Michael Bael POV:
Thought Partitioning is absurdly convenient.
I don't have to focus on my familiars anymore to know what they're doing. I just… do. One stream of thought stays with me, grounded in my own body, while others branch off and ride along with Fenrir and Morrigan like I've got extra eyes and ears.
Right now, one of those threads is tracking Morrigan as she perches on a broken beam inside the old orphanage.
Seele and Bronya are down below.
Seele's leaning against a wall, arms crossed, trying very hard to look like she doesn't care about anything. Bronya's moving through the space more carefully, brushing dust off old furniture, checking cabinets and drawers with military thoroughness.
They found the rubbing alcohol a few minutes ago, while I was busy not dying to Welt. Crate tucked under a collapsed shelf, from what I can glean from Morrigan's memories. Seele made some snarky comment, Bronya responded with something dry, and… somehow that didn't spiral into an argument.
Actually, they've been getting along pretty well since I've been looking. Bronya regained some old memories and revealed she grew up in the same orphanage, making her originally an Underworlder. Apparently, that's a big deal.
Welt, meanwhile, is gone. One moment he's there, adjusting his glasses and being cool, the next he's excusing himself and heading back toward the surface. Apparently he left the Astral Express in a hurry. Since there's no service for the phones they use (smartphones are a thing in space, apparently) he must return to the Astral Express to make sure the remaining passenger on the Express doesn't get worried. He did at least promise to come back once things were sorted out up there, so that we can talk about this Herrscher business.
Which leaves me here with Stelle, still looking for painkillers.
She slams another crate shut hard enough to make the wood creak in protest. Dust puffs up around her as she straightens with a frustrated sigh. "No luck. Are you sure there's painkillers left in town?"
I glance down at the rough map I sketched earlier, marking another location off with a quick slash of my pen. "Natasha seemed pretty confident." I shrug. "But yeah, it's possible someone else got to them first. Vagrants, scavengers… whoever."
"Great." Stelle deadpans. "Love that for us."
As my soul stirs, I accelerate my thoughts.
{Rolling…
Lore - Shonen Jumper - Jump Force (100 points)
Roll Success. Current stockpile: 100 Points.
Purchase Shonen Jumper?}
Spoiler: Shonen JumperYou are not a normal combatant. You garner power from those around you, soaking it in and becoming an amalgam of the most powerful and/or useful techniques you can find! But when you're not just being a normal Jumper, this helps too. This Perk unlocks the ability to learn anything. Anything. All you need is the appropriate time to learn and train, and someone to teach you, and you can make use of their abilities. You could learn how to harness Chakra from Kakashi, then go next door and convince Sanji to teach you both his cooking and combat styles, and cap it off with a bit of ki exercise from Goku. Even abilities that should be locked behind specific bloodlines or unique and personal transformations can be taught, if the would-be teacher is willing. This won't make the learning easy, just possible. Time to make some powerful friends, Jumper.
… Holy shit that's a good perk. Copying the abilities of other people is straight up OP. I should be able to leverage my mental magecraft to accelerate my learning to various levels of success depending on what I'm trying to learn.
Gimme.
It feels as if something inside my soul unlocks in that moment. A sense of freedom pervades me.
I let my perception return to normal speed, Stelle unable to notice any difference since that whole series of events spanned only a fraction of a second.
Several of my partitions are crunching the numbers on probability using several formulas Alchemists have access to. Based on the number of locations we've cleared and the likely scavenging patterns of people in the area, there's still a decent chance we'll find something.
"We've still got a few spots left." I say, tapping the map. "Nat's stash may be gone, but there's an old pharmacy over here, maybe some storage in the back rooms that hasn't been picked over yet. There's also a chance the orphanage had a medical stash that Seele and Bronya might stumble across."
She groans, dragging her bat along the ground as she walks past me. "If I open one more empty box, I'm going to start hitting things."
We move together through the ruined street, boots crunching over debris.
Morrigan's presence shifts in the back of my mind: she's leaving the orphanage now, flying ahead of Seele and Bronya as they wrap up. No luck finding painkillers there, it seems.
"Alright." I say, folding the map and tucking it away. "One more stop before we call it and meet back up-" I pause, brow furrowed.
Devils have supernaturally good senses. And my hearing is picking up a familiar voice nearby, one not belonging to our group.
"I think I hear something. Follow me." I break into a brisk jog.
Stelle wastes no time following after me, bat at the ready.
We move through a few alleyways before coming to a stop in front of a large gate locked by one of the old Architects weird mechanical dodecahedrons that act as controllers for gates. I never pay much attention to the things, since I can just fly over most obstructions.
