The Technocracy was still reeling from the explosion of the cannon, so for now the two sides were in a fragile stalemate. They seemed to be wondering what to do with the remaining cannons, studying them from a distance in case they ended up exploding again, which they would have because Greg still had smoke in there ready to go, so that was definitely a smart move on their part. Greg had a fairy keeping an eye on them just in case, but he figured they'd end up abandoning the cannons. They definitely weren't going to crowd their troops around them as they did before, so he wasn't going to be able to get as many as he had last time.

Greg idly wondered if he should feel some sort of guilt for killing people who were only trying to defend themselves from what they considered a threat to everything they knew and loved, but in the end, it came down to a question of us or them, and Greg had no issues picking us. Maybe that was selfish, but he honestly didn't care. He didn't owe the Technocracy anything, so sacrificing his friends for them was never going to happen. He'd do what was right, but when it came to matters like this where there was no right, his way won.

After finishing up with Narita, Tessa took a quick break to check on Patrick, before rushing back to her place to spend some time with Ash. Her shift on the wall had ended hours ago and the only reason she'd delayed spending any time with her daughter was her concern for Patrick and dealing with Narita. Narita, on the other hand, was focusing on building up her mana, or cultivating as she called it. Apparently, even though her abilities were different, she still needed to gather mana the same way everyone else did. In her words 'the World decides how I gain my cultivation, my core decides what I can do with it.' Which he supposed made sense. It was the World's energy, why would she have any say in how it was obtained? She was pleasantly surprised when she learned all she needed to do was eat good food.

In the meantime, Greg focused on getting most of his smoke into the ship, only leaving a few pockets in random locations, just in case, along with the smoke in the cannons, because obviously. A pile of energy sources formed as he condensed massive clouds of smoke into the most compressed form he had available. Greg scratched the back of his head as he stared at the pile containing hundreds of the energy sources. "The fuck am I going to do with all this?" He muttered to himself. Due to his newfound smoke limit, he could only use about four energy sources worth of smoke at a time, which all the rest had to be frozen. The problem was that the smoke required to make one energy source was enough to fill the entire transmutation chamber he'd been stuck in to the brim with steel! It was a ridiculous amount of energy! Lapodala hadn't been joking when she'd said it'd take half the resources of an entire region to make one of those cannon energy sources. The suit energy sources may only be a hundredth of that, but a hundredth of half an entire region is still a fuckload of energy.

With the amount of energy sources he had here, he could probably make a literal army of Greg's, thousands, or even millions of him… Greg shuddered. As much as he'd told Tessa he was okay with there being more of him around, the idea of having that many if him running around gave him chills. He could handle a couple hundred or so. Thousands? Absolutely not. Don't even talk about millions.

Still, he had to do something with all this. He couldn't just let it sit here… Greg paused thoughtfully. Well, they were energy sources, right? Why not use them as energy sources? He could make suits, couldn't he? The problem was… Greg let out a weary sigh. The whole 'become significant enough to connect with the Core' problem. Would technology get him there? Would magic? He didn't know, but the pressure to be more than he really wanted to be irked him. He understood Tessa's reasoning, why it was necessary, why it should be him, but… why did it have to be him? It wasn't just a matter of surviving all this. He'd have to get powerful, become important. He'd have to deal with the leadership of both the Mage Republic and the United Technocracy, and be able to cow both into submission. He just hoped they were the biggest forces out there, because he really didn't want to deal with the endless progression of power a lot of stories had. The idea of spending lifetimes battling to be the 'Supreme Being of Reality' made Greg cringe.

Greg sighed. "If I'm gonna do it, I might as well do it right." He grumbled. He needed to get his priorities straight. First, he needed to learn more about his smoke and how it worked. Just brushing it off with an 'eh, it's magic' wasn't going to cut it. He needed to figure out what he could actually do and where his limits were. In the meantime, he needed to practice his magic and learn more about the Technocracy's technology. Was there a way he could combine the two? Usually magic would disrupt technology, like it had on Earth, but with his smoke, any damage could easily be repaired, so using them together shouldn't be an issue for him, right? He'd have to work on that.

