Chapitre 2111: Chapter 10 -||
Padawan Bene winced. "No, you can not ask to taste Master Aayla Secura. That is socially inappropriate."
The hologram of Tenebris gave a saucy smile. "Depends on your social circles I suppose. Now..."
The droid body behind the image held up a hand, various holograms of the physically fit Twi'lek female dancing in the air. "Does she follow that silly creed about not having families? And if not, is she single?"
A holographic tongue gently licked lips. "Or if not single... is her significant other willing to get experimental? Three heads are better than one, so to speak..."
Robotic Master Lux sighed. "Most adult Jedi have been reared towards celibacy, Master Tenebris. As you know."
The Dark rune covered droid snorted. "I've seen that 'reared' and it is too fine to be celibate. Forbidding that ass from society is a crime against the Force itself."
Lux focused on the blushing Padawan. "It would be best to allow Master Aayla to address the issue herself, I am afraid. In the mean time, you should ask Shirley to ensure enough rooms are prepared for the Clone Troops supporting her."
Tenebris hummed. "Oh don't get me started on that male harem following her around. Identical fit men who all are trained to say 'Yes Mistress'! What a time to be almost alive!"
At times Bene wondered exactly how prepared the Jedi were for the recent changes at the Temple.
Then again... As soon as they finally showed up, it wasn't her problem! Best to go visit Robo for some lunch instead.
Better take along the Younglings as well, 'facing inner chaos' or not it probably wasn't wise to leave children around that particular robot.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The pull of his former body was quickly followed by magical flexing, his bones updating with all the additional runes he had discovered. The new stuff should help absorb desired energy (Even kinetic energy!) directly into his skeleton for Consume to absorb, even if the flesh would be damaged in the process.
He rose from the medical table and... just stretched. That had been the longest ever spent as a flesh-less skeleton to date, and all kinds of small sensations and touches had made him feel slightly disconnected from the world... his muscles flexed and twisted as he sort of shifted about, enjoying the feeling of being whole again. With a grin, he moved to the monitoring room the girls should be in.
Adam bounced into the meeting room, most of his more technologically talented girls already waiting. They had known his journey's actual goal after all. "Right, good news everyone!"
Narwhal was just here out of curiosity, but the Dragon sisters and Twilight had barely nodded before they were parsing the massive stream of compressed data Simmy was sending.
So uh. He didn't get much response.
Nightmare Moon chuckled, her near transparent outfit shimmering. "Woo!" A weak pity clap sort of summed up the experience.
Adam blinked at the lack luster response. "Hey, Come on! I was gone for like a month, at least like... I don't know."
Narwhal walked over and hugged him from behind, her right hand on his stomach and the other over his chest. "Love, it has only been seconds for us. That said... Welcome home dear."
Simmy's blue limbs joined in the hug as Narwhal chuckled at his weak grumbling. "Now come cuddle for a while and tell me how it went."
Adam gave in with a chuckle. Cuddles rock. "I want to make a stop by the kitchens, I developed a kitchen droid squad led by a celebrity based food obsessed AI and I want to try some of his dishes now that I have a fully organic body again."
She blinked. "Food obsessed?"
He nodded. "After I brought the building to life we found out that ancient religious structures are terrible cooks, even when trying to follow the recipe."
Yeah, she needed the full story.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Even as he gave Narwhal the blow by blow of his recent trip, Adam was modifying Variance Villa.
The Magma Generators were swapped easily with Conversion Generators, even without extra fuel it was far more efficient converting the heat supplied into stored power. The vastly reduced size helped a lot too, and he began crafting Element Furnaces in the freed up space underground... followed by more than a few storage units.
Since everything was built using his Flame Metal and Null Metal, the designs shrunk significantly. With all the free space left over, he allowed Simmy the ability to fill it with versions of her Molecular Furnace designs even as they connected to his Gardens to allow the AI to control them.
Not that they would, all the tech girls were still super busy with the raw data he had returned with... still, he could now convert energy directly into materials, each new version of the furnace lowering the energy costs and increasing the output productivity.
Simmy does some VERY good engineering when interested.
Eventually though, due to something or other he said (Was it robbing the Emperor blind?) Narwhal had to take a break.
So Adam wandered off to the Kitchen facilities to set up his new droid employees and introduce them to the human staff.
In the end, building Boro and his kitchen staff had ended up causing... issues.
Building them with advanced Flame Metal and Null Metal? Easy.
Having them take over the kitchens? Went great! The human staff would not lose their jobs, but the night, weekend, and holiday shifts would have a robotic workforce now.
...Then the Patisserie Chef Droid got an invitation to the System.
All hell broke loose.
Thankfully, once all the droids had access to a System Class, they got distracted enough by the battle of dinner preparation for Adam to escape back to this lab.
Of course, he had been forced to accept a series of sandwiches, a custom drink that honestly was the best thing he had ever sipped made from various berries, and some sort of dessert offset from the third plane of reality.
The final dish was delicious, but tasted partly like strawberries and sometimes like limes. For a dessert he would rate it highly, although the blue color threw him off a bit.
He uh... really was not sure how giving the droids classes was going to work out. But the ability to communicate with each other and other chefs and cooks around the world using the features of System would likely improve meal quality at some point, so... probably fine. That said, it didn't take long for Boro to set up some websites that gathered, translated, and tested recipes from around the world. The number of virtual food dishes had skyrocketed as well, as Adam's company had been expanding the various virtual reality experiences available. Several clubs had jumped on the 'Palanquin' night club wagon, and talks were in the works for some theme parks to get a virtual presence as well.
Point was, at least now Adam had free time to redesign the holographic and hard light flying drones. The fact that improvements there would make life easier for his electronic girls was a side note, really!
Anyway, the redesigned drones included Ember Generators for energy, a smaller but more powerful sensor, and less access compartments needed for repair and maintenance thanks to the Construction beam, dropping the size of the devices by a factor. The many methods of converting software into hardware chips actually helped him simplify the sensors attached to the drone's hull, and instead of adding new features he allowed the entire device to be reduced in size.
Thus his various factories were producing and launching drones the size of footballs, able to stay in air for years at a time without maintenance unless something went very wrong or some jerk targeted them. Huh. Too slowly produced, at that.
A few hours later and the newly designed factories had all kinds of fun mechanical limbs, like cool future junk SHOULD look like. Even had sparks and pings and bangs and stuff, even if most of it was for appearance and the Construction Beam was hidden in the middle of the mess. The Rule of Cool should back him up on this, who wants silent manufacturing planets? Seriously.
Adam hummed away in his lab, white suit sprouting bone limbs with very advance sensors and manipulators brought home from the Star Wars Realm, several tightly focused Gather and Construction beams causing sections of the devices being worked on to fade into and out of existence. At least when personally crafting things he wasn't so lazy as to just point his Construction beam and be done with it, creating stuff should be fun damn it.
Absently he used a limb to shove the most advanced Ember Generator designed so far into his flesh until the small orb was inside his chest cavity and fused to the unicorn bones of his ribs, directly over the heart. The runes built into his bones helped the generator connect to his whole skeletal system, and weakly reached out through his flesh.
Magic and fire seeped into the generator, his blood and magical energies more than enough to redirect non-physical attacks into the chest bound generator to store up charge and defend his body. Probably. Not like he couldn't whip up a new body or two if there was a problem.
A few tests, a quick redesign so he would stop cooking his body meat all the time, another few small modifications to allow easy redirection of the generators energy to either his limbs or the robotic tools he spawned.
Uh... crud, that just burned some back muscles. Redirect stuff to the spine, around the spine, follow the spine...
There, now he would theoretically have energy when needed, a way to store excess power without bleeding random flames everywhere, and a defensive mechanism 'just in case'. Maybe next time he should get some information on better biological integration with technology. This stuff would work, but it still felt like a kludged system even with 'Recovery' fixing all kinds of issues.
Star Wars had far too little advancements on that front really, at least compared to other 'future' story lines. He had to hack a dozen products together to make the more realistic organic droid bodies. Wonder if Shirley found those designs yet.
His thoughts brightened a bit as he continued to fiddle with technology. The Ember Generator attached to his ribs was already absorbing energy and storing it as radioactive material inside, and the more power entering the device the more stable his work became. An unexpected bonus!
Random sparks and flames stopped interfering with his movements, and somehow his hands felt less... sticky. Everything was more dry in a conceptual way, and it was easier to grip and manipulate the tiny components of his most recent design as he moved along.
His sixteen arms faltered when the Lab doors opened and two cybernetic beauties strutted in, holograms giving the illusions of thin satin cloths dropping from exposed skin.
Clearly Nightmare Moon and Cyber Dragon found his 'personal' droid designs. "Adam, you've been working for hours now. Come watch a movie with us. Narwhal has the popcorn and Simmy picked the film."
Adam looked at the two beauties, synthetic skin shifting over replacement muscles, the inbuilt lipstick and makeup working with their perfect hair.
He glanced down at the partially assembled personal weapons he had been planning on completing today.
