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Ch246-Chaos For The Fly
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“My first question is… How would we do it?” Edmund asked.
It was as good of a place to start as any.
Sylver ran his hands down his femurs and flicked away yet another piece of metal sticking out of his bones.
“If I use the demon core, I’ll be able to mold the metal tree into a rudimentary kinetic framework. Using the energy gathered inside the pyramid, we send a packet onto the smallest moon. Assuming the angle is correct, and the math doesn’t fail, the moon’s spin will be reduced,” Sylver explained, as Edmund nodded along.
“The decrease in rotational energy will pull it closer to the bigger moon, reducing the diameter of their orbit… Eira’s mana is affected due to the displacement, but the environmental effects would be minimal… That’s a lot more refined than I was expecting,” Edmund said.
From anyone else, that would have been an insult. But from Edmund, a man who spent more time with Sylver than anyone living or alive, it was merely a statement of fact. For Sylver, this was quite refined.
“Saves us the trouble of calculating its path through space, and whether or not it will be swallowed up by the suns. Also, I doubt the energy left in the pyramid would be sufficient for anything more than a minor rotational adjustment…” Sylver said.
“When you say minor, how minor are we talking about?” Edmund asked.
Sylver lifted a hand to scratch his recently healed chin.
“The smaller moon takes 42 days to make a full rotation… Assuming at least 50% of the packet arrives… 3 days? Give or-”
“3 days?” Edmund asked, a bit louder than he intended. “You call adjusting the moon by more than 7% minor? Between the shift in mass alone the-”
“I’m aware of the repercussions but do keep in mind that this isn’t something we can do a second time if the first isn’t enough. We aim for 3 days, and if it slows down by only 1 or 2, it still works. The sea level will rise by what?” Sylver asked as Edmund did a quick calculation.
“A lot. It will rise by a lot. Do you even know how high the water plateaus are on this side of Eira?” Edmund asked.
It was a rhetorical question, given that Sylver didn’t even know how high the water plateaus were on his side of Eira.
“3 kilometers?” Sylver guessed.
He’d only ever seen them from far away.
“Close, 15 and a half, on a good month. A 1% decrease will mean the sea level will rise by 155 meters, and unless I’m mistaken, a 3-day decrease in speed will mean at least a 500-meter increase, if not more. We’ll be lucky if there’s any land left after this,” Edmund explained as Sylver picked away at his femur.
“500 meters over 800 years. The moons won’t just snap into their new places. The mana disturbance will be instant, it will be centuries before anyone even notices the physical changes. By the time the rising sea level becomes an actual issue, we’ll either be powerful enough to solve it ourselves, or someone would have already sorted it out for us,” Sylver countered.
Edmund gestured at the fire and made it flare up so it didn’t die out.
“If anyone finds out about this… Can we even handle a 5th tier mage coming at us? 6th tier? 10th tier?” Edmund asked.
“Why don’t we ask all the people who came here to stop the demon summoning? The demon summoning, that was going to have consequences far far worse than what we’re doing,” Sylver said with a wave of the hand towards the general lack of people.
“And Sophia? Assuming she’s alive,” Edmund asked.
“If she’s alive, I’ll think of something,” Sylver said.
“How will we deal with the kickback? Such a huge amount of kinetic energy will-”
“They stuck a realm anchor into her,” Sylver said interrupted.
Edmund waited a moment, to allow the shock to settle.
“Since we’re talking about her… If we do this, we won’t have enough to heal her,” Edmund said.
Sylver scowled as he pushed the memory of the shell being split apart out of his mind.
“We don’t have enough to heal her even if we don’t do this. We might have enough to move the heart back where it should be, maybe kickstart it, and that’s if I’m being extremely optimistic. But unless we close the shell, and then repair it, it would be a complete waste of effort,” Sylver said, with a vague gesture towards the cloudy sky above them.
“How many people would you need to fix her?” Edmund asked.
Sylver waved the question away.
“Half a million would be where we start. And that’s just sealing the shell. Healing her would push the number closer to 2 million, maybe even 3, I can’t say for certain. This sort of magic is useless on this scale, healing her back then was pushing it as it was,” Sylver said.
“And even if we do heal her, somehow, how do we deal with the realm anchor?” Edmund thought out loud.
“It’s most likely anchored to the demon realm. But I know I’m not going to go there to check, and I know I’m not going to let you go there to check. And asking a demon to pull it out for us is pointless because-”
“That would be aiding a demi-god, and they can’t do that… We’ll decide how to heal Tuli later... So, you mold the demon tree into a spell that will slow the spin of the smaller moon down. Eira’s magic shifts suddenly, and in 800 or so years, half the world will drown from rising sea levels,” Edmund said.
“Alternatively, we do nothing, and spend the rest of our lives regretting not taking the chance to sift through all of Eira for the people we’re both responsible for,” Sylver offered. He put a slight emphasis on the word “responsible.”
“This isn’t sifting, this is putting the realm into a mortar and hoping the pestle doesn’t crush our people along with everyone else,” Edmund said.
