I rested the closed parasol on my shoulder and looked for a mirror.

Standing in front of the mirror, I called upon one of Liam's best innvocations, Master of Myriad Forms. It allowed one to cast Alter Self at will, which provided an hour of being in a different form. The difference from Disguise Self was that it was physical and could hold up to physical force.

I saw as flesh crawled over my skull and flickering green eye sockets. Grinning, I looked myself up and down, admiring how I had nailed it even if my mental image was a few years out of date.

I had bushy brown hair descending to the middle of my back. My eyes were storm grey, and I could see the faintest flicker of green in my pupils. I had shrunk slightly, and my body was around fourteen. I could also see my rosy red cheeks that I could never get rid of even as I grew older.

Chuckling, I spun around, parasol over my shoulder and robes flaring out. I remembered how I could be mistaken for a girl like this, and the frilly robe with parasol only amplified that.

Casting Alter Self again, I grew taller, and my hair lessened in length, if not in the craziness. My rosy-red cheeks stayed as well as my storm blue eyes. Frowning, I looked myself over with a critical eye. I wasn't the biggest fan of myself in this time frame.

I had hit seventeen, and reality smacked me upside the head, demanding I prepare for life. I got a job and started working on preparing for college; I doubled down on school and left my childish fantasies of magic and adventure behind. Even DnD, my last refugee, had crumbled under the weight of life, and the sessions grew farther apart.

Shaking my head, I changed back to my younger form. I was here on vacation, and if I wanted to change myself, I could. Turning on my heel, I walked back outside, musing about why I was so excited.

I supposed it because I didn't have any plans for Gensokyo, nor did I know much about it. I had only played the first game, and that was several months before this journey.

That meant I could meet the people and experience it without prior expectations or an ulterior motive. That was what I had hoped when I learned I was in the multiverse, exploring distant worlds, learning, and meeting new people.

I also knew that showing up without a gift would be rude. Calling out to Komainu, I waited. "Komainu, what do people in Gensokyo like to drink?" I settled on drinks because I could easily get them, and everybody had a drink they liked.

Trotting outside, Komainu hummed while tapping her chin before speaking. "I know that tea and sake are two big things people drink." Frowning, she stuck out her tongue in disgust at the mention of sake. "I don't like sake."

Humming slightly, I let my mind sift through what I could make as a gift. It wouldn't do to bring store-bought gifts. As I was thinking up what I could bring, I remembered something; I felt the Grimoire grow as I was thinking.

I knew how to make Lunarian technology which was explicitly post-scarcity. Bringing up the blueprints for Lunarian tech mentally, I frowned. The vast majority of it required purity, and while I could set aside an area to purify, it would be a pain.

Shrugging, I decided to get on with it. The Lunarians had such fantastic technology, and getting started now was better than constantly pushing it off. Striding towards the back corner of my pocket dimension, I brought up the schematics of a Purity Generator and then got to work.

Powers Gained
Yuuka's Parasol
Kazami Yuuka has been said to be one of the strongest class of Youkai, that even with a relatively unimpressive power of being able to manipulate flowers, she is able to stand her ground against reality warping Youkai with far more potent powers on paper. She carries with her a parasol made form a flower that would never wilt, one of the only examples of such in all of Gensokyo. And now, you have a copy of it. This parasol can cut through the sun's rays of the harshest summers, never falter through even the heaviest rainstorm, and is strong enough to deflect attacks with ease. It seems like this parasol has embodied some of Yuuka's powers, and will allow the wielder to manipulate flowers as if it were their second nature. However, its most impressive feat is the ability to allow the user to travel to a pocket dimension of their design, defaulting to a sunflower garden for their relaxation. Though, that can be changed permanently if the user wills so.

Flutters Is Shy · Dec 2, 2022

Why is this story stuck in Worm? It's spent more time in Fate, did a mod get overzealous and move it from the general User Fiction?

Witherbrine26 · Dec 5, 2022

Flutters Is Shy said:
Why is this story stuck in Worm? It's spent more time in Fate, did a mod get overzealous and move it from the general User Fiction?

That's a fair point, this is my first time posting and I originally started it in Worm. However, I can't seem to find a way to move it to General Fiction. Do you how I could do this?

Witherbrine26 · Dec 5, 2022

Pulling out my sack of Dust, I got to work. It was strange how this otherwordly technology could be built from standard steel and other basic materials. While most of the devices needed the metals to be purified to work efficiently, they all would work using standard steel and copper.

