For thirty days, Dana remained within the world of the Aquilo March, only returning briefly to assure Tsubaki that she was still safe. During that time, she devoted herself to learning the ins and outs of dimensium. She found it to be an utterly fascinating material, one she deeply regretted not having had the pleasure of studying previously.
She absorbed the information like a sponge, all the while sharing the steps to achieve the Perfect Self. Due to the requirements of needing to slowly merge the various energies within the body, the golems of the March found themselves progressing more slowly in their own studies than Dana did.
Regardless, at the end of the thirty days, she finally returned home. Her mood was brighter than ever. She felt as if she had made a breakthrough in her understanding of card magic, and was ready to take things to the next level.
Her first stop was Deckan, where she discreetly extracted a few kilograms of the mystical metal in a self-made pit that stretched deep beneath the ground. Only then did she return to Earth with the metal in tow.
She knew exactly what she was doing now, and made her way first to the citadel’s forge. Naturally, Tsubaki did not miss her arrival, keeping an eye on the joyful little elf. It had been a while since Dana seemed this excited about something, and Tsubaki was curious to see what was going on.
“Okay… let’s see, got the refining part done.” Dana muttered, looking to the boiling pot of silvery metal before her. As part of the special process to create the ‘pulse’ mechanism she wanted, she had to ensure that the dimensium did not cool too quickly.
She was speaking to herself, as if reciting a recipe from memory. “Now we need a thirty percent gallium, ten percent mercury, and five percent indium.” She walked over to the wall, opening up different drawers containing the required metals.
Once she found what she needed, she went through the process of creating a softer dimensium alloy. By its nature, dimensium had a rather high melting point, similar to that of copper. However, it had the characteristic of being highly susceptible to change when mixed with other metals. As such, mixing it with metals that had a low melting point would show a greater effect than normal.
By the time she was done, the silver metal was no longer boiling, and had in fact somewhat solidified. Carefully, she tested its temperature before transferring its contents to another container. The new alloy was a paste, easily shifted into a large jar before Dana carried it out of the room.
“Oh, hey Tsuba!” She greeted brightly, seeing the kitsune standing outside the forge. “Done with the cleaning for today?”
Tsubaki, however, shook her head. “I’m having an avatar take care of that. More importantly, that thing in your hands… is that related to the project I assigned you?”
Dana naturally knew that Tsubaki was referring to creating an improved storage space for the Keeper, and nodded her head. “That’s right! This dimensium paste is the main ingredient to create a pulse corridor! Wanna see?”
Rather than saying anything, Tsubaki nodded her head and signalled for Dana to lead the way. As such, the smaller elf ran with a carefree attitude. “Let’s see… it’d probably be bad to have the corridor link to the citadel directly, right? Oh! How about one of those caves we messed up when practicing for the wardstones? If we clear it out a bit, it’d make a great storage!”
Tsubaki’s eye twitched slightly when she was reminded of their repeated failures, but gave a small nod of her head. In truth, she was curious to see what this would look like as well. The trade between the elves and golems had not yet officially begun, as they were still ironing out the details. As such, she had yet to see this ‘pulse’ effect herself.
It only took a moment for Tsubaki to recall the location of a suitable area, ripping open a portal in front of them. “Thanks, sis!” Dana smiled before stepping through. On the other side of the portal was a pitch-black cave with collapsed rocks piled in front of them.
With a thought, Dana controlled the natural energy of the surrounding area to shift the rocks. Those that had collapsed from above rose to merge with the ceiling while she adjusted the dimensions of the room inside. Soon, the path ahead was clear, leading to a room roughly thirty meters cubed.
“We can decorate it once we set the corridor.” Dana nodded excitedly to herself, before controlling the natural energy once again. This time, she was creating a smooth wall of stone to seal the room.
She didn’t bring anything like hinges or handles with her, so the door had to be crudely made. A simple, large slab that rested on a wide groove. It could be opened simply by pushing it and sliding it to the side. Not quite ‘secure’, but it was more than enough for what she needed.
Next, Dana set the jar of paste down, and scooped some of it out with her hands. Moving to the door, she carefully began applying the paste just outside the frame of the door itself. Her face was a mask of concentration, ensuring that the paste was applied evenly and without any gaps.
It took less than a tenth of the paste that she had prepared in order to surround the door with a thin layer, to which she nodded her head happily. After wiping the remaining paste off of her hands, she rubbed her hands together in excitement. “Now, we just need to apply the proper mix of mana and spiritual energy, and…”
She pushed her hands forward after she spoke, a silvery-blue streak of light somewhat illuminating the dark cave. This light struck the paste which Dana had applied, and caused the paste itself to light up with the same color. Afterwards, the paste seemed to thrum, the light pulsating within it.
“And this is why it’s called a dimensium pulse corridor.” Dana said proudly as she watched the paste pulse powerfully, the light shattering as it collapsed inwards. The cave was plunged into darkness again, though thankfully neither of them truly needed light to see.
Tsubaki’s eyes widened briefly as she saw the wall. The paste had vanished, but… so had the door. What stood in its place was simply a smooth wall without any blemishes. And falling to the ground was a small card which Dana rushed over to grab. “And there it is! Just activate this bad boy on any surface large enough, and it will place the door on that surface.”
Tsubaki blinked, before nodding her head. “I see. That is quite impressive.” Her eyes naturally drifted to the remaining paste, already thinking of uses for it.
