[||||=LEVEL 40= ||||]
The tower of doom was surprisingly cozy. It was well lit, the furniture was well made and comfortable, and I was treated pretty well. Mostly out of fear for sure but I was treated well.
"Is the tea to your liking?" The well dressed man, Watts, asked politely. He wore a dark purple suit edging black with a dulled yellow undershirt and a pale yellow tie. It wasn't exactly what I expected him to wear but it fitted him well.
"It's good." I said easily. I didn't have anything to fear from the man. He was just a minion, albeit a well connected and smart one. He even suppressed his ego for me. "When is Salem going to be here, exactly?"
"Hehehehe." Tyrian, creepy bastard, chuckled a little madly. He squatted at the edge of a couch, fiddling with a knife. He wore a long leather coat dyed dark brown and black pants and not much else unless a belt and sandals counted. "You are an apostle of the goddess. You will wait until she is ready."
"I'm not an apostle." I said easily. Tyrian was unhinged but not completely unreasonable… I think. "I'm here to learn from her but I'm not worshipping her at all, though I know she is far stronger and probably wiser and smarter than most people."
"She is greater than mortals. Like us. She is greater than humanity." Tyrian explained.
I raised an eyebrow. "I'm not mortal though. I'm technically immortal."
Watts stared at me curiously while Tyrian cackled. "How did you accomplish that, exactly?" A slight longing was in his voice that he couldn't hide.
"First I tied my mana and aura together within my soul." I said, referencing my magical soul. Watts deflated slightly but didn't seem to lose hope. "Then I blended them to a more cohesive form. Mana and aura are deeply entwined within me. I simply tied my consciousness and memories into my soul." that was as much as I understood the metamorphosis of magical soul to a higher soul anyways.
"Can you be killed?" Tyrian asked with an unnerving glint in his eyes.
"If my aura and mana are completely reduced and my body made inhabitable." I said calmly. Tyrian's knife twitched at the tip. The action seemed almost eager, like the knife was alive and searching for blood. Tyrian giggled lowly but said nothing.
My attention was drawn towards the door and I winced at the enormous body of mana and aura that walked through it. Salem.
All of the walls in the tower were capable of blocking senses somehow. Sounds couldn't be heard through it, aura couldn't be sensed through it, and in a short test of mine I found that not only could I not sense mana through them but they held an innate resistance to mana somehow.
This is why I felt my vision briefly darken as Salem walked in. My senses were utterly overwhelmed by her mana and aura, which she let show freely. As my vision cleared I looked at her.
She didn't look much different from before, having her intense and biting eyes and pale skin with her hair in a large bun. The raiment she wore seems darker in person though, and I felt mana and affinity woven into it somehow, though I didn't think that was possible unless you made clothes out of magical beast materials.
I refrained from observing her and instead stood. "It is nice to finally meet you in person. Is there a preferred way you would like to be called? Calling you Salem seems informal."
"I don't care if you are informal." She said, an elegant form to her words. She looked at me with a strange sort of curiosity in her eyes. "Now come. I won't delay your education." She swept out of the room with a sort of billowing to her robe. It almost shimmered as it moved, reminding me eerily of shiny scales despite being made of silk. The robe was unnatural, that much was obvious.
"It's been a pleasure talking, Watts." I said with a nod. He simply nodded back and Tyrian was looking at the door Salem walked out of with manic devotion in his eyes.
I slipped through the heavy door and followed after Salem. "What are your abilities?" Salem asked absently as we walked, though she more glided than walked.
"Ah, right, my mana is suppressed." I felt a little dim after forgetting that. I just kept it suppressed all the time now. I sent a pulse of mana to the part of my matrix hiding my mana and let the traces of mana flow out of me.
Salem slowed and looked at me. I almost thought I saw a little sign of being impressed in her eyes though I wasn't certain.
"Storm," She observed. "Then would be space and finally heat. After that, however, there is… hunger?" She looked at me curiously.
"In order of greatest to least I have storm, space, heat, ice-" Salem nodded. Ice had probably been hidden under heat, being a compound of it. "-consumption, motion, light, unity, purity, life, metal, nature, fire, and shadow."
Salem nodded at my list. Then she frowned and narrowed her eyes. "There is one more." Her voice was a little cold.
Even with her catching my attempt to hide void I still hesitated. A slight surge of anger in her aura did it for me. "Void." I muttered.
Salem's aura froze it's emotions and silence reigned for a moment. In a flash, however, it exploded with joy and amusement. It took me a moment to realize that Salem was openly laughing, though she smothered the brief happiness quickly and looked seriously at me.
"Void-" She almost fell into a round of chuckling but held herself back. A smile twitched at the edges of her mouth. "Void is the consumer. The destroyer of magic. With an affinity for void you have no need to fear other users of the void. I assume you discovered it's abilities already?"
I nodded seriously. "I consumes mana and aura."
"No." I blinked at Salem's rebuttal. "It does not consume. It destroys. Annihilates. It wipes energy from existence. You tested on a living creature?" I nodded. "Then you saw the effects of it."
"It destroyed the soul." I said. A brief haunting of a dead mouse crept into my mind. It had been so utterly empty. Had I not seen it alive just seconds before I wouldn't have thought it to have ever been alive.
"Yes." She confirmed. "Souls are sacred in a sense. Killing the body will let a soul dissipate and break down, feeding the mana of the world and fuelling the creation of life. Destruction of a soul is regarded as the worst punishment imaginable and an abominable act no mortal should commit. It is the desecration of a god's property of the highest order and those who even had a void affinity were put to death in my time if possible and methods to counter the void were researched."
Salem glanced at me, my face dark at the idea of destroying souls but also at her near admittance for having a counter against what might very well be one of my strongest elements from her description.
"That you have the void in your soul protects you from it. It is one of the greatest weapons at your disposal. It is the greatest defense against spells ever devised and a bane of mages and huntsmen alike. The only thing it cannot do is affect matter. A soul may be torn to pieces by it but a solid object is the one thing it cannot ever harm permanently, though it's affinity may be stripped from it temporarily. Do not reject the affinity. It's only evil is your use for it."
With that settled Salem began walking forwards again. "As void is your greatest weapon you will stimulate the affinity night and day. It is the one tool at your disposal capable of actually harming Ozpin or myself. Neither of us are capable of using void for reasons I will keep private. Your affinity for storm is reasonable and the strongest I have ever seen. Only archmages have affinities stronger than your dominant affinity. Space is an adequate secondary affinity to use and heat is rather versatile. With modern sciences I can see why you chose such an element. Heat was poorly understood when I was young and still developing new affinities. With that understanding gifted to you there are surely some interesting applications.
"Even with such an array void is still superior simply for it's power and the versatility with which you may use it. Where storm requires space and focus or heat requires creativity void requires only a moment of focus and a flex of it's power to disperse an energy such as aura from this world. With it you may pit your extremely large pool of mana against the far lesser reserves of those you might face as well.
