บท 22: Time waits for no one
Once again, Nuna and her children aren't important. Romance is not something he will focus on right now. That might come later.
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(Neoth POV)
I look at the grave with tears in my eyes. Alex and Eva are next to me, also crying silently. It has been 80 years since they were born and they have decided to stay at home until they learnt as much as they can. But they underestimated the amount of knowledge they could learn from me. Over the centuries of travel and research, I have amassed massive amounts of knowledge. Nuna died two days ago and today was the funeral.
She was a stubborn one. She loved to watch our kids grow older and stronger. She liked to see their progress and that was all she needed. In the end, she died peacefully in her sleep. I put her to rest in the place she loved most in my home dimension, next to Yginth's living area, our now, not-so-small dragon. Yginth has grown a lot over the years and his power is growing the older he becomes. The only people he listens to are me and Nuna.
[Picture]
Yginth had grown up a lot over the years and he has become a powerful beast. Numa would take care of him all the time and now that she was dead, Yginth misses her dearly. We all do. After the funeral, both Alexander and Evangeline wish to speak to me. I already know what this is about and frankly, I expected this. It doesn't make it any easier though.
"So what did you two want to talk to me about?", I ask them.
"Father, we wanted to talk to you about our future.", Alexander started.
"Go on."
"You see. Now that mom died, we know that you might be very ..."
"...sad."
"Yes, sad. Not too sad, since you're the Emperor of course and you stand above such sentiments and all that, but you see ... we ..."
"Yes?", I ask. He seems to be sweating buckets here.
"Well..."
"We wanted to go out and explore the world more.", Evangeline comes to his rescue, "We understand that the moment might not be perfect, but we wanted to take the time and see the world that you are not in total control of at the moment. We want to go out into the world and gain experiences."
"What she said.", Alexander says.
"I see. Come with me.", I tell them and walk out of the room. I have something prepared for them. We walk through my residence which is also located in the Alps and reach the treasure room. At least one of them. On the table lie two small pouches.
"What are those?"
"These are Mokeskin pouches. I made them for you.", I tell them. They pick them up and reach inside the pouch, but find nothing.
"You have to bond it to you. So a drop of blood will be necessary.", I tell them. They do just that and then they can finally reach inside and out come many different utensils, a small notebook, a small stone and another pouch containing money.
"What is all this?", Alexander asks me.
"These are the things you can take with you. The Mokeskin pouch is used for storing items, which no one but the owner can get out. It might appear small on the outside, but an enchantment allows it to have a much greater carrying capacity. Right now, it's about 100 m^3. The money is for regions where you can use it. Beware it is limited and you won't be able to use money everywhere. And last, but not least, a runestone."
"So you knew we would ask you this?"
"Who do you think you're talking to?", I ask.
"Runestone?"
"Yes. I have created this in the last few years. A runestone is a stone which has been imbued with magic power and runes, I have created for this purpose. Each runestone contains one skill. You can access this skill by breaking the runestone."
"Wait, any skill?"
"Yes."
"WHAT?! Each runestone is one skill? Any skill?"
"Well, these two runestones are special in the way, that you can decide what skill you want to acquire. But you won't get the entire skill, and only the beginning stages. This is supposed to help you and not do the work for you."
"Wait but how does that even work?"
"It works in that way, that the runestone connects with my library. As long as the skill is documented there, you can learn it."
"Did you change the library to have all that knowledge?"
"No. The Library knows what I know. So as long as I know the skill you want to learn, it will be present in the library and you can learn it as well."
"That's ..."
"My goodness, Father. Just how many things do you know then?"
"Many things. Now the final piece there, the notebook. This small beauty can connect across the world, across dimensions even. Whatever you write inside, will be seen in either mine or one of yours. You can decide who to write to.", I explain. There was also another feature to call someone like a cellphone or even FaceTime, but I didn't tell them that. They either find that out themselves or not.
"That's... when do you have time to create something like that? You are always either learning new things, doing research, training with the Adeptus, improving the gene-seed, advancing magic and improving hte Imperium of Caida ... so when do you have time to create something like that?", Eva asks me.
"I'm already very old. I simply take the time. Now, you can take what you need for your journey, but you can't take any more money or books from the library."
"Thank you, Father."
"Yes, thank you truly. With this, we have an unfair advantage."
"Indeed."
.