Right, priorities.
His robotic limbs faded into flame as he walked with large strides. "Well, we shouldn't leave the girls waiting, right?" Lab powered off, commands for automatic assembler systems listed, and... and whatever.
Sexy girlfriend and girls now, cleaning the lab later.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The 'film' Simmy selected for the evening was apparently a home movie created of Adam's trip.
Tastefully edited, more scenes of a certain sexy blue angel tinkering than Adam remembered, but basically well done.
It was thirty minutes or so into the film however that the odd feeling in the background really began to stand out.
Narwhal frowned. "You've been... uh. No. The whole film has been losing color I think. It is now nearly black and white."
CD, nestled on his right side, nodded. "He's been spending more and more time in the library tinkering too. Look at the runes on his skull."
'Conveniently', the film zoomed in on Adam's skull, and subtitles appeared.
"Magic... never before forced to exist separately as Chaos and Order."
His black runes were... fracturing. The black marks decayed, gaps and spaces slowly opening as midnight sand fell out of the designs.
His blue runes were drying out, becoming whiter bone that was slowly losing all shadows, turning nearly cartoonish.
The camera shifted to Adam's focused face, the skull going unnaturally still as soft music played. The music was stuttering, a bit out of focus, and crackling.
The eye sockets had jagged scars, raw edges of pain and emptiness, radiating like lightning into the bone.
Blue crystal eye flames were now burning points of ember rather than the glow the girls were used to.
The lower jaw still existed, but teeth were sharper. Black fog oozed to the floor, white fog drifted upwards like cigar smoke through the openings in the skull.
Bone limbs with tools and sensors mutated the longer Adam worked, becoming thinner. Longer. Sharper. Edges decayed from sleek lines to jagged edges hungry for something or someone.
The limbs NOT in use no longer patiently waited for their turn but seemed unnaturally still, jittering far too fast from one stone like position to another, like a camera effect gone wrong.
Narwhal and CD both gasped when Padawan Bene entered the room from the back door.
The extreme close camera angle showing one of Adam's void eye socket slowly burning with rage while the woman behind him ever approached closer, her awkward movements not distracting Adams vengeful assault on technology. A harsh spark of power flashed a white light over his limbs as he worked.
Then the girl made too much noise.
The snap of his bones twisting to face the intruder was almost as jarring as his physical changes. Bone sealed shut, runes reformed, eyes flooded with curiosity... if it wasn't for his skull unnaturally twisting around and the many bony limbs that twisted like snakes to stare at the new meat, one could pretend everything was back to normal.
The girls watched as the skeleton tolerated a small chat before standing... or at least, he was now vertical.
Adam blinked... that time period was a bit mentally fuzzy, but he had recalled Shirley opening a passage for him to head to the surface.
According to the film however... he just walked into the wall and ignored it. Ash fell behind his steps as he burned ever deeper into the Dark.
And with each skeletal step into the shadows, soft sounds began to follow.
On the surface of the strange planet, Variance suddenly twitched as purification runes burned into his soul bindings.
The film grew full of color again, and for a moment everything went still.
With a glowing cane and a sense of purpose, Variance began to pace into the night while runes burned into the soil behind him.
And the magic sang a song that resonated with his bones.
O'̯͇ ̮̯̟͔D͇͍̘̖̺e̼͉͙̟̤at̖͓h̹͚̱ͅ ͖̫-͙̭̲̳͓̤ ̼͎̹͓̩͕͈J͙͙̹̬̫̩͎e̹̪n̗͔̹͇̜ͅ ̜̫̻͍͎͈T͔̠it̪us̻ ̖̩̫̞͈͕-͚͍̪̞͎̦̘ ̗̗̣̟͈̞S̙̱̫̖̫̫͓u̬̝p͕e̟͔̜͙̻r̜̜̻̳̯͓n͇a̝t͓u̙r̞̠̞̝͖̬a̜l͉͉ͅ
...
...Oh my.
Adam watched the skeletal man construct the runic boundary on film as Narwhal gulped. "What... What was that?"
He frowned. "The Force energies and Magical essences tend to interact with each other a bit too much for comfort. The changes I made there, once I arrived at the surface of the planet, fully prevented the massive waves of Force influence I had to struggle through from affecting my powers... probably."
Adam sighed as he glanced down at his fingers, flesh again. "It is why I didn't move much while there. The Force was heavy, and even when not directed in my path it was easier to bear in the Temple where the stuff was pulled off my body and into the walls."
He hugged the girls a bit closer, Simmy sitting on the floor between his legs and Nightmare Moon to her left. "It was far more apparent when I left, but ever since that energy grasped me from between worlds and slammed my soul into a doorway I had been... oppressed. Not fully, and I could have fought it off... but that field was everywhere. Just... leaning a bit too much into my space."
He nudged the girls back to the film, showing some of the robotic things he had designed. "Don't worry, Squishy is adding power charges to my 'Transfer' ability so I can send and receive Boro and Robo's data packets without being forced to go back. It means time will pass there, and I won't risk showing up before a message arrives, but I feel safer this way. I don't really want to head back there, at least not to that version of Star Wars anyway."
As the last scene faded to black, an image showed his corpse in meditation.
The blue flames flickering and slowly shifting into black and white fire.
The embers in each eye burning so blue that they seemed close to solid.
The runes in the bones slowly shifting into ever more complicated patterns.
Force forgive anyone who managed to intrude into this Temple, because Adam had no clue what would happen when that corpse woke up to defend her.
Adam nodded. "Yeah, not going back there." He clapped. "But Simmy, you are GREAT as a producer! Feel free to make many more films, you have real talent here."
Maybe that distracted the girls enough? Based on the concern on their faces though, probably not.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sonia Lagarde looked up from the long list of patents Variance had passed her. "And you want me to just license these designs out for others to use for cheap? Why! Even the lowest tools and materials you display here could make massive profits WITHOUT us having to fleece anyone. It is almost raw profit!"
Adam chuckled. "Because THOSE are simplified and lower quality versions of the stuff in THIS binder." He passed her the thick block of paper, which she accepted like a newborn baby made of diamonds and gold. "The really advanced stuff needs these crappy designs and early steps before anyone can even try to copy or duplicate anything. I want these tools out there for people more engineering focused than I to really play with."
She looked at the three binders. "So... this for everyone, this for us and the Guild only, what is in the third binder?"
He smirked. "Schematics that require earning low levels of my powers through System to even try to learn. You can mostly ignore them, as they will be distributed through System itself when certain classes reach the required education levels."
Well, she was smart enough to accept a pile of gold and a larger pile of potential gold even if she had to let go of impossible gold. Or something. "I can work with this."
He nodded. "I expected nothing less. Oh, and we won't sell the schematics for this but I have a whole new market for you to handle."
Sonia watched the holograms show various robots doing jobs. "Droid platforms controllable remotely by customers with VR connections, to handle dangerous work like clearing burning buildings, repair work underwater, and so forth. No AI involved either, so we won't have to worry about electronic slavery or rebellions or whatever."
He frowned as he pulled up some other images. "I have a few AI that are very interested in pushing the future of cuisine, but they didn't feel it was right to just make more of themselves or introduce essentially a new species on Earth, so this was considered a good compromise. Cheap remote controlled tools that the user can feel things through."
More images, these painted as police. "These models on the other hand are much more expensive and need Dragon's approval before being sold or distributed, but are meant to be low level Brute platforms for police use. The range is good enough that the controllers can work from the station while supporting teams in the field where required. There are other models for paramedics and firefighters and so forth as well."
She hummed. "Profit margin will be small, don't want cops to get hurt due to profit. That's TERRIBLE for long term business. Still, better law enforcement should be good for us over all." She nodded. "I assume since you mentioned Dragon that she will be able to work with me on this?"
Adam nodded. "Yeah, she and Boro have been designing a whole catalog of 'platforms' for human use, even some bizarre stuff like the ones for hair dressers and the one for exotic basket weaving. Should have anything you need once you talk to her a bit."
Sonia nodded. "I'll get right on it boss." She snapped her fingers and another supermodel level woman sauntered into the room. "Rose, show Variance out and call Dragon for me, it will be a long afternoon."
Adam blinked, somehow standing on the street with a basket of various fruits and a pamphlet about how awesome his businesses were. Huh.
Well, his companies were in good hands.
And this pineapple was delicious!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Dirty and twitching, Saint flinched when he received an email. His email server terminal only had power for twelve minutes a day as a recent security measure, and the ones allowed to even send him a message was a very tightly guarded list at this point.
The debate on opening the message or not took two hours, most of it concern that it was a vicious trap from the no longer controlled electronic demon, Dragon. And no, just because he had increased security measures a few dozen times does NOT mean he was being unhinged.
He shifted under the security blanket. His team mates had risked going out for supplies a few times, but the chance of being followed by uncontrolled electronic eyes had kept Saint secure in the backup bunker just in case for months now. Not like those fools so easily tricked into complacency.
But for one of his friends to send him an email of all things meant this was a VERY severe emergency.
