章 42: 5
Celestial Grimoire.
Part 23.
Minecraft World.
The golden shield made of Order magic protected us against the many bone arrows being sent our way, and for a moment I wondered just how skeletons, who have no muscles or eyes to aim with, could target us so accurately at this range and keep up such a good rate of fire.
Jessica and I were on top of the wall I'd built around our temporary home, and while our current defences were enough to keep the zombies off us, the skeletons seemed to have an endless amount of arrows to bother us with.
To make things more interesting, they along with the zombies were being led by a humanoid figure who was able to throw fireballs. Not their magic could defeat my barrier.
The person leading this attack looked like a stereotypical witch. She had robes on and wore a pointy hat. The only things missing were her broom and some cackling.
I felt sure that in the game they only throw potions and are supposed to have a limited range. They also don't direct other monsters in the battles from what I could remember.
This world wasn't following the game as closely as I would have liked and this wasn't the first nighttime cycle when we'd come under attack by such a large force.
Not that this was totally bizarre. The Grimoire had told me that sentient creatures lived here and there would be competition for the resources of this plane.
As such it made sense to me that the locals would be able to act outside of the video game role while the creatures that had no ability to think would not.
It also made sense that the locals would want to defend the part of this plane that they saw as their own. This witch might see us as hostile invaders in her lands and just want to drive us out.
On the other hand, she'd made no effort to talk to us, she was extremely hostile, and she commanded an army of the dead, so I wasn't inclined to leave and start elsewhere.
Not that this would be simple to do as I'd have to move the portal and even if Jessica could simply carry the thing, then it would still take quite a long time to move somewhere new.
No, I could not allow any potentially hostile force to take this fort as while I had hidden the portal, if they were to find it then malicious entities could enter my world, and that happened often enough already.
I'd not seen any human-like figures during the last night cycle and I wondered if I should kill the witch now that she was showing herself. Would she vanish, leaving behind some sort of loot? Or would have a body on my hands? Would the large attacks simply stop?
It seemed to me that if the witch were controlling the monsters somehow, as she appeared to be, then if so it made sense to go after her, or these attacks would just not stop.
"Stay here" I ordered Jessica.
If I was about to kill a real person then I didn't want her involved. I was the reason we were here. This was my mess to deal with.
Thanks to my magical boots I was able to jump over the moat I'd been building before it started getting dark.
Even with my ability to magically manipulate the elements and I hadn't finished it in time, it needed to be, deepened, widened and filled with more water. Not that this would help much with the ranged attacks.
Still, it was keeping the zombies away, they hadn't done anything during the attacks, and they were only reacting to me now because I was standing here among them.
The zombies soon fell despite their numbers as they were low-level monsters. As such, they were wheat before the scythe, meat to be cleaved by the butcher, or in this case targets to be blasted with elemental power.
This was the other reason to keep Jessica out of the way as I didn't wish to harm her with my spells, and I needed to unleash more of my power if I was going to destroy this army.
Once the zombies were done with for the most part, I took down the skeleton archers and warriors, not all of the skeletons used bows some had swords or axes made from stone. They were crude weapons and not a threat to me.
What was worth collecting was the loot they left behind. The more monsters there were the more they left behind. About one in ten, if maths was right, left behind something a new player might have lost the first time they died.
So I was fairly sure that the zombies were all new players who died and respawned, leaving bodies behind to rise as undead, as all the zombies wore the same clothing. Which would have made me wonder again if this plane had players if I wasn't so busy.
I created another golden barrier of Order and then I sent it outwards so that it crushed everything around me. The zombies and skeletons were soon driven into the ground, crushed or outright destroyed.
Well, not everything the witches was still here, or rather the witches as there was more than one involved in the attack as it turned out.
Soon I faced the three witches who sent magical attacks at me, more than just fireballs, only for them to be met by another barrier erected by me via my own powers. Their spells were puny and while a coven of three witches could be quite dangerous I simply had too much raw power for them to handle.
Then I noted that the sun had risen, something that didn't bother the witches, and this worried me more than a little. If some of the baddies weren't held back by the sun, then we would have to keep an eye out for danger all of the time even if the monsters they somehow controlled had to avoid daylight.
One of the witches actually cackled, much to my delight, but she didn't get to laugh for long as I was brewing up a storm while keeping a golden shield around me.
Again I was very grateful for my staff as it was able to handle some of the load for me. Helping me to channel the power needed for the golden barrier while I made the short-lived storm.
Because of me the witches were blasted with lightning and one of them was soon reduced to ash. No wait, that wasn't ash. I didn't see it until I dropped the barrier but the dust was glowing.
The witches were gone, likely to respawn somewhere, and one of them had left behind some glowstone dust that I carefully collected in a little plastic bag. No doubt this powder had many uses for me to discover.
Jessica soon landed nearby having jumped off the wall once it was clear that the battle was over.
"So that's why you wanted me out of the way," she remarked "You didn't want me to get blasted".
While her new armour, this set made from gold, should protect her, I wasn't going to risk her getting zapped.
Spoiler
"I'm glad you didn't rush in to help," I said.
No doubt she had wanted to.
"I think it's clear to everyone who bothers to look that it's the women in the Kent family who have all the smarts, good looks and common sense" she commented "It's the men who keep getting into trouble and get to do all the farm chores. I've seen Conner nearly get badly hurt lots of times, too many not to get the message". .
She wasn't wrong about that. Made me glad I'd become a Nelson rather than a Kent.
"Gather the loot" I requested of Jessica "We need to get back inside. I've had an idea".
It might be possible for us to move the portal if we were clever about it.
Minecraft World.
Despite the fact that I had never ridden a horse or driven one it didn't matter much. Jessica had on her grandparent's farm and I quickly picked up the required skills. I assumed the Triforce of Courage, which offered some help with adventuring, had aided me.
I'd decided that we would relocate after all and I'd worked to build a wagon to drag the portal around, as well as some of the loot we'd acquired. It had ended up as a sort of caravan that even had a bed in it for power naps.
It shouldn't have been so easy, but this entire world worked in a way to make things easy to craft, and I felt fairly certain that if I took the wagon to my world it would collapse under its own weight.
Abandoning my fort had not been easy, but I was glad to have made that choice as we'd found something amazing.
"Your fort is okay, but that castle is something else," remarked Jessica.
I took no offense as even with my powers it would take me weeks to build something like this if I could at all.
Spoiler
Even from a distance and in this darkness, I could see the impressive towers, the other buildings and the small dock. This was the product of much work by a player who had created something rather wonderful, or possibly something that existed rather randomly due to the way this plane worked.
"Do you think anyone lives there?" I was asked.
If the house we'd first sheltered within had indeed been built by a player and wasn't just randomly generated then it was possible for someone to call the castle their home.
The massive castle didn't look blocky to us, as such it was hard for me to estimate how many blocks of stone would have been required to build the impressive structure, but I knew that it could have not been easy.
It might have been a team effort, but without knowing more about how this plane of existence worked, I could only speculate.
Even with the strange rules that governed this reality, it should not be possible to build such a castle in the time since this plane came into existence. Yet here it was.
"What happens if we run into someone who is just playing the game?" Jess asked.
I really didn't know. How would they perceive us? Would we look like them? It would be interesting to find out.
"They might see us as other players" I mused "I'm more concerned about if PVP is switched on".
She didn't know that term.
"PVP?" she questioned.
"Player versus player" I answered "In some games, one player can't hurt the other, in some they can. Players can respawn, but we don't know if that works for us".
We might soon find out if this wasn't a randomly generated castle. I didn't see much point in trying to avoid contact as the existence of players was something we needed to learn about.