Within the deepest levels of the church, pitiful screams could be heard echoing out. Bella had finally made her decision to take the next step in her path to divinity. She studied what was needed, familiarizing herself with the process as the God of Community had published it. She knew what was needed of her, and that this would be the most harrowing step. If she succeeded, she would be but a simple thought away from becoming a new goddess.
Her body lay within the prepared room, a mangled mess of her normal self. Both of her arms had already been shattered, transforming into specks of light before being pulled back to mix with her divine energy. Every inch felt like it would break her, but she held firm.
No matter how much she cried, how much she screamed, she didn’t stop. Deep within her mind, she felt that stopping would mean that her faith was insufficient. Bella was not just doing this for herself, but also for her goddess. A goddess that she held so dear to her heart that the very thought of her helped push her forward.
It was her faith in Bihena that had helped her through the darkest times of her life. She had been an orphan, abandoned in the streets by parents that didn’t love her. Even before she knew the cruelty of the world, she was left to wander on her own, not even knowing her family name.
In the back of her mind, she recalled her first meeting with the High Priestess, who was at the time just a young woman herself. Catarina had taken her in and brought her to the church, told her of the Goddess’s majesty. At first, Bella didn’t believe those beautiful words. If such a goddess was truly watching over them and cared for them, why was she allowed to suffer as a child?
Even when she voiced those complaints, the priestess did not get mad and scold her. She simply offered her a caring smile, and told her that she would know for herself one day.
Despite entering the church, life was not all well for Bella. She was poor, and an attractive girl just coming into adulthood often drew the wrong type of attention. One day, she found herself fleeing a group of individuals who sought to abduct her, tears in her eyes.
She knew what they wanted, what fate would become of her if they got their hands on her. But at the same time, she was not strong enough to fight them. This was an experienced group, their levels all high enough to survive in the darker side of society. It was all she could do to run, her ki pushed to its limits as she fled for the ocean.
Bella had already set her resolve at that point. The ocean wasn’t simply her means of escaping this group. Rather, it was her means of escaping… everything. She would rather go out beneath the waves than allow herself to be taken in by traffickers.
And so, when she reached the edge of the water, she jumped. With everything she had, she dove into the ocean, knowing that her pursuers were only moments behind her. She felt her lungs starting to burn, her vision growing dark.
But then, just as that darkness was about to overtake her, she heard a faint sigh within the watery abyss where no such sound should reach. Suddenly, the water in her lungs vanished, and she was surrounded by a bubble of fresh air that rose above the ground.
Her tears finally began to fall as she realized that she had been caught. Yet, the figure she saw when she hit the surface was not that of the men chasing her. Instead, there was a beautiful woman with blonde hair standing atop the surface of the water. Her body was clad in golden armor with silver and blue highlights, and she held a golden trident in one hand.
How could Bella not know who this figure was? Her mind had all but collapsed at that moment, feeling as if the goddess she heard so much about was preventing her from escaping a fate worse than death. Then, she saw her pursuers.
As expected, they had jumped into the water after her in a bid to capture her. However, the goddess had not been so kind to them. These kidnappers and thieves were floating limply, the water around them stained red. Each one of them had a matching wound on their back with three evenly spaced holes.
“Don’t you think it’s a little early to be giving up?” Bihena asked in a gentle tone, crouching down to one knee to put herself at eye level with Bella. “There is so much beauty in the world, little Bella.”
“B-but…“ Bella wanted to retort, she wanted to ask why people like her were made to suffer. Why… why she was saved. Why she wasn’t saved earlier. Yet, none of these words could push past her lips, as if her heart knew that those weren’t what she really wanted to say. “But why me…”
Bihena gave a warm smile, reaching out to brush Bella’s blonde hair. “Because I have faith in you, Bella. Even if you don’t have any in me. I know that you can become so much more than you are, if given the chance. And, besides… what kind of goddess would I be if I didn’t help a follower of my church even when they enter my domain.”
Bella’s eyes began to water at that, her head lowering. “A… a normal one?” She had heard so many stories about people drowning at sea, regardless of their faith. Of demons burnt by fire, or loyal lycans ravaged by storms. Wasn’t it normal for the gods to ignore the faithful in need.
“Okay, missy.” Bihena smirked, lightly flicking Bella’s forehead. “You try having a billion people praying to you at once and pick out everyone’s wishes.” Despite her ‘scolding’ words, her tone was still soft. Though, Bella did lift her hands to cover her forehead.
“Sorry…” Still, in the depths of her heart, she felt an attachment to this goddess. She saved her, said that she had faith in a little human like Bella. Those words, from such a figure, made Bella’s tears flow again.
That was when she gave herself the name Wayver. A reminder of her faith, how she had been pulled from her despair by the goddess she had previously rejected.
As the memory flashed through her mind, Bella’s eyes went gold. She bit her lip, stifling her screams. I… will not… let you down… again!
In one final burst, the rest of her body erupted into golden light, which began to rapidly swirl around the room. The pain of that final push was immeasurable, almost making her mind go blank. Yet still, she held onto her faith. It was her anchor in the storm of energy coursing through the room.
Slowly, that golden light began pouring back down to the floor, congealing between the apparently severed limbs to create a new torso. Then, a new head formed as well. Her eyes opened, a hint of golden light within her gaze before her hair returned to its previous blue.
But she wasn’t done yet. She knew that the hardest part was behind her. Her soul begged for rest, but there was still one thing left to do. With a thought, her divinity made contact with her mana. She had steeled her resolve, and allowed her faith to guide her.
Outside of the church, golden light erupted, soaring high into the sky. A new divinity had entered the world.