"Alright, path to power, check." Greg muttered to himself. "Now what to actually do with that power." He frowned. He couldn't just be strong, he had to be significant. Which meant he needed to have an effect on the World. Obviously the first step would be saving everyone here from the Technocracy and the Republic, but what next? According to Narita, they needed to rejoin the Republic, or they were doomed, so should he focus on climbing the ranks there? How likely was that when he knew their dirty little secret? Alternatively, should he attempt to form some sort of rebellion? To do what? Stop the spread of mana? Did he even want that?

Greg chewed on his bottom lip in frustration. If this World was based on a story, what kind of stupid story had he been born into? Stories needed conflict and resolution, and while he saw plenty of conflict, where was the resolution? The Republic and the Technocracy were diametrically opposed, and for good reasons! Mana was dangerous, but so was entropy. The Technocracy stripped the World of resources while the Republic drove people insane. He could see how both were wrong, and both had decent points as well, but where was the middle ground? Did whoever had thought up this World even think of that? Or was this how they wanted it? A giant mess with no good solution? Who would think of something like that?

Greg paused. Was this World really built around there being no good solution? Just two shitty options that left countless people to suffer no matter what? What was the point of such a story? To show that life sucks sometimes? Pretty sure people already knew that. Still, if that was the case, did he have to just pick a side and make sure it won? If that was the case, he was choosing magic. All his friends were mages, so technology could get fucked. Bye bye entropy, bring on the mutated monsters and shit! It just didn't sit right with him. His gut told him there should be a way for everyone to win, that as long as people tried to work together, to be good to each other, things shouldn't be like this. Maybe that was idealistic, but setting up a World where someone had to lose just felt wrong to him. Though he supposed he couldn't really blame whoever thought up this idea. They couldn't have known it'd become someone's reality, right? Still, probably not the best to find fascination in such a situation. But who was he to judge that? He was fascinated by much darker situations…

Greg's expression twisted. Was he contributing to some other Worlds' darkness? Reinforcing rules that caused others pain? Simply because he had a fucked up brain? The more he thought about how the Multiverse worked, the more he hated it. A person couldn't control how they thought and sometimes things just pop into your head without you meaning anything by it. Even before his powers, any time he even held a knife, he'd become deeply aware of the fact that he could stab someone with it. Obviously he wouldn't, but those thoughts would get sent out into the Multiverse, to the great World of stabbing or some shit, and it'd make it stronger. A World built around people's fantasies of stabbing each other… What would that look like?

Greg smacked himself in the forehead. Damn it, he was doing it again! Stupid stabbing World, getting all his thoughts… Greg let out a defeated sigh. At least that World was already well established. Its rules were already set. It might even have someone connected to its core already. Stabbing wasn't exactly a new concept. No, what Greg's mind jumped to were the stories he'd read, particularly the ones that weren't too popular, the ones that had him thinking 'is this what this guy thinks is evil? I can think of a hundred different ways to make someone suffer more.' Those thoughts definitely had a better chance of influencing that World… Now he guessed he should be thankful that there were people out there who thought death was the worst thing that could happen to a person. Maybe they'd help make the Multiverse a bit brighter place. He definitely wasn't.

Greg shook his head. This was getting him off track. He needed to focus on the here and now, not the esoteric complications of the Multiverse. It was unfortunate, but he had to throw in with the Mage Republic. Which meant he needed to focus on spells more than technology… That was going to get annoying. Technology he could just make with his smoke. Mana needed to be gathered and built up. Which meant he couldn't switch it around between bodies. Which meant his mage bodies would essentially be like any other mage… which didn't sound very unique or significant. Greg frowned. This might be harder than he thought. The problem was that while his smoke gave him a lot of advantages, none of them really applied to magic.