"Hey, James, is that smoke?" she asked.
I took my pair of army surplus binoculars out of my biggest bag of holding and looked over at where the smoke was coming from. As the sun began to rise it became much easier for me to see.
"There's a village down there," I said with excitement in my voice "In the game, you can trade with villagers. We don't have any emeralds, but if they are real people they might trade for other stuff".
We didn't have much to trade unless they wanted iron weapons. At least we could find out what they had that we could use, and what they wanted from others in return.
I could always go back to my world and obtain things that would be very useful for medieval people for cheap and then trade with the people of this world for something I valued greatly.
"Let's go meet the locals," I said as I urged the horses to get moving.
Jessica stopped me.
"Let me get changed" she requested "I don't want anyone other than you getting such an eyeful of me".
Once she was more covered up we got moving and we entered the village the next day, or about 20 minutes later.
Since I'd played the game I was expecting to see a village full of people who barely noticed us as they went about their business. This was not the case and the little settlement was far nicer than I'd thought it would be.
"I feel like I rode into some sort of historical drama" muttered Jessica.
The village didn't strike me as a medieval setting. It was too clean as were the people and while their clothing was simple it looked to be of a finer quality than I would have expected.
We even found a bookstore, and that was a very odd site. Upon closer inspection, that place of business was more like a magic shop as they had potions on display.
There were other businesses open as well. A butcher, a baker, a fishermen's stand, and three different blacksmiths, one who worked on weapons, another on armour and the last focused on tools.
Also, I spied a leather worker, a fletcher, a man who makes arrows, as well as what I assumed to be some sort of holy man. I figured that he was a healer or cleric given that magic was a known force here.
A female stone mason, gender equality for the win, was repairing one of the small houses as a shepherd watched over a few sheep who were penned up.
There were some children here as well, who were curious about us, and they were being kept back by their parents.
"They don't look friendly" commented Jessica "It's daytime so they must know we can't be monsters".
I gave the matter some thought and I recalled a tidbit of information.
"They might think we're pillagers," I told the hero "You sometimes get bandits who attack villages in raids and they can move around during the day".
Overall there was an English countryside vibe around the place. Just one thing missing.
"There's no pub" I complained.
It made sense that there wouldn't be one in a world where the night is dark and full of terrors. Anyone stupid enough to go out drinking at night would have long since been removed from the gene pool.
Aside from the high fences and the gate that had been opened when we rode into the village, there wasn't much in the way of security aside from the massive iron golem which for now was inactive.
I knew that would change once the sun went down, something that would very soon happen.
"We should get inside," I said to Jessica.
She wasn't eager to do that.
"No, let's fight the monsters," she said "We should protect the village".
I wasn't tired and the monsters weren't a danger to us. As long as she didn't stand around and let herself get trapped she should be fine.
As the sun went down below the horizon, something which made me wonder how this could be an infinite plane of existence rather than a planet, I decided to get in some archery practice and I stayed out on the perimeter of the village as the monsters appeared.
There must have been a gap in the defences as the village was attacked by zombies and I went to help. The entire village had been overrun and I began to take down zombies as fast as I could.
The attack didn't last for long and when it was done I found Jessica standing over the village's iron golem with an iron axe held high.
"The day is saved thanks to Powegirl!" she declared
There was a rapidly growing crowd of upset-looking villagers. Jessica did not look happy about that.
"Why is no one cheering?" she asked "This statue came to life and started attacking. I saved them. Don't people cheer that sort of thing?".
I managed to avoid face-palming.
"Jess, that's an iron golem they use to defend villages" I explained "They only attack people if they get attacked first".
She must have gotten carried away while fighting
"Oh, my bad," she said.
The locals were very upset and I didn't blame them since they'd lost their defender. The night would return very soon and they would be helpless.
"James, can you fix the statue?" Jessica enquired.
I did not know how.
"We need iron to fix it," said one of the smiths.
Oh, so they could actually talk rather than just grunt.
"I have iron ore and iron bars," I told the smith.
He took them from me and the crowd settled down. I didn't think anyone would want to trade for a while so I decided that we should go check out the castle.
We could come back in a few hours, and see if the mood had improved, but first, my book needed my attention.
900cp
+300cp
1000cp
I wrote to Roll. I couldn't go over a thousand so there was no point doing anything else and wasting more cp.
-100cp
900cp
Friendly Fire -100cp
Dragon Age
Usually isn't so friendly. After many hours of studying (read: setting things—and yourself—on fire by accident), you've found a way to alter your spells in such a manner that your allies aren't harmed by it, directly at least.
You and your allies could walk through your firestorm spell and won't even be singed by it, but indirect effects like smoke might still be a problem, for example. I'm sure that a mage of your calibre will in time be able to find a way to fix that.
That would have come in handy earlier, but at least from now on I didn't need to worry about burning Jessica if I unleashed a lot of magical fire.
They will be back in DC by part 25. I came up with a reason for them to leave.
Celestial Grimoire.
Part 24.
Minecraft World.
"It has a lava moat," I stated as we headed up to the castle "And a drawbridge. I have to admit that I am very impressed".
I couldn't tell from here if the bridge was up or down, but I'd be willing to bet that this castle had a proper iron gate as well, the kind of heavy thing that even Jessica couldn't lift.
The walls were certainly very impressive and while the side of the castle we'd seen earlier had a dock this half used lava to act as a barrier. As such Power Girl could not simply go over there and punch us a way in.
It might work if she could throw something heavy enough to break down a part of the wall, but that would take some time, and there must be an easier way to get inside.
Thinking about the lava moat made me wonder if there was some obsidian where the lava met the water. You needed blocks of that stuff to make a portal to the Netherworld and there was a lot of interesting stuff down in the underworld.
Something to think more about later as for now we needed to get into the castle and as we got closer I saw that the drawbridge was indeed up so we couldn't just walk in.
Since there were no signs of life it seemed as if there was no one around to lower to drawbridge for us, and if anyone was around they were keeping out of sight, which meant they were unlikely to give us access.
"So James, how are we going to get in?" questioned Jessica.
Given the lava moat and the high walls, I could understand her concern, but she'd clearly forgotten just how many powers I had at my command. I'd just come up with a way.
I got down from the caravan.
"Stay here" I instructed.
Using my ability to manipulate the elements I created a crude set of stairs that went up to the wall of the castle that were made out of stone. It was nothing impressive compared to what a geomancer like Terra could do, but it would serve my purpose.
Once I got on top of the high wall I got rid of the earth ramp I'd made, so nothing hostile could use it, and then I dropped down. I soon found the mechanism that lowered the drawbridge and opened up the iron gate. It shouldn't have been so easy to use on my own.
As soon as I did get the gate open, people came out of the castle. They were not players or monsters, they were game people, but hostile, unlike the villagers we'd recently met.
I greatly hoped that they didn't spawn here or the castle would not be useable by us as a secure base, and it could be quite some time before we found somewhere else to set up.
The baddies carried a variety of weapons, including crossbows and axes. One of the bad guys at the back of the group was a mage who summoned up little flying imps of some kind. The courtyard was soon full of hostiles.
I considered just blasting them all, but Jessica leapt into action, and I figured that I'd let her handle this for the most part she had plenty of energy for it. I would deal with the enemy magic users while she took on the bandits, or Illagers as they were known.
To that end, I sent a stream of magical flames at the imps who all vanished, as nothing living ever left a dead body behind once I had killed them.
While this did mean less spoils it was overall a good feature because I didn't really want the legacy of my time in this strange world to be a trail of corpses.