“I’m not saying we should do it just because we can. But how likely are we to have this opportunity again? You’re the one who wanted to do something, this is that something. It might not be as fun as taking on an army of Krists or decimating the Council, but it’s certainly better than waiting for Chrys to find someone,” Sylver said.
“This is too much. Even for you. For us. If we-”
“It’s not too much for me,” Sylver interrupted.
Edmund lifted his head to look at Sylver and saw that his eyes were focused on the rusted book Edmund was using as a seat. Sylver didn’t say anything and allowed the silence to linger.
“That was different,” Edmund said.
Sylver shrugged his shoulders.
“Not to me. If anything, this is much less than what that was,” Sylver said.
“We were under a direct threat, you didn’t know what you were doing, and-”
“Do you want to have this argument again? Because I don’t. You made yourself very clear the last time we tried to discuss this. We have less than an hour until the mana leaking out of the pyramid gets low enough that there won’t be any point trying. Just admit you’re worried about the potential casualties,” Sylver said.
Edmund stood up and gripped the fabric-wrapped book in his hand. He spoke in a hushed tense voice and gestured at Sylver with the book as if he was about to hit him with it.
“Do you know how many people live near the coast? How flat the land on this side of Eira is? How far inland the seas will reach in the next 50 years alone? Or you know what, forget the water. Teleportation networks use the moons to navigate, this will cripple all of them. And without their network, trading will grind to a halt.
“On top of that, cities will be left without barriers, monsters will rush in, healing spells with fail, changes in the weather will alter the humidity and atmospheric pressure, crops will wilt, which will lead to famine, famine will lead to war, and war will lead to-”
“I don’t care,” Sylver said.
Edmund made that face.
The face, as Sylver often referred to it. It wasn’t anything physical, it was just the way his eyes looked at him. An insulating mixture of pity, shame, and a hint of anger, all tied together by a humble sense of superiority.
What made it all the worse, what made it the face, as opposed to one of Edmund’s many other faces, was that it was completely involuntary. He didn’t have a clue that he was doing it and genuinely didn’t know what Sylver was talking about, regardless of how many times he attempted to point it out to him.
All the other people who knew Edmund personally also had no idea what Sylver was talking about. Sylver’s best guess was that he was the only person that could disappoint Edmund as deeply as Sylver was able to.
“If I could have both, I’d have both. If I could shake Eira and find at least 1 Ibis member, and not hurt a single person or creature in the process, I’d do that,” Sylver said calmly.
“But you can’t,” Edmund said.
“But I can’t. It’s a tragedy that lives will be lost because of my decision, but that is something I will have to live with,” Sylver said.
About a minute of silence passed.
“What if it’s just us? That we’re the only ones left?” Edmund asked.
Sylver gathered his thoughts before he spoke.
“Until I see evidence of that, I choose to believe that everyone is out there. Somewhere. Trapped in an underground cave, guarded by a dragon, brainwashed into thinking they’re someone else, in a coma, in a tomb, hidden in a secret pocket realm, accessible only with a matching secret key, and so on, and so forth,” Sylver said.
“And if they’re not? If everything we do tonight is for nothing? If mine and your presence is a fluke, and we’re all that’s left?” Edmund asked.
Sylver waited a moment before he answered. He and Edmund were at eye level right now, Edmund was standing, while Sylver sat.
“I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think it was necessary,” Sylver answered.
Edmund spoke after a very specific amount of time passed.
It was the amount of time it took Edmund to remember what Adema had told him. Sylver had no clue as to what she had said exactly, but he knew that whenever Edmund was faced with a difficult decision, he thought back to those words.
More often than not, that pause meant that Edmund was going to disagree with Sylver, and while he wouldn’t be working against him, he would refuse to aid him.
Sylver never took it personally when that happened. Because he knew that if he asked him a second time, regardless of what Edmund had decided, he would do as Sylver asked.
In all their time together Sylver had only ever asked Edmund to do something he didn’t want to 4 times. Edmund did as Sylver asked, then they never spoke about it, and then they both died and somehow ended up here.
Thankfully, this wasn’t going to be the 5th time.
“Alright… What do you need me to do?” Edmund asked, as Sylver stood up from his seat.
Edmund didn’t sound like he was resigning himself to this, which was good, but he also didn’t sound like he suddenly understood Sylver’s thinking, which meant he was going to sulk every time they saw the consequences of this decision.
“I’ll call you when it’s ready. Watch over Faust for now,” Sylver said, as he took the wrapped-up book Edmund was holding out for him.
***
The metal tree was angled away from the moon, but due to the size of the trunk, it made more sense to keep it as it is, and only realign the branches.
Demon cores were as sought after as they were for 2 reasons.
The first was that they were beyond perfect catalysts.
This specific demon core increased the efficiency, and effectiveness, of Sylver’s telekinetic abilities, far beyond anything he would normally be capable of. To the point, he felt like lifting Tuli out of the ocean was possible. If someone hadn’t pinned her in place with a realm anchor that is.
The demon core Sylver had recovered from the Moon Demon felt like it specialized in solid magic, which made sense given that it was a demon that had something to do with the moon.
Using a demon core as a catalyst was relatively standard for any mage that required the assistance, most high-tier mages that carried a staff usually had a demon core or two inside of it.