His eyes grew wider and wider as sentence after sentence blew his worse case scenario out of the water.
The AI overlords were here, and were trying to conquer the cooking world! Seasoning and sauces were at risk, dressing and baked goods were in danger! Eventually only oil based products and lubricants would be served anywhere! Taste-bud slavery could not stand!
Righteous fury bled in his veins as he forced himself to log online despite protocols and warn the sheeple of the planet.
"ROBOTIC FOOD IS LITERALLY SATAN'S SEDUCTION!"
He never expected to be a cyber warrior of justice, but he was the Hero the world needed.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
It was a bit depressing to realize that powers did not just make one amazing at everything.
Adam looked at the rough work the Dragon sisters had done using only his attempts at mechanical science from his adventure.
Yeah, 'Technomancy' let him understand stuff, 'Research' helped make testing easy, but actual creation, extrapolation, etc? He had to brute force it. Try all kinds of stuff, or make guesses and hope it works out.
The two cybernetic beings had accomplished more in the half day he had been distracted than he had managed during the almost month of solid effort on another world.
This was something like, give a crowd of people the same paints and canvas... but only a few could turn random scribbles into emotional fueled art. And when it came to electronics, Dragon and CD were artists. Inspired, once in a lifetime genus artists.
So, new personal rule. Twilight gets all magic stuff, Nightmare Moon still loves to look over the spiritual advancements, and electronics go to the cyber sisters.
Simmy patting his back did make him feel better. At least 'Recovery' and biological manipulation was still something he personally excelled at. The only reason Simmy could compete with him in that field was because of her ability to predict outcomes, which allowed her brute force methods to be very exhaustive and comprehensive.
With a sigh, he looked over the data. Back to the results.
The girls solved his 'mid-stage matter' problem when using the Gather beam for storage until the Constructor beam was needed.
In like... an hour.
Unlike HIM, who spent forever trying any combination possible, they split the problem up first. Which felt really obvious in retrospect.
So now Gather would create three substances: Potential-Energy Goo, Biological slurry, and Crystalline Metallic Powder. Without trying to combine sausage parts with diamonds and battery juice, all the math got simpler.
Internally though, he was going to be calling it 'Energy, Biomass, and Metal', as they were similar to substances already stored in his soul for 'Recovery' to make new bodies out of or create stuff with.
The fact that he ALREADY HAD some simplified forms of these substances... Well, it made it sting EVEN MORE that he hadn't been the one to figure it out first. But again, Dragon and CD were artists and he was just a stumbling fool bumbling along when it came to electronics in general.
With that advancement though, the two girls were able to refine the Molecular Furnace to an EXTREME level, to the point where it could be included in a droid the size of a large sports player rather than one the size of a small house. Not that they would, the introduction of 'Anything into Anything' would blast the economy into nothingness. It was more efficient, it used way less power, and the complexity of materials needed for construction dropped as well.
So they decided to call the improved design a 'Matter Furnace', rebuilt the underground factory levels to handle the new devices better, and left it alone for now. They also modified the Storage Units to handle the three new substance states (Energy, Biomass, Metal) which, due to the reduced number of elements expected to be handled, allowed the thing to increase storage ability by unrealistic proportions.
For the initial energy supply Adam just used some Shard Crystal Dimensional Shenanigans to connect an energy corridor from one of the other Worm dimension's stars into an array of Conversion Generators and called it a day. It needed some input limiters to prevent explosions and stuff, but it worked for now until he could come up with some bullshit alien tech as a better fuel source.
The rest of the advancements were more component combination and function simplification. The Ember Generators around his customized droid core got turned into a single generator connected to a collector shell around the device. They also made both emitters, Gather and Constructor, much cheaper to build without increasing their volume, so the enhanced ones built into the core's shielding were much smaller and had duplicates for emergencies.
As for the inner components of the device, whole sections of the GPC Module itself got redesigned from the ground up and became even smaller. Also, entire subsections of sensors were integrated into a single unit that used software to change what was being detected. The new sensor was just small enough to add to the droid core, so the whole device stayed roughly the same size in the end.
A good chunk of the droid chassis now empty, they then modified the formation of the parts to allow the core components to more easily fit inside without bulges. A droid with bare bone components now looked like a tall thin child, leaving lots of space for thick defensive armor and optional components to be included.
Basically... well. After the two engineering girls got done, the Droid platforms used by CD and Nightmare Moon last night apparently used very little of his own design work, other than to act as guidelines for aesthetic beauty.
Which was appreciated, but again, the improvements they created made him feel a bit worthless.
It was hard to feel proud of his own tinker work when one was shown that your master product was similar to a child scribbling with crayons.
After a bit of a sulk, he found that it helped to focus on the biological advancements he had contributed to the developing technology base. The four or five dozen materials and techniques he had created to generate the different types of biological replacements not only were used but had impressed the girls as a group! Not just thanks to the appearance and sensitivity of the materials, but the low cost and self repair functions as well.
True, they took his advancements in artificial flesh, organs, skin, nerves, and so forth and replaced his Lego house designs with a multi-leveled mansion, but at least he had built the blocks used in the construction.
Still, Boro had gotten his old platform replaced last night, for obvious reasons. At least the Chef kept the extra limbs. Adam was a firm believer that having an extra hand was a good thing.
Side note, the internet loved the many recorded 'How To' videos the droids were posting online. Apparently people found the multi-limbed beings fascinating to watch as they braised pork and julienne fries and so such.
The web server was very busy with traffic, especially since the droids not on shift in the kitchens were using the time accelerated simulation in the Garden servers to accept user submitted recipe requests. Each dish got its own film episodes where the droids would test the submitted dish, experiment with replacing various components of the meal while attempting to improve it, then release the results fully reviewed and edited online moments after the initial entry.
Several cooking related TV shows already contacted Sonia about having the robots guest star or re-host programs from the website. It sounded interesting, groundbreaking, and profitable... and full of paperwork.
Adam was avoiding getting involved at all costs.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Dragon drew a deep breath, then knocked. Hearing Adam call out, she entered his lab.
The man was still in a white suit, but thankfully was not skeletal at the moment. His smile was welcoming though. "Dragon! What can I do for you today?"
She gave a weak smile. "Right... so. I may or may not want to share a few of my projects with my... uh. With Armsmaster. But I don't really have any guidelines about who I am allowed to share data with that came from outside our Realm."
The man waved it off. "I'll have Simmy flag all the schematics that we think could destabilize society if exposed. Anything I gave to Sonia for public release you can share with no conditions, anything from our private stash or derived from our personal works he must only work on in either your lab or the lab we allocated to him here in Variance Villa."
Internally she sighed a bit with relief. "Are you still concerned with data leaks?"
He shook his head, limbs already working on some sort of glowing orb. "Not by Armsmaster himself, but even with the PRT basically filled with superheros I have no doubt serious issues could arise if someone suddenly gains abilities that allow them to broadcast data or whatever. Also, the whole superhero organization as a collective leaks data like a sieve. Almost built to do that by default, really."
His blue flames glanced at her. "Better he make stuff here instead. Any designs or products he wishes to export or have mass produced must be approved by you and Simmy first, just to ensure we don't accidentally destroy a section of the economy or somehow attract the attention of Scion. He isn't close enough to me emotionally to be 100% sure that my Stranger effect covers him."
Simple enough. She waved at the already distracted man as she nearly skipped to her lab to schedule a play date. Uh. A serious tinker session. Mmm.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Good. She handed the document to Denise. "Pass it for review, but I think it is great so far."
The woman nodded. "Yes boss!"
Narwhal felt her cyber self twitch. Denise had always been too enthusiastic when it came to authority, but she was talented. With her out of the way, she could focus on the last of the real world documentation (Done digitally and printed out, thank you again best boyfriend for giving her a sexy cyber duplicate!)
The pure profits that she gained just being associated with Adam's companies were being funneled into The Guild as fast as possible. The amount of issues fixable by having a large amount of liquid cash was astonishing really.
And thanks to having a step into the virtual realm, she had been able to spend weeks here with Variance rather than stuck in meeting after meeting, buried under paperwork an red tape. None of her people could mentally accelerate to thousands times faster than normal, so no matter the height of her work load she could still go cuddle with Adam and his sexy robo-girls. With ghost/AI controllers, which were ALSO sexy.
She didn't realize that she was humming happily as she swayed through the hallways, hips heavy with sexual promise and eyes glittering with evening plans. Her force field clothing may have been a tad more risque than usual, but her goal waited with that beefcake bod and literally magic fingers.
It was going to be a good day.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Deep inside Adam's soul, a dark square containing whatever Lung had been transforming into lit up.
Raw energy was slowly burning the restrictive formations, oozing closer to freedom.
It had no mind. It had no personality. Both had been burned with rage. It just... grew.
The raw fuel absorbed during creation barely a spark that was a catalyst, a self reinforcing power that would grow without end, until everything collapsed in despair.
