3/25/25

Certainly a novel reason for one of the spires going down. Fire caused by not realizing that bits of the casing acted as lenses and using flammable (or is it inflammable, my reading has suggested both can be used) materials in large parts of the support structure.

A very sunny day happened yesterday, the one over a bit of blacktop caught fire first, and we three pilots had to work until it was no longer safe or able for us to stay operating the knight armor.

Not exactly coincidentally, the newest knight armor was rushed out. I won’t give out its name now, as the poor thing wasn’t responsible for the bad performance it put on. That was the rush to have it active.

That was also why I was given the job of attempting rescue of the one that caught fire first. That one was already written off, but the director of this job said that the effort needed to be made.

My knight armor’s arms failed under the very magical fire. It wasn’t spectacular looking, but that distance. If the requirements weren’t so high, it could be the newest weapon to totally change the battlefield. But that much work and danger? It wouldn’t even count as vundervaffin. Or however that term is spelled.

The only upside is that at least one, and possibly as many as three, demons managed to ‘fall’ into this world on fire. My knight armor was unable to actually finish any of them, but they were on fire. Nobody is really clever when lit on fire.

In much the same vein, most beings are also typically not very alive for long after being set on magical fire.

It is only due to not being able to grab the spire and having been ordered to retreat when the portal opened that I am not currently a brickette. This page looks like I used my attempts at transliterating all wrong, but I didn’t pay attention in the store or in history enough since the last entry and am currently trying to get into the middle of a lot of not caring about anything but celebrating being alive.

So if I remember to correct this tomorrow or the day after, what went wrong, me? I should be celebrating too much to remember this palty detail. Or have celebrated, depending on what the twins can bring.

This world seems to have plenty of recreational experiences that take up lots of time. Even some that seem to grow to fill available time.

Well, I’m going to attribute that one to either loss of attention or just being that kind of addictive. Either way, have to work at getting some party food (Earth version) ready for when I wake up tomorrow.

3/27/25

The higher ups (and in this I include the twins parents) were fairly angry, if completely toothlessly. I think the previous loss had everyone shook and the almost total failure of communications in my armor just drove their thoughts in that direction.

After all, my armor (which still needs to be properly debut-ed) was in far better shape than those two. It is, unfortunately, still not up to operating standards beyond boosting my shadow bolts. I wish my anger or skills were up to making the work go faster, but the made-into-sloth engendered by the ‘improved’ anti-invasion defenses means that the EU factory is dangerously close to working while everything to protect and support the factory is still half or quarter finished in places tither and yon.

Well, Hofud and Nyx are both finished. The pool of applicants was just not fished out of because it was believed that there would be time to ensure that only the best picks for the repaired knight armors would chosen.

Hopefully the speed choosing doesn’t result in a dysfunctional team. I can’t help but worry that a second target will mean both sides get mightier demons as there are two places to dump transit magics into.

At the very least, I’m expecting another attempt to get a demon loose in the world and then a try at making bases or something. Hopefully the other demon is as focused in methods as this one. I learn more and more about the monstrously good security this world has when the people securiting know what to look for and when.

Or perhaps it’s just that securing against the kinds of gas attacks this demon wants to use is easy with the kind of apartment building I’m in. I don’t have enough samples to know, especially as I’m probably being valued a bit higher than most humans.

A third possibility occurs to me, but I discounted it after a little more thought. If somebody did have a summoning fetish, I think there’d be more summoned people or I’d at least be more watched.

3/27 addition.

Couldn’t find any cameras. Don’t mean they’re not there. I hopefully just made myself paranoid. But I’m going to check more later. Sleep now.

3/28/25

I’m surprised by how little I had to lie about being almost burnt. Most were not as inquisitive about things as I expected. The rumor mill, of course, is filled with fun from what Odette and Ben have told me.

I, apparently, am just not friends with the right kind of rumormongers. Tis all food and books for poor Alexis. Also gambling, but that’s not something I try and indulge in too much. My master has served, often enough, as a moderating lesson for gambling. Of course, she also serves as a lesson for why gambling has as many adherents as it does.

Nothing else particularly interesting today. It seems that either the demons have been caught off guard with the loss of those three demons or that they’re saving up to try at both factories at once.

There’s probably a saying for this situation. I don’t know it, obviously, and don’t care to tempt fate asking around about it. So I’ll just present it as thus; I preferred bored knowledge to uncertainty, bored or otherwise.

And there have been things keeping me excited recently; all mundane but still. Excitement is excitement. Most of it has been research into things paying off and the laughs I’ve had as a result. A little has been day to day things that were causes to celebrate. The tiniest fraction is because of the failed assassination attempt on the twins. I’m not happy it happened, just happy it failed.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Yes, it was gas. No, the demon hasn’t learned (in a way). Odette and Ben live in a larger place that happens to be much more active in terms of windows and doors being opened. So the ceoh wasn’t ever able to actually build up enough to cause any debility much less injury.

Also met Ben and Odette’s mother today. A nice, caring, maternal woman who would probably be giving really good advice if I was a human and had to go through the changes. I listened because, well, I figure it’ll at least be funny when I get to meet master again.

Well, if I’m right about the end of the month being the best time to try a dream sending again. It wasn’t necessary to mention before, but when getting the warding supplies I also worked a dream sending keyed towards master into the ward setup just in case actual dream magic got involved.

It would be, as far as I knew, pretty useless. I wasn’t sure where this world, mine, and the tower of worlds were in relation to each other, so it wouldn’t get through. As far as defenses went against an actual demon master of dream magic it was hiding in a corner and only slightly better against a determined student of dream magic. It was, however, also so cheap and easy to set up that I put it in just on the off chance it managed me a surprise night of safety.

