-Sous-
It’s been three days since the attack on the Old Fashioned by one of the many anti-Vraglixian groups, the SteelStar Supremacists, and the murder of Neo Draceld Z. Even with her peculiar and obscured portfolio of mandala, the high enlightened was estimating a few more days before she could revive herself and have to spend even longer recuperating cause she could already tell she was going to come back with a post-mortem disease. Honestly and surprising to myself, I was furious over the fact that there were deaths in Old Fashioned New Imports: even though I was a blackzone system assistant and I knew that deaths within the Enigma netted us a great deal of dungeon-mana reserves, there are certain lines that not even I would cross.
To think it was possible to bypass the protections put in not only by the system themselves but the safeguards of proxy devices themselves to allow for the inflicting of actual harm to another through proxy bodies and the likes. Some magic is best left forbidden and unused like rotten ingredients, I sourly mused to myself as I continued my research on Witch Synthia as Ras had the Glyirian prepare the ritual site for binding me with the gem of fancies.
“How’s the research going?” asked Daisy with a smile, eyeing the Enigma’s Enigma of Draceld that was lurking on the site since none of us wanted to deal with it and I had a hunch it would be potentially useful in the coming ritual.
“I am mulling through the many recipes that Witch Synthia is using… surprisingly all derived from Mercury-Gardenia,” I replied with a nod as I touched the wallflower protruding out of my simulated body’s flesh. Looking at the feminine spirit in her flowing gown dotted in flower blossoms, I continued, “The Back Continent’s Hybrid System of Flowers specializes not just in these flowers and their conjuration, but the ten other Hybrid Systems built up off it, each maxing full use of the maximum amount of ingredients a Hybrid System can hold, and the use of system slots to empower the connections of other system slots.”
“Hmm… so you decided to bring me in on this when I could be exploring the blackzones and enjoying my time with my fellow spirits for only what I can assume is for the latter.”
“Yes, one of the derivative Hybrid Systems, the Hybrid System of Shrouded Flowers, also makes use of the Obscurus System. Ras and I are expecting whenever I end up in Witch Synthia will be using that system. And since I am still not used to the dish that is… a ‘human’ body of my own as Robert puts it, so I’d like to have some assistance.”
“Well, even when you become an enlightened entity, you’ll still be Robert’s blackzone system assistants, all the mandala-wrought contracts will still apply. So I should be able to hitch a ride with you… It would be interesting.”
“That’s good to hear,” I commented, with a very slight smile, before heading down to the ritual site to watch finishing touches be done. Taking the chance, Ras went to reminding me that while the hills of fantasy was a dungeon-like distortion connected to the hubs, like blackzones, there were key differences: both hills of fantasy and divergent distortions worked in layers tacking on top of each, three for the former and four for the later.
“If the research is right, and hopefully it is because I don’t exactly trust Neo Draceld Z to be giving us the correct information, the ritual that turns you to a stargranted will send you not to a personal hill of fantasy but an intermediary one in Witch Synthia, and the conquest should appear shortly” commented the Glyirian noble of a blackzone manager as he stared at the gem of fancies at the center of the ritual site, sitting on a podium currently being inscribed with magics. For something so powerful and valuable, its small size and plain appearance despite the simple yet ornate shell-bracing on its crystalline body was incredibly deceiving.
“We can trust Draceld on this. As much as you want to think she is a rotten apple, she has no reason to lie about this.” I can understand the Glyirian’s mistrust of Draceld, she is a mysterious and micheivious person by nature, but she is no poisoned spice.
“I’ll take your advice on it, but I will still be ready for if things go awry.”
“That is fine enough, now then, shall we start cooking?” I asked with a slight smile, feeling emotions well up inside of me. The prospect of magi-sentience always seemed so far away, even with all the aid and research derived from the subconscious gossip of allied blackzone system assistants, but now I was actually going to become not only a magi-sentient but also a pinnacle of mages.
With the preperations set, the mages on loan from Glyiria commenced the ritual and guided me toward the spellcraft-etched podium: unlike the rituals to turn Ras and Louella into blackzone managers, there was no spherical barrier to contain the mana and magics, instead it was swirling up in loose intertwining spirals and feeding directly into the World Kernels. To think such a dish would tap into a source of magic like this, the birth of pinnacles of mages is nothing to scoff at, I pondered with great interest as I tried to process as much of the magic as I could. Sadly in this simulated body, my pronounced ability of processing magic was hampered so the best I could do was enjoy the show so to speak.
“You may touch the gem of fancies now,” called out one of the mages, a stargranted from the looks of it, as he and the others shaped the spirals of dense mana into complex shapes as it continued to funnel itself upward and out of this layer of reality. Nodding, I entered the innermost ring of the ritual and slowly reached out to the gem of fancies, its pale crystalline body now swimming with colours.
“Do you wish for a wish?” rang out the Enigma’s Enigma’s voice in my mind.
“No, I do not wish for a wish,” I telepathically replied, not too surprised by the legion monster’s sudden input.
“Then what do you wish for?”
“I wish for magi-sentience.”