"Without such energies your enemies may rely only on their bodies while you have both energies and your own body, which I see you have trained with. Bullets will be lethal as well since your enemies will have no aura to defend themselves. Even should all that still not convince you consider that void may be melded with your other affinities. A storm that rains the energies of void would be catastrophic for an army."
I nodded at her argument for void. I've been meditating on it with every one of my parallels but it was slow going. I had only gained about a hundred affinity for it in the past week while with an affinity for fire and giving it that time it might have grown seven hundred points or more. It was reminiscent of my space affinity in it's value and difficulty to raise. It didn't matter. I could be patient and develop the affinity for as long as needed.
If heat drops to my fourth greatest affinity it wouldn't be a great blow to me and void would be much more powerful. I still would have storm if I needed to be nonlethal anyways. Greater control over void from a greater affinity would allow me to be non lethal as well.
"With void at your disposal I have a far more effective training than personally tutoring you." I narrowed my eyes at this but said nothing.
"Here we are." Salem waved her hand and opened a circular room that looked almost like an amphitheatre. Tiered steps lined the sides of the room down to a pathway that led down to what looked like a ritual circle, though I had no idea it's usage since I never learned ritualism since I couldn't find anything on it.
Inside the circle was a large black snake. I narrowed my eyes at it when I felt an affinity inside it but I couldn't quite tell what it was. The ritual circle had a magical barrier around it, which might be what the circle was for, that disrupted my sensing inside it.
"Just to be clear I'm not allowing you to perform any rituals on me." I clarified, though if Salem wanted to I don't doubt that she could force me to do most anything.
"We aren't here for rituals." Salem said calmly. She walked over the circle and I watched her step up to the snake without fear. The snake immediately lunged at her with unnatural speed, fangs bared and it's affinity coursing through it. Salem stepped aside and swiped at it with her hand, grabbing it easily.
The snake hissed and curled around her hands, clearly intending to bite her. Salem just grabbed at it's mouth with two fingers, holding the snake by the gap between it's fangs, making it harmless.
"I first found this snake when it crossed dimensions to land in this world of all places. After containing it and studying it briefly I found that it had a massive affinity for void, chaos, and infinity. All quite rare affinities and very strong too." She glanced at me. "This snake's affinity for void is it's strongest and somewhat volatile. It is roughly five of six times stronger than yours."
I felt a little miffed that a snake had such an affinity for void. I just started cultivating the affinity. Give me some slack.
"With more studies I found that the snake is intended to be something of a boost to power. It's affinity to void and chaos make it uniquely suited to damage a soul and it's affiliated bodies. Given sufficient strength of soul a person might survive it but there are few in this world capable of eating this snake and surviving the experience to use such power." Salem glanced towards me.
"With your affinity to void you will be immune to this snake's negative effects. By eating it and absorbing it's void affinity you'll likely gain it's chaos and infinity affinities as they follow their dominant affinity. With your consumption affinity as well eating this snake will be far more beneficial for you as you won't be wasting as much power as most would."
"You want me to eat that snake." I said calmly.
Salem smiled. "It does nothing for me sitting in my tower. None of my subordinates are capable of using it to it's full potential. I have but one request in exchange for offering you this snake's power." Salem grabbed the snake's lower body and gently took it off her arm. The snake hissed angrily and squirmed a little but otherwise did nothing.
"You don't require power. You require tools and experience. As you are now you have the power to annihilate most huntsmen and maidens. They offer little challege for you. To grant you more experience you must be exposed to straining situations. As it happens this snake also offers the answer to this question."
"How, exactly?" I asked as I hid my nervousness.
"This snake is from an alternate dimension. You will trace it's energies to it's home dimension and experience all it has to offer there alone. After almost three months you will be drawn back to remnant by your dimensional anchor, though it is likely that you will be able to return to the dimension as you make it's universe a part of you, this snake being the metaphorical foot in the door. Absorbing mana from that universe, eating it's foods, and so on will certainly allow you to travel there when you acquire a dimensional affinity."
I thought of that for a moment. "Dimensional anchor?" Salem sighed.
"A dimensional anchor is a root in one dimension. While a being may travel to different dimensions they are always bound to one home dimension though they may leave it. Their presence is intrinsic to one dimension and one only. To somehow lose this anchor would leave you adrift to flow through different dimensions until death. Ozpin and I have spent so long in this dimension that we are sadly rooted here and unable to leave barring some sort of massive exposure to another dimension."
"I see." I nodded. That makes a little sense to me, though it seems like it's pretty esoteric. Salem walked out of the circle and I observed the snake.
Nameless
Title: Shard of infinity
Level – 48
HP – 490
AP – None
MP - 400
STR - 13
VIT - 49
DEX - 82
INT - 10
WIS - 38
LUK - 48
Semblance: None
Affinities:
Void: 10,698 (Innate)
Chaos: 5,325 (Innate)
Infinity: 194 (Innate)
Perks: None
Bio: Unknowing of it's purpose or any concepts of reality this snake was born of the runoff of divine power from a god/goddess of infinity during a clash with a god/goddess of dreams. Due to the god/goddess of infinity frequently making snakes and fitting them as boosts of power for her followers the shard of divinity took that form.
This weak fragment of divinity drifted throughout the void between dimensions, where the clash took place, and landed in your dimension of remnant, where it was immediately imprisoned by the witch Salem out of curiosity and has resided in her care ever since.
I raised my eyebrow at the snake's bio's description of Salem as a witch. I thought she was a demon. I suppose she is a woman who casts magic so witch does apply. It seems an odd choice of words though.
"Fine. I'll eat the snake." It didn't have any downsides anyways. I just didn't trust Salem to cast a spell on me. I'll keep my void affinity ready to counter and weaken or negate the spell just in case. Or I could try to use void to break the thick mana around Salem's castle and blink through the weakened mana though I've never tried that and would prefer to just not do it.
"Excellent." Salem seemed pleased. "To the kitchens then." Rather than walk to the kitchens Salem flexed her mana and a space affinity and created a portal. I can't blame her. I wouldn't want to carry a snake by the mouth for long either. I stepped through the portal after her and blinked at the sight.
What the hell?! It looks… well normal. Salem had already stabbed a nail through the snake's eye and killed it. I just saw her flick the blood off her nail distastefully.
"How do you cook a snake?" I wondered.
"With a lot of spices and something to numb your taste buds." Salem said. She handed me the dead snake and flicked her wrist towards the cupboards. Motion mana caused them all to open and she wasted no time flicking her wrist again to retrieve several spices and a plastic bottle of pills and place them on the counter.
Salem slid the plastic container of pills over to me and I looked at the label. Angiotensin. A quick observe at the pills inside showed that the little tablets, not pills, were to be dissolved on the tongue and it numbs taste. I sighed and put two in my mouth.
"I haven't cooked in several centuries." Salem said absently. "I can't recognize half of these anymore. Hm."
"I do." I said. My tongue felt weird. "I can do it." Salem stepped back and I glanced between the snake and the spices. It was probably best to eat the scales since they held affinity too.
Damnit. I know how to do this.
