Ahem, so… uhh… Space magic. Right. That’s what was going on. The reason I hadn’t tried space magic before was not necessarily because I’ll find it harder than other branches of magic, but due to the fact that making a mistake with space magic could result in far more devastating consequences than with regular magic. Unless you’re at Sophia’s level or above, it’s kinda hard to fuck up casting a fireball so badly that you end up creating a black hole that slowly devours the planet after all. I guess wildfires can get really out of hand, but rain is a thing that exists that could prevent it from going too far. For this next week I only practiced one spell until I was able to use it confidently in day to day activities.
Instead of going for something that would create a controlled hole in space, I practiced folding space. Basically, what I was doing was stretching out my mana to where I wanted to go, anchoring onto it, and then gently pushing everything in between me and the point I wanted to go to into a fourth dimension. An easy way to think about it is if you have a really messy floor in your bedroom. There are two ways you could get from the door to your bed in that scenario. The first is that you yourself travel through a new dimension to reach your bed, i.e., leaping through the air and crashing on top of your bed to avoid your messy floor. The second is that you temporarily put everything into a new dimension, walk to your bed, then allow everything to return to how it was, i.e., magically shoving everything into your closet really quickly, then once you reach your bed stop holding everything in and let it all tumble back onto your floor like in a cartoon.
The first of those options has a lot more freedom and many more potential uses, however it is also far riskier for an amateur to try. What I was doing was the second option, which, while both far more complicated and much less useful, was a significantly safer starter spell for space magic. It would also allow me to start getting a feel for the different kinds of space, for example, a real world vs this subspace. If I can get a handle on manipulating the fabrics of both kinds of space, it will be much easier to bring myself here whenever I want. Not that it’s really necessary, seeing as I doubt Sophia would refuse to bring me here, but A) She has her own stuff to deal with on Hell, and can’t really be expected to just drop everything and bring me home whenever the hell I feel like it, and B) I don’t really like relying on other people. It’s something I’ve been working on improving, but at the very least I should be able to provide my own transportation. No woman likes a man she has to take everywhere. Rule #1 of dating: Get a car.
Speaking of modes of transportation, I did the bare minimum for my witch broom project and engraved both a set of wings and a battery on it, allowing it to fly. However, the problems I had mentioned to Ash were very relevant, in that whenever I tried to ride it I would end up sliding to one side and always end up dangling underneath it like a koala. I’d have to think about how to stabilize the flight and make it more comfortable to ride. And also speaking of Ash…
“Alright, it’s been two weeks, I should go back and check on how everyone else is doing, hopefully we’ll be out of town by the end of the day.”
“Have fun!”
Next thing I knew I was back in the inn at the adventurer’s guild, making my way downstairs to check on Liz and the merchant and their progress. On the way I happened to run into the merchant and asked what he knew. He’d apparently finished packing all of his stuff a couple days ago, and was waiting for everyone else to come to the guild to contact him. Given that I had no clue where anyone was staying, I stuck around with the merchant in a lounge area. He was asking about my experiences in the forest, most likely trying to get a vibe for how well he could trust me with his safety, given that a ray of sunshine like Ash had described me as ‘a super dangerous guy’. Or maybe he just wanted to socialize with one of the people with whom he planned to spend the next few years. Far be it from me to assume I know what’s going on in someone else’s head, given that the majority of the time I barely understand what’s going on in my own.
While we talked, I took a good look at the merchant for the first time. Ever since I had arrived in this world, I’d been extremely mission-oriented, which I considered to be perfectly understandable, seeing as how I was in a completely new environment with completely different common sense. But by now I had been here long enough to know what was going on for the most part. I could afford to lose my one track mind a little bit and relax, really take in the world around me.
Like every beastkin I had met so far, the merchant was extremely human looking, with the big notable exception being the snow white ears and tail. I had asked Sophia why they looked like that rather than like anthropomorphic animals, and according to her, the majority of beastkin had their roots in monsters who had developed true consciousness, took on a human form, and then integrated with humans. Because they were in human form during the conception of the child, the babies ended up with mostly human traits.