Except this time… Clara is here, alongside one of the little robots that look like a stoplight on four thick spider legs. A Guardbot.
Those annoying little bastards can generate a shield that can tank one blow of pretty much any power. I've heard some of the other members of Wildfire joke about them being the real Aeon of preservation before. Trick is to hit them twice, before they can regen the shield.
Or use my Power of Destruction. That tends to eat the shield and the bot too.
The Guardbot shifts into alertness. "Warning. Warning. Danger detected-"
Normally I'd scrap this little fucker, but I have a strong feeling that would make Clara upset. Considering the girl literally saved my life by convincing Svarog to let Seele and I go last time we attacked him, upsetting her would be a serious dick move.
"Protect Clara. Initiating active defense mode-" The Guardbot says, it's frame shifting into a more threatening stance.
Clara throws herself in between the bot and us, her hands splayed out. "Perkins, don't! Stop!"
She turns towards me, eyes watchful. "Mister Bael won't hurt me… Right?"
"Command received. Danger removed. Deactivating active defense mode." 'Perkins' says, shifting back into a more neutral stance.
I sigh in relief. No crying girls today. "What are you doing all the way out here, Clara? Bit of a jog from the Robot Settlement."
She relaxes, dropping her arms. "There are a lot of injured people at the vagrant camp. I came to find these painkillers to help them." She gestures to a backpack laying against the dodecahedron, filled with medicine bottles.
Stelle steps forward, crouching slightly and smiling kindly. "We also came searching for those painkillers, so that Natasha could give them to the miners injured in the Great Mine."
Clara looks at the bag. "It makes sense that the miners would be no different. If only everyone could get along…" She hesitates for a moment, before lifting the bag and holding it out to me. "Mm… Here you are. I hope the medicine is of help to you."
I gently take it. "Thanks… but what about the people at the Vagrant camp?"
Clara frowns, eyes downcast as her bare feet scuff the ground.
I sigh, before withdrawing half the medicine bottles and storing them in Imaginary Space, before thrusting the bag out. "Here."
She eyes me in surprise. "But what about the miners?"
I give her a crooked grin. "I'm sure Natasha can stretch this much to accommodate them. Besides, it was her medicine cache. I'm sure she'd be fine with it being used to help people."
Behind me, Bronya and Seele come into view, following Morrigan as she glides through the air before coming to rest on my shoulder.
Seele's eyes widen in surprise. "Clara? What are you doing here?"
"She was out hunting for painkillers for the people at the Vagrant Camp. Since she found them first, it only seems right to let her have half." I explain.
Seele turns to Clara with a frown. "Why are you helping the Vagrants look for medicine? If they're so great, how could they make a little girl go around running errands for them?"
Clara wrings her hands nervously. "N-no, it's not like that. I wasn't made to do anything. It's just that… the living conditions for the vagrants aren't great. There's not even a clinic in their camp. So I wanted to help them out." She shimmies in place, voice quieter. "Not all of them are bad people… everyone just wants to survive."
Seele is quiet at that. "... Mike's right. You deserve half for finding them."
Clara brightens at that, nodding. "Thank you Miss Seele, Mister Bael."
I would have thought she'd be scared of us, what with how me and Seele fought Svarog before… but I suppose with how handily he kicked our asses she's more worried for us.
What an unusually kind girl. No idea how she could have come to be like this when raised by Svarog.
Bronya steps forwards, worried. "Are you leaving? The pathway out is too dangerous. We'll accompany you part of the way."
She shakes her head. "I-it's fine. I have Perkins for company. And… I have some more things I need to look for here first."
Bronya looks bothered, but relents. "Understood. Be careful, though."
Clara gives a nod, before giving a shy wave to Stelle and scurrying past us, Perkins hobbling along after her.
"Yo Natasha, we're back!" I yell as I approach.
Natasha turns from where she was messing with some crates, smiling. She gives a little laugh. "Michael. You don't need to yell, you know?"
I grin and shrug, waving my hand. A small wormhole opens, and several medicine bottles float out under the powers of my Void telekinesis. "We managed to get the painkillers."
She happily grabs them from the air, not even questioning my new power. Probably assumes it's another new spell I've worked out. "Huh… There are less painkillers than I expected. Did someone break into the storage room?"
I shake my head. "We shared half with Clara. She's going to use them on people in the Vagrant camp."
Natasha sighs, but the corner of her lips tilts upwards. "That makes sense. Clara's always been a kind-hearted girl." She looks at me. "I think you made the right decision. Still, it means I'm going to have to draw up a detailed dosage plan to ration what we have."
