章 130: Preparation
In all the running around and trying to save Earth from an alien invasion, I'd somehow lost sight of the fact that it was already day four since Mouse had arrived on the island, which meant that the process of becoming a weakened version of a super-soldier had already come to an end. And Ivy was really pissed off that we were wandering around again, having kindly left it up to her to take care of the next generation of superheroes.
"Hey, you talk like I'm ten years old! - Babs' voice was muffled by the distance.
"Stay out of adult conversations if you don't want me to tie you up," Ivy answered her, her tone clearly mocking.
"Oh, you!"
A strange rustle was heard in the background, followed by indignant squeaks, which were replaced a couple moments later by the slightly excited voice of a green-skinned girl.
"Jay, I don't know what kind of ritual you've got going on, but that little brat just knocked my kids out with sparks from her hands and passed out. Symptoms are very similar to Harley's."
"I see," I said, and a happy smile graced my face against my will.
Of course, the young heroine could hardly find a full-fledged source of magic, because the duration of the ritual and the concentration of mana around the plant cocoon left much to be desired, but despite some roughnesses of the initiation, she still managed to channel the accumulated mystical energy into the outside world for her defense. And even though this action was caused by an excess of foreign energy in her body, a normal person, without a drop of mystical powers, would simply not be able to focus mana for even a single surge. In time, the excess mana would simply dissipate into the surrounding space without manifesting itself in any way.
It's safe to say that the girl has officially joined the magical world, and now there's no need to mess with the artifact of gait, tying its control not to the user's mind, but to less reliable gestures or, God forbid, electronics, which I planned to do if the ritual didn't work. Hmm... At the same time, the idea of "technomagic" sounds pretty good, but I should deal with the current problems first.
"Harley, don't tell me that Jay's hung up again... Slap him upside the head! - The dryad asked irritably.
The blond cutie who approached me was immediately petted and kissed by me, to the indignant sniffling from the speaker of my smartphone.
"And I wasn't hung up on anything. I was just thinking," I replied, kissing my beloved again, the way she preferred to pull me out of the dream world.
After that, the conversation shifted to the world's fucked-up situation. And while Harley was enlightening her friend about the new realities and offering her to take an active part in the upcoming adventure (the dryad was fighting off such a generous offer with all her limbs), I was busy setting up the portal to the island.
By the way, what happened to Mouseball saved our couple from a huge headache. Just one smart guy successfully overlooked the fact that the artifact with the coordinates of Themyscira is now in the hands of the princess, which means that he would have to move to his private island, create a new compass, adjust it to the abandoned beacon, and only then go to warn the Amazons. Naturally, during this time resting in a tropical paradise redhead would have time to arrange interrogation a hundred times, and since no one was going to deceive the young heroine, she would want to take a personal part in the swordfight. And I have great doubts that the girl could have been dissuaded from a dangerous adventure without the use of strong ropes and a gag.
Eh, Babs should take an example from Ivy in this regard, who's been on the defensive for ten minutes now and advises taking Swamp Thing as a reinforcement.
In the end, the commissioner's daughter will lie unconscious for twenty-four hours, during which time we'll quietly solve all the problems and finish Steppenwolf off... I hope so. But the young heroine should be thrown home, so that her father would not worry when he came from duty, because it was time for Babs to return from the guests, and she would not be in the way on the island. I made a portal for the girl and went home to stock up on weapons and invite a powerful green-skinned, green-haired beauty to take part in the upcoming battle.
Only a complete idiot would refuse the help of Green's avatar, and unlike Ivy, Abby is invulnerable and strong enough to be the perfect stormtrooper. The body, of course, can be destroyed by scorched earth tactics, but the Swamp Lady's spirit can exist for as long as it realizes itself, and as long as there is at least one living plant in the universe.
Having arrived in the empty mansion, having previously wandered along the next dark secret underground routes (should it be light, as it is done at Bats?), I quickly shoved a bunch of useful stuff into my spatial pockets and called the guardian of the Forest.
I didn't have to wait long. Five minutes later, a beautiful dryad emerged from a bonsai tree in the greenhouse and stared at me expectantly with her red eyes.
Surprisingly, I was able to make a deal with Abby without too much trouble, but I had to say, I liked that kind of bartering a hell of a lot! It's nice, it helps me get used to the ba-hion, and the constant attempts to touch, cuddle, or sniff me by the sexy guardian of the Forest are a nice ego scratch.
