[||||=LEVEL 47= ||||]
"You're sure you want to do an experiment that may or may not wipe your soul from existence?" I asked skeptically.
"That's what I'm here to do!" Vera said defensively. "It's not like I haven't done worse. At least this time I have some protection. Besides, I've always wanted to see the end of the world and even if you do try it alone you'll have no idea how to do the notes for it."
"True," I muttered grudgingly. Vera smirked triumphantly and continued sketching the runic matrixes I was making onto her clipboard. It was to my shame and pride that she was far better at taking scientific notes than I was. Where I had random details in a bullet list she had coherent notes in an ordered fashion.
How I had done research before meeting Vera was a mystery. When she had first seen my journals she scoffed and rewrote them entirely, taking almost an entire year. Somebody could easily publish them now if I ever wanted to show my research to the public.
"There," I said to myself as I finished the runes. Well, most of them. The runes for spatial reinforcement were solidly in place but they weren't functional since they had no mana in them. The battery of mana that would run through the matrix was kept separate and was mostly filled. I was still waiting to dump another load of mana into it. Over ten million units of mana would be stored in that matrix. It stretched more than two hundred feet in any direction.
This was why my testing areas were underground. I didn't have this much space on the surface. I was amassing quite the collection of underground bunkers with Poledina's lab, my testing grounds, and several other storehouses.
A lot of things couldn't be safely done in pocket spaces, unfortunately, leading me to make my underground bunker rather than just using pocket spaces for everything. If the runes somehow collapsed, either through exposure to void, outside influences, or just a plain accident, everyone inside would suddenly be compressed and have a large amount of air and walls smash down on them, pushing everything to the center of the room At least that's all I've been able to observe from outside.
After being completely crushed to the smallest possible amount of space observably possible the pocket dimension just sorta goes 'blurp' and isn't there anymore. They're a bit of an anomaly but I don't really care. I have bigger things to worry about than why pocket spaces are weird. Using my genius intellect, however, I can conclude that everything in the pocket spaces that collapse are not my problem.
That's why I dislike using them as testing spaces. A testing space is supposed to make performing tests safer. Being inside a pocket space is inherently unsafe. There was only one benefit to being inside a pocket space. They were self-contained and easily scuttled.
This particular test would have to be completed in a pocket dimension to my ire. Should the test go awry Vera and I would evacuate and sever the pocket dimension from the rest of Remnant's dimension.
Even if we did get sucked into the greater void I would be fine and Vera had something like an astronaut's suit that was runed to isolate her and her affinities from the outside conditions. Void specifically. I had tested it and it seemed to work but I'd have to track her down in the void between dimensions and hope the suit holds. The speakers would let her talk to me during the test.
"So you expect a massive magical black hole?" Vera asked conversationally.
"A magical black hole fed by an infinite or nigh-infinite power source," I elaborated. "The void between dimensions, specifically. I'll tear a hole through space and attempt to seal it."
"That's why we're in a pocket dimension?" she asked.
"Yes."
"And you're SURE you'll be fine?" This elicited an eye roll from me.
"I was fine being directly exposed to the void before. If worst comes to worst I can take refuge in another dimension and make my way back into Remnant, which is extremely easy. Void doesn't hurt me. Ever."
Vera looked towards me searchingly for a moment before seemingly believing me. She was such a stickler for little things like 'lab safety'. Really, do I need a lab coat when playing with acids or gunpowder? Of course not. Civilians do. I just wear the labcoat to not get my clothes messy.
My hand absently stroked the fabric and I remembered another reason I wore them in the lab. They were surprisingly warm and comfortable and had a lot of pockets.
"Ready?" Vera asked.
"One more minute," I said. My seven available parallels were all meditating the magical fatigue away but that I still needed a minute or two to regenerate my magical reserves. Normally it took twenty minutes. "You told Raven, Roman, and Cinder about the rescheduled meeting, right?"
"Yup." Vera moved a paper on her clipboard and scanned it. "Um, two pm. About an hour from now. Fifty-four minutes. Do you want Cesium there?"
"He's supposed to be with Torchwick anyways learning the ropes. He'll be there. I just need to take less than an hour and a half with them before I turn my attentions back to Beacon for combat class. It should be the only interesting class for the first day."