The magic-user didn't last for long, he ran and I just blasted him in the back with raw magical power. The witch who was the only other magic user in this mob of baddies soon had her turn.
She didn't last for long as I just froze her in place and Jess shattered her once she was done with the warriors. Since these guys were basically Minecraft's version of the bandits they have in the Skyrim game they weren't much of a challenge to defeat.
"It feels so good not to have to pull my punches" she commented.
Before anything else, we needed to bring the horses in and raise the drawbridge so that if there were more bad guys around they couldn't just enter the castle while we were off exploring whatever rooms it had to offer.
Nor did we want to let the monsters into our walls, as that would make having a castle rather pointless. It was meant to serve as a safe haven.
This place had a stable so we were able to secure the horses before we picked up the few emeralds and weapons the raiders had left when their bodies vanished. We found an iron axe, a crossbow and a dozen emeralds as well as plenty of bolts for the projectile weapon.
Once inside I opened the double set of wooden doors we found something very beautiful, at least in my eyes. An inactive netherworld gate. It was standing on a platform in the centre of the main room just waiting to be used.
"If we light this thing up it will open a portal to what passes for an underworld in this universe," I told my girlfriend
She wasn't as eager as me to head into what be called the underworld.
"They don't normally have gateways to hell just standing around do they?" asked Jessica.
No, that wasn't normal.
"It's more of a magical underground realm than any kind of hell" I corrected "But it is dangerous".
Not that this bothered me as much as it should.
"So we going in?" questioned Jessica.
I didn't think that going in now was a good idea. If nothing else we hadn't checked out most of the castle.
"Let's look around" I decided "It's not as if we are in a rush".
We found many interesting rooms within the castle. Several bedrooms, and an indoor pool that might just be a large bathtub. Jess was eager to find out.
To my delight, there was a forge that had a pool of lava in the centre of the room along with an anvil, a furnace, crafting tables, and chests full of supplies, as well as sorts of tools that had been carefully put away.
"This is the motherlode of crafting," I told my girlfriend.
Even better one of the rooms contained everything needed for enchanting. It had plenty of books and raw materials. Given enough time I'd be able to learn to make potions and to enchant things.
"I could be in here for a while," I said.
There was still plenty more castle for her to go and explore while I worked on the magical stuff.
Minecraft World.
When I woke up and found out that time had passed normally, rather than us sleeping for a mere ten minutes I was not worried at all.
This was expected as Jessica and I had slept on our bedrolls, and inside sleeping bags, instead of in a bed made in this world so we could see what would happen if we tried to sleep normally.
She had insisted on having our sleeping bags zipped up together so that she could get her cuddles. Not that I minded and I felt safer with her nearby as her enchanted sense would detect danger before my more human ones.
I checked the time and found that I'd been asleep for a full six hours. I had worried that the rapid day and night cycles would mess with our body clocks, but we seemed to sleep normally, and neither of us was eating too much, or rather no more than was expected for Jessica.
"I still want to take one of the locally made beds with us," I told my girlfriend as I prepared for what should be a busy day "Being able to take ten-minute power naps that leave our bodies rested will be useful if the beds work outside of this world. As long as we don't use them too often we won't suffer any side effects".
It would be very interesting to see what if any items from this world kept their strange properties once we'd left. It would be fascinating to explore how the different universes made magical items function.
"So what are your plans for us today?" Jessica asked me as she began to dress "Please don't tell me you are going to spend more time in that lab".
That wasn't what I had in mind.
"No" I assured her "I can play around in the lab on my own time. I want to spend some time with you".
She liked that idea.
"Are we going back to the village?" was her next question "If they don't come after me with pitchforks then we can do some shopping".
That was part of my plans. Hopefully, they weren't still mad about the iron golem that she'd smashed up when we'd been fighting those undead creatures.
I wouldn't mind finding out how they made such things as one day I might need to create some even if I had my own stone golems. If nothing else the Tower of Fate could always use more defences.
If the monsters here hadn't been so easy to beat I might have made use of those golems and I know doubt would once I was back in the DC universe as the enemies there were much more powerful.
"There's a massive greenhouse here so I want to purchase some seeds," I told Jessica "If the food from this world never rots it would be nice to have some stored away for emergencies".
I'd seen enough versions of the DC universe get overrun with vampires, zombies and other horrors to know that it wouldn't be a terrible idea to have this plane to retreat to or at the very least some stockpiled supplies.
"The farmers should have seeds and we have some stuff to trade," I said.
Once ready we got moving and took the horses out of the fortress before I went back and raised the bridge. I then used my powers to get out of the castle as I had done when first gaining entrance.
I would be able to let us both back into the massive castle once our business with the villagers was done.
It didn't take long for us to arrive at the village, but it was dark when we arrived. As hoped the iron golem dealt with the zombies when nighttime came, and the villagers stayed inside their homes until the sun reappeared.
"Let's start with some seeds," I said.
I traded some emeralds that the pillagers had dropped, and it was good that I'd found plenty more of them stashed away in the castle as supplies here were not cheap.
The castle had some supplies, but I would need more if I was going to start enchanting things. I hoped to make Jess a proper set of armour, something she could wear on Earth that wouldn't draw as much attention as the sexy armour she wore for me.
"An emerald for a loaf of bread?" questioned Jess "That's daylight robbery".
Since the people here were real and had feelings we got kicked out of the bakery.
"It's not like they easily replace what they sell" I pointed out "A village like this is often under attack and dependent on wandering traders. Besides, who knows how common emeralds are here".
Jessica was not pleased, but she didn't sulk.
"Don't have like cities with markets?" she asked "They might have better prices".
I gave the matter some thought.
"If they do and this is an infinite plane of existence we might never find one" I said.
We soon ended up in the wizard's place of business. Most of his goods weren't worth buying due to their high prices and because I was sure that given enough time I'd figure out how to make all this for myself. However, the map he had was worth every gem he charged.
"There's a city some distance to the northeast," I said to Jess as I studied the crude map "It might take us a while to get there and back, and I don't want to leave this area until I get what I need from the Netherworld".
Since there was no real scale on the map it could take us a few hours of normal time or days. There was no way to tell.
"Maybe we can make a trip for the future" Jessica suggested "We don't have to do everything right away".
I gave this matter some thought.
"You're right, we'll need goods to trade" I reasoned "And we should wait until we have a free weekend".
Something to plan later.
"Before we go home I still want to check out the Nether," I told my girlfriend "So if you want anything here then be quick".
Spoiler
"Oh, it's so pretty" commented Power Girl.
We'd both been drawn to the weaponsmiths.
"It's got three enchantments," the smith told us
How the heck did a village blacksmith end up with an enchanted diamond sword?
"What enchantments" Jess wanted to know.
"Smite, Sweep and Sharpness" answered the smith.
I explained what that all meant as best I could.
"Oh, I want it" said Jessica "How much?"
She didn't have nearly enough on her own and it was only by trading a lot of what I had that we got enough currency for the sword.
"We need to go back to the castle so I refill my supplies," I said.
It got dark before we could leave as we waited for dawn I checked my book.
900cp
+200
1000cp
I rolled.
- 200cp
800cp
Conjurer
The Elder Scrolls
Conjuration mainly involves summoning creatures from other planes of Oblivion, which don't appear in any other universes, but that doesn't apply anymore, now you can summon any daedra that can be summoned by a mage.
A useful bit of magic and since the Grimiore never gave me anything dangerous I should be able to handle the Daedra.
Might go back for a bit more Minecraft world later, but for now it's back to DC.
Celestial Grimoire.
Part 25.
Minecraft World.
The Nether was much as I expected it to be, a dangerous part of this dimension containing a lot of fire, lava, strange vegetation, many hostile creatures, and abandoned structures that could not have been built by anyone.