And, since I'd started assembling a battle harem, another important call was made after returning to Shadow Peak with a bonsai under my arm. With a bonsai, since I'm not a fool to try to sneak an obscure elemental into a magical mansion possessing primitive consciousness, but as it is, it's just a plant with a huge amount of natural energy.
The sexy sorceress, like Ivy, had no desire to take part in the battle against the alien army, but she agreed to come to familiarize herself with her future opponents. I had just another dead parademon in my pocket, along with spare parts of unlucky comrades, expropriated during my visit to Metropolis.
"What is this abomination? - The sorceress wrinkled her nose as she entered a bright room with a stone altar in the center, which was intended for cutting up all sorts of magical creatures into ingredients. There was a nearly whole anthropomorphic beetle on the slab, and I began to slowly peel off the shoddily fitting armor, making sure that Bats's assumption about the nature of the new enemies had some real basis in fact.
"Parademon. Version two point zero. Probably created from a human using Apokolips technology," I reported cheerfully, looking dashing and dorky.
"Hmm, JAXNICIDEM AMROFINA," the dark-haired beauty's clothes flowed, gradually turning into a white surgical gown with an apron. A couple of seconds later, the sorceress's hands were covered in thick rubber gloves up to the elbow, and her hair was adorned with a neat cap. - Let's see what we have here, - the girl's eyes began to emit a faint blue glow.
By the time Harley reached the magical mansion, Zee and I had already dissected the beetle's corpse and explored its rich interior. So now on the stone table lay a gutted monster whose organs were neatly packed into vessels, with magical symbols on their walls, shimmering a mysterious reddish color.
"Hey, why didn't anyone warn me that there would be role-playing! - my favorite exclaimed indignantly. - Mr. J, I demand that you dress up, too. Hmm... A Superman costume will do.
"What are you talking about? - The sorceress squeamishly pulled off her green blood-stained gloves and immediately burned them in the bright flames.
"Oh," the girl's eyes flashed with enthusiasm. - Mr. J promised to try on a tight superhero outfit if the Amazons would let us into their library.
"Wow..." Zee gave me an oddly appraising look. - Wait, what did you just say? - She suddenly perked up.
"Mr. J is wearing tight tights! Really cool!"
"Hell, yeah, that's not it! About the library! - The sorceress exclaimed impatiently, her hair rising a little, as if electrified.
"Boo," the blond cutie puffed her cheeks in amusement. - And you're talking about this nonsense.
There was holy terror in the enchantress' eyes for a moment, and then she broke into an emotional speech.
"How can you... This is unique knowledge! Many mages are willing to sell their souls to demons just for the chance to enter the holy of holies of Themyscira, literally!"
"Ahem..." I coughed delicately, drawing the attention of a very indignant sorceress. - Ninety percent of Amazon magic is tied to prayers to the goddesses, and the rest of it uses life force as a source of energy. Most of their buffs would make even me sick, and the weaker ones have mana-based counterparts. And by the way, after Hercules' attack, the island was moved to the Bermuda Triangle and christened with the new name of Themyscira.
Since all my Shells, particularly the second and seventh beginnings, are developing more or less harmoniously, it is advantageous for me to use both approaches. Various body enhancements, such as increasing the strength of the body or increasing the speed of reaction, in the future it will be much more profitable to power completely through prana, while the usual spells to supply mana with a small admixture of vital energy, for the sake of increasing the speed of cast. The enchantress is a pure magician, however strange this statement may sound. Of course, due to constant feeding with mystical forces, she is a little stronger and more resilient than the average person, but still she has many, many times less life energy than magic energy, so it is easier for her to use mana, even if for some spells the effectiveness of weaves will tend to negative values, rather than to spend really scarce prana on tricks.
"They could have chosen a better name for the island... And magic doesn't work very well, though you'd have to guess about life energy in light of the new discoveries," she drummed her sharp claws thoughtfully on the stone slab, which had already absorbed the greenish blood of the parademon. - But there should be the usual books in there. History, murals, artifacts from the past...
"Oh, there's plenty of that stuff. The whole city is one big architectural monument, and the Amazons saved about a third of the Library of Alexandria during the fire."
"Then I'm ready to go with you, but don't count on my active help. Wherever the Steppenwolf is, I can't go. At most, I can put reinforcing spells on all of you and enchant your clothes and weapons."
Harley shifted her uncomprehending gaze to me, and I hurried to share with the girl not the most encouraging information on our main opponent.
