As Lifre and Lena were off on their misadventures, and Tsubaki was performing perhaps the world’s most thorough background check, Dana was left to her own devices. She had finally completed her Sky Chariot project, so it was time to move on to her next big thing. Or so she would like to think.
Instead, she found herself pacing back and forth in her workshop, frustrated. She had no idea that Lena had impersonated Lifre, and was furious with herself for not realizing this. After all, if Lena could do it, that meant that there would inevitably be others that gained the power to do so as well, assuming that they hadn’t already.
Unfortunately, Dana couldn’t think of a proper countermeasure. Lena’s disguise had been flawless, from her energy signatures, her acting, straight to her very soul. And Dana prided herself on being an expert when it came to souls.
So, how could she prevent incidents like this in the future? If it were someone with Lena level of skill, then it meant that they would be able to gain the knowledge of their counterpart. Thus, any plan she came up with could be learned by someone impersonating her. But, if it wasn’t a plan that she knew, how could it be carried out?
Sure, she could create a magical intelligence that independently created a security plan and regularly performed discrete checks, but would that help? According to what Lena said, this seemed like a natural result when one had nine focused domains. Her power could even approach the level of an Origin.
Am I going to be unable to fix that security hole until I become an Origin myself? Dana thought while chewing on her lip. Thanks to the Keeper and Tsubaki, she had long since known the method to become an Origin, and was among those who were the closest to achieving this normally insurmountable goal.
Whether or not she could properly carry out that next step, however, would depend on Chelsea’s research. Once they were able to customize worlds, she could devise a way to create the world which would be her catalyst. For now, however, she had to figure out what she could do in the meantime.
“Clara. Sienna.” She called out, her shadow expanding in two directions. Each shadow rose to become an almost identical copy of Dana. One of them had a silver streak through their hair, a series of tiny planets orbiting around her body. The other had a golden streak, a large weasel standing behind her, creating a gust of wind that surrounded the duo.
“You called, chief?” Clara asked with a grin, Dana nodding her head.
“Any updates from the two of you?” Because Dana had been focused on the Sky Chariot for so long, it had been a few months since her last update with her familiars.
“Not much to say here.” Clara shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve been keeping an eye on the void golems, but there hasn’t been anything noteworthy with them. Instead, I’ve been nurturing Sirius here. Our factory has grown to the point where I can handle all of our needs. Even managed to get it hooked up to the internet.”
“So, we can officially move our workshop?” Dana asked, to which Clara nodded.
“I’ve already made one for you.” As she said that, she held up a hand, a silver planet flying up over her palm. “I’ve converted this planet into an extremely high-end workshop, using those drones we got before as 3D printers, using our Admin access to the Digital Conversion system.”
“Right, I was meaning to ask…” Dana looked between Clara and Sienna a few times. “What happened with your familiars? They’ve gone through a rather big shift since the last time you showed them to me.”
Clara chuckled at that. “This is the result of the fifth-tier familiar research being conducted on Kione. You know how, for the fourth tier, you fuse a part of your soul with your spirit? The fifth tier has you further the fusion with ki and mana, and then absorb a part of your familiar’s spirit back into you.”
“It’s a really technical process, but it leads to a qualitative jump in familiars. For instance, with Sirius, I can freely create new planets, so long as I have the mana to do so. Also, everything built within the range of the solar system becomes a part of it, shrinking down when it does. Lastly, I unlocked a new form, one that lets me go beyond the level of a solar system, though it consumes a massive amount of mana. Using it for about ten minutes burned up all of the Mage Heart I had within Sirius, and I had to wait for it to respawn.”
“How big is this new form?” Dana asked, curiously. Clara’s grin only widened further.
“Nebula. I think the sixth stage for the celestial familiar type should let Sirius turn into a galaxy. And then, for the seventh, it should become its own universe.”
“Illogical.” Sienna spoke up coldly when she heard that, the two glancing over at her. “The highest level of magic in the fourth stage, and entry point to the fifth, involves universe creation. For familiars to need to wait until the seventh stage to create a universe is impossible.”
“No, I think I get what she means.” Dana shook her head, doing her best not to think about the fact that she was essentially arguing with herself. “According to her theory, the seventh stage doesn’t let her create a universe, but rather her familiar itself would be a universe in its natural state. The fact that she can’t maintain her nebula form means that her familiar shouldn’t have fully crossed the threshold of the fifth stage, right?”
