Chapter 71: A Pillow Talk With Tanya.

Later that night.

(Tanya PoV)

After the old man Artoria called Zelretch had appeared, Ray once again stayed up for the night despite the fact that I advised that even if he does not require sleep, sleep is necessary for a healthy mind to process the information and other brain functions during sleep.

"Are you sure you want to sleep alone?" I asked Dvalin, who occupied the majority of the eighth floor where bedrooms are located, for herself in her dragon form.

'Yes! Sister Tanya! I like to sleep like this.' Dvalin conveyed her words with telepathy as her current vocal cord could only make out happy roars. Dvalin curled up her body and proceeded to sleep.

"Okay then." I give Dvalin a goodnight farewell before entering my room.

Inside the room is Charlotte and Artoria. Both already on the bed but not yet in the mood to sleep.

For me and Charlotte, both of us already used to not having Ray with us when sleeping as he was often locked in his Workshop doing his things and sometimes even for a week straight.

Artoria however, after the recent days having Ray by her side when she sleeps, now suddenly without him. She felt restless as I noticed.

I still felt guilty for breaking Artoria's heart with Ray's confession about his priority. I do feel great that I am the number one in his heart but I also sympathize with Artoria. I thought of how I would feel when being in her shoes, listening to such heart wrenching words from someone who I gave my everything to, suddenly said I am a replaceable object in his eyes.

As much as I liked his brutal honesty, I also wanted to beat his ass for being such an insensitive bastard. He could at least choose less hurtful words instead, at the very least.

Yeah, I should do something about this.

'Ray? Are you really busy right now?'

'Not really, still sorting out my gains from the old vampire. Why?'

'I want you to accompany us tonight. At least until I fell asleep.' Considering Artoria is a quick sleeper, this much should be enough.

'Sure.' Ray replied and a portal immediately appeared in front of me and we walked out with a smug look on his face.

"Are you having nightmares and trouble sleeping to need my accompaniment?"

Grrr his smugness is sometimes annoying that I felt like punching his face.

"Nothing, just felt like it. That's all." I said and went to my wardrobe to change into my sleeping pajamas.

Ray didn't even take a look at me and acted absentminded as he walked over to the bed. Definitely, because his mind is elsewhere doing something inside while the one I interact with is just a small portion of it he left in his foremind.

By the time I'm done changing, Charlotte and Artoria already occupied both sides of Ray's arm. I take the right side of the bed near the edge, next to Charlotte.

"So, what did you talk about with that Zelretch guy? It looks rather important for you to immediately lock yourself in your Workshop and even skip dinner."

"Something happened back at the Fate world and we had a transaction." Ray replied offhandedly as his focus is on the sleeping Charlotte as he plays with her hair fringes. Artoria also slipped her arms over his waist to hug and rest her body on his back.

"Something bad?"

Ray nod and sighed before he explained how his travel to Teyvat somehow caused an Eldritch beings invasion, then all out war between human and Magus and then the ambitious Dead Apostles trying to take over the world. At least the Einzbern family and the vassals remain strong as our magecraft that Ray created base on Imperial magic isn't affected by whatever happened when human discovered Magecraft and weakened it.

"Wait, back to the part how you become the most wanted criminal. What happened there?"

"Uh, basically I am responsible for tearing the veil of secrecy from humans, weakening of magecraft and the Dead Apostle's uprising due to my tyranny against them in Europe." Ray looked defeated as his head dropped to the pillow as he sighed. "Shits happen. Also, how am I being a Tyrant that suppressed the European Dead Apostles? I only drove them out of Germany. Not the entire European continent." Ray ranted and once again sighed and composed himself.

"Hmn… What about the transaction?" I changed the topic and Ray immediately returned to grinning as if he just won the lottery.

"Oh, I make the old vampire a human again and immortal in exchange for him to share with me his Magic."

"Magic? As if True Magic." I hurried and tried to confirm.

"Yeah, the one similar to mine. Mine is Heaven's Feel or Materialization of Soul, the Third Magic. His is Kaleidoscope or Operation of Parallel Worlds, the Second Magic." Ray then continues his explanation like an excited child showing his parents what he learned at school.

I lend my ears with a smile, listening to him explain the Second Magic and its functions.

"... basically, the normal Heaven's Feel can only allow me to make a person immortal and gain instant mana regeneration due to the nature of the immortality while Kaleidoscope allows me to access infinite parallel worlds and tap into an infinite amount of mana. Both look very strong but actually just support type abilities. None of them could be used in direct confrontation as their real utility in a battle are just endless mana batteries and nothing else."

