Chronicles of the True Wizard

The first order of business was sealing the lattice ring around his soul. That didn’t take very long but was more annoying than he had expected. The souls within the ring kept trying to escape and he had to essentially herd them back in. From what he could tell, their escape attempts were motivated more from trying to play than any actual desire to leave.

Eventually, he decided to implement the next part of the process to help him and so, he carefully detached the lattice tube he had run down his arm while simultaneously pushing the ring to spin. A few hundred souls were lost as they eagerly escaped the ring and were completely obliterated but there wasn’t anything Felix could do about it. He just hoped they weren’t anyone important.

With the ring spinning, none of the souls were fast enough to escape anymore and Felix easily sealed the ring. He wasn’t entirely sure if he wanted it to be sealed forever, but it was necessary for the time being while he worked on other things.

Shifting his attention to his own soul, Felix finally fished the in-flow tube he had cobbled together free then carefully reassembled his soul, replacing the lost anima, fusing the gap and smoothing over the intent.

He had expected to feel normal again after having repaired his soul but that wasn’t the case at all. The feeling of being sick and ill remained but Felix wasn’t entirely sure why. With nowhere else to turn, Felix began diving into the Soul Structure Compendium in earnest. Instead of reading through and performing minor experiments on constructs, Felix began dissecting everything and performing in depth experiments on himself.

On the constructs, Felix had implemented the base form of a basic concept, just to see what it would do. On his own soul, he combined concepts, performed the required math based on estimations and ran mental simulations where possible. Initially, his estimates were proven wrong and his simulations faulty but as he worked, the estimations were refined in precision until they were as accurate as actual measurements through experimentation and in turn, the simulations grew increasingly accurate. Through this process, his mental model and understanding of souls improved dramatically.

The first-and most time consuming-model Felix implemented was to surround his soul within a shell, much like the Rakyt city had been surrounded by their own shield and the blood ritual. The shell was, much like the ring he had created, formed from a lattice. Instead of triangles though, Felix actually had time to carefully craft this lattice.

The finished product looked almost organic with its rounded edges and non uniform faces but in reality, it was a perfectly repeating pattern that allowed for the shell to bend and morph as needed. It consisted of layers with the core structure forming a connected lattice that held convictions based on stability and strength. On top of that, there was a film like layer that held convictions based on flexibility and elasticity. Within the structure, contained by the film, was almost a gaseous substance that would repair either of the other structures if they were damaged and held convictions Felix couldn’t really explain well.

What they did was act the opposite of how he expected a gas to work in that it resisted pressure actively instead of spreading outwards, in a sense it was based on a conviction of contrarianism and the insatiable urge to fight. If the film was poked, the gas rushed towards it and pushed back instead of simply giving way.

This shell formed a sphere when it wasn’t being compressed or pushed on and completely surrounded his core soul but never touched it. Between the two, there was now a large section of effectively open space. Felix had made the new shell as big as he could while still being contained to his own body.

In that empty space, the ring lived. It still surrounded and spun around his core soul, which still reminded him of a planet in a way.

The next step involved completely rebuilding everything he relied on to function, from the ground up.

His Soul Garden and-now that they were connected-Mind City, existed in a weird in between state of his Mind and Soul. In reality-after searching and experimenting to find it for almost 3 days-it was located largely on the inside of his second layer. It wasn’t entirely contained or localized though. Rather, all the structure that went into it was effectively spread out across multiple areas.

Every reference within the compendium to similar structures-constructed memories which acted as the basis of soul projected worlds-happened in localized structures.

Given how much else he was doing on his soul, he decided now was likely the best time to correct that mistake.

Sticking with the planet theme, Felix created a sphere of anima from a lattice shell that he filled with fluid anima. While it may have looked like a planet, in reality it was more of a water balloon that orbited his core soul. Carefully, Felix began relocating each soul living in his old mental and soul based construction into their new home.

The anima within the sphere, the fluid anima, would hold the structure as an experience while the residents themselves floated about within it. There were more complicated structures for both the shell and the fluid including many that interested him greatly but, for the time being he decided this was more than sufficient. As his needs expanded, he would revisit things and adjust from there. The current structure maximized flexibility forming essentially the perfect starting point.

From there, he reconstructed the environment, followed by the library and all the other buildings that used to exist.

With the new planet orbiting his core soul in empty space, it was effectively detached from everything. That might have been useful in the future but for now, Felix needed at the minimum, a connection to his mind. He briefly debated trying to move his brain and computer into his soul but decided against that option for the time being. He just wasn’t experienced enough with bodies or souls to figure out the intricacies of that.

Instead, there was an alternative option in the compendium that Felix liked very much.

Similarly to how his drone like constructs were connected to Mark through tiny portals, Felix could do something similar here. He had already tried using portals within his soul previously but found it was impossible to cast them from inside out or outside in. They just didn’t work for whatever reason.

The compendium detailed something completely separate from the magic Felix was used to though and it involved using anima to cast a spell. It was something that wasn’t done often both because of how sparse anima was in general and how complicated the process itself was. It also, according to the compendium, was impossible to use anima for traditional spells that converted mana into energy or mass, for obvious reasons.

Instead, anima spells excelled with certain very specific tasks and were used to create long term constructions, not spells that were cast once then disappeared. An anima spell was more like an enchantment or ritual that would last effectively forever.

The actual forms though looked a lot like mana based spells at first glance. There were a number of similarities but the actual core of the spells were completely different. It took Felix longer than he would have liked but much less than the compendium predicted to essentially tattoo the inside of his own soul with connection points. Essentially they bound two points together by forcing them to harmonize with one another. This made it so they acted as though they were one in the same.

He didn’t just stop with one connecting his mind to the library though. The concept was far too promising for him not to try them everywhere.

Starting with Mark, Felix found he actually had to modify and combine the connection points with traditional mana portals to finally create something that worked. He ended up essentially intertwining the spells and they required a constant source of mana to work but, they were far more efficient than portals would have been, if it were possible to open a portal into a soul.

He decided he had already wasted enough time at the moment so he didn’t switch over every construct but he definitely planned on it in the future.

Using connection points, Felix also connected the ring that contained the Rakyt souls and orbited his core soul to his newly created Soul Garden planet. Nothing happened yet as they were just souls but it was the first step to extracting their knowledge. Finally, he-with permission-added one to Grim’s soul directly.

Turning his attention to his computer growth farms, Felix retrieved everything he had on hand and began binding them to various Rakyt souls. He made certain one of those was Arysha but otherwise, he simply selected them at random.

Once he had run out of computers, Felix finally let his consciousness fall into his new Mind City where he met Orion and Grim.

Looking around Felix nodded in relief, “Everything looks the same. Any issues?”

“The Rakyt are panicking but, we expected that.” Grim shrugged, “Building functions seem to have been restored.”

Orion nodded, “Everything appears functional and preliminary diagnostics have not reported any major issues.”

Felix frowned, “What about minor issues? Also, how are we classifying these?”

Orion nodded once, which appeared almost like a small bow, “One minor issue. Classified using a small fraction of your own mind when you aren’t otherwise using it so the classification perfectly matches how you would have classified them yourself.”

“That’s… great actually. What’s the issue?”

Orion explained in a completely emotionless, matter of fact tone, “Currently we offload anything more than the most basic of mental processing functions to Mark for all residents.”

Felix gasped in realization, “Oh shit. There isn’t enough.”

Orion nodded once, “In most situations, it is not noticeable. Currently as all the Rakyt panic and their minds race, it is more than the current Mark can handle at once while also storing all of your memories.”

“So what’s happening then?”

“They are currently being scheduled and rotated between. Similar to organic minds, they are drawing blanks and taking extended time to mentally process their thoughts.”

Felix shrugged, “Oh. That’s not too bad then.”

“There are literally millions of them in reserve right now, waiting to be born.” Grim added grimly.

Felix sighed, “Right. I guess, we’ll figure it out as soon as possible then but there isn’t much I can do about it right now.”

Orion and Grim nodded in agreement with his assessment.

Felix nodded, “Alright then. I guess I’ll go talk with the Rakyt unless there’s anything else?”

