Chapter 222: To Create and Destroy (1/2)

The sensation encompassed me as if I was standing in some tropical paradise. When I reached out with Event Horizon, it was a siphoning, choking kind of energy. It strangled the life around me, and that only made me stronger. This new aura lacked the same selfish intention, a subtle, blue tint covering the air. It was light and fluffy, a gentle sensation compared to Event Horizon.

Some of that came from the difference in raw power. Event Horizon was just stronger in general than this new aura. Still, this different feeling had merit in its own way. It imbued a wild growth around me. The visualization turned real as sand spawned beneath me. Water filled the chamber, generating a genuine pool around me. A palm tree spawned behind me, fish filling the pool along with various predators. I lifted a hand, and a wall of origin mana coalesced in a pillar in front of me covered in moss. I raised my eyebrows, thinking crabs should be on it.

Low and behold, crabs spawned onto its surface.

Too many crabs in fact. It was a veritable swelling mass of the crusty crustaceans. Hermit crabs, spider crabs, coconut crabs, crabs I saw on the Discovery channel but didn't know the name of, you name it and that kind of crab was there. It scared me a bit due to the sheer rate of crab generation. I'd used the word crab so much in the past couple seconds that it didn't even sound like a word at this point.

Either way, the spring of crabs needed to stop. I raised a palm to it, willing it to cease. Instead, more mana siphoned into the spot. The spring of random crabs evolved into a geyser of them, turning the pillar into a crater of crustaceans. They spewed forth from solid stone, defying all logic.

Flabbergasted and befuddled, I stood and watched as the mountain of crabs turned into an incoming tidal wave. Transient would be pissed when he came back in the morning and there were water and sand everywhere. The plethora of crabs wouldn't exactly put a smile on his face either. If anything, it might tip him over the edge.

I shifted mental gears, covering the aura of growth to one of destruction. Event Horizon passed over the expanse around me, and I kept careful of moving the aura out of my own cubicle. I didn't want to melt someone else in one of the other cubicles if that was even possible. I wasn't about to take that chance regardless.

The crabs disintegrated into mana the moment Event Horizon passed over them. It was like turning my mana into crabs then back into usable mana as they disappeared without a trace. The moss on the pillar evaporated as well, leaving several tons worth of water and sand.

Great. Just great.

I sat down on real sand, the visualization already eliminated. I lifted sand up in my hands, squishing it in my palms. The grit crunched like cereal under a hydraulic press. I melted it in my hands with a potent burst of heat. It globbed into a glowing ball before I stretched it out into an ugly ass panel. I cooled it, bubbles interlacing the clear crystal.

I raised my eyebrows at it, the ugly, dirty, and bubbly glass looking terrible. I was messing around at this point, just enjoying my new powers. I dropped it into the water letting out a splash in the pool. I glanced at the notifications of my status though, and they surprised me.

Skill gained! Life Creation(lvl 10) - While others aim to take life, you aim to give it. +10% to duration of created life forms. +10% power of created life forms.

Skill gained! Matter generation(lvl 10) - Those that create will always live in abundance. +10% to efficiency of creating matter. +10% to the stability of created matters.

Skill gained! Glassmaking(lvl 10) - Though brittle, glass holds many useful properties. You take those properties as your own. +10% to ease of making glass. +10% to glass's clarity

I gained three skills, just like that. The first two sounded like high tier skills, but after reading their descriptions, their basic status made sense. These skills didn't allow me to create any matter or life on command. They just let me create those things period. That meant anytime I channeled those skills, it would be like releasing entropy. There was no rhyme or reason to what was being created. It was dangerous and not very useful either.

I had a few ideas on what to do with them, though.

I tapped my chin as I dived into thought. Creating this many skills was a big deal, especially if it was this damn easy. In fact, while Transient was letting me 'rest,' I could focus on just making random skills with this mana type. If I gained enough of them, I might even be able to make something for fun. At this point, the sky was the limit.