But demon cores weren’t perfect, with every second Sylver’s mana passed through the demon core and pushed the metal tree into the shape he wanted, he could feel the “strength” of his pushing decrease. Right now, the demon core was multiplying his strength by a factor of 1,000
But after a minute of use, it increased it only by 990, then 980, and eventually the demon core would cease to conduct mana altogether.
In theory, there is a sweet spot where the demon core won’t degrade. But from personal experience, Sylver knew that that sweet spot was somewhere in the low 50 area. It would be enough for Sylver to lift stone houses off their foundations and throw them at people, but even when he used all 1,000 of the demon core, he could barely bend the meal tree.
If he had attempted to do this without a demon core aiding him, it would have taken weeks, if not months, of nonstop effort. He was certain the metal wouldn’t be this hard once all the mana drained out of it, but if waited for it to naturally leak out, he wouldn’t have enough to stop the moon from turning.
There was also a question of whether Sylver had enough skill to bend the tree branches without making them explode.
Luckily for him, the second reason demon cores are as sought after as they are helped him not die while molding the tree.
Because demon cores allowed a mage to bend certain magical rules. It effectively allowed a mage to practice magic the way only an ascended mage was capable of.
It wasn’t all-powerful, obviously, Sylver couldn’t bend the law of magic and summon gold out of thin air, but he could ignore the Gellmann constant, which opened a world of possibilities.
Possibilities, the vast majority of which, he was too lacking in ability and knowledge to take full advantage of.
Demons were something of Sylver’s specialty but utilizing a demon core to its full extent required the slow and careful touch of a craftsman.
Lola, for example.
Although Sylver wasn’t sure how she would react to being handed a 7th-tier demon core. Given that she was Layla’s daughter, it would stand to reason she knew how to use one…
Anyway, it was something to think about later.
Once the general shape of the tree was right, Sylver started adjusting the framework. Unsurprisingly, there was very little that needed to be adjusted, for the most part Sylver merely cut off the circuits that had to do with summoning a demon.
If he had to guess, now that he had a chance to properly inspect the framework, the plan was for the demon to get fully summoned, and then it would use the very same tree that summoned it, as a tool to do whatever it is that it planned to do to the moons.
Going by the dual channel framework on the base and the tree branches, the plan was to yank one moon out of orbit, and presumably set off a chain reaction that would cause the two moons to orbit Eira in a way that would cause the sea levels to rise. A sort of moving tidal wave, that could climb up mountains.
Sylver sent Spring to tell Edmund to come, and as Sylver put the finishing touches on the fly-trap-shaped tree, Edmun and Faust appeared.
“So…” Faust said, as he slightly lifted his head to look at the mass of spikey metal above them. “What are we doing?” Faust asked.
Sylver considered lying to Faust, briefly but chose to be upfront with him instead.
“Edmund is going to help me slow down the smaller moon’s spin,” Sylver said calmly.
“Ok… And you’re doing this because…” Faust said as Sylver massaged his hands together.
Everything up to his elbows was shimmering from the heat, and although the demon core protected his bones from cracking open, it still hurt.
“Because it will make Eira’s magical field shift. Which I’m hoping will mean that if any of my people are being kept in a metaphorical cage, this will give them wiggle room to escape,” Sylver said.
The color drained out of Faust’s face, and he spoke with a hurried stutter.
“If-f the thing keeping An-Anna invulnerability goes away she’ll-”
“It won’t affect her,” Edmund added quickly, but calmly, with a firm grasp on Faust’s shoulder, firm enough to bring him back to his senses.
“Mostly things that are… stationary, will be affected. Barriers, teleportation networks, anything dependent on knowing its location,” Sylver added.
“Oh… Ok then,” Faust said, as he straightened out his knees, and stood properly.
Edmund gave Faust an odd look, whereas Sylver smiled at him.
“You don’t have any follow-up questions?” Edmund asked.
Faust shrugged his shoulders.
“If you don’t need me for this, I’ll go back to hunting vampires,” Faust offered.
“I would prefer it if you stayed guard instead. Just to be safe,” Sylver said.
“We’re shifting Eira’s mana,” Edmund repeated, almost offended, but mostly he was shocked.
“I heard, yeah,” Faust said.
“And you don’t care?” Edmund asked.
“Syl knows what he’s doing,” Faust answered.
“Millions are going to be affected,” Edmund said.
“Sucks for them,” Faust said without so much as a snicker.
Sylver on the other hand, snickered, tried to cover his mouth, and then gave up and began to openly laugh.
Edmund kept his serious face on, but as Sylver continued laughing, he gradually joined in, and as the two of them laughed while wiping tears out of their respective eyes, Faust just stood there, mildly confused.
“Where do you find these guys?” Edmund asked, as he took a deep breath, and calmed down.
“Birds of a feather,” Sylver answered, as he mirrored Edmund and took a fake deep breath to compose himself.
“Alright. Faust, please stand guard. Edmund, channel your mana into that spot above that branch. On my signal, activate the framework,” Sylver said, with a gesture towards the branch in question.
