Following the success which toppled even their most hopeful dreams, Tsubaki and Dana got to work on the ‘regulator’ seal. A spell which would detect the amount of mana that another spell is attempting to draw out, and supply the required amount. Without such a precaution, the marble would produce an endless stream of mana that could swallow the world with a massive siphon.
However, once the seal was produced, things changed. This marble, which Tsubaki named the ‘Reality Gem’, contained an essentially endless supply of mana. Theoretically, it could power any spell or magic device with the amount it casually produced.
Such power couldn’t be allowed to fall into the wrong hands, as the boundless mana within could place someone at the level of a god. As such, Tsubaki made her preparations. While Dana was busy working on the ‘Seal of Regulated Flow’, Tsubaki focused on redesigning the facility which would hold the marbles in the future.
Unfortunately, while the seal only needed to be third-tier in order to work properly, Tsubaki had to construct wards that were fourth-tier in order to protect it. As such, Dana was finished with her project long before Tsubaki.
“Tsuba?” Dana called out, holding a metal rod in her hands. She knew that Tsubaki was working on a different project, and had wholeheartedly entrusted this matter to Dana. However, Dana was in fact worried. Nearly a week had passed since she started the research of this seal, so she was afraid to go into the room to test it on her own.
Given how utterly massive the increase was over the first twenty-four hours, she had the suspicion that the reality gem would now outpour enough water to crush her with the pressure. Perhaps it would even destroy the entire facility within seconds.
“I’m here, Dana.” Tsubaki, or rather, one of her avatars spoke up, appearing next to Dana. “Have you finished it?”
Dana nodded, holding the rod out towards Tsubaki. “I call it the Archmage Scepter. Do you see that indent on the top? The marble goes in there, and the regulator will activate. At the same time, a second enchantment will activate, that will cause the marble itself to magnetize to the rod. Its own mana will keep it rooted in place.”
Tsubaki nodded, seeming satisfied with the report as she took the rod. It seemed rather plain for its purpose, but it could be decorated later if need be. She thought back to the main energy attack of the Sky Citadel, and imagined if it had been empowered by this item at the time. However… she quickly shook her head to dismiss that thought, as the result would quite possibly shatter planets.
Such a concept would have seemed so foreign to her before. But now, experiencing the raw power that she could unleash as a goddess, and knowing that this marble was at least on par with that… she had to admit it was possible.
“Wait here.” She said, moving to enter the ‘forbidden room’ while carrying the rod in her hands. Unlike Dana, she had a higher chance of not only being able to survive the torrent of mana should it run wild, but bring the marble to a safe distance.
Once in the room, she carefully walked towards the center of the large spell formation. Her eyes never left that innocent-looking blue gem. As if scared that it would leap off of the floor and erupt into a flood. Few things could shake Tsubaki’s spirit, after all. But this had become one of them.
At the center of the room, she aimed the center down, not daring to pick the marble up directly. Instead, she would attach it to the scepter first, at which point the ‘bomb’ would be diffused.
The tip of the sphere just gently pressed against the surface of the marble, before the kitsune heard something akin to a spark. A small weight had been added to the item in her hand. And, as she lifted it up, she saw the marble resting atop it. But more than that, the scepter itself began to change. Markings along the body of the scepter that had been hidden from view not lit up with a golden glow.
These markings shifted, traveling upwards to form three rings just beneath the tip of the scepter. There, they sat, as if they had always been part of the item itself. Tsubaki gave a playful smile when she saw that, knowing that Dana had added it purely for cosmetic purposes, and to give a small but constant drain to the marble.
Exiting the room, Tsubaki found Dana waiting nervously outside. However, when Dana saw the three rings, her face lit up with excitement. Before she could speak, though, Tsubaki did so. “How long will it take you to craft more of these scepters?”
Naturally, Dana understood Tsubaki’s intention. They needed more than just one of these gems. In order to complete their anti-divinity wards, they needed one reality gem for every planet which supported the card system. “As long as I have enough mithral, they’re easy to make now. I’ve got the production room already built.”
Tsubaki nodded with a relieved sigh. “Gather as much as you need. Just to be sure, though… there won’t be any problems with these self-destructing if too much mana is used at once?”
Dana quickly shook her head. “There shouldn’t be anything like that, Tsuba! The regulator only has three core functions. First, detect the amount of mana being requested. Second, weaken the seal to allow that much mana to escape from the gem. Finally, strengthen the seal again once the mana has been applied.”
“Since the mana isn’t actually being channeled through the scepter, there should be no risk of a detonation. Just in case some did slip through, though… that’s why I chose mithral as the material for the scepter.”