“Actually… Some of the original residents were wondering if they could discuss something with you.”

“Of course. The Rakyt can wait and maybe it will give them time to calm down.”

Orion led Felix towards a group of residents that all sported various injuries from the Flames of Oblivion. Some of them sported physical injuries, others had noticeable ticks or tremors and deep flaws Felix could see within their actual souls.

A few of them bowed to him but most just nodded in acknowledgement.

Already some divergence. Interesting.

A woman with a slight tremor stepped forwards and pulled another individual with a charred face forwards by the hand, “W- With your permission, F- Felix… We would like to… have a ch- child.”

Felix’s brow immediately furrowed and he looked to Grim for an explanation. Grim just shrugged in response so he looked to Orion who gestured back towards the woman.

She bowed her head once he was looking at her again and continued, “Your n- new knowledge of souls and… the sp- ark of life…” She turned to her partner, “We think it m- may be possible to… create a new soul… ou-ourselves.”

Felix wasn’t sure he followed and was pretty sure that explicitly wasn’t possible without his intervention, “Why would you need my permission then? Or are you just asking out of…” Felix’s face contorted in confusion, “respect?”

She looked to her partner then back at Felix, “S- Sort of. If it works… we will likely die.”

They’re asking me permission to die.

Felix wasn’t expecting that answer at all but looking to both of them, they seemed completely resolute, “I’m gonna need an explanation of what you want to do. Before that though, why would you be willing to die for this?”

Looking back at the other remaining originals who sported their various battle scars, she sighed, “Death ha- happens. Even we c- can’t live forever. We want to make a mark, leave som- mething meaningful behind. Some of the oth- thers have taken to art or research…” She looked back at her partner, “We wanted to cr- create something new…”

So the prospect of death gave them purpose… or possibly just motivation…

The process they had come up with was incredibly simple and left Felix feeling a little guilty he had taken all of the computers they had harvested. Mostly so he could watch and partly to make it up to them, Felix manually created them a brand new computer and personally verified it for them. They were honored and in the future, if this worked and others wanted to follow in their footsteps, they would simply select a computer from the warehouse.

All they had to do in theory, was to willingly fuse a portion of their soul into the computer. As long as they included enough of their own spark of life, the new being would form and exist. Removing their spark though meant they would die. This first birth created a soul twice as strong as everyone else but Felix wasn’t too worried. Strength didn’t really matter in here and they would iron out the process in the future.

The remaining pieces of their soul that didn’t end up in the new creature simply dissipated into Felix’s soul, specifically into the fluid anima that filled the new planet.

As for the new soul they had created-completely without Felix’s aid-it looked like a baby. A few of the other originals had agreed to raise the child though, Felix had no idea if that was necessary. It looked like a baby so that influenced his thoughts quite a bit. It also noticeably looked like the combination of its parents.

Maybe I need to make death a fact of life here. If everyone just lives forever, the only thing motivating and giving them purpose is religion… and that’s a little too narcissistic even for me. Well, I guess there are other ways but on a general scale, the only other thing I can think of is conflict… Unless I could somehow imbue what essentially amounts to a minor enlightenment but, I don’t think that’s possible by nature of what it is.

Unfortunately there was no time for Felix to entertain the idea much as he instantly transported himself over to Arysha who, along with the rest of the Rakyt, were standing in the middle of the open field.

She appeared physically identical and even wore the same clothes as she had when she died.

“What… Where am I? I don’t… recognize this place I don’t… remember… much…”

Felix nodded, “What do you remember?”

“I… pain… desperation… hope and… determination? Conviction?”

Mark, can you filter then share all my memories involving her, her people and her city with her?

Mark responded instantly in Felix’s mind, Filters applied for all aspects she was previously unaware of prior to her death?

Yes. For now… I guess now that she’s in my head… Never-mind, for now that’s fine.

Understood. Transmitting now.

Arysha seemed to have almost fallen into a trance as she processed the influx of memories. Felix fully intended on sharing the memories of her people with all the Rakyt souls but he was using Arysha as a litmus test so he could determine how they would react. He didn’t want them to be hostile towards him mostly because it was inconvenient. While he would have liked to use someone else in case it radicalized her or something, no one else had agreed to this willingly so she was likely the best bet for convincing and keeping the others calm.

“We are… Rakyt. Were Rakyt.”

Felix nodded, “Yeah.”

“My daughters. Where are they?”

Felix shrugged weakly, “Considering I didn’t even know you had daughters until recently, I have no way of identifying them. As you may have noticed, only a few hundred of your people are here right now.”

She looked at him grimly, “Where are the rest?”

Considering mostly what he felt from Arysha’s soul-worry and hesitation but not an ounce of ill intent or anger-Felix decided to share a little more with her. He explained how the constructs in his Mind City worked with souls bound to small computers that communicated with Mark. He also talked about how the cities somewhat affected him and the outside world where he allowed it.

She looked relieved, “So you just need more computers and you can bring them all back?”

Felix winced, “A few hundred slipped through the cracks as I… fixed my soul… They didn’t make it.”

She nodded solemnly, “Those are better odds than I could have hoped for. I will speak with my people but I believe we would like to help with these computers. We would like to bring our people back, in a sense.”

Felix nodded with a smile of relief at her understanding, “That would be great. I’ll set up a new farm and connect it in here. You are welcome to integrate with the existing city or keep yourselves separate if you’d like.”

She turned and looked around then nodded, “Is it this… green, everywhere?”

Felix smirked a little then with a wave of his hand added in a vast desert appeared right before Arysha’s eyes. For the time being there was a stark line between the greenery and the sand but he didn’t bother fixing it for the time being.

Arysha thanked him then walked over to her people and prepared them ahead of time before Mark implanted memories into their heads.

Felix was happy and confident that Mark, Grim and Orion could manage them so he left his Soul Garden and got to work on his promise, creating a new computer growth farm.

The whole process was rather simple as Felix had been thinking through the designs passively for quite some time. He used temporary materials for the time being and would find more permanent ones once he had ironed out the kinks in the design.

What he ended up creating was nearly a construct except for the fact that it didn’t have a brain at the moment. At some point he wanted to automate it with timed harvests and automated verification but for now, the entities in his mind would handle that along with a little help from Mark. Otherwise, it was a large metal box bound with a soul that was split up on the inside with separators. Felix also bound the entire thing with a soul that he connected with soul marks to himself and Mark.

Having harvested so many demons had replenished his anima stores by quite a bit but, considering how the quality their souls after having already been bound to at least two bodies, they didn’t count for as much as he had hoped. With the minimum density Felix was comfortable with for a construct, he would have to use thousands of demon souls. For the computer farm, he needed a higher density for increased stability and so, he had to use hundreds of thousands of demon souls worth of anima.

I should find a way to farm anima faster the issue is, I have no idea how to go about that. I can’t just make an anima engine… well, I think it may be possible but it would be the equivalent of collecting one D grade soul’s worth every few days at most. Not nearly enough and definitely not worth it. Considering Akaroth being offered the souls and the whole… afterlife thing… I guess wonder if that’s how gods collect anima, at least one of the ways.

Turning his attention back to the farm he had just created, while soul marks let his soul and the souls bound to the box communicate, they couldn’t physically transfer the computers through their souls. Considering he couldn’t just open portals into souls, he would either have to manually collect every once in a while or find an alternative. For the time being he didn’t mind manually collecting but to lessen the pressure on himself, he created a storage container and attached it to the construct.

That way, he would only be forced to harvest when the storage container was full which theoretically, would take a couple dekads.

Finally, Felix created a building within his Mind City that was a representation of the farm so that the citizens of his mind could work there.

Overall, Felix had ended up missing two dekads worth of classes which was a disappointment, especially considering he had finally moved up to the first class in Group Combat. There was simply nothing he could have done about it though and so, he headed out for his first day in the top Group Combat class.

Walking into the room for his first day of the top class in Group Combat, Felix was surprised to find the class room both did not contain a portal and was completely full, even with the ongoing event. As far as he could tell, there wasn’t a single person missing from the class, judging from the numbers alone. Standing at the front of the class were Melody, Adaline, Haris the professor of Strategy and Auren the professor that had directed his Solo Combat class.