"Well, you could argue that the Magics allow me to manipulate soul, space and time. But, it's not in the package and I need to learn it myself before I am able to use them. They just give me the affinity to understand those elements faster." Ray ranted about how Magics actually overrated and regretted not having offensive abilities while his System was still with him.

"Like my abilities look just like a trash rpg character focused on role play and trolling than actual balanced character." Ray emptied his frustration.

"Surely you can do something about it." I cooed and comfort him despite not knowing what advice I should give him.

"Kind of. Heaven's Feel offer very little for making offensive abilities. But, at least the Kaleidoscope does. Spatial manipulate is quite useful like this. Reality Slash." Ray cast a spell and a crescent shaped slash appeared but vanished instantly.

"Isn't that an ability from the anime Overlord?" I asked after remembering I saw this ability used by an skeleton overlord protagonist in Ray's memories.

"Yes. I recreate one of his magic by using Kaleidoscope's ability to open and close portal to another world, weaponizing it to open portal in my opponent and then close it, making a cut that negate any form of protection as it cut the very fabric of space itself."

"Oo…" I could understand his words, but the amount that pour out his mouth is too much for my brain to comprehend and easily overloaded. "I guess that's one step forward."

"Mhm. It's hard to recreate abilities, much less inventing one. I just wish I have Devil's Power of Imagination from DxD. I could skip 99% of the steps needed to create spell by simply imagining it."

True, from what I learned with Ray on the early days. Creating spell is hard. One need to understand how it occur, what is the result, how it will be performed. Not just shallow understand but in depth understanding to the extend as have to accounting the air resistance, the effect of gravitational force, etc. All that need to be converted into a formula so a caster can account the percise mana required. Even then, the caster still need to focus and guide the mana from start to end of the spell. That's why Mage in my reincarnated world require Operation Orb or risk killing themselves from brain hemorrhage.

"Can't you just use Kaleidoscope and go to the DxD world and learn Power of Imagination?" I suggested in case Ray overlooked it.

"Nope, Power of Imagination is innate ability of Devil. It cannot be learned and required demonic power to use it. I reckon it would be a length process to unlock it for myself but not impossible." Ray replied honestly which anger me again.

"Then why didn't you prioritise obtaining that instead? I swear, you and your skewed sense of priority is ticking me off, Ray."

"How would I find that specific world? My previous travelling method might take ages to find, that is if it's even nearby. Scouring this multiverse is like gacha in a sense, I don't know what that world is until I enter it." Ray defended.

"Then, use the Kaleidoscope then. You have it now right?" I pointed out.

"You do realise I ontained it not too long ago. I barely have sufficient mastery to even use its proper function. Unlike Heaven's Feel that system granted, I didn't get instant mastery of Kaleidoscope and I have to learn it step by step." Ray retorted with a flat stare at me. Probably questioning my expectations of him.

"Then go learn it then. Didn't you always boast your Enhanced Mind allow you to learn everything very fast?"

"You just being plain unreasonable, Tanya. Learning magecraft is already hard. Do you think Magic would be easier? At least Magecraft can be understood with science. Magic doesn't and the closest thing I have for reference is diving into Akasha and understand the 'truth'. You know how badly it end up last time." Ray have to massage his head when he mentioned 'truth' a chronic disease every Magic user will suffer, he said.

Ray muttered something about going into Bloodborne and grind insights before trying to understand the 'Truth'. Probably something from his previous life that I had yet to discover.

Anyway, we talked enough and I started to feel my eyelids getting heavy. I told him goodnight before giving a kiss on his forehead for entertaining my whim. Then I went to sleep.

———

After Tanya went to sleep, I return to my Workshop and sitting idly while my mind working at maximum capacity, understanding the Kaleidoscope.

Anyway, what I discussed about Power of Imagination was something I had been working on to, just not within my top 10 priority list because of lacking plenty of components.

The Power of Imagination is, from my own understand, a way of bending mana into something by creating a spell matrix using imagination in contrast to formula and calculation which I use right now. However, it isn't as simple as that, as much as I wanted it to be.

Just like normal Magus, even with calculation and formula, one cannot cast a spell without sufficient focus, in Devil's case it being desire. Desire to bring their imagination into reality. Desire simultaneously expressed as emotions. That's why Devil's magic become stronger with their emotions. However, emotions are something hard to be express at will. One must have stimulus to have an output.

To counteract that, Devil have sin. Each devil would usually have a primary sin which embody themselves just like Issei being Lust or Rias being Sloth. Primary sin is the sin which embody a devil and what they always try to follow at any moment. Thus allowing Devil to always have a stimulus for their Power of Imagination.