With the demon core, Sylver might have been able to do everything himself. The problem was that there was a big difference between using basic telekinesis and performing a proper spell, on a not insignificantly large scale. Lack of mana aside, this sort of long-range large-scale spell was more in line with Edmund’s magic, than Sylver’s.
Sylver took his position near the base of the tree, removed the restriction that had been holding the energy inside the pyramid below, and as the power rushed through the tree trunk and spread into the branches, the shade standing near Edmund gave the signal, and Edmund took over.
Regardless of context, it was a pleasure to see a master at work. And although it didn’t show on his face, Sylver could tell Edmund had missed being part of something this exciting.
The frameworks carved into the metal flickered briefly with light. Hundred’s upon thousands of magical circuits came to life, manipulated, and transformed the raw energy, and mixed it, all in the time it took a person to blink.
The crack in Tuli’s shell, which was previously obstructed by the clouds that had been created from seawater boiling somewhere inside Tuli’s boy, were now partially clear, as a circular hole appeared in them.
After a few seconds, the hole disappeared, and the sky was once again hidden by the clouds.
Sylver jumped up to the branch Edmund was standing on. Edmund continued staring through the clouds.
“19 seconds to reach the moon. 15 seconds for the framework to form on the moon’s surface. 3 seconds for the compressed energy to get converted into kinetic. And half a second for it to slow the moon down,” Sylver said out loud, as Edmund continued staring at the clouds.
“Looks good so far,” Edmund said.
22, 23, 24, 25, Sylver counted in his head, while he waited for Edmund to tell him something didn’t look right.
31, 32, 33, 34, Edmund remained silent and continued squinting his eyes at the clouds above.
35, 36, 37, Edmund-
[Trait [Calamitous Abomination] has been removed!]
[Trait [Corrupting Abomination]
-By your actions, you have marred your very essence, and have created an abomination.
-By your actions, you have marred the essence of the world, and have created an abomination.
-Your existence will lead to further calamity.
-Whoever kills you will receive your total levels.
-Current amount of levels being offered: 173.
-Anyone that is successful at seeing your status will be informed of this.
“Everything looks fine. The surface cracked a bit, but that’s to be expected,” Edmund said explained.
Both he and Sylver heard a quiet ping, as something metallic fell to the floor. Next to Syvler’s foot, there lay a small metal rib.
And it took Sylver far too long to realize what he was looking at.
The ribcage inside his ribcage, the one that was indestructible, by way of a rune, was now as destructible as the rest of Sylver was. The pressure his outer ribcage was pressing onto it was causing the thing to get crushed, which resulted in the thin welded-together metal breaking apart.
The chainmail-like material that had been draped over it, to prevent swords and arrows from sliding into it, exploded out of Sylver’s chest area as if it was a splash of blood.
Sylver was too busy trying to keep his insides inside, to notice that the area around them was now drenched in a bright red light. He eventually lifted his head and looked up.
He could see the neon red moon glowing through the clouds above, clear as if he was staring at the sun.
Edmund didn’t say anything, he just scowled.
Down on the ground, Faust was also looking at the moon, albeit with a somewhat bored expression.
“Was that supposed to happen?” Faust shouted at the two arch-mages standing on top of the demon metal tree.
“Sure,” Sylver responded. Why not, he thought to himself, as he returned to not breaking the toothpick-thin needle trapped inside what was now warping brittle metal.
When all else failed, Sylver used [Fog Form] to get the entire ribcage out of his body. With the demon core, he forced the metal ribcage to open up, and with a careful hand, he took out his needle, his [Rune Of Infinite Summoning], and [Xander’s Waystone].
All three looked tiny in his giant bone hand.
Sylver felt Edmund’s glare on the side of his head, and he spoke in the language only they knew.
“It’s glowing,” Edmund said.
“I know, I see it too,” Sylver said as if ignoring it would make it go away.
“What-”
Edmund didn’t finish his question, as the bright red glow that had illuminated the inside of Tuli’s shell disappeared. Apparently ignoring it did make it go away.
“Why was it glowing?” Edmund asked.
“Red Mana Shift. RMS for short,” Sylver answered with the confidence that would have fooled quite literally anyone else. But it was useless against Edmund.
“Why was it glowing?” Edmund repeated.
Sylver used the demon core to compress and mold the previously indestructible ribcage into the shape of a conical seashell, building layer upon layer of metal.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s a sign that we woke a demigod that was sleeping on the moon. Your guess is, not only as good, but better than anything I can come up with,” Sylver said, as he used [Fog Form] to materialize on the ground, along with the metal seashell.
Edmund simply fell and landed near him.
“Now what?” Faust asked as Sylver felt something above him.
He looked up to see two enormous silver wings, spread out from the back of a redheaded woman. Her bright red robe was stretched thin around her body as if it had shrunk. But as Sophia got closer, Sylver saw that it was the other way round, and she was the one that had grown.
There was a group of priests and paladins directly above her, all standing on her wings, as she slowly fell downwards. The priests, which had previously been a mixture of blond, brunette, and black hair, now sported a bright shade of red, a smidge darker than Sophia’s.
As Sophia landed a few steps away from Sylver, Edmund, and Faust, Sylver considered what was the best way to approach this.
