Chapter 46

[||||=LEVEL 46= ||||]

I trudged back to consciousness. It was never pleasant, waking up.

"Come on! We have Beacon stuff to do!" I immediately sat up and looked around. Ruby was beside my bed poking me, already dressed in a school uniform and probably showered. The clock showed that it was almost four o'clock. Wow, Ruby was up early. Everyone else was still asleep.

As soon as she had finished rousing me Ruby darted over to Pyrrha and started waking her up. I rolled out of bed and walked over to the bathroom. Then, something occurred to me.

"Ruby could you and Jaune give Pyrrha the magic talk?" I called.

"Sure!" Ruby chirped agreeably. I shut the door and started showering.

I was out in about ten minutes mostly ready for the day. I just needed a school uniform. The primer from yesterday had a small note about two school uniforms being provided per person. A little glance with mage sight showed seven outfits in a closet next to the bathroom. I grabbed one of the smaller of the 4 male outfits for myself with blink and put it on quickly.

"There's outfits in the closet," I said to everyone as I walked out of the bathroom. Pyrrha was looking dazed, while Jaune was looking a little out of it himself.

"Two of them for each of us," Ruby added.

Jaune was the first to get up and move to the bathroom. "Should I get started putting space altering runes around the room?" I asked. I was going to do it either way but he was team leader so I gave him the courtesy. He paused.

"Fine." He shrugged, sounding a little cold, before closing the bathroom door. I suppose things aren't fine between us still. And now I'm getting sick of him again.

I sat down on the floor with Pyrrha and looked at her. "So," I started. "What did Ruby and Jaune tell you?"

"That magic is real and that you're a wizard," she said, a little stunned. "Also that Ruby's a maiden - like the fairy tale maidens - and from there Ruby did some magic… things."

"I showed her frostfire," Ruby said cheerfully.

"Fire isn't cold," Pyrrha muttered.

"Good enough for a start," I said with a careless wave. "Magic is a sort of label to the subject. To be specific it's the art of utilizing affinities and mana at it's core along with a variety of branch subjects such as runes, enchanting, and spellwork. At it's whole you could say magic is the art of the manipulation of the soul, however people don't consider aura to be magical for some insane reason like 'magic doesn't exist but aura does so it's not magic' or whatever."

"What does… mana have to do with the soul?" Pyrrha said questioningly. Her eyes cleared up a little and curiosity began to shine through her aura. Ah, good. My teaching skill is getting through to her; clearing her mind and making her more rational.

"Mana is an energy that resides in the soul," I lectured. "It's a naturally occuring fuel source that amplifies affinities or brings more… form to them, which is the basis of spells, and can be used for a few less important uses. Some souls are capable of capturing and utilizing it. We call those souls and people wizards, maidens, and under special circumstances, sorcerers.

"Now, affinities are something like an existential identity. Souls are a phenomenon comprised of minute amounts of every affinity and I've theorized also utilize a fragment of divinity, though exactly what that is is currently unknown, though it's likely a different energy source. To put it simply affinities are an existential footprint, souls are weird exceptions to the rule that are composed of numerous affinities and exotic energies, and the more of one affinity you have the more impact you can have on an element. For example…"

I made a small gesture and the faint shadows in the room advanced, making the room darker. It was small but clearly noticeable. Pyrrha glanced warily at the shadows, like they were going to attack her.

"They're just shadows," I said reassuringly. "However, they're being made without the use of mana. I could do this all day if I felt like it. It wouldn't really accomplish anything but I could. The shadow affinity in general is a somewhat useless one to me except for in a few specific situations. I used it to move around quickly and undetected amongst the grimm in the temple, for example. However, if I were to try the same thing but use mana to amplify the affinity the results are far more impressive."

I flowed mana into the shadow affinity and the shadows in the room lengthened considerable. Where before they were lengthened by a few inches and deepened now the whole room was at least a little shadowed. The corners were practically invisible.

Pyrrha jumped in surprise and I only held the shadows for a moment longer before dropping the affinity entirely. Light took hold of the room once more and you couldn't tell that it had been dark just a moment ago.

"That's the basics of it at least." I stood up and stretched my fingers a little. "Now how about a live demonstration of runes? This room's a little small for four people."

I took a few steps over to the wall and knocked against it. "Plaster." I muttered in irritation. If it had been brick or some sort of concrete it would be easier to draw runes on, plaster is soft and messy to write runes on. It's too fragile for carving, which is my preferred way to make runes.

I could use paint or something I suppose. I can use anything, really, so long as it stays in place. I couldn't use a stain of water, for example, since it would evaporate, but nearly anything permanent worked.

I put my finger against the wall and channeled metal affinity. The plaster turned into iron against my finger. I didn't often use the transmute spell but it's sometimes useful. Turning air to water was cheaper than making water from mana, after all.

I began writing a large space expansion matrix on the spare wall on the right side of the room. There weren't any doors on that side so I had free reign of writing on it. The rest of the walls would be used for an illusory cloak over the runes so we'd have decent looking walls and enough mana to fuel the space expansion. I'd also need to make markers at the room's corners to map it's dimensions for expansion. That'd be a small pain with the corners of the doors. I'd have to expand the walls and not the doorframes. Unless I wanted massively disproportionate doors, which I didn't.

I assigned my parallels their jobs and made tendrils of mana to transmute the walls. I heard a small squeak from Pyrrha and realized that having tendrils of mana extending from my back probably seemed a bit creepy and odd. You get used to the slightly creepy stuff when you do magic. Some of the magical creatures out there are nightmare fuel and I studied them as an occasional hobby.

"They're just tendrils of mana," Ruby said to Pyrrha. "He uses them to cast spells from a range. He's putting a layer of metal over the walls to make space expansion runes so we'll have more space available."

"Oh," Pyrrha said. I didn't look but I'd bet that she was eyeing my tendrils warily.

I busily continued my work, making sure to not make any mistakes, unlike the rapid work with the dark guardian. Along the way I considered that we might have accidents and break the walls, destabilizing the runic matrix. I added a spatial anchor to maintain the space expansion in case the matrix ever breaks.

It was fed off a reserve but it would last a month when I refilled it fully. It wouldn't constantly eat mana either. It would only need to activate when the space expansion matrix breaks or runs out of mana somehow.

I decided then that while I was upgrading things to upgrade the illusory cloak to a hard light illusory cloak. If we do hit the walls I'd rather not repair the runes. It's easier to have them both shielded and cloaked for aesthetics at the same time.

The upgrades were a bit bigger than the less safe counterparts but if I need more mana I can make a conduit of runes to the roof and make collection matrixes there or just make a reserve I need to fill up every month or so. I'd prefer something self-sustaining though. Automation is convenient.

I was reviewing the collection of matrices and how they were linked when Jaune finished his shower. Ruby and Pyrrha just watched me work, though Ruby pointed out what parts of the runes she recognized, which wasn't much.

"Uh, hey, where are the school uniforms?" I heard him yell from the bathroom. Ruby walked over to the closet and pulled out a set of school clothes. I raised my hand and stretched a mana tendril over. The moment the tendril touched the clothes they teleported into the bathroom.

"Thanks," Jaune called. I ignored him and finished my checks. About ten seconds later I deemed the matrices functional and sent a pulse of mana into the mana collection matrices. Around the room the metal that made up the runes became faintly blue as the mana flowed through them. I kept a flow of my own mana going into the matrices just to speed the space expansion up a little.

The expansion took barely a minute. The room ended up almost three times bigger than it was before. Well, three times bigger laterally and still in the same rectangular shape as before. I made sure that the ceiling was kept the same height as before. It was plenty tall already.

