Ch 31

In the back of her mind, Melchsee could feel Casimer working. Unlike her master, she made it a point to always monitor his thoughts and senses. She wasn't nosy for curiosity's sake, rather, she proactively wanted to understand all the desires, wishes and problems of her master, and generate solutions as quickly as they arose. For instance, Casimer, having recently experienced a mysterious event involving otherworldly beings and then devouring said beings, had a secret desire to brag and show off. Melchsee added a note to her expertly organized mental space to be surprised and impressed when she returned. She was also pretty sure she knew why they burned up like that, and Casimer would be interested to hear it. A more pressing concern, however, occupied Melchsee's mind.

Melmat was nowhere to be found. He was not at the old house or any of the safe houses. He wasn't anywhere he was supposed to be, and that worried her. Melchsee understood that they were a couple of months late with communication, but at least Librorum should have kept him on the straight and narrow in terms of sticking to the plan.

She was floating somewhere over the Atlantic ocean, enjoying the view of a particularly violent storm as it churned the ocean into a violent dreamscape of movement. Schools of fish and ocean life were visible to her strange senses, like clouds of thought and light which called out from the veil of the depths. She took a moment to fully record the scene in all it's glory as a vivid memory, gave it the label “When sea and sky become one” and resolved to show it to Casimer at the soonest available opportunity. Truth be told, collecting beautiful memories was one of her favorite hobbies, along with her other favorite hobby, reliving them with The Master. He was gone now, but she still liked sharing the memories and thoughts she crafted. It was the whole reason she had been so excited to set out on her own, for the first time in her existence, she would be free to experience something entirely on her own, to craft truly original pieces of art.

With an exertion of will, she slipped between space, moving through a dimension of pure thought and imagination, before arriving at the old house instantly. While in transit, she noticed with a bit of amusement that with the addition of the mana core, she had become one of the most powerful beings around what would be inaccurately called the spirit world. She took a single moment to make a hit list of various entities she would crush when she had a spare moment. Demon hunting would be so much more enjoyable when it was a slaughter instead of a fight.

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She hovered above the old house and let the memories come and wash over her. Her womb and cradle, she had spent years here as the man now known as The Master to so many, who had given her his own true name. There was a new family here now, with their own baby in a crib. Melchsee couldn't resist, and entered the home, floating above the crib and smiled down at the baby.

It smiled back and cooed at her. Never before had any seen her, yet now with just a little concentration she could become as solid and visible as anyone. Gently and so very carefully, she floated down and ran a hand along the baby boy's face. It was the first time she had ever touched anyone or anything. The boy's face was soft, and so hot! Too hot for her to touch him for long.

Melchsee cared and lived for the sake of a single, noble being and wouldn't throw a flower on the grave of the Earth if nuclear war broke out and killed every man woman and little baby living on it's surface. Still, she sent out a silent prayer for the infant child before departing. She wasn't a monster, just focused on the greater good of the one she cared about.

As she rose into the air, higher and higher till she was surrounded by clouds, Melchsee remembered the sheer revulsion she had felt when she discovered that. . . wart, the boil on the earth that had been the Bug Dungeon. Things had improved considerably since then, but not nearly enough. Melchsee felt something akin to desperation, the feeling that had compelled her to leave Casimer and seek aid. For the third time that day, she slipped through the collective mind of man, noting with a tempered alarm that as she moved, she left a wake of solid, blue status windows that drifted like leaves in the wind. She stopped in her transit, surrounded by a maelstrom of color and pulsing fractals, and watched one of them find it's way into a human mind, attaching itself and sitting, dormant. The thought of such a changing wind blowing made Melchsee start to whistle a familiar tune.

She finished her trip and was soon in the restroom of an internet cafe, she wasn't sure which one or in what country. Astral travel could be somewhat inexact, as the astral plane was a chaotic and utterly deep place, and change was the only law.

Melchsee prepared herself to enter a vastly different realm of thought, the dark mirror of the astral, the internet. She shape-shifted into a spectacularly repulsive man with greasy black hair, a hundred pounds of extra fat, and tight, women's clothing. She entered the cafe and hypnotized the attendant to think she had already paid a year in advance, before sitting down in a chair and staring at the screen. It was time to go online and find out exactly what the world had been up to in their absence.

With a rush of Glee, she opened EndChan and began the process of logging in as an administrator.