NOVEL NEXT Chapter 10: Chapter 8: Grimoire
Hello everyone, here I bring you a new chapter, which is mostly filler and some comedy. Without further ado, leave your comments.
Chapter 8: Grimoire and Cats.
A couple of days have passed since my first real interaction with Nora, and during that time, a few things have happened.
First, Nora asked me a lot of questions that day, things like: Who are you? Where do you come from? Etc. When she asked how I got my powers, I gave her a half-truth: "One day, I just woke up with magical powers." Which is true, because that's how I came to this world, although it's a technicality. But let's not think too much about that.
Next, Nora started bragging about her powers as a half-Gem, which made me chuckle a bit. Of course, she didn't like that, but she quickly dropped the topic. Later, she introduced me to her friends and acquaintances: Lars, Sadie, the cool kids trio, and some people who don't appear in the show. You know, the usual stuff.
The next day, she introduced me to the Gems. I have to say I was a bit nervous, mostly because of Garnet. However, nothing happened. Garnet was as stoic as I expected. Amethyst was mostly indifferent, and Pearl… well, the look she gave me was strange. It was that kind of look you have when you're reliving a flashback, and she directed it at me throughout our whole interaction. That was the only uncomfortable part of the experience.
They didn't question why I had powers either. Pearl said it was impossible, but a little demonstration of telekinesis was enough to shut her up. Although, I heard her muttering things like, "Humans don't have powers" and "It's going to happen again." I decided to ignore her.
Honestly, I don't understand why Pearl reacted like that to me, but I chalk it up to the fact that this universe is based on an AU.
Since I'm not in a rush to master my powers or act like those protagonists who hide their abilities (which is silly and doesn't work for many reasons), I decided to enjoy my time in the city more. Generally, I hang out with Lars, Sadie, and Nora. I play video games with them quite often, although the ones in this world aren't as good as those from my old world. They're entertaining, but nothing special. In fact, I could make better ones by copying the plots of games from my old world, but developing them myself would take away the fun of playing them, not to mention it takes time, and not everything is just code.
The time I don't spend with them is dedicated to two very important things: magical experimentation and blacksmithing. Both have yielded results, albeit slowly.
For example, one day, during a moment of random inspiration, I tried to create a grimoire and fill it with spells. I did it more as a joke for my friends than anything else. What I tried was simple: giving a name to a spell, a description, and the esoteric and scientific bases behind it. I just created something basic and not too complex, like the iconic spell "Fireball."
The problem arose when, after showing it to Nora, Lars, and Sadie, I felt the "spell" activate, taking a small part of my power to function. Although I deactivated it before anything happened, I used an illusion of a two-meter-tall rabbit coming out of my back to distract them while I fell into a whirlwind of thoughts about what the hell I had just done.
Later, when I was alone, I tested the power of the "Grimoire" using the same spell. The result wasn't spectacular but not disappointing either. The fireball had a radius of ten centimeters. What was interesting was that it consumed less energy than if I had created the same fire manually in size, shape, and temperature.
I didn't understand this at first, and the intrigue consumed me. Rethinking how I had created the spell, I felt like an idiot when I figured out how it worked. The spell uses a modified version of the magical formula I used for transmutation. Basically, the spell is an aid to achieve what you want, with only two conditions: having enough psychic power and fully understanding the spell. Nothing too complicated.
Honestly, psychic power is broken. Literally, if I wrote spells based on theory instead of just power, anyone, and I mean anyone, could become a mage. Of course, with some limitations. For example, they couldn't create their own spells or increase the power of one. They'd have to read and fully understand the spell. However, this led me down another rabbit hole: how much psychic power does the average human have? They could end up burning their soul as fuel if the spell is too "powerful."
"Damn it, now I want to know what would happen," I told myself as more theories flooded my head. For a moment, I wished I could turn off my brain to rest from all these ideas. But my mind wouldn't allow me.