Just then Jaune walked out and slowed to a stop. "Whoa," he said, eyebrows raised. "You did this?" He looked at me. I nodded.

"It was no trouble. Just some runes. I didn't want it too big but as it was it was too small. I could make it bigger but we're supposed to be living together as a team and not just four people in a house." I turned to Pyrrha. "So what do you think of magic?"

She was silent for a moment. "How can I learn it?"

"I have no idea," I admitted. "Ozpin knows how to turn a normal person into a mage, but I never figured out how. Well, actually I do know one way but that only works if you have a space affinity, which you would need to cultivate and the only way for you to do that is… well you won't be doing that."

"I'm up for almost anything," Pyrrha said defiantly, like I had somehow insulted her by saying she wouldn't do the training.

"Well you need to repeatedly sleep with somebody with a higher space affinity than you for the method to work," I explained. Pyrrha took a moment to process that before blushing crimson. "Yes, that's why you're better off asking Ozpin, though I'm flattered you're so eager to sleep with me." Pyrrha blushed harder and decided to retreat into the bathroom, barely remembering to grab a school uniform along the way.

A moment of silence passed with nobody saying anything. "There's a way to turn, um, boinking to magical power?" Jaune asked, his face almost as red as Pyrrha's.

For some reason this was hilarious to Ruby, who exploded into high-pitched laughter. Jaune and I both looked at her weirdly but she didn't seem to mind much.

"Well, anyways," I looked at Jaune and ignored Ruby. "It isn't the sex-" Jaune grimaced at my bluntness "-that gives the power. It's the interaction of auras and a sort of secret ingredient that I won't share with you since you might tell Ozpin." Jaune nodded but had an annoyed frown on his face.

Ruby managed to calm down enough to speak somewhat coherently. "How did you manage to think of a way to turn a person to a mage?" She asked.

"If a person has a large soul space I could put a runic matrix in their soul space," I explained. "If they learned the inventory spell they could interact with the matrix and cast some spells. They wouldn't be able to improve but that's fine since the runes would already be extremely efficient. I could also put more spells in the matrix than just one. The only issues is that the amount of spells the person could learn is somewhat limited and they wouldn't be able to take advantage of affinities as well as a natural wizard or maiden. That and their need to constantly increase their space affinity artificially rather than naturally."

"Sounds like a stopgap solution," Jaune stated blandly.

"It is," I said flatly. He sent a light glare towards me and I returned it with a neutral look, not seeming cowed by him at all. His mouth turned downwards and his lips pressed together as his eyes narrowed.

"Well we can ignore all the magic stuff now," Ruby said happily, her cheer only seeming a little forced. "After all… we have time to decorate!" Ignoring both of us, Ruby hopped up to her feet and then stood awkwardly for a moment.

"Um, Abyss? Could you pull my suitcase out?"

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Poledina. There are issues with the project?"

"Oh! Uhm, Abyss. Yes there are some issues. Small ones, but certainly issues. Project Jurassic is going mostly fine except for a few wrenches in the works. Primarily aura. Yours in particular."

"Oh?"

"Yes. Compared to a normal aura, which is just a sort of formless energy, yours has structure. It's a bit like a dense lattice of aura and mana. It's more stable than normal aura, and by that I mean more easily controlled, and on top of that it's certainly more potent. When I said dense I mean DENSE. There's more than three times the energy readings from a sample of your aura compared to that of a normal person's. Your sister is similarly dense in energy but less so than you."

"Not unexpected. And the results with Project Jurassic?"

"With normal aura we can revive the weak and simple creatures. Bugs, basically. With your aura it's extremely difficult to be precise in measuring out the proper amount of aura to mana ratio. Your aura is too powerful for the small fry so we tried more powerful creatures."

"And?"

"It worked. Sort of."

"Oh no… what happened?"

"Affinities… all the creatures were revived but they seem to be… galvanized. Instead of using ice and frost they use electricity and other elements of storms. Well… except for Pit."

"I see. I believe I know how to solve your issue. I did not believe that affinity would play a major role in these creatures but if the case is as I believe it to be you need to incorporate distilled affinity with my aura or have my aura attuned before using it, unless you need beasts with affinities to storm that is."

"That was the hypothesis, yes. Attempts to use distilled affinity have been erratic but we're perfecting the process. Samples of your attuned aura would likely be more successful, however."

"Yes. And you mentioned Pit?"

"Yes! Pit! She's one of the stranger creatures we have. She's extremely intelligent but unlike the rest of the Basilisk's we created she's colored black and she absorbs affinity! It's extremely odd."

"She… absorbs affinity or destroys it?"

"Erm… we're not sure. So far every beast we've created has been biologically perfectly sensible. We believe it follows the Carnelian law, that aura strives towards efficiency and what she called the 'road to perfection'."

"I've read her theories on aura, doctor."

"Right. Well, you should meet her."

"… No."

"Ah… okay?"

"Keep watch on her. If you can get a sample of her aura or mana do so and test it. Measure her against a consumption sample. Then every other sample. I expect results. Pit is now your second highest priority."

"I… right. And my first?"

"I want creatures made with my aura distilled to the highest affinity I can make it. Beasts made with a single pure affinity of high concentration. I want souls permanently attuned to a single element to the point that it smothers out all else."

"Right. I-I think I can do that. Maybe."

"Make it a certainty."

"I need time."

"You have six months, Poledina. I want this done by August."

"Alright…"

[|||| =+= ||||]

The room was sort of… okay?

It was certainly something. Not exactly a good something but something for sure.

On one side of the rectangular room, the side with Pyrrha and I, we had two dressers, both of which were filled with our clothes. Pyrrha mentioned where Leonidas was and I grabbed all her clothes, leaving a note from Pyrrha with an explanation. I also stole a dresser from a furniture store to put them all in. I had my dresser and all my clothes in my soul space anyways so bringing it out was no issue.

On the walls were a few maps, which were Pyrrha's. There was a table of mine with numerous plots and plans in notebooks on it and just beside it in one of the corners was a well lit trio of armchairs and a couch as well as a sort of coffee table. A small trophy case was arranged with some trinkets she had picked up. Several of them were somewhat magical, actually. I'll ask Pyrrha about them later.

Considering how much space we had all of this was put out easily. Space wasn't really an issue. I could make a house if I felt like it. Actually, it's easier to just bring people into my soul space through a physical portal. Not that I would let Jaune in my soul. He might still try to kill me.

Where my and Pyrrha's side of the room was orderly and quite nicely planned Jaune and Ruby had made their space more… chaotic.

Ruby had arranged (begged) a bookshelf from me with novels and such from her room, as well as a collection of gun magazines and even a few books on ballistics.

She had stuffed her projects of guns, modifications to existing guns, and a bulletin board of ideas in the corner, which was so crowded and messy with scrawled notes and a few unfinished projects that she really shouldn't be able to make a pistol, much less a… what was that? A modular laser rifle? There's no way that's energy efficient. Well, unless she used Poledina's consumption engine but I keep most of his projects under lock and key.

Jaune had contributed books of his own into Ruby's bookshelf. Teen adventure novels and a smattering of mystery and a few romance books, though a few of those might be Ruby's. A rack of weapons, mostly swords and shields of various sorts, sat in a corner as well as a small station for weapon upkeep. Where in the world he had gotten that I don't know. I just turned around and saw that he had it placed there. An exercise mat was thrown in between his and Ruby's beds.

Between the four of us we had one orderly and nice side and one chaotic and personal side. I don't need much in the way of possessions anyways and Pyrrha didn't have much to begin with.

"It's a mess." Jaune determined.

"Yup!" Ruy didn't seem to care much. I've seen her room. She thrives in messes.

