October 5, 493 U.C.

Spying is difficult. Like watching paint dry, it’s largely pointless and horrible. The paint just sits there, and sometimes it doesn’t make any sense. Who threw random paint all over the wall? Why? And what exactly makes it art?

I had no answers to the riddles or my questions as I looked at the building with the chipped paint exterior. I had been to thousands, or what felt like thousands. Either way, my boredom was soaring as I tried to figure out why a tracker had died here of all places.

The homes were easy to understand. They were also easier to slowly bug out, and I did just that. However, this one was a mystery. Pulling out a book, I studied the scrying spell again. Why it was no longer working was another mystery.

Growling in the frozen reality around me, I began searching the halls once more, searching for some entry into what I assumed had to be some secret place they hadn’t discussed with me.

As I examined the boring, rundown, abandoned rats’ nest, I let out a wail. The concrete was uninteresting. The ruined carpet was worse. Then I stumbled onto the nest of rats that had taken over some supply closet of ages past.

I looked at one of them. “Tell me your secrets!” I ordered. Naturally, it couldn’t hear me or move since time wasn’t moving. But I did notice that it had been chewing on wires because it had a piece from one of them.

With nothing else to go on, I began following his trail of destruction back to the ruined remains of the electrical grid in the building. Come on, Casey. If you find the power, you can follow it. That’s what I did.

It took me an age. Tracing cables was a nightmare. And I didn’t envy the poor souls who have to do that for their jobs. Regardless, I eventually found the circuit breakers and discovered a nice, new pipe. I promptly followed it down into the depths and discovered there was a hidden tunnel under some of the nightmare carpet.

Letting out a whoop, I followed it down into the ground below. Then I froze as my vivid imagery became washed and muddy. Fury flooded through me. How did they get wards against scrying and teleportation? Whatever was in the room was blocked. And whatever it was would probably tell me something.

I sat there debating it for a while and then decided to just go for it. I began shredding their enchantment. It drained over twelve thousand of my mana to do it, but I did it.

Then I peered into the room. It appeared to be some lab. There were six people with those lab coats, and then there were animals in cages. Some clearly had mutated. There were foxes, coyotes, raccoons, rabbits, jaguars, kobolds, bugs, rats, and far more. I approached the computer terminals and began studying them.

It was clear that they were studying genetics. That helix structure was a dead giveaway. I looked through their horrible menagerie and stumbled on the worst section of the place by a large margin. Are they making hybrids?

The fusion of a rat and rabbit made me want to cry. It had the rat’s tail and the rabbit’s ears. It was in its cage gnawing on a bone. Next to it was some fusion of the cats on Starb with wolves. The feline and canine hybrids had way too many teeth and retractable claws.

Honestly, it just got worse from there. I wanted to light the entire thing on fire as I turned away from some horrible fusion between scorpion and centipede with their massive eggs.

Heading back to the other rooms, I began searching for them, stopping while studying a display that had human DNA on it. Next to it were four others with names that I didn’t recognize, but I did write down so I could try to figure it out: Homo-sapien, Homo-sapiem, Homo-dimidium, Fatum-dryadalis, Fatum-plenus.

Honestly, I didn’t really have a clue. There were highlighted chunks, but those could have meant anything. I gave up and looked at the other screen. That one was way more obvious. They were using an AI of some kind to try to sequence things. Are they trying to cut down on the fae side? That seemed a reasonable experiment. I began trying to figure it out while debating what to do next. They’d notice the enchantment got wrecked.

That’s when I embraced my Dad’s training and distorted my own reality, altering my appearance and making it look like the floor was covered in blood. “Hey, Death, if you do show up, just be menacing because I need to talk to this guy!” I called out.

Death popped in and grinned at me. Then he shifted. His cowl reappeared around him. “Cool. I like intimidating. You owe me wings though. Also, I should warn you about something. So, we chat after?”

“Sure,” I said, giving him a thumbs up.

Death conjured up a chair and sat on it. Then he winked at me. I felt robes appear on me. My hair shifted to a vibrant white while the rest of me darkened. I grinned at him.

Looking like a drow from fantasy books, I reached out and grabbed the researcher, pulling them into the place with me.

The researcher gasped as if I’d splashed her in the face with icy water. She looked around the room. “What?” she murmured.

“Time for answers. What are you working on?” I asked.

“Who are you? You should be able to… Shit!” The woman bit down on something. A crooked smile spread across her face. “You’ll never get me to talk.”

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“Yeah, you don’t get it,” Death said with a sigh. “Time isn’t a thing right now. And even if it was, your demise won’t stop me. So, just speed this up. I want pizza.”

The woman stared at him in confusion as her pill refused to work. Panicking, she used her magic and swung her fist at his face. Death took it on the chin, literally. He just sat there while her hand broke on his face. The crack echoed through the room.

The woman looked down at her hand. “Why didn’t it hurt?”

“No time, remember,” Death said as he rolled his eyes. “Now, what are you working on?”

“I’m not telling you,” the woman hissed out.

Death groaned while I stared. I had zero experience torturing people, but I did have plenty of experience lying even if I was terrible at it.

Death seemed to sense it because he interjected. “Just go get it from the computer,” he told me. “You know how to break in.”