Once Felix arrived, the last one to do so despite being nearly 5 minutes early, the door closed behind him and Haris stepped forwards, “As most of you know by now, two of the members of the Elite group were killed in the world event four dekads ago now. The remaining members of the Elite group were absent from our last two classes after refusing to make a selection in the two class prior to that.” Haris sighed then looked over and nodded at Auren, “Given that we have decided it would be best if the remaining members selected the replacements themselves and that they are both once again present, they will be selecting the replacements today. I hope.”

Haris finally turned to Melody and Adaline then nodded once. Melody hopped forwards a short distance but Adaline remained where she stood, her attention completely dedicated to enchanting a small metal object Felix couldn’t see.

It seemed as though Adaline either didn’t care at all or trusted Melody completely.

Felix was fully expecting Melody to tease everyone but instead, she walked right up the aisle to the back of the class, making her intentions very clear right from the beginning. Pointing at them in turn, Felix and Peace each stood and followed her towards the front of the class. Felix saw and felt a wave of disappointment from most of the students in the class and suddenly had a pretty good idea why Melody didn’t drag out the selection.

Feeling all their disappointment sucked. Felix didn’t care that they were disappointed but the feeling itself wasn’t pleasant. With his new lattice layer shielding his soul-and the relative strength of his soul-it didn’t directly affect him the way the cores did but he still felt it almost like a bad smell.

As they walked towards the front of the class, Felix sensed the reaction of the three remaining on stage. The professors easily had enough control over themselves not to give anything away physically but Felix still felt a sense of curiosity from Haris and a sense of almost satisfaction from Auren. He assumed his feeling anything from either of them was intentional on their part. Adaline was either not nearly as in control or just didn’t bother to hide her derisive snort and the wave of contempt Felix felt.

He had expected that from her as that seemed to be her standard reaction towards him for whatever reason. She didn’t argue with Melody though and didn’t even look up from whatever she was enchanting.

Haris looked at them then nodded and opened a portal to his right using a small magic item that looked to Felix like a remote. The students in the class who weren’t chosen slowly rose and began walking towards it. Melody didn’t move towards that portal, instead she walked around Auren who opened a portal made of branches with a wave of his hand and she skipped through that one as it opened.

Felix followed behind her and stepped out onto the side of a mountain. Looking out, they were above the cloud cover and so all Felix could see, were mountains peeking through a sea of clouds in every direction. The mountains themselves looked deceptively small because of how far apart they were. Looking back behind him though, the mountain peak they were on was tall enough that it would have been inconvenient to fly around which meant it was hundreds of kilometers tall at least.

The others followed behind Felix through the portal, including Auren who closed the portal behind himself. He walked forwards a little then turned to them, “It would be wise to use this time to coordinate while I herd this thing towards you.”

Melody shrugged, “Meh.”

He shook his head then leapt into the clouds and vanished.

Felix turned to Melody, “What are we hunting?”

She shrugged, “No idea, it’ll take him 10 minutes or so to bait it towards us though.”

Peace nodded and stepped forwards, “We just have to kill it?”

Melody smiled at him, “Yup.”

Felix looked back and saw Adaline was standing apart from them and was still in the process of enchanting something. Being just a few meters from her though, he could finally tell she was inscribing a bullet. In hindsight he probably could have guessed what it was but he hadn’t overly thought about it.

Spinning on her heel, Melody leaned forwards towards Felix with her hands clasped behind her back, “So how’s the event been?”

Felix sighed, “Fine. I had a run in with Akaroth’s-” Felix immediately noticed a sense of disgust and fear shoot out of Adaline and it took him completely by surprise. Catching himself, he shook his head and continued, “worshipers who… sacrificed the main Rakyt city.”

Melody winced, “I had heard it vanished and… well, I thought that might have been what happened. When I saw your name at the top of the bounty list-after briefly considering you may have gone evil without my guiding presence-I noticed a number of demon’s names had vanished and I assumed.”

Felix nodded, “I thought it would stop the blood ritual.”

She sighed, “Too late though?”

He shrugged, “Pretty much.”

Peace shook his head and Felix saw a hint of anger on his face.

Melody sighed as well, “I guess they wanted to get ahead of the final battle.”

“You mean a war I assume?” Felix looked at her then Peace for an answer.

Melody’s shoulders drooped, “Well yeah… you know how we all knew a battle was inevitable between the Archons and Edras’ faction in the event? Turns out things are… worse than we thought.”

“How so?”

“With the whole bounty thing- even before that I guess… Anyways, so far, over 20% of the participants in the event are dead. Just last dekad I was… home and my dad summoned me for advice…”

Felix nodded for her to continue.

“My brother was there and he asked for my dad’s permission to use his unique racial skill. Since I had been in the event, he wanted to know if I thought that was necessary.”

Felix’s brow furrowed, “Talrain?”

She looked at him with a knowing smirk, “No, the other one, Fyrden.”

Felix sighed, “Okay, I’m gonna need more than that.”

Melody nodded, “Sorry, just a lot happening. Ok so first things first, you met Talrain?”

Felix nodded.

“Did he seem normal to you? Did he seem off at all?”

Felix shrugged, “He kept trying to get me to see Edras’ faction and think about joining but… he seemed as normal as any of you freaks seem to me.”

She nodded with a delighted smirk, “I guess you said you had no interest then?”

Felix nodded.

She smiled mischievously, “That’s good because if you had said yes, he has permission to kill you. He was trying to get you to say you are even slightly interested.”

Felix frowned, “If he wanted to kill me so bad, why not just lie?”

“I told you, my dad is second only to me at reading souls. He would ask directly and we would know.”

Felix sighed, “Okay, so… why does he want to kill me?”

“He’s… jealous isn’t the right word… He knows you and I hang out together and he thinks killing you is the best way to… well, hurt me.”

Felix cocked a brow but didn’t say anything.

“Back to the point, Tailrain is a shifter of personalities. Fyrden is a… shifter of builds… so to speak.”

Felix frowned, “Are you saying he can shift his entire race, class and profession? or just his… dimensions?”

“The former but, not to anything, only to real builds he has directly scanned and knows intimately.”

Felix nodded slowly, “Okay…”

Melody sighed as she spelled it out for him, “Felix, he only needs permission from my father to shift to my father’s build.”

Felix literally took a step back as he shook his head and his eyes widened, “Wait… you’re saying he can become a god?”

Melody nodded fervently as Felix was finally understanding, “Yes. He’s not as strong obviously but that’s not all… he specifically asked permission to use my father’s Domain skill.”

Felix looked at her with confusion but Peace’s dour expression was enough for him to at least somewhat grasp the severity of the situation.

Melody sighed, “A grand master tier, domain skill… that’s two standard rules broken in one single skill activation.”

“Wait, master tier skills are banned? What’s a domain skill?”

Peace nodded, “Master tier proficient skills or higher are generally banned. There are specific exceptions for specific people like… notably Khidell.”

Melody nodded, “Even utility or defensive master proficiency skills are just… too unmanageable. Mythic skills too…”

“What are domain skills?”

“You know how there are skill series like strike, avatar, manipulation, infusion, body and so on?” Melody counted on on her fingers as she listed.

Felix shook his head, “No, I didn’t.”

Peace smirked, “Fire Strike, Ice Strike same series, similar but distinct skills. Share a bunch of properties with each-other and are related in a way.”

“Got it.” Felix nodded once.

“Right so,” Melody continued, “Domain skills are a series of Mythic rarity skills. They’re often considered the ultimate skill because they combine other skills.”

Peace nodded along, “Imagine if you could have a skill that gave you access to thousands of other skills that you could freely cast anywhere within a certain range and simultaneously.”

Not very difficult to imagine considering my method of spell casting, although this sounds like me without any limits.

Felix frowned, “That would be completely ridiculous.”

Melody nodded, “Yup. Pretty much. It’s the ultimate skill because it can keep getting stronger forever. All you have to do is take on a new skill and increase your proficiency to master tier then the domain skill can consume it. Once consumed, the skills are usable anywhere within the domain while it’s active.”