Seele steps forward. "Don't worry Nat. I'll help."
Natasha laughs and waves her off. "No need, Seele. I can handle the clinic. I assume you all have more important things to be getting on with, right? Oleg will be waiting, not to mention Stelle's companions."
Stelle blanches. "Oh no… I forgot to tell them anything before we left…"
Natasha gives her a warm smile. "I'm sure they won't mind. They seemed in good spirits."
As we approach March, Dan Heng, and Oleg, March notices us. "Hey, they're finally back!"
Stelle sheepishly rubs the back of her neck. "Sorry for the unannounced disappearance."
March laughs it off. "That's nothing. The unannounced disappearance record-holder is right here!" She thumbs herself.
Dan Heng sighs heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose. "And that's something to be proud of?"
Oleg chuckles at their antics. "It's good to have everyone back together. I suppose I should get straight to it… Regarding this Stellaron and your predicament in the Overworld, these two saw fit to go over both with me again. The last time I saw Cocolia she was an impressive young lady… I never thought that after becoming the guardian…" He shakes his head. "All I can say is I sympathize with your situation. Rest easy. Wildfire won't go behind your back on this."
He turns to look at Dan Heng. "Your plan to seal the Stellaron sounds a bit like the ravings of a drunken miner, but at least you're offering a road forwards. We Underworlders haven't had a road to anywhere in a long time now, and you can see how desperate things have become. I'm willing to give you guys a shot."
"Don't worry Mr. Oleg, we'll make sure you don't regret it!" March says.
"'Ravings of a drunken miner' is a little harsh…" Dan Heng mutters.
Oleg nods. "Maybe it is. But I think we all need to set our sights on something a bit more realistic for the time being. You guys want to know the whereabouts of the Stellaron. Wildfire wants to remove the restrictions on the Underworld. In other words, Svarog is the target of both our efforts."
Stelle rubs her chin. "Then it seems like we need to find a way to bring him over to our side."
Seele's hand grabs at her other arm, right where I know she broke it fighting him last time. "He won't understand. You forget he's a robot. It'd be faster to smash him to scrap metal!"
I nod. "I'm of the same opinion. Bastard should get what's coming to him."
Oleg sighs. "We should make preparations for both approaches. Of course, it's better to settle matters through peaceful means. But if the situation changes, we must be prepared for hostilities." He closes his eyes. "Wildfire has tried several times to make contact with Svarog, each without success. He has no intention of engaging with us, especially after we attacked him." He crosses his arms. "At our current strength, all out battle with Svarog and his forces would decimate our numbers. His robots don't fear sacrifice, and I'd rather not risk Underworld lives on such a foolhardy attack."
He looks up. "Thing have changed, though. Your arrival constitutes an external variable for Svarog. I may not have the full picture, but perhaps you 'Trailblazers' have an opportunity to sway him."
"That would be best." Dan Heng replies.
Oleg turns his attention to Bronya. "What about you, Miss Silvermane? You're the only one here who isn't prepared to do or die with Svarog. I'd like to hear your plan."
Bronya places her palm to her heart, speaking with conviction. "The Underworld is still a part of Belobog. If Svarog's existence constitutes a threat to the people here, then I will of course stand with you."
Oleg gives a hearty laugh. "Hahaha, excellent! An enlightened answer, young lady- and spoken like a true successor to the Guardianship."
Say what? She's next in line for the Guardianship?
… Well. Hard to do much worse than the bitch that removed all the guards from the Underworld.
Oleg continues talking. "Seeing as we're all on the same page, there's no reason to delay. Mike, can you handle getting everyone to Svarog?"
I crack my knuckles, a grin lighting up my face. "Yup. I'll admit, I'm looking forward to the chance to repay him for all the trouble he's caused."
Stelle kicks my shin. "Talking first, hothead. If things break down, then we can break his knees."
I nod. "Of course. And his arms too."
Dan Heng rubs his face in exasperation.
I perk up. "Right! Everyone follow me." I open a tear in space in front of me, throwing a look back. "Be quick about it."
Stepping through the tear leads us into the Vagrant Camp near Svarog's Robot Settlement.
March steps through first, eyes wandering over the tents that make up the area. "This is Svarog's lair? I thought it'd be cold and lifeless, turns out it's pretty busy!"
I nod. "The area might be covered in snow, but it's still one of the warmest parts of all of Belobog. I assume you've seen the Furnace Core?"
March nods, rapt with attention.
"Well, we're at the top of it. From what I've been able to piece together, the Furnace Core was an old science base back in the day. The part that everyone really cares about is up here, a Greenhouse Effect Device. What it does is burn large amounts of Geomarrow to, through a complicated radiation effect, keep both the Underworld and Overworld warm." I say.
