"Wooh... this is so underwhelming. Your domain is just the moon itself?" I shake my head and look at the proud Juzual with a pitiful gaze. "I thought you'd create a palace or something here..."

"Why would I need that, if there is no weather here? I require neither food nor sleep, so I have no use for a kitchen or a bedroom." The Witch of the End responds with a frown. "Are you not the same? For a creature that can survive in space, you have no need for shelter, either."

"But I do need food, and I like to sleep and take a bath from time to time, you know?" Patting off the moon dust from my skin, I turn to Aurelia, who does the same. Her golden skin is shining in the twilight of the half-illuminated moon and is quite entrancing despite its otherness, when compared to all the other appearances I've seen so far - aside from myself. "And speaking of food... I need some, I'm a growing girl."

"Why don't you eat the dirt?" Juzual states in a spiteful tone and sits down in midair.

"... so, how long do you intend to keep us here?" I'm sure I could just launch myself back to the planet from here; it was my initial plan, even if I had not met this witch. Although I'm not sure how long it would take to fly back, as I have no idea how fast I can move by jumping into space. I know the distance between Earth and the Moon is almost four hundred thousand kilometers, but that may be different here. And even if that distance was true, going at one hundred kilometers per hour would require over a hundred days, if my math is right. I can go much faster if I could use wind magic in Chaos Warhead Mode, but that's not a possibility here. Also, I heard about something called escape velocity, and I have not an inkling as to how that works.

"As long as it takes for you to reach an acceptable level of understanding." With a dismissive attitude, the Witch of the End responds and waves at me. "You must unlearn what you have learned about magic. Humans teach a convoluted and ritualistic version of what the sorcerers are able to perform through force of will alone." She points at Aurelia. "You must be aware of her capabilities."

"Commanding weapons with her will?" I peek at Aurelia, who has her arms crossed and is looking at Juzual with an almost hostile expression. It seems that she still has her apprehension about working with the person who posed as the sage named Juno and apparently misled her in the past. I share that sentiment to a certain extent; I won't trust this witch at all, but if I can gain something from her teachings that will make me stronger and allow me to overcome those self-proclaimed gods, then I will use that opportunity.

"Because her mind is still that of a human's, she limits herself. If she were a sorcerer, her power would put her above all but Zenlith, Exla and Serent... oh, and maybe that muscle for brains Oinos." She explains while musing about the order of power. I've learned that power levels are dumb, because in the end, situational occurrences can make all the difference. I mean, I learned it the hard way, by losing against those humans despite being much stronger than they are. Although, maybe I'm just always overestimating myself...

"What's the difference between a sorcerer and a human, aside from having stronger magic spells?" Well, and maybe their eternal youth, but I guess that's also because of magic.

"They may have withheld many powerful spells from humans, but they do not have the ability to bend the world to their will any more than humans would be able to do. It is a difference in mindset." As I recall, magic has a lot to do with having the right mindset. That was taught at the academy, too. It's probably the reason why I can cast certain spells without chanting the full or even right incantation, like spirit spear. "Humans believe that the right sequence of words and rituals are what bring about the effect. It is what the sorcerers taught them, after all. But you can ask the queen to teach you. After all, she found part of the truth on her own."

"That magic doesn't need the incantations as they're being taught? Like this? Spirit Spear." I summon one above my head and am reminded of the fact that Arcelia's are bigger than mine. Guess the title of saint is not just for show.

"As I said, you must unlearn what you have learned." Juzual responds with a chuckle. Easy, I just have to ask Basarab to manipulate my memories again, right... "Do you know why children have such a vivid imagination and lose it the older they become? Because the world is explained to them by other people who are inadequately informed, and it becomes doctrine." Pausing to open her eyes and look at Aurelia, the witch shows a hint of resignation. "Now you understand why the sorcerers are powerful but inherently flawed. They are still children on the inside - children with the power to destroy entire nations."

That sounds pretty bad. Well, the fact that they're playing a millennia-spanning game with this collection of continents should have been indicator enough as to their state of mind. In either case, I actually feel hungry, so I need to insist on getting a proper answer for my inquiry about food.

