The next day for me was fun. Johnny and I had settled on a plan the night before, where I would help him train for a week using my sorceries to cheat wherever possible, and then he would come with me to find my brother. I didn’t tell him all the facts yet, or anything broader about what I’d learned about the world. What I did do was show off my enchanting abilities, which had gotten a serious upgrade from consciousness sorcery. Now, I could partition off pieces of my mind to ‘hold’ an enchantment, which allowed the rest of my brain to concentrate on making a new piece of enchantment or fit the new piece into the old one. Up until now, everything has been pretty much on the fly, and I noticed that my own personal gear is showing signs of wear and tear or efficiency loss.

Now, splitting up the processing power of my brain wasn’t the most comfortable thing to do, but we don’t use all of it anyway, and this exercise was slowly expanding the percentage at which the mushy sponge in my head could be utilized. I had one section working on ‘holding’ the enchantment, another actively scanning for weaknesses, one testing efficiencies, and the rest of my brain working on building the other part. It’s like building a computer but having one other person there to hold pieces in place while you do most of the work. And this enchantment, whew, such a doozy.

I woke up at the butt-crack of dawn to get this one done, and I was super proud of it. Johnny and I had discussed things that would help him progress and get stronger, and he had noticed that after being injured, that part of his body was somewhat more durable. He had bite marks all up and down his arms and legs, and he told me that after a while, animal bites took a while to worry their way through his skin, almost like it had become toughened leather. He also carried boulders on his shoulders and climbed trees like a monkey and this kid is literally in better shape than any normal human athlete.

Well, back to the enchantment. I created what looked to be a mini stonehenge. I had a circular stone platform that was ten feet in diameter and it had four ten-foot tall and two feet wide columns placed on it at the cardinal directions with another stone platform on top of that. Using my earth sorcery, I molded the pieces together to become one, and then I started the work of enchanting. The entire contraption was a gravity-based compressor. The four columns and the two caps could work independently or cooperatively. I slowly enchanted each section of the compressor with runes of solidity, directionally based gravity, and then control runes that registered to the brainwaves of the person inside the compressor. The entire thing also could only be powered by the energy run-off of the person inside of it, simply so that it wouldn’t actually be able to crush the person. But what that does mean, is that the platform scales off of an individual’s strength, so it will be useful down the road as well.

For safety’s sake, I also tied the control runes to myself, so that it simply couldn’t be used without my express permission. I’m not up for being used for free. Oh, but it was beautiful. The caps, the top and bottom stone platforms, were two feet thick, making the entire thing a fourteen-foot tall, ten foot wide monstrosity, and I was proud. This was also an experiment for me as I didn’t physically touch the thing while creating it. I sat in a meditative pose with non-sentient Gungnir stuck in the ground in front of me. I wanted to see how much control I had over my magic in a perfect scenario. I can’t enchant on the fly in the middle of combat, but this exercise proved that if I had time, I could make some fucking awesome stuff!

It was draining though. Laying back after finalizing the finishing touches, I looked at the early morning sky. Probably three hours had gone by and I hadn’t even noticed. The only reason I let myself concentrate in that manner was due to Spot sleeping ten feet away from me. Bless that dog. No animals even came near my hideout anymore because his scent carried a hint of dragon, and nobody is dumb enough to mess around in a dragon’s territory. Literally, Spot is the perfect guard dog.

Using water sorcery, I conjured some water and took an impromptu bath. Being able to banish the water with the grime made showers a fast and pleasurable affair.

“What in the Ripple is that?”

“Well good morning to you too Reeanth,” I said from my comfortable spot. “Bout’ time you woke up.”

“My lord, this, this,” she stuttered out, “What is that? It’s blinding!”

“That, my dear alien,” I said proudly, “Is a magically based personnel compressor complete with self-regulating subroutines. I call it, the compactor!”

“My lord, I don’t know if you’ve realized this, but the magical signature that it gives off is bright enough to draw some very powerful things here,” she said, her hands on her hips, as if she were my mother lecturing me.

Turning around, I pointed at the giant fucking World Tree behind her. “And you’re telling me that doesn’t? I mean come on, it’s a World Tree sapling, not even a year old, and it’s bigger than a damn cruise ship. Besides, it gives off enough magical power that everyone on this planet knows where it is. They’re just not dumb enough to come here.”