I sighed and got out a cutting board and laid the snake on it. Grabbing a cleaver I swiftly cut the snake into eight pieces and waved my hand at the cupboards. Butter flew down and I snatched up a butter knife and generously applied butter to the raw snake. I never thought I'd e preparing this. Maybe my level one hundred cooking skill will make it better? … No. No it won't.
I slathered salt on the buttered snake tail and some various spices that didn't conflict with the salt or butter. If I was really lucky this would taste like popcorn.
I held my nose and popped the snake into my mouth.
… Huh. This tastes horrible.
I nearly gagged on it but steeled myself and gulped the tail down. The butter made it easier. I still felt slightly sick as it landed in my stomach. Even so I felt it's affinities swirl inside me. I got my parallels to wrapping the snake in my aura and mana infused with consumption, making as much affinity become assimilated in me as I could.
I glared at the seven other snake bits. This was going to suck so badly.
Salem snickered from the sidelines. Bitch…
Suddenly I felt like an idiot. Why was I eating a snake like this?! I quickly slathered salt and butter onto the snake and set the bits on a plate on the floor.
A deep breath and a poke at the knot inside me felt my skin turn inside out almost. When I opened my eyes everything was much brighter and smells much more poignant.
The snake still smelled like snake though.
I growled and got to eating it. Luckily panthers were more suited for gobbling foods than humans and taste less of their food. Raw meat didn't taste great, after all, but animals still ate it because they had less sensitive taste.
"An interesting application of skinchanging." Salem observed. I growled as I got on my third snake bit. "You'll be departing in two hours so you can assimilate the snake's affinities properly. I'll lecture you on the subtleties of mana and affinity in the meantime. I trust you to honor the deal."
Salem walked off and I kept shoving buttered snake down my throat. Some days my life is so strange.
*Ding!* Chaos affinity acquired!
*Ding!*Infinity affinity acquired!
I felt my void affinity increase rapidly, already having almost doubled, and the two new affinities settled in with the others. Strange days these may be but dust damn if they're not beneficial.
[|||| == ||||]
"Good kitty."
"Rrrrrrr…"
"Right I'll just… just back away."
"Rowlllllrrrrrr"
"Tyrian! Tyrain there's a cat in the tower!"
"What is it Wattsie-Oh a kitty! Come here kitty-kit-no don't run away! Aww."
"Thank you Tyrian."
"I really wanted to sacrifice the big cat to the goddess."
"I'm sure."
[|||| == ||||]
Affinities:
Storm: 2697 (+800) (x64) (240%)= 537,139.2
Void: 1650 (140%) (x16)= 36,960
Space: 752 (+400) (x16) (140%)= 25,804.8
Chaos: 649 (140%) (x8)=7268.8
Heat: 358 (+300) (x8) (140%)= 7369.6
Ice: 346 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 4995.2
Consumption: 314 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 4636.8
Purity: 297 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 4446.4
Motion: 289 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 4356.8
Light: 271 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 4155.2
Unity: 268 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 4121.6
Life: 232 (+100) (x8) (140%)= 3718.4
Metal: 157 (x8) (140%)= 1758.4
Nature: 134 (+23) (x8)(140%)= 1758.4
Fire: 139 (x8) (140%)= 1557.8
Shadow: 95 (x8) (140%)= 1064
Infinity: 12 (x8) (140%)= 134.4
It's insane. That one snake managed to bring me from one hundred nineteen to over a thousand five hundred. For each of the snake's affinities I got about ten percent of it's affinities.
Even with consumption more than quadrupling the total gain by tearing into it's soul and funneling affinity to my own soul it was a pretty low number if you think about it since that snake had ten thousand affinity for void. I can see how that snake was made for bestowing power on people though. It was really, REALLY good at it.
The difference between us and our affinities, though, is that I can amplify my affinities. That snake couldn't. So while it had about ten thousand void affinity it couldn't really use I now have over thirty six thousand effective void affinity I can use. I don't really mind this but I can now actively feel my soul being a littlemore ominous than before. I have this odd dark feeling to my soul that wasn't there before. It was almost caustic, really.
I don't really mind it myself but it caused me to wonder… if I were to use soul hearth on somebody they would be touching my soul and the watered down version of the void distilled throughout my soul. That would be Bad with a capital B for them since my soul would be destroying theirs by interacting with it.
If I leaned on the silver eyes essence in my soul and amplified my purity affinity it would probably water down the void affinity enough to use soul hearth and keep my host alive but I would still have void in me. It would still be detrimental to my host.
If I had more void affinity I could probably control it enough to keep it away from another soul but as of right now I can't do much about it. That's fine for now but that I've lost that option of soul hearth and probably some other things was a little bad.
I didn't have any time to make sure I wasn't fretting over nothing though. Salem was turning my brain to goop. She knew so much more on the subtleties of mana and aura. When she learned that I didn't even know of a substance called aether she nearly threw a fit and so the three hour lecture began.
"It's because of this abundance of aether in the world that affinities function at all. As many affinities have primary, secondary, tertiary, and even quadranary functions the aether structures in the air become more complex to fit the differing affinities anfit the so-called esso-mosaic, which hopefully you remember is called the lunafractulis major and minor if the soul is human or faunus. Recall that the esso-mosaic is the aetherial structure which fits the soul and is continuously changed to fuel affinities and mana regeneration. The aether structures are also applied in the case of spells, though the general books simply refer to the structures as patterns this is highly untrue although aether is a complex subject and-"
As I said… goop.
The long and short of it is that aether, a base magical substance in the air, is refined by a person's soul to become aura, mana, and it's used to fuel affinities. Then it got complex with aether structures and esso-mosaics and so on. It's all very confusing and has an array of intricacies.
Even an eidetic memory doesn't mean I understand everything I hear. Sometimes I have to mull things over. Salem just didn't pause, though. I could tell that she actually had a spell to teleport air into her lungs safely to continue talking. That's just… that's dedication to a lecture if anything.
"Do you get it all now?" Salem turned back towards me. I had no clue whatsoever what she said for the past five minutes. I just turned off my brain and absorbed the words and not their meanings. I couldn't comprehend it so I stopped trying. Later I can review these memories at a much slower pace to learn it properly.
"Yup."
"Good because you'll be applying this all when you travel to the dimension. Do you need to collect anything? The objects in your soul space will come with you but the new dimension may not have habitable conditions like air and water. You have to carry at least a few months' supplies with you."
"I do actually have all of that." I nodded. My soul space had a lake in it, enough food to last me a year and a little longer, and even a house I stole. Yes I stole a house. If it comes to air I once sat in a forest for an hour and just put air in my soul space. Breathing underwater sounded convenient and you never really know why oyou'll need air.
It's not like I'm short on space either. I have over ten billion liters of inventory space to use. That's more space than I'll ever need. I can fit like forty airplanes in my inventory if I ever really need to. As it is a small lake is plenty. It's not like I have anything else to use my soul space for. I keep all the stuff I need in my house in my soul anyways. It doesn't use up that much space.