"I'll send him a message after we're done here." Vera scribbled a little note on her clipboard. Getting an assistant for the lab was such a relief. I'm superhuman but trying to schedule all my affairs took time. Vera solved that issue for me.
I finished meditating and turned to the runes once more. All my mana flowed into the matrix and from there to the battery. It was filled completely about halfway through.
'I've never done science before,' Pit said in fascination from my soul space.
'Be quiet now, please. Getting my concentration broken during the test would be bad to say the least.' I said back through my aura. Pit wasn't really the person to comment on everything, thank dust, but even if she didn't need to be reminded of it, it was likely a good idea to reinforce her behavior.
"We can start now," I told Vera. She smiled a little and walked to the edge of the lab where an array of instruments were sitting on a long table, right next to the door. That was supposedly the safe space for the lab. "Are the instruments working?"
Vera glanced over the measuring instruments. Poledina had made them through a combination of runes and technology. They measured everything from local affinity composition and density to the room's air pressure. We even had more tools for measurements like humidity, local static electricity, and more. Mostly, though, we were looking at affinities and how well I can control tapping into the greater void.
"Working," Vera said. She took another moment to write down all the control conditions, that is to say, the conditions before testing. Her eyes grew more focused and her attitude more serious as we got down to business. "We're now recording. Begin test number one."
Test number one was supposed to measure the strength of my void affinity using the bare affinity. From there we could determine how effective it was to create a controllable link to the greater void versus just doing the task of sucking affinity out of the air myself.
I raised my hand and moved my void affinity to the forefront of my soul. Void flooded out and filled the space around my hands. Affinity began getting sucked out of the room and I held the void until I felt no more affinity left to destroy. Then I stopped.
"Time?" I asked.
"One point nineteen seconds," Vera said. Her pen scribbled notes on the paper of hers, marking down every statistic. The equipment had recorded the data too but more than a few times we've lost the data through an accidental EMP, lightning bolt, freezing the machines to absolute zero, breaking them, or numerous other ways to destroy the equipment.
"The temperature dropped by ten degrees." Vera said interestedly. "Any theories?"
"Heat affinity." I said. Vera looked at her notes.
"Oh yeah. Heat was one of the main affinities in the air at control conditions. Air was another one but that didn't change in composition or density. Likely because air is physical and heat is an energy. Do you think that it would work with motion?"
"Did the affinities hit zero?" I asked. Vera ignored my change in topic and simply shook her head.
"Near zero. A fraction of a percentage of what they were before. High thousandths of a percentage, specifically. Interestingly enough, the ones with the lowest scores were the ones you have a high affinity for. Air, water, and electricity affinity levels are rock bottom while the others are somewhat higher."
"Hm." I took out a rock from my pocket and glanced at Vera. She nodded at me, already thinking about what I was thinking, and I tossed the rock in the air. At its apex of flight, I pushed all of my void affinity and an atrocious amount of mana into it.
The stone began to fall but it did so very slowly. Like it was moving through molasses. I saw spiderwebs of frost accumulate on the stone very slowly. While I had a moment I took the time to measure what the equipment couldn't.
Sensing the space around the rock showed that it hardly had a presence in space. Relying solely on my space affinity or mage sight to see the rock I could easily look past it. A flake of a pebble had more of a stone affinity than the actual stone did and filled up the space it occupied with its affinity far more.
Space also acted oddly around the stone. Something about it seemed familiar though. I searched my memories and found that I had sensed similar spatial distortions with Poledina's experiments with time affinity. So time was slowed in the void's area of effect most likely.
Heat showed that yes, the void was taking away all heat mana and leaving it with nearly nothing. I personally couldn't sense any heat affinity at all but I trust Poledina's machines. They had a precision I didn't possess, even if they didn't have nearly enough range.
A few more searches with my senses showed only an odd discrepancy between light and shadow. They were perhaps the only physical elements unaffected. Shadow might take the lead on the stone for a moment as light disappeared as soon as it's affinity was negated but as soon as there was more shadow the void would take the affinity for that, letting light flow back in. It was somewhere between an equal split of light and shadow on the stone but the light and shadow moved areas too quickly for physical eyes to catch, giving the stone the illusion of being shrouded in light as it should be.
