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Venturing the Worlds (Second part of Venturing series / World Hopping)

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Melakias said:
I'm getting back into the habit of writing, it helped that I bought a bluetooth keyboard to write in my phone during work. Of course what comes out is just terrible, so I've to rewrite it when I get home. But is great for downtime.
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Words-on-page is far easier to edit than a blank page, so that sounds like a good thing. Even if it is crap, it is crap with IDEAS that you can edit and rejigger into something good.
 
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Chapter 82
  • Threadmarks

    • Venturing the Worlds – 82


    Magnus watched as Ruby carried the Evolution Stone Ritual all on her own, it was leagues in difference compared with the original working version. Most of the process had been properly calculated, refined and incorporated to the magical circle.

    By now the whole thing was practically automated outside of a few variables. Things like size, element and special characteristics the resulting tone would have.

    He watched as a small speck of pink coalesced at the center before it started to bloom, like a seed growing into a sapling and then blooming like a flower, the small pink speck grew into a crystal in the shape of butterfly wings. Its color deepened before going nearly completely see-through, the still visible pink material speckled with sparkles that appeared to move inside the solid object.

    Magnus carefully caught the floating crystal. "It appears the test was a success." He announced after thoroughly checking the object.

    "Looks like you were right." Ruby said as she stepped closer with her main self. "In hindsight there was no reason why other types of energy couldn't be refined into evolution stones. So it's a Fairy Stone?"

    "Certainly feels that way, why feel something from it?"

    "… actually? Yeah, it's strange, I can feel it." She answered and offered her hand.

    Magnus handed it over, and besides a small glow from the Crystal nothing else happened.

    "Hmm, well, I can't say I was expecting you to evolve, but that's both strangely more and less than I expected to happen." He said.

    "Same." She admitted.

    "Can I see it?" She nodded and handed it back.

    Magnus quickly moved towards the work table and retrieved one of the engraving tools. He didn't even need to secure the crystal, instead holding it in one hand as the other moved the tool over with machine-like precision. His artistic skill quickly showed through as the already beautiful crystal was turned into a masterpiece, basing on the butterfly look, he made it look alive.

    Some smaller evolution stones were quickly used to enchant and further reinforce the accessory after engraving a few tiny Runes on the base to act as a hairband.

    Once it was done he approached Ruby once more, having her sit down before he undid her current ponytail and carefully braided her hair before placing the crystal butterfly at the tip.

    "Thank you." Ruby gave him a kiss that made his nonexistent heart skip a beat.

    With her movements the butterfly almost looked as if it was fluttering around, leaving a trail of sparkles.

    "We're going to carry out more tests today?" She asked.

    "No, I think this is good enough for now, while I want to experiment using Evo Stones in Alchemy, that can wait, right now I promised Lydia and the rest some training."

    "Okay then, I do have some projects of my own." She said and nodded. "Did Orange say how long until we arrive?"

    He shrugged. "She's no idea, apparently there was some movement and some of the buoys appear to be a bit further than expected."

    "I can't wait to see what you do next." He said and exchanged a few more kisses before heading towards the training room.

    As expected the three Wererats were waiting for him, it appeared they had already warmed up.

    "Good, I hope you're ready, because you asked for this."


    Romeo was forced to take a step back as a wave of what could only be described as killing intent washed over them, his empathy getting hit considerably harder compared to how Lydia and Moisha felt it.

    It was a cold shiver going up his back, like the clawed hand of death creeping up the inside of his spine and aiming for his heart.

    He quickly focused on his two partners, their less affected-emotions allowed him to refocus himself.

    "Really boss?" He asked.

    "Tis was a love tap." He joked. "But really, you all asked to be blasted by my full Eldritch presence, it will be worse."

    "Like… how bad?" Moisha asked.

    "You got a taste at the start of the fight with the Moon Lord. In many ways you were lucky, the Moon Lord, as Eldritch as they were, was neither especially strong nor utilized whatever dangerous knowledge it held." He explained. "It will be different with me, I'm not only stronger and I will be focused on you three, but you will be blasted by Truth and Lies you don't want to hear."

    "Isn't there an easier way?" Romeo asked.

    "We've been doing the easier way." He answered. "What do you think happens when someone lives for so long near a being like me and is not changed? But you asked to take the next step, is this way or months more of the same."

    "So this will change us?" Lydia finally asked.

    Romeo gave her a look, he knew she was the one to ask for this. But they were fully behind the decision too.

    "It'll be more of a qualitative change rather than anything visible. So no tentacles, no new eyes where they shouldn't be, neither cancerous growths, nor an unexpected need to chant and go into cultish behavior." He said.

    "Uh… is that a joke?" Moisha asked.

    Magnus bounced his head side to side before wavering his hand. "Depends on the Eldritch being, You will really not get any of those with my father, siblings and me. But some others can get a bit weird, it depends on a lot of aspects."

    The three of them exchanged a look. "We're ready." Lydia answered for the three of them.

    With no more words said, the atmosphere in the training room changed. A small shiver went down their spines as Romeo didn't miss the signs of the room going into full lock down; he had seen it a few times during the most excessive training sessions and spars.

    First came the, by now, familiar sensation of Magnus' Domain spreading out. It was a sudden thing, feeling like a soap bubble inflated until it had swallowed the three of them. It was a manageable feeling, but it was quickly becoming so much more.

    Magnus' form started to swell, fur covered his skin, his features turned vulpine and his posture shifted a bit. His form grew and grew, and with it so did the pressure of his Domain over them. It was starting to ignore the little things in the edge of his perception.

    It wasn't as if he was seeing things, it wasn't a material thing. But instead it was in the edges of his mind, little truths and lies he told himself were being brought up unconsciously. And he could tell Moisha and Lydia were feeling it too.

    He was soon looking down on them, and it wasn't just in the physical meaning. There was a palpable weight to his presence that kept increasing even as his growth had stalled.

    The Lies he told himself were being harder to ignore, or at least what they Lied about, the Truths he had tried to hide from himself. Similarly those Truths he told himself were being harassed by Lies.

    Magnus' figure started to ripple, but once more Romeo noticed it wasn't a physical thing. It was as if the body was starting to fail as such and what was underneath was coming out. Given what he had seen to be inside of Magnus, he quickly guessed what was coming.

    As glad as he was that he didn't do the same as when fighting the Moon Lord, it wasn't wrong to describe what was happening in front of them as unfolding. But words failed him as the process reminded him more of a tesseract represented in three dimensions rather than something unwrapping.

    Magnus' body seemed to flip/invert/alternate with itself, at the same time shrinking down to normal size.

    Romeo was reminded of his comment about qualitative changes, because the being's Domain was weighting hard on his head. T̶̜̥͒͒̏̉͠r̵̜̼̼̥̻̼̰̃u̴̩͍͇̾̄t̷͈̜̟̩̖̝̮́͝ḣ̴͕̏͜ was undeniable, L̷̢̼̙̙̯͔̝̰̈́̀͑̐î̸̡͋͆͐͛̓̀̀̐̚͜ê̴̮̺͈̞̮͋͗́͒̉́͂̾̔s̴̢̝̬͖͉̱͗̈́͒̕ were everywhere.

    It was becoming harder to breathe as he wondered if this was how they saw Reality. Just looking away from the silhouette assaulted him with information. The L̷̢̼̙̙̯͔̝̰̈́̀͑̐î̸̡͋͆͐͛̓̀̀̐̚͜ê̴̮̺͈̞̮͋͗́͒̉́͂̾̔s̴̢̝̬͖͉̱͗̈́͒̕ about the training room's looks, how it L̷̡̨̦̺̲̘̖͔̅ḯ̶̻̤̺͊́͘ȩ̵͎̙̩̺̲͇̤̞͑͘d̷̙̻̬̟̮̞̙̤͒̂̍͘͠ to appear as other things. But also the T̴̢͓͔̳̆̍̂̔̐̉͒͛̕͝ŗ̵̨̭̲̙̼̟̣͍̠̏̋̐͐͊͌̏͑͗͘ụ̷͎̭̖̱̻̫̂̆̈́̂̇̏̋̐͠͝t̶̠̖̭͙̩̤͍͉̓̍͊̐͐̌̕h̴̲̲̩͆̈́͆̔̇̆̈̂̏ that kept it existing as it was, how it reinforced its own state, effectively negating damage.

    He looked at Moisha and Lydia and was also blasted by their T̴̢͓͔̳̆̍̂̔̐̉͒͛̕͝ŗ̵̨̭̲̙̼̟̣͍̠̏̋̐͐͊͌̏͑͗͘ụ̷͎̭̖̱̻̫̂̆̈́̂̇̏̋̐͠͝t̶̠̖̭͙̩̤͍͉̓̍͊̐͐̌̕h̴̲̲̩͆̈́͆̔̇̆̈̂̏ and ̷̱̇͌L̷͖̦̀́̔̉̔̓͂̚͝ḭ̶̧̺̭̗̤̟͇̝̣̒͌͊͋é̸̛̻̦̻̤̣̱̲̀̊s̷̢̡̜͖̻̟̤͚͑̃̏̓̏̏̑̎͝, the things they L̶͉̼̥̥̅̒̇͒̍́̾̕͜ï̸͖͕̭̜̝̖͕͚̪̟̈̏̿̒͊̚͝ḝ̷̨̢͕͈͔̬͉̗̽͋͊̿̀ͅd̸̰̹̞̱̮̱̍͛͐̎͊͝͠ͅ to themselves, to others, to anything. And the T̷̘̰̱̥̪͍̮̉͋̽̃͋͝r̸̡̞̳̞̱̭̣̺͖̾̃̈́͊̔̚ͅừ̶̖̭̦̠͇͎͐͋̿̒̽̇͠͠t̴̯͍̄̀͂h̸̨̡͔̻̀͜ they kept to themselves and sometimes shared with him.

    It was an emotional rollercoaster, one he would be riding off for a while. But here, blasted by the certainty of T̷̘̰̱̥̪͍̮̉͋̽̃͋͝r̸̡̞̳̞̱̭̣̺͖̾̃̈́͊̔̚ͅừ̶̖̭̦̠͇͎͐͋̿̒̽̇͠͠t̴̯͍̄̀͂h̸̨̡͔̻̀͜ and ̸̢̝̯̻̼̠͇̺̑̈́̓̒̿̊L̵̡͒́̇͠ͅỉ̷̭̩̉́̊̋͆͑̊̽e̸͚̼̘͕̓̈́́̐́͝͝s̸̠͔̬̖͚̄́̉̄̌̄̎̈͌̕ he could be sure they would be there for him, and he would be there for them.

    He turned back to Magnus, the man was more of a well of information and facts than a person. It was hard to look at him and not feel as if he was recollecting something he already knew; as if the information was something he already had.

    A L̵̡͒́̇͠ͅỉ̷̭̩̉́̊̋͆͑̊̽e̸͚̼̘͕̓̈́́̐́͝͝ came to the front, it was a familiar one. The same one he told everyone when he was acting as normal. A L̵̡͒́̇͠ͅỉ̷̭̩̉́̊̋͆͑̊̽e̸͚̼̘͕̓̈́́̐́͝͝ that mostly worked because people wanted to beL̵̡͒́̇͠ͅỉ̷̭̩̉́̊̋͆͑̊̽e̸͚̼̘͕̓̈́́̐́͝͝ve it. People liked to be comfortable, to be safe, to not be confronted with the unknown, and it was easy to L̵̡͒́̇͠ͅỉ̷̭̩̉́̊̋͆͑̊̽e̸͚̼̘͕̓̈́́̐́͝͝ to yourself that the person in front of you was Human, even if a bit quirky. It was so easier to think that, even when he told you himself that they were not.

    Even right now he was having troubles not beL̵̡͒́̇͠ͅỉ̷̭̩̉́̊̋͆͑̊̽e̸͚̼̘͕̓̈́́̐́͝͝ving it. It just made it so much easier, but he couldn't deny what was behind. Was this why people went mad? The knowledge of what truly lay out there, under the veneer of civility?

    He could feel it putting pressure down on his mind, it was becoming harder to ignore things. He didn't even know if his nose was bleeding, but his mouth tasted metallic and he could tell the taste was ̷̧̗͕͇͕͓͔̓̅̔͌͌̔̂̀̌T̸̹͎͕̹̭̹̻͓̦̮͐̀͆̆̊̌̈͘r̶̨̟̪̞̪͍̄͛̓̒̎͑͝ư̵͔̟͇̯͉̳̅͋ë̵̢̩͚̹͉̟́͊.

    Magnus' figure finally inverted/flipped/returned to normal and the pressure quickly eased. An unconscious moan escaped his lips as he couldn't help but to lean onto the girls as his whole body relaxed.

    "Congratulations." His words rang ̷̧̗͕͇͕͓͔̓̅̔͌͌̔̂̀̌T̸̹͎͕̹̭̹̻͓̦̮͐̀͆̆̊̌̈͘r̶̨̟̪̞̪͍̄͛̓̒̎͑͝ue.

    Moisha groaned to his side as Romeo still had to shake something off, meanwhile Lydia remained stiff. Though this was not a sign of her not having been similarly affected.

    "….N-now w-what?" Lydia forced herself to ask.

    "Now you three will rest, you just survived something that would break most, if not all unprepared people." His words felt soft, but it was hard to focus. Romeo's mind was still full of Truth and Lies.

    He felt a shiver as their shadows rippled and three silhouettes stood up. It wasn't hard to recognize himself among them. Though to his surprise they reached to pick them up.

    "We'll talk about your experience after a few days, you three should rest for now." The shadows moved after he spoke.

    None of them felt in them to fight being carried, straight to their room where they were laid down on their shared bed. The last he saw were the shadows dipping back into place.

    Still, all Romeo could do was reach closer for his two partners, the certainty that they were there was reassuring as he fell asleep.


    Magnus watched as Julia's four students left his house, the few hidden cameras following their movements until they were far enough. Right now he knew Ayane's two caretakers would be waiting for her at her home to talk, so was Monty and he would most likely take her to talk with Exthilion in the short future. But that felt like an event he didn't belong, so he didn't insist on joining.