S
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Ch246-Chaos For The Fly
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“My first question is… How would we do it?” Edmund asked.
It was as good of a place to start as any.
Sylver ran his hands down his femurs and flicked away yet another piece of metal sticking out of his bones.
“If I use the demon core, I’ll be able to mold the metal tree into a rudimentary kinetic framework. Using the energy gathered inside the pyramid, we send a packet onto the smallest moon. Assuming the angle is correct, and the math doesn’t fail, the moon’s spin will be reduced,” Sylver explained, as Edmund nodded along.
“The decrease in rotational energy will pull it closer to the bigger moon, reducing the diameter of their orbit… Eira’s mana is affected due to the displacement, but the environmental effects would be minimal… That’s a lot more refined than I was expecting,” Edmund said.
From anyone else, that would have been an insult. But from Edmund, a man who spent more time with Sylver than anyone living or alive, it was merely a statement of fact. For Sylver, this was quite refined.
“Saves us the trouble of calculating its path through space, and whether or not it will be swallowed up by the suns. Also, I doubt the energy left in the pyramid would be sufficient for anything more than a minor rotational adjustment…” Sylver said.
“When you say minor, how minor are we talking about?” Edmund asked.
Sylver lifted a hand to scratch his recently healed chin.
“The smaller moon takes 42 days to make a full rotation… Assuming at least 50% of the packet arrives… 3 days? Give or-”
“3 days?” Edmund asked, a bit louder than he intended. “You call adjusting the moon by more than 7% minor? Between the shift in mass alone the-”
“I’m aware of the repercussions but do keep in mind that this isn’t something we can do a second time if the first isn’t enough. We aim for 3 days, and if it slows down by only 1 or 2, it still works. The sea level will rise by what?” Sylver asked as Edmund did a quick calculation.
“A lot. It will rise by a lot. Do you even know how high the water plateaus are on this side of Eira?” Edmund asked.
It was a rhetorical question, given that Sylver didn’t even know how high the water plateaus were on his side of Eira.
“3 kilometers?” Sylver guessed.
He’d only ever seen them from far away.
“Close, 15 and a half, on a good month. A 1% decrease will mean the sea level will rise by 155 meters, and unless I’m mistaken, a 3-day decrease in speed will mean at least a 500-meter increase, if not more. We’ll be lucky if there’s any land left after this,” Edmund explained as Sylver picked away at his femur.
“500 meters over 800 years. The moons won’t just snap into their new places. The mana disturbance will be instant, it will be centuries before anyone even notices the physical changes. By the time the rising sea level becomes an actual issue, we’ll either be powerful enough to solve it ourselves, or someone would have already sorted it out for us,” Sylver countered.
Edmund gestured at the fire and made it flare up so it didn’t die out.
“If anyone finds out about this… Can we even handle a 5th tier mage coming at us? 6th tier? 10th tier?” Edmund asked.
“Why don’t we ask all the people who came here to stop the demon summoning? The demon summoning, that was going to have consequences far far worse than what we’re doing,” Sylver said with a wave of the hand towards the general lack of people.
“And Sophia? Assuming she’s alive,” Edmund asked.
“If she’s alive, I’ll think of something,” Sylver said.
“How will we deal with the kickback? Such a huge amount of kinetic energy will-”
“They stuck a realm anchor into her,” Sylver said interrupted.
Edmund waited a moment, to allow the shock to settle.
“Since we’re talking about her… If we do this, we won’t have enough to heal her,” Edmund said.
Sylver scowled as he pushed the memory of the shell being split apart out of his mind.
“We don’t have enough to heal her even if we don’t do this. We might have enough to move the heart back where it should be, maybe kickstart it, and that’s if I’m being extremely optimistic. But unless we close the shell, and then repair it, it would be a complete waste of effort,” Sylver said, with a vague gesture towards the cloudy sky above them.
“How many people would you need to fix her?” Edmund asked.
Sylver waved the question away.
“Half a million would be where we start. And that’s just sealing the shell. Healing her would push the number closer to 2 million, maybe even 3, I can’t say for certain. This sort of magic is useless on this scale, healing her back then was pushing it as it was,” Sylver said.
“And even if we do heal her, somehow, how do we deal with the realm anchor?” Edmund thought out loud.
“It’s most likely anchored to the demon realm. But I know I’m not going to go there to check, and I know I’m not going to let you go there to check. And asking a demon to pull it out for us is pointless because-”
“That would be aiding a demi-god, and they can’t do that… We’ll decide how to heal Tuli later... So, you mold the demon tree into a spell that will slow the spin of the smaller moon down. Eira’s magic shifts suddenly, and in 800 or so years, half the world will drown from rising sea levels,” Edmund said.
“Alternatively, we do nothing, and spend the rest of our lives regretting not taking the chance to sift through all of Eira for the people we’re both responsible for,” Sylver offered. He put a slight emphasis on the word “responsible.”
“This isn’t sifting, this is putting the realm into a mortar and hoping the pestle doesn’t crush our people along with everyone else,” Edmund said.
