The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'-Chapter 390 - Bad & Good Constructs - And Friends

Sitting within the stone shell-like structure that served as temporary shelter for three cultivators in the Exclave, the duo of once-mad sigil researcher and once-ancient master sigilist both seemed to wait for the other to speak for a while.

The first sets of specialized spiritual constructs were coming along with their forms crafted from simple materials. They would not last and would need to be created again frequently until the materials were settled to make a sufficient forge.

’Metalworking isn’t really my favorite. It’s even trickier in this life, with the Ogre Physique. I broke so many hammer handles making Qat’s sword...’

"What about the other success you... destroyed?"

Ultimately a sort of morbid interest got the better of the man and Elua er Goltbred responded over her shoulder as she continued her detailed essence etching work. It was harder to wrangle but quicker to accomplish in the rich environment.

"Well, the other was inhabited by something closer to sapience when I placed the experiment. I knew the planet had a species of crystalline beings who, like the spores I didn’t know about, possessed a mental structure that was unlike anything I’d encountered - a collective communal memory storage into a sort of central archive entity like an insect queen."

"You’re talking about a hivemind. Like the Voidlings?"

While holding the little ’sigil robot’ in one hand, she turned to look at him and gave off a hand gesture to assert his correctness. Few cultivators could ever think of that sort of mental link without thinking of the cyclical eldritch invaders. Especially with an active Descent just left behind on their world.

"It was fine for the first nine-hundred and ninety-nine years. Then at roughly the same time as the spores, they began rapidly incorporating my artificial sigils into their cognitive processes... using the mathematical structures to become something more advanced than they should have."

Her young voice dropped to barely above a whisper. Remembering her highs and lows upon the discovery. Like managing an ant farm that turned into a colony you could have a conversation with suddenly... but what they spoke to you was like a nightmare.

"They were without the constraints of Descent cycles or the Void Divinity’s oversight."

’Ah... I haven’t explained to him about that yet in detail. I suppose I should, later.’

"They had turned into constructs with a singular purpose and without a use for any other form of life. Actively hostile to them, in fact, with the severest case of unrelenting xenophobia I’ve ever encountered. Self-propagating, reality-manipulating, and completely devoted to spreading themselves."

"You think they would have tried to invade other worlds?"

"I know they would have."

A laugh came as another illusion appeared that showed that same sigil language she’d created, but in a densely overlapping form... that was almost impossible to read. Within it was the sort of ultimatum they’d tried leveling with her when she showed up. More of these chained out into the full conversation she’d tried to have with them, like a three dimensional texting log.

"They were preparing to launch interplanetary conversion vessels when I arrived. To claim their local planets first. All in the time it took for me to get from the spore planet to the other. Which I know sounds like it could be long, long time. But believe me it is not as long as you’d think for a Demi-God."

’Especially one owed favors by the right Aspect wielding people.’

Madrigil sat heavily on a nearby stone that had been brought in because it was bench height. The academic excitement had long completely drained from his face.

"You destroyed an entire thinking species that you helped bring to that point?"

"An entire world, again. In neither of those cases could I risk partial elimination, because they were the kind of beings that could form new colonies from even a small amount of survivors. If even a few survived, they could have rebuilt and resumed the cosmic conversion project detailed in these missives."

Finally understanding the true scope of what he was dealing with... of what was ahead of him on the path... the man really needed a moment. For the first time in two decades, his tongue slapped on the roof of his mouth as he thought that he craved the taste of alcohol.

Casually experimenting with the fundamental nature of reality and committing genocide when the results threatened cosmic stability. It may have been hubris for an upper realm cultivator to do any of that, but the fact was that every successful Divinity did exactly this with their Mandate.

"The remaining experimental installations?"

"Destroyed systematically over the following decade while making sure I didn’t miss any similar result. Every carving except this one. To serve as a monument in a space I thought no one would ever return to."

Her statement wasn’t entirely true, as she did remove the parts of the sigilscript even in this arch that she had estimated made it all ’work’ - at least with those sorts of truly alien minds.

"They represent the most dangerous research I ever conducted. Research I will never, under any circumstances, resume. And I’ll warn you now that if I have even the slightest inkling you will restart the project-"

"I won’t. I’ve been called lots of things by other scholars, but a liar isn’t... well, actually they’ve called me that too. But that was because *they* didn’t believe my assertions, not because I didn’t. However..."

"Go ahead, say what you will."