I saw an entire fortress in the distance, lavafalls, that fed into lakes of magma, and islands of stone surrounded by the molten rock.
This hell as Jessica called it, and to be fair it could considered a hell-dimension by some. was oddly cold given how magma was around and brightly lit by all the glowstone.
"I wonder how we can breathe the air down here?" Jessica mused "It's not like there are any trees here".
That was a fair point. You think we'd suffocate due to a lack of oxygen and no doubt the air should be full of stuff that was unhealthy for us to breathe.
I didn't think the fungus and mushrooms growing down here would be enough to keep the levels of carbon dioxide down.
"One of the many things about this world that makes no sense," I said.
The portal that Jessica and I had opened, on this side, appeared near a massive bridge that I didn't think had come about naturally, even in this strange world.
Although since I'd seen an entire castle that couldn't have been made in the short time that this plane had existed, it must be what passed for natural in this dimension.
Not long after we'd arrived we came under attack by zombie-pig people for lack of a better description. This was a nice change of pace from the zombies we normally came across when exploring as at least they looked different and they didn't make that groaning noise that I was starting to loathe hearing.
The pigmen zombies seemed quite primitive other than having somehow made weapons from gold that were tougher than they should have been given the softness of the metal.
Something that Jessica demonstrated when she cut one of the undead things in half with a golden sword, that she'd taken from one of her kills before the creature simply vanished.
The golden blade would have gleamed in the sunlight if they had a sun down here and even without that she damm good while wielding it.
"Heck ya!" she shouted.
At least someone was having fun. As for me, I was blasting any zombie pigs that Jess couldn't deal with in hand-to-hand combat without going too far from me, they had crossbows, but for some reason, they didn't use them.
Perhaps because they were undead the creatures lacked the fine muscle control required or maybe they had run out of bolts. I couldn't tell from this distance and I saw no reason to get close enough to find out.
All we did for a while was defeat zombie pigmen and along the way, we collected a few golden weapons, one sword, that Jess was using along with her diamond blade, an axe and a spear.
There was a much greater variety of weapons here than I remembered back when I played the game. I wondered if someone like me was around to introduce new things or if the living pigmen were able to think and come up with their own ideas.
I couldn't recall seeing any spears before now, but we'd only explored a rather small area and no doubt there would be other things around here that were different than I expected.
Another change was that I was now collecting Experience Orbs, it made sense that I'd not seen them until now, because a short time before coming here I'd tried to enchant something and it had failed.
The orbs fuelled enchantments and now that I needed them the world was providing them to me. That or the plane was still being formed and not all of its features had been available.
"You're really embracing your Amazon heritage" I commented.
It was impressive to watch her running and jumping about at speeds I couldn't hope to match. The only reason I hadn't lost track of her was because she would wait for me to catch up.
We didn't need to worry about losing track of the portal as I'd found a compass in the castle that always points to the portal when in the Nether and to the bedroom of the castle when in the world above.
I was sure it had something to do with respawning points, but that wasn't something I wanted to test as we couldn't know how the rules of this realm affected us when it came to death.
I also knew how to make the portals and kept the required materials on me, there were some ready-made ones down here, just dormant. A little bit of fire would get them going again.
Then there was all the gold. The zombie pigmen who wandered around down here dropped gold nuggets rather than emeralds or some sort of crafting material when they were defeated.
If I hadn't already been rich I would soon be, assuming the gold was just like the stuff back on Earth.
At the rate things were going I'd have to add a treasury to the Tower of Fate. Although, the tower would likely do that for me given how it worked.
"Oh I'm better than any Amazon" she declared "They all stay on their stupid island. I get to go on adventures".
We wandered for a while and I blasted some floating creatures in the distance.
"What are those?" Jessica wondered.
They were Ghasts, large white floating ghost-like hostile mobs that live in the Nether and shoot explosive fireballs at the player. Something that I explained to my girlfriend.
I was also interested in acquiring some glowstone as the stuff could have value back on Earth and magical properties I currently knew nothing about.
"Is this glowing rock radioactive?" questioned Jessica.
That was actually a very good question and one that I could answer since I owned a device for detecting radiation. Another thing I'd picked before we came here. It was amazing what the Justice League could supply its members and allies with.
"No," I told her.
Not so much as a tick came from the little device, and that was good as it would be a shame if all the mineral wealth down here was too dangerous to take out of the Nether due to being radioactive.
If it was magical then it might do something else to people if they were exposed to it for a long time, so I should have it analysed and show it to some of the other magic users.
Along the way, we encountered some sort of lava creature that left behind a metal rod once I had defeated it. These rods were very important. I would have to acquire more and experiment with them both in this plane and back at the tower.
After acquiring some more gold via mining, and some mushrooms which I also felt were important I checked the time. It seemed to be passing normally for us so I saw no reason to turn back.
"Those pigmen are different," remarked Jessica as she spied something I could make out "They are just wandering around".
I had to take out my binoculars to see what she meant. It was some sort of camp and there were pig people moving about performing tasks.
"They aren't zombies," I told her "You can trade with the normal pigmen, but there's some trick to it".
It involved wearing golden armour if I recall correctly, but before I could mention that I felt someone tugging on my arm.
"What the heck is that thing?" I heard Jessica ask me.
I turned to see that Power Girl was looking right at an Enderman, one of those weird teleporting creatures that you really don't want to get into a fight with. It was staring at Jess and I knew that if she looked away it would start teleporting around.
Currently, the creature was below us just standing on one of the little islands in a sea of laa. What it had been doing here I didn't know, nor did I care as it didn't matter. The distance between us meant nothing when it came to one of these monsters.
"Don't take your eyes off it" I ordered.
While normal ranged attacks don't work on this kind of monster I knew that elemental ones would so I used my ability to manipulate the Earth to throw lava at it.
Thankfully that proved to be effective, or so I thought at first. Jess must have blinked and when she did the Enderman managed to grab hold of her.
I locked eyes with the creature as I reached out to grab Jessica by her arm and as I did I tripped over. When I looked up I saw the Enderman had moved again and taken Jess with it.
It was standing in mid-air, something else that made no sense, and then it teleported away. Jess dropped right into the lake of magma below us.
The Tower of Fate.
"That was fun while it lasted, but I'm never going back to the underworld part of that world" promised Jessica.
Due to the way things worked in that plane of existence, Jess had respawned at the last place she'd slept, and that had been the main bedroom of the castle.
While this was very good news, not least of which was because I'd grown very fond of her, she had lost all the stuff she acquired in that world.
That included her weapons, nearly all of her sexy armour, as well as the things she'd been collecting to give to the team as gifts.
She'd been reduced to wearing the leather amour I'd made for her first and while it did a great job of drawing attention to the highlights of her sexy body. She much preferred her golden armour.
So for her, this trip had ended up being rather unproductive and a bit of a disappointment even if I had sworn that I would replace what she had lost.
Which meant I'd have to find or craft for her a new diamond sword they were not cheap at all to buy and it might take me ages to mine some diamonds.
You'd think dying, even if you did respawn, would be something that bothered Jess, but she assured me that from her point of view, it had all happened very quickly and she'd not felt any pain.
She'd fallen and then just appeared in the castle's main bedroom and for some reason she'd been naked.
"I'm going for a hot bath and to find some regular clothes before I check in at the mountain" Jessica told me after giving me a quick kiss "Can I come over later?".
No doubt she would want some cuddle time.
"Of course," I said, "I'll be in the library if you need me".
