Chapter 17: Let there be Light (Part 2)

[Clock - 08:00 | 08:00 AN]

[Calendar - 22/01/2003]

[Location - Cart 1, Underground Cavern - Old Gotham, Gotham City, New Jersey]

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"...so this is the guy you made a deal with to get out of the Arkham Asylum?" Atlas stared forward at the scrawny and honestly kinda pathetic kid. Baytor floated around him, cackling, as he nodded enthusiastically. Meet Lonnie Machin, also known as Anarchy. "You made a deal with a young terrorist who believes in anarchy, when we're going to be a fucking kingdom!?" Atlas had to take in a deep breath as he considered sending Baytor back to Hell, but he calmed the fuck down before he said: "...and you thought that was a good idea?" The shameless demon just twirled around like a little whimsical creature as Atlas felt the ramifications of what he had done- he brought a literal anarchist into their empire. 'And worse yet... he's a hacker.' Atlas didn't really have a problem with the concept of anarchism- As a concept, anarchy is commonly defined by what it excludes. While anarchy specifically represents a society without rulers, it can more generally refer to a stateless society, or a society without government. For fuck's sake... "So, kiddo, why were you in Arkham for in the first place? As far as I know, anarchism doesn't really mix well with a monarchy, which is what we're building towards." Atlas hated the smug look Baytor had- he had forgotten, just because he was a helpful demon, it didn't mean he wasn't a chaotic one!

"Uhm..." The kid nervously looked around- oh, right. They were on the 2nd Cart of the train, beneath the underground caverns where the Croc Kingdom was under construction! Sitting on the makeshift chair, he looked at Atlas with a sense of both curiosity and apprehension as he said: "Well, Baytor helped me... As a price for getting me out of Arkham Asylum, I have to help him with whatever he wants to do for a year, so I guess I'm... contracted by him, and he wants me to help you, so I guess I'm in your command." He looked very uncomfortable by saying that, much to Atlas' sighing annoyance. Baytor looked like he was having the time of his life annoying Atlas, but Atlas was a very adaptable guy, he can adapt to this, he can make use of an anarchist terrorist hacker to make a monarchy- he can do that! As his eyes darted around and his thoughts rushed by his mind, Atlas came to a conclusion: Fuck it, we ball.

With a smile to his face, Atlas decided- make friends with the anarchist hacker terrorist so he doesn't try to fuck up with your the empire you built for a croc guy you certainly do not have a crush on because you are secretly a monsterfucker (...) and bring it down! Why would he, right? You're friends! And he would also technically be part of the empire too, which would make him bringing it down redundant and stupid... right? "Nice to meet you, kid. I'm sorry you had to go that cursed place known as Arkham... it still brings me chills just by thinking about the ghost inside." Seriously, he hates that place! "Anyway, you wanna something? You need to put some meat in your bones kid, so eat something while I work out some stuff in the back." Atlas pointed back with his thumb as he rolled deeper into Cart 3, where thr majority of the homeless people were. As the railway was extended to the caverns, Atlas was able to (with a lot of effort) move the train out of Foundation Station and into the underground cavern that he has been thinking of a name for... Maybe Croc Cave? He'll workshop it! "We got non-perishables and scavenged food from the surface- Maybe I'll have to send a team to get as much food as they, but that would catch the attention of the police... Huh, I think known what to do, but it'll take a while." Thinking out loud, Atlas made a plan to steal a supermarket's worth of food while rolling into Cart 3.

There, Lonnie met the citizens of the future Croc Kingdom and started a conversation that Atlas tuned out as he gestured for Jax to follow him. Jax looked like a deer in headlights, but he followed regardless, because he knew there would be hell to pay if he didn't follow the boss. "Jax, be a dear and get me some scrap metal, some rocks from the outside, and glass bottles... I'm going to make something." The delicate balance needed to enchant items with magic was something Atlas understood, but he also knew that there was a way to use [Make Magic Item] and rush the process of adding magic to a mundane item (made with no magical materials) and not make it explode with the fury of a thousand scorned housewives who were cheated on by their husbands. "Time to do some delicate work..." So delicate, in fact, that he would need more magical energy because the majority of it will most likely burned out and wasted.

"Time to make some circles then." The cliche thing in Korean Fiction: Circles made of magic around one's heart to increase their mama capability and potency. After Jax saluted him like a soldier and left, Atlas opened the book called [The Plainest, Most Boring Mana Circle Method, by Average Wizard of the Multidimensional Tower] which, as boring as it sounded, was actually the opposite. This book described a basic technique with a ton of potential because of how plain it was- meaning? He could modify it to his liking, mixing it with other techniques to enchante them, modifying them to be the method that suits him the most. "Ah... Let's see..." The method was literally simple- [Control the magic within you, twist it into a circle, and place it around your heart! Your magic knows what you want, so it will most likely obey you easily and go along with what you want to do!] and sure enough, it was very easy to do. He imagined the energy that he could feel around his body move, but instead of placing the circle in his heart as the method wanted him to do, he decided to do something... different. "Ah, it works." Because his magic knew what he wanted, all he had to do was to imagine it, and the method would work!