Partway through our conversation, Ash made her way down to where we were, her black cat ears twitching and her long dark gray tail with streaks of bright white wagging as she bounded down the stairs. She was staying here at the guild as well so it wasn’t particularly surprising that she was the first one by.
After I verified that she was all packed and ready to go, and that she didn’t have any information about Mike and Liz either, I continued the conversation I had been having with the merchant and regaled them both with the story of hunting the Violet Bladed. It was actually rather difficult to tell hunting stories, as most of my hunts were spur of the moment ambushes that either failed or immediately killed them. Luckily, Ash was there to do the heavy lifting when it comes to conversation. She asked questions, she gasped in the right places, and even inspected the head of my war scythe to get a mental picture of the quarry.
“So why do you call your big spear a scythe? Isn’t that for cutting grass, and the blade goes out to the side?” Ash asked. It occurred to me that due to the mostly isolated nature of this world, they don’t have overly specific classifications for things. So to her, naginatas, war scythes, and halberds would all just be considered weirdly shaped spears.
“A regular scythe is for cutting grass, yes, and has a very distinct blade that extends out perpendicularly to the pole it’s attached to, with the blade at an angle so that you can hold it down yet cut grass parallel to the ground. A war scythe, however, has the same curve to it, where the blade is on the inside of the curve, but instead of being out horizontally at an angle, the blade is perfectly in line with the pole, extending forwards just like a spear. Where spears excel in thrusting attacks, war scythes are more suited for hacking. If the blade were on the other side,” I pointed, “this would be considered a Naginata, and would specialize in slicing.”
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Ash looked confused, “Wait, what’s the difference between hacking and slicing? I mean aren’t they both just cutting?” I considered how best to put it into words, “It has to do with how it hits after the cut or if it’s blocked. A naginata’s slice would just slide right off due to the shape of the blade.” I demonstrated by sliding my hand down the back of my scythe. “This, on the other hand, hacks into something instead. Whenever it hits it catches the object and moves it along with the blade. This means that you risk having your blade getting stuck in something, but it’ll also cause a lot more damage.”
The confused look on her face disappeared, but the fact that she was confused in the first place brought a question to my mind. “I wonder why that intent wasn’t translated along with the words.” It had to be remembered that none of us were speaking the same language, and were instead all speaking our own native tongues while also infusing mana into our voices to share the intent behind our words. The merchant was able to explain this, as he had traveled around the most of all of us.
“When I hear you say slicing, hacking, and cutting, I actually just hear the same word repeated each time, just with different tone and pronunciation. Most likely, Ash here experienced the same, or maybe just heard different synonyms for cut if her language has multiple words that mean the same thing. Because the base intent is so similar it’s difficult and often even impossible to find a word with the exact right connotation behind it. That’s why we can still and most likely often will misunderstand each other, unless we all end up learning the same language during our travels.”
We continued discussing various things. All of the places the merchant had been to, what laws and social structures to expect, the progress I’d made with space magic, which had thoroughly amazed the merchant far more than tales of my hunts. Our conversation started petering out after a few hours, as we were all just waiting there. Finally, I turned to Ash and asked, “You know where they live right? Let’s go check on them, see what the holdup is.” After she nodded in agreement I turned to the merchant and instructed, “You stay here just in case they swing by and we end up missing each other.”
Ash led me through a few caves, my updated blindfold surprising me with how many heat signatures I could see, demonstrating the unexpectedly large number of people who lived in this underground town. As we made our way to Mike’s family’s place, I told her about the improvements I had made to my blindfold, including the new potential upgrades with regards to Project Horizon. She also asked how my flying broomstick was coming along, and laughed when I described just how bad of a ride it actually ended up being. Within a few minutes we were standing in the entranceway to a system of caverns dedicated to the Foxkin tribe. Michael’s people. Without further ado, I marched forwards, Ash uncharacteristically quiet, and lagging behind. I assumed this was a product of both her unrequited love for Mike and the whole pack dynamic that she wasn’t a part of due to her status as a mutt.