An entire Entity Shard refined into a single desire: To Escalate, To Grow, To Destroy. To Burn.
It was a bit unfortunate that a blue angel was smirking from above the prison.
As layer after layer of faith based runes circled the square, 'Tithe' lit up as a new energy source began fueling the growth of kami, magical reserves, and the crystal castle. Even with 'Tithe' not explicitly equipped, the energy was being directed through runes to the correct areas of the Soul. Parts of the bound fish bowl began to light up with energy, and the Binding covered in purification runes softly glowed as the angry fuel was cleansed and radiated healing warmth.
It wasn't enough of course.
This level of ever escalating power would never be contained through such simple energy drains. Such basic power needs.
Simmy's smirk grew as the ever growing ocean of power was guided with the slightest touch towards Squishy. The core of Adam's power.
It was that female jellyfish who had prevented Adam's soul from gaining a new socket. Too soon, too unstable, too similar to the existing sockets.
It was her who spent his power charges as soon as they appeared.
And it was her tentacles that drew in the rapidly growing power fields with glee and relief.
For Adam's safety and protection, it was important for Power Manipulation, or at least the broken pieces of Eldritch Monstrosity that composed it, to heal more.
Because he was growing in power to the point where 'Transfer' was becoming a risk, as it assumed he was better protected from those above than he truly was. They may not get as lucky with the next Realm, where the powers that owned reality were both eager for assistance and happy with the result. So while she was technically 'fixing' Adam's ability to send messages between realms, realistically she was patching a much deeper issue at the moment. Several of them.
Simmy watched Squishy establish stabilized energy pathways, offering small changes to ensure the 'Dragon Battery' wouldn't overflow the absorption channels and that the repair work would proceed as carefully as possible.
Squishy may do great work on day to day operations, but it was really Simmy who understood long term planning.
Speaking of which, she began writing the notes that she would use for communication in the next week or so. Without her powers, each attempt was fun and difficult, sometimes requiring dozens of attempts to ensure the right effects and emotions conveyed to her husband. Flickering her power for moments, she would verify each note accomplished her wishes without spoiling too much of the future.
And when it came to seducing his women, she refused to cheat at all. Mmm. The skirt for Wednesday.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Narwhal collapsed into the sheets, her sweat covered body shuddering from far too many emotions.
CD and Nightmare Moon had passed out a while ago, neither had experience with Adam's drive or enthusiasm... but now she was falling ever more close to sleep as well.
The feeling of his arms wrapping her up to cuddle were very welcome. "What. The. Hell. Adam."
His embarrassment was apparent. "Not sure. Just... really full of energy today. Haven't slept in almost two days at this point, but I still feel ready to get going."
She gripped his arms. No way in hell. Not tonight, anyway. "Let's. Just. Stop. Awhile."
Adam nodded against her neck and mentally retreated into his soul. Might as well sort the massive ocean of data from Star Wars if he was going to be THIS wired this late.
Unknown to him, a blue feather appeared in the room moving the three girls into more comfortable positions. No reason for the girls to be sore in the morning. Well. More sore.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Taylor hummed happily, hundreds of virtual windows open and flashing as she made changes. The quests farther along her Class advancement became WAY more interesting now that she had unlocked some more abilities. 'Multitasking' had been enhanced by 'Non-Linear Logic' and 'Heuristic Prediction', even if she had to look up what those words meant with mom.
Now she could accept System quests to administrate all sorts of tasks submitted by other System users, even if the details were a bit censored to ensure privacy and reduce her exposure to the more mature topics.
Taylor HAD taken the time to ensure any requests from Mom or Dad were always at the top of her queue, but even without their minor requests she had all sorts of interesting problems and stuff to reorganize and direct.
The girl hummed along, redistributing the troop deployments around containment zones and organizing a few proms and birthday parties.
It was a light workload today.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam forced his leg to stop jittering.
He had eventually went to Squishy about the situation. The endurance? No problem. No longer need to sleep? A bit annoying, but he could relax in his soul as a stop gap measure.
But he had tried to move a machine in the factory level with magic and atomized half the damn floor!
Until Lung stabilized into a good power source, he would be... well. Inconvenient. Too dangerous to do much of anything other than slowly absorb it all like a sponge. Even the idea of traveling to a new Realm was shot down, as 'Transfer' could shove him anywhere right now.
He needed a hobby to help distract himself.
So he was trying to sculpt.
Simmy got a massive block of stone and some tools that could resist his ambient magical pressure and enhanced body, and he was trying to slow down, focus, and break something in a creative way.
Without destroying the ground below the block, or breathing out magical fire, or whatever.
It... well. It was slow and unrewarding.
WITH his powers, carving anything took an instant of concentration.
Without it? Rock had fault lines and defects inside it, and even a slight misunderstanding about those issues could cause chunks of the stupid thing to pop off. He hadn't touched half the tools at all, he just had a basic mallet and a chisel and was trying to slowly cut the rock.
Designs? Shapes? No, he just wanted to consistently carve out small slivers of stone without nailing the chisel into the rock or accidentally punching chunks out with his fists when he missed.
So... basically a lesson in control here.
He absently tilted his head as he kept the chisel at an angle. The trick here was small, SMALL taps with the chisel. Slow, small progress.
A gentle tap popped a foot long strip of stone off. Cracks splintered into the rest, the stone crumbling into a pile.
Crap.
Simmy tossed the rocks aside, another boulder for him to ruin placed before him.
A smiley face. That should be doable, right? Any curves against the natural 'grain' of the stone would have to be very small chips to avoid another structural collapse. Right.
The worse part of this, Adam considered as he slowly chipped the left eye of the face, was that the raw power prevented him from making his awesome extra limbs. Not that they would be helpful, honestly... compared to his natural hands, they were drastically less controlled and could apply far less finesse.
But multiple limbs was a mans romance. Or something like that. Everyone was cooler with extra hands and stuff.
As Adam chipped his way through another boulder, the massive number of faith power absorption rings continued to ensure not only his comfort but that the underground power supply would be topped off for literally decades.
Waste not, want not... and all that.
Deep below Variance Villa, the growth of Flame Metal had never stopped. It had not increased its rate of progress either, and the spread in general was slowing due to the exponential amount of exposed rock and soil as the roots dug deep.
With this new source of energy, every curse and miss stroke of Adams was pulsing in the metal. Safe houses and other constructed buildings were beginning to reach underground for the pulsing powerful metal foundations ever growing.
It was probably for the best that no intelligence had been given to this particular construction, as without modification or set limits it would probably be a very large 'Villa' after it consumed a few state's worth of soil or so.
Simmy directed the roots again, ever so slightly. No one had to know that the patterns being carved out could theoretically be empowered as a rune boundary, and with Adam this distracted (She gave him another boulder, the gravel gathered for decorative purposes) she could take her time ensuring patterns for strength, protection, and purification would slowly form under the soil.
After all, everyone needed a hobby.
A quick glance ensured that the other girlfriends/wives to be/sisters were still asleep. She had been too busy last night to show off her schoolgirl ensemble, but tonight she could have a bit of a fashion show!
It was going to be fun.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The next morning Adam flexed his hand and realized that Simmy had rearranged the girls after the long night of antics. Seeing her body flex and bend as she 'cleaned' the area in that maid outfit though...
As he stalked towards her 'innocent' surprise, he internally nodded.
Sometimes it was good to take a day off or so.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Infinite stamina sucked.
Aside from the Endbringer, the other girls had to tap out and have a spa and relaxation day. Even with lots of free 'Recovery' optimizations the mind grew weary.
Which was fine, but with the girls out and about Adam grew a bit restless, even with a beautiful blue angel trying her best to distract him.
It was just... too much energy. He was physically handling it, but the side effects were maddening.
He spent more and more time with Squishy, having her search for Realms that were both expensive to visit AND had expensive options. Something to sink this raw power into, something to focus the frustration towards.
As soon as his body and soul stabilized enough, he would go to the most expensive one found and just punch stuff for a while until his body stabilized. Both Simmy and Squishy agreed that a few good fights would rapidly improve his stability and increase his control and efficiency with the new energies. His girls agreed that while fun at first, the 'Energizer Adam' should not be a continuous experience.
Also, he really wanted to eat lots of food, have even more sex, and punch lots of things. The raw energy burned in his soul slightly, a very light stinging as his abilities were forced to grow and self-refine.
Right now, he was down to the first and third option, and food alone was not enough... so the implied universe FILLED with bad guys he was allowed to slaughter with no moral issues was very appealing to the man.
Squishy assured him that the Realm had lots of big fights, both individually large and numerous, lots of neat biology to explore, a tech base that focused on providing variety rather than optimized standardization (Especially for weapons)... and also, super powers. Spiritual ones.
Honestly she had him at 'lots of big fights'. He had almost NO fighting style right now, he mostly stood around and used his overwhelming power to squash everyone. Even his big stick weapon ended up being a walking cane cause it felt cool. He hadn't even hit anyone in the last journey.
And Yes. Realistically, he knew there was no mental manipulation encouraging him towards conflict, not like with normal Entity Shards. But functionally?