“Okay but you have to master a ton of skills, that’s super time consuming, right?”

“Yeah…” Melody winced, “Remember when we were talking about how great Romar is? He’s not only mastered the same Domain skill his father has, but has managed to feed it over a thousand skills by now. Having a Domain skill at all in the C grade is nearly unheard of but on top of that, he mastered it.”

“Holy shit. Isn’t he supposed to be just a 100 epochs old or less?”

“He is.” Peace nodded knowingly as Felix finally caught on to just how impressive the feat was.

Felix shook his head a bit once again, “Okay but the cost for these skills has to be enormous, right?”

Peace shrugged, “Sure but Zeraxes also has his Domain skill in the C grade and his family has numerous skills to boost his mana pool alongside his Divine Bolt acting as a pretty big battery itself. There are a number of other domains too which is one of the reasons we’re in The Cycle of Prodigies.”

Melody nodded along, “To summarize, Master tier skills are generally banned because they tend to be too devastating. Mythic rarity skills are banned for the same reason. My dad has his Domain at Grand Master proficiency. Fyrden can’t use it at full power but still… He got permission to use a Mythic Tier, Grand Master proficiency skill.”

Felix threw his hands in the air, “So basically, this war is essentially being fought by god level skills. Great. Why is everyone breaking the rules now all of a sudden?”

Melody snickered, “They’ve deemed the cost worth it. They’ve accepted the punishment.”

How is that… remotely fair? Also, this is just a bunch of kids fighting each-other, why does anyone need to use these cheat skills.

“Look, all I’m saying is maybe you consider finishing up with the event as soon as possible.” Melody sighed dramatically, “I know you won’t with the global quest still on the table but maybe just wait until the war is over or just-”

Felix shook his head with exasperation, “Be careful? Yeah. Thanks for the info.”

He understood her concerns and logically, she was right, he shouldn’t go back into the event when there was little he could do about surviving. He was better off cutting his losses, cashing out his inventory points in the trove and focusing on his exams. He still had a ways to go until his favorite solution for the exams was even viable.

However, Felix had every intention of seeing the Imitation System quest through at the very least and it was so far outside of his nature to cut his losses. As much as he logically knew Melody was right, he felt patronized given how many times she had told him to be careful and all it did, was make him want to see the entire event through, even more.

That motivation sparked a new idea that he was surprised he hadn’t thought of before.

Completely distracted by his train of thought, Felix completely missed Melody nodding solemnly after which, they stood in silence for a few minutes. The only audible sounds were the howling of the wind and the occasional squeaking of Adaline’s quill as Peace meditated and Felix was lost within his own mind until a loud roar brought them all to attention.

Peace was on his feet before Felix’s eyes focused on his surroundings and they all stepped over and onto a large stone in the mountain face that jutted out roughly in the direction of the roar they had heard.

As they scanned the sea of clouds, Adaline loaded the bullet she had been inscribing into her black revolver then spun the cylinder on her white one. As it spun, arcane symbols glowed and separated themselves from the metal forming multicolored arcane rings that fit together to create the most complex enchantment Felix had ever seen. Standing as close to it as he was, he could immediately tell it surpassed the spatial enchantments in Inscripticae and came awfully close to the complexity of the Mana Bomb that had decimated the Rakyt city.

The enchantment on her guns was far more structured though. Where the mana bomb in the city felt more like shoving as many spells as possible into a ball and letting it go boom, hers was designed and pieced together with purpose making it vastly more impressive.

Unfortunately, Felix couldn’t examine them enough to draw any conclusions as a creature Felix could only describe as ugly, shot through the clouds, a dissonant screech of rage piercing the serenity of the cloud sea below.

[B - Epic] ??? (Lvl 2733)

Astonished his Arcane Identify had no name for the creature, he inadvertently blurted out, “What is that?”

As the cloud trail the creature pulled with it dissipated, a large body that was too lean to be a bear’s but too wide to be anything else was revealed. Its neck was long and winding and supported a head that looked like a crow’s with the beak and black feathering but stockier and with long goat horns on top of it. The head at least matched the black wings which looked like a cross between a bat’s and a crows in terms of shape and feathering respectively.

Although Felix’s mind compared the creature to a bear and other animals, as it flew towards them, he realized how silly that was. This creature was bigger than Nova at the biggest he had seen her though, not nearly as large as Tekragoraxius. Nonetheless, it was massive and flying towards them faster than Felix had seen any other beast move.

Smirking, Melody waved him off, “Auren’s probably just going easy on us because it’s the first time we’ve fought together.”

Felix made sure his cloak was prefilled with as much mana as it would take and his own mana pool was topped up using his charm which, didn’t actually work automatically anymore but he had been manually filling and drawing from ever since his evolution.

Looking towards the others so he had some idea of how they would fight, Felix saw Adaline simply waiting, her preparations already complete. Peace was deep in a meditation but Felix had learned to trust him by this point so he didn’t question his apparent apathy to their surroundings. Melody had pulled out what was clearly an instrument, a ring of some material with a dozen strings running down the middle. Though Felix had no name for it, the instrument eclipsed all other weapons he had ever seen in terms of how it felt.

Through his soul, he could feel other people and it was what made him so interested in Adaline at first. Even her weapons essentially each had an aura of their own that he could feel. Melody’s instrument was completely ridiculous. Up to this point, Felix didn’t even realize his soul senses were being encoded into his vision to the point where he figured it was all being cut off because of how insignificant it all was. The instrument though, Felix couldn’t tell if the strings actually existed in the material world or if they were literally weaved out of solid souls.

Adding to the mystic appearance, she didn’t even need to hold the instrument which let her use two hands at once on the strings.

Seeing the creature just a fraction of a second from landing on top of them, Felix, Melody and Adaline all jumped back and spread out in their respective directions. Peace however, remained on the large stone and Felix almost pulled him back himself with a spell but ultimately, Felix trusted Peace to handle himself at the very least.

Just before the creature hit the mountain, it was physically caught in midair by massive golden hands that wrestled it into the ground. Now no longer in an inattentive mediation, Peace stood on the stone with a massive projection of a golden man covered in pure black markings that dripped with gaseous shadow forming what looked like a tattered black garment.

The avatar Peace was projecting was over 30 meters tall, which was even more ridiculous considering it was missing its bottom half, and was thick like a body builder.

Any smaller though and it wouldn’t have been able to wrestle with the bear-vulture-crow-goat creature Auren had sent their way.

Transfixed on the absurd wrestling match, Felix almost missed Adaline shooting herself through a portal and behind the creature. From behind where she was unlikely to hit Peace or his avatar, she began releasing a torrent of spells that put everything Felix had ever cast himself, to shame.

The bullets from her black revolver turned into spells that Felix would have expected from massive spell cannons. Some released Lasers of Force that deleted small holes in the mountain where she missed and others created Beams of Flame that were easily a meter wide.

Multiplying her effectiveness, the bullets from her white revolver made portals that moved, split or grew the spells from her black revolver. With both guns working in tandem, she was able to completely surround the creature in spells and completely destroy one of its wings in a matter of seconds.

Most impressively, because she used revolvers, she wasn’t limited by simultaneous cast limits like most casters and neither was she limited by spell complexity in the same way Felix was. Whatever she could inscribe onto a bullet, she could cast.

As the wing was lost, the creature screeched and squirmed out of Peace’s grasp where it instantly leapt towards Felix and Melody, not daring to leap off the mountain without its wing. Felix cast a phantom step to start his movement then an instinct cast to accelerate himself further because he knew how fast the creature was but it turned out that was completely unnecessary.

Looking back, the creature had completely missed by a hundred meters or so and it seemed just as confused as Felix was when it landed and saw them so far away. As it readjusted to its actual position, Felix heard a series of three perfectly melodious tones and realized what had happened.

She altered its perception of reality? Or just… confused it? Either way… Grim, are we sure she can’t do this to me?

Pretty sure. I’ve verified most of your interactions where possible and nothing has led me to believe she’s done anything like this to you.

Alright, lets just… be aware in the future I guess.