“I’m not saying we should do it just because we can. But how likely are we to have this opportunity again? You’re the one who wanted to do something, this is that something. It might not be as fun as taking on an army of Krists or decimating the Council, but it’s certainly better than waiting for Chrys to find someone,” Sylver said.
“This is too much. Even for you. For us. If we-”
“It’s not too much for me,” Sylver interrupted.
Edmund lifted his head to look at Sylver and saw that his eyes were focused on the rusted book Edmund was using as a seat. Sylver didn’t say anything and allowed the silence to linger.
“That was different,” Edmund said.
Sylver shrugged his shoulders.
“Not to me. If anything, this is much less than what that was,” Sylver said.
“We were under a direct threat, you didn’t know what you were doing, and-”
“Do you want to have this argument again? Because I don’t. You made yourself very clear the last time we tried to discuss this. We have less than an hour until the mana leaking out of the pyramid gets low enough that there won’t be any point trying. Just admit you’re worried about the potential casualties,” Sylver said.
Edmund stood up and gripped the fabric-wrapped book in his hand. He spoke in a hushed tense voice and gestured at Sylver with the book as if he was about to hit him with it.
“Do you know how many people live near the coast? How flat the land on this side of Eira is? How far inland the seas will reach in the next 50 years alone? Or you know what, forget the water. Teleportation networks use the moons to navigate, this will cripple all of them. And without their network, trading will grind to a halt.
“On top of that, cities will be left without barriers, monsters will rush in, healing spells with fail, changes in the weather will alter the humidity and atmospheric pressure, crops will wilt, which will lead to famine, famine will lead to war, and war will lead to-”
“I don’t care,” Sylver said.
Edmund made that face.
The face, as Sylver often referred to it. It wasn’t anything physical, it was just the way his eyes looked at him. An insulating mixture of pity, shame, and a hint of anger, all tied together by a humble sense of superiority.
What made it all the worse, what made it the face, as opposed to one of Edmund’s many other faces, was that it was completely involuntary. He didn’t have a clue that he was doing it and genuinely didn’t know what Sylver was talking about, regardless of how many times he attempted to point it out to him.
All the other people who knew Edmund personally also had no idea what Sylver was talking about. Sylver’s best guess was that he was the only person that could disappoint Edmund as deeply as Sylver was able to.
“If I could have both, I’d have both. If I could shake Eira and find at least 1 Ibis member, and not hurt a single person or creature in the process, I’d do that,” Sylver said calmly.
“But you can’t,” Edmund said.
“But I can’t. It’s a tragedy that lives will be lost because of my decision, but that is something I will have to live with,” Sylver said.
About a minute of silence passed.
“What if it’s just us? That we’re the only ones left?” Edmund asked.
Sylver gathered his thoughts before he spoke.
“Until I see evidence of that, I choose to believe that everyone is out there. Somewhere. Trapped in an underground cave, guarded by a dragon, brainwashed into thinking they’re someone else, in a coma, in a tomb, hidden in a secret pocket realm, accessible only with a matching secret key, and so on, and so forth,” Sylver said.
“And if they’re not? If everything we do tonight is for nothing? If mine and your presence is a fluke, and we’re all that’s left?” Edmund asked.
Sylver waited a moment before he answered. He and Edmund were at eye level right now, Edmund was standing, while Sylver sat.
“I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think it was necessary,” Sylver answered.
Edmund spoke after a very specific amount of time passed.
It was the amount of time it took Edmund to remember what Adema had told him. Sylver had no clue as to what she had said exactly, but he knew that whenever Edmund was faced with a difficult decision, he thought back to those words.
More often than not, that pause meant that Edmund was going to disagree with Sylver, and while he wouldn’t be working against him, he would refuse to aid him.
Sylver never took it personally when that happened. Because he knew that if he asked him a second time, regardless of what Edmund had decided, he would do as Sylver asked.
In all their time together Sylver had only ever asked Edmund to do something he didn’t want to 4 times. Edmund did as Sylver asked, then they never spoke about it, and then they both died and somehow ended up here.
Thankfully, this wasn’t going to be the 5th time.
“Alright… What do you need me to do?” Edmund asked, as Sylver stood up from his seat.
Edmund didn’t sound like he was resigning himself to this, which was good, but he also didn’t sound like he suddenly understood Sylver’s thinking, which meant he was going to sulk every time they saw the consequences of this decision.
“I’ll call you when it’s ready. Watch over Faust for now,” Sylver said, as he took the wrapped-up book Edmund was holding out for him.
***
The metal tree was angled away from the moon, but due to the size of the trunk, it made more sense to keep it as it is, and only realign the branches.
Demon cores were as sought after as they were for 2 reasons.
The first was that they were beyond perfect catalysts.
This specific demon core increased the efficiency, and effectiveness, of Sylver’s telekinetic abilities, far beyond anything he would normally be capable of. To the point, he felt like lifting Tuli out of the ocean was possible. If someone hadn’t pinned her in place with a realm anchor that is.
The demon core Sylver had recovered from the Moon Demon felt like it specialized in solid magic, which made sense given that it was a demon that had something to do with the moon.
Using a demon core as a catalyst was relatively standard for any mage that required the assistance, most high-tier mages that carried a staff usually had a demon core or two inside of it.