“Yes my lord, I understand that,” she said, cutting me off as if I were a few screws short. “But it’s not that simple. Natural magic, from nature, from animals, from the cosmos, is easily differentiated from synthetic magic, or magic that is crafted, such as your enchantments. This is part of what makes dragons and gryffins and manticores so dangerous. They give off magical energy, but it tends to blend in with their environment. This on the other hand, sticks out worse than emperor banging a whore on the street!”

A little bit of color fled my cheeks.

“And, instead of assuming that some powerful magical creature is guarding a natural treasure, they can reasonably assume that a sentient is here, and if a sentient can get here, than so can ANYBODY ELSE!”

Hmmm, maybe I had fucked up, just a little.

“All right, all right,” I muttered, “I can fix this, uhm, what absorbed magical energy?, uhhhhh . . . “

Then it hit me. “Reeanth, look at Yggdrasil and see if you can tell that there is man-made magic there,” I ordered.

“What, no, there’s nothing there but nature,” she said, wondering if I really had lost it.

“I’m serious, look again,” I pressured, “At the roots, at the crown, the main trunk, look at the whole thing.”

Her eyes brightened till they were white, similar to what the angel’s eyes looked like when it looked at me. After a few minutes she turned back to look at me, her eyes normal again. “There’s a hint of magic that isn’t the trees, but it’s like finding a particular spark in a bonfire.”

“Haha! Perfect!” I yelled.

I ran over to where a root of the World Tree bulged out of the ground and lay my hand on it. “Come on little buddy, do some work for papa,” I whispered as I poured energy and intent into it. With my senses, I could feel the tapered point of the root began to grow in the direction of my contraption. As my mind was somewhat in the root itself, I could feel the big generator’s power flowing through the circulatory system of the Tree, and I pushed it to bend its shape to my desires. The root grew out, slowly, until it touched the earth near my compactor, where it began to grew in a different shape. Over ten minutes went as it grew into a circle just wider than the base platform. “And then up,” I muttered, pouring my own reserves of energy into the root as I watched vine-like tendrils creep up out of the ground and cover my magnificent invention. Thirty more minutes and the solid white of the stone couldn’t be seen for the green of the arboreal covering.

“Look now,” I panted, feeling absolutely drained.

“I can’t, it takes too much out of me,” Reeanth explained, “I can only use this ability for a small amount of time.”

“Dude, just a peek,” I said as I pointed at the gently glowing rootlets. “They’re absorbing all the energy, and it looks like they’ll be able to power the damn thing too if I want. Suck it aliens!”

Reaching out with my foot, I put it on her leg, pushing out my own mana into her. “There, that should help you out for a second or two.”

Using the little I gave her, Reeanth’s eyes flashed white for just a second. “How did you know?”

“Trade secret.” My smirk was entirely justified. Yes the Centauri warrior was beholden, sworn, to me, but that doesn’t mean I trust her completely yet. But if the World Tree’s abundant energy signature could cover up the big generator in its base, then it stood to reason that it could cover up the compactor. As I was mulling over my genius, and simultaneously pouting in my head that only the big generators worked, the door to the bolthole flew open and a Johnny shaped blur flew out, slipped and sliding into the newly ‘greened’ compactor.

“Is this what I think it is? Is this for me? Is it Christmas in the New World?!”

Reeanth’s eyes bugged out of her skull. “My lord, who, what, who is that?”

“Leave me out of it. Introduce yourself.” By my guess, it was getting close to noon and I was already wiped. So much to do and time is just flyin’. I kept one hear out for what was going on as I used flesh sorcery to go through each part of my body and wash away my fatigue. It still amazes me to watch my body

“Hooleeeee shiiiit! You’re tall as shit lady!” SMACK!

“You will address me with respect you backward primitive. My name is Reeanth Le’Talv, sword-sworn of the mighty sorcerer . . “

“Yeah, fuck that. I don’t give a shit who the hell you are. Ain’t no messed up alien wannabe Gigantor gonna smack me around. These hands are rated E for everyone!”

Not the best start to a relationship, but I’ll take it. I spent the next couple minutes shaking off the mental stress and trying to get my healing sorcery to work on my headache and exhaustion. Channeling magic isn’t hard physically, but it does feel like I’ve been staring at a computer for three days straight working on some last minute paper while chugging coffee to keep me going. My flesh sorcery was more than happy to wash away lactic acid and repair muscles, but mental exhaustion seemed to be its own beast. The best I could come up with was a temporary infusion of mental energy and forcefully cleaning out the pathways in my brain. It felt like I had gotten a solid two hour nap in, not perfect but definitely workable.

