56

I woke up slowly and peacefully, I could hear the sounds of Komainu breathing, and I smelt the beginning of some kind of food being cooked.

However, I also felt a faint breeze, and when I looked up, I saw a small hole in my roof. Blinking, I gently removed Komainu's arm from where it had lain over my chest and got out of bed.

Directly under the hole was my shirt which also had a hole in it. Sitting innocuously inside the hole was the small metal key I had received last night.

Bending down, I picked it up and turned it over a few times in my hand. Looking up at the roof, I saw no debris or other signs that a hole had been punched through the wood except the missing wood and open sky.

Frowning, I kept the key held in my hand and summoned the Grimoire to my side. Swapping the key to my left hand, I sat down and balanced the Grimoire on my knee while flipping through its pages with my other hand.

Soon I landed on the most recent page; on the top, in large script, was the word Frangiclave. Reading through the page, I frowned; it was a powerful item that could be very useful as it was heavily attuned to the aspect of Knock. However, needing to keep it under the tongue or in my hand was a large issue.

The first was a problem because anything involving the tongue was a pretty big no-go for me. The second had an obvious issue in that needing to have a hand holding an object at all times could cause problems.

Gently closing the Grimoire and setting it down, I walked into the kitchen to give myself time to think. I stopped when I saw Alice holding a spatula and flipping a pancake high in the air before catching it and setting it back down to cook more.

Sitting at the table was one of my simulacrum, applauding the trick. When I looked at him, he shrugged. "She was quite insistent on my creating some mix and other ingredients."

At that response, Alice bobbed up and down in a motion that somehow seemed proud before returning to the pancakes. Sitting across from my simulacrum, I let my mind wander as I watched the cooking going on.

I needed a method to keep the Frangiclave on my person while also not using up a hand. My tongue was currently fake, and I spoke using magic to mimic vocal cords, so that meant a few alterations to my mouth shouldn't cause any problems.

Tapping my fingers, I recast Alter Self however; I changed my tongue so that it could act as a pouch of sorts and hold the Frangiclave while being able to spit it out if need be.

I didn't have the understanding of biology necessary to create a properly functioning tongue, so in a normal body, it would be a useless lump of flesh that was only alive because its shoddy construction was papered over with magic.

However, as I didn't need a tongue, I could still speak and do everything that the tongue would normally do; it would be slightly inconvenient when eating, but that was only annoying and not a true issue.

A few minutes later, Komainu shuffled in her nose, twitching as she followed the siren call of baking food. Slowly walking over to the table, she swayed in her seat while her eyes stared unfocused towards the table as she woke up.

Following that, three plates stacked high with pancakes, syrup, and butter were slid in front of us, along with forks and knives. While my simulacrum and I immediately started to dig in, it took Komainu a few seconds to recognize the food in front of her and pick up her utensils.

Swallowing a mouthful of pancakes, I smiled towards Alice, who was floating at the head of the table with the presence of an acolyte waiting for their judgment. "I must say these are quite good," I said, followed by similar comments from my simulacrum and Komainu.

Alice bobbed up and down, reassured that we enjoyed her food. She then returned to the dirty pan and other items she used to cook the food and started washing them before leaving them out to dry.

The breakfast was quiet as we all focused on enjoying the expertly cooked meal that Alice had made for us. In fact, it tempted me to use her to find her creator and buy a few more dolls to help out.

I had a weakness for good food, and if I could have these dolls cooking for my every meal, that would be divine, even if I didn't need the nutrients. However, I didn't need more dolls, and I had a packed schedule already, which meant I put that idea on the back burner.

Clearing my throat, I placed my cutlery on my plate and looked over at Komainu. "I have a big job I am doing today, and I don't know how long it could take. I don't anticipate it taking too long, but I thought you should know." I said, causing Komainu to freeze for a moment.

"Is this about the god?" She whispered, her face frozen as fright and worry flashed over it. Walking over to her, I crouched next to her and enveloped her in a hug. "It's fine; I have the whole thing planned out. I just thought I should let you know."