Watching your children leave is hard. I knew it would be hard, but I didn't know it would be this hard. However, this journey of theirs is already long overdue. They have no real drive or dreams since they have everything they need here at home. That can't go on. This will shape them and give them a sense of what's important. Simply teaching them is not enough, they have to experience the harsh reality of everything not connected to Cadia and the Imperium.
I already have an idea of where they will end up in. Evangeline will most likely go to South America and look for the home of Nuna. She will see the 'customs' that I also saw back then. I remember my hypocrisy back then and smile. I am only human after all. After that, she will most likely travel north to North America and meet the native tribes, I already made contact with and still keep close contact with. America will be one of the places where the Imperium will have a very strong presence.
Alexander will most likely search for the magically interesting places. So he will surely travel through Europe and then east towards Asia. I have many bases all across the world and they are constantly growing in secret. I have already prepared for the modern times when governments as we know them are formed.
.
Cadia is coming along very nicely. I usually provide each city with plans or ideas on how to improve their infrastructure, defences, food supply and more. I usually take the most skilled individuals to work in 'Eagle Eye', the capital of Cadia. Already a working government has been established and in a few centuries, we will be as advanced as humans were in my last life in the 21st century. I am not talking about technology, but the way the country is governed. It will be a democracy ... at least that's what the non-magicals will believe.
In truth, is the first country of my Empire, with other countries also being controlled behind the scenes. I don't care much for this world anymore. Taking over everything will be very easy at this point. I am using the time to develop magic more and create more troops for the Imperium. I thought about some of the technology that humans had access to during the 'Age of Technology', such as the STC.
A Standard Template Construct or STC system was an advanced, artificially intelligent computer database created during the Age of Technology said to have contained the sum total of Human scientific and technological knowledge.
The STC was invented when Human interstellar civilisation was at its technological peak. Introduced during the Age of Technology before the onset of the Age of Strife, an STC allowed workers to build anything from a Lasgun to a fortified bunker or interstellar warships.
I believe that by using magic and technology combined, I will be able to not only replicate an STC but also remove any possibility of having a machine uprising. There will be no 'Dark age of technology' in my Empire and I will be the only one, who will ever use or possess an STC. Transfiguration has been a branch of magic, which I have researched for a long time. I have managed to create a Philosopher's Stone, by collecting the souls of the deceased, before they return to the magical cycle.
I managed to make transfiguration permanent this way and by making some adjustments to my giant computer, I should be able to create an STC without much problem. I have managed to create very advanced technology. The power armours of the Adeptus Astartes or even the Adeptus Custodes have already been created. I did extensive research on metals and alloys and using Transfiguration and intent, I managed to replicate some metals from fiction, such as Vibranium and Nth metal.
Vibranium was an interesting metal to create. The ability to absorb vibrations and either store it or redirect it is an unbelievable trait for armour. And if it is coupled with the anti-gravity and symbiotic abilities of Nth metal, then that gives you some of the best armour ever. I am in the process of recreating something like the Iron Man armour. I knew it was a work of fiction when I first tried to understand the technology behind it. But after dedicating the time and effort, I understood that it is indeed possible. You just need to be a genius.
So I went further to look for a power source such as the Arc Reactor. I came up with something rather simple. Magic. Magic is energy and as such, it should be possible to either power the armour with magic, or transform magic into another form of energy. I managed to create such a reactor and armour, that functions off of magic energy. The suit looks much bulkier than the classic Iron Man armour, but that is cool in my opinion. Now, I only have to create an energy source that doesn't function off of magic. Because most of the units in my army, don't have magic, so that is not a useable energy source.
I am thinking about creating a core that works on magic, that can take the necessary magic energy across dimensions. So it could be charged across dimensions. This would be a good way to go about it, but I'm not certain yet.
As for weapons, well let's just say that we are officially or rather unofficially, the most dangerous and potentially destructive country in the entire world. Forget atomic bombs, the bomb I have created would laugh at the atomic bomb. The most powerful bomb Cadia has right now, could destroy country of the size of China without a problem. I think it's hilarious that the destructive part of technology seems to be much easier to create than the constructive one, at least that's the case for me.
I am very close to making another big step in the advancement of the gene seed. It will be glorious and will put the one the Emperor used for his Custodes, to shame. After this one is complete the Adeptus Custodes unit is the next thing on my list. I can't wait for it to be completed. My personal guards and keeper of my most important secrets, will finally join me.
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