"Just keep your messes over there please," Pyrrha asked nervously, eyeing a stain that had mysteriously appeared on Ruby and Jaune's side.

Jaune noticed her eyeing it. "I spilled some orange juice," he explained.

"It's seven forty," I pointed out. "We should get to class somewhat soon."

"Actually," Ruby said questioningly, "Can we talk about why you two don't get along? Before it becomes a problem?"

I scowled. Jaune scowled at me. Nobody spoke for a moment.

"I traumatized his family, putting a magical matrix of runes onto him against his will and holding his family with magic so they didn't interfere," I said shortly. A stifling silence passed for a few more seconds. This may be the most awkward talk I've ever had. Hopefully this ends quickly. I'm feeling less guilty for doing all that now. Jaune seems fine by my standards, which are admittedly low.

"What?" Pyrrha choked out. Magic existing and now this. It's been a rough day for her.

"He took down my entire family, held me down, and did some… runecraft on me." Jaune was nearly gritting his teeth while he glared at me. At least he wasn't trying to assault me. Real progress there. He needs to get over this. Haven't I shown I'm not a terrible person yet?

"Jaune has a fate," I started, already planning a way to spin this to not make me look like a monster. "A strong one. If I hadn't tried to make him strong he would be drawn into the Salem conflict whether he liked it or not. Due to my effort he grew up prepared to be a hero rather than as some wannabe huntsman trying to enter Beacon with no training. Had I not taken action he would have grown up wanting to be a huntsman but believing he had no talent due to his sisters stifling his talent to keep him away from the magical scene."

It wasn't a lie, quite. I'm certain of the existence of fate from not just the affinity existing but the idea of main characters. Pyrrha meeting Ren and Nora was another mark for fate. I'm pretty sure the BS I just spouted is correct, but it's based on a fair few assumptions.

"Bullshit," Jaune said solemnly, clearly not believing a word I said.

"Fate exists?" Pyrrha asked vacantly.

"Yes," I confirmed. "Though it's a bit different than everyone having to do one thing in their lives. I'd imagine it like an ocean current. It's a road you're being pushed down but it's not all-powerful or anything."

"Can we get back to the part where he TRAUMATIZED MY FAMILY?!" Jaune yelled. Ruby and Pyrrha looked embarrassed and then a little ashamed of themselves. I kept myself stoic.

"I did mean it when I said sorry," I said, looking at Jaune. "If I could have brought you to power differently I would have. I made a mistake. What do you expect me to do to make up for it?"

Jaune spluttered for a moment before closing his mouth and adopted a thinking expression.

"I'm already changing Remnant for the better," I continued. "White sap, new energy crops, SDC protocol changes, and I've even had some anti-faunus laws repealed. I'll have you know that I don't change Remnant to be better because I'm some sort of goodie two-shoes trying to help the world but because a strong Remnant is beneficial to me. Even so, the world is better off with me in it than with me out of it."

"Work with Ozpin." Jaune decided.

"Not a chance," I denied.

"Why?!" he exploded.

"Ozpin's manipulative. There's no working with him. Only for him," I explained calmly. "Salem's not that bad, you know? The so-called big bad monster is quite reasonable. She's not kind at all, of course, but neither is Ozpin or your mother and you idolize them already, right?"

Jaune's face said it all. He was NOT liking how open minded I was to what he believed was the incarnation of evil and destruction.

Ugh. This is bad. He's entitled. He feels like I owe him for my actions towards him. Did I somehow create a less moral Jaune when I gave him power? It's certainly possible. Power has a lot of effects on people, plenty of them detrimental. It opens doors of its own and earning it builds character but… well Jaune didn't earn his power. He was born with it.

Did I make Jaune a spoiled kid by giving him power? By giving him treatment different than others like Pyrrha? The others appear fine, more powerful than canon, even, and as moral as before in the ways that count, but Jaune seems like more of an asshole and much more powerful.

"Fine," I growled, feeling frustrated with how Jaune turned out. "Let's just go to class. I'm happy to not be friends with you but I'm trying to give you an olive branch here. I don't nearly care about you enough to deal with Ozpin personally."

Jaune was fuming as he walked through the door. "Room three oh nine for our first class!" I called to him. He ignored me. Back to square one I suppose.

"Abyss," Pyrrha looked intensely at me. "You have a lot of explaining to do."

"To me too," Ruby looked serious. I pulled out my scroll and glanced at it. Five minutes left before class. Whatever. I'll make a hard light illusion and have my parallels put my acting skill to good use. It's not like first day has anything important happening anyways. And leaving Jaune some time to cool off is probably a good idea.

[|||| =+= ||||]

"What do you mean?! He's a monster! He talked with Salem! He said she 'wasn't that bad'! Like she wasn't the woman who sets grimm on the whole continent and murders hundreds upon hundreds every year!"

"I'm well aware, Mister Arc, though Abyss Mavros is no monster."

"Then why in the world is he at Beacon?! You know what he's done!"

"I know more than you, Mister Arc. Spend a week working with him, and if, at the end of that, you desire a different partner I will consider a transfer more thoroughly."

"At least… I don't know! Warn him to not…"

"Not traumatize any students, Mister Arc? I think you'll find that his actions to you were far and beyond an outlier in his behavior. The times he has acted as he has with you are few in number."

"Few in-! Nobody should be subjected to what HE can do!"

"Many would say contrary."

"What do you-"

"Many years ago Mister Mavros was born in Vacuo in the slums. Not slums as you know them but in the ghettos where criminal elements are openly shown and often embraced by the desperate, of which there were many. When he was quite young, perhaps three or four, his parents were murdered in a dispute over a water pump. Mister Mavros awoke his magical talent and killed two people, or perhaps one.

"He then entered the deserts of Vacuo and somehow survived to emerge a great mage years later. Then he began becoming more and more powerful, snowballing into the vast power that you saw today. He did not have your inborn gifts, Mister Arc. Magical power of his sort was a rarity in my day and considering he is the first to be blessed by the gods in thousands upon thousands of years you can be assured that Mister Mavros is a miracle."

"… The Vacuan Massacre."

"Yes. I believe Mister Mavros learned of some sort of ritual allowing him to gain power from the deaths of others. Such things are easily made. Souls are malleable things when weak and the gang members Mister Mavros killed were indeed weak people. Upon further investigation I learned that Mister Mavros didn't kill simply any gang members. He spared those with few crimes and killed those with more intense crimes. Not to mention that his presence and dominion over Vale has made it the most crime-free city in Remnant, surpassing even Atlas."

"He's a monster."

"In the eyes of many people he is a saint. Mister Arc, he has taken Vale and surrounded himself in it. If you were to kill him, though I believe you know how small a chance you have of succeeding in that, Vale would collapse in its entirety. Crime would be without reigns to direct it. The SDC could easily return to being unchecked in their violations of labor laws.

"If that is not enough to dissuade you recall just how many allies Mister Mavros has gathered. The White Fang, the Branwen clan, his company, and likely Roman Torchwick, crime overlord of Vale, would all desire your head and bypass any law for it. Lawful authority everywhere would seek not prison but a public execution of you if simply to satiate the masses. I would be forced by my public duties to do the same no matter our relationship. And if that's not all Mister Mavros has so many miscellaneous friends. A dagger in the night would be a mercy to you with how many would hunt you. Now good day Mister Arc. Enjoy your classes."

[|||| =+= ||||]

I didn't bother to attend the first wave of classes. My parallels filtered out all the useless pleasantries and took in the raw facts in an almost machine-like manner. For example, the math teacher was named Mister Kelp. Nice guy. Packet and syllabus to begin semester filled out and stored in soul space. No useful information past that. That whole class would have been an hour and a half of sitting there getting to know everyone and little else.

Instead, I checked in on how my employees and friends were doing. Roman was fine and doing little to nothing except the mundane work he did every day. Neo seemed fine as usual, drowning in ice cream.

Raven was happy to see I was fine. We talked a little and she returned to sparring with Vernal, who had asked for extra training.

Cesium was working with Roman and learning quite a lot. He had also arranged to have his own apartment sometime during the summer and was adjusting. He was working with Kerrigan on some private project of theirs. Possibly something magical but I wasn't interested in that.

Ocean was with Bella and Qrow, none of whom I talked to. They had introduced Ocean to Taiyang and were planning wedding preparations again. I left a note saying I was fine and continued on to the main course of my trip into Vale.

Poledina had recently begun something I insisted on calling Pproject Jurassic. When I learned that cloning was not only accomplished in Remnant but that the procedure to accomplish it wasere public information,I was somewhat shocked but didn't see a use for it. The reason Remnant never got into cloning was because the created creatures lacked a soul.

Remnant's populace was, naturally, a bit repulsed that the created faunus and humans didn't have what made them people. It was suggested that cloned animals be used for livestock or a dozen other things but while cloning was easily done in a lab it was too delicate a work to be done in an industrial setting and was resource intensive to boot.

Of course I tried the first thing I could think of. I resurrected extinct magical creatures through Polendina.

He had long since processed the genetic information on all the magical creatures (some of them used double stranded RNA or DNA with four strands rather than traditional double stranded DNA) and constructed sketches of what he believes they might look like.

With such a repertoire of often deadly creatures and unique DNA sequences I, and Polendina, had a lot to play with. Poledina was more into the tech side of science but he had delved into magical studies like a madman after I introduced him to it, which was compounded with his specialty in aura before meeting me. He was as knowledgeable as I was in magical fields. Perhaps more so, considering his scientific studies on aura, which I didn't understand as well as he did.

But of course there was the issue of the soul. Easily done, really. My soul was self-sustaining and could function independently of my body. I simply had to sever a part of my aura off and let it grow to a full soul. It was a commonly done tactic with regenerating organisms.

All easier said than done.

Poledina encountered a number of blockades with making another artificial soul. No, more than that. An artificial magical soul. Penny had no magical potential whatsoever. The strands of mana holding her patchwork soul together had long since dispersed, leaving her a true soul of her own. Even so, she held no mana in her.

This was different. Poledina was using my grand soul to make a new magical soul. It was hard, extremely so, apparently, but he did it. Magical creatures had been revived plenty of times. They had an affinity only for storms, true, but they were magical creatures. Not useful ones, though. What use did I have for magical creatures that were so similar to me?

Until now…

Pit, a creature naturally attuned to void.

A soul naturally attuned to void. Given treatment could Pit become an elemental or familiar of sorts? Void is without a doubt my most potent weapon. The ace up my sleeve. If there is anti-magic void is it. But it's still not what it could be. If I were to acquire an elemental for void my magical power concerning void would increase by about thirty percent if the potential void elemental acts by traditional rules concerning how they amplify my affinities.

Whatever the end may be Pit is an opportunity for me. Where most of the creatures reflect my dominant affinity for storm Pit reflects what could be called my secondary affinity for void. Perhaps it's a game of random chance in a way. Storm affinity makes up more than eighty percent of my total affinity points, taking clear priority over affinities of less power. Overshadowing them, to put it simply.

Through what I suspect is random chance, however, Pit has the affinity for void. I can guess that it's like a recessive trait in a way. It's much less common than storm but still possible.

This brings into question whether attuning my aura to an affinity and then making a soul from it would make that soul like Pit's but stronger. My first guess is yes, it would. I could make magical creatures with an affinity for whatever I feel like.

Would a magical creature with an affinity for storm reflect one component over the others if I expressed that component more strongly? Would that particular trait be stronger than the norm or would all the other affinities be weaker?

I'll be leaving Poledina with a lot of samples stored in runes when I leave here.

I opened my portal into the lab and waited a moment before stepping through. Entering suddenly always put people off guard when dealing with me. I prefer to have Poedina ready and prepared for me when I meet with him.

Stepping through gracefully I glanced around. Messy scribbles on sticky notes graced an entire portion of the wall, which was contained by borders marked by tape that overlapped past each other at nearly every turn and were clearly cut with safety scissors or a knife. Functional, obviously thrown together at a moment's notice, and unique. Poledina had settled into this space long ago. Gadgets and equipment were coupled with samples and more notes all across the tables around the room, which were a matte black.

This level of the lab, the third sublevel specifically, was dedicated to the study of magical creatures. The warehouse proved to not be big enough for Poledina's tastes. I had bought the one next to him and made several sublevels with Ruby and Raven's earth affinities. Safety concerns were handled easily with runes and a little hush money on Roman's part. It was easier to bypass the system entirely than to trawl through it.

Poledina was setting down a plastic clipboard as I walked in. "Abyss! Good to see you here! You're here to see Pit?" He rattled off the questions quickly. I got the impression that he had been bored recently. He couldn't do much more from his side of things than he's already done. He was probably reviewing data for the project before I came in.

"Of course," I said smoothly. "And to deliver samples of attuned aura of mine, of course."

"Good to know we're on the same page," Polendina said with a slight gleam in his eyes as he dropped the clipboard. He had already considered using attuned aura, then. Knowing him he probably figured out some equation to determine the probability of acquiring a specific affinity from an aura's affinity concentrations.

I had extended my senses as soon as I entered the lab so I already knew where Pit was. Just below us on the lowest level in the containment rooms.

Poledina chattered on about the effects he had observed with Pit and the magical creatures as we walked. Resistance to changes in the environment and so on. I was only half listening though. Poledina was a genius, of course, but he always failed to understand one simple fact of magic and aura. It was emotional.

I never knew the full facts of magic starting out. If I had it would actually have been a hindrance. Magic was felt. It was embraced. Affinities could be understood through science but comprehension was different than understanding. You couldn't understand things like hunger, happiness, sadness, or love through just science. I do believe that emotions are more than chemicals or a reaction in the soul.

Come to think of it, aura stems from the spark of the divine in everyone, doesn't it? Ophis had said it and it made sense for me. It lent credence to a lot of questions science had about aura and explained a little of the more mystical properties of aura. Perhaps emotions are an output of the divine spark? I'll have to consider this further…

"-But of course we can't dispute the added affinity effectiveness of subject one after implanting a regular dosage of your aura into his supplements." Polendina continued as the elevator doors opened. He was lecturing on the effects of my aura on the subjects. "It mitigated the negative effects of social decay to their affinities, actually."

That caught my attention. "What?" I asked quickly, before he kept on. Poledina blinked at the interruption. Normally he lectured and I absorbed his studies like a sponge.

"Oh, social decay. It's an effect on aura caused by lack of social interaction. After being socially inactive for extended periods of time auras will often weaken in effectiveness. Slightly at first but after roughly three months they are noticeably weaker than the auras of those who have significant social interactions. It's apparent in the creatures as well. However, upon administering your aura the effect is weakened and then alleviated after continued exposure. We aren't sure why yet, although we have a few theories."

"Have you considered whether my aura contains fragments of my consciousness in it?" I questioned. Poledina nodded.

"They don't," he said confidently. "Upon use with human or faunus test subjects, aura or no, they temporarily strengthen the aura while refilling it but don't give any emotional or mental influences."

"Did you attempt it with somebody who has mana?"