Changing the Dust using Arcana of Matter, I soon had a plethora of basic parts and supplies to build with. Understand Lunarian Science taught me the underlying concepts that a post-scarcity population had learned. I had neglected to truly delve into what made the technology work.

I could only understand it because the Grimoire had pounded it into my head; to date, it was the most painful power I had gained. Shaking away the thoughts, I started to assemble the Purity Generator, which, while the most accurate description, was still somewhat wrong.

A more accurate term would be Conceptual Statis Apparatus because it locks in place the concept of 'impurity.' Impurity was made up of many things, such as death and growth, which could not be destroyed and were instead locked in place, preventing them from acting on the world.

This, in practice, 'purified' a place by preventing many things, such as plants growing and cells dying. Anybody who lived inside the created field would become biologically immortal and almost impossible to kill so long as they remained 'pure.' This meant they could live forever as long as they lived inside the pure area.

Standing up, I dusted off my hands and looked over the contraption I had built. It was large, around five feet tall, and patchwork. While the design in my head was sleek and white, I had to make do with subpar materials.

However, the first thing the generator would do is purify itself. This would take only a few minutes and then run at peak efficiency. It would then purify the surrounding area with a radius of about a hundred feet. While it could be extended, there was a more significant chance impurity could sneak in as I had no barrier to block them, and the density of purity was the only defense.

I also couldn't set up a barrier as that had a high chance of preventing me from entering because I was pure. In fact, the only thing I could enter once I set up the barrier would be a Lunarian or a dead soul, as both were pure. I did, however, take the time to install an off switch that would allow me temporary access that would not allow many impurities inside the field.

The next step would be setting up the fabricator, which, while a simple name, was the best. It took the purity surrounding it and broke it into impure parts. This, in effect, produces the most potent version of something as it was just what I wanted to be produced and nothing else.

If, for example, I created sake using this fabricator, it would distill the concept of sake from the purity field and put it in a bottle making pure sake. This meant that the sake would be perfect and as sake-like as possible.

The fabricator was reasonably simple as well. This was given as both were the basics and required to set anything Lunarian up. Their other works required purity to function, and the materials were too advanced to get in vast quantities on the moon, which meant that a fabricator was a must-have.

Soon enough, I had walked back beyond the purity generator's radius and watched it work. It was truly miraculous as I watched the surroundings get bleached and transformed, bringing them in line with my knowledge from Understand Lunarian Science.

Sitting down, I opened my parasol and watched both devices work. I had inputted the command for sake into the fabricator, so now it was only a matter of time until I had a bottle of sake ready.

It took a few hours for the generator to purify everything properly. Following that, it only took a few minutes for a bottle of sake to be produced. Hitting the off switch, I walked inside the field. I quivered slightly as I felt it attempting to change me.

However, the field couldn't affect me as the density was low enough. While if I kept it off for long enough, it would damage the machinery. Keeping it off for a few minutes would do very little to both me and the machines.

Grabbing the bottle of sake, I hummed and set the fabricator to create another dozen bottles. It would be better to have an excess than seen being stingy with gifts.

Striding back inside, I set the bottle of my new sake on the table. I would need to find a name for it, but that could come later. Humming, I ran through my plan to see if I had any more plans before heading to Gensokyo.

I did have one last thing I needed to prepare before heading out. Tapping my parasol on the ground, I spent a few minutes conjuring a few simulacrums of myself.

It was tiring making so many quickly, but I now had four new servants who could help me. They also had all of my perks which meant that after a few moments of spell-casting looked identical to me.

The only significant difference between us was that they did not have access to my batteries which, while less of an issue now that we had more magic circuits, but it still hampered them.

Clearing my throat, I tossed a bag of Dust with around a quarter left and spoke. "You will set up a few small streams and ponds; I need Dust production set up. We don't have much space, so aim for efficiency over scale."

Seeing them nod, I focused on the parasol and brought to mind a small waterfall that fed into a large pound. I then brought it into the pocket dimension opposite the Lunarian site. Grinning, I saw what I had imagined slowly sprout into existence.

Casting my eyes back over the simulacrum, I could see that they were already at work chatting with each other as they conjured supplies and constructed Dust traps.

Picking my parasol up, I swung it on my shoulder and strolled back inside. I felt the Grimoire swell as I searched for Komainu so I could use her as a focus.