Coming back to the present didn’t render the idyllic glade of peace that had been there this morning. Patches of grass were bombed out into holes of mud, scarred heartwood showing on the trees that ringed the clearing, small fires scattered around and my two companions were facing each other, both bleeding from several injuries.

“Stand down mutt, and I’ll show you mercy out of respect for my lord.” Reeanth’s entreaty looked a lot less imperial as she was clearly gasping for breath. Her bruised face and bloody arms weren’t pretty, and her nano-tech armor was missing whole pieces.

“I faced down a twisted lookin wolf-deer thing, a giant spider-bear, a talking green mutant, and then a monkey king and beat his homies too! You got nothin on me. Your fat ass ain’t tough, besides, your old ass is two seconds from passing out!” Johnny’s mocking was as empty as his gas tank. Every part of his body was purple, several teeth were knocked and his silvery staff was pulsing softer and softer.

“This is not what I meant,” my bark cutting through the stand-off. “Seriously, Reeanth, lighten up. This kid is gonna help me find my brother, but first I’m gonna help him out first. And Johnny, dude, she’s a battle wizard with some high-tech shit neither of us have seen yet. I think she’s taking it easy on you.”

Walking over to the bloodied combatants, I stood between them with my arms crossed. “Shake hands.”

Glares crisscrossed the clearing, but Reeanth’s actually held some heat. “Do it or I won’t heal you.” The threat of having to bear the injuries for a while got their butts moving. Johnny’s hand glowed silver as he gripped Reeanth’s nano-tech gloved hand. I heard the creak of straining bones as their respective abilities warred for the two seconds they shook hands. Grabbing both of their arms, I reached out and fixed the worst of their injuries. “There,” I said, “Mostly better. You can heal the small stuff on your own because of your bad attitudes.”

Wheeling around, I took Johnny over to the compactor. “See this? This is your new best friend.” I took his puzzled look for what it was. “Yes, it’s the compactor thing we talked about last night. You get in it, and the more you meditate or gather energy or whatever it is that you do, it will take that and blast you from all sides with concentrated gravity fields. Oh, and here.” Remembering the other present, I pulled out a two foot long stone spike with a jade on the blunt end. “This bad boy, stick this in the earth, and when you’re done getting compacted, put your hand on the green part. It will draw energy from the earth and heal you. Part of it will accelerate your own healing process, and the other part will simply pump you full of natural healing energy.”

The puzzled look of the young idiot morphed into joy as he put the pieces together. “So I can just, and like go in there, and then, BOOM, and, do it again!?”

Good thing I used to be not that smart, because I understood what he was trying to say. “Yup, you sure can,” I chuckled, “But you’re gonna have to feed yourself. I recommend hunting something big and cooking a lot of it before starting this. Your body is going to need a lot of raw material, and I ain’t doin that for ya.”

After showing Johnny how to use the setup, I walked over to Reeanth and looked up at her. “Did ya have to play that rough?”

“My lord, young cultivators are usually imbeciles. The power goes to their heads and then they forget to use it. Besides, I’ll have to spar with him after every healing session for him to get the full value of it.”

I looked at her as her implacable gaze fixated on the energizer bunny that was Johnny and he whooped and bounced into the woods.

“Uhhh, there somethin’ you wanna tell me?”

“Cultivators are not to be taken lightly my lord. They may start out simple, but they do not stay that way.”

“Well that was incredibly unhelpful. Care to elaborate?”

“Cultivators grow in strength, in power, and in capability as well, but it does happen in stages. Some leap forward and vanish into the depths of the universe while others sit for millenia on a rock as life simply goes on around them. But, their saving grace is that they are rare, so rare in fact that the Centauri Empire has only come into contact with three. Two of them we put to death, and the last one broke us before we managed to send him into the Great Hole.”

“Broke you? So you’ve met one before?”

“No, it broke our Empire. The cultivator annihilated our space-faring navy, crushed the two royal moons, and then savaged multiple worlds before Merlin intervened.”

The sounds of a young boy’s joyful hunt faded as I reconsidered, well, everything.