As I watched her leave, or rather her butt as she headed for the stairs, I reminded myself that I wanted to look up telekinesis magic. If I'd had that then Jess never would have fallen into the lava and she wouldn't have lost all her stuff.
I recalled how Damien Darhk a villain in the Arrowverse was able to learn to use magic to move things without touching them, and if that bastard could do it then so could I.
As I made my way to the library I found that my grimoire wanted my attention and I opened it to find something surprising.
The update had finished and I found out that my points had been reset to zero, but I'd been offered a special 1000cp perk, so the loss of all those points didn't bother me.
1000cp
Greatest Magician of the Age
A normal mortal mage is constrained by the limits of their mortal body and soul. The only way to increase their power past a certain point is to become something more or to wield powerful artefacts.
For you, however, this is not the case. There is no true ceiling to your growth. You will, for a time, grow in power at a meteoric rate. But you will never reach a point where your magic cannot grow further.
I suddenly felt different, as if there had been a shackle on me for my entire life and then suddenly it had been taken off. I felt the potential for growth.
Given my immortality along with how many worlds and planes there are out there just in the DC multiverse, I could learn and explore forever. Granted that had always been a possibility it now just seemed more real than ever.
Perhaps one day I would be a match for the Endless, the gods and demons like Trigon.
An interesting prospect and it made me smile like a loon, but for now, I needed to learn how to perform telekinesis.
Interlude - Raven
She had to run, she had to hide, and because she'd kept moving she didn't even know for sure where on Earth she'd ended up, other than she was in some place where the people spoke English, and that for some reason, it had been far easier for her to enter this dimension here than it would have been anywhere else.
As for why she had to run, that was because she was Raven, the half-human daughter of Arella Roth, a human woman who managed to find her way to the dimension of Azarath and Trigon the Terrible.
He was a dread and powerful demon lord who intended to use his daughter to open a portal that would enable him to come to Earth and conquer his realm as he had done to others.
The monks of Azarath had taught her well while they could, but even their knowledge had limits, and as such there was a lot about Earth she didn't know about, and right now she didn't have time to learn more, because they were after her.
Many other teenage girls might have felt safer knowing that their six brothers were close by and wished to find her, or perhaps they would be embarrassed by their level of attention.
Raven did not feel safer or embarrassed by their presence, she was scared because like Raven her siblings were the half-demon children of Trigon the Terrible.
Despite the fact that Trigon simply saw his partly mortal children as a means to an end his sons seemed content to carry out their father's bidding, and his instructions were for them to bring Raven back to his hell-dimension.
She didn't wish to imagine what sort of fate awaited her in her father's demonic realm. You don't earn the tile of the Terrible for being a pleasant host.
As for her brothers, they were all born around the same time as Raven and the seven of them represented the Seven Sins.
Perhaps they had other names, ones given to them by their mothers, but she knew them only as Wrath, Envy, Lust, Sloth, Gluttony and Greed. She was meant to be Pride, but she had rejected her role and fled to Earth.
She could feel them out there, and the intensity of their search, should she use her powers to escape or fail to remain calm they would sense her. At least some of her brothers were as empathic as she was, and they would detect her if she didn't keep her feelings under control.
Even with her dark cloak and attempts to be stealthy, she wasn't able to avoid her siblings for much longer as her brothers were relentless in their hunt.
It was Sloth who found her despite his name he hadn't been lazy when it came to finding his sister and he had more than enough power to contain his sister long enough for the others to join them.
"No, let go of me" Raven demanded.
The skinny, unshaven and long-haired teenager had the ability to transform people by touch into slothful versions of themselves and while this didn't work on Raven he was rather strong despite his name.
Since her powers were tied to her feelings and she was filled with her Raven couldn't focus enough to attack her sibling. Not that she needed to.
"No means no," said an unfamiliar voice.
Raven and her half-brother turned to see a young man, he was somewhat handsome, and he wore a coat that looked like it had been made from the hide of some fearsome beasts.
He carried a staff in one hand and if that didn't clue people into the nature of this person then the phoenix that just landed on a mailbox certainly would.
Before Sloth could say or do anything, the phoenix took the air and went right for her brother, clawing at his face and drawing blood.
Then Wrath appeared in his inhuman form.
Spoiler: Wrath
The local wizard waved his free hand and suddenly an even more frightening creature appeared
Spoiler
The two monsters began to fight and that was not something any sensible person wanted to be close to.
"Come with me if you want to live," said the wizard.
While her brothers weren't actually trying to kill her there was no way this mage could know that and it wasn't as if Raven had much of a choice in the matter.
Before she could reach the man who seemed to be playing the role of hero a blast of eldritch energy struck the wizard and he didn't see it coming.
Gluttony might look like a fat and bald man, but he could move fast when he wanted to, and soon he had his hands on the wizard. An act that should have Gluttony to drain the life out of the young man.
As he did her brother's demonic features began to appear.
Spoiler: Gluttony
Nothing else happened and the Son of Trigon was so shocked by this that he didn't see the punch coming, and while the demon/human hybrid was too tough to be knocked out with one blow, he certainly was hurt.
Oddly for a mage, the somewhat handsome man had started to punch her obese sibling despite most wizards not being the type to hit people with their fists. Yet this young magician was rather good at hitting people.
As more of her brothers turned up Raven created a shield around herself and the hero, who had quickly knocked out Gluttony.
The summoned monsters had vanished by now after messing Wrath up and Sloth's face was a mess, but Envy, Lust and Greed looked ready to fight and soon they began taking down her defence.
Spoiler
"This isn't going to hold" she warned.
When the barrier collapsed the mage attempted to blast the three sons of Trigon with elemental power, but they had enough magic of their own to protect themselves and the three of them were working together.
At least this gave Raven enough time to set up another protective barrier.
"It won't last long" she warned.
Rather than reply the man took a golden helmet out of a pouch on his belt. She hoped that it was more than what it appeared to be.
"Behave, Nabu or I will leave you on a shelf," he said to the helmet.
When the man put the helmet on the world became a blinding golden light. Her failing shield had been replaced by a shining golden barrier and when he looked at her brothers she could tell that were rather nervous about this new situation.
Spoiler
The figure before them was no human sorcerer even if he was still here in some sense. This was a Lord of Order, a creature about as far from the demonic as it was possible to get, and far more powerful than any of them.
Envy, who had the power to take the forms of people whom others wished to be, took the form of Superman, but he didn't know how it control that hero's powers and when he took the form of another he took on their weaknesses. In this case, he became vulnerable to magic and he was blasted with golden energy.
"Fate says begone"
It wasn't a demand to be shouted, rather it was a simple statement. Wrath didn't listen and tried to attack only to become trapped in a golden ankh.
By this time the brothers were looking more than a little nervous and a few of them were slowly backing away. Even Raven felt the need to put some distance between herself and this golden figure.
Her brother's attacks were stopped by a golden barrier and then that shield was forced away from the figure. When it struck her siblings they were all knocked to the ground.
Soon it was over, and the golden figure banished the sons of Trigon. Raven knew that if they came back if her father didn't destroy them for their failure, then next time they be better prepared.
She didn't worry about that for long as the golden figure had turned to her and for a moment Raven wondered if she was next. As it turned out she wasn't and the golden man left as the helmet was taken off.
"We need to get out of here" he said "Take my hand".
She did as she was told and took the mage's hand. It wasn't as if she had anywhere else to go.
"Phosphor, if you wouldn't mind" requested the mage.
The magical bird flew down to them and then they were both bathed in fire that didn't burn as they were transported somewhere else.
Celestial Grimoire.
Part 26.
The Tower of Fate.
