“You idiot! Clear your mind so our teleportation isn’t so weird.” Anna told the nano-chatte. Unlike the smooth, almost seamless connection Ian and the nano-chatte shared, Anna and the nano-chatte weren’t connected at all. Their minds remained completely separated. The last incident made it clear that Anna was a controlling freak that would use any info the nano-chatte shared with it to her advantage.
That was only one facet of their problem though. Magic in general was based on how you believe it to be based. For example, if the nano-chatte thought teleportation looked like a portal swallowing them up and spitting them out at their intended destination, then that would be how it worked. In this case, that example was real, and Anna was very much annoyed by it.
“You try clearing your mind when seven AI’s and four people are computing and thinking about your every action!” The nano-chatte said. Being a hivemind meant having several people think inside your mind at the same time. You’d need to organise them before even thinking about doing anything.
“Just shut them off! Look. We’ll try this one last time, and if my objectively better way of teleporting is overwritten by you, I’ll personally make sure that not only they are shut off, but you as well.” Anna said before briefly connecting to the nano-chatte so they could synchronise their teleportations. Teleporting without the vast amount of calculations the nano-chatte could do required either the intellect of a prodigy or years of practice. Given the fact that the pillars only appeared a week ago, nobody had enough time to teleport just through practice alone.
The nano-chatte concentrated, trying to focus all its disparate personalities and identities, but failed once again. The portal appeared and swallowed them up, but didn’t let them out this time. It was as if it was facing an invisible wall. The nano-chatte focused itself, and used its willpower to plough through the wall only to end up in a white void, where they saw a manifestation of the Revifier arguing with Ian.
“-Call my name, and I shall rescue you. Don’t forget you have a very special fan that would love nothing but to love you if you turned to my side.” Ian was pulled back, and the Revifier turned to the unlucky duo. Anna didn’t know who the Revifier really was. All Anna knew was that the woman looked like the lady she met when she went into a pillar for the first time.
“Anna! We need to–” The Revifier quickly teleported right in front of them, grabbing Anna’s soul, and by proxy, Anna’s and the nano-chatte’s body.
“Where do you think you two are going? You’re the reason I had to cut my little meeting with your comrade short.” The Revifier chose to use her omnipotence rarely, and only to lightly aid her plans, Anything else would’ve been boring. In this case, it was not boring to see them cower before her. The Revifier knew the nano-chatte and Anna would mess up their teleportation, and the nano-chatte would feed Ian a plethora of reasons why she was wrong. That’s why he had to be sent away before she could use her real arguments.
“Who are you exactly?” Anna said.
“I am the Revifier. I am the concept of change, the bringer of magic, and the person who gifted you with–” The Revifier said before letting go of Anna’s soul just in time to make her think that the anger she felt allowed her to break free. Anna instantly overpowered the nano-chatte’s will and formed a sword to slash at the Revifier with.
“Anna! You have to stop, she’s toying with you.” The nano-chatte said as it focused on regaining control, but the sheer amount of anger Anna felt prevented it from making any meaningful progress. Anna felt too much resentment towards the Revifier for not giving her any form of magic swordsmanship. The Revifier promised Anna that she could acquire that power through enough training. She made Anna suffer to acquire magic swordsmanship when she knew that no matter what Anna did, she was a mere pawn, a member of a reincarnator’s harem at best.
“Oh? What’s wrong, dear? You still haven’t mastered magic?” The Revifier said to rub salt on the wound. Anna’s slashes did nothing as the ethereal form of Revifier simply regenerated. She forced the nano-chatte to short circuit itself to create some electricity her sword could absorb. Anna hoped that lightning would course through the ghostly body as she resumed her assault, but just as her rational mind had deduced, the lightning didn’t even move out of her sword.
“How dare you just stand there like a ghost! Summon your real self here and fight me properly.” Anna said as the nano-chatte started panicking. Anna didn’t know what she was doing, and would doom them to most likely be mind controlled just so they can help the Revifier control Ian. The nano-chatte had to act.
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It electrocuted Anna and quickly teleported right through the Revifier while pretending Anna was gonna use a magic attack, and prayed that the Revifier wasn’t using its omniscience.
The dust storm finally stopped fifty minutes into the true arm wrestle. The knights were watching the dust settle as the two figures shook hands, and Chrisitian walked out first with his arm up, signalling that he won. The crowd cheered right before the knight captain walked out and noticed the emptiness of the town. I slowly approached Christian as the captain was piecing everything together.
“Christian, you gotta run. We’ve evacuated the town so they’re not gonna kill anyone.” I told Christian quietly, but it was too late as the knight captain swung for Chrisitian’s arm. It did no damage as the hours of arm wrestling had made the arm’s skin regenerate over and over, and get tougher and tougher.
“Huh? What’s happening?” Christian casually grabbed the sword and dislodged it from his shoulder before the captain activated his aura. The aura was a radiant gold that outshined the sun itself. I barely had any time to use the Coming Quiet’s aura on myself to stop the light from affecting me. I dodged Christian and watched as the captain’s aura settled. Christian can deal with all the other knights. The captain was my job.
“What did you think would happen? Your entire force was distracted, and the people of this town have no loyalty to you or your guild.” The captain looked down at me without speaking a word after I said that. He moved slowly, leaving foot marks made of glass as he walked.
“Last chance. Give up now.” We were face to face, and his aura fought against mine for control of what I felt. Tiny sparks of lightning that made it through the aura of stillness forced my arms to spasm while the Coming Quiet’s aura slowed down my body and everything that made it work.
I didn’t have any guns on me, and the nano-chatte was still with Anna, so I guess my only move was to hope the level difference between us was massive enough that I could outpower him. I ran rings around him as he stood completely still. I then tried punching him from the back only for his aura to overpower mine and electrocute me until I backed away.
“Resistance is futile. However strong and lucky you may be, you don’t have any equipment, and are fighting the former king of the golden kingdom.” Shit. I didn’t know he was a reincarnator. I was gonna have to use some more suicidal tactics to take him down.
I reshaped my aura into a cone centred on my hand and charged at him. His aura electrocuted every part of my body, but couldn’t stop my momentum. My fist, cloaked in the aura, couldn’t be reached by the lightning and landed. I kept punching the same spot so fast that my vision couldn’t focus on my arm properly. Wait… did the nano-chatte replace my eyes with cameras that focus slower?!
I finally jumped back when my aura gave out. I could smell the pungent and familiar scent of my burnt flesh. I was more of a ghoul than a person now, but I could still walk, so I had to keep fighting. The captain looked at me through the massive gash my punches left with a look that would best be described as disgust or awe. I couldn’t focus on him properly thanks to the pain, but I only needed to see his vague figure to injure him.
“Good god. I’ll make this quick.” He ran straight at me, trying to engulf me in his aura, but I just returned the favour. My current aura wasn’t enough, I needed something that could overpower him. I didn’t think the Revifier’s holy aura would do me much good considering his aura is also made of light magic, so I had to use the opposite of that aura.
If the light aura was gained from using the Revifier’s holiness, which was change, then using un-change on myself would create an aura made of darkness. Time slowed down for a while, as if the universe itself was begging me to reconsider, but I remained confident in this new aura. As time went back to normal, I felt my heart rate plummet, and my breaths became heavier. My entire body slowed down as it started emitting an aura of pure darkness. His sword pierced through the darkness only to entirely stop at my hair. I was unchanging, and unchanging things don’t move.