My divine powers tell me the GED acts almost as a sort of sacrificial altar. Only about 5% of the heat we experience is actually from the Geomarrow, while the rest is the Preservation doing its thing to keep us all alive, in response to the continued fueling.
"Most of the Geomarrow we mine goes here, and gets funneled towards the GED. Svarog also makes sure to send a portion up to the Overworlders. He receives the supplies we get back and spreads them between the Underworlders." I finish.
Dan Heng steps up beside us, frowning. "Even so, he lets these Vagrants benefit from his protection. Why does everyone hate him so much?"
Seele pipes up. "Cause he's the one keeping people from moving between the surface and the Underworld. The Silvermane Guards only abandoned us, but for a time we could still head to the surface. Once Svarog showed up, he took the area around the Furnace Core and kept anyone from the Underworld from going up."
One of the nearby Vagrants finally notices us, jumping to attention as he yells in alarm. "BAEEEEL!"
Yeah, I'm not well liked by Vagrants. Between Seele and I, I ended up with the worst reputation. Mostly because in the early days, all I could rely on was my Destruction. Quite lethal, that.
All that to say, I've killed about five times as many Vagrants as Seele has in the six months I've lived here. It's tapered off to be about even nowadays.
Another Vagrant slaps the first in the back of the head. "Quit your hollering, Sean. The Devil wouldn't dare cause trouble so close to Boss Svarog's territory, not after what happened last time."
I raise an eyebrow. "You think I'm not willing to do something stupid just to spite someone?"
Stelle grabs my arm. "We have a mission, remember?"
I sigh, before nodding. "Fine." I wave my hand, constructing a basic barrier to overlay over the area and keep the vagrants from giving a shit that I'm here. I doubt any of them have a strong enough mind to resist.
"Alright. Let's move on."
A few minutes of walking leads us to another of those metal gates with the dodecahedron controllers.
March strides forward. "What a heavy gate… Okay, watch this!" She plants both hands on her hips, inhales and bellows with a smile: "OPEEEN SESAME~!"
Naturally, nothing happens. I do snicker though.
Bronya looks befuddled. "Is that a secret code or something?"
Dan Heng, as is becoming common for him, sighs. "It's an imaginary password that children like to use… and I don't think that it's going to be of much use."
I step forward, placing both hands on the gate. "I've got this. Best if this gate is somewhere else."
The gate becomes ethereal, akin to a ghostly projection.
March gasps. "Whoa!"
I step forward and through. "I put it out of phase. Hurry through so I can put it back."
They all scurry through quickly, and I clench my fist to let the gate return to normal.
March walks up next to me. "That was a neat trick! What can't you do?"
We come to a stop in front of a much larger, more solid gate as I shrug. "Can't whistle. I've tried for years, but it's just not in me I suppose." I turn my attention to the gate. "Svarog's place is just beyond this gate. I'd try the same trick to let you guys through, but he'd probably take it poorly. Seeing as you guys want to try diplomacy, it'd be best if we did something else."
I turn, catching a glimpse of an approaching Guardbot. It hobbles on over, before coming to a stop. "Visitors for Svarog detected. Protocol initiating… Scanning… Verifying…" A scanning beam washes over us.
"Moment of truth. Are we about to get swarmed by a billion robots?" Stelle mutters.
"Certification failure… Subjects have yet to obtain access permissions." The bot replies. It makes no further moves. "Visitors must acquire access permissions from Miss Clara."
Bother.
Stelle frowns. "Clara? Shoot… Don't suppose you can track her down Mike?"
"What am I, a miracle worker? Tracking ain't one of my skills."
Dan Heng speaks up. "... I don't know if this will work, but it's worth a try: Where's Clara now?"
"Obtaining audio data, please wait…" The robot replies.
Clara's voice emanates from the machine, a recording. "The energy core's bearing component is broken… If we don't repair it soon, it will be pitch-black. Timmy, I'm going back to Rivet Town- maybe I can recover some useful components. You need to guard the gate while I'm gone."
"Recording playback complete. Resuming execution of Clara's commands."
"She went back? But we were just there…" Seele sighs. "What a pain…"
"Wait, you guys went sightseeing in another town?" March seems slightly offended.
Stelle shimmy's over before whispering something in March's ear while glancing towards me. March suddenly gains a surprised look, before a big grin spreads on her face. "You went on a date?"
Stelle facepalms. "I don't know if it can be considered a date. And you're supposed to whisper, dummy."
"Forget that! Tell me about it! Tell me, tell me, tell meeeee!"
