Beyond?

by Andur

  “Daddy?” “Did he lose his consciousness?” “I don't know, Bro.” “He is just staring at the metal ball.” “Did I break him?”

  Zadkiel and Sariel are arguing back and forth when I return my attention to them. “Sorry, Sariel. I was just a little baffled. It seems like you have both Stella's and my ability at the same time.”

  “I want to be tested too!” Zadkiel fights for a place on my lap and I put Sariel down to take a look at him. Shortly afterwards I put him down on the floor with the same result. “It's the same.”

  “Yay! Come Sariel! We have to tell Zana about it!” Zadkiel climbs out of the window, assisting himself with gravity magic. Sariel follows on his heels. “Yes, I wanted to play with Ghost anyway.”

  Ohh... so much power in the hands of children! What should I do? Their perception is already at the master stage from my point of view. Should I tell them how to use their ability properly? Should I tell Stella about it? Getting on my knees I crawl closer to metal sphere on the ground. It seems like I turned the chair into a solid lump of lead.

  I roll it under my working desk where I store unneeded remains of earlier projects and get up to find Stella. A quick glance with my ability tells me that she is in her laboratory.

  Hurrying to the first floor I let myself into her laboratory without asking for permission and enter her working room. “WAAHAaaaaa...” Screaming in surprise at the monster in Stella's room, I barely stop myself at the last moment from blasting it to pieces with my multi-tool. “Stella? Is that you?”

  There is a humanoid, scaly, spiky thing with wings and horns. It looks like a real dragon in miniature size.

  “Don't scream like that. I was just testing how far I can go with my ability before losing control.” The thing changes back to a naked Stella and she bends down to pick up a bathrobe. “The only problem is the clothes. Somehow I can't manage to concentrate on them while changing my body to this degree.”

  “Don't lose control! Don't change your body!” I call out in shock.

  “Hahahaha. Don't worry. That was just the all over the top form. It's not any stronger than my perfected version. I just wanted to test the physical limits of change.” She gestures dismissively with her hand.

  Thanks! I would abhor being married to a dragon. “Ah, that's not what I am here about. I tested Sariel and Zadkiel for their abilities since they seemed so upset about not having them while Zana is already using hers.”

  “And?” Stella arches an eyebrow.

  “It seems like they already have yours and mine! On top of it, it seems like they've already mastered their perception skills. I tapped into Sariel's mind and used her senses to change one of my chairs into a solid lump of lead... from a distance. I didn't even have to touch the damn thing.”

  “Really!? What's hindering them from using it then?” Stella pulls at her lower lip.

  “Apparently nothing more than their lack of knowledge. They lived their whole lives while seeing mana and solid matter as we do when we activate our abilities. They are accepting the world as they know it and didn't get the idea to manipulate what they are seeing. So far they are only casting spells from their inner mana reserves.” I explain. “Could it be that objects turn into something like cloudy shapes which you can compress and expand when touching them?”

  She purses her lips. “I guess you could describe it like that, but it only happens when I infuse my mana into something.”

  “Well, Sariel could see the whole room as such shades.” I explain. “I asked myself if I should really teach them how to use this ability. That's on a wholly different level.”

  “Where are they right now?” Stella asks and I point at the window. “In the garden, playing with Ghost.”

  She walks over to the window and takes a look outside. After a few moments she starts speaking. “I said nothing when you started teaching them magic despite their age. Neither did I say anything when you taught Zana a potentially lethal spell.”

  “She was bullied!” I defend myself.

  “Come here.” Stella gestures for me to join her at the window. “Does this look to you like they are ready for such a power?”

  I walk over to her side and take a look outside. Like always the gardener is doing a good job at keeping the green area around our mansion in top condition.

  On the middle of the lawn are Sariel, Zadkiel and Zana with Ghost. The warcat is floating in the air and desperately flailing with his legs, but it's hopeless since he can't touch the ground.

  The three kids are dancing in circles around Ghost, neither showing mercy, nor comprehending what they are doing to the warcat's pride. “P... probably it's better for them to stay ignorant of their capabilities for a while longer.” I have to save Ghost. “By the way... how does your perfect form look like, Stella?”

  She smiles and concentrates. A moment later she is covered in small, perfectly smooth, shimmering scales like the ones on her tail. Two wings sprout from her back and the nails on her fingertip turn into claws.

  “The scales are the toughest known material and I enhanced them with rune magic. This armour is able to reflect almost every spell back to the caster. On top I can fly and the claws on my fingers are poisonous. Plus there are a few other nice benefits to this form.”

  I sigh in relief. The change is much less dramatic than the one which I encountered before. “Say... are you able to change yourself like you want now?”

  Stella shakes her head. “No. There are still certain limits.”

  I shrug my shoulders. “Ah, so it's not possible to... you know... have two tails for example?”

  Stella smiles and hugs me. “Oh, you are so dirty!”