It took over fifteen seconds for the stone to hit the floor. Vera had finished recording all the data on the slowly falling rock before it hit the ground.
"It had a field of time in the area of effect that moved slower than it should have," I told Vera. Her eyes gleamed and she wrote a quick note. "Also, the void consumed light affinity, making shadow affinity move in. Then it consumed shadow affinity, making light move in."
"Was energy lost or gained when the shadows were eliminated?" Vera asked. "Did light come into existence or did it come in from the area outside of the void's area of effect?"
"I believe the light came into existence as soon as the shadow was erased from existence," I said. "Light and shadow are inverse elements like order and chaos. It's plausible that so long as there is existence there is either light or the lack thereof, being shadow. However, the greater void has no matter, energy, or anything for that matter."
"Maybe void isn't quite as accurate as you believe," Vera pointed out. "The void seems to be a lack of anything. An alternate word for it could be 'empty' from what I've seen. It is the lack of anything. However, the greater void, as we seem to be calling it, doesn't exist inside dimensions. From what you've told me is it plausible that it exists outside reality as well? I'd bet that if you cut yourself off from other dimensions while in the void you'd exist outside of time and we both know time exists alongside space."
"So what you're saying is that so long as we are in a pocket of reality there must be space, time, and other facets of reality," I summarized.
"Pretty much," Vera agreed. "But also, how would you touch the affinity of reality with void?"
"You would need either a higher state of being or an affinity that opens you to the fabric of reality," I told her. "Since I'm not getting rid of every scrap of affinity in an area reality still exists in that area. I'm certain that it would be easier to travel to the void from an area with a weakened sense of reality, or just a less present sense of affinities at any rate. It's also likely that so long as reality exists in its entirety other parts of reality that aren't weakened reinforce the weakened areas. Like how heat will fill in areas where there is less heat from areas with more heat. It's entropy but on the level of existence."
"Then would making a gateway to the greater void be poking a hole in reality?" Vera asked.
"That depends if reality is the same as dimensions," I said. A frown crossed my face. "I'm more concerned with whether the hole I make in this dimension will attempt to expand from the hole I create. Will the hole in dimensions get larger or will it be static, letting only some void through, and if so would that flow of void be constant or variable based on some unknown factors, or will it snuff itself out like the normal magical black holes I make with void and mana? Normally there's a static supply of void that amplifies itself with mana to extinguish as much affinity as possible but the amount of void available as well as the amount of mana in the air limits the void."
"…" Vera seems to have lost her train of thought. Contemplating existence does that. "I have no damn idea, Abyss. Let's just poke reality and see what happens."
I rolled my eyes again. She was doing so well contemplating higher energies and everything. "Equipment check?"
"It's all good."
"You wrote down the control conditions?"
"Yup! The local affinity seems to have stabilized since the first experiment."
"Starting now." I reached for the greater void. I felt its infinity and the worlds it encompassed at my fingertips. But I didn't want to bring myself to the void. I wanted to bring the void to me.
I looked back at Remnant from the void and saw myself. I focused back on my own aura and tried to use the void to enter the dimension.
It didn't come.
As soon as the greater void hit the dimension it slid right off. It was like touching a perfect sphere dunked in grease. As soon as the void ran into the dimension it slid right off the dimension.
I growled in frustration but then again I couldn't do everything first try. I tried making a wedge of void and prying away the strange shield holding the void back from the dimension but saw no progress.
That's when it hit me. I had an in on the dimension. Myself and my own presence in Remnant. Or, well, the pocket dimension in Remnant.
I created something like a teleport marker in the void. It was immediately consumed by the void. Had I a body I would have face-palmed. Dumbass, affinity can't just be released into the void. And I can't do something like the experimental teleporter I tried in initiation. That used a void enchantment and runes protecting space affinity and mana made into a teleport mark spell. The void didn't have space so that wouldn't work either.
I had to use myself as the insider in the dimension to bring forth the greater void. Ugh. Perhaps I could make a marker of sorts? But the rush of void would destroy it almost immediately, making it less than useless.
I have to use myself to bring forth the greater void. I should have considered this more. I'll be fine. Void doesn't hurt me anyways. Famous last words right there.