It had been rather startling to me when a version of the Raven, who was normally a member of the Teen Titans when in a DC universe, had just appeared in this world.
She'd been seen by me when I was using the scrying equipment here in the tower to check out what was taking place on the mystical side of things.
The Orb of Nabu is a mystical globe of crystal used by Dr Fate, who was sort of me these days, to learn about dangers and the unknown in general, as such it was a very useful tool.
The images hadn't actually focused on Raven as she was not a threat to this world, at least not of her own free will, but rather on the strange magic users who had been hunting the poor girl who I doubted was even sixteen years old.
Alone they would have been no match for me, I figured that I could even handle two of them without a lot of trouble, but three of them at the same time had been too much.
Which was to be expected as three was an important number when it came to magic. I was more powerful than ever before and I could feel myself growing stronger, but I still had a long way to go.
It would have helped if I made use of my stone golems as they would have given me the weight of numbers, but there was no use chiding myself as hindsight was always 20/20 and all I could do was perform better next time.
For now, I needed to know more about those creatures that I was sure weren't humans, or at least not totally, they might have been demons riding around in human bodies or demonic creatures who just happened to look somewhat human.
I didn't know because demons weren't something I'd researched much about and they were John's area of expertise. I doubted that he wanted me to get mixed up with such entities.
He was either going to have to spend some of his time actually teaching me or I was going to need to ask Lucifer for a favour so that I find out if he was willing to share some information at a price I could afford to pay.
Because I needed to know more, sooner rather than later, and there was someone here who did know more, I led my guest into the drawing room. I didn't think she'd tell me right away and I didn't blame her for such caution.
"Care for some tea?" I offered.
Raven seemed calm, but hiding her feelings was a speciality of hers, and I knew that in her place I'd be ready to run for the door.
I wondered how long she'd been running, I didn't think it would have been too long as her clothes were clean, but for all I knew they were enchanted to stay clean and she did look tired.
"Please," she said.
The tower provided tea and sandwiches just as I liked them. I had wondered more than once if there was something akin to a House Elf from the world of Harry Potter here.
Despite looking all over the place I'd never found one nor did anything like such a creature come when I called for a service.
"Help yourself" I insisted "I imagine that you've been through a lot".
The girl grabbed a sandwich and almost stuffed it into her face. She looked a little humiliated before she began to slow down.
"Don't worry" I assured her "I like a girl with a healthy appetite".
I thought of mentioning what Jessica could be like on a date. Then I decided not to overwhelm my guest and to stick to discussing what I needed to know.
It would be wise of me to tread carefully as this was certainly a young Raven and she could be very new to her powers. That could mean that if her emotional state became too wild she could lose control of her powers.
Even if I hadn't wanted to help her because of my own affection for the character, I had devoted myself to becoming this world's Sorcerer Supreme. As such, I couldn't have people from other dimensions coming here and causing trouble.
"Let me start by introducing myself," I said "My name is James Nelson, and I sometimes go by the sobriquet Gothic. I'm a sorcerer as you may have guessed. This is the Tower of Fate as like any proper wizard I have my magical tower".
You just can't be a proper sorcerer without your mystical abode. Even John had his fancy house in the English countryside.
"So why are you here in Salem?" I asked.
She'd not been that far from the tower when I'd found her, and that was not concerning by itself as this entire area was a mystical hotspot.
Since my familiar had taken a spot near the girl and he seemed relaxed then I wasn't worried about her presence here. If she were hostile then my familiar would have reacted by now.
"I ran away from my father" admitted Raven.
The way she said those words made her seem far more like an abused runaway than the powerhouse I knew her to be.
"And those demons who were after you?" I asked.
Raven sipped at her tea before answering. She needed a moment to compose herself.
"They are my brothers" she told me "They serve my father".
So not possessed humans then, they must be Cambions. I'd have to look into that and find out more about her demonic parent.
"Unless I am very much mistaken your father would be Trigon the Terrible" I stated.
I didn't need to be an empath to know that me knowing her heritage was worrying the poor girl.
"Relax," I told her "If I wanted to harm you I would have let Nabu banish you back to wherever it was you came from".
She didn't run off or otherwise move other than to shift in her seat, but I could tell that she had thought about fleeing.
"You're not a prisoner here" I assured the girl "The tower will let you leave if you want to go".
She ate another sandwich before saying anything.
"I don't have anywhere to go" she told me "I ran from home because my father sent my brothers to look for me. If I go back the.. people who raised me will be in danger".
She didn't need to hide these things from me.
"I know about the Monks of Azarath and who you are, Raven" I informed my guest "I'm the closest thing Earth has to a Sorcerer Supreme so it's my job to know about such things".
She looked a little alarmed. Well, more so than before and I figured that providing her with more information would be wise.
"The Sorcerer Supreme is the primary protector of Earth against magical and mystical threats" I explained "I'm not ready to take on that role fully, so for now I help other heroes and keep this tower safe. If I need to deal with something above my pay grade that's when I put on the helmet and become Doctor Fate. He's a Lord of Order and a match for even the Lords of Chaos".
Despite never talking we seemed to have reached an understanding. Nabu was powerful indeed, and more important he was smart enough to know that trying to keep control of my body would take so much effort that he wouldn't be able to get much done.
Since he was cooperating I would not keep him on a shelf for years at a time.
"How do you know who I am?" my guest wanted to know.
She had a right to know a bit more.
"I've seen versions of this universe back when I lived
in my own," I told her "The stories of certain people's lives have been played out many times in different forms of entertainment, and in all of them I've seen you in when Trigon comes to Earth he is defeated".
Raven sat stock still.
"He can't be stopped" she stopped.
Her naivety was a little amusing.
"Yes, he can" I insisted "You can defeat him".
She wasn't willing to believe that I could tell.
"Not alone" I went on to say "You'll need training and help, but Trigon isn't that big of a deal when compared to some of the other threats out there. He's brutal and arrogant, but he's just one entity. This world has an entire Justice League, and you saw what happens when I put on that helmet".
This time I'd been aware of what was going on while Nabu did his thing.
"So you want to help train me?" questioned Raven.
That was part of the plan.
"This tower is warded against outside threats and it contains a vast library" I informed my guest.
Despite her belief in Trigon's ultimate victory, she looked intrigued by my offer. When I mentioned the library her eyes seemed to light up for a moment.
"My plan is to gather some magic users" I was now saying "To shelter them here and make sure they are trained, if only so they don't hurt themselves, and my hope is that they will help me to protect this world".
Since this was a lot to take in I decided that it would be best to let Raven get some rest.
"Why don't you take a couple of days to think it over" I suggested "I know some people who can help to train you and help to keep you safe. I'd like you to meet them if you are willing, but you should stay here and we can talk some more when you are ready".
I got up and moved through my home. She followed me without a word.
"The tower looks as if it is impossible to get around," I said to Raven "Yet that isn't the case".
As we walked my home took us to a guestroom that would keep her comfortable as she rested.
"If you decide to stay we can get you set up" I promised.
Paying for clothes and such would not be an issue. I felt sure that if I gave Megan a credit card and told her to sort things out she'd handle it.
"If you need the bathroom or want something to eat the stairs will take you where you need to go" I told Raven "Trust me it makes no sense, but there's a pattern to all this chaos".
She was nervous so I decided to leave her be.
"If you need me and I'm home the tower will guide you to where I am," I informed Raven.
I then left and I wondered if she would still be here tomorrow when I got back from my first day of college. I certainly hoped so as I did need allies and I was worried about what would happen to her if she left.
Since I did have college tomorrow I couldn't stay up late, I went to my own room and turned on the TV so as to distract myself.