  102. ~On the move.~

  “We are deeming that that the small archipelago in the southern oceans would be a perfect place to set up a military base. This base would prove priceless as a bridgehead towards the second continent. From there we could organize strikes against their cities and supplies for our army.

  For that purpose it would be necessary to completely take over at least one of those islands. What the locals think about such an act might have to take a back seat in light of what's at stake.”

  -Military report 887-00-B2.

  Free City States of Nict, Capital

  Azir

  “It's so cool that you're giving us a tour through your research facility.” Padma is totally overwhelmed by my facilities and starts dancing through the corridor. She requested to see it some time ago, but I never had the time to show them around. To ensure that her friends aren't left out of the fun she brought the entire clique from Dwem with her.

  That includes Adala, Nikita and Eliot. Saana decided to retreat from service because of her old age. The incident of being under the influence of enslavement magic caused great distress to her and she opposed to being sent on another mission to Nict. Right now, she is living in her own domicile in Dwem and enjoying the benefits of being old.

  I speak from experience, I was old too once. Though I would never trade this body for my old one now.

  Our exchange students from Dwem, on the other hand, decided to use their granted stay to its fullest. So the four of them are still around for me to meet them from time to time. Their prolonged stay and our good relationship with Dwem makes it unnecessary to have them followed by a guide all day long.

  Olivia and Annice are still available for them in case something which requires our help happens. Karsen and Talia also joined the tour since they didn't have anything better to do.

  I eye the child in Talia's arms. “So you finally moved into your own house?”

  Karsen nods and smiles. “Yes. Explaining the situation to my family was an ordeal since I somehow forgot to mention my relationship with Talia.”

  “A wise decision.” She growls. “I was completely hysterical and feared for the worst when I was grounded.”

  “Yeah, but after they understood, it wasn't a problem to join Talia's family. The Anja and Zait are in a good relationship with each oth
er. I am glad that Valda and Tanja's relatives weren't too angry about my omissions.” Karsen tries to downplay the situation.

  Indeed. Getting your girlfriend pregnant by accident without ever having mentioned her to your own family doesn't put you in the best light, my poor friend. I don't want to know about the scolding you had to listen to. At least they can be together now.

  “What's that?” Padma points through one of the windows which are place along the main corridor of the facility. Behind the windows are rooms with various projects and my employees who are working on them.

  I take a look to see what Padma is referring to. “That's a new design for a safety belt which uses gravitational magic. You can charge the artefact with energy and give it to a normal soldier. Then he is dropped out of an aerial carrier like the transport drones or off of our fortresses. The belt has enough energy stored up to stop the fall before you reach ground level. It's very convenient for dropping troops into enemy territory.”

  “How do you produce enough of them?” Padma asks baffled.

  “The magic circuit is fairly simple and it's nothing more than a deceleration device. It doesn't allow free flight. That means that they are very cheap in production. Although we have already quite a few of them I have to admit that we won't be able to fit the whole army with this equipment. It will remain a tool for our special forces.” Louise's voice echoes down the corridor.

  I turn around and wave towards my head researcher who is approaching us. Sometimes I am afraid that Louise could take this new toy of mine for herself. She is spending a lot of time at this place. “Louise, so you are still here. You should try to find another hobby.”

  She shakes her head and spreads her hands. “This is everything I ever dreamed about. The knowledge, the resources. I would never get any of this if I were to do something else. And if we hit a bottleneck we simply have to ask the prodigy for a solution.” She nods, blatantly admitting her own laziness. Go and invent something on your own! It's not like I am a magic mirror which gives you all the answers.

  “I see. We wanted to end our tour with the light sculpture of our planet.” I explain.

  Louise nods and gestures down the corridor. “That's right. You kept the best part for the end. I'll accompany you to get a look at their faces.” She smirks and leads the way towards the hall with the light sculpture.

  We follow her to the big room and I get to enjoy the surprised noises from the group as we enter. I have to say myself that the light sculpture truly looks magnificent by now. Louise hired a few people from her clan to improve on its interface. It turned out to be more like a piece of art and the displayed light show truly deserves the name sculpture by now.

  We are even able to walk through the light sculpture and manipulate it any way we like.

  Louise is so nice to explain the functions of the light sculpture while I single out Nikita to ask her a few questions. “So how is your recovery going? I heard that you are back to your prime?”

  She nods happily. “Yes. It's all thanks to you that I am still alive. My recovery took a long time, but I finally have my powers back. The poison was really nasty, I don't understand how any civilised person could use something like it.”

  I smile reassuringly. “Don't worry. They are paying for their crimes as we speak.”

  My words couldn't be truer. Nict's aggressive change of stance is slowly taking effect. Helen started a massive military build-up program to stop our enemies in their tracks. I don't have to bother with visiting the front lines, but our first five flying fortresses are creating havoc in the southern nations as we speak.

  They are using the fortresses to strike at important trading routes and economically important cities. It's essentially nothing other than wildly lashing out at the enemy's economy. But as long as we have the technological advantage it would be stupid not to use it.

