I spent the next month working. Studying various constructs, refining my clockwork, and having my demons do tasks to grind up the last few thousand I needed to afford the ascension thesis. Once I had enough, I redeemed it immediately, then stashed it in my paired ring where Callie would be able to access it if she needed it.
After that, I got back to work. Studying, grinding, and refining. Aside from helping with the plans for my new phoenix demon, I completed work on a timepiece for Life Nova, tying in one of Archie’s feathers to cement the phoenix template, and then began the process of altering the designs for Cosmic Waltz and Life Nova to compatibly anchor with Mephistopheles and Genesis Burst when we completed work on the latter.
With the example of Mephistopheles already having been adapted for the anchoring process, creating another archdemon mechanism was much easier, though I still had to rely heavily on Dantalion and the Pillar. At tier 9 my information demon could process information exponentially faster, and combined with my already substantial Focus, he was tearing through iterations.
Which led us to today. It was finally time. “Alright,” I said as I looked around at the others. “Everyone knows what to do?”
All my demons nodded. Callie was standing nearby, equally prepared. “I’ve got it,” she assured me. “The new shield is done. It’s…I think it turned out really well. I made all the tweaks the Prof suggested, and this is what we ended up with.” She held up a large box, opening it up to reveal a new item I’d never seen before.
It was certainly striking. The previous lantern shield had been a terrible, sadistic thing. All angles and dark jagged edges. The new shield looked substantially more like protection than the old. White metal with gold filigree, and from inside, what we had decided to call Peaceflame flickered warmly, a strong and reassuring presence. Just looking at the shield made me feel safer, more protected. I liked it.
My wife knew how I felt about her. Not just the love, but the…pride. Callie was the better of the two of us. She was the real deal, the hero of our story. She was my guiding star that showed me true north. I wasn’t a bad person, I didn’t think, or I tried not to be, but Callie was the one who showed me what that meant. I BELIEVED in her, truly and completely. But it had never really occurred to me that she might feel the same way. Not because she didn’t love me, I knew that she did, but because I couldn’t imagine seeing that goodness I saw in her in myself.
Callie could feel my response, and she smiled at me tenderly. “This is how I see you,” she said quietly, stepping forward to put a hand on my face. “You make the world a better place by being in it. Make it safer. You’re kind and strong and good and I know you forget that, but now any time you do, you can reach for this feeling and hold it close, and you’ll remember that no matter how many criminal organizations you take over, you’ll always be my hero.”
I swallowed hard. I didn’t know why this was so important to me. I had the occasional thought about following her lead, but I hadn’t realized it bothered me that I felt like I wasn’t living up to her example. I knew she didn’t feel that way, and somehow that made it worse. Part of it might have been the WCP, but part of it was just…awe. I spent every day connected to her heart. I knew her in a way I had never known anyone else and never would. And no matter how long we were together, I would never stop feeling blown away by how truly kind and strong and decent my wife was.
It wasn’t about demeanor, or the things she said. I loved those things, yes, but it was deeper than that. The things she felt. The love, the concern, even the outrage when it flared up. She proved how amazing she was every day, and knowing someone like that felt like…THIS about me was humbling.
Clearing my throat, I shook off the reverie. “I love you,” I told her quietly, leaning down to kiss her hand before I pulled back. I didn’t have my mask on, because we were inside my Domain and it wasn’t necessary in here.
“I know,” she winked. “Now go make a demon.”
Nodding, I turned back to the device that I was using to communicate with the Professor. His voice echoed out from it in annoyance. “Are you done? Because this is delicate and expensive equipment and we have limited access. Perhaps you could enjoy your wedded bliss at a time when we aren’t spending obscene amounts of resources to ensure the best chance of success in this endeavor.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m coming, calm down. Just adjusting my mental state. Gotta make sure we nail this first try, right?”
“Fine,” he sighed. “Consult the diagram again. You’ve got it memorized?”
I glanced over at the table. A stack of paper rested on the dark stone, each page complete with a dozen strange outlines and concepts. I’d adapted several of them to my personal style after the Dean’s class, but the Professor had crafted the overall structure, and it showed. I studied the design a few more times, making sure I had everything committed to memory.
Despite the freeform nature of time as a construct, the fact remained that the Professor’s system was a mature and developed meta for interacting with the timestream. He’d been working on it for millennia, trial and error and not a small amount of talent making a coherent system to work from. If we were both inventing our own fictional type of math then his had already made it to advanced calculus and mine was still multiplication.
“Alright,” I said slowly. “It’s time. And you’re sure that locking in the template during the process is the best way to do this?”