Before I got to grinding out that plan, I opened my status. After a while, I opened up my multiverse menu and glanced at my skills. Event Horizon was still in it. After clearing my mind and changing my mana into Origin, I looked at it once more. As I expected, the ability shifted.

Dimensional Wake - Your reach as a dimension is manifested by an aura, currently known as Event Horizon. Depending on your current mana type, this aura can be altered to one of six mana types: Origin, Dominion, Augmentation, Ascendant, Quintessence, and Primordial.

Edge of Arcadia(Origin) - This aura enhances your ability to create life, matter, and energy sources. It also promotes a sensation of peace in those within it as well.

Current Radius: 501 ft/152 m | Size of the aura can be increased by your mass

Maker - Enhances the ability to create in all its forms. +100% to matter creation.

Giver - This aura makes the efficiency of origin mana higher than usual. +100% to the potency of origin mana.

Arcadia - Created objects, energies, and lifeforms are closer to their original forms than usual. -20% to imperfections during the creation process.

An Originator's Domain - Within the Edge of Arcadia, Origin mana's effects are enhanced. This is a general enhancement to the mana type.

I knew something was awe-inspiring about this whole multiverse thing. It let me have this wave of control over this new mana type. Considering my ridiculous output of energy and this general buff, my origin abilities far exceeded my experience with them.

That lead to the plague of crabs. I shivered at the thought of it, the wall of legs and claws coming at me. It posed no harm, but something about it just creeped me out. They were just the spiders of the sea, after all. One was to be squished while the other was delicious. Life worked out like that sometimes.

Anyways, I honed my mind back onto the task at hand - creating skills. I brainstormed for a bit and came up with a list of prioritized skills. The elements came first because controlling lightning, water, etc. would be useful. After that, I intended on making certain kinds of life instead of just random creatures. Once that was done, different materials were next.

With that in mind, I aimed to create water. I already made some on accident when I first used Edge of Arcadia, so I hoped it would be simple to create some. After several hours of practice, it proved to be the opposite.

At first, I worked with enormous volumes of mana at once. Why? It was my normal amount at this point. Turns out, controlling the mana required to make a mountain wasn't easy. Years of experience let me do so with my ascendant mana, but that wasn't the case with this new origin kind. It didn't make sense to me in the slightest how someone even used it in combat to begin with.

Origin was all about letting go of control and just focusing on creation. Well, if I spawned an inferno, having no control of it was worse than no magic at all. In the case of water, it was a particular kind of material with a set chemical composition. Generating that wasn't easy even in the slightest. As I worked with origin mana, I was more impressed by Helios and Torix.

Helios wielded this as if it was nothing all while using a source of mana that wasn't his own with his gauntlets. Torix exceeded that even, being able to wield all three types of mana fluently. Though he lacked the raw oomph of Helios or me, Torix made up for it with his deft control. That might be why he preferred taking over existing creatures to creating them on their own though.

He was a dominion mage through and through with a very high affinity for that mana type. Using advanced origin magic would prove difficult if not outright impossible. He circumvented that need by controlling things that already existed. In a way, he avoided two of his limitations, both his smallish mana pool and his inexperience with origin mana.

It also played more to his strengths in controlling. The more I thought about it, the more ingenious it seemed. At the same time, it made me wonder why Torix was so dead set on being a summoner/necromancer. I'd ask him next time we met after he interrogated me about my evolution. It would be one piece of information for another.

As I pondered all of that, a virtual sun rose in the distance, indistinguishable from the real sun. As the orange light sheened off the water, Transient popped out of nothing. It spoke in a monotone,

”Good morning, Daniel. Training will resume.”

I nodded, ”Good. What's next on the menu?”

”Sand, water, and a palm tree. The training area must be cleaned before we can continue.”

My shoulders drooped, ”Fuck.”

I swear there was a smugness in Transient's voice, but maybe I was just hearing things.

”Fuck, indeed.”