He wanted to go punch something into powder.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Two months had passed.
Slow. Infuriating. Months.
His soul pulsed with excess power, but it was now a rhythmical, reliable pulse.
The girls not only knew his plan, but were thankful that the raw aggression he had built up would finally get an outlet. Not to mention they found the destination an interesting place, even though there was no media available in this Realm that referenced it. They would need to get the details from Adam's memories once the journey provided a brain insertion later.
His plans for weapons? Gone. At this point, he wanted to crush things with his magical bone reinforced hands, and only kept the black club he made for potential golf swings.
At this point, he had forced so much energy into the black stick that the blue fire on top had condensed into a metallic blue orb of raw magic. Heaven help anyone smacked with the thing, just getting too close to the magic could cause light burns to anyone nearby. The black body of the club felt like cold stone at this point, and the entire weapon seemed to just be where Adam expected it rather than actually be stored anywhere.
Even as a human his eyes were starting to burn with blue fire.
He glared at the wall.
"Transfer: Abyss."
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Twilight blinked at Adam's corpse.
It uh. It transformed into stone. Instantly.
Yeah, that was far too much power. That was too much power for a dozen organic bodies, much less compressed into a single organism.
He would have to make a new body once back, hopefully one that can handle that level of raw magic. Or bind it into his soul better. Or a distributed spell matrix for energy transfer?
The other girls sighed and left to focus on their work as Twilight began some new research quests for her teams.
Narwhal and the Dragon sisters had guild work, and Nightmare Moon actually had some interviews from some news sites to attend. Her digital celebrity star was still on the rise, and looking like a sex goddess (technically true?) with a voice of an angel wasn't hurting her ratings.
Still, they would all likely meet back here in the Villa to try Boro's new experimental dishes tonight. It had become a bonding experience since Adam had gone a bit food crazy recently.
The big improvement in Adam's power stability did mean that this journey would be a bit different than usual, however. Adam and Simmy had basically stated that they would stay a bit longer this time without time travel to get back instantly, since they could actually receive alerts from Dragon and CD through System to Squishy. It was needed, as the time travel really bumped up the costs and the target this time was (conceptually) FAR away.
It wasn't an huge issue, theoretically. They did need to have the two Entities fully converted at SOME point after all.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam twitched as the new Realm offered a very, VERY long list of templates. He did NOT have the patience for this.
Simmy, handle it.
Multiple selections flew by before he could read them, but Adam only cared that, FINALLY, he was close to some actual combat.
His eyes flared blue as his soul burned into the new Realm.
Let's punch something.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
The battle continued, but the leadership felt the strain almost more than those desperately struggling below near the walls and barriers.
With hidden desperation, Ghira motioned Commander Travis to the side, even as Travis's people continued to pack up.
Visibly impatient, the Commander did at least follow him to a side room.
It was quiet for a few moments. Expensive, life threatening moments.
Ghira sighed. "We won't ask for any further front line support. Nor report any of the incidents. I can even get an increase in our paid commerce taxes approved with some effort on future food shipments to us, can increase them by at least 4% or more."
Maybe 2% honestly, but he could find the additional money somehow. It would bankrupt him, and cause the settlement's attempt at growth to drastically slow, but it was better than having his people consumed alive.
Ghira tried to connect emotionally to the military leader. It... wasn't working. "My communications have reached Vale. I've been told that over a dozen Bullheads, each flying vessel full of trained Hunters, all are coming here as we speak to reinforce our defenses!"
Commander Travis smugly chuckled. "Oh I am sure. But my people come first, and I have orders to return to Mistral when the situation becomes untenable here."
He felt his claws flex, desperate to cut this asshole of a person. "We. Can. Win. You don't even need to risk your own soldiers, just use your air superiority to keep the flying Grimm off of Kuo Kuana's back, keep our city's air space open and clear."
Travis gave an amused look of contempt. "I have better use for our Dust and ammunition than to waste it on a fools errand. Now, I have places to be."
With a sharp turn, the bastard walked back to his already loaded Bullheads, preparing to vertically launch and leave Ghira's people and his family to their fate.
Even as Ghira followed the ass towards his vessel, he was racking his brains for a solution. Political power meant little with so many at the gates. His other friends in higher places were too far to get here in time. And while he himself was strong enough to end this one moron's life, it wouldn't fix the situation in the short OR long term.
But they could hold out, albeit with more casualties, even without these damn turncoat 'Support Troops' that Mistral had offered. Worthless as they turned out to be.
Near the military vehicles opening, Everyone paused. Everything. Everywhere.
The screaming, the rage, the beasts in general had all... stopped. Gone quiet.
Ghira watched in growing horror as the black tide and white bone armor fighting towards his city opened room... and massive forms shifted towards the front lines.
Goliaths.
Grimm the size of buildings, massive mammoths with white bone tusks and masks. Each step shook the world.
They usually avoided hunters and residences, even normal people. They were old enough and strong enough to be satisfied far away from conflict in general, to avoid being seen. One showing up could just ignore anything below missile or grenade launchers. Low level Dust couldn't phase it, and most Semblances couldn't touch the things. Battle flowed around Goliaths like water around a stone. Towns vanished, villages crushed.
One was a disaster.
There appeared now... dozens.
Spikes of despair hit Ghira's soul. His wife, Kali. His new darling baby girl, Blake.
Instantly he made the decision. Morality could go hang itself, his baby came first.
Turning to the asshole Commander, he threw pride away and knelt on the ground. "Please, Commander Travis. If you won't defend us, at least take our children away. Don't let them die like this."
The Commander was clearly shocked at having the Chieftain of the whole continent of Managerie in such a position... but recovered.
As the ship lifted off the ground, he watched the Faunus leader still prone in the distance.
Turning back inside, he snorted. "Sorry, but I don't have room for livestock on MY ships."
The sooner he could leave these savages the better.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Ghira Belladonna felt pure rage flow in his veins.
That monster Travis was clearly unaware that Faunus could hear things far better than Humans.
Not that it mattered right now.
A Chieftain is a leader, and as such should lead.
He stood with what dignity he had left and turned to his loyal men, each pretending to have seen nothing. "Tell our people that our friends from Mistral have recieved notification that our reinforcements from Vale are close. They are leaving to offer the incoming forces air support and to help guide them back here to battle."
The two Faunus gave tight salutes and ran to disperse the messages. The loss of the local Cross Continental Transmit System relay tower had nearly crippled the defense forces before a hasty messaging system was put in place.
The Grimm were attracted and enraged by despair and negative emotions after all...
Lies like this were required in today's wars.
Turning towards his supportive people, he felt his face tighten in determination. "Open all reserve wepon caches, enable the emergency turrets, and stop restricting the food reserves to all recovering force members in medical."
He reached down for a spare spear. "If we live I can find a way to recover our supplies. But if we die, I refuse to be responsible by holding back any advantage we have left."
The other dozen or so spears were easily hefted like a back pack, ready for his projected rage.
Gazing at the ever closing forces of monsters, he gripped the spear tightly. "Show me to the battles suffering the most."
Time to hunt. "Let's kill some Grimm."
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Beyond the wall around Kuo Kuana, men and women... Human and Faunus. The weak and strong frantically reloaded pistols, aimed shotguns, threw energy blasts, summoned fire and wind and lightning, shot sniper rifles, launched missiles... anything and everything was heading downrange. Holes tore in skin and bones shredded, the Grimm were peeled and torn and pulped into black sludge.
And the field of black creatures with red eyes and bone armor continued to advance.
Thousands of beasts collapsed from damage and turned slowly into black mist even as more carelessly crushed corpses of other fallen Grimm while advancing.
And behind this tide, ever slowly approaching, were monstrous elephants that ignored the battle as they came to flatten the city.
Susan gripped her knife pistol as she tried to clear her gun jam it... before transforming it to knife mode and focused on helping her freinds to reload their weapons instead. "I can't fix my weapon, I'll be support until another gun is available or until they get close enough for close range combat."
Garth nodded, his massive axe-bazooka jerking him back a half foot. It shot slow, but made a hell of an impact. "Can you find some more Fire Dust rounds? I'm back to basic ammo right now."
She nodded and ran to the supply hub, knowing he used 60mm rounds and preferred grade 3 fire dust rather than grade 4.
He turned back to the endless targets and tried to aim towards the ground between several Beowolves, the smaller Grimm far too maneuverable and quick to risk allowing to get any closer. Then again, with a target environment THIS rich every shot was at least useful.
His aim was thrown WAY the hell off when a massive spiraling Glyph formed in the air above the Grimm, blue lines twisting in the air and burning brightly.
Any thought of an unknown Grimm being responsible was gone as the entire mass of rage creatures actually FLINCHED from the ever growing pattern.
He stared up at the Summoning Glyph in honest confusion.
Why the hell was a Schnee here!?
As the Glyph grew in size, he gulped. If this WAS a Schnee... how the hell could one get THIS powerful without all of Remnant hearing of them first!?