Amused by his solidity under the weight of her Breacher’s spiritual pressure, the brunette ’smiled’ at him. It was not the most terrifying thing he’d ever seen, but labeling it slightly ghoulish was all he could really think to do. The ancient in the teen clearly needed much more practice being ’genuine’.

"The mathematical elegance is still there. It’s still a unique language. Couldn’t you use the symbolic system for any other purpose?"

The smile deepened and the fullness of it gave it the first ’successful’ expression of warmth since arriving in the Exclave. If she intended to leave the monumental arch as a landmark at this location, incorporating it somewhere else in the area would give the place a sense of coherence.

"I might use it as a symbolic cipher. For the spiritual constructs I’ll be creating to help build and manage my Qat’s hidden estate. After all, someone like you has been staring at it for a week straight and hasn’t fully cracked it. "

Walking over and setting one of those such machines on the bench beside him, she activated the sigils manually and watched it condense essence, shift its state, and begin to take a ’core sample’ out of the bench. Leaving a cylindrical, rod-shaped hole in the stone.

’Haven’t made anything like this in a long time. Good to see I still remember how~’

"A friendly reminder, Madrigil. The difference between can and should is often not thought of once you’re powerful enough to not be stopped. But as my tale shows, that distinction can be the fate of worlds."

The hole in the stone right beside him, made by what looked like nothing but a relatively flat marble disc other than all the complex sigils hidden inside... reminded the man of the image of the Acid eating down into the earth and unleashing geological chaos on a planet that no longer exists.

⟠ ⟠ ⟠

Weeks had passed since Madrigil had wandered off on what he cheerfully called his ’grand survey’. After the ’mystery’ behind the arch had been solved, the man developed an insatiable curiosity about every slightly unusual ground formation, strange plant that had not been brought back to the shelter but had been sketched by Sevra, and each peculiar essence flow in the expanded realm.

Every morning he would set out with few supplies and too much enthusiasm, following whatever caught his attention that day. Elua had never worried much, but had stopped worrying completely about him after the first few days.

His spirit always remained at a detectable distance as if he knew her boundaries... and his astral walking ’assistant’ kept her own periodic tabs on his meandering progress. If anything, his absence had made the serious work easier - because Sevra did not get into debates of merit and technical questions nearly so much.

"According to what you’ve said, the northwestern convergence point should be optimal."

The woman reported with her back against the outer shelter wall, not far from Elua at their morning planning session. The scout’s mood had improved dramatically once she stopped expecting at the forefront of her thoughts that she could be murdered at any moment. Burying such a possibility just made things smoother. frёeweɓηovel_coɱ

"I think you’re right. It has the most stable underground essence flows, some sort of natural amplification from a deep crystal deposit, and far enough from my main construction site here that if something goes catastrophically wrong..."

"Can you please stop-"

"We won’t be *immediately* vaporized!"

Mint eyes turned to crescents as she finished her sentence with satisfaction despite the protest. Three weeks of systematic exploration on both foot and by the enhanced Walk Astralism had yielded lots of information about the realm’s new geography, resource distribution, and potential hazards in the outermost band of land.

All of which was copied and stored in a memory fragment below the enhancement ritual - though Elua had not told the woman about that part. It would diminish the scout’s opinion of their worth to know that once they saw anything, the illusionist would have a condensed record of it too.

’Not that I don’t trust her - I don’t, but it’s not that. It’s just easier to know exactly what she is talking about at any point and quicker than explaining in words.’

The location chosen was better than she’d dared hope to find for creating a one-way dimensional gateway. A place would allow her to build up the massive energy reserves required while minimizing risk to the main construction projects.

"Alright, enough dawdling, lets go."

"Do I really have to come in person again? I could just... stay behind."

After the first experience of being lifted and carried through the air by the ridiculous combination of powers, the scout had decide that even if she could someday achieve similar kinds of flight as the ’teen girl’ claimed... she would probably stay on the land. Floating around as her spiritual avatar was not nearly as terrifying as approaching the ground again at high speed with her real body.

"How are you ever going to believe that something as important as the way to get you back home is safe if you don’t watch me work on it?"

"You’ve said repeatedly that it is one of the most unsafe things you know how to do."

"All the more reason to make sure I don’t botch it."

"...How would I even know..."

"You wouldn’t, but with you around I’m sure to not start cackling and revealing my evil plan to the nonexistent audience. You can even-"

Bantering as they walked in the direction on the ground - instead of ’flew’ like a cannonball this time - the pair fell into their current rhythm. In their time together over so many days, they’d grown a sort of rapport. Not quite friends, not quite colleagues, but closer to both of those than anything else.

Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m