She was in her room humming as she looked over clothing options. Knocking on the slightly ajar door, I waited for her to respond.

A few moments later, the door was fully opened, and she gestured for me to step inside. "Hello, I'm just looking for suitable clothes. I don't want to embarrass you." She said while tugging on the edge of her skirt.

Looking at her momentarily, I laughed before sweeping her into a hug and talking. "It's fine; I'm a newcomer, so my actions will be the main factor, and I plan on being polite. Besides, you think that you can embarrass me with your clothing. Pick whatever you want, and feel free to take your time."

Stepping back, I looked her in the eyes and saw her nervous face twist into a grin before she shuffled me out of her room and slammed the door shut.

Walking outside, I ignored the pang in my chest. She really did act much like my sister, and while she was gone and Komainu would not be a replacement, I could try to have a new family.

My mood killed I sat down on the porch and opened the parasol. Twirling it over my shoulder, I watched my simulacrum work. It was strange seeing yourself do things that you would do but with yourself.

Humming, I decided I could do one last thing as I waited for her to be ready. I needed to stock the Gate of Babylon, and now I had the time to do so. While Unlimted Blade Works was incredible, conjuring blades was expensive, and Noble Phantasms even more.

In contrast, the Gate had a somewhat high cost to open a portal, but after that, firing weapons was free, and moving the portals was cheap. That meant I could have a proper Gate of Babalon so long as I prepared.

The only issue was that I didn't have a method to retrieve my weapons, meaning I would have to open a portal where the blades would land, unlike Gilgamesh's spray and pray method.

I did believe that I would find suitable materials to forge one in Gensokyo. Master Craftsman didn't give me ideas on how to forge divine tools, but the item I had in mind wasn't on that scale. My issue with forging it was that I didn't have any mythical metals to work with, and artificial Noble Phantasms couldn't be built with standard metal.

That meant I had two other goals along with my original to relax. I wanted to see if somebody in Gensokyo had a library or selection of magical books I peruse. The other was to find magical materials I could reverse engineer and conjure with Arcana of Matter.

While both could be considered work, they would be much better than the constant struggle and lethal fights I faced on Earth Bet and in the Nasuverse.

Holding out my hands, I started to conjure various blades. I made anything from standard swords to dozens of Noble Phantasms. I then opened a portal to the Gate of Babylon and started stuffing it full of weapons.

This task was pretty time-consuming as Noble Phantasms cost a lot of mana to make, which meant I had to rest. However, by the time Komainu was dressed and came out, I had a decent arsenal if I got into a fight.

Taking her hand, I walked us toward the tree we had slept under the last time I cast this spell. We had to wade through sunflowers, and it was funny as every so often, Komainu would get bapped in the face by one.

I was forced to pick her up and allow her to sit on my shoulders as I asked about Gensokyo. That set her off in a long talk about what she had seen and the people she had met.

It seemed that she was only alive for around a week before meeting me and so mostly hung around the first people she had met. That turned out to be a night sparrow called Mystia, who ran a food stand.

Three other youkai also hung out with Mystia, a firefly named Wriggle, an ice fairy named Cirno, and a little girl named Rumia. While the talk of fey worried me, it seemed that Cirno was just boisterous instead of wicked or clever.

She also talked about a Shrine Maiden who seemed to be one of the big wigs of the region; however, while she knew where her shrine was, she didn't know all that much about her or any other important people.

Komainu also told me that according to the youkai, she had hung out with the shrine maiden, was somewhat mean, and tended to attack them when they were doing nothing. I took that with a grain of salt as they were youkai, but worst case, scenario, I blasted her with the Gate of Babylon and ran.

That meant my plan so far was to meet with the shrine maiden, give her some sake as a sign of goodwill then ask about other important people. That would allow me to travel around Gensokyo and meet new people while showing that I didn't want any trouble.

Laying down under the tree, I felt the Grimoire grow, and I gained new knowledge. This new information appeared to be a simple method of toning down any attack to nonlethal levels, along with methods of making my attacks look aesthetically beautiful.

Shrugging, I put it to the back of my mind and grabbed Komainu's hand. I then started chanting and, after ten minutes, cast Dream of a Blue Veil.

Awakening, I slowly sat up with Komainu at my side. Ahead of us was the gate to what appeared to be a Shinto-style shrine. It was somewhat run-down; however, I could see that several portions were well cared for. I saw a figure sitting on the porch and sipping something from a cup. Standing up, I brushed myself off and strolled over, ready to introduce myself.