Tsubaki nodded when she heard that, reassured that there wouldn’t be any problems. “I’m going to go create the next gem. By the time you have the next staff produced, it will be waiting in this room.”
Dana gave a heavy nod. Now that she had seen for herself that the scepters worked, her confidence had risen. “Alright, Tsuba! I won’t let you down!” As she said that, she turned to leave, even as Tsubaki vanished from her position in a flash of light.
Far away, she appeared, the scepter still in hand. Instead of immediately visiting the spell chamber to create the next marble, she had brought herself out of the planet’s atmosphere in order to first test its power. She needed to see exactly what kind of output she was looking at in terms of spell potential in order to better plan her wards.
In her mind, she mulled over what spell she wished to use to test the item’s power. In the end, she decided on something rather simple. One of the basic third-tier spells that mages learned from the system, the Sunbeam spell.
Tsubaki raised the staff above her head, picturing the spell diagram for the required spell. For her, spells of this level were no longer difficult to properly envision, even if she could not handle the spells a tier higher yet. Though, even when she had imagined the spell, she did not infuse it with any of her own mana.
Instead, she envisioned it appearing in the air before her, and waved the scepter over it. Once the scepter touched on one of the invisible lines she had imagined, blue light rapidly shot out to illuminate the entirety of the diagram.
Naturally, Tsubaki was not truly aiming the spell at anything in particular. Without knowing the power it contained, she aimed it out, into the void. Since Sunbeam could be considered as much a light-attribute spell as it was fire, she would be able to properly gauge its effectiveness through her domain.
Once the scepter had charged the spell to the point where the lines crackled with arcane might, she waved the scepter forward once again, giving the order to fire. And fire it did. But the beam that emerged was not the yellow-white light she expected. It wasn’t blue, or red… it was black.
A black beam as thick as she was tall shot out into the void. If not for the fact that it obscured the stars as it passed, she may not have seen it at all in the void of space. Her furred ears flattened to her skull as she saw that, as she knew what it meant. A flame that burned everything it touched, even light itself. Such a thing should not have been possible, yet she had witnessed it.
She ended her experiment immediately, vanishing to return to the spell chamber. Compared to what she had just seen, the process of creating a new reality gem felt… utterly mundane. With a wave of the scepter, the mana was effortlessly provided, a marble falling to the ground mere seconds later.
Like the first one, this one dripped out a drop of water only once every five seconds. This fact caused Tsubaki to glare ruefully at the marble atop her own scepter, as if chiding it for being a disobedient child. Regardless, she knew this new reality gem would end up with the same level of power as the one she wielded now, and it was merely a matter of time.
If she were more trusting of the people within the world, Tsubaki may have distributed the Archmage Scepters to powerful individuals. They would become invaluable tools in the defense of the world. But, who would trust another person with what was essentially a button that could blow up the planet if pressed the wrong way, and tell them to use it as a weapon?
No… instead, when Dana and Tsubaki decided that they were ready to release the fourth tier of magic knowledge to the world, they would leave out key facets. Certain details that would make it impossible to create the same spell that they made.
As long as they did that, there was no threat that these gems would fall into the wrong hand, once she created the proper wards. Her only concern after that was… if they could create power sources of this magnitude, so could the enemies that their world would face in the future. She had to be prepared, create defensive artifacts fueled by these scepters. Perhaps even request to remodel the Sky Citadel into a true flying fortress.
“So that’s what the lass came up with, eh?” Tubrock asked, observing the scepter in Tsubaki’s hand from within his factory. As the God of Innovation, his domain was not merely limited to technology, but extended to cover magic as well.
Whenever something ‘new’ was invented, whether technological, magical, or even simply a new technique Tubrock got a sort of mental ping. Usually, he tuned them out, actively working to stay ahead of the curve to reduce the number of ‘pings’ he received. So naturally, when Tsubaki and Dana created the innovative spell that forged an entire dimension purely as a battery, he was notified. And boy, was that the mother of all pings.
“Hard ta imagine somethin’ so small holds all that power. But… it might be just what I’m looking for.” His eyes seemed to flash, and a new room was created within his factory, once which perfectly matched the spell diagram that had created the reality gem.
His World Forge plan had been proceeding excellently so far. He had created a template for sentient golems, which would even be recognized by the system as a living race. He had crafted entire planets from scratch, turning them into massive machines. There was just one thing that these planets lacked… a core, a power source.
Tubrock needed a power source capable of fueling an entire planet. That had been all that was stopping him from moving to the final stage of the plan. Now, he had found the answer he needed. More importantly, it was such a grand source that he was already getting ideas for how to improve his planets further.