GBS News reporter Cat Grant was covering the peace talks between Singh Manh Li of North Rhelasia and Tseng of South Rhelasia. There had been threats made and attempts to destabilise the region by what looked to be the League of Shadows, but the Justice League had been there in force to stop the assassins.
Lex Luthor turned out to be the independent party both sides had agreed to talk with. I figured that Luthor took the job just to make sure that Superman saw him bring peace to an entire region.
My book wanted my attention and it was good to see that I was making some points after getting my balance reduced to zero.
0cp
+200cp
Bank or Roll?
A good question. Even if I rolled and failed the money would just be banked so I saw no harm in rolling. If past experience was anything to go by banking wasn't a good way to make use of the grimoire.
If I got something worthless I could always save up some cp for a while.
-200cp
0cp
Enochian Protection Runes
BTVS
These tattooed runes render the user invisible to higher beings, seers, mystics, and technological surveillance devices, though not to the naked eye.
"Ouch!" I yelled.
The marks that appeared on my body burned me for a moment, and once the pain was gone, I thought about what these marks could mean for Raven. Perhaps they would help to hide her from Trigon.
They had a blood connection so I doubted the two of them could be so easily cut off from each other, but they should at least make it harder for her demon brothers to find her in the future.
That was something to deal with later. For now, IK should get some sleep.
Interlude - Jessica
As she sat outside in the quad to enjoy the sunshine during their lunch, Jessica Kent could not help smiling, here she was in college with her brother, best friend and boyfriend.
Here was the life she'd been promised when she left Cadmus and she had no intention of losing it or letting the others who were enjoying the day feel that loss.
This was a life worth protecting and that made her feel good about her hero work. Sometimes it seemed as if he hadn't accomplished much, so it was good to be reminded of the world she was protecting.
Thanks to some behind-the-scenes work done by some member of the League or any ally of theirs, the four young heroes had classes that shouldn't take up too much of their time.
They also had professors who knew not to question it should four certain students keep missing classes. Jessica wondered what those people had been told, however, she felt it best not to pry.
As long as they got their classwork done and didn't disrupt other people's educations then they should be fine to go about their business.
They would just have to be careful not to let anyone what they were getting up to when they suddenly needed to leave campus.
Jessica did wonder what it would be like if she and Megan had ended up sharing a dorm room. Would they have gotten even closer or would they have started to get on each other's nerves?
She would never know because she had to live in Mount Justice. While that did make it easier to rush off to do her hero work, Jess resented the fact that she hadn't been free to make her own choices.
Granted she wasn't even a year old and so her parents had some right to tell her what to do, she just wished they'd do their parenting in person rather than issuing orders through other members of the League.
Batman was a hard-to-read person, but it was clear that the caped man did not approve of how Superman was handling his unexpected offspring and he wasn't alone.
Power Girl's talks with Black Canary made it obvious that others in the superhero community felt the same about the actions of Wonder Woman.
Jessica did her best to dismiss those negative thoughts that sometimes bothered her as this was not the time or the place for them.
So what if she had to go and spend time on Paradise Island, lots of people spent time with extended family whom they didn't care much for, and the extra training was useful.
With her brother, best friend, boyfriend and grandparents, she had no reason to complain about her family. Marth and Jonathan Kent had stepped in to provide support when it was needed, and Jessica was never alone when she needed someone.
She didn't just get to do hero work and have a somewhat normal life at times, she also got to see and do things that most people couldn't even imagine.
Who else got to spend a weekend with their boyfriend, in a magical fantasy realm where no one died and there were loads of easy-to-defeat monsters for her to fight as well as pretty things to buy?
Now she got to be a university student and already she'd found herself drawn to the many clubs they had here, and she had gotten many invites from many guys to social events, but she figured that they were only interested in her for her body.
It was best to let them down gently as she was most certainly a one-man kind of woman, and who could ever compare to her wizard boyfriend? Anyone else would be too dull.
It was only a shame that he had suddenly found someone to share the whole wizard thing with who happened to be a girl who wasn't her.
"So you invited this girl to live with you?" Jess asked.
No, she did not like hearing that. What woman would?
"I offered, but she hasn't accepted or refused," James answered.
This was not good news at all.
"And you didn't think to tell me?" she questioned.
It seemed like the sort of thing you'd tell your girlfriend.
"I only met her late last night" he replied.
So he hadn't tried to hide anything it just hadn't come up before now. They had been rather busy this morning with their first history class and taking another tour of the campus.
"And you want her to move in with you?" was Megan's question "That happened fast".
Conner already knew enough about women not to get involved in this discussion
"The Tower of Fate isn't just some house" James pointed out "It should be a shelter for any mage who needs protection, and Raven needs protection as well as a teacher. I can offer that to her".
Jessica was not happy about this.
"But she's a girl" Jess pointed out "And I've heard that girls can get crushes on their teachers".
James didn't seem concerned about that.
"Artemis's mentor is Green Arrow" the mage pointed out "Is anything happening between them?".
Jessica wanted to argue that this wasn't the same thing, but mostly it was, as didn't Canary trust Green Arrow to be alone with Artemis?
"They don't live together" Megan pointed out.
Jess was thankful to her friend that she'd brought that up.
"So I should kick her out and let the homeless witch wander the streets of Salem until she gets dragged back to her demon of a father?" James asked.
Jessica suddenly felt a bit of a bitch.
"Besides, it's not like you have any reason to feel insecure about yourself or threatened," the wizard pointed out "And if you don't trust me then we have bigger problems".
Jessica was annoyed that James was acting so reasonable about this and that he was right. James had met her grandparents, and they'd gone to a magical fantasy land together, they were a couple.
"So are you planning to bring other people to stay in the tower?" Megan wondered "Oh will it be like your own Hogwarts".
For some reason that made Jessica worry less about the situation.
James knew about people and events that had taken place in other versions of this world, in which she didn't exist from what he'd told her, and so he must know of other spellcasters who would need help.
"If I can find some" he replied.
Jessica felt herself relax a bit. If James wanted to teach magic to some kids in his tower like he was Dumbledore and the tower was Hogwarts, then that was fine with her.
Still, she'd keep an eye on this Raven girl if she stuck around and she would find some way to make it clear to this girl that James was her man.
Celestial Grimoire.
Part 27.
Mount Justice. Happy Harbor.
"No" stated Batman.
I was here on behalf of Raven, who had quickly accepted my offer of becoming my ward and apprentice, not that she had much choice, given that she was homeless and on the run.
Once she had agreed it had become my intention to get her onto the team as its new magic user because they could teach her things that I simply couldn't.
My hope was for her to spend part of her time in the mountain base while learning how to fight without magic, some teamwork work and rather badly needed social skills.
They were all important if she was going to become a well-rounded person with both the skills and the willingness to take on Trigon, then she needed to be invested in life.
I hadn't intended to quit the team, rather I wanted to have Raven take my place part of the time so that the team would always have a spellcaster around if they needed one.
This was something I'd made clear when I had submitted my request in writing to the League, and they wanted the team to have a mage so they should have agreed to a probation period at least.
Since I wasn't part of the League and they didn't know my ward, I hadn't brought Raven to the mountain as I didn't want anyone to think I was compromising their security.
Only with their blessing would I bring my ward to the mountain and introduce her to the team, or at least that had been the plan.
That I hadn't brought her was a good thing partly because my new wards were messing with the security system.
This was likely why Batman had teleported to the mountain to talk to me in person rather than just pop up on screen, as he would be very curious about why I wasn't showing up on camera.
"Why did they refuse her so quickly?" I asked "They didn't even bother to meet with her".
