I got a wonderful surprise while Dracosect and Kaliwot were fighting.
No, not the fact Kaliwot could somehow hold out against the massive Dracosect, surprising though that was. He ended up losing as expected.
Nope! My cage failed.
It was supposed to hold the Will leech in place and kill it if it tried to flee. For whatever reason, it failed at stage one. Bad code, perhaps? I'm no programmer. My species should make that obvious. I'mma dragon.
"Rawr!"
Instead, the cage got dragged directly back to Greed's Will. Only then did it activate. Perhaps because the shock of merging his Will leech back into his main Will was enough to override my coding mistakes.
Unable to kill the leech, it killed...
It killed Greed.
I killed a deadly sin.
By recruiting a Demigod.
How the heck?
Status.
Name: Chronovoid Dragon
Talents: Causal Coherence, Causal Conduit, Causal Decoherence, Causal Void, Devour, Deific Will, Endless Will, Void Will, Parasitic Will, Parasitic Void, Spatial Absorption, Spatial Conduit, Spatial Void, Temporal Diffusion, Temporal Conduit, Temporal Void
Lineage: Origin
Rank: Void
Weapon: I'mma Dragon (Rawr)
Stats:
Str: 1.44 (151.4o) / 2.43 (230,810)
Sta: 1.82 (151.4o) / 2.98 (230,810)
Int: 2.70 (151.4o) / 3.33 (230,810)
Wis: 2.43 (151.4o) / 3.12 (230,810)
Will: 7.14 (1.8÷|) / 2.97 (151.4o)
A couple of things. First, I've gained more talents. Greed had more Conduit talents, specifically Space and Time. This makes sense for a thief, I suppose? Steal space or time and move 'em... Elsewhere.
I don't need to test much to know their exact function. I know because of Causal Conduit, which works by moving the cause and effect of some event to a different quantum vector. So, while it may appear to move spacetime, in reality, Causal Conduit only swaps how a given region of spacetime affects another.
The difference is subtle, but important.
If I have an object that isn't moving at all and I use Causal Conduit? Nothing happens. There's no potential there to make the talent do anything. At all.
Whelp, okay. It can break down matter since all matter vibrates at a fundamental level, but this is useless! I can smash things with my claws just fine, thank you.
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How about Spatial and Temporal Conduit?
Spatial Conduit moves space. Moves things. Complicated, right? I know! It's totally baffling.
Temporal Conduit is more interesting. It swaps the 'time' being experienced by two different objects or regions. This is similar to what happened when I absorbed my second Deification Token, except it's much better.
If I used Temporal Conduit to swap one side of a planet with the other, the planet would sheer in half. It's not only useful, it could be an utterly devastating attack that cuts enemies to ribbons at the quantum level.
Even a small time dilation could become fatal when ones' heart suddenly has multiple opposing temporal vectors. Now, what if I repeatedly sling this skill randomly at my body? I can heal so long as I don't hurt my Origin.
...
Actually, I haven't figured out how to harm my Origin. Everything I try makes it stronger. Not only Void abilities, it seems any interaction makes it grow. Even looking at it makes it grow. It simply never directly took an attack before Dracosect's attempt.
What the hell?
Speaking of being attacked, I should protect the Origin Program which killed Greed and all its related memories. The sooner I do this, the less chance someone can use it against me. I make a mental note to set up this protection mechanism. I'll let my subconscious work on that for a bit, then nail down the details manually.
But getting back to the point: being split apart over and over would be utter chaos. And that splitting doesn't solely affect matter. Since time is a measure, not a real attribute, this talent alters every single aspect of reality. It's like a combination of Spatial and Causal Conduit on steroids.
I would not want to fight this 'Greed.'
Thankfully, I no longer must. He's dead.
And, I got his '151.4o' stat exponent. Plus Will!
SCORE!
I'm no longer capped by my Will stat's slow absorption of my, rah— earnings.
No, 151.4o isn't 151.40. It's 151.4 octillion. In the exponent column. Reah.
Which means, since my total Will on the left side went up by an exponent of 0.1, that must actually say 1.8n, as in nonillion. Even though it's corrupted, I can still read my total Will! That's a weird way to represent an 'n,' though.
If I remember correctly, 'n' was shown as 'π' before, which looks almost identical to 'n' anyway. Maybe there's something I'm missing. Maybe, as the corruption gets worse, the letter gets less readable. I don't know.
Regardless, I also got a talent from Greed called Parasitic Will. This must be what the deadly sins and false virtues are using to parasitize others' Wills. I'm not gonna use it. I've no reason, really. In fact—
Gone. I just removed it with Causal Void. Exactly like Seeding. I refuse to keep stuff around that may come back to bite me in the tail. All the moreso when it creeps around and doesn't act with the same pride I do.
Speaking of pride—
"Dracosect, Kaliwot. You two did amazing!"
"Thank you, my god."
They both speak and bow in unison.
How proud they've both made me!
"Dracosect, what's your opinion?"
"She's a wonderful fighter, my god. Better than any others in your hoard besides myself. I would still win if we fought again, but perhaps not every time. My raw power definitely pushed her into an unwinnable position."
"She?"
Kaliwot speaks.
"Ah, yes, my god. I'm female."
Dangit. I am not good at identifying dragon sexes. I haven't attached an Origin Thread or seen her memories. I had no idea.
I should've taken a hint from the name Kaliwot, since it is vaguely feminine.
"Any other opinions?"
"She's well adjusted and strong-minded. Her Will may be damaged like you say, but I suspect the Will leech is helping her in this regard."
I examine the Will leech, which my subconscious has released from its cage.
This freakish thing is helping her?
image [https://timjames.net/data/acd/images/134.png?v=2]