Albert groaned. The world was, once again, spinning. But he had escaped the A-rankers, if barely. There had been five of them, armed to the teeth. Two cultivators, one mage, and two others he could barely classify. It did seem like magic was different for everyone. He even thought he saw the flash of a card, an actual game card from a sort of deck before he was pelted with magic and could no longer afford to waste time on his musings.

As his Focus dropped, he also realized things about his own Power. In the end, if he wanted to escape he needed to be smart. Being smart also meant being creative, which led to the accidental discovery – or rather a confirmation – of yet another facet of how Reality Bending worked.

Albert stumbled. He was invisible, thanks to Jeff copying his old illusion skills, which meant that he was safe for now. His pursuers would never think that he was going back towards Bastion, especially after making sure they saw him run the other way.

Doing so had been rather draining on his dwindling reserves, which left him without much more Focus to spare. He could not afford to waste resources to heal himself or help him stand upright. He needed the Focus to find Scrappy.

Albert stopped when he got close enough to Bastion he could see the walls. Crouching down, he used the thick vegetation to hide himself, the thorny bushes evergreens that did not lose their foliage in winter, and he waited. Then, he cast his spell.

An arrow appeared in front of him, pointing towards the distance like a compass.

He found the cave Scrappy was hiding mere minutes before the tracking spell lost its power. He wouldn’t have had enough Focus to cast another, leaving both him and Scrappy stranded and alone until he regenerated enough to cast it again. Fortunately it wasn’t the case this time, but it wouldn’t do well to find himself in a similar situation again.

“Sir Albert!” Came the yell from the other side of the cave, then the tiny figure of the young girl appeared and bolted towards him.

He caught her in a hug, almost toppling over. “You’re alive.” Albert said, panting.

Scrappy nodded and sat in front of him. “The book you gave me worked, sir, that it did.”

Albert nodded. “You can keep it. It will help you.” Once a day, but it was better than nothing. It had been at the edge of what he could craft, back when he made it.

Scrappy was shivering. She scooted over, sitting close to Albert.

Albert looked around. The cave was large enough and there was an air flow. “Gather some wood. I’ll make a fire.”

Scrappy obeyed, leaving Albert alone. He swayed, having suddenly lost his support, but Focus ticked steadily up and he felt clarity slowly return to his thoughts. When Scrappy returned with the wood, he made a complex hand gesture, the best he could do given his condition, and a warm flame lit the room.

Adding a ritualistic part reduced Focus cost by 12%

Albert nodded to himself. Reality-Bending was hard, but it seemed there were ways to make it easier. Two, that he knew of. One was to reduce the amount of reality being rewritten, or the scope of the change. A subtle change is cheaper, but no less effective if done well. The other way was yet another way to narrow the scope.

Lighting a fire with a simple thought was expensive.

Doing so after a complex hand motion was less so.

More constrains meant more efficiency. Not only that. Albert was also beginning to experiment with mixing and matching the various ways he could cast magic. Intent, mana, Jeff, Free-Bending… everything in an attempt to combine them into the ultimate Power to do anything he wanted.

It would be a long time before he was truly powerful enough to wave his hands and change the world, but the path to perfection was one to be traveled since the very beginning. Like a cultivator, he was now building the foundations of what would eventually become his own Power, and he couldn’t afford to slack off.

Slowly the world refocused, gaining back its sharpness, color and clarity.

“I have good news and bad news.” Albert said. “Actually, a lot of bad news and not many good ones.”

Scrappy pouted.

“I know.” Albert said. “Let’s begin… what first? Ah, right, I saw the northeners on my way here. The good news is that while I saw Lithoids there too, which is never good, I think I felt something that could be the Core I am looking for.”

Scrappy cocked her head. “What is a Lithoids? That I don’t know.”

“Evil creatures. They are stone golems born of Doom energy. They can destroy worlds… they already have, actually. These were different, however. Tamed. It seems like the northeners found a way to make the golems obey their commands. If I’m right, what they are using is the Kirkesis core.”

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He didn’t know for sure, of course, but there had been a reaction deep inside Jeff where the old module responsible for the Quests was housed. Not enough to trigger a new quest, but it felt like a good hint. Besides, the trail of Doom energy pointed towards the northeners. If anything, he knew the Core was related to the Lithoids, and it made sense to follow the trail.

“Is this why we left in such a hurry?” Scrappy asked.

“Many reasons. I suspected we were being chased when we left, and knew for sure when you felt someone following us. But that’s just part of the reason.”

“What’s the other? That I ask.” Scrappy cocked her head.

The little gesture made Albert’s heart warm a little. She was imitating him, he was sure of it, although he thought it looked much cuter when she did it than when he did.