Then yesterday night I got a very small connection to my master. Not enough for much to get through, but enough to realize that it happened.

So my plan for tonight is to make the dream drink, read a copy of the information I wanted to send to master, and hope to get a good enough connection before the end of the month that she can start doing the complex maths needed to make the trip a few times.

I’m pretty sure the pineapples alone would be incentive for the money she’d be shelling out for a longer term solution, but getting her over is the bigger possible point of failure.

Even so, I think that greed could get her to entice a master of world travel to get on with the project. There are actual demon pacts that probably get less money than we could manage based on the pay I get.

It’s hard to say with demon pacts because of the riders and other things they like to throw in, after all. Making an actual pact for wealth would probably get some status to go with the money, but the effort involved in having to hide the pact signs is one of those things that’s hard to put a price to.

I’m rambling, aren’t I? Well, I still feel that I have a very good reason to do so. Gonna prepare early and sleep early. I don’t really have the time to do any real experimentation, but I’m going to try anyway. Today is early, if it don’t work tomorrow will be later. Need to put that on my memorization card too.

3/29/25

Early worked better, even if I had to bull through some of her dreams. Got interrupted by demon attack. Bastards. Still a bit out of it from the interruption. Luckily it’s a free day other than the attack. May come back later to write more andbetter if I can get back to sleep.

Reminder: Armor intro.

3/30/25

Got back to sleep yesterday. Didn’t manage to wake back up till a few hours into today. I was at least right about this being the best day for a dream sending. I can only now hope that I’m going to get some aid. I’ll also have to hope that master Alissa can set up really a good dream learning session or two.

Had the twins over today. I think master will enjoy entertaining them with me, especially since she’s not going to have to wait a few months as I thought she would.

No demon attack. Don’t remember much of yesterday’s attack between the interrupted spell and being too tired to remember to record much.

Still, I think it was a much better showing for Natal. There’s some kind of foreign accent mark somewhere in there, apparently, but I don’t know what mark or where.

Natal, now that it’s finished, is somewhere between a lizard and a dragon in body plan. The legs move between dragon-like to move, and lizard-like to keep stable. The forelimbs are basically clawed hands for self-defense and grabbing. Have to keep one on the ground at all times, sadly. On the up side, guns. Natal has three guns and they are all just great. The smallest is in the mouth, and it’s more of a rapid fire gun. The other two are back mounted, one comparable to Nyx’s guns, and one even bigger.

Even using shadow magic, the biggest gun requires me to get into a special stance to fire it. This is mostly because it won’t deploy otherwise, but the thing looks like it could injure mountains. Oh, and obviously it’s got a dragon like face. If master Alissa can manage a quick arrival, I’d love to cash in some of the favors for a bit of fire magic training. This thing needs to breath fire, not gasses and foam.

Didn’t have a chance to see the other thing I’m going to end up piloting. It’s going to be made at the EU plant and I don’t know the language of the place it’s going to be made in. So most of the information is going to be unavailable to me.

This plant has officially been moved to support. It will produce spare parts, new factory pieces, and so on, until all eight factories are finished. I don’t believe it.

Well, I mean I don’t believe that the final number is going to be eight. I’m sure it’s going to be more or that somebody is going to be shafted. Just can’t find out which.

Alarm scared me. I spent so much time on this that I didn’t get to actually cover today like I wanted to.

But I need to get back to a normal sleep pattern unless another demon attack gives me an excuse not to. And I even had all the material set up. Oh well, hopefully for tomorrow.

3/31/25

No demon attack today. Instead the loose demon has grown in tactics if not intelligence. Or it hasn’t noticed the anti-demon properties of the knight armors in respect to the world around the armor.

Thus his little blood sacrifice cultist/combat unit was almost a total waste. It got some army moved in, so for us mortals the attack actually benefited us. It warms the cockles of my heart to have benefit gained incidentally.

Of course, since the army can’t really (and I asked Ben and Odette) justify shelling one of their own cities, knight armors will remain the best answer. Of course, if the demons can manage to move over a really powerful demon, then they’re really the only sustainable answer even if we were to lose one every fight.

Losing a third of the army deployment I saw, plus whatever of the city is lost can’t ever be sustainable. Although, my current theory, based on the data, says that a really powerful demon is going to take a long time to show up. Hopefully enough for this world to wander back out of range of a demon world.

After all, a really powerful demon would want concessions, and for a vacation or pleasure world, those concessions will be big. Lesser demons can be paid. As long as the demon in charge doesn’t regularly lose agents like the one it has tring assassinations now on a regular basis, there’s probably not going to be any bringing any of something really scary.

Unfortunately, with no access to divinations at the moment, there’s no real solidity to this. It’s all based on trying to figure out why it’s all been such weak demons.

There’s other possible reasons, but I can’t see why there’s nothing stronger at the point other than my current idea. Even punishment should have seen some kind of aberration and probably not that swarm.

Divination has to be the tool I’ve missed most from home. Mostly because of the demon invasion.

Just realized, I should try one more dream sending. Make sure that master knows to bring lots of supplies for divinations. Need to cut my writing short. I’m not sure I have the supplies after fixing the interruption before and my preferred places include a few that will probably be close to closing if I don’t leave now.

4/2/25

Today is not happening. Sorry

4/2/25 (actually)

Another really strange demon. Nobody could get work done. I don’t even want to talk about it anymore. I think a new small one got through. But couldn’t verify because the big demon managed to disrupt all the cameras for a while.

At least it also did itself in. Didn’t even get to aim at the thing.

Going to rest again and then try writing something meaningful tomorrow.

4/3/25 (I think)

Selhalt’s blood! I felt that. Going to have to find out what that feeling was once I start feeling normal again.