RINA ELAVENA

Staring at the giant golem thing didn’t change anything about my situation. I was apparently the administrator of this Vortex thing. Since I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing or should be doing, I decided to name the giant metal thing, Turtle. I hoped they didn’t mind.

Desert was the only thing around me and as I watched Turtle shot a bunch of metal rods into the ground as it came to a stop. The people I could just barely make out on the surface Turtle appeared to be in a panic or at least, they were running around like they were panicking.

I made a constrained face as I shrugged. “Yep! I don’t know!” I said then started laughing. It was policy to go with the wind, ironically that led me to be a Hero in my last life. Last life… it was interesting that I was dead. I never thought I would ever think about my life like that.

It was too bad that I wouldn’t get to be with my goddess, but I suppose things like this happen. I pressed a hand against my temple. “Does this mean I literally will be going with the wind?” I couldn’t tell if I had any sort of control over the direction in which I was moving. I sighed then broke into laughter.

I wasn’t sure how long it lasted, but when I glanced at Turtle, it had released another of the metal golems. This one looked a lot shinier than the one that limped back a few... minutes? Hours ago? Looked like my tracking of time might be off a bit.

The new golem was circling Turtle. I felt like it was protecting it. Maybe more of the black and grey golems were going to attack it. I offered a prayer to the one I accidentally killed earlier. No matter what, I shouldn’t judge just because they were the ones attacking. For all I knew, the people on Turtle might the evil ones.

“Yep! I don’t know!” I said with another laugh.

I actually got a reply as a voice sounded out around me and yet, I knew there was no sound to it. “Aserite stabilized. Accessing memories of Administrator to establish Assistant… No matching creatures found. Generating suitable hybrid.”

“Well that’s just sad,” I mumbled. The fact that none of the forest creatures I knew back on my world were on this world was disappointing. I would never get teased by some playful squirrels, hear the songs of the birds, the dance of the deer, or the hunt of the wolf. How many more things will I have to go without in this new world? A dreadful thought that actually made me worried for the first time. What if there weren’t any trees!?

“Hybrid established. Please supply Aserite.”

“Supply you say…” I didn’t have much to go on, so I went with a hunch and searched inside myself much like I would back on my old world when I used magic. Surprisingly, I found a spot that seemed to be an energy of some type. I wasn’t sure about this world’s standards, but back on my world it would have been about a pond’s worth.

I sent the energy over to the voice, and a small swirl appeared in the air. A moment later, a fox that reminded me of the night sky appeared. Blue flames were wrapped around its paws and it hopped back and forth around me. Its pitch-black hide had pinpricks of light. I squealed and wrapped my arms around the beautiful creature.

“Operation finished. Transferring Vortex information into Assistant.” Why couldn’t they just transfer the information into my head if they had that ability? Poor thing…

“You better not hurt it!” I shouted at the voice but of course, I didn’t get a reply.

“Transfer complete. Vortex Management System operation complete. Entering silent mode.”

“Bye?”

“It has no empathy or true intelligence so it can’t answer you,” a smaller voice said. I looked around but couldn’t find anything. “Down here.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

I looked at the fox in my arms and found it looking up at me. “Numara, was that you?”

“Nu… Numara?” I found the voice did, in fact, came from the fox.

“Nu…ma…ra…” I chanted rubbing my cheek against the fox’s soft fur.

A glint in the distance drew my attention to another Turtle that was slowly making its way toward my storm. It looked a lot rougher compared to the one nearby. There were a few more of the smaller golems flying circles around it.

“A turtle and some golems. I wonder if they are mad I accidentally killed one of their friends?”

“That’s a crawler and those are airplanes. They are how humans survive on this wasteland of a planet.”

“Crawler? Turtle sounds cuter. Airplanes…”

“They are likely going to battle over you,” Numara said his three tails wagging and almost distracting me with their fluffiness.

“Me? I’m just a passing storm cloud.”

“No, you’re a Vortex. You are the only source of Aserite in the world. Even though it is a byproduct, centuries of development had made it more desirable than your actual product. People of this world will slaughter each other at the drop of a coin if they found out about you.”

I looked myself over. I didn’t like the sound of people coming at me for something inside me. “What should I do?”

“First me need to create your island!”

“Island?”

That’s right. The administrator can create a floating island up to a certain mass. It will house us as well as the monster that defends your Vortex.”

“Okay!” I paused then looked down at him. “Why do I need to defend myself? Shouldn’t we just work together?”

“Some of the humanoids are capable of that but many will harvest the Aserite until you perish. It is basically your blood and what is running the mechanism of the world that you have become.”

“What do I do?”

“Gather up the sand that has blown into your storm and start adding it to your island. You can’t create most things without a base material. Aserite will only get us so far.”

“Sand…” I focused on my storm and found that I had gathered some of the gritty stuff. I found that I knew instinctively how to form it into the island. Pulling all the sand in my storm to a spot, a small stone formed that was only about a few hands spans and a hand deep. I floated over and jumped onto it. “We might have a problem,” I said with a chuckle. It was barely bigger than a person.

“It might take a few weeks before we get more. That’s normal.”

I sat down and Numara curled up on my lap. I ran my hand through his fur enjoying the bliss. The two Turtles were on opposite sides of my storm but hadn’t come to blows yet. Maybe they were coming to a truce. Peace for all! That was the elven way.

Numara fell asleep, leaving me with no one to talk to. The rock that was just barely large enough for me to sit on, had grown by a few specks of dust. It was going to take forever to grow this into an island. Looking down, there was more sand than I would ever need, I just needed to get it up to me.

I yawn as I closed my eyes and extended my finger as I started forming the spell script that would have created a tornado back on my world. I silently laughed at my foolish actions when I suddenly felt some of the Aserite from my pond flow through my body like my mana would have. My eyes snapped open and I saw the glowing blue lines of the spell hovering in the air just before the spell took effect.

There was a roar as the wind picked up around me. A funnel of wind plummeted to the ground and was quickly dyed red-orange by the sand that was pulled into the vortex. In seconds, the sand flowed into my storm and the rock started to grow at a frightening pace. Other than sort of directing which direction the island grew in, the rest was decided by some other force.

“Huh? What?” Numara sputtered as he woke up from the roaring that was going on around us.

“So… I did a thing,” I said with a cough as the sand flew around us. While the island was growing quickly, the tornado was pulling in sand faster than the island was growing. Clutching Numara close, I shot into the air to get above the raging sandstorm. While I should have thought about the fact that I had adapted to it quickly, I rather go with the wind.

“Can’t you stop it?”

“Nope!” I said cheerfully, dusting his fur off. “I did one of my higher-ranked spells not really thinking it would work here. I figured, ‘hey, its another world you know’ and used a longer script to occupy my time. Once activated, it can’t be stopped.”

“How long is it going to last? Things can get dangerous quickly.”

I squeezed my eyes closed as I thought about it. “About three hours…” I said with a shrug. I laid back in the air and just let the wind take me for a ride. “Nice to know I can still use my magic here though.”

“That is surprising. There isn’t magic on Thearth,” Numara commented as he watched the storm from my stomach. The guy that told me I was dead didn’t say universe, just planet. There is a good chance I was still in my old universe. That could explain why magic worked. I’ll have to be careful not to summon a demon.

“OH!” I said as I had a thought. I waved my hands quickly and another spell took effect around me. Just as the Aserite left me, I saw Numara look at me with bewilderment.

“Please tell me you didn’t do another spell.”

“Well, I thought with all the wind, lightning, and thunder. Some rain would be nice.” Numara bit my finger.