Now that it was relatively close, Felix released a spell of his own as he simultaneously moved backwards to gain distance. Given its missing wing, Felix figured he could completely disable it with a single spell and so he surrounded the creature with a hundred meter diameter circle of his latest and greatest Zero Friction Zone.

It was a lame spell that was stupidly effective against a lot of enemies whenever they didn’t really have the ability to fly.

Kicking off a phantom step nearby, Felix watched in horror as the creature beat its one remaining wing and through some clever contortion of its body and the use of what seemed to be a skill, launched itself at Felix. He was nearly frozen in shock because of the impossibility of the situation but he wasn’t. Not that it would have mattered if he was, it simply moved too fast for him to really do anything and this time, it was definitely flying in his direction. Even if had been able to move, Felix had felt certain it couldn’t have moved this quickly disabled as it was.

Before it could reach him, Felix saw a set of golden hands grip the remaining wing and yank the creature off the surface of the mountain just before he fell into a portal that had appeared next to him. He reappeared a few hundred meters away and caught sight of a small portal that was evidently Adaline’s closing itself behind him.

Peace’s avatar fought with the creature, punching and grappling it where it could but it was evidently outmatched in strength. He tried to make up for it in Agility as every time the creature wrenched itself free, the avatar moved and followed, constantly harassing it. The entire time, Peace danced around acting as the feet of the massive projection and moving with a huge amount of assistance from Reaper’s Movement. Not only did he have to move the projection and control the projection to fight the beast but he also had to protect his real body and avoid getting hit himself.

From the unexpected distance he had gained, Felix realized how precise the cacophony of spells Adaline released were. Peace had to avoid the beak trying to swallow him and its claws trying to gash him but never did he have to even think about avoiding Adaline’s spells. Each and every one was fired with not only precision, but forethought as to where the battle was going and how things might shift.

It seemed nearly impossible to Felix considering how many spells she cast-or rather fired-from her revolvers without a literal computer simulating everything nearly perfectly in her head. He was reasonably certain she didn’t have that though which only made him feel worse that he wasn’t able to anything similar in any capacity.

Flying back towards the battle, Felix almost stumbled as Peace’s avatar flickered for a moment. Before he could even worry, let alone spring into action, a single tone that washed out all other sounds and seemed to resonate with the universe itself echoed out of Melody’s instrument. Not only could Felix feel the note but he could actually see the golden ripple it released.

As soon as the ripple struck Peace’s avatar, it actually seemed to grow or rather fill out even more and it was able to bend forwards and wrestle the vulture’s neck into the ground.

From just behind the creature, Adaline fired her white revolver upwards then her black revolver into it. The white revolver’s bullet spun itself into a portal unlike any Felix had ever seen before, circular and woven with not just mana but incredibly complex arcane symbols and anima.

The next instant, the bullet from the black revolver-which wasn’t really a bullet at all but a bead of condensed white flame, bright enough to cause Felix to look away-passed through the portal. The other end of the portal was a few dozen meters above the creature and easily a hundred times the size of its source. As the ball of white flame began to exit, Felix slowed to a stop and just watched.

The ball had grown to over a hundred meters in diameter and looked like an actual star but made of pure white fire. Felix’s eyes were strong enough not to be damaged looking directly at any star but he still had to squint. Being as close as he was, he was forced to nearly close his eyes as the flames completely engulfed the creature below.

Looking around, he initially wasn’t sure if Peace had gotten out but he caught sight of him stepping out of a portal right at the last second that wasn’t nearly big enough for his avatar or the creature to step through.

Ding You have slain a [B - Epic] Vrolgromex (Lvl 2733)

Ding You have gained 25 levels in [C - Ancient] Reaper

Damn, 25 levels even when we were grouped as 4. Wild.

Flying over, Felix joined back up with the others.

Before even having to ask, Melody gestured towards the body and Peace nodded, indicating he could harvest it. He assumed Peace had prepared her and Adaline didn’t seem interested in it so he activated both rings.

Looking at both Melody and Peace, Felix winced a little, “Sorry about…”

Melody shrugged and Peace slapped him on the back, “Don’t worry about it. We’re still figuring out how best to work as a team.”

Melody winked at him, “Not like we really needed you anyways.”

Adaline snorted from where she was standing a few meters away but it didn’t bother Felix in the slightest.

“That avatar skill was awesome by the way. Why haven’t I seen you use that before?”

Peace shrugged, “Haven’t needed to. Also… normally I can’t really maintain it for more than a few seconds then it just… flickers out.”

Felix frowned, “Normally?”

“Well,” Peace tilted his head towards Melody, “without her I wouldn’t have been able to maintain it for more than a fraction of a second. Then when I started to really lose control, well, you saw.”

Well, this is something I haven’t felt in a while, being the weakest.

Auren appeared next to them a few moments later and just nodded to them. He didn’t run through the battle, criticize or praise them like the Adepts in the lower classes did. He just assumed they knew what went wrong, what they did well and what they needed to improve on.

Turning from them, he stepped through a portal right as it appeared back into the class room they left from. Adaline was next as she was the closest and by the time Felix followed Peace and Melody through, she was gone.

Melody and Peace walked alongside Felix through the courtyard which Felix was actually grateful for because there were some things he needed to know if his plans were going anywhere.

Felix looked over at Melody, “So, the big war in the event is happening soon?”

“Any day now. If I had to guess, within the next dekad or two. Realistically, it will start as soon as someone makes a move or gets too antsy. Tensions are… well, they’re pretty much at the breaking point.”

Felix nodded and quickly checked his quest screen for the event, which was still accessible outside of it, “Then I take it that big quest isn’t happening until afterwards?”

She shrugged, “Probably. I don’t know much about it, no one really does but, you have to collect objects and bring them to a location. Now that they can’t be removed from the event…”

Felix nodded, “Both factions are hoping to get their hands on more of them through the war. They’re assuming more objects will put them at an advantage?”

“Pretty much.” She nodded.

“So until then, most of them will be stored in the vaults because they don’t want to give them up if they’re forced to surrender.”

She nodded again, “Probably.”

Peace’s smirk grew as he caught on but he waited until they stepped into Felix’s dorm and closed the door behind them to speak aloud, “You’re going to try and steal them.”

Melody’s head swung over and she looked more taken aback than Felix would have expected, “You’re going to steal them?”

There was no point in hiding his intentions, he needed as much information as he could anyways, “Yeah. You convinced me it’s probably best I don’t participate in any way in the war but I want to see this quest through.”

She tilted her head to the side, “You know more about this quest than I do, don’t you? There’s no way you’d be this insistent if you were as in the dark as everyone else.”

Felix shrugged, “I upgraded my Identify skill and managed to identify the objects.”

Peace smirked and Melody’s eyes grew wide, “You identified them? Wait- You upgraded your Identify skill to what? I know quite a few other participants with upgraded Identify skills that couldn’t identify it at all.”

Felix chuckled, “Great question. I upgraded it many times in a row actually. It just kept swallowing skills and items until it is where it is now and I managed to identify them.”

She shook her head and even Peace seemed confused by that statement, “Define ‘in a row’ please.”

“I went up a bunch of proficiency levels in one of my profession based identify skills then I just asked The System to merge my other profession identify skills into it. The resultant skill swallowed my identify ring and replaced my normal Identify. I used the new skill repeatedly on the item and taught some new tricks until it finally worked.”

Melody squinted a little, “In the span of…?”

“A few seconds I guess? Minutes if you count the time it took me to manually analyze the object.”

Her face contorted in contemplation, “That’s… wrong in so many ways.”

Felix nodded, “I thought so too, just felt too unnatural.”

“It is… You had the standard identify skill before this?”

Felix nodded.

She sighed, “The System has rules in place where there’s a cooldown on upgrading the same skill too much because you’re supposed to get used to the old one. It’s also notoriously annoying to upgrade your Identify skill… Anyways, what are they? The objects for the quest.”

“Uh… I’m not sure… I should tell you.”

She sighed, “Fine. You don’t have to tell me now but after I help you steal them, I get to ask you one question that you have to answer to the best of your ability.”

Felix frowned for multiple reasons but she cut him off before he could respond.