    Maybe he would talk with the old Dragon in the future, but that could wait.

    He turned back to Milo. "Thank you for the help."

    "It was nothing. And it'll be nothing compared to the next thing you will ask me about." His brother said knowingly.

    "Yeah, yeah it won't be." Magnus nodded.

    "Tell me."

    "What I am asking you to do is multi-purpose." He started. "First, your target is the late Jonathan Diggers, right now known only as the Lich," his words were accompanied by an image he had found in Gina's databanks, glad that she kept a good archive, even if she apparently rarely checked it, "you should have access to the information of what lead to his partial demise. But it doesn't matter at the moment."

    Milo nodded, watching the images and committing to memory.

    "While I know you can pull some miracles, in his case it may be a bit easier." Magnus continued. "During the man's younger years he traveled the Realms of this World, our interest lays in the Veiled Realm, it's mostly unreachable and lacks a few Concepts, the Cycle of Time between them. This is lucky because it means that a very interesting diary survived there. Said Diary contains a pretty complete imprint of the man, intelligent and independent."

    "You want me to fix the man using both?" Milo asked. "I would need to check, but it'll depend heavily on how complete the man's soul is in the husk."

    "The 'records' state that if he was purified he would still act as his old self, so it should be pretty solid there. Just in case I prepared an all-purpose Curse eater talisman that should cover most of what I can do, I doubt it will be necessary, but…" He shrugged and resumed. "Now, that's not all I want you to do in the Veiled Realm," with a gesture the image changed to a drawn depiction of another race, "these are Gaoblins,"

    "I read the information you passed me." Milo interrupted. "I see no problem giving them a helping hand, plus you are right that I should be able to restart the Cycle by myself. What do you expect me to do if I come across the older Madrid?"

    "I honestly doubt she will approach you, though if it were me, I would say prank her." He grinned.

    Milo rolled his eyes, but definitely did not ignore the suggestion.

    "Now, finding Fortress Kia could be harder, the Realms are far, but priestess Crescens holds a connection with Kia." He suggested.

    "You're saying I ask her to come along?"

    "I'm saying that she'll most likely ask to come with you if you are honest about it." He said honestly. "And I think you should, both of them hold much more than they want to admit, it would help both of them."

    "Okay, I can't say I'm against it." Milo admitted. "Stardust will have to remain here then, a trip like this is not right for her at the moment."

    "I'm not against looking after her, and I'm sure I can expose her to a few safe situations while letting her make friends."

    "You mean make friends or make friends?" Milo asked with a raised eyebrow.

    "Depends if they deserve it or not."

    They both chuckled.

    "Anything else you want me to do while over there?" Milo asked.

    "Unfortunately I can't say if there's more of interest, but I know you're a good judge of character, so if you come across someone you want to help, go ahead." Magnus answered. "I know this World's larger than the information we got, so go wild."

    "And what will you do while I am away?"

    "I need to screw the two rats' plans a bit more, that will lead to hunting Zero as I need to destroy the Curse laid on the soul of the youngest version of the man. It will screw time a bit here and there, but given the nature of his future version he may end as a Paradox, which would leave him open to one of the Truth swords I created." He explained.

    "Aiming to topple the old rat's empire a piece at a time?"

    "I am already doing that. It's just more of the same, and while I would love nothing more than just to kill him and be done with it, I've a plan for a pair of very special curses before making sure they end up under the dragon to screw him over too." He explained. "Unfortunately given the nature of his timeline, he's currently out of reach unless I want to screw some of the other plans going on, and as much as I hate it, Gina's right and he need to finish his part of the Engine."

    "And you can't do it?"

    "Maybe? I would certainly need to take myself off the timeline and study for a long while to get there. As much as I am following dad's steps in becoming a Forger, that's sadly not my field and my work with Time's sadly pretty limited." He grumbled.

    "You could always try, no?"

    "Eh… maybe in the future. There's better things to do at the moment. Plus given our existence, stepping out of the Timeline is just asking for trouble." He added with a shake of his hand.

    Exchanging a few more details, Magnus and Milo turned their attention back to the Real world. It had been just a few minutes in real time, the second level of his mind accelerated their perception enough for a long talk.

    It was hard to overstate how much better it felt to have Milo around, he hadn't realized how much he had missed that connection with his family. Even being connected to the Psi-Kobolds wasn't the same.

    There was also the fact that his brother had fixed a few things in his Soul, little snags he hadn't noticed. Nothing troublesome, but little bits of him that hadn't fully adapted yet, with time they would have fit better, he just cut down the time.

    The only problem he had noticed so far had been a few problems with the local magic, but with that taken care of he could now return Theodore his books as he had effectively 'learned' them.

    The local magic was quite interesting, the way it relied heavily on gestures for the creation of magical constructs which were used to cast magic through was very interesting. Similarly to how Princess D'bra could use her eyes to cast beam spells, most mages needed to effectively create a lens ahead of them to aim the spell.

    Other spells required different constructs and combinations of gestures. He had studied one of the good doctor's old classes and had to admit it was amazing how it worked for most magic users; the exceptions usually were those who could skip steps naturally.

    Most casting foci worked by having these magical constructs engraved in them. For example a bomb spell wand exchanged the flexibility of manual casting for the safety of a replicable result. And while he would like to say he could improve on things by creating a wand capable of modifying itself, there were existing ways to carry that effect. Not only that, there were many foci that covered multiple types of spell in an efficient manner.

    That didn't mean there wasn't something he would do. The Sheikah Grimoire was already his main casting weapon, so the idea he would go would be using the Runes it could already create to simulate the necessary gestures he would have to carry otherwise.

    It was something that he had only been starting to realize recently, something incredibly obvious in hindsight. Technically, there was no reason for the Sheikah Runes to work in any other World, at least by themselves. Runes worked given their context and meaning, and those were things inherent to the World. Similarly, time could change the meaning of Runes, though it was harder with commonly used Runes as their use solidified their meaning.

    The trick in the Sheikah Runes was in the Blue Flames, which carried information, and in the case of the Runes, their meaning in themselves. The best way to describe the fact was that each Rune was a page of information expertly folded into the shape of the Rune, sometimes multiple pages, and the characteristic of the Blue Flames activated said information.

    And in the same way, he could devise a few artificial Runes that effectively imitated the effects of the gestures the local magic system made use of. Though before starting he should consider talking with Theodore about the idea, it certainly wouldn't hurt to check if they existed already or not.

    There was no need to reinvent the wheel after all. But there were always ways to improve things.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 83
  • Threadmarks

    • Venturing the Worlds – 83


    Natasha, Queen of the Vampires and current ruler of the U'Deun, the Undead Realm, knew one thing about her position… she hated the paperwork.

    It didn't help that most of her minions were boneheads, literal and metaphorical.

    "Grrr! That's enough!" She smashed the desk, sending the many documents flying and reducing the surface to splinters. "I'm the Queen of this Realm, why the hell am I doing paperwork!?"

    Another Vampire, this time a man of higher stature, wearing a well fit suit and cape walked into the room. He gave the pile of now smoking paperwork a look and sighed.

    "You worked under the Lich King long enough to know he usually left it to other people." He said.

    "Vlad, so nice to see you." She said in a tone dripping with condescension. "I would, but everyone's either an idiot or a backstabber." She grumbled.

    "And I made sure you didn't throw the paperwork to me in exchange for the position of Queen." He added.

    She walked over to the large windows overlooking her Realm. The view was bleak, but that was undeath for you, rocky plains, scorching volcanos, dried forests. Just like she liked it, always wrapped in the dark of the night or the twilight, never touched by the smallest ray of sunlight.

    "And you did that… yes." She growled. "Though talking about the Lich King," she grinned as she reached for a bell and rang it.

    The previous ruler of the Realm walked into the room, wearing a butler outfit. "You called, my queen?" His tone was forced, but she could tell that even after losing all of his power he was still biding his time.

    "Yes, perfect for you to come, I was needing to blow off some stress." She grinned.

    The Lich King, previous ruler of the Realm, previously Jonathan Diggers, barely reacted, but she noticed with glee that the corner of his eyes twitched.

    "Come over here, slave." She pointed to the point in front of them." She ordered.

    Vlad shook his head silently and took a step back, not saying anything and just watching. In his opinion it was a waste of time. So he just watched as the Lich moved into position without a sign of complaint.

    As Natasha got ready to kick the butler's ass, the whole Realm stiffened as something entered the Realm.

    "What the fuck was that?!" Natasha screamed and rushed to the scrying orb.

    Vlad rushed after her, and even the Lich scooted closer in consternation as the Realm let a mute, yet palpable, whine. Something Antithetical had entered and put pressure on everything.

    Being the Queen of the Realm was more than just a position, and Natasha could feel things others wouldn't. The Realm was complaining, but it was the complaint of someone holding something hot, though the Realm strangely welcomed it too.

    She turned to her slave. "Lich! Tell me what's happening! You must have an idea!"

    "I… I've no idea, my Queen." He admitted, pained by the fact. "It's never happened before, most invasions were, well… invasions. This feels as if something decided to take a stroll."

    "Vlad!" She turned again towards the vampire. "Deploy the gargoyles, I need a visual on the intruder yesterday!" She ordered.

    The vampire nodded and rushed out, she turned towards the Lich. "And what are you waiting for? An invitation?"

    "B-but my Queen, you've given me n-"

    "Does it look like I need to tell you what to do, slave?! We're getting invaded, if they are hostile or not, it doesn't matter." She growled. "This is the Undead Realm, anyone coming here is never good news, so bring me my armor!"

    "Yes my Quee-" His words died in his dry, undead mouth as something entered the room.

    Natasha froze too for a moment, fighting her natural instincts to turn and look at the intruder.

    It looked like a young, good-looking man. Its silver hair appeared to be practically glowing, but it was its eyes that were hard to look away from. They were two pits of an electric blue that made her feel as if she was going to drown.

    But as impossible to look away those eyes were, what she couldn't ignore was the reek of Life coming off the thing.

    She wanted to scream at him, in order to do anything. But words seemed to die in her throat, as if all it took was a single mistake and she would be erased by the thing in front of her. As a vampire she fed on Life through blood, but this thing in front of her oozed enough Life to be straight up poison to her. Would she just pop if she remained in proximity for too long?

    But what rankled her the most, was that it ignored her, gave her a look and simply went past towards the hell-damned Lich!

    He appeared to be having even a harder time than she was, Natasha could at least turn her head to follow its movements. Instead the Lich seemed to be a deer in the headlights.

    The thing barely gestured and the Lich was lifted, being held in some kind of invisible full-body bind.

    Natasha felt the weight on the Realm increase before the fabric itself buckled and suddenly the two of them disappeared. And just in time for Vlad to return to the room.

    "The Gargoyles have been deployed," Vlad said and looked at her, "… did something happen?"

    Natasha sighed as she felt return to her own body. "Yes… the intruder just left, he, it, whatever it was… it was after the Lich and took him away to somewhere." She explained.

    "What do you mean?" He asked.

    She grumbled as she wandered over to her chair and let herself fall back on it. "You mean you can't feel it? That stench of Life left behind?" She asked.

    Vlad looked around, his face letting a small twitch. "… now that you say it,"

    "Whatever that thing was, I could have erased every undead in the area if it wished, but it only wanted that hell-damned Lich!" She screamed.

    Vlad rubbed his chin. "I don't doubt he made more than enough enemies in his life and unlife to merit being hunted down. But I don't think I ever heard of a being capable of exuding Life like you describe."

    "It doesn't matter, he's gone, hopefully for good." Natasha said.

    "Should I recall the Gargoyles?"

    "No, have them scout the Realm, make sure there's nothing alive left around." She ordered. "And if you find anything, destroy it utterly, I don't want anyone else getting any ideas."

    Vlad nodded and turned to leave, once more leaving her alone with the smoldering pile of paperwork. The vampire queen groaned and summoned a few skeletons to clean up the mess and bring a spare desk and her paperwork, she still hadn't finished after all.


    Magnus gave the paralyzed Lich a look, he could see the features of the man he had been, and hopefully would soon be once more, behind the decayed features.

    "Any problem collecting him?"

    "Not really, the hardest thing was not eating my way through the realm, it was nothing like the Infinite Realms." Milo answered. "It was a Realm of undeath, so Life would have torn through it if I let it."

    "Nothing else?"

    "Nothing else."

    "Excellent, with him here I should be able to make that compass." Magnus said, ignoring the looks from the Lich.

    "Good, just don't take too long, I don't want to have to put him to sleep, putting him to sleep would be more problems that he's worth."

    "Screaming in his mind?"

    "Yeah, he seemed to have realized I'm a psychic and for some reason knows how to make himself heard." Milo rubbed the bridge of his nose.

    Magnus could understand the problem, Milo needed to keep an eye on the Lich, the problem was dealing with the annoyance of listening to him, and not just ignoring him; that was asking for trouble.

    "You can remove his muzzle if you want." Magnus offered. "It's not like anyone will wander down here, I effectively have the place down under multiple lockdowns." He had told Bri they would be doing something dangerous enough that no one should come in and just told the rest they would be busy and shouldn't be interrupted.

    "Eh… it's not necessary, he's just reciting some of the most boring books he remembers." Milo said. "So far he's guessing we want the secret on how he turned into a Lich."

    "Really?" Magnus asked as he worked. "That's… very stupid, I mean, Lichdom's not the worst choice for immortality, but certainly a very limited one."

    "He also missed the obvious that we're already immortal." Milo added, smiling as the Lich froze.

    Magnus would bet the man had finally stopped rambling in his own head.

    "He just realized that wasn't what we wanted him for?" He asked knowingly as he allowed Milo to feed him the necessary information for the artifact.

    "Yes, and now he's trying to figure out what he did in the past to deserve this humiliation."

    "So he's leagues away from the answer?" Magnus teased as he started to weave the necessary Runes into the compass.