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"Ugh, fuck it." Greg sighed, shaking his head. Worrying about what he was going to do wasn't getting him anywhere. He might as well just do what he could. He got his two new awakened bodies practicing spells, focusing on figuring out how to make pure mana so he could awaken more on his own without bothering Tessa. "Now, let's see how these suits work." Greg muttered, grabbing an energy source and building himself a suit around it. The suit powered on and Greg took a few steps, seeing how it felt, which… was surprisingly comfortable. Greg let out a low whistle as he felt the smooth material of the inner suit glide across his skin. "Nice… no wonder Narita was naked." Greg nodded appreciatively, getting rid of his own clothes. Very nice.

Greg raised a hand, flexing it as he tested the suit's strength. He frowned. "Not much of a difference…" The mechanics of the suit meant the strength of the user wasn't much of a factor for the strength of the suit, so he hadn't expected his strength to suddenly multiply or anything, he was just surprised his physical form was already a match for mechanical might. "Genetic optimization for the win, I guess." He shrugged. "Now… how the fuck do I make those force fields?"

*

A small explosion occurred in the transmutation chamber, before Greg reformed with a frown. While his other self was trying, and failing, to get the suit to do anything other than let him walk around, he was experimenting with transforming into energy. Given the results from the cannon, he figured he should practice somewhere he wouldn't hurt anyone, and since no one had bothered to fix the hole they'd made to get him out, he figured the transmutation chamber was a pretty good option. Given the recent explosion, he'd been right to be careful.

If he was being technical, he wasn't exactly transforming into energy though. He was shifting into a state of potential where, once released, his components would act in a certain way, in this case, exploding. Or maybe expanding would be the better word… maybe degrading? Both? The energy source was really just a bunch of higher order, unstable molecules compressed together, ready to unwind the moment they were released, which he was pretty sure was just fission. Thinking about it, that cannon explosion really should have done more damage… like nuclear warhead type damage. Instead, while it'd definitely done some damage, it wasn't that bad… Was mana to blame? Or was there something different about the way the Technocracy had set up their energy sources that didn't let them degrade out of control? Greg pondered the question for a moment, before shrugging. He'd figure it out later.

Still, it got him thinking about reactions. He could turn his smoke into pretty much whatever he wanted, so what if he made gunpowder? Or C4? He'd already proven with the energy source that he could let the reaction happen, and then reform it again from smoke. Greg paused, before chuckling lightly. Entropy could get fucked. Bullshit principle anyway. He just needed a way to control the reaction, to direct it. To- yeah, fuck it, he was making a gun. Smoke swirled, forming into a rifle… kinda. He didn't need a trigger or a magazine or anything like that, so it was essentially just a barrel with a handle. Next, he made a bullet, filled a small, reinforced chamber with enough smoke to make a single Greg, which felt like a good place to start, pointed it at a nearby wall and turned it all into the unstable particles that made up the Technocracy's energy sources… yeah, he was just going to keep calling it energy.

The moment Greg turned the smoke to energy, his prototype gun exploded, sending shrapnel flying everywhere! The steel he'd used wasn't strong enough to resist the force of the energy's reaction. "Well, shit." Greg muttered, frowning at the remnants of the weapon, before shrugging and making another, this time with thicker steel. He pointed the new gun at the wall, firing again, only for there to be an even bigger explosion! "The fuck?" Greg muttered as he reformed, staring down at the small pieces of metal that used to be a gun. He reformed the gun several more times, varying the amount and type of material used, carefully observing each attempt, but nothing worked and he couldn't figure out what was going wrong! The reaction just happened… too… fast. Greg let out a weary sigh. "I'm an idiot."