Clara reached a hand up, scratching the back of her head. “I think so? But, I don’t think it has to do entirely with that. Even a solar system requires a lot of energy. In order to compensate, I think the final step would be me creating a lot more planets. If I make about a thousand planets, with each one having a sentient race inhabiting it to passively produce mana, I think I will be able to freely enter the nebula mode.”
“Right… Sienna, your turn.” Dana said, turning towards the more taciturn of her familiars, who nodded her head.
“Army has been replenished. Additionally, focus is now on planet-busters. Mostly divine monsters, or those that can fight them.” Sienna explained, before looking back at her weasel. “Kama has reached the fifth tier. He can now control the wind across an entire planet, similar to a high level druid, and can create vacuum blades large enough to cleave through a small moon.”
“Okay, but how does a vacuum blade work in a vacuum?” Clara couldn’t help but ask. “I mean, I get wind blades being hyper-condensed air vibrating at a high speed. But a vacuum is literally nothing. You can’t compress nothing into something.”
Sienna spoke up to explain without so much as blinking. “Natural Energy.”
Clara’s brow twitched as she received a response about as descriptive as answering ‘because it’s magic’. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to work through it herself. “Okay, so she condenses natural energy into the form of a blade. Rather than condensing the vacuum, he’s condensing space and using that as the blade. Then, why did you call it a ‘vacuum’ blade?”
“To annoy you.” Sienna spoke up with a triumphant smile, earning a small chuckle out of Dana.
“Alright, you two, settle down. Clara, if you were to populate your worlds with Mage Heart instead of sentient races, would you still be able to form your nebula?” When Dana asked this, Clara fell into thought.
“Probably, but I’d need to get the Keeper to add the respawn nodes to make it sustainable. Even if the planets are made out of Mage Heart, the energy will deplete over time if they don’t respawn.”
“Mention it to Ryone.” Dana shook her head. “She might be able to set up the nodes for you. Right now, you’re in a transition stage, and your familiar hasn’t fully ranked up yet. If you want to catch up with Sienna, you’ll need to complete the process. Honestly, your familiar is probably one of our biggest assets in the coming fight.”
Clara blinked at that, before grinning slightly. “The enemy can devour planets, so you want to weaponize planets to turn against them?”
“It would be nice. For that reason, I want you to work on creating spells with Sirius that will allow you to battle. How you do so is up to you, but I want you to make sure that Sirius is battle ready by the time the fight starts, one way or the other.”
“Sure thing.” Clara nodded, before hesitating. “What about ranking us up?” She asked, causing Dana to pause.
“I don’t know. I’ll wait on that until the Keeper purchases fifth-tier knowledge from the system. Although we know the basic process, there are clearly extra steps involved with some familiars. Additionally, if the fifth stage of a clone familiar involves me absorbing the two of you back into my body, it won’t be worth it. The two of you are already just fragments of my soul that have become independent, and you are more valuable to the world as long as you can properly act on your own.”
The two clones nodded their heads at that, fully in agreement. In a way, they were somewhat lucky with Sirius, as the method of completing the evolution was rather clear. It might not be easy to accomplish, but the goal was readily presented. As for Kama, Dana didn’t know if Sienna had to undergo any extra trials or not.
Within the Another World Research Center, a voice rang out over the intercom. “Everyone, this is the final call. Cease all ongoing projects and report to the Karmic Isolation Chamber. Failure to respond will result in immediate dismissal from the research staff, and potential karmic backlash.”
Though the call sounded grave, everyone dropped what they were doing and moved in an orderly pattern down the halls. They had been given enough notice to halt their ongoing projects, and those further away from the isolation chamber had already gone ahead.
This was a major moment for the entire research group, but also a serious risk. If anyone involved with the research was not within the isolation chamber at the moment of the test, and something went wrong, it could potentially destroy their future through the karmic backlash. This concept had been repeatedly drilled into everyone’s minds, and they even had a real world example of what could happen in the form of James.
Soon, everyone from the facility approached a white door at the end of the hallway, which opened to a black vortex. Walking through the vortex brought them to another lab, this one disconnected from all supernatural laws. Upon entering, the minds of the researchers turned foggy, their spirit and mana suddenly unreachable. They couldn’t access any of the natural traits of their Scholar classes, or any system that existed in the world.
The lab was filled with dozens of terminals, researchers already sitting and ready to record the process of the experiment. At the front stood the ‘senior staff’, composed of Chelsea, James, Treisha, and the dual entity known as both Thessa and Nora.
“Initiate the merge.” Chelsea ordered, the nearest researcher inputting a command on their terminal. It was time to see if they would be able to take the next step in their research, or if they would need to wait for several more months to try again.