Powers Gained
Spell Cards
The Spell Card system was invented to ensure that youkai and humans could fight each other in a non-lethal way and on relatively even ground. Under a spell card duel, all attacks are toned down to non-lethal levels, and the ability to fire an aesthetically pleasing barrage of bullets in all directions is prized over creating undodgeable attacks or invulnerability (which are banned anyway). Accordingly, you too can tone any of your abilities down as low as simply performing pretty light shows, and as your artistic skills improve so will the beauty of your spell card attacks.

Flutters Is Shy · Dec 5, 2022

Witherbrine26 said:
That's a fair point, this is my first time posting and I originally started it in Worm. However, I can't seem to find a way to move it to General Fiction. Do you how I could do this?

DM a mod that is online and request them to move it to the general User Fiction.

randomperson44 · Dec 6, 2022

along with methods of making my attacks look atheistically beautiful

Did you perhaps mean "aesthetically" or "artistically"?

Witherbrine26 · Dec 6, 2022

Flutters Is Shy said:
DM a mod that is online and request them to move it to the general User Fiction.

Thank you, I have done that.

randomperson44 said:
Did you perhaps mean "aesthetically" or "artistically"?

Yes, aesthetically is correct thank you for pointing that out

Witherbrine26 · Dec 12, 2022

The figure appeared to be around sixteen or seventeen and was dressed in a strange red-white outfit. I didn't know what shrine maidens wore, but I suspected the detached sleeves were not regulation.

As she saw me approach, she seemed to brighten up a bit before slumping down as she took in my strange garb and parasol. Giving a polite wave, I stopped a little bit inside the shrine gates and spoke.

"Hello, nice to meet you. I'm new to Gensokyo and heard that you're one of the big wigs, so I thought I might as well say hi and show I don't mean any trouble."

Setting the cup down, she stood up, and after looking me up and down, she gestured for me to approach and started to speak. "Well, that is good; thank you for letting me know, and please don't cause trouble."

Walking closer, I smiled at her and twisted my hand around the handle of my parasol, opening a portal to my home. As she started, I reached inside, grabbed the sake bottle, and handed it to her.

"Thought I should also get a gift. It's only polite to give a gift when meeting new people, right?"

Her polite smile grew into a proper happy smile as she looked over the chilled bottle of sake and she untensed. "Thank you, do you have any other question you would like answered."

"A few," I replied. "Mainly, do you know of a place I can borrow or purchase magic books and a location I might be able to scavenge for matriels? I also suppose a general overview or map of Gensokyo would be nice as well."

Nodding, she held up a hand for me to wait and walked inside the shrine. I had to wait for a few minutes before she came back with a scroll that she had unrolled and handed to me.

"While Outsiders aren't terribly common, we do have a map for those who get lost as well as general record keeping." She said as an explanation for why a shrine would have a map.

Looking over the map, I hummed while looking it over. I kept an ear out as she gave me a quick rundown of what I asked.

"I know of two places where you could find magical books. There is a bookstore in the Human Village, but I don't know where it is. The other is the Scarlet Devil Mansion; however, Patchouli is protective of her books, so you might have to make a deal with her."

Rolling the map up, I handed it back to her as she continued to speak. "As for materials, I would recommend either Kourondou or Muedzuka. The first is a shop that could have what you're looking for, while the second is where most things fall into Gensokyo."

Grinning, I reached out to shake her hand and thanked her. "Well, thank you for the assistance and if you need help of some kind let me know; I apologize for not asking earlier, but what is your name?"

Giving me a soft smile, now completely relaxed, she shook my hand. "Reimu Hakurei, and no thank you, it is refreshing to have a newcomer not start an Incident right off the bat."

Releasing her hand, I gave her a polite wave and took off, with Komainu copying me shyly. Flying past the gate, I mused that the talk had gone well; there was no fighting, and Reimu even seemed happy that I had stopped by first.

I did not doubt that if strange events started cropping up, I would be the first suspect, but even a little kindness could go a long way.

My first stop would be Kourondou, which was not very far from here. Then I would travel over the forest of magic and towards Muedzuka. Depending on how long that would take, I would either head to the Scarlet Devil Mansion or head to the Human Village.

I wanted to avoid approaching the village at night as that could give the wrong impression, and I wanted to present the best front possible. I also knew that all the mansion's residents were either active at night or needed little to no sleep.

