Lisa didn't realize how much she valued being a normal student until her return to Alens. While Lisa had accompanied Bath on fruitless kursi-seeking escapades all throughout high school, she'd never fully given herself over to cause in the same way that she had a few days ago with Basalith's genesis. Before, she hadn't had any responsibilities other than to herself and to her family.

Now?

"I can't believe they're organizing COTD's lore on a wiki," Lisa shook her head pitifully as she followed the latest news story that popped up on her phone. Apparently, the Dawn and Dusk factions had taken the initiative to organize all the strange and new information arising out of Basalith on a wiki that anybody could add to. Accessing the wiki page, Lisa's head swam as she saw the endless stream of new content being added by the minute.

She breathed, then exercised all her self-control to close her laptop's screen and look at the work in front of her.

It had already been a day since she and Bath had returned to Alens. In keeping with her pre-gate-traveling sleep schedule, Lisa had fallen asleep at 2 am. Unfortunately, due to her enhancements, she awoke three hours later at 5 am. Instead of getting up, she just lay in bed and let her thoughts wander. She embraced introspection and tried to understand what she wanted to do until she and Bath resumed their act as COTD's deities.

One thing Lisa wondered about was whether she was an objectively bad person to lead people along to believe that she was a god. She went in circles, telling herself about all the objectives that the Church of the Dragon would achieve, reminding herself that if she wanted to realize her and Bath's plan, this was the best way to do so. She also thought about her own inadequacy, especially when compared to Bath. Lisa was personally confident in her abilities as a kursi, especially after comparing herself with the other kursi now under Lepochim's control and Juserin from planet Illudis. However, she was more than aware that kursi, while rare, weren't all-powerful entities within the vast universe. Since every world worth mentioning had kursi, Lisa by herself wasn't anything special.

By contrast, Bath was some kind of...nearly invincible, indestructible entity. At times, she felt like a pale shadow compared to him, even when they looked equally powerful to COTD members when standing side-by-side. While Lisa knew she was more than a kursi now with her numerous boons, she still wouldn't be a match for even a small world by herself.

Lisa laughed a bit at that realization. 'Here I am, feeling insignificant because I can't single-handedly conquer a foreign planet.' She knew it was absolutely unreasonable to compare herself to Bath. Still, all the same...when the two of them were supposed to represent balanced and equal forces, Lisa could only feel a bitterness in her heart towards her own inability.

Though Lisa did feel a bit of comfort in that fact that she'd only, according to Bath, received the "first round" of enhancements. While Bath despised superhero movies and the like because they weren't "artistic enough," Lisa loved them. She hoped that Bath could give her boons that would grant her the kinds of powers she saw in the X-Men or DC Universe franchises. Could Bath, for instance, make her into the equivalent of an indestructible Superwoman?

In the end, Lisa also knew a lot of her current weaknesses were due to her inexperience and age. She needed much more time to solidify her skills as a kursi, for one. For instance, despite her raw mental strength, she still hadn't practiced making mind slaves. Juserin and Jessup both had also mentioned that a kursi's strength improved over time. With kursi naturally possessing eternal youth, Lisa wondered how strong she would be by the time they drew near to the Core Worlds.

Having thought about all the above, Lisa then returned to thinking about what she wanted now. She thought about how fast the world was changing--or rather, how fast she was changing it.

'Perhaps this college thing really was a good idea,' Lisa thought solemnly. 'This way, I can experience Earth as a human before the Earth of now no longer exists.' Besides, Lisa thought, if the campaign across the universe took as long as she assumed it would...perhaps this would be the last time in the foreseeable future that Lisa would even be on Earth.

That was when she got out of bed and resolved to make a list of things to do.

---

"This is our Pre Big WD list," Lisa beamed, slamming a sheet of paper down in front of Bath. He looked up at her, his expression mildly amused. He looked it over, then chuckled to himself.

"So it's essentially a bucket list," Bath teased. "You expecting to die?"

