34: Time Passes
Jessica’s view
It’s a little annoying to spend time raising a boy, only to have him looking up to my other self as their idol. C’mon! I’m great too! Not that I’d ever let him know I’m envious of David having all his attention. Do you really have to watch recordings of his fights over and over again? Maybe I should look into joining the arena… oh wait, I’m not allowed to make new spells. How can I possibly not make new spells for an arena fight?! Bah.
At least we’re making progress on the genesis spell. Avalon won’t let me try to cast it yet, but I’m pretty sure I understand it well enough to make it work. It just requires tapping into the primordial origins of reality and allowing it to fill a large version of a pocket dimension with raw possibility. Shaping that possibility into a desired form shouldn’t be that complicated.
I’ve had to distract myself with teaching magic to our daughter. I might not be allowed to create new spells, but at least I can show basic stuff to someone who appreciates my knowledge.
Edward’s view
The more I learn about magic and creation, the more I realize it’s dauntingly complex. Thankfully, Avalon and Gaia are able to assist me with understanding what I learn, but it feels a little weird to be working with spirits created by a demon king. I know Jessica is a good, kind woman, and that her creations are not so scary, but it’s hard to shake off an upbringing that continually blamed demons for everything bad.
At least Avalon and Gaia are not as... intense as Revenna is. I find Revenna much more disturbing to work with, though I can’t quite place what it is about her that disturbs me. Everything about her just feels a little… off. Like her perceptions are not quite right. Thankfully, she’s not a key person in this research project. I don’t really think I’d trust her with the fate of an entire world.
Revenna’s view
I’m not sure why Jessica found it so odd that I’d name our son Gaston, it’s a strong name! Then I named our daughter Belle, and she just laughed! Something about them being names in a story she knew, but she doesn’t remember it well enough to retell it. Sometimes, I wish I could peek into her head and see all those things she half remembers from her past life. It’s probably a good thing I don’t have her past life memories though, they’re clearly the reason her thoughts are so strange and hard to understand at times. I quite like being fully sane.
Thankfully, Gaston truly lives up to his name. I made sure to get him the best swordsmanship tutors when I learned of his interest in David’s swordsmanship. Though, again, Jessica laughed when he began eating dozens of eggs a day as part of his physical training.
Belle on the other hand is rather… bookish. I suppose I can’t blame the poor girl, her body is weak. Osia wanted to teach her physical enhancement magic to compensate, but she shows little interest. Instead, Belle has been getting Jessica to show her magic. I wanted to be her magic teacher, dang it! I worry she’s going to get weird ideas from Jess. As it is, she refuses to share her findings with me, and won’t show me her notes. I know she’s studying something weird though, because she’ll ask Jess to cast the same spell over and over while scribbling away in her notes.
Belle’s view
It’s fascinating the way mother Jess does magic. I’ve watched her cast basic spells of every element, and there’s enormous similarity to them. It’s as if they are the same spell in her mind. Whether it be the basic stone bolt spell, or the fire bolt spell, only minor differences exist between them. Yet, there’s always minor differences in her spells, even when casting the same one. The difference between two of her stone bolt spells is similar to the difference between her stone bolt and her fire bolt in how much changes. I’ve been trying to compare them and decipher which changes are actually due to element, and which are just part of her normal variance. It’s difficult though.
When my mothers eventually leave, I’ll probably miss Jess the most. Maybe I can convince them to let me go with them. Mother Jess’ magic is just too fascinating.
***Author note***
… I just kinda time skipped over practically the entirety of the children growing up. I rolled dice for aptitudes and ended up with something somewhat stereotypical. Was kinda hoping Belle would at least go for the magically enhanced body route, but the dice said no.
The Genesis spell is going to have to have an enchantment on the outside of it that controls the spatial expansion of the inner universe. At first, you might only want a geocentric universe, but if the inhabitants want to start doing space travel shenanigans later, you'll need a lever to add an actual sun (rather than a giant magical UV spotlight on the edge of the dimension) and solar system, and eventually a galaxy. Alternatively, you can go full xianxia and have biomes that expand subdimensionally, with the expansion rate proportional to the amount of mana being circulated by the life living there. This will increase the size of the planet over time without increasing the gravity, and they'll always be new land for the sapients living there to explore, claim, and develop.
Be exceedingly careful about who you let immigrate to your world, since they'll likely color the resulting culture in the human/demon racism that exists there if you let too many through too quickly without checks. I suggest having a secondary emergency evacuation world set up that teleports everyone to safety in case the gods' board flip function ever gets triggered. If the reset world is safe to enter, they can just open a portal back to whatever exists afterwards, or just be indefinitely exiled if the gods don't want the old population there anymore. They're probably safer on a world that won't go instant apocalypse without warning.