I ended up just chucking it all into a single location using a gravity well and shoving it into my dimensional storage. Emptying that out later would be vital if I wanted to keep using it, but I was still barely touching the surface of its potential. Several tons of water and sand were nothing to me now.

With the cleanup handled, Transient said, ”Create origin mana. Begin by-”

I raised my hand and released a plume of the cyan colored energy.

Transient continued, ”Excellent work! You will now fuse together augmentation and origin mana, creating quintessence.”

I scratched my cheek, ”So why not fuse dominion and origin into primordial mana instead?”

”That mana type is unsuitable for your needs and will prove very difficult to create. It will be the most difficult to curate since it doesn't utilize your natural affinity for augmentation. It is similar to a short, overweight human attempting to play professional basketball.”

I nodded, ”It's an uphill battle. Gotcha. What will quintessence take?”

”It requires a shift in mentality, combining the sensation of both origin and augmentation magics. Begin by channeling augmentation mana.”

I did as commanded, a flood of orange rushing over me. My motivation was high as I reached out with Event Horizon. Once more, the aura was different. Unlike Edge of Arcadia, this aura was like a watered down version of Event Horizon, lacking many of its features. It just wasn't as strong in general, and that made it little more than a novelty at this point.

As I flailed around with the aura, Transient spoke aloud, ”Now attempt to achieve Serenity while doing so.”

I blinked, ”What? How's that even possible? They're polar opposites.”

”They are not. The desire to improve is not opposed to the desire to create. Your mind is orienting towards ambition in a selfish light. Direct your thoughts to the growth of all things, excluding the necessity of doing so with only yourself. You must learn to give. Try again.”

I let out a long sigh. This was going to feel like a lot more than just three weeks at this rate.

It would feel like an eternity.

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My arms crossed, I stared outside while tapping the edge of my gauntlets. Uncle's craftsmanship was always something worthy of admiration, but my thoughts dwelled elsewhere at the moment. I stared out, inspecting the workings of my galactic city. I did so without the aid of sight, my eyes left blind since birth.

I see into the vast voids of other dimensions, but sight of the realm I exist in eludes me. It was a necessary sacrifice. The sights I see cannot be easily gained. A few simple pulses with my mana gives me an excellent view of my surroundings. By utilizing a nigh photographic memory, I view all that is around me like a general viewing a battlefield.

As I did so, the Empire's citizens bustled about, beneath my notice yet somehow calming me. Glancing at the rabble reminded me of simpler times when managing planets wasn't required of me.

Commoners knew nothing of this responsibility. They pittered and pattered about, their worlds the size of a city at most. I closed my eyes. I wish that my world was the same. Pity. I was born into this, and that, like many things, would never change.

I opened my eyes and sighed. The trade negotiations between Belka-623 and Orba were going well, perhaps better than expected. Exceeding expectations was a given when I involved myself in a matter, however. I reached out a hand, tapping the glass. Yes, I did exceed expectations on almost every account.

Every account but the battle against Lehesion.

Staring at the reflective glass, I glared at myself. My black mask was formed from the most beautiful woods on our home planet. They ingrained wood that smelled of a deep forest and crisp breeze. Those natural oils never left, the trees farmed for the task highly evolved for just that purpose.

My mask represented the merit of my achievements. Few obtained my status, but this did not sate me. I always told my inferiors that success was not a history but a state of mind. If your last attempt at anything was a failure, then you were a failure until you redeemed yourself.

My own words echoed in my ears as my face deformed into a grimace. It was deep scowl, the kind of reaction one has to the piercing screech of nails on a chalkboard. Something infuriated me as of late, yet I didn't comprehend the exact reasoning behind it. I was called into a battlefield with no time nor resources to prepare. I fought until I fell from mental exhaustion, my responsibility to my favor fulfilled. It didn't matter. I failed.

I tapped the glass before lowering my hand. At this rate, I'd shatter the panel. The trouble involved with fixing it wasn't worth venting my irritation. As that deep-seated fury rose from my chest, that armored idiot popped in my thoughts once more. As he passed, Lehesion crossed my vision as well. The fight on Giess flashed across my eyes along with my genocide of the gialgathens in Rivaria. I killed them so that we could fail the battle. The more I dwelled on it, the more mistakes I made during the conflict.