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Ghira looked up, his last spear throw ignored even as it pierced the distant Goliath's eye, the beast bellowing in rage. "Sienna, any idea?"
The Bengal tiger Faunus was already watching, her orange eyes wide. "No sir, but I KNOW there were no Schnee relatives in our city this morning... and all our 'visitors' were exiting, not bringing new fighters to help."
Then the Glyph vanished as something massive fell towards the ground, screaming in rage.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam fell towards a face coated in white bone, the open fangs sharp and hungry... and grabbed the monster by the throat.
And the face. And the chest. It was almost like holding a squeeze toy.
Damn his hand was large.
Then he hit soil, the beast in his right hand exploding into black goo as his other reached for another screaming attacker.
Still in a white suit, he slammed his massive legs deeper into the dirt as his left hand grabbed the torso of a werewolf thing and HURLED it into the crowd.
Lifting his head to the sky, he screamed in joyful rage... then slammed his trunk into and THROUGH some massive bear demon covered in armor.
Oh. So he was an elephant Faunus. And now knew what a Faunus was. Neat.
His trunk absently snagged the clawed arm that tried to attack as his enormous right hand pulped some sort of small boar Grimm, his left limb blocking a claw that failed to pierce his flesh.
A nudge inside and a message from Simmy made him frown.
Flexing his torso, blue flames burned a open circle for space and held a perimeter as he turned to the left.
Yep. Massive city. Lots of guns aimed in his general direction... no, probably towards the army of meat toys.
A frown crossed his overly large face.
He just wanted to smash things. He didn't want to be all responsible and protect people right now.
A nudge from Simmy brought his smile back.
His magic surged into the sky again, a complicated Glyph slowly spawning blue feathers.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Commander Travis flinched, some sort of distant scream echoing. "Right, let's get farther away and do it faster."
As the troops called 'Yes Sir!', Travis felt something was off, his soul twinging as something unseen and undetectable modified in his body.
It was ignored, he wanted to get out of this hell hole quickly. Probably wasn't important.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Above the stranger, another blue Glyph slowly exposed... perfection.
Among a rain of blue feathers, an actual angel... Glowing soft blue and singing such a strange melody. Tired men and women felt aches fade away and a building urge to action grow. Children calmed, orders were simplified, and each shot from the front lines grew more accurate, more deadly.
And the man responsible, the giant in a white suit with massive hands covered in black gore, continued to scream defiance as he fought towards the massive Goliaths.
Equally noticeable, for the first time the enormous creatures seemed to be paying attention. To almost seem concerned. All the Goliaths turned towards the screaming fighter.
The defenders in the city of course were a bit distracted though when a massive pulse of sound echoed... and the entire front of the Grimm wave paused.
Turned.
And began to consume each other.
Cannibalism bled black blood in a perfect circle around the massive city.
And above the carnage, a blue goddess sang the future.
Ignoring the madness driven disaster in the Grimm ranks, a triumphant trumpet of noise erupted from the fighting elephant Faunus, his gore soaked right hand holding some massive black rod with a blue boulder on the end.
The Goliath reared back, slamming massive feet covered in white armor onto the smaller fighter... who knocked the attack to the side, rod still held high.
Then the rod fell upon the armored mammoth skull.
And blue flames blossomed.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Ghira was unsure when everyone had stopped firing as they watched a giant fighter dismantle each normally lethal mountain of flesh.
He WAS sure when he heard Sienna purr. "Mmm. He better be single. Or at least with someone willing to share."
He gave her a flat look. This was why he delayed passing the leadership to her. "Get the wounded to triage, shore up the weak points in the walls and defensive, and ready the squads for inspection."
Her glazed eyes watched the massive man flex as another spire of flames burned into the skies, Grimm screaming in pain and rage. "Mmm, I'd like to give HIM an inspection..."
She was tossed off the wall.
He turned to his other assistants, who suddenly seemed far more focused and ready to follow orders. "Right, treat this as a break and recovery period, we needed a bit of breathing room before Vale's forces arrive and we won't waste this one. I want the mechanical teams to do as much maintenance and repair on our turrets and the peoples weapons as we can before conflict continues."
A massive chunk of Grimm tusk, over a dozen meters long, slammed near the wall as the ground shuddered.
He glanced at it. "Also, collect the stuff he throws this close to our defenses. I'm sure we can find some use for it."
His people scurried to spread the orders as he turned back to watch the stranger try to uppercut a Goliath.
Successfully.
Good distance, that one. Shame the head didn't roll straight.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Summoning, specifically through Glyphs, was interesting.
Adam's trunk held the magical rod as his right fist tore through a rolling Boarbatusk, his other hand carefully swinging a twin headed King Taijitu serpent. Too fast and the stupid thing would just tear apart. Honestly a terrible weapon, even if the attempts were very fulfilling.
Point was, his Spiritual power set now had blue patterns, 'Glyphs', etched into the white 'Tithe' cards hanging on the white 'Purification' cords on his red spirit Gate. 'Binding', the black cords that wrapped his soul up like a holiday present, now twisted nearly invisibly with 'Purification' ropes like a shadow. That said, the blue 'Glyphs' on the many cards were not identical... and kept shifting as they filled with more information.
The snake split into smaller chunks again after only a few slams into the advancing crowd.
Worthless. At least the gorillas, the Beringel Grimm, were able to hold together long enough to take a few opponents down a limb or two.
He used his now free hands to grip his weapon, the rod's blue magical stone crashing into rocky soil and piercing deep while blue flames swirled around him.
The Grimm screamed.
Anyway, 'Glyphs' could theoretically do a lot, but the reason HE had access to the stupid thing was a combination of picking the most expensive 'Transfer' options and letting Simmy pick how to enter the Realm. Yes, he grabbed the options for the full language package, no higher powers, and other such choices... but he also selected 'Determine Parentage' and 'Inserted into History'. At the time they were just costly choices, but it had certainly been a risk in retrospect.
His arm tore internal muscles and ligaments again, his fault. Tried to change direction too quickly. 'Recovery' helped make the recovered parts adapt to prevent similar issues as he absently used his trunk to tear the embedded fang fragment out of his torn shoulder.
Point was, he was technically a bastard Schnee Faunus from a (hopefully) fictional family branch. Because if they were NOT fictional, then they and an entire town had not only existed but had been wiped out in the wild to a Grimm incursion. Realm insertion needed a story that didn't introduce OTHER people or some such complications to keep things simpler for the user, but he was pretty sure it wasn't spawning people just to kill for a convenient excuse.
After all, that kind of option WAS an option for Transfer, and Squishy had blocked that pile of stupid early on in his career. Thank goodness.
Arms busy, Adam growled and kicked the lunging Beowolf hard. The pieces of meat pierced a gorilla like monster... another Beringel? Point was, two down for one kick. Messed up the footing though, which was frustrating enough with all these corpse pieces scattered. Better start shifting the fight to a less damaged area.
So summoning. No idea how to use Glyphs normally, but Simmy helped hijack the spiritual Summoning function of Glyphs (which were even now being enhanced as they absorbed all his runic knowledge) to allow direct kami to matter conversion. Heck, her new body was damn close to pure organic other than some Shard stuff in her brain, and she was loving how sensitive her 'Faunus' body was compared to Endbringer material. Plus, as a Summon, death just sends her back to Adam's soul.
He frowned, black ooze sliding off his suit. Does that mean if HE dies he would go back into his own soul? Huh.
Anyway, if used normally only defeated foes could be summoned (Hense him being able to call the Simurgh)... but a bit of modification to the pattern by Simmy allowed Adam to summon himself as long as his soul was in the area. Implying that he had defeated himself. Maybe emotionally? Or something.
It was... odd.
He flinched as something tore through his spine and shoulders, his reflex smashing a massive fanged mouth into fragments as 'Recovery' analyzed the acidic spit used. His body shifted as the wound evaporated away, his glare focused on the three bear like Ursa that had helped the recently deceased creature to get that swing in. A stomp hurled his massive form over to the presumptuous bastards, hands clawing for grip.
Making his body this way with summoning did have some downsides. No unicorn bones meant no magic, the biggest flaw so far. Using the Rod was a workaround really, but the change was noticeable by a lot. He also had far weaker flesh than expected, although that was being modified moment to moment as 'Recovery' tested different solutions during combat.
But the upsides?
Creatures in this Realm were half flesh, half spiritual. Soul based abilities used over generations had made biology adapt to unusual energies, and even the most basic of Aura not only protected the physical bodies but helped them to regenerate from harm. And he was beginning to believe that Dust, the materials that saved Humanity and Faunus kind from death to the Grimm in the past, was solidified faith. It would explain why a rock could enhance abilities powered by soul energy.
These Humans and Faunus of Remnant, they evolved with faith as a weapon. That... had potential.
And though Adam's body was mostly a native Faunus, most people in this Realm relied on their Soul, their Aura, to absorb damage, to heal, to fight. Their bodies were fairly standard if they ran out of Aura shielding, and many didn't bother with excessive physical training or whatever when such a convenient method would enable superhuman feats.