I sighed and decided to take the plunge. I connected to the greater void fully. It's energies soaked into me. I spread the energies into my soul and channeled the energies of the greater void.
It flooded me.
[|||| =+= ||||]
"Anything?"
"…"
"Abyss?"
"…"
"Okay then. I'll just… wait here."
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
*BEEP!* *BEEP!* BEEP!*
"Holy-! Oh. That's - that's not- oh fuck-!"
[|||| =+= ||||]
I felt like a god.
I couldn't feel my affinities other than void, of course. There was simply too much void in me. It was like using my silver eyes but so much more.
I could feel everything. The void made me so much more sensitive to the affinity around me. I felt every speck of affinity around me. Wind. Time. Space. Air. Earth. Metal. Aether. Mana. More affinities existed than the stars in the sky.
But I didn't have affinities. As far as I could tell I didn't quite have a soul either. I sort of had one but it was like a speck of dust in the vastness of the void within me.
I wasn't my soul. I was more made of sentient void now than a soul. I was me. I think. I'm Abyss. I'm a seventeenish-year-old faunus in Remnant. I used to be a human on a place called Earth. I was experimenting with the greater void, which is now filling me. Is it influencing my thoughts?
Steel will answered yes. I had distorted priorities and urges but they were subconscious. Long-term exposure was inadvisable without a high-level mental resistance skill and preferably an affinity related to mental magic. Short term exposure is acceptable for my health so long as there is at least a week and a half between doses.
But I'm not really me. I'm more than usual. I am the void as much as I am myself. Power filled my soul to the brim and more. It leaked out of me. I was a portal to the infinite void. A conduit. An avatar. Yes. I'm an avatar of the void. I'm so dense in void affinity I think I rival Ophis' claims of having an infinite amount of void. But more than that was what that power offered me.
I felt everything. I felt Remnant. I felt Salem at her table, her hands clenched so hard that the stone broke to dust. I saw Ozpin, his coffee mug shattered on the floor. I saw Beacon, the students taking an essay my parallel had long since aced. I saw the ocean floor and every grimm and magical abomination in it. I didn't know that creatures that large existed.
But more immediate was the door to the lab. It was closed. I sensed Vera on the other side, her hand on the button that would release the pocket dimension from reality. She hadn't pressed the button yet so the void must be contained in the room.
That means I have a minute here. What are my stats?
Abyss Mavros
Title: Archwizard of void; The Storm
Level – 484
HP – 16,456 (41.14/min)
AP – 0/95,220 (4761/min)
MP - 0/2,403,000 (120,150/min)
STR - 252 (+55%)= 390.6
VIT - 246 (+80%)= 442.8
DEX - 309 (+85%)= 571.65
INT - 534 (+350%)= 2,403
WIS - 529 (+350%) = 2,380.5
LUK - 153 (+0%)=
POINTS - 1700
Affinities:
Void: Infinite
Perks:
Avatar of the void - Intensity: 94,742,954 - You are connected to an infinite reservoir of void. It flows through you. You direct this power to your bidding. While acting as the avatar of this power your capacity of void affinity is infinite and limited only by the depth of your link to this power. The intensity of this condition is the degree to which you are channeling this power and the amount of affinity you can exert per second. Due to the nature of void all aura, mana, and affinities other than void are unusable.
-Grants massively increased sensory abilities
-Grants variable amount of void to use
-Progressive suppression of aura, mana, and affinities as the intensity of the condition increases.
-Perfect conscious control of void affinity
-Minor subconscious desire to use void
*Ding!* Skill created - Mantle of void
"My right to create a seat for myself at your council? I am Garrus Kakiel. The greatest void user to exist. I am an archwizard of few equals, an adept in the most devastating and rarest magical affinity currently known to be possessed by mortals, and claimed to be the strongest archwizard since the archwizard of soul, rivaled
I was the closest I think I'll ever desire to come to being a god. I was the manifestation of void. That's probably bad.
With some degree of sadness I pushed back the power. I closed the connection I had to void. It felt like I was snuffing out my soul almost. But I shouldn't maintain this connection. It's bad for my mental health, if not my physical one. Besides, I have a meeting to go to.