I misused my portals from the beginning. If I had simply used them well enough, then the damage to that monstrosity would've been infinitely higher. Managing my mental stamina would've changed the outcome of the fight as well. I exhausted myself casting imposing but ineffective void ice magic. Sitting behind the other combatants and assisting with portals might have turned the tide.

My thoughts devolved further as I returned to tapping the glass in front of me. That pitiful attempt at battle was my favor to Daniel for saving my sister's life. It was a disgrace to the empire and the royal family to repay meaningful assistance with that display of incompetence. My incompetence.

My tapping turned to thudding on the transparent panel. I even lost a Sentinel since I didn't evade Lehesion's strikes. My combat skills devolved to such an extent that sacrifices were needed to simply keep me alive. Pathetic. Imbecilic. Inept.

My tapping strengthened, cracks spreading through the panel of glass. Despite this complete and utter failure, I received no consequences. My position was absolute; my past actions ensured that I was untouchable. My deficiencies merely resulted in that Harbinger's guild suffering severe losses. I grimaced at my fractured reflection.

If there were no consequences for me, then why did that event haunt me so?

I turned back to my AI, Eva, while rolling my head to alleviate the tension in my neck. My duties would distract me from the wandering thoughts that plagued me as of late. I snapped my fingers, several orange screens appearing. I found the tint easier on my eyes.

Considering I stared at these mindless numbers and charts more than I stared at the physical world, minutia like the tint of a screen took precedence all of a sudden. It reminded me that I focused more on trifles like this than my own abilities in battle.

Eva spoke up, interrupting that string of thought,

”Helios, it's good to see you. What do you need assistance with?”

”I wish to speak with my father. I need his guidance.”

Eva answered, her voice easy on my ears. Of course, if her voice weren't natural to hear, I would've long ago gone insane standing in this office.

”He is currently busy suppressing a rebellion on his world.”

I glanced up, peeved but undeterred. Of course he was preoccupied with his own mismanagement of his own affairs. This must be the sixth rebellion within the last decade. A few changes in his enactment of imperial policy would rectify the issue in an instant. Instead, my father wallows in incompetence. Typical.

His softness would be his undoing. If a leader grants his underlings an ounce of independence, then those underlings shall starve for more. Repression is often times freedom in these instances. It prevents the imbeciles and ignorant masses from causing their own undoing. Rebellions cannot be tolerated after all, and those that commit treason will be treated as traitors.

And traitors are to be crushed under the Empire's heel. Their blood paves the way to a brighter future.

I silenced that rush of thoughts, however. More pressing matters were at hand. I said,

”Then call Caprika instead.”

”You seem disappointed. Would you rather I call the Emperor?”

I raised a palm, snapping my words like a whip. ”No. I will not waste his time on my emotions. He's more important tasks to indulge in, as do I.” I clenched a hand into a fist,

”But focusing on my responsibilities is difficult when my judgment is impaired. This must be dealt with despite my own misgivings.”

Eva replied after a pause, ”Of course, Helios.”

As Eva called Caprika, I took my mask off for a moment. I pinched the bridge of bone between my eyes, attempting to silence the sea of thoughts rushing to the surface. It was all so tiresome, so I suppressed them while dragging my hand down my face. I put my mask back upon my face as Caprika appeared in a video chat.

She tilted her head, her red mask still being worn. Unusual.

”Oh, this is new. My older brother is asking me for assistance? How quaint.”

”Quaint indeed. Perhaps I should ask someone else then? They may mock me less and offer better counsel.”

Caprika leaned back, ”Wait, you're serious about this? I-I'm sorry. I thought you were calling to scold me.”

”No. I'm asking for your viewpoint. Nothing more.”

Caprika gulped before sitting up, straighter, ”Then what is it, brother?”