My flight speed was fairly slow unless I was in active combat and willing to expend energy, so it took around thirty minutes to reach the small shop I had seen on the map.

Landing outside the door, I turned to Komainu and asked her a question. "I'm going to be doing quite a bit of boring work. If you want, feel free to meet your friends, I'll stop by at some point to meet them."

Grinning, she gave me a tight hug and darted off. Smiling, I opened the door and stepped inside. The inside was less a shop and more of a hoarder's wet dream. The walls were stacked high with everything from computers to cigarettes.

"One moment!" I heard a male voice shout from the back. Shrugging, I walked over to the computers and started looking them over. While all of them were not working, they were relatively new and only damaged. I surmised that their battery ran out, which is why most of them don't work.

As I looked over the computers, I heard a person walking towards me, so I turned to face him. He was a man who looked to be in his mid thirty. He also had silver hair and gold eyes, strangely. Shrugging that off, I reached out to shake his hand.

"Nice to meet you; I see that you are interested in those computers." He said while shaking my hand. "From what I know, they are complex devices that allow one to calculate things without needing an abacus." Frowning, he continued. "However, they seemed to be missing something that would allow them to work properly, and I can't find a place for batteries."

Chuckling slightly, I replied. "I know what computers are, and what you are missing is electricity. While the laptops have an internal battery, the desktops need a constant source."

I felt the Grimoire grow before I was slammed with what felt like dozen textbooks worth of information. Wincing, I rubbed my temple and raised a finger asking for a moment.

The man waited for me to drop the finger before talking. "Are you ok?" He asked. Pushing the new knowledge to the side, I nodded and gestured for me to continue speaking.

"I see. I didn't think that electricity would be the solution. Are you from the Outside world, or are you simply experienced with devices like this?" He asked. As he finished, I realized that I hadn't asked his name and decided to do so.

"Sorry, but I realized I haven't asked your name," I said while sticking out my hand for a shake. "The name's Aidan; nice to meet you."

Chuckling, he took my hand and gave it a firm shake before replying. "It's fine, and the name is Rinnosuke."

"Nice to meet you, Rinnosuke, and to answer your question, yes, I am from the Outside World," I replied to his earlier question. He then broke into a broad smile and started peppering me with questions about the vast majority of the items in his shop.

A little while later, we stopped, and I managed to ask about what I had come for. "Sorry to cut you off, but I did come here for a reason."

Rubbing the back of his neck Rinnosuke chuckled a bit before replying. "Sorry about that; while I can tell what some of this does, I often don't know the proper use, so an Outsider telling me what they do helps a ton."

"It's fine. I'm happy to help; however, I came to see if you were willing to sell magical materials. I don't have specific things in mind, but it would be great if I could see what you offer."

"Of course." He said while striding towards the back of his shop while speaking over his shoulder. "Give me a few minutes, and I'll have a selection for you."

Nodding despite the fact he couldn't see it, I turned back to the other objects he had in his shop. Pursuing a second time did not alter my prior opinion of the shop.

However, I was willing to see what he had to offer in terms of magical goods as it was likely they were of higher quality due to him living in Gensokyo.

A few minutes later Rinnosuke walked out holding a small sack that was filled to the brim with various strange goods. Setting it down on the countertop, he gestured for me to join him as he set out the objects and started explaining them.

"I have three metals that I'm willing to part with. The amount I have the least of is called Hihi'irokane and is lighter than gold while being stronger than diamond; it also has other strange properties." He said while setting up a tiny pile of a strange shimmering metal that looked very similar to the one that framed my Mini-Hakkero.

"The second" He said while setting out a slightly larger pile of a green shimmering ore. "Is called Orichalcum and is extremely dense and absorbs an incedible amount of magic no matter the source."

Humming I peered at the Orichalcum with my Magesight and saw that it was actively pulling mana from the air and appeared to be compressing the mana already inside of it. My mind was already whirling with ideas for these two metals. I was snapped out of my thoughts when Rinnosuke continued.

"The last and one I have the most of is Mithril; it is less protective than Hihi'irokane; however, it is much lighter and easier to work for weapons and armor without any of the other properties."

Upening the sack he pured out a much larger tower than the rest of the metals and tucked the sack away. "As a thanks feel free to grab a bit of each but I'm afraid I can't give all that much away as this is one of the few things I actually sell." He said while chuckling under his breath

Humming, I let my hands trail over each of the metals. They all had upsides and downsides. Hihi'irokane would likely be the best for forging magical artifacts that weren't weapons and armor.