"Then I suppose you're ready to be transported." Salem flicked her wrist at me and a foreign formation of strange mana flew to me and engulfed me before I could react.
*Ding!* Your dimensional anchor to [Remnant] has been weakened! Anchor will re-strengthen in 89 days, 21 hours, 31 minutes, and 12 seconds.
I stopped at the message in surprise. So she might really be just throwing me to a different dimension. And that estimation of time will land me about four days until school starts.
"Ready?" Salem asked. Strange mana swirled in her. It was similar to space though, which probably means she's being honest…
Trust comes from both sides to make it work.
"I suppose." I said uncertainty. Salem shrugged.
"Remember that this is a show of trust from me. I don't intend for us to be enemies. I honor my words and attempt to be fair. I've said my part in maintaining a peace between us. Remember that trust goes both ways."
I blinked at that and opened my mouth but at that moment Salem released her mana, a complex spell that baffled my mana sensing and twisted in ways I couldn't wrap my mind around. It hit me and I felt a strong pull along a trail I hadn't realized was there; but there is a blockade in my path down the trail I'm hurtling down.
*Ding!* You are being transported to a neighboring dimension!
Permission requested - Administrator/prime user [Angel]
Permission granted
Permission requested - Administrator/prime user [Devil]
Permission granted
I faintly saw stars in a plethora of shapes warp around me at high speeds.
A lighthouse amongst an infinite amount of lighthouses stood in an ocean of them. A man was being drowned by a woman in a blue and white dress in each of them.
A woman with white hair fought with a blond man, both so powerful that they hurt to even glance at.
A man with odd blue hair travels through a green tube of energy with another smaller being with a yellow shirt to a different star filled with many more similar in appearance to him.
Countless souls funnelled throughout the void, some hurtling through the void towards an unknown destination, some jumping towards a star and slamming into it, becoming one with the new world.
A star loomed in front of me, a well of power and it was clearly the end of the trail I had been thrown down.
A large figure of red turns it's eye to me before grunting and looking away to it's own devices.
A strangely innocent being born of black turned it's attention to me.
The world went black.
[|||| == ||||]
"And he's gone. That was rather draining. I wonder if he'll survive. From what I glimpsed of that other dimension he should survive if he keeps away from those lesser gods. I'll keep an eye on him."
"Excuse me milady?"
"Watts. What is the issue?"
"There appears to be a… a large cat in the tower. Tyrian is hunting for it but having little luck."
"A panther, yes?"
"Yes milady. You know of it?"
"Abyss was temporarily a panther for a purpose of mine. Do not worry of it."
"Mavros… So Schnee was right. He really does bring chaos with him wherever he goes."
"Bring chaos? Do tell."
"Ah, of course milady. Mavros often used intimidation and rapid negotiations with others in founding his company. He also defies traditional common sense in some ways. For example, he brought the head of the white fang to an SDC gala. More shocking is that he got away with it. There's also the issues of the Mavros' being ridiculously powerful and strong yet not selling themselves as mercenaries except on a few occasions, all of which were based around mass destruction of one area or another. Jacques hired Mystic Mavros to destroy a mountain once and he ravaged the area within a day where it was then mined for dust. When Jacques asked Mystic why he accepted the job he replied that he did it because he was bored."
"He is rather chaotic isn't he? The description fits somewhat well. I certainly didn't expect him to have the magical power he did and yet he was clueless on several subjects of magic."
"I believe he lacks business sense as well milady, and yet he is the heir of one of the most renowned companies in the world."
"And head of it as well from Cinder's reports. He uses an illusion to disguise himself as Mystic Mavros and lead his company and controls the criminal underbelly of Vale. Granted he forces his employee, Roman Torchwick, to manage the company and the underworld but nevertheless he does control Vale's criminal element and a prominent company through him."
"… Chaos."
[|||| == ||||]
"Are you dead?" A soft voice asked me. I groaned and opened my eyes to see a blurry short figure dressed in black. I brought a hand up to my eyes and wiped away the sleep from my eyes. Why do I feel so tired?! I just woke up! Maybe dimensional travel is hard on the body somehow.
"Oh you're not dead." I sighed and opened myself to the mana around m-HOLY SWEET FUCK!
My eyes slammed open at nearly light speed and adrenaline coursed through me like lightning to my head. I threw an observe at the figure standing over me, the source of an utterly insane amount of mana.
Ophis, the infinite dragon goddess
Title: Oh wait, dragon goddess should be here? What a strange spell.
Level – infinite
HP – infinite
AP – What's aura? I probably have an infinite amount of it.
MP - Infinite.
STR - Very
VIT - Enough I guess.
DEX - I can go around light speed if I feel like it.
INT - I've lived for eternity. Of course I'm smart.
WIS - See above.
LUK - this is stupid. Luck exists but it's easily overcome.
Semblance: I don't know what this is.
Affinities:
Infinity: infinite
Void: Infinite
Chaos: varies based on my mood
Others: I have a lot of everything else.
Perks: What sort of observation spell has perks? You are a very odd person aren't you. Not to mention that this spell works by analysing my origin and fate. Letting this go naturally would simply read infinity for everything, you realize?
Bio: I've lived in the silence of the dimensional gap since forever. I'm going to kick red out of the gap so he stops doing tricks and quiets down. Then I'll keep napping.
I felt my brain just stop working at that. Observe isn't a very subtle spell is it?
"So what's your name?" Ophis, a goddess, asked me.
"Um, it's Abyss." I said, still completely out of sorts.
"Fitting." Ophis said that with a deep nod. "Your soul is rather like an abyss since it's like the dimensional gap. It feels like the silence of the dimensional gap quite a lot, more than anyone else although you have a storm like a discount Susanoo's in it as well." She thought about that for a moment.
"I like the silence so I like you a little. You're strong. Join my army." If my brain could have stopped harder it would have. If being in a borderline hentai dimension didn't do it then a god known for being emotionless and looking like a little girl liking me slightly did the trick.
A few seconds of quiet passed. I didn't say anything and just got my brain working again. "Could you give me a moment?" I asked the… the god in front of me. Ophis blinked once and looked away at a tree in the distance. I think that's an 'I don't care so sure' in emotionless loli language.
I looked around first. I was in… a field. That much was obvious. Green grass went for miles in any direction though there was what looked like a large herd of caribou a ways north. Northern hemisphere then. Mage sight showed nothing of interest for miles and miles away except for a man in an orange vest with a rifle in the forest. I could see up to about thirty too so I'm quite far out right now.
Taking a closer look at Ophis she looked quite like she did in the anime. She wore a frilly black dress and a purple bow around her waist. I very vaguely recall that she wore something around her head in the anime I once watched but she didn't wear anything now. The only other features of note were her pointed ears hidden behind long hair and slitted grey eyes.
That reminds me, my eyes are still under the illusion of being silver with red marbling. I can take that illusion off now. I did so.