“A war is coming. The northerner will attack Bastion with the strength of numbers, magic and the Lithoids. I think they will hit the city tomorrow, or the day after at best.”

“Can’t we hole up here, wait for the war to pass? That we could do, and if we were lucky perhaps the people who tried to kill us will die. You can make water from snow, we have a fire, we have shelter.”

Albert shook his head. “I wish we could.” He sighed. Then he waved his hands. He would need to show her what he meant. “Feel the tingling in the atmosphere? It’s a buildup of energy. I call it Alignment Energy but you know it as Doom energy. An apt name, although I suspect the meaning is lost on those who came up with it. It really spells doom, and in less than a year, the consequences will be catastrophic.”

Scrappy thought about it for a moment. “A year is a long time, though, that it is.”

“Ah, even if that were true… Doom energy has a nasty side effect. It makes magic linger. I’ll show you.”

***

Sir Albert touched Scrappy’s head, and suddenly her vision went funny. She could see colors, patches of blue and patches or red hanging in the air, drifting and moving slowly.

“Look over there.” He said.

Obediently Scrappy turned to look at where he had effortlessly slain an ice golem. There was a huge patch of blue hovering in the air above it. Around the blue, wisps of red streaked and danced.

“The blue is Mana. The red is Doom. Now, I don’t know what Doom actually does, but one of its effects is what you are seeing. Doom binds with Mana and stops it from returning to the world. It makes it linger.”

“What does it mean? Is it bad?”

Sir Albert nodded gravely. “Doom is an alien force from beyond this Universe. The more of it there is, the worse it gets. Mana isn’t good either. When it binds with Doom, it does… things.”

Suddenly the red and blue cloud shifted, lashing out at Scrappy like an angry demon. She reeled back in surprise, but Sir Albert caught her and with a wave of his hand, the cloud dissipated. The furious thumping of her heart in her chest slowed down a bit, and for a moment she enjoyed the safety of her protector’s arms around her.

“What do you think will happen when a battle between Bastion and the northerners releases a ton of magic all at once? Both from the spells being casted, as well as from all the death around.”

Scrappy’s eyes widened.

***

Scrappy was sleeping. Albert, however, was restless.

Cultivators might be able to clean up the battlefield by absorbing both Mana and Doom.

I suspect it will become common practice. Provided there are enough people alive to figure it out before it’s too late.

Bastion is big. 65% chance it doesn’t fall.

Bet. Now, let’s go over our gains.

8 Power gained during the fight with the A-rankers.

Which reminds me—

Data about the state of magic has been added to database. However, it seems to confirm our earlier hypothesis that magic does not follow strict rules. Everyone in the enemy team had a different power system.

That’s why you had problems quantifying their Power.

Indeed.

Other gains?

We have data on items 7, 8 and 9 of our list.

Which were?

>Test Intent and mana connection to Universe.

>Determine whether asking the Universe for people’s power increases in cost based on: power of target, mode of asking.

>Try to create magical items that exceed current power by being creative.

Okay, lay it on me.

Magical items are confirmed, as well as creative Free-Bending.

Right.

Asking the Universe yielded the following results: intent-bending works, intent-magic doesn’t, bending alone doesn’t, intent alone doesn’t, magic alone does but only for specific spell structures that connect to Universe.

And the Power-Focus cost?

Inconclusive. As with all Free-Bending, Focus costs are highly volatile. However, our new mixed way of casting proves interesting. However, I suggest you stick to COPY:skills.

Only in a pinch. You know how I feel about them. Now, what about Scrappy?

She has traces of structured magic, but they are not enough to qualify as a magic system.

I felt them too. They also feel… incomplete.

I agree with you. We might try Item 6 of the list on her.

Trigger a Universe Quest? We don’t even know if they exist.

If the Universe is a being with agency, it only makes sense it would use Quests. Even if it never used them before, once we provide it with a way to enforce its will, it will start to use them.

How do we know its will aligns with our goals?

If the Universe cared about the discreet events within itself, then it would not matter whether its goals are aligned with us. It’s too powerful anyway. We are betting that it doesn’t, that it will follow the past of least resistance and conform to our inputs.

Interesting… if anything, it was interesting that Jeff was willing to take a bet. It did not seem a thing an AI would do, however it was very much something Albert would do. He did not disagree. He would have, in the past. When he was on Earth. Things had changed. He had changed. He could take risks now.

Do you think my system quest are similar?

They currently do not have anything to do with Universal powers. I suspect that neither did they in the past, as the power of the system was more related to Bending than anything else.

And the Universe is not related to Bending?

I don’t think so. I think the Universe is Mana, and Bending is completely alien to both of them, yet powerful enough to elicit a Universe response when we use it to interface with it. This also would explain why Bending creates an interruption in the flow of causality.