“Yes, you’re going to need our help. Peace is going to help you for free because… I don’t know he just likes you I guess. As for my question, I’ll sign whatever soul binding or System contract you need but you have to answer, got it?”

He wanted desperately to refuse them. He knew he didn’t need their help, it was technically possible for him to steal from the vaults himself. Without them though, his odds were extraordinarily low and with Peace nodding along and Melody’s relatively low price, he had a hard time saying no.

“Alright, fine.”

Melody’s smile grew wide, “Perfect. First we’re going to need some supplies. I think tomorrow is the best bet.”

Peace nodded and Felix looked at both of them for an explanation, “For what? Tomorrow is the best bet to steal them? Why?”

Melody scoffed, “Starting the war, duh.”

She didn’t get nearly as dramatic of a reaction as she was hoping for as Felix nodded along, “Okay, makes sense. We want to catch people as off guard as possible so we want to start it sooner rather than later but we need supplies. It only makes sense to try and rob them once the war is started because otherwise, the Im- objects won’t be in the vaults. What supplies were you thinking?”

Melody smirked, “That depends on what you can afford to pay for them.”

Felix nodded matter of factly, “I have about half an A. I’m willing to spend all of it.”

She shook her head and snorted, “No, not credits. I handle the credits, remember? I meant other forms of payment. I’m open to suggestions but I think our best bet is getting our hands on a Spatially Aware Phase Change Amulet so you can walk right into the vault.”

Felix shrugged, “Uh… That sounds good to me. I was just planning on kind of… literally breaking in.”

Melody guffawed at him then shook her head, “Both of the big factions use spatial expansion enchantments within their vaults. If you just punched a hole in the wall, it would explode and destroy everything inside. Not to mention spatial enchantments by their nature make it really hard to just punch a hole through them.”

Wincing, Felix sighed, “I take it a portal is no better?”

She shook her head, “Possibly worse. Best case scenario is you step into the vault as a giant then slowly your body starts to fall apart because the atoms were stretched too far from each-other. At that point you just hope you can regenerate faster than you fall apart.”

Felix snorted, “Okay. Never mind then. What’s this amulet you mentioned?”

Melody leaned in and whispered, solely for dramatic effect, “Something that didn’t exist until very recently that only a select few in the entire multiverse have the ability to make.”

Felix cocked his head, “How the hell are we going to get our hands on one then?”

“Well… it just so happens that we all know one of the two people with both the knowledge and skills required.”

Felix thought through the options but the only person that came to mind was Rathelius but, he was pretty sure she wasn’t talking about them.

After waiting half a minute for Felix to guess, which he didn’t, she sighed, “Adaline.”

“Wait… really?” Felix shook his head.

“Yeah. Remember when we were discussing Erevos and how it used Kryptos enchantments and the only person who had made any headway into deciphering them was a professor on campus? They’re her mentor because she got her hands on their research a number of epochs ago and was able to teach herself.”

“That’s…” Felix’s eyes went wide, “awesome. You said it’s not going to take credits, what will she accept?”

“Something that makes her stronger. Something that helps with her enchanting or spell-craft…. Those are just guesses based on my miraculous ability to read people, you’d have to ask her.”

Felix nodded, “Okay, fair enough. Assuming we can convince her to help us, what else do we need? We need to make sure no one is around when I walk through the walls into the vault. I assume I can’t just walk through from the other end of the mountain?”

Melody shook her head in confirmation and Felix continued, “Okay that means we need to get as many people involved in the war as possible or just have Peace walk in and do the robbing since no one can detect you.”

Peace shook his head, “I don’t have any inventory points and no one but the Rakyt and those with merchant professions can just hand them out.”

Melody nodded, “And Ayred’s already surrendered and left.”

Felix sighed, “Okay, so I need to be the one to walk into the vault then and I’m… well terrible at being stealthy.”

“Yeah… you aren’t getting past anyone unnoticed, sorry.” Peace shrugged and Felix just nodded.

“We need two things to make sure the area around the vault is clear.” Melody hopped forwards and began pacing, “First, we need to necessitate all the fighters being on the front lines. Demons would have been perfect here but that’s not happening anymore. Luckily, both factions are about even in numbers so, if we can get either of them to fully engage, the other will basically be forced to respond with everything they’ve got.”

Peace and Felix nodded along and followed her with their gaze as she circled the room.

“Second, there are the non combatants. The participants who are profession specialists. The ones who built the vault and maintain it. Those we can distract them by damaging the foundation of their fortresses. They’ll be forced to act and repair them but you’ll still have to deal with them. I guess there’s a third problem, the profession specialists who have nothing to do with the construction of the vaults. Logically, they would be near the battle to help however they can or outside of the event entirely but there are no guarantees.”

Melody stopped walking and Felix took that as a sign that she was done with her speech. He summarized based on his understanding, “Right so, in terms of supplies we need something to damage the foundation of the mountains, some way to escalate the conflict-”

“That’s my job. All I need are some basic enchantments from you.” Melody hopped her bottom onto the back of the couch and swung her crossed legs up.

Felix nodded, “Okay then we just need something big to start the war-”

“I can do that.” Peace crossed his arms and nodded.

“Okay then, let’s give the plan a once over just to be sure.” Felix offered one hand to each of them which they quickly took and he brought them both into his Soul Garden where Felix brought up simulations of the heist and they ran through everything they could think of.

In all honesty, Felix knew he probably could have committed the heist by himself but the odds were so low that it would have been arrogant to even try. With Melody and Peace though, he felt a lot more confident in their capabilities.

With everything to do with the plan ironed out, Felix and Peace followed Melody to a small log cabin on the planet Eramith. Once there, Melody played a single note instead of knocking. A few moments later, the door opened to reveal Adaline.

She sighed as she saw them, her face contorted in the signature scowl of derision she reserved just for Felix. The one he had come to expect from her, “What.”

Melody smiled and clasped her hands behind her back as she leaned forwards, “Hey Adaline, remember that amulet you were telling me about?”

“No.”

“Right well, the one that I was questioning you about and reading the answers from your mind? We need it.”

Adaline’s face contorted further with significant disgust causing Melody to thumb in Felix’s direction, “He’ll pay you for it.”

She sighed and began closing the door, “I don’t want your credits.”

Wrenching his attention back from desperately trying to scan the inside of the room to no avail, Felix nodded and reached forwards, offering her a cube a few inches wide.

She squinted at it for a few seconds and her brow progressively furrowed until she sighed, “Fine.”

Melody smiled and nodded then cut back in, “One more thing, we need to destabilize at least two mountains.”

Talking things through with Adaline, while she was rather serious, she was also agreeable and reasonable. Felix wasn’t sure if she liked Melody, really wanted the computer he offered her or just really liked enchanting. Either way they got a lot more out of her than Felix had thought they would, especially considering he didn’t think she’d even open the door for them. She kept her dislike of Felix out of things though and was completely professional and to the point.

She didn’t even ask what they were doing or why a single time. It would have been rather hard considering Melody’s every sentence had more words than she had spoken the entire time but still, Felix knew he would have asked in her position.

By some miracle or possibly because Melody knew what she was doing, Adaline offered them the amulet right off her own neck and had all the other items they needed-sans batteries-on hand.

That meant the only thing left for them to do was set everything up.

Opening his event marble against the wall of his dorm, Felix, Melody and Peace stepped out into his underground compound. As soon as they were there, Felix transferred all the necessary items over to Peace, attaching consumable batteries where necessary as they went. All the items were from the outside so Peace was able to use his spatial storage instead of his event inventory which would have been impossible considering he had literally 0 inventory points.

Melody cocked her head at Peace, “What did you use your inventory points for?” She proceeded to wander around before he started responding.

“When I was spending time with the Amatarans, we used our points to purchase refreshments from the factions and various wandering merchants.”

Felix sighed and Melody giggled.

Once all the items were transferred, Felix nodded to Peace, “Alright, you have everything you need?”

Peace shrugged, “Think so.”

“Alright, see you in a bit then.” Felix waved a hand and opened a portal which Peace stepped through.

