“And just add a handle…” Calvin muttered, tack welding the handle onto the blade. The grimoire sat in it’s shrunken state, right in the middle of the handle itself.

Maybe I can give Ella that necklace, Calvin thought, glancing at the unfinished pendant he’d set aside when he’d realized he could use Blade Body on Grimoire pages.

Calvin’s storage capacity for knives had leapt to seven when he was practicing his skills in the Temple of Awakening without him really noticing.

He normally carried two inside him, but now that he had this much extra capacity, he could begin experimenting with things he’d been wanting to do since the beginning.

Storing spell components inside knives and then absorbing the knife.

Calvin had considered using Copy Kit, but the Ability implied the object in question would be destroyed. Calvin didn’t want that, in case the System stopped working again for whatever reason.

I hope this doesn’t blow me up me… Calvin had experimented with individual pieces of paper with something embedded in them, so he knew it worked, he’d even tried something boiling hot to make sure he didn’t feel the temperature differential inside his body.

It seemed that the paper was stored, but whatever was stored in the paper, still existed in stasis in it’s separate dimension…or wherever it was.

Calvin had been afraid the nature of the blade Body mutation would prevent the spell components from being targeted, but it seemed that the Grimoire’s text dictating he could target its contents no matter what as long as they were within range, still held true.

Even if aforementioned grimoire was split into trillions of microscopic pieces.

At least, they worked with individual pages rolled up in handles. Let’s see what happens with the whole thing.

It was an ugly knife, honestly. Stubby blade, oversized handle, with a tiny book embedded in it. It looked like a child’s art project mixed with an icing spreader.

But it was a knife.

Blade body

The knife sank into his palm and disappeared. There was a slight delay right at the point where the grimoire was, and Calvin thought he was in trouble, but it eventually swallowed it, taking the pages and pages of spell components, special materials and samples from his entire wagon of Warped monster parts.

I wonder why it took so long.

Probably the mutation’s processing speed couldn’t keep up with the data packed in there. Elliot supplied.

Your first loading screen.

Calvin pointed at the ground, mentally selecting the page with the block of abyssal steel.

Shaping.

37/54 Bent remaining

A statue of Calvin made of pure abyssal steel appeared in front of him.

He reached out with his Bent Manipulation and tore the construct apart, reducing it back to raw Bent, which was absorbed immediately back into his skin.

38/54 Bent remaining.

Evil laugh?

“Oh yeah,” Calvin and Elliot began cackling. This would definitely help with his lack of natural regeneration, and plus…it was just so damn cool.

“Calvin!” Kala’s voice called from the distance. “The girls are past their first Break and I thought you’d want to – AIIIE!”

Kala threw her notes and clipboard into the air upon seeing Calvin.

“What happened to your face!?” she demanded.

“Long story short?” Clavin asked. “I made something so hot it nearly ignited the atmosphere of the planet, and the protection I was using melted into my face, which I then had to waste an hour or two peeling off.”

“Learner,” Calvin said, eyeing the eldritch abomination studying starfish.

“Yes?”

“How’s my face?”

She frowned, studying him carefully.

“Sixty-seven percent healed,” Learner said, turning back to her work. She liked the stunning regenerative abilities of starfish, that didn’t require System Abilities to acquire.

“Sixty-seven percent,” Calvin said, turning back to Kala. “You should have been here an hour ago, I was basically a skull with eyes.”

“Spare me that,” Kala said, waving a hand. “Anyway, since you’re not presentable, I’ll give you the highlights.” She said, picking up her notes.

“We successfully managed to give the girls the Firebrand Skill which should build their confidence and give them strong anti-authoritarian tendencies.”

“What about my authority!? Those twelve year olds cost a pretty penny. Almost four stone each!” Calvin protested.

Kala gave him a look that held no sympathy.

“Sadly it will curtail that too, but you will get the revolutionists you were looking for. In the future you may even have to treat them as equals.”