Even at the first autopsy, I could sense the distorted demonic energy emanating from the corpses. Zee noticed it too, and thanks to her analyzing spells, she was able to understand the nature of the cybernetic bugs even better and refused to "stick her head in Scylla's jaws.
The point is that pure magic, based on changing the laws of reality through the will of the creator, works relatively poorly in places with a high concentration of technology. And if these technologies are based on an understanding of magical laws, as it is done on Oa, where the Green Lantern Corps is based, and, as it turned out, on Apokolips, then the prospects for a magician who gets to the above mentioned planets become quite unpleasant.
I am a relatively newcomer to the magical world, so I could not detect this pattern on my own, and if I felt something like this, I wrote it off to the proximity to various sources of magic, or to the remoteness from them.
For example, the lower levels of my mansion at first were a bit more difficult to cast magic than the main building, but as the magic alarm system improved and various magical gadgets were crafted, casting weaves and creating new artifacts became easier and easier. It was as if the terrain itself was starting to help, though no serious sources of mystical energy appeared nearby. Avatar Green is not taken into account, as she prefers to hang out in the greenhouse or in the home theater.
By the way, according to Zee, a similar effect with distortion of magic is present even near Atlantis. Spells based on non-water energy practically stop working there, although in other parts of the ocean such problems are not observed. That is, it is not just a buff to a certain school of magic, but a serious debuff to all other areas.
But back to technology on the edge of fantasy. The Parademons are an unnatural fusion of demonic magic based on the suffering of the soul and extremely advanced technology, even if it looks a bit archaic than reminiscent of the weaponry of the Imperium from the Warhammer universe. And yes, the new anthropomorphic cybernetic bugs used to be really human, and they were turned relatively recently, and such things are impossible to make without a serious production base. Given the number of monsters created, only mana-saturated spells will work in the Wolf's Lair, but their effectiveness will be at best at the level of ordinary magic, which puts any spellcaster in a bad position. Luckily, the debuff didn't apply to internal reinforcement, or I was ready to give up on the Amazons' help to avoid sending the girls to their deaths.
As we talked leisurely, I successfully created a portal to my island under the guidance of the sexy illusionist, and as I walked through the rainbow pancake, I met Ivy's judgmental gaze, which instantly warmed when she was clasped in a hug by Harley, who appeared next. Something tells me the normal introductions of the combat harem should be postponed. But someone didn't realize that the girls might have their own way of looking at things, and Abby proved it by instantly growing a new body out of the bonsai I was still carrying.
"Zee, who had been using a levitation spell, stepped carefully onto the green lawn and was shocked to see the transformation of an ordinary-looking plant. - I thought it was just an ordinary bush infused with natural mana, but it turned out to be the avatar's receptacle.
"What an interesting structure," ignoring the atmosphere, Swampy calmly approached Ivy, looking down at her. - May I? - She slowly extended her hand, intending to touch the green-skinned girl.
Ivy took a step back, pulling Harley behind her.
"I don't like being groped by strangers."
"Oh, don't worry, I sleep with Jay too, we're almost like sisters," the guardian of the Forest replied calmly, and the red-haired dryad's left eye began to twitch.
"I'm aware of that, but it doesn't inspire me at all."
"So we should all get to know each other! - The blond cutie happily hugged the two beauties at once. - Zee, come with us, I have your favorite jasmine tea and those delicious cookies.
"Do you need my help? - The sorceress turned to me, continuing to look at the two dryads with interest.
"No, I can handle it."
Really. I had no idea what to expect from the meeting of all my girls, so I prudently went to restore the artifact compass, otherwise, to get to the island, I'd have to spend the whole trip in a trance and somehow manage to control the transport, because the others would instantly go off course.
If this were some harem fanfic, there'd be a ninety percent probability that the party would end in an orgy (ten percent for the fact that we'd have to run after Mousey), but this was real life... Even if it had a comic book feel to it. And so the situation is rather curious. Harley was eager to get to know all her friends, Abby wanted to scrutinize Ivy's body in order to transform herself in her image and become closer to humans, and Zee was interested in researching a real avatar. Although the sorceress had a couple of chances to investigate Harley, only a complete idiot would mess with Madness, and Green, in terms of influence on adepts and the real world, was much more neutral, and only the Parliament of Trees could make trouble. Abby said not to worry about the interest group: the Council realizes that it's a way for the Guardian to gain allies, and also to stop getting duller.
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