But demon cores weren’t perfect, with every second Sylver’s mana passed through the demon core and pushed the metal tree into the shape he wanted, he could feel the “strength” of his pushing decrease. Right now, the demon core was multiplying his strength by a factor of 1,000
But after a minute of use, it increased it only by 990, then 980, and eventually the demon core would cease to conduct mana altogether.
In theory, there is a sweet spot where the demon core won’t degrade. But from personal experience, Sylver knew that that sweet spot was somewhere in the low 50 area. It would be enough for Sylver to lift stone houses off their foundations and throw them at people, but even when he used all 1,000 of the demon core, he could barely bend the meal tree.
If he had attempted to do this without a demon core aiding him, it would have taken weeks, if not months, of nonstop effort. He was certain the metal wouldn’t be this hard once all the mana drained out of it, but if waited for it to naturally leak out, he wouldn’t have enough to stop the moon from turning.
There was also a question of whether Sylver had enough skill to bend the tree branches without making them explode.
Luckily for him, the second reason demon cores are as sought after as they are helped him not die while molding the tree.
Because demon cores allowed a mage to bend certain magical rules. It effectively allowed a mage to practice magic the way only an ascended mage was capable of.
It wasn’t all-powerful, obviously, Sylver couldn’t bend the law of magic and summon gold out of thin air, but he could ignore the Gellmann constant, which opened a world of possibilities.
Possibilities, the vast majority of which, he was too lacking in ability and knowledge to take full advantage of.
Demons were something of Sylver’s specialty but utilizing a demon core to its full extent required the slow and careful touch of a craftsman.
Lola, for example.
Although Sylver wasn’t sure how she would react to being handed a 7th-tier demon core. Given that she was Layla’s daughter, it would stand to reason she knew how to use one…
Anyway, it was something to think about later.
Once the general shape of the tree was right, Sylver started adjusting the framework. Unsurprisingly, there was very little that needed to be adjusted, for the most part Sylver merely cut off the circuits that had to do with summoning a demon.
If he had to guess, now that he had a chance to properly inspect the framework, the plan was for the demon to get fully summoned, and then it would use the very same tree that summoned it, as a tool to do whatever it is that it planned to do to the moons.
Going by the dual channel framework on the base and the tree branches, the plan was to yank one moon out of orbit, and presumably set off a chain reaction that would cause the two moons to orbit Eira in a way that would cause the sea levels to rise. A sort of moving tidal wave, that could climb up mountains.
Sylver sent Spring to tell Edmund to come, and as Sylver put the finishing touches on the fly-trap-shaped tree, Edmun and Faust appeared.
“So…” Faust said, as he slightly lifted his head to look at the mass of spikey metal above them. “What are we doing?” Faust asked.
Sylver considered lying to Faust, briefly but chose to be upfront with him instead.
“Edmund is going to help me slow down the smaller moon’s spin,” Sylver said calmly.
“Ok… And you’re doing this because…” Faust said as Sylver massaged his hands together.
Everything up to his elbows was shimmering from the heat, and although the demon core protected his bones from cracking open, it still hurt.
“Because it will make Eira’s magical field shift. Which I’m hoping will mean that if any of my people are being kept in a metaphorical cage, this will give them wiggle room to escape,” Sylver said.
The color drained out of Faust’s face, and he spoke with a hurried stutter.
“If-f the thing keeping An-Anna invulnerability goes away she’ll-”
“It won’t affect her,” Edmund added quickly, but calmly, with a firm grasp on Faust’s shoulder, firm enough to bring him back to his senses.
“Mostly things that are… stationary, will be affected. Barriers, teleportation networks, anything dependent on knowing its location,” Sylver added.
“Oh… Ok then,” Faust said, as he straightened out his knees, and stood properly.
Edmund gave Faust an odd look, whereas Sylver smiled at him.
“You don’t have any follow-up questions?” Edmund asked.
Faust shrugged his shoulders.
“If you don’t need me for this, I’ll go back to hunting vampires,” Faust offered.
“I would prefer it if you stayed guard instead. Just to be safe,” Sylver said.
“We’re shifting Eira’s mana,” Edmund repeated, almost offended, but mostly he was shocked.
“I heard, yeah,” Faust said.
“And you don’t care?” Edmund asked.
“Syl knows what he’s doing,” Faust answered.
“Millions are going to be affected,” Edmund said.
“Sucks for them,” Faust said without so much as a snicker.
Sylver on the other hand, snickered, tried to cover his mouth, and then gave up and began to openly laugh.
Edmund kept his serious face on, but as Sylver continued laughing, he gradually joined in, and as the two of them laughed while wiping tears out of their respective eyes, Faust just stood there, mildly confused.
“Where do you find these guys?” Edmund asked, as he took a deep breath, and calmed down.
“Birds of a feather,” Sylver answered, as he mirrored Edmund and took a fake deep breath to compose himself.
“Alright. Faust, please stand guard. Edmund, channel your mana into that spot above that branch. On my signal, activate the framework,” Sylver said, with a gesture towards the branch in question.