New ideas kept coming, like the fact that this thing could unbalance the world. The worst part is, I did it using simple descriptions and a limited understanding.
Then, a crazy idea hit me. To test it, I rewrote the same spell, but this time, I made it much more detailed. I described the "how" and the "why" both in esoteric and scientific terms. I spent three hours on the internet looking for information on what fire is, how it forms, and its interaction with the environment and elements of the periodic table.
The result was surprising: the spell, in terms of power, remained the same since I didn't modify the "output" values. However, the energy consumption was so low that it almost reached zero.
"How broken was the wish I made?" I pondered, driving myself crazy as I imagined the possibilities. Then, I let out a maniacal laugh, like a generic villain.
Just when I was lost in my thoughts about the power of the grimoire, my phone rang, interrupting my laughter. It was Nora, very upset, saying something about "cat fingers." I didn't really understand her, but being a good friend, I went to check on her. Clearly, I wasn't just trying to avoid the fact that if I dove deeper into magic, I'd end up insane in a pursuit of power beyond mortal comprehension.
That brings us to the next situation...
"So, you're like this because you tried to shape-shift?" I asked while eating a donut, having barely eaten in two days from losing my mind over research.
"Adrián, this isn't funny," she said, trying to be serious, but the meowing fingers with cat heads ruined what little seriousness was left on her face.
"So, you don't plan on getting rid of them? Because I don't think you're having fun," I said, but the cats hissed at my words. "So, they're conscious," I murmured.
"I tried, but it only made things worse," she then explained how when she tried to get rid of them, she started turning into a mass of cats, but luckily she controlled it, though the cat fingers remained.
"I see," I said distractedly while taking a sip of soda. Without realizing it, I spilled the drink on Nora. The dark liquid soaked her before she could cover herself, and her fingers… no, the cats now in place of her fingers reacted instantly. The meows turned into sharp hisses, full of animal fury. Their tiny feline mouths opened, showing sharp fangs, and their twisted bodies began to blur, becoming less "real," as if they were just a mockery of what should be real. Though much more grotesque, they were still there, lurking with their glowing, malicious eyes.
Nora stared at the strange effect of the soda and, in a flash of understanding, ran to the sink. She plunged her hands under the cold water, soaking her arms in a desperate attempt to rid herself of the small monsters tormenting her. But the result was perverse. The cats not only resisted but began to multiply, growing and crawling up her arms, elongating like parasites devouring her body from within. I could see how the tiny feline heads grotesquely swelled, their eyes turning red and their tails writhing like hungry snakes.
She shot me a desperate look, her face a mix of horror and plea. The cats hissed louder, their meows now deformed into a disturbing chorus, as their tiny claws began to tear at the skin of her arms, trying to expand beyond her limbs.
I couldn't leave her like that.
With a single thought, I formed a sphere of water that enveloped her body, lifting her into the air with telekinesis. The water bubbled around her, distorting her figure as the cats fought to escape, scratching at the liquid barrier. I left her head above for brief moments, allowing her to breathe, while her body remained immersed in the aquatic prison. For five endless minutes, the cats thrashed, their grotesque bodies trying to find a way out. But one by one, they began to dissolve, as if the water was erasing their malevolent forms.
Finally, the last cat disappeared with a drowned screech, and Nora collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. Her torn clothes clung to her body, soaked and shredded, while the water covered the floor of the room, flooding it like a cursed swamp. Only then, in the heavy silence that followed, did Nora look at me, her lips trembling. She slowly approached and, in a barely audible voice, whispered: "Thank you."
"You're welcome," I said as we broke the embrace and I turned my gaze to her drenched, torn clothes. "She's beautiful," I thought.
"The Gems are going to kill me," she said, looking at the disaster we had made of the place.
"I apologize for that," I said in a somewhat low voice.
"Nah, you don't have to. I should be the one apologizing for dragging you into this," she said with a sigh.
An awkward silence settled from her side.