“Nooo! Anything but that!” Calvin flung a dramatic hand over his forehead and swooned.

Kala rolled her eyes.

“You shouldn’t spend all day laughing to yourself in your tower,” She said, her voice taking on a mothering tone. “People are going to thing you’re…stranger than you actually are.”

“I don’t spend all day laughing in my tower,” Calvin protested.

“You spend most of your time in the tower, and a lot of it is laughing,” Learner said.

“Taking her side!?” Calvin demanded “After I gave you the keys to enter the lab whenever you wanted?”

Learner shrugged. “I know you’re just playing.”

Ah, seems like her brain is awake.

Calvin clicked his tongue. “I liked it better when you got flustered.”

“Anyway, Ella’s excited about going to Boles,” Kala said. “she’s been talking my ear off about Bolesian fashion all afternoon.”

Kala motioned him closer and whispered in his ear.

“Ella spent her entire life in a jungle wearing hides. While she’s perfectly comfortable in them, She feels like there’s something magical about Bolesian dresses, and she looks smoking hot in them, so if you don’t get her some while she’s there,” Kala held up a glowing fist, and eyed him askance.

“Message received. I will take Ella on a shopping spree while we’re there.” Calvin glanced down at Kala. “Are you going to be okay while we’re gone?”

“I’m tough,” Kala said with a smile. “I’ve long since learned how to put my nose to the grindstone until my loved ones return. Makes it go faster.”

She shrugged. “And I’m going to be spying on your dreams every night while you sleep.”

“Sounds good.” Calvin said, giving her a thumbs up.

What other response was there?

“Could I get one tiny favor before I go?” Calvin asked.

“Of course.”

“Gimmie a kiss,” Calvin said, lurching toward her.

“No! Your lips haven’t healed yet!” Kala said, holding his face away from hers with her hand. “ Stooop! NOOOOO!”

Kala’s shrieking echoed through the laboratory.

***Later***

“You got everything you need?” Calvin asked, glancing at Ella’s luggage.

The entirety of the girl’s luggage consisted of a single backpack stuffed with clothes, with several tools hanging off the side. It looked like she was getting ready to delve into the wilderness, not meet Bolesian heads of state.

“I thought women packed more heavily.”

“That seems like a gross generalization, Poeor,” Ella said with a sharp-toothed grin. “But if you must know, I simply intend to buy luggage for the return trip,”

The towering Genosian opened the pouch on her side, and Calvin spotted the gleam of Nem.

“Besides,” She said with a shrug. “Why would I bring my best clothes when there’s a good chance I’ll have to bath in the blood of our enemies on the way in?”

“Huh,” Calvin paused a moment, digesting that. “I’ll admit, you’ve put more thought into this than I have.”

“Indeed,” Ella said, the purple skinned girl said, bumping his shoulder playfully.

Calvin created a closed palanquin, then loaded their luggage, Ella, and himself, before summoning a single enormous wasp to carry it. The creature was larger than most of the nearby buildings, and it cinched down on the palanquin with enough strength to make the wood creak with discomfort before lifting off.

“You’ve come very far from the scared boy in my father’s hut, Poeor,” Ella said, glancing down at the ground as it fell away from them.

“Scared?” Calvin said, crossing his arms and blowing a raspberry. “I was…suffering from blood loss. That’s it.”

Ella laughed for a moment before her expression sobered.

“What’s being a shepherd like? You’ve told our people to raise animals to eat, but it doesn’t come easily to us. The younger children are adapting quickly though, thanks to the blessing of the Break.”

“A shepherd…” Calvin said, leaning back against the wall of the palanquin. “A shepherd gets up every day before the dawn and works until sundown, collapses into bed, andsleeps until it’s time to work again the next day. It’s a tough job, and wild animals are constantly trying to kill your sheep, so you have to make sure your fences are solid every day, make sure the sheep don’t starve during the winter by culling the old and sick, shear them in the spring…”

“In short…replace all the danger you genosians face with tedium, hard labor and stress, and you’ve got the idea.”