  On top they already strongly reduced their civilian population in that region by using them as cannon fodder. Forcing the remaining civilians to leave the area may be harsh and cause hard feeling towards us, but it's better than having them used against us.

  The aim is to clear out a neutral zone between us and the southerners. We don't advance beyond a certain point, forcing their remaining civilians to retreat to other vassal states further down the coast.

  Lucas has the most experience with the southerners and according to him this is the most promising course of action. We are practically hoping that the states which are the closest to us are responsible for the aggressive stance of the southerners. There is no way that we would be able to control their lands with our soldiers.

  Since the southern nations are so big and luckily not unified they have as many rivalries with each other as with their neighbours.

  The most beneficial outcome would be for them to be more interested in their own quarrels.

  According to Lucas there are most certainly three factions among them.

  First, the ones which were at the borders of Nict who launched regular attacks at us. Secondly, the ones who are neighbouring Quinn and rallied against them.

  The third faction consists of the countries who are located along the southern coast. They are enclosed by the Eastern Plains to their north and the sea to their south. To their west and east are only other small city states. Since they don't have a strong neighbour like Nict or Quinn close to them they shouldn't be interested in joining the fight of their brethren.

  We are playing a dangerous game, but the chance that it works out is high. Everything depends on not scaring the third faction. As long as they remain in a mindset of 'what goes around comes around', everything is fine. The same goes for Quinn and their adversaries.

  Once our military has established the safety of Nict, we can think about dealing with the Master.

  “What are those red dots supposed to mean?” Eliot's voice draws my attention and I take a look at what he is pointing at.

  Eliot is pointing at the light sculpture, which is displaying a three dimensional image of our world as it is perceived by our satellites.

  Large parts of Quinn and the second continent are still represented by dark, blurred spots, but the blurred out parts of the world grew smaller in the recent months as our abilities to do reconnaissance increased.

  The most drastic changes in that regard happened at the second continent, where Helen's special agents are taking the first steps in infiltrating the enemy's society.

  But what's approaching us from there is actually worrisome. The cloud of red dots is actually increasing in size as it leaves the blurred out area. I gesture for the light sculpture to zoom in on the detected anomalies. The room turns immediately silent.

  “Are those black ships?” “How are they flying?” “There are so many!”

  103. ~Desperation and Hope.~

  “Individual 626-oD-23503 has shown exceptional magical skills, knowledge and is ruthlessly following its goals. Facing the current political and military problems, it would be highly dangerous if the motivations of 23503 change. Currently 23503 is working in favour of the royal family, but we suggest to have a very close eye on 23503. Should 23503 ever change its modus operandi and act against the royal family we suggest the immediate termination of the subject.”

  -Military report 666-66-66.

  Free City States of Nict, Capital

  Azir

  Of course we immediately assembled the higher-ups and informed them of the situation when it became clear that we are facing a full blown invasion fleet. We are all sitting together in a conference room of Helen's palace. That includes Nict's royal family, the Great Shaman and one of his advisers, plus King Novak and his son, Leon. Louise also accompanied us to this meeting, since she is the most familiar with our drone project.

  One of our best military advisers and analysts just finished explaining the situation to us. He belongs to a branch family of the Siorda. To my astonishment he threw himself on the ground in front of Louise when we entered the room. Apparently he is one of her
admirers, even if she doesn't seem to be happy about it. She never mentioned him to me or Stella.

  “There are just too many of them. Your few fortresses can never catch or intercept all of them.” King Novak slumps down in his chair, watching the formidable fleet of magitech warships. They look like they are built to be able to land on water as well. Though they may not be very efficient at sailing through the waves of an ocean.

  Helen shakes her head while studying the numbers. “Twenty thousand ships. There is just no way to stop them with our nine fortresses. The fortresses may be an unstoppable force, but they can simply split up in smaller groups and ignore them. We made a mistake in putting quality before quantity.”

  “It's okay, dear, we are new at this kind of warfare. It could've happened to anyone.” Lucas grabs her hand to reassure her.

  The Great Shaman shrugs his shoulders. “There is nobody to blame. The fortresses are working great against ground based targets like armies and up until now that was our greatest concern. It was clear that our enemy's war preparations are decades ahead of us. The fortresses were needed and are still a great defence, even if they are slow.”

  Louise starts playing with her fingers and her eyes start flicking across something which can be seen only by her. “Our drone factories for simple drones were running day and night since we found out about our enemy. If we put some effort into it we may be able to make about ten thousand of them ready for battle.”

  Lucas arches an eyebrow. “I thought that their range and weaponry are very limited?”

  I take up on Louise's idea. “That may be right, but we just have to equip them with a heavy weapon. We can use the fortresses as carrier platforms to bring them to the battle zone. Once the enemy ships get into range we can launch them.”

  “Even so. How big are your drones? Three metres? Those ships are two, maybe three hundred metres long.” King Novak gestures at the map which is displayed by the light sculpture in the room. “That reminds me, how much of them can you take down with your satellites?”