In truth, Power of Imagination is just one of the many ways to wield the mana from the Immaterium. Just by coincidence, Devil have such constitution, allowing them to achieve Power of Imagination.

Thus, the secret to the Power of Imagination being desire. A very strong desire yet simultaneously controllable. I reckon my Sins Series work as such.

I had yet to actually develop one myself because my desire isn't strong enough to stimulate any. The Devil's Contract being an exception as it was given to me rather than I develop it myself.

The Sin of Sloth developed by the vessel in Teyvat to suit his need, working hard one day to earn his keep for the rest of the week. Thus developed it into an ability that allow him to gather six day worth of stamina and power to release it for one day for hunting.

In some way, my Sins Series it already in some shape or form, Power of Imagination. But very restricted. It react only to strong desire just like how Issei create abilities by pouring his entire passion for tits and gained bullshit abilities. I have none of such strong desire.

I have weak desire since before my reincarnation. It carried to me till now. Having no passion to achieve anything. Even my false passion to get revenge on Ray Elliot had started to slip away. Even now, I only try to achieve something under the pretense of trying to protect my loved one but I know I can achieve it easily right now without need to further increase my power. I just need to bring everyone into my mind. Seal them in so I can keep them away from any harm and escape any that come for me.

My emotions are hardly able to be stimulated, I don't care what happened around me, I can't even decide what I want to do and I do not even care about myself. I only pretend I do.

*crack*

'How long are you going to #### in your #### ####, ####. #### will ### if you continue to #### it. #### ### ###. #### will #### ####. Nothing will ####.'

Oddly, I can feel someone with a familiar voice talking to me. I oddly understand what he said but what I hear is bunch of incomprehendible noise. I shrug it off as my mind playing tricks to itself.

*mend*

Sometimes, I wonder. If what I experience, touch, see and taste is even real.

*crack*

Everything feel dull. Not even the proof of my passion with Tanya, Charlotte and Artoria felt real. It's dull.

*Crack*

It feel like a dream. A lucid one perhaps.