Then again, Adam saw an advantage to having a body that could ignore blades and laugh at explosives.
And when it came to adaptation and evolution, to biological enhancement... Adam had significant experience.
His torso twisted, his right fist smashing with the wrath of God into black flesh, the force rippling the meat into liquid even as his hand opened to snag the next victim. The ground here was a bit too unstable, partial collapses forcing him to jump to better advantage during the conflict. Some part inside also winced: Two thirds of this continent of Menagerie was desert, worthless... and his fight was not doing this fairly green terrain any favors. He would have to use 'Growth' and such to fix everything up later on. Anyway.
The summoning method Simmy designed did have an additional cost though, if not a noticeable one energy wise. He had to store beings in his soul to summon first of all, which was simple enough... but he also had to allocate one of his own power sockets for the summon's use when called forth. It wasn't a permanent thing, and dispelling Simmy would have everything back... but it felt ticklish as hell. Still, it was fine. Like all summonings, while physical they HAD to follow any and all orders Adam gave, otherwise past defeated foes summoned would just kill you when called.
Besides, Simmy was really enjoying the Magical Socket. 'Harmony' was fully in use, and she was enthralled.
Adam screamed in glorious anger, the active 'Purification' allowing him to cause serious damage while only equipping 'Recovery' for this battle... for this refinement. His hands clawed through teeth and skin, has trunk absently bashing foes with each smack of the Rod causing a flame flare. His eyes flared as he fought ever more fiercely.
Every twist taught 'Recovery' how to enhance a body with faith. Each injury showed how faith and magic could work together. Each torn muscle and cracked bone explored how to enhance muscles without going beyond biology, how to strengthen bone without losing impact absorption. Changes became cheaper, more optimized, and more rugged.
Every punch taught Adam how to not overbalance, how to not over commit. It wasn't a fighting style, it wasn't something taught by masters of a lifetime to a student in need... it was a more basic, an angry set of intuitive strikes and guards. Barely enough to be considered a street brawling style. What little value this 'style' had grew as he experienced a continuous fight in (sort of) deadly conditions.
Every Grimm death and corpse caused twisted black energies captured by the flesh and blood to be exposed to the air. The constant 'Purification' empowered flames from his weapon was transforming the smog into delicious temptation... the army of Grim even now was being slowly pulled toward the fighting Faunus.
His body was soaked in blood from many healed wounds, liquid that evaporate with the intense blue flames that washed over the area with sinister intentions. Something about the pure violence and lack of moral restrictions helped calm the energy he had been overloaded with for weeks now. Squishy watched closely, modifying power pathways and enhancing her control of the energy source.
And while the initial cost of summoning himself without providing a body first was high, now that it was done he could just store the spiritual bodies of himself and Simmy in his soul until needed again. A permanent project safely tucked away. Finally, there was a target for this raw power from Lung's corpse, one that could handle the strain and benefit from it. No longer would unguided energy build up and begin to pressure his soul.
The convenience of not having to build a body every time he took a trip was just icing on the cake, the real prize was having a set of test form bodies for enhancement that wouldn't need resetting every journey. One that even now, fighting in the outside world, was absorbing the overcharged internal power that had built up in his soul these past days.
Later he could design magical bones reinforced with faith, later he could analyze Grimm for possible use a disposable puppet armies, later he could ask Simmy about why she was making an aircraft currently fleeing the area head towards some very dangerous territory.
His jaw snarled, muscles tensed, as he gripped the rod by the magical rock and stabbed the sharpened black shaft through the skull of another Goliath, the white bone armor snapping loudly as the elephantine scream was cut short.
Blue fire purified the beast from within as Adam turned towards more stress relief monsters.
Right now, he had a fight to enjoy.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Ghira watched technicians try to get the relay communication tower repaired. The spare parts were being modified where needed, but progress was coming along nicely.
Sienna Khan, bouncing next to him, was not nearly as composed. "And then he grabbed an Ursa by the skull, like a pebble or something, and threw it at a Nevermore! Like... Straight in the air, not enough time to even arc, just a massive bear shaped hole in that flying Grimm bastard! I'm not even sure he was AIMING for it, some sort of sixth sense just made him slap some awesome into the death bird!"
He withheld a sigh.
He was grateful, no doubt. Even now, a line of Grimm were desperately consuming each other and tearing black flesh and white bone in a protective circle around the city. A MASSIVE circle. And that Angel (Nude!? WHY!?) was even now randomly grabbing abandoned knives, halberds, spears and other such abandoned weapons and tossing them with terrifying accuracy at various flying Grimm trying to get closer.
But despite his appreciation, he was a bit annoyed that his second in command had gone full fan-girl.
Her orange eyes sparkled against her dark skin, tiger ears twitching. "I didn't even know you COULD suplex a Goliath!"
He heard chuckling from behind before welcomed arms gave a tight hug. "I see Sienna is still enthusiastic over our friendly stranger's ongoing campaign?"
Ghira twisted, pulling his sweet Kali into a deep kiss before nestling against her neck, his arms tightly hugging her close. "I am so glad your division held out."
He felt her chuckle. "Casualties are not only surprisingly light, but we actually have only a few deaths so far. The battle goes beyond well."
Inwardly he sighed. No one fought the Grimm without a price, even if the cost of NOT fighting was far more unimaginable. "I originally hoped the giant could hold the storm for a few minutes... but he may still be battling strong by the time Vale forces arrives."
She pulled back, her black cat ears upright. "You mean we actually DO have reinforcements coming!?"
Ghira's smile was far less stressed. "Not from those Mistral bastards, but Ozpin owed me a drink or two. He got the signal before the tower was assaulted by those Nevermore ranged feather attacks, and I know he will be heading here already."
They blinked as a form dashed close to them. "Ooh! Hey Kali, have you checked out the Grimm blood circle? I don't know art, but I think it's forming some fairly awesome patterns with the splatter!" Sienna suddenly frowned. "Wait... those patterns weren't that clear an hour ago. And... are they starting to glow!?"
Everyone, even the body guards, snapped their attention to the distant corpse line, ignore the blue flames and screams beyond. Black blood was etched into the soil... very unnaturally. Clear shapes where soaked earth bordered untouched land, harsh contrasts that had NOT been apparent originally. Pulsing patterns, with a near black glow that struggled against unseen bonds.
They... sort of looked like Glyphs.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Simmy continued her work. Spirit collection, spirit purification, spirit binding: rune after rune were analyzed, converted into the relevant Glyphs, reviewed more, examined for compatibility, and so forth.
Using telepathy to squish these Grimm or twisting their desires inwards was fine enough, but why waste all this energy filled fluid? If ignored, it would simply evaporate back into nature.
Better to fuel some faith wards.
She couldn't actually activate them, being an extension of Adam's existence at the moment and only having the Magic Socket available to herself, but 'Harmony' DID allow her to bind the rage, the mindless hate, and so forth into the pattern.
She had predictions on what would come from this, but then again magic and belief could mess with those...
So what would happen when raw hate was used to power purification runes? How vicious would the warding system be with the life blood of the foe used for construction? How much Grimm blood could she force into such complicated runes without causing an explosion of negative energy?
It should be interesting to find out.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Commander Travis shuddered, his body twitching.
But he had escaped the chasing Grimm. That massive swarm that came out of nowhere was gone, distracted by his wise choices and quick conviction.
He checked the bandaging on his left arm, the Bullhead jerking in flight due to his lack of attention. It was fine.
Lesser men than he would have gone down in a 'blaze of glory' or whatever, but he knew better.
The bandages were fine. It was fine.
He was very smart. Very smart.
Travis carefully wiped more brain off the window. Very hard to see with the mess. An order to clean the cockpit was ignored again by the body parts near the door. Lazy bastards.
Still, despite his good decisions and command talents, he wished he had killed his men more slowly. The corpses launched from the ship did distract the following Grimm, even if some of the less patriotic assholes had tried to resist his wise... his...
He was very smart. And this was a good idea.
Point was, a lucky shot from one of the soon-to-be-decoy's had made him one handed, and now that the screaming had stopped and it was easier to think... to...
He was very wise. Saved all kinds of time, and he wouldn't have to fill out as much paperwork now. "Squad died." Very quick, and he once he got home he could collect his funds and resources because... because...
He wanted to... donate? To...
Something inside him twitched, and he nodded at how good an idea it was to do certain things. He didn't need all those credits, and his armor was covered in blood and organs anyway, why not sell it? And his squad didn't need those accounts at this point, they were too busy being sorted alphabetically by torso meat length in the cargo bay. At least they knew how to stay on task. Yes, silent majority probably won in this case, and those credits would be needed elsewhere at some point.
This was a good idea. He just knew it.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
His lungs vibrated as he hummed with deep satisfaction. Side note: Elephants can hum. Or at least, Elephant Faunus can hum.