As the void left me bare I was tempted to bring it back. Infinite power is addictive. Suppressing my aura was fine and losing mana was no big deal but void filled me. It was like shutting the door on a part of myself. Even leaving just the tiniest sliver of a connection was a massive temptation. If I was in danger I could open that connection far quicker than reconnecting to the void.
But no. Will of steel reminded me of the subconscious interference. I didn't need that. It would be bad for me. I also wouldn't use void every time something happens. Void was poor for subjugation and using it on anybody other than the serious heavy hitters of Remnant was like bringing a nuke to a fistfight. And being the void's avatar? I was nearly a god using that.
A god with an influenced mentality and no physical defenses other than aura, sure, but a god nonetheless. I should probably try to make physical manifestations of void to use to defend myself. However inefficient it was was no matter. I had an infinite amount of void at my disposal when I was an avatar, after all.
With a critical eye I measured the batteries of mana holding space together in the small pocket dimension. It was down two point seven million mana points. And that was just from what leaked out of me in my avatar form as I affected space affinity. I wasn't even trying to destabilize space. There was still space affinity in the room before I cut myself off from the void. Perhaps a millionth of a percentage of what there normally was but still a little. I could have wiped out the rest of it if I tried I think.
But I have a more pressing matter at hand. I just had my soul flooded with void affinity not unlike when somebody ingests liquid affinity. It was the same principle of flooding the soul with affinity.
I walked over to the door of the lab and knocked three times. "Vera?" I called. "I'm lucid and alive. But we do have a problem…"
[|||| =+= ||||]
"Oh my. That's not good… Hello, Oobleck? Where is Abyss?"
"Ozpin! Ah, why are you calling me-"
"Oobleck. Please."
"Well Mister Mavros, quite a lovely student, is in class right now!"
"Is he an avatar?"
"And how should I know exactly? You know I don't understand that business except for the history of it."
"… Ask him."
"In class? Ozpin, while it is lovely to talk to you I have a class to teach and you're holding me back from them at the moment."
"This is important."
"Fine. Mister Mavros are you a projection?"
"Yes."
"He says yes."
"I heard. I simply wanted to make sure. Thank you. Would you send him to my office?"
"Mister Mavros please head to Ozpin's tower. I'll write you a pass."
"Are you sure it can't wait until after class? I'm quite enjoying the lecture."
"Do I have to let him go, Ozpin? Students that can pay attention to the lesson are so very rare."
"… No. No I suppose not. Tell him to meet me after the school day. At five. Thank you, Oobleck."
"Of course! Mister Mavros you can see him at five. Now! Where we? Ah yes! The Great war! Wellyouseethegreatwarwasactuallyavarietyofminorwarsstretchedoutov-"
[|||| =+= ||||]
After dealing with my problem with Vera I was off to the meeting with Raven and Roman. Getting near godlike power was fine and all but it had its downsides. Undoubtedly the worst was how limited it was. Void was powerful but it couldn't teleport me across the continent. It couldn't defend my body from physical attacks like a bullet. It couldn't bend space or make heat or give me shelter or alter the landscape. It couldn't do ANYTHING but attack people. It was entirely offensive at the moment. Maybe I could learn how to use void with more utility from Ophis or maybe not. At the moment, though, I had some serious downsides.
Worse than that I was weakened while using it. I had no enhancements from aura when I was using void, leaving me at less than a fifth of my normal physical levels. Sure, anyone who got that close would have their souls destroyed but bullets could kill me while I was in my avatar form. It gave me a good reason to have huntsman armor. I would just put my body in my soul space before bringing forth the void but that might not always be an option.
Using that avatar technique would make me a glass cannon. I was all offense with none of the versatility or defense I always have. I didn't have any mundane utility while using it either. What use is godlike power if you're only able to use it to destroy? Not much. Still, though, it seems as though it's a trump card to an extent.
I was far more interested in the potential for exploring other worlds. Could I acquire alternate energy sources like chakra or that spiritual stuff they use in bleach? What about higher forms of technology? Dropping out of space entirely along with my skills for energy suppression makes me nearly perfect at stealth. I'm sure I could drop into a world with space travel and nab a spaceship.
Not to mention that I would be exploring other worlds during school breaks. The first one for Beacon is the winter break, which is almost three months away. Such a pain in my ass. At least this time I can bring along others. Ruby is a certainty, of course. Perhaps we would keep it between us this first time. I already have a world in mind for team JAPR to travel to. I don't think Raven would mind too much if I left her out of the first trip out of Remnant. She seems to have her hands full with Cinder and Roman as is.
"We can't just take out an entire street!" Roman said. He was speaking loudly enough that he bordered yelling but too quietly for anyone to call him out on it.
"It's necessary!" Cinder hissed. "Without at least SOME property damage people will be suspicious. It has to look like an actual incursion of grimm, which would be easiest if you actually had an incursion of grimm!"
"The worse it gets the harder it will be to reign in," Roman shot back. "Letting the grimm take three whole city blocks leaves three whole city blocks to contain, which stretches my men. One is easy and makes no impression. Two is better. Three? There would be casualties."
"So?" Cinder asked.
"So people don't like casualties!" Roman growled. I saw Cesium nod agreeably by the door. He was observing the meeting and acting as a sort of bodyguard with Neo. "A grimm incursion stopped is better than one suppressed. 'Vale criminal overlord holds back a grimm incursion' sounds a damn sight worse than 'Vale criminal overlord stops city-wide disaster'. I practically own the news stations but the huntsmen are going to try to spin whatever I do to the worst possible light however they can. Hell, they've got their own social media accounts that have their own bit of sway. Hacking them is just about impossible, by the way."
"Have Mahogany issue a public statement of thanks for saving company property." I interrupted. Both of them stopped and looked contemplative. "For example, 'We at Nature's Bounty would like to publicly thank Roman Torchwick for saving the lives of seven of our employees out on a business deal. Unfortunately, due to the branding him as a criminal we are unable to properly thank him.' Or something like that. Less explicit. I'm sure you can think something up."
"There would be casualties," Roman pointed out, less hostilely than before.
"Didn't you hear, Roman?" I asked innocently. "There were employees of Nature's Bounty there. They helped briefly hold back the grimm in heroic fashion until the so-called gangsters came by and did Vale's work for them."
"Ah," Roman said with a grin. "And of course Nature's Bounty would be a little pissed over having their employees in danger. More questioning of Vale's huntsman forces would be nothing but good."
"And we can't help but abide the casualties to Vale's populace. A tragedy due to gross oversight by the government," Cinder said sweetly. "The claims of fake bodies littering the wreckage are falsified conspiracies."
"I can do the bodies," I said casually. Life magic would make it trivial with a bit of DNA. "Do people often try to be smuggled discreetly somewhere, Roman? Start new lives? I can make identical bodies to theirs with a sample."
"I'll offer reduced prices on human smuggling services," he said agreeably. "Along with a little threatening they'll keep their mouths shut and we get the perfect cover to make a few bodies appear."
"Perfect," I said approvingly.
"Now for the White Fang problem," Cinder said reluctantly. Roman groaned.
"Those animals are-"
"Roman," I said, my voice ice-cold. The temperature in the room dropped nearly ten degrees as I stared at him. Roman nearly clenched his fingers but I held him with my motion affinity. I let five seconds pass before letting the conditions in the room return to normal.
"R-right," Roman said a bit more meekly. Cinder smirked at him and he sent a weak glare back. Raven stared impassively from the other side of the table, not adding anything significant to the conversation. "The White Wang are incompetent." Roman glanced at me for a moment, knowing he was on thin ice, before continuing.
"They're untrained, undisciplined, and even their best, a guy that calls himself lieutenant and nothing else, is only a passable fighter. Like late signal student level. The others are just gun monkeys. As fighters they're terrible. As labor they're barely passable. I've brought in four clan members courtesy of boss-lady-" he nodded at Raven "-that make them slightly less terrible. Still, though, the White Fang doesn't much like the clan. I get a scattering of complaints. Mostly them complaining about being human and such, which wouldn't be so bad, but they refuse to take orders from the clan. They think they're just extra brutish thugs. Even the smarter ones. With me they get over it since I just pass orders down through the clan but the clan works closely with them. It's a poor situation there."
"Are the Fang poor for labour in general or is the disappointing lack of progress due to tensions?"
"A bit of both, but mostly tensions." I rolled my eyes. Perhaps it's because of racism on Roman's part? No, of course not.
"Stop being a racist to your employees," I said clearly. He grimaced and glanced away briefly. "If there's a delay then fix it. If you need to 'get rid of tensions' then bring in a faunus employee of yours. Or a clan member if any are available. Deal with your own problems. If there are tensions then fix them.
"Anything else?" I looked around the table.
"I'd like training," Cinder said plainly to me. I looked at her silently while everyone else looked at her in interest.
"Raven-" I started.
"From you," Cinder interrupted. Raven nodded at me with flat eyes. A no from both sides of the two. "I am competent in weapon skills. My mother and two of her friends taught me. I need training in dust usage. You are the best in Vale and one of the best in the world." Both of us knew that she in no way, shape, or form meant dust training. She meant magic.
It was obvious what she wanted. Training would be good. Great, even. I had observed Cinder and seen nothing I didn't already know. Her lust for power and plots to get it were equally unsurprising. However, I also knew that Salem would love an 'in' with me. A contact mutual between us. Being a personal associate of Cinder's could be nothing but good for her.
"I trained Raven and I'm already short on free time," I stated. "She's about half as good as me, which is significantly better than you." Cinder's lips turned down somewhat at the sting to her pride. "I have my school classes open besides combat classes. That's eight hours that I'm idle but I have plenty else I can do. Why would I train you when I can do something productive or nothing at all? Training students is annoying."
"I'll put in a good word in with her," she said, referencing Salem.
"I don't care," I said bluntly.
"I have much to offer," she tried again.
"Name them." I made myself look neutral. Cinder did the same, though I could feel some faint anxiousness from her aura. She hid it fantastically, though. There were no physical tells whatsoever.
"Lien, power, favors, and whatever else I have available," she said plainly.
"I have lien I could ask for, more power than I know what to do with, the favors come with my power, and 'anything else' is vague and unfounded. Strike two," I said.
Cinder paused. "I have promise. You can use that," she said, half resignedly.
"That'll do it," I said with a nod. Cinder seemed to fight between being surprised and not before giving up and nodding. "I'll come to you when I decide to. Since you have so little to offer me you'll train whenever I say so. I dictate the terms at my whims." Cinder frowned but nodded again.
I could just deny Cinder training but she was, in fact, somewhat interesting. There's no possible way she'd match me in combat. Not in the next decade. It might also make Salem a little happy with me. And finally, I get to dictate the terms absolutely. This is all I really wanted. Setting a schedule would set the wrong impression to Cinder. She really doesn't have anything I could care even slightly about that she would freely give. What I want is control over her. Keep your enemies closer is important, after all. I just substitute 'enemies' for potential enemies.
Some days I really am a manipulative bastard. Well, most days actually. The more I think about it the more I get convinced that all natural born wizards are bastards. Ozpin and I are the only pieces of evidence, sure, but there are some serious parallels between us when it comes to this sort of stuff.
"That would be all?" I looked around the table one more time. "Good then." I glanced at a clock and saw that I had seven minutes until the passing period to combat class at Beacon.I may as well switch places with my body double now.
I focused on my link to my hard light clone, which held strong despite the significant distance between us, and blinked at the same time as I dissipated my clone. I suddenly appeared in the classroom, which I identified as dust labs, without difficulty.
I blinked as I realized that I was holding a beaker of fire dust and electricity dust. Ah, right. My parallel was mixing these two variants to make the mixture of fuel we use for bullheads and airships. Everyone in class was doing it. I wasn't really paying attention to what my parallels saw.
"What's wrong, Abyss-bot?" a voice asked. I glanced towards my left to see Jaune there looking curiously at me.
"It's a little jarring to go from being in a meeting of nefarious criminals and underlings to suddenly mixing dust," I explained. Jaune's face drew into understanding as my hands worked on automatic, mixing the dust flawlessly as I talked. "I knew what my hard light avatar was doing, of course, but seeing with the avatar's version of sight and seeing with my own eyes are two entirely different experiences. It took me a moment to get my bearings."
"Oh. You're back." Jaune didn't seem really pleased or angry that I was back. More like slightly annoyed.
"I finished all my business for today," I confirmed. "I checked up on my R&D department's magical zoology and cloning project, tested an exotic magical power, which turned out to be very lucrative, and formed a meeting between myself and some of my employees."