“A fine wish, the Shaytan-Brachii will grant you such.” With that the colours in gems of fancies started to shift toward black and beige-steel as my hand was attracted to it by a powerful voice. The second I touched it, I could feel my simulated body fall away and my being expanded: no longer where my body, outer genomes, vitas vessels, mandalas, and system slots merely made up of facsimile, now I also possessed the genuine articles of each.
Feeling myself be taken away from Historie Pastoria Sweets, I could feel myself become acutely aware of the potential actual mandalas could provide in the terms of spellcraft in comparison to what my astral heart and generic mandala facsimile could do along with the few mandalas I naturally possessed beforehand as a sentient, now fully empowered and fully inscribed by my magi-sentience: my protocols were shallow and small compared to the vastness and deepness of magic itself. I also understanded how precarious my life was now, no longer did I merely possess a mutant body facsimile that resided outside the prime physical layer of reality nor an undefined lifespan bolstered by my bond to Robert and the Enigma: I could be killed more easily now and my magi-sentience would serve as an obstacle to reviving me. To think the thing I craved for the past year would have such a bitter aftertaste to it, I continued to complement as I inspected my newly found and fully formed three-hundred-ninety-four mandalas and the various ones that were only inscribed, including a peculiar one that effectively gave me a secondary subconscious to help with running Historie Pastoria Sweets. Looking closer I noticed that I had another secondary subconscious from being a contracted existence, although somehow it was fused together with the first not because the mandalas but rather their purposes were so closely aligned. Perhaps I should get a synthesis mandala to fuse the two together formally, combining my Mark of the Contracted System Assistant: Willful Crystal and Self-System Assistant: Willful Desire.
It wasn’t long until I felt solid ground again, looking around I found myself back in my simulated body and standing on the slope of a large hill in the middle of what looked like a very spread out Halloween-themed town. Observing the peculiar juxtaposition of suburban and rural, I felt the intensity of ambient blacks radiating from large floating bubble-like spheres flowing above the buildings. There must be enough black mana here to damage a person’s vitas vessel if they lived here, I noted myself before circulating mana through my simulated body as best as I could before trying to reach Robert through our connection,
“Can you hear me?”
“Yeah, I can hear you. What do you need? Aren’t you supposed to be in Witch Synthia or something right now?”
“I am, how is the Enigma holding up without me there?”
“We’re doing fine, we’re kind of mana-drunk right now. This conquest being generated is giving off a hell of a lot of mana.”
“Of course it is…” I telepathically sighed before focusing my attention on drawing Daisy over. It was a difficult task, before when I was simply a system assistant I could interact with the Robert’s other spirits and familiars with ease, but now that I was a magi-sentient of my own the connection was narrowed through the mandalas that Robert had for me: my own mandalas and other developed pieces of a being serving as surprising obstacle. By the time I managed to bring Daisy over, I also brought Umi over due to trial and error and was feeling this simulated body sizzle with cross-karmic retribution.
“Are you okay pappa?” asked Umi, watching as my simulated body fragmented from misuse and shunted my new real body into this intermediary hill of fantasy.
“I am, just dealing with a large amount of spices and seasoning for the first time,” I replied as I worked on regaining my composure: having an actual body was foreign experience to me to say the least and in an environment like this that wasn’t a good thing. Luckily my magi-sentience helped ease the learning curve of handling such an ingredient like this.
“Dealing with the pros and cons are we?” followed Daisy, curious with my new position.
“Yes, I am. And I am not regretting it, this is an exquisite dish that I experimented on achieving for quite some time now.”
“Well that’s good to hear. Now, what’s your tier? I’m curious.”
“Tier… 3.5.”
“That’s the minimum isn’t it?” asked the spirit with a tilted head, likely drawing upon knowledge from Daphne or Lucilla, if not one of their spirits or system assistants.
“It is, but it is also twice my previous tier so it is a marked improvement,” I replied as I continued to focus on more fluidly circulating my mana as to fight off the ambient black manas: managing your own mandalas and mana circuitry was a definite different skill from managing another’s. Perhaps I should invest in mandalas to improve that skill now that I have mandalas to use? Maybe even search for the more unorthodox ones that improved mana circulation and manipulation in my other pieces of a being. Not only am I an enlightened entity-blackzone manager contracted existence with ties not to a powerful entity but the Enigma itself, I am now also an actual blackzone manager and a stargranted, I shouldn’t settle for common conventional ingredients, I noted to myself, already feeling the desire to test my limits and figure out my own style of spellcraft.
“Conquest incoming,” commented Sal from the back of my head, piggy backing off our shared connections to Robert to interrupt my train of thought. Feeling the ambient mana shift and churn, I watched as the conquest formed: a single cake-style tower in an area likely big enough to only fit three or four faux-World Bridges that Robert was so fond of. Feeling the spatial distortions through my connection to the Enigma, I could tell this wasn’t a Phase or hidden area nor was it an expansion, this was something between. Now this is an interesting dish, I internally chuckled to myself, waving my hand through the air and seeing how easy it was to move between this area and the hill of fantasy. An interesting dish indeed...