Of more note than her physical appearance was Ophis' soul, or her facsimile of it. She didn't have aura, per se, but she had a sort of power. Maybe it's some sort of divine energy. What was more of note was her insane affinities. Largest was a sort of supplementary affinity like a core. It reminds me of my prime affinity for storm. She was based around it.
Second largest was void. It was so concentrated and vast that I felt that if Ophis felt like it she could swallow the world in void. To me, though, it seemed benign. It wouldn't hurt me but seemed instead rather fond of me. It probably reflected Ophis's mood.
Last was a nearly pulsating core of chaos. It changed it's feeling every other pulse so I couldn't accurately describe if for long.
Everything I remember from highschool DxD was what I saw in the anime. I binged it with my brother sometimes and we laughed at how ridiculous it was for about three seasons. My sister always got annoyed. The memory was slightly lost among the other things we watched and how little I remember the days back then.
First was the pervert getting stronger and beating up the hot wings phoenix guy after dying and becoming a devil. Then there was a meeting for peace - ah, wait, there was an angel, Kokabiel, first. He was doing something with the holy swords of excalibur. Then the meeting between factions happened and the khaos brigade showed up. A training camp of Issei, the pervert, getting chased by a big dragon identifying as a devil happened and then… there was some sort of grief where Issei went berserk and became a really big dragon for a minute.
The people worth remembering are that Vali guy that divides power and adds it to his own, Issei, the perverted protagonist with an OP ability to double his power every thirty seconds or so, a guy named… Coco? No, Cao-Cao. He leads the khaos brigade I think. Then there's Azazel, Michael, and Sirzechs, who lead the fallen angels, angels, and devils of the world. Ophis is a super goddess… I need to do more research on all this.
But that's all far away. I have a goddess on hold here. The question is yes or no…
This world is filled with gods and goddesses and absolute hacks. I'd rather have the backing of a big scary dragon god than not. Besides, Ophis is a calm character that doesn't really care what I do so long as it doesn't harm her. Everyone in the khaos brigade was kind of a dick though.
"I won't join your army but is it alright if I join you for a while?" I ask. Ophis stared at me.
"Yes." A sort of contedness struck me from Ophis' core of void. So it does reflect her mood. She felt more possessive of me as well. I guess since I remind her of the gap she would connect to me like that.
"Come on." Ophis grabbed my wrist and the world bent and turned. It was an odd experience and nowhere near as smooth as my space magic but it did work. I felt a brief caress at my void affinity and suddenly we were in a sort of lounge.
This is… the khaos brigade HQ? And that teleportation we used was undoubtedly void-based. We just used the dimensional gap to travel I think.
Just glancing around showed some opulence. A table off to the side was carved exquisitely with an ornamental pattern and made of a rich dark wood, the couch was dark leather and a fireplace had silver designs stenciling two decorative marble columns at it's edges. Countless other designs of detail and wealth adorned the room from a shelf of statues on the wall to a plasma TV over the fireplace.
It was a little much for me but it was a nice room. It was also empty.
"This mansion is the home of a member of my army named Arthur Pendragon. He and his sister live here." Ophis said carelessly as she sat on the couch. "He has the best couches to sleep on."
It really doesn't surprise me at all that Ophis invades her minion's homes to take naps because she's bored. At the moment I don't really care either. And Pendragon? Isn't that king Arthur's last name? Oh, right, there was a mythological lineage thing. Like the monkey guy was a descendant of some famous hero. Wasn't Sun in remnant based off of a mythological monkey hero too? Ugh. Whatever.
I frowned at how confusing everything was and thought things through a little… nope that's impossible. I'll make it up as I go then. How do you ask a god what time you're in based on an anime? Well Ophis doesn't really care about anything so…
"Is there a large gathering of angels, fallen angels, and devils coming up soon?"
"In a few days." Ophis said absently. "Something about a fallen angel attacking people."
I blinked. This is an experience for me. Things are rarely this easy. I guess I'll do what I do best.
With what almost sounded like an exhale of air the couch under me depressed. I made an ottoman of hard light and propped my feet up. I waved my hand at the remote on the mantle of the fireplace and turned on the TV. A little browsing showed me what I desired most.
They have spiderman movies in this dimension. Can I live here from now on?
Ophis didn't care about the TV and closed her eyes while she sat down on the couch cross-legged. I wonder if that's what she always does in her free time?
I turned on the earliest spider man movie and watched a bit but decided that I still wanted to try something. I sort of owe Ophis for grabbing me anyways. From my brief moment in the dimensional gap I know there's no affinities there. Hm.
I took my own void affinity and wrapped it around Ophis while blocking out sound for her with my wind affinity. She opened her eyes and looked at me strangely but then blinked. I felt some small surprise emanate from her void affinity.
"It's quieter." She said. "Thank you." She then closed her eyes and went back to not doing anything.
I looked at her for a moment before turning the tasks of keeping the area around Ophis quiet and free of affinities. I have a spider man marathon to watch. Next is avengers. I noticed they have cartoon network too. I'm absolutely up for that. I wonder if they have adventure time? I wonder if I can even watch it all before I get back to remnant? Ah, wait, I can store all the episodes on a flash drive. If I need money for that I can just make gold with my metal affinity or steal stuff from this mansion. Hell, I could probably steal the mansion too!
This is the best summer ever.
Halfway through the movie marathon Ophis nearly fell asleep and decided my lap made a good pillow. Whatever. Ruby used to do that all the time. She is cuter though. Ruby drooled on me Ophis just breathes softly.
[|||| == ||||]
"Um… Nii-sama?"
"What is it Fey?"
"Ophis-sama is in our house again and sleeping in the rec-room but she has a-a guy with her."
"…"
"Sh-should I ask him about… you know, why he's in our house watching superhero movies?"
"Where exactly is Ophis when you say he's with Ophis?"
"She's, um, laying on his lap."
"Dear god. Just wait for him to get seperated from Ophis and politely ask him who he is."
[|||| == ||||]
I binged four spider man movies and three avengers movies as well as a ton of cartoons. I was in that room for at least twenty four hours getting my fix of cartoons and movies.
It was time well spent in my opinion. I used mage sight and motion magic to procure snacks from a mini-fridge in a cupboard in the room and only moved to go to the bathroom twice. My body needed to sleep for about seven hours so for the first time in awhile I detached my soul from my body and made an avatar so I didn't need sleep. My body rested in the meantime.
Ophis didn't even move once. I don't think gods actually sleep but more like hibernate to pass the time. She was probably enjoying the quiet I had made for her.
It was around the time that seven hours of sleeping had passed that I finished my final episode of courage the cowardly dog and turned off the TV. I have an alternate universe to explore… and I should probably learn japanese. I can just flip through an english to japanese dictionary though. Eidetic memory makes learning languages much easier although I'll sound off until I practice a bit. Even so my acting skill showed surprising flexibility and accelerated my efforts to sound normal.
Luckily I just had to look around the manor with made sight to find a dictionary of just that type. I mean, the manor has a library and the Pendragon family is probably british so… well whatever. Maybe it's my luck stat in play again.