    "Yeah, I think I will keep it a surprise, to see how long he takes to find it out."

    He chuckled as the compass was finished, the last strands of magic weaved back into the design and locked everything in place. He gave the needle a little flick and it started to spin uncontrollably, it would enter the Veiled Realm before it locked properly.

    "Here." He threw it to Milo.

    His brother caught it and nodded. "Excellent."

    He nodded and walked over to a more open area of the laboratory before activating the gate to the desired Realm. "Now go. I would wish you luck, but I think no one's expecting someone like you."

    Milo chuckled and dragged Jonathan along as they went through, the gate closing quickly once he went past. A small cloud of smoke signaled the machine had broken, it was unfortunately an expected fact as the gate was a prototype to his adaptation of the Psi-Snail's Realm jumping.

    He had only managed the technological side of the adoption and it came up short when dealing with the difference in time-flow. He may be able to fix it in the future, but at the moment a disposable gate was the best he could do.

    Thankfully Milo would have a much easier time returning once the cycle was restored over in the Veiled Realm, especially with the help of Fortress Kia.

    For the moment Magnus had something else to pay attention to, and since no one expected him for a few hours, he summoned the Peebo he had built with Brianna.

    It only took a few moments for Peemag to appear in a little flash of Light.

    "Figured out Blinking, eh?" He asked, though he didn't expect an answer.

    Different from the other named Peebos, Peemag appeared to prefer not speaking. Both Bri and him had checked his code thoroughly, but it turned out the little bot had decided that speech was overrated.

    He reached and pressed the half-hidden button behind the little bot's head and held it down for three seconds to put them to sleep. With the little bot offline, he unlocked the machine's code and started to go through it.

    He idly wondered if Brianna understood exactly what she had managed when creating the little robots, the combination of magic and tech in their code was nothing if not innovative, a clear show of thinking out of the box. True sentient little programs.

    After checking the ever-changing code hadn't generated an error or problem, he moved onto what he really was planning and started to add a new program.

    It would take some work, but he was pretty sure it would work, he couldn't wait to show it to Bri.


    The Veiled Realm was an interesting place, looking mostly like outer space, albeit with a breathable atmosphere. A starry sky as far as the eye could see, only interrupted by the floating debris that floated around.

    The Lich could only give his kidnapper a baleful look, growling in his mind and flinging every insult he could remember. Promising to kill and curse every member of his family, to ruin him in any way possible, or swearing he would raise them as undead only to destroy them again and again.

    But besides some annoyance, all slipped off him.

    "Do you even have any idea of where we are?!" He really wanted to know why they would bring him to the Veiled Realms, the place was practically useless.

    The young man was a complete mystery to him, he had made a lot of enemies in his life and unlife, but he didn't know anyone like him. Someone capable of wandering through the Undead Realm just to get him, completely ignoring Natasha in the process.

    The other man was even more of an incognita, appearing to be completely mundane. But he had seen him work, the artifact the silver-haired man was holding at the moment was anything but mundane.

    "You still haven't figured it out?" Milo asked in a smug tone. "I would have thought you would have realized it by now."

    The Lich wanted to growl, but his train of thought seemed to come to a halt at those words. There was an implication there, a relation between him and the Veiled Realms. He had traveled them while he was still alive, but he didn't remember anything too important besides a few races he would love to convert into undead minions.

    He grumbled as he mumbled in his thoughts, trying to bring up all memories of his expedition. But he was coming up with nothing important. And Milo was giving him no other clue of what he meant, instead following the artifact's needle; it looked like he would only learn their goal once they found it.

    At least by now he knew they weren't going to kill him, and he believed them when they had said they didn't want to know how he ended up a Lich.

    Even as the hours passed, he felt nowhere closer to a reason and he had started to stop coming up with new possibilities. Instead just watching time pass by until his eyes caught some movement on one of the larger floating rocks.

    There, barely visible was an Abyssalisk, the massive, octopus-like predator was nearly perfectly camouflaged against the rock, staying completely still and waiting for them to come closer.

    He started to plan how to react, the Abyssalisk would prefer living prey rather than him, but as he was powerless it would most likely not ignore an easy snack. This meant that he would need to escape as quickly as possible while Milo fought the beast, what he would do after that would be seen. But the first step was surviving.

    He tried to keep the act, at least he didn't have to keep screaming; even in his head it was getting boring. Watching until the Abyssalisk pounced.

    Every fiber of his body tensed up, getting ready to push himself away.

    But to his surprise the massive monster stopped dead in its tracks, its many eyes focused entirely on the man keeping him captured. It didn't run away, instead it slowly floated closer, allowing Milo to pet the beast.

    "Ho-how…?" The Lich stumbled on himself to ask.

    He could tell that no magic had been used, nor some drug or secret technique. The beast had simply and instantly accepted them as its complete superior in any way possible.

    "I am Life and Nurture." Milo spoke mysteriously as the Abyssalisk gently moved away before flying off. "My presence offers change and possibility. It also understood that while I couldn't kill it, trying to fight me was useless."

    The Lich felt his eye twitch, growling in his mind and just glaring at the man as they continued their flight. Soon they reached an area he recognized, one of the many hollow planets that existed.

    This was a chance for him, the local race worshiped Death and his status as a Lich could very much be used to gain some easy minions that would help in recovering his power. But why was he feeling nostalgic?

    "Ah, there we go." Milo's words broke his reminiscence as he saw where they were going.

    One of his old campsites! To think one of those had been left untouched all this long.

    "What would you even need here?!" He screamed.

    "Oh? Still not understood?"

    The two of them touched down on the solid surface of the rocky outcrop. Though even then he was being dragged along.

    His eyes widened as an invisible force lifted a very familiar book from the ground and took it straight to Milo's hands. "Recognize it now?"

    "One of my old diaries? What would you even want with one of those?"

    Milo's smile irked him.

    "Let me present myself properly." He spoke calmly. "I'm Milo, also known as the Smiling Saint, one of Guru's three children. In my family I'm recognized as one of the strongest healers, capable of touching the Body, the Mind and the Soul. I'm the Titan of Life and Nurture, I've control over Light and Water. While I'm touched by Death, I'm a well of Life and change, as long as something's alive, thinking or has a Soul I can affect it. And with this," he raised the diary, "I can fix a very big mistake."

    The Lich froze, a chill like one he hadn't felt since he was alive ran down his spine. "...no."

    "Yes."

    That single word brought an indescribable sense of dread to the Lich. What to him was a fate worse than death, he wouldn't be killed, he would be turned back to the disgusting man he once had been!

    "NO!"

    "You've no choice." Milo whispered and his blue eyes glowed in such a way that the Lich felt as if he was going to drown in them.

    Even without his power he could feel something bubbling under the skin of the man in front of him, or the thing. This was no man, he couldn't believe it had taken him this long to understand that; how had he been so blind?

    The thing in front of him reached for his chest with his free hand and he couldn't fight, their grip on his body absolute. Its hand was warm, and he hated it.

    He had no breath to choke on. Instead he went completely stiff, his figure started to break away. Long death skin, flesh and bones practically scattered away into a fine dust until all that was left was his cursed soul.

    Milo pushed the book into his immaterial body, the diary sinking and melting into him.

    "From negative to positive." Milo whispered and something inverted.

    The Lich/Jonathan tried to scream, but he had no body, he was just a soul standing on the edge. He felt conflicting memories of war with each other. He tried to claw those warm memories away, trying to grab and hold those cold ones to himself.

    But it was impossible, the warmth was spreading, swiftly old, cold memories were destroyed, shown to have been false, corrupted by the process that transformed him into a Lich and his unlife.

    He tried to scream as hate, anger, greed and lust for power were washed away by the warm sensation. His memories were being repaired, old holes he had forgotten existed filled, the truth of the love and care he had felt for his family filled him once more.

    A sudden beat surprised him. Jonathan looked down and saw a heart, a beating human heart now resting where it should be, a pair of lungs and a rib cage growing around it. He could feel his spine growing up and down. Hip bones, shoulder plates and the rest of the organs belonging inside his torso followed. Muscles and tendons spread over the bones, connecting as his arms and legs took shape. He couldn't see his own head take form, but suddenly blinking was a novel experience. Skin started to spread over his form.

    Finally he breathed in, he was alive. He felt a shiver as his bare feet landed on the floor and he couldn't help but to look at his hands, his living hands.

    "I…"

    "Welcome back." Milo said as a blanket wrapped around his naked body. "Here you go." He handed him a set of folded clothes, a very familiar set.

    Jonathan chuckled and quickly dressed up.

    "This…" He still couldn't believe it, he was alive, he knew it and a few spells definitely confirmed it. "How?"

    Milo smiled. "I've done more with less. I may not be able to kill, but everything else?" He said and let out a laugh.

    The silver-haired man produced a small mirror and allowed Jonathan to check himself. He looked younger than he remembered being, short, blonde hair, blue eyes.

    "I'm missing my glasses?"

    "Oh, fixed that, honestly you will notice a lot of little things like that, consider it fixing unnecessary little things." Milo shrugged. "It's basically easier to fix all of those than replicate them, if you still want glasses I'm sure we can get you a fake or enchanted pair. I also based you on the image imprinted on the diary, so you will be younger."

    "I would say all of this is impossible, but I'm definitely not dreaming." Jonathan said in good humor. "I take it this is not all you've planned?"

    Milo shook his head. "We need to restart the Cycle, and while I am more than capable of forcing my way through the local tribe of Gaoblins, there are much better ways to go at it."

    "You want to help them?"

    "Not just help them, but ask them for help. It's a long story, so how about we walk and talk?" He offered.

    Jonathan thought about it and nodded. "I see no problem there, but you will have to answer a few questions, I still remember you were playing coy on the way here."

    "I hope it doesn't bother you that I kept those memories in your mind, even if I softened them down."

    The man thought about it for a moment before shaking his head. "I… I'm not happy that I've done all of those things, all those years… but I can rationalize that it wasn't me that did them. I still feel some guilt, but…"

    "That's okay, we can talk about that later. I am a pretty good therapist." Milo said. "Now let's see, I think like all stories we should start from the beginning, and that's a few decades ago, in a completely different World, when a man woke up in a white void…"

    Jonathan listened, but even as entrancing as the story was, he couldn't help but wonder when they would return home, and wonder if his family would accept him again.

    For some reason Milo gave him a warmer smile when that thought crossed his mind, instantly reminding him the man was psychic. He chuckled and paid more attention to the story, he somehow believed all would be okay, even if the adventure in front of them would certainly be an entertaining one.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 84
  • Threadmarks

    • Venturing the Worlds – 84


    Lydia and Moisha walked towards the hot springs Ruby had set up in one of the corners of the Garden. The two Wererats were currently wearing naught but a towel, though in all honesty they didn't feel much embarrassment about being seen.

    The towel was more of a little show of modesty. Ruby was their medic and had seen them naked more than once, Magnus had only eyes for Ruby and Orange had eyes everywhere already.

    The two stopped when they saw what the hot springs actually looked like. The large pool was filled with something that looked like magma, and if Ruby wasn't already soaking in it, they would have been worried.

    "Really?" Lydia asked, dryly.

    Ruby slowly opened an eye and looked at them before speaking, "… don't worry, it's not molten rock."

    "And that's so reassuring."

    Ruby rolled her eyes. "Come in already, it's just phosphorescent algae." She finally explained. "It's a crossbreed between a few healing plants, that moss that grew down in hell in Terraria and a type of algae that grows in very hot environments."

    Lydia and Moisha shared a look before folding their towels and placing them aside. Only then they slipped in. They instantly understood why Ruby was sounding so relaxed.

    It was like laying on the best bed they had ever experienced, and the beds in their rooms were nothing to scoff at. It wasn't entirely a liquid, more like a suspension that hugged every part of their body submerged in it. It was warm and was relaxing them to the core.

    "Oh…" Moisha moaned as she allowed herself to fully relax, the hot springs holding her.

    Lydia looked down, still not as relaxed as her partner. "This doesn't feel as hot as it actually is." She noted.

    Ruby nodded. "One of the particularities of the algae is that it provides an effect similar to the Fire Resistance potion." She explained. "Not that it would bother you anyways."

    She chuckled.

    "So what did you make this for?" Lydia asked as she felt the heat slowly seep deeper and work on her body.

    "Honestly? Slight mistake on my part, I was experimenting with the herbs we got from Terraria. I was trying to breed them into edible potion plants, so it kinda worked, kinda not." She explained.

    "Were the potions that good?" Lydia asked as Moisha's head slowly leaned on her shoulder.

    The Wererat looked at her partner and smiled warmly, allowing the more buxom one to get comfortable in her nap.

    "Some were interesting, the Luck potion for example did as you imagine, even if Luck's such a nebulous concept." She said. "But there's also the Sex Changing potion. Once more it does as it says, though it doesn't exactly work on those without a set sex like Orange or Magnus. Neither works for me, I think it considers me not alive enough? I'm not sure and Magnus' not sure either. But if you want to try it just ask."

    Lydia's eyes opened wide and her head tilted. "A potion can do that?"

    "I think you should think of these kinds of potions more as very complex spell rituals in a bottle. You can consider the investment in making a potion a replacement of the whole casting process."

    "I'm strangely curious. But I don't think it's for me." She said, rubbing her chin.

    "It's not for everyone, I can understand that much."

    Lydia nodded and sank down nearly to her neck, making sure Moisha's head still rested on her shoulder above water. "What next?"

    "Well…" Ruby said as she stretched, the thick fluid filling the hot springs flowing off her arms, "I know Magnus' trying to replicate the creation of Life Crystals and Mana Crystals, no matter if he manages it, I think I can do something similar with the few samples we have of them and the Life Fruits that grew in the Jungle Biome."

    "Uh, I wouldn't mind some more of those, they tasted delicious." She was being completely honest, the fist-sized, heart-shaped fruits were like the most delicious peach she had ever tasted; slightly addictive.