Closing the portal, Felix turned and sighed as he realized Melody had disappeared. Walking down the only hall and following her, he found her standing just outside Zero’s training space where he was practicing the same sword strike repeatedly and very robotically.

While it looked like he performed the exact same strike on repeat, in actuality Felix knew he was minutely adjusting each swing and calibrating the Force, mana, range and other parameters.

Without looking at him, Melody spoke, “This is one of the most impressive constructs I’ve ever seen.”

“Thanks. It honestly feels like kind of a waste that he spends all his time here but… I don’t want him to die against a random participant.”

She nodded, “Have you fought him yet? Sparred?”

He shook his head, “Not a close range fighter and I’m a little too destructive to spar without System protections in place against something that doesn’t regenerate.”

“You have a spare sword?”

Felix nodded and pulled out Mecada’s long saber, “I’ve been meaning to figure out exactly what this is. My identify gives me nothing of value. Any ideas?”

Melody hmphed then took the sword from Felix’s hands. As soon as she freed it from his grasp, Felix felt-and could have sworn he’d audibly heard-a gasp of relief from the sword as it visibly vibrated, shaking itself.

Gripping it by the handle, Melody twirled, spun and swung the blade then nodded. She walked into the room and took the spot opposite Zero, lifting Mecada’s blade in the construct’s direction.

They both nodded to indicate they were ready then Zero took a step forwards and struck. Melody shifted her stance so her feet were beneath her shoulders and braced herself to stop Zero’s strike. The swords clashed and Felix saw the demon blade shiver slightly but it didn’t open its maw. In fact, it remained well behaved the entire time their swords clashed as Melody zipped around with the same childlike exuberance she seemed to exhibit in everything she did.

She didn’t look like a sword master or an excited child but rather like someone who was familiar enough with a sword and who just couldn’t help but dance their way through a battle. Mirroring her wouldn’t really be possible for Zero but each and every time she held a strike from injuring Zero, he learned. Not once did he have to hold back from striking her as Zero never got close but he did learn to play into his strengths, specifically his Strength.

Melody was relatively weak to the point where her compensating for her lack of strength became obvious even to Felix, despite the outward appearance that she was a figure skater dancing her way through the battle. Zero gradually learned how to take advantage of her literal weakness and began pushing harder, striking with more force and generally being more deliberate.

They didn’t really get anywhere though by the designated time when Felix had to open a portal to retrieve Peace.

As soon as the portal opened, Peace stepped through, nodded to Felix then stepped through the next portal he had opened. Not a word passed between them and as soon as the second portal closed, Felix went back to watching the sparring for a few minutes.

Walking back towards the door and leaving Zero to continue calibrating, Melody handed Felix the sword, holding it by just two fingers and letting it dangle between them like it was a dirty sock, “I take it you got this off a demon?”

Felix nodded, “This and a huge chain.”

“I’d have to look at the chain but this sword is definitely cursed.”

Felix’s eyes went wide, his excitement obvious, “Explain.”

Melody rolled her eyes at him, “It’s cursed with some derivative of Wrath. It will slowly corrupt the wielder to become more bloodthirsty as they use it and in turn, increasingly reckless until they become completely mindless. On the flip side, it can eat bodies and souls.”

“I see, so I should probably just destroy it?”

She scoffed, “What, no! Why would you destroy it? Just sell it for a handsome profit.”

“How long would it take to corrupt someone?”

“Not sure. Probably just a few minutes to have an effect, a lot longer until they became a mindless husk though. I can wield it for maybe an hour and keep the effects at bay but… You might be fine, considering how impervious you seem to my machinations but yeah… I wouldn’t risk it.”

“Okay, fair enough.”

So add a layer to Zero’s soul then give him the sword, got it.

A few moments later, Felix opened the return portal for Peace and he stepped back through, his spatial storage successfully emptied.

Peace nodded and said nothing so Felix knew his part had gone without issue.

Felix looked at both of them, “Now, we wait.”

They spent some of the few dozen hours they had decided to wait in Felix’s Soul Space, because it was time efficient but not much overall. Rather, they spent quite a bit of time walking around the vault, talking about the dungeons Felix had encountered, rumors Melody had heard and random stories Peace had on hand.

What they were waiting for wasn’t the cover of darkness that nighttime provided but rather the bustling crowds in the middle of the 5th day. Most people had the 5th and 10th off because the classes were scheduled that way. In fact not a single one of them knew of a class on the 5th. That meant most people would be in the event if they hadn’t already surrendered and could access it which meant when the war started, they would be ready to jump right in.

They specifically wanted everyone around for two reasons, first was that if people stepped into the event one by one as they heard about the war, they would most likely appear in the compounds and directly around the vault. The other reason was that it ensured maximum effect on both sides when they actually started the war. The shock and fear they were hoping to create would be lost on all the participants outside the event so the more people that bore witness, the better.

Ultimately, a few dozen hours was a ton of time and so they went off and each did their own thing for at least half of the time.

Felix worked on spell designs and constructs while Melody read and Peace meditated for the most part. Melody also spent some of the time endlessly talking to Felix while he worked. He almost completely drowned her out and he knew that she knew he wasn’t listening so he didn’t really know why she was talking so much.

Once the time came, they all grouped up in the main area of the compound and Felix made sure everyone had the supplies they needed. Everyone confirmed they were ready and Felix opened a portal onto the top of a massive cliff range.

The cliffs were a chain of entirely vertical rocks that formed a large curve around a forested valley below. On top of the cliffs the biome was a rocky desert making this planet look much like Felix’s tutorial planet, like it had been pieced together from the pieces of other worlds without much attention to detail.

Walking up to the edge of the cliff, Peace looked back and both of them nodded to him. He closed his eyes and sank to one knee then inhaled a single lung filling breath, closing his eyes as soon as his chest laid still. As his arms slowly lifted up in front of him, ropes of gold and black twisted and weaved their way out of his right palm forming a massive long bow of pure light. The gold formed the core of the bow and black trails, much like those present when using Reaper’s skills wrapped themselves around the outside like paint. Other than the black paint though, the bow was completely plain without extraneous bends or carvings at all.

When it was done, Peace held a bow in his hand that was twice as tall as he was and almost entirely black save for the bright golden cracks that reached their way up the limbs and glowed with visible golden rays. Were he not literally on the edge of the cliff, it would have been impossible for him to hold the bow out in front of him on account of its height surpassing his. On one knee as he was, almost a foot outwards from his body in every direction, shadow trailed upwards like fire or liquid smoke pouring off of him more prominently than Felix had ever seen from a Reaper’s skill before.

His eyes remained shut as he began to exhale and his other hand very slowly drew back a perfectly white string, moving with the precision of a machine. Every millimeter his hand moved in a perfectly straight line, an arrow grew between his fingers and the bow. It didn’t just grow longer though, it was constantly weaved from gold and white threads that appeared from nowhere, the arrow growing progressively brighter as each one merged into its shaft.

Once his hand reached the side of his face, his exhale had completed and black fletching had appeared. The arrow solidified itself and tripled in brightness in the next moment as a single golden tear welled up on Peace’s cheek.

Then, Peace opened his eyes. Much like the arrow itself, Peace’s eyes were completely covered in bright white light, like miniature suns embedded in his face. They remained that way for all of an instant as released the arrow in the same moment his eyes had opened and simultaneously, the tear fell from his face.

Neither the arrow nor the tear seemed to respect the bounds of the universe itself as they both struck their targets in the same instant they were released. The tear hit the ground and formed a visible ripple that distorted the ground beneath their feet but once passed, seemed to have no effect whatsoever.

The arrow struck exactly where they had planned, right in the middle of the Edras Faction compound on the side of the cliff. The arrow didn’t create a hole in the stone at all but rather a small circle about a meter in diameter where it struck looked perfectly untouched. Around that circle and rapidly spreading throughout the rock of the cliff face, a web of cracks reached outwards in every direction like tendrils of destruction. As the cracks spread, the stone crumbled and a massive chunk of the cliff face was reduced to gravel and tumbled free.