I flipped through the book for two hours and just let Ophis sleep a bit more. I tried out a few sentences and found that I sounded awkward and I'll bet I mispronunciated some words. Well it would work.
I gently took off the void and air covering from Ophis, who woke up entirely lucid. She looked at me with an annoyed pout. "Why did you stop?" She asked.
"I have to move." I said. "I have some things to do."
Ophis was silent for a moment before she hopped off the couch. "I'll come with you." I shrugged.
"Can you teleport us to Kuoh academy then? I'd have to make it by flight otherwise."
Ophis nodded and held my wrist again "And please hide your aura. I'd prefer to not be noticed right now." Ophis nodded again and her presence hid itself entirely. Suddenly I was on the roof of an old fashioned school with architecture that seemed almost english with lots of square windows and two other wings of the school, both of which seemed more modern than the main building.
I immediately went invisible and looked with mage sight. Everything looked mostly normal except for a variety of students with a red tinted visage in their mana. Devils, I assume. In their manas I can see a sort of thin tie between the devils but separated into two groups with one devil taking in all the connections. That connection must be an… evil… piece…
The evil piece system actually changes people to a different race AND gives them magical power, doesn't it? Hm… I can use that. I should steal one and study it. If I'm lucky I can use a few enchantments and runes to warp it's function a little and tie people to me whilst giving them magic to use. That would be useful.
I can't really say why I wanted to come to Kuoh. I guess… the conference is happening here, right? I'll teleport here on the day that the conference starts and introduce myself. I still have a while though.
"Thanks for bringing me here. I just needed a peek at a few things." I said to Ophis, who seemed to realize something.
"If you're thankful you can give me the quiet again." I rolled my eyes. She's like Ruby is with strawberries. Just emotionless. I probably shouldn't draw too many parallels between Ophis and Ruby. Projecting is bad.
"Fine, fine. I should introduce myself to the Pendragons though since I'm taking over their rec-room." Ophis nodded and her void affinity felt a bit smug and satisfied. I didn't wait for her to teleport me and instead made a portal of my own. As soon as I stepped through I saw her already on the couch. I just rolled my eyes and wrapped her in void and still air before walking off.
The Pendragons are in the yard eating lunch at a table right now. I hope they don't mind if I interrupt.
As I walked through the manor, though, I couldn't help but admire the interior. It's a little pretentious with all the old paintings and occasional portrait but it is nice. The deep blue wallpaper is nice too.
I really might take this mansion. I could steal it. I really could quite easily. It's smaller than the lake. In fact I could steal part of a beach and make my soul space a beach resort…
Could I steal the eiffel tower while I'm at it? I'll bet I could. It would take a lot of mana to make the opening to my soul space that big though. Ophis would probably help if I asked her to though… yeah. I could do that. It would be a dick move but I could do it.
I pushed these thoughts out of my head as I opened a sliding door to the backyard to see two people under a gazebo eating lunch. One was a young girl with loose blond hair in a school uniform and what looks like a bedsheet as a cape. The other is a younger looking man in a dress shirt and pants. His hair was extremely long, including a curl down his face's right side. It made him look a little girlish. He immediately noticed me walking out and waved. I started walking towards them.
As I approached the table the blond man grew a little more tense. "Hello there." I called in english. I tried to sound friendly. "Sorry for just taking over your lounge for the past day. I haven't had a chance to see movies or cartoons for a while. My name is Abyss Mavros, Mavros being my last name. And you are?"
The blond man relaxed a little but not fully. "My name is Arthur Pendragon. This is my sister Le Fey Pendragon." He gestured towards Le Fey, who waved shyly. "Ophis often take over our couch due to it's apparent softness so don't worry too much over it. We have a spare just in case."
I nodded. "I'll be with her for a few months. Not too long at least. By any chance do you know when the three factions conference is? And maybe the date."
Arthur nodded. "The conference is taking place tomorrow at eleven AM. It's the nineteenth right now. Of November." I nodded acceptingly. That the time was completely different in a different dimension wasn't very surprising.
"Thank you. I can see you're busy right now so I won't take your time. If you care to talk later I'm open and Ophis won't care much."
"Of course. However, while you're living on my and my sister's property would you mind a spar?" I raised an eyebrow with him.
"With magic or blades?"
"Either."
"I wouldn't mind. How about in an hour?" Arthur smiled pleasantly.
"I would appreciate that." With that settled he turned to his unfinished cheeseburger and I walked away.
"He seems nice." Le Fey said with a smile as I walked away.
"He seems so but he's quite strong." Arthur's voice was a bit more wary and less friendly as I walked away. "Remember that you thought Cao Cao was nice as well."
"Oh. Right." Le Fey sounded a little less upbeat after that. I didn't hear any more since I walked into the manor again.
I saw that the Le Fey's have an xbox. That sounds fun to use. I doubt they'll mind if I use it so long as I don't delete anything or mess with whatever progress they've made in games. There's a box full of video games in the cupboard next to the mini-fridge too, as well as some board games.
A small foray into their stock showed - what the-?! When did they make a fallout four?! I only played the third one and new vegas. This should be good.
[|||| =+= ||||]
"Qrow… we need to talk."
"Hm?"
"Look, since… I knew about Salem and such before you told me."
"What? What do…"
"Abyss."
"Damn. then why did you act like you didn't know."
"Because Abyss is a friend of mine. He showed me magic when we left on that summer trip."
"So that's what you meant when you said he had some explaining to do."
"Yes. Look, I just…"
"Bella it's alright. I'm not that mad, though I prefer that you told me sooner. Actually, what brought this on that you can tell me now?"
"Well our marriage mostly. I wasn't being forced to not tell you or anything. Abyss just asked me and we made a sort of deal two years ago. I don't tell and he keeps doing good things for remnant like the company he made. But I broke the news to him four days ago at the graduation. He talked to Salem."
"What?!"
"I know."
"That idiot! Why would he-"
"He doesn't trust Ozpin. Actually, I don't think he even likes authority in general on a professional level. Ever since I pretty much declared to him that I preferred Ozpin's side in the supernatural over his he always had a lack of trust for me. I had to argue with him when he was hesitant to give me the transforming power he figured out. It took all of subI on my side for giving me that power for him to cave."
"Transforming power?"
"Later. Look, Abyss isn't stupid but he can be naiive and altogether too equal at times. He argued that since Salem had the emotions of a human and a soul she deserved the same treatment as a human did. That is to say, at least a chance. He's going to be working with her over the summer."
"We have to go now. Salem will-"
"Abyss is probably already there Qrow. He can fly and teleport and do so many things…"
"He can… right. Wizard… I have to tell Ozpin."
"We should finish this talk first."
"Alright…"
"I'm sorry."
"I know you are. It's written all over your face."
"I'm sorry."
" … You mentioned powers. Transforming?"
"Abyss figured out how your sister does her transformation into a Raven. He applied it to everyone in subI. I can turn into a king cobra. A really big one with black scales."
"That's so much cooler than turning into a bird. Heh. You can't fly though."
"I can turn invisible and teleport a short distance."