I walked right up to the first heat signature I saw to my left and asked her if she knew where we could find Michael. She responded, “Are you friends with that damn bird?” I shook my head no, “Not particularly.” Which was in fact the truth. I’d never even really spoken a word to her after all, and our only real interaction was when I threatened to stab her in the throat with a flying knife. Not exactly budding friendship material.
“Well too bad, cuz that’s where he went off to. Damn ungrateful brat ran off with a bird of all things. That mutt would’ve been bad enough, but a goddamn bird?! I don’t know what the hell that boy is thinking. Back in my day…” And the woman continued ranting for five minutes straight, before finally telling us where to find the birds’ nest, which was a short way outside of town above ground. She sent us off with a, “Make sure you give that brat a good kick in the ass and remind him about the pack he went and abandoned.”
Relieved to finally be free of her nagging, Ash and I started making our way back to the guild, to let the merchant know what we heard. During the walk I asked, “That woman mentioned, ‘that mutt would’ve been bad enough’. I take it you were somewhat well known around there?”
Ash sighed, an unusual look on her face. “Do you mind if we get into that another time? It’s not really a happy story.” I nodded in acceptance. I had plenty of stories that I was keeping secret from her after all, so it would be pretty hypocritical of me not to respect the same.
Sophia’s POV
During these past six months, I had been making my way above the clouds of smoke regularly in order to note the day/night and lunar cycles. Interestingly enough, Hell and both Earths were all in sync for the day/night cycle despite the massive difference in scale, which begged the question as to why. Not that there was any satisfactory answer that we could come up with, but it was fun to theorize the different possible connections between the worlds anyway. I had also sent various recording spells and enchantments as high up as I could get them, in order to determine what steps I would need to take in order to get to the moon.
My concern wasn’t the lack of air or the coldness, as those were perfectly simple to address with magic. The big issues were protection from solar radiation, and making sure our bodies didn’t explode in the vacuum of space. I was uncertain whether my Aspect of Flame had any sway in how my body interacts with gamma radiation. Stars are not actually on fire after all, and the heat and brightness are brought about by ‘nuclear fusion’, which is an entirely different process. At the end of the day it just depends on whether my Aspect can provide me with protection against all high energy states, or only specifically with regards to fire. And given that I don’t personally know anyone who can use magic powerful enough to hurt me who also comprehends the concept of radiation the way Leo does, there’s no way to test my potential vulnerability. This meant that I would need to either make a spell that could protect me just in case, or ask Leo to create a few sets of enchanted clothing.
The only reason I couldn’t do the enchantments myself is that I didn’t really understand the underlying principles enough to know whether it would work or not. These suits wouldn’t get any sort of testing after all, as their first journey into outer space would be with us inside of them.
The last piece of the puzzle that I was missing was someone with a mana pool almost as large as mine. I would be manipulating my empty subspace around the moon, and Veronica would be binding it, so we needed one more person who could assist both of us with our respective tasks. Someone who was skilled enough at mana manipulation to be able to insert themselves into someone else’s spell was already plenty rare, as I only knew of a small handful who could, but to do two at once? I am the only person I know of who could do such a thing. That means that while not impossible, it was something that you should probably only expect out of spell-focused Titled.
I have to specify spell-focused because all demons have their own obsessions, and not even other Titled necessarily have magic casting as one of theirs. Yes it is easier to uncover your True Name with repeated use of magic related to your Aspect, but consider for example someone who possesses an Aspect like War or Sex. Those Aspects would be uncovered not through the employment of magic spells, but by engaging in battle or promiscuity.
Looking for that one last person was a job that I set my Avatars to accomplish. Normally I have them trying out different spells or sifting through the vast amount of information I had stored and collected in my mind through contracting with people. The acts of summoning and contracting does provide me with a certain amount of knowledge possessed by the contractor after all, which is why I was automatically able to speak with Leo in his native tongue, however the majority of that knowledge is entirely instinctive, and very poorly organized within my brain. A long time ago I had attempted to develop a spell that would sort out the information I held, but it was remarkably inefficient time-wise, which is why I generally had Avatars casting it non-stop.
Any day now, I would find the last person required, the missing key to my goal, and finally begin working on my deepest, and most long held desire. Soon, I would take the moon, and begin the project of creating my own planet.