“Just follow the plan,” he said solemnly. “Your demon said it would work, yes?” I glanced over to where Nine Phoenix was waiting, receiving a nod. I let him know. “Then yes, we continue with the plan as is. This will also allow us to construct the timepiece in such a way as to allow the three others to socket. Up to this point you were only able to connect three demons, this will stably allow for a four part connection.”
Nodding, I got into position. I had the demons required for the process collected in a loose semi circle around the device, and when I gave the signal, we began. We started with fire. Genesis Burst stepped forward, pouring out his flame onto the device, and we collected and condensed it into a single point. This was where my exercises with my parents came in handy. Binding. I was Solomon, and I followed the path of the Demonbinder. Beyond my Mythcrafting talent, this was the CORRECT use of my Path.
I reached out for the fire and bound it to my will, shaping it into the necessary constructs as the others slowly fed in the other attributes. “Callie,” I said without looking up. Stepping forward, she raised the shield, tipping it over, and some of the Peaceflame poured from the lantern and into the mixture. “Nine,” I said next.
Stepping forward, Nine Phoenix pulled a strand of the flame out and inhaled it. He waited for a moment, then exhaled it again, though slightly smaller. I began work on the rest of the mechanisms. One, two, three. I kept going. I needed help for this. Multiple demons working on multiple aspects of the build, parallels assisting, Callie helping, Dan composing, a detailed map of what to build.
Finally, after about four hours, I finished it. Twenty three movements, or complications as had taken to calling them. Either worked but I liked the sound of the latter better, it seemed more grounded. Each individual element socketed together in a perfectly engineered construct designed to link several delicate concepts. “Alright, Brad,” I said slowly. “Time to embed the lantern shield.”
He stepped forward, raising his hands, and a hole opened in the air above the timepiece. Slowly, I lowered the shield into it, and he withdrew. Then I lifted the piece. “Finally, Genesis Burst. It’s time.” My demon stepped forward, eyes locked on mine. “Are you sure about this?” I asked him gently. “This will change you. More than you can imagine. This is more alterations than we’ve ever done before, and all the elements being used are stronger than your current state.”
As a technique, Genesis Burst (Gene for short) was important for what it represented, but it was mostly just a very focused application of Zagan aimed at the soul. In his defense, Gene didn’t seem remotely worried about the changes. “I am ready,” he said confidently.
Nodding to Brad, I lifted the timepiece. It felt…heavy. Different. The golden gears flickered and danced with a strange, peaceful light. They were still gold, but it was a warmer, kinder gold, like they were being lit from within. Holding the timepiece felt like I was being warmed by a cup of hot cocoa made by my mom.
Stepping forward, I placed the timepiece into the hole over Gene’s heart. The demon accepted the construct gracefully, closing his eyes as Brad let the pit in the air vanish. Then he started to…change.
His hair blazed up a shimmering white gold, wings extended from his back of the same color, and an aura of peace and tranquility erupted out, blanketing the chamber. Genesis Burst opened his eyes. Only they weren’t Genesis Burst’s eyes anymore. They belonged to someone new. Someone different. The burning golden irises that reflected the hopes and dreams of everyone who looked into them had changed. This wasn’t Gene.
“Song of Arcadia,” I murmured, almost spellbound. He smiled at me warmly, nodding as he internalized the changes. He wasn’t as, I had expected, different. Not really. He was just…more.
It was finished. The timepiece had changed him. I could feel the excess power, too. He’d been pushed up to tier eight by the process, not only advancing but leapfrogging tier 7 entirety. All because of that timepiece. It could, of course, be removed at any time. It was a part of him, but the physical construct was a uniquely versatile object I could extract to connect with the others to form an arch demon. Naturally, I wouldn’t be doing that right now. It wasn’t the time, but still.
Exhaling, I turned back to the device. “How are the readings?” I asked the professor. “Everything performing as expected?”
“Flawless,” he agreed. “Construction was well within tolerance, and any small imperfections were smoothed over in the conversion. The connection points are stable, and your so called arch demon form should be easily accessible. Of course, in order to reach optimal output you’ll need to complete your next bloodline condensation. The synergy between the bloodline and the templates is extraordinary.”
I knew that. I nodded along. “I get that, but do we have the time?” I was, at the moment, halfway to A-rank, give or take. Of course, I couldn’t reasonably bridge the gap in a short amount of time, but the closer I got before the final, the better things would go.
“You should,” he confirmed. “You have another month before it begins. How much you can accomplish in that time is up to you.”
He was right. We had all these resources to use, and I was sure we could apply some of them to our current problems. I could push myself further and faster in several ways, but I needed resources for that. Luckily, I had ways to get them. Access to all my demons, many of whom were now much stronger. But before that, I wasn’t the only person who needed to take a step forward. I glanced over at Callie. “Alright, then we start our training blitz as soon as possible. Cal…it’s time for you to hit B-rank.”