Chelsea let out a frustrated sigh as she left her stream once again. She had taken a brief break from her Origin ascension practice in order to witness the birth of the first fully customized world with the rest of the research team. Afterwards, however, she went right back to what she was doing, not wanting to lose the insights she was gaining from each attempt.
Just as she was getting ready to reset the stream after yet again destroying the planet, she noticed that there was another presence in her office. A pistol appeared in her hand, and she quickly aimed it towards the presence, only to find a calmly smiling Dana watching her.
Chelsea paused, before lowering the pistol. “Don’t startle me like that.” She said, the pistol disappearing. “Your aura feels slightly different than usual, so I didn’t recognize you at first.”
Dana nodded her head in acknowledgement. “The boss just gave me a really big blessing, and said that I should come meet with you to put it to proper use.”
Chelsea arched her brow, looking at Dana. “A blessing?” Dale hadn’t mentioned the Creator’s Blessing to Chelsea, and her advancement had halted at the fourth rank previously, so that was among the many things that she had forgotten.
“Apparently, it’s something he got from the rank promotion. He can give people customized blessings now. For me… apparently, I can create any type of geometric spell, as long as I think about what I want it to do.”
Chelsea’s eyes went wide when she heard that, realizing the potential of that blessing. “I see, and he asked you to come to me because…”
“Because, I think I can use this to create a spell for becoming an Origin, as long as I know the individual steps needed.” As soon as Dana had said that, there was a rush of movement, Chelsea gripping her hands with her eyes shining brightly.
“Perfect! This is just what I need!” She said excitedly, while Dana blinked, tilting her head. “I think that I have the process figured out, but there are just a couple of steps that I keep messing up with on the practical side of things.”
After saying that, she pulled Dana over towards her terminal, opening up one of the files. “You’ll need to review the information for world creation, and the notes that I’ve been taking. Once you’re done with that, I’ll take you into a collaborative stream to practice.”
Dana blinked, but nodded her head. She looked at the screen, threads of her energy stretching out to touch it. Then, she began scrolling through at a blinding speed, fast enough that even Chelsea wasn’t able to read any of the characters flying past.
In the end, it took five minutes for Dana to absorb the information present, and she spent another thirty seconds with her eyes closed, before looking at Chelsea. “It… really does look like you have everything organized already. So, why do you need my help?” She asked, curious.
“It’s the timing.” Chelsea admitted, shaking her head. She was surprised that Dana had managed to read through all of that so quickly, but decided not to focus on that right now. She probably had her own methods of doing so. “After I convert my body to the Origin state, I only have ten seconds, give or take, to create the internal world. Even if I establish the energy cores in advance, ten seconds is just not enough time.”
“After the conversion, there is a sense of disorientation, because the energy makeup of my body changes. By the time I can focus on the cores, they don’t have the time to merge and form a new world before my body collapses.”
Dana nodded her head when she heard that, seeming to understand. “So, it is theoretically possible to do manually, but it requires an extremely high degree of personal energy to maintain the transformation long enough, mastery over one’s own energy, and proficiency in manual world creation. If any of these three fields are lacking, then a manual ascension is impossible, correct?”
Chelsea let out a reluctant sigh, nodding her head in agreement. “That’s right. I have the energy mastery, I believe, but not enough reserves to sustain the transformation. As for world creation, I’d like to say that I am among the most proficient in the world, but that’s not saying much at this stage.”
Dana smiled at that. “In that case, let’s head in. I’ve got the spell ready for us. Though, I might need more mana in order to sustain it. Let’s see…one and a half million units of mana should be enough.”
Chelsea blinked, but nodded her head. “I can pay for the Mage Heart and a spell projector. Are you sure that you’ll be able to cast the spell in the first place? Forming the spell is one thing, but the extremely complex geometric spells should be harder to focus practically, correct?”
Dana, however, shook her head. “Part of the blessing was to give me absolute affinity with mana. If it’s anything like Tsuba said, then it shouldn’t be a problem.”
“…That blessing really is a cheat for any mage.” Chelsea muttered under her breath, setting up the stream and choosing for both herself and Dana to be the streamers.
Once inside the stream, Chelsea purchased a large device, setting it in the open space outside the facility. This device had a wide, empty platform with pillars rising at all four corners. Attached to the side of the platform was a container filled with solidified mana, and a projector faced away from the platform.
“Just project the image of the spell within the platform. Make sure that it doesn’t go above the scanning pillars, or else the top will be cut off.” Chelsea said, moving over to the controls of the device.
Dana gave a quick nod, stretching her hands out. This was her first time actually taking advantage of the blessing that had been given to her, so she wasn’t entirely sure how it would work herself. However, she focused on the spell that she had created in her mind.
With surprisingly little effort, she had projected the image of the spell with her mana, making it hover within the platform. Normally, with a spell of this complexity, it would need to be hundreds of meters in diameter in order for Dana to properly depict all of the smaller details. If that were the case, then it would have surely not fit within the platform that Chelsea had summoned.
However, Dana had managed to create the spell with a diameter of only five meters, easily within the boundaries of the platform. With the spell so densely packed, it looked almost like a solid sphere with scattered, pointed protrusions. Only when one looked extremely closely could they see the tiny lines and patterns drawn through it.