“So, if we were shepherds, my sister would still be alive.” Ella said with a contemplative frown.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t think one should ever wish to change the past,” She said, meeting Calvin’s eyes. “We are the culmination of past events, after all. Were my sister still alive, I would not be myself, I would be some other girl. But I think we can hope to change the future. Creating a future where another me gets to live her life in peace with her family…that would be good.”

Calvin sat there, considering her thoughts. It was an interesting philosophy on life, perhaps one grounded in a great deal of pain.

“We won’t exactly be shepherds of course, but we have chosen a prey animal we think might respond well to husbandry.”

“Oh?”

“We have bought Griks from the surrounding settlements. The men are trying to create a safe place for them to graze, while the children are already trying to breed more rugged versions of them.”

Calvin nodded. Griks weren’t a bad choice. They originally came from the jungle, after all.

They sat in the palanquin, talking over the constant rush of air and the buzzing of their transportation’s wings for hours as the landscape slid away beneath them.

As they went east, the jungle became gradually deeper, the air wetter, but once they turned north, the jungle began gradually thinning out, the trees and shrubbery gradually becoming smaller so imperceptibly that Calvin didn’t notice until a clearing reminded him that the trees were getting further apart.

That didn’t mean it wasn’t lush. It was just no longer a jungle, but a forest.

Juntai’s land continued stretching north east, abutting the plains until the two regions hit the rocky mountains of Boles.

The mountains of Boles were sharp and jagged, like half-formed needles poking out of the ground, dotted with trees. They were a natural barrier that generally prevented large-scale conflict between the two countries.

That no longer seemed to be the case, however.

Boles seemed to have…spilled out between those steep mountains and eroded away the forest.

There was a line of hastily constructed wooden forts facing the forest. Each of them was filled with hundreds of Bolesian troops in their characteristic scale armor.

Boles was slightly colder and drier than Juntai, so their clothing and armor was vastly different. They also liked to use the Warped creatures endemic to their country as inspiration for their armor and weapons.

The soldiers wore scale armor shaped after dragon skin, and the helmets of their generals bore snarling faces of vicious monsters, likely to inspire fear and awe.

In front of these forts, the soldiers of Boles were chopping down trees with a manic energy, carrying the wood deeper into the woods, where they were assembling a new line of forts.

It seemed as though the plan was to push forward, create a foothold, then rinse and repeat. The speed at which they were moving suggested one of the generals might be using some kind of Ability to keep his men moving at full speed.

Farmers plowed and sowed the land behind the forts, pulling stumps out and cultivating land. The area might be colder than Juntai proper, but it was still plenty warm, and they looked like they were intending to get their next harvest as soon as possible.

Hmmm..

“What’s the plan?” Ella asked. “Drop in and push them back?”

“No, I want to take the opportunity to talk to the people in charge,” Calvin said, glancing at the mountains.

The city-states that had launched this invasion were beyond those mountains, and Calvin had a responsibility as a Royal to negotiate with the leaders before slaughtering their armies.

But a stern warning first couldn’t hurt.

Faces turned up to spot Calvin’s palanquin as it approached, followed by shouting and running.

Arrows pelted the palanquin and the wasp as they descended in front of the foremost fort, although Calvin’s Beli Ma turned the majority of the arrows aside from the main cabin.

An arrow jutted out of the wall next to Ella’s shoulder.

“It’ll be safer if you sit on my lap,” Calvin said, patting his leg.

Ella shook her head with a chuckle, her skin turning reddish silver.

Worth a shot. Elliot said.

The wasp set them down on the ground, and Calvin reclaimed the Bent used to make it before stepping out of the arrow-ridden palanquin.

Outside the palanquin, Calvin stepped out into the open and waited, hands clasped in front of each other.