"Ok, now seriously: I need something to eat. My body consumes itself when it doesn't digest anything. And I've spent a lot of energy in my last battle." I look at Juzual with pleading eyes, but she returns my gaze while closing hers. It makes me think that I won't like her response.

"There is nothing a human could eat here." She states in a matter of fact tone.

"... you serious?!"

I never knew bare thighs could look so delicious. And not in the sexual sense. As they move in front of me, they look more and more like two large, meaty pieces of ham, which I could just bite into.

"Are you listening?" A voice asks in an annoyed tone and the thighs stop. I look up and see Aurelia, as she frowns at the face I must be making. "This is going nowhere..."

"I can't help iiit! I haven't eaten anything for over a month nooow!" My figurative stomach is killing me. The sensation is like that of a black hole inside me, sucking up my mass at an ever faster rate, and it feels like I've already lost a large chunk of my body.

"The longer it takes for you to understand the principles behind sorcery, the longer we have to remain here." The golden girl says and sighs, even though there is no air or atmosphere here. She walks up to me and sits down on the ground in front of me unhesitatingly. I would have expected a queen to be much more refined, but over the past weeks I've learned that she is quite similar to me in many regards - mainly quite tomboyish, despite her looks. "Let us try again. After all you are at least able to understand that visualization is the key."

Yes, we made one breakthrough, which has allowed me to cast the spells I know without speaking their incantations. But I'm still not able to properly understand how to use magic I have no knowledge about. In this particular case, Aurelia is trying to teach me transmutation magic, a discipline that wasn't being taught at the academy and is most likely, for all intents and purposes, a lost art. I was never good at the sciences, least of all chemistry, but the common sense ingrained into me from my previous life has taught me that one element can't change into another, or something like that.

It doesn't help that she isn't good at teaching, either, as she keeps explaining it in a way which shows that she's simply a genius who knows by instinct. Apparently the story about her clutching a piece of gold at her birth has something to do with that. Maybe she was simply born with the ability to change elements however she wishes, and I wasn't. I mean, what element does transmuting metals into gold even fall into?

"I don't think we'll be making any progress when I'm so hungry..." I fall forward and into Aurelia's lap. She used to hit me or push me away before, but our relationship has improved quite a bit recently. I guess being together all the time, with nobody else to talk to in this barren wasteland does that to people. "Why are there no moonmen or something like that for me to eat?" My brain is quite useless right now.

"But if you give up learning now, it will only become worse." Aurelia strokes my hair and I look up to her in surprise. This is the first time she has initiated making physical contact with me. She realizes what she just did, retracts her hand quickly and looks away with a poker face. "In either case, this is not a matter of memorization, it depends on your imagination."

"It's too hard for me to imagine this rock here turning into gold..." I pick up a moon rock and stare at it intently, trying to see it in with a golden color. While I may be able to visualize that, I just can't do so for the process involved to turn one thing into another. It's the same with melded magic, turning water and wind into ice. Because no matter how strong or fast the wind is, water doesn't freeze from that, but rather because of temperature. "I think it'd be better to get back to the planet and continue there..." I bury my face between Aurelia's thighs, but she does nothing to stop me.

"You have many established preconceptions about how nature works. Did you enjoy a good education?" She asks and begins to stroke my hair again. This feels unexpectedly nice~

"Well, I'm not from this world. I come from a place without magic, a place where science is on the best way to explain everything and technology can make magic happen."

"Technology?"

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I quote a saying I read somewhere before. "Would you believe me if I told you that where I came from, you can..." I try to find an example that is impossible to do with magic in this world, and realize how hard it is to come up with anything. Traveling to space was widely regarded as the pinnacle of technology in my previous life, and becoming immortal through a bionic body was just over the horizon. But here I am, in a fantasy world where technology hasn't progressed further than the Middle Ages, lying in the lap of a golden girl who has overcome death by putting her consciousness into an artificial body. And all that while we're on the surface of the moon.

