I’ve mentioned evolution before, and my definition differs from yours. In this world evolution is one creature starting a brand new species after finding a path suitable for it and for life to develop. It seems more volatile than the slow approach I knew, but I don’t think it’s bad. Just dangerous.
— Excerpt from Notes For Newstar
Day 35267 9:30 AM
The hole in the sky scared the hell out of Maelstrom and forced her into a quiet contemplation of life and everything she knew about the world. Seeing Newstar and his friends impaled as dried husks had her retching in the bushes; Point wasn’t that far from it, despite already seeing the scene.
“You didn’t even blink,” she said. “How many times have you seen something horrible over and over?”
Manny came to mind.
“Thousands,” I muttered.
The wrinkles, the sad, wet eyes.
“Tens of thousands.”
Point paled. “How did—”
“I shouldn’t have done it. One or two redos, that was what I should’ve done. But I tried to make things better, making them worse and worse every time.” I looked her in the eye. “It’s my biggest regret.”
“How did you remain sane after that?” Point asked.
“I didn’t,” I smirked. “You have to understand something, Point. Once you shatter, I don’t think there’s returning to being whole. Ever. The life after that one helped me. I established rules. I found what I could and could not do without going mad. But I’m far from being sane. At most, you could call me functional.”
“You’re more than—”
“No, I’m not, Point. You have no idea what crawls through my mind. It’s just that I ensure my acts of insanity don’t stick. I slapped nobles out of boredom, had orgies with hundreds of women, tempted people just to see who would assassinate me. I’ve done things so dumb, three-year-olds would have known better. No, my dear, I’m not sane.”
“But you’re not evil. You didn’t use your power to conquer the world.”
I looked at her in shock. “I never thought of that!”
The priceless stunned look she gave me made me laugh aloud.
“Just kidding; I conquered the first world in which I had these powers. Being the king of everything is less fun than it sounds.” And it wasted precious time I could have spent better.
“Why are you laughing?” Maelstrom stormed from the bushes, then pointed towards Newstar. “What’s wrong with you? Look at him! Look at him!”
I nodded. “I’ve already seen him like that; seen you like that too.”
She shuddered.
“And being sad or outraged won’t help with what we’re dealing with. Now, I’ll try to figure out this seal for three or four hours, then we’re running into the weald. I’m afraid that not looking at that hag squeezing her way into our world will be as helpful as an ostrich burying its head in the sand.”
“What?” they both said.
“Nothing. Leave the crazy man alone. I have research to do.”
With that I got to work, memorizing the seal with Initial Photographic Memory, so I could study it on the run. But even without it, I was making progress.
The first part I managed to truly crack were the power conduits.
I couldn’t tell what they extracted, but it left the impaled bodies in a horrible state; little more than dried skin and brittle bone. It was a kind of energy that, when taken from a human, stripped them of everything that made them what they were.
It wasn’t syphoning organic, physical energy, or at least not just that. What it targeted was something deeper, something an integral part of us, our blood, bone, and all the fleshy bits.
How can humans even learn to make seals like these? I’m guessing partial possession or bestowal through a skill, because we don’t even have words or concepts for what these seals do.
The energy of humans was then somehow used to wound the world they lived in, which thinned the veil and opened the rift towards the ocean of raw mana.
It was fascinating. There was barely any difference between channels for mageknights and the ones for clusters of third and fourth realm humans. I carefully checked the fifth versus seventh realm, since those beneath the fifth were piled up and less drained, and found that there was barely any difference.
Had there been no difference between them, I would’ve assumed the channels were robust enough. But as things are, that means the ones at the seventh realm have just a bit more of that energy than those at the fifth. But why? I focused on Newstar’s channels, why are the lines for his thrice as thick?
It wasn’t just that. They were more complex and seemed to do more. The obvious answer was that Newstar had more of that unknown energy.
What is it? The question burned like an itch I couldn’t scratch.
Something to consider later, I thought to myself as the self-imposed deadline arrived.
“We’re leaving.”
“Where to?” Maelstrom asked.
“Straight south. Don’t use mana, we don’t want to attract saurians; we just want to make sure the outer god doesn’t catch up that easily. It would be best if it doesn’t catch up at all, but I was never the kind of man to trust my good fortune.”
We set off, and I looked at Maelstrom. “You can ask me anything you want, Mel. I’m gonna die soon, and I have little reason to lie to you. If I don’t want to answer your question, I’ll say so plainly.”
“Did you set me up with Newt?” she fired immediately.
“No, I just introduced you and created a visible opportunity for both sides.” I smiled. “He came to mind as soon as I heard that silly prophecy about you, and I said to myself why the hell not. You seem like you’d be happy together.”
To be honest, from my perspective, just about any couple with just a semblance of compatibility could be happy together. If you’re willing to compromise and work on something wholeheartedly together, I couldn’t see how you could fail or be unhappy. And I said so.
“You were both young, earnest, and of similar age. Beneath your rough mask, you were a fragile, wounded woman, and he is a gentle young man, if a bit oblivious at times.” I paused. “Most of the time. You will need to exercise quite a bit of patience with him, but I believe in you. And if you show him love, he will return it in kind. Probably from the behind.”
I turned so she could see my impish smile, and both women rolled their eyes.
“What advice can you give me about realm-sculpting? Any secrets you’ve uncovered or anything else you think nobody before you has figured out?”
Now that was an important topic, and if Point really wanted to have a child with me, it was quite an important matter to discuss. Not to mention how quickly Maelstrom moved from grief to harnessing as many benefits as she could from me while I still lived. A true princess.
“Well, let’s start with how the realm forms. From what I’ve read…”
I’ve shared some of my insights, as well as the fact that my realm was sculpted as multilayered runes. I didn’t reveal Newstar’s secret realm shape of a volcano or mountain, as that was his secret, and frankly, it made little difference to those with enough manarium on hand.
What I did reveal was the secret of how to have as many elements as you wanted and how to introduce them to your realm.
“Right, Mel,” I told the princess. “I assume you will survive this and return home. There is a woman who first helped me when I arrived in this world. If at all possible, have your grandfather hire her as an alchemist for your family. Her name is Ruby…”
I caught a jealous glance from Point, but pretended like there was nothing she should be jealous of. As there wasn’t. I hadn’t seen Ruby in ages, and while I did leave her all my earthly possessions, it was only because Point and Newstar were both loaded already.
We ran, and the timer on Redo trickled down. We had a minute left when I sensed the wrongness.
“She’s here.” I grabbed both women and ran with everything I had. Wind parted before us to reduce friction, fire and earth blazed, calling every saurian paying at least a bit attention within a dozen mile radius. We were still thousands of miles away from the deep jungle, but hopefully something, anything would rush to investigate and at least delay the damn outer god.
The feeling of disquiet intensified, and I sensed the exact moment both women sensed it. They stiffened, sweat suddenly slicking their skin for no reason.
I checked the time.
Twenty seconds.
A saurian roared, and others answered its call, they would soon come at us. Which was fine, they weren’t that close, but my hope was in vain, the sudden danger failed to deter the hag.
“Stop! I have royal hostages!” I shouted, but it didn’t help.
I crashed my foot into a tree, and spun around, holding the detonator.
“Stop right there!” I screamed, holding the detonator before me.
And she stopped.
“We can use them for breeding.” She gazed at Maelstrom and Point. “This world will soon be ours, an empty husk. We can transport you to another. You can live long and happy—”
Zero.
“Farewell, Mel.” I pressed the detonator, its explosion hiding the collapse of my realm and Vengeful.