Dragons made of fire unraveled into raw bent and handful of feet away. Archery-based Abilities were defanged and redirected without conscious effort. It was as if Calvin was a ship’s prow, splitting an ocean of resistance in front of him.

The occasional stray shot bounced off Ella’s Iron Skin, but she didn’t seem to notice, simply slinging her favorite flail over her shoulder.

“Are we just going to wait here all day?” Ella asked after a couple minutes of solid fire.

“I’m hoping their leaders will realize that I’m here to talk. I’m also trying to think of a way to impress my power upon them without killing all of them and breaching my agreement.”

Most of Calvin’s ideas involved explosions and fire, and while that would get their attention, it would also make a lot of corpses and hurt feelings.

Hmmm….how to destroy the fort without killing everyone…Fire is out, explosions are out, Knick-knacks are out. I also want them to wonder how I did it.

Aha!

Trait Doctoring.

Viscosity

53/54 Bent remaining

52/54 Bent remaining

51/54 Bent remaining

50/54 Bent remaining

Calvin spread his influence into the foundations of the forts, making the earth the massive wooden posts were anchored in as solid as water.

The Bolesian sorcerers and archers atop the walls graciously refilled Calvin’s Bent with their attacks moments before the Fort began to gradually collapse beneath their feet.

51/54 Bent remaining

52/54 Bent remaining

53/54 Bent remaining

54/54 Bent remaining

Calvin waited, hands clasped together, while the fort sank into the earth, gradually falling apart as panicked soldiers swam out to safety.

Finally, after another five minutes or so, a hard-faced Bolesian general came forward, trailing a small retinue of maybe ten men. He wore a helmet with the toothy jaw of some predatory creature forming the bottom of his fearsome helmet.

Beneath, the man wore a highly decorated silk tabard over his scale armor.

“I like Bolesian style,” Ella said as the man approached. “Although, I think I could wear it better.”

“So I’ve heard,” Calvin said, glancing at her with a smile.

“Greetings, Elder. I gather you wished to speak with us?” The general asked.

Elder had a triple meaning in Bolesian language. It literally meant someone older than you, but it could also mean someone with more Breaks, or it could mean someone vastly more powerful.

In this case, the third option.

“I am the Royal responsible for the lands of Juntai. I assume you have seen my symbols among the Juntai?”

“The wasp.” The general said, expressionless.

“Yes. And let me tell you something,” Calvin said, meeting the man’s eye. “It would be far easier for me to turn your forts and everything inside to ash than it was to sink them.”

“I appreciate your discretion, Elder.”

“I have come to personally arbitrate this conflict. I will need to discuss the matter of your pushing into Juntai territory with your leaders. In my absence, I request that you cease your push into these forests until I return. If you do not, I will be forced to devote my champions to this problem.”

Ella nodded at Calvin’s words, catching the general’s attention. The man’s expression shifted subtly. Relief…or disdain, perhaps?

53/54 Bent remaining.

Chained Spirit

Chimera

“Stay here and keep an eye on them, would you?” Calvin asked Kurawe.

“As you wish, Ravager.” The chained spirit said before he activated the Stalker organ and the general lost track of him.

Calvin and Ella said their goodbyes and climbed back into the Palanquin, portraying a dignified, powerful royal and his champion as they did so. A moment later, the titanic wasp appeared again, seized the arrow-ridden palanquin and rose into the air.

“Did I seem dignified at all?” Calvin muttered to himself. “I probably sounded like a teenage boy.”

“You are a teenage boy.”

Calvin rocked back and forth in the palanquin.

“You think the hands clasped together had the desired effect?” Calvin asked, reviewing the short discussion in his head, his body relaxing after the momentary tension was gone. “I wanted to show relaxed but confident and unbending, ya know?”

“You did fine,” Ella said, patting Calvin on the shoulder.

“Ugh, I like it better in my tower making spells.”

“You really do need more excuses to get out of your tower.” Ella said. “You’re getting pasty. Well, pastier.”

“I’ll have you know that the dead don’t tan.”