Thankfully, the device that Chelsea purchased was created with the intention of being able to copy even fifth ranked spells, which are shrunken to a microscopic scale. As the scanning pillars lit up, it took only a few minutes to completely copy the spell into its memory. From there, Chelsea had to set a target point, and walked over to that very point.
“Just checking.” Chelsea called out, making sure that she was standing in the right position. “This spell you made, does it automate the entire process, or just the world creation aspect?”
“Just the world creation portion.” Dana said with a shake of her head. “To handle the rest, I would need to give it specific variables based on each target’s divine or fallen domain. This way, I can use the same spell for both of us, if it works for you. The spell will handle forming your energy cores into the foundations of the world, as well. All you need to do is make sure that they are separated from one another.”
Chelsea nodded her head at that, smiling. “In that case, as soon as you notice my body changing into a different energy composition, immediately trigger the spell.”
With the two ready, Chelsea immediately began. She had gone through the process of creating a fallen domain for herself so many times that it was practically muscle memory at this point. And then, the merging of the two domains within her body, triggering the energy shift.
Catching the transformation, Dana hit the button to activate the spell projector, and Chelsea could feel her energy leaving her control, forming an inner world within herself far more quickly than she had ever managed to do in her practice. In less than three seconds, the world was created, and she felt herself stabilizing. It felt almost… anticlimactic how steady the process was.
The spell cut off, and Chelsea stood there, looking down at her body in confusion. She could feel the awe-inspiring power welling up inside of her, but she couldn’t release it. “I’m… an Origin now, right?” She asked, hesitantly.
“You should be, why?” Dana questioned, moving over to investigate.
“According to the plan, I should have an Origin domain related to security. However, I am trying to exert my new power to create cameras, or locks, or even barriers, but nothing is happening. The energy won’t leave my body at all.”
“That… sounds like a problem.” Dana furrowed her brow, looking closely at Chelsea. “What method did you use to set your Origin domain? There wasn’t anything about that in your notes, so I thought it was just a secret.”
“Method?” Chelsea tilted her head. “I assumed that the Origin domain would be something created automatically, based on the domains and saint energies used to create the Origin.”
“That might be the case, but it might not.” Dana pointed out. “Given the fact that you can’t exert the power of an Origin domain at the moment, it’s likely that you need to define exactly what your domain is. Try using a void script and imprinting it on your Origin body to define ‘security’.”
Chelsea gave a quick nod, focusing. Although her energy couldn’t leave her body, she could still create void scripts, as her body itself had similar properties to the void. Thus, she created a void script for the word ‘Security’, and imbued it throughout her body.
Immediately, Chelsea felt something shifting inside of her. She stretched out her hand, and a stone wall appeared in front of her. Her brows furrowed, and the wall turned into a waterfall, water splashing against the ground.
“I’m still limited… I can create natural barriers, but not advanced technology related to security, or magical barriers.” She muttered, and Dana thought about it.
“In that case… it might be an issue with your inner world. Perhaps you can only draw upon the aspects of ‘Security’ that exist within your inner world?” Dana suggested, but Chelsea shook her head.
“That shouldn’t be an issue. When you look at the Origin of Fate, she is able to exert power related to Fate even without an inner world at all.”
Dana offered a bitter smile at Chelsea’s reasoning. “Fate itself is something that exists through the void. And, I’m not sure if you’re aware, but she gained an immense power boost after absorbing the fate of a living world. As soon as she did that, she was able to do things that she had never achieved. What we’ve seen until now might only be the most primitive usage of ‘Fate’.”
Chelsea blinked at that, but nodded. “I see… do we have to restart the process, and design a world with new ‘security’ features, then?”
“Let’s try to keep this how it is for now.” Dana said, shaking her head. “If your body is able to replicate the void, then there should be ways to alter your inner world. Think of it like a void beast, how they attach to a universe in the void, and begin changing the laws of a world. You need to do the same thing, creating a void script and injecting it into your world.”
Chelsea’s eyes widened, and she nodded her head in agreement. “Right. However… If we do it like that, the barrier of the world will ultimately weaken while the changes are taking place. If it is weakened too much, the world might collapse. In the future, we should try to incorporate these changes into the design of the inner world from the start.”
“That probably has something to do with the strength of the Origin itself, you’re right.” Dana agreed, watching as Chelsea began to focus on crafting her void script.
Once Chelsea opened her eyes again, she created a barrier of translucent energy between herself and Dana. “It worked.” She announced with a bright smile. “As long as it exists somewhere within my inner world, I can make use of it if it is related to my Origin domain.”
Dana nodded her head, though had a surprisingly grim look on her face. “What’s wrong?” Chelsea asked, concerned.
“Right now, you are an incredibly vulnerable Origin. In fact, if an enemy were to invade right now, you’d be more of a liability than an asset.” She said, making Chelsea’s eyes widen.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Your inner world is still connected to the Underworld. The spiritual core that you designed functioned similarly to the others of our realms, forming a bridge to the Underworld. If someone were to take advantage of that connection, and found your inner world, they could detonate a universe-level weapon, and it would immediately kill you.”
Hearing Dana’s explanation, Chelsea realized another flaw of their current method. “In other words, we need to create a new spiritual core for Origin worlds. One that doesn’t connect to any other realm.”