Orichalcum would be perfect for creating mana battries or sinks while Mithril was an all-around good metal. However, I still needed a method to retrieve weapons once fire from the Gate of Babylon, so I grabbed a few small rocks of Hihi'irokane and tucked it away.

"Thank you for your generosity; when I have more funds, I'll make sure to come back and buy more ore," I said while giving him a slight grin and turning to leave. "Make sure you do!" He shouted after me and peering over my shoulder I could see he was smiling as well.

Stepping outside I floated in the air and consulted my mental map of Gensokyo for where I would go next. Flying over the Forest of Magic, I mentally checked the time-1:34.

I had plenty of time to poke around Muendzuka for more materials to work with. I already had an idea for an item that could 'tag' other items and teleport them back to itself.

Unlike a proper Noble Phantams it would be heavily limited and require vast stores of mana to work. That meant I needed to head back to Kourindu to get Orichalcum.

I also needed to retool my contanment circles as my neewest power and gifted me unparalleled knowledge of Formalcraft and now rituals. Tucking my parasol under my arm, I flipped open the Grimorei and read over my newest power as I flew.

It was called Risen Legend and granted me almost True Magic levels of power and knowledge in a specific field. That knowledge also extended to any world I traveled to in the future, which meant that I currently was a once-in-centuries master in rituals and Fromalcraft.

It also granted me a method for immortality and not the unaging kind either. The first step was a ritual that would pull massive amounts of mana into the soul allowing it to expend that mana upon injury or death to recover.

The next step was taking a small chunk of your soul and pulling a fragment of a location's soul to mix them. That would allow you to live on so long as that area still existed. I could, for example, perform that ritual with a relatively small area such as a U.S. state, and so long as that area of the U.S. wasn't destroyed, I could survive.

The second to last step was cycling both your souls and the locations through each other. That would allow neither to be destroyed unless they both were. In the same case as earlier the U.S state couldn't be destroyed unless I was killed at the same time.

The final step was repeting the prior steps hundreds to thousands of times to bind yourself to the entire Earth. That would render you and the Earth immortal. It also meant that the Earth would consider you a part of it which granted many benefits in the Nasuverse.

Landing in front of the junkyard that was Muedzuka I put the Grimore away and headed inside ready to start searching for loot.

Powers Gained
Risen Legend(Formalcraft)
There is a poisonous fetishism at the heart of magus society, an obsession with the old and the mysterious. A toxic belief that all that we have now is just a pale imitation of what came before. Age is power, an old family serves a magus better, we must reach the origin of it all. That's just so much shit. Magecraft may lack the raw power and direct use of systems from earlier in history but the idea that it is useless is the thought of someone without the will to persevere. A true magus would not stop, not until they tear open a path beyond their limits.

You're living proof of the idea that magecraft being an inferior system is not necessarily as true as much of the Clocktower thinks. Whatever your own innate power, you have taken a chosen specialty of magecraft to obscene heights, the likes of which is only matched within magecraft by things like Aozaki Touko's doll making styles or the impossible Bounded Fields of Araya Souren. Whatever your chosen field of study is, you're certainly one of the greatest users in many generations, if not centuries outright. Your spells within that field are stronger, cheaper, faster and far more skillfully controlled than any hopeful peers. Your knowledge and skill is near total, at least in regards to existing knowledge on the field, and you have the sheer talent to continually push the limits and learn impossible spells and actions, like discovering how to make Bounded Fields mobile around a person. It's far easier than normal, almost springing into your mind, to discover ways to combine other magic and magecraft you know into your chosen field to expand and empower it even further. As a finishing touch, whatever path you choose has revealed to you a method of immortality, a way to make yourself not just unaging but outright harder to kill in general. Touko's famous immortality puppet network as a sterling example.

In future worlds, you'll find anything similar enough to your chosen specialty will receive all the same effects. A brilliant alchemist here will be one in the future too. You may also buy this perk multiple times.

Witherbrine26 · Dec 19, 2022

Striding into Muenzuka, I attempted a whistle, but it failed. Even with all the changes I had gone through, whistling still seemed beyond me.

Shaking off the strange thoughts, I opened my magesight to look for valuables. I then froze as a new thought overcame me, I had very few raw materials that I could use, and while the scrap metal of this graveyard was low quality, it was still better than nothing.

I twirled my parasol and opened a portal to my home under a large pile of scraps. The stack fell behind my forging area with a massive crash. I faintly heard shouting from my simulacrum as I closed the portal.

Smirking slightly, I resumed my search for more valuable goods with my magesight wide open. Searching was a massive pain, even with the ease of finding things that magesight granted.

The tough part was sifting through the junk for the magical items. Unfortunately, I found mostly small scraps of magically enhanced metal or other weak things.

Even when I found something that was not enchanted metal, nothing was very fancy or valuable, with most of the enhancements having faded over the years.

I still tossed all of it into my home for my simulacrum to sort out. I didn't know when it would be useful, but it would be better to have it.

Standing up, I rolled my shoulders as if I was getting a crick out of them despite not having the biology for it anymore. Chuckling, I remembered how I still did things like trying to hold the bridge of my nose, although I lacked that body part anymore.

Flying in the air, I checked my mental clock-7:83. I had been here quite a while. I knew I could be sucked into my work, but this was still a long time to dig through the muck.

Shaking my head, I looked at the sun and frowned. It was setting, which meant that I would be heading to the Scarlet Devil Mansion tonight. Floating up, I consulted my mental map; the mansion was somewhat south of here, which meant it would take over an hour to reach there.

I was planning on gaining access to the library, but I doubted the mansion's owner would allow me to see it for free. Humming, I stated my flight as I tried to think of a suitable gift that might allow me access.

A few bottles of the sake I made would likely suffice to get access, and I had quite a few magical ideas I could share if need be. Unfortunately, I didn't have a single base for my magic which meant that in terms of understanding, I was limited to Formalcraft and rituals if I wanted to present mastery.

The main reason I was trying to gain access was that I needed a method to kill Scion. While I knew a few rituals that could work, they were also rituals which meant they were expansive, long, and highly unethical.

From what Risen Legends taught me, rituals could be two of three things, powerful, cheap, or quick. My containment circles were a good example. They were quick and powerful; however, they required expensive components and could contain almost anything.

I was able to bypass the expensive components because my dust was almost pure magic, and the rubies I made were utterly perfect without a single molecule out of place.

Even with that, something that could kill Scion would be on the level of the Darkhallow, which required particular conditions and the deaths of everybody in Chicago, along with consuming the Wild Hunt.

I knew at least one person would have to die in order for me to access Scion's network, but I wasn't willing to kill an entire city when I could find better options.

That meant I needed a better power source, and the library in The Scarlet Devil Mansion could have it. Pulling myself out of my musing, I slowly flew over a massive lake and finally spotted the manor.

I was massive and surrounded by a large wall. The biggest thing I noticed was its color. I knew why scarlet was in its name, given the color of the manor.

Flying a bit away from the gate, I rested my parasol on my shoulder and strolled over to the gate. Sleeping next to the entrance was a woman with brilliant red hair and wearing some sort of green dress.

Atop her head was a cap with a start emblazoned on it. However, the most noticeable thing was the fact that she was fast asleep with her eyes closed and her chest slowly rising and falling.

Taking a few steps closer, she snapped awake and looked around quickly for a moment before her eyes narrowed, and she pushed herself off the wall and looked at me.

Stopping in place, I raised my hand and politely waved before speaking. "Hello, nice to meet you. I heard this place had a sizeable library, and I was wondering if I could perhaps make a trade to gain access to it?"

Blinking in confusion, the woman thought for a moment before shrugging and replying. "I don't know if Patchouli will allow you in, but I could ask Sakuya-"

As she said Sakuya, her voice was cut off as time slammed to a stop and the world around me faded to a monochrome. While I couldn't move, I was still aware and could think.

I assumed this was a form of time stop, which meant that this Sakuya person was an incredibly powerful chronomancer. From what I vaguely remember, the mansion's owner was a vampire, and her name started with an R which meant that Sakuya was likely not the owner.

I decided to try something to see if I could resist the time stop. Pushing out my own much more limited-time stop, I kept it just above my skin which would cut down on the mana cost massively.

Wiggling my fingers, I looked around at the monochrome world and noticed something that shocked me. The time stop did not end; I didn't know if it was simply larger than I could see, but from what I could tell, Sakuya was stopping time for an area at least five miles.