I stared at the claws of my hand, a bit of shame welling from my chest from directly speaking out my thoughts,

”I've found my emotions difficult to handle as of late. I'm quick to anger and slow to contentment. It's a bother. Perhaps you may understand it better than I.” I glanced down to her,

”After all, you've more experience in regards to handling difficult emotions.”

Caprika fumbled for a moment, composing herself. I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes, granting her a few moments to think. She raised her hands, gesturing like salesmen giving a pitch as she spoke,

”I don't fully understand why, but it could be resentment to your failure in regards to Lehesion. If you're ashamed of your performance, I assure you, no one imagined that beast would live up to the legends told about-”

I seethed, ”That is not what angers me. It would never.”

Caprika trembled, a shiver racing up her spine. I winced at my lack of self-control. Scolding her felt like whipping a child. She was still my little sister, after all. One victory did not shift the long history between us, one where I succeeded, and she failed. In my eyes, however, none of that history mattered. To me, she was my superior at this point in time.

I leaned back from my screen, shaking my head, ”I...excuse my outburst. That may well be what's infuriating me considering my reaction just now. Perhaps your insight was worthwhile as a verification of sorts.”

Caprika took a deep breath before leaning towards her screen, ”Are...are you alright? It's not like you to ask me for help, and it's even more unlike you to lash out like that.”

I scoffed, ”That is precisely why I called you. You're supposed to assist me in the matter, not point out the obvious to me.”

She stayed silent, keeping eye contact though I couldn't see it behind her mask. From all the years I'd known her, I built up a vague understanding of her facial gestures despite the veils between us. Right now, she showed genuine concern to the extent that it oozed from her like juice from a smashed fruit.

It was humiliating.

I composed myself before answering. Showing more weakness would only exacerbate the issue.

”Your insight has been more than enough to rectify the issue. I'm merely optimizing my mental state for my continued performance. Nothing more.”

I stared at my palm as I spoke, inspecting the runic work of the Emperor. It calmed me as Caprika nodded,

”Of course. You assisted me in more ways than I care to mention, and returning your backing means quite a bit to me. If that requires being a shoulder for you to lean on or an ear that listens to you, I'm at your beckoning call. Simply ask.”

I let my hand down, peering back down to her, ”I see. Thank you for the sentiment. I must go now. Thank you for your time and consideration.”

Caprika leaned back, ”That's rather formal of you. It isn't as if we're merely business associates.”

I raised a hand over the exiting command for the chat, ”I'm an ice mage. What else would you expect? Goodbye.”

I closed the call, glancing back at my daily duties. They involved the maintenance of Belka and Meliton, the planets I ruled. Every bit of it bored me, but finding another competent soul to manage these affairs was far more complicated than merely completing the tasks myself. The Emperor was fortunate to find me. I lacked the same luck.

A few hours passed as I found myself fumbling with the simplest of tasks. Managing planetary interest rates, ending geopolitical disputes, even planning various educational reforms, they all eluded me. After a few minutes of work, I closed the holograms along with Eva. I turned back to the city and gave my situation some thought.

Considering my coarse reaction to Caprika's suggestion, she was correct even if I attempted denying it outright. Now that the source my malaise was known, aligning my actions to remedy the situation was simple.

Ending Lehesion took priority. The question was thus:

How do you kill the unkillable?

An interesting question. I steepled my fingers.

I had interesting answers.

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With my eyes closed, I sat with my legs crossed. For the thousandth time, tranquility washed over me, keeping me calm. As I opened my eyes, I imagined Althea in my mind. I wanted her to succeed on her own terms. I remembered the bit of joy I got from watching Kessiah finding her way. I envisioned a weakened Torix needing my help.

With all those thoughts driving me, I channeled my mana into my palm. I honed in on that sensation of warmth and comfort from their company. I focused on helping them with whatever it was they needed. As I took a deep breath, a mental image of Althea stuck out in my mind. Every time I thought about her, I wanted to protect her.