With the demon core, Sylver might have been able to do everything himself. The problem was that there was a big difference between using basic telekinesis and performing a proper spell, on a not insignificantly large scale. Lack of mana aside, this sort of long-range large-scale spell was more in line with Edmund’s magic, than Sylver’s.
Sylver took his position near the base of the tree, removed the restriction that had been holding the energy inside the pyramid below, and as the power rushed through the tree trunk and spread into the branches, the shade standing near Edmund gave the signal, and Edmund took over.
Regardless of context, it was a pleasure to see a master at work. And although it didn’t show on his face, Sylver could tell Edmund had missed being part of something this exciting.
The frameworks carved into the metal flickered briefly with light. Hundred’s upon thousands of magical circuits came to life, manipulated, and transformed the raw energy, and mixed it, all in the time it took a person to blink.
The crack in Tuli’s shell, which was previously obstructed by the clouds that had been created from seawater boiling somewhere inside Tuli’s boy, were now partially clear, as a circular hole appeared in them.
After a few seconds, the hole disappeared, and the sky was once again hidden by the clouds.
Sylver jumped up to the branch Edmund was standing on. Edmund continued staring through the clouds.
“19 seconds to reach the moon. 15 seconds for the framework to form on the moon’s surface. 3 seconds for the compressed energy to get converted into kinetic. And half a second for it to slow the moon down,” Sylver said out loud, as Edmund continued staring at the clouds.
“Looks good so far,” Edmund said.
22, 23, 24, 25, Sylver counted in his head, while he waited for Edmund to tell him something didn’t look right.
31, 32, 33, 34, Edmund remained silent and continued squinting his eyes at the clouds above.
35, 36, 37, Edmund-
[Trait [Calamitous Abomination] has been removed!]
[Trait [Corrupting Abomination]
-By your actions, you have marred your very essence, and have created an abomination.
-By your actions, you have marred the essence of the world, and have created an abomination.
-Your existence will lead to further calamity.
-Whoever kills you will receive your total levels.
-Current amount of levels being offered: 173.
-Anyone that is successful at seeing your status will be informed of this.
“Everything looks fine. The surface cracked a bit, but that’s to be expected,” Edmund said explained.
Both he and Sylver heard a quiet ping, as something metallic fell to the floor. Next to Syvler’s foot, there lay a small metal rib.
And it took Sylver far too long to realize what he was looking at.
The ribcage inside his ribcage, the one that was indestructible, by way of a rune, was now as destructible as the rest of Sylver was. The pressure his outer ribcage was pressing onto it was causing the thing to get crushed, which resulted in the thin welded-together metal breaking apart.
The chainmail-like material that had been draped over it, to prevent swords and arrows from sliding into it, exploded out of Sylver’s chest area as if it was a splash of blood.
Sylver was too busy trying to keep his insides inside, to notice that the area around them was now drenched in a bright red light. He eventually lifted his head and looked up.
He could see the neon red moon glowing through the clouds above, clear as if he was staring at the sun.
Edmund didn’t say anything, he just scowled.
Down on the ground, Faust was also looking at the moon, albeit with a somewhat bored expression.
“Was that supposed to happen?” Faust shouted at the two arch-mages standing on top of the demon metal tree.
“Sure,” Sylver responded. Why not, he thought to himself, as he returned to not breaking the toothpick-thin needle trapped inside what was now warping brittle metal.
When all else failed, Sylver used [Fog Form] to get the entire ribcage out of his body. With the demon core, he forced the metal ribcage to open up, and with a careful hand, he took out his needle, his [Rune Of Infinite Summoning], and [Xander’s Waystone].
All three looked tiny in his giant bone hand.
Sylver felt Edmund’s glare on the side of his head, and he spoke in the language only they knew.
“It’s glowing,” Edmund said.
“I know, I see it too,” Sylver said as if ignoring it would make it go away.
“What-”
Edmund didn’t finish his question, as the bright red glow that had illuminated the inside of Tuli’s shell disappeared. Apparently ignoring it did make it go away.
“Why was it glowing?” Edmund asked.
“Red Mana Shift. RMS for short,” Sylver answered with the confidence that would have fooled quite literally anyone else. But it was useless against Edmund.
“Why was it glowing?” Edmund repeated.
Sylver used the demon core to compress and mold the previously indestructible ribcage into the shape of a conical seashell, building layer upon layer of metal.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s a sign that we woke a demigod that was sleeping on the moon. Your guess is, not only as good, but better than anything I can come up with,” Sylver said, as he used [Fog Form] to materialize on the ground, along with the metal seashell.
Edmund simply fell and landed near him.
“Now what?” Faust asked as Sylver felt something above him.
He looked up to see two enormous silver wings, spread out from the back of a redheaded woman. Her bright red robe was stretched thin around her body as if it had shrunk. But as Sophia got closer, Sylver saw that it was the other way round, and she was the one that had grown.
There was a group of priests and paladins directly above her, all standing on her wings, as she slowly fell downwards. The priests, which had previously been a mixture of blond, brunette, and black hair, now sported a bright shade of red, a smidge darker than Sophia’s.
As Sophia landed a few steps away from Sylver, Edmund, and Faust, Sylver considered what was the best way to approach this.
S
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