    They had seen to collect plenty of them while still in the previous World, just in case Ruby couldn't grow them. Each of them had eaten them until they had no more effect. Tests had confirmed to have improved their health significantly.

    She wouldn't say no to similar fruits if they would improve other things.

    "Tell me if you need any help with those." Lydia said.

    Ruby nodded. "Thank you, but that's for later…" She let out a pleased sigh.

    Lydia could understand why, the medicinal hot springs were starting to make effect and ease the stress of spending so long in the ship. She couldn't wait until they reached a new World already. Maybe she would ask about a short break somewhere.

    She let out another sigh and pulled Moisha closer, relaxing further.


    Link patiently walked up the path towards Hateno Village. He didn't remember the village well, even when Impa had described the place as his hometown. But once more there was a small sense that things were different.

    He couldn't put his finger on it, but it felt like the place felt safer? It was hard to tell, the guards he greeted as he passed by. It wasn't like he was stopped and questioned, but they appeared more than ready to act if something happened instead of just sleeping on the job.

    The well fit armors certainly added to the image of a respectable and well formed group. And thinking back on it, so did those guards set on the fort on the way to the village.

    He checked his Sheikah Slate once more, confirming that he had to go all the way to the top of the hill. He took a moment to look at the windmill visible from his position, it looked quite newer than the rest, he wondered if something happened to the old one. Building that high up must not have been the easiest.

    As he continued his path he noticed two things, first was the lack of older men and women, everyone appeared to be children, young or in their prime. Second was that there had been more guards than he 'didn't' remember. He wondered if something bad had happened, but the whole village didn't feel like it had gone through such an event.

    He got a few looks and more smiles and waves on his way. Even as he started to climb the hill. The sun was starting to set by the time he made it to the top, taking a breath of the fresh air coming from the sea and giving the building a look.

    Just like he had noticed from the below, the building was considerably newer than anything else in the village, it still kept similar aesthetics. But there was a touch of something different to it.

    He walked up to the door, ready to knock on it, but before his hand could make contact with it, the door slid open with a loud noise and a white haired woman looked right into his eyes. She had a pair of red trimmed glasses and a maniac smile.

    "Linky!" She called out happily, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him in.

    He didn't even react, there was not even a pinch of hostility or aggressiveness, if anything, it felt incredibly warm and welcoming. Even if there was a hint of danger there, it felt like some kind of very old reflex telling him to be careful around her, though not of her.

    "Symin! Link's here." She said as she dragged him deeper.

    Once more he allowed her to do so as he looked around. The place was filled with chalkboards, bookcases, work tables, models, diagrams, blueprints and so much stuff that Link was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed. So he quickly turned his attention back to the young woman as she had him sit down on a chair.

    She took the chair in front of him. "It's so good that you're up! Do you remember me?"

    He felt bad to tank her good mood, but he wasn't going to lie and silently shook his head side to side.

    "Hmm… that's interesting, though not unexpected." Thankfully it seemed that she wasn't feeling down from the news. Instead she had gotten up and walked around the table, getting her hands on him to check him through. "You've been effectively dead for a hundred years, so things may take some time to come back, what do you remember?"

    He thought about it before answering in as few words as possible. He remembered mostly feelings and a few names here and there.

    "I see…" She hummed thoughtfully, rubbing her chin. "Okay, I think we'll work something to loosen up those memories. I would joke about a good smack on your head, but I've seen you headbutt some monsters before to little effect." She laughed, only stopping when a Sheikah man entered the room with a tray.

    He placed it on the table and smiled. "Nice to meet you, Link, I'm Symin, assistant here at the Hateno Research Lab."

    Link nodded, returning the greeting in silence.

    Purah smacked her forehead. "Oh dear, so silly of me, in my excitement I forgot to present myself." She said. "I'm Purah, director of the Hateno Research Lab, now give me your Sheika Slate, I will upgrade you to the new version."

    He barely got it off his spot hanging by his waist before Purah had taken it off his hands and ran off the room.

    Symin laughed softly. "Don't worry, that's the director for you. She's very excited to know you were finally up and may have spent the night working on your personal armband." He said, pointing to his own to explain.

    He tilted his head in question.

    "Oh, don't worry, the director will explain it to you, I doubt she would be happy if I stole her moment." He said with another small laugh.

    It didn't take much longer before Purah returned with a box, placing it on the table. She quickly opened it and retrieved a similar armband to the ones he had seen. But it wasn't hard to notice it looked much tougher.

    "First, I know you will get in tough situations, so I redesigned your personal unit to take a lot of damage. So while it could block a few hits, try to not let it happen and bring it at the first chance if it gets damaged." She explained as she handed it over.

    Link nodded as he easily slid it into place, he felt as it shrunk to fit, keeping firmly in place.

    "Now, the armband is a straight upgrade compared to the Sheikah Slate. It can do everything the old model could and much more." Purah explained. "First thing, you can use it in two ways: first is tapping on the indentation, it will project a screen that works exactly the same as slate."

    Link followed her instructions, getting a bit surprised when an identical screen was projected on the air in front of him. He tried tapping it, he felt a small amount of resistance, but his finger could still go through. He would need to get used to it.

    "The other is hand gestures." Purah said and showed how she activated the screen by closing her fist and twisting her hand. "You'll be able to customize these, for now I kept them all open as I don't want you accidentally setting up bombs inside the lab."

    He looked away, that only had happened once, and he had taken the fall for someone.

    "I would explain all the new Runes I added to it, but I'm sure you will have fun exploring them out in the wild." Purah said. "But you will want to know I reactivated the Camera Rune, and you will want to check the taken pictures, it appears they were taken by Princess Zelda when you were together. I would suggest you visit those places, with some luck you will awaken some memories if you visit those places."

    He nodded, it was a lead.

    "Just like the Sheikah Slate, it will allow you to download map information from the towers and teleport between them and the shrines. I would recommend you visit as many of those as you can; they were made for you in a way."

    He nodded again, he had seen a number of them in his way. He just hadn't wanted to waste time on them.

    Before he knew it, Link covered his mouth to yawn, the day hadn't had that much happen. But he was feeling a bit more tired than he expected.

    "Oh, sorry to bore you with all this talk." Purah said in good humor.

    He waved it off.

    "I think Link's still feeling the effects of the recovery sleep." Symin said.

    "Hmm, then you should head to your house, it's still there… kinda." Purah let out a little chuckle. "I managed to keep it pretty well until about a decade when I got too old to visit it often."

    Link raised an eyebrow and tilted his head.

    Purah rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't give me that look, I may look amazing, but that's because I created a Rune to roll back my body's age." She explained. "Still, that's not what I was talking about. Your house was going to be taken down, but someone bought it and renovated it."

    She quickly waved him off when he gave her a questioning look. "It's still your place, that person actually stated that you could have it back when you returned. I would suggest you do so, as the place's very nice."

    "It was the same person that rebuilt the lab." Symin added.

    Purah stood up. "You must have forgotten your home, I will show you the way. Symin, remember to close the lab." She announced as she grabbed Link's hand and once more dragged him away.

    He could only wave to Symin on the way out as the man just shook his head.

    The way down the hill was much faster, with night on its way there's considerably less people, though he still noticed a few people outside of guards going around.

    She took him off the main path and towards the South, over a bridge where they finally reached a house that made his heart squeeze.

    "Welcome back home, Link." Purah said as she unlocked the door and guided him inside.

    The light came on and he felt a small sense of sadness. The insides weren't like he remembered, it was still a beautiful place, but he didn't remember any of what he saw.

    "Not remembering anything?" She asked.

    Link just shook his head.

    "I see, that's unfortunate, but I think i was hoping too much as the house was practically rebuilt completely." Purah said as she showed him everything.

    Everything turned out to be easy to use and quite useful too. He could see himself getting to use the house frequently. Especially the shower, the idea of running water was quite appealing to him.

    "Of course he didn't stop at just the house." Purah pulled him to the back door.

    That he didn't remember the house having, looking back on it, he was pretty sure the house hadn't been built into the mountain like it was now. But he wasn't entirely sure.

    The way the door opened to some kind of store room with another door built directly into the rock cleared it up.

    "Magnus, the guy who rebuilt the house, also built into the mountain." She explained, making him surprised by hearing the name once more.

    She gestured with the armband's hand and the door unlocked, opening by itself and lights illuminating the inside.

    "He started as a way to work, but he repurposed it to provide a bunker for the village." Purah continued. "The mayor's home has a secondary entrance. But that's not why I am showing you this." She guided him to a large workshop room. "He did leave some things for you."

    Purah walked up to a completely empty wall. Link watched as she put her hand on the surface. Familiar blue lines spread from the spot she touched, swiftly drawing a Sheikah Eye as she stepped back.

    The whole wall moved off once the eye was filled. Behind the door a smaller room was illuminated. Link felt his eyes open wide as he saw all the weapons.

    Swords of many kinds, axes, maces, polearms, bows, large quantities of elemental arrows, shields of many kinds, even a few nice-looking armors.

    "Magnus took his craft seriously, and knowing you may have troubles finding good weapons he decided to leave you some. He said you're free to take everything if you want." She gestured to the weapons. "They are all high quality and should be tough enough for you."

    He nodded, even from a distance he could tell all the weapons were of high quality. He picked one of the swords, feeling a shiver at how right the weapon felt. It wasn't his sword, but it would do until then.

    A few testing swings produced a nice whistling noise as the air was cut.

    "Anyways, the place and its contents are yours to do as you want." She said, breaking his train of thought.

    He nodded thankfully.

    "Excellent, now, if you noticed there's a Sheikah Node just outside of the house just like the one installed outside of the lab, that means you will be able to teleport right here." She smiled. "Don't take that as a justification to not visit." She glared at him.

    He chuckled and gestured to her to tell her he would visit.

    "Good, you should see to visit the other lab in the Akkala region, Robbie will want to see you too."

    He nodded as he fought another yawn.

    "Okay, okay, I can see you're tired enough, I will head back to the lab, you should see to rest well, it will take a few more days until all of the side-effects of the restorative slumber pass. So don't push yourself unnecessarily. Or I will know." She warned him. "Take a day or two to get used to the weapons, but if you will leave soon, I recommend you head to Zora's Domain first."

    He nodded, he remembered enough of Hyrule to get an idea.

    "Many will still remember you, so it may be a good place to start and I would bet there's at least a few picture spots in the area." She said. "And visit in the morning before leaving, goodnight Link and I'm glad you're back."

    She smiled gently, a soft smile untouched by her usual maniac energy before her whole body shone blue and disappeared as she was taken away by the teleportation system.

    He sighed and shook off the sleep as he looked at the weapons. He put a few in his armband's inventory before locking the armory. The door once more disappeared into a wall before he headed back to the house.

    By the time he made it back, he was too sleepy to prepare food, he barely got off his boot before he fell asleep on the bed.


    Magnus greeted Brianna with a kiss as he walked into her lab, placing Peemag down and letting the bot disappear off into the place.

    "All good?" She asked as she kept her arms wrapped around him.

    "Yes, Milo's taking care of a little problem." He downplayed the whole thing with Jonathan.

    She said nothing about the obvious Lie as he had already breached the plan with her earlier. She had admitted to not knowing how she would take it, her memories of the man weren't hers, he had long since had been turned into a Lich by the time she had been created.

    "And how are you?" He asked as they moved towards her latest project.

    The power armor was quite similar to her usual ones, but there were a number of visible differences from her previous style. Two Ion-stone-like crystals floated behind the armor's shoulders. There were also engraved runes on a few armor panels and a closer inspection showed that they existed too on the weave of the cloth parts.

    The latter weren't actually made by Bri and instead she had asked him to make it for her. He was glad to see that she had managed to keep the rest of the enchantments in place.

    "Very happy about how it's going, but I'm still feeling afraid I will screw up at some point and have to start over from the beginning." She admitted.

    "Then you just have to start again and again, learn from your mistakes and go further every time." He said.

    "But…" She whined.

    "You think I've not failed before? My siblings? My father? We all fail, we make wrong decisions and learn to be better." He explained.

    "I know." She rolled her eyes. "I just don't want to waste your part of the armor."

    "Brianna, I would make kilometers of enchanted fabric if you needed it." He told her Truthfully.

    "… you make it hard to focus on the armor." She said with an underlying purr.

    "We can tackle that later." He playfully smacked the arms still wrapped around his body as he leaned on her.

    "Have I told you how much I like that you're smaller than me?" She asked.

    "A few times." He said, slyly. "Now tell me what got you stuck."

    "I never said I was stuck."

    "I think I know you well enough by now." He prodded.

    "Okay, okay." She let out a happy sigh and started to explain.

    He happily listened to her, giving the armor a look, hopefully he would be able to help her. It would also help him keep his mind off having to hunt Zero down.

    The Cursed ninja had to be dealt with, and it could go very, very wrong if he wasn't careful. But that was for later.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Huh. If the champions souls still survived, could Milo revive them?
    They could also both deal with the corruption, but would probably need all three siblings to deal with demise.
     
    Radial said:
    Huh. If the champions souls still survived, could Milo revive them?
    They could also both deal with the corruption, but would probably need all three siblings to deal with demise.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Yes, given what we see in Canon, Milo could easily give the Champions their bodies back if they wanted to live again (I don't think all of them would accept it, I actually think most of them would just want to pass on).
    As for Demise, I've plans for them, mainly altering their origin a tiny bit and add one last crossover. As for dealing with them, it's weird because we never see their true power and each of the siblings has ways to deal with entities like them, Magnus in special is especially capable if going all out, the problem comes from the collateral. The siblings rarely go all out. The closet I've shown is Magnus against the Moon Lord and that's like 80% to his true power (the last 20% makes all the difference), and even that left a scar in Terraria's Reality that will most likely bleed through to the parallel realities.
     
    I would say Mipha would probably like to return.
    The Zora in botw/totk are long lived compared to the others, except for the Gorons.
    Mipha can still return to her role post botw, but the rest have moved on as their successors has taken over.
     
    Mipha is likely to want to live again, likely if only to see her family again, and of course to try for Link's Heart.