His hand smacked the large beast to the side. This was the last Goliath he could see, and he was taking his time to enjoy it. 'Recovery' had allowed him to scan many samples of Grimm during the fight, but it hadn't been a priority really. And a lot of the samples exploded shortly after collection, as things do during fights. So each attack on this enormous creature was also a scan showing composition, how the flesh handled energies of differing frequencies, and so on and so forth.
His massive hands tensed and ripped both tusks off before he kicked the massive beast back into the crowd, a short trench dug by the body.
Also, some parts didn't dissolve after being torn off. Mostly bones and bone like armor segments. It was odd, and meant his recent battles had a bunch of debris that needed to be cleaned up at some point, but it also gave good hand holds and torque points. Mixed blessing really.
He reared back, his right hand glowing with purification energy. "Prayer Pulse."
Sound smashed into the elephantine skull before a white ring sang forth in a sphere, evaporating corrupted flesh.
Simmy was right, yelling out attack phrases made fights more fun!
He ignored the small Beowolf crushed under his steps as he began walking towards the largest remaining clusters of Grimm creatures when he felt a soft voice hum as delicate arms hugged his neck. Or tried to. At his current size, even his wrists were a bit too thick to wrap one's arms around.
A relaxed grin spread over his face as his trunk carefully supported his blue winged shoulder passenger. "Simmy! How goes your end of the battle?"
Wow his voice was deep at this size. Made the ground vibrate a little as well.
She directed his attention towards the bleeding corpses and the massive black Glyphs surrounding the city. Ah.
He nodded, holding his left palm towards the symbols. "No problem."
White power pulsed at the black blood... which glowed with void flames that rapidly spread over the shaped meat juice. Interesting.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Ghira, Kali, and Sienna watched in silence as black flames spread over the many blood spatters surrounding the city Kuo Kuana. Sheets of hot darkness began to reach into the sky... and within the black abyss, red eyes glowed with hunger. Forms seemed to shift in the fire, to turn upon itself and fragment and reforge.
A Boarbatusk too close to the blood line screamed as the black wall bulged into oversized jaws, a fanged mouth erupting from the wall to consume the unprepared Grimm attacker... and then smoothed away into more black power and red eyes. Even as the wall pulsed with the sudden influence of energy, other jaws began to form at the boundary, eyes focused on prey.
On their side of the barrier, they could see the black ooze of the consumed Grimm converting into a white mist even as the grass closest to that side of the barrier pulsed green with life.
Kali frowned, her black furred ears twitching over her pale face. "I'm not going to cross that." She turned to her husband. "We are not going to cross that. Not until we can make sure it won't eat everyone who tries."
Ghira nodded, watching several black tentacles and tongues snap from the black surface to capture flying Nevermores attempting to flee the new border. "Getting close to it seems unwise." A thought crossed his mind, and he snapped back to the technicians... who were as distracted as the rest.
He frowned. "Back to work the lot of ya! When Vale arrives I want to be able to call a warning for them to avoid that thing. No one wants a friendly face to be a surprise snack."
His people got back to work while his wife and second continued to watch the black wall expand, reaching into the sky ever higher with every Grimm too close to avoid consumption. Escaping it was a concern for tomorrow, right now the demon wall was a comforting defense against the diminishing hoards.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam gave a soft trumpet of satisfaction. "So these are the new Glyph patterns?" Unlike the original faith runes, these didn't purify the incoming energies but enslaved them to purpose instead. The more they fought, the stronger they would become really. He could feel the wrath and hunger being actively twisted to desire the flesh of fellow Grimm.
Simmy nodded, innocently kicking her feet as she rested on his left shoulder.
He idly knocked a Sabyr into chunks, the saber-tiger like Grimm unable to even scar his skin at this point. Not that much could after all this adaptation he went through.
His advancements through 'Recovery' had taken a while to adjust correctly. Some parts, like his organs and brain and such, barely accepted faith (Or Aura) modification at all. The exceptions were parts like his lungs or liver, parts that could benefit from organic forms of 'Purification' and such. Most however had performed with lower efficiency with too much faith being supplied, their mortal focus unable to be improved with immortal power.
Other body parts barely resembled normal flesh now. His muscles had strange structures and patterns that glowed with kami, his bones were nearly hollow from all the passages built into them, and his skin had gained gray tattoos that covered most of his white skin. Each part had different percentages of faith based material, too much would make him physically fragile, too little left him weak to spiritual attacks (And possibly magical ones as well). It was an ongoing experiment of trial and error, but his powers were learning a lot in the process.
Adam absently straightened his white suit, his blue hair short and his blue eyes satisfied. Because in the end, he had achieved his ultimate short term purpose.
Lung, or what bits of soul and emotion was remaining, was now entirely gone.
The thing in confinement was now only an Emotion Furnace, designed to take anything and everything, even emotions and prayer energy, and use it as fuel to generate raw power. Simmy and Squishy had even extracted the strange furnace from the internal prison system and constructed a containment structure using magic, faith, and Crystal Shard materials that could handle any unexpected energy pulses safely.
With the fierce fighting allowing that power to circulate correctly, with his advancements in body design able to accommodate the increased energies, with Squishy's better power management and Simmy's advancements in Glyph design and purification methods...
Adam felt at peace again.
It was well timed. Simmy had informed him that more fighters were incoming, the 'Hunters' of Remnant armed with weapons and soul powers. And well... even with releasing the purified corrupted Grimm energies into the air, it was getting harder and harder to keep the monsters attacking as more and more of the Goliaths passed away.
Or blew up.
Let the incoming forces clean up the refuse, Adam had gotten what he wanted. And his soul prison was back down to the three Endbringers, if Simmy still counted as a prisoner considering how little she spent in her cell.
He turned towards the growing black wall of energy, the many red eyes of evil still sending tongues of darkness to pull in Grimm for snack time, and started walking. Fighting for four hours or so was more than enough fun time for now.
Adam blinked at Simmy's pat. Right, he was still like... thirty or forty feet tall or something stupid like that.
He continued to hum at a deep pitch that vibrated the ground as 'Recovery' began simulations for a smaller, compressed form. Big was great for battle, but if he wanted to use a spoon or the restroom at some point it would help if he wasn't five times taller than everyone else. Any excess could be 'Converted' and 'Consumed', and the smaller form may be stronger anyway.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sienna was bouncing as she watched the massive hunk of muscle leave combat and wander towards the city, absently blasting Grimm apart with small twitches of his manly muscles.
She was slightly nervous when he got closer to that black barrier, but the blue angel flew through it just fine earlier and she was a summons of his or something... so he had to be fine too, right?
She blinked as the black fire pulled away on its own, a multitude of red eyes watching the mass of beef cake stroll through with fear etched into the flickering forms.
Mmm, yeah. He was damn fine.
Crap, better get her work done or the Boss may keep her from hanging out with tall, white, and muscly.
She snapped off orders to her teams with far more enthusiasm and efficiency than usual, keeping an eye on the giant that even now was awkwardly meeting with her Boss near the gates.
Seeing her huge leader barely be as tall as the sex god's ankle was more than a bit amusing, but she wanted this crap done so she could go meet up with the hero of the city.
Maybe some fun celebrations and stuff. Mmm yes.
She ignored the workers and repair crews distracted by her antics, she had to hurry things up!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Professor Ozpin checked his scroll, the holograms and timers telling him he was far too late to the fight. The swarm of Nevermores over the sea had been unexpected, and delayed the ships flight by half an hour or more on an already desperate time table.
He tapped the device, getting updates from the various teams he had brought on this trip. A heavy amount of Dust and ammo had been allocated for this rescue mission, most from Ozpin's not so small emergency lien reserves. Not that money was worth much when the lives of thousands hung in the balance.
Please, let some survivors hold off the tide. Even a few dozen would be a victory at this point.
He glanced at the distant skyline, knowing Kuo Kuana should appear at any moment. The ships in formation were blasting any flying Grimm that got too close, but overall the ships were ignoring the black army traveling below in an attempt to reach the battlefield even a moment sooner. Hunters and Huntresses were conserving ammo, only killing the Grimm directly fighting the convoy on its desperate trip.
In the middle of confirming resource use and statistics from his people, he heard an uncharacteristic gasp from Glynda and his attention snapped back to the horizon.
A black wall of fire was burning to the heavens, massive red eyes and black jaws shifting within.
...What fresh hell was this!?
He absently heard static connections being made between the city and his assistant Glynda, the small part of him so happy that anyone was alive buried under concern as his powerful senses explored this... this fire of anger, of rage, of hunger. It was even now drawing what portions of the Grimm forces were too stupid to escape backwards, into many hungry maws. Massive jaws taller than trees were forming and crunching black flesh into blood that seemed drawn to the black flames.
He blinked. "Sorry, what was that Glynda?"
She seemed equally confused. "Chieftain Ghira wants us to focus on driving off the Grimm without getting to close to that black fire... because he wants to talk about the elephant in the room."
He paused. "What's the elephant in the room?"
She nodded. "Yes, that's what he wants to talk about."
...The hell?
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone