NOVEL NEXT Sabbatical – Chapter 205: Not Quite Yet
Lita, as she was apparently called now, ran her fingers along the edge of her sword. It was a nice weapon: a double-edged blade slightly longer than her forearm, multiple runes glowing with blue light on its surface. A family heirloom, and one that had not been taken away from her for one reason or another after her house had been dissolved by the Vinmaiers.
She tightened her hand, the grip of the weapon digging into her skin before she let out a long breath. Getting angry could be reserved for later; for now, she had some idiots to take care of and remind that Adelita was not as dead as they seemed to think.
"I was merely quiet," she mumbled to herself, her ears pressed against her skull. Just like you are now, 'Lita'.
The personality the enchantment had conjured up now had to watch, just as she had during the majority of her life, as the one in charge of the body was able to do what they desired. At least until I figure out how to get rid of her.
The [Mark of Servitude], though it might have acted like a person, was in the end only an enchantment reacting in unexpected ways with one of her titles. Most of her memories from before the…procedure…were more a little fuzzy, and she could no longer recall what the name of it was.
With a small tug of one of her skills, Adelita vanished from her hideout and appeared in the shadows of a dark alley. She scrunched her nose at the smells, not liking the stench of the city. That had been one of the very few upsides to not having a body; she had not needed to deal with all the annoyances the senses of a high-level being brought with them.
Adelita's head turned from side to side as her ears picked up laughter, screams, and a myriad of conversations that she had no business hearing. None were close enough to notice her as she walked out of the alleyway. Though the sounds were a little much, the Class Lita had picked at least came with benefits that made the annoyance of her enhanced senses bearable.
She had gotten to pick one as well, but her options had been limited, starting only at level twenty. Probably what I was at before this whole thing began. Still, she now had two Classes, and levelling the lower one should be easy enough, being a [Shadow-Touched Assassin] and all.
Once she got her [Theurgist] Class up to par, she would be a force to be reckoned with. A self-healing Assassin. She would not be the first nor the last, but it suited Adelita's goals and that was all that mattered to her.
The Beastkin turned onto one of the main roads snaking its way through the Uzil Isle, seamlessly stepping into the stream of people going about their lives, uncaring for the horrors that were committed around them every day.
She would not blame the common folk, however. Most of their lack of caring stemmed from the fact that they simply did not know. It was something she sought to correct, sooner or later. But first, I have to end that man.
Despite the anger coursing through her body, Adelita found herself calm; focused. She had her goal. Nothing short of an actual God would deter it, and she knew as well as anyone that the ones that meddled had already been removed from the picture.
Her hand brushed past the mantle of a finely-dressed man, her fingers liberating a few Rikal from the open pocket. He had enough of them, and she had guards to bribe.
A smile spread across her face, her golden eyes fixed on the banner of the Vinmaier family that hung high above everyone's head. Soon, she thought as she pulled a red dart from one of the many pouches that were hidden on her person.
With a flick of her wrist, the dart shot away. A moment later it pierced through the black banner, setting it aflame in the process. Soon you shall burn, Jester, Adelita thought to herself as yells started to fill the road. Just like your stupid flag.
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Aperio mostly ignored the conversation between Caethya, Eleanor, and her friends. Instead, she set most of her focus on the magic that flowed through Earth. Unlike her hazy grasp of how many days had already gone by, she was fully aware of how much the mana had changed. It was increasing, like she had assumed it would, but it was happening far faster than she had predicted.
She absentmindedly touched the armlet that adorned her right bicep, the almost boundless mana within still offering a sense of calm. It did not compare to her Void, and even that was no longer close to the comfort that Caethya's mere presence offered, but it was something. Even knowing what I likely did to make it…
Just as any cycle eventually came back to the beginning again, what she had done in the creation of the armlet should not be that much of a surprise as she was currently considering a similar course of action. In the hope of a new universe being better than this one, should she really start a new iteration? It was likely a futile hope, if she considered the Gods she had created in this one. Perhaps another approach is needed. Not a new beginning but simply… variations on what might happen.
While the idea was currently nothing more than a fleeting thought in the expanse of her mind, it still felt a lot better than murdering all of existence to start over. I certainly don't lack the strength to carry such a plan out. Or at least, I don't feel like I'm lacking it. Her ever-growing strength had been something she had banished to the back of her mind, but the knowledge was there nonetheless.
She shook her head and moved her wings a little as she dismissed the train of thought and focused back on Earth's mana, pondering how exactly she would bring the System back to the world. It'll be chaos once people get Classes, won't it?
"Can you prove any of that?" the presumably blind man asked, his eyes focused on Aperio even though he was addressing Eleanor. "Sure, her mana feels different, but it wouldn't be the first time I have met someone versed in some esoteric form of magic."
"Why should she prove anything that is related to me?" Aperio asked, mentally poking one of the few 'knots' of mana she had found around the town. "If you doubt me, it would be better if you confront me directly. I am more than happy to erase any and all feelings of uncertainty."
The All-Mother did not mention the barrier that kept their conversation private, assuming that the three mages had already seen its presence and figured out what it did. The way the other mortals ignored them made that pretty obvious, after all.
"Do you wish for a fight, perhaps?" the All-Mother asked, stepping just close enough that the milky-eyed man had to strain his neck to actually look at her face. A small blue flame flickered to life in the palm of her hand, and the only thing preventing everything in their surroundings from bursting into flame — and being noticed by the mortals — was yet another touch of her magic. "Or does something else suffice?"