    Urbosa would likely say yes, if only to help out Zelda. That and she would be interested to see how the world changed.

    Revali would likely enjoy showing off, showing off the skills of a Champion... And maybe show how his skills still superior.

    The last one would probably also take up the second chance at life, to help train his...descendant? Relative?
     
    Melakias said:
    (I don't think all of them would accept it, I actually think most of them would just want to pass on).
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I do agree Urbosa and Daruk would probably be fine leaving things to the newer generations. Dunno about Revali, but the guy's whole personality is a facade covering his insecurities. Could go either way depending on exact details.

    But Mipha specifically. That is very clearly meant to be a tragedy everyone involved would love to be able to undo. Her, her family, even Link.
     
    Now that I'm much more awake (wrote that answer just after waking up) I will write how I see the champions (plus Rhoam)'s opinion on coming back:
    * Mipha's the most likely to accept to come back. As some said, her story's the highest in the tragedy-scale.
    * Daruk's most likely good on passing after seeing Yunobo going through his arc, at most give him some encouragement.
    * Urbosa would need some time to talk with Zelda, depending on how I work her freedom and such, as she would also be content with passing since the Gerudo are doing well in BOTW.
    * Revali's more of a wildcard, personally I think he would be too aloof to take the chance. But he could just as well.
    * Rhoam's too weighted down by his own memories, he would want to talk with Zelda, but he would certainly pass after wards.
     
    Well the thing with Urbosa is that was shown to be someone that enjoyed life, who from what you can grasp in Hyrule Warriors is likely to accept just for the experience...

    That and to spoil the current Queen as she did Zelda, there is also the fact she would likely want to see and spoil Zelda's children when they come...
     
    Chapter 85
  • Threadmarks

    • Venturing the Worlds – 85


    "How does it feel?" Magnus asked as he checked the readings on one of the computers.

    In the center of the chamber Brianna was slowly testing the new armor they had worked together in.

    "A bit tight." She said.

    "Can you explain?" He asked as he looked up from the screen. "The suit itself should fit you perfectly."

    She slowly twisted her torso side to side. "It feels tight around my stomach… you don't think…"

    "No, to both possibilities. You've not gotten fatter, nor you're pregnant." He says and clarifies, "Even if we have definitely not lacked trying," he grinned at her blush, "I already explained to you that I need to be actively wanting it to happen, and even then I would prefer to have Milo to check things through after. And on top of all of that, the System will notify you if you're pregnant."

    "Really?" Her tone was one of surprise.

    "Yeah, the System effectively keeps a complete medical check up on you." He explained as he worked on the screen. "And I found the problem, it's not the clothing but the protective barrier over it."

    Thankfully it was easy to change as the whole armor was currently a slave to the lab's computers, allowing him to easily change the barrier from the comfort of the computer and not have to turn the whole thing off.

    "Oh-" Bri let out a sound of surprise. "That's much better."

    "Anything else pinching?" He asked as he kept an eye on the readings.

    "Nothing else." She moved her arms and legs. "Everything's moving freely and without a problem. Next step?"

    "Next step." He agreed as he tapped a few times on the keyboard. "Testing defenses."

    A waldo moved off the wall and aimed at her before it shot her with a low power laser, slowly increasing the intensity until Brianna let out a single ow.

    "I think that's enough for now." He said.

    She nodded as she rubbed her belly. "It felt like I was punched."

    "Then you know not to get shot." He said in tease, getting her to stick her tongue out at him.

    "That was still considerable damage, and knowing that it will be just a punch is reassuring." She hummed.

    "Well, that's the idea of the armor. As for the other systems I would recommend moving somewhere more open and with less chances for collateral damage."

    She agreed and with just a few more actions her power armor was put away, leaving her in just her underwear for a moment before she retrieved her clothes from her inventory.

    "I'm sure we can reserve one of the military shooting ranges outside of the city, I know Gina uses them sometimes." Bri said and turned to look at Peemag, and Peemag, and Peemag. "...what? Magnus, I just know you're related to this."

    "Oh, it's working?" He said happily as he moved over. "Yes, the Schrodinger Protocol is working."

    "Explain, because I'm pretty sure you didn't just go and create copies of Peemag." She said, dryly.

    "You could describe it as a clone technique, except it works by making all clones the True ones and Lies at the same time." He explained. "You just can't tell which one is True until you destroy all of them as the only True one will always be the last."

    "That's… pretty crazy."

    "I'm glad to see it's working, unfortunately I do not think I could manage to do it with anything larger than Peemag and I had to sacrifice a few things to make it work." He said, internally a bit angry at not being able to replicate it himself. He was just too 'big' to make the effect work. "Thankfully Peemag is small enough to be able to use it."

    They watched as Peebo's many copies wandered around the room. They just seemed to blink around as their numbers shrank and grew.

    "So you basically programmed a quantum state in the Peebot?" Brianna asked, amazed at the sight.

    He nodded as Peebri tried to sneak behind one of the Peemags before another of them blinked behind her and surprised by poking her back. The Bri-themed bot launched up in surprise as the two Peemags shared a silent laugh and disappeared.

    "How about dinner?" He offered and Brianna nodded.

    The two left the lab, leaving the Peebos to socialize. Not like it would cause more chaos than usual.


    Milo admired the large and ancient murals, maintained by the realm's nature. It helped that the sights were being accompanied by a masterful class on the subject by Jonathan.

    "...can you see, the Gardeners were the first warrior slaves for the Gardeners, in their anger they destroyed, when before they had created." The blonde man recounted the events displayed on the walls.

    He nodded along, eyeing the ancient depictions.

    Jonathan continued, "They used the Key of Oblivion, an artifact that still lays in the depths of this ruins, and you're planning to touch it?"

    "You know what it does," Milo said, "you would most likely have hunted it down as a source of power. I will instead use it to restart the cycle in this Realm. I'm a being holding the Concept of Life, I'm practically one of the purest sources for it."

    The man just shook his head with a sigh. "If I hadn't personally experienced what you can do I would say you're crazy, but…" The man laughed softly. "You will still have to work your way through the Gaoblins."

    "I know, I can feel them approaching. But I'm aiming to resolve things peacefully as I will need the help of their priestess later."

    "You can feel them?" Jonathan let out in surprise.

    "I can feel every living being in several dozen kilometers in a place like this, there's barely anything else alive to muddle their signatures." He explained and waved a hand, creating a Light projection to show how the locals were coming.

    The blonde man looked around. "Now that I think about it, they should have found out about our presence sooner."

    "While I'm not as good at stealth as my brother, I can still shield our presence through brute force methods." Milo explained partially.

    The man just raised an eyebrow as soon they heard the sound of steps coming. The first one to come into view was, surprisingly, the Gaoblin Priestess Crescens. Milo truly observed her, the ways her body had been modified were very interesting to him.

    Just like the rest of her race, she had green skin. Her arms had been replaced by magical constructs, allowing her to channel pure Mana in a primal form, as dangerous as versatile. The other eye-catching fact were the two holes on her body, going completely through her stomach and head. While not biologically impossible, it wasn't something that formed naturally. Even from a distance he could feel how Reality bent through them, but he would need actual touch to study their working.

    They were obvious tools and signs of her position, because he couldn't sense any other Gaoblin carrying them. Even with the many currently aiming at them with their magical bows.

    Milo had already decided how to do this, so he simply started by mind-whispering to Jonathan, "Don't react and trust me."

    The man stiffened before relaxing.

    Milo kept a non-hostile posture as he channeled Life into his voice.

    "Greetings, we come in peace." His words had an instant effect.

    Everyone else in the room reacted to it, even Jonathan was surprised as Milo's very voice carried his Domain over Life, invigorating everyone who heard him.

    The Priestess' face switched between many emotions before stopping in guarded interest as she spoke, "Intruders, identify yourselves."

    "I'm Jonathan Diggers, I visited this Realm a couple decades ago, though I never made contact with your tribe."

    "And I'm Milo Andes, also called the Smiling Saint, I'm the Titan of Life and Nurture, and I was asked to come and help with the problem this Realm holds." His words were still tinged with Life as he spoke.

    The priestess sucked air through her teeth, obviously holding back her first reaction. Instead she sharpened her gaze down on them.

    "And how do you expect to do that exactly?" She asked.

    "You can feel I speak the truth when I speak about my power of Life, but hidden under all that is the fact that I've been touched by Death from birth." Milo took a small step forward.

    He closed his eyes and focused, pulling that bit of himself, the ten percent or so of him that was a Ghost. He breathed out, a cold and visible fog escaped his lips as he opened his eyes, instead of the pristine blue they had turned toxic, neon green.

    Crescens' whole body shivered, her large hands closing into tight fists.

    "And how do you expect to do it?"

    "I just need to touch the Key of Oblivion and hand over the necessary knowledge." He explained.

    Whatever good will she had instantly was replaced by wrath as all Gaoblins unleashed their arrows the very instant she gestured to attack.

    Milo didn't even react, instead he just kept eye contact with the priestess as all projectiles came to a stop a meter or so away from him. Instantly lost all their momentum and just floated on the air.

    He just kept his calm smile, even as Crescens leaned forward and launched herself at him. But didn't reach him, Space was bent around him and her dash bent instead of keeping straight.

    It took a moment for her to notice what had happened and try again. This time her fists went forward, the energy that made them up practically drilling a hole through the deformed space to try and reach him.

    Milo didn't defend, parry or attack back, instead he saw her movement and easily moved just out of the way. Even as the priestess expertly combining her exotic fighting style with her race's magic. Multiple magical circles were drawn in tiny moments between attacks, used to unleash effects, empower herself and even try to stop him.

    And he just kept dodging, seeing every single plan and course of action she took in her head. To him she was practically screaming all she was going to do. His control over Space wasn't as good as Claire or Amber, if anything he was just above Magnus. But it wasn't hard to reduce the extent to which he tugged on the fabric as the fight went on.

    Soon he stopped moving, Space bent around him just enough to cause the Priestess to keep missing as the short, but intense, fight took its toll on her.

    "Feeling better?" He asked, his usual smile on his lips.

    Her yellow eyes glared even harder, if that was possible. "You… are… frustrating, intruder." She said between deep, heavy pants as she recovered.

    "Thank you, though you should be glad that you didn't have to deal with my brother. Now, could we talk like civilized beings?" He offered. "Also, please stop your warriors from shooting Jonathan, it won't work with me here."

    The blonde man just shook his head as he eyed the projectiles stuck in the air, like an invisible porcupine.

    The tall Gaoblin priestess let out a soft growl before straightening her tall figure. "You get one chance." She said and raised a hand, all warriors stopping their attack. "Explain why."

    "Oh, I'm sure you will want to punch me again after I tell you all I want to do in this Realm. But it all comes down to fixing the problems left by the Gardeners in this Realm, and you'll have to help me at another point." He said.

    "Me?" She asked, raising an eyebrow, the gesture looking weird with the hole that went through the hole on her head. "What do you know about me?"

    "I'm a powerful Psychic, Crescens, I can see the past and far away, and Fortress Kia's lashing out in anger and fear." He allowed the coming slap to impact his cheek.

    What little damage he allowed through was fixed before she even pulled her hand back.

    "You…!" She let out in a hiss.

    "This Realm has stagnated for too long, too many old injuries." Milo's tone turned harder, but his smile remained as he looked back at her. "You've got your scars and hurt too, but it doesn't need to remain like that. With the Key of Oblivion I can remind this Realm what it lost so long ago."

    "And what do you know about how I hurt?" She asked in a hard tone.

    Before she could react, Milo pulled the taller woman into a hug. No force was used in the move, instead he tapped into the Nurture Concept, it was a small bit of trickery if he had to look back on it. He suddenly was a paternal figure, capable of slipping under Crescens defenses with a gentle gesture.

    "Because I can see it, I can feel it, I know what you went through, who you lost, who betrayed you and your race." His voice softened. "I see all the pleas and prayers, it's okay, I'm here to help."

    As he spoke his Mind reached further into the long-since abandoned ship, through hallways and stairs, through long stuck-open doors, down, down down to the center of the ship. There was a flicker of another Mind, one that was for all intents and purposes dead. But it held a small, tiny spark.

    With gentleness he fed that spark and allowed an old dead woman to talk with the child that once saw her as her mother and goddess.

    Crescens' defenses melted away and the woman broke down. Milo just held her, allowing her to cry.


    With each step the Ritual took shape. Step, step, step. Meter after meter, kilometer after kilometer.

    Magnus patiently walked a huge circle around the spot he knew Zero was hiding. Right now one of Peemag's Schrodingers was keeping an eye on the cursed ninja.

    Step step step, the trap was being closed and the man couldn't even tell.

    The Truth was that Magnus could have used the very Ritual to take care of the Curse. But he was itching for a fight, that's why the Ritual was a trap and a way to keep the fighting away from civilians.

    Basing it on his Twilight Phantasmagoria, he would create a mirror of the city, completely fake and completely sealed. Only Zero and him.

    The last step was the ring of the bell and even Zero noticed the change as all noise in the night was replaced by just the soft wind running through the streets.

    The man immediately stood up, his long, black hair swaying with the motion as he looked around; all under Peemag's eyes. He quickly fixes his clothes and hair before grabbing his weapons and climbing to the ceiling of the building.

    Magnus took his time to make himself known, letting the pressure of the situation increase as Zero tried to reach the outside through multiple means. And even then he didn't go directly for a meeting. Instead he kept himself to the corner of Zero's vision.

    Letting him see movement just around the corner, through windows and doors, random noises here and there. Unfortunately the ninja was too experienced to panic just yet. But he did start to quicken his pace, trying to catch up to Magnus.

    It wasn't hard to start to turn off the lights from the buildings, with the artificial sky being a black blanket over the city, Darkness started to shrink the visible area.

    Peemag showed itself, letting Zero react and rush after the tiny bot. The ninja reacted instantly, his blade skewered the poor bot, or at least their Schrodinger copy, which dissipated into nothingness as its Lie was broken; another Peemag showed itself a bit further ahead.