*CRacK!*

A dream I need to wa-

*CRACK!*

I̶̙̺͉̤̅̿̆̅͊͜ş̵̡̛͎̜͕͓̳̘̝͖̇͛̓̀̿̃̔͠n̶̥̥͙̪͚͌̾̀̔̿̄̎̔̄'̷̜͓́̓͌͆̾͗̓t̵̞̼̰̮͔̋̏ ̶̡̠̮̪̖̘̯̓̌̌̑̎͘t̶͕̘̤̹̮̼̣͕̞͕͛̈́́h̸̨̺̱̘̫̅̍́̈̓͠͠i̸͖̱̱̭͕̺̖͙̯̻̽͋̅̽s̸̛̤̠̰̥͇͍̀͌̍͋̃̍͂̔̑ ̵͙̺̎͛̚w̶̢̖̰̖̪̞̼͍̏h̴̯̯́́͒͑̒̃̄̔̈ą̷̰̗̯͕̳̝̊͗͂́ṫ̷̬̈́̇̉ ̶͙̖̪͇̰̦͑̾̉͜y̵̙͉̲̤̳̘͖͑̑ơ̸͖͇͈͔͔̝̹̒͐̋̊͊̅̏̓͝͠u̸̢̽͐̀͘͘͠͝ ̴̼̖͎̭̙̦͐̉̿̄̓̚̚w̵͇͉̅́̐͛̕̕͝͠i̷̤̜͇̠̣̱̔͛͋̃̚͠͠s̸̨̨̙͍͍̗̰͆͗̈́̈́̃̊̌̑͛͜h̵͚͓̯͖̉͑̈è̴̡̨̻̘̾d̴̡͍͔̲̩̱͈̳̙̔̀̃̄̄̆̆͜ ̶̙͕͙͕̘͕̜̟̰́͗̆̋̈́̾͘͜f̷̜͕̥̻̹̼͍̝̎̅́́̎̉̅͝ờ̸̧̝̜̱͙̠̳͇͇̲̽̋̈̓̿̂̒r̸͈͕̹͙̩̯̲̬̎͒̅̀̿,̴̛̗̱̦͉͕̱͉̮̩̩̣̓́̍̏̏̉̚ ̴̧͎̭̖͔́̒̽̍̏̕̕d̷̬̼͎̳̭̓ͅe̴̩͎͙̹͋̈́́̈́̏͗͌̊̚͜͠͠ả̴̛̖̱̌́ŗ̴̢̞̞̲̃̓͊̽́?̵̧̢̲̼̼̗͉̲̯͎͍̎̀̐̌̂̿̈́͋̚͝ ̵̜̪͓̫̎̉́͊̌̓̏͘A̶̡̱̰͙̬̗̱̲̙͗̈́͋̈́ ̸̨̛͕͎͔̜̫̺̕p̸͕͓̩͙͕͙͈̬̠̜̽̎̀̿̀̀̃̂̑̚ͅl̸̯̫̗͠͝a̷̡̬̜̜͍̋́͐̋̋̇̊̀͛̚͘͜c̸͖̯̅̿͐̒̌͋͛͠͝e̶̳̺͉̟͎̫̹͔̰̽̂̇̋̀͜͠ͅ ̴̫̹͇̈̋̎̎͂̈́ẃ̴̧̼̤̖̎̾̊͆ẖ̷͕̜̠̅͜ȩ̶̺͓̫̘̎͊̑̔͘ͅr̶̬̺̲͍̔̄̕̚é̷͓̠̹̎̑͝ ̸̧̘̞̳̩̙̀ỳ̴̢̳̼͕̪͇͖̑̓̽̆̃͐ͅo̶̢̩̐̌̃̏̿ủ̶̠̦̭̮̤̅͒̿̄̅̍͂̅̈́͝ ̶̨̟̳͍̠̲̻̽̊̏̈́̆͊͂͑̈͐c̸̡̎̋̈̊͂̈́͐̍͆͝͠ȧ̶̢̡̳̖̣̪͍͙͊̇͑͆͒̆͒̕̚͜͠n̴̛͎̋̏̉͋̈́̋̀ ̶̡̺̝̦̳̤̹͍̤̝̲̄̓͋̂͒l̴̦̠̞̙̃i̵̘͔͍͍̰̐̓̑̒̀̀͜͝ͅv̵̧̧̧̤̜̖̔̉̐̒͊̀̓͘͠e̸̥̍̊ ̴͕̻͎͓͇̞̑̈́͘t̴̜̒ḩ̸͚̬͇͕͎̹̇̊͌͛͂͆̔̈́͐̐͜ȩ̷̱̼̬̼͖͌͋̒̏̈́͂̋̋͐͝ ̷̣̙͚͎͓́̽̏̐̏͊̌͌͝͝ͅw̵͈͋͑̈̀̌̃ã̸̦͖͒̀̑̉̑͆ý̸̢̺͉̙̱̯̤̲̻̜̲̏ ̵̭́̈́̐͝y̴̛̲̤̌̓̃͆̂͒̀͂̒͌ơ̶̮͑̒̐̌̂͒ư̴͙̒͗͑̿͑͒̄̒́ ̷̧̪͚̤̩̯̀͐͒̈̆̆̎͒̐̈̄ͅw̷̡̨̗̯͇̦͉̱̖͕̰͌̐̿̚͝ȋ̶̛̛͙̯͎͕͚̼̞͇͉͓͗́s̷̢͈̦̖͎͔̘̎̊̈́̏ͅh̵̖̘͔̱̣̲͎̃̌̈͛͗̑́͋̅͜e̸̡̩̪̅̀͌d̵̡̹̖̥̙̜͖̩͇̣̍͂̒͛̈͑̈́͑͘,̶̳̱͚̥̼͙̹̤̜̩̓̒͒͝ ̶̩͍̹̠͔̀̐̿̌̇̏̚̚͘͠n̸̩̲̖͎̭̱̙͇̬̏̂̄͐ó̵͕̦̫̳̟̬̘̭̽͗͒͂̇̕̚̕ ̴͙̯͎͎̺̜̂̃̔̉̍͊̅͂́͂ͅͅm̵̳͚̟̺͈̘̽̃̑̀̈́́͐͛ȏ̷̘͇͕r̶̛̘̝͔̦̓͂̂͂̅̃́̕e̵̘̻̣͈̲̍̔̆̿͜ͅ ̴̢̡͉̖̯̉́s̷̲͇̥͈̫̒̀̈̚͜ų̶̧̞͙̗̖̺́̏̈̇̈̈́̋̚͠͝f̶̡̡̖̝̙̜͇̤̃̂̌̇͑̇̓͆f̷̡̟͉̜̆ȩ̶͚̘̳̫̣̱̣͆̓͊̊̈́̇̈́̐͂͐̕r̶̺̥̰̮̰̻̰͍̠͒͂͊̑͌̈́͘͜͝͝ͅi̴̩̋̌͆̂̚̚̚ń̵̡̩̦̼̩̱̬̈́͑͐͗͌́g̷̢͉̫̣̈̈́̑͝,̶̢͖̰̲̳̥͍̓͌̄͌ ̷̛̹̀l̸̡̪̝̰̞̣̮̣̫͈̦̃̓̈́̐̄̐͑̃̌͘ḭ̷̧̡̠̺̹̆͘v̷̺͚̗̝͇̥͚̞̼̑̊̂̒́̉̅͆ḯ̵̧̲̠̪͈͎̜̬͕̽n̸̳̪̰͍̈́́͊͗̽̋̕g̵̛̠̰͚̔̐ ̴̢̜̬̬̦͉̩̈́͗̉̈́͂̍̽̋͜y̴̨̻̹͎̙̰͎͖̔̌̉͒̓́̊̔̕o̴͍̯̥̬̯͍͚̳̺̳͋͛͐̚u̴̟̱̰̞̝̗̎̄͑̄r̵̬̱̰͙̤̜̣̜̪̘̭̆̈́̌̅̀̆̇̚͝ ̸̡̮̓̈́̿̑̈́̂͘f̷̩͈̾̿͊͗̃̈́̈́ų̵̧͎̤̟͓̱͔͚͝ĺ̵̳̮̰̪̮̮̥̣̼͎͂̂̾͌̑̊̚̚͜͠f̴̨̲͍̣̺͇͉͇̎͌͆̂̓͜i̷̛͇̜̹̜͔̙̙̓́̿̎̽̓͐̃̓ͅļ̵͓͓̜̥̈̿́̾͛́͛l̸̼͔̱͇̬̫͍̫̑͛̒̄̈́̃̎͂͐͝͝ė̵̛̩͇̲̱̼̥̾̎̊̉̃̓̀ḓ̷̛̜͕̘̜̘̲̈́̐̐̍̄̓̊̿͋͛ ̶͓̻̰͖̎͆̾̓̾̃̔̀͘ḷ̷̛̈́̂̋̏́͑̓͝i̸͉̦̭͇̫͕̥̼̻͙̥͌͐͊̿͆͂͠f̵̢̺͔̠̦́͒̉̃͑̊͒̍̔͌͝ȩ̸̢̼̻͔͚̗͈̟̞̄̂̔̈̈́,̶̘̫̬͓͌̈́̀̉́̽̏̌̅͝ ̵̼̌̈́̄͊́͊y̸̧̨̛̼͚̱̫͚͙͊̌̈̓̀̽̊̍̎̚ǒ̷̢͓̞̬̞̖̣͜ͅǘ̷̜̒͆̔͂r̶͇̠̙̳̞͇͍͙̦̒ ̵̨̠̜͉͉̠̝̭̫́̃́̀̕#̶̛̦̺͈͙̮̝̼̙̗̊̉̓̊̅̉́͜#̵̦̎͊̊͊̐̏#̷̧̤̤͇͔̗̼̳͕̩̤͗#̵̨̧̗̼͎͚̗̮̹̱̣͌̀̓̀͊͌̆̚͘͝#̶̡̼͍͓̩̻̹̖̽ͅ#̸̰̠̣̩̺͂́̇̉̿͌̚̚.̴̧̪̬̳͌̃̔́̒̂͘