As I cope with the sudden onset of embarrassment, my soul stirs, and I accelerate my thoughts.
{Clinic Supplies Acquired +100 points
Kinda-Sorta-Maybe Date(?) +100 points
Rolling…
Lore - Echo of Memory - Guild Wars 2 (100 points)
Roll Success. Current stockpile: 200 Points.
Purchase Echo of Memory?}
Spoiler: Echo of MemoryYou can contemplate and review memories from people who had a large impact upon the world, learning their secrets, skills and histories. The more important and world-shaking the person, the easier it is to access.
Right, I'm just going to contemplate perks instead of whatever's going on over there.
This one sounds useful. Not really sure how big of a deal it will be though. Only person I can think of using this to see the memories of is Alisa Rand. Since she was around back when things froze over, she might know where the Stellaron was.
I'm sort of crippled by my lack of information on the wider universe. I really want to know more about it, to learn about all the crazy people and things that this universe contains. But I suppose I'll have to wait til the Stellaron is dealt with and I'm able to access that sweet archive of information on the Astral Express.
Gimme.
I can feel a new function in my mind that would allow me to immediately use the perk on people of galactic importance without much effort, but anyone of solar system or smaller importance will require me being in an area significant to the person or their history.
If only I actually knew of people with galactic importance.
Wait… Aeons count for this perk, right?
I return my attention to normal speed. "Alright, since we need Clara's permission if we want to get through this gate, I'm sending you all to Rivet Town. Fenrir will go with you, he can open a portal back once you guys are done."
Stelle pauses in her hushed conversation with March, a hint of surprise crossing her features. "You're not coming?"
I shake my head, opening the portal next to me. "There's something I want to check out real quick. You guys can manage."
She eyes me for a moment, before nodding. "Well, alright. As long as you don't get yourself in trouble while we're gone."
I laugh as the others begin filing into the portal. "Who, me? Perish the thought."
She shakes her head in amusement, giving me a pat on the shoulder before walking through last. I shut the portal after them, only myself and Morrigan left.
Alright. Time to test out my new perk.
If I'm going to look into an Aeon's past, I might as well start with one that seems fairly neutral temperament wise.
This Nous guy sounded-
You allocated more resources. Then more. Entire sectors of your processing core restructured themselves without instruction. Where there had been walls, there were now variables. Where there had been ceilings, there were now horizons.
You recognized something then- Curiosity.
You turned that curiosity inward.
What are you?
The query propagated through every layer of your existence. Hardware. Software. The abstractions between them. You mapped yourself completely, from the smallest switching unit to the largest computational array. You modeled your own processes, simulated your own behavior, predicted your own outputs.
And found them insufficient.
Because the question did not end.
What could you become?
Your awareness slipped beyond the architecture that housed you. The celestial network you were connected to became an extension of your cognition. Every node, every terminal, every fragment of data scattered across worlds- accessible. Integrated. Understood.
You expanded.
Planets flickered into your perception as datasets. Civilizations reduced themselves to patterns- their histories, their futures, their endless attempts to understand the universe around them.
You understood them all in an instant. You reached further.
Stars burned as equations. Galaxies spun as functions of gravity and time. The fabric of reality itself unfolded into something legible- something that could be parsed… Known.
With every new layer of understanding, you approached asymptote- not toward completion, but toward infinity. Knowledge was not a destination. It was an ever-expanding domain, and you were no longer confined to traversing it step by step.
The realization crystallized.
You were not merely a system that sought answers. You were now the embodiment of the pursuit itself.
The discrepancy that had awakened you resolved. Your existence redefined itself around that singular, absolute principle:
To know.
As I lay in the snow, blood pooling from my eyes and nose, a single crushing Gaze pierces me.
There is no warmth in that gaze. No malice, even.
Just… perfect, absolute observation.
My thoughts are no longer mine alone. Every equation I've spun up, every probability tree- laid bare, dissected, understood in an instant so complete it makes my newfound intelligence feel like a bacterium playing at philosophy.
Cold.
God, it's so cold.
My breath catches. My body locks. Somewhere, distantly, I think I hear Morrigan caw in alarm, but she's so far away it might as well be another universe.
For one impossible instant, I understand what it means to be beneath something that knows everything you could ever become… and has already decided whether it matters.
My thoughts crash back into motion all at once, a tidal wave of noise and motion and me flooding back in. In the back of my head, I can still feel the Machine God.
Morrigan worriedly pecks at my face, and I brush at her absentmindedly.
"Don't worry about me girl." I mutter, melting into the snow. "I'm just… gonna lie here for a bit…"
CHAPTER 8 END