    Magnus waited until the ninja let out the first growl of frustration as Peemag kept ahead with his clones, only then he allowed the man to see him.

    Zero froze and glared at him.

    "It's been a while." He Lied.

    "You!" Zero let out in a growl.

    "Oh, come on, we had so much fun together." Magnus Lied some more, though mainly from not having been him who had fought him before. "What's wrong? Afraid of not trusting what you see?"

    He kept grinning as he retrieved Iris, the sword in compact mode. "Maybe this will be better." He pointed the sword forward before launching himself into the attack.

    Zero hadn't been idle and it was quite amazing how the man had managed to stretch a web of poisoned and nearly invisible wires through the street. Unfortunately for the man, Magnus could see them and stop.

    The Sheikah Grimoire just appeared behind him before it unleashed a cycle of balls of fire and cold wind Runes. Twang after twang, the web trap snapped as the quick change of temperatures broke through the thin material, with help of a bit of Truth about the weakness of thin things.

    Zero let out a noise of frustration and changed his tactics.

    Magnus had to admit the weapon the cursed ninja pulled out was a thing of beauty. Maybe not entirely in its looks, it was a very simple-looking katana blade. It was completely black and the only decoration was the guard, shaped loosely like the taijitu symbol with a blood red gem on each spot. But it was what he could see, the weapon was Dangerous.

    THE Soul Edge was quite the weapon, an Enigma and Realm-wide known sword. And Magnus couldn't wait to fight it. Fun fact was that he didn't even need to beat the weapon, his condition of victory was breaking the Curse on the man. Of course he would be still taking the weapon to study before passing it over to the Dragons for some brownie points, as a way to make up for the whole thing with Ayane.

    Magnus glared at the blade, thinking about it, Zero should not have had it yet. Was Time getting screwed over hard enough to cause this hiccup? It mattered not, he had the blade, and it was obvious he would use it.

    Iris stopped Soul Edge's attack and Magnus felt the damage that bled through his weapon. He could see the minute damage already starting to accumulate on the blade and was glad that every piece shared durability with the rest, making it much harder to cut through one of the segments.

    He forced Zero to disengage by sweeping out with enough force to cause a shockwave and crack the fake pavement under him. With a quick flick of his hand a few of the failed Truth blades were flicked forward. Though even as Zero parried them, breaking them with his own weapon, their fragments still flew True and embedded into his body.

    While the damage didn't stop the ninja, he didn't have the time to remove them as they buried deeper into his flesh as they crossed blades a second time, cutting flesh, tendon and burying into his articulations.

    Magnus was the one to disengage as Zero's swing created a wave of pure destruction. The attack reached the edges of Magnus' very Soul and ate through the fake city, creating a massive empty space.

    "You know, it makes me very curious to see how that blade actually works." Magnus admitted as Iris loosened up before he swung wide.

    The rainbow of elemental effects lashed out as he started to whip at Zero. Thunder, Lightning, Fire, Ice, Wind, Sand and many other effects pelted the ninja as Magnus kept his distance. Even as the man parried the blades when they came close enough, the damage was still being spread through the whole weapon.

    A few Lie blades were launched next, impressively not all of them managed to reach the man, Soul Edge managing to cut through them in an interaction he had no time to observe at the moment.

    The blades digging into his flesh seemed to be enough to push the ninja over the edge and move to activate the Enigma's true power; just as Magnus expected. A Blink hidden under a Lie placed him just by Zero's side and the nameless Ax swung down before Zero could do more than look surprised.

    Magnus caught the blade and the arm, putting the sword away instantly. "That's enough, admit your defeat."

    Zero let out a pained growl as he tried to attack him instead of surrendering. Unfortunately for the man, Magnus broke the Lie over one of the blades and the hidden Curse released a hurricane of chains that wrapped around the man's limbs and anchored themselves to the ground.

    The ninja grunted and glared with even more hate, if that could be possible. "Kill me." He managed through the chains.

    "Kill you? That would be such a waste, I mean, I'm totally up to end an asshole's life here and there. But that's not my intention here." He reached forward and sank his hand through the chains and the man's torso. "I've a much better idea."

    Zero's eyes opened wide, most likely thinking he was going to enslave him. Instead Magnus grabbed the Curse currently trying to dig itself into his soul and yanked it all out before it could even react.

    The effect was instant, the injuries the man was easily shrugging off suddenly turned lethal, and with a pained choke he puked a bellyful of blood.

    "Oh, no, no, you're not dying after all the fun you gave me." He stuck the arm in place before force feeding Zero one of his golden potion packs, and then a second one as he carefully removed the embedded blade bits.

    He was glad that the ninja was still half-choking on his own blood and the potion he forced down into his stomach, because he didn't feel like hearing him speak as he worked. He pondered a silencing Curse, but it wouldn't be a good idea after removing that undead servitude one. The only reason the chains were holding was because they were more of a physical restraint.

    It took nearly ten minutes of careful work before the ninja was back to a passable state. "Finally." He sighed and snapped his fingers, letting the cursed chains go.

    "…Why?"

    "Eh…" He shrugged. "I don't hate you, but you were a problem. I do hate that old rat and thought that removing one of his strongest pieces off the board was worth it, plus a fun fight."

    Zero looked down at his hands, the potion had erased a lot more than just the signs of their battle. There were small scars that had been erased too, Magnus may have overdone it with the number of potions.

    "Though I've to ask, how did you get the Soul Edge? It should have been unreachable." Magnus asked in a much harder tone.

    "I… I don't know?" The man asks more to himself than as an answer. He once more looked down. "I just… it was there? I…"

    Magnus let out a groan. "Don't worry, don't think about it too hard." He said and rubbed the bridge of his nose, mainly for show. "I think we hit a small paradox, I mean it, don't think too hard about it, it will hurt your brain."

    Zero didn't look completely sold on it.

    "What now?" He asked.

    "I would suggest laying low, I recommend Jade, plenty of space to wander as a nameless swordsman and recover. Just try to not get in my way again." Magnus answered and added, "I won't hold back next time."

    Zero's reply was to glare, but without another word, when Magnus opened a way out of the pocket Realm, he took it and walked off into Jade.

    Magnus looked around. "It's a shame, but oh well." He allowed the place to start to collapse, the Lie that made it shattering into nothing as he stepped out and allowed the place to return to non-existence.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 86
  • Threadmarks

    • Venturing the Worlds ‒ 86


    The Key of Oblivion floated a meter off the ground at the deepest part of the old, abandoned ship her tribe took as their home. Crescens' eyes wandered down to the grave of her goddess, her mother, Ri.

    Having heard her voice again had been nothing but a miracle, one she couldn't deny. It held the same warmth and wisdom she remembered. Even now she could still feel her gentle touch on her head and the words she had given her.

    The future's no longer what I had one foreseen, but his words are true and a new age comes with him.

    With the memory her eyes wandered to the two men. Now that she wasn't feeling the anger of their home being invaded, she could admit she had a modest memory of the blonde man. Her tribe had seen him a long time ago. The other… she was starting to doubt he was anything like the blonde man.

    His silver hair practically glowed now that she paid attention to it, and his skin had a pleasant sun-kissed color. But it was his blue eyes that were the most captivating. They held some kind of energy and depth that made it hard to look away, even more when they had shined with that toxic green.

    And it hadn't been until she had been close enough to truly understand what he had meant by having a connection to Life. When he had held her it had truly dawned on her, and did bring a small blush to her cheeks as the memory was a bit embarrassing.

    After her shameful breakdown, which he apparently didn't blame her at all, she had some time to recover before guiding them in. Even as her tribe had been dubious, her word was enough for it.

    They had kept a calm pace on the way down to the core of their home, mainly occupied by Jonathan asking her questions and talking while Milo mostly listened. His gaze apparently lost in the distance most of the time unless he was questioned.

    But all chatting died the moment they reached the key. The object just floated there, almost insultingly to her.

    "Still think you can do it?" She asked, her tone a bit more acidic than she intended.

    "… I know I can do it." Milo said, cockily as he reached for the key.

    A bright flash of light and a wave of pure Life blasted out from the artifact. Crescens barely reached to cover her eyes, but she could see the change.

    She could practically feel the happiness of the Realm as it remembered, the cycle was starting once more. What had once been lost, was now returning. Like a massive clockwork slowly clicking again, the gears were turning and quickly accelerating to recover the lost time.

    When she opened her eyes their surroundings had changed. What had been once a barren, rocky chamber had flourished with life and plants everywhere, and at the center by the key was Milo, floating on the air as a long, sinuous, pink tail extended from his lower back to coil around the artifact.

    Now that she looked at him better, he had changed, his skin had turned pinkier and his ears had become more triangular. Though she couldn't tell if his eyes had changed as he was currently keeping his eyes closed; though he kept smiling. Was that why they called him the Smiling Saint?

    She sucked in a breath as he opened his eyes and the blue was almost electric.

    "It's done." His voice was soft, but carried heavily.

    "Now what?" Jonathan asked, voicing her similar thoughts.

    "The Realm's currently finding its balance once more, it's been lagging behind heavily. So we'll have to act quickly and move out of it before time in here accelerates too much." Milo said as he turned towards them, his skin and ears had returned to normal, but his tail remained coiled around the Key of Oblivion.

    "Then how do you expect to find Fortress Kia?" Jonathan prompted.

    "Oh, I already have the Abyssalisks working on it." Milo grinned.

    "What?!" Crescens screamed.

    "Oh yeah, I just offered freedom from the Realm to a young specimen… Or well, I handed them the offer and asked them to take it to their matriarch." Milo explained. "I asked one of them to be a messenger, so we are going to meet her. I created a small bond with the young one so I can tell they are still working on it."

    "Are you crazy?! We would be lucky if she just ate us before killing us." Crescens said.

    "As my brother tends to say, beings like us are crazy when observed from a mortal's point of view." Milo said, his tone keeping that, almost grating, reassuring tone. "I may not be able to kill, but if something's alive, then it's beneath my control." His tone dropped all warmth and became cold as freezing water, sending a shiver down Crescens and Jonathan's backs.

    "If I hadn't been under your control before and understood just how thoroughly it is…" Jonathan mused.

    "I repeat, if it's alive, it thinks or it's got a Soul, then I can heal and modify it. It's very easy to take full control when you can modify anything." He said. "And don't think that the offer to leave this Realm is not offered to you too." He added, looking at her.

    "I don't think that bringing my whole tribe would be feasible, this Realm's not exactly safe to travel in groups." Crescens pointed out.

    "Oh, I would not be asking that of you and your tribe." Milo said as his hands reached towards his chest.

    In front of their eyes, his finger sunk into his chest as if they were dipping into water. It took them a moment to realize they weren't sinking into his body, but instead into a thin layer of water that hadn't been there before.

    His hands pulled in opposite directions and a hole opened up, a portal to a paradisiacal view. A sunny sky like the ones Crescens hasn't seen since her childhood. An ocean in a familiar shade of blue. And what appeared to be a massive, tropical island.

    "Wha-what is that?" Jonathan prompted.

    "This is the Realm inside my Soul, us three children of Guru have very special Souls." Milo spoke with gravitas. "Our Souls are both physical and ethereal. While my brother's Soul is the most inhospitable, and my sister's Soul's the most dangerous, mine accommodates for Life and Nurture, using Light and Water."

    They could only watch, entranced, as the island shifted and a massive tortoise head rose from the water, showing the island had been its shell all along.

    "My Soul may not be as large as this Realm, but it can still hold a few planets inside, taking your home and tribe is no problem for me." Milo finished and let the portal close.

    Crescens wondered why it didn't take much more talk for her to accept the offer back to her tribe, it took even less for the rest of her people to accept the offer. The idea of freedom from the Realm was too good to pass up, especially when they would be taking their home with them.

    It was only a few hours later that she found herself by Jonathan and Milo outside of their home.

    And once more Milo surprised her as the man shifted further than before. His figure started to expand, that long, sinuous tail swaying as he was suddenly a towering titan over them. A gigantic cat with light pink-colored fur. Once more his hands reached for his chest, but the hole that opened nearly dwarfed her home before swallowing it whole in one single movement.

    And a moment later Milo was back to normal, floating over to their side.

    "You're just full of surprises." Jonathan said and chuckled.

    Milo just kept on smiling. "I feel the Abyssalisk coming back, so I imagine it may have achieved what I asked of it." He said. "And don't worry, as long as you are near me, you will be safe. It's not like death's actually permanent with me around."

    Crescens glared at the man, wondering how true that was. And why it scared her more than it most likely was.


    "I don't know why I am surprised that you joined the Explorer Society." Brianna stated.

    "Well, there's little reason not to." Magnus said. "There are too many advantages, mainly the reservation of a dig site."

    Brianna eyed the vast desert in front of them. Thankfully the Systems kept them nice and comfortable even in the sweltering heat of the sandy dunes.

    "I'm surprised there's anything to dig around here."

    "Nothing visible." Magnus clarified as he turned to look at Stardust, who was happily following behind them.

    It was showing just how non-human she was, she was easily keeping with the both of them. Even if the heat and weather didn't affect her, walking up and down the dunes wasn't easy if you weren't used to it. Against expectations, the young woman was just enjoying the stroll, and somehow coaxing any hidden animal from the sand to get her attention.

    "So we're heading into some hidden place?" The eldritch-touched woman asked.

    "That's right, Monty actually asked me to check the place. Since he's a dragon once more, he actually has to take more active care of a number of spots on Earth." Magnus explained. "He asked me to check this one in particular as a sort-of reward as it was mostly a storehouse, or what passed as one."

    "So he asked you to clean it up?" Brianna asked.

    "Actually, clean it out." Magnus corrected her with a small grin. "He wants the place emptied completely. He just needs the Mymior stored inside and I can keep the rest, he doesn't even mind if I take a peek at it."

    "That's not what he said." Brianna guessed.

    "No, more like a defeated understanding that there was nothing he could do to stop me." He joked. "But in more words and definitely phrased like permission to do so."