His other self activated their ability, slowing down their perception to a crawl as Greg tried again, watching as the energy reacted. It was still fast, because energy, but Greg saw as it literally began to eat the metal around it, adding to its reaction. "Weird… wait, if this shit eats through metal, how does the Technocracy even use it?" Greg muttered, frowning. The suit wasn't made of any special material. Well, it was advanced, yes, but it was still metal. He'd even tried using it with the gun and it exploded like the rest! Greg sighed again. He'd need to figure that out, but in the meantime, his gun idea was toast. The energy wouldn't work and the other explosives he knew weren't strong enough, even if he did know how to make them. He never had managed to get his hands on a gun, let alone anything better.

Greg clicked his tongue, turning everything back to smoke, before making himself a recliner and sitting down, frowning as he stared off into space. He couldn't help but think about his path to power. Magic was a given, but it was slow. He needed to constantly futz with the spell matrices, and he still hadn't gotten his sound manipulation spell over ten percent efficiency. In a few years, maybe he could be powerful, but he didn't have a few years. The Technocracy and the Republic were issues now. Energy seemed like a good shortcut, but he couldn't figure out how to actually use it. Granted, he could randomly cause an explosion about four percent as powerful as the one from the cannon at any time… that might kill a few people? Maybe? He'd have to test it out, he supposed. The problem was that if he couldn't break through the Technocracy's force field or the Mages barriers, any attack would be pointless. He needed to cross a threshold, and he wasn't sure a general blast of energy could pull it off, not at the power levels he had available to him. He needed a way to direct it, and the gun wasn't working.

Greg paused. Maybe he was thinking about this in the wrong way? Yes, he needed a way to turn his smoke into power, but did it need to be energy? Why not something more basic, like fire? Or lightning! Though those suits might act as a faraday cage… hell, he could even turn into light! Or at least photons. Patrick already proved that concentrated light could do a hell of a lot of damage. Though maybe the fact that it was magic light had some kind of effect on that… still, with light he needed some way to direct it, just like the energy. At least the light wouldn't eat the metal, he supposed.

Greg nodded. He had three methods to work with now: heat, electricity, and light. He figured he should start with the simplest one, heat. Greg hesitated. What was heat? Damn he missed the internet. Okay, okay, heat was… heat was when particles were excited? But what caused them to be excited? Usually a chemical reaction. Or other particles being excited, cause, you know, fire spreads. The question was whether Greg could create particles in an already excited state… Maybe he was on the wrong path here. Heat wasn't actually a thing, it was the reaction. If he wanted to create fire, he'd need to start with something else, something that would burn, and then he could use his smoke to keep it going, fueling it so it continued to get hotter and hotter. Magnesium was supposed to burn really well, right? Though oxygen was also pretty flammable… he thought. "Damn it, fire was supposed to be the easy option!" Greg let out a frustrated groan, more bemoaning the lack of data sources than any real frustration at figuring out fire. He missed the days when he could just search 'what burns the hottest' and immediately be presented with several responses.

"Fuck it, let's move on to electricity. That's easy, right? Just charged particles going brrrr." He paused, before letting out a sigh. "This is going to be a pain in my ass too, isn't it?"

Thankfully, he had a lot more data on electricity than fire, particularly since he'd gotten his phone working again. All he needed was a conductor to allow the charge to pass from one place to another. Thinking about it, why didn't he just emulate real lightning? Make a giant cloud of charged particles and see what happens. His first test was making a large cloud of positively charged particles… there were some sparks between the cloud and the floor, but nothing like what he expected. Plus, he didn't want discharge from the cloud to the surroundings, because the Technocracy's suits would ground them from it. What he wanted was the inter-cloud lightning, which could stream back and forth, possibly overwhelming the suit's force field, and once the force field was down, the rest was easy.

He tried making another cloud with negatively charged particles, and got a similar effect. However, when he made a cloud with both. "Ah, right, the electrical field!" Greg exclaimed as the lightning finally began, smacking himself in the forehead. "Like a damn magnet, you need both poles." He sighed. He began moving the charges around, until he settled on a configuration of positive on the inside and negative on the outside, pumping up the charge difference until it was a veritable ball of lightning. "That should fuck some things up, right?" Greg muttered, a slow grin spreading across his face.