To be blunt, that was beyond even the most powerful wizards and was a firm foot in godhood. While gods of time could likely do the same, the fact that a single non-deity could do this was shocking and didn't bode well for what other powers she might have.

The Grimoire grew, which caused me to untense as the familiar energy flew through my body before receding. Rolling my shoulders, I leaned on my parasol and waited for this Sakuya person to arrive.

A few minutes later, I saw a figure fly over the gates before freezing as she saw me leaning on my parasol. Blinking, I rubbed my eyes and took a second look at the woman to ensure I was seeing correctly.

The mage who did something that only proper time gods can do was clad in a maid's uniform, and it was a proper one with the slight wear and tear expected from somebody working hard.

Raising a hand, I gave her a wave and a smile before swinging my parasol back up on my shoulder. "Hello, nice to meet you, miss. I'm Aidan, and I would like to inquire about meeting Patchouli to discuss access to her library."

Shaking her head slightly, the woman landed behind the guard and walked past her before stopping in front of me. "Very well; however, first, you must meet with the Mistress." She said in a tone that brokered no argument.

As I nodded, the monochrome around me faded away, and the guard jumped at seeing Sakuya in front of me. Gesturing for me to follow, Sakuya walked past the guard while speaking.

"Aidan will be a guest at the manor for the time being" She then stopped for a moment before continuing. "Keep up the good work."

The guard's face then brightened as she nodded and replied. "Of course, Miss Sakuya." She then turned and, with hardly any effort, pushed open the massive metal gates and gestured for me to follow her as she walked inside.

As we entered the manor proper, I could tell that this place was massively distorted in space. Casting my mental senses out, I could tell that the physical location was over ten times smaller than how it was stretched out.

This was another awe-inspiring thing. It wasn't as powerful as the time stop, but it would still be very difficult to pull off unless the person was skilled in manipulating space.

I could probably pull it off, but it would still take a few rituals and be very finicky. I decided to hold off on asking questions until later. I presumed that the owner of the library, Patchouli, would know more about the space enchantments.

Soon enough, we were standing outside a pair of finely crafted doors, and Sakuya looked over me to ensure I was not a mess as she checked me over. "My lady is permissive; however, please be respectful and not crude. Mistakes are acceptable intentional rudeness is not"

After she finished speaking, she pushed open the doors that led to a massive dining room. Seated at the head of the table was a small figure no older than thirteen or fourteen. She had strange purple-blueish hair and a pale face; the most notable features were the tiny batlike wings that extended from her back.

Stepping forward, Sakuya bowed deeply and took a step to the side, gesturing at me. "This is Aidan, who has come bearing gifts and requests and audience."

Following her lead, I walked forward as well and bowed. "It is a pleasure to meet you." Holding out the bottle of sake, I continued. "I brought a bottle of homemade sake as a gift."

Gesturing for Sakuya to bring her the bottle, the girl gave a smile that revealed two small fangs. "It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Aidan. I am Remilia Scarlet; please sit and eat." She said as Sakuya placed the bottle next to her and pulled out a chair so I could sit near Remilia and talk.

Walking forward, I noticed that Sakuya was whispering in Remilia's ear before she walked out of the room. I then sat down and leaned my parasol up against the chair.

A few moments later, Remilia spoke with a tiny tinge of confusion in her voice as she cocked her head to the side. "Would you mind telling me why your heart doesn't beat?"

I furrowed my eyebrows at the question before I remembered that Alter Self was only skin deep. That was why none of your stats changed despite changing your physical form.

It was because most of you stayed the same while a small portion was shifted to fit what you wanted to look like. So in response, I dropped Alter Self and revealed my skeletal form with eyes of burning green flame.

"I thought that most would find a human form more palatable," I gave as a response. Remilia then hummed and nodded in understanding. "That makes sense; I do wonder what are you?" She asked once again.

Chuckling slightly, I replied. "I am known as a Monster, a being of roughly 95% pure magic and 5% dust." Her knowing my species was harmless as she wouldn't get my weakness from that, and once again, I could teleport away if need be.

Before she could respond, time halted once again. I surmised that Sakuya was retrieving something for Remilia, and I was proven right when a few minutes later, she came walking in carrying two plates of food and cups.

Setting both down in front of his time resumed, Sakuya then poured both of us a glass of sake. The grimoire grew as both of us started to eat. I decided to focus on the food, and we could talk after the meal.

Powers Gained
None

The Wondrous Weaving of Wizardry

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