Aperio closed her hand into a fist, snuffing out the fire as a few people had started to glance their way. It had been hidden enough by her body on one side, a tree on the other, and the light bending around just right for every other angle, but that did not mean that it was impossible for people to notice.
The blind man, who had introduced himself as Damien to Caethya, took a step backwards, his back colliding with the tree only a moment later.
The All-Mother merely tilted her head at the movement. A moment ago he had been so filled with vigour and a will to fight, but now he seemed scared — Terrified, even — when all she had done was step into his personal space and play with a little fire.
"I think the mana Damien just saw is enough of a proof," Eleanor said with a slight shake of her head. "How much do you need to make a flame that hot anyway?"
"For me? Not a lot," Aperio said and shrugged. "I care little for how much mana any one thing uses; it barely takes a moment for it to be replenished, anyway, and my reserves reach deeper than I care to admit." Or want to explore.
The last time she had reached deeper into her well, she had turned into what had amounted to a cloud of nothing, and that was not an experience Aperio wished to repeat any time soon. It was better to stay corporeal.
Aperio took her eyes off Damien, looking towards Eleanor. "Can he see mana?"
The woman nodded in reply. "Mana, and what he likes to call lifeforce, though I am never quite sure what that is supposed to be."
"Mana is life," Aperio said and shifted her gaze back to the milky-eyed man. "Perhaps he is simply drunk and is seeing things twice?"
Caethya let out a laugh at her words and placed her hand on the All-Mother's arm. "You are getting better at this," she said after a moment, smiling at her love. "A few more decades and you will be a proper comedian."
"I did make it possible, it is only natural that I will excel at it." At some point at least.
Caethya gave another giggle at the remark while Adam pinched the bridge of his nose. The other Humans looked at one another with some confusion.
"She is not lying," the amalgamation of Earth's Gods said, its eyes focusing on the All-Mother as it seemingly lost the interest it had held in the tree just a moment ago. "Her mana is the same that brought life to this world. Now, she has come to finish her work."
Aperio tilted her head as she looked at the God, the deity itself very much interested in the tree again as it stretched out a hand and brushed it over the bark. It giggled at the feeling and stepped closer, wrapping its arms around the tree and letting out a content sigh.
Did I do something wrong when I gave it a body? Aperio didn't feel like she did, but it was certainly possible. Though she was many things, infallible was not one of them. Not yet, at least. It was only ever a question of how much she allowed herself to see. If she wished to, Aperio had little doubt that she could view all of her creation at once in meticulous detail and use that knowledge to figure out what will happen. Just another thing that should not be done.
"Who is that, anyway?" the other woman — Karla, if Aperio recalled correctly — asked. "Kinda feels like there is more than one person in the same spot."
"Because that is exactly what it is," Aperio replied, letting more of her mind drift over to the examination of the various lines of mana flowing through the planet.
While she was not quite sure who made it that way — and Aperio was certain someone had designed it — she had no doubt that they had spent a good while figuring out where mana needed to go on the planet. Letting her aura spread farther also revealed that some of the knots where the lines of mana crossed held ruins of what she assumed to be towers. Mages love their towers.
"Pardon?" the woman said. "How would that even work?"
"By combining all the deities you and your fellow mortals thought up into one body," Aperio replied as she mentally squinted at a skyscraper that had been built on one of the stronger knots. Looks almost like the council building here.
"Ah yes, that makes perfect sense!" Karla exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air before turning to mutter to herself something about ancient idiots.
The All-Mother shook her head in irritation, her wings flaring ever-so-slightly. Her statement had been the truth, and unlike the police officers, these people know that magic existed. "Do you want me to prove that it is what I say it is? I have no issue bringing us back to its Domain."
"Do you need the ritual again?" Eleanor asked, the excitement obvious in her voice.
"She doesn't," Caethya replied, earning her a raised eyebrow from the All-Mother. "Technically, she did not need it the first time around either, but it made finding it easier and Aperio does like to observe the magic of others." The Demigoddess smiled. "Or the world, for that matter. I am sure she is currently scrutinizing this part of the world for things she might not have seen before."
"I would like to see," the last of the mortals said. He had not said much over the course of the previous discussion the group had had with Caethya and Adam, only contributing his name — Michael. "If it is truly not too much trouble."
"It is not," Aperio replied, a thought reaching out to subtly shift one of the knots of mana to see what would happen. "We should go somewhere a little more private, however. I do not think our sudden disappearance from the park would go over well."
"We can use my house," Micheal said and gestured towards a building on the far side of the park. Aperio tilted her head at the gesture as she thought it highly unlikely that anyone but Caethya and herself would be able to see that far.
"The older one made from brick?" the All-Mother asked, her aura effortlessly moving past the crude runes etched into the stones. No reaction at all… Sure, the enchantments on Venerenier no longer had such an explosive reaction to her presence, but they still reacted. This one simply pretended the wave of mana that had just swept past did not exist. "You might wish to look at your wards, they seem to be out of order."
The man's eyes widened a little at her words before he gave a nod. "I will make sure to check them once we arrive. May I ask for your help, then?"
"Sure," Aperio replied with a shrug and began to move towards the house, a wing moving slightly before she grit her teeth and folded it behind her back again. These people really need to get some wings of their own.
The All-Mother slung her arm around Caethya's instead, the motion nowhere close to wrapping her love in her wing. "I do enjoy looking at new magic."