What did he do? Well, the heart is a very small thing compared to his entire body or soul, so he decided to make these circles not on his physical body, but on his metaphysical body. The "him" that is not perceived or physically there.

His soul.

He closed his eyes and easily enough, the image he had in his head was born- his body, his full body floating in an endless cosmus full of thousands of stars. His legs were there too! And surrounding his body, a circle of energy. The circle started to form slowly, he felt the drain on his magic as it worked on making itself a new container where it would go, both staying in his physical body (the first container) and going to his the circle around his soul (the second container), effectively doubling his magical reserves. This was the method he went with, mostly because that's what he wanted- a lot of magic to work with! He kept silent, focusing on his inner world so much he didn't notice Jax as he returned with everything needed. The older man wanted to call out to him, but when Atlas' body suddenly started floating and got surrounded by this translucent but present energy. It swirled andd moved like an invisible wind, making small shards of glass and splinters fly alongside it before a blast of strong wind pushed everything back. And like that, Atlas had his first Magic Soul Circle. That single circle alone doubled his magic reserves, and made him have enough energy to cast truly powerful spells, in Dungeons and Dragons terms, he was the equivalent of a Lvl 13 Wizard that got access to his first 7th level spell, even though he only knew how to cast 2nd level spells at maximum, in D&D terms, that is.

As Atlas slowly lowered from his floating position down to the wheelchair again, he sighed- His eyes snapped open to reveal an endless cosmus within. Ah, right... The act of infusing magic into the soul enchanted it and made it not only stronger but also... Have a heavier impact on his life. The soul is the source of life! The stronger the soul, the stronger his life, right? Well, it also made some things different too, and it brought up some buried memories that he truly didn't want to remember.

Have you ever wondered how he got here? In the DC Universe? Well, the answer is easy: He died.

"...so that's why." Atlas was certainly not ready to remember his death- he almost wished he hadn't remembered how it felt to die, he wished he didn't remember how it was to feel air leave his lungs and not come back, he wished he didn't remember how miserable he felt through the entire process, he wished he didn't remember how it felt to hang from the ceiling with a rope- He wish he didn't... remember?

Remember what?

"Uhm, boss?" A hesitant Jax called out to him, making Atlas snap out of his confusion- he felt like he had woken up from a nightmare, and the memories of the terror he had lived faded away into nothing as his mind rejected that nightmare as being just a bad dream: "I've brought everything you asked for..."

"Ah, right. Thanks, Jax." Shaking his head and looking at his hands, Atlas wondered what was he doing before... Ah, right. He had just finished making a circle around his soul! How could he forget about that? He could feel the energy flowing like a river within his body, flowing into his inner self (the soul) and flowing out to his outer self (his body) in a constant flow. He easily had more than double the amount of magic he had before doing this! He should make more circles- a pain in his head stopped him. '...maybe later.' He wouldn't want to rush his soul, right? Who knows what effects his soul would have if he overflowed it with magic? He doesn't want to damage it! "Well... Let me try what I wanted to do." With the addition of his magic circle, came the greater amount of magic, and the need to learn how to properly control it! And Magic Control is essential for his plan- what if, instead of trying to push magic into a mundane item all at once with the [Make Magic Item] spell, or make the slow process of introducing magic to an item and slowly changing it through a long process, why not try it at a middle ground? The [Make Magic Item] spell will make the process way easier, he just needs to make sure the amount of magic is enough to not destroy the item.

Easy, right?

[<Glass shattering noises>]

"Fuck!"

[<Splintering of wood>]

"Shit-"

[<Metal withering to dust in a sad way, like Spider Man turning Tony Stark's arms>]

"...was that description necessary?"

As it turns out- yeah, this is not easy. But hey, he is learning! Now it takes about 5 whole seconds before the magic item either explodes or turns into dust. "Again." With a sigh, Atlas manually wrote down the runes and words of power he wanted before he introduced magic with the [Make Magic Item] spell. One second passed, he controlled the magic as to not damage the fragile glass. Two seconds passed and yet there were no damages... three seconds passed, and some minor damages appeared in the glass sphere, but he controlled the magic to avoid applying pressure to those regions. Four seconds passed, and even though he controlled the magic to not cause extra damage, the damage increased still- five seconds passed, and to his surprise, the glass didn't shatter! He kept channeling the magic and- it didn't break.

He now had a perfectly round glass sphere ready to receive magic! It technically was magical, but it was hollow, without any spell within.

"Well..." He focused for a second and placed a spell he had read while making the light bulbs for the Croc Kingdom- A spell called [Daylight]. "Now the Croc Kingdom will have an artificial sun."

And Atlas said: "Let there be light."

And there was light.