    Finally they stopped in front of nothing, or at least to Brianna and Stardust's eyes. For Magnus the sight was different, slightly hidden away from Reality was a massive sandstone structure, protected from the ravages of time by the same method that hid its existence.

    He could have certainly ripped it apart, but since he had the metaphoric key for it, he simply allowed the Runestone he had been handed to do its work.

    Like a mirage, the walled oasis appeared in front of them. Palm trees, bushes and other plants that were completely out of place filled the area visible past the entrance to the building. Each block of stone that made the fortress was magnificently carved, and they appeared as fresh as the day the whole area had been hidden away from time.

    "Oh! It's beautiful." Stardust said as she tried to rush forward, only for Magnus to grab her by the collar of her shirt.

    "And just as dangerous." He warned.

    "That's right, I can feel the place's still full of magical traps." Brianna mused. "And who knows what else."

    "Yup, it's meant for cocky thieves that didn't know that you have to use the Runestone in multiple ways." He explained as he reached for the entrance and moved the key towards a few of the carvings.

    As he moved it around, the area lit up, drawing a second pattern. Funnily enough, he could see it even before activating the correct one, as there was only one True way to deactivate the security system.

    "And now we can step in." He gestured to the oasis.

    Brianna just chuckled as Stardust rushed on ahead.

    "She would still have been right, no?" She asked.

    "Oh, totally. Her immortality means that even being chopped into pieces wouldn't kill her, even if she was reduced to a paste she would still be alive and conscious. But better not get there." Magnus answered. "Also, I'm pretty sure Milo did bestow her some unnatural regeneration just in case."

    Brianna nodded as they walked into the inner courtyard. The oasis was definitely beautiful, to the point the area appeared to be some kind of dessert palace rather than what it was. They enjoyed the view for a bit before heading inside.

    Even with the Systems providing personal weather protection, they didn't miss how the temperature inside of the building was magically controlled. The heat of the desert disappeared the moment they passed the entrance and was replaced by a cool and dry atmosphere.

    A few spots magically lit up as they walked deeper.

    "This place was made by dragons, right?" Brianna asked.

    "As far as I understood… though, I think it wasn't made directly by Dragons or to be used by them." Magnus offered.

    It wasn't hard to notice why they said that. While the entrance and the chamber they were in was definitely sized for Dragons, all doors leading deeper weren't larger than those a Troll would use.

    "I don't understand." Hope said, switching her gaze between both entrances.

    "Unfortunately, the myths of Dragons hoarding riches and enslaving beings they considered lower is not a Lie. A good number of them practically enjoyed it, most of the rest saw it as below them and only a tiny few considered all races to hold the same kind of Potential." Magnus explained.

    "Oh…"

    "Even today many dragons consider other races to be beneath them. Thankfully the majority either sees the Potential in all other races to spawn people of impressive abilities or simply considers slavery to be of bad taste in general."

    "That's good… right?"

    "It's definitely better than the alternative." Brianna commented.

    Magnus nodded as he retrieved the Hyrulean Masks and summoned his Shadows to explore what he felt were the smaller passages as the three of them moved towards the one that felt the deepest.


    Fauntleroy watched the sand pass far below. The Dragon-turned-Human rode on Thirty eight's back as Three flew close by.

    "S-sire, are you sure it's there?" Three asked. "I'm not doubting you, but a hoard of that size would not be left out without protection." She quickly added.

    "I know why you would think that," the man answered, "I only learned about this place through reading some of my father's old diaries. The curious thing was that he noted a few flaws with the method used to secure the place."

    He looked into the distance, noticing something he hadn't expected.

    "And if Gina hadn't interrupted my access to Dreadwing's Mymior I would most likely not have seen the one hidden in this hoard." He added before letting a growl at the sight of the oasis fortress coming into the view.

    "Should it be visible?" Thirty Eight asked.

    "No… no it shouldn't." Fauntleroy said as they quickly got there, landing just outside of the fortress. The two dragonesses shifted into human forms.

    "Does this mean we got here late?" Three asked.

    He didn't reply right away, instead moving to one of the carvings on the wall and running his fingers over it. He then turned to one of them.

    "Three, I need you to channel your magic here, here and here." He points to three points.

    She didn't doubt his orders, doing as she was told and a moment later the engravings lit up. Fauntleroy just eyed them before speaking, "It looks like it was just opened, so we may be in luck and not need to use the backdoor as they have so helpfully turned all security measures off."

    As they walked into the place he looked around. "Be ready just in case." The two women nodded to his words as they quickly headed towards the deepest part of the building.

    Fauntleroy remembered enough of the diary to know there should be a good amount of treasure along with the Mymior. But even as they descended, there was nothing of what he would expect. Even outside of the hoard, treasure should decorate the area.

    He raised his hand and the three of them stopped as he could hear some voices coming from deeper inside.

    "… can't believe a place this big had actually been filled nearly completely." A feminine voice he didn't recognize spoke in the distance.

    "It's not that strange with long-lived species, which Dragons are, and in addition to that this particular location was used by a number of them before they had to leave Earth. Since they weren't sure when they would come back they just sealed the place and left everything inside." Another voice, a masculine one, spoke next.

    Fauntleroy recognized that voice. "That beast…" He whispered, just loud enough his two wives heard him.

    He felt his temper heating up as he marched down the hallway and finally entered the chamber.

    In his father's journal the treasure chamber had been described as bursting with riches. Pillars of gold coins, pools of precious stones, walls of piled up artifacts, and the crown jewel a Mymior. While it wasn't even comparable to the one he lost to Gina Diggers, the power contained in it would go a long way to recover his own position.

    Instead of that what he found was a massive cavern completely empty, not even a gold coin had been left, not a shiny object, nor anything he could use. And the Mymior was shrinking down into some kind of book before disappearing.

    Magnus turned to him and grinned. "Well, well, well, if it isn't Flaunteroy."

    Next to him was who Fauntleroy recognized as Gina Digger's sister, and an unknown woman with goat horns. He remembered there had been a Rakshasa with them, but this appeared to be someone else.

    "You! You… you beast! What do you think you're doing with the treasure of the Dragon race?!" He asked, not hiding an iota of his anger.

    He hated not being able to put this pathetic creature in their place, if he had access to his real form he would show him exactly the price for his crimes.

    "Sire, let us show these fools the error of their ways." Three stated, walking forward and assuming her true form now that they were in a place capable of housing them.

    "She's right, master. We'll show them how below us they are." Thirty Eight changed next.

    The two Dragoness stood to each side, making Fauntleroy grin victoriously.

    "That's right, once we have shown these fools how-" The man barely got to dodge as a blade nearly shaved the top of his skull off his head.

    A snake-like blade whip licked the air his head had been, a few loose hairs falling off as it swiftly returned back, reforming as a blade on Magnus' hand.

    "Didn't you know? Talking ain't a free action." The man's comment made Fauntleroy growl.

    Three stepped forward, about to say something before a glowing bolt of energy slammed against her jaws, closing her mouth forcefully.

    "Don't think I don't remember what you did last time." Brianna growled. "I still owe you for it."

    Fauntleroy gave the woman a look, she was wearing an impressive piece of armor, one he could feel was magical in more than one aspect. Even worse, the rectangular gun she held felt like danger to him.

    Thirty Eight looked at the other woman. "You won't fight me, right?"

    The goat woman laughed softly and waved her hand. "Oh, I'm not a fighter." She said, "Everyone calls me Stardust, nice to meet you."

    A shiver made Fauntleroy turn quickly, only to find that Magnus was by his side and his weapon already moving as if in slow motion towards his neck. He was glad that even as a human, he still kept a good amount of his Dragon strength that allowed him to jump away.

    "Close, no?" Magnus grinned and jumped after him. "Come on, I promise not to kill you before I hand you over to authorities."

    "Youuuu!" Fauntleroy screamed as he tried to punch the man, but quickly found him slippier than a muddy eel. "Stay still you maggot."

    Instead of doing as he was ordered, Magnus just laughed and dodged, not even attacking.

    "You frustrating worm. I will sho-" The word died in his mouth as a quick hit on his chin made him bite his own tongue. "Gah! You-" Another hit on his chin forced his mouth closed. "Stop that!"

    "Why? It's hilarious." Magnus said, cockily.

    And a moment later he jumped back as Thirty Eight swept the place he had been standing.

    "Sire, are you okay?" She asked.

    "Only slightly humiliated." He admitted with a growl. "What happened to the girl?"

    "She's still over there, but… She weirds me out." The dragoness admitted as she pointed at the dark-skinned woman waving to them. "There's something incredibly wrong about her."

    "Leave it be, these two are already more than we can handle." Fauntleroy said.

    "Come on, Flaunty, the fun's not over yet." Magnus called out.

    "Master, allow me." Thirty Eight stepped forward. "Let's see how you deal with someone greater than you."

    Magnus raised an eyebrow. "Oh? We're talking size?" His grin started to expand as fur spread through his body as he grew larger and larger.

    Thirty Eight and Fauntleroy took a step back as the beast in front of them was now holding a massive ax instead of a whip sword.

    "What's wrong?" His deep voice made the stone chamber vibrate. "Too big for you to deal with, lizard?" His lips pulled back to show fangs like swords.

    Fauntleroy felt a shiver go down his spine, Thirty Eight was definitely not ready to fight someone in her weight-class, and Three was getting kept at a distance by the blonde woman's strange magical artifact.

    "Three, Thirty Eight, retreat." He called out, but as he was preparing to turn around, a voice made him stop in place.

    "You know," Magnus' voice was soft, sounding like it came from right behind his ear, "there are many benefits to being an illusionist."

    He didn't even get to turn around as his whole body locked and his vision gained a yellow filter. He could barely see how Thirty Eight's body had been locked too, her body covered in glowing Runes.

    "Don't worry, Flaunty." Magnus said. "I promise I will drop you guys somewhere nice, I heard there's some uninhabited islands that are lovely this time of the year."

    Fauntleroy wanted to scream in anger as the three of them were so easily manhandled. He swore vengeance on this man. But this defeat proved he lacked the necessary power to tackle him. Maybe he would see to find some locals willing to help for a price.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Chapter 87
  • Threadmarks

    • Venturing the Worlds ‒ 87


    Magnus hadn't lied when he said he would leave the three Dragons in an uninhabited island, though he hadn't been petty enough to leave them in a crappy one. Honestly it was quite the nice place the three of them could chill for a bit, nice beaches, plenty of food and fresh water.

    Honestly, it surprised him quite a bit just how many virgin islands existed in this version of Earth. The world's surface was just larger. It wasn't hard to just wander in a direction and sooner or later end up in an untamed land, wild and ferocious. And if you explored enough you ended up finding ruins from a time before.

    Places constructed by beasts of legend, kings and queens from ages past, places that had ended in places they shouldn't for reasons unknown.

    There was enough in the world for an association like the Explorer Society to be created and still exist.

    Honestly, it wasn't that hard to understand how so many of these places weren't found, there was magic everywhere if you knew where to look. The Age of Magic may have ended, but Magic rarely leaves easily. Instead if collected in some depressions, spots special enough to collect and maintain enough Magic to exist under slightly different rules.

    Most larger ruins managed this, but it wasn't only that. From what he had read of the future there were places like the Amazon Island, where gigantic women coexisted with monsters of similar size.

    And it wasn't just on the surface, underground existed so many more places and secrets. He may need to sneakily strip some of those places bare before certain figures get to them, it would certainly save a lot of pain in the ass situations.

    Thankfully many of those events were literally years away, it felt strange to him to have so much time to plan and act. Not like he would get lazy, but there were certainly more than one thing he could take patiently.

    He may ask Brianna if she would like to accompany in the retrieval of some of those items, he didn't want to leave Ace without his potential ride, but between the two of them they may be able to study it properly without the looming threat of a massive tyrano-robot controlled by a megalomaniacal despot deciding to take over the world.

    Magnus stopped his train of thought to run his finger through his hair, it seemed that his System had found something interesting between all the treasure they had picked.

    It was a surprise it had taken so long, he had already left the Mymior with Monty a few hours earlier… after having let the System interface and copy it. But looking into it could wait until later. He wondered if Monty understood just what he had done or just expected him to look through it and get bored.

    Still, treasure mattered more at the moment. He reached into his inventory and retrieved the sword that had piqued his interest. It appeared to be just a decorative sword, multiple gems decorated the handle and guard, and the blade appeared to be just steel. But it was simple for him to see it wasn't.

    It only took some little work to free the blade off the handle, which in comparison was completely mundane and extremely gaudy. But the blade… oh! The blade.

    It was a thing of beauty. Closer inspection showed just how perfect it was, the edge may have been thousands of years old and had definitely been used for a good amount of time. But it was practically untouched and nearly atomically thin. And it wasn't a mistake! The edge was carefully curved a step above that level.

    The rest of the blade was similarly impressive, whatever was the alloy made from was nearly perfectly spread through the blade and Magnus wasn't sure if the fact that it wasn't was on purpose or not.

    The more he studied the blade, the more he realized that it appeared to have been once part of something larger, repurposed by a smith skilled enough to work with the material. While he made a note of the smith's signature, closer inspection revealed partial markings that appeared to indicate it had indeed been part of something larger.

    Even for him it was hard to put his finger down upon what it had once been its True form. But the toughness of the material definitely indicated some bellicose use, and it felt True to him.

    And mainly of all, his instincts were telling him this was exactly what he had been needing to finish his swords. The only unfortunate detail was that he only had enough material for a single blade… Well, he would have to see how to fix that.


    "I can't believe you just… just… just asked an Abyssalisk Matriarch that and…" Crescens seemed to be at a loss of words of what had just happened.

    "Asked one of the Realm's most, if not the most, dangerous beings for help and they conceded?" Jonathan finished for her.

    "Yes, that!"