Though only Peace had seen the inside of the compound, none of them stuck around to witness the aftermath. The instant the arrow had been released, Felix activated Adaline’s enchantments which were much less impressive than Peace’s arrow then stepped through their portal. Melody dragged Peace back through and they were gone. No one would know who had fired the first shot, which is exactly what they were hoping for.

Carefully lowering Peace to the ground, Melody pulled out her instrument and began strumming a tune and lightly humming easily the most beautiful thing Felix had ever heard.

Peace’s face was covered in sweat and his body was literally vibrating though so Felix actually blocked out most of Melody’s playing.

“You gonna be okay?”

Peace gasped for air and nodded.

“Can I get you anything? Is there anything that would help right now?”

Peace nodded and pointed at Melody then coughed up almost a liter of blood.

Despite the… cost, that was awesome.

Felix nodded and just waited in case there was anything he needed to do as his mind wandered back to the plan, his spells and his enchantments.

A few minutes passed of Peace coughing up more blood, Felix helping him keep it out of his throat and Melody playing when Peace finally gestured Felix’s ear closer and hoarsely whispered, “Do you have any spare anima?”

Felix nodded, “Yes. How much do you need?”

Peace just nodded so Felix reached into his Soul Ring and compressed down about half of what he had in there into what looked like a small pill. He made sure the pill was as blank as he could make it then he placed his palm on Peace’s chest and made the pill appear directly inside of him.

Felix heard a pained groaning followed by Peace vibrating to the point where he was almost seizing for a couple minutes. Then suddenly, he stopped and sprang to his feet looking even better than he had before firing the arrow.

“WoooooaaaAAAAHHH! I… feel awesome.”

Melody looked at Felix with a bit of confusion for just an instant before turning back to Peace, “That’s because that was awesome. Was that… The Arrow of the Weeping Soul? The Soul Shattering Shot?”

Peace nodded, “Yup.”

She frowned, “I thought… No, I know Joledrin is finally dead. How do you… know it, let alone being able to use it at all.”

“The perks of being a multiversal assassin I guess.” Peace smirked but Melody was not impressed.

Her instrument vanished and she sighed before turning to Felix and ignoring Peace’s chuckling, “Alright, I think it’s time to rile things up.”

Felix nodded and opened another portal, this time near the Archon Faction compound.

Stepping out onto a platform of Force Felix was channeling in midair, they all looked down in complete shock for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, Peace had placed Adaline’s enchanted bombs all throughout both compounds and though the destruction wouldn’t have been as impressive as Peace’s arrow, they had been expecting some kind of effect. The mountain though, seemed completely untouched however.

Secondly, they had expected some kind of a counter attack and were hoping to use Melody’s unique manipulation to increase the existing fear but something was wrong.

It should have taken Edras’ Faction at least half an hour to mount any kind of resistance simply due to the distance between the two locations. They could use portals to move but they had to commit to going through the portal or not otherwise they might get separated and stranded. They would want to counter with something just as strong which meant some amount of preparation.

All that distance between the two compounds though, was completely gone. Looking down to the left, Felix saw the remains of the compound they had just attacked all of a kilometer away. To his right, the mountain compound of the Archon followers. In the middle, a perfectly straight line where the two areas had been joined together.

Unlike the cliff face separating two biomes though, looking down, Felix spotted multiple trees, rocks and even a river that had been cut cleanly in two.

They had wanted the fights to draw everyone away from their vaults, for the core of the fighting to happen in the middle of the two areas and they even had a plan to deal with any portal warfare. Now though, there was nowhere else for the fighting to happen than right here, just a few hundred meters from both of the vaults.

“Well, that changes things.”

Peace did a flip and slapped aside a skill someone had targeted at them and Melody’s face just contorted in confusion, “This is all so… weird. The System doesn’t do things like this or… didn’t. It never gets- got this involved.”

Felix shook his head, “We don’t have time to dissect things right now. If anything this makes your job a lot easier, right Melody?”

She sighed, “Yeah kind of. Everything will be in one place now which is great for affecting them all at once but there are some people I would have liked to avoid because they would recognize my… effect.”

Felix rubbed his temple, “Your brothers.”

“Yeah. Well, just Fyrden. Talrain is an oblivious idiot who’s soul senses are some of the worst I have ever seen.”

“Okay, what about this then. Instead of riling everyone up, you play something happy and playful.”

Melody looked over her shoulder with a smile and a cocked brow of confusion, “You want me to just confuse people?”

“Mostly. You probably know all of the objects have a different curses associated with them, right?”

Melody nodded.

“A lot of them didn’t really change anything other than being really confusing like making me want to fight a table or feel lust in a fight with a construct.”

Melody’s eyes went wide with excitement, “Now that, is a fantastic idea.”

Felix actually pinched his nose and Melody’s smile grew even wider, “The best part is, no one will question what I’m doing cause it’s so me to just make things confusing and be a nuisance.”

Peace nodded appreciatively, “It definitely fits with your whole ‘just not’ thing. You aren’t helping either side and aren’t really fighting but also not refusing to participate. It is aptly confusing.”

“Exactly.” She nodded quickly to Peace in excited agreement then turned to Felix, “I’m on it. Oh by the way, I’m going to need to borrow Erevos.”

Felix just nodded and summoned the Sky Slicer then hopped out and let Melody take the driver’s seat. She saluted in a joking manner then zipped down into the battle, giggling to herself the entire way.

Looks like she took the bait.

Grim sighed in his mind, You know that wasn’t necessary. She would have done it anyways.

Yeah. Honestly, I just wanted to see if she would notice. I wonder if she knows this was my goal by mentioning the Lust cursed object.

Not sure. It’s possible your new lattice layer is making you harder to read.

Felix cut the conversation there and turned to Peace to try and make it less obvious he was having a mental conversation. It didn’t seem necessary though as Peace excitedly leapt around their platform slapping skills and spells around from both sides as neither of them knew which side they were on.

“We didn’t really expect to have you so mobile right now. In terms of our plan, your job is done.”

Peace nodded, “Sure but the plan has gone to shit now that the planet literally shrunk or something. What’s the plan now?”

“I think we just embrace the chaos. Any chance you can disguise yourself?”

Peace snapped his fingers and in an instant, his everything changed to look completely different. Suddenly he was a young girl that looked about 10 years old. His face, body and clothes changing was impressive but what blew Felix away was the complete 180 his soul had taken. Felix hadn’t felt much from Peace in general given how adept he was with his soul but now, he legitimately felt like a child to Felix.

“As impressive as that is, I don’t think that’s the disguise you should go with.”

Peace shrugged and started skipping around the platform, “I’m open to suggestions.”

“Have you heard of that participant that started the whole killing thing? The guy that crashed Ascension Day?”

Peace nodded, “Yes and yes I know who they actually are.”

Felix sighed in relief, “Oh thank god.”

Peace looked at him with confusion which was frankly adorable as a little girl, “Which one?”

“Figure of speech from my planet.” Felix waved him off, “How well can you imitate them?”

He shrugged, “I can do some of the skills, not all of them. Soul skills are easy. Blood is impossible for me and only a few of the magic based ones.”

Felix nodded, “I don’t have an extra axe but I do have something else. It might be cursed and try to corrupt your soul though.”

Peace shrugged as he snapped his fingers and morphed into the form of Felix’s persona. Felix reached forwards and offered him Berrdoth’s chain which Peace took and started wrapping around his shoulders and arms, “This is nothing. I was expecting something much worse considering your soul and all that.”

Felix shrugged, “Yeah well, that’s what I was told. You can handle this?”

Peace nodded, “Oh yeah. This is nothing.”

“Alright. I know you don’t kill people but… That’s kind of Arthur’s thing.”

Peace shook his head solemnly, “Yeah, no. I’ll attack and fight people and create as much chaos as possible but any killing is entirely up to you.”

Felix nodded, “That’s fine. I can work with that. Edras’ first in case they try and move things somewhere more stable?”

Peace nodded then jumped off the platform towards Edras’ compound.

Felix turned around and stepped back through his portal, activated his Persona and drew his axe then, opened a different portal. This one was a different color and shape that used a completely different spell just to throw people off.

Stepping through the portal, Felix stepped directly into the crumbling halls of Edras’ compound.