"Are you fucking serious?"
"…"
"Okay you're serious. Can I see?"
"No."
"What?! Why not?!"
"Because you can't see an invisible person, obviously."
"… You know what? Now I'm mad at you. I wasn't before but now I'm mad."
[|||| =+= ||||]
I twirled my halberd while Arthur drew his sword, which was imbued with a strong purity affinity. Ophis sat on the side with Le Fey looking bored. Le Fey looked excited and nervous.
"A holy sword?" I guessed, equating purity with holiness. Arthur nodded.
"Calibur, the sword in the stone. It's the strongest holy sword." I raised an eyebrow.
"Behold." I waved over my halberd. "A halberd. Made of steel and by yours truly."
Arthur looked at me curiously. "You made it?" I smiled.
"Yes. However, you seem rather strong." And he was. I had observed him and for the first time observing a strong opponent he hadn't noticed.
Arthur Pendragon
Titles:
Level – 312
HP – 1721.5
AP – [Locked - lacking divine spark]
MP - 95,600
STR - 356 (+450%)= 1958
VIT - 313 (+450%)= 1721.5
DEX - 360 (+450%)= 1980
INT - 239 (+150%)= 597.5
WIS - 218 (+150%)= 545
LUK - 84 (+0%)= 84
Semblance:
Affinities:
Sword: 749 (x4) = 3996 (Innate)
Purity: 498 (x4) = 1992 (Innate)
Metal: 325
Space: 297
Perks:
Pendragon bloodline - You are a Pendragon, the descendant of the greatest king Europe has ever seen and wielder of the divine sword excalibur. As a descendant of this prestigious bloodline you are gifted more than the average man.
-Innate sword and purity affinities
-+150% to all physical and magical stats
-x2 mana capacity
-Double all bonuses from possession of a holy sword.
-Use of a holy sword is instinctual and possibility of being accepted as the wielder of one is far higher
Chosen of Caliburn (x2) - The sword in the stone has chosen you as it's wielder. This perk is enhanced due to your lineage
-Only you may properly wield caliburn
-holy and sword affinities are doubled quadrupled
-+150% (x2) to all physical stats
Bio: Arthur Pendragon of the noble house of Pendragon was the golden child of the Pendragon family. He acquired ownership of the legendary holy sword caliburn and trained tirelessly with it to feel worthy of the sword and his family's respect.
Eventually, however, Arthur fell in love with a maid in his family's service. In order to protect her after their affair he left the family and found himself joining his close friend Vali Lucifer in the khaos brigade in search of purpose and to honor his sword by fighting enemies he feels are worthy of it.
He dearly loves his younger sister Le Fey Pendragon and prizes her and her happiness beyond even his sword. That she defied their family to follow him into exile despite her timid nature brings him pride and happiness and to repay her he would do anything for her.
For the first time in a while I had an actual bio and a decent estimation of power for an opponent. As it turns out Arthur isn't all that powerful. Sure he's strong but not amazing.
Raven's actually stronger. She has magic, a lifetime of experience, can teleport, and most importantly she has aura.
I'm sure Arthur has some form of self-defense to hits but I doubt it's anything like aura. He's also doubtlessly beyond skilled in swordsmanship, having devoted his life to family and the sword. I actually like his style. Family first, strength second. It's strikingly similar to my views.
That message of lacking a divine spark and being thus unable to use aura is interesting but not earth-shattering. It just means that remnant's population being descended from gods brought a few advantages. It's useful knowledge but doesn't change much.
"Actually," I said, "Do you mind if I let loose a little?" Arthur blinked but nodded.
"I don't mind at all. So long as you don't truly harm me."
I reached into my soul space and found a rather important item.
The inequalizers. My true weapons.
I don't actually need to use it to combat Arthur but I want to respect Arthur by using more effort and show off a little for Ophis. I don't really want to appear as weak as Arthur to her as a first impression, even if Arthur's pretty strong for this world.
I glanced at the great weapon in my hands with a little spark in my eyes. It was my baby, really. Ruby's too but not in a weird way.
They're gloves. Just two gloves. They're very nice gloves but just gloves. They're made with a black material, dense spider matriarch silk specifically, and fit around my hands perfectly, gripping snugly. Across the fabric is very small stenciling. Runes.
You see, the inequalizers aren't exactly gloves that worked because of their own engineering. Their power comes entirely because of my soul space. Within my soul space is two giant runic matrixes almost half a square mile long each built on two long metal slabs I made at Ruby's begging and with a lot of stenciling from me and all my parallels.
On the runic matrixes are several abilities, each linked to a glove, all of which were linked to the glove's own runic matrixes. Ruby made the right glove to hold any weapon and apply the abilities of the runic circle to it through the glove. Of course, they also had their own custom weapon for my use even if it wasn't something I often used nor was it much better than my normal shortsword/halberd.
Just because Ruby was a little bit of a perfectionist she made a large gun that somehow qualified as an assault rifle and made it to shoot in my soul space from a large belt magazine feeding it monstrous 7.62x51 mm caliber rounds with high quality dust cartridges all infused by my parallels, which would cause intense recoil if it wasn't mounted, and run through my railgun runes in a longer-than-practical barrel before exiting my soul space through a rune that acted as a portal linked to my right or left glove.
It was stupidly strong. I basically had Ruby's railgun at a slightly lower caliber but on extreme rapid fire. Seriously the assault rifle had runes making it fire at more than three and a half thousand bullets per minute. It looked like a laser made of metal.
It makes me scared, really. Have you ever mowed a tree in half with a laser made of metal and found that you accidentally put bullet holes clean through half the forest? Ruby was just… If i hadn't put the specification that I had to use an assault rifle a heavy machine gun might just destroy everything no questions asked.
The left glove was made by me and is designed to amplify my spellcasting to insane degrees. It was also capable of storing a few of my favorite spells overpowered with all of my mana and overpowered several times over with the amplifiers. Considering a spell powered with all my mana destroyed forests easily… well my glove didn't scare me as much as Ruby's but on a destructive scale mine was WAY worse than hers. It's functions are just less varied and sound more simple but they're nonetheless extremely strong.
I lovingly casted an observe at my babies - I mean-! Uh, my works of art, as I put them on, and recalled the magnificently unfair advantages they held. I call them the inequalizers for a reason.
Inequalizer (Right) - Glove; Sword/Halberd/Assault rifle
Rarity: Mythical (High)
Material composition: Matriarch Terra spiderling silk
Special traits: Portal output (x2) (keyed to Abyss Mavros' soul space), innate affinity (Weapon - 698), enhancement runes (sharpening, durability, magic edge), portal graft (melee weapon; activated)
Bio: The masterpiece of Abyss Mavros and Ruby Rose, this glove is linked to the soul space of one Abyss Mavros via runes and thus the weapons melded into the matrix are considered a facet of the glove/weapon. The runes were designed by Abyss Mavros and the melded weapons by his sister.
The weapons mentioned are a custom assault rifle with 7.62x51 mm rounds with enhancing runes and a custom built shortsword/halberd with a portal to the target to which the custom assault rifle fires, effectively making a gun on the custom melee weapon.