    "Multiple things, different from the abject fear my siblings can put in other beings, I carry a more calming aura when dealing with what most would consider wild creatures." Milo explained. "I hold a great connection to the concepts of Life and Nurture, which allow me to get living beings to relax around me. In a way it's similar to how I got you to relax, I provided a sensation of safety and trust. I mean, it's not a lie. But you get the idea. Though I'm surprised the Matriarch only asked for her daughter and a select few to leave instead of her whole group."

    Jonathan laughed softly. "I don't think it's that hard to understand." He said.

    Milo raised an eyebrow in questioning.

    "You offered to take one of their main enemies off the Realm, effectively putting them at the top of the food chain." The man explained.

    Milo nodded.

    "And if we fail she loses nothing." Crescens said.

    "Well, it's not like we're going to fail." Milo said. "Also, you don't have to worry about your people being in danger, my Soul's more than large enough and filled with life forms to keep the few Abyssalisks busy and far away."

    It was left unsaid that he would be also moderately modifying the Abyssalisk princess and her followers. Reducing size and aggression, increased long term intelligence gain, better digestive systems to keep them sated better, and a few others. All inheritable to make their descendants more peaceful.

    "But for now we just have to wait until we get news of Kia's position. Unfortunately not much else we can do around here outside of hunting down one other person." Milo said. "Though I will admit I'm not even sure if she's around at the moment."

    "Who?" Jonathan asked.

    "A time-displaced Djinni who accidentally copied one of your Granddaughter's persona. Neither my brother or I know how exactly she ended up in this timeline, originally she would have helped Crescens and Brittany to go along. But that would have been in eight or so months, looked from Earth Realm. So I'm not sure how it would correlate with this Realm's different time pacing."

    "I will take my time unwinding that piece of information." Jonathan said.

    "Still, if she's around she's bound to approach us sooner or later." Milo said as he looked out.

    Though given how long it may take, he may need to send a message back to his brother.


    Link woke up feeling incredibly refreshed, the bed wasn't his own, but somewhere half-way through the night he regained a sense of familiarity with the house, making it feel properly like a home to him.

    He took his time on the bed, part of him wanted to lay back down and resume his sleep for a few more hours. But old habits had him get off the bed and start the day.

    The shower was straightforward enough to use and he wouldn't say no to hot water. It surprised him to find a change of clothes that fit him quite well. At first he was sure they were Magnus', but a closer look showed they had never been used before.

    Similarly the kitchen was similarly easy to use, and being able to control the heat so well allowed him to make a large breakfast without much problem.

    Clean, well fed and properly dressed made Link feel like a new person. He finished his attire by practicing retrieving one of the swords the house's previous owner had left for him and hanging it from his back along with a small and sturdy shield.

    He noticed the sun was halfway to noon by the time he left and the village was quite active. There were quite more children than he remembered seeing the night before, especially a lot of very young children being watched by a few older ones.

    Once more he noticed a lack of older villages, it appeared everyone in the village was either underage or in their prime. Though he didn't see any sign that it was seen as a bad thing.

    Symin was waiting for him by the door when he arrived at the Sheikah Lab.

    "Good morning, Link, the director's waiting for you inside."

    He thanked the man and followed him in.

    "Linky!" Purah immediately stopped what she was working on and turned to face him.

    He barely could see the image of a man on the screen he was working on before his whole attention was captured by her.

    "...wait, Link's over there? Put him-" The man's voice was cut as Purah swiftly closed the screen.

    "Ignore that old fool… anyways, it looks like you're doing much better than last night." She said.

    Link just smiled and nodded.

    "Good, it wouldn't do for the hero to just fall asleep mid-adventure." She said. "But, I noticed you didn't use the teleportation Rune outside, you should experiment with it. It'll help you travel all over Hyrule quickly once you've activated all towers."

    He raised an eyebrow, he usually did well enough by walking.

    "Oh sure, you can walk or ride a horse quite easily, especially with the new roads that have been restored. But sometimes you will want to travel quickly between here and Rito Village and you won't have two days to make the trip."

    He shrugged, he would use it if necessary.

    Purah rolled her eyes. "I don't know why I am trying to change your opinion, a hundred year nap and you're still just as stubborn." She huffed with a small smile.

    He smiled warmly and nodded, this whole interaction felt familiar enough to tickle something in his mind. But sadly not enough to remember.

    "If you won't change your mind, I would once more suggest you head towards Zora's Domain to start." Purah said. "With your awakening the Divine Beasts have also stirred and the Domain's been engulfed in a constant storm. It's only been a couple of days, but better take care of it quickly. After that I would recommend heading towards Death Mountain. Remember to check all shrines between here and there, you will need the boons you acquire before visiting the Lost Woods, I'm sure you will find something very useful there."

    He eyed the spot the screen had been a moment before, making Purah sigh.

    "Okay, okay, if you want you can go visit the old man at the Akkala Lab, it shouldn't extend your trip too much if you head North after clearing the problem of the Zora's Domain. It may actually be useful to hit the Shrines in the area too." She said.

    "And if you're heading in that direction you should visit the Great Fairy Mija if you didn't visit Cotera outside of Kakariko Village." Symin added.

    He nodded. For some reason it felt as if he had purposefully forgotten something about the Great Fairies. He was sure it wasn't anything too important.

    "Now go, I don't doubt you're itching to leave." She waved him off. "It's not like I can't reach you at any time thanks to the armband." She shooed him away.

    He laughed lightly and thanked the both with a bow of his head before he headed down the road. A small pink from his armband made him notice a message from Purah.

    Forgot to tell you, I stored some extra Rupees in your inventory, use them well. Though once more I doubt money will be a problem for you for long.

    He wrote a small note of gratitude as he made way through the village. He once more noticed the lack of third age villages and remembered he forgot to ask Purah about it. He would ask her later, if he remembered.

    Once he reached the entrance he wished the guards a good day and whistled loudly.

    Epona quickly arrived, having been in the nearby fields with the other horses. Link jumped onto his mare's back and quickly took off back in the direction of the fort.

    With such a nice day, it was a pleasant way to travel. He made it to the Dueling Peaks Stable by noon and stopped to have lunch with the few other travelers around. It gave Epona a break and allowed him to hear a few rumors.

    There were two that caught his interest, the first he sort-of knew, one of the Sheikah towers had risen on the other side of the Dueling Peaks. This meant he would be seeing to hit it in an hour or two before continuing his travel. The other was more of an old rumor, or well, more of how the area was doing.

    The thing was that the area to the East of the sable had been a swamp until a few years ago. The area had been littered with broken guardians, but someone had cleaned them all up and now the area was slowly turning back into a plain. This meant there were a few attempts to use the area for farming as it was moderately safe with the constant patrols from the armed forces stationed in the fort further East.

    As interesting as it was, it wasn't something that needed his attention, apparently the worst that the area had in monsters were Octoroks and an average bow user could pop them from the distance.

    He thanked the other travelers for the information before resuming his ride. Past the bridge and through the road between Dueling Peaks, only stopping when the road opened once more and he could see the slightly leaning Sheikah Tower on the other side of the river.

    He couldn't help but to groan inwardly at the sight.

    Link allowed Epona to wander a bit as he approached the shoreline. It took him a bit of walking, but soon he found a spot shallow enough for him to cut through. He gave his mare a look to make sure she was okay. Thankfully he knew she was smart enough to stay safe.

    As he prepared himself to start to cross, his eyes caught sight of a strange flower growing by the edge of the water. It was not only quite particular looking, but also felt out of place. Curiosity won and he reached for it, getting quite surprised as the flower exploded into sparks and petals before a trail of them moved over the water; curiously in the path he was planning to take.

    There was a musical giggle that felt like childish glee and fun. It was completely peaceful, so he saw no reason to not follow it.

    The next flower exploded similarly, crossing further through the river. Link could see that as shallow as the water was, the current appeared to be stronger than he could swim, so with a quick gesture of his hand, a large block of ice rose from the water.

    Seeing that the block wasn't dragged along, he took a small run and jump as another gesture of his hand created a new block of ice, landing right onto it as it rose. His boots bit firmly into the icy surface, preventing him slipping and allowing him to keep up the speed as he jumped again.

    Another gesture and he landed on a block of ice, run, jump, ice Rune, land, run, jump, ice Rune, and so on.

    It didn't take even a minute for him to make it to the other side of the river and the next flower. The moment he touched it the explosion surprised him a bit more as a Korok.

    "You found me!" The small wooden being cheered.

    The Korok looked almost like a wooden doll, if it couldn't fly and move around it would almost be ignorable.

    Link gave the small woodland being a nod.

    "It's been some time since someone could see me. That deserves a reward." The Korok cheered before producing a small, golden seed and handed it to Link.

    "Look for Hestu, if you find enough of us he may be able to reward you more!" The Korok added before disappearing in another small explosion of sparks and petals.

    Link just blinked a few times, it appeared the little being was more of a little storm. It just had come through and left before he could even fully understand them. At the end he shrugged and stored his reward before facing towards the Sheikah Tower.

    It appeared the whole area around said tower was underwater. It would have been a problem if he couldn't create the ice blocks to use as step stones.

    Link moved to the closest spot to the tower before once more running and jumping.


    Ruby really hoped Magnus was feeling better, she doubted Pluto would survive much more damage; closer inspection showed that the planetoid would most likely be torn apart next time it moved close enough to another planet.

    Her boyfriend, partner and once savior just laid silently in the massive crater he had created. It was quickly filled with half-boiling, half-freezing water. In the distance massive geysers were bleeding the pressure that had accumulated under the layer of ice underground, where the liquid water was.

    It was impressive just how hotter the planet's surface had become that none was automatically freezing the moment it reached freedom. Though snow was very slowly starting to fall down.

    "Feeling better?" She asked.

    He didn't stir, but soon answered, "… not entirely."

    After a moment he sat up, letting a sigh that was only audible thanks to the System.

    "Can't say I don't understand you." She offered. "That world…" a small shiver went down her spine, that being enough for him to move over and wrap his arms around her, "it brought back some unpleasant memories."

    His arms tightened around her figure, it helped.

    He hadn't been alone in sealing the dwarf planet's fate, she had certainly done plenty of damage herself. She had let go in ways she hadn't even allowed herself in the training room, even when said room would turn all collateral damage null.

    "It was as if everyone in that world decided to go insane and become stupid." He complained. "And what I hate the most is that it was almost logical in how they reached the decision that it was okay to murder kids for their body parts. But of course it was just capitalism once more."

    She could only nod. Pluto hadn't been the only collateral damage since they had arrived. The Earth had gained more than once crater after she had learned what they did.

    It had taken Lydia to break them out of simply erasing all life on Earth. It would have been so easy too, they had multiple ways to cause the complete extinction of the human race. Crashing the Moon on the surface wasn't even that hard. Or maybe detonate both the Ring of Fire and the supervolcano under Yellowstone. Or Curse them so all dead kids rose and took their pound of flesh, literally.

    Funnily enough, they had still ended up Cursing them all. But it had been a Curse of Empathy and Realization. It had forced everyone to realize what they had been allowing and feel empathy for all of those who had been taken. And they had Cursed more than a few people after finding the guilty parties.

    Watching people get tore apart by their own body parts was almost cartoonish. Until you saw how messy it was when someone's organs were revealed from the inside. Not that it didn't feel more than cathartic.

    And it wasn't as if the Curse would be over, it would remain in Humanity, forcing them to understand each other better. It wouldn't bring world peace, there were too many loopholes to stop people from attacking each other. So they hadn't tried to patch them, people would be people, hopefully they would learn from the warning. The most they had done was balance it with a Boon.

    It wasn't big enough to be a Blessing, but it would work to keep things from spiraling out of control.

    "Are you going to ask your sibling to come pick the pieces?" She asked.

    "No, honestly this World doesn't even deserve that." He admitted. "I did copy a few interesting pieces of tech in organ cloning and organ preservation. But mostly out of novelty, we already have much better stuff on those lines. It's mainly that it's all pure Technology."

    A world-shaking earthquake stopped their talk, making the two of them quickly relocate to the Long Fortune.

    "Ready to leave, bro?" Orange asked.

    "Yeah, we can leave." He said, sounding like he didn't want anything else to do with the World.

    But she did. "How bad is it going?" Ruby asked.

    "Well, it's bad, but not that bad." Orange said. "While basically ninety percent of the world has stopped due to riots and other disturbances, I've kept the online opinion in the correct direction. By now it should self-sustain itself. I was tempted to leave a VI to keep things going. But I decided it was too much trouble for a place that's not really worth it."

    "Do you think they will get things together soon?" Ruby asked, almost hopefully.

    "Unfortunately, it'll be a long work. On one hand, they achieved some pretty miraculous medical technology with organ printing and preservation. On the other, they have pits and warehouses of corpses and body parts respectively, on top of having moved from a fix-it to a replace-it mentality and that will be hard to turn back; especially as it's been decades." Orange explained.

    Magnus shrugged. "I hope they do it, but honestly I expect them all to suffer for a few years at least and suffer a little less in the medium term." He said. "Letting it all happen doesn't make them innocent. Plus the Tear yourself apart Curse will remain along with the more general one. If someone tries to push for the whole Unwinding or similar again they are going to suffer quite visibly." He said darkly.

    He waved the bad mood off. "I'm going to go make something nice for Lydia, I owe her the wake up call." He said as he walked off.

    Ruby and Orange just watched him, the latter speaking after he left, "In a way, it's not as bad as what his siblings would have done. Claire would have killed them all, most likely released her monsters after stating the whole reason for it. Milo… he would have been kind, which as you realize, it could have been so much worse."

    Ruby could believe that. She had discussed with Magnus before how his brother tackled some problems. Life was as miraculous as it was terrifying, but the idea of Nurture being used to make people feel the true disapproval of a parent. It edged on psychological torture when he could apply it to Humanity itself thanks to his Domain and Psychic power.

    As they left the World, she decided that she also needed to do something to clear her mind. Maybe retracting all her Enigmas and just spending the day relaxing in one of the medical hot springs would do her some good.
     
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    • thanks for the chapter and for writing. i do not know why i don't like zelda/link i think it may be a subconscious thing
     
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