"You mean criminals," Jaune said flatly.
"Mostly terrorists but Roman was also there," I said with a shrug. I grabbed a synthetic rag we had specifically for wiping hands free of dust and swirled the mixture of fire and lightning dust. "Have I been doing the entire dust project by myself?"
"I don't know how dust works," Jaune muttered.
"It's pretty expensive so that's understandable." I acknowledged. I stopped swirling the mixture and put a funnel over an erlenmeyer flask before slowly pouring the dust mixture into it. "That said, don't you know at least a little from maintaining your sword?"
"Only a little," he admitted. "That's more 'put dust here' than mixing variants of it."
I paused. "You don't mix the dust?" I almost glanced at Jaune but discipline demanded that I keep my attention on the moving dust. In case of an accident it's better to know it's happening, though I highly doubt I could mess this up.
"Nope. I just use the store-bought stuff."
I nearly growled at Jaune's ignorance but instead stayed quiet for a moment until the dust was entirely in the erlenmeyer flask. When everything was in the flask I put a stopper on it and set it with three other mixtures of dust that my parallel had made. Dust coolant from ice and air, what's known as suffocation dust from gravity and air, and something like makeshift motion dust that was also made from gravity and air but was mixed differently to provide a different reaction. Tricky stuff for the first day.
Beacon really didn't screw around with this stuff. I thought we wouldn't do anything the first day but they proved me wrong. I should have remembered the show, where Weiss fought a boarbatusk for dust's sake.
"Well what have you been doing while my parallel slaved away?" I asked.
"Watching you mostly," Jaune said. "I also talked a bit with Ruby and Pyrrha. We worked through some stuff."
"Maybe I should have been here," I muttered.
"This was more of a, uh, private conversation." Jaune tried to give me a sheepish smile but it came out looking too hard to be a real smile. But that didn't matter. He had smiled! At me of all people! "What in the world did Pyrrha and Ruby do to you?" I asked in disbelief. "Not that it's a bad thing but I thought you would be glaring at me and giving me the silent treatment when I got back here."
"Pyrrha's scary." Jaune scowled lightly, not looking genuinely angry. "Ruby held a blade to my throat. They yelled at me a little, saying to give you a chance to try and make up. Ruby let out some, uhm, personal stuff."
I paused for a moment. "Dianthus?" I questioned. Jaune nodded and the two of us had a silent moment between us.
"So what's happening in combat class?" I asked, mostly to break the silence.
"Sis called in backup." Jaune grinned a little. "I didn't tell you this but they're throwing you against Pyrrha because they think you'll destroy Beacon if you fight unsupervised."
I winced and said nothing. Jaune paused for a moment before sighing. "You wouldn't."
"Jaune she doesn't just have a railgun. She is the railgun."
"And you have magic."
"All I have are storms and space trickery."
"Just… Just don't destroy the arena."
"If I destroy the arena I'll make it bigger using space trickery."
"Is this the new norm for me?"
"Mass destruction is the least of your worries, really. I'd be more concerned over what Ruby is doing with the earth dust over there."
"The… but we didn't use the brown dust. Did we?"
"We didn't. Say, where's Yang?"
[|||| =+= ||||]
"I'LL MURDER YOU!"
"AAAAAAGHHH! I'M SORRY!"
"WHAT SORT OF ARROGANT BASTARD THINKS HE CAN JUST GRAB MY HAIR?!"
"I DIDN'T MEAN TO!"
"MISS PEACH WE'RE HAVING A TEAM BONDING SESSION!"
"Miss Xiao-Long please just leave. And take your team with you. Including the unconscious three."
"NO! PLEASE! SAVE ME! … Cardin? CARDIN?! WAKE UP, MAN! RUSSEL! C'MON! I CAN'T DO THIS ALONE! "
"…"
"I'll be back with these three for combat class!"
"I'll let your teachers know. We expected some… difficulties already so no worries. I'll send your missing work to your room."
[|||| =+= ||||]
"Quiet down!" Crimson called to the class. The chatter slowly died down over the course of ten seconds. She looked imperiously over all of us, stamping out the last bits of side-conversation. Off to the side Glynda looked reminiscent
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