"You can... what?" That very girl asks curiously.

"Hm... wait. That's not quite it." I fall into thought when I reconsider everything I just said. Technology is something accessible to anyone with the right amount of money, but magic has always been set as something only the talented or the chosen ones can wield. However, when reversing the quote, then isn't magic simply advanced technology that has not been fully understood yet? And regardless of whether I understand how a smart phone works on the inside, I can still use it. "... wait, is this the answer?"

I sit up from Aurelia's lap and stare at the moon rock. Basically, I simply have to believe that it works, huh? Once again, I close my eyes and picture it completely golden. But just like with magic, I can't feel anything happening; there's no concept of mana, after all. So I open my eyes and look down on the rock.

It has changed into a dumpling.

"... huh?" I make and rub my eyes. Then it's back to being a normal moon rock again. "Dammit, I'm already hallucinating from hunger!" I throw the rock away and lie back down on Aurelia's lap, who looks at me with a skeptical expression. Yeah, I know. That would have been too easy. If it was like magic and simply believing it to work would make it work, then anybody could do it.

"You are on the right track." A voice I haven't heard in a long time speaks in my mind and I sit up quickly. It belongs to Juzual, who has practically abandoned us out here after our initial arrival and disappeared to somewhere. She said she wanted my cooperation, but beyond making our journey to the moon faster by a few days, she hasn't done anything to make me get stronger so that I can be of help to her. Well, she has been using her mind to channel all my conversations with Aurelia, or else we would have been unable to communicate at all. "Here is your reward."

The carcass of a massive beast falls out of the sky and lands right in front of us, its impact shaking the ground we sit on and kicking up a cloud of dust. When it settles, a creature looking like a whale lies before me. Without a moment's hesitation, I jump up and transform into an amorphous blob, realizing that I have barely shrunk during my time here, even though it felt like I lost half my mass to the perceived black hole inside me. I grab onto the creature ravenously, and marvel at its size as it begins to fill me up completely. This is the biggest I've ever taken inside me, and it's a different kind of sensation from anything I ever experienced before. Well, maybe it's because I'm really hungry. Within moments, it's completely gone and digesting at an incredibly fast rate.

"Now, shall I give you a tip? Your imagination has to be stronger than reality." Juzual's voice leaves me with that and her presence disappears, even though she hasn't even shown herself. I turn to look at Aurelia, who gives my table manners a disgusted look. It seems she hasn't heard the witch speak.

"Imagination stronger than reality..." I feel like I heard that somewhere before. The power to overlay reality with one's own imagination, or rather, creating a personal reality... Bending the world to my will, through will alone? That's about as scientific as creating magical phenomena through incantations. "Wait... it doesn't have to be scientific at all, then." I sit down on the spot and begin to contemplate this issue again. Now that I don't need to deal with hunger anymore, I can concentrate much better.

"What is it?" Aurelia comes over, but I don't answer.

I stare at a moon rock in front of me and picture it in golden. But rather than trying to do so through my lacking understanding of chemistry or the power of belief, I try to convince myself that it should be so. My imagination is stronger than reality... my imagination is stronger than reality... my imagination is stronger than reality...

Nothing happens.

Well, what did I expect? It won't go so quickly. That only happens in those moments of cheap gratification in fiction, when the hero gets a new piece of information to help him along the way to reach the next level in power, and he immediately succeeds in it with a little bit of extra effort. Reality is different from that, you know? But now that I'm sated for the time being, I'll be able to further explore this angle.

I stand up and walk up to Aurelia, who blinks and looks at me with a hint of apprehension, before I hug her and lift her off her feet.

"W-what are you doing?!" She makes and struggles, but I let her down and keep my grasp on her. Her approach in teaching wasn't wrong, it was just my lack of understanding. Her strong will is what allowed her to overlay reality with her own imagination, and she has been doing it to a certain extent without even realizing the underlying concept of it.

"I'll have you as dessert." I whisper into her ear seductively - although it's being transmitted directly into her mind anyways - while running a finger down the center of her back, causing a shiver to run through her body.