Hugging back, she whispered in my ear. "Just please come back," Breaking the hug, I ignored the Grimoire growing and replied. "As I said, I'll be fine now, have a good day, and enjoy yourself."

Nodding somewhat hesitantly, she left; however, she was missing her normal cheer and looked back a few times before flying off.

Looking around the now spotless house, I stood up and headed outside. Flying above the sunflower field, I shifted the Path outside the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

Exiting my pocket dimension, I landed in front of the gate guard who had, in what I was coming to realize as typical, snapped awake at my presence.

"Good morning," she said as if she hadn't been asleep just moments prior. "The library, I presume?" She asked; however, her voice made it clear this was less a question and more a formality.

"Yes," I said before waiting as she pushed open the massive wrought-iron gates and gestured for me to head inside. Striding forward, I gave her a small nod and entered the manse grounds.

It was simple to open the front doors and trace a path toward the library. It seemed that Sakuya was not planning on meeting me at the gate as she had done before, likely because I remained conscious of her time stop, which made it much harder for her to arrive before I was already bored.

Arriving at the library, I heard the sounds of fighting and faint explosions as I pushed open the double doors. I was forced to duck as a laser flew over my head, and that was followed up by a barrage of five-pointed stars that flew toward my location.

Teleporting to the side, I ducked behind a bookshelf and peeked around to see what was happening. It took a few seconds to find the combatants; however, once I traced the mass of stars and lasers back to their origin, it was easy to keep an eye on the two fighters.

Marisa was darting back and forth on her broom, a small tool held out before her as an outpouring of magical attacks flew from it. In opposition to her was Patchouli floating in between the tiny gaps that Marisa's reckless attacks left and retaliating with dozens of different elemental spells.

While it was hard to tell, if I had to guess, I would have to say that Patchouli was slowly winning as Marisa was edged in by the remains of Patchouli's spells.

I simply waited for the fight to end before approaching either of them. I retreated back behind the bookcase as another smattering of magic almost hit me. Keeping an ear out, I grabbed a nearby book from the shelf at started reading it.

It was a first-hand account of the early days of the Roman Empire translated into English. I doubted that all of it remained factual. However, it was still a good read while I waited for Marisa and Patcholi to finish.

It took another few minutes, but eventually, the sounds of magic and combat faded away, replaced by the quiet that libraries were usually known for.

Replacing the book I had been reading, I left my shelter behind the bookshelf and headed to where I saw Marisa and Patcholi last.

Emerging near the center, I saw Patchouli standing triumphant over a groaning and faintly smoking Marisa. "Hello," I said, walking closer with my parasol resting on my shoulder.

Patchouli's smile faded a tinge from the overblown maniacal grin she had to her normal, somewhat expressionless face. "Hello, is it time for the ritual?" She asked while stepping away from Marisa's prone form.

In response to the talk about magic, Marisa's head popped up with a broad grin despite the soot and burns that peppered her and her clothes. "You guys talkin' about rituals? I want in!" She shouted while scrambling to her feet.

As she stood up, she muttered under her breath while twining her fingers in the fabric of her dress. A few moments after she finished, her clothes grew new fabric and cloth in between the ruined portions to renew her clothes to their original witchy look.

"No," I said, not even entertaining the question. This would be highly dangerous, and I was only taking along Patcholi because of our deal. In addition, from what I had seen, Marisa was reckless, and her getting ideas from The Dawnbreaker would be bad news for everybody.

"Are you ready?" I asked Patchouli, turning away from Marisa and focusing on the other magician in the room. "Yes," she replied while retrieving a pair of thick round glasses that she put on.

"It was high time I prepared for the event of lacking oxygen, so I simply improved my existing spells," She said when I looked at her glasses in confusion. "These are to record the event and allow for a greater understanding."

Nodding in acceptance now that she had explained, I started walking towards the library exit while explaining what would happen. "We will be traveling through my home first; then I will be locating the being who I will be using this on. Following that, I will teleport both of us to its location and then to its brain. Following that will be me activating The Dawnbreaker."

As Patcholi nodded along to my explanation, Marisa jogged to catch up to us, clearly interested in what I was saying; before I could show her, Patcholi spoke. "Sakuya, we have a rat in the library. Could you please remove it?" Time then ground to a halt when her sentence finished.

I sighed and leaned on my parasol while I waited for Sakuya to arrive. Sure enough, a few minutes later, Sakuya arrived, her heels tapping as she walked inside the library.

"Good morning," I said, nodding my head politely, "Good morning," she replied with a similar nodding motion. She then grabbed Marisa and tossed her over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Have a good day, sir," She said while leaving. I then waited another few minutes before time started up again. Rolling my shoulders, I swung my parasol on my shoulder.

"Shall we continue?" I asked as the Grimoire grew and pulsed without me gaining another power. Patchouli nodded, so we continued along, walking silently through the halls of the manor.

Soon we had arrived outside, and with a polite nod to the gatekeeper, I twisted open the Path and gestured for Patchouli to follow me down it.

While walking down the forest path, she retrieved a small notepad and mechanical pencil that she used to scribble out notes as she looked around. I chuckled softly as I noticed that her handwriting was even worse than mine.

Arriving at the sunflower field that comprised a large portion of my pocket dimension, I stopped and turned to face Patchouli. "This is your last chance to back out; if you have any more preparations to make or anything of that sort, I recommend doing that now."

With a soft laugh that was much less wet than when I heard it last, Patchouli replied, "I'm prepared; I'll be following your lead, so lead the way,"

"In that case, here we go," I said while tapping my parasol on the ground and shifting the Path back to Earth Bet. Strolling down it, Pathcoli kept pace with a faint look of excitement on her face.

It was hard to see, but it was clear from her well-stocked library, poor health due to rituals and magical skill that she loved magic, and any new opportunity to learn was of great joy to her.

Stepping out into the city of Brockton Bay, I immediately noticed something off. While I was standing near where I had arrived from the NeverNever when I had been dropped by the fae, I could still see the skyscrapers and other large buildings.

The towering buildings lacked the glass that comprised the out shell of such buildings. "Shatterbird," I murmured before turning away and floating up, Patchouli following me.

While I could kill the Slaughterhouse Nine, I didn't have the time right now, and I trusted that the heroes could handle them. I had shaken things up from canon, but the heroes were somewhat competent, and it was only my out-of-context nature that allowed me to triumph so easily.

I was also facing a much bigger foe, and if I killed Scion, the Jack Slash would have nothing to kick off the apocalypse with. Flying even higher, I twisted space until we settled just below where the sky met the void of outer space. I didn't know how high we had to be to trip the Simrugh's anti-space defense, but I didn't want to risk anything.

Opening my eyes to the countless points that showcased all the areas where pressure could cause anything to snap, I let most fade away and focused on looking for a single point that would be zipping around the Earth.

Even this high up and with Clairvoyance, I still couldn't see around the world; the center of the Earth still stopped me. I only took a few minutes before I spotted a small cluster of points zipping around the hemisphere I was peering down on.

Reaching out my hand Patchouli grasped it, and I flew towards it while twisting space around me. This cut the distance from here to there to a single step which caused us both to arrive right in front of the golden man.

He had a perfectly sculpted figure, clad in only a pristine white bodysuit. He stopped retrieving a cat from a tree and turned to face us. I could faintly see people shouting in what I thought was Spanish, but I was focused on Scion.

Looking closer at him, I could sense the portal that transmitted the signal from his brain to this puppet body. Raising my left hand, I focused on the edges of the portal and flicked my wrist, tearing the hole open.

With a spray of golden blood Scion's body exploded outward as the portal grew and chopped it to bits. Still holding on to Patchouli's, I explained as we both dove into the portal.

"He's likely to have some form of defense, so I'll be taking this quickly, alright," As we emerged in a new world, I saw a mind-bending landscape of crystals and towering biological machines floating high in the sky.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the portal snap shut as the landscape shook and holes opened in the side of the warrens that were set into the ground.

Casting my gaze over Scion's brain and the planet beneath it, I located two weak points. The first was nearby. However, I could see bristling instruments along with thousands of drones hovering around.

The second weak point was far north, so still clutching Patchouli's hand, I wove space in front of us to massively speed up our journey as we flew along. It took less than a minute, and I was careful to remove the slipstream I had created behind me.

Arriving in the far north, I saw snow gently falling as the sun set. Casting my gaze about, I relocated the weak point, it was deep underwater, and at this moment, I was thankful for my nonhuman state.

Reaching into the Gap, I retrieved the shell of The Dawnbreaker and, after a moment of fiddling, opened the hole with the wick. I then tucked it under my arm, and repeating the same action; I grasped the Carcass Spark and imposed my will upon it to prevent the divine flame from spilling out.

Patchouli's eyes widened as she took in the fragment of a dead god. Heedless of the few crystalline spires humming and crackling, I slammed the Carcass Spark down the hatch and twisted it shut.

I then let go of Patchouli's hand and twisted space so I could drop The Dawnbreaker on the bottom of the ocean. I immediately felt the crushing pressure that threatened to destroy me. However, I could ignore it for a few moments, long enough for me to wedge it in the ground just above the weak point in Earth's mantle.

The Grimoire grew as I teleported to Pathcoli's side and started flying higher. A few seconds later, we were in space, and I franticly unstitched space behind us while tapping my parasol around us to cast Wall of Force.

"Bring the Dawn," I whispered as I held my parasol in a white-knuckled grip. Bare seconds later, a second sun bloomed across the surface of this other Earth.

I leaned on my parasol as the full force of The Dawnbreaker spread across the world, twenty-four colors mankind had not seen in eons and would never see again. I could feel a burning behind my eyes that forced me to blink rapidly as my fingers twitched, desperate to record this incredible event, even as I felt tears escape from the corner of my eyes.

I felt a lump in my throat grow as the miniature sun struggled and attempted to grow; it was not sapient, not truly, but a planet-sized creature worth of mana combined with the Carcass Spark and supercomputer level of computing from Scion's brain that was being consumed by the roaring fire created something that might become the Sun-in-Spleander.

However, no matter how brilliant the sun, it always set, and the magical energy fueling the explosion tapered off a few seconds later; the sun died with a shriek that forced me to clasp my hands over my ear and caused blood to spurt from Patchouli's ears.

The overlapping cackling of Tzeentch, the chittering and disjointed laughing of The Great Horned Rat both joined my high hyena-like laughter as I observed the devastation caused by The Dawnbreaker.

The planet was cracked open like an egg, with magma spilling out like yolk. Radiating from the point of the blast were cracks that were spreading around even as the hole caused by the massive explosion steadily grew.

As we both watched, I could see the planet, which held its shape albeit missing a significant portion of its top. Then it started to crumble, at first slowly but then rapidly, until it looked like somebody had cut a hole into a basketball before deflating it. I could also notice that the sun, despite being mostly over what remained of the horizon, was glowing a brilliant yellow as if it was midday.

My laughter faded until the only thing I could hear was the sound of a pencil scribbling on paper. Dismissing the Wall of Force that surrounded us, I turned to Patchouli.

"I'm going to go check on the site. Sit tight." I said, only waiting to see a nod from her as she continued to write. Bending space, I took a step off the remaining Wall of Force that served as our platform.

Landing a second later on dry rock, I saw brilliant flames growing and devouring the air as it expanded. Opening gaps as I approached to spirit away the fire, I soon saw the Carcass Spark.

While the fire that comprised it vanished into the Gap, I walked closer and bent over to pick it up. Forcing my will on the Carcass Spark, I ensured that it wouldn't continue to burn with reckless abandon.

Looking over it carefully, I could tell that it was slightly dimmer than when I had placed it inside The Dawnmaker. It seemed that while a fragment of a dead god could be divided much like an atom, it would only cause its power to wane slightly.

However, upon a second look, I could see the fragment flowing brighter as time went by. It seemed that even in its diminished state, it would grow back to its original power.

Tucking it away in the Gap, I continued looking around until I felt water on my feet. Looking down, I saw that water was pouring from some close by place, which was confusing as all nearby water had evaporated.

Trudging through the ankle-deep rushing water, I soon arrived back at the site of the explosion, where I saw a jagged rip in space. Peering through the tare, I could see dozens more, all of them filled with water that was mixing and flowing out.

I didn't want to travel through the portals in case something lurked on the other side, or I became trapped, which meant I was forced to fix them from here.

Reaching out with both my hand and my mind, I gently felt the edges of the portals. They were hot and hard to feel, almost like staring into the sun. However, I powered through the painful feeling and slowly, with great caution, stitched the holes closed.

I started with the furthest back, and once that was closed, I moved to the next. Repeating this process dozens of times, it took almost an hour to ensure the fabric between dimensions was intact and not at risk of splitting further open.

Folding space again, I arrived at the platform I had made with Patchouli still furiously writing. Upon hearing my voice, her head darted up to look at me.

Looking into her eyes, I could see the faintest influence of the Lantern lurking behind her gaze. "I must say this was fascinating," She said as she tucked away her paper and mechanical pencil while striding towards me. I could feel a pulse of warmth behind my gaze as we both locked eyes.

"I'm going to be blunt," I said as I reached out my hands to stop her approach. "What I just used is having an influence on you, it's called Lantern, and you should take a day off to let it fade."

"I know, but it doesn't matter," she said while her fingers twitched as if aching to write something down. "Thanks to you, I feel so much better than I have ever felt, and now you bring new formulas and colors to my feet and expect me to stop!" She continued, and she was shouting by the end of her sentence.

"Fair enough but I'm going to need you to take a day off, or I'm not bringing the Carcass Spark by again. You need to relax anyhow, as I'm swamped with new things." My head was burning with new ideas, and I had to test a few of them out before I collaborated with Patchouli.

Staring at me, her hands twitching even more, I could see the moment that the influence of Lantern faded. Her straight-backed posture slumped into her more typical slouch, but there was still an element of frenzy to her, and I could tell that while it had faded, Lantern was still influencing her thoughts.

"I suppose I can wait a day or two," she grumbled before her hands dropped to her side as she waited awkwardly. "Shall we get going?" I said while reaching out my hand for her to take.

She grasped my hand as the Grimoire grew, and I replicated the same trick that Scion used to cut open a portal back to Earth Bet.

Stepping on the streets of Brockton Bay once again, I grinned. There wasn't a specific reason I used that method, but I wanted to see if I could replicate Scion's method of portal-making.

It was brute forced and consumed a ton of mana, but I might be able to refine it in the future. Swinging my parasol onto my shoulder, I readied myself to open the Path when I heard the sounds of scrambled footsteps.

A man with an immaculate goatee stumbled around the corner, clutching his stomach. Looking down, he removed his hand, and despite the grievous wound, he was bleeding far too little, and as I watched, I could see the injury slowly stitching itself closed.

He looked up and saw both of us looking back at him. "Apologies," he said as he whipped out a small switchblade and swung it at us heedless of the dozens of feet that separated us.

Frowning, I stopped in front of Patchouli and raised my parasol to block the strike. A bare second later, I felt a faint pressure on my open parasol. I then lowered it and started at the man.

This was Jack Slash, a mass-murdering psychopath who was the Joker of Earth Bet. While, as a character, those types of people could be interested. In person, they were all mass killers who needed to be put down.

I then opened the Gate and sent out a salvo of blades at him that he attempted to dodge. His shard had no power over my actions, so while he managed to avoid the first few through luck and skill, the remaining skewered him.

While Bonesaw's enhancements saved him from instant death, it was clear by his labored breath and blood leaking out around the swords that had stuck him to the brick wall that he was not having a good time.

Raising my parasol, I sent out an Eldritch Blast towards his heart as I heard the roar of aircraft. Looking up, I saw that Dragon had arrived, and her massive drone was looking at me.

Casting a glance back at Jack Slash, who was now clearly dead with most of his chest blown apart by my Eldritch Blast with blood and viscera decorating the swords and part of the street, I decided to leave.

Throwing up a Wall of Force, I opened the Path and folded space so that Patchouli and I arrived at the end of it in a few seconds.

I then moved it back outside the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and then I could relax. "Sorry about that," I told Patchouli, releasing my grip on her hand.

"That man was a mass murderer, so when I saw him, I took the chance." Nodding in response to my question Patchouli replied in a faster tone than she would typically use. "That is fine; I would like to return to my library soon. I do have many new ideas."

"Of course," I said as we floated down the Path toward the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Giving a polite nod to the gatekeeper as we passed through the massive gates, we quickly arrived at the Voile Libary.

"I will be taking my leave," I said as Patchouli moved about franticly, grabbing books and directing Koakuma to storage rooms to collect materials. She spared a half second to give me a nod to show that she heard me before returning to her prior movements.

Shrugging my shoulders, I left; it seemed that Patchouli would be pretty busy until the influence of Lantern faded. Lantern was the principle of knowledge. While it affected people, they would be consumed with an unearthly desire for more knowledge.

I knew that Patchouli would be fine as she was a powerful mage who had a massive library with a decent chunk of the books inside it being cursed in one form or another.

It didn't take long for me to arrive back at my home and slump into the rocking chair set outside on the porch. It was surprising that killing Scion had taken less than an hour, but I had the entire day free.

Tomorrow, I would be heading over to Yuuka's place so I could have a look at how she anchored her home halfway into the dream world, after that I would be dueling with Tenshi at some point as well as possibly meeting up with Suwako and the other gods.

However, today I wanted to see if I could optimize Scion's portal travel. While it couldn't allow me to skip traveling through the NeverNever, once I was inside a universe like the Nausverse or Touhou, I could open a portal to separate timelines.

Of course, I would have no clue how the other magical beings would react to somebody from another timeline crossing over. I knew that Yukari would likely notice, which made possibly pissing her off by possibly causing timeline issues a no-go.

Aside from the timeline possibilities, the other advantage Scion's portals had over gaps was that it was almost impossible to disrupt or access. Anybody with sufficient knowledge could hijack or redirect my gaps while Scion's portals had been built to prevent anything or anyone from messing with them. I knew that the number of people able to interfere with my gaps was astronomically few. Still, having another option was always better than being killed because I didn't expand my toolset.

Stretching my hands out, I felt my Grimoire grow as I got to work. A small portal grew between my hands; it was leading just a few feet away as not to cause any issues outside my home. I blinked as I felt the burning behind my eyes flare up before dimming to a more simmering burn.

Scion's method was to shove energy at a single point in space until it was distorted, then push more energy through that twisted space to rip it open.

I was tapping into my understanding of space to smooth away the corners of his brute force method, but as time flew by and I peered deeper into his work, I realized that the high energy requirement was the base of this method, and making it cheaper would cause it to fail.

Shaking my shoulders as I stood up, I absently noticed that a few hours had passed while I had been engrossed in deciphering the portal, and the burning behind my eyesockets had dimmed to a faint simmer. Striding towards the sunflowers, I decided that my subsequent work would be to allow the sunflowers to follow intruders with their flower heads.

That could allow other defenses, such as projectiles, from the heads, but above all else, it would be creepy for them and amusing for me. Rolling my shoulders, I focused on one of the sunflowers and got to work.