Lisa slapped his arm and sat down next to him on the picnic bench where he was currently working. "Hush. If we don't do these things now, we'll probably never get the chance to do them again."

Bath gave her a knowing look. "True. When do you want to do these things?" Lisa had made up quite a list.

She just shrugged. "Whenever we have a spare moment. By the way, I was wondering: when are you going to give me my next round of boons?"

Bath gave her a serious once over, as though appraising every inch of her body. A dumb expression came over his face as he stopped 2/3 of the way through, eyes transfixed on her chest. Then his eyes snapped up to her face and an innocent expression came over his features.

"You're such an idiot," she laughed, then leapt forward and barreled into him. "Seriously. If I didn't know better I'd think you a total perv."

He grinned back, his eyes alight with mirth. "How do you know I'm not?"

"Seriously!" Lisa knew he was just being annoying. She'd gotten over the fact long ago that Bath almost certainly knew her body better than she herself. How else could he give her enhancements or make her perfectly-formfitting clothes that appeared directly on her body?

"Fine," he roared back, then gathered his bag and supplies, laughing raucously. "Let's go for a walk. The weather is too nice not to enjoy." Of course, Bath could adapt to any sort of weather, but even he found that mid-seventy degree weather was exceptionally favorable.

"Well?"

Bath now gave her a genuinely serious look. "How have your current boons been?"

"Fine."

"Do you feel like you've fully adjusted to them?"

Lisa nodded. "Yeah. I think it helped that you gave me weaker boons than Dean to start off with," Lisa acknowledged.

Bath gave her a half smile. "Probably. So, with regards to boons: I have a few ideas lined up, but I think it's best if you receive one boon at a time and slowly acclimate yourself."

"That makes sense."

"Though, do note that the higher-level boons I'll be bringing up have many different components to them that could stand alone as lesser boons."

"Noted," Lisa replied sternly.

"I think that the first boon you should receive comes from Magnet Planet. Or, more accurately, its inspired by Magnet Planet's lifeforms."

Lisa's eyes lit up. Was he suggesting...?

"The organisms on Magnet Planet all have the ability to control natural, extremely powerful superconductors within their bodies. On many of them, the superconductor works in tandem with variations such as magnetic exterior additions."

"Like the iron screw-like fur on the magnet wolves," Lisa interjected.

"Precisely. However, these kinds of additions simply serve to increase the competitiveness of said species, such as increasing maneuverability or speed. The instinctual control of the internal superconductor is what's really necessary for these species to levitate on the planet, or at the very least significantly counteract the force of gravity."

"But I thought tha Magnet Planet's species relied on the planet's naturally high magnetism?"

Bath nodded. "That's true. Which is why I said that the boon I've prepared for you is inspired by the species of Magnet Planet, rather than just a copy and paste insertion of genetic information." In actuality, there was no such thing as a "copy and paste insertion," but since Bath could adapt existing genetic material to other species without much effort, he considered cross-species gene splicing as such.

"It's fairly complicated, probably one of the more difficult boons I've created," Bath admitted. "The hardest part was making the modifications to keep your boon working on planets with different magnetic fields if I'm absent for some reason and can't modify the boon in person. A secondary issue was finding a way to adapt your body to function in the presence of an extremely potent, fluctuating magnetic field."

"Bath, you've said enough; I want in. I'll be able to fly with this, right?"

"Yes. But be careful; the boon is going to feel much different from those you've already received. I'm essentially going to be giving you the equivalent of a new limb, a new muscle. We should probably--"

"It's fine! I'll make it work," Lisa exclaimed. 'Maybe Superwoman isn't as far off as I thought,' she thought gleefully to herself. 'Maybe, if I actually master this boon, I won't have to rely on Bath to travel everywhere.'

"I knew you'd say that. Why don't we get started tomorrow, after classes." Tomorrow being Friday, Lisa thought that Bath's suggestion made logical sense. She recognized that she'd likely need all of Friday evening and the weekend before she'd have enough control over the boon to go out in public without flying off.

"Sounds great."