'M̷̡̮͙̰͉͈͌͊͂͂̃͐y̵̹̰̟̙̝͕̅̓͛̅̐͛̾ ̵̥̇d̴̤̼̩̲̚e̵̼̼̫͕͂̔̍̍͆a̶̖͙̞̼̱̯̞͙̾̊̎̓͊̑͝r̶̢̧̨͉̩̗͌̌́̾̾̾̆͗̃͑,̵̙͈̰̭̱͑ ̶̛̬͈̗̌̉̎̓͗B̴͙̖̰̤̰͑͊̑̉̄ļ̵̛̛̺̣̳͎̀͛̂ỉ̸̪͖͔̫̘͎̤̝̠͐̇̑̓̇̀̾͝n̵̞͙̠̈́d̵̨̡̙̩̘̱̫͇͉̳͆̉̈́̽̾̀̐̽̑̃ ̷̮̹̩̰̜͈̝̬̀̓̈̉D̵̼̥̥̗̫̻͓̬̐̂̓̾͐̂̄̌͠͝r̸͔̥̝̱͕̫͖̯͎͒̉e̶̖̪̩͖̬̊̈́̄̾̇͘͝ä̶̩̼m̴̨͕̭̤̝̩͎̒́͊̓́e̸̫̟͊̉̽̀ŕ̶̡̙̝̻̉͗̕̚͠.'

*Mend*

*Mend*

Oh, I dozed off. Where was I? Passion? Yeah, passion. My lack of passion being my main obstacle to obtain Power of Imagination and here is where I should start if I wanted to obtain it. By strengthening my passion, emotions and desires...

—————