I nodded and then vanished, moving into the shadows. The image of Earth blinked out as it was replaced by the sun’s surface.

“Cool, right?” Death said with a grin as he gestured towards it. “Any last words?”

“You can’t kill me!” the woman said with a panicked look. “There’s no time.”

“But there will be. That’s when you die. And no, I’m not undoing it. That’s not my gig. Half the reason I showed up was because I knew where this was headed.” Death tossed back his cowl.

I stared at the blinding visage that was shown. Is that what he’s really like? Like polished marble, light radiated off him in a sheen. And then there was a presence. Power slammed over me, nearly knocking me over.

The woman slammed to the floor. She gasped. “Who are you?”

“Do not speak in the presence of a God without permission. Now, answer the question that we already know. This is your judgment, not an interrogation.” Death snapped his fingers, and the woman’s body vanished as her spirit remained.

The woman stared at him. “We’re improving humanity,” she whispered. “We learned from the fae. They can bring over key parts from their code.”

Death nodded. “And the new species that you’ve made?”

“Forgive me,” the woman said as she bowed in front of him.

“It’s an act. Intent is what matters. Your soul is not yet ready. Return again.” Death gestured and the woman vanished.

I stared at the display while struggling to comprehend what I’d just learned. She made a new species? “What?” I whispered, nearly falling over.

Death appeared next to me. “You know that I can’t answer that, right?” he asked.

“Why did you help me get anything?” I asked.

Death smiled at me. “Because someday, I’m going to ask you for help. Magic is changing. It hasn’t reached here yet, but it will soon.”

“Help? You’re a God.” I blinked repeatedly at him.

Death nodded. “Finish up here. Then we’re getting pizza.” He chuckled and gestured.

I began launching teleportation spells at the people inside, dumping them at the guardian H.Q. “How would they make a new species anyway? Graft it on people? Or surrogacy?”

“I can’t answer that, but you know,” Death replied. “There are ways to do it. I suppose that these were inevitable.”

“And the fae? Are they lying?”

“I can’t answer things that will alter courses, Casey,” Death said as he watched. “I do adhere to rules. If you want that answer, you’ll need to find someone who knows. They are out there.”

I nodded and sent a teleport for the final person. Turning, I added several computers to the mix. Then I watched reality distort, and we appeared in a pizza shop. Noise flooded my ears as I waited in line with Death who was smiling contently.

“Wait. What changes?” I whispered.

Death winked. “Let’s not ruin the surprise.” He chuckled. “It’s a lovely day.”

“Back to being enigmatic?”

“I have rules. If you want to read them, be my guest. They are long. They are boring.” Death walked up. “Two large sodas. Make mine Cola. Two dozen of your spiciest wings and four pizzas. Make two pepperoni.” He looked over.

“Root beer. And two Hawaiian,” I said with a smirk.

Death groaned loudly.

I began laughing as I walked up and paid.

“Where’d you get cash?” Death asked, knowing the answer.

“Stole it from Dad,” I replied before walking to the nearby table and taking a seat.

Death chuckled as he joined me.

“How old are you?” I asked as he sat.

“As old as I want to be. You of all people should get that,” Death said with a grin.

Honestly, I could hardly argue. It wasn’t like I knew my own real age anymore.

We spent the time in idle chatter before Death vanished off to do something. I returned home and began plotting my next target while pretending to make a potion.

Current Level 11 Current XP 84.49% Current Max Mana 15105.63 Regen per minute 22.89 Reputation 12600

Tier Skill Cost Tier 11 User Time Dilation (Haste)

- User experiences 256 seconds for 1 earth second.

- Force transference limited to 25%. 1 mana per earth second. Tier 7 Pocket Dimension

- 128 cubic meters of pocket space.

- Rapid stash and rapid draw.

- You may tether objects to your pocket space.

- Your pocket space cleans, preserves, and organizes items inside based on your will. 32 mana Tier 7 Time Stop

- Caster leaves spacetime. They may remove and place things back in spacetime.

- You may control the flow of time in the demiplane.

- You may summon in willing living creatures.

- This automatically triggers if you take significant damage.

- Recast to gain vision. 200 mana to cast.

Variable cost to move items in and out. Tier 7 Teleport.

- Teleports the caster or a willing creature.

- You may cast this on a willing or unwilling creature if they are within fifty meters.

- You may teleport inside an object, causing the matter to push outward.

200 mana for the caster.

400 mana for a willing creature.

1000 mana for an unwilling creature with no resistance.

- Short range casts cost less mana.

Tier 3 Attire Swap

- Locked to a single outfit. Current outfit set to Magical Girl Uniform.

- Attire cleaned on swap.

- Attire repaired on swap. 20 mana. Tier 3 Enhanced Body

- Caster’s body is enhanced by a factor of eight. 2 mana per caster second. Tier 2 Enchanting.

- Enchantments last twice as long. Variable cost. Tier 2 Potions.

- Potions last twice as long. Variable cost. Tier 2 Familiar Manifestation. 20 mana to cast Tier 2 Free casting

- Cast any spell you can replicate.

- Slotted Spell. Use half the normal cost of the spell to store a single spell for future use. Cast the spell for the remaining cost. Variable cost. Penalty of 8x mana.