That didn't seem right. Sure she was half-demon, but so was Jason Blood from a certain point of view, and members of the League had worked with him.
"Mostly it was due to Zatara" Batman told me "You might not beware, and it is something of a personal matter, but I think you should know that Kent Nelson was something of a mentor to him".
Kent Nelson had lived for over a hundred years so he had been part of many people's lives and I still knew very little about the man who had gifted me all he had to give someone.
"Kent helped care for Zatara's family while he was busy on stage and later on when he became a hero. It was Kent who sponsored Zatara's membership into the League" Batman told me.
Ah, that explained a lot.
"If he wanted to succeed Kent he every chance" I said "I know that he was looking for a successor when he met me".
I wouldn't have stood in the way if he wanted to be Earth's Sorcerer Supreme.
"Zatara has a daughter, a job and a career, both as a hero and a stage magician, that he didn't wish to give up," said Batman "And it didn't help that he doesn't know you".
I didn't think that the Dark Knight was comfortable talking about League business, but this did concern me.
"He doesn't trust me" I stated "To be fair the feeling is mutual since I don't know the man at all".
Batman didn't give anything away so I had no idea how he felt about all this. I only suspected that he would have abstained when it came to voting due to not having enough information.
"The League looks to Zatara when we have to deal with matters of magic" The Caped Crusader was now saying "Add to that his own daughter has expressed an interest in following in her father's footsteps, but she is too young to join the League".
And if Zantanna wanted to be on the team it would be good for her if there were no other magic users around. Even if her father didn't want her on the team he might have acted in her interests albeit reluctantly.
"Wonder Woman has a rather low opinion on anything demonic" informed Batman.
It was then I recalled that at least one version of her homeland had a gate to Tartarus, the hell of Ancient Greece, if that was true in this universe then the Amazons would be wary of anything demonic. I doubted it helped my case that I was sleeping with her daughter.
"Truth be told, I expected things to go better" I admitted "Raven has great potential as a hero".
Perhaps more than even I could imagine.
"Gothic, there's nothing stopping you from acting as a mentor for this young woman" Batman reminded "Perhaps if you two work together and gain a good reputation the League can be convinced to change its mind".
Batman then changed the subject.
"Is Raven going to need an identity?" he asked.
She would.
"Yes," I replied, "Give her the name Rachel Roth and make her some relative of mine".
Batman just nodded.
"I'll make sure she can have a life here" he promised "In return, I'd like to know more about this magic that can fool our security system".
No doubt he would want me or some other magic user to cover one of his bat suits with the symbols for when he needed to be extra stealthy and I had no problem with this.
He no doubt was worried about my new ability to get around with being tracked and if levelled the playing field he'd spend less time worrying about what I was getting up to.
Before leaving I promised a full written report about the wards and then I slipped into the pathways so that I could go home. Moments later I was within the Tower of Fate.
"Well that could have gone better" I said.
I went into the drawing room and took a seat. My familiar and the tower were both somehow able to sense my sad mood.
To help counter this, Phosphor sang a little to help lift my spirits the tower provided me with hot chocolate along with some biscuits. I really did love my home.
"What went wrong"? asked Raven as she joined me.
Since she was an empath she knew that something had gone wrong without me having to say anything or by knowing me well enough to guess my mood.
"The League voted against your admission to the team," I told her "Zatara warned them against admitting you because of your heritage, or at least was his excuse. I think it has a little to do with the fact that his own daughter has shown an interest in the superhero lifestyle".
Raven looked less than bothered but this news. Not that she should be as she didn't know the team and she hadn't looked enthusiastic about meeting strangers even if she somewhat trusted that I knew what was best.
Her expression changed rather suddenly as if a worrying thought had just crossed her mind.
"So do I stay or go?" asked the teenager.
Her words alarmed me.
"You don't need to go anywhere," I told my ward.
She took a seat across from me and helped herself to some hot chocolate.
"If needs be we'll form our own team" I told Raven.
I omitted the line about blackjack and hookers as that would mean nothing to her. Besides, it could send the wrong message.
"And I do know people outside of the League" I was now saying "People who can help to train you".
Ted Grant the retired Wildcat was running his own gym these days and if anyone could teach my ward some fighting skills it would be him. He'd done so for men and women who became crime fighters.
"I don't want to be a burden to you," said Raven.
She didn't need to worry about that.
"Teaching you won't be a burden it will be a privilege," I told her.
Even with her hood up I could tell that she was starting to blush.
"Why?" she wondered.
Her self-esteem needed some major work.
"I could be the single most powerful human spellcaster this world has ever seen," I told Raven "One day people might compare me to Merlin, but you have the potential to become so much more".
She clearly didn't believe that, so I decided to switch the focus a little, no sense putting pressure on her.
"My main concern is that I'm not a suitable teacher" I went on to say "I've only been learning for a few months. Most of my power comes from my items so there are limits to what I can teach you".
So far, I'd trusted Raven with information that only a handful of people knew about, but I had not yet told her about my grimoire. Since the book did something to make people ignore it only John and Jessica knew much about it.
I hadn't told Raven about the Minecraft Dimension either. One day that would change.
"You can teach me about this world" she pointed out "I don't know much about it".
That was something I could help her with, and the key to defeating Trigon had more to do with why Raven would fight him, not how she'd do it.
"An identity is getting sorted out for you," I told my student "So you'll get to out and be part of the world".
She didn't look enthused about that.
"What about my brothers?" she asked "Won't they find me".
If they did Nabu could drive them away, however, there was always a chance that they could get the drop on us or find Raven on her own.
"How close do they have to be to find you?" I questioned.
It took her a little while to answer.
"I think my father at least knows what realm I am in and roughly what part of it" she answered "I don't think he knows where I am now. My connection to him is... fuzzy here".
The wards protecting this tower were remarkable.
"My brothers would have to be close to be able to tell my exact location and I don't think they can get to me here," she said "But my father might be able to give them an area to look in".
That had been my thinking.
"I have an idea about how to it tough for them to find you" I informed my ward "I have a way to make it very hard for anyone to remotely track you even a demon lord".
After rolling up my sleeve I showed one of the runes on my body.
"They are Enochian Protection Runes" I explained "They render anyone wearing them totally invisible to higher beings, seers, mystics, and even technological surveillance devices, though not to the naked eye".
I suspect that Batman already had a list of devices that could indirectly track me, and as for the anti-possession tattoo, I had no idea if that worked on someone who was part demon so I didn't mention it.
"You want me to get tattoos?" Raven asked.
This was the case.
"Anything that can help keep you safe is worth looking into," I told her.
She shifted in her seat before speaking.
"Am I really worth all this trouble?" she asked.
I doubted that anyone had ever gone to this much trouble for her before. Maybe the monks, but I didn't think they'd shown her much affection.
"Yes" was my simple answer.
She needed more than that.
"You're important," I insisted "And I'd be a terrible teacher if I didn't take care of my student".
Since the League wasn't going to be much help I would need to start looking elsewhere for some assistance or at least some further information.
It was risky, but I knew that Lucifer liked to have people owe him favours and he was one of the few beings whom Trigon wouldn't dare to cross.
That could wait until tomorrow as Jessica would be coming over later and I wanted to introduce her to my ward so that my girlfriend could see that she had no reason to be threatened by a timid girl. Her coming over was something I mentioned to my student.
"I have some books I want to get through," Raven told me as she excused herself "I'll be in my room".
There was a book that required my attention as well.
0cp
+200cp
200cp
Bank or Roll?
I wrote to bank as upon giving the matter some more thought I'd decided that keeping a balance of 400cp seemed sensible. Besides, I wasn't in the mood to have to deal with something new.
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