Poledina nodded as he swiped his card to the control room for the creatures. "Your sister did. No further response than the norm, though her aura was slightly less affected by the strength boost than most. I attribute it to her large aura pool compared to the smaller ones of the other subjects."

I considered that conclusion for a moment. It was reasonable and probably correct. I'll communicate with the subjects and see if they recognize me. I've never exposed myself to them while here before, though I've observed them through cameras upstairs. I've never had my aura exposed while here either. Leaving my aura out tends to make people stare at me.

I glanced around the control room as I walked inside. Two assistants, identifiable by their youth and their small badges at their chests, glanced at us as we entered then did a double take as they saw me. Whatever. They're not important for now.

The control room was a somewhat smallish thing. Computers lined the left side of the room with footage of the various chambers holding the creatures, of which there were five varieties. The rest of the room was consumed by a table with chairs in the right corner, where the two assistants sat. There were four exits to the room, one of which was for the bathroom, the other for storing feed and taking care of the creatures like a zoo's back rooms, and the last two leading to a circular path around the holding areas, which used one-way glass to view the creatures first-hand like an aquarium's observation glass for a tank. Another door to the habitat was visible a small ways down the observation path.

"We isolated Pit a while ago," Poledina said, walking over to the monitors and pointing out one shape in particular. A large smoky black scaled hide was all I could see. Pit had secluded herself in a corner, hiding her head under her bulk.

To my eyes Pit looked like a smallish bear but instead of fur she had large and somewhat long black scales. A thick tail extended from her behind, wrapped around her body like a cat's tail. I couldn't tell how long it was. Strange. Normally the tails the creatures have are rather short and used mostly for extra balance. Presumably for climbing cliff sides, according to Poledina. Everything other than the tail and bulk was hidden from me for now.

The other variant of the bear-like creatures, attuned for storm, were rather similar. They had scales but they were a somewhat transparent blue that faintly resembled thick smoky glass and, rather than arranged in the normal armor scales were typically arranged in, they seemed to have a jagged pattern to them. Their snouts were short and large, seeming a little blocky. Their teeth were a little jagged, not resembling any normal animal too greatly. They would clearly hurt anything they bit though. Their tails were somewhat short, only about as long as my arm. They were, however, much thicker and stronger than any tail I had ever seen, barring creatures much larger than the kataigida.

These creatures were called kataigida. The old mistraili translation of storm. They were the first creatures Polendina had revived and the first ones used in the experiments. Contrary to their appearance they were pretty docile, kind of like panda bears.

They ate pretty much anything with a storm affinity, even rocks, and had no trouble digesting it, they liked dust too but only the affinities composing storm and storm dust itself, though they rarely got that one since storm dust wasn't naturally occuring. I had to make it myself from affinity. Poledina thought it was a sort of tasty treat rather than a food source due to its rarity.

Poledina had concluded that they subsisted on storm affinity, though they could technically live anywhere. Storm affinity made them stronger and they passively collected it as they got older. It wasn't certain but the odds of that theory being correct were pretty high.

They also had a pack mentality, grouping together and being rather social. They even had a leader of a sort. The one with the greatest storm affinity among them was the centerpiece of the group. He or she was the first to eat and had their choice of females or males, though the kataigida wouldn't produce any offspring. Their food was laced with a drug preventing it.

Well, that's what I had read from the reports at least. I don't doubt their accuracy.

"What is Pit's social status?" I asked Polendina. The kataigida were in their cells right now, most of them sleeping. Four of them were playing with balls or small jungle gyms they had to themselves.

Did I mention how large this complex is? I made it BIG with Raven and Ruby. It wasn't hard, really. It spanned more than a city block underground.

"She's a social outlier. Practically a pariah," Poledina said bluntly. "Not like she's hurt or the other kataigida use dominant behavior over her but she's just sort of avoided. They seem to be wary of her and determinedly avoid physical contact or getting too close. Not surprising, considering she takes their affinity. Whether she would leave the pack is unknown. We don't have the space to properly test that."

"I see," I muttered. I stayed quiet for a moment while I digested all the information before walking towards the observation pathway. Then I paused. "The glass is one-way?"

"Of course," Poledina said. "There's one layer of normal albeit reinforced glass and one more layer of one-way glass." I nodded and kept walking. The door was locked with a keycard. I simply made a small and flat portal under the card in the pocket of Poledina's labcoat, which it fell through, and swiped it before returning it to his lab coat.

"Open the doors to every kataigida in ten seconds," I called to Polendina. He nodded as he got behind a computer. I closed the door to the lab and went invisible. It wasn't like I couldn't teleport out. The hidden runes I put on the walls of this place when I made it protected against physical and magical attacks, basically all I needed to contain a creature. I could still teleport out as easily as always. Teleporting didn't affect the walls, after all.

Inside the habitat was quite simple. A few large rocks lay around, the doors to the individual rooms were closed down, and sunlamps shined down on artificial grass and dirt. The walls were also painted to appear like a horizon, though it was clearly painted and not an actual horizon. Basically, it was a zoo exhibit.

I kept myself invisible as the doors opened by sliding upwards slowly like garage doors, only smoother and with more of a quiet hum to them than commercial garage doors.

The kataigida, clearly curious about the opened doors, poked their heads out and emerged from their individual rooms. I counted nine in total. They were slightly smaller than your average ursa major and quite scary looking with their jagged scales and eyes far more intelligent than just any animal.

As they emerged it was no trouble to identify the one with the largest affinity. Not only could I sense her power through my aura but she was also clearly a social leader. Observe showed her to have seventeen thousand affinity for storm, which was innate. Weak. Well, they're about eight months old each with a little disparity of about a month between the ages.

She strided forwards from her room confidently, casting a glance at the other kataigida, bringing them to emerge fully. When she was in the central habitat she checked one of two troughs of food and snorted at its emptiness.

I sensed a curiosity from her aura at the change and a sense of excitement as well. So she was a risk taker and curious. If food charged with storm is given at the troughs then she would likely be one of the first in. The kataigida were all revived at roughly the same time, after all.

As the others emerged they seemed to have a hidden anxiousness or excitement at the disruption to their schedule. After a few minutes they settled down to lay on rocks or play a little, wrestling and something like tag. It reminded me of a dog park but with large bear-like magical creatures.

They also used their affinity for storm freely, shocking each other for various reasons. After seeing it happen a few times I deduced that light and weak shocks were ways to show affection or friendly greetings. Larger shocks were to show irritation or antagonize one-another, which was mostly used to incite play-wrestling.

Their aura was also used, though not extensively. When they didn't want to be bothered they knew how to hide it. The ones sleeping had their auras pretty well suppressed. Not so well that you couldn't sense them but they were weaker than they could be. When socializing their auras acted like those of elementals, freely expressing emotions and feelings of jubilance or sleepiness.

I saw a few kataigida have practically a conversation through aura. One of them occurred when one kataigida looked at a ball and sent a questioning feeling. The other sent sleepy uncertainty. They concluded with an uncaring feeling from the first kataigida and acknowledgement from the second.

After watching for about five minutes I decided to reveal myself. However, I wanted my interactions with Pit to be organic. An enchantment for hiding aura and mana I had devised from void went over her room. She didn't seem to notice. Or perhaps she didn't care. Maybe she doesn't even sense aura, affinity, or mana like the others. It's possible since she has the affinity to eliminate affinity. More studying is required.

All playing stopped as soon as I revealed myself. My illusory cloak dropped, my aura revealed itself and it's affinity for storm, as well as a stoic feeling of neutrality. The two kataigida nearest to me leaped away and turned hastily to look at me defensively. Everything in the room went immediately silent.

Kataigida, and most ursine creatures, don't exactly express much like humans. Even so, they were clearly making an 'oh shit' expression.

For a few seconds I waited for their reaction. After a moment of stunned silence the eyes turned to their leader, who glanced around almost nervously at everyone. It's surprising how human-like these creatures are. The others shifted around slightly, keeping one eye on me and the other on their leader.

After a moment of indecision the leading kataigida seemed to puff herself up a little. Just the smallest bit. She took several steps forwards towards me and growled defensively. I made direct eye contact.

My aura flared. A challenge to the kataigida. She glanced back at the others and at me. She summoned forth more courage and did the same challenge back at me mixed with a feeling of pridefulness. I didn't know animals could be… ah, right. Cats. Nevermind. Pride is universal.

My aura swelled at the challenge and the wind around the habitat whipped at my command. The small watering pool at one side of the habitat shook, as though in an earthquake. A charge came into the air like the feeling right before a storm.

The opposing kataigida flared her own affinity. I felt an opposition to the elements I controlled. I gripped the elements harshly, not allowing her affinity to change the environment at all. The kataigida paused and tried again. Once more. And a final time. Her aura, shown freely, showed uncertainty. Fear. Shock. She didn't realize people could do this. I was suppressing her power over her element completely and it scared her. Even so, she wasn't afraid for her life. She was afraid of my power. My stoicness must make them believe I wouldn't kill them. Perhaps if I showed anger they would be truly afraid.

I began stepping forwards and the kataigida behind their leader backed up fearfully. The lead kataigida frantically pushed against my affinity to no effect. They poured their emotions into their willpower, making every effort to fight me. It was futile. My own efforts were lazy. I barely tried at all to control the whole room. I could kill cities if I tried. A bear with a little affinity? It wasn't a question.

As I finally came to the kataigida it had given up. She laid down on the ground and kept her eyes firmly below mine. I never really thought about how all species show submission in relatively similar ways. A curiosity of evolution, I suppose.

I lifted the influence I was exerting over the room, leaving it normal once more. Every creature eyed me warily to see how I would act. Would I kill their leader? Accept the sign of submission?

I looked down at the leader and knelt down. Thick concentrations of storm mana and affinity collected. I pressed the mana and affinity together, not using the mana to make the affinity perform better but using it like I would to make a mana construct.

The mana collected and formed a dense lattice. Dense enough that it looked like a solid light blue crystal of mana. Affinity seeped into the structure. A sort of extremely dark blue structure slowly began to creep along the mana, stretching along the gaps and making the magical structure a true object.

The kataigidas seemed to conquer their fear and instead looked curiously at what I was doing, albeit from a fair distance away. As I was finishing they must have smelled the dense affinity in the crystal or something of the sort since their eyes locked onto the crystal intensely. Then they looked between me and the crystal, making a connection. Shock, awe, and some confusion swept through them.

I offered the dust crystal I had just made to the leader kataigida and she looked between me and the crystal with excitement and hesitance. I got the feeling she was asking for permission. I acknowledged her submission through my aura, approving it. I also sent a feeling of confirmation. The kataigida gently took the dust crystal from my hand and placed it between her clawed paws, like a huge scaled dog with a bone. With a crunch half of the crystal was gone. A feeling of bliss slammed through her aura, startling the other kataigida. I realized I hadn't held back making that crystal.

I usually only put some affinity into the dust crystals. Enough to make it a fair bit more powerful than your average electrical dust but not nearly what I could do. It made the crystals easy to mass produce for the lab as well. I had some of my 'super dust' in my inventory for emergencies but quantity took place over quality when it came to my dust system.

The kataigida groaned deeply and almost lazily put the rest of the dust crystal in her mouth. She slowly, savoringly, chewed the rest of the crystal and licked her chops when she finished.

A deep blue hue took over her aura. The same color as the dust crystal. She opened her eyes, which I noted were a dark brownish blue, and sent a very interesting question through her aura.

Her question was so ridiculous and naive that I let out a sudden bout of laughter. The kataigida, though more relaxed now, jumped at the noise but looked at me oddly. I had sharp and intense amusement in my aura and was making that strange sound. I ignored them.

I was NOT going to… mate with the female kataigida. Dust no.

I sent a gentle rejection through my aura and the kataigida seemed baffled, sending a question of why.

I took a moment to compose the proper message and information through my aura, even through the amusement, and pulsed it.

The kataigida received the complex message I made informing her and everyone else that mating was impossible between faunus and animals. She sent understanding but in her aura I also sensed some serious embarrassment. These magical creatures are really on par with humans in intelligence. Or sapience, I mean. Plenty of animals or grimm are intelligent but sapience was different.

With the small pleasantries settled I sent another message through my aura that seemed to surprise the kataigida. I didn't want to lead the pack. The female kataigida seemed surprised and sent a question of why. I returned that I had no desire to lead them since they had no benefit to me when I already had a pack.

With that I sent images of my 'pack'. The bandits fighting, drinking, laughing, and scenes of their respect for me. I also sent images of Ruby and Raven, with heavy emotions of attachment and care to them as well as the familial connection.

Understanding washed through the pack as they absorbed my images of my pack and family. Then came more questions and I realized a small fact. The kataigida were like children. Curious and innocent children. I'm not sure they even know what violence is.

I started answering their questions patiently. I told them about the outside world. Human traditions confused them. The grimm scared them. The vastness of the world excited them. Technology had them in awe and disbelief until I showed them a few mechashift weapons.

As I answered questions I started coming to small realizations. These magical creatures were clearly highly intelligent. Roughly around the level of an unusually mature toddler. Then again, they weren't even fully grown yet according to Poledina. He estimated that they'd be mature in three years. Earlier than the average bear, which they were the closest related to genetically.

We weren't getting a ton of data from them now, anyways. Poledina's Project Wyvern took up most of his time for the moment. The kataigida were unnecessary.

Perhaps there's something else they can do then?

I considered a few things while continuing to answer questions. Could they be security? No. Too public. Clearing out grimm? Why? The grimm weren't a problem for me or Nature's Bounty.

Perhaps dust expeditions? Going into inhospitable lands to find new deposits worth mining? It would be cheaper with them helping and it would get them out of the lab.

No. That would be needlessly dangerous. The kataigida weren't hurting anybody here. But they weren't helping much either. Say wait… I might be onto something there.

Suddenly a thought occurred to me and I interrupted my Q & A session with an idea for them. An offer.

Looking through old magical hotspots was boring anyways.

[|||| =+= ||||]

"Hey Abyss."

"I'm just a parallel."

"Yeah I know. I also know that you're paying attention now that I'm talking to you."

"Abyss is busy. He is ignoring my signal as this interaction is not an emergency."

"Wha-really? Aww. What's he doing?"

"He is-... Abyss has forbidden me from sharing that information to the extent I was about to. He is amassing a team to explore magical hotspots in his stead."

"Magical hotspots?"

"It's rude to listen in on other people's conversations, Jaune."

"And you're a glorified computer program. So what's this about magical hotspots?"

"Abyss is gonna scavenge them for stuff. Like old tomes and junk. He gets bored doing it himself and the Managuard is super buried under red tape."

"Managuard?"

"An international government ag-"

"They're super secret government guys who poke magical stuff. Their agency broke down a while ago."

"Government… they know about magic?"

"Uh, yeah. Of course they do. Why?"

"I thought they were incompetent."

"Oh they are. Ask Abyss about them. He had some of his agents look into them for years during the Signal days. He keeps an ear to the ground for them. He even sent sent one of his friends into the Council buildings to steal a record of them from the secret vaults of buried documents the Council thinks nobody knows about."

"He… why didn't he go himself? He's a wizard."

"We had dinner plans the day he learned of the vault. He just didn't want to wait so he dumped the task onto miss Bella and his friends. Now he has a list of like ninety magical hotspots around the world."

"One hundred seven."

"Shut up, robot."

"I am not offended by your hostility. In addition, Abyss wishes to convey his amusement that you are insulting an emotionless robot. He compares it to punching an offensive looking toaster and wishes to inform you of the comparison to enlighten you on the futility in attempting to offend me."

"I don't like you."

"They're kind of fun! The parallels, I mean."

"Miss Rose! Mister Arc! I'm so glad you've volunteered to answer this question!"

"Oh cr-! Um, cookies!"

[|||| =+= ||||]

I filed the kataigida through the portal. I showed them how to manage a spatial storage box, which worked through an enchantment fuelled by runes, and left them enough food (storm affinity infused to food and in dust) that they'll be perfectly fine in the wilds.

All this was in saddlebags of sorts. Four separate saddlebags, each of which had a box connected to the same pocket dimension and with three emergency teleport stones as well as a normal teleport stones.

The emergency stones used void to clear out any affinity between the target and the destination, which was Poledina's lab, and teleported the kataigida touching the stone. The normal ones teleported them to me. Well, they actually alerted me the kataigida were teleporting to me and teleported them after I sent a response pulse of mana or aura but the point is moot.

Poledina didn't mind that I was kicking the kataigida out. He had more than enough to keep him busy including other magical creatures, who I confirmed were too dumb or too violent to leave the lab.

The last magical creature left was Pit.

I stood in her room invisible, watching over her. She had rolled over, letting me see her face. It was more angular than the other kataigida. Sort of fox-like in a way. She was also longer in tail and body. Sort of like an exceptionally large and fat ferret except instead of fat it's muscle.

Other than those defining traits she had about eleven thousand affinity. No biggie.

…

…

Twelve thousand affinity… the leader kataigida had eighteen thousand but she also had supplements. According to Poledina Pit doesn't eat. She doesn't care about dust, doesn't want foods, and generally doesn't give a damn about anything other than sleep or cleaning her scales, which she does via her tongue like a cat.

Magical creatures are fucking weird.

I didn't watch Pit for very long. I stood by her for about ten seconds before letting my invisibility drop and releasing my own void affinity. Pit jerked a little before raising her head and looking at me for a few seconds. Then her aura sent a pulse.

'Greetings, creator/father.'

I blinked at surprise at the clarity of Pit's emotions. The message in her aura was clear. The clearest I've ever felt, actually. From that aural message alone I could tell Pit was analytical, rational, mainly apathetic, and had a large amount of control over her aura, though the amount of aura she had was small.

'Hello,' I sent in response. A faint satisfaction, if not happiness, emanated from Pit's aura. 'You consider yourself my daughter?' I was curious at her reasoning on that idea.

'Bodies are but an avatar of the soul,' Pit began. 'Where I share blood with the storm kataigida, as the white coats call them, I share a part of my soul with you. Granted, they do as well, but are they base creatures. They do not understand relations outside of dominance and the pack. You are not related to my blood but you are responsible for my creation in soul and, I suspect, in body."

A small smile came to my mouth. A slight curving of the lips, really. 'I see. Your reasoning is sound,' I acknowledged. 'And how did you come to learn all of these things? The storm kataigida were not as dumb as animals yet you seem to understand far more than they do.'

'I looked,' Pit said. I sent another pulse of aura showing curiosity and a request for clarification.

Pit closed her eyes and rested her head. Contrary to her sleeping appearance I felt her affinity seem to stretch.

A small change in my own affinity had me look at it in intense scrutiny. My void affinity seemed to be connected through a shallow connection to Pit. Not a connection through conventional space. It took a moment for me to understand what Pit was doing.

She was dropping her soul through dimensions, using the void between dimensions and her own affinity for it to pull her affinity into it. From there she used her body as an anchor and looked at Remnant through the void. She was able to travel freely in the void where she was confined to the single room in the physical world.

And wouldn't you know it, to get back to Remnant she needed a point marked by void to pull herself onto. My soul had a large affinity for void, leaving her able to look through my soul.

Perhaps I should reiterate. Pit travelled dimensions through the void to my soul and merged with me without my knowing of her.

A lizard discovered dimensional travel where I couldn't, used it to spy on me without my knowing, and I'm willing to bet she travelled to other dimensions too.

Thank dust she isn't hostile. She could use her aura through me. I'm immune to attacks via void because I too have the void affinity but Pit could probably use me as a way to attack others around me by reaching her affinity through the void and through me.

I hadn't considered using the void between dimensions as a way to travel. Come to thing of it could I use physical manifestations of my affinities as markers for my spells? Could I use a stormcloud as a marker for a teleport spell? Could I chain this technique? Use the void myself to drop out of Remnant and enter through a concentration of affinity?

Holy shit. I just had to use my affinity for life and look for souls that have life, which is to say everything alive. From there I could shoot void into those souls, killing them.

I probably could kill every living being in Remnant without anybody knowing it was me. I could also use the main affinities of maidens, being fire, air, earth, and ice to find their souls among others in Remnant. Wizards and maidens would be child's play to find due to their high concentrations of affinities. I could kill any maiden any time in any place.

If I just make this technique work that is.

The only thing that's a flaw with her method is that now that I know she can do this I could grab her soul and attack her through the link she makes. That's only if you sustain the link though. For attacking someone you could just connect to them for an instant and pump them full of void before screwing right off.

To reiterate: holy shit.

I gently felt the connection Pit made and pushed it back. Pit'a aura and affinity returned to her body and she returned to wakefulness.

'An interesting technique,' I said approvingly. 'You are creative. Smart. Crafty.' Pit preened at my praise. Fascinating. She's so smart but when it comes to actual social contact she's susceptible. Powerful but not accustomed to others taking notice of her.

I tried the technique Pit just used and sensed through my void affinity. The world seemed to be made of paper for a moment. I could feel a great presence of void just out of my reach. It was like a paper barrier between myself and something greater.

In that moment I had another idea. What if I used my space affinity?

I could probably tear open dimensions, giving the void a physical presence. In all likelihood I would make a magical black hole like the one I create from void and mana but this one would be connected to the infinite reserves of void in-between dimensions.

So I would suck the affinity out of the world, including every soul but mine and others attuned to void like Pit.

I resolved to test this 'super black hole' theory in an extremely regulated environment. Someplace where I've reinforced space through runes and a massive reserve of mana.

For the moment I took my soul and pushed myself through it. It was kind of like pushing through jello in a way but it only lasted a moment.

In the next moment I saw the void. It was vast. Infinite. Worlds were before me like stars in the sky. A moment of concentration brought me to see all they were.

This one had beings called gods reign over humans from above. They gave humans so-called quests as technology pushed on to modern times. At the moment one named Percy battling a hound of hell was their focus. Tension was in the world. A lightning bolt was the cause of it.

In another one a mighty dragon, seemingly nordic in a fashion, fought great beasts - dragons? But he was a dragon? He was a human but a dragon? Strange. Upon a closer inspection it was actually a great many worlds closely knit to a single reality. In one ghostly warriors revelled in battle and drinks. In another demonic creatures enslaved others and a godly being ruled with an iron fist. In another mana and affinity was as abundant as air and twenty times as thick.

So many others were available to me. Some completely normal and devoid of magic. Some filled with beasts and feats that warped belief.

I had an instinct. An innate understanding that I could probably go to that reality. All I had to do was find a place or person of suitable affinity and reach through the void. With my soul space I could bring my body.

I had to rely on will of steel to bring my mind to order. At once the worlds made sense. The first was from a book. Percy Jackson. The second was what, Skyrim? And there. Is that Avatar the Last Airbender? And more. There are so many I can recognize. And more still I didn't.

The void didn't have space. It was infinite, yes, but travelling it didn't take differing amounts of energy. One world wasn't any farther from my own than another. I could just as easily travel to one as another. Some were linked and some not.

But… wait. It's infinite.

I focused on one world. At random I chose one high fantasy one. A little inspection showed that it was the inheritance series. Eragon and Arya and others. I had read about them on Earth when I was young.

I turned to my affinity to the void and looked for others exactly like that world. I asked the void to sow me to other worlds exactly like it.

A hundred - a thousand - a hundred thousand choices appeared before me. All were of the same world. In one a version of Eragon sat in a large room reading a book by his dragon. In another he screamed in battle as men fell to his blade. In so many more he accomplished feats I could remember from the book, all at different timepoints.

There were an infinite amount of worlds, all filled with differing points of time. So long as I had an image for the void and an affinity for something in that reality I could easily appear there.

I looked back to my own reality and saw the link. I was standing in the room with Pit. The connection was solid.

Wait… me.

I was almost nervous. I turned to my affinity with void and showed myself. 'Show me myself' I asked of it.

In that moment I felt myself reach out to other dimensions in the void. Other souls. I saw myself. Souls almost exactly like me, or like I was. Looking through space to them showed me myself. I focused on one in particular that was mostly like mine. It lay in the middle-ground between those not like my world and those exactly the same. I was talking. Air showed me the patterns in the air and translated them for me.

"Qrow is alright with it. Tai loves math," Other me said. Another soul near me - Raven - pulsed lightly in agreement. A moment of nothingness passed.

"Is that your secret long distance girlfriend?" The words came from another soul. Ruby.

"It's Pyrrha, yes," Other me said.

Suddenly the weight of this slammed into me. I remembered this. I remembered this entire conversation. This was right before the Vytal Festival. I had been talking with Pyrrha for three months and was writing a response to a letter from Pyrrha. Next Raven would say-

"Have either of you confessed your undying love yet?"

I was frozen. Other realities. Time travel. I just…

This was impossible. It has to be.

To verify my denial I reached to this other me. I reached into his soul and he jumped, shifting his aura to defend himself. Trying to push me out.

Futile. I'm far stronger than I was then.

I reached through the other me and made an avatar made of hard light. Through this avatar I established my own presence in this other dimension. I sensed through my affinities as the world around me came into view.

Raven's old sword was pointed directly at my throat. Ruby's rose eclipse was aimed at me, the settings off. Other me had all his mana and aura primed to blow me into oblivion. He might be able to push my faint presence out of that world if he tried.

"It's real," I softly said through wind whisper.

"You're… me," Other me said in disbelief. "How?!"

I was silent for a moment, reeling. Time travel. This was MY world. MY timeline. Looking through the void and comparing this new world to my own showed it clear as day that the two were exactly the same. There was no difference. In others there may be discrepancies but in all those the void had brought me the world was the same. The time was simply slightly different. Bypassing that extremely minor discrepancy was easy. My affinity for void let me do so easily.

"Void," I said through my avatar. "Light and shadow. The void between dimensions. Go through it. It's the opposite of affinity. The essence of nothingness. Travelling to other dimensions becomes trivial."

With that small kindness done I left that world to the void once more.

Focus. Pit. Right. She has no idea what she does. She just focuses on my world. She sticks close to home. Perhaps looking ot other worlds is strenuous for her. I felt a faint strain on my void affinity myself. Staying in the void wasn't effortless. However, that was a strain easily alleviated by a small expenditure of mana to strengthen the affinity.

I looked to Pit on my own world and drifted my soul into hers. She immediately merged with me voluntarily. I looked through her eyes at my body, looking dazed but still standing in her room.

Two new notifications were waiting for me and I looked at them, reading quickly before dismissing them.

*Ding!*A new skill has been created! - Void sight

"You haven't seen it. The black. The nothingness as it embraces you like a mother's hug. It's beyond the world and we, the void callers, can talk to it. Whisper to it to show us the secrets of this world and others. It is how we see our targets anywhere, yes, but that is the smallest application of such a mighty tool. We see the future and the past. And only the greatest of us, the most powerful, can touch it. Perhaps one day there will be one other than I who can walk through it."

-Garrus Kakiel, Archmagus of void

*Ding!*A new skill has been created! - Void walking

"Greetings, new traveller. Have you idea of what you have just done? Perhaps not. You have found the key to a greater world. You are a man who looked at the sea and found his boat. Few are powerful enough to take the step to another world and you are one of them. Those who use dimensions are like arrows. They travel with only the destination in mind and they do not choose where they go. You are a traveller. You see the destination and all in-between. All destinations are yours to explore. You have proven yourself worthy of my title. You have performed a feat worthy of an archmagus. Should I be passed from this world I request that you take my place on the council, should it still stand. Otherwise, please enjoy what lies in my tower. You are my successor. Thank you."

-Garrus Kakiel, Archmagus of void

*Ding!*By performing a feat worthy of an archmagus and being acknowledged by one, past or present, a title has been upgraded:

Archmagus of void

-Reduces all mana costs by 25%

-Increase all affinities by 50%.

-+50% INT

-+50% WIS

-Increase void affinity by 100%

-Increase mana and mana regen by 100%

-Void walking and void sight take 50% less effort in any form and a world is 25% more likely to be favorable to you.

'You took awhile,' Pit said. I sent acknowledgement and tried to refocus myself. I did, however, equip the archmagus of void title and felt the instant increase in affinities. It had replaced the wizard title so unless I wanted a drastic decrease in strength I had to. My mana shot up massively. It wasn't what I had before losing my silver eyes but dust my void affinity was huge now. I resisted looking at my new stats before returning to talking to Pit though.

'Why not look to other worlds? Other versions of yourself?' I asked. Pit sent the equivalent of a shrug.

'I wanted to meet you,' she said. 'Looking in other worlds is hard. I only have the void. Others with the void are normally knowledgeable of the void between worlds and prepared for those that may come through it. I met one that was dangerous once. I stayed safe since then. I needed to be stronger to look properly and safely. I don't want to die. Other versions of myself normally chat with me but after meeting yourself twenty times it gets… boring."

I understood that. It would be like meeting the same person twenty times.

Investigating this new and powerful application of void could come later. Perhaps I could see the other world Icmant mentioned. Abyss, he had called it. How ironic. I'm not sure I want to travel to someplace where there are people as strong as he was though. There were better ways of using this ability than poking hornet nests.

'Pit,' I asked, 'what do you want to do?'

She looked at me with her odd serpentine eyes. 'I want to travel. I want to visit the other worlds I can see. To touch them.'

A sort of grin came across her face. It looked pretty scary but I felt no malice from her. 'To do that I need to get stronger. I've seen your notes. The need for a void familiar. That's what you came here to do, right?'

I was a little surprised by this stroke of incredibly good fortune but not quite surprised. I sent a pulse of confirmation from my aura.

'Great!' Pit seemed excited. So she's not as stoic as she portrays herself. Then again, even the most stoic of children are excited on Christmas. 'Could you put my body in the space thing for the time being? I don't think I'll leave often though. I mostly want to travel with you and meet new people and I know you like your private times. Could you make me my own body while still being connected to your soul though? It seems like that would be more convenient for both of us. One capable of talking. A faunus form would be just fine.'

I just stayed silent for a moment. With a sigh I glanced towards the one-way glass, where Poledina was taking notes frantically on the other side. "I hope he won't be too mad I took all these test subjects."

----------------------------------------------------------

If you like it please drop some POWER STONES