The glove is also fitted to passively apply sharpening and durability enchantments on any weapon that the glove holds as well as graft a portal linked to the aforementioned gun's target on the melee weapon upon a mental command and image from the wielder. The weapon's edge, when held, will be coated with the affinity of the user's strongest affinity.
The glove/weapon, in conclusion, is monstrously powerful and makes any man capable of using it even slightly proficiently into a living legend.
The ranged portal enchantment will only function in the hands of Abyss Mavros, unfortunately. Even without the most powerful function of the glove, however, it is still immensely useful and powerful to any melee wielder.
Were it not for the existence of ancient relics made by the gods and the masterpiece of remnant's greatest craftsman this glove would be the greatest ranged weapon ever made and a genius melding of modern technology and magic.
Inequalizer (left) - Glove, magical focus
Rarity: Mythical (High)
Material composition: Matriarch Terra spiderling silk
Special traits: General magical (x5 amplification), Specific magical affinity foci (Storm, void, space, heat, ice, purity, motion, light, life, (5 empty slots)) (x7.5(x5 due to foci skill)), Spell storage x7, portal exit (one way)
Bio: The masterpiece of Abyss Mavros, this glove is linked to the soul space of one Abyss Mavros via runes. Despite Abyss Mavros being the sole creator of this glove he considers his sister to be the co-creator of it due to his sister's role in creating it's twin and linking her ranged weapon's output portal to his glove.
This weapon's main focus is to amplify spells and the creator has managed to treat a viventium alloy to become a general magical amplifier along with the assistance of an extremely generous amount of runes. However, the glove is also capable of amplifying select affinities to greater degrees than the general amplification with the infusion of said affinity's distilled liquid form to a variety of slots in the runic circle based in Abyss Mavros' soul space.
The glove is also capable of storing up to seven spells of massive proportions to be released and amplified whenever the caster pleases as well as firing bullets from a custom made assault rifle transported through a one-way portal
Were it not for the existence of ancient relics made by the gods and the masterpiece of remnant's greatest craftsman this glove would be the greatest magical foci and spelltrap ever conceived.
This glove was once considered being taken away (nerfed) by a higher being but was reluctantly let go due to no violation of remnant's natural laws and the realization that Abyss Mavros would just make another glove to connect to the corresponding matrix in his soul should he lose this one. This annoyed the deity greatly.
Beautiful. The only thing they left out was the ammunition. I have five different types of bullets, using storm, motion, heat, and soon to be void as well. I have at least five million bullets of my caliber and more than two million other bullets in various other calibers just in case somebody is running empty. I've spent something like twenty million lien on dust and bullets in my life and I have enough bullets that I'll hopefully never run out. Roman seriously asked me if i was preparing for the apocalypse once.
Well… sort of. I'm just saying, you never know when remnant will stop having bullets… I'm not going to ever run out of dust though. Jacques once offered me a contract for my lien in exchange for tons of dust. He didn't know what I was using it for but he smelled a profit.
When I told him as Mystic that I have a stockpile in my inventory of millions of bullets and more dust than I should have he seemed a little baffled. Like he doesn't have an emergency bunker. Weiss told me all about it.
"Are you ready?" Arthur asked, snapping me back to reality. I glanced back at him and nodded.
"Let's begin then." I sensed a faint disturbance of mana in front of me just then and recognized a strange mix of purity and space mana.
Deciding to not deal with that was easy. I blinked ten feet to my right and looked back at where I was. Arthur was standing there slashing at the air. I fought back a snicker and shot an extremely underpowered lightning bolt at him with only my storm affinity.
The bolt streaked forward and hit Arthur's left knee. He clenched his teeth but I felt that he hadn't quite given up yet. So I fired another at his other knee.
That's when I realized that magic was a cheat and that you couldn't really dodge a lightning bolt.
"I give." Arthur ground out, muscles clenched hard.
"That was… disappointing." I muttered. "Don't you have magical protections against elemental attacks?"
"I have a resistance spell that I use. Your lighting is very powerful."
I nodded. "I have an extremely strong affinity for lightning. I didn't even use magical power to fuel those strikes. Although, they were amplified thirty five times due to my foci." I wiggled my fingers in my glove while Arthur stared at the gloves.
"Thirty five times?!" Arthur hissed. "Absurd."
"That lightning bolt was also incredibly underpowered." I remarked, making Arthur's face fall a little. "But on the other hand I rarely ever use these gloves. Using them against you was like one of the dragon emperors using juggernaut overdrive to fight a stray dog."
"That does make me feel slightly better." Arthur gave. "I admit that I am weak to the arcane. Extremely so. I typically have Le Fey to compensate for that weakness but I do not believe she would particularly challenge you."
"I would be crushed." Le Fey said from the sidelines, her face pale. Her voice was soft but we both heard it clearly enough. "In the moment he casted that… no that wasn't even a spell. That was raw creation of lightning. His reserves are enormous and he has some sort of natural inclination towards elements not to mention some sort of strange power besides magical energy in him."
Le fey smiled weakly. "Sorry, Onii-sama. He could probably crush a hundred of me. Maybe Vali or Cao Cao stand a chance? Vali-Sama's sacred gear would be really effective against him too."
"No it wouldn't." Ophis said softly, surprising all of us. "Abyss has the quiet in his mana. Vali can't absorb that."
"The quiet?" Arthur questioned, seemingly recovered.
"The dimensional gap." I explained. "I have the void of it in my soul. It's similar to anti-magic in function but it's a bit more complex than that. That element of me is very caustic to anything with inner energy, be it mana, a soul, or anything else."
Arthur paused. "You should meet Vali." he said finally.
"I'd quite like that." I agreed. "I don't much want to get into the politics of the three factions or the khaos brigade but I also want to experience all I can for the next three months. I have some places to be then unfortunately."
"A shame." Arthur agreed.
"Actually do you know Kuroka? The senjutsu user?" Arthur's eyes grew slightly curious.
"Well yes I do. I am not exactly friends with her but I am acquaintance with her."
"I'm quite interested in learning senjutsu myself." I explained. All I got from Arthur was a raised eyebrow. "It would be extremely useful to me to learn it and I know a large amount of space magic that would certainly be of use to her in exchange."
Arthur nodded. "She does like space magic." He muttered. "Alright. I'll ask her to meet with you. The khaos brigade keeps a chatroom open all the time so it shouldn't take too long. If I recall Kuroka is simply slacking about more often than not."
"She sounds like somebody I would like to meet." I said with a smile.
"She is… irritating." Arthur said, the first frown I've ever seen on him lingering at the corners of his mouth.
"Definitely somebody I'd like to meet." I smiled. "Could you also tell Vali that I'll e at the faction meeting too? I'd like to get an experience here and being around the khaos brigade… well I like to shake things up when I'm around. The khaos brigade is the best way to do that."
[|||| =NEXT LEVEL= ||||]
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If like it please drop some POWER STONES